Insta-Updates: In celebration of Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee

I don’t usually post much on weekends, but I’m making an exception for this weekend because its the Diamond Jubilee weekend! Queen Elizabeth II celebrates 60 years on the throne and I’m a bit of an Anglophile so I had to mark the occasion. Its not everyday we see a monarch reign for 60 years anymore.

I chose to mark the occasion by doing something I almost never do – my nails :P Dug around in my stash and found the colours of the Union Jack in the aptly named A-England polishes – Excalibur, Order of the Garter and Perceval.

I’d also come across a very simple tutorial for doing gradient nails during the week thanks to Nailsaurus (Its insanely easy but I’m not crazy about my results hence the quick update :P ) If you would like to know how to do gradient nails, do check it out. You might be a faster learner than I am and get a much better result :D

Excalibur is a bright metallic silver that flows on the nail like molten silver and is shiny but not glittery. I used it for the top layer. Perceval, we’ve seen before this. Insanely easy red polish to apply and is beautifully bright, but not glittery. Order of the Garter is a bright blue and the one I dislike the most of all the A-England polishes I own.

Regulars will know what a huge fan of A-England polishes I am (Merlin, Holy Grail, Tristam, Perceval, St. George and Dragon should give you a hint), but I don’t know if I got a dud bottle or if there’s something wrong with Order of the Garter. The colour is weak and thin and the formula streaky. It fails to apply as smoothly as the other holographic polishes in the line, and I need millions of layers to get the true blue to show up which is a fail by me. I almost never use it because of this despite it being quite a lovely colour :(

I’m quite pleased with discovering the gradient nail tutorial. Its an easy bit of nail art that a n00b like me can handle quite easily. If I’m ever feeling adventurous, patient and creative, I might give it another go.

So this was my little way to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and I hope there’s lots of lovely weather for all UK peeps so you can enjoy your long break :) She was our Queen once too, for 4 years anyway which makes us part of the Commonwealth family – long may she reign (even if Prince Charles doesn’t feel that way) :)

Paris B

Insta-Updates: Snippets of life is brought to you by the letter I for Instagram and P for ParisBMWS. Short updates for when I don’t have a lot to say.