Freehand Ladybug & 3D Gel Polish Raindrops

Allo polish Pals!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend! Mine was a super chilled one.. I liked it like that!

Has anyone had a BBQ yet? I am smelling them ALL the time here in Holland, its one of my favorite summer scents! (although not like I'd like to bottle the smell and use it as a perfume!!)

Today's nail art is again inspired by the weekly challenge over on Tiny Canvas (Haven't you joined us yet?!) where this weeks prompt was to create bug nail art.

I've done a few ladybird (ladybug) nails before but I decided I wanted to try a close up version.

You can see my two previous manicures below the new one.

2017

2013

 

2015

I began this nail art by painting my thumb and pinky with a coat of NYC's 'Strip me off' peel off base coat. Once this was dry I applied three coats of the Born Pretty Store's Chameleon nail polish in #224. I allowed this to dry and used my Barry M matte top coat. I then used my Bluesky Gel polish and a dotting tool to create a raindrop look – this always looks gorgeous on matte chrome's.

On my remaining nails I applied a coat of OPI's 'Nail Envy'. I followed on with two coats of China Glaze's 'Well Trained' and applied a thin coat of Born Pretty Store's black holographic polish.

Everything else was created with my acrylic paints and brushes. I finished off by applying my Pro-FX top coat to seal in my freehand work.

What do you guys think of my ladybird manicure evolution? Have you had ladybird nails before?

Have yourself a fantastic day! Thank you so much for visiting, don't forget to come say hi in the comments :D I'll catch you again on

Wednesday!

Love,

Ithi

Barry M: Persian Swatch & Review ★★★★★/5

Allo polish Pals!

How are you all doing today? I hope everything is well with you :) Its been rather crazy here, Yesterday was the birthday of Mr Bravo and his nephew, today is my niece's birthday and tomorrow I'm going to the nephew's birthday party! Do you have a month that is crammed with birthdays?

Today I am going to be showing you a swatch of a very pretty Barry M polish. This was from the Aquarium collection, say hello to Persian.

Colour ~ Persian is a gorgeous medium purple duo chrome that bends beautifully into a very classy golden shade. I love how it looks towards the tips of my nails as the light hits them!

Application ~ I had an enjoyable experience with application, I had no trouble with bubbling or the dry time however due it its light texture and consistency you may find some streaking/brush marks. If you can live with a few brush strokes then no problem!

Texture ~ Certainly more on the thinner side but dries to a beautiful glossy finish.

★★★★★/5 I really wanted this polish as soon as I saw it in the store. I'm a sucker for duo-chromes and I didn't have anything like this in my collection. Would I recommend it to a friend? Yes if she has nothing like it already in her stash! Without a doubt! I think its a very glamorous and sophisticated purple. A classy purple for classy ladies! I think I need some work before anyone will call me classy!

What do you think of this purple to gold duo? What colours do you like best in duo-chrome polishes?

Thank you for stopping by!

Have a fabulous and sparkly day. I'll be back with some more nail art on Sunday! :)

Love

Ithi

10ml Born Pretty Store Chameleon Nail Polish In 224 - Born Pretty Store Review

*This post contains an item(s) that was provided for reviewing purposes however I will as always give my full and honest opinion.

Allo polish Pals!

How are you all doing today? I hope you are having a fabulous weekend so far! This week feels much quieter than last week but I've been keeping busy. I get a bit antsy being too idle.

This Saturday I got up fairly early, had some lovely soya milk and mixed nuts (Hey look, I'm taking better care of myself! - I'm improving my regular eating habits rather than not eating until 4pm..)

I got another review post sorted out and in the afternoon I went for lovely bike ride in the sunshine. I found an entire new route that took me to Mr Bravo's Nan's house – and found a new way back. I saw sail boats, people water skiing...Being out in the beautiful weather makes my soul sing!

Anyway... Today I have my second '10ml Chameleon Nail Polish' to share with you from The BornPretty Store.

Just as with the first Born Pretty Store duochrome I reviewed I am wearing this polish on top of black which is what the store recommends.

DO we want to see what happens when I wear them on white nail polish? LET ME KNOW! I can make it happen!

This polish is another version of the previous chrome polish I showed you recently as this one turns from a beautiful golden chartreuse green shade, through to teal and can look quite blue in low lighting. I would say this is quite a pretty

peacock type polish. As with the first polish that colour shift is quite strong as you can see from my picture, especially towards the sides of my nails where the lighting and shadows differ.

I'm going to cut straight to the point here. If you read my review on the Purple/Goldduochrome (221) from the Born Pretty Store I'm pretty delighted to tell you that they are very consistent in formula. I had very little trouble with the first nail polish and that has followed through with this second one.

They can be a little unforgiving in the sense that.. if you have any slight issues with your base colour (in this case black) then it will probably highlight it, hindering such a flawless finish. A good example of this is my middle nail where the base colour had slightly bubbled. The metallic duochrome really highlights it! The only other thing that may slightly put people off is that it can leave the nails with quite a brush-strokey look to the nails, not easy to avoid. I don't really mind or notice it too much but I know some people hate that.

All in all I really like this polish, perhaps even more than the first one. There are no real complaints in terms of application, dry time is fantastic just like her sister and.. I just love those colours!

I would recommend it if you are looking to increase your duochrome collection on a budget.

What do you think of this polish? Did you prefer this polish to the last one I showed you?

Thank you for stopping by again my friends. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, DO let me know what you've been up to! I'll catch you again on Tuesday!

Love

Ithi

10ml Born Pretty Store Chameleon Nail Polish in 221 - Born Pretty Store Review

*This post contains items that were sent for reviewing purposes however I will as always give my full honest and unbiased opinion.

Allo polish Pals!

How are you all doing today? I hope everything is dandy at your end? What was the highlight of your weekend? I love to know how you guys are getting on.

I'm back home in Holland now. I had a pretty interesting journey home...I'm pretty sure a girl took a picture of me at the airport!! I was sat reading my '201 ways to cure artist block' book. I was pretty engrossed in it but something caught my eye. There was a girl standing fairly close to me (there wasn't any reason to be so close, I wasn't sat next to anything.) she did something with her phone and scurried off! I turned around thinking there must be something cool behind me that I hadn't noticed but there was only a blank wall behind me... how weird?! 

Today I have the first of two Born Pretty Store Chameleon nail polishes to share with you. This is '10ml Born Pretty Store Chameleon Nail Polish in 221'.

This polish is recommended to be worn over a black base. I began with two coats of Wet 'N' Wild's 'Black'. I allowed this to dry and applied two generous coats of the BPS 221 nail polish.

click to enlarge.

The Colour & Shift ~ This polish is a multi-chrome that shifts beautifully between deep purple golds and even a slightly greenish shade. To say the colour shift it apparent doesn't quite do justice. I really love the bewitching and deep look of this polish. I also think that from certain angles and in certain light it has a slightly coppery look to it. It has a fairly watery consistency which allows for nice and smooth application.

Bottle ~ This polish comes in a 10ml rectangular bottle – certainly a good size and will provide many coats for your buck. Quid. Euro's. It's certainly enough to get plenty of enjoyment. I also didn't mind the brush. There was one single bristle a little longer than the rest but it wasn't too much of a problem.

Dry Time ~ I found dry time to be a little one the slow side, even with a glossy coat of my Pro-FX top coat but I thought it was totally worth it, I couldn't stop looking at my nails and in my opinion that's always a great sign that I really like a polish.

If you notice on my middle finger there are some bubbles going on there. Now... I don't think that it is because of the polish itself. Because otherwise the others would have bubbled up too so please excuse it, I think I was possibly a little clumsy with how much I had loaded onto the brush. I think this polish could have a tendency to bubble if you apply it too thickly.

Final Thoughts

Overall I am really, really impressed. Would I recommend this to Miss MCCrumpet? (Wtf?) Certainly if she's looking to expand her Chrome collection on a budget. These polishes retail at $6.99 each – reduced from $15 originally. That's a pretty sweet deal and a steel if you include my discount code!

Now... Since this is recommended on a black base I am super curious to see how this looks on top of white. Would you like to be part of that experiment? I am happy to do a post on it if it interests!

If you liked this post please be kind enough to share using the buttons below. I'll be back on Thursday with another freehand design for you.

Have a beautiful day!

Love

Ithi

Art Deco: Iridescent Butterfly Wings Swatch & Review ★★★/5

Allo polish Pals!

How's your weekend going? Is your weather nice enough to enjoy venturing outside? Today we had awful rain and a mixture of hail stones which makes me want to climb back in bed and be snugly! Today I have another swatch and review to show you; I showed three polish bottles on my facebook page and this is the one that was triumphed for this weeks swatch. I gotta tell you, It's not often I am so baffled on how to explain a polish ~ this is a real mixed review.

Colour ~ Iridescent Butterfly Wings is a gorgeous duo chrome/metallic that shifts easily from moody blues and silvers to lilacs and purple. The colour reminds me of rain clouds.

Application ~ This is where this polish gets complex... This polish (And trust me, this is one of very few) has the ability to make me hold the bottle up to the sky and scream “Why don't you like me?!” I assumed that all the problems I have with this polish was because of me but even trying different things I have severe brush-streaks, bubbling and even after around three hours of applying I can now push it around with my other nails. I'd like to state that the polish itself had dried by the last third coat and remained mooshy after a top coat of Seche Vite ~ what!?

Texture ~ Like many of polishes of this nature it leans more towards the watery side. I personally had no trouble with the texture at all.

★★★/5 Confusing huh? If I am honest I would have given it two stars if it hadn't have been how gorgeous this colour is when the polish wants to play nice. I wouldn't completely condemn this polish or discourage people from wanting to buy it but it is really good to know the ups and downs before purchasing; But I am disappointed whenever I try and wear it. I'm personally thinking there must be some kind of dupe of Iridescent butterfly wings out there.

Do you own any Art Deco polishes? Do you own any polishes that make you want to scream “Why don’t you like me?!” at them?

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Love

Ithi

Hema: Chameleon Green 66 Swatch & Review ★★★★/5

Allo polish Pals!

How is your week going? All is good here in Holland but the weather is just so bleak and gloomy right now, several times I have braved going outside without an umbrella which is now a lesson I now know well, ha. How is your fall where you are? Today I have a polish to show you from the Dutch store Hema. This happens to be quite an interesting duo-chrome!

Colour ~ Chameleon Green is a pretty duo-chrome that shifts through out many green shades, in direct sunlight I see a gorgeous chartreuse and flashes of striking gold. If I hold my nails away from the light I am almost certain I see dark blue and even teal although this was hard to capture.

Application ~ I had a smooth application and by the second coat I had complete opacity. The only slight issues with application is that because its a chromey it can look a little streaky in places, you know how you get some metallic polishes that just can't be without brush strokes? The appearance of the brush strokes was less when I applied my topcoat but if you look hard you will see them lurking.

Texture ~ Its incredibly on the watery side which means that you need to take extra care around the sides of your nails and the cuticle. That said texture isn't too much of a problem.

★★★★/5 While I love this shade it only earns four stars because of the streaking, if you can tolerate that then its definitely a winner and I find myself unable to stop admiring my nails when wearing this one ~ I love when that happens.

If I borrowed this from a friend would I go and buy myself a bottle? Yes, if I had nothing at all similar I would invest in this one if you can find it. It really is a rather beautiful polish when you see it in person.

Do you have a green duo-chrome in your collection already? Would you be interested in a shade like this if not?

Have a beautiful day!

Love

Ithi

Models' Own ~ Aqua/Violet Review & Swatches

Allo again from Holland, my polish Pals.

Are we all good? Today I have my final review from the original four Model's Own polishes I wanted to show you. Why has it taken me to show you this polish? Because its an absolute demon to try and photograph! I wanted to try and how you how the colour shift as best as I could. Here is Aqua Violet from Models Own 'Bettle Juice' collection.

 Beautiful but oh so tricky polish to photograph!

Models Own: Pinky Brown Swatch and Review

 Allo polish Pals, how are we all doing today? Today was a pretty slow day. I'm still pretty exhausted after such a dramatic weekend but I forced myself into an hour and 20 mins exercise by doing Swiss ball exercise followed by pilates on the ball ~ If only you could buy bottled motivation!

Today my cheeky second Model's Own haul arrived. I figured considering the brilliant shipping prices and the fact I had saved some money the previous week I'd allow myself! 

Here are the little monkeys I picked up.

From L-R: Purple Passion, Hot Stuff and Pinky Brown

Today’s Review is on a fiery little vixen named 'Pinky Brown'.