Shiny New Things! Part One

Hi lovely readers, I'm sorry it has taken me longer than anticipated to do this post for you, it was difficult to motivate myself to sort through and crop all my photos! There are lots :) here they are now though which is the main thing!

Today's post is to show you all the new nail polishes I couldn't resist buying last friday. I went into The Original Factory Shop, and found a load of Essie polishes at £3, as well as some other brands that I wanted to try at crazy low prices, so I ended up spending £24 and walking away with 11 new polishes! I was only looking for a white! Well worth it though :)

The first polishes I want to show you are a couple of Sally Hansen Diamond Strength polishes (only £1 each!)

The pink colour is Pink Promise 06, and the pearly colour is 17 Platinum. I tried them out by themselves, over white, and over black nail polish, and here are the results, firstly we have Pink Promise -

It is 2 coats by itself on my index finger, and one coat over one coat of white polish on my middle finger. It went on easily and is a really pretty sparkly pale pink :) not a colour I would usually choose to wear by itself but I thought it might look nice over other colours, as it does have a very fine glittery finish. Here it is over black nail polish -

The pretty glitter is more obvious over a darker colour :) Next we have the Platinum both by itself and over white -

The ring finger is one coat by itself, and the little finger has one coat over white. Excuse the messy cuticles, I was just experimenting with what the colours looked like! Here is how the platinum looked over black -

As you can see, it does have some quite heavy pink tones in its finish. I'm not sure how much I like this polish, I didn't think it would be quite so opaque, I had hoped that I may be able to use it as a pearlescent topcoat, but it would just take over the whole look. I'll think of something I'm sure!

The white used above was also a new one, by a brand I haven't used before, NYC -

I bought NYC Pinstripe White 132, and a fast dry top coat which is called Grand Central Station 202, and I have to say I am so impressed with both of these since the brand is a relatively cheap one anyway, and these were even cheaper at £1 a bottle. The white has a smooth, streak free finish in 2 coats, and I have since used it successfully for stamping and with striping tape. The top coat does just what it's meant to, providing a smooth glossy finish.

Another brand that is new to me is w7, I bought their Black 28, as one of my blacks is on its way out, and one of my favourite bloggers uses w7 polishes quite a bit in her designs, so I figured it must be good! This one was £2 for a 15ml bottle -

Again, I am very impressed with this polish, it gives a good finish with just one coat, is easy to apply, and as with the NYC white, I have successfully used it for stamping and with striping tape, so all good :) It may have just become my go to black since my Rimmel Black Cab is nearly gone!

I am starting to realise what an epic long post this would be if I included the 6 Essie polishes I bought as well, so I shall save those for next time, in part 2 :) I also have some nail art to show you soon, as well as even more shiny new goodies, yey!

Blog you soon, S x

Stamping Attempt and New Stuff!

Hi all, just a brief post for now, I have so many photos to crop and show you all, but not tonight as I am too tired! I found a few bargains today that I simply could not resist, so in the near future there will be a post showing you my shiny new nail polishes! And I mean shiny :)

For now though, I will show you the alteration I made to my gradient from last time, mainly just to practice my stamping and see what the results were like, but it turned out quite nice so I kept it for a day anyway. As I said when I first posted this gradient, I did feel like it needed something more, even though it was good by itself. As it was my first attempt at a gradient the colours didn't flow quite as smoothly together as I'd have liked, so I tried to think of something that would fix that.

I decided to stamp an all over nail design in a silver colour - I chose silver as it would give a subtle look over the colours I was wearing. The idea was mainly to complete the design rather than add a new design and I think it worked quite well at this. It was a really difficult look to capture in a photo, but hopefully you can see that the pattern distracts from the slight flaws in my gradient, without taking over the whole look. Here is how it turned out -

Again, sorry about the rubbish photos, I really need to find myself a photographer! All in all I really liked how this turned out, the silver was a very subtle look, but I think it did work to make the design feel more complete :) The silver I used was Constance Carroll Diamond Gloss in 248 Diamond. To see how I achieved the original gradient and the colours I used, the original post is here

Blog you soon, to show you all my exciting new goodies :)

Mwah, S x

First Gradient Nails

I have been meaning to try gradient nails for a while now. I have seen that there are loads of different techniques people use to do gradient nails, but I tend to prefer the sponged look. Here is what I used-

From left to right -
Collection 2000 Frosted Nail Polish in 297
Collection 2000 Frosted Nail Polish in 183
No7 Stay Perfect in Vivid Violet
Constance Carroll Top Coat
Acetone, for cleaning the edges
Normal household sponge.

To achieve my gradient look, I started off by applying 1 coat of the Collection 2000 in 297, and allowing to dry. I then painted stripes of each of the colours of my gradient onto the end of my piece of sponge, like this -

And just dabbed the gradient on :) I used just my darkest colour on the other end of the sponge, just to add a bit more definition to the very tips of my nails. I finished off with a top coat, cleaned up the edges with my acetone, and here is the finished result -

For a first attempt I'm really happy with how these turned out. I found it quite quick and easy to do, I do feel that maybe it needs something more though, some glitter or stamping perhaps. The lighting isn't brilliant for showing the frosted polishes at their best unfortunately, the middle colour is more noticeable than the pictures show :)

Hope you like them, S x

My Valentines Day Mani

I know, I feel terrible that it has been a month since I last posted, but being in the process of moving, it has just not been practical. My nail things were amongst the first  to get moved to Devon, and since I have been spending most of my time in Bristol sorting out the flat, my nails have been naked for a long time! It has probably been good for them, they were starting to get a faint yellow tinge to them (from my cheap base coat I assume) which has since completely disappeared luckily.

Anyway, all of my nail things have been successfully unpacked, tidied and put away in a somewhat organized fashion, so once again, I have pretty nails!  Of course I had to choose a valentines themed manicure today :) sadly, I am not with my valentine today, but at least I have pretty nails :) and here they are -

The base colour is Revlon in Timeless No 310. The hearts are drawn on using dotting tools, and a 17 Fast Finish nail polish in Knockout Red. I finished this manicure with my No7 Stay Perfect top coat.

I am not 100% happy with how these turned out, I should have learned by now the doing nail art with fast drying nail polish is a big challenge! It was just the colour that I thought would go best with the base colour, and I still think that the colour combination is great. The hearts went a little streaky when I added the top coat too, which is also a mistake that can easily be avoided with a little more patience! Overall though, these are cute, and from a distance I don't notice the little mistakes so I'll keep them for a while :)

Hopefully my blog will be a bit more active soon, I am still not quite done moving, and will be going back to Bristol in the next couple of days to clean the flat, but after the 20th I should be back to doing regular posts again :)

Wishing everyone a beautiful valentines day, with lots of love, S x

Corset Mani

My friend told me that I should try out this nail art style last night, and I am very pleased I listened to her as I love the results. It was I style I had been meaning to try out for a while, my concerns were that a) a lot of the pictures I've seen look like little shoes rather than little corsets - being a corset wearer myself this would have bugged me, and b) finding a flesh colour nail varnish opaque enough to cover up my free edge.

So, I worked out a plan, looking back at my old mani's, I decided that Revlon's Sheer Cotton was probably the closest I had to an opaque (in 3 layers) vaguely flesh colour nail polish. I also decided that slightly curved lines for the edges of the corset looked more realistic, and less shoe like, giving the impression of a waist, and this was what I was hoping to achieve.

For this design I used -
Revlon Top Speed nail polish in 010 Sher Cotton
Models Own nail art pen in Black (a christmas freebie)
Rimmel Lycra Pro in Matte Finish Matifying Top Coat
Constance Carroll Diamond Gloss in 248 Diamond

I started by painting on 3 layers of the Sheer Cotton, adding the matte top coat, and waiting for it to dry. I then drew on little black tips, and the corset shape on my ring fingers and thumbs, using the pen side of the Models Own nail art pen. I then used a small dotting tool to add silver dots along the edges of the black tips, and on the corset nails to show the holes that the corset ribbon goes through. Finally I drew on the corset ribbons using the brush side of the Models Own nail art brush. Here is the finished product -

I love this mani, I just hope it lasts! as I wanted the base colour matte, and the design to be glossy, I couldn't top coat the whole design. Oh well! I'll enjoy it while it lasts :)

Blog you soon, S x

First Fishtail Nails

I created this look by following this tutorial from Chalkboard Nails. I really like this look, and it was very easy to create. I also tried out wrapping my tips with my top coat, and 5 days later my mani is still perfect apart from a tiny chip on my right index finger. Not bad considering all the packing and laundry I have been doing lately!

Here is what I used for this look -
Base Coat and Hardener by Constance Carroll
Constance Carroll Diamond Gloss in 248 Diamond
Constance Carroll Diamond Gloss in 365 Pastel Green (though it is clearly blue...)
No7 Stay Perfect in Betty Blues no 280
No7 Stay Perfect Top Coat

And here is how it turned out -

Not bad for a first attempt! I am really pleased with the finished look here, I think the colours compliment each other well, and has a bit of shiny-ness too :) I am looking forward to trying this design out with different colour combo's.

Much love, S x

Wintery Mani

This mani is a prime example of one that didn't go quite according to plan. I did end up quite liking the finished effect though, so I wore it for a couple of days anyway :) I did this mani whilst I was working at Boots, so I had to have something subtle enough for work, which this was.

I started off with 3 coats of Revlon Top Speed Nail Polish in Sheer Cotton. I then decided that I hadn't done any stamping for ages, so stamped on some super subtle white snowflakes. When I say super subtle - you can barely see them, the base colour was too pale for white to really show up. The white polish that I used was just a generic french manicure polish. I then Mattified the whole lot, with Rimmel Matte Finish topcoat, which made the snowflakes just slightly more visible.

I really liked the effect of the matte top coat over the Sheer Cotton, but the snowflakes were so subtle that they didn't add much to the mani. Still gave me a good opportunity to practice my stamping though :) Here is the finished design -

I do love the base colour, especially with the Matte top coat, but I did find the Revlon polish just a little annoying to work with again. I just find them slightly tacky (it is a brand new bottle) and difficult to get a smooth finish without doing so many layers it takes a lifetime to dry. I wouldn't mind this from a cheap polish, but a £7 a bottle I'm not hugely impressed. Saying that though, both of the Revlon glitters I have a brilliant.

Anyway, until next time, S x