Subtle Blue Ombre

Blue and sliver is such a pretty combination.

Base - Barry M - Rain On Me

Blue Ombre Barry M - Pacific

Stamping Plate - UberChic - 14-03

Stamping Polish - MoYou - White Knight

Short and Simple

July has been very busy so far, and it's not slowing down yet.  I found out at work that I had to move offices so I didn't want to spend too much time doing anything fancy with my nails in case they got chipped.  I also thought it would be best to file them down a bit, to avoid breaks.

I really liked the pink ombré that I did a few weeks back, so thought I'd go for the same style again but with purples.

I used the following colours, from thumb to little finger, Models Own Pitch Purple, W7 Liberty, Models Own Pear Purple, Revlon Colorstay Winning Streak, and Essie Full Steam Ahead.

Whilst I was doing my nails my mum was visiting.  She asked me to file her nails down and sort out where she had some splits and damage.  I filed them quite short so they all matched.  She then painted them with Morgan Taylor Sugar Fix so that they were still protected by some polish to avoid breaks, but so that the colour wasn't too dark.  For a bit of fun I added a pretty flower with gems from the Born Pretty Store as an accent nail.

Only a short little post this week, but I thought you might be interested to see mine and my mum's short and simple nails.  What do you do if your nails need a bit of TLC or protection?

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x

Pink Ombré Nail Art

I think sometimes simple can be more effective, and that's what I've gone for this week with a pink ombré.

I've done a similar look before with purple tones, but it was a long time ago now.  I think the colours that I picked this time around compliment each other much better and I prefer the light to dark ombré starting with the lightest shade on my thumb.  I think it looks more balanced.

From thumb to little finger I have used the following colours - Essie Ballet Slippers, Models Own Strawberry Tart, Barry M Strawberry Ice Cream, Revlon Fuchsia Fever, and China Glaze Traffic Jam.  To match the finish up on all the shades I've finished with a coat of Collection Sparkle Top Coat.

I've got some exciting reviews and a nail swap coming up on my blog so keep an eye out for those soon.

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x

Triplet Nails: Sugar Spun Nails

It's been six month since we've teamed up, but today I've got another instalment of triplet nails with Madison from Fundamentally Flawless and Lauren from The Naily Mail.  These lovely girls are my oldest blogging friends and it's always great to come up with ideas with them.  We love trying out techniques that we haven't tried before and this time around we picked the Sugar Spun technique.

I decided to go with a white base and then did an ombré effect using China Glaze Frostbite, OPI Do You Have This Colour In Stock-Holm, and China Glaze Traffic Jam.

Blue Ombré featuring Miss Sporty Metal Flip - Aurora Borealis

Hello all,

Just a very quick ombré design this week using a pearl and blues.  I was bought Miss Sporty Metal Flip in Aurora Borealis and wanted to use it, but I had already decided on an ombré design, so I didn't just want to do a swatch, so I decided to use it in my design.

As the polish has a metallic finish I picked others that were similar and went for a pearl base and True Blue from Models Own as my darked shade.  I created my ombré by painting the three colours in stripes on a make up sponge and then applying it to my nail, which I had already painted with one coat of the pearl polish.

Here is my finished result -

 I love the blend of the colours, although I think True Blue may have overpowered here a little bit, but the overall metallic finish is lovely.  I added a top coat to blend the three shades together and then topped my ring finger with thee nail gems, in a reverse ombré order to my polish with dark blue on the pearl section and clear on the dark blue.

I will do a proper swatch and review of Miss Sporty Metal Flip in Aurora Borealis soon, as it is so pretty with it's multi faceted shine and different colour oil spill effect.  Look out for it here soon x

Pretty Please

Hello all,

Could you do me the biggest favour and hop on over to the Grazia magazine website and vote for my Pastel Rainbow Ombré nails in the Grazia magazine and Nails Inc competition here : http://ow.ly/nqcbt - look for @pinkglowspolish to vote!!!

Please please please! Thank you x x x

Pastel Rainbow Ombré

Hi everyone,

I keep seeing lots of different ombré nail designs around and they are just so pretty for summer.  Normally when I do ombré nails I tend to use variations of the same colour and sponge each one on individually as you can see here, but most people seem to paint their colours on the sponge directly in stripes and then dab on the nails.  I had previously tried this design using my normal technique and failed miserably! They just looked a complete and utter mess.  So I ended up taking it off and doing something different that week.

I still wanted to try this design because I have seen a few different variations of it such as here on Pinterest and here on YouTube.  So here it is...

 

 

I started off my pastel rainbow ombré, by painting all of my nails with a pearly white base.  I chose a pearly one because for some reason whenever I paint an entirely white base, I make such a mess and this time round I really didn't want anything to go wrong before I had even really started.

 

 

After my pearl base had dried I then got my Models Own Ice Cream Sundae collection and make up sponges ready.  I lined all my colours up with the tops already unscrewed so that I was realy to paint the stripes of colour directly on to my make up sponges.  I chose to use five sponges, one for each of the different ombré combinations on each of my nails.  I don't waste the sponges though as I cut off the end when I've finished and the polish is dry.  Then I can use it again afterwards.  I made sure the sponge was slightly wet before I painted on the polish so it didn't soak in too much before I had chance to dab it on to my nails.  This is what my work station looked like when I had finished all my nails.

 

 

 

I started with my thumbs and chose yellow and green.  Yellow at the base of my thumb and green at the tip of my nail.  I then moved to my index finger and chose to continue with the green, this time at the base of the nail and I combined that with orange.  I continued using the previous nail tip colour on the base of the next nail, orange into pink, pink into blue and blue into yellow.

 

If you read my blog a lot you will know that I like glitter.  So to blend my colours and add that extra sparkle I used a coat of Rimmel Disco Ball.

 

I am really pleased with this design and it just goes to show if at first you don't succeed, try try again x



Models Own: Splash Polish Golden Shore - Summer Ombré

Hello all,

I just have a quick post this week to show the new Models Own Splash Polish in Golden Shore.  I haven't seen that many swatches of them yet, but I'm not sure people really know what to do with them.  The whole of the Splash Polish collection is gorgeous to look at in the bottle with hand cut shards of glitter in a translucent coloured polish.  I had my eye on Golden Shore right from the word go when the collection was announced, but I wasn't too sure about the others.  I resisted and just got the one in the Bottleshop when they launched with the idea that I could always go back if I wanted others.

Despite there not being too many swatches about, well not that I have seen anyway, I wasn't sure where to start, so I thought I'd test some things out on some falsies first.  I got an idea and went with that, liked how it turned out so I went with it.



 

 

I decided on a summer ombré finish to show off the shards of golden glitter.  I started off with a base of white painted over the whole nail as I really wanted my colours to pop, and I also knew that this would be covered over by Golden Shore, creating the lightest orange later on.  Using Models Own for the rest of my ombré, I sponged on Fuzzy Peach for my mid tone orange and then Pink Punch over the tips for my darkest shade.  To smooth out the sponging I added a top coat.  After this had dried I then added a coat of Golden Shore.  I would describe it as a sticky polish, it's very thick and reminded me a little bit of jam.  The glitter shards are quite tricky to evenly spread over the nail which I was a little surprised about as the Mirror Ball collection glitters are so simple to use for a great coverage in just one coat if you want.  I had to work a little bit to get the glitter to stay on my nails, dabbing the brush in places to move it around rather than a lot right at the ends or in one large patch in the middle.  I was going to add another coat, but at this stage Golden Shores had made my nails very thick with polish and I didn't really want to add anymore to them other than a top coat.

 

I ended up using two coats of top coat to stop the glitter being too bitty and sticking out all over my nails.  It seems to have done the trick, but my finished nails are very thick with varnish and I worry about it cracking and smashing on my nails with the impact of my typing and everyday wear and tare.  I will see how I go.  Does anyone else get cracking or smashing in their polish when it's thick?

 

Overall, I am not disappointed that I got Golden Shore, but I don't think I will be getting the other Splash Polishes.  This might become one that's 'perfect for toes!'.  I do like my finished neon summer ombré and I think it looks a little bit like candy corn.

 

What do you think?  I'd be interested to see what other people think about the Splash Polishes, leave a comment below to let me know x

Purple Ombré Nail Art

Hello all,

Just a quick one for today.  I had a very busy weekend so didn't have chance to spend too much time on a design this week.  As you may have guessed from other posts I am rather keen on purple, so I decided to go with purple ombré nails.

 

 

Instead of creating ombré effect on every nail like I've tried before (you can see some here and here), I chose five different shades of purple and started with the darkest on my thumb nail and worked outwards getting lighter as I went.



 

From my thumb to my little finger I have Rimmel Black Cherries, Rimmel Trend Spotting, Rimmel Purple Pulse, Models Own Lilac Dream and Models Own Grape Juice.  As they were different brands of polish they all had slightly different finishes so I finished off with a coat of Collection 2000 (although now just called Collection - that's how old my bottle must be!) glitter top coat and a coat of Sally Hansen top coat for a super glossy finish.

 

I love how the colours all work individually and together to create the effect I was going for.  I have seen this ombré design in a few different places and it was the perfect opportunity to give it a go this week.  This ombré style is a bit of a throw back from when I was younger and I would paint my toe nails in alternating shades of the same colour!

 

In other very exciting news Look Magazine contacted me and said that they would like to feature my nails in the magazine, so I am very excited and am looking forward to the issue out in the middle of May.  I'll be going down to the shops to get a copy or two!

 

Have you had a go at anything recently that has reminded you of when you were younger?  Or have you tried something that you have seen around and thought you should have a go at, but not got round too yet?  Leave a comment and let me know x



Pink, Purple and Blue Ombré Nail Art with Tutorial

Hello all,

With the weather becoming colder over the last few days and with snow hitting the UK today, my nails for the week have been inspired by the winter.  One of the things that I look forward to watching on the television in the winter is 'Dancing on Ice' and the colours that I chose for my design are based on the logo for the show.

I have included a step-by-step for the design, in case you'd like to have a go yourself - enjoy!

This is what I have used for my design, but you can create the look with any complimentary colours that you'd like. I use Models Own polishes for my design.

 

Purple Gradient Nails

This design is easier than it looks.  I used a selection of 4 purple nail varnishes and finally a black.  Paint a coat of the lightest shade of your chosen colour and leave it to dry.  Next drip a small amount of the next shade darker onto a scrap of paper. Using a make up sponge dab it on the nails leaving some of the lightest shade showing.  Repeat these steps until the very tip of your nail.

I finished this design with a coat of Nicole by OPI's 'Let's Get Star-ted'.