Nails of the week: black and pastels with L’Oréal Paris Color Riche Les Blancs

loreal color riche les blancs - somanylovelythings

After I attended the lovely L’Oréal event to launch the new SS14 Color Riche nail polishes Les Blancs and Topcoats I came home with the amazing polishes, and could not wait to use them! Without wasting any time, I thought about something nice to make justice to the lovely Les Blancs pretty spring shades.

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Nails of the week: gun metal with black dot

dielle metallic dignity nail polish - somanylovelythings

Knowing I had a nail event coming up and I was bound to get a fresh manicure, I decided to go for something unusually minimalist.

This week I picked this pretty metallic golden truffle from Dielle called Metallic Dignity, which can look quite gun metal with a golden sheen, as well as some sparkly green and red particles!

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NEW: L’Oréal Paris Color Riche Les Blancs nail polishes and topcoats

Peach Neglige, Lemon Meringue, Nouvelle Vague, Pistachio Drage (L-R)

Peach Neglige, Lemon Meringue, Nouvelle Vague, Pistachio Drage (L-R)

L’Oréal has been at it again and is bringing very exciting Color Riche nail polishes to grace our talons for Spring/Summer 2014: Les Blancs and Topcoats. Now, that is something to really look forward to.

The Les Blancs collection is a very  pretty line of four pastel shades: the deliciously green Pistachio Drage, girly peachy-pink Peach Neglige, powdery lilac Nouvelle Vague and citrussy yellow Lemon Meringue. They are very delicate and almost white – with just a drop of colour; in fact similar base colours from last year’s SS collection, Neon Pop, but diluted to almost white (or, the other way round, dropped into white!)

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Nails of the week: red and gold marble

red and gold marble nails - somanylovelythings

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!

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Nails of the week: green leopard

green leopard print nails jn beauty nail lacquer - somanylovelythings

If I could I would have either leopard print or gradient nails all the time. But that would be too boring for the blog, so I try to squeeze them in from time to time…

And this is the green turn. I “recycled” my new year’s eve manicure, as I didn’t have time to do anything more elaborate for the night, I just painted it with the gorgeous JN Beauty green 036.

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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: purple and silver

purple and silver nails - somanylovelythings

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!

Rating:

3_star

Nails of the week: blues and purples with silver

blue, purple and silver nails - somanylovelythings

This post is a bit different, as I have no idea what base polishes were used.

I’ve been to Brazil and my lovely manicurist Irma looked after my talons for two weeks. She is the only person I will let touch my nails. Although I enjoy doing my own manicure, there is something lovely about sitting there and letting the professional her do her job, while I rummage through boxes of nail polish so she can make my crazy (in her view – but quite tame in mine!) ideas come true.

blue, purple and silver nails - somanylovelythings

So I went frantically picking all blues and purples that tickled my fancy and ended up with this lovely selection. The common element: the silver foil string topcoat from Impala, called Atitude Pop, from their Rebelde collection.

The topcoat has a decent saturation of fine silver tinsel like strings suspended on a clear base. I just love the effect, really brings all the colours together beautifully!!!

Rating:

4_star

Nails of the week: blue and silver leopard print

blue and silver leopard print manicure - somanylovelythings

You know when I obsess about a nail design I just can’t stop. I am actually surprised it took me this long to be at the leopard spots again…

This time, I went for a blue base with the beautiful L’Oréal’s colour riche in Rebel Blue.

Then I used Barry M Foil Effects in silver to add the spots and the super handy Barry M’s Nail art pen to add the black outlines and small spots, using the same tools as  previously on this colourful leopard print manicure.

blue and silver leopard print manicure - somanylovelythings

I am very pleased with the result; this design is very straight forward and has a great effect!

Rating:

4_star