Monday 29 July 2013

I'm Back in Ireland!

Hey everyone!

I'm so sorry for the lack of posts recently. As you know, I was in London for a course the last few weeks and so I just didn't have the time to post anything new. Between classes, travelling and sight-seeing, I was always so exhausted by the time I came home. But I'm back now and I should be updating regularly again (that's Mondays and Thursdays guys, so keep checking back on those days).

I didn't do much shopping in London to be honest, but what I did buy was mostly nail stuff. I have this habit of checking the beauty section of any TK Maxx I spot, and the ones in London where no exception. They had Nails Inc. sets, O.P.I. mini sets, Essie sets, everything. My cousin had to practically drag me away from the nail polish section at one point.

I did manage to restrain myself and only bought one O.P.I. set, the Outrageous Neons minis. This pack came with a white base coat, four neon colours (three really, purple is not a neon) and a top coat.


The only one I actually used when I was in the UK was the yellow, so lets start with that. The shade is called Ridiculously Yellow and is my second favourite of the four. I first applied the base coat they gave me, which didn't actually end well. It wouldn't apply properly, the formula was just terrible. So I took that off and used my white NYC polish instead. I'm pretty sure I used 2 coats of that, but I'm not 100% sure. After the white dried, I applied two coats of the yellow, as was instructed on the back of the box. Then I applied one coat of the top coat, which is really necessary as the colours turn kind of matte after they dry. It was the most neon-ish polish of the four (it's actually brighter, the camera doesn't quite capture it):

I would have to say my favourite was the pink. I absolutely loved the colour (again, it's brighter than the picture shows). The purple one was nice enough but it wasn't neon. It also reminded me of my purple Collection polish (I think the shade is called Retro). The orange was nice enough too (I'm sorry, my nails are a state in that pic)



The set cost £9.99 and I'd say it would cost about €12.99 here.

Just a little something random, here's a pic of the ice cream nails I did for my cousin. While we were looking at one of the stalls of the monthly market in her area, the stall owner suddenly went 'Oh my God, your nails!' to which my cousin hastily replied 'She did them! She has a blog!', pointing at me.Oh, Annaya, you're such a cutie!

That's all folks! Check back on Thursday, I'll either have a post about nail art up or a post showing my nail polish collection. If you have any preference for Thursdays post, leave a comment below!

Until then, 
M

Friday 5 July 2013

Barry M Swatches + Essie 'Matte About You'

Hey guys!

Sorry for the late post, it's been a pretty crazy week. I started my summer course on Monday and have had a bunch of stuff to do, so I didn't really get time to post. I had done all the swatches on Sunday night but I was way to tired to put a post together by the time I had finished.

Well without further ado, here are the swatches:

First of all, Barry M's Acid Yellow. Now, to be completely honest, I think this colour is quite hideous. All I could think while I was putting this on was 'I can see why this was only £1.49'. It's so ugly! It also took 3 coats to get kinda opaque. Still, it may come in handy for nail art someday.

The next one I tried was the gold foil polish. I really really loved this one. It only needed one coat and it dried so fast! Application was also really easy. I'd really recommend this polish if you don't already have it!

The same applied to the silver: 1 coat, fast drying, easy application. I simply adore these polishes!

This was the polish I got free with my purchase of all the other ones. I used 2 coats but I think this really needed a third coat to get it really opaque. In terms of colour, it's very similar to Barry M's Flamingo.

This was my favourite polish of the bunch. The colour was just so gorgeous, I absolutely loved it. It's a bit more green than the picture shows, but only a little bit more. I used two coats. I kept this one and only just took it off a few minutes ago.

 I popped into Superdrug again this week and spotted Essie's Matte About You. I had heard that this is one of the best matte top coats available and thought I'd pick up a bottle and give it a run. It cost £8.99 but it was worth every penny: I absolutely loved the end result. I put it on over the teal polish, above, and was so impressed by the result. In the picture it looks really blue, but it's actually very green.

Well that's it for now guys. Enjoy your weekend!

-M