Nails of the week: Red and nude

Yes, you are right. I cannot stay away from the red and nude combo for too long. I just love it on my nails. I wanted to do a half moon plus French tip for quite sometime and I finally got round to it.

I used L’Oréal Color Riche in Macaron Noisette (the most beautiful nude ever to grace my talons) as a base – two coats are sufficient. When dry, I used a hole re-enforcer as a guide for the half moon and French manicure guides for the tips, splashing them red with the beautiful Brilliant Red from Lola. This red is fantastic. It is sheer but almost cream and the coverage is excellent – so pigmented. The colour is great – a deep, vivid blood red. I love it and will certainly be using is on its own.

This was the first time I used nail polish from Lola and was really impressed. Application was smooth, the polish quality is very good, which translated into great durability of seven days with no chips – all bearing in mind it was tip only!

I am pleased with this mani; maybe I should have had the French tips slightly thinner (which I always do and think maybe I should have had it slightly thicker… oh well). Overall, I think it lacked a bit of oomph. Should’ve used the Lola red alone!

As for the Lola Make-up by Perse polish, I loved it – and you can find their range at M&S, in-store or on the website!

Rating:

(for the mani)

(for the Lola polish)

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: colourful leopard print

You probably know by now I obsess about things. After loving last week’s leopard print soooooo much, I decided to do another one, of course. I went for a lovely white/gold base and my leopard spots were very colourful!

First, I am going to say how much I love the OPI Ski Slope Sweetie, which I picked up at Olympia Beauty. It is part of OPI’s winter collection and the colour is just amazing – a metallic white base with some colour shifting from a shimmery gold with a tiny little spark of green and red sometimes to a colder white, almost silver. Stunning. Seriously, rarely do I fall in love with a light coloured polish, but this got me. I sense it being used more – it is and amazing base for art: non intrusive but so not boring! It applies alright, there were no bush marks – the OPI brush is great, but this polish is a bit on the thick side.

After applying two coats of SSS and letting it dry for about 15 minutes, I drew the spots with a fine nail brush and normal nail polish – I first did all blue (Kiko 385) spots, then purple (L’Oréal Flashing Lilac), green (L’Oréal Wasabi Hint), yellow (L’Oréal Banana Pop) and pink (L’Oréal Acid Watermelon), making sure they were well distributed and no nail had the exactly same pattern!

After that, I used Barry M’s Nail art pen (seriously, how did I have this at home for soooo long and never used? Love this thing!) to add the irregular black outlines and random flecks to the spots.

I finished it off with a topcoat (Seche Vite) and I am absolutely in love with it. Sooo pretty!!!

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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: vintage inspired nude and red heart tips

For a very long time I wanted to try this lovely manicure. But I ALWAYS had square shaped nails, since I can remember. And this “heart” tips don’t really look good on a square nail, after all, no hearts have a square bottom, right?

Not sure why but I woke up one morning really feeling like changing the shape of my nails and I took the plunge and filed them on to this oval-pointy shape. Have to admit the first 24 hours were quite odd, and I still feel they are more fragile than before….

I used the beautiful (probably one of the prettiest nudes ever) L’Oréal Paris Color Riche Macaron Noisette nude as a base and after two coats used Spicy Orange, a very orangey red (or reddish orange?!) to create the effect.

I did a bit of practicing the days before on naked nails and found the easiest way for me. First, with a nail art brush, I marked with a small line the middle of each nail on the tip and then using the polish brush itself, touched the end of the brush away from the centre on both sides of the tip, as if drawing a V with sticks, creating the shape. It does help that the L’Oréal brush is rounded at the end, so perfect for this design – it really cut out my work and It was actually much easier than I thought.

I am thrilled with the final result, love it and the shape is actually growing on me, although I feel sometimes I have claws!

Rating:

Product review: L’Oréal Nails à Porter stick-on nails

One of the fabulous new products unveiled at the L’Oréal Paris Nail Art Masterclass was Nails à Porter – their spin on stick-on (or false) nails.

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Nails à porter in Neo Couture

Nails à porter in Femme Fatale

Nails à porter in Drama Queen

Nails à porter in French Touch

Nails à porter in Killer Nude

First of all, the designs are lush! They have classics such as red (Femme Fatale) and French manicure (French Touch), as well as some lovely designs: geo grey and minty green (Neo Couture), black and gold (Drama Queen – my fave!) and black an nude (Killer Nude), all very lovely.

You have twelve sizes to choose from, to match your nails shape. What I really love about them is that they are VERY flexible and feel quite natural!

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They come with sticky gel pads to be applied on the nail and a little file to smooth the edges.

Sadly, my natural nails are too long for them (and somehow, I am gutted!!!) so to try these beauties I have recruited two lovely volunteers from my office, designers Charlotte and Claire.

loreal nails a porter femme fatale - somanylovelythings

Charlotte unleashes the Femme Fatale

Charlotte had never applied or used any false nails before. I sent her off with the set and she applied them on a Saturday. She tells me she managed to do so quite easily – and she did a fantastic job, they looked great on her hands!

She had a birthday to attend and went wearing the red Femme Fatale Nails à Porter on her talons. She reported losing two on Sunday, but used remaining sticky pads from the pack to stick them back on.

She thought wearing them was a bit weird, and that she was very aware of them, feeling the need to be very careful all the time, which is natural for the first time you wear something false – I was like that with nails, lashes and hair! She liked the way they looked and removed them without problems after three days. She also mentioned some finger nails looked better – more natural shape-wise – than others.

Personally, I think they looked great in her hands, but it seems the false nails just bothered her, and I don’t think she will be wearing them again – this brand or any other!

loreal nails a porter - somanylovelythings

Claire goes funky with Neo Couture

Claire has used various brands of false nails before, usually resorting to them for special occasions. She used Neo Couture and says they were easy to apply – in a matter of minutes.

For this particular design, as there are different patterns, Claire didn’t manage to make her ring finger the accent, which she’d liked to, as no size match was possible.

She also mentioned the sticky pad appears to be stickier than other brands she has used; the nails themselves are fairly flexible and don’t appear to be a hard plastic. They file really nicely (this is a big issue for Claire, as she wears contact lenses and needs to file one index finger nail shorter than the others – with long nails she can’t get then out). She also added that the paint didn’t chip or flake when filed down, other brands have always disappointed at this stage as they have chipped or flaked after filing.

She did lose two nails, but in all fairness she put them through the ultimate testing – packing up boxes for moving house. She actually caught one nail in-between a draw and a rail and it marked the nail but after a few minutes the line it created lessened and you could hardly see it!

She buffed the natural nails where she had the two losses then stuck the pad on to see if this made a difference, re-applying the lost nails. Claire tells me she has naturally oily nails and glued or stick-on nails never last the lengthy the box says.

She noticed that after 3 days of wear they started to wear a little on the paint, but they don’t appear to have chipped at all but have worn a little. Removal was very easy and clean; nails feel fine afterwards.

At the end of her trial, she tells me she would definitely buy Nails à Porter to wear for a dinner and dance party or wedding types of occasion. She actually took French Touch from my hands too!

I think I am sold. Next nail chop, I will be all over Drama Queen.

Nails à Porter is available from retailers nationwide from September and the RRP is £7.99.

You will also be able to get more info at the L’oréal Paris website when the product launches!

Nails of the week: Red hearts

I ❤ hearts. Sorry, I couldn’t resist! The fact is I do, so when I got the heart nail wraps from Girlz Nailz I knew I was going to fall in love.

These wraps have a lovely red metallic hearts in different sizes on a white background – love the white background, btw! I used the wraps to create two accent nails in each hand – on my thumb and my ring finger.

I found that their sizing didn’t quite match all my nails, but I could’ve easily cut them slightly to fit, as there are plenty of wraps in each packet. I have mentioned this to the company and they said they will look into the sizing, which is brilliant.

As on my previous use, these wraps applied really well, I heated them up a bit with the hair dryer and carefully applied them to clean, buffed nails. I achieved a crease free finish in a few minutes.

This time, durability was even better, 4 days looking good and on the 5th day ragged edges started to bother me – still great going for wraps – so I removed them by peeling the raggedy edges and pulling with tweezers, then using nail polish remover to take off the little bit

The other nails were painted with the gorgeous Kiko Sun Pearl nail lacquer in Chilli Pepper red – this colour is lovely, with some amazing golden hints all over, just lush! Sadly it is a limited edition and not available on the site anymore, I picked it up from a bargain bucket in the shop!

Overall, a lovely mani. These wraps are great!

You can get the Random Hearts nail wraps and browse other cute and fierce designs at the GirlzNailz website.

Rating

This post contains PR samples. This review, however, is based on my own true experience with the products and reflects my honest opinion on them.

Nails of the week: black and berry colours marble

I decided to use a dark colour as a base for marbling this week. I do prefer the lighter colours, as the contrast is better, but wanted something a little bit different.

Using a whole lot of L’Oréal Paris Color Riche shades ranging from very light milky pink to bordeaux, I went for a black base and and ombre effect for the marble – seems like there is a lot going on but was actually quite simple.

I used Black Swan and from pinky to thumb, Rose Paradis, Dating Coral, Spicy Orange, Shocking Pink and Addictive Plum, as well as L’Oréal 7 in 1 Saviour as base coat and 2-in-1 Protect as topcoat – all from the L’Oréal Nail masterclass Pick n’ Mix!

I was very happy with the results; Dating Coral and Shocking Pink fared particularly well with the black. Durability was very good too!

Rating:

Nails of the week: blue with silver dots

Now the dotting tools are out, I cannot stop! This week I tried a vintage inspired mani, but failed. Miserably. It looked awful. So I decided to take a step back and simplify.

Took the opportunity to try the beautiful Dielle nail polish in Modern Goddess, a deep midnight blue, glittery (but with no texture), with hints of purple, part of their metallics collection.

I had never tried Dielle’s polishes before. The packaging is rather nice and the brush applies well. The colour is well saturated and application was smooth and dried quickly. I am using two coats. They also have a non-toxic formulation, free from toluene, formaldehyde, DBP, camphor, & pthalic acid.

I then added three dots to the side of each nail using Barry M’s foil effects in silver. Durability was very good!

If you want to try their polishes, go to Dielle’s website – they have really great colours and nice kits! You can get Dielle’s Modern Goddess here.

This post contains PR samples. This review, however, is based on my own true experience with the products and reflects my honest opinion on them.

L’Oréal Paris new Color Riche Glitterati polishes launch and nail masterclass

Loreal color riche gliteratti nail polish

When it comes to my blog, a few things are more exciting than an event entitled Nail Masterclass, especially if it is with L’Oréal Paris.

The event took place in central London and a few bloggers had the chance to try the new Color Riche Glitterati collection and the Nails à Porter fake nails, learn to create a couple designs with L’Oréal’s nail expert Grace Humphries and find out more about L’Oréal’s new Nail Art website, nail-art.com, a portal where you can find the latest nail trends and expert tips.

Nail-Art.com

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Nail-art.com is now live!

Mega trend

we are told everything about it!

Nail-Art.com is full of advice, news, tutorials (easy to follow!) and has the colour expert, which is a tool where you can choose a colour and a level of difficulty and be presented with nail art ideas. They also have an app called the Color Genius, which helps you find the best make-up and nail colour for your outfit, and you can choose the match, blend and clash the suggestions! Clever, eh?

Color Riche Glitterati collection

Now, the new collection for the A/W13-14 and party season: the polishes are just gorgeous. As the name Glitterati suggests, all four shades are glitter based. What I really like about them is that you can use all as a topcoat, as an accent for nail art or on their own. They all have the Color Riche fan brush too, which is great! I swatched on the wheel with 3 coats; as you can see, the polish is very saturated with glitter. Two coats will also give a very good coverage.

Sequin Extravaganza, Scarlet TInsel, Bling Bling Bang and Black Diamond

Sequin Extravaganza is an explosion of glitter colours and shapes. Clear base with mainly silver glitter in various shapes and sizes, it also has a bit of gold, blue, pink and green. This makes this polish quite multi-dimensional, and although there are so many different sizes, shapes and colours, it all sits together so well it creates the illusion of one layer. Pretty.

Scarlet Tinsel is a sea of beautiful dark pink fine glitter. It sparkles a lot and on its owns gives the nail a uniform cover.

The jellish blue base with sapphire blue glitter Bling Bling Bang is far from shy. The glitter is also a combination of small and fine with bigger circles and It has a jewel-like finish and looks amazing on its own, but also lush on black and other colours, with a little bit of colour shifting. I think I’ve been Bling Bling Bang(ed) – I actually tweeted it to L’Oréal. I have no shame.

Finally, Black Diamond is a metallic black with fine silvery glitter. It is the more discreet from the collection and looks beautiful on and it looks like asphalt when on. Like it.

Nails à Porter

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Nails à porter

Nails à porter in Killer Nude

Nails à porter in Neo Couture

Nails à porter in Femme Fatale

Nails à porter in Drama Queen

Nails à porter in French Touch

We also found out about a new product L’Oréal is launching: Nails à Porter, their answer to the express manicure. The new fake nails, hitting the shelves soon, are great. To start with, they are super flexible. They come in different designs, from the classic red and French manicure to bold gold and black. It has little stickers, a great selection of sized to match your natural nails and are said to last up to five days. I will be testing them soon and posting my finds! Exciting!

Masterclass

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Our stations, full of goodies

The set up

Colours…

7 in 1 saviour and 2-in-1 protect – great products!

My creations…

As we sat in our lovely manicure stations, nail expert Grace Humphries taught us how to create two nail designs: glitter tip and glitter half-moon and French tip, which I tried on the wheel too.

I ended up painting on hand (yes, one hand. Oh the shame to take to tube back with one untidy hand!) with Black Swan and a Sequin Extravaganza gradient from the cuticles. This combination is great!

At the end, there was a nail polish pick-and-mix, where we could take the shades we liked to enter their Nail Art challenge – to which I have promptly sent my design, using loads of the polishes I took home.

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The pick-and-mix

What came home with me – thank you L’Oréal Paris!

It was a lovely evening, packed with news and very informative. The people were lovely, the new polishes are amazing, the nails à porter are a very interesting product. Cannot wait to keep using the polishes!