Mad as a Hatter!

There has been a lot of fuss on Twitter recently about OPI's polish Mad As A Hatter. I bought this on eBay a while ago quite cheap (for UK prices anyways), but have had the beautiful bottle sitting on my desk untouched since. This week I decided to do a little experiment with it. Noting that it had varied colour glitters in it, I decided to experiment with base colours to see how it affected the overall look.
Here you can see all the colours in the polish

I decided to try Mad as a Hatter, over white, pink, blue and purple. I think I like it best over purple, although I was pleased to find the glitter was condensed, and pretty enough to be used on its own.

click to enlarge

You can see in this picture how the base colour affects the prominent glitter colour. I love this polish more than any glitter I have ever tried. Your nails do kind of look disco bally but its not such a bad thing because of all the different colours in it. It is so much prettier in real life, the sparkle is amazing.

In terms of wear, I wore it for 3 days at work, and noticed slight chipping on my pointer finger, but nothing major. I didn't use a top coat so was not overly upset by this, although it did start to flake on my pinkie finger (the one with no base colour) by day 4.

Whilst I was at it I decided to film how I remove glitter nail polish. Some people have problems with this and it puts them off wearing it. There will be a post on this soon =)

I am so glad I got this polish when I did, as it is hard to find on eBay now, although I do think this is one OPI polish I would be willing to pay the £10 UK price tag for.

Have you tried this polish? How did you wear it?

K x

Spring Flowers Nail design

I saw this in one of JulieG's videos before she put up the tutorial, and I couldn't wait to try it, so mine looks a little different to hers.

I used pink, orange and white 2way nail art pens from ebay for the flower, and a metallic green for the stem. The base colour was by 17 (boots) and it called candy cane. The base is a very sheer pink shimmer, and looks very pretty when the light catches it. I love this look it is so simple but really effective!

K xx

Random: Nail Shape

Today I have been thinking a lot about nail shape. I normally leave my nails to grow in a natural shape, but many manicurists say you should stick with your cuticle shape. This causes me a problem because some of my cuticles are rounded and some are quite squoval. I find it odd that my round cuticles tend to have square nails and the square cuticles have round nails. The reason I was thinking about this is that one of my nails broke, and actually ended up shaped to a perfect point. I didn't have a nail file with me at the time, and kept stabbing myself!

Here is a photo of the offending nail

I cannot believe people actually pay money to have their nails shaped like this! I could not wait to get it home and give it a nice file and sort it out. I have not broken a nail in the longest time, which I put down to my Rimmel Stronger, but whenever I do, they normally break into a smooth shape which doesn't need filing. My nails are normally very low maintenance. I honestly could not manage with my nails like this, and if you do, how do you do it!

Obviously when people have their nails done like this (stiletto nails), they are much longer and beautifully decorated. For me however they are so impractical and I am glad it was a temporary measure. 

 (source)

My favourite nail shape is square, but I am too lazy to maintain it!

What is your favourite nail shape? Do you even care?

K x

Stars and Stripes

Today's nails are inspired by Beyonce from her Telephone video with Lady Gaga. I saw it for the first time today and I knew the minute I saw them that I had to recreate them.

The design was easy enough to recreate using my eBay nail art pens. I even experimented with my Konad plate M45 a little on the index finger. I wish I had a blue special polish, this would have turned out really cute!
Here is the video:

Products used were Rimmel Stronger, Ruby Sparkle by 17 (Boots), Electric Punk by Collection 2000, and my white eBay nail art pen. This is definitely my favourite look of the moment, so glad I recreated it.

K xx

St Patrick's Day Nails

It's St Patrick's Day on the 17th, and here is my nail design to celebrate.
It is very simple but I really like it!

 I did a diagonal French tip, rather than a traditional one because my nails were different lengths, and I didn't have time to file them and paint them.

I used:  Barry M - Mint Green 304, China Glaze- White Out, and a gold and a green nail art pen from eBay.
I love the green colour from Barry M, an exact dupe for MACs limited edition Peppermint Patti from last year.

I did this video on how I made it:

What are you wearing on your nails this St Patrick's Day?
K xx

P.S. this design would be perfect for Spring time, just switch up the Shamrock with a flower

Essential Nails: Acrylic Course

I recently bought an Essential Nails course from eBay. I have had my eye on these for a while, as I’d love to learn to do acrylic and gel nails on myself. It would save a whole lot of money for special occasions. Having never even had them done at a salon I didn’t have the first clue about how to do them. When I saw the nail trainer for sale on eBay I thought this would be my perfect chance to practice creating acrylic nails.

On the day I finally decided to place a bid on one of the nail trainers, I noticed that there was a full course available for not much more in price. I decided to place a bid, and actually won the course. I knew it would be quite an old version because the kit contained a video, not DVD, but I decided this was OK, as I wouldn’t be using these products on real people.

 I quickly made a video showing what you get in the box, but bear in mind if you purchase one it is likely to look quite different, although the products will be the same. 

The box the items came in had been stored in some ones garage and so was a little damp and damaged, so I decided to compact it all into a storage box. I decided to use my GHD box for this, as it was just sat on top of my wardrobe empty, and looks much more presentable.

 In the future, if I decide I want feedback and further support I can buy an assessment pack from Essential Nails, which will give me certification and assessment, as well as unlimited telephone support. I haven’t decided whether to go down this route or not yet, but of course I will keep you updated.

I am going to have my first attempt at acrylics this weekend, cant wait to try it out!

Have you ever tried doing your own acrylics? I would love to hear your experiences.

K x

Happy Birthday...

This weekend was my birthday! So exciting, I love birthdays, not just mine, because there is always a sense of excitement in the air.
To help celebrate, here is the birthday inspired nail design I am sporting.

Balloons and happy birthday written on my thumb. I also added a cupcake with a candle in on my ring finger on my other hand, but my camera has ran out of battery.
I wont be making a video on this as it really is so simple, but I wanted to share it anyway.

Here is a quick glimpse at some of the lovely gifts I got (thanks so much everyone), as well as some things I picked up.

I picked up some great bargains and some really cute things (thank you Primark Primani), so I will be showing you those over the next few posts. I have a few other posts lined up as well, and I might get around to writing some in the car this weekend.

To celebrate my birthday I am going out for a meal and some drinks, and then away for the weekend with The Boyfriend. Exciting times indeed!

Are you doing anything exciting this weekend?

K xx