Graceful Glamour UK

With flash. I didn't really know where I was going to go with this mani, I just sort of made it up as i went along. To start with I applied a layer of Orly Top 2 Bottom as my base coat. I've been really enjoying this and would highly recommend it. Next I added three coats of Borghese Castello Blue. If you haven't seen my review of this with swatches, you can see it here .  Now for a little stamping, so I used the crazy paving style design on my Bundle Monster BM215 with Sally Hansen Raspberry Race ( swatches here ).  Without flash, natural light.  Next was to add some french tips using the rounded Wet N Wild guides and Sally Hansen White On.  I've really been getting in to flowers recently, due to Maria from Maria's Nail Art and Polish Blog  so I decided to add some lovely purple flower fimo. I added them to each nail and then finished off with LA Girl's top coat.  That's all from me for now, I hope you are well. Take care all, b...

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...

With flash As you all know, I've been really getting in to nail art at the moment and I've been seeing some absolutely stunning freehand mani's on my fellow polish loving bloggers posts. It's taken a while for me to build up the courage to give it a go, and I finally took the plunge and picked up my nail art brush.  So to start with I applied Hedy's Cherry Bomb. This polish was just so, so to be honest, not terrible but not brilliant. She is a deep bergundy tinted red with shimmer. I don't think the colour particularly suits me, but I think I'd choose this colour for wearing more around Christmas time.  Formula wise, she didn't thrill me. She was more opaque than I thought by looking at the bottle, but has such a weird texture that is not at all forgiving. Drying time was reeeeaaaaalllllllyyyyyy slow and I kept smudging the same three fingers over and over again, which meant I didn't start my design until really late at night, boooo! ...

SC Starfish, 2 Coats With Flash.  I know I said I was going to show you the stamping tomorrow, but as I had it ready I thought I would let you see it a little early. I had a pretty horrible experience yesterday, I was quite innocently walking to the shops with my little girl in her buggy and a car reversed up the curb and hit us. Basically, the man driving the offending vehicle couldn't get out of his parking space, and didn't look as he reversed straight in to us! But to make matters worse when I screamed and was upset he'd hit us, he started shouting at me saying I should have realised he was blocked in and that he would have to mount the pavement and waited for him to do so. Hmmmm.  For my base colour I decided to go with Star Fish from Sinful Colors . She is a beautiful soft dusky pink with a slight lilac undertone and a crelly texture. I was actually kind of surprised by this as she looked rather more creamy in the bottle but I'm really pleased as s...

With Flash  Hi all and welcome back to my ever more nail orientated blog. I didn't actually think about the fact I'd only been posting about nails, it just sort of happened. I suppose it's because I'm really only just getting 'polish obsessed' and the things I'm most excited about at the moment are nail polish and nail art. For the base colour I used Sally Hansen White On from their Xtreme Wear line. I didn't really think about swatching her on her own as she's just a basic shiny white. If you do want me to swatch her, just let me know. To be honest, I wouldn't wear her alone, she's just a base for nail art. I used two coats for a nice opaque finish. Without Flash  For the tiger stripes I used Sally Hansen Insta Dri in Presto Pink with my Bundle Monster BM223 plate. This is an amazing polish and if you haven't seen my review on her, you can go take a look here . This mani took me a long time to do, I'm not sure if...

With Flash  I can't help it, I keep wanting to call this polish Pepto Pink! But actually her real name is Presto Pink . Yet another polish from Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri line, but I can't help it, they are fab. You see, each one I've used work well for stamping, but they also look nice on their own making them more versatile than the Konad polishes. Presto Pink is a stunning medium creme pink with cool undertones and a dusky quality to her. She actually reminds me a bit of a polish I've worn recently, I'll have to have a dig through and do a comparison for you. When I look at her sitting here on my nails I can hear that Stevie Wonder song, isn't she lovely playing through my head. Yes I know I'm weird! No Flash The polish glides on very easily and with that special contoured brush, I managed to do each coat with one stroke apart from my thumbs. As with the other Insta-Dri's I've used two coats on the index and middle, then just the ...

Hi everyone, I hope you are all well. Finally I'm starting to get a bit more sorted with all my boxes thank God, as I was starting to think it was a never ending job. I also heard from my letting agent and I can see a brand new house that I've been waiting for, yay! It is a bit smaller than my last house, but it will be fine for me and my little girl. I already think I'm going to take it, but I know I should look before finally making up my mind. With Flash So today I have another of the Sinful Colors polishes, Let's Talk . Now I have to tell you that my pictures do this colour no justice at all, it seemed like every time I took a picture, the colour changed! I suppose it didn't help that I had to take my pictures in the evening under a fairly 'sucky' light. I would say that the picture without flash is probably closer to her real beauty. From the other bloggers swatches of her, I think they had similar problems to me as they all seem to differ quit...

I was googling some nail art sites and I came across Wicked Nails  . There are some great nail art supplies on here and you also get free shipping when you spend over £15.00. So I thought I'd grab a few bits. Add caption Let's start with the Paint Set. I've really been enjoying seeing some great free hand nail art from my fellow bloggers so I had to grab some paints. This is the Paint Set For Nail Art Set 2 , you get the three brushes, eight paints (which come in a handy little storage box) and as a bonus you get a really sweet bottle of heart rhinestones. This was only £6.50 which I think is great for what you get.  Next up we have the Wheel Kit , they offer lots of different options for the wheel kits and this one comes with the wheel on the right, some nail glue and pin point tweezers for £5.50. The tweezers are usually £3.50 on their own so I think this kit is a bargain and I'm really pleased with it. The one on the left is the Logo Fimo ...

2 coats with flash Ok, so I have to admit that the first thing that caught my eye with this polish was the name. I'm pretty sure most of you (I know at least one, Hayley) will have heard of New Kids on The Block. I am a MASSIVE fan and am a long time Donnie girl. On their album from 2008 The Block, there is a song called Twisted, so of course I had to grab this lovely Sally Hansen Twisted Pink . Another bright pink? Yes please! Oh yes I'm absolutely loving them, can you tell? So what can I say about her? She's a bright pink creme with a subtle but very pretty gold shimmer. I'd say that from memory the base pink is similar in brightness and colour to Ciate Jelly Bean but a bit more creamy (Jelly Bean has blue shimmer & is more of a 'crelly'). No flash  I've really liked the formula on all of the Xtreme Wear polishes and this gorgeous gal is no exception. Formula wise I' say she's very similar to the other polishes I've tried fr...

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...

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  So here we are again with some stamping goodness. I must admit I've been really having to push myself to take the time and do stamping mani's as I've got to have all of my things cleared out of my old house and make it all shiny and lovely by Saturday (I'm writing this on Thursday). But on top of that I still have to look after a lively one year old who is in to EVERYTHING, and teething!  So to start off I applied three coats of the Borghese Milano Taupe (click here for that post) and a layer of my trusty Orly Top 2 Bottom, then waited around thirty minutes. I had a little flip through my Bundle Monster stamping plates and decided on the 'swirly whirly' design on BM222. I applied this design with the Konad White special polish then added another layer of the Orly to lock in the design.  No flash  Well there you go, what do you think? I know it didn't come out perfect, but I didn't think I did too badly. I found this d...

Hi all, I hope you are having a better day than me. I'm finding myself more and more stressed all of the time at the moment and seriously need a holiday! It's mostly due to my current housing situation and a few other things too. So if my next few posts make me sound a little tightly wound, then you'll realise why.  I recently got a few nice polishes in a haul and everyone seemed to be most interested in the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri's so I thought I would do a few swatches and review for you. These seem to be fairly popular in the blogging world as you can use them for stamping. My swatches show two coats on the index and middle, and just the one on the ring and pinkie for Pink Blink and Blue-Away but just one coat for Raspberry Race. I only used one coat for Raspberry Race as she looked opaque enough to me, but in the pictures it shows I could have used a second. Let's start with Pink Blink, she is a beautiful pale pink cream which is very girl and sweet. ...

With flash  Evening all, sorry it's been a few days since my last post but my laptop had a slight blowing up situation. I suddenly heard a loud bang and smelt burning, then I looked down and there was smoke and a little flame! I couldn't believe it, I only recently got a new screen and charger for it. PANTS! I've ordered a refurbished Mac Book Pro, but that wont be here until at least the end of the week so I'll only be able to post when I can borrow a friends laptop.  So it's that time of the week for the We Love Nails post and this time it is a mani based on a film. I was just itching to do a mani using my Bundle Monster stamping plate with shoes on, so I thought I would have a go at doing Cinderella. Now if you read my posts regularly you will know that I'm fairly new to nail art so don't judge me too harshly! First of all I started with my normal Orly Top 2 Bottom Base Coat, two coats of Jessie's Girl Stilleto and a layer of Sally Hansen Max...

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...