Blue and Plum gradient.............. with flakies and dots

Here's a mani that evolved over a few days!

I started out with this gradient, which I did with American Apparel Berry and Mount Royal:

Then after a couple of days I added this iridescent flakie, M&S Limited Collection 'Light Mix', along with a few randomly placed large dots in Barry M Matte Polish in Vanilla.

I was surprised to see the 'Light Mix' polish in my local M&S a couple of weeks ago, and immediately grabbed  bottle, thinking how pretty and unusual it was. It really didn't disappoint, the flakies shimmer all shades of the rainbow and lie nice and flat to the nail. The range of colours reflected in this seems perfect as a topper for a gradient too.  And Barry M Vanilla is awesomely opaque for big dots too - this one seems to be as good as Barry M Lychee for nail art. Vanilla is a darker and cooler shade than Lychee, and leans more towards pinky grey. Here's a dotticure I did with Barry M Lychee recently. I'd consider these *very useful* shades in my nail art pallete - they're so opaque and easy to work with!

The American Apparel polishes were part of a gift from a friend earlier this year; I purchased M&S Limited Collection Light Mix from my local M&S and Barry M Matte Vanilla from my local Boots.

Femme Fatale Hydraxia

Femme Fatale Hydraxia over Barry M Countess

This is the last of the lovely glitters Femme Fatale sent me for review. The others I've tried are Spindleweb (another teal glitter topper, but with a strong green shimmer in its base), Lime Thief (a pretty lime green crelly with bright, matte glitters) and Snapvine (a teal crelly with lime and magenta glitter).

Hydraxia is a glitter topper with teal, blue and yellow glitters in various sizes. Most of the swatches I've have been over a blue or teal base; I wanted to try something a bit different but I'd been lacking inspiration, hence this polish is the last one of the four to get used. The base is tinted teal, which rules out a light base that isn't teal, blue or greenish. However, I had a sort of eureka moment when I added topcoat to Barry M Countess (a dark burgundy textured polish) - this really came alive with sparkle and just called out for a bit of blue and yellow! So it was Hydraxia's moment. Here's Hydraxia in the bottle:

And over Countess:

Femme Fatale Hydraxia over Barry M Countess

The application of Hydraxia is good, even with the sample size bottle. The glitter is very dense, so no fishing required and the polish spreads easily over the nail. Because the glitter was so dense, I used two coats of Gelous to smooth it out before adding a thick coat of Seche Vite.

Here's how it looks in macro view

Femme Fatale Hydraxia over Barry M Countess

Femme Fatale Hydraxia was sent as a sample for review. You can buy Hydraxia direct from Femme Fatale; they do ship international but shipping works out quite expensive unless you are buying a few bottles. There are details of international suppliers on the website.

I purchased Barry M Countess at my local Superdrug; I'll have a post up about that polish on it's own soon, as it's pretty awesome :)

Orange dots!

Zoya Jacqueline with orange dots

I'm getting more and more fond of dots! For this bright, jolly mani I used a base of Zoya Jacqueline and added big dots using an old Dior Addict polish, Orange Artifice. I love the finished effect! Not much more to say about this - here are a few pictures from various angles......

Zoya Jacqueline with orange dots

After a couple of days I decided to add a bit of black. I was going to add zebra stripes, but when I started freehanding stripes on my thumb I thought that much  black overpowered the dots, and, because the mani had plenty of topcoat on, I was able to remove the bit of black polish I'd applied before it dried properly without too much damage. So I added black glitter instead - I chose Nail Laquer UK Dog Days which is a variety of black hexes, squares and microglitter in a clear base with a sprinkling of multicoloured glitter in various sizes, shapes and finishes (matte, holo, metallic) to give it a bit of extra interest.

Zoya Jacqueline with orange dots with Nail Lacquer UK Dog Days

I love this glitter - I'm a great fan of all black glitter but I think the touch of bright colours really adds an extra lift. I used two coats of Nail Laquer UK Dog Days for this mani, smoothed out with a coat of Gelous and a final coat of Seche Vite quick drying top coat.

Zoya Jacqueline with orange dots with Nail Lacquer UK Dog Days

I purchased Nail Lacquer UK Dog Days from AJ's Etsy Shop. I've had the orange Dior about ten years and Zoya Jacqueline was a gift from a friend this Spring.

An InLinkz Link-up

Femme Fatale Snapvine

Femme Fatale Snapvine

Here's another lovely jelly glitter from Femme Fatale. This one is Snapvine, a rich teal green base with various sizes of hex glitter in hot pink and lime. Some of the lime glitters are matte and some are holographic, which makes the polish even more interesting. Some of the pink glitters look purple on my nails - I think that is the effect of the teal jelly over the pink. Here's a look at Snapvine in the bottle:

Femme Fatale Snapvine

I used two coats of Femme Fatale Snapvine over a base of Butter London Slapper for this mani. Holding the bottles side by side, the base of Snapvine looks very similar to Slapper, but on the nail Snapvine turned Slapper much darker and greener. I really liked the finished effect though. Application of Snapvine was fine, no need to fish for the glitter and the base applied very easily. I used a coat of Gelous and a coat of Seche Vite quick drying topcoat to finish this off.

Femme Fatale Snapvine was sent as a sample for review. You can buy this shade directly from Femme Fatale (shipping worldwide, or check their list of international suppliers for other shipping options) at their website.

Gradient and dots with Barry M new autumn texture polishes (Matte Polish in Vanilla and Caramel and Royal Textured Glitter in Lady)

Barry M Matte Vanilla and Caramel gradient with dots in Lady 

I love matte polishes, so of course I was ready and waiting for the new autumn matte colours from Barry M. I have most of the Manglaze colours and the OPI Suedes, including a red, a couple of browns and a black, so the obvious choices for me were the two lighter, nude shades - Caramel (warm nude) and Vanilla (taupe / grurple). I'm kind of coming round to 'liquid sand' style textured glitters (I loved the ones from GOSH I wore in this post here) so I bought two shades from the new Royal Textured Glitters at the same time!

This whole mani is inspired by some colour mixing a kid I was working with did the other day - creamy light beiges looking all frothy and milky like a mocha latte :) To be honest I couldn't decide which of the two mattes to try first; I love nude shades of all tones, but as I held the bottles together they called out *gradient* so here it is. Subtle, because the colours are quite close, but I really like the effect. I used one coat of Vanilla, then sponged on the gradient of the two shades. I painted the polishes directly onto a fine, damp makeup sponge. The polishes seem quite thick, but application was easy. Great for gradients too, the colours blend perfectly. I'd say these are as good for gradients as the Barry M Gelly polishes, which are just awesome for gradients (and nail art in general).

I wore the gradient alone for a day, but I never got a chance to take photographs. Then I added large dots with Lady. I was trying to create a pastel version of this vampy matte gradient with dots I did a few weeks ago. I've never tried dots with glitter before, but this worked out just fine. Lady is a lovely polish, there's lots of iridescent complexity in here. I need to wear Lady on her own soon.

I'd describe the finish on the Barry M Matte polishes as smooth and waxy, compared to my other matte polishes. Manglazes all have a slight shimmer and the finish has a 'drier' sort of feel to it than these and OPI Suedes are sort of velvety-metallic - so this is a new and unique finish (in my collection anyway). My finish on the matte base might be a bit more textured because of the sponge application too.

A couple of macros:

Barry M Matte Vanilla and Caramel gradient with dots in Lady 

I'm not usually one for slopping topcoat over polishes that are intended to be matte or textured, but for some reason I wanted to see how Lady looked shiny - so I did! Actually I love the shiny version too!

Barry M Matte Vanilla and Caramel gradient with dots in Lady 

These are super polishes and just from this mani I'd say they are quite versatile. However, take a look at Debbie Crumpet's Q&A post about these to see what else you can do with them............ I want to try stamping next, and I want to buy more matte colours (the red and rusty brown - I already got my other pick of the Royal Glitters, Countess, although I've not worn her yet). Hmm!

I purchased my Barry M Matte in Vanilla and Caramel and Royal Glitter Texture in Lady from my local Boots.

Femme Fatale Lime Thief - swatch and review

Femme Fatale Lime Thief

What a gorgeous combination of colours and such an evocative name - the name reminds me of William Morris' Strawberry Thief, a textile design inspired by blackbirds stealing fruit from the artist's garden.

Femme Fatale Lime Thief is a bright lime green jelly polish with hexagonal glitter in various sizes in red, lime green and emerald green. I've seen it looking great alone as a jelly (check out Ida's lovely swatches to see this) but I wanted a more vibrant effect so I layered it over GOSH Early Green, a bright leafy lime that's maybe just a tad more yellow than the base of Lime Thief (have a look at this post for my pictures of Early Green on its own and with a black glitter).

This is two coats of Femme Fatale Lime Thief over one coat of GOSH Early Green. I used a coat of Gelous and a coat of Seche Vite quick drying topcoat to smooth the glitters out. Application of Lime Thief is flawless, and I was working from a mini bottle. The glitter comes out of the bottle easily without fishing, and spreads across the nail without clumping. The combination of colours is perfect - green and red are complementaries after all!

Femme Fatale Lime Thief

And a couple of macros to finish with.........., and by the way, I cut my nails square; they're perhaps a bit shorter than I'd really like right  now, but I wasn't getting on with those rounded corners from my last couple of posts at all - I know I like square or pointy, and nothing in between, so I must have been having a bit of a funny moment when I rounded my corners. Never mind, I like experimenting, and they're only nails, they grow back quick!

Femme Fatale Lime Thief

Then, just for fun, the day before I took this off, I added a bit of simple geometric nail art with striping tape and black polish. I used American Apparel Hassid here - it's a very dense black and I only needed one coat. I'm always amazed how much something like this can totally transform a mani - and it's a great trick for extending the life of a mani another day or two if you're bored with it or its become a bit worn looking!

Femme Fatale Lime Thief was sent as a sample for review. You can buy this shade directly from Femme Fatale (shipping worldwide, or check their list of international suppliers for other shipping options) at their website.  I purchased GOSH Early Green at my local Superdrug earlier this year. American Apparel Hassid was a gift from a friend a while ago.