Pretty In Pink - My Favourite Summer Nail Polishes & Matching Lipsticks

Call me a typical girly girl, but I just love when my nails and lipstick match. I don't know why but it satisfies me immensely and I just love the way the colours pair off beautifully. As summer is the season where I tend to wear non stop pink on my lips I thought today I would put together a few of my favourite pink nail polishes that are sure to match any pink lipstick in your collection.

MUA Lush Lilac

Starting with the lightest shade, this pastel nail polish from MUA is actually not a pink but a very muted lilac. I just love these kind of polishes that have a slight hint of colour but lean more towards a white shade. I think for summer anything that sort of resembles a white nail polish really enhances a tan and gives any manicure a really clean and polished look. I love wearing pink tinted lip glosses in the summer, so this polish pairs with them beautifully.

Nail Girls Colour

It really bugs me when a nail polish doesn't have a name and this one from Nail Girls is one of them, but the actual colour is gorgeous and its one my favourite type of pinks to wear. I would describe this colour as a bubblegum pink; It's soft, understated but girly at the same time. I wear a lot of lipsticks in this kind of colour, especially Mac's Chatterbox and Lovelorn and this shade compliments them both beautifully.

Nails Inc Gel Effect Polish - Covent Garden Place

When it comes to high shine nail polishes, the ones that create that gel effect are great. I'm a big fan of the Nails Inc Gel polishes as they are super shiny and give my nails that really polished professional manicure look. I think this shade is such a beautiful bright bold pink that is really fun to wear in the summer and its one of those pinks that looks killer with a tan. I wore this a lot when I was on holiday in Turkey and it just made me feel really sun kissed. I love matching this shade to Mac's Impassioned as it's a match made in heaven.

Barry M - Fuchsia

Everyone needs a really good fuchsia pink in their nail collection and one of my favourites has to be this one from Barry M. When it comes to nail polish Barry M are without a doubt my favourite brand.  I love wearing a deep fuchsia pink lipstick on a summers evening out so I often reach for this nail polish to complete my look.

Sinful Colours - 920

Now before your wonder and your mind gets carried away, I would just like to point out now that I do not own or wear any lipstick in this bright bold highlighter pink shade! However I adore this nail polish so much that I couldn't leave it out of this post. This crazily pink nail polish is one I've had in my collection for sometime and it only makes an appearance during the summer months. I love this polish when I'm looking to be a little bit more fun with my nail colour, although for me it's a little too daring for everyday especially with work. However I do love to rock this colour on my toe nails. I find you can be a little more adventurous when it comes to choosing your toe nail colour! Again this colour looks great if I have a tan, for some reason it doesn't work for me when I'm feeling a little pale - But overall I love it.

I feel like everyone has a preference in nail colour choices in the summer and as you can see my go to shades are pinks with a mix of bolds and pastels. I would love to know what your summer nail choices are and what your favourite nail polish is right now? Let me know in the comments.

Lots of Love

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Barry M Gelly Hi Shine Nail Paint in Mustard || NOTD

Autumn is slowly creeping upon us and I for one love the change of the seasons, particularly autumn as it just gives us so much to look forward too - I'm thinking cosy nights in, darker evenings, chunky knitwear, thick tights paired with ankle boots - the list goes on. One thing that really excites me about autumn has to be changing up our lipstick, makeup and of course the colour of our nails. 

I was taking a look though my nail collection the other day and felt so uninspired, there are so many brghts, pastels and glitters, but I noticed that I was really lacking in some of those perfect autumn shades. I had seen the Barry M Gelly Hi Shine Nail Paint in 'Mustard' float around on other blogs and Instagram and I longed to have this shade of polish and wear it on my nails. Let's just say as soon as I saw this is Boots it went straight into my basket. 

This is never a colour that I would normally wear, but I just know that it's going to look perfect on those cold autumn days where the golden leaves are all on the ground and I've got my hat and scarf on - Mustard is just going to be the perfect shade to wear on my nails and compliment any winter berry colour that I'm wearing, whether this be in my clothes or makeup. I really think this is going to be my go to autumn shade and I'm pleased to welcome it to my nail polish collection!

I would love to know what your go too autumn shade is and if your a fan of this saucy mustard colour.

Lot's of Love

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Barry M Chameleon Nail Pain | NOTD Review

Hi ladies. A little while ago I was sent the Barry M Chameleon Nail polish in the shade Lilac from the lovey Charlee as part of a beauty blogger swap. If you've not checked out her blog yet, you can do so here. So seeing as its Sunday and the weather is miserable, I thought it would be a good idea to stay in and do a quick and easy NOTD post for you. 

For those of you who don't know, Barry M released the Chameleon Nail Paints a little while ago, which are beautiful metallic shades of nail polish. However as soon as a clear top coat is added, the nail polish will instantly change colour, which makes these nail paints a little extra special. This magic changing colour nail polish makes nail art easy for beginners and makes for a fun nail polish to have in your collection.

If you love metallic finishing nail polishes, then you will instantly love this lilac shade on its own. It only needs one coat for a nice even look on your nails and once on your nails its the most beautiful lilac shade which has a glittery, sparkly undertone to it, with a foil like finish. I'd be quite happy to wear this polish just on its own and I think it will be perfect for the colder months as its a very 'wintery' looking polish, the words 'Snow Queen' come to mind when I wear this on it's own. 

However the magic really happens when you add your clear top coat to the dried lilac shade. As soon as the top coat is applied the metallic lilac shade will change colour and become this deep, royal purple, which has a 'jelly' like look to it. Unfortunately my camera and the lighting I had today failed to pick up the true colour of this deep purple, but if I had to describe it, I would have to say it reminds me of the 'Cadbury's' colour purple. 

You could transform your whole manicure with the application of a topcoat to and wear the deep Cadbury purple shade on your nails, or you could get creative with some little nail art designs as I have done. Stripes, spots and french manicure tips will work really well as a nail art design when using the Chameleon polish and it really does make nail art easy. The only thing I would suggest if you are wanting to do detailed nail art with this polish, is to use a clear top coat which has a thin brush as this will make doing your designs much easier. 

Overall I love this polish and I am definitely wanting to get my hands on the other shades, I believe there is a pink and blue one. If you are wanting to get your hands and give this polish ago you can find it at Boots which retails at £3.99. If any of you beauties have tried the other shades I would love to know your thoughts on them. 

Please excuse the state of my nails, they are cringe worthy I know, but work and the cold weather have not been kind too them. I am looking for something to help with cuticles, do you beauties have any good recommendations?

Beauty Swap

Hi girls, a little while ago Beauty Bloggers Unite (blog link here) announced on Twitter that they were looking for bloggers who wanted to participate in a Beauty Blogger Swap! As this is something I've always wanted to do as a blogger, I jumped at the chance to get involved and filled out all my info upon their blog. In no time at all Beauty Bloggers Unite paired me with the lovely Charlee over at Mystingaling blog and we both agreed on a budget of £13.00 to spend and we decided to just choose products that we thought the other would like, basing our decisions on the content of our blogs.

First of all, for those of you thinking about getting involved in a swap or get the chance too, I would definitely recommend you doing it as I literally had so much fun buying all my goodies for Charlee. It was like buying Christmas presents all over again! I always find that there is something so satisfying about buying things for other people and knowing that I was buying bits and bobs for another beauty blogger was lovely. I can only imagine this is because we both have the same passion about beauty and the whole time while picking out things I was thinking and asking myself questions such as 'will Charlee like this?, will it suit her skin tone?, does she like pink as much as me?' For me this was all part of the fun of the beauty swap, any excuse to buy makeup for myself or for another has to be top of the list of 'fun things to do'. 

So once sending my bits and bobs off in the post, the next part of the swap was me receiving my beauty bits from Charlee. It was lovely because we both managed to get our swaps on the same day! Big thanks to Mr. postman and Royal Mail! I was overwhelmed with how much effort Charlee put into her swap  for me, as I felt each gift was chosen with a lot of thought and it was clear to see that she had taken a lot of time to read my blog and have a look at what I liked, what suited me etc. I can honestly say I love each item and loved the surprise factor of it all!

So the final part of the swap, and is a must for any beauty blogger taking part in a swap has to be the blog post that follows up showing all the things that have been given. So below beauties you can see all the things that was sent to me from Charlee. Please be warned this is fairly picture heavy!

MUA Profesional Mosaic Bronzer 

I've heard a lot about this MUA Bronzer in the beauty blogger world, but have never gotten my hands on it just becasuse my Superdrug is poor and doesnt sell much MUA bits. I am so happy to have this in my collection and finally try it out.

NYC (New York Colour) Blue Eyelashes 

As you beauties know, I have been a little obsessed with falsies at the moment, and I adore these blue tinted lashes from NYC. I think that the tinted blue lashes at the end make these a little different and very wearable. I think these would look fabulous on a night out.

Cherry Carmex 

I am sure all of your beauty bloggers have gotten your hands on a pot of Carmex at some point n our lives and the cherry one has always been my favourite. I know this will be getting a lot of use, especially as we enter the colder months.

Garnier Skin Naturals Self Heating Sauna Mask

I love a good old pamper session and think that this Garnier one will be perfect for my skin, as it's suited for oily to combination skin. I shall have to let you beauties know how I get along with this one.

The Beauty Parlour Mattifying Papers 

Since I started blogging, I've heard a lot about these magical mattiifying papers which will remove any excess oil from the skin. Throughout the day I am always reapplying powder to get rid of any shine, so I'm really interested to see how these work and if they work.

Barry M Nail Paint in Chameleon Lilac

Charlee sure knows that I love my nail polish and I'm so excited that she popped this one in the swap as this is a colour I wouldn't have chosen myself. Not only is no ordinary nail polish, but its one that changes colour when you apply a top coat....amazing! This will definitely be featured in a future NOTD post.

So that's everything and I love all my bits. I shall be sure to do mini reviews on each of the items for you beauties, and let you know how I get on. I would also love it if you would take the time to have a look at Charlee's blog

Mystringaling

Not only will you find fabulous beauty blog content, but you will also get to see a post on the bits that I bought for her. 

Lots of Love

Cath Kidston On My Nails

Hi beauties. I'm pretty sure that those of you who are fans of Cath Kidston will have seen Cath Kidston inspired nail art, and seeing as I am a fan I just had to give it ago. If any of you follow Beth over at Bird Words Blog will have seen that she did a Cath Kidston design nail art post and I was so inspired at how easy she made it look that I wanted to see if I could create the look in my nails!.. Ok I basically just copied her exact design and mine are no way near as good. What can I say Beth your an inspiration! So please go check out her blog girlies, as its amazing!

http://birdle.blogspot.co.uk/

So if you might be thinking 'this design looks a bit tricky' which were my thoughts exactly. But once you break it down step by step its really quite simple and I think you could atempt this even if your a newbie at nail art! 

First of all you want to pick out your nail polishes, you will need a colour for the background, I've chosen the classic Cath Kidston blue, but a pink would look lovely with this design! A white for the clouds and dots, a pretty colour for the flowers and a green for the leaves.

Green - Barry M in Mint Green | Blue - Barry M in Blueberry Ice Cream | Pink - O.P.I in That's Berry Darling | White - Rio Profesional Nail Art Pen (Review Here) 

Start by painting your nails with your chosen base colour, I've done two coats with the Barry M in Blueberry Ice Cream

Once it has dried you want to draw little white clouds in opposite corners of your nails. I've used the Rio Profesional Nail Art pen for accuracy but you can achieve this with a normal nail polish brush or use a bobby pin opened out, draw the outline and fill it in with white polish.

When the white has dried you will want to add a little blob of colour in the middle of each cloud as this will be make up the flower. I've kept the design of my flower really simple, but if you check out Beth's Blog she has done advanced nail art flowers which are brilliant! 

Once your flowers have dried you can add another blob of green each side to create the leaves.

Then when your flowers are all dry, you will want to get your white polish and use your bobby pin or nail art pen to create little white dots that will outline around the clouds. 

Finish with a top coat to add shine and keep the chips at bay and you and your Cath Kidston nails are ready to go. 

Barry M Nail Paints | NOTD

So a little while ago Barry M (famous for their amazing Nails Paints) added some new shades to their collection and I was an extremely lucky Beauty Blogger as I managed to win three of them in a giveaway held by the lovely Ellie over at Style and Starbucks Blog. So a huge thank you to you Ellie for picking me. I would love it if you beauties could check out her blog which is amazing and filled with the most fabulous fashion posts, just pop over and say hello!

www.styleandstarbucks.blogspot.com

So these new shades may not be so new anymore, but they are beautiful never the less and they definitely deserve to be blogged about.  The three shades that arrived in the post this morning were 'Silvery Lilac' 'Denim' and 'Copper'.

I've read a lot of good reviews around the blogging world on all three of these fabulous shades and I was so excited when they came though the door. Being the beauty blogger that I am, I needed to get a colour on my nails right away and so I also have a NOTD for you lovelies. 

It was a hard choice as to what shade I wanted to pick first, but I decided to go with 'Silvery Lilac' as I think its by far the most interesting  and unique shade out of the three.

As you probably guessed by the name 'Silvery Lilac' is a combination of silver and lilac but with a duo-chrome metallic finish. One thing that I love about this polish is that it's filled with lots of subtle, yet very effective glitter bits which really make your nails shimmer and sparkle when the light hits it.

I have to say for the nail polish addict that I am, I don't have many duo-chrome shades in my collection, mainly because it's only there more expensive nail polish brands that do them. But Barry M have really made something special here with 'Silvery Lilac'. You get a good mix of purple, silver and even green colours when you look at your nails and overall I think its a really fun and wearable polish to have on your nails; perfect to wear on a night out on the town.

So this polish gets a huge nails up from me and I know that I will be getting a lot of use out of it, so another BIG thank you to Ellie for picking me as the winner of your giveaway as this is not a polish I would have picked out for myself.

And speaking of nail polishes, I have two that I picked up from Turkey that will be held in a giveaway for you all very shortly, so please keep up to date on my blog as I wouldn't want you to miss out on the nail polish love that will be going around.

Take Care Beauties 

Easter Nails! | NOTD

Hello Lovelies, I don't know about you, but I'm rather excited about it being Easter this weekend and to get in the mood I've come up with an Easter design on my nails. It's ever so easy and simple to do and not only would look perfect for Easter, but anytime this spring. 

To get this look all you need to do is choose two shades of nail polish that you think will look great together. I've used two Barry M Nails paints for my nails. When you've picked two gorgeous polishes, paint your nails alternating the colours. 

To achieve the dotting effect and the pretty little bow, I've used the Professional Nail Art Pens from Rio Beauty (full review here). I can not express how much these pens help to assist you on any nail art design as they literally do all the hard work for you, all you need is a steady hand! If you don't have any nail art pens, you can always use anything with a small tip such as a toothpick or kirbie grip / bobby pin. 

Randomly place dots all over your painted nails, but leave some space at the top of your ring finger, this is where the little bow will go. For the bow, I simply placed a dot in the centre and added two inward triangles on either side. When the bow has dried simply place a white dot in the middle. Once your nails have fully dried just add a top coat to add some shine and keep the chips at bay. 

I really love this design and think it's super cute. I've had a few people tell me that they look like mini Easter eggs! If you decide to give this ago please let me know as I would love see a picture of your take on the look. If your on Twitter just send me a picture on there @sunshinesprkle or showcase it on your own blog and send me a link in the comments. 

Lots of love