Mondrian Inspired Nails

Hello there fellow readers!

So I love Mondrian art (if you haven't seen it before, it's basically boxes and lines using the colours black, white, red, blue and yellow) and so I decided to bring it to my nails! I only did it on my accent nails because I didn't have long (that's why there isn't a topcoat! *I know, a crime! Especially when your blog is called And-a-Topcoat...). I just painted all of my nails white and then outlined them with a striper (in black) on my accents I then did the classic mondrian design. A different one for each of the two nails. Here is what they look like!
The polishes used were:

• French White by City Color
• A black striper
• Poppy red by Miss Beauty London (it's actually a gel because at this present moment I have no other normal red polish)
• An old Claire's bright blue polish
• Last but not least, Sunshine yellow by Rimmel London

Ooh and just to let you know, 'A beginners guide to all things nails' is on it's way soon! Thanks for casting your eyes over this short and snappy post, hope to see you again soon! And-a-Topcoat. xx

You can follow me!

Hi, this is just a little notice saying you can now follow my blog by email. Just type in your email (on the right hand side of my blog) and you will receive a notification when I do each post, so you can keep informed! Thanks for getting me to 280+ views, And-a-Topcoat xx

Dainty dots!

Hello there. This is just a speedy post showing you what you can do with the nail art tools I featured in my last post... I decided to do some dainty dots (as the title suggests!) using Barry M 'Prickly Pear' on the bottom and then the shimmery purple polish for the spots. Bye for now, And-a-Topcoat. xx
Oh yeah for some reason I though the necklace I was wearing at the time looked good in the background of the photo, not realising my leg is a weird place for a necklace to be..!

Nail tools!

Eeerm... hello? *sniffle* I'm running out of weird ways to introduce each post with *wipes away tear* I just... What if there aren't an infinite amount of ways to start a blog post? Perhaps a simple hello will just have to do...

5 minutes later 

*Returns from google search of 'forms of hello'...*

Good morning/ Good afternoon/ Good Evening!

Whenever you are reading this good day to you all!

So I recently got treated to some nail art pens. They are basically a long nail tool with two sections of two different coloured polishes. Coming off from these two sections are two different tools/applicators. (Is it just me or should the next few lines be 'you need to go into the first section, break the safe and return. You have fifteen minutes before the lions are released and the alarm goes off... No? I think it's just me, but it sounds like some weird spy movie. Don't even ask where the lions came from!) 

Anyway... one of the ends is just a normal nail brush but the other one is a really fine metal point which allows you to do intricate lines, dots and designs. All you have to do is squeeze the bottle to allow the polish to come out. I think it's a really great idea and it was so easy. The only problem I did find is because I am so weak, when I squeezed the bottle it made me shake quite badly and so sometimes the polish came out a bit wobbly!

But I would recommend them, I think they come in two different varieties of packs with different colours. I got the pack with the colours: yellow, purple, orange, pink, silver and a deep red/pink. They are by JML and I got them from Asda. 

Thanks for reading, And-a-Topcoat. x

Update! (More Marbled Nails)

Hey, hey, hey! So in the Valentines Day post (hope you all had a lovely/ endured Valentine's Day by the way) I included a tutorial on marbled nails and said that the design which I featured would also look good with different colours, those being; red, black and white. So here is a quick little update with what those colours and that effect looks like. I had in mind a vibrant red instead of the burgundy colour I used instead but it looks just as good. Lots of Love And-a-Topcoat. xx 
P.s I might do a new swatch page where (over time) I gradually upload pictures of all my nail colours. I thought you might find it useful to just scroll down and see in case you were thinking of buying a certain brand or colour! I've not decided whether I have time yet to maintain it but let me know what you think.
P.p.s- Also a beginners guide on painting your nails is in the making, as it was requested by one of my loveliest friends so that should be uploaded shortly! It'll be here soon Holmes XD
P.p.p.s Everyone else, just ignore that last sentence!

Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day Eve Eve! Whether you have a date with a yummy pizza (like me) or one with a real human- I have some nails to go with it! So, here is my jumbled up, lots of writing, photo-tastic nail-aholic post all about Valentine's inspired nails...Whoo! *pops a party popper and kisses her pizza*. Hope you enjoy!

1) Number 1 is a marbled design which features many polishes, so I'll get on with it or this post will be changed to valentines day 2016:

• Barry M 'Gelly polish' in 'dragon'
• A generic white polish
• Rimmel London 'grey matter'
• Models Own 'grape juice' scented polish
• A generic black striper
• A generic clear topcoat

Ok, so this effect was created by;

1. Placing big gloops (love that word!) of polish on your nails and using a toothpick, pencil or dotting tool to gently swirl them into eachother, only do this a few times for each nail though- or the colours all mix and turn into one colour. 
2. On my ring finger I then used the striper (but you could use a dotting tool) to make a heart out of dots. If I did this design on my left hand I would have attempted to just draw the outline of a heart but I don't have a particularly steady left hand, so dots just had to do! 
3. Then, I just added a topcoat. This design would also look great with a white, black and red polish for a bit of a smarter/ more classy look. 
4. And that's it- a really easy but effective design!

*warning: this tutorial takes a while to dry because of the amount of polish you have to use, so make sure you have left enough time for them to dry!*

Next up are some really cute and girly sparkly nails which fade out from the bottom of your nail! The polishes used are:

• Bourjois Pairs in 'Rainbow Apparition' (apparition means ghost or ghost-like, so it's a really clever name seeing as there are fine glitters in every colour, along with a background pinkk shimmer)
• Technic in 'carnival' 
• Laval in 'glitter dazzle' 
• Loreal Paris in 'sequin explosion'
• a generic black striper.
• a generic clear topcoat.

Here is how you create the look:

1. Lightly paint your nails using the Bourjois Paris polish, making sure that you get most of the polish at the bottom of your nail, and then pressing even lighter as you get nearer the top.
2. Then with the Laval polish, dab on the big glitter chunks, at the bottom of your nail, which are on the brush. Don't swipe as the glitter is quite scarce,and you just end up with the clear polish instead of the silver glitter.
3. Next, with the technic polish paint up to half way (from the bottom) of your nail. 
4. The last glitter polish to add is the Loreal Paris one, just paint from the bottom of your nail to halfway up.
5. Penultimately (ooh, fancy word!) in the top left corner of each of your nails, get the black striper and pant a short, thick line down from the left. Then another one, joining the one before, from the right. This creates a small love heart. Aaaw- cute!
6. Now just add a topcoat to protect your design, and add even more of a sparkle!

Thankyou for reading. This post has been super looooong, but I hope it was worth it. Love you all, And-a-Topcoat. xxxxx (extra kisses because it's almost Valentine's Day)

Perfect Pastels!

Hi chappies! I painted my nails again (what a surprise (!)) after seeing some inspiration from Pinterest (this amazing website/app where you can pin other people's lovely pictures on different boards which you create, or post your own). The design that I saw was based around the love heart sweets, and I just borrowed the colours and the matte topcoat from it. So here we go...

 Long intro but you made it! The pastel polishes I used were:

• Rimmel London, 'sweet as sugar' polish. (pinky)
• Models Own, scented 'grape juice' polish  (ring finger)
• Model's Own 'apple pie' scented polish (middle finger)
• W7 'powder pink' polish (pointer finger)
• And W7 'lemon sorbet' polish (my hidden thumb!)
• NYC 'matte me crazy' matte topcoat

Those names are very spring-like! I also added a little black heart on my pinky with a striper, although it kind of got misshapen and failed... moving swiftly on!

I had to do 3 coats of each polish, and the two Model's own looked great after 3, but the w7 colours and the Rimmel London needed another coat to look its best, this is just because these are such light colours. Also, the w7 polishes were quite watery. I can't review the scented polishes very well because I have a small cold and my sense of smell has mostly gone, but they smelt amazing when I was doing the final coat.

 The finished look is cute and perfect for spring.Hope you like them as much as I do, lots of love, And-a-Topcoat. xxx

P.s I have a hot chocolate with marshmallows in, very happy after a long day of work ^_^. Just thought I'd share that and make you jealous. Not really, love you all my little sweetcorns. Where did that come from? I'm so crazy.. This 'p.s' is lasting ages, so I'm just going to come to an abrupt stop, right about now!

*whispers* Goodbye...

A bit late!

Hello my lovelies- I hope you are having a happy Tuesday. This post is featuring quite wintry polishes, so if you are sick of winter, skip past this one! Anyway- I know that spring is just around the corner in the UK right now so this post is quite late, but I just thought you'd like to know about the nice polishes, used in this design.

Ok, so, the first polish is called South Kensington and is by Nails. Inc. It is a metallic silver polish and it dries so quickly and smoothly- in fact by the time I had finished painting the second hand, the first hand had completely dried. One lovely comment I got was that it looked like pure silver, and it is so smooth and shiny that it does! I then added the snowflake effect polish, also by Nails. Inc, which is a glittery polish with white glitter hexagons, dots and strands in it. These polishes are actually a recommended duo, as they came in the same set and they do go very well together. However this polish is definitely one that you need to add a clear topcoat to! I found this out because I also painted my toes like my hands and when I went to put tights on, the bumpy glitter on my toenails got caught in my tights and started chipping- what a nightmare!

Anyway, have a great week and if you aren't just be glad that Monday is over- and Mondays are always the worst (well, for me they are anyway!). Goodbye friends, And-a-Topcoat. xx

Nail shapes and sizes

I'm going to try to make this post as short as possible, but I just thought that you might want to know about all the different nail shapes, so you can find one you like or just so you know the name of your shape. One thing I will say is, as these are all different nail shapes these are not my own images- which is something I don't really like doing. If you recognise an image as yours (seeing as I scoured pinterest to find them) please inform me and I will remove it as soon as possible. So here we go:

1) Squoval: These are square nails with rounded edges, which is a fairly common nail size.

2) Square: These nails are prone to breaking but they look formal and neat due to the square shape.

3) Almond: These nails are tall with a rounded point.

4) Rounded/ oval: These nails are fairly short but have a circular tip.

5) Stiletto: These nails are really tall with a sharp tip which comes to a point. I must admit these are my nail goals at the moment- I just think they look so different!

Hope you found this useful- I enjoyed making it :)
Keep coming back and checking for now posts, or subscribe by e-mail and get an e-mail when a new post comes out! Have a nice evening, enjoy your dinner, And-a-Topcoat. xxx

Review: Grey Matter

Wassup!? Sorry... bit of an informal way to start a blog post.
Hello (that's better!) how lovely it is to be writing to you again my fellow chums. I said that I'd do a review of the grey matter polish by Rimmel London since I got it yesterday and I have tried it out- so here you go!
Colour: A dark grey (darker than it looks in the bottle) with a hint of blue
Price: £3.65 (on the Rimmel London website)
Coats needed for full opacity: 2 thin ones, although you could get away with 1.
Drying time: I said I wondered whether it would actually dry in 60 seconds, seeing as that's  what the bottle promises, and I'm so happy it actually does! That means you can paint, and have your nails dry, in 4 minutes (I think! Maths isn't my strong point...)

Spread the love!

Application: Smooth and easy thanks to the wide brush. Settles evenly, so don't worry about an uneven finish or visible strokes.
Finished look: Shiny and sophisticated!
Further comments: A really nice polish, great for school/ work and speedy drying if you are in a rush (or just impatient like me!)

Thanks for reading. And-a-Topcoat. xx
P.s My arm is still sore, but I realised that the injection could save my life- so I am a very lucky person. :)
P.p.s I watched The Imitation Game yesterday at the cinema and it was such an inspiring but solemn movie. I highly recommend it, but bring tissues! ~R.I.P Alan Turing- a true hero that deserves to be
known of more.~

You are all so lovely!

Gap, I see you have returned... Don't worry. You may have won the battle but you won't win the war!

Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!

200 views has finally been reached which was my February goal! I have a huge smile on my face right now, all because of you. So if anyone asks have you made someone smile today you turn round and reply. 'Why yes, I have. This blogger that I have probably never met before smiled because I looked at her blog for a few minutes today. So there!'
I don't really know what to do now- a lot of people would do a 'special post' but I don't think that I can think of something good like that.. Can you guys think of one?
All I know is that I now want 300- so keep coming back and reading!
Love you all! And-a-Topcoat. xxxxx

Cute cabinet!

Hello my chihuahua chums! The large unnecessary gap has gone! Yay! :) 

I actually thought I'd already posted something like this before, until I checked through all my published posts and realised that well... I hadn't!

A while ago, I got treated to a small vintage wall cabinet *picks up pizza slice, takes huge bite out of it and carries on typing* and it is so cute and gorgeous. It has a thin white mesh going over the main section of the cabinet and the rest is white wood, with little tiny worn-looking metal handles. As I do have quite a large collection of polishes, some had to branch out and sit ontop of the cabinet and some are still under my bed as well. Also, I did it in rainbow order! A month on however, I would be lying if I said it had been maintained. Now there are browns in the pink section and blacks in the green! It's from 'melody maison' if any of you are interested. No sponsorship, I am just recommending the product because I like it'. Lots of hugs and smiles, And-a-Topcoat. xx

In love!

THIS MASSIVE GAP IS BUGGING ME!!
*Punches a pillow and calms down, deep breath*
Hello people that are reading this, and anyone that isn't... even though I don't think that is actually possible- oh well! Before I get started with this humble post I have officially had a revelation, do you want to know what it is?

I have discovered why my posts are sooo long...

BlaBlaBlaBlaBlaBlaBlaBlaBlaBlaBlaBlaBlaBlaBlaBla

Waffle! (And no, sorry, not the yummy kind)
I realise that I just write nonsenscial sentences that are nonsensical! I'm using nonsensical too much aren't I? Nonsenscial... nonsenscial! NONSENSICAL!

I'll stop.

So my blogging news years resolution- if it is alright with you peeps- is to stop going on and on and on. What I am currently writing may be classed as waffling so I'll stop and get on with my post!

Ok, I just wanted to say that I am currently in love with this polish. Scroll down:

And *BOOM* 

It is sweet as sugar by Rimmel London (part of the 'I love lasting finish' range. I also own 'sunshine' from this range) and I love the colour, which is a really light (almost white) icy blue/teal. It is actually more of a spring/summer shade but I thought that I could get away with it as it is kind of icy blue for winter! It took 1 thin coat and 2 thick coats. *Little confession* The coats started out thin and then as I gradually became more and more impatient they just got thicker. The polish itself lasted me only 2 days before it chipped but that's just because I am a clumsy and busy kind of chap/gal!? Also, I did not add-a-topcoat. Little pun there, guys! Seeya sometime in the near future, And-a-Topcoat. xx

Nail update!

Well hello there. Wow I'm knocking the posts out today! 

Polishes used

Finished look

So earlier I posted about my mediocre lilac striped nails. If you haven't read that post then go back and read it! Not really, let's just say I wasn't really impressed with them. So I got home and updated them. I went round the lilac stripe with a thin black border and then added Loreal Paris' 'sequin explosion' topcoat. After a quick edit on pic collage I am actually quite happy with them! I'll admit that they aren't going to be to everyone's taste as they are quite unique and out of the norm but that's me. A short post but I thought this would perhaps give you some inspiration. Let me know what you think my little bunnies (not got a clue where that came from!?) Have a nice day, lots          of love And-a-Topcoat xx

P.s Who else is loving the new series of Broadchurch?

Stripe Hype

Why hello my little chums! How lovely it is to speak to you! It may surprise you (!) that I have just painted my nails... Now guys, I must admit that I don't like these very much. They kind of annoy me as they aren't perfectly straight (look at the pic and you'll see what I mean) and I also chipped and smudged my thumb- that's why it isn't in the photos. Anyway, the polishes used were models own grape scented 'grape juice' polish and then just a generic topcoat. I just dragged the brush from the bottom to the tip of my nail, but had to press lightly so the line wasn't too thick. For some reason I decided to wing it and not use a striper and it showed. Oh boy, it showed! I like the original idea I had but I don't think I executed it how I imagined. I don't really know why I did this post, I guess just to show you the design and to show you that I don't always have fabulous nails, my loves! Believe me when I say that nobody is perfect (except from maybe Keira Knightley!)

Anyway, I'm hopefully *fingers crossed, phone falls out of hand and lands on floor* *sigh* *picks up phone continues typing* that I'm going to be doing a Valentines day nail tutorial/ polishes/ design post for you. By the way, if you haven't already noticed I have showed my valentine this year... Yes, that's right. His name is pizza and he's tough on the outside but has a lovely soft heart- he's not at all cheesy! *cringes at how bad that pun was*. Anyway, got to go and have my dinner. I Love you all readers, remember to stay happy. And-a-Topcoat. xxx

It has arrived!

Hello friends! Apologies for the massive gap between the title and this line- I can't seem to fix it! Oh well, the show must go on!
Sitting at my desk this evening when I returned home was a new nail polish- and it has immediately shot straight up in my top ten favourites and I haven't even tried it yet! Most of this is because it is a light-ish grey colour (grey being my favourite colour) and is part of the Rimmel London 60 seconds collection/range, so, hopefully this one will live up to its promise. It's called 'grey matter' and I was intrigued by the name, as it ringed a bell, and so I typed it into google and apparently (according to wikipedia) it is:
'a major component of the central nervous system'
Now we are all enlightened, I will continue the post...

It promises: 

1. 1 second application (obviously Usain Bolt has got into nail painting or something...) due to its wide brush (which is actually really handy :)
2. Up to 5x stronger nails: *based on consumer perception... Now guys. I must admit I was really stupid with this. The text on the bottle had * <-- this next to it and I was curious as to what the extra info was. Long story short I didn't realise they had an English translation of the French info and so ended up typing the whole thing into google translate. In French. Even though the English version was literally. LITERALLY. Just underneath it. I. AM. SO. STUPID. SOMETIMES.  ALL THE TIME!
3. Drying time less than 60 seconds- whoah, I can't wait to see!

I'll probably review the polish once I've tried it out but it made me happy when I saw that sitting on my desk when I got home, so I thought I'd share it with you lovely lot!

Goodbye for now. And-a-Topcoat. x

Also. Feel sorry for me! I just had an injection and I can't move my arm because it is quite sore. :(