Top 10 Nail Polish for Autumn

The weather is getting cooler and the leaves have started changing colour... it's time for Autumn! I love everything about Autumn, especially how it used to be back when I lived in New Jersey. There would be crisp blue skies and brightly coloured red, orange, green, yellow trees. I also love the fragrances that come out around autumn, the vanilla's, spices and pumpkin scents are so cozy and warm. Aaaand of course I love the Autumn nail polish colours. This is the time of year I get to wear one of my all time favourite OPI's: Just A Little Rösti At This. I've picked out my top 10 colours. Most of them are cremes, but I did pick out two shimmers.

I'll start with a nice refreshing pop of colour. This is OPI...Eurso Euro. It's very similar to OPI's Do You Have This Color In Stockholm from the new Nordic Collection, but this is a little more blue toned. 

This is a great transition colour from the summer neons as it's still very bright but not quite as in your face. 

I used 2 coats and no top coat. 

The second colour is another popular shade this season, OPI's Thanks A Windmillion from the Holland collection a few years ago. This is a lot more muted than My Dogsled Is A Hybrid from this years Nordic Collection by OPI. Barry M has also come out with a shade very similar to this one in their winter collection which could be a cheaper alternative. 

I like how this is a bit more muted and neutral and thus a lot more wearable. 

I used 2 coats and no top coat. 

Third up is Just A Little Rösti At This by OPI. Oh how I love this colour!! I bought it in Melbourne last year and it's been my favourite deep red ever since. It's a classic Autumn colour that'll transition perfectly into winter. 

I used 2 coats and no top coat, you can easily get away with just one coat though! 

Next is another OPI, let's get all these out of the way first. This is Steady As She Rose from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection a while back. As well as the deep dark rich colours, I love wearing something a little more neutral and light. This is a beautiful rosy colour that's wearable all year round. 

I used 2 coats and no top coat. 

This OPI is new to my collection but I know I'll be wearing it all Autumn.... this is Muir Muir on the Wall from the San Francisco collection. It's a shimmery duocrome in a very dark plum base. The shimmers reflect from this beautiful bright pink, to a golden shine. 

It kind of reminds me of Every Month Is Oktoberfest by OPI, but that's much more purple. 

I used 2 coats and no top coat. 

The final OPI is one of my very first OPIs... The World Is Not Enough from the Skyfall collection. This is a shimmery silver brown base with pink coppery shimmers. This is so beautiful in real life and just glows in the sun! 

The formula is a little sheer so I used three coats and no top coat. 

My first non OPI had to be a Kester Black. This is Deep Violet, and it's a dark plum colour. Even though it's very dark, it's definitely purple in every light and doesn't come off as black. This is another popular colour this winter. There are many alternatives you can buy such as Barry M Plum, Mavala Tokyo, OPI Vant To Bite My Neck. 

I used 2 coats and no top coat, although you could easily get away with just 1 coat. 

Next up is Mecca cosmetic Ophelia, a very bright red. I have recently been getting back into plain red nails, and although it's another shade that can be worn year round. I think it works great especially in summer and autumn. Every single brand in the whole world has a red like this, so it definitely isn't unique, but I love the formula of all Mecca Cosmetica polishes. 

I used 2 coats and no top coat, although you could easily get away with just 1. 

I wanted include a very simple neutral nail polish and Honey Trap by Leighton Denny is my go-to nude. This is a much more beige toned neutral shade that looks elegant, sophisticated and very natural. It's something everyone can pull off. 

I used 2 coats and no top coat. 

Finally my last Autumn shade is probably the most typical shade.. a burnt orange! I chose Barry M Paprika. This is the meaning of Autumn. It's the colour of the fallen leaves and pumpkins and reminds me of warm Autumn days. The whole autumn/winter Gelly collection by Barry M this year is fantastic. 

I used 2 coats and no top coat. 

What do you think of my top 10 Autumn picks? Are they similar to your favourites around this time of year? 

xx Elaine 

Claire's Fabulous

After being so impressed with my haul from Claires a little while ago, I went back and bought this beautiful glittery polish called Fabulous. It definitely is fabulous, especially as a glitter gradient!

Fabulous consists of tiny micro glitter in gold and red, larger pink hex glitter and golden square glitter. All in a clear base.

I used OPI Steady As She Rose as the base, and I love the colour combo! It's so girly and festive, yet elegant, even though it's a glitter combo!

Gradients are my favourite type of nail art, both with cremes and glitters. it's so easy to do!

Although I didn't put a coat of the polish straight onto my nail, I know there are no problems with glitter placement. For the gradient I brush one stroke onto a sponge and just dab it up and down. I didn't have to fish any specific glitters out, it was really dense and there was a ton of glitter on my sponge.

What do you think of the Claire's nail polishes? Will you by trying them out?
xx Elaine

Nautical Mani Swap

I did a maniswap with the super talented and nautical nail art genius @xnailsbymiri on Instagram. I'm a huge fan of her nail art, and this design really caught my eye!

She decided to recreate my aztec chevron nail art design.

I used OPI Alpine Snow, I Saw.... Warsaw, Red Lights Ahead... Where?, caviar beads I received free in a magazine, nail striping tape and a matte top coat.

I started off painting my pinky and index finger white, my ring finger blue and my middle finger red. When the blue polish was still wet I applied the caviar beads into the shape of an anchor. I used tweezer to apply the beads.

Once I finished with the anchor I applied nail striping tape to my index and pinky and painted the blue. I then removed the tape and reapplied clean tape. I finished them off with a matte top coat.

For my middle finger I used regular tape to cover up the bottom of the nail and used striping tape for the top bit of my nail. I painted over it with white. I carefully removed all the tape, and then applied new striping tape in the shape of the triangle.

Does that even all make sense?? Sometimes it's more difficult to write about how I create it..

Anyway, I'm really happy with how they turned out, but they definitely aren't anywhere near as amazing as the original!

xx Elaine

Glossy Box September 2014 Nails

This month the Glossy Box had a Karen Miller Thee, and the box was beautiful. It was a messy painted London Skyline on an off white box. Seriously beautiful. As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to recreate it on my nails....

I started off with an off white base, using Essie Urban Jungle. I'm in love with this colour and it's already visibly gone down in the bottle, which is pretty terrifying since I've had it for about 2 months! It's a super creamy polish that applies like a dream. I used two coats for full opacity.

I then used acrylic paint and a tiny brush to draw the skyline. I'm in love with how the London Eye turned out.

I created a London skyline mani 13 months ago as well which I was so proud of back then! I wonder if in 13 months time I'll do another skyline and show even more improvement!

Here's a close up of the London Eye on my pinky.

What do you think of this months Glossy Box? And did you like the goodies inside?
xx Elaine

Pastel Gradient Lighting Bolt Nail Art

I received some nail stencils from Nail Mail, a company on Etsy selling Nail stencils in all sorts of different shapes and designs. I kind of wanted to do a bit of everything... glitter, gradient, holo, lightning bolt...

I used Inevitable by Emily de Molly as a base. This is a silver linear holographic polish that's super holographic. Of course, living in England there isn't much sun....

Once that fully dried I applied the lighting bolt nail stencils. These are super easy to use. All you need to do is stick it on your nails, cover it with nail polish and slowly pull them off. Done!

To create the gradient is a little bit more work, but still easy. Once I applied the stickers I used OPI Alpine Snow to get a white base. This way the colours would pop.

Once the white polish dried I sponged the gradient. I used (from tip to cuticle) Models Own Apple Pie, Kester Black Blueberry, Models Own Grape Juice, Strawberry Tart and Peach Melba.

As soon as I was done with the sponge-ing I slowly removed the stencil, following the shape of the lighting bolt.

Apply a top coat and you're done!

Floral Bestie Twin Nails

I decided to do Bestie Twin Nails with on of my friends on Instagram. Bestie Twin nails basically means that you and a friend decide on a design and both create it at the same time! Put it in a collage and post it on instagram.

We decided to recreate this design by @adelislebron, and it was so much more difficult that I originally thought it was going to be!

I started off painting my nails with Barry M Guava, it's one of my all time favourite Barry M's, but I don't really wear it enough. I then used Alpine Snow by OPI to paint the shapes of the flowers an used my Barry M Nail art pen to draw the outline.

I then used a whole bunch of colours to colour in the design. I finished it off by using a mattifying top coat. I'm not sure why but I preferred it matte!

xx Elaine

Happy Cloud Nail Art

I saw this print on @365daysofcolor's instagram and thought it was so cute I wanted to create it on my nails! It isn't perfect, but I quite like that about it.

I used Kester Black Forget Me Not as the blue base. It's such a beautiful slightly dusty blue with the most amazing formula.. oh how I love Kester Black!

I used Barry M Damson for the dots, this is a great dupe for Pacific Blue by Sally Hansen! And OPI Alpine Snow for the clouds.

Finally I used Barry M's Nail Art Pen to draw the little faces. I think it looks adorable!

xx Elaine

The Body Shop Nail Polishes

The Body Shop has come out with a range of 24 new nail polishes to add to their make-up range called the Colour Crush Nails range.. The new polishes are colourful, inspired by nature, 100% vegan and 5 free! I picked up three, which seems to be my go to number! They cost £5 so very affordable, but only contain 6.8ml, compared to OPI's which have 15ml. The bottoms remind me of the Clinque nail varnishes, skinny and round with silver lids.

It has thicker brushes, which make the application incredibly easy. I covered my nails with 2 brush strokes!

First up is Rosy Cheeks, a beautiful pink toned coral. This is the first polish I picked up, it just stood out to me for some reason!

The formula was amazing. It applied so easy, no streaks at all. I used two coats for the swatch and dried with an amazing shine.

The second colour is Minty Amour a bright turquoise.

I used two easy coats for the swatch and it again dried with the most incredible shine.

The third colour is A Grape Affair. Of course I had to pick up a purple... This is a great medium warm toned purple. Does that make sense?? I think this is my favourite from the three.

Again 2 coats for the swatch and a super glossy finish.


What do you think of the new Colour Crush Nails range from The Body Shop? Will you be picking up any of their polishes?
xx Elaine

Barry M Autumn/ Winter 2014 Gelly Collection

Barry M has come out with 6 new Autumn/Winter 2014 gelly shades that perfectly sum up autumn. I picked up 3 of the 6 shades.

I have loved the gelly polishes from when they were first released. They all have a fantastic formula and are all opaque using 1-2 coats. They dry quick with an incredible shine.

First up is my favourite from the 3 I bought, Chilli. If you've been following me on instagram, you'd know I used to have the cutest dwarf hamster in the whole world named Chili. I might be a little biased....

This is a beautiful slightly muted deep red with a hint of brown. I love colours like these, and I'm currently wearing it on my toes!

I used two coats for the swatch and no top coat.

The second colour is Paprika. A beautiful burnt orange. It's a great pumpkin colour! I think this colour is the definition of autumn.

I used two coats and no top coat.

The third colour I picked up is Chai. This is a medium toned grey, and changes colour depending on the lighting. Sometimes it looks much more blue.

Again, I used 2 coats and no top coat.

The other three colours are Mustard (a mustard yellow), Cardamom (which reminded me of OPI Thanks A Windmillion), and Cocoa (which reminded me of OPI Scores A Goal from the Brazil Collection). 

What do you think of the new Autumn/Winter collection? Will you be picking up any of these shades?

xx Elaine 

Mod Lacquer - Paranormal Paradise

Shade

Last month the Indie Brand Mod Lacquer posted on their Instagram page that they were looking for swatchers, and of course I was interested. Jennifer, the creator of Mod Lacquer, makes the most amazing holographic nail polishes I've ever seen, but she also makes a ton of unique super sparkly glitter combinations. It's a 3 free hand blended nail polish brand.

I received three nail polishes to try out: High Strangeness, Aerial Phenomenon and Paranormal Paradise.

I decided to dedicate a different blog post to each nail polish, since I took about 100 photos of each of them.....

Sun

The third polish is this glitter bomb called Paranormal Paradise. This is a multi-size, multicolour holographic glitter polish in a clear base with large holographic circles in various colours.... I took that directly off of Mod Lacquers Etsy description... there is so much in this polish!!

The base keeps the glitter suspended so little to no settling occurs.

Sun

Here is my description of what I can see: it has teeeeeeny tiny little silver holographic dust glitter, some slightly larger micro glitters in pink and blue. Some slightly larger green holographic hex glitter, and even larger pink holographic hex glitter, and then some super large circle holographic glitter in various different colours.

Sun

The photo to the right shows the same large holographic circular glitter in different angles.

I used one coat of Paranormal Paradise for all the photos. All the glitters were easy to get out, apart from the large holographic circles, I kind of had to fish them out and place them on my nail.

I love how the glitters look over different bases. I think the dark blue and the pink look the best!

The mini's retail for only $4 (US) and the full size polishes cost $11(US). Luckily for us UK girls, Mod Lacquer ships internationally! 

Mod Lacquers new Fall/Autumn collection The World's Fair will be released on Friday September 19th at 9 PM EST! 

What do you think of this glitter bomb? Check out Mod Lacquers Etsy for more glitters and holograph nail polishes!

Mod Lacquer - Aerial Phenomenon

Last month the Indie Brand Mod Lacquer posted on their Instagram page that they were looking for swatchers, and of course I was interested. Jennifer, the creator of Mod Lacquer, makes the most amazing holographic nail polishes I've ever seen, but she also makes a ton of unique super sparkly glitter combinations. It's a 3 free hand blended nail polish brand.

I received three nail polishes to try out: High Strangeness, Aerial Phenomenon and Paranormal Paradise.

I decided to dedicate a different blog post to each nail polish, since I took about 100 photos of each of them.....

The second polish is Aerial Phenomenon, a bright pink linear holographic polish. This is so insanely holographic it's unbelievable! 

The formula on this is very similar to High Strangeness, it's applies smoothly without any streaks or unevenness. The polish also dries incredibly quick, so you don't have to worry about dragging the polish on the second coat, or having to wait 15 minutes before going to the toilet! 

I used 2 coats for the swatch and no top coat. The first coat is much more opaque than High Strangeness, but not quite opaque enough for it to be a 1 coater. The second coat completely covers up any nail line. 

I am so impressed with the holographic polishes from Mod Lacquer! I think my bank will be a little less impressed with I place an order! 

The mini's retail for only $4 (US) and the full size polishes cost $11(US). Luckily for us UK girls, Mod Lacquer ships internationally! 

Mod Lacquers new Fall/Autumn collection The World's Fair will be released on Friday September 19th at 9 PM EST!

What do you think of this colour? Check out Mod Lacquers Etsy store for more holo goodness!