W7 Random

I still haven't taken off yesterday's neon, I think I'll keep it for another day. So here are a couple of manis from a while back that I never got around to posting!

These are both W7 polishes, a brand which I've recently been really into. First up is W7 Fluorescent Pink. It reminds me of a lighter version of China Glaze Life's a Beach because of the shimmery formula and it's opaque in two coats. I added some black triangles using scotch tape. I don't quite remember the look I was going for, some sort of geometric pattern I guess!

Next up is W7 Metallic Mercury which is part of the W7 Planets Collection. It was because of this collection, which was released around Fall last year I believe, that I really started paying attention to W7. Metallic Mercury is a dark plum, gold and brown glass flecked multichrome which looks incredible in the bottle but of course doesn't transfer onto the nail.

Regardless, it's still pretty when the light hits it and it looks much better in person than in photos. It has good coverage and is fully opaque in 2 coats. A real bargain at £1.95!

Citrus Stripes

Today, I've put my scotch tape roll to good use again and have some "nudies" and some diagonal citrusy stripes for you.
Very rarely will you see a glimpse of my natural nails! Too much polish all the time means they are usually very stained and I don't often bother to scrub the staining away when I'm just going to be using more polish that stains the next day! However, I've been trying some very light and soft colours lately so I grabbed some lemon juice and baking soda and got scrubbing and buffing.

The base colour is in fact no colour at all, it's just base coat and for the stripes I used Barry M Lemon Ice Cream and Essence Wake Up, sent to me by the lovely Nihrida.

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!

Dragon & The Shield

This polish needs no introduction. Dragon from A England's The Legends collection is a stunning scattered holo masterpiece. If you love greens, you need to go and get yourself this polish! If you have tried A England polishes before, you'll know that they apply like butter and are mostly one coaters. The holo effect of this green is subtly packed with tones of gold! I love it!

I added a "shield" to the accent finger using Barry M Gold Foil. I would usually call this a "checkered mani" but it does remind me of a medieval shield and it fits the theme of the polish, so let's go with shield :)

 

I love all types of holo polishes, I know I'm not the only one! But the biggest pet peeve of mine is when I so badly want to wear a holo and there isn't a single ray of sunlight! However, I also took a picture of this polish indoors and I was surprised that some of the subtle holo effect was still there! It's amazing how it doesn't look completely flat like a lot of other holos.

Ice Blue Snow Leopard

I decided to do a different take on leopard print for this one. Usually, if I'm doing leopard, I cover the whole nail but I quite like the electric blue brightness of this polish so I only put the leopard print on half the nail. I used scotch tape to cover off the top half diagonally.

Snow leopards are obviously not blue (!) but these "cold" colours remind me of them. They are such beautiful creatures!

"The snow leopard (Uncia uncia or Panthera uncia) is a moderately large cat native to the mountain ranges of Central Asia.The total wild population of the snow leopard was estimated at only 4,080 to 6,590 individuals by McCarthy, et al., 2003. Many of these estimates are rough and outdated. There are also 600-700 snow leopards in zoos around the world." - Wikipedia

source: smashinglists

Black & Gold Egyptian Pyramids

Today's mani was inspired by Jane's Pyramid manis. I spent the best part of an hour trying to figure out how she created a 3 tier pyramid without having to use 4 strips of tape simultaneously, but in the end I gave up! All I could come up with was a 2 tier pyramid!

Polishes used were Barry M Black and Miss Sporty Gold Backstage. I really like the contrast between Black & Gold and I love doing tape manis but I need a little bit more practice to get my angles right!

The not so scary Halloween mani

I didn't do any Halloween nail art this year. I'm not very good at themed manis and even worse at freehand. I suppose I could have used some BM plates but I rather admire what other bloggers have been creating. I have seen some amazing Halloween manis floating around this year :)

So, trying to at least keep with Halloween'ish colours, here is a not-so-scary scotch tape mani in orange and black. You can tell by the title, I had no idea what to call this one!

The burnt orange polish used is Metallic Mango by Milani. Orange is one of my least favourite colours, I'm not even sure why I bought this one, I think it was really cheap on Ebay! It's a shame I won't use it much because it's orange as the formula is amazing! The consistency is perfect and so manageable I didn't even have to do any clean up. Perfect is 2 even coats!

Victoriana Teal Chevrons

I wasn't sure what to do with yesterday's mani. I fell in love with Victoriana so much that I didn't want to "ruin" it with nail art. Then again, I can't leave a mani alone, especially if I'm in the mood to do my nails again but don't yet want to remove my good polish! So I went for the safe option - tape! I was going to just go for french tips but instead decided on french tips with a twist!

Keeping with the blue, green, teal, silver micro-glitter, etc, theme; here are some Victorian(a) inspired teal chevrons. Additional polishes used were Zoya Trixie and Nails Inc In Style free polish in Teal.

Bzzzzz...

I went to a barbecue at a friend's house yesterday and saw a few bumble bees whilst we were out in the garden (really??). It's been quite warm here lately, although not so much today!
I already had yellow on my nails from yesterday because I was thinking of doing a lightning bolt tape mani with it, so why not use tape to make something that resembles a bee (plus it's way easier than the lightning bolt)!

Here is my interpretation of the bee manicure - using tape. I can't really draw so I don't think I would even be able to draw a bee and I couldn't help but add a little fimo for extra cuteness :)

And here is a pic of my little tiger Eggbert munching on my living room plant that we always try to rescue from him. Don't worry, it's not poisonous, we've taken a sample to check! He would be munching on those bees in the garden if I let him!

Ciate Paint Pots - Mojito & Cupcake Queen Tape Manis

Hi Everyone :-) Last week I was contacted by the lovely Rachel from Budoir PR asking me if I would like to try some products from one of their clients - Ciate. Of course I said yesssss!!! As soon as the goodies arrived in the post, I swatched them straight away. She sent me Ciate's Mojito and Cupcake Queen.

What stands out the most for me with Ciate polishes is the packaging. The flat rectangular shaped bottles which are slightly curved, the long thin cap and an adorable little bow on the front of the bottle all make it look elegant yet very girly. Even the Ciate logo, although playful looks vintage.

Both these polishes had different formulas, Mojito was thinner and needed 3 coats for opacity whereas Cupcake Queen was on the thicker side but very easy and smooth to apply and opaque in 1 coat. Drying time is quite fast on both polishes, even after 3 very generous coats of mojito.

Mojito is a really bright lime green which I thought I would love since I'm really into my greens but this one didn't live up to my "green" expectations! It looked absolutely lovely in the bottle but didn't pop on my nails. I wish I could have achieved the bottle colour!

Cupcake Queen is a hot pink packed with blue micro shimmer which is easily visible in the bottle but nearly impossible to detect on the nails unless under strong sunlight. Like I mentioned before, the formula on this one was perfect.

I couldn't help but add a little something extra to my nails so I did a quick tape mani on each colour. I got some of those kids play scissors in the post the other day so decided to use each pattern on these.

Mojito:

Cupcake Queen: