10 Things I’ve learnt about Nail Varnish ….

10 Things I’ve learnt about Nail Varnish …..

1. It’s mainly about OPI and Zoya.  And China Glaze.  Unless you want glitters and shiny things (when you call in the cheap yet mighty Color Club), but I’m getting ahead of myself
2. OPI is the best for consistency and ease of application – it goes on smoooooth baby.  And it has the best brush
3. ZOYA has the best choices of colour, especially if you are a purple-addict (like moi) or love your pinks
4. Nail varnish is like the candy store for grown up girls
5. Shatter is SUCH fun.  Personally, I think the China Glaze ones are the best, but that’s just me J
6. There is a whole world of glitter, opalescence, holo and shimmery wonder that I thought ended with primary school art lessons.  Wow, nails can be fun
7. There are some seriously talented nail bloggers out there who know how to water marble, splatter mani, franken, konad and loads of other magical mayhem
8. If you don’t know what any of the above means, You Tube ALWAYS has the answer J
9. My blogging queens are My Simple Pleasures, Glitta Gloves, Kayla Shevonne, Scrangie, The Polish-Aholic, Let Them Have Polish and Painting Rainbows to name a few
10. Nail varnish is FUN.  That’s f-u-n.  It’s like being 6 years old again but with better arts and crafts and better hand-eye co-ordination (until you need to use your “wrong” hand).  And it’s sooooooo pretty

Some of the above you'll agree with, and some you won't - the joy is that you;ll form your own opinions through playing, experimenting and above all, having fun. 

Have fun my lovelies J

Nail Fun - Purple Dots

Nail Fun

Nail Fun is all about having fun with your nails.  Layering it, splattering it, making pretty patterns with it … it’s the most fun you can have on your own with a child in the house !!  J 

NAIL ART-LESSNESS FOR BEGINNERS J

Ok, so let’s do a little nail art.  As we’re beginners and a bit cack-handed, we’ll start with something simple.

Dots are a great way to dabble.  Thanks to dotting tools they’re really easy to do, and if you don’t have dotting tools you can use blunt cocktail sticks, pencils, all sorts.  The ones I’ve seen work best with a theme, so for this one I used 5 shades of purple from feather light to black-dark.

From thumb to pinkie I used ZOYA Marley, OPI Planks A Lot, ZOYA Demi, ZOYA Mira and ZOYA PINTA. 

You then just go mad with a dotting tool.  I was hoping to create some cool patterns but I think I had too many colours in play.  Also, it looks rubbish on the last fingers I did when the blob of nail varnish I was using started to get sparse!  My favourites are the fingers with flowers and the ones that have a defined pattern.

I think the MARLEY dots have the most impact, and with hindsight I’d have used fewer dark colours.  Altho Mira and Demi are medium-dark in the bottle, on the nail and within a pattern they became too dark and indistinguishable.

I’ve seen this done beautifully in monochrome and in rainbow colours, so it’s an ok-ish result for now, and I’ll try harder next time (and work out how to control my left hand!)

 See you next time :) 

NAILS I LOVE - Zoya - PAIGE

Nails I Love

Nails I Love is written to celebrate some of the most beautiful nail varnishes on earth and to help you choose which colours and styles will suit you. 

Each posting will feature details about the colour as well as photos.  I guarantee every photo will show the varnish as it looks on your fingers, otherwise, what’s the point ? 

Top Tip – if you’re ever unsure what a nail colour looks like, go to Google images, which will give you plenty of contrasts and compares.

ZOYA – Paige

Oh, Paige, how I love you.

Deep creamy raspberry, beautiful berry perfection, gorgeous muted cerise  – there are too many ways to sigh over Paige.  Significantly darker than it looks in the bottle, this is just a dream – super glossy and divine.

In some lights this takes on a deeper hue, edging towards ruby, but for the most part this is a joyous, bubbly confection of a colour.  Perfect for dark yet happy nails, and a great alternative if you’re tiring of burgundy. 

Browner than magenta, purpler than red, this has a depth that’s almost hypnotising.  Rich, raspberry goodness and almost good enough to eat J

Final photo topped with SPRINKLE OF TWINKLE by Nicole by OPI

NAILS I LOVE - Zoya - ARIELLE & China Glaze TECHNO

Nails I Love

Nails I Love is written to celebrate some of the most beautiful nail varnishes on earth and to help you choose which colours and styles will suit you. 

Each posting will feature details about the colour as well as photos.  I guarantee every photo will show the varnish as it looks on your fingers, otherwise, what’s the point ? 

Top Tip – if you’re ever unsure what a nail colour looks like, go to Google images, which will give you plenty of contrasts and compares.

ZOYA – Arielle

Sometimes it’s really difficult to describe a nail varnish – and here it is!  This is a fluffy mauve, sky blue pink, lush creamy shimmer that never looks the same twice.

As with all Zoyas, it’s super glossy and looks super elegant.  It’s subtle enough to be ladylike, and interesting enough to be defy colour-categorisation.  Due to the shimmer, it bends a little with the light, taking on some blue, then swallowing some brown tones.  It’s bluishness stops it being too girly, whilst the browner edges give it depth and shine.

Either way, it’s luscious, swoonsome … divine.

And then I added CHINA GLAZE Techno, a magic mixture of micro glitter and sequins that Turned It Holographic!!  Yes, holographic !!  And then the divineness just went off the scale.  So now we have fluffy sky-blue pink shimmer with dreamy holographic plushness.

Sigh.  Pretty.  Girly.  Pink.

NAILS I LOVE - Zoya - JULIEANNE

Nails I Love

Nails I Love is written to celebrate some of the most beautiful nail varnishes on earth and to help you choose which colours and styles will suit you. 

Each posting will feature details about the colour as well as photos.  I guarantee every photo will show the varnish as it looks on your fingers, otherwise, what’s the point ? 

Top Tip – if you’re ever unsure what a nail colour looks like, go to Google images, which will give you plenty of contrasts and compares.

ZOYA – Julieanne

I have literally been itching to try this beauty since it arrived a couple of weeks ago.  Quite simply, it’s the sexiest purple I have ever seen, a lovebomb of sparkle and glimmer held together in a shimmery suspension.

At heart, Julieanne is a purple glitter that’s not a glitter.  Bless her, she so wants to be Little Miss Sparkle, and she IS, but without the scratchy nastiness that sometimes comes with a glitter, so you get all the spectral beauty of a glitter without the disasvantages.

And bless her again, she has a bit of an identity crisis, does Julieanne.  When I wore her to work this morning, she was a cold, dark midnight purple, despite the starburst.  Now that I’m home and sat in a brighter room, she’s a dark, royal Cadbury purple, almost electric in intensity, and no matter how hard I try, I just can’t capture her at her electric best.

So, if you’re looking for a purple glitter without the crunch, look no further.

If you’re looking for dark, starry glamour, look no further.

If you want the most gorgeous purple ever created ?

Look no further.  She’s here. J

NAILS I LOVE - Zoya - INDIGO with added magic from COLOR CLUB Covered In Diamonds :)

Nails I Love

Nails I Love is written to celebrate some of the most beautiful nail varnishes on earth and to help you choose which colours and styles will suit you. 

Each posting will feature details about the colour as well as photos.  I guarantee every photo will show the varnish as it looks on your fingers, otherwise, what’s the point ? 

Top Tip – if you’re ever unsure what a nail colour looks like, go to Google images, which will give you plenty of contrasts and compares.

ZOYA – Indigo with COLOR CLUB Covered in Diamonds

So, nailwise, I don’t like the whole rainbow and I tend to avoid blue.  But I wanted a nice navy for a galaxy splatter and I settled on this Zoya, and I’m delighted and disappointed in just about equal measure.

Indigo is a plush navy velvet with purple ambitions – so it has purple tinges, but never looks purple.   Gazing into the nail, the depth of the colour is astounding – it’s a pure, perfect midnight.  In the bottle however there’s LOTS of shimmer – flashes of royal blue and whole galaxies of multi-coloured micro-glimmer.  Seriously, in the bottle it looks A-MAZING.  But on the nail, the shimmer and glitteriness just isn’t visible.  There are tiny flashes of it, but you have to look at it REALLY closely.  On the plus side though, it’s the glimmer that gives it its beautiful depth and velvety appearance.

You can see how beautiful it looks in the bottle - look at all the silver flecks!

So, slightly disappointed.  So I applied COLOR CLUB Covered In Diamonds as a top coat and ….. WOW.  NOW I am in love, like seriously in love.  In the bottle, CID is a shimmery white potion with opal flecks.  On the nail, it initially looks clunky and disappointing, with jagged foil type flakes landing on the nail, but then  … oh, but then, as it dries, it absorbs the colour underneath it, opalesces it and VOILA. 

OMG so I now have midnight nails with crazy flecks of gold, turquoise, green, silver and amazing.  I literally have not been able to stop staring at them in awe and amazement, they look just jaw-droppingly gorgeous.

And suddenly, I have my galaxy J

Pumpkin's Blog - Day 1

Pumpkin’s Blog

Ok, so don’t get excited but this is my blog.

Sigh yawn sigh.  I know it’s been a long time coming sigh, but things don’t happen quickly in Pumpkinland.

So … actually, I’ll go and have a few biccies first, back in a mo.

(10 minutes later)

Mmmmm, yummy.  Yawn oooh they travelled to my tummy.  Sorry sigh, where was I ?  Yes yawn me – Pumpkin.  I suppose you want to know a little bit about me?  Well, oooh what’s that hang on sniiiiiiiif, ooooh my lips smell yummy – licks lips mmmm – yes, well I’m a pussycat, as you may have guessed from the photo, and unless you’re colour blind you can see I am a glorious ginger stripey and white ball of gloriousness.  And no, I am not fat, or skinny-challenged – licks lips they’re still so yummy – but I will settle for voluptuous.

So that’s me.  Voluptuous pussy.

Exhaaaaaaust-ED.  Time for a nap.  Leisurely look round.  Think I’ll just plop right here.  Sigh yawn sigh.

4 hours later

Yaaaaaaaaaaaawn oooooh sleep so goooooood.  Ah, bliss.  Wonder if there’s any food lying spare ? Sniffs air and discovers – triumph – I can smell chicken!  The holy grail of leftovers!  My oh my – stumbles to feet – my oh my yawns and follows sniffs oh oooh I’m getting closer.  Ah, bless the Bethlet, she left me some chicken on her plate.  Sniff sniff drool ooooh sooooo yummy oh my god chicken RULES oh wow.  Well that was a bit meagre harrumph.  Sniff despondent face – nothing else on plate.  Or tray.  Or under plate on tray.  Or under tray.  Or on the seat of the sofa (not that I jumped up to have a look you understand, noooo that would have been a disastrous and wanton use of calories) or lying on the carpet.  Sigh.

Boring.  Ooh the sun’s moved round a little bit.  Oooh if I angle my bottom just right as I pirouette and ….. plop … oooh that’s it, toasty.

Ok, now I am comfy I should do a bit of grooming, but let me fill you in on a few basics first.

So, firstly – me.  Number 1 pussycat.  I rule the roost and the neighbourhood, no one messes with me, and everybody dotes on me.  Except Marky-Mark, but more on him later.  Ooooh, just licked my shoulder and now it smells like chicken.  Awesome.  So, yeh, I enjoy yawn relaxing.  Chilling, hanging out at home, pottering around from room to room (well from kitchen to lounge), looking adorable, and oh yes, YES, patrolling the neighbourhood.  Yes, yes, all the time. 

Lick lick. Itchy bit.  Mmmmm.  Like everyone else, I like food.  Well, you need it to survive don’t you, so I make sure I have every possible chance at survival.  And I hate to see food go to waste lick lick or just lie there in boxes or bags.  Let it out, people, let it out, is what I say.  Food should not be caged in a tin or a box or an inpenetrable bag, NO, it should be free.  Free to provide happiness and stamina and essential nutrients for a healthy fur coat!  Free – uh, where was I ?  oh yes, lick lick.

I live in quite a nice house.  But man does it have a lot of rooms.  Once I lived with a little old lady in a 2 room flat and that was awesome, no more than lick lick 10 pawsteps between the food bowl and the duvet but this place lick lick nibble nibble is … extensive.  It exhausts me just thinking about all the rooms in the house, so I’ll just give you an overview –

The kitchen – this is where all the action is.  This is the HOTSPOT.  This is my land, my country, my Eden!  Lick lick nibble what IS that nibble lick gotcha lick lick.  The kitchen is cool for many reasons.  Firstly, it contains my food bowl, which over the years I have made sure is kept full by a mixture of adorable, annoying and pathetic manoeuvres.  Secondly, it contains Parsnip’s food bowl.  Parsnip is my so-called sister – yeh right lick lick – she’s snooty and skinny and quite often very slow to respond to the music of a filling food bowl.  This is the only time I EVER love Parsnip.  Thirdly, it contains Marky-Mark.  I am not sure whether I like Marky-Mark as he is very lovey dovey with Parsnip for some reason, and I do not trust people who prefer skinny to …. voluptuous.  But the Marky-Mark likes to give tidbits to his little babycat when he makes his sandwiches once a day and when he cooks.  Lick lick.  Now, he is at least fair, so he gives me as many tidbits as Parsnip, and as I make sure I stick to his ankle like glue, I usually get a little bit extra as well.  GET IN!  He gives us cheese sigh ham sigh raw bacon yummmmy sigh and raw chicken mmmm.  Ah, I could almost forgive his babycat-love. 

Fourthly .. is that a word sigh – it contains Momma who loves me more than babycat and therefore sneaks me treats when babycat’s not looking ha ha ha haha ha ha ha.  And it also contains the Bethlet, who finds it amusing to feed us and ladies and gentlemen, who am I to complain about that ?!?

So, kitchen, gateway to paradise.  Next is the lounge.  Sometimes people eat in here, which is good, and if they’re not eating I just snooze, no biggie.  Again, the Bethlet is a good target, and Marky-Mark is extraordinarily good at putting his plate on the floor, slipping into the lick lick kitchen for a can of beer and leaving his meal unattended ha ha ha ha. 

You see, there’s a popular misconception about me that I am not fast or nimble like a proper pussycat.  That’s not the point.  I am fast and nimble and NINJA when I need to be.  When I need to be.  And that, ladies and gentlemen, is only when there’s food on the floor.

Ok, blogging is officially siiiiiigh exhaust-sigh-ing yaaaawn.  Nap time.  Mmmmmm.  Dream of doing nasty things to Parsnip.  Hee heee.

Sigh yawn sigh.