piCture pOlish; Bette Swatches

Well, it's been a long time... again. I've been so bad at keeping up with my blog since I got my first job. Recently I've been so busy, whilst fighting off a horrible cold, that blogging has been the last thing on my mind. Put that on top of the fact that I've slowly broken all of my nails down to little nubs from one thing and another and you'll see that blogging just hasn't been easy to get to.
Today, however, I have returned. Hopefully with some kind of regularity. Maybe. Anyway, today's my birthday and somehow (believe me, I'm not really sure how) I have turned 20. Of course on my birthday list were a couple of nail polish's that I've been eyeing up recently. I was ecstatic to open up a gift from my parents this morning to discover Bette from piCture pOlish. I am a huge lover of Bette Davis Eyes so this polish is already a winner with me for that, but I also have quite the fondness for blues so naturally this is a winner. Follow the jump to see the beautiful swatches...

Gradient Nails; Sparkling Sea

Recently I've had a thing for gradients and sparkles. While out shopping, I finally picked up China Glaze's Fairy Dust, a beautiful holo glitter, perfect for topping of a gradient. I then got this idea in my head to create a sparkly gradient. I ended up with three different shades of blue and a mint green and, lo, the sparkly sea gradient was born.

Barry M Silks AW14; Poppy

It's no secret that my favourite Barry M release this year was their stunning Silk collection back in the Spring. So you can imagine my delight while out shopping this morning when I came across three new deep jewel toned shades added to the collection in Superdrug. Now, I could have so very easily grabbed all three, however, Boots currently have a buy one get one half price offer on. Sadly they didn't have it in store yet so their website is my BFF. I couldn't resist picking at least one and this shade captured my heart completely.

Barry M AW14 Gellys; Spicy Stripes

Last week, whilst in transition between nail colours, I wanted to make my Barry M Chilli mani last a little bit longer. I ended up with this idea in my head of combining it with Mustard using striping tape to create this Autumn "spicy" mani.

Barry M AW14 Gellys; Chilli, Cardamom, Mustard

Ello' all. I apolgise for my recent absence, I've been all over the place recently and only last week started feeling a bit more like myself. The only problem is I then got quite sick over the weekend and so have only just got back to actually write up some posts. I have such a backlog of swatch pictures and nail art that they'll probably last for a good few weeks before I need any more. Also just a heads up, these swatches were taken over the course of about a week. In that week after I swatched Chilli first, I started borrowing my sisters desk lamp as a lighting set up for my pictures. They've turned out so well but I never got chance to go back and redo Chilli so they don't look quite the same standard.

Recently Barry M released their Autumn/Winter Gelly collection and boy are the lovely. It's no secret that I adore Autumn. Not only was I born in Autumn but I love the colours related with it and the colours of the trees, the lovely warm clothes without needing to layer up to the point of looking like a huge blob and that slight chill in the air that calls for pretty scarves. So naturally when these colours popped up I was immediately drawn in. I've only picked up three of the six colours but there is definitely the temptation to grab some more. So onto the swatches:

First up is Chilli, a spicey red with brown undertones. This is two coats with top coat. Without the top coat it's still super shiny but as a rule of thumb I always use top coat.

Next is Carmadom, a gorgeous kind of wintery green. This one is super unique in my collection. Again this is two coats with top coat.

Finally I have Mustard which is, of course, a deep mustard yellow. I'm still really suprised how much I like this colour and for the first yellow in the Gelly collection it's a beauty.

So far I'm loving these colours plus they wear really well with minimum chipping.
To purchase the Autumn/Winter 2014 Gelly Collection go to Boots or Superdrug.

Barry M Summer 2014 Mattes; Rhossili

Every so often I come across a polish that isn't necessarily what I would normally wear but completely fall in love with. This was definitely the case with Rhossili, one of the new summer mattes from Barry M. I will mention, this one was an absolute pig to photograph and kind of drove me up the wall. Also read to the end for a bonus picture ;)

Purple Pears?; Barry M Gelly - Prickly Pear

I do love a good Barry M polish and just recently I seem to have rediscovered my love for them. After eyeing it up for some time I finally got my hands on Prickly Pear, a lovely lavender colour. Yes. A purple. Called Prickly Pear. I'm a little confused by it but there is probably a good reason for the name. Either way I still love it. I love it so much that I wore it till it started to chip and then reapplied it and wore it for a bit longer.