Hoping everyone had a great New Years Eve/Day! It feels strange to think we're in a new year. Time flies...

Tonight, it's late. Let me present you with pictures of 2011's collective, last minute haulin'. We're talking days before Christmas here.

 Similar to my Summer Nail Trends post, I selected a few (well, eleven) shades from my collection that I felt best represented what the early autumn landscape looks like, nail wise. Though I've been rather out of the loop, blogging wise, I kept up with reading my favourite blogs and from these, I formed an idea of what the current trends are (going to be? I don't know. I'm probably totally wrong, lol).



Yes, I photographed these over my Physics textbook, for I am a hardcore nerd.



Companies seem to be bringing out the foiled, irridescent colour shifting polishes at the moment in gorgeous antique colours (I'm seeing lots of old golds and greens) such as the Model's Own Beetlejuice collection (sourced from Vampy Varnish)...the Inheritance fan in me hopes that this is a sort of nail polish celebration of the release of the last in the series but somehow I really doubt that. What? The strong duochromes remind me of dragon scales, OK?

Geekery aside, the other new fad seems to be magnetic nail varnish, which I think is lining up to replace the mighty crackle. The colours of the polishes again fit the model of the 'autumn trend' - that is, they're darker and shimmery, but I'm wondering if it's going to catch on like the crackle trend simply because including a magnet with your nail polish is going to make it more expensive, and there isn't really a way to get past that. While the cheapest crackle polishes retail for about £6, you can buy a crackle for £1.99 from W7, or just a pound more from the MUA Pro range.

Finally, I've seen loads of lilac around recently. This may just be where I live, but pastel lilac nails seem to be really popular over here...so I bought two new ones, one from No7 and one from MUA, so I could be a sheep and take part in this new and fascinating obsession with the lilac colour. *shrugs* Purple in general seems to be a huge thing at the moment, both in clothes and in cosmetics. Perhaps it's something to do with the recession? Isn't purple linked to royalty? Maybe there's some sort of subconscious thing going on there.

Onto the photographs...


Right hand (from left to right):
Nails Inc 'Lowndes Square'
MUA Shade '23'
No7 Stay Perfect Nail Colour in 'Vivid Violet' (I think. I 'borrowed' this one off my Mum to swatch, and she's asleep as I'm writing this post so I can't sneak into her room and double check!)
Funky Fingers 'Snakeskin'
Barry M 'Dusky Mauve'

I'm fully aware the Dusky Mauve phase has gone and passed, OK? But I included it as an example of a subtler colour shift. I do think the neutrals/mannequin hands trend is slowly passing right now, very few brands have included neutral colours in their line up.




Left hand (from left to right):
American Apparel 'Passport Blue'
No7 Stay Perfect Nail Colour in 'Lucky Lilac'
Barry M Nail Paint in 'Indigo'
No7 Speed Dry Nail Colour in 'Beautifully Black'
Kiko Makeup Milano '262'

Bonus polish, for sitting through all of that so nicely:


A gorgeously sparkling Kiko topcoat, to help add that bright, otherworldly look to the polishes in your collection - cheaper than buying loads more soley for the sake of the trend, in all honesty. I'm really up for buying all of that Beetlejuice collection, personally, but for now I'll make do with this to paint over my darker nail colours. It's beautiful in it's own right, really. I don't have nearly enough coloured/glittery topcoats.








Thoughts on the trends for Autumn? Do you like them, or are you staying away? If you do like them, which companies do you feel interpreted them best? I personally want to say Models Own, but 17 have really stepped up their game with their releases recently (I'm thinking about the BB Cream as well, even though the shade range is pants) so perhaps they deserve the crown.

EDIT: I'm pretty sure I got my hands mixed up and left is right and vice versa. I get so confused with these things, sorry!

So I'm back from Italy, and will just give you a rundown of the makeup related portion of the trip before DISPLAYING THE PRETTIES.


 

 How and where to start? Well, we went to Italy and on the second day, we went to buy jewellery. While waiting around for the jewellery shops to open, we walked into a beauty store (reminded me of Superdrug) and there, on the walls, was the most gorgeous Labello display I've ever seen.


Naturally, I tried to get my mum to let me buy some but she wasn't having any of it ('We've got lip balms at home!') entirely missing the point which was that I NEED THESE FOR THE BLOG GAWD

Eventually, I admitted defeat and reasoned that we could come back another day and buy them. But as the days passed and Mum finally realised the IMPORTANCE OF THESE LIP BALMS, it became clear that we weren't returning. sob. And by the time she was prepared to help me buy them, it was a bank holiday in Italy (any excuse for a day off work, you slackers). And we were leaving the day afterwards! We stopped at two superstores on the way to the airport but all I turned up were these two poxy imposters.


By this time I was pretty furious, seeing as I'd SEEN what I wanted to blow my 30 euros on on like the second day, but I wasn't allowed to buy it. And they were only 1.50 euros each, compared to what I'd pay if I wanted to buy online from the UK (upwards of four quid including postage) so I totally sulked my way through security. Had a sneaky check in Duty Free but couldn't find anything but overpriced Toblerones.



On the way to the gate, however, I saw a Kiko store and SQUEALED. Yey for Kiko!
I should have taken photos but it was getting close to the time for them to open the gates, so I quickly chose what I wanted and left. The polishes were priced at 2.50 euros each, which I found very reasonable, but they also had a discounted bucket full of polishes at 1.50 euros which was even better. The majority of the cremes were 2.50, and the rest 1.50. I paid 15 euros in total (my Mum bought a polish too which isn't pictured. See, she can buy nail polish, but I can't buy lipbalm. no capito) and I'm pretty happy with what I got in return.



I'm genuinely upset about my Labellos, though. As soon as I regained internet access (no thanks to you, TalkTalk) I spent like three hours looking for sites that ship to the UK but it was a lot more expensive than it would have been to buy in Italy (1.50 versus nearly £3.70 a lipbalm, often not including postage) so yeah. Depressed. If anyone knows any reasonable sites that do it, please let me know!

My Kikos are beautiful though. Kiko Makeup Milano. Doesn't that just roll off the tongue?



Kiko Makeup Milano sounds like a name for a chav baby. I still like it though. For a cosmetics company.



Before, when I thought of 'Kiko', I thought of the gorgeous Japanese model Kiko Mizuhara. But then she had the bad taste to go out (not confirmed but it's so obvious) with the hideous lead singer rapper thing from the tryhard and tragic boyband Big Bang so she's on my shit list anyway. I fully embrace Kiko Makeup Milano as my new go-to Kiko of choice.

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.