Pastel Flower Nails

This cute design is incredibly easy and anyone can do it! Paint your thumb, middle and little fingers in any pastel colours of your choice- I chose Models Own Blooboo, and Barry M Strawberry and Berry Ice Cream. For your remaining nails, leave them transparent and paint pastel flowers using a dotting tool/cocktail stick- I used Models Own Lemon Meringue, Barry M Peach Melba and Berry Ice Cream. Inside the flowers, place a small dot of gold polish- mine is from Models Own. At the base of your pastel nails, paint white flowers with a gold dot. Repeat this on the other hand in different colours with alternating fingers. 

Easy!

Models Own Hyper Gel

Models Own Hyper Gel in Coral Glaze £5

 I have always been a massive fan of Models Own polishes and most of my extensive nail polish collection is made up of Models Owns. As soon as I found out that the company was bringing out a line of gel polishes I got so excited! To make matters better, there was a coral in the collection (my favourite)! I soon snapped this baby up for the bargain price of £5 and I wasn't disappointed! The formula of this polish is no exception to the outstanding, smooth, gliding formula of any other Models Own polish, except that this one was extra shiny. After only 2 thin coats, this manicure was opaque! I even reckon that I could have got away with 1 normal coat of the polish to get a similar result, but the formula is in no way thick and gloopy. I didn't use a top coat with this manicure and it lasted for the whole week and a half that I had it on, and it didn't chip once! Amazing! Definitely recommend this collection and Models Own as a brand on the whole!

Hannah x

Models Own Speckled Egg

Models Own Speckled Egg in Dove £5

Haven't Models Own been busy! Bringing out 3 new collections over 4 months! This is the second collection that the company have brought out over Easter, the Speckled Egg Collection. I primarily went into Boots to pick up Magpie (the mint green shade) but it was out of stock, no surprise- it was the most popular colour in the collection. So with help from my mum, I picked up Dove, the baby pink shade. As soon as I got home, I used this colour on my nails and was a little disappointed. I'm not sure if it was the shape of my nails, or the tone of my skin, but this colour just didn't suit me! However, the formula of this polish was no different to an ordinary Models Own polish yet it was a bit more gloopy. After only 3 days, I decided to remove this polish...which was a feat in itself. This polish is awful and pain in the neck to remove! After shredding my way through 2 cotton pads for each nail, I decided to soak my nails in remover and wrap them in tin foil- which resulted in me looking like a bit of an alien for half an hour. All in all, this polish is stunning but just doesn't suit me, which is really quite upsetting for a nail junkie like me.

What do you think?

Hannah x

Cutex Nail Polish Remover

Cutex Moisture Guard Nail Polish Remover retails for £1.62 in Superdrug.

After using multiple nail polish removers over the years, I have found my favourite. I have tried brands such as Tesco and Superdrug but nothing seems to compare to this affordable remover that does the job perfectly. The bottle claims to boost the moisture content in your nails and effectively whiten them, I cannot comment on whether it improves the moisture levels in your nails as I don't suffer from having dry nails. I do believe that it has slightly whitened the tips of my nails, but I can't compare this to their usual state as I cut them recently, sorry! I find that you only need to use 2-3 'tips' of the liquid onto a cotton round to remove polish from most of your nails. This is pretty decent judging by the fact that my Superdrug remover required at least 6 'tips' to remove all of my polish, quite disappointing really. I'd definitely reccommend this remover as it is so cheap and is a lot better and effective than the leading polish removers.

Hannah x

Neon Glitter Nails

Possibly my favourite nail combination ever. This is Sinful Colours in 24/7 with Pinky Glitter over the top (retailing for £1.99 each  MEGA BARGAIN). Either polish on their own is pretty blinding but together they just look like rainbow unicorn blood (trying to think of a pretty metaphor and failing). I loooooove this combo yet people just get blinded by them. They are pretty statement not going to lie, but I strangely love them? They look so barbie-esque. I'm such a sucker for neons too...especially pink.

Hope I haven't blinded anyone!

Hannah x

Matte Red Nails

Gotta love iphone quality pictures right? I've had a sudden burst if excitement with matte nails again, I'm in love with them! I think they look so much more classy and finished. The red polish is Topshops War Paint with H&M matte top coat ontop.

Do you like matte nails?

Hannah x

Cutepolish Halloween Nails

I felt like I hadn't done any nail art for absolutely ages so I decided to crack out my stripers and dotters once again. Since Halloween is coming next week, I raided youtube for some simple Halloween tutorials. I stumbled across Cutepolish's trusty page and found this design in one of her videos (click here to watch the video). The design was actually really easy to reproduce judging by the fact that I haven't done any nail art in absolutely ages.

 I only needed about 8 polishes to do this design. I used : Topshop Peaches and Cream, Venus Fly Trap and War Paint, Rimmel Ultraviolet, Sinful Colours Snow me White and Black on Black. I also used my dotting tools (similar here) and nail art brushes (here) which I got from amazon, I also used a black striper that I got from 99p store a while back.

To be fair, I'm pretty happy with how my results turned out. Let me know if you try out this design by putting it on instagram and tagging me in the description (hannahtoughx).

Have a good week!

Hannah x

Seventeen Graffiti Polish

Oh gosh I'm in love. Hi! I've finally got round to reviewing this polish after about a week of it sitting on my 'to review' shelf...bad hannah. Seventeen's 'Off the wall graffiti nail effect' polish in Monochrome is one of my favourite polishes I own. It is a Salt and Pepper top coat polish filled with suspended strands of black and white matte glitter. The most popular Salt and Pepper polish is one by L'Oreal which I believe is £5.99, and this polish was £3.99!!! So cheap for the quality of the product itself! But if I'm honest, it is a pain in the backside to remove and takes absolutely ages to come off. I've used this top coat over Essie Fiji and it is now one of my favourite polish combinations. It looks dainty but with a punky edge. I'm happy with this purchase and hope you guys will give this one a crack.

Hannah x

New Models Own Collections

 If you guys haven't guessed yet, Models Own is my favourite nail brand. I'm in love with the formulation, the variety of colours, and hello, have you seen the bottles?! When I saw LLYMLRS had written some posts (here and here) telling us about the new Models Own collections, I jumped. The new collections are called 'Fireworks' and 'Velvet Goth'. I bought one of each collection to give them a whirl. These each retail at £5 like a standard Models Own polish, and I think they are definitely worth the money and aren't a splurge in my opinon.

The pink glitter polish (Roman Candle) is from the Fireworks collection. I love how the polishes are named after various different types of firework (others in the collection have names such as Sparkler and Rocket). This polish has a clear base with black, pink and silver strands suspended through it. I find that the polish can be very opaque over the nail and is a very dense polish. A cheaper dupe of this polish is Barry M's Pink Sapphire (retailing at £2.99). The greeny polish (Absinthe) is from the Velvet Goth collection. The lid of the bottle is cased in velvet in the corresponding colour of the polish. I personally like this touch but I can see other people not being so fond of the lid. When I first saw the name 'Velvet Goth', I thought the polishes were going to be texturised and fuzzy, but thankfully they're not. The polish is quite hard to explain, it's quite a thick consistency and could get away with one coat. It has small flecks of glitter through it and dries matte on the nail. My favourite of the two is probably Absinthe as I think that it is definitely a autumn/winter colour and a christmas staple.

The Fireworks collection is out September 4th in Boots, and the 25th in Superdrug. The Velvet Goth collection is out now.

DIY Dotty Nails

Base coat- Models Own Hedonist

Dots- Sinful Colours Snow me White

Hannah x

Holiday Nail Polish

Hi! So I'm going to France for 2 weeks on friday so I won't be able to post on here as much, sorry. But I thought I'd show you which nail polish I'm taking. Yes, I know there's a lot for 2 weeks but if you know me, you know that I have over excessive amounts of nail polish anyway! Neons are big this summer and look great with a tan so I thought I'd take all of my neon polishes with me. I'm also taking a white base coat to put under my neons to make them brighter.

Left to right...Barry M Greenberry & Limited Edition A, Models Own Hedonist, Beach Party, Toxic Apple & Luis Lemon, Essie trio Naughty Nautical, Sunday Funday & Full Steam Ahead (full review here), Sinful Colours Snow White & 24/7, Collection Bright Lights.

I'll post what I can while I'm on holiday, hope you guys have a good week! What's your favourite summer colour?

Hannah x

Essie Summer 2013 Collection

 Recently I went up into Norwich city (my hometown) with my dad to get some last minute holiday goodies before friday. I took this opportunity to grab the trio of this years Essie Summer Collection, and boy was I pleased. A normal Essie polish retails for £7.99 and this trio was £12.99. I originally only wanted 'Sunday Funday' (the middle colour in the trio), but I found the trio and fell in love with 'Naughty Nautical' (the left colour) and decided to buy the trio as it was cheaper. Although the polish bottles are smaller (5ml) than an average Essie polish (13.5 ml), I still thought you'd get a good amount of product inside it. The pack comes with 3 of the 6 polishes from the Summer Collection: Naughty Nautical, a deep turquoise, Sunday Funday, a pinky peach, and Full Steam Ahead, a pastel lavender. All 3 polishes have small particles of shimmer in them, this isn't noticeable in the picture above, but here are some swatches...

The shimmer still isn't really that visible in the swatches but it is there, I promise! I haven't seen a colour that resembles that of 'Naughty Nautical' and it is very unique in my huuuge collection. Although, 'Full Steam Ahead' is very similar to Topshops 'Parma Violet' (which I own), and 'Sunday Funday' is a shimmer version of Essie's own 'Peach Daiquiri' (I also have that too...starting to worry about my obsession...). As always, these polishes have a great formulation which all Essie products have. They are 2 coats opaque and don't take ages to dry! I am in love with Sunday Funday as it looks great with a tan! I am currently sporting 'Naughty Nautical' on my nails and it hasn't chipped yet and looks fab! Will hopefully be buying the full size bottles of my favourites and maybe some others in the collection, as long as they're still on sale when I get back from holiday!!

Hannah x

Manicure 2 - Neon pink glitter

Sinful Colours 24/7 with Pinky Glitter over the top. Picture taken at Walcott beach, Norfolk, England.

Manicure 1 - Neon Pink Flowers

My fore finger and middle finger messed up quite a lot but my other fingers turned out fab! I tried this design a while back but with a french tip, I was swatching my new neon pink (Sinful Colours 24/7) when I decided to try this design again. You can hardly see in this picture, but there are smalled purple petals inside the white petals. My striper is from poundland but you could use a thin paintbrush dipped in black polish and do the same thing. I only tried out this design as my friend Jess wants me to do this design for her when she goes to Tenerife in September. Thanks for reading, feel free to comment your feedback.

Hannah x

Barry M Confetti Nail Paints

Ok guys, so Barry M have done it again and brought out incredible dupes of the Nails Inc Feather Collection for a fraction of the price. There are 5 colours in the collection (Sour Apple, Marshmellow, Liquorice, Bubblegum & Dolly Mixture), but currently I only own 2 due to the stocks in my local Superdrug. All of the colours in the collection are clear polish with various coloured matte strands of glitter packed inside (to give the effect of feathers).

First we have Marshmellow which contains fine strands of candyfloss pink matte glitter. On the nails, the polish looks very fluffy and sugary sweet, so the name couldn't be more fitting! This polish is a great dupe of Nails Inc's York for a margin of the price (£3.99). I took advantage of the 3 for 2 offer in Superdrug and picked up 2 of these beauties, along with Barry M Gelly GreenBerry (review following).

Secondly, we have Sour Apple which contains lime green and blue strands. This polish is a great combination used as a top coat over Barry M Gelly GreenBerry as the colours match perfectly. This polish is an exact dupe of Nails Inc's Brighton feather polish; if you want the Nails Inc one, I guarantee that you should get the Barry M dupe instead and save yourself a few £'s.

Overall, these polishes are very on trend at the moment and you can get your mitts on these for a very affordable price of £3.99 in the UK. I don't recommend using these polishes on their own without a solid base coat, personally I think it looks very tacky and you have to use at least 3 coats to make it opaque. For your colour base coat I would recommend using a colour that matches the strands in the polish to make it look like a smooth polish. The consistency of the polish is very smooth and doesn't require a top coat, it isn't itchy on the skin and doesn't catch on your clothes. I don't own any of the Nails Inc polishes so I am unable to compare the formulas, but I'm sure they are of the same quality as the Barry M's.

These polishes are to be released in the UK in store at Superdrug from June 5th and Boots from June 12th.

Hannah x