I recently (less than a week ago!) ordered Holly-Day from eBay and it arrived today. Pretty impressive! I had high hopes for this polish as it's my first China Glaze polish and also my first green creme polish. Yes, first. All my old green polishes are shimmery or glittery or foil-y so there were a lot of things to look forward to with this one. And I wasn't disappointed. It's my idea of a perfect nail polish; smooth, pigmented, glossy, dries quickly, has a great brush... It's amazing. In these pictures here I'm not wearing a top coat so you can see just how glossy it is!

I was too excited to clean up my nails before taking pictures, sorry! Isn't it pretty though? It was a part of the Let It Snow Christmas Collection in 2011, and I'm already imagining all the Christmassy things I can do with this polish. So happy I got it, and I'm definitely looking forward to buying more China Glaze polishes after this one!

Today I decided to try another one of my new-ish OPI polishes. I was in the mood for something simple so I picked Pedal Faster Suzi! It's a pretty, delicate pink with lots of silver shimmer. I liked it a lot more on my nails than I thought it would!

It was very sheer though and required four or five coats, I'm not sure which as I lost count! But it dried really quickly so I didn't mind it. It dries a bit matte so you'll need a good shiny top coat to bring out all the pretty shimmer.

After a couple of hours I I started to feel like it's missing something. I'm not used to wearing pale colours on their own so I started rummaging through my nail polish box. I picked Wet 'n Wild Night Prowl, which I haven't worn yet so it was the perfect chance to give it a try. Night Prowl is a black nail polish with lots and lots of purple shimmer.

It actually looks glittery in the bottle but the shimmer is much more fine and subtle in real life. And it's even less noticeable on my nails. Anyway, I decided to do a French manicure with Night Prowl!

I like how the silver and purple shimmer look next to each other. Next time I'll definitely try Night Prowl on it's own!

Here I'm going to write a bit about other favourites that I have that didn't make it to my last post as I don't use them daily.

Yep, it's mainly lip stuff! I love putting on lipstick and lip gloss and I'm always looking for nice new shades. At the moment I'm looking for a proper raspberry red lipstick! Let me know if you see any around. ;) Anyway, I'll tell you a bit about each of them.

The Body Shop Lip gloss in Red Gleam - It looks like a mess but that's only because it's been used so much. It smells like watermelon and looks lovely and moisturising on. It's peachy and glossy but not that annoying kind of glossy that makes all your hair stick to your lips!

e.l.f. Lipsticks in Party Pink, Rich Raspberry and Barely Bitten - These all feel lovely and soft on my lips. I do wish the colours were a bit more... cheerful. But still, they look great on.

e.l.f. Lip Stains in Red Carpet and First Date - I really like these. They stay on all day and they're very flattering on. I never use the clear gloss because that sort of defeats the purpose as it makes the lip stain come off. They're great otherwise, I'm planning on getting more shades.

MaxFactor Lip Liner in Fire - I use this as lipstick. As in, I colour my lips with it. It stays on much better than lipstick and looks pretty much the same. It's a bright red and bold and sooo pretty.

Yves Saint Laurent Volume Effet Faux Cils Mascara in Black - This is actually empty. I've just kept it because I adore it. It smells amazing and it made my lashes look soft and natural yet long and full at the same time. It's the best mascara I've tried and I'm saving up the money to buy a new one. Also, it made my eyelashes grow!

MAC Eyeshadow in Tempting - This is ancient but it's still one of my favourites. It's seen it all, it even has red nail polish on the lid but it's still going strong. Super pigmented!

Lipcote - This is wonderful. It's stinks and stings but it works. I can wear bright red lipstick on a night out and I'll still look exactly the same at the end of the night. Well, my lips will.

That's all for now! Comments, as always, are more than welcome. :)

I wanted to make a post about the make up products that I use daily. They're not all great but they're the ones I use anyway!

It's a bit of a mix and match of cheap and not so cheap products. Also, some of them I'm currently only using because I can't afford to buy new ones just yet! Oh the joys of being a poor student. Anyway, I'll go over the products now.

Eyes:

Urban Decay Naked Palette - Love this. I use all of the eyeshadows in it, except for the black one. Paired with the primer they last ages and they're super pigmented. The best €40 I've spent in make up!

Urban Decay Potion Primer - This came with Naked Palette and it's great. You only need a teeny bit so it'll last ages. I usually blend it in with my finger as if you put on too much, it'll crease after a few hours.

e.l.f. Eyeliner Pen - I like this more than I thought I would, considering how cheap it was. The pen is nice and thin so you're able to draw sharp lines with it. The only downside is that the pen is a bit hard so it tends to drag your skin a bit but other than that it's great.

Lancome Hypnose Mini Mascara - I got this and the other Lancome products from a friend who works in a cosmetics shop. It's pretty good but I've had better. I'm happy enough to use it but I wouldn't pay full price for it!

Face:

MaxFactor Pan Stik in Fair - Again, I'm only using this because I can't afford to buy a new foundation yet. I don't mind using it though, it's quick to put on and covers well. I have dry-ish skin though so it tends to emphasize the dry areas. Also, it's a bit too light for me.

Lancome Concealer - This one is great, it's nearly empty already. Great for covering any redness!

e.l.f. Blush in Glow - This isn't very pigmented but I like how peachy and, well, glowy it is. It doesn't last on all day and isn't the easiest to put on but I do like it!

e.l.f. Powder in Light Beige - Not amazing, actually it's not even very good. It's okay. A bit too dark for me and doesn't stay on very long. Hmm, I only realised now how useless it is!

Lancome Génifique Serum - I love love love this. It has made my skin look so glowy and even and pretty. I don't need to use foundation as much as I used to before I started using this. The fullsize bottle costs €99 here so I'm dreading the day I run out. It's amazing though. Definitely my favourite of the bunch!

Brows:

Rimmel Eyeshadow Palette in Smokey Brun - I use the dark brown one from this palette on my eyebrows. I've tried eyebrow pencils and gels and stuff and this is the one I keep coming back to. It looks natural and it's easy to put on and it's the perfect shade for me. I use the other ones in the palette too occasionally for highlighting.

MAC 212 - My loyal and very worn out 212 will probably need to be replaced soon. Boo! It's very handy for shaping my eyebrows.

Brushes:

e.l.f. Contour Brush - This is what I mainly use to put on the eyeshadow. It's soft and round and great.

The other two brushes are from a set I bought years ago. They've lasted me all this time and I have no idea what brand they are as there's no text or logo or anything on the brushes. Oh well!

After doing this my shopping list has grown again. I didn't realise that I don't even like some of the stuff I use! Better start saving up...

I've been wearing lots of different nail polishes lately but haven't gotten around to taking any pictures, except for today and yesterday. First is my sloppy attempt at using my new fimo sticks. The base is H&M's Yellow (yes, that's what it's called!). There's no close-up because my cuticles look horribly dry and no one needs to see that! So, here it is:

Today I wanted to finally properly try one of my new mini OPI nail polishes. I picked Kiss Me On My Tulips, a pretty hot pink polish. The polish itself is lovely, it dries quickly and isn't streaky or patchy or anything, but the brush... Not great. It's tiny! But I know the polish itself is tiny too so it makes sense that the brush isn't enormous either. Oh well. I'm wearing two coats here, although I probably could've gotten away with just one.

If anyone has any tips or recommendations on what I could do to make my cuticles look better, I'd love to hear it! I'm desperate.

I almost forgot to mention something that arrived in the post the other day. My OPI Nothin' Mousie 'Bout It! I tried it on right away and I was already wearing Mavala Frozen Berry so they matched each other really well. I wore that manicure for a couple of days, and only remembered to take a picture when I was about to remove it really late at night. So that's why the picture is so bad! But here it is anyway:

It's very girly and sparkly and pretty! I got lots of compliments when I wore it. I had read about it beforehand, I knew that the hearts will be difficult to get out and place on the nail so when I tried it, it actually was easier than I thought it would be. The pink base is gorgeous on it's own too even if you're not bothered to fish out the hearts. I can see myself wearing this a lot!

Does anyone else have this and do you like it? :)

I recently took part in a nail polish swap and my package arrived today! I'm so happy with what I got, I love them all. I got six Color Club polishes and a Color Club top coat, a silver nail art pen, dotting tools and some fimo sticks. Here are the pictures:

I love love love everything I got! I'm wearing Hot Like Lava at the moment and I used the dotting tools to paint some flowers on. I'll post a picture later, my camera needs to be charged!

Also, in the pictures you can see my leopard manicure that I was wearing earlier today. I used stickers for the leopard print, it was so quick and easy. It was a shame to take them off but I wanted to try on my new nail polishes.

I can't wait for the next nail polish swap that I can take part in!

I think I went into some sort of a shock after buying all those new nail polishes, because I've been wearing my trusty old Claire's Black Matte nail polish for a couple of days. I just couldn't handle the amount of choices I had!

Ignore all the lumps and bumps, it's a pretty thick nail polish and being matte it shows all the imperfections!

Anyway, this morning I woke up and felt ready for a change. I took a deep breath and started rummaging through my nail polish box to find something to layer over the black polish as I wasn't in the mood to remove it. And I decided to pick one of my new polishes, Models Own Bluebelle.

What do you think? It's more purple in real life. I don't know what it is about cameras and blue/purple nail polishes, it just never seems to work. I like the result, it's so sparkly but the black base makes it look kind of dramatic.

Also, my nail wheels from eBay arrived the other day. Yay! I swatched all my nail polishes on them. Here's a picture or two.

They're in alphabetical order like on my nail polish list. Maybe next time I'll arrange them by colour... I still have a few wheels left!

Also, if you're reading this, feel free to leave a comment! Comments make me a very happy blogger. :)

I figured that the best way to try on as many nail polishes as possible at the same time is to swatch one nail polish per finger. Clever, huh? So here are the new glitter polishes that I bought: Models Own Emerald City, Scarlet Sparkle and Bluebelle, and Barry M Aqua Glitter. So much glitter!

Now, a word of warning... I did this in very dim lighting, and only put on two coats of each nail polish. I tried to do a quick clean up before all the precious daylight was gone but as you all probably know, there's no such thing as a quick clean up when it comes to glitter nail polish. So there are some very persistent pieces of glitter around my nails. Not pretty, but it'll have to do.

The formula on these was very mixed. Emerald City and Bluebelle are very similar: lots and lots of square shaped glitter in a clear base. Bluebelle was a bit more watery, which made it easier to work with. The problem with Bluebelle was that I simply wasn't able to get it to cover the tips of my nails. I admit, I was in a hurry so I gave up after a while, but I still thought that was strange. Maybe it's supposed to be some sort of a glittery French manicure in a bottle?

Emerald City was super glittery and a bit thicker and it definitely needs a third or maybe even a fourth coat. I had trouble spreading it evenly, as you can probably tell. There are weird bald patches where glitter just wouldn't stick. However I love the way this looks, it's a lot brighter on my nails that in the bottle. It also looks a lot better in real life! It would probably look great layered over a dark teal polish.

Scarlet Sparkle is different to the other two Models Own glitters, as the base in it is red, which makes it easier to wear on its on. It doesn't look great in the pictures with just two coats but it was lovely to work with. It's very bright and sparkly. Love it!

All three Models Own polishes dried super quickly, btw. By the time I had finished painting my hand, they were already dry. Guess that makes sense since there's so much glitter in them! And as always with Models Own polishes, they smell awful.

Barry M Aqua Glitter is gorgeous. To me it looks like a sparklier, more glittery version of Deborah Lippmann's Mermaid's Dream. It's beautiful. The mix of bigger glitter and microglitter looks unique (to me anyway) and beautiful and I can't wait to try layering it over other polishes. The drying time was a bit longer than with the other polishes but no more than a couple of minutes. It spread on nicely. Also, I really like how heavy the bottle is! Might be a bit random but it makes it feel expensive.

So, the conclusion: The Models Own polishes are very densely packed and require a little work, except for the red one, but I think they're worth it. Also, they don't feel like mini polishes, except for the wobbly lid. Barry M Aqua Glitter is amazing and probably the nicest glitter I've ever seen. If you don't have it yet, get it.

My nail polishes from Asos, that is. It only took six days! The box looked like it was about to fall apart but the nail polishes were in good condition. Phew. I can't wait to try them, they're all so pretty! The OPI polishes are teeny tiny as expected but the rest are fine, especially the Barry M polish. It's a lot bigger than I thought it would be.

Now here's what I've been really looking forward to. My mini OPI collection! I haven't even tried them on yet and I already love them. Such a shame they're so tiny, I'd love to swatch them all right away but I don't want to waste a single drop! So individual bottle shots will have to do for now.

Another thing that arrived today was my nail foils from eBay! Everything I've ordered from eBay so far has been a very pleasant surprise, mainly because the delivery was so quick and both orders were in envelopes so I didn't have to pick them up at the post office. Yay! Here's pictures, with and without flash so you'll see all the holographic awesomeness of the gold and red foils.

So in case you can't tell, the foils are: gold, champagne, leopard, lace (transparent), holographic gold, rose (transparent), flowers and holographic red. It also included the adhesive and some golden flower rhinestones.

Phew, that was long. Now all I have to do is decide what I should try first!