Graceful Glamour UK

No flash.  Hi all, I hope you are are having a fab weekend. I'm really enjoying spending some time with my daughter and not having to worry about unpacking boxes as it is all done! My little girl (15 months) and niece ( 3 years old) were playing in the paddling pool yesterday when my niece suddenly got up and got out of the pool. She was standing with a strange look on her face when I looked down and realised she was having a wee! A couple of minutes later I asked her 'Who did a wee on the floor Elizabeth?' and she said 'It wasn't me, it was Gracie!' I had to laugh... Let's get on to the nail art shall we? The base colour is Essie Smooth Sailing (click here for review), I added two coats of her and then a layer of Sally Hansen Super Shine Top Coat. With flash.  Next I took the gorgeous S ally Hansen Metallic Momentum and used her with my Bundle Monster BM225 stamping plate to get his beautiful flower mani. I have to say, as with the ot...

With flash. Now, you may have realised, but I'm really getting in to my blue and purple nail polishes recently. It's really strange, as up until recently I only had a handful, can you believe it? It's funny, I feel like I'm growing as a 'polishista'. Hmmmm, is that even a word? But hopefully you'll get what I mean. You may have seen I got this little lady in a recent haul and I have to say, the bottle is teeny tiny! I am of course talking about Essie Smooth Sailing . As soon as I saw her I was really excited as the colour appeared in the bottle to be very similar to one of my favourite polishes, OPI I Don't Give A Rotterdam.  Smooth Sailing is a gorgeous periwinkle blue with silver shimmer that sometimes flashes a little pink in the bottle, but on the nail I can only see silver.  Without flash, artificial light.  Compared to the OPI she is slightly deeper blue and less dusty. The shimmer is only silver, whereas the IDGAR's...

Yes I know I've already bought an unusually large amount of nail polish in the last couple of months, but I just can't seem to stop. Is it an illness? Do I really need all of these different colours? Well, those questions remain to be seen, but what I can say is that I really want all of them and as I don't smoke, drink or really spend my money on anything else for me, (most of my money is spent on my daughter) I feel like this is one little vice that isn't too bad. Left to right, Castello Blue, Capriccio Blue, Incantato Purple, Romanzo Pink. I'll start with the Borghese . You may be wondering why I've bought four more polishes from this brand when I wasn't too keen on Milano Taupe, but the truth is, I'd already ordered these before I had even tried it! Hmmm, well I hope these ones have a more manageable, softer brush.  Left to right, Pink Opal, Moon Beam, silver Metal, Wild Orchid, Cherry Bomb, Red Passion.  Lets move on to the Hedy...

Before you say/ think it, I know what a terrible clean up job! But as I was going to stamp over it a few minutes after I took these pictures, I just did it quickly because I was losing daylight. I'm finding this stamping business very addictive and feeling the need to stamp over nearly all my mani's at the mo. So I'm going to talk to you about Essie's French Affair . As I've mentioned more than once, I'm absolutely loving Essie as a brand and this polish is no exception. This pretty little lady was from last years A French Affair Collection. I really liked the polishes from that collection and I have two others, Topless and Barefoot, and Sand Tropez. She is a gorgeous pale pink cream with a tint of lavender. I was a little worried how the formula would be as I'd seen a couple of reviews that said it was troublesome. I had no problems with her and my pictures show three coats to give a nice opaque creamy finish. This is another win for Essie a...

Hiya everyone, I'm going to start off by warning you that I'm in a fairly bad mood due to more problems with my house situation. After losing out on the house I really wanted, I then found another smaller house but was big enough for me and my little girl. Well you'd think that would be sorted then wouldn't you? Oh no! Due to a couple of reasons I now can't have that one either... There's nothing else on the market that is suitable for us, so I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed something else comes up before the 1st of July. Okay, rant over and I think I have it out of my system... I was really taken with the lovely Essie Lilacism so I decided to give it a bit of stamping action. Up until now I'd only stamped with the Konad special white polish because it was easier to apply. But as you can see from my pictures, it didn't go very well at all so I had to go back to white. The black just seems to be a much thinner texture and wont p...

Hello all, and how are we today? This pretty little polish seems to have put me in rather a good mood, and I thought I'd share it with all of you. Which one am I talking about? It's Essie's Lilacism, and isn't she luuuuurvvly? It was originally from the Essie Art Of Spring 2010 Collection (the same one as Neo Whimsical) and it was also in my recent haul. To me this seems to be a beautiful lilac with blue undertones. It has a slightly thin formula but it was still nice to work with and I got this nice opaque coverage with just two coats. I found it dried nice and quickly between coats and also gives a nice glossy finish, which is a winner in my  book! I really like this polish and it's still relatively easy to find if you want to try it out. So what do you think of Lilacism? Do you have it? Do you want to get it? That's all from me for now, byyyyyyeeee x :-) All pictures are two coats and no top coat. Top picture is with flash, middle pict...

Hiya, happy first day of June! Can you believe we are half way through the year already? No, me neither. It's scary how much quicker time goes when you get older! Today I have my second attempt at using my Bundle Monster stamping plates. As you can see I also added some rhinestones to the mix which is very exciting as I've never used them before either. I know, I know, sad huh? So to start with I Painted my nails with two coats of Essie's Sand Tropez . I'm an idiot and forgot to take pictures of the Sand Tropez before I stamped, whoopsy daisy, sorry. I really like it so I'm sure I'll be wearing it again soon. But anyways, I then added a generous layer of my usual Sally Hansen Maximum Growth Plus. I'd heard from various people on Youtube that if you add a good amount of topcoat between your colour and stamping, if you make a mistake you can just remove the stamping polish without disturbing the colour underneath. So I began to stamp, and to my j...

Essie Flawless, no topcoat, with flash. Today I have another beautiful pink creamy nail polish for you. This time it is Essie's Flawless from the 2009 Spring Collection. I've been really with the Essie polishes I've tried so far and this is no exception. So Essie say that this is a 'cherry blossom pink' that's probably about right. It's kind of a cutesy hubba bubba bubblegum pink but bright and pigmented. This is a gorgeous colour and looks good on me with its cool tone. Essie Flawless, no top coat, no flash. The formula is fairly thin, but not in a bad way because it's so pigmented that it goes opaque in two coats. I really enjoyed applying it and didn't have any problems. I love the glossy finish on this, so didn't need to use a topcoat. Do you have this polish? Do you like it? Are there any other Essie's you would recommend to me? That's all from me for now, take care, byeeeee x :-)

Today I have surprise, surprise, another pink nail polish! It's Essie's Neo-Whimsical from the 2010 collection, The Art Of Spring. I'd seen plenty of swatches online and I just knew I had to have it! So of coarse it was the first from the Essie's out of my haul I had to try. It's a pale milky pink with a hint of lilac. The formula is super duper creamy and appeared to be going on very well and smoothly. Drying time between coats was good and I used three coats to get it opaque, but that's to be expected with a pastel cream. I was really pleased with it as when I'd finished my third coat it looked beautiful. After a little while I went to get a drink from the kitchen and when I looked my nails they were all bubbly (as you can see from the non-flash picture). Now this is very strange, because I painted my toes at the same time and they didn't have any bubbles at all. Hmmmm, I'm going to assume that it's user error and not the polish. ...

Left to right, Everythings Rosy, Cupcake, Artificial Sweetener, Elsbeths Rose. Here are the Orly polishes that I picked out, yes they are all pink! When I first got them out of the packet, I thought they were all very similar, but there's quite a big bit of difference so I'm pleased with them. I've heard such good things about Orly so I'm super duper excited to try them out! Left to right, French Affair, Flawless, Neo Whimsical, Lily Pond. Next up are the Essie's , ok so I went as bit overboard with seven of them, but these are shades I've wanted for a while so I think they're justified... Lef t to right, Unkown China Glaze, Essie Lilacism, Essie Topless and Barefoot. The China Glaze on the end was meant to be Something Sweet which is a pink cream, and this is clearly not it! The worst thing is, there is no sticker on the bottom to tell me which polish it actually is. Not too happy about it and I've sent an e-mail to see what th...