So we’ve all seen Star Wars by now right? Recycled plot points aside, I really loved the movie! Everyone is talking about the amazingly talented Daisy Ridley being the breakout star and while I think she was great and all, surely we can all agree that BB-8 was the real show stopper. What a little cutie!
Yay for lazy Sundays! I won’t lie, I spent pretty much the whole day watching Community and painting my nails. I’m taking a quick break to post these Polka Dot nails for Day 11 of the 31 Day Challenge before I go right back to Netflix and um.. painting my nails. OH! Plus cookies… I’m baking cookies so it’s all good.
We’re in to what I like to call ‘Phase 2’ of the challenge when the technical skills start to kick in. I’m feeling pretty confident about the next 10 days but I’ll let you know how I feel about Phase 3 when we get there!
I titled this post ‘Tiffany Looking’ because even though I wasn’t initially inspired by the iconic Tiffany packaging, I noticed after the fact that I had used a Tiffany blue polish with bright sparkling silver, a wave of recognition rolled right over me and it was just too much to ignore.
I used Rimmel Too Cool to Tango as my base colour with Rimmel Your Majesty for the accent nail and polka dots
Nailbox is the Nail Polish Addict’s answer to those popular beauty subscription boxes that you never really felt were made for you. They seem to be cropping up everywhere but I’ve never seen a nails only one in the UK- until now. Nailbox only launched last month so it’s all very new and exciting! I’ve been lucky enough to get an early look at May’s Nailbox before it goes out to subscribers on May 21st.
April’s box, which you may have seen on my Instagram, was stuffed with shades perfect for Spring and this month, it’s a perfect mix to transition from Spring to Summer and see you through holiday season. My favourite from this box is, quite surprisingly, the bright pink! Essie’s Status Symbol is a crelly finish (between creme and jelly) so it’s super shiny, smooth as hell and really pops on your nails.
Orly Fiery Orange | Orange Jelly packed with holographic hexes and micro string glitter. Perfect in 3 coats.
Essie Status Symbol | Bright pink crelly perfect for toes! Opaque in 3 coats
Rimmel Lucky Lilac | Smooth lilac shade bordering on a pastel. 2 coats needed.
Nicole by OPI Alex by the Books | Dusty Mint Green. 2 coater.
Elegant Touch Professional Cuticle Pusher & Nail Cleaner | Exactly what it says!
1. Apply base coat and wait for it to dry
2. To create, the negative space, stick on some Chevron stencils. I used Nail Mail’s Chevron Points
3. Paint over everything with two coats of Nicole by OPI Alex by the Books and swiftly remove the chevron stencils while it’s still wet.
4. Using a skinny striping brush, outline the chevrons using Rimmel Lucky Lilac and Essie Status Symbol.
5. Finish up with two layers of top coat.
Every month, Nailbox will ship you a total of 5 items: 3-4 full-size nail polishes and 1-2 tools. In both of the boxes I’ve received so far, it’s been 4 polishes from well known brands (including Essie and OPI among other favourites) and 1 professional quality tool.
Someone pointed out that the polishes are not from current collections but I hadn’t even noticed. I’ve never followed collection releases and I’m more interested in the colour / finish / brand of the polish. I can confirm that every polish arrived in perfect condition: the consistency is lovely and the bottles untouched.
It’s also quite exciting (for me, at least) to know there’s the possibility of ending up with a HTF or ‘vintage’ polish. The beauty of nail polish is that tit doesn’t have a shelf life. As long as you store it properly, it can last years!
As long as you’re in the UK, you can join from £13.50-£15.00 / month. As you’d expect with any subscription service, the longer you sign on for, the more discount you get. Sign up for a whole year at £13.50 per month, or pay £15 month-to-month if you want to give it a test run with the option to cancel whenever you want.
Just go to nailbox.co.uk for options and to sign up for your first box. Boxes are dispatched on or around the 21st of each month so as long as you sign up before May 21st, you’ll get this box. If you sign up after the 21st, your first box will be the one that’s released the next time that date rolls aroun.
Yes! I think it’s the perfect service for beginners and experienced polishers alike. If you’re looking to build up your collection and get your hands on some polishes from past collections that you otherwise may not have been able to, then this is for you. Likewise, if you already have a sizeable nail polish collection, but just can’t get enough and want the excitement of receiving a box of nail goodies every month, it’s a fun treat to invest in.
Not to mention, it’s the perfect gift for the girl who has everything. I know this is going to sound cheesy, but it’s one of those gifts that lasts. Every time they get that box in the post, they’re going to think of the person that gifted them that subscription.
One of Rimmel’s latest releases is a set of 5 Matte Pastel shades otherwise know as the Sweetie Heart Velvet Matte Pastels collection. Now that spring has officially sprung, it feels like a good time to be showcasing these pretty pastels.
I’m a huge fan of the matte look and I often go through phases of mattifying everything with a top coat although I’m not big on matte polishes. It’s only because I have an unbreakable top coat habit and it just feels unnatural for me to paint on two coats of colour and call it a day. When I wear matte shades, I’ll often apply a shiny top coat, and then add a matte top coat to take it back to how it was intended. Call me crazy, but there’s a method in this madness… somewhere!
The classic red is a staple of any lacquer addict’s collection and I’ve never looked further than Rimmel for a pocket friendly red polish that wears for days. I first struck gold with Heart on Fire but the Lycra Pro range has since been phased out (or more likely rebranded as Salon Pro) and I had to find an alternative. Of course, the first place I looked was the Rimmel stand and I found Rock N Roll, a very worthy replacement. More recently, I also got my hands on Mars and Raw as Night from the Rita Ora 60 Seconds line. So, how do they stack up against each other…
Matte glitter has made it’s way in to the mainstream this year. One of the offerings is Rimmel’s Pop Art Top Coat and it’s the first one I’ve tried myself. The polish is a glitter topper with uniformly sized hexes in a selection of bold colours.
Whenever I’m faced with a mutli-coloured glitter, I always have trouble deciding what base colour to pair it with. As you can probably see, this time I just gave up on the decision altogether and tried it over almost every colour of the rainbow! Turns out it perfectly compliments any shade so I needn’t have worried.
I had to use two thick coats of Pop Art, plus some dabbing, to get decent coverage and it still clumped in a few places. I found it a bit tricky to get enough glitter on the brush at first but there’s definitely a knack to it which I soon got the hang of. Despite the thick coats, once I added my top coat, it all dried nice and quickly so I wasn’t left with the ‘layered’ feeling – when you know the top coat is dry but everything underneath is still squishy and liable to shift about!
There’s a tutorial that keeps popping up in my Pinterest feed by Hannah Rox Nails for LuLu’s Blog and every time I see it, I promise myself I will try it out one day. Well today is that day! This was the first tutorial my mind jumped to for the penultimate day of the 31 Day Challenge. It looks so beautifully intricate but there are only two really simple steps to achieve it – a gradient and some squiggly freehanding! See the original tutorial for this nail art here.
1. I used Barry M Pearl as my base colour again today, then created the gradient using Rimmel Mind The Gap, Victoria (tutorial here).
2. The detail is freehanded with a nail art brush using Graffiti Nails Ice White.
3. Finally, I topped it off with Glisten & Glow HK Girl.
