Before I went away, I decided to do a simple, but effective mani, as I knew I was getting my talons done professionally for the duration of my stay.
So I use the beautiful Stargazer Chrome nail polish in 236, a beautiful blue hue on my very short nails – I broke one really badly so had to give them all the chop!
Superdrug has become the first UK retailer to launch a nail printing service. The Fingernails 2 Go digital nail art kiosk allows us to quickly print anything (really, anything) on our talons.
118118 Beauty is a pass that offers you discounts on beauty treatments around London – I’ve had mine since they started, so decided to pay them a visit at their nail bar at Westfield Stratford.
They are offering free manicures (with the lovely Morgan Taylor nail polishes – really fantastic colours!) to all who subscribe to the pass – it costs £29.99 for the whole year and you get a trial month for free!
With the card, you can get a fantastic 50% discount on hair, face, body and nail treatments in affiliated salons across London – at the moment, there are around 1,000 and the number keeps growing.
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!
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.
I am very pleased with the result; this design is very straight forward and has a great effect!
Rating:
This week I rekindled my relationship with colour shifting polishes. Once a favourite of mine, they gave way to some dabbling with nail art.
When I found the beautiful Specialittá Hits Marimoon Cool sitting at the bottom of my polish box, I knew this was the time.
And this beauty delivered an amazing colour, shifting from an old gold into a deep dark green and then a teal-ish blue, with impeccable metallic finish.
Application was great; I used two coats. This polish is really pigmented and for a metallic like this, sets with very little brush strokes. Durability was fantastic; I actually wore this for two whole weeks and chips just appeared around day 10 (and still only where I bit the skin on the side of the nail!).
This certainly brought back my love for colour-shifting polishes!
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.
So I rebelled last time and went for a single colour on my nails (missed it? Read about the bright green nails here), but now I am back to my normal (?) self – and it is marble time again!
I find this easy marble so good; the effort is really small compared with the impact, so I just love it, and need to stop myself from doing it every week (even tops the gradients for “cost x benefit”).
If you missed, I posted a short tutorial on my last marble nails. For this one I did exactly the same, with a wooden stick, but using the turquoise electric dreams from Collection, the pink sweet tart from Revlon and French white also from Collection, finishing with Seche Vite topcoat.
This was done to go with a dress I am wearing for a wedding, is has got water colour flowers in mainly pink and blue, and I am very pleased with the result – it looks girlie, candy like and the mix of colours is great. I even tried “bigger” movements to create different patterns on the marble effect!!!
Shock horror – this week I have a single colour on my nails!
And it is green- a bright, acid kinda halfway between lime and avocado green, with a lovely golden sheen to it (delivered by the addition of “special golden pearl”
to its fomula).
Sounds great, no? And it is. Pure and pretty. I was going to add stuff to it but decided not to, it shines on its own.
I am wearing the lovely limited edition green number 427, Amable Chartreuse, from Kiko’s Sun Pearl collection. Application was alright, the polish is a bit thick and it feels like the rush strokes will mark, but it settles nicely and they don’t. I am using two generous coats, but the polish is very pigmented. The finish is just lovely – shiny and intense. And it lasted very well.
As usual, Kiko delivers great value for money – this baby was only £2,40 on their sale!
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.
So Many Lovely Things 