Freehand Frenchie

One simple thing I've never been good at is French manicures. I just cannot get the tips right and it drives me crazy. So when I bought Konad's M19 plate it was perfect for me. However I decided to give a freehand French manicure a go and I didn't do too bad this time!

I applied Rimmel base, then used Allura white for the tips, Allura French pink over my whole nail and then topped it off with Allura top coat. The tips are still a bit wobbly and nowhere near perfect but they were acceptable!

The only problem I had with the Allura polishes is that they went kind of matte and they felt strange to the touch. Kind of soft, if that makes sense?

Anyway, thanks for reading!

Chunky Holo Purple

I came home to a delivery of six new Kleancolor beauties and I am so excited to show them to you guys!

The first one I tried was Chunky Holo Purple and it is absolutely marvelous.

I applied Rimmel base, one coat of a purple creme from Flormar (shade no N009), one coat of Chunky Holo Purple and 2true top coat. I probably could have done with another coat of the holo but it was still pretty with the amount I had on.

The holo consists of tiny circular holographic glitters in a sheer purple jelly base. The holo throws off gold, red, purple, blue, green and pink depending on the light. It was extremely hard to photograph! The only downside would be the drying time. I am extremely impatient between coats so I ended up with bubbling plus indentations after I had finished my nails because they still took a while to dry.

But trust me, in person it was fabulous!

Thanks for reading!

Sexy Gradient

These gradients are becoming a bit of a habit!

This time I decided to do the gradient as an accent nail instead of my whole hand.

I started off with Rimmel base on all my nails. I then applied one coat of Tiger's Shade 57 which is a brilliant black creme (and its a one coater, perfection!) to all my nails bar my accent ones. I applied three coats of Allura's white polish to my accent nails.

To create the gradient I painted the white, OPI's Pedal Faster Suzi! (a pale pink full of silver micro glitter) and OPI's Kiss Me On My Tulips (a hot pink creme) onto a sponge in that order and applied it to my accent nails. I then added a coat of Sexy (a beautiful glitter that changes from gold to green depending on the lighting) from the B and M set I bought a while back. I finished off with 2true top coat.

This gradient worked even better than the previous ones I thought, possibly because I used three colours which gave it a more gradual change. Although it might just be practice that's helping me to improve.

Thanks for reading!

Holo French Manicure

I have another holographic to show you today!

This one I bought a while back on a trip to Livingston and the Bodycare shop. It was only £1.99 so I didn't have high hopes, but I thought it would be worth a try.

On a side note, a Bodycare shop opened up in my city a few weeks ago and I bought some other Technic polishes. One of them is completely fine but the other one smells like really strong sewage, I'm not even joking! I have no idea if its the formula for that colour or if there is something wrong with my bottle but its terrible! I'm really tempted to take it back to the shop just to see the shop assistants face when they smell it! Haha, safe to say I wont be using that polish!

Anyway, onto my nails.

Without top coat

Without top coat

Without top coat

I applied Rimmel base and two coats of Technic's nameless holographic. I was pleasantly surprised! The holographic is really quite visible, even indoors. Definitely better than what I was expecting! The formula is quite thick as well, so two coats was all I needed. My Catherine Arley holo either has to be layered over silver polish or you need quite a few coats for full coverage.

With stamping and top coat

With stamping and top coat

 

I then decided to add a little stamping. I used Konad plate M19 and Konad black Special  Polish to create a French tip design and added a Rimmel top coat. This was my first time using this plate and I had heard that it is one of the hardest plates to use due to positioning and ensuring there is enough polish filling the design. I didn't find it that much of a problem, and I think my positioning was alright for a first try.

Another plus with this polish is that a top coat didn't ruin the holographic at all! And I know how much of a problem that is with more expensive holos. The only problem is getting a good photo of the holo-y goodness! So all in all I'm pretty impressed with my little bargain.

Thanks for reading!

Naughty Gradient

I decided to try another gradient and the technique held up again! I was obviously just doing it wrong before, but I have mastered it now, so all is right with the world.

This mani has a very summer holiday feel to it. I kinda wish I had done my nails like this for when I went away so I could actually enjoy them in summery weather instead of the hail stones and thunder and lightning we are having here...

Anyway...

Before top coat

I applied Rimmel base, two coats of Naughty from the B and M Store which is a very bright pink jelly with a matte finish (I don't know how that works, every jelly I've come across before was super shiny). This is from the same set as Glam which wasn't even properly dry after 24 hours (you could still mark it by pressing a nail into it). This time I applied very thin coats and waited longer between them and it dried perfectly! I was so happy with this. I then used the sponge method of applying both Naughty and 2true Shade No. 25 (a beautiful orange shimmer) to my nails.

 With top coat

With top coat

 I then finished it off with a coat of Espirit's Clear Glow with is a very subtle silver microglitter top coat. You can barely see the top coat in the pictures but it gives the mani a pretty sparkle in a certain light.

I'm tempted to add a white stamped hibiscus flower just to amp up the summery feel even more so if I do end up doing that I'll upload a few pictures.

Thanks for reading!

Ikat/Aztec Nails

In my last post I talked about using Jen's tutorials in the future. I never meant I would use them for my next manicure but I was watching her videos and I was inspired!

I decided to try her Ikat Print Nails Tutorial with a few changes to the colours used.

I do have all the colours she suggested but I decided to change the centre colour for a red (although it is quite a corally red).

First I applied a Rimmel base and two coats of  Golden Rose's shade 88, which is a lovely light blue jelly. I then followed her instructions with half diamond shapes using a white striper from Pink Tease. I then added a blob of red in the middle of the diamond shapes using OPI's Red Lights Ahead…Where? (which I am in LOVE with). I then used a black striper from Pink Tease for the outlines and blobs in the middle. I finished it off with NYC's Grand Central Station quick dry top coat.

I love this manicure. I can't stop staring at my nails and I keep being asked if I have nail stickers on. I'll take that as a compliment! 

I definitely recommend Jen's tutorials, they are a lot of fun and very simple, none of that complicated stuff that you KNOW will look like a two year old has done it when you attempt it (only me?).

Thanks for reading!
 

Bronze Rage Gradient

I decided that I needed some work on my gradients.  My previous attempt here went pretty well but before that I had tried one that didn't involve glitter and it was a bit of a disaster so I never even bothered to post it.

I decided to watch a different YouTube video to the one I had used before, thinking that maybe a different technique was what I needed. And I was right. I used this YouTube tutorial and Jen's technique worked a treat!

Before I had only put one colour on the sponge and had sponged layers of colour onto my nail. While this worked with glitter it was a lot less effective with regular polish. The technique of painting both colours onto the sponge worked a lot better as the colours merged better on the sponge as I was dabbing it onto my nail.

Here are the results!

I applied Rimmel base, two coats of Maybelline MNY in 445 and 2true top coat (I used top coat as I was originally planning on stamping my nails until this idea came to me). I then painted Bronze Rage by Models Own and Maybelline's 445 onto a small makeup sponge and sponged it onto my nails. I topped it off with another coat of 2true top coat.

I have seen 445 described as a shimmer but I would definitely say it was a microglitter with a lot of pale gold microglitter and a little silver and bronze too, which gives it a more textured look on the nails. Bronze Rage is a bronze metallic that I absolutely love, one of my favourite polishes.


I am so pleased with the results! I will definitely be using Jen's nail art tutorials again as she made it so easy to follow and explained everything really well.

Thanks for reading!