NOTW: Criss-crossed At Ease

Hello my lovelies! How are you today? :-)

In line with my summer catch-up posts, I'd like to share with you a new striping tape mani! This had been on my mind for a long time, so I'm glad I finally got to try it. Let's take a look:

Look, it's me! :P (indirect sunlight)

Direct sunlight :-) :-)

Soooooo... what do you think?! I just loved this mani - especially the juxtaposition of neutral and bright, creme and shimmer (Rimmel At Ease vs Catrice Heavy Metal-lilac) :-) I originally planned to do this to all of my fingers, but the striping tape was actually a little tricky to use, so I decided to just criss-cross three fingers (incl. my thumb). I think it actually worked better this way! I bet this mani would be great for work if you had time to do all your fingers :-)

Of course, no post is complete without a look at the base colour - Catrice Heavy Metal-lilac:

Shimmery, shimmery goodness *.*

Indirect light :-)

You've already seen this colour on this post, and also on this post, but I have STILL failed to do a full post on the polish. I will once again reiterate how awesome it is - it's a FAVOURITE of mine, and I promise I'll do a proper post on it one day. I love, love, love it, and you should all own it.


Despite this mani being a summer mani, it has a very autumnal feel. I think I'm straddling both seasons right now ;-) I really do love this combination of nude (my new favourite tone!) and bright, and I definitely think I'll try it again - do you have any colour requests? Help me out by leaving a comment with your ideas! :D

'Til next time, curlettes :-)

- Skye x

NOTW: It's Too Latte

Hello my dears! How are you today?

Today I have yet another Barry M nail art pen mani to show you - behold my Native American-inspired creation:

See! Native American-esque! Can you see what I mean? This sort of makes me think of Pocahontas and her feathered clothes. Or moccasins. Or the feathers in Native American headdresses. It was actually pretty fun to do, since I just had to scribble a chevron on my nails four times. The colours overlapped brilliantly - the white Barry M nail art pen is surprisingly opaque :-)

I also took a pic of the mani at the half-way stage, which I almost prefer (but not quite):

I think that I would have preferred to have three chevrons on each nail, leaving some of the base colour peaking out on the free edge. It was kind of a quick and dirty, experimental mani, so I'm not entirely sure how much I like it. I liked it better IRL than in the photos - that's for sure! I do like it. Sorta. No I do! Kinda. Maybe this design would look better over lime green or purple?! :-P

Finally, let me show you the base colour for this mani - my first ever Miss Sporty polish!

Leaning pink...

Leaning yellow...

This is Miss Sporty It's Too Latte and I got it FREE in Superdrug's recent 3 for 2 offer. As you'll know if you've checked out my Quests page, I've been hunting for a 'mannequin hands' nude polish for sometime now. This polish looked like a pretty good match, so I was really excited to get it home. Unfortunately, it's still not quite right, but this polish is the closest I've come so far! It actually matches my tum almost perfectly, but of course I need it to match my fingers ;-) Perhaps if I could lighten it slightly it would do the trick...

So what is this polish like? I'd describe it as a nude caramel creme which leans pink and then yellow depending on the light, meaning it will probably compliment most skin tones. The first coat was a bit streaky, but the polish builds very well, and by the time I'd finished applying the second coat, I was more than happy with the coverage. The formula and brush are perfection, and I'm very impressed! This polish would be perfect for a subtle workwear mani and I did get to enjoy a mannequin effect in the right light ehehe. I've been on a bit of a nude hit lately, and so I'm pleased to be able to add this one to my collection. However, the search continues for the perfect nude.


Do you have any suggestions for my perfect mannequin hands shade? Gimme a shout in the comments!

'Til next time, curlettes :-)

- Skye x

NOTW: Classy polkadots

Hello lovelies! How are you doing today? 

Today I have something a bit new for you - a full polkadot mani, achieved using my brand new Barry M Nail Art Pens (totally jumped on the bandwagon here)!!! First off, lemme show you the goods:

Spotty champagne...

... or polka-rose gold?

I love intricate nail art but have always failed at it because I don't have very steady hands. In fact, I own two Models Own nail art pens, but I've always found them very hard to use and they've ended up languishing in my polish drawer. Now, armed with my new Barry M wares, I can take over the freehand universe *evil cackle*! 

I was absolutely chuffed to bits that I did the polkadots all by myself, and basically spent the week staring at my hands in awe and amazement haha. They are fun but they also look super classy, and I could totally see me wearing this mani again at a black-tie event (should such an event ever occur in my life!) :-) :-) 

Just for fun I also have a photo of my right hand :P Check it:

Blurry leftiness :D

This hand rarely makes it onto my blog, mainly because I struggle taking photos with my left hand, but I thought that it would amuse you to see how un-dottish my RH dots look - check out my thumb and pointer in particular :D

Finally, as always, let me show you the base colour that I used for this mani - one of my favourite polishes, and one you may have already seen in this post here. Behold Kiko 221 (Light Satin Beige):

Not as golden as I thought...

Back in December I described this polish as "a sheer champagne glass fleck/shimmer polish" which took four coats to reach opacity. However, my impression of it has changed significantly now that I've seen it in the summer sunshine. More than champagne, this polish is rose gold, with a warm rosey shimmer running through it in the right (sun)light. These are also two-coater swatches, mainly because I felt lazy about doing four... but there's virtually no VNL, so I'm not sure what went wrong in December. Finally, I'm not even sure of the finish anymore! Is it glass fleck? Foil? I think it's foil, now... All I know is that it most definitely is NOT shimmer! So apparently my descriptive skills suck when it comes to polish :D but at least you've got multiple swatches of the polish to look at now :-)

One more thing before I go: in the last post featuring this polish, I said that it had a really subtle silver/purple/green shimmer that I couldn't capture on film on the nail. Turns out all I needed was some summer sunshine :-)

Microglitters flashing... click here for a larger photo!

Pretty, huh? :-)


Sooooooo what do you think of my super-classy polkadots?! I adore dots and just loved this mani. Definitely earmarked for recreation at some stage!

I hope you enjoyed this post and look forward to seeing you back here soon!

'Til next time, curlettes :-)

- Skye x

NOTW: A England Iseult

Hello lovelies and hello new followers! Welcome aboard :) :)

Today I get to show you a new favourite polish of mine - A England Iseult! This polish will always be very special to me, because it was sent to me along with A England Tristam (a gorgeous blue holo) completely by surprise by Anne Catherine Vold Archer! After my initial confusion at seeing an A England bubble envelope in my postbox, I realised that Anne had bought me these polishes out of the kindness of her heart because I don't own any pretty nudes that are 'interview-appropriate'. Anne told me that she wanted to prove to me that work wear doesn't have to be boring - and I now totally believe her! Thank you SO much Anne. I will never cease to be totally in awe of how much kindness is demonstrated in the polish community, and it's really very humbling. Kindness breeds kindness and I can only hope that I get the chance to pay forward all of the kindnesses I've been shown since I was welcomed into our little community :-)

Firstly, let me show you what I did to the mani after I got back from my interview - I got my stamp on again!

Stampy, stampy!

This is an image from GALS plate #29 and it fitted on my shorter-than-usual nails perfectly. At first I thought I'd maybe got the colour combination wrong again, but the mani eventually really grew on me and I'd definitely do it again. I think my main issue was that the silver image didn't really pop so my accent nail looked a bit much at first, but that's what I get for choosing to stamp with polishes with little or no colour contrast! This was a v. feminine mani and one I'm sure I'll reproduce in the future.


Here's the polishes I used:

• A England Iseult (pink-nude base)
• Barry M Silver Foil
• Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Pomegranate

Finally, here's a couple swatches of the beautiful base colour, A England Iseult:

Iseult #1

Iseult #2

This is a very sheer and delicate, almost-white pink polish with a subtle silver shimmer running through it. At first I thought it wouldn't suit me, because I'm definitely a warm-toned gal, but having worn it for a week I can honestly tell you that this polish will suit anyone and everyone! I'm thrilled, because it's really pretty! This was about three coats, but I think that four would eliminate the VNL. In fact, in most lights this wasn't noticeable anyway. As is fairly typical for these sheer polishes, application was a bit tricky, but not as tricky as it could have been. I think the main challenge was being patient enough to cope with the slower-than-average drying time, but as you can see, I mostly succeeded :-)

I realise that my photos of this polish are not great (weird colours, lobster hands, no jumper etc.!), but this is because I did the mani really late the night before I went to my interview and so I didn't really get a chance to take my time and get good ones. As a result, my nail art pic is ironically the most colour-accurate for the polish! I will definitely be wearing it again, though, so I will get you better pics then! For those curious, I wasn't offered the job in the end, but I think this was a blessing in disguise because the salary turned out to be very poor; I can buy more polish and travel more often if I continue freelancing, and that suits me just fine!


All I can say to sum up is thank you once again to Anne for buying me my beautiful (and first ever) A Englands, and that I can't wait to wear them both time and time again :-) I just hope that the weather plays along soon so that I can finally appreciate Tristam in all his noble and romantic holo-glory :-)

See you later this week for the second installment of my WAUF blog series!

'Til next time, curlettes :-)

- Skye x

NOTW: It's OK to be nude at your interview

Hello dears :-)

Today I'd like to do a really brief blog post to show you what I wore to my interview on Monday.

On the recommendation of several people in the PAA FB group, I wore a nude polish because I couldn't bear the thought of naked nails (obsessed much?) and because if a nude/lighter polish chips, it will be less noticeable. I thought this was excellent advice, and it proved to be quite prophetic, as despite wearing my HK Girl topcoat (which made my last mani as hard as nails), I sure enough had a chip by the time I was on the train to London.

Let's take a look:

Sorry that *the* jumper is missing - I couldn't find it when
I took the photo so this is my dressing gown!

This is actually a French manicure polish from a Colour Institute French manicure set I was given several years ago - before I really got into polish in a big way. The polish is called 'French Beige' and it's actually not a bad match for my skin tone in most lights, being just a shade or two darker than my hands - I much prefer it to the many pink-toned French varieties available. This is an especially pretty nude because it has a subtle silvery/beige shimmer running through it, which is nice for if you have to be boring enough to wear just a nude alone for some reason. The only drawback to the polish is the bizarre formula; it applies like a dream and dries quickly, but if you try to tidy up with a cuticle stick it gets stringy, which is why my cuticle line is messier than usual. It also chipped quite easily. Of course, no one noticed this but me, but it still bothered me :-P

Just in case any of you are curious, here's a photo of the manicure set:

The items missing from the shot are French tip stickers (which are in a drawer somewhere) and a nail whitener pencil which I don't like using because my nails just attract dirt like nothing else when I do.


All in all, this was a lovely polish to wear on a day I had to be demure, but I missed wearing bright colours/nail art and took it off the next day. I think that the interview went well and surely the confidence born of perfectly polished talons was a contributing factor, so YAY nails!

Thank you once again to everyone for advising me what to do/not do/wear to my interview, with an extra special mention to Anne Catherine Vold-Archer and Mindy Beer, who gave me HUGE amounts of advice that I made sure to put into practice in the interview room :-)

'Til next time, curlettes :-)

- Skye x