Topshop Holographic Nail Polishes in Winterfrost and Moondance

I love looking at the make-up in Topshop. They have some really nice products on offer and they also always come at affordable prices. On a recent shopping trip, I saw that they had their nail polishes on offer - 2 for £8, a bargain considering they are usually £6 each. This was obviously incredibly hard to resist, even though I knew deep down I certainly don't need any more polishes at the moment! So after much debating and walking round and round the stand, I decided to pick up these two holographic polishes. I'd seen that this collection was only just released so I thought I'd give them a go. There is a third polish in this holo range that is pink, but I have way to many pink shades so I thought I'd go for something a bit different for a change.

Topshop Nails in Winterfrost & Moondance

I'm a sucker for holographic effect - it's so pretty - especially when it sparkles in the sun (not that we get much here, but still). OPI's older Designer Series polishes are some of my absolute favourites in my collection, but I'm always very cautious about how much I use them as you can't buy them anymore, so I thought these ones from Topshop may come in handy as an alternative. I'm quite excited to see if the silver one is sheer enough to use as a holographic top coat that could be placed over any regular colour.

I haven't had chance to try them yet (I have way too many other untested colours that I'm trying to get through), but I usually find Topshop polishes easy to apply, quite chip-resistant and who can really resist the cute packaging? I adore the polka dots on the lids.

Do you have any Topshop shades in your collections?

Mariah Carey OPI Liquid Sand Polishes - The Impossible & Stay The Night

Hi everyone!

I have been meaning to do a post on OPI's first liquid sand polishes since they came out over a month ago now, but I've only just recently had the time to test them out! I love how OPI are always one of the first brands out there to invent new types of polish like these. These are part of the Mariah Carey collection and there are 4 liquid sand polishes and 4 regular polishes.

The colours in the collection are:
The Impossible - a bright red with star shaped confetti
Stay The Night - a black/pink mix
Can't Let Go - purple
Get Your Number - blue

I absolutely love these polishes. They give off such a unique effect. The texture is amazing, it's like gritty but not so gritty that it's sharp, horrible to touch or would easily snag on clothing or anything. I've had this polish on a week now and it's starting to become a bit more 'flat', shiny and less textured if that makes sense, but it still looks and feels fine. The polishes also seem to last really well on your nails, I only have very minimal tip wear - no chipping yet whatsoever. I've received so many compliments and people asking to touch my nails whilst wearing this! I can't yet comment on removal because I haven't taken it off yet but I'm hoping it isn't as bad as normal glitter...

The Impossible with Stay The Night as an accent nail

It's important to note that these polishes only give off the "sand" effect when used without a top coat. By all means if you want to achieve a slightly different look, then go ahead and apply one. It just means the texture won't be present and the polish will appear to be slightly more  'jelly' looking. I've heard that these polishes can eat insane amounts of top coat too, so if you do want to give this a go then I'm guessing you're gonna have to layer quite a few coats! It's really cool for an alternative though because it's almost like getting two polishes in one. :)

I can't wait to see what other liquid sand polishes OPI release this year! What do you think?

Meet & Greet with Rita Ora - 29th January 2013 - Newcastle

Hi guys.

Ok, so I know this isn't a new nails post, but I just have to do a quick post on this because it was one of if not the best moment and experience of my life to date!

On Tuesday I had tickets to go and see Rita Ora in concert at my local O2 Academy in Newcastle. I had seen that her management team were running competitions giving the option to win meet and greets for selected venues if you uploaded a picture to Intsagram and tagged it #RadioactiveTour. I was at school at the time, so I didn't have my tickets with me to take a picture of myself with them, so I immediately thought I didn't have much of a chance at all. However, I knew I had nothing to loose so I chose to upload a picture of both my ticket with a signed copy of Rita's debut album, ORA, that I own.

It felt like such a long wait before the winners were picked, and I honestly wasn't expecting to win at all. Then, to my surprise, I got the notification through to my phone to say that her management had commented on my photo! I just saw 'WINNER!' and I almost died on the spot. I couldn't even believe it. I was in my English lesson and I couldn't even focus to do any work for the rest of the afternoon because I was just far too excited.

My winning photo!

We were told to arrive at the venue by 6pm and someone from Rita's team would could outside to pick us up and take us inside. They were running late though so it was after 6:20pm when we actually got to go inside. This had its consequences later as it meant we didn't get to stand in the front row at the barrier as they had to let the other people who were queuing outside in whilst we were in the meet and greet. It was raining and really windy so we were all panicking about looking an absolute mess next to Rita when we got photos taken with her! But anyway, when we were took inside, there was a guy on the door who checked our names on a list and then we were lead backstage to the dressing rooms! At this point I was almost hyperventilating haha. We all lined up on the stairs and waited whilst Rita was doing  some press interviews. It seemed like we waited so long here, but it wasn't too bad because at least we were out of the rain and had at least half an hour to dry off.

It finally got to 7pm and the guy came out and said that she was ready to see us! It was two people at a time. My sister and I were the third group in the queue, so we got in petty quickly after this. We walked into the room and there she was. Right in front of me. I couldn't quite believe my eyes as it didn't feel real! She is even more perfect and flawless in real life. I tried my best to keep myself composed for the few minutes that we had with her because I thought to myself no way am I spoiling this moment, I can fangirl after haha.

This is a summary of what happened when we went in:
Rita said "Hello! Nice to meet you." and gave me a big hug. Then she was like "Wow, you're so pretty!" (as you can imagine, at this point I thought I was going to wake up from a dream or something lol) "Come in close for a photo." She put her arms around me and my sister and her professional photographer took a photo of us together. Then she said "Do you want me to sign anything for you?" So I said "Yes please, my ticket if you don't mind". I was practically shaking at this point! She signed both our tickets and whilst she was doing this I obviously noticed her nails, as I had seen the design around on Twitter the day before. "I love your nails!" I exclaimed. She replied "Oh thank you. I'm still in the middle of getting one of them done! That's why I was a bit late" and she showed me her blank thumb (hahaha). Then she said "Woah, let's see yours.. Wow! They are amazing! Is it your 18th today?"(I'm still rocking the birthday nails from last week! lol) I told her no it wasn't today and how it was on Friday, and then she was like "Aw, happy 18th for friday then! Hope you had a lovely day". I was aware we'd already had a lot of time with her and the next pair would be waiting for their turn so we wrapped up our conversation. Then just before we left, she said "Thank you so much for coming, I hope you enjoy the show" so I finished with "We definitely will! Thank you so much."

This is the front of the venue, the sign for the dressing rooms backstage,
my signed concert ticket and then the photo of myself and Rita!

The concert itself afterwards was amazing. She is an amazing live performer. And the whole night was made even better by getting this once in a lifetime opportunity to meet her. It's been 2 days now and I still can't actually believe it happened! I set the picture as my phone screensaver so every time I unlock my phone everything comes flooding back, but it's so so so unreal.

And that was the day I got to meet one of my idols! Sorry if I've bored you with this post, I'll be back to my normal nail stuff next time. I just couldn't not tell you guys about it. Thanks for reading if you did! :)

Until next time,