Miss Sporty & Mr M - Pink & Gold Fit For a Princess!

16:55 Posted In , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Edit This 0 Comments »
 Last post, I promise, then I'm back up to date!

Whether you are excited about the royal baby or not, a new Princess is a great excuse to crack out some gorgeous pink polishes! Congratulations to the happy family on their new arrival. :)

I have to admit, I never really gave Miss Sporty make-up the time of day before. I have very sensitive skin which tends to flare up with cheap drugstore brands, so I never really visited the Miss Sporty stands. That and I hate spherical polish bottles as they are very hard to empty! However, in the interests of blogging (= they were reduced and gorgeous), I picked up two "Crush On You" polishes.

Well, I'm sorry, Miss Sporty, for I had misjudged you. The colours are stunning, cover well and, though I'm not fond of the "crushed" texture (if polish isn't smooth it fidgets me), it lasted beautifully under a couple of top coats. So much so, in fact, that when it started to grow out I decided to try a trick I spotted on xoVain and fill in with some glitter.

Also, the three photos below show what a difference lighting makes, especially with glitter polishes! They look like two different colours!

Miss Sporty "Crush on You - 065"


Topped with Barry M "Aquarium - Treasure Chest"


Catch-Up Post...Many Manis!

16:32 Posted In , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Edit This 0 Comments »
I have taken a lot more photos than I have posted recently, here's a quick catch-up of the manis you missed. In many of them I am holding random objects, but it just happened to be the only decent shot of that polish!

My first attempt at water marbling.





Nude by Nails Inc, gold foil effect by GOSH.

Models Own "Freak Out - Mirror Ball"

Barry M I believe it is "Cocoa", with OPI glitter tips from the Moulin Rouge collection.

Barry M "Amethyst" and Black Multi glitter with nude stripe (using French Tip stickers as masking tape).

OPI Crackle "Shatter The Scales"

Models Own "Magpie Green"


Miss Sporty "Crush On You - 063"

  Bridesmaid nails! Subtle and summery to match my dress, all colours Models Own Hyper Gel "Lilac Sheen" and "Purple Glare", and glitter Models Own "Mermaid Tears - Splash".



Eep! Naked! Take II! Seeing as how the last post of my natural nails is one of the most popular, here you go again. This time much longer. I'm guessing they are either recently buffed or have a slick of OPI Nail Envy.

Cinderella Butterflies

12:25 Posted In , , , , , , , , , Edit This 0 Comments »
These were meant to be shared for the Cinderella premiere but, as you can see, I suck at posting things lately. Sorry about that! I have been busy setting up my Etsy shop, Blissikins Boutique, and making lots of lovely things to stock it, as well as doing a few craft fairs along the way.

As I have now invested a little money here (you can now find the blog at www.ynails.co.uk! Much less typing!) I hope my dedication to blogging will increase. :) I certainly have enough photos and new polishes to keep me going for a while.

I made the error of using a Hard Candy polish which is probably older than some of you reading this right now. Cue muchos bubbles. :S But, never mind. The glitter is a combination of cheap silvers, topped off with OPI Nicki Minaj in "Save Me". True story, I picked this up for $8 in Florida when it was being sold in the UK for £18. Yes, I got two bottles!

Recently I discovered a fabulous site here in the UK called Charlie's Nail Art. They sell a wide variety of nail trimmings, including 3D pieces and water decals, stamping plates, glitters, cuticle tattoos, wraps, tools, false nails and gems. All the items they sell are great value, and their delivery is usually next day.

I picked up these metal butterflies used below, 25 pieces for 75p as well as some other items, some for my nails and some for my resin craft. I can't wait to show them all to you!

The butterflies are beautifully delicate and very easy to use. To make them fit better on the nail I picked them up on the pad of my finger and rubbed them gently on the edge of something (I used the edge of a Nails Inc bottle cap). This gives them just enough curve to sit nicely on the nail without sharp bits sticking up and getting in the way. They are so delicate that I found I didn't need to use glue, wet polish is enough to hold them on easily.

Butterfly nail decals from Charlie's Nail Art, 75p/25 pieces.

OPI Nail Tints

15:41 Posted In , , , , , , , , , , , , Edit This 0 Comments »
You guys...I'm in love. There. I said it.

I recently ordered some OPI nail tints and I LOVE them. Buy some. You will love them too. I almost guarantee it.

The tints come in four colours; Be Magentale With Me (pink), I'm Never Amberbarassed (yellow), I Can Teal You Like Me (blue) and Don't Violet Me Down (purple), .

Here you can see them on white (excuse the checky pattern showing through, I just grabbed an old envelope to test some swatches!), and over silver (Maybelline Colour Show 231 "Light Up").

One coat (top), two (thick) coats (bottom).




"Base coat" of GOSH (silver (I believe it's 555 but I've misplaced the bottle!)), Maybelline 231 "Light Up", and Barry M 439 "Starlight". If anything slightly disappointed me about this mani, it was that the stars sort of got lost in there once the colour was over the top. The little stars are so cute!

I wanted to create a rainbow effect so cuticle to tip I painted pink, yellow, blue and purple, overlapping them slightly. 

One coat of colour. You can see the rainbow coming together. You can also see my sloppy painting. Sorry. The formula felt a little weird to me, thicker and more gelatinous than normal polish. I guess if you are used to using gel-effect polish you might not notice? They're not my favourite polish texture to work with.

Two coats of tint. Sloppier painting. I apologise for not cleaning up before I took photographs, but I was SO excited with the finish!

I will definitely be trying a LOT more with these!


Ohmigod! Ohmigod, You Guys!

10:08 Posted In , , Edit This 0 Comments »
...What do I spy with my little eyes?! (Bonus points for spotting the musical reference...).

Anyway. Meadowhall has a BRAND NEW ARRIVAL!
*squee*
Aaaaaaarghthere'saModelsOwnBottleShopInMeadowhall!!!!!!!!!!! W00T!!

Models Own went under my radar for the longest time, I only tried one of their products for the first time a few weeks ago (Apple Pie scented nail polish. It's as amazing as it sounds), but I was really impressed, so I was very excited to hear that they were bringing a bottle shop to Meadowhall! Another bonus locals will recognise instantly is that they have replaced the soap-hawkers who accosted you every time you tried to walk past them with their tiny cubes of soap (which a relative of mine took, thinking it was a piece of Turkish Delight...True story).

I would never believe how much stuff they can cram into two tiny aisles of goodies. Plus if you visited in the first couple of days, you got a free gift.

(Only the mirror was the freebie).



OK, the polish wasn't free (unless you're my husband...Then I definitely did not buy more nail polish...*whistles innocently*).

The Models Own range was already available in Boots, but the benefit of a bottle shop is that you can talk to someone who knows the ins and outs of every product in detail. I was helped by the lovely Chelsea (Hi Chelsea! *waves* ), who was extremely knowledgable on all the products, and also made sure to mention one of my very favourite points about Models Own...It's Cruelty-Free! You can read more about it here (where someone else has handily done the research so I didn't have to type it all up. Thanks Humanely Chic!).

They do also have a full range of other make-up, but, hello! I did not get excited about a shop in a giant nail polish bottle to go there and look at lipstick. I'm sure you can find a blog for that sort of thing elsewhere.

I picked up one of the new Hyper Gel colours ("Coral Glaze"), which I'll get around to reviewing over the summer. The best point so far is that it seems to be a near-perfect match for my current absolute favourite colour from Accessorize which is only available in a kit. Fingers crossed I have found a worthy successor to Sandstone coral. It certainly looks it so far (moreso in natural daylight).

Have I found an heir to the coral throne?

There is SO much more that I want to test when I can afford to hit up the bottle shop again, particularly these (pictures from Models Own site):




And obviously EVERYTHING from the Wonderland collection. Roll on pay day! :)


Ferity Mood Polish (Pink). Plus!! We Boldly Go Where No YNails Blog Has Gone Before...

14:27 Posted In , , , Edit This 0 Comments »
I hit up eBay a while ago and bought three different colours of the Ferity "Miss Match" mood polish.

I'm discovering that people *ahem* under a certain age, shall we say, (alright, people considerably younger than me), have never heard of mood polish. Your loss, '90s/'00s kids! ;)

I have to say, I wasn't blown away by the Ferity polish. I'm guessing from the (downright adorable) crayon-shaped bottle cap that it might be aimed more at children. It was a bit watery and the coverage wasn't overly impressive until I had three coats of it on. At £3.50 for a 4.2ml bottle, it's not very cost-effective if you have nails long enough to get the French manicure effect with it.


Ferity "Miss Match" Mood Sensitive in #286 - Pink Mood, and Nails Inc Marylebone Passage.

Here...Is where it gets exciting folks. A first for Ynails. A first for me in general. I don't wish to alarm you, but...


We're going AUDIO-VISUAL!!

*gasp* 

Roll VT...


Gold Mint Moon

04:56 Posted In , , , , , Edit This 0 Comments »
As some of you know, I work in retail.  That gives me a great access to what people are wearing, the good and the bad (people shopping in onesies, I'm looking at you...And it's with stink-eye). One thing I love at the moment is the gorgeous cool minty greeny-blue that's out there at the moment.

I went for a browse and found the perfect shade for me, Models Own "Apple Pie". This is the first MO polish I have used, and I have to say I was impressed. Being in a rush I didn't actually notice that it is part of their scented range, and really does smell of apples! I was skeptical of the apple fragrance, but I have to say you really can smell the apples. I put top-coat on and you can even smell it slightly through that for a few hours (it had worn off by the time I woke up the next day, put it that way). It's not a strong smell, you have to be pretty close to be able to smell it. Which in our house leads to...


Yup. Classy lady right here. ;)


I LOOOOOOOVE this colour. The gold is GOSH "554 - Gold", which is another one of my favourites. Don't mind the bizarre pattern on my thumb. The initial design went wrong. This was the best (sucky) way to cover it up. :S