Hello!
In my last mani, I used Princess Sabra by A England and using it really made me remember how much I love A England's polishes - they apply so beautifully and smoothly. While waiting for that mani to dry, I had a little look on their website and saw that Jane Eyre, a beautiful purple/black that I've admired before (partly just due to the name <3 ) was only £6 as it's 'gem of the month' I had to treat myself. Free postage too!
It came really quickly, and I was dying to use it. I didn't have any really inspired ideas for a specific manicure, but eventually decided to pair it with my silver holo polish by Seventeen (Boots) to come up with something pretty. I started off with a base of the silver, two coats:
I then waited for the silver to be fully dry. Later on I came back to the mani, and used straight and chevron nail vinyls (like stickers) that I got from She Sells Seashells. I applied them to the nail using tweezers, then painted over the exposed part of the nail (except from the triangle at the bottom) using Jane Eyre. I quickly removed the vinyls and discarded them. Here's a few quick photos from the process, it's pretty simple but fiddly, and sometimes a bit awkward to get the vinyl in exactly the right position you want, but worth it for the outcome!
I really like how these look, hopefully I will get a better pic in the daylight tomorrow because I don't feel like these photos have shown how rich and pretty this purpley polish is! Here's one more for now:
Hello!
Quick post today to show you my most recent nails. I got a bottle of Raspberry Daiquiri by Freckles Polish for Christmas in a Secret Santa swap I took part in, and I love it! I'd actually admired this polish for ages so my person chose really well for me. I was eager to use it in a manicure, and was further encouraged by a nail art competition that Julieann from Freckles Polish is running at the moment.
After a lot of thought on what I wanted to create, I came up with this design. I knew I wanted to pair Raspberry Daiquiri with another holographic polish, and I immediately thought of Princess Sabra, a lovely dull gold by a-england. I decided to do some roses, inspired by this manicure I did last April, which I recently picked as one of my favourites from the year. I paired this with some simple gold studs. I really like the result!!
Hello!
Some more festive nails. I started these with no real idea of what I wanted them to finally look like, but I really like the outcome!
I started off with a gradient using three scattered holo polishes - Princess Sabra (gold) and Rose Bower (pink) by a england, and Amazon Rainforest by Magic Goose polish. These blended really well and created a super colourful gradient that I loved!
To make these a bit more festive, I added a snowflake design using the Barry M black nail art pen!
Hello!
Another pretty to show today. This is the second of the two polishes I bought from UK Indie brand, Magic Goose. The first one I bought was a beautiful deep green holographic polish that I wore and reviewed here. The second polish I chose is named I Wished For A Castle, which I think is a beautiful name. This polish is a delicate grey holo, with the addition of little pastel pink and blue glitter pieces, medium and small. It's beautiful!
I first applied three coats of this polish, but it looked a little chunky and topcoat didn't smooth it out as much as I wanted - I like a smooth finish, so I decided to try something else. So for this manicure I applied two coats of Pillow Fight by Ciate, which is a nice medium grey shade. I then applied one coat of I Wished for a Castle over the top. I finished off with topcoat, and this gave a way better finish for me.
This polish is soooo nice. What I especially like is that I can wear it for work, because from a distance it looks quite neutral, but close up there's the stunning holo, and the delicate glitters too. I really love the combination, it's genius. Sorry I didn't get a photo in the sunlight, it only came out for a few minutes today and I was too busy at work to snap a pic! Here's some I took inside, all with flash, apart from the last one which was without, and hasn't captured the holo but I included it because it shows how many glitter pieces are in there.
Hello!
This isn't the most original manicure today, but I think it works quite well. I was inspired by some old pinstripe nails I did a while back. I've recently created a Facebook page to showcase my nails and go alongside my blog, and I enjoyed looking through my old nail art photos as I uploaded them all. I thought that this pinstripe one looked really effective, while still being quite simple and easy to create.
I already had my nails painted with Amazon Rainforest by Magic Goose (the green) and as I have a few days off I decided to liven them up a bit with some nail art. I freehanded a stripe down the middle of each nail using another rich holographic polish - Rose Bower by a-england. I then carefully outlined each stripe using my black Barry M nail art pen (which is definitely on it's way out - I need a new one!). Still not satisfied, I then added some tiny gold studs at the base of each stripe. I finished off with a topcoat of Poshe, giving a lovely shiny finish!
If you want to like my Facebook page, it's here :-D
Hello. Beautiful polish to show off today! This is Amazon Rainforest by Magic Goose, which is another UK Indie brand. Amazon Rainforest is a beautiful dark green/teal/turquoise holo, and I looooove it!
I applied this over my teal Kiko polish, which is always a winner - you can see it on its own here. I actually wore the Kiko on it's own for work today because I was in a rush and just picked something I knew needed few coats and would apply nicely. When I got home tonight, I picked up Amazon Rainforest to try over the top. I used two coats in these pics. Hopefully I can get a photo in sunlight tomorrow because I just love the colour of this holo!
Also, I've not applied a topcoat in these pics as this polish is already super-shiny! I've got one more Magic Goose polish to try out, can't wait to see how it looks, very impressed with this one :-)
Also, I just created a facebook page for my blog. The address is https://www.facebook.com/mymintnails if you fancy a 'like'!
Hello!
Today's nails were inspired by AJ of Nail Lacquer UK. She posted a beautiful gradient last week using holographic polishes. It looked so stunning, and the colours blended flawlessly! I wanted to do something similar, but the only two holo polishes I have are very different in colour. Still, I gave it a try, and just tried to blend the two colours with lots of sponge-dabbing!
The two polishes I used in this manicure were Seventeen's silver holo polish, and Rose Bower by a-england. I definitely want more a-england polishes because this one is so rich and beautiful!
I began by painting my nails with two coats of the silver. I then layered up a make-up sponge with a strip of silver and a strip of pink. I dabbed it onto my nail, dabbing higher and lower to create the gradient(ish!)
It doesn't blend totally seamlessly, which I expected because of the colours being so different. However, I did get some sort of gradient going on, some nails better than others. Also, I can't decide whether it looks like the ends of my fingernails are covered in blood or something?! However, I still like it, I think!
Second post of the day! Yesterday I was reading some blogs, and saw quite a few mentions of a-england. I've been aware of this brand for some time but never really properly looked into it. However I had a good browse of their beautiful website, and eventually decided to treat myself to the one that stood out the most. I was very impressed that postage was free and I think that's what swayed me to eventually buy one (as I don't usually like just buying one polish and paying lots of postage, so I usually buy a couple to make it worth it...but couldn't afford to do that this time!)
The one I picked is called Rose Bower and is a beautiful, rich dark pink/red with a holographic shimmer. I just fell in love with the colour, it looks so vibrant! Having ordered it yesterday morning, I was amazed to find it on my doormat today! And had to immediately try it out because it looked sooo stunning in the bottle.
And on the nail! Looooook:
<3 <3 <3 OMG I have no words <3
Hello! Some more halloween(ish) nail art today. This beautiful polish is a holo I bought the other week from Born Pretty along with some other bits and pieces - it was really cheap (can't remember the exact price) and looked beautiful so I thought I'd go for it, and I wasn't disappointed! I know it's not really a halloween colour, but I do love pink.
I first applied three coats of this on bare nails, and under bright light it looked like this:
Fab, right? Look at all those colours! But you can still see my nail-line underneath. So I then had a play around, my first idea was to add an accent nail with silver holo, but I somehow ended up painting them all with the silver, then again with the pink, which solved the problem of the visible nail line as the silver I have (by Seventeen at Boots) is less sheer. I think I could have used any colour underneath to make sure it wasn't see-through, but there we go.
Before I added the pink on the top of the silver, I doodled some halloween designs on two of my fingers with the Barry M nail art pen. I then added the pink to make the designs shimmery. Soooo pretty!
As I mentioned, this polish is available from Born Pretty for a couple of quid and there were a few different colours to choose from!
