Showing posts with label UK indie. Show all posts

Nail-Art-A-Go-Go - Day 13 - Hearts

 Hi guys, and welcome to day 13 of the NAGG challenge.  The prompt for today is hearts - very fitting since it's Valentine's Day tomorrow.  Luckily, for those of you who aren't too keen on the holiday, I won't be posting any other Valentine's mani's after today, although I do have 2 more polishes from Indy's Indies Valentine's collections to show you tomorrow.

Today's mani also features an Indy's Indies polish - My Heart Skips a Beat, which you can see swatches of here.  I used 1 coat of MHSAB over black on the pointer and pinky, and on the middle and ring finger, I used just the smaller glitters from MHSAB over Revlon - Cupid, and stamped the black hearts from MoYou Pro 09 with Konad Black.
I wasn't exactly wowed by this mani at first, but it did grow on me.  I had originally planned to do something a bit different with the pink base, but it didn't work out, so the stamping was a back-up option.  I will be having another go with a different mani at some point though, so I won't tell you what it was just yet.
I will be back tomorrow with 2 posts - some Indy's Indies swatches, and my Day 14 mani.
In the meantime, why not check out the other heart mani's in the thumbnails below :)

pekal

Nail-Art-A-Go-Go - Day 6 - Neon

 Hi guys, and welcome to Day 6 of the NAGG challenge.  The prompt for today is neon, which gave me a chance to do an idea I've had in my head for a while now - a tape mani starring Indy's Indies - Rocket :D



I started with a base of Sinful - Snow Me White, and added 1 coat of Rocket on the index and pinky finger.  The tape mani was filled in with BYS - Pink Panic, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Brisk Blue, and Maybelline Colour Show - Green Zing.  The green was a bit of a pig to work with to be honest, even over a white base, it still took 3 coats to get the colour anywhere near even.  That alone, wouldn't have been too bad, but when I top coated the ring finger the green bled all over the place.  I gave the other ones at least an hours drying time before top coating them, but it still bled, just not quite as much.  Luckily, I only paid 60p for it from Fragrance Direct, so I'm more disappointed about ruining this mani, than wasting my money!
By the time I had finished this mani, I was kind of annoyed with it, and couldn't be bothered to clean up properly, so please forgive the green stuck to the side of my middle finger - I promise it's polish, not a bogey XD  I still think it's a pretty cool mani though, so I decided to stick with it for today.

All issues aside, what do you guys think of this mani?  Has it brightened your day with it's neon-ey goodness?  Doesn't rocket look awesome over white!?
Don't forget to check out the other neon mani's in the thumbnails below :)

pekal

Nail-Art-A-Go-Go - Day 2 - Jewel Tones

Hi guys, welcome to Day 2 of the NAGG challenge!  The prompt for today is one I was looking forward to right away - Jewel Tones.  I love a good Jewel Tone, and already had this mani planned out before I joined the challenge.  After all, what's better than an A-England?  That's right - 2 A-Englands!

 So, I paired Perceval with Avalon in a really simple gradient.  Normally, I would do some stamping or add some glitter over a gradient, but these 2 colours are so gorgeous that I didn't want to cover any of them up, and opted to leave them as is.  I'm pretty glad I did, I love these colours together so much!
I also adore the way these 2 mix in the middle, in this macro shot, you can see all the little bits of shimmer mixing with each other, it's fabulous!
Now, you guys know I am a matte whore, so I couldn't resist trying it, but I did wear it glossy for a day first - the lit-from-within look you get from these polishes is too beautiful no to.
 Please forgive the few glossy edges near the cuticles - they were really hard to spot in real life. (and the weird lump on the index finger, which I couldn't seem to fix)  Perceval actually seemed to retain it's glowy look even when matte, although I did find it near impossible to capture on camera.  I am definitely planning on doing another matte mani with it in the future though, and hopefully, I'll be able to show you what I'm talking about :)
I do think I prefer the glossy one out of the 2, but without comparing the 2, the matte is also fab, just in a very different way ;)
As always, I'd love to know what you guys think of this pairing?  Prefer the matte or the glossy?  Let me know via the comments below.
And don't forget to check out all the other beautiful jewel toned mani's that are being added to the thumbnails below throughout today.

pekal

Hairy Legs London - Bad Luck

 Hi guys, today I have a swatch to show you from Hairy Legs London.  I have been sitting on this swatch for a while now - at first, it was because the shop was closed for the holidays, then when it re-opened, I just didn't quite get around to it until now :)

This is called Bad Luck, and I was actually lucky enough to win this in a giveaway way back in October, I think.  It's a mixture of metallic silver shards, blue-green iridescent clear shards, and white flakies.  This is 1 slightly thicker coat, over Revlon - Royal. The formula was pretty easy to work with, I don't think I had to place any extra shards on the nail, but it has been a while, so I could be wrong.
I love this polish, it really does look like pieces of a smashed mirror, and those blue-green iridescent shards are just beautiful.  I think this would look fantastic over any dark colour really, but blue and black would probably be my favourites.
 I am pleased to be able to tell you that this polish is still available, despite my late posting, so if you like it, you can still find it in the Etsy store here.  You can also follow Hairy Legs on Facebook here.

pekal

Indy's Indies - Valentines Collection Part 2

  *Some products in this post were discounted in exchange for review.
Hi guys, today I have the next 2 polishes from Indy's Indies Valentine's Day Collection.  I can also now confirm that there will be a part 3 to this review, there were 2 more I just couldn't resist getting, so hopefully I'll have that ready sometime near the end of the week.
I know I have been posting a lot of swatches recently, but that's because I'm prepping for a challenge next month, so I will be posting a solid month of nail art in February. Hope you guys aren't getting sick of them yet, but if you are then art is just around the corner :)

So, let's start with Toxic Love, which is a mixture of baby pink fine glitter, black and pink shards, black squares, and baby pink skull shape glitters.  This was the first polish that jumped out to me, you guys know I have a weakness for skull glitter so I had to get this one.
This is 1 coat over Gallery Colours - Silver Moon.  Naturally, I placed the skulls where I wanted them, but the rest of the pieces came out of their own accord, I had no problems with application.
I used 2 coats of Gelous to smooth it out, especially since I was planning to mattify this one too.
And the matte pictures............
The difference isn't that noticeable in the photos, but it was a lot more obvious in real life.  I think I preferred it matte, but I'm still not totally sure.
The second polish is My Heart Skips a Beat.  This contains, matte and holo red hearts, pink and baby pink matte hearts, red and pink fine holo glitter, pink and red shards, baby pink and red matte fine glitter, red squares and pink hexes.  This is 1 coat over Sinful Colors - Black on Black.  The fine glitters applied like a dream, and I just added the hearts afterwards.  The hearts did come out really easily, but I prefer to place them - it would really bug me if they were upside-down :D
 Holy crap that's beautiful!  This polish is definitely my favourite out of the 4 which was surprising - I really expected it to be Toxic Love.  I'm pretty sure I used 3 coats of Gelous for this one - I mean look at that shine!  I actually loved this mani so much that I couldn't bring myself to mattify it either, so sorry guys, but no matte photos for this beauty - I hope you understand :D
I don't think there's anything else I can say about this other than that it is stunning, and I love it!
This collection was released on Saturday, so you can find them in the Etsy store here right now, and as always, you can stalk Danielle and her lovely polishes on Facebook here.

I'll be back tomorrow with.....................something - I don't know what yet, but it will be pretty :)

pekal

Indy's Indies - Valentine's Collection - Part 1

  *Some products in this post were discounted in exchange for review.
Hi guys!  I recently received 4 of the polishes from Indy's Indies Valentine's Collection for review, and I have decided to break it up into 2 parts since I couldn't resist mattifying 3 out of the 4 swatches.  I will be posting the other 2 polishes on either Tuesday or Wednesday this week.



 So, the first one I have to show you is Broken Hearted, which is pink, black and red shards and squares in a clear base.  I've layered 1 coat over Sinful Colors - Snow me White.  I added 1 or 2 of the massive shards to a couple of nails, but due to most of the pieces being small, this polish was very easy to apply. I only used 1 thick coat of top coat for these swatches.  It's a good idea to check that the larger shards aren't sticking up before top coating - one of mine was, so I just used my finger to gently flatten it when the polish underneath was still tacky before glossing up.
I'm not really a fan of white nails, but I really like this combo.  The stark white background really shows all the angles of the shards, and makes for a very dramatic look.  Very fitting since the polish represents pieces of a broken heart.
I knew that I wanted to mattify this as soon as I saw the bottle, so here are the results.
The second polish I will be showing you today, is Forever Alone.  This is a mix of 2 shades of pink hearts, pink and white matte dots, pink and white shreds, small white hexes, and fine baby pink glitter.
I layered 1 coat over Rimmel Lycra Pro - Ultra Violet.  As you would expect, this polish was a little harder to apply than the first one, I did fish for a few extra hearts and dots, but no harder than any other shaped glitter polish.  A big plus is that there is a good distribution of them throughout the bottle, so fishing for them was an easy task.
I used 2 coats of Gelous under my Seche Vite to make sure this was smoothed out nicely.  This is especially important if you're planning to use a matte top coat later - mine is quite thin, and does not respond well to being painted over something lumpy (NYC Matte me Crazy if you're wondering.)
 Apologies for the top coat stuck around my cuticles, it's amazing how something can look fine to the naked eye, but take a Macro photo and suddenly you see all these problems that weren't there before!
Hopefully the pretty polish is enough to distract you from it :D
I actually found that I liked both these polishes more in the matte swatches, but they both look fab glossy too.  I think Danielle has created another winning collection here - the other 2 I have are both amazing, and I can't wait to show you them either.
 I should probably warn you, that there are still 2 more polishes from this collection that I want to buy, so don't be surprised if there's a Part 3 to this nearer the end of the week too.
This collection was released on Saturday, so you can find them in the Etsy store here right now, and as always, you can stalk Danielle and her lovely polishes on Facebook here.

Also, don't forget, my 100 followers giveaway is still running, with one of the prizes being 2 Indy's Indies polishes.  If you're in the UK, and you haven't already entered, what are you waiting for?

pekal

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