Sunday 26 January 2014

Nail Growth Progress - Week 3

Sorry for no post last week! Been SOOOOOO busy with deliveries and testing for my indie polish line I'm releasing soon. But wanted to do an update this week after I'd numbed my nails three weeks ago!
Sooo....
Here they were 2 weeks ago

And here they are now! Pretty impressive growth I believe lol

I want to start taking my supplements again this week, been slacking with that recently! Still using my mix of Essie Grow Stronger and OPI Nail Envy, but just ordered myself some Essie Millionails, look forward to seeing how this compares to my other products. I also hope to do a review on this product, let me now if you'd be interested!

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AND also follow my Indie Polish page @carabella_lacquer for sneak peeks and release date!



Monday 13 January 2014

Nail Growth Progress - Week 1

Soooo it's been a long little week since my über nubs made their first appearance. So I'm posting a little update. (I'm hoping I can delude myself that there will be a good growth!)
Here is my nubs last week as a reminder:

And here they are now!!

Noticeable growth? Yes? No? So impatient at times lol! I can see growth on some nails more than others but pleased with the progress after just one week in all honesty! (And I've been forgetting to take my supplements! Whoops!)

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Sunday 12 January 2014

More Stamping Shenanigans!

What do you do with yourself when you can't sleep? Paint you nails? No? Just me?
Well last night my daughter decided that she didn't want to go to bed, and finally passed out around midnight. Which meant that I was up late and over tired. Which led to some nail art. 
I've been trying to get through my untried polish each time I do something with my nails and this mani combined Essie Butler Please and Miss Fancy Pants (both untrieds) and Nails Inc Westbourne Park. 

Essie Butler Please has been a lemming of mine for a while, it's a gorgeous blue. But I am not a fan of the application. It was very thin to apply, although it does give good colour in the end I did have to apply 3 coats!! Miss Fancy Pants is a perfect nude. I have LOTS of nudes and this was great in 2 coats. Adding this to my trusted nudes!

Think the hardest part was choosing which stamp to use!
I had just bought several new plates from MoYou London and wanted to use a new image. The Suki plate was definitely calling to me and I chose the middle image above. (I wanted to use the fairytale collection but out of principal I'm not using those yet...I'll explain at the end!)

This was my finished mani! I knew I wanted holo stamping over the blue but became stuck when it came to the nude. I couldn't decide between blue or holo stamping. Took me 30 minutes to decide! Glad I went with the blue though!

And because I can and because I LOVE to macro all the polish here's a few close ups to show the details of the stamp I used. 
I love this image, looks like a fingerprint on my nail, with a cute little heart detail!
And Westbourne Park is THE perfect stamping holo I own. The holo is so dense you get a perfect image in the one coat (which is needed when stamping as you can't do a second coat easily!) 
This picture I purposely took slightly dark so that the holo and stamping detail could be seen. This is probably my favourite image out the lot of them! 

Love the overall look of this mani. It's clean and simple yet not plain and boring!! 

Oh and as I said earlier in this post I have some of the Fairytale Collection from MoYou London too. But they were sent without sleeves, I had no idea they wouldn't have them until they arrived and was a little annoyed to say the least. I then emailed customer services to which their reply was "when you place your next order send us an email and we will include the sleeves" I do not think it's fair I've paid full price for half an item to be delivered and then being told to spend more and I will be sent something I should've been sent originally anyway? Not cool MoYou, not cool. I have emailed them again saying I won't be placing an order again for a while and want the sleeves to be sent out right away, but after reading others comments on MoYou's (lack of) customer service, I'm not holding my breath for a reply or even the sleeves. It's this experience that has put me off buying from them in the future as nothing was said about lack of sleeves at all and the first I knew about it was half a product turning up at my door. And their reply was a little rude to be honest (and they didn't even get my name right in the reply email!!!)
Anyway...I digress. 

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Thanks for reading!

Tuesday 7 January 2014

Sindie Pop Swatch

Ok so I know this polish isn't new in the world of indies but it is something beautiful that I just HAD to share!
Golden Raspberries has been a lemming if mine for a long time, but Sindie Pop Cosmetics do not ship to the UK (break out the violin here!) BUT I am lucky to have an amazing US friend who let me get my order sent to her and we forwarded it on to myself. Safe to say I squealed when my package arrived (She sent me an awesome package that really lifted my spirits. Pictures on my IG and video on my YouTube!)
Strangely even though I've had Golden  Raspberries for months, I haven't actually used it until now. So here, in all it's glory: Golden Raspberries by Sindie Pop Cosmetics!

Seriously worth the wait! Here it is in all it's macro glory! Because you know you have to macro all the polish!

Apologies for the awkward hand pose here but I've been posing for so long with my Cinderella hand I've almost forgot how to pose with my right had!! 

I love the varieties of golden glitters that are used in this polish, adds a gorgeous depth to the polish. And the base colour is just as gorgeous, in some lights it looks purple, others a wine colour, but each is beautiful. 
My swatches were two coats of Golden Raspberries topped with HK Girl Topcoat. 

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Sunday 5 January 2014

Uh-oh! Nubbins Ahoy!

Bad news people! I had quite a bad nail break today which just wasn't salvageable and I've ended up trimming all my nails back so I can start a fresh. Three of them had split and were held on with glue so it was inevitable really. It feels so strange after having gorgeous long nails for so long to go back to my old nubs again! But I thought I could do a "track my progress" blog each week to see how well they grow back.
For a little perspective here is a before and after shot of one of my ring fingers:

And all my nubs in a pretty little row!

I will be using a combination of products; some old, tried and tested...some new and weird! I have been using a combination of OPI Nail Envy and Essie Grow Stronger for months now and it's a combination that seems to work for me as neither on their own worked. I also use Sally Hansen Nail Growth Miracle a few times a week. It's a serum that you rub into bare nails, or over polish a few times a week, it also helps with cuticle care. A new one I am trying is Avon  Nail Experts "diamond strengthening complex", this is a weird one for me as it looks like polish, applicator and everything, but smells strange and dried into my nails instead of onto my nail. Not sure if this works on too of polish like the Sally Hansen serum does as there were no instructions with the Avon product. 

Join me every Sunday to see how my nails are doing and some more in depth looks into my nailcare routine week by week.

Please don't forget to subscribe to my blog, lots of news coming up in the near future which I'm very excited about. Follow me on IG @cara_mia88 for lots more pictures including my polish collection and random snippets of my life!

Friday 3 January 2014

Polished By KPT Swatch

Ok so I love my indie polishes as some of you may know and they make up around 1/5th of my whole collection. 
Polished By KPT is in my top 4 most owned indie polishes and I have a gorgeous range of Thermal polishes from her that I absolutely adore. I've swatched majority of my collection in the past and these can be found on my Instagram page (@cara_mia88). 
Today I have a store exclusive colour called Siren's Song available in the UK from Rainbow Connection UK stockist. 

(Macro all the polish!)
This is a gorgeous holo green colour shifting polish which changes to a pale green when warm. 
I used two coats of Siren's Song and topped it with Glisten & Glow HK Topcoat. I've been wearing this mani for four days now and am really pleased with the wear of all my Polished by KPT lacquer, including this exclusive colour. 

This is Siren's Song in its cold state! Gorgeous right?!

This is in the warm state. 

Transition from warm to cold. 

You can buy direct from @Polishedbykpt on Instagram or from @Rainbow_c_uk if you're in the UK. 

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