NOTD - Barry M Cappucino with 'graped tips'

I don't actually think the term 'graped tips' exists (although try saying it over and over again as fast as you can, it's worth 30 seconds of braindead amusement.... ) but what I mean is a deep wine/grape coloured French tip.

I picked up Barry M Cappucino last week, alongside a goddess green shade called Racing Green.
2 for £5 at Superdrug, people. Go grab 'em.

Barry M Cappucino with Honk if you love OPI on the tips

Just so you all know, I'm fully aware that 'cappuccino' has TWO c's, but clearly Barry doesn't. Besides, it's not even cappuccino coloured so I don't know what he was thinking. It's more of a mauve-grey-taupe hybrid. And very, very beautiful. So Barry, I will forgive your misspelling and misnaming of this little bottle of goodness, because I think you have just topped Mushroom (which in fact wasn't even mushroom coloured anyway) with this.

French Cappuccino?

The formula is great, two smooth coats give effortlessly lady-like, but edgy, chic. And the lasting power is amazing. It's been on now for four days and because it was only looking a little sorry at the tips (absolutely no chipping, miracle), I decided it was a shame to remove it and vamped it up a notch with a deep purple tip, using Honk If You Love OPI (see here for swatches of it on it's glorious ownsome).

 Did you know that doing a French tip is really hard? Or at least it is if you are as cack-handed as moi. But I managed just about and I'm quite pleased with the effect. I think the colours complement each other and I'm feeling delightedly rock chick sporting my 'graped tips'....

What do you think? Do you like a bit of grape with your cappuccino?

Nudes & Neutrals Nail Wheel - Picture Heavy :)

They're easy to wear, effortlessly chic and forgive even a shaky hand, don't we all love a good nude nail polish?

Once upon a time 'natural' coloured nails were all about the French manicure and those sheer baby pinks which contrasted strongly against those vixen, wantonly reds and their even brasher, brightly coloured sisters.

Nowadays, nudes come in all different tones and there is definitely more than one way to go naked on the nails. Baby pink doesn't even get a look in....

I invested (well... all of £1.50 or something like that) in some nail wheels from ebay just before Christmas and I've been organising them into colour families, both for fun and also for my own reference. My collection has quadrupled since last year and sometimes I look into my nail boxes and just can't choose. These nail wheels will definitely help the painstaking decision making process :)

So, here is the 'jeans and t-shirt' nail wheel. My current and somewhat modest (hmmm must remedy that...) collection of neutral shades:

Here you can see the beautiful shimmer in the two Essie shades in the middle, Au Naturel and Sand of a beach

Another gratuitous pic of the Essie polishes! Check that fine shimmer!

Unfortunately I smudged the OPI, it took at least 4 coats to get that depth of colour, it's a very sheer polish.

 The OPI Altar Ego polish was my wedding day choice. It looks a lot better on the nail than on the dead white plastic of the nail wheel but it is quite sheer. It adds a pretty irridescent pink shimmer and is suitably bridal. It would make a nice layering polish, in fact I might try it over one of the others....

Here you can see the very fine shimmer in the Model's Own Pro polish (centre)

Swatching them all the wheel was a revelation, they are all quite different (to me at least!). I realised how much I really love some of them, and I have to say that it's an extremely close call between the two Essie polishes and my Ciate one, but I think that Ciate my still win the crown for being my favourite.  I also had a hankering to wear the Barry M Mushroom shade again, it's just so effortlessly chic and makes me feel 'expensive'!

Which shades do you like best?

Nude polishes, the line up!

Black Plum Valentine NOTD

This is my Valentine's offering to Mr P...  my declaration of love through nail art.

 I used one coat of OPI Dim Sum Plum and Sinful Colors Black on the tips and to make the heart (for which I used a toothpick to dot the black onto the nail).

Valentine's Nail Art

I admit it's a bit uneven and messy and it was a total bugger to do the French tip with the black, much harder than it seems, believe me! But all in all it's kind of what I visualised when I was trying to think up a Valentine's nail idea and I like that it's come to fruition quite successfully. I think the black gives it a 'edge' which stops it from being too cutesy.

Happy Valentine's Day!

NOTD - OPI Dim Sum Plum

I love dim sum. I particularly love going for dim sum with my little brother (Brother P the younger) in Chinatown.

And I would be very very happy indeed to wear this lacquer next time I pick up a steamed prawn & pork dumpling.

I believe it was part of the Hong Kong collection but I found it lurking on its ownsome on the lookfantastic.com website. I was busy putting much needed shampoos and whatnot into my basket and this baby flashed up next to the checkout at only £4 something, which is less than half the price. In it went.

OPI Dim Sum Plum

I know I say I love a lot of polishes, but I really really do love this one. Love at first stroke. I gave a girly little gasp when the first line of vibrant fuschia glazed my little finger and I couldn't stop smiling.

So here are lots of pictures. I need to share this goodness!

OPI Dim Sum Plum

It's quite a thick formulation but not difficult to work with. It was completely opaque in one coat and I could have happily left it at that, but I want this manicure to last me so I gave it two coats. Funnily enough two coats give a deeper but slightly paler colour.

I feel like my nails are be-jewelled with colour. The perfect deep pink for autumn.

Would you be partial to some Dim Sum Plum?

OPI Touring America

OPI Touring America

Yay, I won something! So firstly a huge thank you and massive shout-out to Jessica Beautician who very kindly sent me these gorgeous minis when I won her giveaway competition. Check out Jessica's blog (and videos too) here. She's a doll!

From L-R: My Address is Hollywood, French Quarter for Your Thoughts, A-Taupe of the Space Needle, Honk If You Love OPI

Secondly, I genuinely feel an affinity with the OPI Touring America collection because I first visited the USA this year so I consider it to be my personal road-trip in nail colours. Well, the west coast ones anyhow. So I was extra chuffed to have won these ;)

Size comparison between a regular OPI bottle (15ml) and the minis (3.75ml)

Instead of making you all wait for separate NOTD posts I thought I'd just swatch them all at once and post them here. Plus, I'm impatient and just want to play.

Here we have My Address is Hollywood. Now of all the shades this one would not show its pretty self to the camera. It's pink. A lovely soft yet bright coral pink. In these photos however it's coming out more coral-orange than it really is. Maybe under some lights it gets this way, but believe me when I say it's more candy pink. You can see the lovely shimmer though so it's not a total fail picture wise.

This is two coats, no base or top coat to save time and sanity. Overall, a very pretty and quite unique pink which I have nothing like in my nail collection. Great for all seasons I'd say and I can't wait to rock this with my new beige-bisque coloured winter coat. (Yes, I know, the dry cleaner will become my best friend.... )

OPI My Address is Hollywood

Off came the pink and on went the grey. This is French Quarter For Your Thoughts:

OPI French Quarter For Your Thoughts

I can't decide whether this is a warm grey or a cool grey. I see some brown-taupe undertones to it but I could be wrong. What do you think?
Again, two coats, no top or base coat. Lovely formula, smooth and non streaky. In fact all these, bar the dark one, had easy formulas which means that at a push you could get away with one coat if you wanted. Two coats for me is standard though.

 Grey comes off. Taupe goes on. Meet A-Taupe of the Space Needle.

A-Taupe of the Space Needle

I've been a-top (a-taupe) of the Space Needle, yes I have. I've even eaten there and can recommend the salmon. For me this leans more khaki than taupe, but maybe I just don't actually know what taupe looks like, seeing as there are a squillion incarnations of taupe. All I know is I like taupe. Again I have nothing like this so it's great to have in my stash.

Last, but by no means least.... Honk If You Love OPI.

Honk If You Love OPI

 I'm honking people. Can you hear me? This is pure lurve. Sexy, shiny, vampy, chic, feminine, powerful.... you may continue to add more adjectives. I grant you four photos of this because it is special and you must appreciate its glory. Strangely it has the trickier formula of the four. I needed more polish on the brush to get an even swipe of colour and it's definitely a two-coater. It leaves small 'bald' patches if you look carefully, but I don't care. It's a succulent deep burgundy-grape jelly-cream and it makes my spirits soar to new heights.

I have thus elevated this from meer swatch to NOTD. This is two coats over a base coat and with Essie Good to Go top coat. 

HONK HONK

HONK HONK HONK

If you look carefully you can just about see me in my nails.... :)

Do you like this set? Which colour appeals most?


A final thanks to Jessica for putting  a huge smile on my face (and hands) on this dreary grey Monday!

NOTD - Ciaté 'My Fair Lady' gets crowned

I'm so in love with glitter at the moment but it sure is a royal pain in the **** (insert what word you see fit) to remove.

My solution is the now probably outdated 'ring finger manicure'. But I don't care because I love what I've done here.

I'm also in a nude nails phase and my all-time favourite, most perfect for me nude is Ciaté My Fair Lady, a freebie in one of the UK monthly mags a while back (can't remember which, sorry!). It turned out to be the best freebie ever as I am irrevocably, irredeemably & unconditionally in love with this polish. I crave to see it's creamy, doll-like prettiness caress my nails in what has to be the smoothest lacquer I've ever tried. It has in actual fact been my most used polish and is the only colour I will need a back-up of. If I can't find this again I will cry.

I decided to jazz her up a bit by adorning my ring finger with OPI Crown me Already! which gives me that oomph that I'm looking for as well as considerably alleviating the task of the dreaded glitter removal in a few days time.  Only one nail to battle with as opposed to ten. Yay.

This is only one coat of My Fair Lady and one coat of OPI on top on the ring finger Amazingly smooth and even coverage in one coat. For a nude polish that's almost unheard of. I have to say that I have a pinky ridge-filler base coat on so that probably helps. I normally do two coats but today I'm loving just the one.

And just to show you how it sets off the hand, here is a (almost) full hand shot complete with sparkler.

Ciaté My Fair Lady & OPI Crown me Already!

Apologies for the really short nails. They are peeling and flaking insanely and the only way I can deal with them at the moment is to cut them down and hope that they peeling eventually grows out. When they are a bit longer I'm going to attempt the graduated glitter French manicure, maybe with a bit of midnight blue thrown in. Can't wait.

Do you like the nude/glitter combo?

NOTD - OPI & Mavala - Crown me with Silver!

Crown me with Silver.... geddit?

Behold, lots of gratuitous pictures of glittery nails.  I received OPI Crown me Already! for my birthday from my lovely Godmother and I've been itching to put it to use. I'm not really one for glitter to be honest, but at the moment glitter polishes are de rigeur so I thought what the heck.

Now I'm for glitter. I'm upset that none of my pictures do this justice, but believe me when I say that it's like having millions of tiny diamonds at my fingertips. The particles just catch the light beautifully and throw it around all over the place.

OPI Crown me Already! on top of Mavala Silver

I layered the OPI over  Mavala Silver. I really don't like this silver, it's very blah and very pearly and streaks like crazy. My idea was that one coat underneath the glitter would give the overall look a bit more depth and thankfully it does. The glitter on it's own, though pretty would just look patchy.

So this is one coat of Mavala Silver and one coat of Crown me Already. When applying glitter polish the trick is to dab it onto the nail rather than draw the brush down like you would with normal polish. This way you get a better coverage of glitter and less 'bald' patches. LOL

OPI Crown me Already! Sparkly!

The last two pics I took in the bathroom, the light was better there for catching the reflection of the glitter.

I was tempted to make a video showing exactly how stunning this looks when the fingers move under the light. I'm hypnotised!

OPI Muppets Collection, here I come......

Will you be wearing glitter this season?