Jade +Teal = Mix + Match

Can you guess which blogger today's mani is inspired by? Of course you can! She has the most perfect nails and her designs are always fantastic and inspiring - it's Amy Grace from The Polished Perfectionist.

I didn't have all the polishes or the stamping plate that Amy Grace used so I chose the following products instead. By the way, how amazing is CG Atlantis? Can't believe this is the first time I'm wearing it!

pinky and thumb: Rimmel London Misty Jade
ring: Nails Inc Electric Teal, BM221, Konad Special Nail Polish in White
middle: one coat of Nails Inc Electric Teal, two coats of China Glaze Atlantis
index: OPI Alpine Snow, Rimmel London Misty Jade, dotting tool

Thanks for reading and commenting :)

Island Girl - Pink & Micro Holo Glitter

I only found out about Island Girl polishes around five months ago via the girls on Instagram. As far as I'm aware, these polishes are only available in Hawaii and they are also sold in ABC stores in Las Vegas. The brand has such cool and vivid colours and they are quite cheap as well (under $3), the bottles are shaped exactly like the China Glaze ones and the brushes are identical too.

Here I'm wearing two coats of Island Girl - Island Girl (self titled polish, lol!), a fuchsia creme packed with micro holographic glitter. It's still a bit gritty after the top coat which doesn't bother me at all but for those of you who like your nails smooth, a thicker top coat will do the trick! The accent finger is Rimmel London Misty Jade stamped with BM221. I think pink goes with green so much!

Here are the colours I've collected so far:

Pastel Watercolour Zebra

Today's design has been on my "to do" list for such a long time. I've always wanted to try a pastel watercolour technique but I don't really like it when all the colours look too messy on the nail. So I only let the four colours I used for this design overlap slightly.

I started with a white base (OPI Alpine Snow) and also used the following polishes to create the watercolour effect - Yes Love 243 (yellow), Yes Love Y17 (pink), Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream and Rimmel London Misty Jade. All of these pastels together remind me of soft scoop ice cream :)

I finally stamped with BM223 (probably my most used BM plate) for a subtle zebra effect.

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!

Perfect Plum

This is Rimmel London Perfect Plum. I have had this polish for a very long time and have used it in a few manis as a secondary colour but had never properly swatched it! I remember falling in love with the colour a couple of years ago when I first saw it in Boots, it was like a little gem on the shelf.

Perfect Plum is a medium purple packed with blue shimmer (see last pic).  The blue shimmer was quite unexpected as when I first grabbed the bottle, it just looked like a standard purple creme. I like this shade, it's an all year round shade for me.

The formula is a bit on the thin side but nice. Opaque in 2 coats and easy to manage. Rimmel London polishes are consistent in quality (at least the ones I have) and the price isn't too bad (between £2.49 and £4.59 I think)!

Nubar Prevail Gets striped

(This is a scheduled post, I am currently on holiday)
I added other tones of purple to yesterday's Nubar Prevail to create some diagonal stripes and of course added a little fimo butterfly to the ring finger :-)
My husband was saying that these colour together don't pop as much as some of the other stripe manis I have done but I still like how the purples look together. The purple on the top stripe near the cuticle is Blue Berry by Miss Sporty and the stripe on the tip is Perfect Plum by Rimmel London. I also added a top coat, look how good Prevail is with a top coat. It's one of those mattes that you can turn glossy and it still remains a nice colour:

NOTD: Apricot Punch Summer Flowers

Today I wanted to show you a summery mani I did using Apricot Punch from Rimmel London's I Love Fruities Lasting Finish Collection. The polishes in this collection smell great and the fragrance surprisingly lasts a long time on the nails. I couldn't stop smelling my nails!!

Apricot Punch is a subtle coral creme, very similar to a salmon coloured polish I have. I like the consistency of this polish and in my opinion, it is slightly better than their 60 seconds range. Opacity is good with 2 coats and I had no problems with streaks. The only downside is the 8ml bottle, I wish they came in slightly larger bottles of 14ml.

I then stamped with BM224 and Konad white stamping polish and added some french tips of a complementary colour - Nails Inc Coral.
I add some sort of tips to a lot of my manis. I first saw this on Erika's blog, started doing it and now I have to tip almost everything!!! Her manis are amazing and inspire me a lot.

Pink Wednesday!!! - Polka Dots with a Kick & Color Club In Bloom!

For today's Pink Wednesday I am actually going to show you a mani I did a couple of weeks ago. My nails were still a little long back then and I had them filed in an oval shape - won't be doing that again anytime soon!!! I don't think it suits me at all, I'm more of a square gal! Lol!!

Anyway, onto the mani... I used Color Club In Bloom as the base colour, a true creme Barbie pink with the tiniest amount of shimmer, almost undetectable. Visible in the bottle and on the brush but doesn't translate to the nail!
I then taped off diagonal and "V" shaped sections of the nails and used Rimmel London 60 Seconds Black Out before using a dotting tool to create white larger dots and pink smaller dots. I got the inspiration for this mani from Love4Nails YouTube tutorial. Check it out, this lady is extremely talented and her nails are beautifully long. I wish I could keep mine like that but they would snap in a blink of an eye!

And here is how In Bloom looks like on its own:

From the Vault: Sheer Pink & Black Fishnet Nails

I like to share my successes as well as my disappointments with you - enter the Fishnet mani!
When I saw this on a YouTube tutorial by Glamerous Gabby I thought it was such a good mani (and still do despite the outcome). I loved the whole idea and look.
I did this mani over a month ago and realised the mistakes I made but I didn't discard the pictures because there was something about it that I still really liked. My Fishnet is a little messy but I still love how it looks on the nail:

xoxo
:-)

Minnie Mouse Inspired Nails

This morning I wanted to show you my Minnie Mouse nails. This was inspired by Cutepolish. Have a look at her amazing creations here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/cutepolish

Minnie's face on the ring finger didn't quite turn out how I wanted it to. Maybe next time I can draw her in much better... My bows need a bit of tweaking as well...some of them look crooked !!! Practice, practice, practice...

You'll notice, on some of these Minnie has beady eyes drawn in and on others she doesn't. Lol !!! Wasn't sure which one looked better ?!?!

Products Used:
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Racey Rouge
Rimmel London French Manicure - French Ivory
17 Lasting Fix - Mini Skirt (for dotting)

xoxo

Easter Monday Bank Holiday Half Moons

Hope you guys had a great Easter. This is my first post ever (yay!). Not quite sure where to begin.

So, I think I dreamt about half moon nails last night because I spent an hour looking at pictures of Dita Von Teese. I love the look - so vintage, so 1950's. Although they were brought back a while ago (for fall 2009 runways I think), for some reason I'm obsessing about them now!!
I wanted to recreate it on myself but using different contrasting or complementary colours other than the traditional white/red I've always seen. I loved what CND did at the Christian Dior and Ruffian runways.

I don't have much of a steady hand so I cheated and used the little round stickers method. They didn't come out bad for a first attempt and although the stickers left some residue behind, it didn't damage the polish.

I used OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender for the half moon and Rimmel London Perfect Plum on the rest of the nail.

What do you guys think of the half moon manicure in general?