Barry M Summer Gelly Nail Paints - Blue Grape & Mango

Ever since the Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paints launched I've been a big fan of them. I loved every single one of the Spring 2013 shades and when I saw some blog posts on the new Summer ones I knew I had to have them all. There are five new colours; Key Lime, Guava, Blue Grape, Passion Fruit and Mango but I was sensible and only picked up two. The two colours I chose (it was a hard decision) were Blue Grape and Mango.

Blue Grape is a bright Cobalt Blue colour which I've been wanting in my collection for a while now so this shade was top of my list. I've heard a few people say that this is a good dupe for Nails Inc Baker Street but in person it looks quite a bit darker, although I'd say it's definitely a great alternative if you don't want to pay Nails Inc prices. I got a lot of compliments when I wore this and I can definitely see me wearing it a lot during the Summer - it looks so glossy!

It took me a lot longer to decided on the second shade but I went for Mango which is a bright yellow-based orange. I always love an orange nail in the Summer and think this will look lovely with at tan. I do really like this colour but it's nothing special and I kind of wish I picked up Passion Fruit which is a pink/red instead.

I love the glossy formula of these nail paints but the only thing I'd say is that I'd prefer the brush to be thicker. To be honest I can't really comment on the longevity of the Gelly's because I change my nail colour every 2-3 days, they do last the 3 days though. I think the Barry M Gelly's have such a great range of colours for Summer I know I'll buy the other three shades at some point - at £3.99 it would be rude not to! Have you purchased any of the new Summer shades yet?

Little Nails by Lizee Barry

                                       
For years now I've been a really big fan of false nails, whether it be stick on, gel or acrylics because I have a really disgusting habit of biting my nails (I know, its gross). I've tried for years to stop but I just can't so I rely on falsies a lot of the time.

The nails I'm wearing above are from Little Nails* which are hand painted by the lovely Lizee from Vanity Frills. Lizee has an Etsy shop where she sells her false nail sets with gorgeous painted designs on them (what a steady hand!!). There are lots of different designs such as polka dots, Cath Kidston inspired and camouflage prints. They come in lots of different colours too and I absolutely love the pink and purple ones that I received! The nails come in a set of 12 with 6 different sizes (2 spare) and come with a little tube of glue. Lizee recommends using Nailene glue for best results and for your nails to last longer, however I have no idea where mine is so I just used the glue that came with it and it worked just fine.

I absolutely love these nails, I'm terrible at nail art so they solve all my problems. Little nails cost £6 which is amazing considering the price you pay for sets from drugstores or even a manicure at a salon. So if like me you love nail art and false nails these are definitely for you. The only thing is next time I order another gorgeous pair I'd have to get two packets because my nails are abnormally small and some of them were too big for me (so I could only do one hand). Every time I go to get my nails done they comment on how tiny my nails are and how hard it is from them to paint them or put acrylics on (thanks btw). So don't worry, I don't think any one else will have that problem and one packet would do just fine!

Check out Lizee's Etsy shop here and you can also follow her on twitter @lizeebarry. What do you think of Little Nails?

P.S I need the Cath Kidston print ones next!

Essie: Mint Candy Apple

 

At this moment in time, Essie Mint Candy Apple is my favourite nail polish (closely followed my the new Barry M Gelly nail paint in Lychee). I actually gave one of these away in my 100 follower giveaway months ago but never got round to buying one for myself until the other week. I've been wearing it so much lately and yet again Essie does not disappoint. I also got some new pretty bedding so I thought I'd use it as my background for a wee change.

Mint Candy Apple (as you can tell my the name) is a gorgeous pale mint colour, a perfect pastel for Spring. After a few months of wearing dark colours on my nails, it's finally time to brighten them up and this is the perfect polish to do just that. After only two coats this polish is completely opaque and doesn't take ages to dry (one of my pet hates, I'm too impatient) which is a plus. I really love the quality of Essie polishes and the range of shades is just unreal.

Essie is 100% my favourite nail polish brand, a couple of my favourites are Fiji and Ballet Slippers, are there any other shades you recommend? I'm looking forward to building up my collection and at £7.99 they're definitely worth the price. What do you think of Mint Candy Apple (and how pretty is my bedding)?

Neutral Nails: My Top 5

I have quite a large nail polish collection but never really blog about it much. At the moment I'm loving neutral nails so I thought I'd share my top 5 favourite neutral nail polishes I use all year round.

• Essie Ballet Slippers - Essie is one of my favourite nail polish brands, they have such an amazing range of colours. At first I wasn't too sure on this colour but I've grown to love it. It's such a pale pink, almost a sort of cream colour which is perfect if you want natural looking nails. I did a full review on this a while ago, you can read it here.

• Chanel Frenzy - I got this nail polish as a gift when I left my old work and I'd been lusting over it for ages. I even bought a few dupes, althought nothing can compare to this! It's a gorgeous light grey colour and applies like a dream. This is my second Chanel nail polish and I think they'er just such great quality, although a little pricey. 

• Topshop Mink - I've had this nail polish for about 2 years and it's still fine to use, no lumps at all. It really reminds me of Barry M Mushroom, a sort of greyish/brown colour. This is my one and only Topshop nail polish but I've seen so many of you bloggers blogging about other colours in the collection so I definitely need to get my hands on more. I think they're really good quality for a high street brand.

• Essie Fiji - This is actually my sister's nail polish but I love it so much and I use it all the time, I really should buy my own soon as it's probably my favourite out of the 5. It's an opaque pale pink, a few shades darker than Ballet Slippers and it looks so amazing with a tan. Like I said, I love Essie! 

• Chanel Jade Rose - This was my first Chanel nail polish which I bought with birthday money one year, I wouldn't usually just spend this much on a nail polish. I thought I'd go for a really wearable shade so I went for a nude. This really is such a perfect nude but it's running out, does anyone know any more affordable nudes that are similar? 

Hopefully I'll start doing more nail polish posts in the future. What are you're favourite neutral nail polishes?

Rimmel Precious Stones: Diamond Dust

Today I decided to play about with my Mum's DSLR she uses for work and also her Christmas decorations (she's definitely going to notice I touched the tree) and do a pretty, Christmassy post.

At Christmas time my favourite nail polish to wear is definitely glitter, its so festive! I have so many glitter nail polishes in my collection but could never seem to find one that was opaque enough to wear on it's own, until I discovered the Rimmel Precious Stones collection.

Precious Stones comes in two colours; Diamond Dust and Ruby Crush. I decided to go for Diamond Dust as I think it would go with more outfits during the party season. Rimmel describes this as a 'high coverage glitter nail polish' and I definitely agree it has high coverage. I only needed two coats for it to become completely opaque - amazing! I usually use glitter polish as a top coat as it takes so many layers to build it up, but this has really surprised me. It dries to a matte finish which doesn't bother me as I always put a shiny top coat over my nail polish anyway.

Precious Stones is a bargain at £3.99 and can be bought in Boots or Superdrug. It's definitely my new favourite glitter polish and I'll be picking up Ruby Crush asap.

Have you tried these nail polishes?

NOTD: Pink & Sparkles

Yesterday I picked up a few a lot of things from Boots and Superdrug and these two nail polishes were among them. I was looking at the Barry M stand for ages trying to decide which glitter to pick and decided to go for this gorgeous colour which is called 'Pink Silver Glitter.' I thought the glitter would look lovely as an accent nail so I picked up an MUA nail varnish for £1 to go with it.

The MUA varnish is a very pale pink called 'Natural Days.' I was really impressed with this for being only £1 as it only took two coats for it to look opaque which is quite difficult for such a pale colour. I also love how opaque the Barry M glitter nail paints are and there are so many other gorgeous colours to choose from. At £2.99 I think i'll be picking up a few more.

I think these colours look lovely together and I think the glitter will look great on its own at Christmas time. Have you tried any of the MUA nail varnishes or the Barry M Glitter Nail Paints?

Kim K's White Nail Polish

While looking through pictures of Kim Kardashian (as you do), I noticed how much she wears white nail polish. Recently I've started wearing really pale pink polish's such as Essie Fiji and Ballet Slippers, but I've never found the right white. Ever since I seen Heidi Montag wear white nail polish on The Hills, I wanted to try it out but could never find one that went on without looking streaky.

So, after seeing Kim wearing it, went into Superdrug in search of a white nail polish. I finally settled on Models Own 'Snow White' as I have a lot of their polish's and they are a bargain at £5. It was between that and Essie 'Blanc' but decided to go for Model's Own as it was slightly cheaper and I wasn't sure if I'd like it. 

It only took two coats of the polish for it to go completely opaque and it dried reasonably quick. I like how thick this polish is without being gloopy. 

Overall, this is a really good polish and I think I'll wear white nails more often!

What's your opinion on white nail polish? Do you recommend any?

Melissa

xxx