Nail of the Day ~ Grey Berry Ocean.

Barry M in Berry Ice Cream 

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Model's Own Indian Ocean

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(Mavala The Elle Grey)

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Grey Blueberry Ocean

That was fun title to come up with! I haven't been posting very regularly because (as usual) life got super busy! But I wanted to do a post that wasn't another Outfit of the Day or something lipstick related, so I thought I'd do a good old classic Nail of the Day! I haven't properly painted my nails in ages but I really like the combination I ended up choosing. Indian Ocean is such a gorgeous duochrome topcoat, which I've previously layered over nude (which can be found here) - as with all duochromes depending on what colour you layer it on, the prominent colours vary. Compared to the nude, putting lilac and grey underneath bought out the pinkier shades and less of the golden/copper ones. I genuinely can't decide if I prefer it on top of Berry Ice Cream or Elle Grey. I tried to do something the accent nails but it went wrong twice so I left them blank.

Which layered colour do you think looks better?

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Nail of the Day ~ Moon Candy Orbit Review.

Revlon Moon Candy in Orbit ~ £7.99

I had seen swatches for Revlon's new Moon Candy nail art duo collection and all of them looked gorgeous. Each consists of a dark opaque varnish and a 'flakie' style iridescent/duo-chrome top coat. When I found them in my locals Boots along with the fact I had a £2 off Revlon make up voucher I thought I would give them a go. Choosing was so difficult, I nearly got the plain black one but I decided I would try something slightly different. The names are all cool, astronomy related things which made me like it even more. I chose Orbit, a dark, slightly dusty eggplant purple base coat with a purple shifting to blue tinted topcoat.

The first thing I expected to find was needing more than one layer of the base coat polish but surprisingly and impressively only one coat was required. It's a simple but pretty colour and the formula was nice and creamy.
When I applied the top coat two thoughts came to my head:
1. holy crap, this is gorgeous. The flakes/shards are so so pretty, almost holographic, they shift beautifully between petrol blue, bright purple, sapphire and turquoise, like dragonfly wings. There is nothing subtle about the colour change and I love it!
2. holy crap this is messy. For two reasons, firstly the flakes are all different sizes and shapes so there's no regularity to application but also because applying the top coat caused the bottom coat to smudge, so when I applied it some of my nail got exposed again, which was super annoying and made for a really un-neat finish. I also found that even after an extra layer of clear top coat the shards didn't lie flat on my nail and some of them went a bit funny, like stringy plastic and lost their colour. As well as the fact that removing it took forever.

I have had a look at other swatches online and those didn't seem to have the spreading issue I did, having said that they were all nail blogs so the people who had done the swatches probably have experience with flakies. In my second attempt (the results of which are pictured) I 'places' the flakes as opposed to applying them like a normal nail polish, which did help a little but it was still pretty messy.
All in all the gorgeousness of the topcoat and the impressiveness of the base coat almost make up for their downfalls. Another thing to add is how quickly the varnish 'fractures' and chips. Have you tried any of the Moon Candy duos? Let me know what you thought of them!

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Nail of the Day ~ Aqua Violet.

Used

Models Own ~ Aqua Violet

Collection 2000 ~ Parma Violets

I haven't painted my nails in what seems like an age. I went for something fairly simple; layered a gorgeous duochrome onto a dark purple blue base. The colour shift is pretty subtle and mainly stays within the blue-turquoise range with a few flashes of purple. Also by some freak accident my right hand came out better than my left, what are the chances?
Today's is a short post - I'm still in Scotland (which is horrendously cold but warming up gradually). I will also be posting a little haul post of the things I've bought soon, which means that, yes, I did break my spending ban further...I have no self control apparently. I will be continuing my ban into April as well, even though I'm finding it hard to quantify how much I've actually saved. I think in a way it's the knowledge that I am trying to spend less that I have to keep in mind. I will also be participating in NaNoWriMo camp in April, this time with a little more planning than last time where I had no ideas and gave up after about 9 days. Other things looming in the horizon include choosing a research project for my 3rd year of uni, depending on interest I may or may not talk about it on here, I'm not sure of the interest about the scientific side of my life on this here blog. Oh, and I'm getting a hair cut, which I am super exciting about! No more accidently eating my own hair when it's windy for me thank you!

Nail of the Day ~ new year nails.

 Used:

Urban Outfitters W.I.P in Twinkie

Accessorize in Aztec

I'm not sure how I feel about these nails but in the end it doesn't matter much since about 5 minutes after taking these photos I ruined half of them by putting shoes on, sometimes you think your nails have dried and then they just stab you in the back. I didn't have time to clean up the messy edges as well. Also, I know it's every girls' dream to have long nails but this is pretty much the limit for me, typing is hard and it just feels a bit weird.

I've been wanting to use Twinkie for ages, I mean, pink and blue holographic stars with silver holographic glitter - what isn't there to love? However, I've found it a challenge to find a base colour that works well. Aztec is one of my favourite duochromes and it needed some love, so I decided to force them together, like an arranged marriage. I found that the stars in Twinkie don't follow the curve of my nail which means that the points bent, but I'm guessing if I used a thicker top coat that might have stuck them down a bit better.

I am currently blogging from France, having just coming back from skiing, I am so exhausted! I hope everyone else is enjoying the festive season and has some good plans for tomorrow!

Nail of the Day ~ ruby slippers.

These are the ultimate, quick and easy festive/Christmas nails. Seriously, even if you don't have glitter nail varnish if you have some red glitter hanging around, or any glitter for that matter, just paint your nails and then dip them in, whack on a top coat and you're sorted! Specifically for this I used Barry M in Red Glitter and 17 Lasting Fix in Chateau. Unfortunately they started chipping pretty much the day I painted them, which is disappointing. But they do look really nice, and they are so easy.
I am also so pleased to say that I have another post coming in 2 days! I am almost ahead of myself, however I have so much revision to do this glory might be short lived.

Nail of the Day ~ Utopian Ocean.

 Used:

Models Own ~ Utopia

Models Own ~ Indian Ocean

Utopia is a nail varnish I had seen around the blogosphere and during Models Own 50% sale last month I bought it, along with Indian Ocean, which is part of their Bettlejuice line - a collection of gorgeous duochrome polishes. Indian Ocean is a shimmering ice blue varnish with a clear base, it shifts to rose gold with hints of violet. With most of my duochromes (example here) I usually layer them on top of black, because this lets the shifting effect really pop, but this time I decided to go for a more subtle effect, so I layered Indian Ocean on Utopia which is a really pretty, dusty nude pink. I love both colours so I couldn't bring myself to cover all of Utopia. Although I did find Utopia was a bit watering and needed 3 layers.

What's your favourite, nude colours or duochromes?

Nail of the Day ~ Leopard Moth

Leopard Moth is a white based polish with chunky, matte, black glitter from Accessorize's Speckle collection. For a while I couldn't understand why I liked this nail varnish but eventually I figured it out. It's because it's not obviously pretty. It's weird and interesting and definitely not feminine and that's what's cool about it. Even the glitter isn't actually glittery, it looks like granite. I love that it's named after such a gorgeous and appropriate animal: the leopard moth. In fact all of the varnishes from this "speckle" series which all involve mainly matte glitter are inspired by insects with amazing markings, I've got my eye on "Ladybird" which is a red base with black glitter and "Firefly" which is a black base with gold glitter.
So, what do you think? Is this interesting shade a hit or a miss for you?

Source. Isn't it beautiful?

Nail of the Day ~ Pearl Effect

Look Beauty ~ Nail Pop Sequin Effect top coat

Claire's Accessories ~ Black

I got the top coat from Superdrug whilst they were two for £6, which is great since I had been tempted by it before. I really wanted it because before I was aware of this one I had been looking to buy one of Nfu Oh's amazing flakies nail varnishes (for an example of just how gorgeous they are look here and here). I would say that Look Beauty's Pearl Effect is a pretty good dupe to Nfu Oh's #50 although the shifts in colour are a lot less obvious. The actual polish is a clear base with flecks of irresdent flakes that shift from a dark cobalt blue to navy to purple and then a bit turquoise as well, the changes in colour were really hard to capture on camera and in real life are only noticeable in really bright sunlight. I layered it over a plain black polish but it looks really pretty and subtle on top of a nude as well. I want to try it on white as well, I think it'll make a really lovely icy Christmas look.

So what do you think? Have you tried their other shifting top coat Sequin yet?

Nail of the Day ~ pink spice.

I love love love Accessorize's Illusion nail varnish collection, I already did a nail of the day with another one from the collection called Aztec. Today it's the turn of Pink Spice, which like all the Illusion nail polishes is a duochrome, and it's such a pretty one! The main colour is a vibrant shimmering fuschia and in different lightings shifts to orange. It's so nice! Normally I wouldn't wear something so pink but the shimmering effect makes it less bold and more ever changing. As always with duochromes it was really hard to catch the shift, I wandered around the house trying out different light sources til eventually I found a few suitable spots.
Application was good and easy and it dried quickly. Two layers was enough for full coverage but I did three. It did chip pretty quickly (hence why they look a bit uneven in the photos - I did a quick touch up) but since it's only £4 and I didn't use a topcoat I'd say that isn't too bad.

I am getting back into the blogging properly now that I'm getting into the swing of uni so watch this space!

Don't forget I'm currently doing a giveaway on the run-up to my one year blog anniversary where you could win an ASOS voucher, all you have to do is follow Good Morning Angel and leave a comment telling me what you like and what you think could be improved on the blog (enter here).

Nail of the Day ~ the sky at night.

Using: 

Barry M ~ black multi glitter

Max Factor ~ Dazzling Blue

Both of these varnishes look amazing in the bottle; the Barry M one has lots of silver holographic glitter in a black base, however on the nails it's slightly disappointing, it dries grainy and the glitter doesn't sparkle like it does in the bottle, but for whatever reason I still like it and I'm sure it would have looked better if I hadn't forgotten to put a top coat on. It also transpired that the grainy texture sort of helped with the whole cosmic effect, I think? Dazzling Blue is an amazing duo chromatic blue/green, with glints of purple, pink and orange at different angles. I imagine those different colours become more prominent depending on what base colour you use, on black it's primarily green.
I'd been wanting to do something with these two polishes together and finally got round to it. After a lot of indecision and experimenting (including that one cresent moon stencil) I decided to try some kind of galaxy effect. There are loads of bloggers who have done tutorials and theirs looked way better than mine (I'm guessing because they used more than 2 colours) but I like how multi-chromatic Dazzling Blue is - the photos really don't do it justice. What I totally didn't realise until finishing is that the colours match my hair!
That's all for now! Anyone else tried cosmic themed nailart? I'd love to see it!