Essie Mint Candy Apple and Some Sparkle

Next up in my line of Essie polishes is Mint Candy Apple. I'm sure you've seen this one before, I know I have and I've wanted it for so long! I tried to talk myself out of it because I thought it looked very similar to Barry M Mint Green but it's actually quite a lot lighter, I'll compare them one day.

The flowers and twirly bits (thumb only) are from Konad plate M51 in Konad Princess Polish White. I added a couple of green rhinestones from Art Deco Nails to the middle of the flowers on the thumb and ring fingers. I was going to leave the flowers alone but then I was going to a wedding party and decided to add a bit of sparkle.

It's such a gorgeous colour I'm so glad I didn't manage to talk myself out of it :)


Faybee x

Essie Plaza Sweet

This is the first ever time I have used an Essie nail varnish and I am impressed!

I've never had a chance to try any Essie varnishes before because they're not widely available around here (I believe they're an American brand?) and whenever I've seen them online they've been a bit pricey so I've not wanted to risk forking out for a bottle and not liking it but when I saw some were on sale at Nails by Mail I couldn't resist a small order. This gorgeous coral only cost me £3.50 and it applies brilliantly.

This is what I think corals should look like, I've seen certain colours called coral when to me I think they're far too orangey to be coral.

I was applying it late at night and rushing but even with a not-very-good application it still dried smooth.

The design on my thumb is from Konad Plate M65 in Special Polish white, although it's not done very well because my bottle of white polish is very low and starting to dry out. I also had the same design on my ring finger but it turned out so badly I left them off the photo. I do have a new bottle of Princess Polish White so I think it's time to crack that open.


Faybee x

OPI Catch Me in Your Net

Catch Me in Your Net is a sheer colour and I'm not a fan of Visible Nail Line so I started with a base colour of Diamond Cosmetics Metallic Blue because I think it coordinates with Catch Me and it has great coverage, this is just one coat:

I then used three coats of Catch Me in Your Net because I didn't want the base colour showing through too much and affecting the final colour. A water decal from Viva La Nails finished off this manicure. I love these water decal butterflies, I'm definitely going to get some more when I use them all up.

Topsy liked this colour too.

Faybee x

Hello Kitty Revisited

I love Hello Kitty. I saw a huge plushie reduced to half price in Tesco the other day and I was so close to buying it. Unfortunately I have no money or room to put it. So here are the nails I did to compensate:

Close-up:

The black is China Glade Liquid Leather with Konad Princess Polish in White on top. The French Tip is done with China Glaze Pool Party but doesn't look as pink as it should on my camera. The bow is OPI Cancan Fiesta and pink rhinestones I bought off eBay.


Faybee x

My Poor Cuticles Continued

That's not the best picture to show it off but the skin next to my cuticles is raw and peeling :(

I've also found three splits in my nails; I'm still blaming this on the cuticle remover as there was no sign of these before. I've so far managed to fix them with nail glue so my nails haven't had to be cut that short.

I'm not going to name and shame the cuticle remover make because this was the first time I'd ever used it so it quite easily could have been my mistake instead. Although I did follow the instructions to the best of my ability.

That's China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy, it's not bright orange as it appears in my photo but a neon coral. The tip is China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot Bikini and that really is that neon yellow.

Flower-to-Flower and My Poor Cuticles

I didn't think my cuticles looked that bad in this photo. Not perfect but not bad. I wanted them to look perfect so I decided to try some cuticle remover on them.

It looked fab at first, took all the dry skin off and made them look that little bit better ( how naive I was.)
So I tried out OPI's Flower to Flower. It looks nice, reminds me of China Glaze Strawberry Fields but rather a lot lighter.

Lindsay Lohan Nails

These are the nails that Lindsay Lohan decided to wear to her recent court case

Not my image, stolen from somewhere on Google

and I decided to copy them, well to some extent:

I have to admit I like to believe I have more class than Lindsay Lohan so I left the obscenities off my middle nail and just stuck to the pretty pastel leopard print.

Faybee x



Edit: I forgot to add my method with this one which was a colour base of Barry M Matt White with China Glaze Pool Side, Towel Boy Toy and Models Own Tangerine Queen Sponged on top. Followed by Konad M57 in Konad Special Polish White.

I Have a Confession to Make

I am a Lush fangirl.

And here's the proof, my lush nails.


Left hand:

Thumb – Lush logo

Index – Creamy Candy

Middle – Dorothy

Ring – Tucca Tucca

Little – Glitterbug

Closeup of Glitterbug so you can see the glitter:

Right hand:

Thumb – The Comforter

Index – Ma Bar (this looks smudged but it's not. It was just the way the light hit it)

Middle – Happy Pill

Ring – Flosty Gritter

Little – Avobath


I'm glad I got that out of my system.


Faybee x

Pink Leopard Print

Well Tangerine Queen didn't last long. I ended up getting ink on it from a leaky pen so I had to remove it. I was going to leave my nails bare for the night because I had something planned for the next day but then I made plans and I don't leave the house without painted nails, lol.

This was a quick one (so not very neat), Collection 2000 Hoola Hoop and Konad M57 in Nails Inc Strawberry Vale, no top coat as it was for one night only.


Faybee x

Models Own Tangerine Queen

So after finally managing to get Purple Haze off my nails I decided to try out something I bit brighter. This is definitely brighter.

Tangerine Queen is a gorgeous bright neon, it dries to a not-quite-matte finish (satin, is that the word I want?) it's not an in your face orange but a lovely subtle colour, well if you can call a neon subtle.

It really reminds me of China Glazes Sun Worshipper but sadly I don't own that one so I can't compare them in real life.


Faybee x

Purple Haze NOTD

I think I must have been mad not use a base colour with this. That's six coats in the picture.

Pros: Super sparkly and a fairly unusual colour; I don't recall seeing a purple glitter before. I keep looking down at my nails and going "Oooooo shiny!" I'm also pretty sure I could fight crime with my bullet proof nails now (six coats!)

Cons: I have no idea how I'm going to get this off.

Models Own Mini Haul

Looky what I got in the post :)

That's Bluebelle, Tangerine Queen, Magenta Divine, Purple Haze, Emerald City, Sterling Silver and 6-way Shape it & Buff it Nail File

I ordered the first five online and bought Sterling Silver in my local Boots. I wanted to see it in real life first because I was umming and ahhing over it. I'm definitely glad I got it.

I am painting my nails as we speak.

Green Leaves

Nubar Reclaim with Chez Delaney plate in Konad Princess Polish Jungle Green.

I'm not loving it, the leaf print does not look like leaves more just mottled, I did want to do it in gold but I tried using China Glaze 2030 and it wouldn't work in the tiny little lines.

This is the plate so you can see what it's supposed to look like:

Faybee x

Orly Mirror Mirror and M65

I wanted something quite subtle today and Mirror Mirror has been sitting unused in a drawer since I bought it a few months ago.

I didn't want it that subtle so added some flowers from Konad M65 using Barry M Grey. That pattern always reminds me of wallpaper so I added China Glaze Matte Magic to make it look even more like wallpaper.

And the Matte hides the dent in my thumb as well (stamping accident) *thumbs up*


Faybee x

OPI Wing It!

My camera did not like this colour at all. For some reason it's come out more orangey than it is in real life. I tried to adjust the colour settings but it went a bit weird. I've left these pictures alone so you'll just have to imagine them without the orangy-ness. Sorry.

This is so, so sparkly in direct sunlight. It's amazing
Here it is out of focus to try and capture some of that sparkle:

I really wished I'd used another colour underneath as I really don't like it when you can see the nail line. I did try some Konading to try and disguise it a bit.

Butterflies! To go with the Butterfly Flutter collection

That's my cat Starship in the background, I only noticed her when I was resizing the picture lol.

Faybee x

Zip it!

I told myself I wasn't going to buy anymore nail varnish for a while but when I saw the OPI Summer Flutter collection I couldn't stop myself.

This is Flit A Bit:

It is an amazing creme orange and I am in love. It's a colour that screams summer, it's opaque in 2 coats or 3 if you're using the rubbish mini brush and missed bits like I did. I adore the little mini OPI bottles I think they're so cute how they're exact replicas of the normal sizes but I hate, hate the teeny tiny brushes they use. I'll put up with it since I get four colours for pretty much the same price as a full sized bottle.

I recently bought some new image plates from ArtDeco and one of them has a zip design that I couldn't wait to try out.

I've just realised I had the zip the wrong way up, boo

Close up with the zip the right way up:

I've had a few comments on this design; the orange and yellow make it very eye-catching.



Faybee x