NOTD: Trustafarian

I haven't worn nail varnish in such a long time let along blogged about it!  Is it possible to be to busy to even apply nail varnish?!  My nails were getting too long and I was going to cut them so I thought I may as well take advantage of them being long and paint them first.  I'm tempted to shape them into that stiletto style actually, it's grown on me! 

This is Butter London's Trustafarian which is a pale green with a sparkly golden holograph through it.  The holo is fairly subtle but catches the light beautifully - the photos don't do it justice!  I applied 3 coats although 2 would probably be fine.

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NOTD: Tippex Fingers

Since the trend of having white nails started sometime last year, I'd been tempted to try it out after deciding that it did actually look quite cool.  At first it just reminded me of painting my nails with Tippex when I was in primary school!

However I didn't get round to actually picking one up until recently.  I came across this one in the Topshop sale for £3 and it's more of an off-white which I feel is a good way to get me used to having white nails!  It's more warm and creamy so it isn't as harsh as plain white.  I think it will be good as a base for other nail polishes as well which will be handy.

This shade is called Blank but it may be discontinued seeing as it was in the reduced section.

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Festive Nails!

Hello!  I feel like I haven't posted on here in sooo long!  I'm not even sure why?  I've just been  busy working and applying for jobs and stuff, not really had any motivation for blogging sadly!  

I've kind of decided what I would like to do as a career if possible.  I'd like to get into merchandising; they are the ones who work out how much stock goes where, and when to run promotions and markdowns going by the sales figures etc.  I have a background in maths and also in retail so it seems like something I can do!  Unfortunately most head offices are in London which would mean moving away from home but I'm not sure if I'm quite ready for something like that yet!  I have found one vacancy in Scotland so we shall see...  If anyone knows of any head offices that are in Scotland please let me know so I can investigate haha!

Never mind blogging, I've not actually painted my nails in over a month, it's shocking!  I actually felt like a 3 year old when I was doing it, I'm so out of practice... Also my nails are such a mess at the moment but never mind, at least now they look kind of cute and Christmassy.

I've used Nails Inc Victoria & Albert as the red underneath (only needed one coat!) with Deborah Lippmann Boom Boom Pow over the top.  There are smaller gold particles which are much more visible in person and give it a nice shimmer.

PS do you like my Christmas duvet set?  I got it from Primark - love it!

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NOTD: All Hail The Queen

If you remember back to my recent wishlist post I said I would like another Butter London nail varnish to add to my lonely little Disco Biscuit, so the next time I was in Boots I picked up All Hail The Queen!  After quickly swatching it on my finger I was quite disappointed, it was so sheer and streaky, so it put me off trying it properly for a while.  However when I finally did I was quite pleased with how it turned out, after 3 coats that is!  You could probably get away with 2 coats if you are very careful to get them even.  All Hail The Queen is a neutral brown with a slight scattered holo through it which is really pretty.  It is quite similar to China Glaze Fast Track which you can see here which is lighter with gold shimmer instead.

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NOTD: Peach Sherbet

Say hello to Peach Sherbet from Models Own.  It's probably not one I would have bought myself -  this one of the colours I won but I just picked it as I don't have many nudes and they are handy to have.  At first I wasn't too sure about it as it's a bit orangey against my skin tone to be a nice nude but if you set that thought aside and just look at it for the colour itself it is quite pretty and unusual.  It also has a nice coverage and finish, this is 2 coats without top coat as I had left it at my friend's!  I think Models Own are definitely my favourite brand of nail varnish, I don't think I've found one yet which has disappointed!

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Nail Varnish Challenge #19

This is Wimpole Street from Nails Inc which seems to have been discontinued :( It's a deep, metallic purple colour.  Again, not something I would normally wear as it's quite dark but I do quite like it and it's perfect for Autumn!  I think I'll hold onto this one!  As you can see there's some tip wear but I took the photo about 36 hours after painting them so it had lasted quite well, and it's still looking pretty good considering how bad my nails usually are.

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NOTD: Speckles!

This week I took another break from my Nail Varnish Challenge and tried out this little Illamasqua number I've had lying around for months!  I think I got this back in May when they did one of their amazing promotions.  I ended up getting it for just under £6!!!  In general I think Illamasqua are a little bit overpriced but they certainly make up for it by doing 50% off promotions and having really good sales!

I'm so pleased I got this.  I don't really like any of the other colours from the I'mPerfection collection, but this one is lovely.  I've used 2 coats and got an opaque finish.  I was worried the sequinny bits might be hard to spread evenly but they weren't too bad.  I have a couple of more 'bald' areas (see ring finger) but I guess that's part of the charm as well!

I've just had a look on Illamasqua's website and this shade has been discontinued!! :(

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NOTD: Summer?!

I decided to take a break from my Nail Varnish Challenge as all the colours left are a bit drab and Autumnal, and go for something brighter while we're having nice weather!  So I tried out a new polish I was lucky enough to win in a Giveaway last month ran by Fashiony Nails, I love it!  This is Bubblegum from the Models Own Ice Neon Collection, and as always, neons are a bitch to photograph!  It is recommended that you keep these in the fridge to keep the colour from fading, however I haven't really done that yet!  I found it was rather thick and gloopy to apply but it was almost opaque in one coat, after application I put it in the fridge and it did seem smoother.  I really want to try Luis Lemon!

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Nail Varnish Challenge #14

#14 worn on index finger! 

#15 worn on all fingers except index

These two colours are from the Clubworks (Superdrug) set I got at Christmas.  They are both so similar, no idea why they didn't make them a little bit more different!  The one on the left is more purple, and the right one has a bit more red through it - it reminds me of a watermelon sort of colour for some reason!  I used that one on my index fingers and the left-hand side one on the rest of my fingers, it looks a lot more purple in real life... stupid camera!! At first glance, and especially in the photos, it looks like I have just the one colour on all of my nails.  They dry to a semi-matte finish but they become really nice and shiny with a coat of Seche Vite on top.

I'm finding it hard to decide whether to keep any or both of these... hmm! 

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I've added this rubbishy photo of chipped nails from my phone to give a more realistic representation of the colour!! 

Nail Varnish Challenge #12

This one I definitely got from Diet Coke haha!  It is called London and it's a creamy taupe colour.  It's one of the few nude shades own, I'm not a huge fan of nudes on my nails cos I find them a bit boring!  I actually quite like this colour although it is slightly too dark for my skin tone.  I think this is quite similar to Barry M Mushroom although I don't own that shade to compare.  I am going to keep this as I have so few nudes, it might come in useful one day!

I decided to jazz it up a bit by adding Color Club Covered in Diamonds which also counts as #13 too!  I was so hopeful about this nail varnish but it's not the best... The flakies are so chunky and really stick out on the nail so you need to work quite hard to get a smooth, even coverage, and then top with a good top coat.  Overall I do quite like the effect this gives but it would probably be too much effort to do it on each nail!  I will keep this nail varnish too.

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Nail Varnish Challenge #11

Most of the ones I have left to use are very autumny colours, wahh!  However this one stood out to me so I chose it to use this time.  This is Victoria & Albert by Nails Inc and I think that I may have got it from a magazine, or free with Diet Coke, I'm not 100% sure!  For some reason I rarely wear red nail varnish and I have no idea why, it is stunning!  It was almost opaque in one coat, but as always, I gave it two and it was quite shiny without topcoat - but again, I applied it anyway!

Red nail varnish has a very glamourous feel to it.  It may have just been the warm weather we had on Friday but I actually felt more confident wearing this on my nails!  I am definitely going to keep this one, I need to wear this more often!

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Nail Varnish Challenge #10

This is the lime green colour from my Clubworks nail varnish set, unfortunately it doesn't have a name but I think they were limited edition anyway!  I love this colour in the bottle but it's so sheer and has more of a jelly finish on the nail.  I don't like seeing my nail line, eurgh!  I might try it over a white next time to see if I can get a more opaque effect.

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Nail Varnish Challenge #7

I haven't painted my nails in so long - well I mean since last month which is a long time for me!  This nail varnish is  by Barry M.  It's a dark navy with a subtle metallic shimmer through it.  I have actually only used one coat for this which is pretty impressive!  Generally I don't love dark shades as even though I don't think I'm all that messy at painting my nails, they always look messier than lighter shades!

However, I have decided to keep this one as I don't have anything similar and I think it's a good colour to have in my collection!  Also it's a good toenail colour, I think!

Hayley has joined me in doing a Nail Varnish Challenge so if you like these posts then you should check out her blog to see what she's got in store!

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Nail Varnish Challenge #6

The next nail varnish from my box is Avon Rose Quartz (not CF).  The colour is pale, almost peachy pink with a shimmer through it.  I used 2 coats but you can still see the nail line which isn't the best.  I'm not a huge fan of this so this one is going in the selling pile!

I was thinking I might do a blog sale at the end of this series and sell any of my unwanted colours for cheap prices, would you be interested in that?  I've still got some unsold items from my last blog sale which I can include too.

Also, I should be able to get a new memory card for my camera this month, yay!!

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Nail Varnish Challenge #5

The next nail varnish in my challenge is Nails Inc The Southbank which I got in a set of 4 from QVC years ago, I think the others are in the box too actually!  It is a nice light grey creme, opaque in two coats.  I do like it but I think it's pretty boring and I feel like I want to do something to it to add some excitement!  For example, I think it would be an excellent base for stamping.

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