A very simple but super cute and fit-for-spring manicure this week: shades of lilac, one of each finger. Continue reading
Tag Archives: colorama
Nails of the week: Love heart, in red and white
A bit late, but this was my Valentine’s mani, hastily created on the morning of the 14th…
Nails of the week: Green, yellow, blue and white “tie-dye” effect (World Cup I)
World Cup nails – that is what I’ve been calling them! They are however, a bit more than that: they are showing support to my team – Brasil!
I decided to put into practice the invaluable advice from Michelle Humphrey, the Maybelline nail extraordinaire, and try a “tie-dye” type of nails.
Nails of the week: All American red, white and blue gradient
Promise I won’t proclaim my love for gradients again (ooops). I had an American All Stars themed party, and as usual, I get over excited about themed parties, so went all out.
Nails of the week: red and gold marble
Well, we all know I cannot get enough of a good old easy marble – it is up there with gradients and leopard spots – so here is another one.
In reality, this was to satiate my need for red talons – and being one not able to have just plain nails, something had to be embellish it… I give you gold! Now, that’s an embellishment!
Nails of the week: purple and silver
For the first time, I have a “nail of the week” backlog – I am about three weeks behind!!!
This is quite a simple one, but I really like – still from when I was in Brazil! My lovely manicurist Irma is not a nail art one, at their salon, they just have people wearing nudes and reds, so I usually drive her crazy with my colourful requests.
The base colour is one I loved, Colorama’s Noite Quente – I had it in plain my toes. It is a beautiful warm purple! I then had a coat of Risque’s Diamante Fúcsia added to the top. This is a lovely and very saturated magenta and silver fine glitter suspended in a clear base.
The accent nail was done with the super metallic silver Cromo from Impala. It is a really shiny chrome-like nail polish, one of the best effects I’ve seen.
A simple combination great for the party season – not too out there but still sparkly enough for the festive spirit!
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Nails of the week: Rainbow gradient
It is no news I love a gradient on my talons, so this week I went a bit further – a four colour rainbow gradient.
The last one I did was a long time ago, and this was due. After seeing a rainbow gradient on some Brazilian nail polish Facebook page, I decided that was going to be the next one.
The technique is the very same I used before: sponging, and I found it a bit more challenging with four colours to make sure all nails had about the same amount of each and that the transition was smooth. But it happened in the end!
I used Colorama’s 40 Graus (red), L’Oréal Banana Pop (yellow), Kiko 385 (blue) and 343 (green), applied a stripe of each to a wet make-up sponge and stamped to previously painted white nails. I went round three times! I then added the magical Electric lane holographic topcoat from Nails Inc and a clear topcoat(Seche VIte) to seal it all.
To be honest, before I did it, I thought it was going to be a bit too much. It turns out I love it and don’t want to take it off. At all. Seven days have gone by and it still looks perfect and I am struggling with the idea of removing it and moving on to the next mani…
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Nails of the week: red with leopard print
If you know me, you will know I have more than a soft spot for animal print. I just can’t stay away from it. Finally, I braved into doing something I wanted to do on my nails for a very long time: leopard print spots.
I am very surprised it took me this long. I thought it would be very difficult so always gave up before starting. Little did I know it was going to be quite easy and I would be very pleased with the results of my first attempt – amazingly with no huge mistakes!!!
Red nail polish is my first and true nail colour passion. For me, there is no better colour on my talons. So I used one of my favourite reds, Colorama’s 40 Graus, a vivacious and shiny orangey red. I applied two coats and let it dry for about an hour.
I then used Barry M Foil Effects nail polish in gold (another favourite of mine!) with a fine brush to create the spots in only half of each nail and finalised with Barry M’s nail art pen in black. This pen is great, fine, precise, fiving just the right amount of polish, so making the dark marks around and between the spots was a breeze. Applying with the left hand was a bit more challenging, but it worked well! I am thrilled with the result. After I let it dry for a few minutes, I applied a topcoat.
Truly in love, I feel these nails are really me.
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Nails of the week – black with red glitter French manicure
Black and red, red and black… I cannot get enough. Definitely my favourite colours.
This week I had a wedding to go to, and was wearing a red (surprise!) dress, so decided to match my nails.
I used Colorama Black as base on all fingers except the ring one, where I applied the gorgeous Barry M glitter in red (seen in full glory here) as an accent. I used the same red to do the French mani on the black ones.
I love it, really. The glitter tips just looked so pretty (the Barry M glitter polish is amazing!), and the black was so glossy (Seche Vite topcoat used!). Application was fine; two coats of each polish were applied. Durability was good; by the 6th day the glitter started to wear off from the tips, but a good run nevertheless.
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Nails of the week: orange and colour shifting glitter flakes
You were warned there was going to be a flakie fest here… well, here is another one.
This flakie, suspended on a sheer light orange base is from Risqué, a Brazilian brand, and it is called Cobertura Encantada – enchanted coverage, in free translation, and it really is. I used on top of a gorgeous dark-ish orange, with a very discreet metallic sheen, called Garota Verão, from Colorama – and I have to say, this one needs to be worn alone, it is beautiful.
The glitter flakes, even on an lighter colour, shifted subtly from gold-green to orange-light red. I really liked it. Most of the time, they were just very shiny vivid gold, as seen on the pictures. I couldn’t quite capture the shifting :(. I saw some pictures of it over black and it is amazing… but I am sooo tired of wearing flakie over black; they end up looking quite similar…
Application was alright; smooth. I used two coats of Garota Verão (could have done with one, really – it is very pigmented), and three of the glitter topcoat – it is not the most saturated flakie I have ever seen, but three coats created a good coverage.
Durability was ace and I was very happy with this one, nothing too exceptional, but nice. Overall, a good combo!
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So Many Lovely Things 