beauty | Barry M nail polish 'damson'

I seem to be addicted to buying nail polishes! My name is Laura and I have a nail polish addiction - please slap my beautifully manicured hand. 

Today's polish is the seriously beautiful Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine in 'Damson'. How beautiful?! I'm pretty sure it's from the newer collection as I haven't seen this shade anywhere on the internet!

In the bottle the colour itself looks like a creamy, cornflower blue but on the nails i find it to be much more electric and more on the neon side rather than a creamy shade. This slightly disappointed me as I really thought it would sit right in the middle of pastel and neon (if you understand where I'm going). However as soon as it was on my nails I completely fell in love and wore it religiously over my birthday weekend. It's just such an eye-catching shade and has become a firm summer favourite.

It's opaque in just two coats and has the glossiest finish - I have two other Gelly polishes and never really noticed the shine they give off but with 'Damson' it's so noticeable! 

What do you think? Would you wear this?

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The Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine collection can be bought from Boots for £3.99 here.

beauty | l'oreal perfection colour riche nail polish in 'pistachio drage'

For the past couple of weeks my nails have been naked, just because I could never be bothered to sit down and concentrate on doing it, until today. I finished my dissertation yesterday so have been having a relaxing day off work and decided to pamper myself with a bit of a polish.

I decided to go for the most recent addition to my collection, the lovely new green shade, #852: 'pistachio drage' from L'Oreal's new summer pastels range. I decided to go for this shade over the over the other 3 available just because I have nothing like it, whereas the others were closer to my other polishes.

The polish is housed in the really sophisticated clear bottles with gold lids, which I absolutely LOVE. So chic and minimal. The brush is the typical L'Oreal flat, fat shape which means each nail can be coated evenly in two or three sweeps so it is so quick. However, I always find that the brush leaves really obvious brush streaks on the nail which is a bit annoying but goes with the layers. You can get away with two layers for an opaque coverage but I always do three just so the colour is extra vibrant.

Overall I do really love this polish - but more for the colour than the product itself. I've always found with L'Oreal polishes that they go thick and gloopy really quickly which makes them so much harder to apply evenly - around the tips of my nails are pretty iffy just because it wouldn't go on perfectly. I find this makes it chip so much quicker as well just because it doesn't sit on the nail as nicely.

The colour is lovely, I just wish the consistency was much smoother - like Barry M nail polishes, which is by far my favourite formula for polish. 

What do you think? Have you had the same problems with the formulas of L'Oreal polishes?

The L'Oreal Perfection Colour Riche nail polishes can be purchased from Boots for £4.99  here.

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beauty | lips and tips

OPI 'Suzi's Hungary AGAIN!' review

L'Oreal Confetti Topcoat review

Topshop Macaroon Lipstick review

Recently I've been seeing the retro trend of matching your lips to your nails going around, and wanted to put my own spin on it. Usually the trend includes the classic red lips and nails, but I've decided to up the amp and do it with a bright pink instead.

These are all products that have appeared on my blog at some point already (reviews above!) but it was only the other day that I realised how well they go together. I absolutely adore my lipstick from Topshop in 'macaroon' and the OPI nail polish from the euro centrale giftset.

I also added the confetti topcoat as I haven't used it in so long and always forget about it. I think it adds a really lovely touch and makes the look a lot more modern. Sadly though, my confetti topcoat is beginning to get a little gloopy so I found it pretty hard to get an even cover!

What do you think of my matchy-matchy look?

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beauty | OPI outrageous neons

L-R: Riotously Pink | Seriously Purple | White Base | Formidably Orange | Ridiculously Yellow

For Christmas my lovely mother got me this set of neon nail polishes from OPI. I always get some sort of nail varnish for Christmas and am always excited to see what's coming next. This particular set screams spring/summer at me as everyone knows that as soon as the sun comes out we're looking at pastels or neons. 

The set contains 4 different neon shades, a white base and a clear top coat all in OPI's trademark shade but travel-sized.

To begin, you need to paint the nails with the white base coat. This goes on pretty patchy to begin with and in the end I used three coats to make it bold and opaque. This is obviously pretty time consuming so you need a LOT of time spare to use this set. This white base is really lovely though - goes on smoothly and dries in a quite speedy time. I love to wear white polish on it's own as well so it's great for this too.

I then painted on two coats of each of the neon shades. These dry matte on their own which look quite pretty, or you can add the top coat once dry.

Ridiculously Yellow | This is a banana-yellow shade that I personally think is the least wearable. I always think that any yellow polish that isn't pastel can look garish and can stain your nails - but with the base coat you can get away with it. Not my favourite shade but is definitely bright and summery.

Seriously Purple | This is the darkest shade so is much easier to get an opaque finish. Its definitely a more muted neon shade, and is more rich and warm purple. This is the one I'd lean to in the colder months as it isn't as in your face as the rest.

Formidably Orange | This is by far my favourite shade of the collection - a punchy red/orange that takes me back to Ibiza and party holidays. I cannot wait to wear this all through summer.

Riotously Pink | This is my second favourite of the set, as you can never go wrong with a hot pink. This is such a beautiful and eye-catching colour and not like anything in my collection. 

I really do love this set and think I'll get a lot of use out of it. The only negatives I could find was obviously how time consuming it was - I didn't five layers on each nail overall - and the fact that some of the white base can sometimes show around the edges.

But the colours of each polish and the quality that OPI is known for more than make up for it. I'm super happy with these polishes and they will definitely be making an appearance on my nails all through summer!

What do you think?

Do you have a favourite nail polish for summer?

The OPI Outrageous Neons set can be bought from Beauty Bay for £13.62.

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nails inc 'uptown glamour'

Earlier this month I picked up the december issue of Glamour magazine. After reading about (and lusting after) the stunning Katy Perry I wasted no time in grabbing the free Nails Inc. nail polish that came with the mag. They were designed by Kate Spade, a famous designer who makes really lovely, quirky clothes which remind me of a much more stylish Ugly Betty!

There were four different colours in the range but I went for the gorgeous 'uptown glamour'. It's a lot more refined and toned down than I would have expected from Kate Spade but the shade really jumped out at me as it is so lovely.

It reminds me of molten gold - a hybrid of standard nail varnish and glitter. It's basically like glitter polish's older, more glamorous sister! Moving the bottle, the shade changes between a dark, almost brown gold to a super shiny silver. It has tiny flecks of both gold and silver glitter which translate lovely onto the nails. The finish of the polish itself is also really different - it's like a mixture of matte and standard polish and doesn't have a shine, but isn't fully matte.

This is two coats of polish on my nails - but without a bottom or top coat. I didn't use a bottom coat as I had issues the first few times with the polish moving and not setting properly on the bottom coat. I also haven't used a top coat as I think it would ruin the matte-shiny finish the polish has. I know that this is going to cut the lasting time of the polish but the effect is so lovely I don't want to change it!

 I really do love everything about this polish - I think it is so wearable and easy to build up if you prefered to make a bigger statement with it. I can see me wearing this constantly over the christmas period as it really does have a festive feel. I also think it would work really well layered over other colours to give a sheer-glitter top coat. It's also a bargain at £2 for both the magazine and polish!

Have you tried any of the other colours? 

Do you like this one?

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