So I was lucky enough to recieve a set of these five polishes for review. On the site, these (at the time I looked) cost less than $7, which made them a far more affordable option than branded Konad polishes which are like $7 for one...


First off, I have no idea why the white one is so different from the others, but it works, so I'm not complaining. I tested the black one first, over the manicure I was already wearing which was Nails Inc 'Atomic'. It did end up as a sort of unintentional Hallowe'en manicure, so eventually I just used my witchiest stamping plate and went with it. I lined up my polish, plate and stamper/scraper, and got to work. The first thing I noticed was that even though the bundle monster plate lacked definition, the stamping polish was a lot more defined than the ordinary polishes I use, and I had a lot more time to play around with when positioning it on the nail. Usually, I fling it down on whichever available space I have as quickly as possible because I'm worried it's going to dry on the stamper (this has happened to me more than once) but yeah, I could take my time and the design was crisper for it at the end. Also, it didn't smudge when I was applying top coat.



I had exactly the same experience with the white polish, and really appreciated the fact that I could get lots of contrast between the base colour and the stamping colour - when I use ordinary polish, it's a lot harder to get them to stamp THAT opaque. Sadly, when I tried the yellow and red polishes, they were basically just like ordinary polish and weren't opaque at all. I haven't tested the blue yet but I suspect it'll be the same situation. Also, another thing that irked me was that I struggled to remove the lid of the red polish, and when I  finally managed it, there was dried polish all around the cap - meaning it's either leaked in transit (unlikely, as there wasn't polish all over my package) or someone had used it before it was sent to me? Or perhaps a manufacturing error. Whatever it was, it was annoying.
While I appreciate having two very good stamping polishes, it's not the same as five very good stamping polishes, is it?


It's worth the money as you're getting two for the price of one, but it's a bummer that the other three shades don't work. I'm going to leave the other three shades opened out on a windowsill to see if they thicken up a little and work better, and I'll update if they do. But all in all, wasn't the huge bargain I was hoping for.



I also got a coupon code to share, if anyone wants it ask me!

So I was reading through my comments on my v-nails post, and one anonymous commenter said this about them:

I'd call it the butt crack! It's hideous! O.O

So I was like, "Challenge!"

Now take a look:




It was a pretty poor attempt, I may have to repeat it.
Base: Barry M Nail Paint in "Raspberry"
Bum: Nails Inc "Caramel"
Various acrylic paints for the um, shading.

Back when I was a noob to blogging, life and everything, I did this manicure. 
Unfortunately, I had never heard of cleanup or like, shame.

I thought I'd recreate it somewhat, as it gave me an excuse to break out my acrylic paints, but in a school appropriate manner. So, by following the rules of this post, I did this.



I'm liking the paints, actually! I should do a full post on them at some point.

Posts may be a little erratic/downright scary during this time period, as the school production starts properly on Thursday (I think) so no one is going to get any sleep until Saturday. I apologise in advance for any cray cray.

Yesterday, I got braces.



fml.



Mine are actually purple. They hurt like hell and I can't eat anything but soup and hot chocolate, and I detest soup! It's gross!


I got the idea for brace nail art from The Daily Nail (I see no reason to link to her blog because she's so famous, most of my readers probably know her anyway!). Yeah. They're bloody annoying.


To make matters worse, when my Dad came back from work and asked to see my teeth, he actually laughed. And then he made some witty comment about how only rich people's kids went to the dentist in Nigeria. I was like, "What is this?"

Anyway. Glad you were so amused, Dad. Jeez.

The high points were that after the appointment (it didn't hurt at that point, see) I complained that Mum hadn't given me lunch, so she took me to Sainsburys and got me a pack of sandwiches and some crisps and some orange juice. I was like, "Word."

Only when I got back to school, and it was lunchtime, it felt really weird to eat anything so I had to like rip the sandwich up into little pieces before chewing just on the back teeth and then the crisps got no love at all :(

And this is the second time I did this nail art. The first time, I wore it to school, and my form tutor told me to take it off. And then laughed when I told him about my braces.

Not impressed.

GOSH "Orange Drops" coloured over with red nail art pens.



I have no idea why I found this so odd to photograph...


The nail art, I mean. Not the colour :P

Leaf inspired spam of the day. Enjoy.

I’m always interested in new brands and companies so when I received an email from Adam Gore, the founder of Candy Nails, I decided to check it out.

 Hooray for failed videogame nail art! Hooray for false positivity! Hooray for changing the subject!
 Please ignore the fails that are the facial features of Toad and Luigi. The nail art pen tolerated Mario but Luigi seems to be all eyebrow and sideburn and Toad's face was such a travesty I just censored it with nail polish, lol.
The middle and end fingers are meant to be those little mushroom speed things you get while playing Mario Kart on Wii. I always considered myself quite the beast on Mario Kart until I played one of my best friends, who is quite frankly disgustingly fast. Didn't help that it was Rainbow Road, and that is my least favourite place to race, ever. Ever ever ever. I usually give up half way through and just deliberately fall into each and every hole. Still, twelth place for the win!

Nail polish I used for this:
Barry M Nail Paint in Spring Green
Nails Inc Diet Coke Promotional Nail Polish in "Milan" (I think)
The rest were all nail art pens mixed together to create different colours. Those things are life savers, let me tell you.

 And only one word in that title was relevent to the post. At all.
 This. Is. JIGGLYPUFF. He/she (not really sure, not a big Pokemon fan to be honest) is one of the cutest characters in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which is how I know he/she/it. Plus it sings you to sleep as one of it's moves. How cool?
/explains the random z's on my remaining fingers.
It's "Incarnation I." because I'm planning to redraw Mr. Puff so it's less bumpy. I'm planning to get some acrylic paints because that seems to make nail art easier? I dunno.
 This was pretty poor, though. Next time I'm planning either to do half a Jigglypuff, or size down the Jigglypuff on the middle finger. Ha. Jigglypuff. Try saying it out loud, the name makes me chuckle.
Nail art pens + permanent marker (great for outlining; not so good when you want to topcoat it and it smears like melted chocolate on a snow white school t-shirt - baaaaad memories) + Boots No7 polish in something involving pink or fuschia. It had a gold lid, I believe.

 Never quite sure what to call these. Are they trainers, or are they corsets? Hmm. Reminds me of those little weird pictures that mess with your mind. Do you see the old woman, or the young woman? Two faces, or a vase? So confusing, I tell you.
So this was ASOS Olivia and the purple was MUA shade whatever, I can't remember :P White and navy nail art pens for the detail and the top coat was a clear MUA polish. Perhaps someone out there can help me clear up the "trainer or corset" dilemma. Which one does it look like to you?

Just imagine a leopard with this sort of colouring. How awesome would that be? Very awesome, me thinks. Not very practical, camoflauge wise and all that, but awesome nonetheless.

This is ASOS Olivia and the dots are Barry M's Cyan Blue. I find it to be the second best, application wise, of the Nail Paints I have tried (with first place going to the ever flawless, amazing Raspberry). I outlined the whole thing with a nail art pen I ordered from eBay.
 Had no idea whether this suited my nails but thought it looked badass anyway :P
I do love my leopard prints, they're an easy way of spicing up a manicure when you're too tired/uninspired to do anything else. I think I've done quite enough now though, time for a change of pace. I need to showcase some of the "designs" (read - sticker application) I've made with the cheapo kits from Poundland and then try my hand at freehand again. Pathetic pun was intended.

This is some MUA polish which I've forgotten the name of and a white nail art pen. It looks uber messy though :( I think I only wore this for about two days before it started chipping. I swear when those nail art pens are on your nail tip chipping or shrinkage happens very quickly :/

Perhaps this would have been better done closer to Christmas? It reminds me of candy canes and the like. Still, with the Studio Christmas catalog that dropped through our door earlier this week and all this talk of Christmas collections for big makeup brands am I really that far off? :P It does kind of annoy me though, the fact that companies feel the need to start priming us for Christmas when it's still summer. Supposedly. Suckish weather for the win, right?


So anyway this is the generic hot pink of awesome and a white nail art pen. What's on the middle finger, you ask? What a good question. Guess. Go on, I dare you. The brand name begins with B and ends in M. And the colours are Cyan Blue, Spring Green and Bright Purple...yeah, you got me. *flaggellates self*

Actually I'm not a leopard so I did change my nail polish. I just needed something sort of witty to put as a title. I failed, but yeah. I mean, leopards can't type, right? Their claws would get stuck in the keyboard *shifty eyes*

So anyway. This is none other than a BARRY M NAIL PAINT in Cyan Blue (I'm really sorry guys, I have no idea why I keep reaching for these...) and the orange is a franken. It looked slightly darker in real life (the orange, I mean) but not a lot. It was a pretty poor franken in all honesty but it's nearly finished now (I didn't make much, yey) so I can reuse the bottle for bigger and better things. World domination! w00t.
If you're in the UK - How is your bank holiday Monday going? Anyone doing anything nice? I only have less than a week before I go back to school. Boo. GCSE'S and a new tyrannical head of year. Do not want.

This is Barry M's Mint Green (you guys must think they're sponsoring me lol, they're not :P) with that awesome generic hot pink splodged somewhat halfhazardly over the surface. It doesn't look hot in this picture but it is way more awesome in real life. I quite like leopard prints and zebra prints because it's quite difficult to go wrong with them, even when you're using your non-dominant hand (which is, in this case, my left trying to paint my right). You simply dab the brush on the nail polish and paint around it with a different colour using a striper or a toothpick.
I'm thinking this would make an interesting pedicure. Hmm. Has anyone out there done anything similar? I know there is a Konad plate with a similar effect, has anyone used that? Let us know.

xxx

It's back...

This is all Barry M Nail Paints (I seem to be using these a lot lately. *shrugs*) From the bottom - Bright Purple, Cyan Blue, Spring Green. What I did with this was to put a smallish strip of sellotape on the nail after I'd put a basecoat on then just paint around it, peel it off and paint on the bare nail left behind. Cyan Blue was good for that because it's pretty much opaque with one coat so I didn't need to go over it and run the risk of screwing everything up :D

Oh man, I love the summer holidays. Even though it's been raining non-stop for most of it. Pah.
How have your holidays been?

Nope. Can't explain myself :P I just felt  like drawing over my nails halfhazardly with nail polish pens. I liked the effect though, bright and rave-like.
 My black one has thickened up and now is virtually useless, though, which irritates me -.- I don't really want to pay £10 or so pounds again for a whole new set just for the black one. Hmm.

My slightly less poor attempt at nail art. This is Barry M's Spring Green (I have a real thing for this polish nowadays, don't know why considering it's so frigging sheer but whatevs) and a white and yellow nail art pen.

Well, sort of.
I don't know if you guys can see (the lighting was a bit pants) but it's Barry M's Raspberry with black flowers with white centres on it. I've just started Work Experience at an old people's home and so I thought red was a relatively safe colour to choose :P
Thoughts?

What I used. Above: Nail Art stripers in White, Yellow and Green. Barry M Nail Paint in Raspberry and Mint Green.

Above: A slightly better effort.
If any of you were wondering about the strawberry - it's a Wimbledon tradition to sit around eating strawberries and cream while watching the match. I don't actually even watch it, but I did this mani for some odd reason. Hmm.