New Nail Length & Vintage Mani

I decided to give my nails a chop this week and get them all to the same length and shape, I think it looks much better :)

I decided to give vintage “Cath Kidston” style nails a go. I wasn’t sure how I’d get on with the flowers so decided to go with stripes for the rest of my nails except my ring finger. I used Barry M 251 Blue as a base colour and then using a dotting tool and Essie Van D’Go and Models Own Vintage Pink I drew the flower and used OPI You Don’t Know Jacques for the leaves. I then did vertical white stripes on the other nails using a striping tool.

I love this look and definitely want to try again with different colour combos!

Pink Split–OPI & Essie

I think I’ve gone from begin obsessed with drawing dots on my nails to drawing stripes across my nails! Here is yet another split mani!

I did two coats of OPI Do You Think I’m Tex-y and then used Rimmel Matte Finish Top Coat over this. I then did  a diagonal line and filled in the top part of my nail with Essie Masquerade Belle and finished off with a black line to separate the two colours. I quite liked the contrast in colours but I was disappointed with the matte top coat over this polish as I was hoping for a more dramatic effect with the matte and non matte polishes. I’ve seen some great manis using this effect though so am keen to try in with a few different colours, I think it seems to work better with darker polishes.

Strawberry nails

I stumbled across a picture of some strawberry nails last week and HAD to give them a go! There are a few different styles out there but I decided this was my favourite…

I used two coats Essie Silken Cord as a bottom coat and then drew the “leaves” on with OPI Jade is the New Black followed by white dots as “seeds”. I found the leaves quite difficult to do and had to adjust them a few times but was quite happy with the overall result!

Peacock Nails

I saw this look on YouTube and fell in love. I decided to give it a go seeing as I loved the colours used and I love Peacocks!

I used Essie Going Incognito as the green base, then used a dotting tool and GOSH 554 Gold, Rimmel 825 Sky High and Models Own True Blue for the spots.

It’s not quite the same as the finished result in the video but I quite liked it! I think if I was going to do this look again I would make the dots bigger and more even.

I love doing animal print designs though and am always on the look out for new ideas, let me know if you have tried any and would recommend!

Attempt at Marble Nails

Well I tried it! My first two attempts are below.

L: Essie Mint Candy Apple, Essie Van D’Go and Models Own True Blue
R: Models Own Turkish Delight, Models Own Peach Sherbet and Essie Mint Candy Apple

I think it is definitely something that you get better at over time! Took me a while to get used to what temperature the water needed to be and also timing to get a pattern before the polish dries! I’m not admitting defeat as I will be trying this again soon but it’s quite messy and time consuming so I’ll need patience when doing it haha.

Saying that, I did get some nice comments when I wore the above!

To be continued!

More Dots!

I am a bit obsessed with drawing dots on my nails, I’m not really quite sure why! I wanted to try some contrasting colours, originally I was going to do red and black but then decided to go for red and white. I used Essie’s Silken Cord which is a vibrant red and a white polish from Natural Collection.

Some of the spots are a bit too splodgey on my index finger but I think it’s quite a fun look overall. I did a reverse pattern on my left ring and right index finger again. This seems to be becoming a new favourite of mine!

Let me know what you think!

Haul and Smash Up Polish

My Models Own order finally arrived, woo!

(L-R: Turkish Delight, True Blue, Green Grass, Silver Smash Up & Purple Smash Up.)

I was really excited to try out the Smash Up polishes as I’ve only used the Barry M one’s before, so I put Purple Smash Up over GOSH’s Groovy Grey.

I think it gives a different effect to the Barry M crackle polishes, I’m not sure if it was the base colour but I wasn’t really feeling this combo that much. I will be trying it with a mixture of different colours though, I think it would look awesome with a bright pink underneath! I shall keep you updated!

Also, I nabbed a bargain from ASOS the other day – I got the Essie Resort collection for the amazing grand total of £1.50!

(L-R: Fair Game, Da Bush, Lion Around & Your Hut Or Mine)

I  am LOVING the look of Da Bush so far, so I think I’ll be trying this out very soon! Have you got any of the polishes from this collection? Let me know your thoughts!

Essie Hot Coco

I bought this polish when I went to America last year and it was part of the Autumn/Winter collection 2010. Believe it or not this is the first time I have got around to wearing it!
It is a gorgeous chocolate brown shade (hence the name!) which is very wearable. I sometimes fine that Essie polishes are quite streaky and take a lot of building up but this went on nicely with 2 coats and I finished this off with a top coat of OPI Top Coat.
I do love a good brown polish, what about you?!