I absolutely adore this colour from OPI's Euro Centrale collection. At first I wasn't sure if it would look too similar to their 'Do You Lilac It?' but 'You're Such A Budapest' is slightly lighter and has more of a pastel tone to it which definitely suits my skin tone a lot better.
The slightly blue-er tone to it brings me aways from describing it as a purple, I would say more of a light, bright violet, really pretty and a lovely colour for the spring/summer months. Gorgeous to wear on the toes too and would probably look even better on someone with a tan!
A while back I made a video for a nail art design that I saw Kelly Osbourne had been sporting 'Matte Black With Glossy French Tip' since then this video has been watched a lot, with thanks to my lovely subscribers!!
(and Kim Kardashian for also loving this look!) but the main question that I get asked is where you can get a matte top coat.
The first matte top coat that I bought and used in this video was by Rimmel London.
It's called 'Rimmel Pro Matte Top Coat' and is very affordable at £4.59 and worked great in the video although now that I have had it a while it seems to have stopped working quite so well and doesn't always give a very matte finish.
I have since bought OPI's matte top coat and absolutley love it.
It has a slightly higher price tag of £11.50 but the finish it gives somehow seems a lot more matte and the change from a glossy colour happens a lot faster.
If you are looking for a matte top coat I would definitely say that OPI has taken the edge out of these two with this although if you only want to try the look out and don't think you will get much more wear out of that look the Rimmel one isn't bad for the price and will help you re-create that look if that's all your buying it for. If you are planning on having a play about with it though and creating some nail designs yourself I suggest splashing out and treating yourself to the higher end OPI alternative.
I have searched out some other alternatives for anyone that can't get hold of OPI or Rimmel London which I will list below although have not tried myself:
Rimmel London - Rimmel Pro Matte Top Coat - £4.59
Nubar - Matte Finish Topcoat - £7.95
Essie - Matte About You - £8.99
Mavala - Colour Matte Top Coat - £9.50
Ciate - Mattnificent Matte Top Coat - £11
OPI - OPI Matte Top Coat - £11.50
Nails Inc - Westminster Bridge Matte Top Coat - £12
Deborah Lippmann - Flat Top Matte Maker Top Coat - £16
Let me know if you have tried any of the other matte polishes and what you thought of them!
Todays nail of the day is OPI's Gragantuan Green Grape, a creamy pastel green very similar to Essie's Mint Candy Apple.
OPI - Gargantuan Green Grape
Essie - Mint Candy Apple
Almost identical, although looking closely I would say that OPI's shade is slightly lighter with a hint more green to it, where as I would describe Essie's ever so famous shade as more of a turquoise as it has a smidge more of a blue tone to it.
OPI - Gargantuan Green Grape
For an opaque, creamy finish Gargantuan Greep Grape needs 3 thin coats as two still leaves it slightly streaky with transparent areas but as with most OPI polishes it has great staying power. I'm not sure which colour of the two I prefer though, I'm thinking that maybe Essie's Mint Candy Apple suits my skin tone a bit better although OPI's Gragantuan Green Grape I'm sure will look amazing on anyone with even a slight tan.
I recently received a request to film a video on how to create a quilted nail art look. After thinking about it I came up with three different ways to create the look.
1. The first was about the contrast of the colours, I used two different shades of pink and some striping tape to make sure I was able to get really neat lines.
2. For the second design I played about with texture, I painted my nail all black, gave it about 15 minutes so that the surface was dry and then used some flossing tape to carefully press into the polish to create a textured, quilted look.
3. Finally for the third I played about with different finishes. I used a teal for this one and finished off my nails with a matte polish. I then grabbed a long, thin nail art brush and a gloss top coat and painted on the quilted pattern.
I finished off each design with little silver balls to emphasise the quilted look.
My favourite is definitely the pink one. The striping tape makes sure that the lines stay really crisp and clean and the contrast of the colours makes it stand out a little more. Although, if you prefer either of the other two designs, remember NOT to put a top coat on as this will just completely hide all your hard work!
As ever, let me know what you think and if you try any of my designs then I would love to see a photo! :)
Todays Nail Of The Day is OPI's 'Are We There Yet?' which OPI describes as the 'perfect melon shade'. I bought this one online and it doesn't look quite as creamy as the bottle pictured on the internet but is a gorgeous colour none the less.
I would describe this polish as if a bright orange has been sheered out so that it doesn't look so full on.
The sheer-ness of it makes it a very wearable colour for everyday and I think it would suit many different skin tones, it also lasted really well and stayed on for about 5 days, which is good for me as I handle nail polish remover practically everyday!
The best way of procrastinating is definitely getting caught up on Youtube videos and quite a few of the girls that I had watched all had these gorgeous, summery, flower nail designs on which kept catching my eye. Investigating a little further I found out that they were Sally Hansens 'Spring Fever' Nail Strips.
After searching through my local Boots and Superdrug and coming out empty handed I decided Iw ould just have a go at creating my own. This is what I came up with and I'm pretty pleased with the result! :)
They were actually fairly easy to do, just quite time consuming to get the design on all 10 nails. I used a base coat of Alpine Snow by OPI and all the other colours on top were with acrylic paint making it easier to work with. And of course I filmed it to show you guys...
I would love if you gave it a go and sent me photos on Twitter or Facebook (both are 'iBeautyBoutique) it's a lot easier to re-create than it looks, plus it will save you money on buying the strips!
I feel like I've been absent from the internet for ages and am making a vow to properly get back to uploading videos on a slightly more regular schedule, starting today!
I found this video saved on my computer that I filmed absolutely ages ago but just hadnt got round to editing so today I gotten into gear and edited/voice overed (if that's even a word!) and uploaded all this afternoon!
As I said I filmed this ages ago but as the weather is starting to get warm where I am I figured it's still relevant as it is a very spring/summery design.
I love the ikat design as you can play about with the colour as much as you like, making it either very uniform or as crazy as you fancy having each nail a different colour! I decided to use three main colours that were all really summery! Along with OPI's Alpine Snow and a black nail art polish I also used Max Factors 'Pretty In Pink', Essie's 'Mint Candy Apple' and 'OMP!' by Nails Inc (although I think this colour was made as a limited edition as a freebie for a magazine).
The design is super easy to do and as ever I would love if you sent me any re-creations as it's great seeing your take on the nail art design! You can find me on all the usual places (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pintrest) all under 'iBeautyBoutique'...come say hi!
