Another OPI look!

Euro Centrale update! 

Hey everyone! I know it's another late post but it's only really at this time that I get the chance to do my posts after doing my nails and stuff after work! This post isn't going to be an in depth one, just more of an update and current nail polish post. So, this look that I've done tonight is another inspired by the OPI Euro Centrale collection that I purchased from QVC! (For my original Euro Centrale post, click here!) The colours that I've used are 'Vant To Bite My Neck?' and 'Polka.com'. These colours are perfect together as the dark purple shade is complimented by the glitter polish as the glitter also inclues purples, pinks and blues. The glitter shade would also work amazingly with a lighter and darker shades (blues, pinks and even black!) It would even look amazing even with a slight accent with a simple ring finger manicure!

I hope you all like this look! As always, if you have any questions or comments, leave them below of tweet me on the link! (@RiaHughesThen)

Feeling blue!

Blue nail polish! 

Hey everyone! I thought tonight I would do a post with the theme of blue! I've collected all of my blue polishes together from all the different brands I own, and pictured them (left). As some of you may or may not know, Baker Street from Nails Inc is my absolute favourite polish (ever), and would for sure be my desert island colour. In the picture it's 5th in from the left on the top row. (If you click HERE you can read my Baker Street polish post!) Some of the blues in the picture look black or even purple but I guess it's just the lighting. The brands of blue that I've got include, Nails Inc, Orly, No7, George, Barry M, OPI and China Glaze. The different effects of these polishes include, cream gloss, metalic, magnetic, glitter, 3D glitter, jewellery and sand. The sand effect nail polish (2nd row 3rd from left) is from the Mariah Carey collection from OPI. Unlike some polishes such as concrete effects, it drys with a matte blue background with glitter particles included! This colour doesn't need a topcoat because with one, it will lose it's matte sand effect. The China Glaze polish (2nd row 2nd from left) is the only China Glaze polish I own! It's truely stood the test of time as I purchased this when I was at college (around 4/5 years ago!) and is still useable! The small Orly polish (top row first on the left) was the first one I got from this brand, and I bought it to use over Baker Street because the Orly polish didn't have a deep depth of colour in the background, but with blue underneath the glitter, this Orly looks amazing! A lot of the glitter polishes and 3D polishes are ideal for a ring finger manicure, toe nail colour or even a full covering fingernail colour for a long lasting shade! With the Barry M blues, I think I have all of the blue shades that are on sale! I think the metalic shade from Barry M is my favourite of this brand (2nd row 6th from left). It has a black undertone which gives the polish a real richness! The No7 polishes I purchase are only when I get the vouchers from Boots! They're not my favourite although I do enjoy most of the colours they offer. I'm not overly keen on the long tall brushes on these polishes as they're not as easy to get a precise even finish!

 

Well, I hope you have enjoyed having a look in to my blue polishes! If you wanted to know any names of others or anything else, feel free to leave a comment or tweet me by clicking the link! (@RiaHughesThen)

Orly :-)

Another late one!
A very good (and late) evening to you all! I thought I would again do a post on what nails polish I have just applied and what I used to get the look! So tonight I've gone with an Orly polish with a Nails Inc colour underneath for extra depth of colour. I firstly started with Nails Envy from OPI but in matte, so that the colour grips to the nails more when applied. The first colour polish I applied was 'Devonshire Row' from Nails Inc which is a beautiful pastel purple shade. This colour looks amazing on it's own or even with a ring finger manicure effect. After this coat I use an Orly glitter full coverage shade called 'Miss Conduct'. It has echoes of bluey silver and gold fine dusty glitter particles which makes the nails intensely sparkle. Also what helps with the gloss finish is the Nails Inc Kensington Caviar 45 second drying top coat which is my go to top coat! Hope you like!

Questions or comments welcome below or on my Twitter! (@RiaHughesThen)

Current nails.

Nails right now!
Hey all! As I didn't do a post yesterday I thought I would do a quick post this afternoon! It's just going to be a quick post on what nail polish I have on today and how I did it! So, what I've used to create the look is a basecoat of OPI Nail Envy (matte). I love using this as a base because not only does it have the advantages of the strengthener, but it holds the polish nicely! I then did one coat of Nails Inc 'Black Taxi', which is the most amazing black I've come across. As I'm using a colour over the top of the black, I only did one coat. Even if you were only going to wear the black alone, although they recommend 2 coats of polish, I would say you could easily get away with one! Finally, I used 'Royal Arcade' which is the blue diamond effect polish from Nails Inc, that I mentioned on a previous post. It has all different shaped particles of blue mixed with smaller blue sprinkles within a clear polish. As always, I finished them off with a coat of Nails Inc Kensington Caviar 45 second drying topcoat. I hope you like them!

As always if you have any questions or comments, please leave them below or tweet me on the link! (@RiaHughesThen)

Red!

Red nails!

Hey all! I thought tonight I would do a post on the theme of red nails! When done well, red nails can look really elegant yet fierce at the same time! In my opinion red nails can look good on short and long nails. At the moment I've got short nails, which are cut short so they're all long and at even lengths when grown, yet the red polish still looks amazing!

 

One of my favourite red polishes is from Nails Inc and is calles 'St James'. It's a deep yet bright red with full coverage in just one coat. I also like a red from Orly called 'Unlawful', but it needs quite a few coats to have a rich effect.
With red polish I would suggest using a topcoat that leaves a long lasting shine. I would recommend either the Nails Inc Kensington Caviar 45 second drying topcoat, or even Nails Inc's new gel effect topcoat! This gel effect topcoat will take slightly longer to dry, but gives the impression of an expensive gel manicure.

Another red polish that I really like is from Orly and is called 'Devil May Care'. It's a red and gold sprinkley glitter, and looks amazing over a red polish! (Ideal toe nail colour, for longevity.)

 

As always if you have any questions or comments, please leave them below or tweet me on the link! (@RiaHughesThen).

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Glitter removal!

Glittery nail problems!

Hey everyone! I thought tonight I would do a post on the way I remove stubborn glitter from my nails! I love wearing glitter for the long longevity! A lot of people will stay clear from glitter just because of the taking off process and how long it takes to remove. I learnt this method of removal through a YouTube video and it's so simple to follow and really does help with tough glitter polishes, leaving you to wear whichever ones you want, when you want!
All you're going to need is...

 • Long strips of foil;

• Cotton balls or pads (either work fine);

• Nail polish remover (preferably non-acetone).

Firstly, what you need to do is dip the cotton ball/pad in to the remover, but not too much that it's soaking. Then you need to softly press it over the finger nail, so it starts to soak in to the polish. Next you need to start to wrap the foil around the finger tip, and squeeze it tightly to the finger. Then all you need to do is do that to all the other fingers and thumbs. Just leave it on to drench through for about 5-10 minutes, then just press firmly down on to the fingertip and slide off. Obviously not 100% of the polish will come off all of the time if you've used a drastic amount of glitter polish but at least most of it will!

 

There it is,  a few simple steps to remove stubborn glitter polish! Feel free to leave any comments or tweet me here! (@RiaHughesThen)

Live map!

Glitter galore!

Better late than never!

Good evening everyone! This is a super-duper late post but I've been busy since finishing work at 8 so now will have to do ;-). I got the idea for this post from a friend of mine, and they suggested I should do one on glitter polishes! I adore glitters, and I have loads and loads of them! I know that some people stay away from glitter polish because of the removal process, as it's quite hard to get off after. Sometimes that's the primary reason why I wear them, for the longevity! For example if I have to go to work but I want my nails to last for the day in to the evening, I will wear a glitter over the top of my nails just to make it last until I want it to come off, because I know it's going to have less of a tendency to chip as much as just a gloss polish. I've also got a really good removal technique that I learnt from someone on YouTube (I can't remember their name!), that I use to remove glitter polish and is unmistakably simple! (I will do a separate post for the removal process!).
                                                                                           
 
So what I was gonna do is just let you guys know what a couple of my favourite glitters are, what brand etc! I think the first glitter polishes that I purchased that I really really liked was one from OPI. It's called 'Rainbow Connection' and is from The Muppets collection. It includes all different coloured shapes and coloured particles within a clear liquid. This is one of those glitters that is packed with particles and shiny bits, and has more colour than clear polish in it (which I love!). I'm not sure if this one is able to be purchased anymore because I got it quite a while ago in a random store, but I'll be gutted if I can't get it anywhere else as it is a favourite of mine!

 

                                                                           

The next one that I'm gonna talk about is called 'Over The Rainbow' by Leighton Denny. (Yes, there is a theme going on here lol). This is also another jam packed glitter polish. It works really well over all colours, as it's got so many different colours in it! I haven't had this one for very long, and it's still able to be purchased. I got mine in a duo from QVCUK.com. This glitter also pairs perfectly with my favourite polish 'Baker Street' by Nails Inc, just on a ring finger for a hint of glitz, or over all of the nails for a fully bling look!

The other kind of glitters that I adore are the jewellery effect nail polishes from Nails Inc. They have all different shaped pieces of glitter but all in the same colour, giving the nails a dimensional effect! Furthermore, I like some other glitters that have a full coverage, especially at Christmas time! Silver glitter nails on their own is also another that I really like!
                                                                                    

So, I could be here for hours talking about glitters because there are so many that I own/like/want! If any of you want to know or see any of the others I have, let me know and I can do a separate post on what they are and where I got them from etc! :-) As always if you have questions or comments, leave them on here or tweet me by clicking my name! :-) (@RiaHughesThen)

My first post!

Here it goes..

Okay, right so this is my first blog post. I'm not 100% sure what I should be writing but I'm just gonna go with it lol. I thought I'd make a blog in the first place for a place to share everything I love about nails! It's a huge obsession for me and I absolutely love painting nails, doing manicures etc. I've always been a nail painting lover but over the past few years I guess it's just escalated! I'm a trained beauty therapist in level 2 and 3 so that's where I learnt a lot of the skills I use. I've got a huge collection of polishes. My favourite brand is Nails Inc. I'm also a fan of OPI, Leighton Denny, Orly and so on :-) .So yeah, I'm gonna leave it as that! I'd love to hear questions or maybe requests for nails! :-D.

Fast drying topcoats!

Good evening all!

So, I thought tonight I would do a post about what topcoats I've used/like/would recommend. I'm only going to be talking about 3 of the better topcoats that I own and use. People that know me will already know that my favourite topcoat is the Nails Inc Kensington Caviar 45 second drying top coat. It leaves the nails with a wet look finish which I really like. Sometimes with topcoats when they say they're 'fast drying', they never are so when I used this one for the first time I was very unsure about if I would like it or if it was going to to what it said. Thankfully (for me lol), it did work and now it's one of the only topcoats that I will use! You don't need too much of it to make it work/dry. If you do use too much it will go quite gloopy and won't dry within the 45 seconds.

The next topcoat that I'm going to talk about is the Seche Vite dry fast topcoat. This is also another one that will/does dry reasonably quickly. The thing that I don't like with this one is the consistency. Unlike the Nails Inc one, it's quite runny (for me). Where it's quite thin when it's applied, it's not that shiny and I feel like I need to keep applying more and more, which just makes all the polish peel off in one.

The last one that I'm going to talk about isn't really a polish but it counts for it's fast drying properties. It is Leighton Denny miracle drops. It's really good for making nails dry quickly (obviously lol) and does leave a shine. With miracle drops, all you have to do is squeeze the pipette into the liquid to draw it out, and simply place it over the cuticle so the liquid falls down over the nail. It works really well for fast drying and shininess. The only down side for me is that it can leave quite a lot of oily residue around the finger tip area.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to write them below or drop me a tweet. (@RiaHughesThen)

What nail colour I have right now!

Current nails!

So, I thought I would do a post on the nails I've done this evening. I got the idea for these nails whilst I was online the other day, I think it was on Tumblr. Basically, what I've done is the magnetic effect nail polish with a glitter on the top. The magnetic effect I've used is Nails Inc Richmond Park, which is a metalic-y green, which has hints of black when the magnet is used on the top. The glitter that I used over the top is from Barry M. It's a gold-ish coloured glitter but is described as Yellow Topaz. Both are really easy to use and go on nicely! These nails looks quite galaxy-ish to me which I think is why I quite like it, and they only took about 10 minutes or so.

As always with painting my nails, I use a base and topcoat! I used the matte effect Nail Envy as my basecoat. I find that for me personally this is great as a base as the colour seems to 'stick' to it more. For my topcoat I used Nails Inc Kensington Caviar 45 second drying topcoat. This is the best topcoat that I have ever used! (Topcoat blog post coming soon.)

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them or contact me through my Twitter! (@RiaHughesThen)

My favourite polish!

Good evening all!

 

 

I thought I would write a post about my favourite nail colour! It is a colour from Nails Inc called Baker Street! I'm not sure what it is about this colour that I like so much, but it has been my favourite ever since I purchased it months and months ago. This shade is a cobalt bright blue. This shade has even been seen on Beyoncé! One of my favourite ways to wear this shade is with the Leighton Denny rainbow polish, which is a mixture of all different coloured particles jam packed within a clear polish. Another way I like to wear this colour is with the blue nail jewellery (Royal Arcade). This makes the nail jewellery look like sapphires on the nails! 

 

If anyone has any comments or questions, feel free to leave them! (Twitter @RiaHughesThen)

One for the OPI lovers!

O P I - Euro Centrale
 

I thought I would do a post on one of my latest additions to my 'nail polish family'! I ordered this collection through QVCUK, which is one of the greatest places to get some absolute bargains on high quality nail polish brands. This was the Today's Special Value on the day I got it, but it can still be purchased on the website. Click here to view the item on the QVC website! I'm currently wearing the purple shade (Vant to Bite My Neck?) on my finger nails with Nails Inc diamond jewellery effect (Diamond Arcade). The purple is a great full coverage colour! I have also used the glitter (Polka.com) with another colour from the Euro Centrale collection that I purchased separately. It's a gorgeous lilac purple (You're Such A Budapest)! The other amazing thing about this collection is that it included the original Nail Envy and Avoplex oil pen/brush which are amazing! I use the Avoplex oil morning and evening or whenever I can. It's an amazing way to hydrate cuticles and keep the area around the nails looking good. (Why would you want an amazing manicure with poor fingernails?) I haven't got to use the other colours yet as I only got them yesterday but I'll be sure to update with my opinion/favourites as and when I use them! :-) (other polishes are 'Can't Find My Czechbook' and 'Suzi's Hungary AGAIN!') Comments and ideas welcome as always! (@RiaHughesThen)