HPB Presents: Glitter Toppers

Happy Friday everyone! I am so glad it's the weekend! I've not been very good on the blog this month due to some holidays but I'm managing to squeeze this one last blog post of the month in as part of this months Hobby Polish Bloggers link up. As you can see the theme this month is glitter toppers. Not a particularly challenging theme but the options are endless! I have many many glitters so enjoyed digging through them again.

I decided to use two I haven't used for over a year. They were a gift from my boyfriend who got them in TK Maxx (a great place for discount Nails Inc's!). I started of with a dance legend peel off base coat, it doesn't usually work all that well for me, I think as my nails are on the dry side it sticks a little too well! Worth another try though. Next I painted on one coat of Jermyn Street. In theory two thin coats would probably be best, but I cheated and used one thick coat and was pleasantly surprised, no pooling or bubbling.

For my glitter I used Lancelot Place, a chunky silver glitter topper with some black sequins mixed in. I created a rough moon shape at the bottom of each nail with the glitter as I think it's a flattering shape. I like this look as I think it looks grown up but still with a hint of fun! The sort of thing I could probably get away with at client meetings!

Who else is getting excited for all the autumn colours coming out? I'm having a bit of a phase for muted colours at the moment. Not sure if it's just because of the change of season or if I'm getting old! Perhaps a bit of both!
Colours used: Jermyn Street - Nails Inc, Lancelot Place - Nails Inc

Check the other lovely designs this month below.

An InLinkz Link-up

Monthly Indie Reveiw: Cirque Colors

This months indie review is a quick one, as I only have one polish to show you. I went on a bit of a buying spree, and I couldn't justify any more polishes! So I got just this one from Cirque Colors as it was one I'd had my eye on for a little while. From the looks of things Cirque do a range of lovely creme's and bright colours which are well loved.

The shade I chose to try was Hatch from The Awakening spring collection. Shame I have bought it at this time or year really as it would be so perfect for spring! It looks like a little speckled egg, although also a little like toothpaste, or as one of my work colleagues said, a kitchen work surface! I think most of all it has the speckled egg look! I love a pale grey shades enjoyed this creamy speckled polish, I'd say with the speckles it is almost a pale grey.

The consistency was good and it was easy to paint on. It covers in two to three coats. I look forward to trying this with some cobalt blue and or gold, and perhaps some Aztec type patterns.
That's all for now!

Fruity Holiday Nails

Starting off with a picture off the mess I made making this nail design, as it ended up being so colourful and pretty! I ordered a new Halloween plate recently from Mo You London as I was owrried it would go out of stock, and just couldn't resist grabbing this fruit one while I was there. I've had my eye on it for a while and really love it now it's arrived. This design was only meant to be a practise/ experiment but turned out so well it ended up being my holiday mani for our week in Venice.

My inspiration came from Instagram where I'd seen someone using a stamping plate to put pretty gradient patterns over a pale background. I thought I'd give it a go with the fruit theme.I started with Barry M's Coconut as my base colour. It's a nice cream so slightly less bright that using a full on white. I'm nearly at the end of the bottle now so it was a bit of a challenge!

For the gradients I wanted something really bright so had a root through some of my Barry M's and Nails Inc's, I'm pleased to say they stamped very well. I tried to get a bit of a blend by moving the scraper slightly from one side to the other, while using it for a few strokes rather than just one, to remove the excess polish from the stamping plate. This meant that the colours could blend/mix a little in the middle. I got better at it as I went so you can see there is a bit of variety in gradient quality here! Below is the final result with no top coat.
My favourites are the blue/green citrus and the pomegranate/pineapple (below left). I would definitely do this design again, and definitely recommend this type of stamping. It's fun to do and the results are so colourful! It would work with a wide range of different patterns too. Colours used are listed at the bottom of this post. Thanks for reading :)
Colours used: Coconut - Barry M, Guava - Barry M, Pomegranate  - Barry M, Blueberry - Barry M, Cyan Blue - Barry M, Key Lime - Barry M, Warwick Way - Nails Inc, Papaya - Barry M, Seven Dials - Nails Inc, Holland Park - Nails Inc, Raspberry - Barry M

A Smidge of Citrus

Good evening everyone! Just a quick blog post before I disappear to Venice for a week with my boyfriend. I can't wait!! This is one of my 'not ready for summer to be over' designs. I used China Glaze's Flip Flop Fantsy, which I realised I haven't used all summer. I found it quite hard to paint with. The brush is thin and the polish has gone a bit funny. Still, the end result was ok.

To get this look I painted a white accent nail and the rest in neon coral. I then used a big-ish dotting tool to do a rough yellow lemon shape, as a guideline. I then painted on some leaves around the yellow circles. The final touch was to stick on lemon Fimo slices I bought from She Sells Seashalls and hand't tried yet. I stuck them on using only the matte base coat and I was impressed how long they lasted, especially as they didn't lie very flat on my nails so it was easy to ctch them on things.

So just a simple one really - one that matches my summery mood! It's a shame about the consistency of this polish as it's such a good summer colour!
Colours used: Flip Flop Fantasy - China Glaze, Alpine Snow - OPI, Key Lime - Barry M, Rimmel Matte Top Coat

Tropical Tuesday: Toucan Play that Game!

Happy Tuesday! Tonight I am bringing you a terrible/wonderful pun! I've pretty much had Two Can Play That Game in my head every time I've looked at these nails! This was just a quick bit of advanced stamping on accent nails but I really loved the way it turned out. I used Dead Heat from Barry M's speedy collection for a really vibrant summery red. I'm not accepting summer as over till the end of September! (unless it gets really cold I guess)

I used my Uber Mat and Mo You London Tropical Plate 06 for this adorable Toucan pattern and stamped the image in black. I used white stamping polish for the Toucans tummies as I wanted something that would show up well against the red. It's not obvious but before the orange of the beaks I used a little yellow as well to give them a bit more dimension, Only obvious close up though!
Colours used: Dead Heat - Barry M, Black Knight - Mo You London, White Knight - Mo You London, W18 - Color Cosmetic, Yellow - Barry M

Barry M Molten Metals Review

Hello, happy Saturday! It looks like a beautiful day today so I'll be off to enjoy the sun after this long overdue review of Barry M's molten metals collection. Torturously I was on a buying ban of nail polish when these came out, so I had to wait some time to give them a try. Then when I finally did get my hands on them and take some pictures they stayed on my computer for weeks while I posted more summery nail art. So I am very glad to finally be sharing my thoughts on them. Read on for how I found each one.

First up is Gold Digger, a pale metallic gold. This one seemed a little thin at first but built up easily in two to three coats. All of these as expected come with the wide brush which I am a big fan of as it makes application easier. I like how this gold is a little different from others I have, what with the recent Meebox Zoya gold I think I have a full range of shades of gold now! I'm sure that will come in handy at the end of the year... Below is two coats, so you can see a little nail line still, but this can be rectified. I think it will be a good base for some Autumn/winter nail art when the time comes.
The second I'm showing today is Silver Lining. I really like the dark metallic feel of this one. It covers well in two coats and again is a little different to any of the silvers I currently have. As you can see from the below it's super shiny! With all of these I like the touch of shimmer they have as well.
Now onto the more unusual ones! Copper Mine is different to a lot around at the moment. I had though this collection was quite wintery, but actually this one or the next one would look lovely with a white dress in the summer. The shimmers catch the light well too. Again covers easily in two coats, and possibly my favourite of the collection, but it's hard to say!
Lastly is Bronze Bae, not sure about the name! I love the shade though. My only concern is that I'm perhaps a little pale to pull it off. If it wasn't for that this would be my favourite of the collection above Copper Mine for sure. A great all year round colour and covers in two coats. I particularly like it as a summer metallic. It reminds me of lovely flowing white Grecian dresses and bronze or gold leaf patterned accessories!
To conclude, it's a thumbs up from me! I think I like the bronze and copper ones best as they are more unusual. I didn't find they stood out particularly well when used for stamping, but would work stamped over black so you've got a bit of contrast.