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!

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Nails of the week – purple and glitter

Glitter. Things change but one thing remains: my love for glitter. Actually, it increases. I cannot get enough. Sparkly sparkly – I definitely suffer from magpie syndrome.

This week I am wearing an amazing deep metallic purple nail polish from Kiko, 255, which is suspended with holographic silver glitter.

To make it even more sparkly, I added some gradual glitter – silver holographic, from Andrea Fulerton (yes, those little puffs are the gift that keep giving!).

And voilá – pretty, shiny, sparkly. Love it. Application was fine, a bit messy with glitter but not too bad. Durability was also great.

Sadly, it didn’t photograph as well as it looked; the first one is definitely the closest. I really tried and this is the best it came out… maybe next time!

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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!

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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!

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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.

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for the looks

for the application (traumatised)

Nails of the week: purple gradient

purple nail gradient Since I tried my first gradient a few weeks back, I’ve been dying to try another one, but this time with three colours.

I picked purples. I love purple on my nails! I chose a lilac from Nails Inc, Cambridge, a light purple from H&M, Pale Violet and a dark purple, also from Nails Inc, Belgrave Place.

First I painted my nails white using Natural Collection’s nail tip whitener. I then got my sponge and painted three lines on it, from lighter to darker and stamped the nails. I described the technique in more details on my previous post on gradient.

This took four rounds of stamping, more than my first one, to look good! But I am very pleased with the results. Again, after applying the topcoat there was a bit of shrinking, so I can see a tiny bit of the white, that bothers me a little bit!!!

Overall, loving it – caught the eyes of lots of people, even on the train, where I then explained the technique! Nice!

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Nails of the week – red with multicoloured beads

Even with all the talks about “caviar” nails a while back, I always thought they would be a nuisance; I never thought it would be possible for it to last more than 2 hours – unless you don’t use your hands – and by that I mean walking around with them up in the air, not even pulling your pants up, honestly!

But I went to Superdrug and spotted the pretty Nail Constellation bead pots from MUA, at an affordable £3! And of course, I could not resist.

So I decided to give it a go. I bought Scorpio, a mix of gold, green, red and fuchsia tiny beads. Knowing it would bug the life out of me, I decided to apply only to an accent nail – my ring finger.

Application was alright. But the bounce, so I had my bed covered in them. I applied a red nail varnish that matched the red beads to all nails – Colorama’s Pecado, an old favourite of mine – and immediately after the second coat, dropped the beads on the chosen nail. The funnel really helps the application, as well as gathering the fall offs back in the pot. I had to re-apply some base coat over to fill the gaps, but overall, it as pretty easy.

It looked alright, and even thought it caught lots of people’s eyes, I wasn’t overly impressed with it. It looks alright, but nothing exceptional.

And then it annoyed me, a good 12 hours after applying. They catch on stuff, they fall, found some on my desk at work…. and so on… by the end of the day, there were lots of gaps, especially on my right hand, which I use the most. So they came off, only 28 hours after application. At least, that box is ticked and I shall not be trying again.

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Nails of the week – black with glitter flakes

I am a sucker for glitter flakes… I just love them, especially when they colour-shift a lot!

As part of my huge haul from Brazil (back in September), I received this lovely black jelly base glitter flake polish, called Tango, from Speciallitá Hits, which is from their “World of Dances” collection.

Their polishes are really good quality – good coverage, usually alright with two coats and great durability. The finish was really glossy! However, I think the flakes weren’t big enough, so the effect was not as stunning as I was expecting. I also noticed there were not many flakes per brush dip, so two coats didn’t deliver as many flakes as I would expect.

I used one coat of Barry M Black as base and two of the Hits one.

The flakes shift from golden to green, and there are some red flecks too, which shift a little bit, but some are just red glitter. Although I was slightly disappointed, the effect was very pretty, I liked it very much!

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Nails of the week – warm colour dots

Well, I went dot crazy. Truly crazy. It started as a desire to create a fish scales effect, but it just looked wrong as I was using warm shades (in my crazy head). So I went out of order and out of control, and created something I am not sure I like or not.

Still, I stuck with it for the week and was even asked if I was wearing foils! Kinda got used to it.

Anyway… I used Barry M foil effects in gold and the dots are Leighton Denny’s orange Hanky Panky, a shimmery yellow from H&M and Colorama’s red 40 graus.

I applied the gold as base and used three different sizes dots from my dotting tool set in the other colours… I finished with a topcoat.

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Nails of the week – blue and green gradient

My experimental mood is not over yet, and more than ever, I want to stay away from things I have done before…

So this week I decided to, for the first time, to try a gradient manicure. I went for blue and green – from Kiko in Electric blue and from ColorClub’s Blossoming collection, respectively.

I started by painting all my nails white, as a base, I used Natural Collection’s Nail tip whitener.

After it was dry, I cut a make up sponge and wet it a bit, to make absorb less of the polish. So I applied the green and the blue on the sponge and applied to my nails, as if stamping it, from tone side to the other. I then repeated the process, this time “stamping” more than once, and slightly changing the position of the sponge colours dividing line each time, to make the blending better.

Then I applied a glittery Specialittá Hits Blue Jazz at the tip and a topcoat to finish it off.

It looks great, but not perfect, which bugs me a little bit. I know it is only the first time… but… I’d like it to be flawless. The problems I found were that it was hard to fill the edges. There also was a bit of shrinking and in a couple nails I can see some of the white near my cuticles. The blue “leaked” over my nail so I had to remove it from the inside… a bit of a pain!

Apart from that, I love it. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be and I got better effect better than I thought I would for the first time. So I will definitely be trying again!!!