Nail of the week – gold with black chevrons

Experimenting. This has been my mood. When I bought the gorgeous OPI GoldenEye, part of their James Bond Skyfall collection, I was quite happy to wear it on its own, as it is show-stopping enough.

However, I don’t seem able to sick to plain coloured nails anymore; one colour won’t do. It is almost a disease.

So, I decided to try something new. I had wanted to play with tape for a while, but I can get quite lazy. This time I decided to go for it and create a chevron style.

I painted all nails using GoldenEye. Coverage is quite sheer at one coat, but it is good at two. I used three. The wide brush is always a winner here. The gold is amazing, deep, glittery, sparkly and with a coppery reflex to it. I painted in the morning and left it until the afternoon to do phase two.

I used normal household clear sticky tape, just cut a little strip and placed it from the upper corners of the nail towards the centre, forming a “V”. I then applied Barry M in Black to fill all “V’s” and removed them all carefully. I finished it off with a topcoat.

As a first attempt, I thought it turned out very well. A few of the lines were a little jagged, but not enough to look bad. One of the chevrons was slightly off centre (and that was on my right thumb nail, which has been recovering from an awful breakage and is much shorter than the others). Other than that, the chevron came out very good!

I will definitely try taping again, I loved the chevron look. The manicure was elegant, and duration was top – seven days, not a chip in sight; quite impressive for a black tip!

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Nails of the week – red and dotty

I needed a red manicure to go with a fancy dress costume – which is no effort, as it is my favourite nail colour – but it had to be plain, which is a problem, as I get bored very quickly…

So I used the lovely OPI The spy who loved me, which I was really looking forward to trying, and after I attended the party, I decided to give it dots in two colours: Colorama Ameixa and Ana Hickmann Jurerê. It looks very berry!

The OPI application was good, their wide brush really makes life easier; the polish is a bit sheer, but two coats are enough. Durability is great!

The dots were applied with dotting tools in 3 different sizes; as it is only the second time I do them, I think they came out pretty well – still have to nail the dots distribution though.

Both polishes used for dotting were up to the task; the colours were solid enough. I wish I had used a lighter plum colour for the darker dots, as most of the time they seem black!

The only problem is that I added the dots four days after I did the manicure, so the cuticles in the pictures, which were taken six days after I did the basic red mani, are not looking perfect, there is a little bit of growth going on, unfortunately.

Still, I am pleased with this mani, and I shall be sporting more spotty nails in the future!

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Nails of the week: purple with glitter flakes

Click to enlarge

Another thing I cannot have enough of is glitter flakes topcoats. They have this power of making any nail polish amazing. adding an extra dimension to any colour.

It is no secret I am a huge fan of duochromes and colour changing polishes in general, so no surprise I fell head over heels for the amazing flakies from Brazilian brand Specialittá.

I really like them, they do really different colours and effects lines. I placed an order online and got a friend to bring it over to London for me… I must have bought a good 10 bottles, so watch this space!!!

This week, I am wearing Collection 2000 Purple rain with Specialittá Hits Fox Trot over it. Fox Trot is part of their Mundo de Danças (World of Dances) collection which has lots of glitter flakes polishes. This one has a jelly-ish purple/mauve base and is laden with pretty flakes, which change colour from pink, reds and golds to pale green. The colours are quite subtle but really pretty, and the change can be seen on many different types of light! Gorgeous!

Application was smooth,I used two coats of each polish (as I like plenty of flakes!!!) plus the topcoat, and durability is fantastic.

Pretty overall; very happy with it!

Other polishes from the collection will be coming soon; I bought three from their 12!

Any amazing flakies out there for me to go crazy about? Would love to expand my collection!

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Nails of the week – holographic black with silver French

Oh, the French manis… I cannot stay away from them for too long! I just find them so elegant – and quite simple to do!

Recently, I received a little haul I did in Brazil; I bought the polishes from Specialittá’s website and got them delivered to my friend’s mum home. My friend was about to come to London, so she kindly brought them to me!

I love this brand’s polishes; they apply well, have great colours and the durability is fantastic.

With this one, is no different – I am wearing a holo from their No Olimpo range, in Zeus which is a dark graphite/black. The colour is super pretty, the effect has great depth and it comes through under different lighting, which is more than I can say for others holos I wore in the past.

Most pictures were taken with flash, to show the best of its holo goodness… the one in the bottom left hand side corner was taken on natural light, so still a pretty good show there.

While one coat is quite sheer, two will do for great coverage, but I used three coats. I them applied Barry M foil effects in Silver to create the French manicure. I finished it off with Seche Vite top coat. The gloss finish is amazing; it looks sooooo shiny and perfect! And after 10 days it is still pretty much intact!

Very happy with this mani!!!

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Nails of the week – glitter sprinkles

After re-doing my nails twice in a week, all I wanted was something to last seven days.

During one of my regular walks though House of Fraser in Oxford St (I work really close, and sometimes go home via the shop – it is almost therapeutic, but can be very dangerous) I walked past the Nails Inc. counter and fell in love with one of their polishes from the Sprinkles range. They have four shades, and I bought Sweets Way, a pinkish white base with silver, pink and blue glitter.

Application was smooth. Two coats will give you good coverage, but I went for three. The texture is not too rough and durability was really good. There was a small amount of chipping (just glitter coming off) from day five, but I blame that on myself, as I forgot to use a topcoat.

A really cute shade. Extremely delicate and seriously reminded me of sweets sprinkles!

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Nails of the week – purples and blues

This has been a weird nail week for me, nothing seemed to make me happy.

I started it with a colour I was very excited about: Estée Lauder Ultra Violet. The colour in the bottle is stunning, a fine glittery purple base with multi-chrome ranging from dark pink to the greens and yellows.

It was a disappointment, with two coats, there was no sign of the amazing colour effect. It was just a dark plum base with some magenta sparkles, not that this is not pretty, but it was a let down. Application was fine, and durability was ace.

I applied the foil transfer in a nice holographic magenta, but foil transfers rub off too quickly, even with Seche Vite on top! In three days, it looked a bit rubbish and I had to remove it!

Staying close to the purples, I used Color Club Total Mystery, a metallic deep cobalt blue base with magenta sparkles. Application was awful! Colour Club polishes take sooooo long to dry, that I had to redo 4 nails as I got marks on them. I usually never go back to nails just on application, so it was a big pain. Once it is dry, though, it won’t go away – durability is amazing! I then applied the striping tape near the tip, in a similar colour to the foil, a holographic magenta. Again, the tape only lasts a few days, so I knew this one was going soon…

And that is how I ended up with two manis in a week; not that I don’t like doing it; I love! However, I just don’t have enough time, so once a week is just about what I can manage!

So, what do you think about my not-last-longing manicures of the week? Do you use the foil transfer/striping tape? Any tips to make it last?

Rating:

for both, mainly for the art durability let down; otherwise, would give a three star!

Nails of the week- purple with multicoloured foil

Yes, I have been totally MIA. I have the best excuse for it though; I was on holidays!!! Yay! Well, not so much yay as I am back. Boyfriend and I spend 11 amazing days in the US – New York, Chicago, northern Michigan, plus a quick dash over the border to Canada, to Toronto and Niagara Falls.

So I had to wisely choose holiday nails, which would look pretty on my holiday snaps and to last me a week until I had to change it for the wedding I attended. I knew I was going to wear red for the nuptials, as I was wearing the prettiest yellow dress, so decided to go purple before that.

I bought an unbelievably bargainous ColorClub set from TKMaxx, I mean, £7.99 for six polishes and a topcoat. Amazing. I bought the Alter Ego”Keep it under cover” set, with lovely berry shades.

I recently discovered the foils sheets; so ordered five varieties from eBay, plus glue; and I had been looking forward to using it, as the effects I saw were very pretty!

My choice was the ColorClub Secret Agent as a base and after it dried I applied the glue with irregular strokes, let it dry until I couldn’t see it anymore and pressed the foil sheet rainbow Swirl, a pretty silver base with blue, green, pink, lilac and yellow swirls, on to the nail. The colour transfered nicely, and it was pretty easy to do; I applied a bit more glue where I thought there were gaps or I hadn’t applied enough first time around and repeated the process. I then applied a topcoat.

The result was fantastic. I was delighted with it. Pretty, very pretty and quite different.

Now, the durability wasn’t the best. Whereas the polish was great, after a few days the foils started to rub off, especially on my index finger… bits of it were coming off, and even though it wasn’t a massive problem, as the base colour was still going strong, it lost a bit of its appeal.

Still, I am certainly going to do it again (actually, I have already, as I had a plain red manicure for the wedding, and removed it a couple days ago to replace with a new foil effect one!).

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for the prettiness

Nails of the week – Pink and silver

Inspired by Chanel, I decided to use pastel pink ad silver on this weeks nails. However, I went against to trying to replicate their latest design using the colours, as it made my nails look very small…. hum….

Anyway, the combination is a winning one and I used Kiko Candy Pink and Barry M foil effects in silver.

I decided to do what a friend described as an “upside-down French”; with the strip following the cuticle line shape, a bit different from the half-moon.

Kiko’s nail polish was easy to apply (very even for being a light, creamy colour) and I used two coats. Barry M’s quality is exceptional, as I mentioned before; only one coat for the strip. Great coverage, lovely shiny silver.

Durability was top. Seriously, ten days now as I am going on holidays and waiting to do my manicure, so it will last longer when away.

I really like this one. Found it very feminine and delicate!

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Nails of the week – black with details

Right, this week I did something I rarely do: I change my nail colour halfway through the week.

I bought a pack of nail art striping tape, and was really looking forward to using it for the first time.

The selected tape colour was red, to combine with Barry M black nail polish, into one of my favourite colour combos.

Barry M polishes are great with an amazing value, really, I cannot say this enough. Two coats, easy to apply, great coverage and durability, glossy finish. Then I applied the tape close to the tip, around the point a French manicure would end. I found application easy and quick.

The problem is, after a few days, the tape started to peel off, and being particular as I am, I decided to remove it. So after three days, I took everything off, re-applied black to all of my nails apart from the ring finger, on which I applied a beautiful black and white nail wrap from Nails Rock to create an accent nail.

The wrap was quite old; and I found application very easy – for this one, there was no heat-me-with-a-hairdryer palava. It was just a sticker. And the staying power was much better than the giraffe print Nail Rock wrap I used before. I found this foil beautiful, very glossy and striking. It did start to come off when I applied bronzing oil repeatedly to my body during a sunbathing session, but really, it was expected! Only problem: it was so hard to remove!!!

So, there you go, although I had a “costume change” in the middle of the week, I was extremely happy with both versions of this week’s nails, I think they were both very classy!

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Nails of the week – red glitter

How much do I love this mani? I describe it as Dorothy’s ruby slippers for your nails. Seriously. So sparkly, a real jewel!

I had this week’s mani all figured out, but had this urge to paint them my old time favourite red. But an ordinary red wouldn’t do, so as if by fate, I stumbled upon this gem at Topshop: Barry M glitter polish in red.

The coverage is amazing, this polish is laden with glitter. I put on a coat of Colorama’s 40 Graus underneath, and one coat of the glitter would be enough, but I settled for two. What a beauty it became.

For being glitter, the durability wasn’t amazing; a couple chips appeared a good five days after application. But nothing too bad.

Overall, I was delighted with this one.