Essie Saltwater Happy

Introducing the most summery autumn purchase ever. I picked this gorgeous shade up in Duane Reade when I was over in New York and pop it on as soon as my previous paint job started chipping, I don’t care that it’s October and this is very clearly a summer shade. IT’S GORGEOUS.

The colour needed two coated to be completely opaque and fill in the streaks but lasts pretty well once on – I wore mine for a week with miner chipping.

If you can get your hands on this shade before it’s off shelves completely! If you think about it, it’s a great winter shade – an ice cool blue!

Essie Saltwater Happy

Bourjois La Laque Nail Polishes

I'm such a polish hoarder, so much so I can't actually close my huge nail polish draw now and banned myself from buying anymore last year. A strict one in one out policy. This however is hard when you're a beauty journalist and are constantly introduced to new exciting launches, such as this. The new Bourjois La Laque polishes are a collection of 12 bright colours formulated with a non-drip one swipe brush. 

I'm really impressed with the formula of these polishes. I'm yet to try the white and pale pink, but the darker colours I've tried really only need one coat for pretty opaque coverage and the brush covers the whole nail. Only thing I'm not a huge fan of is the semi-matte finish, but that's nothing that a glossy top coat won't fix. 

Bourjois La Laque polishes will be available from May

Into the blue

I know that winter means deep berry and red shades are the nail colours of choice, but for me there is something about a good shade of blue that I’m attracted to in the icier months.

It was only at the weekend when me and my bestie were having a sofa Saturaday and she asked if I have a blue vanish and I brought down 11, I realised I had an affinity to the colour.

I like all of these formulas, but I have to say that the Nails Inc Gel Effect is definitely the longest lasting for me – it seriously doesn’t budge. The Barry M Gelly High Shine Nail paint have some gorgeous colours but for me they are a one day jobby before chipping so I’ll just pop them on for an occasion/ night out.

Do any of you have an unusually large amount of nail polish or does the cheese stand alone?

Love Keeks xo 

OPI x Coca Cola - You're So Vain-illa - Reviewed.

I love a good OPI collab? I mean, who doesn’t? Aaaaand I love Coke (Coca-Cola exclusively) so when the two join forces, it’s obviously going to be a match made in heaven.

Now I know I’m super late on this one (it’s been out for a couple of months now, guys) but being on a nail polish ban (my drawer is dangerously close to not shutting at all) I haven’t been keeping up with the nail polish goss much. However, when you work in beauty, whatever make-uppy product you’re depriving yourself of will worm it’s way into your stash. And so after a day off, I returned to find this on my desk.

The Coca-Cola collab consists of ten shades, from the obvious Coco-Cola red to a Diet Coke silver and Sprite iridescent green, but this beauty is definitely my favourite (it was left on my desk by beauty writer, Sarah. She’s the best!). It’s inspired by Vanilla Coke (obvs) and is the perfect creamy nude. When I say nude I mean nude as in, at a glance, it genuinely looks like you haven’t got polish on, not “nude”. It goes on pretty flawlessly and I only needed two coats to make it opaque.

You can get your Coca-Cola collab here. 

Love Keeks xo

Nails - A Nude Thing.

I love a good nude... polish; they're are so versatile and wearable season to season. That said, when I love something, I tend to go a little crazy, so when it came to choosing the colours to feature in this post, I had to narrow them down to the seven before your eyes, the seven most different nudes. 

It sounds weird, and I'm pretty sure that if you're not a beauty obsessive then you will see seven pretty similar colours in front of you, but no, no, no these are all totally different. Totally. It's an apples and oranges kinda thing. These go from the nudest nude selection through mushroom nudeville before finally stopping at pinkest nude station.

If I had to pick one my favourite would have to be the Deborah Lippmann beauty. It suits my skin tone  to no end and has the magical ability to make my hands look elegant and ladylike. 

Nails Inc - George Street - £11

Rimmel Salon Pro with Lycra - 286 Oyster Pink - £4.49

 Rimmel 60 seconds - 500 Caramel Cupcake - £3.69

Deborah Lippmann - Modern Love - £16

Orly - Country Club Khaki - £5.15

Chanel - 491 Rose Confidentiel - £18

Rimmel Lycra Professional Finish - 341 Chic and Cheerful - £4.49

Love Keeks xo 

Nails - Rimmel Salon Pro Polish in Barmy Blue.

Rimmel Salon Pro Polish in Barmy Blue

Hi Lovelies!

Now if you read my nail polish rants and raves before you know that I always get a bit ravey about the Rimmel Salon Pro polishes. 

This is a relatively new addition to my collection. It's a gorgeous mid tone muted blue with no sparkly bits a colour that I have been looking for for ages. It's quite subtle for a blue as it's not as in your face as a bright and not as severe as a dark, deep blue. 

As you probably know I love the formula of these polishes especially with seche vite top coat they last, chip free, for at least a week.

Have you tried any Rimmel salon pro polishes?

Love Keeks xo 

My 5 Go To Summer Nail Shades.

Left to Right

Essie - Mint Candy Apple // Leighton Denny - I Love Juicy

Nails Inc - Ebury Bridge // Nails Inc - Westferry Circus

Rimmel Lycra Pro - 312 Ultra Violet

Everybody has their go to summer nail polishes don't they? The pastels and the neons that are perfect to accessorise bright, light summer clothes. Well these are mine...

Essie - Mint Candy Apple - The shade that everybody loves! Even though I can go for just one coat if I'm in a rush, two coats look best. It's a colour that I find looks different on ever skin tone. 

Leighton Denny - I Love Juicy - This is my only Leighton Denny and I got this shade ages ago when I was given it at Instyle magazine when I was there for work experience. It's kind of hard to apply evenly and you definitely need at least two coats, but once applied properly it's the most beautiful bright neon-y coral ever! 

Nails Inc - Ebury Bridge - This is probably my favourite blue nail polish from my little collection. It's such a weird blue though, because sometimes to me it looks like a milky blue with a hint of purple and other times it's like a lilac-y blue. Who knows! On a negative note though it chips like a mother-mother so it's definitely a two coat jobby.

Nails Inc - Westferry Circus - the above negative applies to this baby. I'm guessing same brand same formula. But on a more positive note this is the most gorgeous coral there is! I actually bought the set of minis this came in just for this colour (true story - I'm that weird). I have the cult Barry M coral Peach Melba but it's way too light for my skin colour to achieve the look I wanted. I actually think it made my hands look odd. but that may have just been me. 

Rimmel Lycra Pro - 312 Ultra Violet - Ahhh my favourite nail polish formula of all time! Rimmel Lycra Pro polishes glide on with ease and you really only need one coat with this colour. It's striking without being too bright, it's the best summer bright lilac, not too milky, not too dark. 

Love Keeks xo 

NOTD - Lilac Love

Rimmel London Professional Finish  - 312 Ultra Violet // Barry M Nail Paint - 308 Berry Ice Cream

Models Own Hed Kandi Nail Polish - Ibiza Mix // Seche Vite Top Coat

Hi Guys!

In the brief moment of spring sunshine we had I got all excited and painted my nails my favourite lilac-y pastel combo ever. I love the formula of these Rimmel nail polishes, they are quite chip resistant on their own but I put the Seche Vite top coat over the top for a really glossy finish. 

Now all I need is the Spring time weather to return... here's hoping!

Love Keeks xo

New Year Nails.

    

Nails - Barry M Racing Green and Models Own Emerald City

Ring Fingers - Nails Inc George Street and Models Own Ibiza Mix

Happy New Year Guys!

I know I know, it's a bit late, but better late than never, right?

This blog is fast becoming a nail blog but this NYE I didn't go out for the first time since I was 18, and instead spent the evening in with the boy. Hence, I didn't get all dressed up but kept it slubby in a t-shirt and shorts, so I thought I should at least make some kind of effort with my nails! I thought as it's the last festivity of the season I couldn't resist the ol' glitter nails and decided on two Models Own Polishes in Emerald City and Ibiza Mix.

I am sad that the Christmas/My Birthday/New Years period is over but I'm so excited about what 2013 has to offer! Yesterday I made my 2013 to-do list and I'm feeling optimistic as last year I only missed out one thing (I'm so crap at saving sometimes :/ )

What did you lovelies get up to for the New Year? 

Love Keeks xo

O' Starry Night.

Nails Inc Polishes in Motcomb Street and Tate 

I love nail art. It's just a bit of a shame that I have the dexterity of a two-year-old; whenever I see people with beautifully decorated talons I sigh a little inside.

So when I came across this starry confetti in my desk draw, an idea sprung into my brain - perhaps I could stick them onto wet nail polish, and seal them on with lots of top coat? Minimum dexterity required.

So that's what I did, using a wet cotton bud to pick up each star and place them on my nail. And the top picture is the finished result. Now the stars did all fall off after about 2 and a half days, but I thought that it could be a great quick design for a special night... say Christmas?... or New Years?

Just a thought.

Love Keeks xo

Winterberry Nails

Rimmel London Lycra Pro Professional Finish in 410 Trend Spotting - £4.59 

Hi Dolls!

So I think this Rimmel formula is fast becoming one of my favourites, if only they had more colours...

I previously blogged about another one of the colours in this formula here, and I picked this colour up because I haven't got a deep berry/burgundy/red wine-y colour in my collection, and when I saw this beaut in my favourite formula I had to snap it up. As I said in the other post, I'm not sure about the 'up to 10 days' statement, but with a good top coat (I use O.P.I and it's alreeet) it has lasted about 5 days without chipping noticeably. Love this colour for Autumn/Winter.

What are your favourite winter nail polishes?

Love Keeks xo

Rimmel London Lycra Nail Polish

     

      

Rimmel London Lycra Pro Nail Polish - 341 Chic and Chearful £4.59

Hey Lovelies,

I got this nail polish the other day, it’s the colour 341 Chic And Chearful and I love it, so I thought I’d blog about it!

The colour reminds me a bit of Essie Chinchilly, and the formula is really strong. It says that it lasts up to 10 days, a theory I didn’t test as I took it off after 4, but it lasted those 4 days without chipping (I wore two coats and a top coat), so thumbs up!

The brush is really wide and full, so it’s really quick to apply… can you tell I really like it?

Have you tried any of the Rimmel Lycra Pro Polishes?

Love Keeks xo

Sugar-Coated Almond Shades

      

Both Jeans, Purple T- Shirt and Yellow Ballet Pumps - Topshop

Mint Green Sleeveless Blouse - H&M // Yellow Jumper - River Island

Nail Paint - Barry M // Mint Green/Dusty Pink Sleeveless Shirtdress - New Look 

Spring is finally here. The days are getting longer, the trees are blooming and I even saw my first daffodil budding yesterday.

And with spring comes a winter clothing upheaval. Coats change to jackets; boots change to sandals and gone are the dark wintery blues, browns and greys to make way for the influx of colour for Spring/Summer. And this year it’s all about the pretty pastels shades and… I’m kind of loving it.

I’ve not always been a fan of pastel shades, I’ve always seen them as a bit too cutesy and preferred richer, deeper and bright shades, and pastel colours also remind me of sugar-coated almonds, which I hate! (I know, I'm weird). But this year I’ve started to warm to the sugary sweet shades that have filtered from the runway to the high street.

The above are some of my pastel picks from the high street this season so far. I actually have the mint green sleeveless blouse and I love it, it’s so versatile and inexpensive. However, my wardrobe isn’t brimming with pastel shades just yet, I’m slowly easing myself in, so I thought, what better place to start than the nails, so I decided to do a little pastel colour chart! 

I can’t wait til the spring weather really kicks in, apart from the rain, I hate the rain...

Have a lovely evening girlies,

Love Keeks xo

My Birthday Suit

Hat/Coat/Jeans/Boots - Topshop // Fur Collar - H&M

I've taken a break from the 12 Days of Christmas Presents series to show you my birthday suit. Ok, so I'm not naked, but this is what I wore on my birthday lunch with the mother, so technically it is my birthday suit, right?

I had such a lovely birthday, I'm still feeling a little tender-headed as I type. I had lunch with my mum, then had a couple drinks getting ready and finally finished the day with a night out.

Anyways, this does kind of tie in with the christmas presents series as the hat was bought in the Topshop sale with some money from my gift-cards. I'm not usually a hat person but I just loved this one, and the fact it was half-price sealed the deal!

Underneath the coat I just wore a mustard coloured blouse from Miss Selfridge, but I had my coat on for the most part as it was so bloody cold; and I carried my Mulberry Alexa, which I wore in this post.

So with Christmas and my birthday over for another year, as usual I look to NYE, so Happy New Year! Hope you have good one!

Love Keeks xo

OOTN - Topshop Overload

Hey guys, quick outfit of the night post for you, this is from Friday night when I went for dinner with my parents,

Hope you had a lovely weekend,

Love Keeks xo

Geometry

Let me preface this by saying that I’m in no way, shape or form, a nail art expert extraordinaire. I usually stick to the run of the mill full colour manicure because of how ambidextrous you need to be to attempt patterns and get them neat on both hands.

However this week I was feeling particularly chirpy and adventurous, because you see, I love having my nails painted, but I can’t wear polish to work. So you can imagine how restricting this is.

So picture my delight when I saw I had no work for a whole two weeks. Two weeks of nail polish adventuring and experimenting so I thought I’d give some shapes and patterns a go!

This is a picture of my first attempt and it’s nowhere near perfect but I’m quite happy with it considering how useless I am doing my nails normally.

The Beauty Department have great tutorials and inspirations on their site here here and here.

have fun,

Love Keeks xo