Recent (*cough*) Manicures.... Christmas (*cough cough*)

Hi Everyone!

Yes, I know you're all rolling your eyes at this one. Me too.

I'm rubbish.

But I wanted to share these pictures anyway, and I'm not waiting another ELEVEN months. Although, when I say it like that, it doesn't sound so far away... eeek!

First of all, I'm going to show you Sophie - my sister-in-law's nails. I loved doing her nails, and to be fair, she let me go a bit wild with them. Her nails are so tiny and delicate, it was hard to get the exactly how I wanted them, as I'm used to doing nail art on my own nails! But to be fair, I was pretty happy with the result!!

 For this mani I used China Glaze's Ruby Pumps (PERFECT Christmas red), MUA's Fairy Dust Nails in Glitter Wings and my white nail art pen. Oh, and a LOAD of gems and topcoat!!

Thumb to Pinky: Candy Cane Stripes, Shimmery Gold with red diamond gems, Red and White snowflake with diamante accent, free-handed red heart, and finally - Ruby Pumps and 'rubies'!! A bit of extra bling for Christmas haha!!

My own mani was a bit more muted as I was working all over Christmas, and there was no way I would be able to keep the gems in place! In fact, I only managed to take one measly picture of it. Hectic work = blogging mojo gone!

Anyway, This was Ruby Pumps over a base of Barry M's Gold Foil!

 

Simple, but sparkly and satisfying! 

Thanks for reading,

Love Charlotte x

2013 Catch Up! OPI On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Hi Everyone,

Despite my adoration (yes, I do love it that much) for The Man With The Golden Gun, this is my favourite from the Skyfall collection. I love the steely grey base, and the shimmer. Ohhhhh, this shimmer is pretty special. It's just beautiful.

Photo Spam!!

 

Sorry for the giant spam, but what can I say? I am loving this polish! I love the steely, almost masculine base, that is made so pretty by the multi-coloured sparkles. The sparkles themselves use the same colours you'll find in The Living Daylights - the more grown up version of Rainbow Connection. I spot a rusty orangey bronze, a jade green, a few hints of blue, gold and silver.  It was beautiful to apply - a dream polish!!

What do you think of this polish? Let me know,

Love Charlotte x

2013 Catch Up! OPI The Man With The Golden Gun

Hi Everyone,

Yes, I bought it. The Limited Edition 18k gold top coat.

My excuse? It was on Buyapowa for about £18. That's about £12 cheaper than retail. T'was a bargain!

And yes, I am so pleased that I did. It's just gorgeous!

This was a quick coat over Casino Royale... whilst I was in work. Yeah.... I so could NOT wait until I got home! I think my boss was more confused about me getting so excited over the arrival of this little one. I don't think he saw that value in an 18k top coat! But I do! Instant mani transformer. From simple to glam in one stroke of a brush!

Did you get the The Man With The Golden Gun? What's your favourite combination? I can't wait to try it over white in the Summer!

Love Charlotte x

2013 Catch Up! OPI Casino Royale

Hi everyone,

Now I've worked through my old drafts, I'm just gonna spam a few sets of swatches that have been hanging around on my desktop. I have it in my head that I would like to be organised ready for my first Blogiversary (?) on the 31st of January. That will be one whole year of blogging! Its crazy how quickly time has passed!

Anyway, the first polish pics on the pile are from last year's Skyfall collection. Might I say that this has been my favourite OPI collection so far. I loved it.So yes, a few of these catch ups WILL be from the Skyfall collection. You know my motto by now, better late than never!!

I loved the rich, pinky berry colour of this polish! It was instantly a favourite - it's rather a glam polish on the nail. I didn't love the application. It shows up a bit streaky, and I found it difficult to control and needed a bit of clean up. I also don't think it's a unique colour - over Christmas I saw plenty of brands offering this kind of shade. But still, it's a pretty one! And I'm glad I've got it :)

What do you think? Are you a fan of the Skyfall collection?

Love Charlotte x

A Layering Experiment - Fantasy Fire + Beach Bum Blu

Hi Everyone!

I've been playing around with Fantasy Fire (you know, THAT Max Factor polish which sent everyone into a tizz last year) for a while now, and I am looking for the perfect base for layering. I've tried a few different combinations, but I thought I'd share a quick example I tried after swatching Essie's Beach Bum Blu.

On all pictures, my index and pinkie are just the BBB, my middle finger has BBB with 1 coat of FF, and my ring finger is BBB with 2 coats of FF!

Make sense? I hope so!!

I think that this makes quite an interesting combination, and it's a nice change from the typical dark blue or purple bases!

Whats your favourite base colour for Fantasy Fire?

Let me know,

Love Charlotte x

Essie - Beach Bum Blu

Hi Everyone!

This next polish makes me wonder why I picked it up. I'm not the biggest fan of wearing blue polish. And I don't wear foil / metallic polish very often. So picking up a polish that is a blue foil? A little bit random for me...!

To be fair though, it is a beautiful blue, and quite a soft foil too! Its a more Summery colour, I would say - and I imagine it would look awesome with a decent tan! But foils remind me of Christmas treats and tinsel, so we'll take a look at it now! (I know, I'm so impatient!!)

As its a foil, there are a few brush strokes, but nothing major - its a much softer look! The blue has a slight tinge of turquoise to it, which makes it that little bit more interesting. And as always, the formula and application were excellent - I love the Essie brush!

What do you think? Tan or tinsel?

Let me know,

Love Charlotte x

Essie Chinchilly - Better Late Than Never!

Hi Everyone,

Today I'm going to share one of my lemmings with you. It's been a long time coming, and it's one I should have picked up sooner, but you know, I wasn't sure if Essie was worth the hype. I mean, could they be as good as my beloved China Glaze - considering they're around about the same price?

(The answer to that one by the way, is YES.)

Chinchilly is one of those polishes that I kept seeing all over the internet for a while. I saw it, so I wanted it. And the name (always important) is fun to say. Chinchilly! Feels good, doesn't it?!

So lets take a look, hey?

 

What can I say...? Gorgeous, isn't it?! A beautiful minky, brownish grey - such a soft and elegant colour. It's grown up glamour, work appropriate and always on trend.

Lovely to apply (as per usual) with a great brush. This was two coats, and is shown without a top coat.

I'm in love... aaaaaahhhh...!

Do you have Chinchilly in your stash? What are your nail polish lemmings?

Let me know,

Love Charlotte x

Essie - Sexy Divide

Hi Everyone,

It would appear that I have fallen for another brand of polishes. I am cheating on China Glaze. And OPI. And, well lots of other brands that I have been loving for a while now. What can I say, I'm a loving girl!

Beth - fairy glam-mother,  blogger, and fellow polish fiend - has been telling me for ages now that Essie polishes are awesome.

They're expensive, I said - I can get a China Glaze for that.

She rolled her eyes at me, and told me again that I should try them. She loves them, so I probably would too.

If there's one thing you should know about Beth, she is ALWAYS right. I can't think of a time where she was wrong. I wish I could... only joking... But seriously, the girl knows things.

When the latest lot of mail came from Boots (Double Advantage points... WOOO!) I noticed that they had three for two on all cosmetics. You know where this is going, right?

If I was going to buy some Essie polishes, I was going to do it whilst they were on offer... and had double points!

I had been lusting after Essie Chinchilly for a while. When I first started reading blogs, it was everywhere and I guess it just stuck in my head. I really wanted to look at the Mirror Metallics range too, but the Essie stand in my local Boots is tiny, so no go there. I got my Chinchilly, Beach Bum Blu and this.... Sexy Divide.

It's a deep, rich Cadbury's-esque purple, which is very very shiny. I don't think I have a polish which is quite as glassy as this one. My nails were like stained glass windows, rich, and full of glossy colour. When the light hits them... WOW!

The purple shows up little flecks of blue and red, but has an almost blackened base to it. It's certainly very sexy, as the name suggests.

The formula is beautiful. In fact, with just one stroke of the rather lovely brush, I knew I was converted. This is just two coats. Sadly, my only issue is that after one day I had quite a bit of tip wear and a few little chips. After two days - even after tip repair, I had bigger chips - and that evening, cooking with olive oil led me to have some rather nasty peeling. But still, it's not like I normally wear polishes for that long. I can forgive that.

So, where do I sign for the Essie fan club. I want my membership!

What are your favourite Essie polishes? Let me know!

Love Charlotte x

M+S Mash Up

Hi Everyone!

After picking up a few polishes in the Marks and Spencer's beauty hall, I noticed that they had the same shimmer running through them. The first one being Cappuccino, which I posted about here and the second one being the Lilac polish. They both share a rather pretty golden shimmer, and so because of this, I decided to try a slight gradient mani with the two of them!

Here's what I came up with!

What I love about this mani, is how the lilac only shows up in a brighter light - blink and you can miss it as the golden shimmer just brings the two colours together! Its an unusual combination of colours, and I think it just about works!

What do you think about this combination? Do you think it works?

Let me know,

Love Charlotte x

Hello Stranger...

Well, hi there!

Long time no see! Just stopping in to check that we're all OK.

I know its been a while (2 months to be fair) but I've had a bit of a break from the Internet - blogging, twitter and instagram. Its time to ease myself back in ;)

We've had Christmas and New Year - both extremely busy and stressful times of the year for someone who works in retail. I have just been so tired, so working, and falling asleep on the sofa has been my routine for a while now.

I've joined a gym. Well, actually, I joined ages ago, but illness and knee pain has kept me from going. Not any more; now it's time to get myself sorted out, lose some weight and strengthen my poor knees! Which means a lot of my time will be spent slogging it out on a treadmill. Bleurgh!

I've had a lot of bad nail breaks. Like, a lot. Every time my nails would start getting back to a level of normality, another one would go. And it completely stripped my nail / blogging mojo. I started leaving polish on for a few days at a time, which is not like me. My nails are still not up to my preferred level, but I've been slapping on the Nail Envy and taking supplements like nobodies business. And they're getting better.

So, whats changed, you might ask.

Well, it's nearly my blogiversary - one whole year of Nails and Tales.And there is so much I still haven't done. SO I want to get my blog back into shape, not just me!

After buying (and almost filling) my first nail-only Helmer (LOVE) I've been remembering old forgotten purchases. And setting myself goals to actually use them.

I've been doing the occasional mani for my sister and sister-in-law. Playing with nail art, and generally having fun. Its time I gave myself time to do it for me too!

Over the next few days, I'll be spamming a few photos I have taken over the Christmas period, and a few old forgotten posts from before my unintended break. And then I'll be starting to try some new things too, and get back into nail art, rather than just polish! Wish me luck!

I hope you've all had a fab Christmas and New Year - I wish you all the best for 2013, and I'll see you guys soon!

Happy Polishing,

Love Charlotte x