piCture pOlish - Candy

Finally the day has arrived! I'm going off on holiday tomorrow and I'm super excited! Although it's been really warm in London recently, I really need a holiday in a place with some sea and sand.

Before I go, I will leave you with one of my favourite piCture pOlish lacquers - Candy! This colour really surprised me because it just looked like a standard barbie pink in the bottle but once I put it on my nails, it really popped. Some pinks really don't go well with my skin tone but I absolutely adore how this one looks on me. It makes my hands look really tan too, or it may have just been the lighting that day!

This is 2 coats of Candy with some nude leopard on the accent nail:

 

 

piCture pOlish can be purchased directly from their website - picturepolish.com.au. They do international shipping. You can also purchase it at various etailers throughout the world. Check out their Network page for more info. You can keep updated on any piCture pOlish news via their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

*The product featured  in this post was sent to me for review.

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Unknown leopard, picture polish, pink, review

piCture pOlish Mad Magenta - Swatches and Nail Art

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I'm really excited to have some beautiful piCture pOlish shades to share with you over the next few weeks! piCture pOlish is an Australian boutique brand that has become hugely popular and you've probably seen swatches and nail art featuring PP all over the blogging world!

The first shade I've got to show you is Mad Magenta, a purple/pink creme. This is my first creme from piCture pOlish and I'm suitably impressed by it, application was very smooth and I only needed two coats (plus a top coat). Very shiny too, as you can see!

I added a leopard print accent nail by painting the tip on freehand using Mad Magenta, then added the leopard print on my bare nail using a nail art pen and dotting tool.

One of the other things I love about PP is the square bottles and rubber-feel lids! 

piCture pOlish can be bought directly from picturepolish.com.au, or through their international network. In the UK, you can find them at Sally Magpies! 

Follow piCture pOlish on - Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

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Unknown Accent Nail, leopard, Nail Art, picture polish, pink, purple, review, swatch

Leopard Skittles

I love skittles (the sweets) and as soon as I'd finished this design, I had to go out and buy a packet. I didn't intend it to look like skittles but the colours just ended up matching, thus we have leopard skittles!

I started off with a white base using Essie Blanc. I then stamped a leopard print design from Konad plate m57, and when everything was completely dry (helped along with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri) I taped off 1/4 of the nail and painted over the design with bright colours, before removing the tape and leaving the leopard tips. I filled in the leopard print with the matching colours using a tiny nail art brush.

The bright colours are Barry M Cyan Blue, Spring Green and Shocking Pink. The yellow is Rimmel Sunshine.

Definitely not the most subtle design I've ever done! 

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Unknown Barry M, Konad, leopard, Nail Art, Stamping

Barry M Nail Art Pens Review

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A few days ago I posted about the announcement of the new Barry M Nail Art Pens, and now that they're in my grubby mitts, I have a review for you!

Click the jump to see my review

The pens are available in Black, White, Silver and Pink. Unfortunately I didn't receive the pink one but it will obviously be exactly the same...only, well...pink!

The tips (I wanted to say nibs, but nibs is a silly word!) are made of hard plastic and the idea is to pump it a few times until the polish starts to flow down the tip, and then away you go. No squeezing involved! You may find a bit too much flows down the sides of the tip, but it's easily wiped away if you need to.

The polish inside the pens seems to be thinner than regular polish, so it flows easily down the tip and your 

designs won't be bumpy. 

You must make sure your nails are completely dry before you use the pens, otherwise they'll catch on the polish and drag it! I also noticed that sometimes the polish seems to slide on the surface of your nail, I'm not sure why though because it only did it now and again!? If it happens to you, just go over that part again and it seems to fix it.

I've created a couple of manis to show what you can do with them. First I did a leopard print, and I have to say it's probably the best leopard print I've ever done! Admittedly I'm not too familiar with nail art pens, as I'm a brush kind of girl, but I was impressed with how this turned out compared to my attempts with brushes and dotting tools. Base colour is Barry M Greenberry, and the rest was done with the pens.

Secondly, I did a skittle mani to show a few different designs. Base colour is Barry M Pink Flamingo.

They're great for doing stripes and polka dots! I also found they're good for doing quick outlines like on the diamond. I definitely prefer these to the types of pens which have a thin needle and require you to squeeze them, which I've never been able to get on with. They'd be great for sticking in your suitcase to take on holiday too as there's no mess and no clean up!

Availability

Available now in Superdrug and on BarryM.com! 

Available in Boots from April 17th. Priced £4.99 each.

Follow Barry M on - Facebook|Twitter|Pinterest

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Unknown Barry M, freehand, leopard, Nail Art, Nail Art Pen, review

Matte Black & Nude Leopard

I recently received this matte black polish from the Born Pretty Store and I've been so obsessed with it. People seem to like matte nails and I've received many compliments from people who don't usually look at my nails twice. It looks really edgy as well.
The good thing about this polish is that it's opaque in one coat and applies really smoothly. Whilst it's drying it has a rubber look to it like the Illamasqua Rubber finish or the Orly Plastix. Although it's matte, it doesn't have that chalky unattractive look.
To cut up the boldness of the matte black I added a leopard accent nail, which I also matted of course :)

The Born Pretty Store has a bunch of other matte colours. I really want to try the white one, it looks really interesting. You can get a 10% discount if you use my code VA7J61 at the checkout.

Born Pretty Store

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Unknown black, leopard, matte, review

Pastel, Leopard, Crosses and Studs

I want the Winter and cold to go away so much that I've already started wearing pastels. Haha! Wishful thinking! This is Illamasqua Purity. A lovely peach creme that's super pigmented and opaque for a pastel. I had some trouble with the formula but it is a pastel after all!

I've also been wanting to mix patterns and ideas on my nails so I went for a mish-mash of leopard print and gold studded crosses. I used Nails Inc Big Ben for the leopard spots and the round gold studs are from the Born Pretty Store.

You can use discount code VA7J61 to get 10% off your Born Pretty Store purchases.

Thanks for reading and commenting :)

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Unknown gold, illamasqua, leopard, Nails Inc, peach, studs

Leopard Print Nail Art

 There was a time when I used to not like animal print and now I keep stopping at every place I see one. I even got a couple of tops in leopard print :D

So naturally a leopard print mani was calling me 

Base: Viviana's Outrageous Sky

Its a nice bright blue in creme finish, dried very quick unlike the Viviana's yellow.

Slightly streaky but goes completely opaque in 2 coats. I really loved this polish.

If you are looking for a bit o' splash of colour check this polish.

Added the light blue dots with a dotting tool using China Glaze's For Audrey

Then I added Black dots around it randomly using Colorama's Black.

For the accent finger I added pink dots and glitter on it using Sally Hansen's Strobe Light

Do you like animal prints?

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Unknown blue, china glaze, dotting tools, easy nail art, For Audrey, freehand, leopard, Leopard print Nail art, Viviana Nail polish, Viviana Outrageous Sky

OPI - Casino Royale (James Bond 007 Skyfall Collection 2012)

This is Casino Royale from the OPI James Bond 2012 collection. I was really excited to try this one. It's a perfect bright and rich plum creme with magenta and red undertones. A killer shade for Autumn/ Winter and I love that it's not too dark that it looks almost black. I found it to be lighter and brighter than the bottle swatches I had previously seen and love it even more for that. It's sexy and vampy yet such a classy and warm colour too.

I think this may be the base polish used in the promotional picture for Man With The Golden Gun. As it looks so well with gold (and sadly I don't have Man With The Golden Gun), I added a gold leopard accent with Orly Glitz and Glamour which as it turns out, reminds me of Golden Eye because of how saturated the gold flecks are.

I'm so glad I picked up a bottle of this after turning my nose up at it during my first browse around the OPI stand!

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Unknown gold glitter, leopard, OPI, purple