Graceful Glamour UK

With flash  Hi all, I hope you well. It's been such a strange few days, almost as if I've been walking around in a dream. I can't put my finger on why, but I'm just not feeling right. Maybe it's because of my Nan's illness, or maybe it's because I'm living back with my parents, but there's definitely something that isn't sitting right with me.   Today I have another polish from the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear line, Deep Blue Sea . I hope you aren't getting bored with me keep posting about them, but they really are excellent polishes and it makes me want to wear them! No flash, artificial light .  I would call her a medium blue with allot of silver foilish shimmer. The silver shimmer is so dense that in some lights the polish actually looks like a pale blue. I've really been loving blues at the moment and she is one of the most beautiful ones i have in my collection. Again with this line, she is one of the most gorgeous polis...

With Flash  Well, I still haven't managed to sort out everything from the house. I don't know how long it's going to take me to get through, but it seems the more I sort, the more mess I'm in! I know that apart from Laser yesterday, I've been mostly going for some bright colours recently so I thought I'd tone it down a bit and go for something completely different. Sinful Colors Winterberry is a very different and interesting gal indeed! In some lights she looks like a deep purpley taupe with silver shimmer, and in others she looks more grey with just a slight purple undertone. Yes she's more comfortable when it's cold outside, but she's braving the heat with me today. No Flash  Formula wise, this went on like a dream much the same as the other Sinful Colors polishes I've tried. One coat would have been ok, but you know me, I HAVE to use two! Drying time was nice and quick  and the beautiful shiny finish meant that I didn't nee...

Je ssies Girl cupcake Frosting, 2 Coats, no top coat, with flash. Here we have another stunning nail polish from Jessie's Girl , this time it's Cupcake Frosting . Until a couple of months ago I would never have worn a bright pink like this, but as my polish obsession is just starting to take off, I'm beginning to be a little more adventurous. Actually, I've been pushing myself more and more out of my comfort zone and my collection is beginning to be much more varied and fun! Let me start with the colour, she is a stunning medium bright pink with a cream finish. There are some blue undertones in there which makes her great for pale girls like me. I think I need some more bright pinks like her, what do you think? As above without flash.  The formula was a dream the same as the other Jessie's Girl polishes I've used, goes on smoothly, very forgiving and dries quickly. To get this lovely opaque finish I used two coats but no top coat, and look at tha...

Borghese Milano Taupe with flash. Whoooopppppsss! This post was meant to go up before the swirly stamping one, but with all the confusion of moving properly from my house this week, I'm afraid this was saved as a draft instead of being scheduled. But here she is, the beautiful Milano Taupe.  As you know my polish tastes are branching out somewhat from the nudes and pastel pinks, but when I saw this little beauty on Cosmetic Kingdom, I had to pop her in my basket. It seems that 'taupe' seems to be a popular colour at the moment but there are so many different variations of what it is. There seems to be grey, purple, brown or pink ones and to be honest, I would say she sits somewhere between the purple and pink 'taupey land'.  The formula was nice, it seems a little thin on the first coat but levels up and is more opaque with the second, but I still needed a third for a better finish. What I didn't like about this was the brush, with a weir...

With flash Hi all, it's me back again with another mani. What a shocker huh? It's just a fairly short post as I am unbelievably busy but I still wanted to show you my mani for Pink Wednesday.  No flash So first off I started with my usual Orly Top 2 Bottom base coat, then added two coats of Sally Hansen Wildlife (see swatches and review here ) and then another layer of the Orly Top 2 Bottom. After about ten minutes I stamped with my Bundle Monster BM207 plate using Sally Hansen Pink Blink. I have reviewed Pink Blink along with the other Insta-Dri Polishes I recently bought and that will be up tomorrow.  Well I warned you it would just be a quick visit! I hope you are well. Take care all, byeeeeeee x :-)

Orly Top 2 Bottom, 2 coats SH Wild Life, no top coat, with flash.  Today I have the beautiful shiny Sally Hansen Wild Life from the Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear line. I got this together with some other polishes in my haul from Cosmetic Kingdom ( click here to see the haul ). First of all i just want to say WOW! Isn't she striking? These were taken in the evening so my lighting is not the best, but I'm hoping you can tell how incredible she is. I'd call her a fuchsia which leans purple with a stunning metallic finish.  Formula wise she is quite thin, but also pigmented  and easy to work with, so two coats is enough to give you this lovely opaque coverage. The drying time is super duper quick and this lovely shiny finish is with no top coat, just her natural loveliness. This felt so smooth and nice after just a few minutes, I even went rooting around in my handbag for something and I'm happy to report no casualties!  As above, no flash, in ...

Orly Top 2 Bottom, 2 coats JG Mermaids Lagoon, no top coat, with flash. This is my first experience with a Jessie's Girl Polish, but I have to say I'm very pleased. The first time I heard about Jessie's Girl Cosmetics was on JulieG's Youtube channel (she's fab btw) so it's actually kind of great that my first product from them happens to be from the JulieG Nail Polish Collection! This gorgeous teal delight is called Mermaids Lagoon , and I think this is a fantastic name for her. She is a deep teal colour with some gorgeous subtle golden shimmer. I'm so out of my comfort zone with this colour, but I'm finding myself more and more happy outside of it. As above, no flash. I couldn't ask for more in the way of formula, this was opaque in just one coat, but really pops with a second coat. I think that the golden shimmer also seems to shine through more with the second coat. Drying time is kind of average but the finish is just lovely so ...

Orly Top 2 Bottom, 2 Coats OPI Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh?, Orly Top 2 Bottom, with flash.  Hi all, here I am again. Today I have a really interesting nudey polish to show you called,  Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh ? This nude little gal is originally from this years Holland Collection. This is one polish of three that  that I got in a recent haul ( click here to see the haul ). This is a really nice creamy nude which is a cross between putty and khaki. It's so refreshing to see a nude that has green undertones, it makes it really neutral but different to allot of other nudes out there. The formula was really nice on this one, she's a great creme polish to work with and is a little thicker than some other nudes, so you only need to paint two coats to get this fab opaque coverage. She dries lovely and quick between coats, and gives you a nice shiny finish. The pictures shown are with Orly's Top 2 Bottom top coat, although it was fairly shiny without it. ...

Orly Top 2 Bottom, 2 coats Ciate Jelly Bean, no top coat, with flash. I know,I know, I'm doing an awful lot of posts about nail polish recently, but I can't help it! I think that you should always write about what you know and what you are really loving at the moment. I am completely polish obsessed and proud of it. This Juicy little beauty really does look good enough to eat, doesn't she? Ciate Jelly Bean is a fantastic bright pink with some very subtle blue shimmer throughout. The blue shimmer looks allot more prominent in the bottle and almost disappears on the nail. To be honest I think this beautiful pink stands on it's own without the shimmer though. What do you think? Formula wise this lovely creme polish is outstanding as I've found with the other Ciate I've tried. She was opaque with the first coat, but as you know I always have to do two, and I think the extra coat makes the colour more vibrant. Drying time was good and a lovely finish, it ...

Orly Top 2 Bottom, 3 Coats OPI Pedal Faster Suzi, Konad White BM205, Orly Top 2 Bottom, with flash.  Evening all, I have to apologise for my lack of posting and replying to messages, but I had to give myself the weekend off. As you may know from my For Audrey Post ( click here to see it ) my Nan is very ill and there has been allot going on so I just didn't have time to post. This is a mani that I did last week, but as it was a bit of a fail I didn't post it until now.  For the base I started with a layer of Orly Top 2 Bottom, then three coats of OPI Pedal Faster Suzi . This polish was a little sheerer and patchy that I thought it would be, but it's still very pretty. I will be doing a review on it in the future.  I then decided to stamp with the butterfly design on my Bundle Monster BM205 plate using Konad Special White. I was inspired to use this by another blogger using it recently (I'm sorry I can't remember who) as her mani came out so beautifull...

Remember that beautiful Essie polish French Affair that I showed you? (If you haven't seen it you can click here) Didn't she look lovely all pretty, pink and shiny there on my nails? Well I wish it had stayed that way, but  oh no, there was major trouble ahead so I wrote this little post to share my fail with you. I'm so sad because in my head this was meant to be so pretty! But that's the way life goes sometimes, it doesn't always turn out how you planned it.   Now I had some massive issues but they were through no fault of the Essie polish, but more my Sally Hansen Maximum Growth Top and Base coat. Now as you may have seen from my haul ( click here to see it if you haven't ) I got two of these and one of them was a slightly different colour. I have been using one of them since that haul arrived and I hadn't really had much of a problem with it. It's now half way used and when I applied it over the Essie, it dried to a very thick bubbly ickyne...

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...

Orly Top 2 Bottom, 4 Coats OPI SRU, 1 coat SH Pink Proposal, Orly Top 2 Bottom, with  flash.  Hi all, here we are back at Wednesday again! How did that happen so fast? I swear time is seeming to go so fast at the moment and think it's to do with me running out of time to find a house. I've already moved in to my parents house to try and make me feel more secure, and not jump at the first house ending up in one that I don't really like. I just can't believe there's no houses that I like at the moment. As above, in sunlight. So, on to Pink Wednesday. This week I've chosen to do a pink combo. It didn't start out that way, I was originally just going to paint my nails with OPI Step Right Up but it came out more of a milky white with just a tinge of pink. This polish is also very sheer and it took me four coats to get it anywhere near opaque and it was still patchy. I also felt it just wasn't pink enough for a Pink Wednesday Mani. As top, i...

We had planned to have a nice barbecue, but typical British weather made it impossible. It's such a shame as there were 10'000 street parties arranged all over the UK today. We decided to change our meal to a traditional roast followed by some nice Jubilee themed cakes. My Jubilee Nails Of The Day With Flash  I was really not ready to take off my OPI I Don't Give A Rotterdam, and as it is blue anyway I decided to stamp over it as it will fit in to my Jubilee theme. I used the crown design on the left hand side of the Bundle Monster BM215 plate with Konad white, then added two red and one clear rhinestones. Without flash Before anyone says anything, I know the crowns are a bit wonky but it was sooooo difficult to line them up! I must have tried about five or six times on each nail but I was running out of time to get ready and just had to go with what I had. I don't think they look too bad, do you? My Jubilee Face Of The Day  I have to ap...

Orly Top To Bottom, 2 coats OPI I Don't Give A Rotterdam, Orly In A Snap,  with flash. I've really been getting in to my stamping lately, but this polish is so pretty that I had to leave it alone in all it's glory. I only got this in my nail mail yesterday (click here if you haven't seen it) and I knew I wanted to put it on straight away, so here it is. Let me introduce you to OPI I Don't Give A Rotterdam . This gorgeous polish is from the recent Holland Collection and I'd admired her on other blogs.  She is a gorgeous dusty mid-blue with subtle purple undertones and some special shimmer in it. The shimmer is special as in some lights it looks silver and in others gold, ooh magic! The way the shimmer seems to sit on the colour, it gives it a nice textured appearance and this is what makes it unusual. As above without flash  Formula wise it went on really well. The first coat had some patches, but by the second coat that all evens out for a beau...

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...

Evening all, and I hope you are enjoying this glorious Wednesday. The weather has been absolutely wonderful today in the UK apart from an iddy biddy little storm that only lasted about twenty minutes. So it has put me in a slightly good mood. I use the word slightly as I had a horrible start to the day with a phone call from my letting agent. He was calling to tell me that after a week of keeping me hanging on thinking I had a house and moving in on the fifteenth of June, the landlady has decided to reject my application! But for now, lets get on to the polish. For this weeks Pink Wednesday polish we have Orly's Cupcake. This is a pale creamy bubblegum pink and actually looks a bit like strawberry milkshake. It's a very girly shade and is very much at home in among all the pretty girly pinks in my collection. Formula wise it glides on like a dream, I'm finding this allot with the Orly's I've bought. Even on the first coat it went on really nicely and fa...

China Glaze For Audrey 2 coats, Sally Hansen Base Coat, no top coat with flash. If you read my haul last week you will have seen that I had a mystery Tiffany style blue sent to me instead of the other China Glaze polish I ordered. One of my followers told me that it looks very much like 'For Audrey'. I've had a look at some swatches online and I think she is right. This is such a strange thing to happen as around the same time, that's when we found out that my Nan's condition had worsened. So why is it a coincidence? Her name is Audrey! As I told you a couple of days ago my Nan has been poorly for some time and a couple of weeks ago we found out she has cancer in both her lungs. Well, a few days ago we were also told that it has spread to her brain, and it was a terrible blow. Cancer is such a terrible disease and I really feel for anyone who is either going through it themselves, or has a family member suffering. It's such a vicious horrible thing...