A quick update and some graffiti nails

Hi!!

Just thought I would check in super quickly and say that I am still here and will be back so soon. My dissertation is due in a week! I still have a scary amount to do for it, but as soon as it's in I'll be back with some GORGEOUS polishes!! I can't wait.

I had to add in some nail pics so here's a mani that I did quite a while ago and haven't posted because I have no idea what polishes I used. This was one of those time where I had no plan and just started doing my nails while watching tv one night. I feel like it has a sort of graffiti feel to it. I know that I used the LeaLaC XL-B plate  with Color Club 'Beyond' for the stamping.


Thanks heaps for sticking with me and I can't wait to be done with my dissertation and back to give this blog some love :)

Nomad - Illamasqua

Hi all!

Hope you are all doing well. I'm so close to being able to have some evenings off and I can't wait! Just need to get through these next 2 weeks with my exams and then a tiny bit of freedom. Yahoo! Anywho, I have a couple of photos of a polish I wore recently. This is 'Nomad' by Illamasqua…

This is such a gorgeous polish that I've had for a while now but never photographed. The other day I just felt like wearing a nice crème polish and this one fit the bill. I used cling film with Illamasqua 'Rampage' and Barry M 'Gold Foil' for my accent finger.


'Nomad' has a really easy formula to work with. I only needed 2 coats for full opacity. I absolutely love how vibrant this shade of green is, it was exactly what I felt like.


Thanks for popping by!

Encore Margot - a-england (& MoYou stamping)

Good evening! I have another a-england to show you tonight. This is another new beauty from the Ballerina Collection released recently - 'Encore Margot'.

This is a beautiful polish. It's a silver holo, yes, but it seems somehow more wearable than other silver polishes I own, somehow more delicate? It is quite a pure, white-ish silver, but it picks up all the beautiful colours in the holo effect.

As with the other 2 polishes from this collection I have shown you ('Her Rose Adagio' and 'Dancing With Nureyev'), I did a little stamping on it. It is very hard to tell, but I used both the previously mentioned polishes to make a subtle saran wrap mani underneath the stamping. It was a little more obvious in real life, but mainly just gave just slight changes in hue to the base colour in little patches. For the stamp I used MoYou plate 01 from the Artist Collection and my trusty bottle of a-england 'Camelot'.


The formula of 'Encore Margot' was, as usual, easy peasy to work with. I barely needed a second coat for full opacity and this one didn't pull at all or anything like that. Fast drying too.

a-england polishes can be purchased from a lot of places around the world. Unfortunately, you can only order direct from them if you are in the UK, but be sure to check out their list of worldwide distributors to find a place close to where you live. You can also follow a-england on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to keep up with the latest news from them.

This product was provided for review. This is my personal, unbiased opinion.

For more information, see my disclosure policy.

Beyond - Color Club & Some Holo Nail Art!

Hi people!!

How are you all? I've just had a really lovely mini-holiday on Waiheke Island and considering it is the middle of winter, the weather was so perfect. If you follow me on Instagram (@pinpointpolish) you may have seen some pics of it. Anywho, I went to the NZ Beauty Expo on Saturday and managed to finally get my hands on the latest Color Club Halo Hues (how did it take so long?!), so naturally I had to try one as soon as I got home. And by try one, what I mean to say is try all 6... at once ;)

A mani that Sam (from Fashion Polish) did a bit ago was certainly the inspiration for this mani, though I went about this one quite differently from what Sam did. For my take on this look, I used Saran Wrap. I love how it turned out. I used all of the holos in the collection for this look. 'Beyond' was the base and then using the Saran Wrap, I dabbed on 'Kismet', 'Cosmic Fate', 'Miss Bliss', 'Over The Moon' and 'Eternal Beauty'.

You can see the colours better in this photo, as you would be able to see them in real lower light. I love how the black base of 'Beyond'  peeks through. To say these holos are full-on would be a serious understatement. It was so hard to capture the colours in this mani without just seeing holo in my photos. I had to crack out the light box for once.

Here is 'Beyond' all by itself. AMAZING! These polishes have a really strong linear holo finish. It is far from subtle and I love it. These photos are shown without top coat, just because I was going to be putting things on top of it. To be honest though, I think top coat makes the holo even more awesome!


Formula of 'Beyond' was sensational too. No aqua base or any other faffing around required. And it was really opaque. I only needed 1 coat on my left hand, but for the sake of neatness on my swatching hand, I have shown you 2 coats. As I mentioned, shown is without top coat, but as you can see with the top pics (with top coat), there isn't any dulling of the holo effect.

Color Club is sold a lot of places. For the kiwis, I know these are sold in Amazon stores, but they can also be purchased online from a lot of places.

Some of these products were given to me. This is my personal, unbiased opinion.
For more information, see my disclosure policy.

Valentine's Day Mani

Argh this year I was a bit of a Valentine's grinch to be honest. It was going to be the first time in a lot of years where we both had the night off together, but the night before we found out one of us had to work, so it was another Valentine's alone. Oh well, on to the mani. I always struggle with ideas for Valentine's Day inspired nails. This year was no different and I ended up just putting polish on and adding things until I came to this end product...

As I was doing this mani, I was HATING it!! That's why I just kept adding things to it. In the end, I don't think it turned out too badly though. I tried using saran wrap again and I really liked it. It's such a cool effect.

For this I used Lime Crime 'Parfait Day' and Zoya 'Sooki'. The white I used was Sally Hansen 'White On' and over everything is a layer of Chi Chi 'Disco Diva'. I used studs from the Born Pretty Store.

How was your Valentine's Day? Better than mine hopefully!

Polish Days: Get Back To Nature

It's time for February Polish Days. I love Polish Days as it makes me do something a bit different each month. Trouble is, I always seem to go a little overboard and can't seem to ever just have one idea and a nice simple mani. This month is no different :) The theme this month is all about getting back to nature. I decided to go with the weather theme that Hannah suggested, in particular the four seasons...

I decided to use different techniques on each finger. For Autumn, on my pinkie I tried the saran wrap technique for the first time. I quite like how that turned out actually. I have to say, the seasons aren't particularly appropriate for New Zealand, but oh well (e.g. it doesn't snow in Auckland and it is certainly not Easter in spring). I used quite a few different polishes so I will just list them below...


Autumn:
• Enchanted Polish 'Mean Mr Mustard'
• Takko Lacquer 'Va Va Voom'
• a-england 'Holy Grail'
• OPI 'My Boyfriend Scales Walls'

Winter:
• KB Shimmer 'Witch Way?'
• Stamping - Konad Special White and Bundle Monster plate BM-323
• "Glequins" from Born Pretty Store

Spring:
• Lime Crime 'Lavendairy', 'Once In a Blue Mousse', 'Pastelchio' & 'Crema De Limón'
• Chi Chi 'Disco Diva'

Summer:
• OPI 'No Room For The Blues'
• Studs from Born Pretty Store


Make sure you check out all the other lovely Polish Days manis...