Showing posts with label turquoise. Show all posts

turquoise & teal dots: inspired by malcolm gladwell's 'blink'

Hi guys! Today I bring you a simple design inspired by the cover of one of my favourite books, Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking, by Malcolm Gladwell. I'm not usually one for non-fiction, but this is definitely worth a read. The author explains how our ability to make snap judgements is a lot more effective than cautious decisions, and encourages you to trust your instincts rather than over-thinking things. It basically gets you thinking about thinking... If that makes sense?! Anyway, I've always loved the cover art (I should probably mention it's by 'Kai & Sunny'), so I decided to recreate it via my nails.

I really like the colour combination and the subtle metallic shimmer of the details (you can't really see that in the photo, oooops). Since I'm 'into' dots at the moment, it made sense to paint a simple turquoise and teal pattern using my trusty dotting tool!
 The equipment:

Jacava London 'Chillax'*
Barry M 'Greenberry'
Barry M Limited Edition 'Bright Yellow'
Sinful Colors 'Snow Me White'
Essie 'Matte About You'
Medium sized dotting tool

I used 'Chillax' as a base, apart from my ring finger, which I painted with 'Greenberry'. I have a real thing for accent nails, and my manicures never escape a little bit of mix-and-match or colour swapping! I really recommend Jacava nail polish (you can see my review of the brand here) - it applies beautifully and the finish is always lovely. I used three coats in this manicure, but you can get away with two.
 
When my bases were dry, I used a medium sized dotting tool to apply the curved vine patterns. I only painted small sections on each nail, as I didn't want it to overpower the base. Even though the dots vary in size, I actually only used one dotting tool - I just varied the amount of polish and the pressure when applying. 
When the 'vines' were complete, I added a few more dots in white and yellow. The cover art actually involves some black and red dots too, but I thought this would be too much, and I decided on a more limited palette. When everything was dry, I added a coat of Essie 'Matte About You', which I think pulls everything together. What do you think?

Askruk46

Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paint: 'Papaya' & 'Greenberry' Review

Good morning! Today I bring you a review of Barry M's Gelly polish, which I have only just got around to purchasing. A lot of the girls on Twitter have been talking about it for a while, so I decided to find out what all the fuss is about, and popped into Boots to treat myself to 'Papaya' and 'Greenberry'. The polishes are a bargain £3.99 each, and I took advantage of Boots' 'Buy 1 Get 1 Half Price' offer, so it was even better for the old purse strings. Initially I was worried the formula would be gloopy and take ages to dry, but I was pleasantly surprised!


'Papaya' is a wonderful addition to my collection of peach and orange polishes. I thought it may be a bit too similar to Models Own 'Fuzzy Peach', but it's actually much richer in colour, and is very much like the juicy, fleshy part of its namesake! 
'Greenberry' is a gorgeous bright shade. I'm normally more drawn to paler, more delicate colours, which is why my mint green/pale teal collection is so vast (Models Own 'Apple Pie', L'Oreal 'Perle de Jade' and e.l.f. 'Mint Cream', to name a few!) It's nice to now have a more striking shade of turquoise :)
Both polishes applied really well, and the consistency is just right. I used 3 coats for each nail, but you can easily get away with 2, I'm just a bit O.C.D. when it comes to coverage. Barry M's Gelly polishes also dry extremely quickly, which is handy. I popped 'Papaya' on early last week to find out how well it lasts and removes, and it didn't disappoint on either front. My nails were chip-free for a good few days, and I got lots of compliments on the smooth finish and eye-catching colour. When I removed the manicure, it was really quick and easy, even with acetone-free polish remover. Plus there was hardly any staining, which is always good!
I decided to add my favourite Models Own glitter to my swatches, along with a couple of accents. The Barry M brushes are good for small details as they are slim, and rarely have any stray bristles (a pet hate of mine). I didn't have to use a small paint brush for the tips of my ring and index fingers, and simply applied a coat of 'Papaya' in a triangular shape. I added a coat of Models Own Hed Kandi 'Ibiza Mix' to my orange nails, and then carefully applied individual sequins to outline the triangle detail, as well as a little dab in the middle. 'Ibiza Mix' is the perfect addition to this manicure as it contains glitters in almost-matching shades to 'Papaya' and 'Greenberry', so the colours are really picked out.

Have you tried any of Barry M's Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paints? If so, what's your favourite colour? The next time I go shopping I am definitely picking up a few more shades!

Askruk46

New Barry M Gelly Nail Paint 2013 swatches and review

Hey everyone! As promised, I have a review of the new Barry M gelly nail varnishes to show you today. I was SO excited to receive these for review. I'm sure many of you have realised by now that Barry M is my number one love over any other brand, so I'm completely in awe that I'm now a blogger for them! Anyway, they have released 4 new gelly nail varnishes to add to the 9 that they released last year. I haven't tried any of them, but from what I've heard the only thing different is the colours, which I must say I absolutely LOVE. Swatches and information after the jump.






First up is Greenberry, I had a hard time capturing the colour of this, and both photos show it to be slightly more blue than it is. I would call it the perfect turquoise. In the following photo it looks an even lighter blue, which I didn't notice when editing but nevertheless it's not that either. I'd say the above picture is the more accurate of the two. This is 3 coats. I'll sum up at the end what I think of the polishes.




Next up is Papaya which is a lovely coral colour. One thing I think about this collection is that Barry M have introduced all the polishes that really complete their overall selection, and that's certainly true of this polish, and the nude 'Lychee'. I really love this colour, the picture is pretty accurate. This is 3 coats again. 




Next is Dragon Fruit which is a gorgeous pink. Some of you may remember that a while back I posted on my instagram looking for a dupe of an old unnamed pink polish that I really didn't want to run out, and this is pretty much a dupe, so I'm very happy about that! I would describe this as a 'Nicki Minaj' pink, I'm not her greatest fan but I'm sure you all know what I mean! This was 3 coats. For some reason this was quite difficult to photograph without it seeming excessively bright but this is still pretty accurate.




Last but definitely definitely not least is my favourite polish of the whole collection: Lychee. This is an absolutely gorgeous nude and I have already created some nail art with it, which you will see on friday. The formula is also a lot better than the rest of the polishes and although I used 3 coats again I could have probably got away with 2. 


So... what is my verdict?

Pros:
  • Gorgeous colours 
  • Great formula
  • The usual brilliant brush and bottle shape
  • Only 3 coats and with good application you could get away with 2
  • Long-lasting, I wore these throughout the day on a trip to London, where lots of rummaging through bags and purses was involved and there wasn't even a mark on them!
  • No staining from any of these polishes
Cons:
  • These were pretty slow to dry, but possibly only because I'm a naturally impatient person and I didn't really wait between layers for them to dry. 
These will be available in Superdrug and on the Barry M website from February 13th, and in Boots from the 20th. You can get updates on this on their Facebook and on their Twitter.

What do you think? Will you be buying any of these polishes? Let me know in the comments!
Tomorrow I will have Barry M's new textured polishes to show you so make sure to have a look!

Alice


This product was sent to me for review but any opinions included are entirely my own and were not affected in any way by anyone else

Askruk46

Saran Wrap + One Stroke

Hey everyone! So today I have a couple of techniques bundled into one. I love 'saran wraps', even though I've only ever done one before, and I've wanted to try the 'one stroke' nail art technique that I've seen a number of bloggers use. I actually watched a number of tutorials for this and none were what I was looking for in my design so I just googled a few pictures and worked with that but I'd say the most helpful was this one.

For my saran wrap I used a base of China Glaze - Refresh Mint and then put Barry M - Cyan Blue and Berry on top. I know there's a few techniques out there for this but I just dab the wet nail varnish with a bundled up piece of cling film. I've included a picture of the saran wrap on it's own too :)

Then I used white and blue acrylic paint for the flowers, added a coat of Seche Vite and then stuck the rhinestones on with extra top coat


Also, some time this week I'm going to be starting a new 'challenge', which isn't really a challenge, just more of a project. I have 22 old images of nail art I did when I first started my blog, then got annoyed and deleted because they're such bad quality photos, so I shall be starting a 'then and now' project, to see how, not only my photography has improved, but my skills too. I shall hopefully be posting them once a week for next 22 weeks but we'll see how that goes! What do you think?



Hope you like them!
Alice

Askruk46

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