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Purple

    Holographic, Swatch, Uncategorised

    Cirque Bejeweled and Vesuvius Swatches

    17th August 2013
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    Cirque’s Arcus collection has been sitting on my desk for way too long waiting to be swatched but I’ve been a bad blogger and not given it the attention it deserves. I got a bit overwhelmed at the prospect of swatching a full collection of 12 polishes and kind of shied away from the whole thing which was silly. I’ve decided that it’s best to work my way through it at a reasonable pace so I want to show you guys my favourites over the next few weeks at my own sloth pace!
    Today I’ll be showcasing the to holographic polishes in the collection – Bejeweled and Vesuvius. I’m a huge fan of holographic polishes and these two are both welcome additions to my collection. I don’t have anything else similar to these and the blue just makes me go weak at the knees. There’s not too much to say about these polishes except that they’re perfect. They apply like a dream and the colours are stunning but you guys can see that for yourselves!

    This is two coats of Bejeweled with a top coat. I also couldn’t resist adding an accent of Queen Majesty! 

    I would describe Vesuvius as a dark salmon colour. It’s very romantic and dreamy. I don’t have many polishes of this shade in my collection but after wearing this one I think I need more.

    These particular polishes retail for $15.00 but most of the other colours in the collection are $13.00.
    Cirque nail polish is available on the Cirque Colors website if you’re in the US or Sally Magpies for UK buyers. There’s a full list of stockists on the Cirque website so be sure to check that out if you’re in the rest of the world!

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    Freehand, Uncategorised

    Dainty Doilies

    13th August 2013
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    After more than a year of talking about it, pondering and hesitating, I finally took the leap and a bought a new camera. I’ve had my old Olympus E-510 for close to 5 years now and I felt it was time for a little upgrade. In the end I went for the Canon 60D. It arrived yesterday and I’ve spent every waking hour since trying to figure it out! This is my first post using pictures from that camera so let me know if they look any different.
    Recently I was looking through all the piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013 entries and two in particular caught my eye. I just loved Lucy’s Stash and XOXO Alexis Leigh‘s Blog Fest manicures and this creation is a sort of mash-up of the two. I took the idea of painting from the corner from Alexis and a lot of the patterns were inspired by Lucie! I like the subtle colours but I also think it would look amazing in a combination of brights.

    1. For the base I used one coat of Barry M Lychee (creme nude) followed by two coats of Nails Inc Elizabeth Street (shimmery nude).
    2. I freehanded on the designs with a nail art brush using NYC Mint Macaroon, Sally Hansen Himalayan Blue and Barry M Prickly Pear.
    3. When everything was dry I finished it off with two coats of No7 Stay Perfect Top Coat.

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    Studs, Uncategorised, Waterfall

    Pastel Waterfall

    10th August 2013
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    Before Google Reader closed down I imported all my subscriptions in to Bloglovin’ and yesterday I finally got round to sitting down and looking through every single blog I’ve followed over the last three years. I lost track of time but I know it took at least 2 hours! I must have unfollowed hundreds of blogs – just the ones that haven’t posted for 2 months or longer, some hadn’t even posted since 2011 – and I got a bit nostalgic whenever I came across a blog that I once loved but is now retired. I even shed a tear when I read Gilded Nails’ last post and it made me realise how lucky I am that I’ve been able to continue blogging all this time.
    Anyway, enough of the soppy stuff! The point is that I’m so glad to have an organised dash where I can now start to really keep up with my favourite blogs and hopefully plenty of new ones!
    I’m still loving pastels and I find myself reaching for them constantly. There is a waterfall in here somewhere but I used pastel colours and the look is very subtle!

    My base colours are NYC Raindrop and Lavender Cupcake. For the waterfall design, I used Sally Hansen Green Tea, Models Own Utopia, Barry M Lychee, Essie Bikini So Teeny and the two base colours (tutorial here). The green studs are from Born Pretty Store and you can now get them in a wheel with a range of colours and square ones in the mix too. It’s all finished off with No7 Stay Perfect Top Coat.

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    Freehand, Studs, Uncategorised

    What’s in a Name?

    3rd August 2013
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    Bit of a late post today because I’ve been out all day hunting giant Gromits in and around Bristol as part of Gromit Unleashed! It’s a trail of Gromits scattered across the city all decorated by different artists including Cath Kidston, Quentin Blake and Zayn Malik. Yes, that’s Zayn from One Direction! It was a super fun day out except for the crazy rain that struck just after lunch time. Boooo!
    I loved Will Paint Nails For Food’s Fractal design so much that I wanted to have a go myself. It took absolutely ages and made my eyes hurt but it was totally worth it. I’m also showing off the last of my new Born Pretty goodies today. I’m rocking a Rose Water Decal and some of their new, colourful 2mm studs.

    1. My base colours are Barry M Prickly Pear and Sally Hansen Crinolin.
    2. I applied the studs using a dot of clear polish and then a top coat over the top.
    3. The water decal is pretty self explanatory. Drop it in some water, wait 10 seconds, peel off the decal and place it on the nail.
    4. I used Barry M Plum and a small nail art brush to create the fractal design on my ring finger.
    5. It’s all topped with a coat of No7 Stay Perfect Top Coat.

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    Galaxy, Glitter, Uncategorised

    White Space

    21st July 2013
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    Back again with the galaxy nails! These were hugely inspired by Kaitlin at the Daily Polish’s Tumblr Nails. As we know, galaxy nails are this week’s obsession and I knew I just had to try it with the white space after seeing Kaitlin’s creation.

    I have a few little snippets of news to share today. Tomorrow marks the first day of my summer holiday but fear not, there will be plenty of new stuff for you to read on this blog whilst I’m gone. I’ve lined up a couple of guest posts from some very talented bloggers while I’m away and I can’t wait for you to see all the amazing nail art they’ve created!

    I’m also very excited to tell you that this blog has been nominated for best established beauty blog in this year’s Cosmo Blog Awards! It’s such an honour to be nominated again and your votes are very, very much appreciated. If you’d like to vote, just click here to go to the voting page and you’ll find me in the first category!



    1. I started with a base colour of Barry M White and topped it off with No7 Stay Perfect Top Coat.
    2. Once my base was dry, I used scotch tape to mark off the sections where I wanted to keep the white showing.
    3. One nail at a time I created the galaxy look by sponging on NYC MoMa, NYC Lavender Cupcake and NYC Raindrop (tutorial here). I topped the galaxy off with Calvin Klein Blue Wants to be a Millionaire which is a blue tinted holographic polish which works well as a holographic top coat.
    4. As soon as I was done with the galaxy on each nail, I peeled off the tape and added the star details.
    5. Finally, I added two coats of No7 Stay Perfect Top Coat to smooth things over and keep it shiny!


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    Studs, Uncategorised

    Fresh Lookin’ Studs

    16th July 2013
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    Yesterday you guys provided me with inspiration by the bucket load when I asked on Facebook and Instagram which colours you thought I should use with these new mint studs from Born Pretty. The ideas that popped up time and again were purple, green and brown (to make mint choc chip!). I tried the brown idea because it sounded very appetising but I couldn’t make it work so I moved on to option two… something with purple and green.


    The studs are the new 2mm coloured ones from Born Pretty Store and it’s $3.59 for a pack of 200 studs. There are 11 colours ranging from pastels to bright. It’s been a while since I had a good browse of Born Pretty so I’ve been surprised to see the amazing new items they have on offer. I’ve already placed two orders with them this week so I’ve got some square pastel studs on their way too. I can’t wait to play with them!

    1. For the nail art I used a base coat of Barry M White then topped it off with a coat of No7 Stay Perfect Top Coat.
    2. Once that was dry, I placed on two strips of striping tape where I wanted the white to show through.
    3. Using the brushes straight from the bottle I very carefully painted on NYC Water Street Blue and Lavender Cupcake between the lines of tape. I removed the tape immediately.
    4. I used a nail art brush to dot a tiny bit of clear nail polish on to my nail where I wanted to stick the studs. I picked up the studs using the same brush while it was sticky and pressed the studs down in to the polish to make them really stick (video here).
    5. The colour on my other fingers is Sally Hansen Green Tea.
    6. I topped it all off with a coat of No7 Stay Perfect Top Coat.

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