Last week I took a long weekend trip to visit one set of my parents. And while I was packing for the trip, I thought I might write a post about what I take with me in my nail travel bag.

On this specific trip I am taking more than I normally would for a long weekend, but I knew I would end up doing nails for both myself and my Mama during the weekend. So I wanted to take more polish and plate opinions than normal.

I pack my travel nail supplies in a Vans grey polka dot bag, which was a present from my other set of parents a few Christmases ago.

Things I always pack

Cuticle oil

Hand cream

Several polishes

Base coat

Matte & gloss top coat

Nail file

Polish remover

Stamping plates 

Stamper + scraper

Nail brushes

Cuticle clippers + pusher

Polishes

Peel It base coat // Barry M

The Gel top coat // Essence

Matt To Meet You top coat // Essence

Lagoona Beach // Essence

Black Is Back // Essence

Wild White Ways // Essence

Glow Crazy // Barry M

Jane's Sunshine // nimynails.com

I keep my nail art supplies in a smaller cotton bag inside the Vans bag, and my cuticle oil in a plastic zip-lock bag (because it's a bit leaky).

- N :)

I am slowing building up my collection of Essence nail polishes, and in this post I'm swatching and reviewing four shades from The Gel collection. These are four matte (or 'matt') shades.

Miracle Stone

I got this polish a little while ago and instantly feel in love with it. I posted something on Instagram along the lines of, 'I love matte, I love grey and I love flakie glitter'. All of these things combined makes me absolutely adore this polish. The polish is opaque in 2 coats and applies evenly and dries untextured even with the flakies. I love this polish as a base for nail art.

Va Va Voom

This polish is a super vibrant coral red, this is a lot brighter on the nail than I thought it would be, and it looks beautiful. Out of the four polishes this dries the least matte, which is what I was expecting as it's labelled 'soft matt'.

Write On My Chalkboard

This is a perfect spring shade. It's a super pale, pastel green. This can be a tad streaky in applying, but I manage to get it opaque with 2 relatively thick coats.

Engaged

I am not a fan of nude shades so I was surprised by how much I love this polish. It's a beautiful pink nude with a stunning silver shimmer. I struggle to find nude polishes that I think look nice against my skin tone, but I adore this shade. It's a subtly and elegant shade, and is perfectly name and the shade is definitely perfect for sophisticated occasions like engaged parties and wedding. Opaque in 2 coats.

- N :)

I have used many hand creams over the last few years. My all time favourite has been Hand Food by Soap & Glory for years, but over the last year or so I haven't brought any and instead have been testing out other, cheaper, hand creams. I've like a couple, but didn't love any until I found this hand and nail cream in Superdrug. It caught my eye because it had 'nail' in bold letters on it, and my brain always seems to hone in on anything nail related.

The bottle says that it 'strengthens nails' and 'moisturises hands', and I thought it would be interesting to test out, because usually my hand creams aren't specifically targeted at nails. I have now been using this hand cream everyday for the last 2 months. 

While I can't say that it has done any strengthen to my nails, it is really moisturising on my hands. I really like the smell of the hand cream, and it doesn't leave my hands feeling greasy or sticky. It dries fast and makes my hands feel lovely. The cream is available in 2 sizes, 150ml for £1.99 and 75ml for £1.49. I own both size, I keep the larger one on my desk and the smaller one in my handbag. 

If you are looking to try out a new hand cream, I would definitely recommend this one. Even if it didn't necessarily strengthen my nails, as a regular moisturising hand cream it works great, and the fact that it's so cheap is an awesome bonus.

Links...

150ml // 75ml

- N :)

I own quite a few Moyou London plates now. I mostly own the regular size plates, with 18 designs, because I keep my nails quite short. But a couple of months ago I decided I wanted to try out one of Moyou's XL plates. I decided to buy Scandi 07, because I thought the designs would look good even if I would only fit a section of the design on my nail. 

The Scandi collection is my favourite collection from Moyou London, and this plate is no exception, the designs on it are stunning. Detailed and stylised. The plate has some designs that are made up of straighter lines, in intricate patterns, and some that are more 'flowy' and 'swirly' designs.

The regular size equivalent to this plate is Scandi 06, which has a majority of similar designs, and unlike a lot of the XL vs regular plates the small one doesn't have only smaller sizes, the designs are cropped. So you get roughly the same outcome on the nail regardless of what size you buy. The reason I prefer the XL in this case is because I get more choice in the positioning of the design, I decide what parts are cropped out.

Some of the designs on this plate are great for reverse stamping, but I don't usually do a lot of reverse stamping with this plate. And although the designs are all meant to be full nail, there are a few that have sections that can be taken out and used without the rest of the design around it (like the last photo below). 

Designs using this plate:

Buy This Plate: https://moyou.co.uk/products/scandi-07

Moyou London 10% Off Coupon: http://i.refs.cc/jBZlhZ3M?u=1520384101186

- N :)

This blog post is written by my husband, Heck. All photos and opinions are his, and I apologise in advance for the unhelpful, nonsense you're about to read. 

- N :)

Hello, I’m Hector your new nail connoisseur. In this blog thing I’m going to tell you and show these nail polishes... I have based the collection on food, McDonalds = Life. Barry M please sponsor my wife, I don’t know whether you know this but nail polishes are super expensive at this volume!

The red one: this colour is for all the blood that has spilt, both in and for the company oh and for the logo... obvs! 

(Dead Heat)

Pros: 

It works

Fierce (tongue pop)

Good brush

Cons: 

Stung me

Drippy

Stained finger (blood much?)

Unsponsored

The yellow one: this colour reminds me of the special sauce in big macs. The consistency is identical.

(Station Road)

Pros: 

It works

Glittery

Cons: 

Dried like a brain (ewww)

Bitty

Ugly

Unsponsored

The white one: I don’t know why?... 

(Cotton)

Pros: 

It also works!

Thick (tongue pop)

Strong white

Dries good... I think

Cons: 

Dribbles

Highlights your wrinkles of despair

Unsponsored

They all dry.

All one coat.

Finally I did a bitchin’ gradient design. Personally I feel that all the colours work real well together and now I’m really hungry. I hope you liked this trolled version of my wife’s blog, honestly I have no idea how she does it, she commits so much time and energy for so little back. I’m so proud of her and if your not subscribed to her already then DO IT!

Peace?

It's March already, and although the UK has been experiencing a 'blizzard' this week, I'm super excited that it's almost spring again. Spring is the perfect time of year for pastel colours and I love pastel nail polish shades. I have a lot of pastel polishes that I love to wear during spring, but these are my top 5 pastel shades from Barry M:

Sky Blue

A pale pastel blue shade, this colour just screams spring to me. I own A LOT of blue polishes, and although I usually prefer either brighter or more muted blue tones, this is a lovely subtle blue that works great as a light base colour for spring nail art designs. 2 coats, no top coat.

Prickly Pear

A perfect pastel purple. I wear this polish a lot, all year round, but especially in spring. I don't have any polishes similar to this, I don't have enough purples in general to be honest, but this is a purple that is cooler and has a more blue-ish tint that the majority of purples I own. But this has been a spring favourite of mine for a few years now. 2 coats, no top coat. 

Raspberry Sorbet 

The most recently release polish on this list, part of Barry M's recent Candy Culture collection, this is a purple shade, that leans heavily towards a more pink tone than the previous purple shade on my list. It also has a lovely raspberry scent, although the scent doesn't really impact my opinion in one way or another, it does add a cute quirk to it. Watch my full swatch and review video of this collection here. 

Lemonade

I love yellow polish. And this is currently my favourite yellow shade that I own. It's part of Barry M's Coconut Infusion collection, which I love the formula of all the ones I've tried. And for a pale yellow it covers perfectly in 2 coats, which isn't often the case. I don't know what else to say about it. I just love it. 2 coats, no top coat.

Full Throttle

Now I adore lemonade, as you could probably tell. But it is not at the top of my list from pastel spring shades. That's because I am completely in love with this unique shade, Full Throttle. Part of the Speedy Quick Dry collection, it's a pale orange shade. I don't own anything else close to this in shade, and I love how the peachy-orange colour looks against my skin tone, which I don't usually feel for orange polishes. 2 coats, no top coat.

Nail designs using these shades & Enchanted 09 plate by Moyou London...

What are your favourite spring polishes? Do you prefer pastels on your nail during spring? Let me know in the comments or tweet me @nimynails.

- N :)