Nails of the week, Christmas edition: red, gold and… Rudolph!

red, gold and reindeer nails - somanylovelythings

Yes, I am floating around in Christmas spirit (better late than never, no?).

I am not usually a fan of little animals, flowers and drawings in general on my nails but what the hell? It is Christmas after all. So here they are – my super festive Christmas nails!

It has red, gold and a reindeer! Yes, Rudolph is my special guest!

For the red and gold gradient I used the sponging technique with the beautiful The Spy who Loved Me and Golden Eye, both from OPI’s James Bond collection. It was quite a hard gradient to put together, as the gold is not quite glitter – it is like a foiled effect, so a few layers were needed!

red, gold and reindeer nails - somanylovelythings

I drew the reindeer’s head with the polish brush. I used a deep metallic brown which is the darkest colour from Andrea Fulerton’s duo polish Petrol in Water. Then added the eyes using a dotting tool and Collection Nail Tip Whitener white polish. Used The Spy Who Loved Me red for the nose  (with a larger dotting tool) and Barry M’s nail art pen in black for the antlers and black dot in the eye.

I then finished them all with a top coat!

Must admit I like it more than I thought I’d ever like a drawing on my nails – very happy with the result!

How festive!

Happy Christmas to all! Happy holidays from So Many Lovely Things

Rating:

5_star

Nails of the week – red and gold glitter

I don’t need to go on about how much I love red nails. Think I’ve done that enough in the past, so I won’t bore you with that.

I used Colorama 40 graus – this polish is actually one of my favourites and if you have been to my blog before, you probably came across it somehow. It is a very bright red, intense, very shiny and leaning towards orange.

Jubilee nails were my intention, but, somehow, I couldn’t be bothered to paint Union Jacks and wasn’t feeling the blue (I know, very lame), so I went for red with gold.  I used the Andrea Fullerton’s Georgia Glitter Duo, and was very pleased with the result. I applied the glitter near the cuticle to still wet nails, and moved my finger downwards, with a gentle shaking motion, so it would fall towards the tips, I also had to very delicately spread a bit with the tip of my finger to get a more symmetrical effect.

Durability was good. The Colorama polish lasts really well, and the glitter at the bottom, instead of the tip kept really well for the six days I wore it.

This time was much easier to use the glitter puff  than the first time I did. The mess was the same, though. Have to admit it is well worth it; I just love the look.

Rating: 

Nails of the week -blue and glitter tips

Here I come with another experimental nail creation…

I had spotted Andrea Fullerton’s Georgia Glitter Duo, a pretty set with two glitter puff dusts and a topcoat, a while back but for some reason, forgot about it. What I really liked was the holographic sheen on the gold and silver glitters that came in the set.

So we met again, and I decided to take it, at £6.99 from Superdrug. I had been dying to try this new Ana Hickmann blue nail polish, Rock, which I bought recently, and thought the blue glitter, fading from the tip to the middle of the nail would look fab.

And it does – like a mini winter wonderland! Application of the polish was good, it is quite sheer, more than I expected, but it is good enough on two coats.

The puffs are easy enough to use, although I think I need a small brush to even it out a bit; I did it with my fingers, and was very worried about ruining the polish. Obviously, they are not all the same, and that bothers me a bit, but I am sure that I will improve with practice.

Durability was kind of alright; the glitter rubbed off from my thumb, indicator and middle finger; but I gave it a re-touch five days after doing the manicure, so not too bad.  have to say it wasn’t very easy to remove, as expected from glitter! Still, I cannot wait to use the gold one!

You can get a set with five glitter puffs,in varied colours from eBay too, for only £5.

Rating:

Nails of the week – blue/pink duochrome

This week I am a bit rushed off my feet – my office moved to  a brand new building and I am still a bit lost and until I get used to it, I think I will have this feeling of putting some extra effort into going to work – although, that can be easily explained by the fact I have probably paid a record number of visits to various high street shops in one day; office is near Oxford Street, in London, and the temptation is just too much!

I am  also going to Paris for a long weekend (yay), so that has also contributed to my lack of time…

However, I finally found a few minutes to show you my talons: this week I am wearing Andrea Fulerton’s Smile in a storm. Having used two or her duos in the past, and being very excited about those, I almost forgot I had this one; I bought it ages ago, so decided it was time to try it.

It consists of two polishes on a double ended brush; one is gunmetal grey, super sparkly and the other one is an iridescent topcoat. Together, they become a very pretty, although subtle, duochrome which varies from a light, grey-ish blue to darker blue and then to lilac and pink. Sometimes, depending on the light, you can get a glimpse of the grey, but maybe because I just used one coat of each. The reason for that is because the polish builds up quite thick. I had some problems with bubbles, when adding a third coat (second of topcoat), so removed it all and applied again, this time settling for less.

Apart from the bubbles, and the fact that the double ended brush makes it a bit clunky when applying, I am happy with it. Even with an extra shine topcoat, I noticed the finish is not too shiny, and someone even asked me if I had my matte topcoat on! Colour is fab and durability great!

Really like my new H&M ring, so decided to add it here too!

Rating:

Nails of the week – teal/purple duochrome

Petrol in water - Andrea Fulerton - Dani DutraPetrol in the water. Weird name, eh? Well, it is, but I can guarantee there is nothing weird about this nail colour.

After being very impressed with the durability of the Andrea Fulerton Trio nail varnish I wore a few weeks back (it didn’t chip, it survived the potato peeler and after seven days, it still looked so beautiful I felt bad to be removing it!), I decided to go crazy and bought three (!!!) other combinations.

I am, or course, wearing the aptly named Petrol in Water, and I cannot even describe how pretty it looks – three people, in one evening asked me what it was. It consists of a double ended polish with a dark metallic brown shade and an iridescent top coat.

I am truly in love – it will be very hard for any polish to beat this colour. The pictures don’t really do it any justice; with flash, the colour comes out as a dirty green-ish blue, but as the nails catch natural and  indoors light, they come alive and really remind me of that one drop of petrol in the water that triggers a multitude of shades…

This teal/purple duochrome with subtle green undertones looks stunning,  and depending on the light, it will be anything from peacock green/teal/indigo blue to purple. It has the most amazing colours, and it is very sparkly, without having glitter on it, so no rough texture.

Petrol in water by Andrea Fulerton - Dani Dutra

Now, I wasn’t that keen on the application, as this was a similar experience to that with my other trio, Rainfall – still find the double ended brush a bit clunky, not wide enough, the darker colour is a bit thin, so coverage is not great and the drying time was a bit too long. Normally, this would put me off right away, but for this shade it was well worth it!

I really cannot wait to try the other two, but I think it will be very hard for a polish to top this one… Beautiful!

Another weekend and another nail varnish binge – I acquired another three… now have them, together with another good half a dozen, lined up for the next weeks. I really must organise myself, as I am going away for a month over Christmas, will have to take the fabulous shades to be applied while on holidays!

Nails of the week – blue/green metallic

I came across the Andrea Fullerton range at Superdrug, on the same day I bought the Studio eye pencil set. I had never heard or seen them before, and they looked very attractive – from the packaging to the variety of products. The colours were particularly exciting, the combos looked great, it really had that “nail art” at home things going.

I was immediately drawn to the Trio Colour Layering System nail polishes, and fell in love with Rain Fall. The idea is that you can wear each colours individually or  layer both for different effects. At 7.99, I decided it was worth a go, as the colour in the bottle was mesmerising – a metallic teal solid colour and a sheer iridescent blue/purple, shimmery and with green soft glitter flakes.

Application was ok. The teal nail polish is very thin, so coverage wasn’t great. I decided against applying two coats, as I would end up with more than my usual two or three (maximum – I hate thick polish!) coats in total. The sheer varnish was also easy to apply, and quite smooth considering the flakes. One coat didn’t impress me, so I applied a second one. I dried quite smooth, despite the flakes, and drying time wasn’t too bad.

The polish also seem to be chip and scratch resistant, as I was peeling potatoes (oh, the glamour!) and the peeler hit my nail straight on, with quite a lot of force, and even though I expected the worse, the nail polish was practically intact – so points for that – let’s see how it fares in the week!

As it is a double-ended polish,  and the two small bottles are joined by the double-sided brush, it was quite uncomfortable to hold while applying the polish, as the bottle you were not using was still attached to the end of the “brush”. It felt quite heavy and clumsy, but not impossible.

Of course, the colour on my nails wasn’t the colour on the bottle. This doesn’t mean I am not pleased with it – I am, it is exquisite, and it varies quite a bit, depending on the light and angle. Most of the times, it is blue with green flecks. On bright, direct light (such as photography flash), it looks dark blue. On not so bright, natural light, it looks Egyptian blue; tilt it a bit, and you can see green flecks – not only glimmering but almost giving it some depth and texture. On darker light, indoors, it looks almost forest green with lighter green flecks. If you look at your nails sideways, you can best spot the plethora of shades this polish offers: you can almost see the teal coming through the shiny green flecks, and the blue/purple sheen as the nail curves. Beautiful.  I thought the polish was aptly named, as it indeed reminds me of a tropical forest rain fall – or a mermaid magical seaweed (yes, you heard it, in my head’s fantasy land!)

Overall, quite pleased, the effect is really pretty, and the colour, although as not as much as in the bottle, mesmerising nevertheless. The quality of the solid colour polish could be better, as I would need a good three coats to use it solo, and the brush easier to manage. Not sure if I will buy more, there are some truly amazing colour combinations, but I had very high expectations for this one, and it fell a little bit short.

I have also bought other two magnetic nail polishes from different brands and colours, and cannot wait to try those! I will, of course, post all about them in the next few weeks!