Nails of the week: red and black

It is no secret that I LOVE red and black, so I decided to, yet again, use that on my nails.

I used two coats of the red OPI The spy who loved me, reviewed here in the past, and two coats of Brazilian brand Risqué’s Viúva Negra (black widow), a lovely black jelly base with fine red glitter and went for a chevron design, alternating the colour on my ring finger to create an accent nail.

Application was great for the OPI and ok for the Risqué one – it is quite sheer, so it was hard to make the chevrons in one coat, had to use two, which made them a little blobby. I used normal sticky tape for the chevrons, like last time, with black and gold. Durability was good, 6 days, and then a chip.

Overall, I was pleased with the mani; it was slightly untidy, the chevrons could’ve been sharper – and so could my pictures – apologies, as the last month was crazy and I forgot to photograph properly!

Rating:

Nails of the week – blues and purples

It had been quite sometime since I painted each nail one different colour, and I was certainly in the mood for this week.

I decided to go for blues and purples – I love purples on my nails, and one of the blues I used is one of my favourite nail colours ever!

I used Nails Inc Oxford (light blue), Nails Inc Cambridge (light lilac), Kiko 336 (royal blue), H&M Pale violet (purple) and Nails Inc Belgrave Place (darkest blue) and added the super pretty Nails Inc topcoat Electric Lane (another obsession of mine – so versatile and so pretty, a great investment , finishing it off with a cute star nail tattoo!

Really love the look! Application was smooth and easy, and durability is ace – 8 days, no chips.

Rating:

Nails of the week: nude and red

This week I went again with a combination I love: discreet nude and vibrant red.

Originally, I wanted to do a nude half moon manicure , with red on top, but that didn’t go that well for me; somehow the half moons were too big, looking more like full moons and I wasn’t happy with it. At all.

So I got my dotting tools out and added some red dots… it looked ok but still not great, so I added some nude dots in between and ended up with this kind of dripping mani. I didn’t like it a lot, but it grew on me; the fact it is impeccable after 8 days helped me like it more.

So I started painting the whole nail with the Nails Inc nude Basil street and the applied Colorama’s 40 Graus over it, leaving the (ginormous) moon. Using the dotting tool, I added red dots close to the half moon line and then added the nude ones, intercalated.

Had I thought I was going to end up with a dripping mani, I would’ve Kenmore precise – I just went adding dots randomly… It didn’t end up too well, but I don’t hate it!

Rating:

Nails of the week – pink gradient

Oh, how I love a good gradient. Relatively simple to do (it just requires a bit of patience!), gradients deliver great “value for money”. It is pretty, different and can be done with the cheapest, plainer nail polishes around. Love it.

I am totally in love with this weeks mani – it is girly and sparkly, totally gorgeous (even if I say so myself!)

I used a light pink from Kiko, number 376 candy pink, and a dark pink from Revlon, sweet tart. As usual for my gradient, I painted all nails plain white (Natural Collection nail tip whitener) and sponged the pinks after it was dry.

To finish it off, I applied one coat of the super gorgeous electric lane from Nails Inc, which gave it sparkles and an extra dimension with its holographic goodness.

Application was a bit long. I did the white base, let it dry for most of the day and sponged in the afternoon on a Sunday, it took three rounds of sponging. All together, counting base coats and top coats, I have eight (yes, you read it right!) EIGHT coats of nail polish on! However, durability is ace: I’m on the 8th day, no chips! What annoyed me this time is that there was an awful lot of excess polish under my nails and that was a pain to remove… Having said that, it was well worth it!

You will certainly see more gradients coming soon… watch this space!

Rating:

Nails of the week – antique gold

Antique gold. Well, not quite. I called it like that because I cannot think what colour this is. Weird.

This Gosh Galaxy promised a lot from the bottle – a sort of antique gold base with some colour shifting between blues and pinks. However, it didn’t delivery upon application.

The colour is intriguing; you can spot the antique gold base and the multicoloured flecks. If you look really carefully, in some lighting, there is a very subtle colour shifting. Sadly, not enough to wow me.

I added a pretty star from Nail Art UK, but not even that could save this mani. A waste of two stars, really…

Polish application was fiddly, one coat is very sheer, I have three on. it doesn’t dry too quickly, so the next coat was a bit gloopy. It seemed to get quite thick quickly. Durability is ok.

Overall, the colour is pretty; I like the base colour, I like the flecks but the fact it was beautifully colour-shifting in the bottle really let me down.

As I wasn’t super happy with it, I slapped Barry M croc black effect on it after a couple days, leaving only the star finger as it was, creating an accent nail, which made the mani more interesting. The crocodile skin effect is cute, very delicate and the texture is not too bad. I could still see some gleaming flecks from galaxy through it. But I encountered the same problem with this as I found with crackle topcoats: the durability is appalling – it flakes away very quickly. Plus, as I applied a couple days after I had my nails done, it wasn’t the prettiest finish, you can see a few untidy bits around the cuticle, it was really hard to clean the excess!

Rating:

Nails of the week – colour shifting glitter flakes

Oh, I love this. Pretty pretty pretty! You all know how much I love a glitter flake nail polish. Really. I cannot have enough of them!

This time I tried Specialittá Hits Mundo das Danças in Cha Cha Cha, a clear base laden with beautiful colour shifting glitter flakes that on a dark base, will change from a fiery reddish-orange through gold to forest green. AMAZING!!!

I used two coats of Barry M in Black and applied only one coat of the flakie. The quality is great, it is so saturated with flakes that one effortless coat will create a fantastic effect, covering the black very well!

Application was very easy and durability is also great. I am seriously in love!

Rating:

Nails of the week: nude and red

Yes, you read it right. I have nude on my nails at the moment. Yes, I also thought this day would never come… but I had a nail emergency: I came back from holidays, was going out the day after, had to be at work and had no time to sort out my nails. The previous mani was past its prime and I had to take it off… so came up with a quick fix: wear a base coat and do a red french manicure. But I loved it so much that I decided to do it properly, and they ended up being my new years’ eve manicure!

So I used Nails Inc Basil Street, a lovely nude that applies beautifully – no streaks and a solid coverage with two coats. Then I applied Colorama’s Tapete Vermelho on the tips to create the French manicure.

I am in love with this look – it is simple and so effortlessly elegant… a classic with a very little twist.

Durability has been great, seven full days – I did have a breakage, now both my thumbs are far from perfect (one is awful, hence being missed from the photos).

What do you think? I love French manis, really do… planning my next one already!

Rating:

My last minute spot at the BBloggersXmas event

I found out about this event very last minute, thanks to Grace from All that slap – and I am so glad they had a little place available for me.

This networking event took place really close to my home, at the Reebok bar in Canary Wharf and it was beautifully organised by Lola, from Lola Star Hearts and Victoria, from Victoria’s Beauty and Fashion Review blogs.

Lot of talk about it was going on Twitter (I am still not quite sure how I completely missed it!). Everyone was excited and thinking about outfits! I hadn’t thought about that yet, and panicked a little bit, as I was sure everyone was going to look lovely, so I settled for American Apparel wet(ish) leggings, a burgundy leather peplum from H&M, Louboutin black courts, a multicoloured necklace also from H&M, grey/black smokey eyes and burgundy lipstick (MAC’s Diva).

Around 65 bloggers, I hear, attended the event – an amazing turnout. There were some brands demo-ing their products, such as Slendertone, Aromatherapy Associates, Diva hair styling products, Bad Apple polishes, Bronze Ambition and Twisted Sista hair products. There was a quiz and twitter prize draws – lucky me here got a glass nail file with Swarosvki crystals!

There were cakes pops, Pop Chips (yum yum yum!) and lots of lovely bloggers to meet and chat away! The atmosphere was great! I find that people say bloggers are not very friendly to other bloggers, but I am not sure where people get this from – every event I attended, everyone I met was super lovely and friendly and I always have a great time!

Thank you very much Lola and Victoria, it was an awesome event, really well organised and a goodie bag to really die for – and early Christmas treat (it was like opening my stocking in the morning) and which will generate plenty of reviews!!!

Nail polish storage solution

I finally got round to putting all my nail polishes, tools and accessories in one place. My boyfriend got me this box from Argos – a truly bargain buy!

It is really great to have everything in one place I can move around. The box, however, is quite heavy when loaded. The box is of alright quality and all the movements are smooth.

Although I manage to fit everything I have… sadly, although it is a new solution, I am already running out of space!!!

Crazy!

What about you? Where do you store you nail polishes?

Nails of the week – green and purple glitter

click to enlarge

This week I am mourning. For the second time this year I broke a nail. I know, amazing all time record for me; my nails used to flake a lot, thus splitting and breakages were a constant. Somehow, the first six months of this year were great for my talons -not even a single breakage. Second half, not as great – twice, by the “hands” of a spin bike.

Anyway…. I wasn’t so inspired, so went for a “one colour will fix it” kinda mani. I chose Specialittá Hits Phenomena Moonbow, an amazing colour shifting glitter – its goes from green into blues to purple into a warmer fuchsia.

Application was a nightmare. Sadly, this polish has a clear base and it is not super saturated with glitter. I applied Collection 2000’s Bongo Beats (which matched the green shade of glitter) as a base and had to apply, and I kid you not, around six – yes, you heard it – SIX coats of the glitter. It was so difficult to work with, and to make things worse, it is not the quickest drying polish in the world, so there was plenty of gloopiness on the nail as the coats piled up. It looks pretty, got lots of compliments, the colour shifting range is AMAZINGLY STUNNING but seriously, when I finished applying, I was exhausted!

Durability, on the other hand, is great. As expected, it was awful to take off (yes, SIX coats of glitter). I was thinking about buying more of the collection, as the colours are undeniably exquisite but I don’t think I will – I just cannot bring myself to do it again. Gorgeous, but just a bit too much hard work for me.