Tristam - a-england, with a Side of Stamping and Dots

Hi!

I have a little mani to show you that I did a fair while ago. If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram (@PinpointPolish), you will have seen this while it was in progress. Basically this is inspired by a book, a recipe book to be exact. Weird I know, it's a long story, but basically it is black with white text on it and a big silver circle. This is a pretty abstract take on it, but I loved how it turned out.

For this mani I used a-england 'Tristam' and 'Bridal Veil' for the bases. For my ring finger I used Konad Special White for the stamp (BM-311) and for the dot gradient I used a-england 'Excalibur' and Rescue Beauty Lounge 'IKB:2012' (over white dots).

I love 'Tristam' so much! I really need to take some proper photos of this bad boy in all it's glory. It's such a gorgeous inky blue verging on blurple. So pretty! This was one of my first a-england loves! It is just the perfect shade of blue to me!


As usual, 'Tristam' and 'Bridal Veil' had that brilliant a-england formula that we have all grown to love. I used two coats of 'Tristam' and just one coat of 'Bridal Veil'.


a-england polishes are available from their website and are £9 with free shipping worldwide.

IKB: 2012 - Rescue Beauty Lounge & Splish Splash - China Glaze

I can't beleive it's already time to go back to uni! It's going to be a shock to the system being in class at 8am on Monday morning. Oh well I have one more day to relax and spend as much time as I want painting my nails. :) I had a really good nail mail this week including a box of polish from Transdesign. I ordered a fair few of the China Glaze Summer Neons, including 'Splish Splash', a gorgeous blue that just had to be used ASAP, so...

'Splish Splash' is adorned with some glitters that I ordered from the Born Pretty Store. These have been termed as "glequins" by Sammy from The Nailasaurus (a cross between glitter and sequins). On my index and pinky fingers is 'IKB: 2012' from Rescue Beauty Lounge.

We all know that blues are notoriously hard to photograph correctly. This particular photo seems to portray 'IKB: 2012' fairly well. It's such a gorgeously clean colour, but it's very complex. I have no clue how best to describe it (other than amazing). It's so vivid and saturated and has a really intriguing purpley hue about it in certain lighting.

'Splish Splash' proved a bit more evasive. It's so bright and just the perfect summery blue. Even better than that, is the beautiful shimmer in this polish. In the earlier photos, the shimmer has taken over a bit and 'Splish Splash' looks a little bit paler in those than it does in real life.



I loved wearing this mani so very much. I am such a blue lover (I know I say this about every colour)! Both of these were pretty easy to apply. 'Splish Splash' has a really nice consistency and covered with perfect opacity in two coats. 'IKB: 2012' was not too bad either. First coat was a bit streaky but the second coat smoothed everything over beautifully. It doesn't really dry shiny (in fact neither of these do) so top coat is needed. Also in order to keep the glitters on, I needed a few coats of top coat. I lost one within an hour of it being on (with only one thick-ish layer of top coat), but they're so easy to use I just popped another one on and some more top coat - good as new. For applying these, I used the same technique as for the studs.

To get these "glequins", have a look on the Born Pretty Store and just like I said with the studs, check out your favourite blogs because some of them are bound to have discount codes.