Some one has been keeping me busy...

In case you don't follow me on Twitter or Instagram (@glittertip) and were wondering where I've been this week...

This little fella has been keeping me busy!

His name is Rolo, we picked him up on Thursday and he is 9 weeks old tomorrow!

Plus it's half term so I have the MiniTips to entertain, but fear not, I am still painting my nails so I have plenty of posts to come!

♥ A ♥

Jelly Sandwich - OPI Houston We Have A Purple and Barry M Yellow Topaz

Houston We Have A Purple is another of the four OPI polishes I picked up for £5.99 each at Fragrance Direct.

I was going to use this one along with Skull & Glossbones in my Braided Manicure from my last post but what with it being a jelly, or as OPI like to call it, Sorbet, it wasn't going to work so I decided to create a jelly sandwich using Barry M Yellow Topaz instead.

This is a five layer jelly sandwich and it's so pretty! Yellow Topaz is just so gorgeous twinkling through under HWHAP. This is the second jelly sandwich mani I've done and now I need more jelly finish polishes!

Any suggestions?

♥ A ♥

Autumnal Braided Manicure

A couple of weeks ago I bought four new OPI polishes from Fragrance Direct for a rather barginous £5.99 each! The colours I bought were Houston We Have A Purple, Plugged-In Plum, Suzi Loves Cowboys and Skull & Glossbones.

It was Skull & Glossbones I had to use right away, I don't know why this colour is so interesting to me but it is and I love it!

I decided to use it in a Braided or Fish Tail mani, whichever you like to call it, along with Barry M Gold Foil and Barry M Raspberry.

I love the simplicity of Braided Manicures and the endless looks you can achieve with different colour combinations. This one felt very elegant, autumnal and grown up to me and I loved it so much I wore it for a few days!

It also made me wonder if I should do an 'Autumn Favouites' nail polish post.

Would you like that? It would probably be a top ten type post as I have trouble narrowing things down to 5 or 3 when it comes to nail polish!

Let me know!

♥ A ♥

Rio Beauty - Marble Nail Art Polish: London Collection - Review

If there is one nail art technique I struggle with it's water marbling.

Freehand? No problem. Stamping? Tricky at first but got the hang of it after a few tries. Foils? Love it. But water marble vexes me. I have tried many times following various tutorials and with all different types of polish but have not for the life of me been able to get it to go right!

So I gave up, until now.

I know they are not a patch on some of the phenomenal water marble nail art designs I've seen elsewhere but I did it! A whole water marble mani! 

And it was all thanks to the little box of magic after the jump.

Barry M Jewel Glitters - Swatches and Review

I hope you are sat comfortably because this will be a long one!
I have so many new polishes I want to blog about at the moment that it's getting a bit overwhelming so I have decided to do some batch swatch posts rather than lots of individual ones, I hope you don't mind!

I'm starting off with the new Barry M Jewel Glitter Polishes because they are to die for!
First up is Yellow Topaz.

Yellow Topaz is a mix of pale gold and holographic glitters in three different sizes, micro glitter, small hexes and slightly larger hexes.

I have one coat of Yellow Topaz over two coats of Barry M Nude in the photos.

I love this polish so much, to me it is just the perfect gold tone, not too dull not too yellow.

Thanks to the holographic glitters it is beautifully sparkly and makes for a stunning and eye catching topcoat to another polish, or alternatively I think it could be easily built up for a more opaque finish, I imagine 4-ish coats would do the trick if you have the patience for it!

Next up after the jump is one coat of Rose Quartz over two coats of Barry M Cappuccino.

Models Own - Hayley's Comet - Swatch and Review

The moment I saw this polish on Twitter I went straight to the Models Own website and ordered it.

Then as soon as it arrived, I put it on my nails!

This is Models Owns newest addition to their duo-chrome collection, Beetle Juice.

It is a difficult shade to describe, to me it's copper with a green/gold duo-chrome shift, with the occasional, very subtle flash of blue/purple. The duo-chrome is more apparent in the bottle than it is on the nail which might be disappointing to some but I like that about this polish. In some lights the duo-chrome makes the colour look almost like a shimmery taupe/nude shade. 

Very pretty!

It's such a lovely Autumn shade for days when you just don't fancy wearing a dark colour on your nails, or if you're just not into the darker nail polish shades.

The application was lovely as you would expect from Models Own, you can see the odd brush stroke but I only noticed because I looked for it, which let's face it, no normal person would actually do!

I have two coats of Hayley's Comet with one coat of Seche Vite on in the photos. I could still see nail line in some lights but one more coat would sort that out if visible nail line is something that bothers you. We all have our pet peeves!

(Direct Sunlight)

I'm really quite taken with this polish, it's not like anything else in my collection, which is always a relief!

You can purchase this little beaut on the Models Own website HERE for £5, or if you like your duo-chromes and have not yet got any of the other Beetle Juice shades then I suggest you grab the box set HERE for £20, you won't regret it! I've also heard that some people have seen Hayley's Comet in their local Boots store also for £5.

♥ A ♥

Inspired By - Art Deco NOTD

Sometimes nail art ideas just pop into my head and won't leave me alone until I try them out.

This was one of those ideas. I'm not even sure where it came from, it started out more tribal in my head but when I started drawing it turned Art Deco. I do know that the colour combination is from the Princess Jasmine nail art I did a few days ago, I just loved the mint, lilac, black and gold together.

I wasn't sure about them when I first finished them. I felt they were a bit much, I even tweeted a photo asking if they were blog post worthy and the answer was yes so here they are! They have grown on me now though and I really enjoyed wearing them.

The colours I used are - 

Barry M Matt White as a base.

Barry M Berry Ice Cream and Essie Mint Candy Apple for the gradient.

Barry M Black.

Barry M Gold Foil and then I used Gold Nail Art Foil over the top.

♥ A ♥

Polish Days - Sentimental

It's Polish Days time again and this months theme was Sentimental.

This one was easy for me. It could only be Nails Inc Montrose Place.

It is a gorgeous, blue toned, iridescent hot pink with a blue/purple flash.

I picked this polish for three reasons.

1. This is one of the first Nails Inc polishes I bought. I bought it in a pack of four from TKMaxx and it sparked the beginning of my nail polish obsession.

2. I wore this polish to my first dress fitting for my wedding dress. I remember standing very still in my dress chatting to the shop assistant about my nail polish, whilst the seamstress pulled and pinned. 

3. It was also the polish I wore for my Hen Do.

I didn't want to just do a plain swatch so I added some rhinestones and a peony accent nail as they were the main flower in my wedding bouquet, and as the polish brings back some happy wedding planning memories I thought it would be quite fitting.

The polishes used on the ring finger were - 

Barry M Matt White.

Barry M Shocking Pink mixed with Matt White for the various shades of pink.

♥ A ♥

Princess Jasmine Nails

Long time no post!

I had a cold and was not in the mood for nail painting, I'm feeling much better now though so whilst walking the kids to school this morning I asked my daughter what I should paint on my nails today and she said 'Umm, Princess Jasmine? Is that a bit tricky for you Mum?'

... Challenge accepted.

I just did a quick Google search to find an image I liked to work from (HERE) and went to work.

The colours I used were Barry M Berry Ice Cream for the base, and Barry M Matt White to plot out a shape. Then I used Barry M Black for Jasmines hair, and mixed Barry M Nude with some Famous by Sue Moxley Nude to get the skin colour. Next I used Barry M Gold Foil for her earrings and necklace, Essie Mint Candy Apple for the top and hair band, then Barry M Gold Foil and Rimmel Sky High for the jewel. I  mixed Barry M Nude with Mushroom for the shaded areas on Jasmines skin, and used Barry M Matt White again to plot in the shape of her eyes and mouth. I used Barry M Shocking Pink for the lips, Barry M Black for the eyebrows, eyeliner and pupil and  Barry M Mushroom mixed with a bit of Block Orange for her eye colour. Then topped it all off with a layer of Seche Vite.

And that was that!

You may have noticed the pictures are a little different. I bought a portable camera photo studio kit from Ebay last week (HERE) which I used for the first time to take these photos and I decided to try a black background for a change, not entirely sure if I like it but let me know what you think or if you even noticed the difference!

♥ A ♥