Tuesday Nail Mail

Guys! Guys, hello? Is this thing on? *taps microphone* OH MY GOD. Today I got one of THE best Nail Mail's of my life. No, this isn't an exaggeration, I actually did. Not only did I cross of two polishes from my wish list, I also managed to get 2 of the most 'lusted after' polishes for less than £20, yes, for TWO.
Can you tell what they are yet? If you're from the UK, then you'll know how expensive OPI can get, retailing at around £10.50 it's definitely more of a splurge brand than a regular drugstore brand. So you can imagine my surprise when I found both Absolutely Alice AND Mad As A Hatter for £9.44 each on eBay. Now I know this is still a bit on the expensive side, but when you're seeing them selling on eBay for £20 each, you know you have yourself a bargain. Luckily for me, I had just gotten paid when I saw these too, even though I had to pay bills, I just couldn't let these go to waste, not to mention MAAH sold out in less than an hour.

Aren't they so pretty!

The best news of all for me, is that they're not fake OPI's either! I was a bit dubious that with the price being so low for both of them, that there was a chance they could be fake. But after close inspection from a polish addict, I can happily confirm they are not! :D How do you like them apples? Beautiful aren't they! Are these on your most wanted list, or do you think they're overrated?

Models Own - Grace Green

It is my mission over the next couple of days to clear all of the swatches in my vault, so you may see me with many different nail lengths over the next few days. Also, a lot of them were taken at night time, so the lighting will vary a lot too.
Today I have for you Models Own - Grace Green. I bought this a long time ago along with a couple other 'Autumn/Winter' shades, with the sole purpose to wear them throughout the colder months. However, it was around this time my addiction hit an all time high, so they were all shoved back in the back of my collection and sort of forgotten about *slaps hand*
Grace Green is a gorgeous dusty grey, khaki green creme, wow what a mouthful. The formula of this polish is on the thicker side, like most Models Own polishes I own, and it does smell pretty strong! The photo was with 3 coats of Grace Green, I think you could have gotten away with two, but because the formula is a bit on the heavy side, I applied 3 to make sure it was even. Besides that, I absolutely love the colour and think it's the perfect shade for Autumn/Winter. I wish I had gotten more wear out of this over the last couple months.

ELF - Royal Purple

 Call me butter, cause I'm on a roll! Jokes aside, I have actually been busting these posts out today, but I promise you, this is the last one for today *pinky promises*.

I have a little swatch for you today in the form of ELF - Royal Purple. I'm sure all of you know who ELF are by now! If not, they're an online based company (in the UK anyway, I know you can find ELF in stores in the states) which sell everything cosmetics. Their prices are a-mazing, with their essential line priced at £1.50 and £3.50 for their studio and mineral lines. The quality is worth a lot more than it's price tag which is another reason why ELF are so popular, if you're in the UK/EU check them out HERE.

The polish itself is a gorgeous purple with magenta undertones and blue micro shimmer, it does look a lot more pinker in the photo, but I promise you it's purple. I'm definitely going to invest in a SLR camera in the future, maybe put it on my birthday wish list, but that isn't until November, so I better get saving myself! Then I will be able to get better macro shots for you, as my camera at the moment isn't very good for those kind of things! Do you have any recommendations for good cameras? It doesn't even have to be an SLR camera, just one good enough to get macro and close-up shots!

Polish Count; January

Wow, I completely forgot about my monthly polish count! If you're new to my blog, every month I will make a little Polish Count post, to see how my collection has grown in the last month and to see how obsessed with Nail Polish I actually am!
So my last count on December 17th was 175. I can tell you it hasn't really grown much, as I have gotten rid of a couple of my polishes too.

So, my count for January is *drum roll*

POLISH COUNT (JAN 28TH); 216

Actually, I haven't done as bad as I thought. That's only a total of 41 polishes in a month, okay so it is a lot for some, but considering Decembers total, I've done pretty well. There are a few polishes I've bought this month that haven't arrived yet, but those will be in next months total :)

Saturday Nail Mail!

L-R; Nicole By OPI - Sounds Grape To Me, OPI - Teenage Dream, I Brake For Manicures, Movin' Out, Not Like The Movies & Color Club - Rev'd Up.

What's better than it being Saturday? Getting Nail Mail on Saturday! And boy did I get some. I actually got two packages this morning one of which I have been waiting to come through my door for about a month! Another one was from eBay.
The first package consisted of all the polish minus Teenage Dream, which I bought from Sarah @ See Sarah Swatchs' Blog Sale in December! I have been waiting for these to arrive for so long! I actually thought they'd gotten lost, so glad they haven't! I got Teenage Dream from eBay after hearing that it's going to be discontinued, I also got the other two polishes from the Katy Perry collection, but those haven't arrived yet!
Did you receive anything in the post today? Or are you waiting on some polish goodies to arrive? Let me know! :D

My New Beauty Blog!

Hi guys, so a lot of you have been asking for make-up related posts on my blog, but this blog wasn't created for those kind of posts. I do however, have a beauty blog. I started it before I even thought about writing this one! I have deleted all the previous posts I did on Cirque De La Beauté but I will be starting those up again ASAP. If you're one of the few who have asked for make up related posts, please go and subscribe to that!

Lets make Cirque De La Beauté live again!

MUA - Shade 19

A lot of you have been commenting that you'd like to see more drugstore/cheaper brands on my blog, and what better way to show you some cheap polishes than with MUA or Make Up Academy. MUA originally came about as an exclusive brand in Superdrug stores in the UK, with their products ranging from £1-£4. They have recently launched their own website which hosts all of their products and also offers international shipping too. Their mainline polishes retail for just £1 with their crackle & glitter crackle polishes retailing for £2.99.

Today I have for you Shade 19 in their collection which is a gorgeous nude beige creme with a slight hint of purple undertones. The application is pretty standard, this is two thick coats, my only problem with MUA polishes are that the brush is so small and can sometimes be a bit temperamental and hard to grip. But for £1, you can't really complain too much right?

Have you ever tried any MUA products? Be it their make up or nail polish range? I have a lot of their make up line and I have to say, for £1 it is pretty incredible.

OPI - Here Today...Aragon Tomorrow

I finally bit the bullet today and gave my nails a little trim. Not only were they getting so long they they ran the risk of being torn off any minute, but they were starting to curl inwards too. Not to mention cutting them down a bit helps my completely torn off middle nail not look so odd next to the rest of them. So I'm pretty content with the length they're at now. I think I may just have to keep them this way!

Today I have for you OPI - Here Today...Aragon Tomorrow from their Coleccion De España released in Fall 2009, this is the only polish I own from the España collection, but there are others from the collection that I have been eyeing up for a long time now.
I was feeling in the mood for something dark and vampy, but I didn't want to paint my nails black. So I chose the nearest thing I have to a black but still with some colour and depth, this is also a new polish too so by wearing/posting this, I'm killing two birds with one stone.

Storage & Organisation Tips!

There's nothing more annoying than searching through your whole collection, just to find the one polish you're looking for; am I right, or am I right? So I needed a cheap, fast solution, that actually works, to store my stash as well as keep it remotely organised. As much as I would like to invest in a Helmer, I can't afford to at this moment in time, not to mention my collection isn't big enough for me to justify buying a Helmer. Therefore, in the mean time, this is the storage/organisation solution I have come up with.

(Guest Blogger) Naillacqueraddict takes over!

Dear Rachel's readers,

Today I decided to scratch off my list the 'hacking someone' part!
I'm hacking Rachel! ;D

Just kidding! Rachel asked me a while ago if I would not mind posting something on her blog and OF COURSE I could not refuse a request from such a nice person like her :)
I'm really happy I met Rachel! I've never met anyone who has so much in common with me :o We could be sisters!

So I know Rachel's favorite color is green but I decided to do something funky & fun for her blog :)

I hope you enjoy this mani I decided to make for her, if not I deeply am sorry for wasting your time!

Wednesday Nail Mail

Uh oh...Another lot of OPI Nail Mail *happy face*. I absolutely love OPI at the moment, I don't even know why it's taken me so long to dive into it's world, besides from the hefty price tag they carry in the UK. However, as of this moment in time, I have only ever paid full price for one of my OPI polishes, yes ONE! I usually have a little snoop around before buying them as you can usually find them a little cheaper on eBay or various websites such as ASOS.
These three beauties I got from eBay for £13.50 including postage and packaging. That's amazing! It's basically buy one get two free, and who would ever pass up that deal? You'd be pretty crazy to even consider it. The colours I snatched up were Here Today...Aragon Tomorrow, Espresso Your Style and Dating A Royal. They so pretty *admires* unfortunately this is the last of the Nail Mail I'll be getting this week, unless the polishes I've ordered online come for a surprise visit, I hope so! *cross fingers*

I'd also like to say thanks to all the suggestions you're giving me on my giveaway post! I'm taking note of them all and coming up with some fun tutorial ideas too. A lot of you said you like hauls and I love to shop so there will be a lot more of them to come too!

Ciao for now

Tuesday Nail Mail & A big thankyou!

First of all I'd like to say a huge thank you to all my followers! I reached 300 last night and I couldn't be more happy. I remember thinking when I first started blogging that I wouldn't really get much of an 'audience' but wow, I didn't think I would get here so quickly. I'm currently getting the prizes together for a giveaway, so keep an eye out for that!
Anyway, back to the mail. To be honest, I was expecting having a lot more than this, but the post is so slow I guess I will have to wait a bit longer for the rest. Only one polish arrived at first (NOPI) so I got a little disappointed, then the 4 OPI's arrived a bit later whilst I was moaning to Betty Nails that I only got one polish in the post. Strange!
Anyway, the first polish I got was Nicole by OPI - Hard Kourt Fashionista which as you all may know by now, is from their Kardashian Kolor range, I'm slowly buying the whole collection ^.^. The next polishes were the ones I bought during the Lena White half price sale. I wanted to buy SO many of them, but I wasn't supposed to be spending anything, so I had to limit myself :(. The colours I got were ; Get Your Glamour On, Cuckoo For This Color, I Lily Love You & William Tell Me About OPI. They're so pretty! And I'm so glad I finally was able to get I Lily Love You, it's soooooo gorgeous. I will post swatches of these eventually.

China Glaze - 2NITE

So I didn't have anything to do today so I thought I would change that with a little swatch fest. Now if you read my blog often, you'll know that whenever I say this, I usually only end up getting about 3 swatches done. But today I managed to bust out 10! Yes 10 of them. I think bringing myself a little table through to the bedroom helped a lot, because usually I just sit on my bedroom floor for ages and end up getting a numb bum and pins & needles...hence why I give up. Having my own little desk definitely helped with the process, I even hooked up my laptop that I haven't used in forever so I could listen to some music and still keep up with the conversations on Nail Polish Network.
Anyway, totally going off on a tangent there...back to the polish. As the sun was shining (a rare occasion in England) I thought it would be a good a time as any to crack open some of my China Glaze holo's! I say some, I only own 3. This beauty you can see to the left of the page is China Glaze - 2NITE from their infamous and ever lusted after OMG collection. It's a gorgeous bright medium toned blue with a linear holographic flare and my is it beautiful! I wish these polishes weren't so HTF cause otherwise I'd have them all, but then again, so would everyone. I can't wait for their Prismatic collection to hit the shelves, I already have the lovely Marisa looking out for them for me! :D I hope she's able to get her hands on them!
Any collections you're looking forward to getting this year?

52 Week Challenge: Plaid Mani

Week 4 out of 52 is officially down. Today I have for you a plaid mani, inspired by Burberry. As you can see, I rushed my middle, ring and pinky fingers as I have to get ready to go out and I wanted to get this up on the actual Sunday.
I wish I hadn't have rushed it now, as I'm pretty impressed with how it turned out! Especially my thumb and pointer finger :)
For this mani I used Color Club - Nomadic Nude for the base, LA Colours Art Deco stripers in Black & White and then just a striper pen I got in a set of 24 from eBay.

Be sure to check out these mani's too!



Jenna @ I'm Still Thinking
Kevan @ The Dragon Lady
Lissa @ Lissa's Nail Blog
Charlotte @ Charlottes-Nails
Nicel @ Operation: Nail It!
Caitlin @ Addicted 2 Nails
Kirsten @ Darling Nails
Liz @ Nothing But Nail Polish
Cindy @ Square Polish
Gypsy @ Gypsy's Glitter
Kaki @ Glitter Obsession

EXCLUSIVE: Models Own Spring/Summer Collection 2012

Hey guys, so I have a HUGE exclusive for you. Today Models Own announced on their facebook that on Monday they would be making a big announcement. Now being a polish addict, I prayed it will be some new polishes and after accidentally stumbling among their big secret I can now tell you that they are releasing 10 new polish shades! They are:

Updated Stash Swatches!

Okay, so a while ago I posted a few pictures of my stash swatched on some nail wheels, now I only had 10 wheels at the time, so I couldn't swatch all of my collection. However, now I have a LOT of wheels to swatch my collection on, granted I don't actually need loads, but preparing for future expansions is always a good thing, right?! So here we have my complete collection as of today, I even re-took the photos of the previous wheels as they were done at night with a flash. This time, I literally chased the last bit of decent daylight to get them done for you in natural light with no flash, and I did it! If you are interested in seeing some of the swatches in flash lighting (it does bring out the holos/glitters a lot more) just click HERE. Same goes as last time, if you see a colour you like, leave a comment below with the wheel name, and number and I will get back to you asap with the name and brand :)

Friday Nail Mail!

It seems like it's been forever since I last posted any Nail Mail! I haven't really bought any polishes lately, as I have been doing swaps, which I cannot wait until I finally get! I do have a couple of packages on it's way with some exciting things in though, so watch out for those posts!
Today I have for you two packages which I was sent by the lovely Eve and Kerrie.
Eve was kind enough to send me OPI - Rainbow Connection and BarryM - Limited Edition Silver Foil, which is absolutely lovely of her to do! I was moaning that I couldn't find Rainbow Connection anywhere for a reasonable price, so she said she knew of a place selling them for cheap and offered to get it for me! How sweet! And the BarryM LE was sold out in my Boots. I do have another Rainbow Connection coming to me in a swap too, but as it is getting so hard to find, it doesn't hurt to have some back-ups!
Then I was sent the Color Club - Back To Boho collection A by Kerrie, I saw a post on PAA from her saying she had a spare set of the collection and I offered to buy it from her. They cost me £11 with P&P which is really good. The only downside is that the names are not on the bottom of the bottles, so I used my initiative and googled the collection for the names and then did this to them;

Now I know which colours I'm using without having to always search for the colours! :) Well that's all my nail mail today for you guys, be sure to check out my blogsale with some of the polishes I've decided needs new housing :)

52 Week Challenge: Colour Block Mani

Okay, so I apologise for being such an awful blogger recently! I've been feeling pretty under the weather with it being so cold and icy outside that I haven't really wanted to do anything, let alone paint my nails. But I've sucked it up to post this weeks entry for the 52 week challenge...finally.
This weeks was colour block, now being a bit dippy, I thought colour block was just plain coloured nails, but oh no. After a quick snoop on google/youtube looking at pictures and tutorials, I found out what colour block manis actually are.
I originally wanted to go bold and bright, but I thought against that and toned it down with some foil colours. For this mani I used all three foils from BarryM - Gold, Silver and Lilac. I then used a nail art pen to draw the lines. I'm quite pleased with how this turned out! So pleased I actually did it on my right hand too.
If you're partaking in this challenge, leave your blog post link in the comments below and I will add them to the post!

100 Follower Giveaway Winner!

Firstly I'd like to thank everyone who entered my 100 follower giveaway, and also thanks to all the new followers I have gained along the way! I hope you'll all stick around for the long run and also look out for new giveaways. I do have one planned for reaching 200 followers, but I have to wait before posting that!
Without further ado, the winner is....

Nicel Guerra from Operation: Nail It!

Congratulations to Nicel! I have e-mailed you to let you know you've won. Thanks again to everyone who entered and look out for up coming giveaways too!

OPI - 20 Candles On My Cake

I have another polish for you that I got from Traci's blogsale in the form of OPI - 20 Candles On My Cake. Which is in fact from the swatch vault (albeit a newer one) as I accidentally tore my nail off whilst removing glitter polish! >.<
If I'm not mistaken this came from the World collection of 2001...In 2001 I was 10, weird. I don't think this is as hard to find as others from the collection, but it's still a bit of an oldie.
In my opinion 20 Candles On My Cake is a reddened rose pink creme, but I've seen people describe it as a pinkend red. Whichever it is, I love it! I think it's definately a colour thats suited to my pale skintone so I'm glad I was able to snatch it up!

Also, I'd like to say thanks to everyone who supported my friends music, he really appreciates it. All comments have been added into the giveaway. Speaking of which, you only have 5 days left to enter! Get to it if you haven't already!

Cult Nails Nail Art Design Contest

I've been shortlisted on Cult Nails Nail Art Contest for my Nautical design. I need your help to win! All you have to do is click on THIS LINK to be taken to the photo, then all you have to do is like the photo!

Leave a comment below when you have liked the photo for a chance to win half of my prize!

52 Week Challenge: French Tip Mani

Here we have my week 2 entry for the 52 week challenge, this weeks challenge is french tip. Now, when it comes to french tips, I find the 'conventional' mani SO boring; it reminds me of those chavvy girls with massive nail extensions and really orange fake-tanned hands...really, they do.
I decided that I would really 'funk up' the ever so 'classic' french mani with a neon french! I used two China Glaze polishes for this; Purple Panic and Sun Worshipper, as you can see, I was in a bit of a rush to get the photos taken that I forgot to clean up, but you can forgive me right?! Also, I don't own any of those french tip guides, so I drew them freehand, which explains the oddness.
I do really like this 'in your face' mani, it's definitely not for the Winter, but I reckon I might give it a little time in the sun this Summer.



Check out the other challengers!
(will update soon with the links)

Color Club - Revvvolution

I bought Color Club - Revvvolution from an online shop on eBay for just under £5, after seeing it on so many different blogs. This is my first Color Club polish ever and I was super excited to receive it in the mail. I must admit though, I was a little bit disappointed with it's holo power, yes it has some, but I thought it would be a lot more noticeable!
Revvvolution is a Charcoal Grey/Black base with holographic particles.
As you can see, there's a subtle hint of holo in Natural Light but it becomes a lot more apparent when using a flash. Unfortunately, since there's no sun in the UK at the moment, I couldn't get a picture in sunlight. I do love this colour, I just wish the holo was a bit more 'in your face'

OPI - Just Groovy

Today I have another blue polish for you in the form of OPI - Just Groovy. I got this polish from Traci's blog sale and as soon as I saw it in person I fell in love with it. Just look at it! It's gorgeous. This isn't the most unique polish in the world, but nevertheless, it's still amazeballs.
Just Groovy comes from the Summer 2007 Psychedelic Collection and is a gorgeous (I need to stop saying this word) sky blue creme. On the first coat it does apply really streaky and somewhat sheer, but once the second coat is applied...wow, full opacity. I used two swatches for the photograph and also can I mention how proud I am of myself because I didn't even need to have a clean up after applying the polish! I'm getting better guys.

This is completely off topic, but really really sad to me - I had to put my cat, Lucky, to sleep this afternoon. I found her outside, when I went to get the mail, laid in her usual spot having an uncontrollable fit. It was heartbreaking, I rushed and got a box with a towel in it and put her in there and drove her straight to the vets to see what they could do. Unfortunately, there wasn't really anything they could do :( needless to say I broke down in tears there and then. R.I.P little legs!
Anyway, I'm sure I've just depressed you all now, I apologise. I needed a little release/vent. This polish is for you!

Nicole By OPI - Listen To Your Momager!

I feel like a blogging machine today, I seem to be posting so much! I'm yet to do a swatch review today, so I thought I would do one now for you.
I have one of my recent purchases for you in the form of Listen To Your Momager! from Nicole by OPI. As many of you already know, this is from the Kardashian Kolors range which came out this Winter. I actually got this from ASOS for £8, which isn't too bad especially for a brand which you very rarely find in the UK. When I saw that ASOS had a few of this collection on their website, I didn't even hesitate when I made an order.
Listen To Your Momager is a Royal Navy shimmer polish, which almost dries to a foil effect. I'm yet to do a nail comparison, but it looks very similar to Blue Years Eve by China Glaze. It's also slightly darker than Swimsuit...Nailed It (*angry*) by OPI. The colour itself is gorgeous, but as you can see, it isn't the most unique polish out there. I used 2 coats in the photo, but I think I should have maybe done another coat to bring out the colour more, but there's nothing I can do about that now!

Nicki Minaj Inspired Nails

I'd list what I used, but I can't remember :( & I suck at Nail Art :(

I originally did this mani for OPI's facebook nail contest, but unfortunately for me, after spending FOREVER doing it, I found out I read the rules wrong and it had to be based off of one of the four pictures given.
The contest was to create a design inspired by Nicki Minajs' outfits, which I did, but like I said, I didn't read the part which said it had to be based on the outfits given in the 4 pictures provided by OPI. Dang. I didn't want to just waste the mani, so I thought I would share it with you guys and give it a little recognition!
The outfit I chose to be inspired by was the Space Dress she wore when in London one time;

It's absolutely gorgeous, I actually started to foam a little at the mouth with jealousy and longing. Gah, I love this dress and I love Nicki Minaj and I hope the collection somehow manages to make it's way into my Sally's soon!

Thursday Nail Mail

I have a little OPI/Essie Nail Mail for you today with the things I got from Traci's (The TraceFace Philes) blog sale.
I bought these from her at the beginning of December, thinking they would take a week or so to get here, turned out to be almost a month. I started to think they'd been lost in all the Christmas rush mail or stuck at customs, so you can imagine my relief when the post man knocked on the door (waking me up) this morning and handed me a little box, I instantly got excited, so excited I broke some of my nail off ripping the box open!
The polishes I got were Essie - Licorice (my first EVER Essie <3) OPI - 20 Candles On My Cake, Blue My Mind, The Colour To Watch, Just Groovy, Wocka Wocka & Houston, We Have A Purple. They're all so pretty and it brings my OPI total to a nice 13 (baby collection) now I just have to wait for the other OPI's I got from Sarah's (See Sarah Swatch) blog sale!
Do you have any of these polishes? What are your favourite OPI polishes? Recommend me!

52 Week Challenge: 'Make It Sparkle' Mani!

Happy 2012 everyone! I hope you all had a good night celebrating in the New Year. My Boyfriend, his friends and I went down to our local city for a night out on the town, which was eventful to say the least! Especially having to treck up an almost vertical hill to get to where we were being picked up from!

I thought I would show you a quick look at my NYE nails I did before leaving. I wanted to do something amazing, but as I didn't have time to do that, I thought I would just do something simple yet effective. For the base I used 2 coats of Ciate - Superficial with China Glaze - Atlantis over the top. I then used a small nail art brush and BarryM - Silver Foil to write the numbers. I was pretty impressed with how the '20' turned out as I did it using my left hand (non-dominant).

What did you do for NYE? And did you do any special mani's for the occasion? Let me know!

EDIT; If you've read the below post, you'll know I'm now partaking in the Year Challenge. So instead of redoing a glitter mani, I thought I would recycle this mani, as it is now no longer on my nails!

Make sure to check out the other challengers posts too!

Nicel
Jenna
Charlotte
Kevan
Lissa
Liz
Cindy

52 Week Challenge! Are you game?

I saw this challenge on Jenna from I'm Still Thinking's blog and thought it sounds like a good idea and also one that's easier to stick to than the Day Challenges, as it gives me time in the week to post other things too, as I'm currently planning on doing the 30 Days of Untried, so it's a way to combine the two and give you lovely readers more content on my blog! This challenge was originally thought up by LizMarie from I'm Simply Complex and like I said, it's awesome!