Exciting news! New eBay account!

Hey everyone, I have some exciting news!

I just started a new eBay account, selling some of my favourite nail polishes of all time!

They are all brand new of course, bought with my own money, ready to be shipped to anywhere in the UK. I wanted to do this so I could interact with my blog readers and Instagram followers a bit more: this way, you have an easy method of  purchasing the nail polishes that I have used in my nail art designs and fallen in love with. We'll have the same polishes (as I'll be sending you a brand new one) and then we'll be nail mail buddies! :D

Please support my account buy making a purchase, I just sold my first polish today! So far, I'm selling Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure polishes only, because I love the quality of these and you get a lot of product in the bottle too. If the demand is higher, I'll be looking into buying some of my other favourite brands, and even consider shipping abroad.

Here's my account, you can see the polishes I am selling listed on the left:

http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/cutetickles3?_trksid=p2047675.l2559

If you want to see all the products I'm selling, here's a direct link too :)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/cutetickles3/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=25&_trksid=p3686

Let me know what you think and I look forward to selling you some lovely nail polishes in the future!

Chit Chat Glitter Polishes: Nail art and all you need to know!

Okay guys, so this is a big one, be warned!

A lot of people know that I love glitter gradients or just glitter in my nail art in general. And the obsession started after I discovered Chit Chat's glitter polishes. Here's what I love about them:

They are amazingly good quality.

And yet they are so inexpensive.

They come in the most beautiful colours.

And they have different sized glitters = more sparkle!

Seriously, if you are looking for glitter polish, before you go out to buy more expensive, well-known brands, try Chit Chat. Even if you're not looking for a glitter polish, go out and buy this one. I mean it. Go. You won't regret it.

You can find them in your local Poundland, in the UK only as far as I'm aware. I know...

"Nail polish from Poundland...?"

"I didn't even know they did nail polish..."

"£1 nail polishes can't be very good... Can they?"

Don't worry, I was the same. But I thought, what the hell, I'm going to try one. And it was the best decision ever!

As you can see, I now own 6 of the 7 available colours. The polish base itself is clear and quite thick but it's easy to work with, although it takes a while to dry. The glitter is in large hexs and smaller hexs/circles and you get a lot onto the brush in one go and no fishing is required.

The brush is made out of clear fibre and the bottles are also very "OPI" in shape, which is nice: they feel expensive and you get 12ml in each - amazing.

So now I'll show you pictures of the polishes and some of my nail art too. Click on the pictures to make them bigger and view in HD :)

First up, we have Silver, a pure silver glitter polish.
Shown is the bottle and a macro, to show the size of the glitter.

 And here's some nail art I did with this glitter. Love this so much, so princess-esqe ;) Maybeline's Porcelain Beige as a base. 

Secondly is Violet, a blue-indigo polish.
Shown is the bottle, the glitter is the same size in all the polishes so refer to the silver macro.

 And some nail art I did with this. Sally Hansen's White Tip as a base.

 In the sun - sparkly! o_O

Next is Ariel, my favourite of the bunch, which is saying something because I love them all so much. This is gorgeous. It's holographic and so has a blue/teal/green shimmer that is stunning.

Shown is the bottle.

Had to add a macro because even though you can't see the individual glitters, you can see the different colours as the glitter shimmers. 

And another glitter gradient, over Outdoor Girl's Pastel Blue. 

I added some nail art over that a little later, but left my beautiful shimmering ocean showing through. 

Next is Rio, a multi-coloured glitter with gold, silver, red, green and blue. I have mentioned this in my previous blog post, so go and check that out for more information.
Shown is the bottle, and added a macro just to show the colours.

And here is some nail art, over Sally Hansen's Black Cat (also see my previous blog post) and over Sally Hansen's White Tip so you can see the difference. So gorgeous. 

Next is Pink, a magenta polish.
I used this in my Butter London review blog post, so check that out for more pictures.
Shown is the bottle, the glitter is the same size as in the silver macro.

And here is the nail art I did, I kinda wanted this to be subtle so chose to pair it with a base that's a very similar colour, Butter London's Fiddlesticks. Loved the way my nails looked after this gradient, especially in the sun :)

Finally, we have Gold, a pure gold polish.

Shown is the bottle, haven't done any nail art with this as yet, watch this space!

Glitter is the same size as the others.

And that's it! As I said, there are 7 in the collection, the last one being Copper. I can't wait to find it :) Hope you found this HUGE post helpful, and I hope you guys go and try these out! Thanks for reading and see you soon!

Recycling Manicures! Black Starry Night

Hey guys! For those of you that follow my nails account on Instagram (@cutetickleangel), you may have noticed that I like to recycle my manicures. This basically means switching up one design by adding different nail art to it, creating a completely new look.

It's become one of my most favourite things to do when I have plain (ish) nails because I don't have to remove what's already there and so it takes half the time! And with uni still on (I know, it never ends), time is always limited for me. So I thought I'd share this recycled look with you today.

The first look is this black base with a gorgeous multi-coloured gradient.

I used Sally Hansen's Black Cat and Chit Chat's Rio.

I've been asked a ton of questions about Rio, because it's such a gorgeous glitter, with gold, silver, red, green and blue hexs of different sizes, so I thought I should mention that this is only available in the UK, as far as I am aware.

If you want something similar and easier to get a hold of, I suggest Model's Own ASOS Party Pieces or  Model's Own Hedkandi Ibiza Mix, both of which are full of colourful glitter goodness ;)

So, when this started chipping, it actually started coming off from the cuticle, as this was where it was thickest, as most of the polish was here due to the glitter gradient. So I peeled it as much as I could from these peeling parts and then neatened the edges with a blue polish.

The final result:
I love how each triangle is unique, as the peeling was slightly different each time :)

After neatening the edges with the blue stripes (free-handed) I added some of the same glitter polish to the tips.

So the complete second look: black glitter chevron tip, cut out nails with a touch of blue, to make it look more 'midnight' haha.

And that's about it! Hope you guys enjoyed reading about this fun way to switch up a manicure, see you soon!

Butter London Fiddlesticks - Review and Swatches

Hey guys! So today I'm reviewing Butter London's Fiddlesticks, a present that was given to me agesssss ago, but one I still haven't gotten around to wearing. It came with a lip gloss of the same colour which I love and wear all the time.

Fiddlesticks is a beautiful deep magenta/purple shade, from the Christmas 2012  range (which shows how long ago I got it!). It's in a jelly base and is packed with pink/purple microglitter.

The packaging is lovely, as with all Butter London polishes, I love the sleek look of a square-shaped bottle and I love that there is a smaller lid underneath that makes the brush a lot easier to hold.

Unfortunately, the formula is quite 'gloopy', i.e. it's on the thicker side and it tends to dry and form clumps when you're working with it. However, it does give a really opaque result with only two coats. I recommend working a lot faster with this polish and also using a minimal number of brush strokes, to avoid clumping and streaking.

I don't know if you can tell, but the polish actually dried on the edge of the bottle opening whilst I worked with it too, which is so annoying, and something I expect to happen only with older, thicker polishes of mine!

So here are some swatches: 2 coats, no topcoat:

As you may be able to see, the finish is very unique in that it is semi-matte, which I love as it is so on-trend at the moment! I wasn't too sure about this colour on my skin tone but I think it is quite pretty because of the finish and the mircoglitter!

A side view is shown here to show you the texture as its unique in this sense too, with a "semi-textured" feel, i.e. it's not as textured as  your "textured nails" polishes, but it doesn't dry smooth either. Interesting!

Finally, I want to just mention that this polish CHIPS. It chipped in about 8 hours of wear, even though I had applied two thin coats, capped.

Maybe a top coat will help next time. I also want to add some thinner to the polish to make it a little easier to work with.

Despite these disappointments, I think the colour is really pretty and the glitter is gorgeous. Worth the £12? Hmm.

Anyways, I realised that I had a glitter polish that was very similar to Fiddlesticks so I went ahead and did a reverse glitter gradient.

Without top coat (super textured!).

With top coat (so that you can see what Fiddlesticks looks like with top coat too).

Hope you guys found this review helpful, and hope you liked the simple nail art too!

See you soon!

YSL - 34: Jade Imperial - Review and Swatches

So I recently received YSL's Jade Imperial from their Spring 2013 nail polish collection. The two shades in this collection are 34: Jade Imperial and 35: Bronze Pyrite. I personally liked 34 more so I'm so so glad that's the one I received :P It's a beautiful dusty green and I have to say, after wearing it on a few occasions now, I absolutely love it.

The packaging is gorgeous, boxed and gold, of course ;)

The bottle is square and gold capped. This is the colour in the bottle direct sunlight.

This is the colour in the bottle, in the shade.

The gold cap comes off to reveal the smaller black top for the actual brush (like many other polishes) which allows for easier handling of the brush.

The brush is shaped to allow for precise application, being wide and square, and even though the polish is on the thicker side, it doesn't mean application isn't flawless or smooth.

The formula is actually really easy to work with, it's creamy and there are no streaks and overall, the high concentration of colour means one coat is sufficient. I like to apply two coats just to get that perfect finish.

Swatches: 2 coats, without top coat:

Blurred because my camera didn't focus, but I thought this picture showed the colour really well.

The colour in direct sunlight.

The colour with the bottle too, for comparison. In direct sunlight again.

The colour right now, as I'm typing this up at my desk, having worn the polish for 2 days now.

Overall, I love the way this polish looks and feel that it would suit many different skin tones. It has a high-shine finish and it is fast-drying which is always a plus!

Because the colour is a muted, dusty Jade, it makes it wearable all year around which is great because it's a bit of an investment at £18.

Product online: http://www.harrods.com/product/la-laque-couture/yves-saint-laurent/b12-0804-229-YSL-0192?cat1=new-beauty&cat2=new-beauty-makeup-nails&cat3=new-beauty-makeup-nails-colour&cid=GP_2992004

Hope you found this review helpful, see you soon!

Cute Bunny Nails!

Hi guys!

Sorry it's been over a month, but exams are over and I'm back! :)

I wanted to quickly blog about my super cute bunny nails that I was sporting for Easter this year.

They were really easy to do and I love the fact that they are all different - the mix and match nail-trend is really big at the moment!

The base colour is Revlon Minted 028, it's the prettiest pastel mint colour I own and it's perfect for spring and summer.

How to recreate this design - FINGER BY FINGER!

• The Pinky: Tiny little flicks of green at the tip for the grass. I left them quite uneven so they had a textured effect and actually looked/felt more like grass. The flowers were just big yellow spots created with my pencil dipped into yellow polish (as usual) and then smaller orange dots on top. These were done using Rimmel Sunshine 280 and Zoya Arizona.

• The Ring: The bunny! Just a white bunny shape created with Sally Hansen's White Tip. The detailing was done with hot pink and black for the eyes, nose, mouth and ears.

• The Middle: The polka dot finger! Haha, not much to say about this one, just added polka dots with my white polish again with a pencil.

• The Index: The Easter eggs: Two small blobs of white with fine hot pink detailing to outline the eggs and decorate them (in true Easter spirit!)

• The Thumb: The carrot! This is what makes this design so unique, because the carrot is "moveable" so we can feed our bunny! Haha! I used the same orange and green as on the pinky finger and then waited for the orange to dry slightly before putting some indents into the carrot with my fingernail. This texture is so perfect for the carrot image.

And that's it, add a top coat and you're done! I got SO MANY compliments when wearing this so it's definitely worth recreating :) It's quick, easy and so cute. Let me know if you do try this out and share it with me on Instagram: @vaish92.

See you all soon!

Spring/Easter inspired Colour Block

Hi all!

Sorry it's been a while, been busy with the exam prep! But that got me thinking about designs that are super quick to do and still look cute and eye-catching. And I came up with this one.

It's supposed to reflect the spring/summer season (even though we haven't seen the sun here in London for ages) and it's so eye-catching with the beautiful bright colours.

I used a thick black outline to make the whole thing stand out a bit more and create colour block design. I tried to make the design as neat as I possibly could because I was using my left hand to paint my right. But you get the idea.

The best thing about this design is that you can do it really quickly, with a whole range of colours. I used the Oprah Classic Collection for this design.

So excited for Easter! Take care, see you guys soon!

:)

Simple and chic: Studded blue nails

Hi guys, today I decided to paint my nails with a bright blue nail polish and I was inspired by @tweetiisweetii on Instagram to put some studs on too. I don't own any nail-studs at the moment though, so I decided to draw some fakes ones instead.

This was the final result. I will show you how to re-create this look in this post, enjoy!

So firstly, paint your nails with a base coat. This will protect your natural nails from staining with the bright polish. I used OPI's Nail Envy. Then paint your nails with one coat of a bright, electric/royal blue colour. I used Barry M's Cobalt Blue.

Then take a dark blue/navy/black polish, depending on the colour of 'studs' that you want. Place a blob of this onto a piece of paper and use a sharped pencil/a toothpick to dip in. If you have a dotting tool, go ahead and use this. The dark navy blue I used was No7 Betty Blues.

Then use the pencil, dipped into the polish, to make a few blobs on each nail. The don't have to be perfect, just roughly rounded. I decided to have two 'studs' on each fingernail and then a column of studs on my accent ring finger.

This is what the end of this step looked like:

You can leave your nails looking like this because from the distance these look like little studs/beads as the blobs are quite 3D (without a top coat). Or you can make them look even more 3D by highlighting each stud with a light pearl polish. Keep the highlights to one side of the studs. This will make them look like they are 'sticking out' a bit more as if they are catching the light.

And that's the finished design! I'm not sure which I prefer, with or without the highlights, but either way, this mani is eye-catching, chic, and most importantly - super quick to do! (#5minutemani)

Don't forget to clean up around your nails when you're done, with a cotton bud dipped into nail polish remover. And then add a top coat to seal everything in if you want!

Thank you for reading this post, hope you enjoyed it!

See you all soon! :)

♥ Mario Nails ♥

Recently I designed some Mario Nails and I am in love with this design so I thought I'd share!

It was inspired by @alexxnails on Instagram and I believe the original design was created by @madamluck. This is my right hand (I am right handed so this was done with my weaker left hand!):

The quality isn't that great as this picture was taken indoors!

The sky is done using Essie's Avenue Maintain. I actually made the bright green colour by mixing a blob of this blue with a few blobs of yellow: Rimmel's 280: Sunshine.

Then I used a darker green to create the turret and a brown polish for the steps. Finally, I used a white polish (Essie's Blanc) for the clouds. Outlining can then be done using a tooth pick dipped into black polish.

My left hand has the better design of course:

This picture was taken in daylight :)

This is a picture I took without the top coat so it's a little bumpy! I was way too excited so I couldn't help but take a picture. In this, I actually outlined the clouds and gave the steps some golden coins for Mario to collect ;)

Mario himself took a long, long time, but if you look closely, he is just a few blobs of colours (foot, trousers, top, hand and hat). The face was the hardest to get accurate.

(Red: Nails Inc St James and Blue: Barry M Cobalt Blue).

Hope this has inspired some of you to create a landscape on your nails, this was the first time I've ever done anything like this and I quite like the result. I do love Mario!

TIPS:

Create the colours you want by experimenting and mixing different polishes on a piece of card.

Outlining any of your designs can help give a more cartoon/drawing-like feel to the overall image.

♥ ♥ ♥
Thank you for reading! Who's you favourite Mario Kart character? Leave a comment below and it may inspire me to try out a different design next time :)