Nude Nails!

I think I must be ill or something because last night I looked at my gorgeous dark purple manicure and just shuddered - I wanted something light, natural and fresh. It was like, at that moment, I was just so over all the christmassy, wintery dark cold colours.

I ripped the gel overlays off (I didn't even soak them!), gave them a bit of a buff and headed upstairs to my stash to look for Chanel Particuliere nail polish, but I couldn't find it. So, I plumped for Chanel Inattendu instead.

But after painting 3 nails, my fingers looked grey & horrid - the Inattendu is such a warm peach that it really brings out the blue in hands. I guess it's a summer colour! So, I took that colour off, renounced the designer polishes and settled on a bottle of £2.99 polish from H&M. This is 'Latte To Go' and was the perfect nude grey that I was looking for.

Sorry for the crap pics, but I was taking them on my iPhone. And yes, that is a Maoam sweetie you can see..

I'm really pleased with my mannequin hands! Was just the effect I was after.

What about you? Are you over glitter & dark shades? Ready for spring??

This is actually my 2nd attempt at yellow nails (see the first here). Despite actually having the same name as attempt #1, this is a much softer, pastelly yellow, that I think was what I was hoping #1 would look like.

Was £2.99 from Boots, literally still warm from having been placed on the shelf! I like it and it's making me feel all easter bunnies and daffodils. I am ignoring Neil's comment that it looks like I have emulsion on my finger tips...

What do you think? are you embracing pastels this spring?

A xx

Nude Nails

Right, as I self-confessed Rouge Noir addict, it's difficult for me to say this, but...

"My name's Amanda and I love Nudes"

There. I did it. It's off my chest and I feel like I can stop pretending. For me, it all started with the hype of Chanel Particuliere, then I came across Inattendu and now it seems I can't stop.

I picked up a bottle of H&M's 'Latte 2 Go' last week, for £2.99, thinking hmmmm this is exactly the same as Inattendu. Wrong! Who knew so many shades of nude could exist? So, here's a breakdown...

Chanel Particuliere: A grey, mushroomy 'greige' shade, that's quite cool toned without looking blue.

Chanel Inattendu: A pink, peachy nude that's very warm. Is light and kind of makes me think of ballerinas. (I don't know why!)

H&M Latte 2 Go: The greyishness of Particuliere, but in the light girlie warmth of Inattendu. Is the exact colour of Christian Louboutin patent nude pumps.

So, whilst my Rouge Noir, Diabolic and Blue Satin is relegated to the bottom of the nail polish drawer, I will be donning these 3 for the spring and likely well into the summer.

On an impromptu trip to the shops last night (love all week round late night shopping!), I picked up a couple of these little nail varnishes from H&M for £2.99 each. The blue is called 'U Must Have This' and the nude is ''Latte 2 Go'. I'm goin to do a greige post in a few days, where you'll be able to see it compared to Inattendu and Particuliere both by Chanel. I haven't tried this one yet on my nails, but in the bottle, I already think I'm liking it more than the 2 Chanel shades!

The blue actually dried matte, which took me by surprise. It has the finish of a poster paint! It's probably not a colour that I would wear to work, but for a saturday night it's quite fun. I am super impressed with the quality of the polish - it pretty much went on in one coat, with only 1 or 2 nails needing a quick second coat. It dried really quickly too. Not bad for £2.99!!

No full on finger shots today I'm afraid; a combination of moving home, completing my dissertation, going back to work, wedding planning etc has left me with some cuticles in desperate need of tlc. So once I've got them back to their usual tip top shape, I'll do the greige post.

A xx

Chanel Inattendu Nail Polish

Last week you saw 'Particuliere' from the spring 2010 Les Impressions De Chanel collection. This week, it's 'Inattendu' the slighty fleshier nude polish from the collection.

You already know my thoughts on Chanel polishes (I think they're fab btw), but this colour is gorgeous! When I said last week that Particuliere was too coloured to be a true nude, then Inattendu is the collection's remedy. This is a real, fleshy sophisticated shade that would look fab on many skin tones. The pics make it look slightly peachier than it is, but I recommend you check it out! Please excuse my slightly raggedy fingers - they still haven't fully recovered from last week's stint as a Painter/Decorator...

Ruby and Millie Nails

Ruby & Millie 'Neon' Nail Color in Green (710C) £9.50

Picked this up yesterday in Boots on a whim (encouraged by my £5 discount voucher!). For £9.5o I'm quite impressed! Actually thought I was going to hate the colour, even though I love it on other people, but now I've had 24hrs to get used to it, I'm really liking it! Probably more so than the yellow nails I was sporting last week. Like I thought, the colour needed 2 full coats to get rid of the streakiness of the 1st coat, but once it dried it was fine. So a thumbs up from me! Let me know what you think and I'll try and respond to your comments!

Amanda xx

Nails Nails Nails...

So, this is my 3rd attempt at this post! I put one up this morning and then deleted the post by accident, then I deleted my entire blog which is why you are now looking at this one with posts missing! Grrrrrr good thing I don't have any exams in the next day or so... ahem.

Right, when I posted the 'brights' look yesterday it had an explanation behind it, which was that when I was reading Feb's issue of Vogue, it had an article stating that 'Make Up is Back'. I was unaware that it had ever gone anywhere, maybe I've been out of touch and have been unfashionably parading around in eyeliners and lipglosses. However, I figured I would celebrate the return of face painting by doing something fun; the result was the pics you can see below. Do you like the pink feathers in my hair? They kept making me sneeze.

Whilst I was preparing for yesterday's bright look (which was done using a Sleek palette - you need to check these out!), I came across a few mentions of Illamasqua's new Pastels Polish range that will be launched at the end of Feb. Not willing to wait to try it out and unlikely Illamasqua are going to be sending me them anytime soon, I thought I'd give the yellow a go. I decided I wasn't going to spend more than £5 on something I was positive I would hate and I picked up Collection 2000's Hot Looks polish in 'Sherbet Lemons' for £1.94 in Asda (the price reflects the fact that it took 2 very generous coats to get an even finish - but it did dry very quickly!).

I have been pleasantly surprised! For someone who normally wears Rouge Noir, it feels a bit 'Runway Sports Wear', but actually it has cheered me up no end in this miserable scottish weather! So, my recommendation is a 'thumbs up'!!