Sweet Hook - China Glaze

Hi guys!

Sorry for my extended absence! Uni and being sick has been kicking my butt and I've had no time or energy to even think about painting my nails. Anyway, I'm one test down and in the next couple of weeks I have 3 more tests and 3 big assignments due so I am certainly in the thick of it! So today I just have a quick post about a gorgeous polish that I wore last week. This is China Glaze 'Sweet Hook'...

I haven't worn a straight crème polish in such a long time and it was so nice to wear this one. 'Sweet Hook' is such a beautiful lilac and acted as the perfect palette cleanser for all the holos and multichromes I've been wearing lately.  It feels like the perfect spring colour to me. I know, I'm always backwards here as we're just going into Autumn and now I feel like wearing pastels. Oh well.


As for the formula, I am ashamed to say that I have had this polish for a LONG time and have always put off wearing it because I was afraid it would have that horrible pastel polish streaky nightmare formula. Let's just say if I could go back in time I would, because this polish had such a perfect formula and I have been wasting so much time without this on my nails! I barely needed 2 coats. It just slid right on to my nails. Perfection!


Well I hope you are all having a lovely Easter break so far (or for those of you elsewhere in the world I hope you are about to have a lovely Easter break). I'm off to get back to my studying.

Wildlife - Nubar

I have the last of the polishes that I borrowed from my mum to show you all tonight and I have to say this is one of my absolute favourites. This is the wonderfully unique Nubar 'Wildlife'. Also as I started writing this I had a moment of thinking "is it called Wildlife or Wildfire?" so I started searching on google (mum took the bottle home) and people seem to use these names interchangeably even within one post. I got so confused because I was so sure it was called Wildlife. So weird, it must just be one of those funny things where you just read what you want to read. Anyway to clear up any confusion this is definitely 'Wildlife'.

Holy duochrome shimmer Batman!! I am so much in love with this polish. At first I thought it was one of those real ugly-pretty colours when I saw it in the bottle, but to be honest on the nail it's so flattering and just plain gorgeous!

Welcome to the red side of 'Wildlife'. It shifts from quite a pink-red through to a gold/orange. This is the unique part. It's so striking to see the pink against the olive green colour of the base.

'Wildlife' shifts right through to a bright gold/green too. Again it is so striking. Did I mention that I'm in love? Man my mama has a polish collection that could make a lot of us green with envy ;)

Formula wise, 'Wildlife' was so easy to apply. I think I used 3 really thin coats just for photos, but 2 is fine for regular wear. Love love love, that's pretty much all I have to say and now I can't wait to borrow this or some other equally fun polishes from my mum next time we head down that way. Thanks Mama Bear!

Mean Mr Mustard - Enchanted Polish & 1-Up - Dollish Polish

HI!!

I know I'm a little late to the party, but I thought I better show you what I wore for St Patrick's Day yesterday. I didn't have time to create anything for it this time, but I had just the polish to fit the bill that has a perfect green-gold shift to it. This is Enchanted Polish 'Mean Mr Mustard'.

'Mean Mr Mustard' is one of those magical multichrome polishes that Enchanted Polish is just so darn good at. And just like others, I couldn't cut down the number of photos to show you, so take this as your friendly warning ;)

Polish Days: Vintage

It's Polish Days time again! For the first time since I started participating in Polish Days, I really struggled with the theme. This month's theme is Vintage... Hannah suggests that you could take the theme to mean using a vintage polish, or taking a decade or trend or anything really, so long as there is some connection with the past as your inspiration. Seems easy enough right... Wrong! I could not think. I often do stamping that reminds me of old-fashioned wallpaper etc, but I wanted to do something different and as I always use Polish Days as a way to make sure I do some nail art, I didn't want to just swatch a vintage polish. In the end I googled the word vintage and this is what I came up with..,

This totally reminds me of an old-fashioned day at the beach. I actually really like the way this turned out with the stripes and everything.

(source: depositphotos)

This was my inspiration image. As I was scrolling down through google images, I instantly fell in love with this and knew I wanted my mani to come from this.

Here are my nails pre stamping. I love the stripes. Please excuse the fact that only two of my nails are top coated! I'm not sure why I thought it was a good idea to take photos before I did the other two??

Polishes I used were OPI 'My Boyfriend Scales Walls' as the base on all nails. I did the stripes using striping tape from Born Pretty Store with OPI 'Steady As She Rose' and China Glaze 'Aquadelic'. My ring finger was stamped using BM-309 with a-england 'Galahad' and BM-09 with Essie 'School of Hard Rocks'.

Thanks Hannah for another great Polish Days! Make sure you check out what all the other lovelies have made of this theme...

Review: Born Pretty Store 1.5mm Rhinestones

I have my second review of the Born Pretty Store things I was sent to show you tonight. This time, I am showing you the 1.5mm Colorful Rhinestone Acrylic UV Gel Nail Art...

I chose to review the black rhinestones, but if you purchase these little beauties, you can get them individually by colour (100 pieces) or in a set of 12 colours (I think I will be purchasing the other colours for sure). The black ones are completely opaque and though it's difficult to see in this photo, they are the sort of shape that rhinestones typically are.

One thing I really liked about these rhinestones in particular is their size. Being 1.5mm only, they don't look ridiculous on small nails. It also means that you are much more free in the designs you can do with them.

To stick the rhinestones on, I just used a bit of top coat and I did actually top coat over these as I would with studs etc. Trouble is, these are quite a bit thicker than studs and I made a bit of a mess with my top coat. For a moment I thought I'd ruined the whole mani, but I just popped on another thick coat and it was ok. Moral of the story is, if you want them to stay on for a number of days, I would recommend top coating over them, but just beware that the top coat doesn't all pool up beside them etc. If you want them to just last a day or so then I'm sure you could just stick them down well and leave them be (though I haven't wear tested them without top coat).

The polishes I used for this domino inspired look are all Lime Crimes - 'Once In A Blue Mousse', 'Pastelchio', 'Lavendairy' and 'Peaches ♥ Cream'.

To purchase these cute little rhinestones, hop on over to here on the Born Pretty Store website. Don't forget you can use my discount code (DKL91) to receive 10% off any purchase :)

This product was provided for review. This is my personal, unbiased opinion.
For more information, see my disclosure policy.

Review: Born Pretty Store Gold Bead Chain

Hi guys!

I have a little bit of nail art and a bit of a review to show you today. I received a chain of gold beads from Born Pretty Store and I have had lots of fun designing this look using them...

I decided to try a colour block mani to go with these beads and I'm really happy with how it all turned out. To start with I did the colour block using striping tape (also from Born Pretty Store) all over a white base. I then top coated everything to seal it in. I cut the long chain to the lengths I needed and stuck them on with a bit more top coat. I decided not to top coat over the beads as I do with studs and things, but I imagine it is  probably possible.

I was worried that the beads might be quite fiddly and hard to use, but they were most definitely not. I was so pleasantly surprised by how easy they were to use actually.

The polishes I used were Revlon 'Royal', a-england 'Camelot', OPI 'French Quarter For Your Thoughts' and Sally Hansen 'White On'.

You can purchase the 100cm Charm Gold Beads Line Chain like this one from Born Pretty Store here. And the best part... If you use my code DKL91(which you can always see on the right on the sidebar), you can get 10% off your order.

This product was provided for review. This is my personal, unbiased opinion.
For more information, see my disclosure policy.

Reclaim - Nubar (and a Comparison)

I have yet another of the polishes that I have to give back to mum to show you today. This is the second to last one and is the wonderful Nubar 'Reclaim'. If you follow me on Instagram you may have already seen a sneaky peek of this because I could not wait to show you guys!

Right, by now we have probably worked out that I need ALL the polish, but especially all the holos... IN THE WORLD! 'Reclaim' does not disappoint. Although it may not be the most holographic polish out there, it is so very wearable for a green. No little pink piggy hands with this green. It's beautifully soft.

As soon as I saw the bottle, I thought it looked quite a lot like Cirque 'Lonesome George' that I ordered lately. Turns out, on the nail, they were much more different than I expected they would be. 'Reclaim' is much lighter and the holo particles are much finer than in 'Lonesome George'. Both are gorgeous!


I was so pleasantly surprised with the formula of 'Reclaim'. It was much more opaque than I ever would have imagined. I used 2 thin coats and it was perfectly opaque and smooth. I have a feeling that the top coat (Essie 'Good To Go') may have dulled the holo effect a teeny tiny bit, but I wouldn't ever go without top coat as wear time is more important to me than the possible very slight dulling.