Autumnal Gradient

I wore this two-tone red Autumnal gradient a couple of weeks ago. The weather had just started to change then, and the colours seemed season appropriate.
Since following Sammy's gradient tutorial, I find them a little easier to manage but I still get annoyed at the amount of polish I get around my finger and the clean up afterwards. I guess it's something I have to endure since I really love gradients!

For this gradient I used two shades of red. Butter London Come To Bed Red and Nails Inc Victoria. I have to say that CTBR is not my favourite of reds. It has a jelly-like finish and although I don't mind some vnl, I hate vnl with red polish. It needs 3 coats for full opacity.

I always feel the need to complete my gradients with a glitter or some sort of topper so I added CND 24K Sparkle Effect. I reminds me of fallen golden leaves and it also gives it a rustic looks. I'm not sure what version I prefer though! You?

Dark Amethyst & Gold Flakies

As I didn't have time to swatch the second colour of the CND The Look for Fall/ Winter 2011 yesterday, as promissed, here it is:

 

Dark Amethyst is a deep purple creme. Very close to plum shade. I like the fact that it's very deep purple but doesn't look nearly black like my OPI Lincoln Park After Dark often does. Formula is perfect as with Midnight Sapphire yesterday.

 

And here it is with one coat of Sheer 24k Sparkle:

Thanks for stopping by :)

Midnight Sapphire & Gold Flakies!

A couple of months ago I went over to the UK distributor for CND and when I saw this little trio on the shelf, I couldn't help myself. This is was the "Look" for Fall/ Winter 2011 (I know I'm a little late...sorry) and it consists of 2 cremes and a new effect:

Today I'll be showing you Midnight Sapphire. It's been a busy day so I haven't had time to swatch both :(

Midnight Sapphire is a deeply pigmented sapphire blue creme. It goes much darker on the nail compared to the bottle colour. Although it's not the first time we see a blue like this, it is still a very pretty shade! You can't go wrong with a deep inky blue. The formula is absolutely amazing but then again I have never had a problem with CND formulas - always opaque in just one coat and very easy and smooth to work with.

 

Once you apply the 24k Sparkle Effect, a gold flakie, it transforms the base colour and gives it that extra sparkle. I really like CND Effects. They can be worn over so many polishes to spruce them up:

 

I couldn't help but mattify it as well. I love my flakies matte:

Thanks for reading and commenting :)

True Love Toughens Up

As usual, I added a few bits and bobs to my existing mani by stamping with BM222 which looks a little like barb wire, and used Konad Special polish in Silver.
The reason the stamping is quite subtle is because I had trouble with the Konad Silver, I expected it to be much more opaque and thick than it is! Anyone else had trouble with Konad Silver?

I also added a coat of CND Effects Violet Shimmer. These effects polishes really transform a colour. This mani went from a purple maroon fusion to an electric purple shimmer in a heartbeat!

Layering: Revlon Facets of Fuchsia & CND Violet Shimmer Effects

This polish has been causing a bit of a hype lately, not least because it's the high street drugstore's take on Deborah Lippmann's Bad Romance for a fraction of the cost.

I'm sure you all know the ins and outs of this polish - black jelly base with Fuchsia glitter and hex shaped glitter, etc... so I'll skip that part!

I applied 2 coats of Facets of Fuchsia over 1 coat of Barry M Black. I just wanted to make it as opaque as possible without having to use too many coats of FoF! I wanted to try it over a fuchsia base colour as well but didn't have the time so instead I layered CND Effect Violet Shimmer over it:

What do you think of the CND Violet Shimmer effect? I think it adds another dimension to FoF and makes it more edgy.

Pink Wednesday: China Glaze Sugar High & CND Violet Shimmer Effect

Happy Wednesday everyone. For today's mani I have a swatch of China Glaze's Sugar High I got in one of my hauls sometime ago but hadn't yet had the chance to try it.

Sugar High is a medium creme pink from the Up & Away Collection. The name suits the polish really well because it does make me think of candy every time I look at it.
I had seen this polish on other people's nails and read a few reviews before buying it, and it looked much more of a bright hot pink than it does on my nails! When I first opened the bottle I could almost see the hint of neon everybody talks about but on my nails I could detect a hint of coral instead.
This polish is loaded with pigmentation and was fully opaque in 2 coats, no problems with streaks either.

I had a bottle of CND Effects Violet Shimmer on my shelf that I've never used and just wanted to experiment a little so I layered it over Sugar High. I think it would be much more evident and looks better over dark colours where the shimmer really has a chance to pop, however I also think it looks good over Sugar High. It turned it into a very shiny neon and although I had trouble getting this on picture, it was very evident outdoors in direct sunlight.