Hello!
This design was inspired by some nails I saw recently on the WAH Nails Instagram feed. They always have some really funky designs going on, and although these are a bit plainer, I liked the nude paired with the black and white, and the fact that there were french tips AND half-moons. Although they're a bit bold for work, I thought I'd try them anyway! Here's the WAH version:
I used Baby Doll by Ciaté as my base shade - it's kind of a pastel peach colour and is from their Dolls House collection. It's a nightmare to apply due to it being matte finish, and is so streaky even after a second coat, but luckily a third coat evens it out. I was originally going to try a gradient with this and a few other of the dolls house shades, but because they dry so quickly it was too hard to do and I got annoyed and decided to do this design instead! As usual for freehand stuff, I used my black and white Barry M nail art pens.
Also, go and give Ciaté a like on Facebook, apparently they're giving all their followers a free polish when they get to 100,000 - a bit ambitious maybe as they're only on about 35,000 at the moment, and I dunno how they're going to give away 100,000 polishes, but still - sounds good if it happens!
Today I've got a really pretty polish to show off. This is Secret Admirer by F.U.N Lacquer. I actually borrowed it from Naileymabob, who purchased it from Rainbow Connection. She was so generous to lend it to me as she'd only just got it, and was wearing it on the day we met up - but as soon as I said how much I liked it she let me borrow it - yaaay!
This polish is sparkly and thermal. It's red when cold, and white when hot. I think I applied two coats for this - it was a few weeks ago when I actually wore it, and the weather was so cold that it hardly ever went white!
I think if I wore it again, I'd wear it over a base coat of white polish, as when it got warm, the white colour it changed to was quite see through and you could see my nails underneath! It's still a stunner though, I loved the massive difference between hot/cold and how quickly it changed.
You can see Naileymabob's post about this polish here.
Here's a variety of pics from both my camera and my phone - I've put them in order of cold (red), pics of it transitioning, and pics of it hot (white) - achieved by putting my nails under the tap!
Hello!
Today is BFF Friday with Naileymabob and this theme was decided by me. We were both to pick one Indie polish to use in a manicure. We would then add one (or two, as we decided earlier today!) accent nails that complement/match the indie polish. As usual, we don't discuss specific ideas, we just agree on the theme, then come up with a manicure each. As I write this I've no idea what Naileymabob has come up with, can't wait to see!
Earlier this week I was in Tescos, and I accidentally just bought two of the new Barry M Gellys! I totally don't need them, but they were so pretty I couldn't resist, especially at 2 for £6. I loved the pale minty green, but I have a shade practically the same that's really good (Pepperminty by Ciate) so left that one on the shelf, and picked up Rose Hip (pale pink) and Huckleberry (pale blue). I used them as the base for this manicure - in fact, I wore them on their own this morning at work, before I added the indie! They have such a lovely finish after three coats - compared to the hypergels though they're quite watery in consistency, but doesn't change the finished look!
For my BFF mani, the Indie I picked to use was Sparkler by Nail Lacquer UK. I've loved this polish ever since I bought it, but don't wear it enough! I picked it for this manicure as I thought the colours matched with the gelly (which I didn't want to take off after one day!) really well. I applied Sparkler on my thumb, middle finger and little finger over the pink gelly polish. The other two I left plain - my index finger was pink, and my ring finger was blue from my earlier manicure. To fit with the brief of adding accent nail(s) that matched the polish, I added pastel blue and pastel pink studs, to match the glitter in the polish (okay I know the glitter in the polish is actually bright pink/blue but I thought brighter studs wouldn't go with the 'pastel' look of the whole manicure!!)
Here's the outcome - to say I just decided on this a few hours ago and haven't had it planned for ages, I think it's turned out well - I really like it! I'm hoping I can wear this to work tomorrow and just hide my hands, haha.
And a few quick pics of my plainer gelly mani before I added anything, I really love these colours, and the finish! Especially the blue, which I didn't expect to love so much <3
Check out Naileymabob's BFF manicure here!
Hello!
Two lovely polishes to show off today, from new UK indie maker, Sarah Smiles. Sarah released her first collections of hand-made polish at the beginning of the month, and I've got two to show off to you today. I picked one glitter topper, and one semi-opaque glittery polish, which both turned out to be from the Music collection - there's also a Dr Who and Mario inspired collection.
The polishes came wrapped up really well, and looked so pretty! Once opened, the labels are colourful, and the little charms around the bottle really make them seem extra-special. Lots of thought has gone into not just the creation of these, but the presentation and packaging as well.
Also in the pic above is a cute little keyring that I couldn't resist purchasing - these are little glass bottles with cork stoppers, coated inside with the polish of your choice from Sarah's collection. I chose it to be coated with a polish called Everyone's Favourite Italian Plumber - I didn't buy this as a polish because I'm personally not keen on 'bar' glitters on my nails, but I loved the pink in this, and the stars and the glitter, and thought it would look perfect as a little keyring to go on my house keys. It's unusual, eye-catching and shows off my love of polish! <3
Back to the polishes - these are the ones I eventually picked:
On the left is We All Look The Same In The Dark, which is a beautiful purple sparkly base with turquoise and blue glitter pieces, and different sized stars.
On the right is Good Morning Sunshine, the glitter topper, a really pretty mix of pink, red and blue small glitter shapes.
Firstly I'm going to show you We All Look The Same.... Firstly, I just want to say how beautiful this looks in the bottle before I even started applying it! The turquoise glitter and stars really shine and catch the light, and look beautiful against the purple base. I couldn't resist a few more bottle shots...
This polish isn't totally opaque, and I didn't want to build up lots of coats of it to achieve opaqueness as I thought it might look a bit thick, so I applied this polish over a base of Prickly Pear by Barry M which is a pale purple. I added just one coat of We All Look The Same In The Dark, with a bit of placement/fishing needed to get the stars where I wanted them (which I always expect for larger glitter pieces like stars and hearts, so wasn't a problem). I then added a topcoat of Gelous, to seal in those spiky stars!
I really liked the fact that the stars varied slightly in size and colour - some were small and purple, some larger and more holo.... these ones were harder to get on the brush, but looked beautiful when I could catch them! I do think this polish would be really pretty even without the stars - I love the purple and the turquoise glitter together.
I think the key to applying this polish is to decide whether you're just going to go for the one coat over a similar shade, which shows off the stars really well, or build it up with several coats, which does start to cover up the stars, but gives the polish more depth. You can see in these pics that I went over my middle nail again with the polish to cover up a bit I'd missed, but the second coat has ended up making the polish look quite thick and the stars at the tip of my nail to become a bit lost. It just depends on your own preference, but do try to stick to the same amount of coats over all of your nails to keep it consistent - unlike me!!
Secondly (I apologise for the length/amount of pics in this post - it's getting so long and full!) is Good Morning Sunshine. I love this name! This was the one I had my eye on immediately when Sarah released her polishes. I couldn't decide what colour to use as a base for this, so I did a gradient. I used pastel shades which I thought would go really well with this polish, although I reckon it'd look quite striking over a darker shade like black as well. I used Miss Sunshine (matching name!) by Accessorize for the yellow, and Pepperminty by Ciate for the green. I then added just one coat of Good Morning Sunshine, and a topcoat of Gelous. Piiiiiiics:
I love the mix of glitters and colours in this one. It just seems to work so well! I do like polishes that are just full of small glitters - of course I love big, novelty glitters like massive circles and hearts/stars etc, but sometimes, just a load of little glitter can look so pretty and delicate. This polish is such a winner for me! <3
So if you want to browse Sarah's shop, or follow her on other social media, here are all the details - she's very nice and friendly so add her! Also, she's in the process of running giveaways depending on numbers of followers - all the more reason to add her :-)
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/SarahSmilesxxx
https://twitter.com/sarahsmilesxxx
https://www.facebook.com/sarahsmilesxx
http://instagram.com/sarahsmilesxxx
Quick updated manicure for today. My Models Own hypergel (Naked Glow) was lasting really well, even after two days at work. One of my tartan accent nails had got a bit chipped so I decided to remove these two, and just paint them with Naked Glow. I then doodled on some lace-look tips on all my nails with my white Barry M nail art pen. A nice, subtle look for work!
I was hoping for some nail mail today but none came - hopefully tomorrow I will have some new pretties to show off!
Hello!
My nails today were inspired by a pink, tartan scarf my boyfriend bought for me during our weekend away in Inverness. I'm rubbish at creating patterns that I can't use my black and white nail art pens for - I just can't get the hang of using brushes for intricate stuff. So I decided to use the edge of a make-up sponge to 'print' on the lines in the design. It came up a bit messier than I had wanted, but maybe that gives it a more 'fabric' kind of look?!
I used Naked Glow hypergel by Models Own as the base, then used pink (Cerise Shine, Models Own), green (Key Lime, Barry M) and yellow (Summer LE, Barry M) for the design, then topcoated with Poshe topcoat.
First I tried the design on all my fingers (only did one hand!) but thought it looked a bit much, especially as I'm back at work today, so decided I'd just keep the two nails that I thought had turned out best as accent nails, and re-do the others just with Naked Glow. Here's a quick snap from my phone of all 5 nails done:
And then some more of the finished mani that I'm going to wear to work:
Hello!
Quick manicure to show you today. Unfortunately my Ciate Dolls House polishes seemed to chip really quickly so even though I loved that manicure, I took it off today and replaced it with this.
I used one of my new Kiko polishes, number 298. This is a sheer, shimmery mint green kind of colour - so pretty! I layered two coats of this over two coats of Pepperminty by Ciate - the two colours matched really well!
I then added some studs, in different shapes and colours, to spice things up a bit! I liked the clean look of this manicure, and I really do like this Kiko shade - really nice for spring, although I think too sheer to wear alone, I reckon I will always use it layered over a more opaque polish.
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