Accessorize Aztec

Hi everyone!

Today I'd like to share with you a polish from Accessorize. Personally, I think these polishes seem to get overlooked somewhat, which is a shame, as all of the ones I have tried have been lovely!

I seem to have gained a preference addiction for holographic, or duo/multichrome polishes - the ones that flip their colour as you move your hand about. I love how subtle they seem at first and then POW! My nails just changed colour! How d'ya like that?? And holographic? My nails? Out of this World.

Enough rambling from me, check out Aztec. Not sure where this name came from, but I can forgive that. I mean, wow...

The flip from purpley red to bronzey green is incredible.This was a quick four coats for full opacity and coverage. It's glossy and smooth. Whats not to like?

This is truly a fantastic polish. This cost me £4, from a larger Superdrug store. The little one near me doesn't stock the Accessorize collection, but this was definitely worth the trip!

What do you think? Do you like or wear duochrome polishes? And have you tried the Accessorize brand?

Let me know!

Charlotte x

A little Haul - and Swatches!

Hi everyone!

The precious time of the month that is payday came (and went) and with it came a little splurge on some new polish.

I had been lusting after a couple of polishes and could not talk myself out of it. I tried, but temptation got to me.

My objects of desire? These!

First up is Sally Hansen's Eel Skin. I saw this on Amazon and it became a real brain worm for me. I couldn't stop thinking about this beautiful grey. So soft and elegant.


And you know what? This applies like an absolute dream.



The brush is lovely.It has curves in all the right places, and is just soft enough without being too soft. The rubber grip on the handle is genius.



I found it so easy to paint with this polish. And it's just beautiful.

This was about £2 plus p+p on Amazon. I recommend.


Next up is an inevitable purchase.  Now this polish seems to be somewhat unpopular on many blogs, but I have to disagree. I don't have anything like this. Nor have I seen anything like it before.

This is China Glaze's Hook and Line from the Hunger Games Collection. This, is gorgeous.

This is probably what I would call Eel Skin lol! It's soft, metallic sheen looks like fish scales. The way it shimmers from grey to brown.

I love it. I can forgive the visible brush strokes for the fantastic colour. I have been perving at this polish for far too long. 

Love it or hate it. You will not change my mind about this. It looks like soft metal. The type of metal, that if you bit it, you'd leave teeth marks.

Yes, I know I'm getting strange again. But a great polish does that to me!

One day, I will take photos that do this polish justice.













Finally, I got myself a nifty little dupe of OPI's Rainbow Connection. You know, the one that sold out EVERYWHERE and costs a small fortune.

This is another Amazon purchase. It cost £1.50. Not £11. I decided to get the dupe as it is not a polish I will wear that often. I prefer my glitters to have fewer colours in all at once, but who could really, actually, honestly resist this at £1.50?

Not me ;)

This is one coat over Hook and Line - it's a polish called Carnival by Technic.

It's a pretty polish, jam packed with red, pink, blue, green, silver and gold multi-sized glitters. If you feel like you need Rainbow Connection, but not the price tag - get this. I don't see how you could be disappointed!

And yes, in case you were wondering, my nails are shorter. I broke one. My left thumb nail. I didn't cry, surprisingly. But I did decide to file my nails down to attempt to keep them strong. Ish.

Not exactly nubbins, but they feel short to me after having them long for ages! Why is it always my thumb nails that break first??!

(Mourns lost nails in quiet contemplation)



Thanks for reading, if there are any other dupes I ought to know about - let me know!

Love Charlotte x

More Nails From Last Week!

Hello again!

I'll try and make this a relatively quick post, as to be honest, I should be doing other things. Like getting dinner ready and having a tidy up.

Oh well, nails come first for me haha!!

Here is what I have been up to last week:

Monday

OPI's Planks A Lot.     Love this polish!      LOVE!!

 

Look at it's shiny grilac-ey-ness! Yes, we have already established that grilac is a word. It's a grey lilac, doncha know?!

Ah, this is nail porn. Even as I type this, I can't stop looking at it's loveliness!

I know, you're glad I shared. You're welcome!















Tuesday

A red ombre/gradient nail mani!!

As my now Sister-in-Law Sophie had chosen a gorgeous wine-ish purplish dress for us bridesmaids to wear, she asked if I had any recommendations for nail polish. Well, of course I did!

She decided on No. 7's Damson Dream (which you shall see sooooon), but as I was rooting through my various polishes, I figured I would play with a few. At once. Like this!!



This is, from thumb to pinky:

A Primark red jelly-ish polish called Marilyn (from a set)
Estée Lauder - Red Tango
ELF -  Red Velvet (mmmm cupcakes)
Revlon - Vixen
Estée Lauder - Black Midnight













Wednesday

Please excuse the tip wear! And the fact that my top coat ate some of my dots. But I forgot to photograph anything before work. In fact, if I had, I probably would have been late! Ooops!

This is what I declare to be the result of my Pound Shop Plunder!

Ok, so I didn't actually steal them, but for £1 per polish, it felt like it!

And it felt good!! Muhahaha!!

This is Revlon's Cloud (pale blue) and Stormy (greyish taupey brown).

And yes, £1 each. I also got Revlon's Peach Nectar, but I expect that will be a whole other post!

For £1. Love!!
















Thursday and Friday

This is OPI's Be A Dahlia Won't You, layered with a Claire's Accessories dark grey glitter.The glitter doesn't have a name I'm afraid, but I like it, nonetheless!

Unfortunately, this did not photograph anywhere near as nicely as it looked on the nail. My first intention was to 'jelly sandwich' these two polishes, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. It was too striking and pretty. In fact, my little shopping trip on Friday left me all embarrassed from all of the compliments I was getting for this mani! I will be doing this again, the hot pink is irresistible!

This is one pink I will be wearing again and again! Especially with a tan!!





Friday Evening and Saturday

Finally, for my Brother and Sister-in-Law's wedding (woooot!), the Bridesmaid, and the Bride herself all wore No.7's Damson Dream.

Again, apologies for the shoddy picture, but it was late. And I should have been in bed instead of doing my nails, but I had far too much to do the following day. This is a lovely plummy red with beautiful shimmer, and the slightest teensiest hint at a duochrome. Either that, or I had drunk far too much wine at the wedding and imagined it whilst staring at my own nails.

Or maybe both!


Thanks for reading my week of polish! I hope I didn't spam you too much!

Love Charlotte x

Better Late Than Never: My Week Of Nails - Saturday's Manicure Madness

Hi everyone,

I have had myself a pretty busy and hectic week - hence the no-show of posts. So, whilst I have a few minutes to myself (ahhhhh peace and quiet) I thought I'd bombard you with a few recent nail pics!
My week of nails starts on Saturday the 17th - St. Patrick's Day! which was also the first time in a while that I wore three separate manicures! Three!! Obsessed, you say? Moi??

No comment!

Well, technically, this was done on the Friday night, ready for the incredibly early start I had the next day - I woke up and hated it. Apparently it wasn't green enough for me!

Apologies for the poor pictures by the way. What can I say, I'm a tired girl!






After that, I rushed a bit and came up with something greener. Ahem. Lime green, with spots, gradient and glitter? What was I thinking?? Oh, getting drunk! That's what I was thinking!

Reality - a full day in work, in fact an hour longer than I should have been, but yes. Work. Where I am supposed to be sensible.

At least I had a laugh ;)














Next came my nails from later that night. I was off to my gorgeous Sister-in-Law's hen night (they got married on the 24th of March - squeeeee!!) and she is alwayyyyyys uber glam. So, I went with one of my favourites polishes with a cute addition.

This is OPI's Designer... De Better with an accent bow! Cute and glam - well in my humble opinion anyway!

I loved this mani!! All of those sparkles and slight holo in DDB - just beautiful! I will never stop thanking Beth who convinced me to buy it on a bit of a whim - when I really could not afford it, but had to have it. Pretty much a day later, it was sold out everywhere.

Alas, my few minutes of peace have all but run out! I shall be back with more updates soon (I hope).

Thanks for reading,

Love Charlotte x

Jelly Sandwich! Nom!

Hello Everyone,

Today's post is another one of my attempts at cult nail art – this time being the 'Jelly Sandwich' manicure. 

Essentially, it is done by layering a glitter polish between layers of sheer polish, often called a jelly or sorbet polish.

 

I recently purchased the China Glaze Exceptionally Gifted nail polish collection, as it was on sale on the Sally's website clicky for... £9.98 + P&P. Not a typo. Bargain ;) For six polishes, even if I rarely use softer colours, I could not resist.

This is a wedding themed collection full of pale, soft pastelly colours which would be completely appropriate for your own wedding manicure, or even for something suitable for work. 

I used Pop The Question, which I can only describe as a cream toned white jelly polish. It's very sheer – in fact this manicure has three layers of Pop The Question, and you can still see plenty of my nail underneath.

For my glitter layers, I used a NYX polish called Blue Avenue. This is a bottle of blue tinged flakies in a predominantly clear polish. If You layer it over a white polish, the clear has the slightest teensiest blue hue. Not enough to make it noticeably bluer, but it is there. Just.

A lot of people seem to go with two jelly layers at the bottom, with a glitter layer, and then another layer of jelly at the top. I went with more of a Club Jelly Sandwich, using a layer of jelly, flakies, jelly, flakies, jelly and top coat to seal!

I liked this effect – it was more subtle than I wanted, but this flakies polish does not have a great pay off. I found that the more flakies I tried to get on each nail, the more gloopy the coat became. Ugh. I liked how the polish looked soft from a distance, but you could notice the added glitz as you got closer. This is definitely a go to mani when you have to be sensible, but don't want to be! A slight nail polish rebellion!!

Next time, I am going to experiment using different colours, and different types of glitter. I can't wait!

I hope you like it,

Love Charlotte x

Tribal Spring Fling Thing!

Hello Everyone!

I hope you are all enjoying the extra sunshine and warmth in our lives at the moment! I do love it when Winter starts to fade away and we can feel our friend the Sun starting to give us a lovely warm cuddle! Ahhhh!

To celebrate the improving weather (and yes, I will celebrate almost anything...) I am turning to brighter colours for my nails - so whilst I'm stuck inside at work, I'll still have something to cheer me up!

When I first started to get into reading blogs - especially about nails, China Glaze's For Audrey was a polish that was simply everywhere. And I mean, everywhere. When I started toying with the idea of having my own blog (waves) I knew I had to buy it and have it for my own collection. It was my own personal nail based initiation! And, of course, it's a little dedication to one of the most beautiful women to ever grace this planet - the lovely Audrey Hepburn. She always oozed glamour and sophistication - and whilst I am unable to sustain glamour or sophistication, with this polish, my nails can!

I love it. I read somewhere that this shade of blue, with the slightest whisper of green, is as legally close to the patented Tiffany Blue as possible.

Oh, the imagery - Audrey Hepburn's glamness, covered in Tiffany Diamonds. LOVE!
 


This is two coats of For Audrey, applied over China Glaze's Strong Adhesion, and under China Glaze's Fast Forward Top Coat. I'm definitely turning into a China Glaze girl!


Of course, after a few hours of perving at my own nails - it was my day off work after all, I did what I always always seem to do.

I played with my manicure.

There, I confessed!

My name is Charlotte and I have a nail polish addiction.

(Feels good inside, but admits will not do anything to stop buying or playing with nail polish.)

 

I added a central stripe of Nina Ultra Pro Tangerine Dream polish down the centre - I did this all free-hand, and in hindsight, I wish I had taped it to give a more consistent finish! 

I love how the coral-ly orange-ness of this polish pops against the blue, and the white lines keep it light and fresh! 

This is my first attempt at a tribal design  - albeit a simplified version. Some of my lines are a little uneven, but I kinda liked it. 

I think that next time I do this, I'll wait until I have a tan - that will make this mani look so so much better - and the OCD in me will use tape haha!!

I hope you like it! Thanks for reading,

Love Charlotte x

 

And Finally: What Charlotte Did With Her Nails Whilst Neglecting Her Blog - Part IV

Last but not least - here is my latest confession.

I have been reading Helen and Sheenie's Blog Just Nice Things for about a year. They are truly temptresses of the nail polish world. I see so many polishes on their site, and instantly want to buy them!

Anyway, I have often seen Helen write about Sally's Hair and Beauty and felt incredibly jealous. I wanted a magical cave of beauty things too. I was fed up of reading American blogs with stores like Sephora and Ulta. I'm not sure why, but I googled Sally's. I wanted to know if there was one within striking distance. Or at least one I could take a day trip to with a friend, just to look and see (and maybe buy).

There was. It was seven miles down the bleedin' road. I could have walked there! (Could have - didn't!) I got my excited face on. The one where I act like I'm seven and dance and sing and shout with excitement. And then try to act like an adult. And then I got excited again.

I talked the hubby into coming with me. He owed me after the OPI thing. Totally!

I broke into my secret stash of Christmas money. The stuff I save for emergencies. (This counts! I might have died if I didn't!)

They had an offer on.

Buy any China Glaze polish, and get one from the Metro collection FREE. The girl behind the counter let me but two and get TWO FREE. (I likened this to Pretty Woman, where they let her shop. They let me shop! I didn't look anything like Julia Roberts or an expensive hooker at the time, but it felt damn good.)

Then, the husband fully redeemed himself. He dragged me away from the racks of polishes to ask if I had seen the box of discounted polish. The odds and ends that didn't need a whole shelf. I looked at him in wonderment, and knew right then, this was why I had married him. (That last bit was a joke, but seriously, I was sooo glad I did. I married him for other, right reasons, but it's always good to have perks, right?)

Beautiful, isn't it?

I bought: China Glaze Purple Panic (Neon) and got Traffic Jam free.
              China Glaze Sexy In The City and got Concrete Catwalk free.
              China Glaze Champagne Bubbles discounted for only 50p including VAT (ZOMG or what?)
              China Glaze Papaya Punch discounted for about £1.60 inc. VAT (also ZOMG)

And also, after seeing the reviews on for Nina Ultra Pro on Just Nice Things, I picked up the lovely:
             Nina Ultra Pro in Punki Pink
             Nina Ultra Pro in Tangerine Dream

These were about £4 each. I will soooo be buying more.

The best / worst part is that the buy one, get a Metro one free offer is on until the 14th of March. I trying to not go back. I'm trying. I'll fail.

And yes, I'm loving the oh-so-bright Neon of China Glaze's Purple Panic. Except, I can't call this purple. And it's near impossible to photograph. I can't wait to wear it with a tan! LOVE! And yes, I did photograph my nails whilst holding a screwdriver. I was at work and it was the closest thing that would work before someone saw me send a picture of my nails to many people. It was either that or air freshener.

Oh Sally's, you are one of the new loves in my life. Thank you for a wonderful shopping experience.

Hubby, thank you for finding me the bargains of the century!

And, readers - thank you for sticking with the posts of craziness!

Love,

Charlotte x

What Charlotte Did With Her Nails Whilst Neglecting Her Blog - Part III

Again, you say?

Yes - again! And yes, I am only posting the nails I liked.

So. When payday appeared (and disappeared very quickly) I allowed myself a little treat. I have been slowly building my China Glaze collection, and I treated myself to the Strong Adhesion Base Coat - which I lurve, and their 3D Glitter polish Prism. Glitters. I love them! Especially ones like this, that cover the nail in glitzy goodness! This is not your usual glitter polish - no one will mistake this for a sparkly top coat. Its beeeeauuuuuutiful!

This is it on my ring finger. Gorgeous shimmery, sparkly goodness in a bottle. I was so excited when this arrived!

The polish you can see on my other fingers, well... I can explain. It was just a slight slip. And the reason I have had to take packed lunches to work for an entire week.

It's OPI's I Don't Give A Rotter-Dam. You see, the hubby had to go to John Lewis, and he asked me if I would come along after work for some company. I thought it was sweet of him to ask me along - he said he wasn't going to be long, and he had missed me whilst we were at work, and it all felt very sweet. I had missed him too after all!

So we turned up at John Lewis, and he went off to do his man things, whilst I was abandoned left to wander around the beauty department. Now, he told me he wasn't going to be long. He was.

He was 30 minutes. Half an hour. Or, as I prefer to call it - a LIFETIME for a skint girl wandering around the land of temptation and bankruptcy. 

I tried to avoid it. But I couldn't. The OPI shelves, they called to me. Charlotte, they said, We have the new Holland collection. It's over here, weighing down our shelves, so heavy... Won't you help lighten our load? They whispered their sweet nothings to me, which I tried to rebuke - I can't afford you, I said, You only want me for my money and I have none!

I was on my knees in seconds and searching through the shiny glass bottles of temptation to find this. I Don't Give A Rotter-Dam. (The shelves were low down, I'm not that crazy!)

A delicious denim-y blue, with the slightest hint of grey and silver and gold sparkles.I have nothing like this in my collection. Correction, I had nothing like this.

I blame the hubby. If he hadn't have left me alone for so so (so) long, it would never have come to this.

£11 for one bottle of polish is a lot for me. I mean, I purchased Prism and Strong Adhesion off Amazon, and the two bottles came to £12. TWO!

I just could not help myself (still the husband's fault!).

And I'm glad I got it. Packed lunches aren't so bad. And this is divine.

There-in lay another dilemma. I purchased I Don't Give A Rotter-Dam on Tuesday night, and my China Glazes arrived Wednesday morning. As you can see, instead of picking one, I picked both! Accent finger!! Yayy!

Just so you can see how wonderfully glitzy Prism is, I have included this blurred shot, which gives you a great idea of how many colours and sparkles are packed into this polish!

This is two coats of both polishes. A weird thing happened to me with these. I wanted to keep applying them, despite the fact I didn't have to. I guess it's like eating cake even if you're not hungry. You just want to! They were a pleasure to apply, and lasted really well. I used them with my base coat, and managed to keep this going for three days with only minor tip wear. I only took it off as I was bored.

The moral of this story: I may be skint and living off beans on toast for a while, but it is totally worth it for these polishes!

And it is still the hubby's fault, after all!

What Charlotte Did With Her Nails Whilst Neglecting Her Blog - Part II

Hello again,

My posts are like buses - you wait weeks for one to turn up, and then they all turn up at once! Haha!

Anyway, up next we have a polish which applied beautifully, cost next to nothing, and looked lovely - for all of about two minutes. 


This jumped into my trolley whilst I was food shopping - yes food shopping - as in, having no intention of buying anything nail related - in my local Asda. It's called Twister, and was on offer for only £1.25. Bargain. Well, almost. We all know I love a bargain - in fact, I think I say that in most of my posts, so it has to be true. I think of bargains, and I think of many of my favourite ELF polishes. So many polishes, at £1.50 a go! So much fun to be had there! And I have had more good ones than mediocre ones. Bargain!!
So far, this is not a bargain.

Anyway, back to Twister. Despite the fact that this looks a little ridgy on, the colour is pretty. So pretty. Pretty enough to ignore the ridges.  A lovely dusky and metallic purple, that dries verrrrry quickly and looks gorgeous on.

Yes, that is a cat's bottom in the background of this picture. This is Jinx, who is gorgeous and sweet but as mad as a hatter! She was chasing her own tail during this mani. Yes. Her tail. I think the bright pink mousie next to her put her up to it! She's a strange one but soooo affectionate and adorable!




Anyway, I digressed again. I added a glossy black stripe to this polish, which I feel made my nails look like classy little gift boxes. No bow, so probably one you'd give to a man, but I liked it all the same.

Unfortunately, you can already see in this picture, a chip has miraculously appeared. Already. Whilst sat relatively still, at a desk. Taking photo's. Hardly digging around in rocks, or anything else equally as crazy or nail destroying!

Since this manicure, I have purchased China Glaze's Strong Adhesion Base Coat. Which I love. Oh yessss! So, when I get bored / experimental, I will try the Twister with the adored base coat, and see if I can make it last longer than two minutes. I mean, all I ask is a day. In fact 12 hours - not a lot really, but it's rare that I keep my polish the same for more than two days! If China Glaze manages to save this polish, I will let you know, as then I will be able to recommend it. For now I won't, as it seems a waste of £1.25. Not a huge amount, but no one buys polish to look at it in the bottle.

/Sigh

Update: What Charlotte Did With Her Nails Whilst Neglecting Her Blog - Part I

Hi Everyone,

Please allow me to start with an apology. I am very sorry that I have neglected my blog - it was my honest intention to blog at least every few days, but as you can see (or not see - how paradoxical) I have been naughty. If there was an Internet Society for the Protection of Blogs, I can only assume someone would have called tweeted them to alert them of my abuse. And yes, I know I should sort myself a new twitter account for my blog, but... you know... when twitter and other peoples blogs become the only thing I read there is a total imbalance in the world. Like the Butterfly Effect; instead of butterflies causing hurricanes on the other side of the globe, I cause authors to starve. Or something.

Anyway, I am going to spam you with some photos of random nails I have been mostly wearing over the past few days weeks. And so.... Here begins Part I. Enjoy!

Here are my somewhat greyish Gobstopper Nails! I started with a base colour of two coats of OPI's Skull And Glossbones - a recent 'lemming' acquisition for me. I've seen so many people use it that I had to have it too. And there was the Lena White January sale. It would have been rude not to! I'm glad you agree!

Then for funsies - as you do - I added the lovely grilac (yes, that's a grey lilac, if you must know) Planks A Lot, also from OPI. I can remember doing these nails and being unable to decide which colour to paint my nails with for work. And with indecision comes the justification of having both. Yes, we all do it - some of us just can't admit it. How many times have you bought the same pair of shoes in different colours as you can NOT decide and can think of a MILLION outfits both pairs will go with and so you would be stupid and MISSING OUT if you didn't have both pairs. I mean, how many people would be laughing at you for not getting the other colour too? Exactly.

Finally, I topped it off with Mavala's lovely little New York, just to finish the grey theme. I do love the Mavala polishes - they are a little luxury treat. Every time I pop into my local John Lewis I have to have a peek at their range - at £4.10 a bottle, why not? Although, they are normally situated right next to the OPI range. At £11 a bottle (gone up from £10.50 - pfft) it's easier to justify a Mavala purchase! And I haven't tried one that didn't apply well!

Although this was my first go at this kind of manicure, I can't say I've impressed myself. Personally, I love the mix of colours, but I think this makes my long nails look a bit claw-ish. It's something I will likely try again when my nails are shorter. Looking back, it's not my tidiest attempt either. On a more positive note however, I think it's nice to try to spice up our greys a bit - why should they always look dull and boring?

My greys can have their bit of nail-time before spring pops along and brings everything pastelly and sweet with it!