Peach & Bows

Yesterday, a few of the Instagram nail girls had a nail meet in London. It was so nice to just sit and chat about nails over coffee, without the other person's eyes glazing over with boredom. Which is what usually happens when I talk with my non-nail friends who have no interest whatsoever in having a full blown conversation about the latest OPI collection or how I achieved a gradient look!

I wore something very simple. Mainly because I was very busy to do anything elaborate but also because I've been loving these simpler looks recently. Although it's still freezing here at the moment, I'm starting to love pastels as spring is just around the corner.

I used Collection 2000 Fruit Loop which is a very pretty pastel peach but the formula was a nightmare to work with. It's extremely streaky, requires three coats and doesn't even itself out! The accent finger is Milani Jewel FX Silver over a coat of Zoya Trixie and I added the cutest little bows from the Born Pretty Store. A pack of 10 bows is $2.98 and they come in various colours. Use discount code VA7J61 for 10% off.

*Some of the products in this post were provided to me for review

Mish-Mash of Vintage Flowers, Glitter and Rhinestones

Today I wanted to show you guys a design I did for a contest currently taking place on Instagram, hosted by the ever so talented Bedizzle. The rules were simple, just to copy a design that she had done in the past. I opted for a design that I could manage as every other mani she had done was way to complex for me to attempt!

So that it wasn't an exact copy, I changed up the colours a little and the placement of the flowers and glitter as well. So it turned out a bit of a mish-mash of vintage flowers and placed glitters:)

Polishes used - Essie Mint Candy Apple, Collection 2000 Fruit Loop and Ninja, Rimmel London Apricot Punch, Miss Sporty Gold Backstage and OPI Alpine Snow for the dots and stripes.

Remember the Mermaid Tail nails I did a while back, also for an Instagram competition? I won second place. I couldn't believe it, there were so many great entries!

Asymmetric Periwinkle Bandit

As I haven't done a scotch tape mani in a while and today I had a little extra time on my hands, that's exactly what I went for. I should probably have the Union Jack or some sort of red, white and blue on my nails today since it's the Queen's Diamond Jubilee but to be honest, we're not really celebrating. In fact, we are going to the theatre to watch Rock of Ages, hopefully it's a good one.

Today's design is inspired by one of my favourite girls on IG, Nicole. If you have an IG account and want to follow her, search @nic_tchelly.

I started with Collection 2000 BMX Bandit which is a periwinkle blue much like CG Secret Periwinkle and Essie's Lapis of Luxury. Collection 2000 is usually a shelf I don't go near when I am in Boots but every now and again they do put out a mini collection that has some amazing colours. BMX Bandit (I love that name) is part of the Dynasty, Hoola Hoop, Wham collection which has been around since circa summer 2009 but I still love it.

For the asymmetric lines I also used Zoya Trixie which is one of my favourite silvers and the black with blue micro glitter is a franken I made a while ago called Starry Midnight Sky.

And here is a look at BMX Bandit on it's own! Isn't it beautiful? And gotta love the price too, £1.79 or 2 for £3!

Nude & Peachy Gradient

Since my last "cotton candy" looking gradient, I've been trying to get that gradation of colours to smoothly blend together, just like in Sammy's tutorial. I thought that the easiest way to achieve this would be to use soft and light colours since I have such a hard time blending very contrasting colours.

So for this mani I opted for Elf Desert Haze and Collection 2000 Fruit Loop. However, after I had finished, I realised these colours are way too close to each other to get a massive contrast, but I think I got a hang of the "blending" bit without that noticeable line of where the two colours meet. Next step is trying to do this with more contrasting colours!

Apologies for the picture quality. These two colours were really hard to capture under a lamp. Even my iPhone pictures turned out better than my camera pictures.

Fruit Loop & My Valentine Glitter

*This is s scheduled post, I am currently on holiday*

This is my latest Superdrug purchase (along with a couple more bottles...oops!). Fruit Loop by Collection 200 Hot Looks. Other than Barry M, I've been trying to stay clear of drugstore brands lately because I always either get a dodgy bottle or the formulas are so poor that they all need 4 coats which I can't deal with and always end up disappointed. However, sometimes I can't help it because they have really cute and fresh colours!

I assume Fruit Loop is part of their Spring/ Summer collection and it's a pastel peach which would look absolutely stunning with a tan. I nearly gave up after the first coat because it was so streaky but it eventually evened out after three coats.

I didn't really know what I wanted to do with this mani so I just started stamping and adding random things! Lol! I stamped with Konad m36 and sponged Kleancolor My Valentine onto the tips (I must do another mani with this glitter because it's so gorgeous!).

NOTD: Towel Boy Toy Cherry Bikini

Hi everyone. Yesterday I showed you China Glaze's Towel Boy Toy, an amazing neon blue with hints of pearl shimmer and today, as my mani was still good and because Towel Boy Toy looks very similar to the colour of a bikini I recently bought, I decided to do a "Towel Boy Toy Cherry Bikini" mani!!

Products used: China Glaze - Towel Boy Toy, OPI - Keys To My Karma
Collection 2000 Hot Looks - Ninja, MUA - Shade 13