Morgan Taylor 'Polished Up Punk' Swatches & Review + Nail Art

* Product provided for review

Hello! I know I sound like a record stuck on repeat, but apologies yet again for being so absent. I've been away from home so much over the past month it feels like I've hardly been here...but things have settled down now, so here I am!

I was delighted to be contacted by Morgan Taylor recently and asked to review a couple of polishes from their 'Glam Rock' collection (which I believe was for Winter 2014). The Glam Rock collection is described as 'A mixture of funky metallic shades and glitters to bring out the rebel in you!' and consists of six polishes:

Left to right, they are:

Better in Leather – Black silver glitter

Little Misfit – Lavender and aqua duo chrome
Polished Up Punk - Navy crème
Pretty Wild – Lavender greige crème 
Rebel With A Cause – Deep burgundy pearl
Studs and Stilettos – Gunmetal glitter

If you're not familiar with the Morgan Taylor brand, here's a little blurb from the company:

'Morgan Taylor has been created by Gelish founders Danny Haile and David Daniel. The specialist formula is made from raw ingredients enhances finish, coverage and wear ensuring that not only your nails will look gorgeous but they will stay that way too!RRP £10.99 each from Sallyexpress.com'

The polish I'm showing you today is the navy crème, 'Polished Up Punk'*.  I also received 'Little Misfit', the duochrome, so expect to see that one at some point in the near future!

'Polished Up Punk', two coats plus top coat

'Polished Up Punk' is a dark navy which appears blackened in some lights, but remains just on the right side of black - by which I mean that it is almost always discernibly blue and not black. I think its depth is more apparent in the nail art photos below. It's a very winter-appropriate colour and I always think these kinds of shades look especially foxy on short nails. I found the formula very nice: it was neither too runny nor too thick, spread smoothly and had great opacity - I used two coats plus top coat here, but you could conceivably get away with one if you were careful. I also really liked the shape of the brush, which is flat but not too wide (I know a lot of people can't stand super-wide brushes) and a sensible length. Please excuse the slight scuff marks in the above photos - my goopy top coat was responsible, not the polish itself! I didn't wear this manicure long enough to comment authoritatively on wear time, but I wouldn't expect any problems if worn with a good top coat.

Aaand I wouldn't feel like I was blogging properly if I didn't throw in some nail art, so...

Baroque 'n' Roll | Nail Art

Bahahaha. Yes, that excruciating pun did just happen. I'm not even going to apologise for it.

Hello and Happy New Year! How I've missed my wee blog. November and December were really rather busy months for me and I ended up being away from home quite a bit, so sadly nail art had to take a back seat. I'd say it was a pretty productive time, though, and I'm looking forward to what 2014 will bring... I hope it will be a joyful, prosperous year for you all. :)

Nail art!

Blue 'Ikat Beach Tote' Nail Art

Hihi! This is really going to be a quick post because I'm really going to go to bed. Honest.

These nails were inspired by this beach tote bag which appeared as an a sidebar ad during a recent blog-reading spate - who'd have thought there was inspiration to be found in internet adverts?! If you have a better name for this design, let me know!

I began with a base of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure 'Thinking of Blue' (two coats), which I love. It has a slight dustiness, but also a certain richness and perhaps the littlest hint of 'blurple'. I really like the CSM brush, too (although you can get wonky ones) - flat and quite broad with a rounded tip which fits my cuticles nicely. I added the white pattern with a nail art brush and finished off with the teal detailing, using A England 'Galahad'. If you've been reading my blog from the start, you'll know I love A England and Galahad is another delight - sometimes he looks dusty and sometimes bright, but always beautiful.

It would have been nice to be able to fit a little more of the original pattern onto my nails, but I had to enlarge individual elements of it in order to give Galahad a fair showing. I am very pleased with this design, but I felt a little let down by my execution - I was just having one of those nights where nothing would behave as I wanted it to! Still, I think it looks quite lovely in person since the imperfections are less noticeable when I'm not inspecting them microscopically!

Owning the awkward thumb. 

So, what do you think? Do you dig the design? What about the bag itself? Apart from anything else, I think these colours make a really great pair - even if I need to get back to practising my freehand skills. My index finger with the little diamond is probably my favourite - how about you?

Hope you're all well - not long 'til the weekend...!

A England (& Kiko) Stained Glass Nail Art

HIYAAA!  Welcome to my brand spanking new blog!  I've been posting nail art on my Tumblr for a while now and I'm super excited finally to have somewhere I can write as many words and post as many pictures as I like.  Oh, and I'm Kirstie, by the way.  NAIL ART TIME.

Much as I love Scotland, sunshine isn't something we enjoy a whole lot of.  However, it does mean I really appreciate a good sunny spell when it comes along.  And when I say, 'Appreciate', I mean:

Hello holo!  Direct sunlight.

SHAZAM.  This is all five of the A England polishes I owned (I've since got hold of my sixth) painted in varying sizes & shapes with a nail art brush, over a base of Kiko 399, a pale gold holo.  For me, all the colourful sparkles are really reminiscent of stained glass.  The way the different shapes are laid out and fitted together kind of also made me think of a tortoise's shell...I felt a bit like I was walking about with magical tortoise nails.  (Please don't judge me.)

I can't even express how much I love Adina's (A England's) polishes.  Even out of the sun, I still think they look so beautiful, really complex and unique.  The colours are gorgeous and rich, and some of them even have duochrome!  It's pretty evident that a lot of love goes into creating A England collections.

Green/gold duochrome WHAT UP!

When this idea first popped into my head I thought maybe I was just delirious with sunshine after a miserable winter.  I almost talked myself out of it on the basis that it would be 'Too much'.  Hahaha, no.  BEST. DECISION. EVER.

Pretty sure I've saved the best picture 'til last...

With flash.  The purple of Princess Tears gets me every time!

Seriously, I think this has to be one of my favourite manicures ever.  It just makes me so happy every time I look at it!  

I hope you've enjoyed this inaugural Nail Cake post - I'd love to know what you think!  Are you a holo/A England lover, too?