Nail Polish Collection - Nude and Brown Nail Polish

After having a sort out of all my makeup and stuff the other day I thought it would be a good idea to show you all my nail polish collection. Although I would imagine my collection is tiny compared to some, I still have enough to annoy my husband (one day I'm going to show him someones full collection video on YouTube then he'll be thanking his lucky stars for my 'small' hoard of makeup!).

Nude is probably my favourite shade of nail polish because it's so wearable and I actually think it's quite flattering to wear (if it's at all possible to 'flatter' your finger nails, ha). Brown is quite a weird one I think because as a young girl you couldn't think of anything worse than painting what can only be described as 'boring' on your finger nails but as a woman I think brown is anything but boring! I tend to prefer darker browns to light browns but nevertheless I think brown is a staple shade that every woman should have in her nail polish collection. 

Obviously I have my favourites within the collection and some have been used more than others; I find that I don't really bother with the more brick coloured browns (Nubar 'Moire' and Maybelline 'In Your Flesh') but I'm a total sucker for the lighter nudes (Barry M 'Lychee' and Models Own 'Naked Glow'). I bought Essie Topless and Barefoot purely because it was a blogger favourite a couple of years ago and although I like the colour I aren't keen on the formula and my bottle still has the smaller brush which makes it really difficult to apply. 

Maybelline Forever Strong Lunar Grey

I've had a busy weekend at work this weekend with a wedding on Saturday so I realised that orange nail polish probably wasn't the most appropriate shade when I was dressing smart so I picked out another shade of Maybelline Forever Strong in 'Lunar Grey'...

Maybelline Forever Strong 99p Fragrance Direct When I bought it on the website I actually didn't realise that it had shimmer in it and to be honest when I first looked at the bottle I thought 'oh dear it's sparkly silver' but I was pleasantly surprised when I actually applied it; it's like a muted, conservative silver shade. It made my nails look tidy and presentable for work without being in your face and out of place. The formula is exactly like the 'Orange Couture' shade I used the other day; it's fine and for 99p and I'm not about to complain too much but what I forgot to say in the other post was that it takes an age to dry, when you think it's done you'll get a smudge so I think the only way to keep this looking perfect is to top coat it straight away with something which you know dries quickly. Also it doesn't last 7 days... I get 3 at the most and on my index finger I didn't even get that but like I've said before I can look beyond that, especially when I like the shade. Do you have a favourite shade of Maybelline polish?

Maybelline Forever Strong Orange Couture

It's been a while since I posted about nail polish so when I bought a few nail polishes from Fragrance Direct I figured it'd be rude not to share my thoughts. I absolutely love Fragrance Direct for nail polish, they seem to get some real gems in at a fraction of the price of what you'd find in stores. It's usually because the brand have changed the packaging or discontinued a line but there's absolutely nothing wrong with the product itself. The first one I'm sharing with you is Maybelline Forever Strong in 'Orange Couture'...

Maybelline Forever Strong 'Orange Couture' 
I would never normally consider wearing orange on my nails, I'd always considered it to be a bit too 'garish'; you know, the kind you'd wear when you were like 12 and think you were the bees knees? But this is such a gorgeous shade, bright and summery but also quite grown up. 
It did need 3/4 coats to give a proper opaque covering but I'm assuming they've done something to the new formula to rectify this? The brush is perfect, nice and wide but small enough for precision application (which is important when you don't have really long nails) and it's got quite a nice shiny finish. 
This older-packaging version is only 99p from Fragrance Direct which is an absolute steal, I highly recommend stocking up on polishes of every shade from there because you could save yourself a fortune.

Models Own Bottle Shop, Meadowhall

Great news for all you Northern beauty fanatics: Models Own have brought one of their iconic Bottleshops to Meadowhall Sheffield! I was invited down to meet Emma (head of retail for Models Own) and have a little look around their shop. Situated on the lower High Street right near Victoria's Secret, the Models Own Bottleshop is hard to miss. It was designed by Mark Rodol who is the CEO of Models Own (former CEO of the Ministry of Sound) and has taken the love of nail polish to the extreme with a shop made to look like a bottle of nail polish which has been knocked onto its side with pink 'polish' running out of the top. A really clever, eye catching way to expose Models Own to the maximum, don't you think?

How could you possibly walk past that without having a look inside?   Models Own began online and in high street stores such as Boots & Superdrug but they now have Bottle Shops showcasing their collection of products in 5 different UK locations (with another one opening in Leeds White Rose) and they have also gone international in places like Tokyo and Taiwan (full list of Models Own Stockists here). As if their plethora of shades, glitters, brushes and nail art tools aren't enough, all Models Own products are made in the UK and they are tested on humans not animals which makes me love what they do just that little bit more! In the Bottleshop you should find 14 of their nail polish collections plus individual shades, as well as their nail art supplies, makeup brushes, lip products, eye products and so much more! I genuinely don't know how they manage to fit it all into one giant bottle of nail polish and make it look so neat and tidy! 

All in perfect shade order, I would say it's easy to choose the ones you want but it's really not; I could easily spend a small fortune on Models Own polishes. There's something for everyone in the Bottleshop, from their core collection of shades to their sparkly Hed Kandi and Mirrorball collections... then of course there's their newest collections; HyperGel and Polish for Tans.
HyperGel is their brand new gel-like formula which doesn't require UV curing and can be removed with regular nail polish remover, but is still high shine and long lasting... the HyperGel top is fast becoming a hero product as it can be used with any brand of polish to create a quick drying, high shine finish. The Polish for Tans collection uses the perfect mix of neon and pastel to create shades which highlight bronzed skin; perfect for summer fingers and toes. Don't forget to have a look at the Models Own girls' nails, they're all perfectly polished with their favourite Models Own polishes!   It took me quite a while to choose what I wanted but I finally came away with 12 polishes; the individual polishes are £5 each but they have an offer on at the moment where you can buy 6 polishes for £20... why would you buy one for £5 when you could just buy 6 for £20? You'd have to be one restrained lady if you can walk out of the bottle shop with just the one polish! Also, if you go into the Models Own Bottleshop and should 'I Love Models Own' there's a free gift in it for you (while stocks last)! Please let me, Meadowhall and Models Own know what you think if you're visiting by tagging us in on Twitter and Facebook and using the #bottleshop hashtag. The Meadowhall Bottleshop has broken Models Own records with how popular it's been so you'd be daft not to come and see what the fuss is all about!   Keep your eyes peeled for my Models Own Bottleshop haul, there's 12 bottles of gorgeous nail polish goodness for me to play with over the next couple of days, and I can't wait to get started!!

Nude Nails - Barry M Gelly Nails in Lychee

I'm not one for worrying about getting hit by a bus because I haven't got matching underwear on, yet it would seem that I like to match the colour of my nails with my phone case! Let's be fair if you had a gorgeous phone case like this one, you might consider a little bit of hand-phone co-ordination.

Kate Spade case for iPhone 5s £29.95* The nail polish I teamed with the phone case colours is 'Lychee' from the Barry M Gelly paints collection, a gorgeous hi-shine nude shade which goes with most things no matter what season, and it's only £3.99 a bottle!
If you're familiar with the little spade logo at the bottom of the case then you'll know that it's by New York fashion designer Kate Spade. If you've been reading for a while then you'll know that I don't own a designer bag or a pair of designer shoes (I generally just spend time browsing them but never actually committing to buy), I prefer to spend less money but still have a few designer bits in my collection like my Marc Jacobs earphones. This particular case is for an iPhone 5s but you can obviously buy all sorts of nice designer cases for different phones. £30 might seem quite expensive for a phone case but you can tell how good the quality is; usually a case is just a piece of plastic which clips to the back of the phone but this one has a rubbery band which also goes around the phone to protect it to act as a kind of 'cushioning', like I've said time and time again, you get what you pay for!

Revlon Parfumerie Nail Polish in Autumn Spice

Not really sure why I bought a nail polish entitled 'Autumn Spice' when we're now into spring, I should have been going for corals and pinks or pastels but nope my logic said 'ooh that looks nice, pick the brown one'. Don't ask, because I don't know. Anyhow, it wasn't the shade which drew my attention to the new Revlon Parfumerie nail polish, it was the pretty little vintage perfume bottle style bottle which I immediately thought 'ooh that'd look nice on my dressing table', regardless of the quality of the product. A bit shallow really but I'm a sucker for pretty stuff. I could have chosen from a plethora of 19 other shades of polish, from pastel mint to hot pink but no I went for Autumn Spice which is a shimmer brown shade, perfect for autumn as the name suggests. The polish is also scented, I'm a lover of woody/warm scents which is one of the reasons why Autumn Spice seemed like a sensible shade choice but the lighter colours are more of a fresh fragrance. 

Revlon Parfumerie Nail Polish £6.49 My Thoughts: It looks exactly the same on nails as it does in the bottle, as you can see. I did actually think it was going to be more of a purple shade (the swatch on the Boots website does look quite purpley, shame on me for buying blindly online!) but alas it definitely is a brown shimmer shade. As I say, not ideal for the current season but it'll definitely come out again in September/October. When I first opened the bottle I expected to smell 'Autumn Spice' but I just smelt nail polish HOWEVER me being a bit dim didn't realise that the nice scent doesn't come through until the nail polish is dry. When it's dry it does actually smell like Autumn Spice, its quite nice and reminds me of Christmas actually, ha! At £6.49 a bottle it's quite pricey and there are obviously cheaper alternatives but the bottle is very cute and it smells nice so that's two unique selling points it has over other high street nail polishes! I'm loving the look of Ginger Melon, which is a like a coral pink and a bit more season-appropriate.

Ted Baker Beauty 'Golden Girl' Christmas Nails

I've seen all sorts of fancy Christmas nail designs just recently, and although they look amazing I know not everyone can afford to have that done, and to be totally honest I prefer a simple nail look. I don't have long talons I have average length nails so doing intricate designs can prove a little bit difficult!

 Ted Baker 'Golden Girl' Nail Duo £8.50 Boots*

This nail duo by Ted Baker provides the perfect nail look for the festive season, you could use the high shimmer Golden Girl on every nail or you could use Totally Twinky for the accent nail like I did.

Both polishes are so easy to apply, if you're not the neatest at nail painting then not to worry because it wipes away easy and doesn't stain your fingers. I found that both polishes needed at least 3 coats for an opaque look but if you just wanted a bit of glitter on top of a normal nail polish then one coat of Totally Twinky would provide sufficient sparkle. £8.50 for 2 polishes is great value in my opinion, the attractive packaging would also make the set a great little gift.

Does Bourjois Magic Nail Polish Remover Really Work?

I'm very late to the party with this one, I've been meaning to buy it for long enough but always forgotten when I've been shopping. The idea of this '1 Second' nail polish remover sounds way too good to be true, but what can I say, I'm a beauty blogger and I'm a sucker for a hyped up product and as many of you know, this really is one of the most well known nail polish removers in the blogging industry. 

Bourjois Magic Nail Polish Remover - £4.99 Superdrug

The packaging is quite good looking I think, I'm all for things looking nice on your dressing table top and this is also really handy for popping in your overnight bag if you're the kind of person who likes to change their nail polish quite a lot. It is really easy and convenient to use, I find normal nail polish remover a real pain at times; having to get numerous cotton pads out and soak them, then you're rubbing your nail to get it all off... and probably worst of all, normal nail polish remover stinks! 

The instructions say that with the Magic Nail Polish Remover you dip your finger into the little hole, twist and pull it out and the scent is supposedly 'berry and vanilla' which has got to be better than the alcohol overload of regular remover?!

Is it Worth the Hype?

In a word, yes but don't expect things to happen in 1 second.

Personally, I never expected this to remove a full nail of polish in 1 second because unless you only applied one coat and it was really thin nail polish I highly doubt that this is even possible. I had some GOSH nail polish on my nails and it had been on for a few days so it was quite chipped already, but I used that and a finger with some Revlon Galaxy glitter polish as my basis for testing this product.

I followed the instructions exactly, I just dipped my index finger in, twisted and pulled it out. The nail polish was still there. So I dipped it back in and twisted a little more, turning my finger while it was in the sponge.. pulled my finger out and it was clean! Not 1 second, but I was still impressed. It does take a bit more time and twisting than the packaging would suggest but definitely quicker than using cotton wool. It took me under 2 minutes to do a 5 nails. But as for the nail with the glitter polish on, that obviously took a bit longer, I don't think this is suitable for taking off 2 full hands of glitter polish but it would be ok if you only had some on your accent nail or maybe even just a thin layer on each nail. 

Another good thing about this is how your nails feel when you've used it, normally when I use remover my nails feel really dry and dehydrated due to the alcohol but this seems to hydrate your nails and they feel oily more than anything else. The oily feeling soon dries but my nails were left feeling really silky and smooth which I loved.

As for the scent, when I first opened the pot I got a bit of a whiff of the usual smell of nail polish remover and thought urgh this is going to make my whole finger smell gross but to my surprise on my fingers it actually smelt ok, quite fruity actually and if you were really in a rush, you could probably get a away with not washing your hands after using this. Obviously I wouldn't recommend that especially if you're going to eat something but for example you could use it on the go without worrying about the smell.

Overall if you are on the go a lot, for example travelling on trains, this would be ideal for you if you like to have a bit of a train down time pamper or if you're like me and you just don't like spending ages removing polish then this is definitely £5 well worth spending because it just takes the hassle out of removing nail polish. It's handy to carry around and it smells nice. The only thing I'm left wondering is how long it's going to last? Where does all the nail polish go? And will the sponge dry up quickly? 

Micro Bead Nail Art Tutorial

A real 2012 retro nail art idea is the micro bead manicure; it's a simple but kind of messy nail art tutorial but it can look really effective for a special occasion.

I got this idea from Coleyyyful when she posted about her little ebay buy, I had to try them just out of curiosity. The ebay seller has a number of different colour beads so there's probably something for everyone depending on what sort of colour you are wanting. I got silver (pictured above) and rainbow so I could have two different looks. 

You get 20g for £1.75 which isn't bad at all; because these are so tiny 20g is actually a lot! After using them once I still have enough for at least another 3/4 applications I reckon, if not more! As Coleyyyful's tutorial suggests, this is a really easy look to recreate; there are 3 simple steps (after the obvious prepping beforehand which you do before any manicure). All you need is a little pot to keep the beads in, a bigger tub (where excess beads drop), a nail colour of your choice and a top coat.

- Choose a base colour and paint it onto your nail (I used one quite thick coat)

- Hold your finger over the larger tub and pour beads over the nail until completely covered; repeat on all nails and let them set for a minute or two.

- Paint some good quality topcoat over the top to try and seal the beads onto the nail.

And there you go, a Micro-Bead manicure for £1.75!

I love the look of these especially for a special occasion; not so sure about the feel of them but they are very eyecatching. Unfortunately for me longevity is pretty much nil, they are so easily flicked off but as I say it'd be ideal for a night out or 2 days absolute tops because after that they start to look scruffy as some of the beads have fallen off. This isn't anywhere near as messy as I first thought, they don't drop off in bed like I thought they would, they just come off during everyday activities (i.e. Washing up, opening cans etc.)

Rimmel Lycra Pro 393 Desire

I bought this for a night out last weekend, I was wearing a black dress and wanted a suitable colour to go with it. 'Desire' is a gorgeous reddy brown colour with a hint of shimmer, I took two swatch photos as without the flash I don't think it caught the shimmer very well, but I know how people appreciate natural sunlight photos too. If you love darker nail colours, you'll love Rimmel Lycra Pro Desire...

I can tell you now, the coverage of this particular shade is absolutely amazing (I can't speak for the whole range as this is the only one I have tried). I was in a massive rush when I was going out so I only had time to do one coat, this polish looks amazing just with that one layer. Obviously if you layer it up, the colour will be darker and probably last longer on your nail.

The application of this polish is amazing, Rimmel have decided to use a 'Maxi Brush' for this product for 'Mistake Free Application'. I was in a rush and this brush made it so much easier to apply! 

So rather than faffing with a thin brush and having to do numerous strokes and re-dips, this brush means that you can apply polish in 3 strokes (or less, depending on the width of your nail) and I didn't have to re-dip at all! I do believe that the Rimmel 60 Second polish has also had a brush overhaul, but it's a 'precision' brush... I must try that.

Without a shadow of a doubt I would buy more from this range, yes. I did grumble to myself a little when I bought it as it was £4.59, I'm used to buying Rimmel Lasting finish at £2.99 but the lycra one is definitely worth the price tag. 

Aztec Nail Art Tutorial

Nail art doesn't have to be complicated and this aztec nail art design is so simple to recreate with just a few tools and nail colours. As with any nail art tutorials on Girl Up North, you can customise the colours to your liking; this is just an easy tutorial for aztec nails.

All you need for this tribal nail design is a striper brush, a dotting tool, a small nail art brush and a white nail colour for the base... the rest is up to you!

Step 1:

Paint your nails with a white base colour; I painted my nails with Sinful Colors: Snow Me White, to give a good base. Leave this to dry completely.

Step 2:
Paint over your whole nail again with a colour of your choice; pictured is Essie Lapis of Luxury. Let this dry completely.

Step 3:
Now take a striper brush, and paint a stripe 1/4 of the way up from the bottom of my nail using a contrasting colour. I used China Glaze: Shocking Pink (Neon). 

Step 4:

Use a striper brush again to paint a black line above the pink, I used Sinful Colors: Black on Black.

Step 5:
Now leave a gap and paint a white line using Sinful Colors: Snow Me White about halfway up the nail.

Step 6: 
Leave another gap and paint another white line, 2 black lines were painted around the white line. Then add the detail with a dotting tool and a small nail art brush.

Aztec/Tribal nail art is one of the easiest nail arts to do, if you make a mistake, you can easily cover it with a line and make it look like it was supposed to be there. You can also change it to your personal preference and make it as 'in-your-face' as you want!

Hope you have fun trying to create some aztec nails, if aztec nails aren't your thing, why not have a look at my leopard print nail art tutorial.

Guest blog by Paige from Nailsaholic.