Flakies!

Mmm flakies, one of the most glorious kinds of polish ever. I love glitter but flakies are like opals for your nails! I also like the name, 'flakies' sounds a bit... nasty, it reminds me of flaking skin and that amuses my childish mind  :D I only actually own 3 and need more, particularly some of the gorgeous ones from Inglot. Anyway here's a couple of manicures using lovely flakies.

 

 

This was Models Own Spring Green with GOSH Rainbow over the top.

 

And this was ELF Mango madness with NFU-Oh 47 on top. It was subtler than the green mani but still very pretty. But I can't leave my nails alone so I...

 

Mattified it! Ahhh <3 I'm not usually the biggest fan of matte nails but putting a matte topcoat over flakies somehow makes them look even more magical, like hidden glowing jewels.

What's your favourite flakie polish?

a FOTD and some recent nails

I've finally caught up on replying to comments! Woooo! My Makeup Critic rant took quite a while because all of you guys were great and had really good things to say :)

Here's a simple FOTD from a little while back. I know my lipstick is Topshop's Brighton Rock which is a fantastic coraly-pinky colour. It reminds me of Barry M Flamingo Pink polish. Other than that it's just some black eyeliner, mascara and some sort of pink blush. I need to start making little lists of what I'm wearing when I take photos!                                   

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

 

 

I have wet hair, which is why it looks so weird. I can't explain the mental look in my eyes though :P

And now for some nice manicures I've done recently. I have terrible looking nails because I have a nervous habit of ripping off my cuticles and the skin around my nails. I'm trying to keep my nails polished at all times because it means I'm less likely to do it and ruin my polish!

This is 2 coats of Barry M Fuschia and then about a million coats of Barry M Once Upon a Time. It was incredibly irritating as the glitter polish seemed to take hours to dry so I kept smudging, but it was oh so worth it!

 

Flash:

 

This is 3 coats of Accessorize Pink Spice polish (it only needed 2 to be opaque but I added an extra 

layer just because) it's an amazing red/copper/pink metallic multichrome colour. You can see a bit of tipwear but these photos were taken after 4 days of wear and there was no chipping :) I tried my best to get good photos of the colour shift, but it's much more beautiful in real life.

 

  

This is 3 coats of China Glaze Light as Air (again it only really needed 2 coats) and 1 coat of Barry M  Lavender Hexograms. I applied this one horribly, you can see a huge dent in one nail :P

And finally this is 2 coats of Sinful Colours Let's Meet, 1 coat of China Glaze Lighthouse and 1 coat of China Glaze Crackle Glaze in Fault Line. I love crackle polish, it's such a quick and lazy way to get an interesting and arty looking manicure :P

What are you wearing on your nails at the moment?

I want to start a hosiery blog because I own so so many pairs of tights and stockings and socks and never get round to wearing the vast majority of them. I thought a blog would be a good incentive for me to wear more of them. I can't think of a good punny name though, so far people have suggested:

Stocking Filler, Funny Face Lovely Legs, Tight Spot and just Lillian's Lovely Legs 

do you have any ideas? :)

Do my work for me so I don't  have to do anything crazy like make my own decisions!

Illamasqua Toxic Nature Nail Polish in Gamma

Disclaimer: this was given to me as a gift for attending a blogging event, but all thoughts are my own.

I love this nail polish a lot. It is hideously, eye-wateringly bright neon orange. Seriously, it's the most bright orange polish I've ever seen, it's so much more eye-searing than in the photos, it looks like a high-vis jacket or something!

The formula is great, it's very smooth and creamy and opaque in 2 coats (I did 3 because i stuffed up a couple of nails). Usually neon polishes dry matte but these were sort of semi-matte and rubbery, like the Orly Plastix polishes I think. I liked it a lot! I didn't put on a top coat because I wanted to show the finish (don't know if I succeeded). I wore it for 3 days without top coat and oddly there was no tip wear at all but it did start to chip. I've never for a polish that doesn't chip without a top coat though. I'll try it with one and see how it lasts then.
Also I think there must be some sort of fluorescent in it, we have these blue fairy lights up and when I got near my fingernails just glowed amazingly!

What do you think? Bright enough for you?

NOTD

I absolutely love my nails at the moment. I decided to use my Barry M Nail Effects for the first time and absolutely love it! Now I want crackle varnish in every colour of the rainbow. I neeeed the China Glaze ones but am poor :(
Anyway here they are:

 

 

I used Sinful Colors Let's Meet which is a shimmery yellow with a tiny hint of pink to it's pearl, then the Nail Effects.

I Loooove watching the Nail Effects crack, it's so cool, I could watch it forever! It hypnotises me. 

I actually preferred it without the top coat because then the black shatter is matte which, against the contrasting shimmery glossy polish underneath, looks amazing. But I wanted it to last a long time so i put on a shiny top coat. It still looks great.

Here's a picture of it sans top coat:

 

I love this. The black crackle look both classy and grungy at the same time and looks a bit like leopard print from a distance. Not only that but it covers up any problems in the application of the base coat (if you look very closely you can see some air bubbles in the yellow) :P

But of course now I want to get rid of it to have a valentines mani! But as it's still perfect I won't.

What you wearing on your nails at the moment? What are your feelings on shatter/crackle polish?

Barry M Nail paints

Here is my collection of Barry M Nail polishes.
These are all shown over a clear base coat, with 2 layers of polish and no top coat.
(apologies for my horrible nails. I have a nervous habit of biting my cuticles and the skin surrounding my nails)

No. 299 Racing Green


No. Grey


from left to right NP Neon Pink, No. 115 Red Black No. 244 Hologram Hexographs, No. 150 Red glitter



from left to right No. 302 Fuschia, No. 296 Coral, No. 295 Turquoise, No. 301 Block Orange



from left to right No. 303 Bright purple, No. 304 Mint Green, No. 305 Flamingo Pink


Barry M are my all time favourite brand for nail polishes. The formula is usually smooth and creamy, generally opaque in 2 coats and if used with a top coat can last for up to a week on me! They also come in a wonderful array of rainbow colours and cost only £2.95. I love them and look forward to adding more and more to my collection!