Purple Leopard Print

Leopard print with a funky twist

Base (black) - Sally Hansen - Blacky-O

Base (purple) - Rimmel - Purple Pulse

Glitter - Butter London - The Black Knight

Spots - Rimmel - Trend Spotting

Pink and Purple Skittle

Inspired by Nail Polish Society

Base (pink) - Jacava - Raspberry Bavarois

Base (purple) - Jacava - Lavender Court

Base (black) - Sally Hansen - Blacky O

Base (gold) - Barry M - Gold Digger

Stamping Plate - UberChic 14-03

Purple with Glitter Accent

You can't beat a pretty base with a glitter accent.

Base - OPI - Do You Have This Color In Stockholm

Glitter Accent - Sally Hansen - Grape Shifter

Tahlia from Elune by Emily

A duo chrome, holographic glitter dream

Base - Elune by Emily - Tahlia

Silver Stamping - MoYou London - Silver Dust

Stamping Plate - Uberchic Beauty - 3-02

September - Pinks, Purples, and Glitter

Looking back over the past month I seem to have used lots of pinks, purples, and glitter, but hey, I'm not complaining.

Purples and pinks are my favourite colours so I'm not surprised that a had a whole month with a similar colour theme.

I started with Morgan Taylor's Bright Side with a glitter gradient.

Bright Side is a beautiful neon pink which dries to a matte finnish.  I used two coats here and you do need at least two coats as it's very streaky with just one.  I then used Holographic top coat from Nina Ultra Pro.  This has to be amongst my favourite glitters.  It catches the light and is jam packed with loads of sparkles.

During the month I was lucky enough to be sent some new colours from the Jacava Woodlanders collection to review, which you can see here.  I wore the grey base for a little while before I couldn't resit covering it in a coat of this super sparkly glitter, Glass Slipper from Accessorize.

This is my favourite design I have done in a while.  I have been doing some more simple things lately so decided to have a bit more fun with this one.  Being in a Autumn kind of place with another colour from the Jacava Woodlanders collection, I stamped some cute leaves and added some glitter and nail studs to match the theme.  I used Models Own Utopia for the base of the stamped nail and the golf glitter is Bora Bora, also from Models Own.

Last month I signed up to Nailbox, but just missed the cut off for the August box, but the September box was worth the wait.  I got this amazing Sinful Pro Shine polish, Show Off.  I was drawn to it like a moth to a flame when I opened the box so had to try it straight away.  I had placed an order a She Sell Sea Shells for some Nail Vinyls so thought that I'd try them out for some fun chevron accent nails with Turn On The Haute Light from OPI.

Do you have a favourite colour you find yourself reaching for all the time?  What colours are you loving this Autumn?

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x

Jacava Woodlanders Collection AW15* - Jacava Competition Announcement

Jacava have gone and done it again - they have released seventeen brand new shades in their Autumn/Winter 2015 collection and they are bar far my favourites out of their entire range.  Autumn is my favourite season and I am partial to a dark nail, so when I was asked to review some of the new shades I jumped at the chance.  Make sure you read on to find out about Jacava's competition to win all 17 Woodlanders shades!

*Press sample - sent to me for review

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

Revlon Colorstay Gel Envy: Winning Streak with Dry Marbled Hearts

I was a very lucky girl and I got a happy Friday present last week from my fiancé - he brought me home a pretty bottle of purple goodness!  Otherwise named, Revlon Colorstay Gel Envy in Winning Streak.

This is such a pretty colour and the coverage is amazing.  I could have left it at one coat if I wanted, but I had in mind to try out this dry marbling to create some pretty hearts.  I first tried this technique out on my Valentine's Day nail art wheel which you might have seen over on Instagram back in February.  This is so easy to do, but I love the finished effct.  All you have to do it paint on another coat of your base colour, add a row of dots in a contrasting colour whilst the base it still wet and then drag a thin nail art brush down the middle.

You can use this technique for more complicated marbled designs as well.  Madison over at Fundamentally Flawless has some great designs and I loved the swirl design she did at Christmas as part of her Advent Calendar.

The two purples I chose mix together beautifully to create the hearts.  If you don't have a thin nail art brush you can use a toothpick or a pin.  Just be careful that you don't drag the polish too hard otherwise you could end up creating bald spots on your nails.  Also you do have to work quite quickly, but if you have a bit of a practice first you'll get the hang of it quite quickly.  If you leave the dots of polish too long and they dry when you drag them together you'll end up wrinkling your polish.

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x

OPI Spotty Nails

When I went away in December I thought it would be silly not to stop by the duty free to see what nail goodies I could find and I came across the travel exclusive OPI  Coca Cola set.  It comes with 6 mini bottles of beautiful colours.  I have used a few of the colours so far and really like them, but this is the first time any of them have appeared in a blog post.

W7 Nail Polish and Cosmic Nail Dust Review*

Hello all,

I hope you've had a great Christmas and got some lovely nail goodies under the tree.  We now of course have the countdown to the New Year, and it's another perfect excuse for super glittery nails.  I was asked to review some colours and glitters from W7 Cosmetics and thought that this would be the perfect reason to show them off.

*Press sample - sent to me for review

Models Own: Hyper Gel Pitch Purple with Reverse Glitter Gradient

Hello all,

I loved the Ebony Green HyperGel that I used last week so I just had to try one of the other new shades that I got.  I love darker shades in autumn and winter, and also it's the perfect excuse to add glitter to a manicure.  Ok, lets face it, I don't really need an excuse for that - If you read my blog regularly you'll know I'm partial to sparkly nails!

This is such a gorgeous colour purple and the gel effect is brilliant.  It's so glossy even without a top coat.  I decided add a reverse glitter gradient using Jack Frost from the Wonderland collection and Banger from the Fireworks collection.  Both these glitters go really well together and with the purple.

I started by adding Jack Frost very sparingly on all nails so I was left with only a few particles of glitter.  I then went over this again, but only at the base of my nails by the cuticles.  Because Jack Frost is an iridescent glitter it works really well for a gradient as it takes on the main colour from the base polish.  I then topped this further with Banger.  The blues and pinks in this really compliment the purple.

What are your favourite combinations for glitter gradients?

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x

Models Own: Pear Purple and Stamping

Hi all,

One of my favourite colours is purple, and I love purple nails.  So it was only natural that I would be getting Models Own Pear Purple from their new Diamond Luxe collection.  I had a simple swatch of Oval Plum last week, and you can see how pretty this collection is with the real diamond dust shimmering away through the polish.

Rather than another simple swatch I decided to go for a bit of stamping and extra glitter.  If you read my blog regularly you know how much I love a bit of glitter!

Multicoloured Dots Nail Art

Hi all,

I don't know about you, but I'm still not quite ready to say goodbye to bright colours, and this week I couldn't decide which one to use, so I used them all!

When I'm short of time my go to nail art of choice is polka dots.  I used my Models Own dotting tools to create various different sized dots for this design.  I started with a base of Models Own Snow White.  I have been using this so often recently, so much so that I just finished a bottle of it, and I don't think I've ever finished a bottle of polish, ever!  Usually they go gloopy before I can get to the end,  It's just fabulous and such a brilliant white to work with.  I then used lots of other polishes that to complete the look.

Orange - Graffiti Nails Tuscany

Green - Essence Roller Coaster

Blue - Miss Sporty Pop Fiction

Purple - Morgan Taylor Bright Side

Pink (pictured) - China Glaze Purple Panic

I have just had a bit of destash and said bye bye to 19 polishes.  I originally thought it was going to be really difficult to go through and get rid of some, but it was much easier than anticipated.  They were ones that had dried up a bit, or ones that I just wasn't going to wear again, but there were some in there that only just made the cut!  It was good to have a proper look through though and it meant I came across the Miss Sporty one and realised that I hadn't used it yet, so thought I'd début along with these other gorgeous colours.  Isn't it pretty?

Graffiti Nails and Essence have been a recent favourites of mine, so I had to include them, and I love the quality of China Glaze and Morgan Taylor.  Whilst they are on the pricier side for nail polishes I really do think you get what you pay for.  Every time I use these it's like using a brand new bottle of polish.

Overall I think this is a fun design and pretty eye catching; I've even had men at work admiring my nails today!

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x

Polish Party: Glitter and Gems - Purple Galaxy Nail Art... and Giveaway

Hi all,

August seems to have flown by, so once again it's Polish Party time.  This month the vote was for glitter and/or gems.  If you follow me or have visited here before you'll know I love a bit of sparkle.

Now, I know I'm late to join in with the galaxy nails craze, but I've recently been enjoying spotting the ISS on it's orbits that have passed over the UK, and also seeing the super moon (although there was no cape in site!).  I was also inspired to give them a go when I saw the pastel galaxy nails that sophiedoesnails posted on Instagram a couple of days ago.

I used quite a few different polishes for this design and it took a while to do because of all the layers, but I am really pleased with how they turned out.

I started with a base of Laka in number 25.  I went to Westfield and they have a express manicure stand on the ground floor with lots of pretty colours to choose from, so thought I needed to try it out.  I used two coats, as the first was a little streaky, but it goes on really smoothly.  The brush is very small in comparison to others that I am used to using, but this does mean that you can paint it on very carefully preventing cuticles from being flooded with polish.  It's a beautiful deep purple with a shimmer finish.  The photo shows all the purples a little more blue than in person, but it's so tricky to get purples right.

After that I used NYC Lights-Camera-Glitter for my first layer of stars.  To create the milky way glow in the middle of my nails I used a make up sponge to carefully add layers of Models Own Snow White, Sinful Colours Fig, and Laka 25 until I was happy with the shape and colour.  To top this off and make it extra sparkly I added a few coats of Jessica Starlet, just to the milky way area on each nail.  The main stars in the foreground were added using my Barry M nail art pen in white.

Just to show you the true sparkle and colours I took a quick picture on my phone outside and a quick video so you get the full effect...

I hope you like my purple galaxy for this months theme.  Make sure you take a look at what the others girls do by following the links below.  Don't forget to check out my giveaway at the bottom of this post

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x

Don't miss the giveaway

Today was a very exciting day... I hit 600 followers on Twitter.  So in light of that I thought I would be fun to host a giveaway!!

To enter all you will need to do is

• Follow me on Twitter
• Retweet the giveaway tweet that will be pinned to the top of my profile
• Use the hashtag #pinkglows600

The winner will receive the following

• 1x Models Own - Gumballs (See it here)
• 1x Barry M Matte- Rhossili
• 1x Essence - It's Raining Men (See it used here and here)
• 1x Essence - Party Never Ends
• 1x Barry M - Nail Art Pen in Black
• 1x Models Own Artstix Nail Beads in Gold Fizz
• 1x Nail Embellishment Wheel
• 1x Pack of Nail Polish Remover Pads
• 1x Pink Gem Glass Nail File
• 1x Pack of 20 Manicure Sticks

The giveaway will be open to UK residents only due to posting.  Giveaway closes on 04 September 2014 at 7pm (GMT).

Good luck x

Ciaté Mini Caviar Nails

Hi all,

You may have seen that with the July edition of Marie Claire there are free mini caviar nail kits from Ciaté.  Marie Claire is £2.50 and the kits are valued at around £10, so you can't really go wrong.  If you follow me on Instagram you will have seen that I have two sets.  The first kit was given to my mum and she gave it to me.

The blue is Starry Night and is made up of Ferris Wheel polish and Frost Yourself caviar pearls.  The purple is Fairy Dust and is made up of Sugar Plum polish and Ice Queen caviar pearls.  I haven't ever done caviar nails so I thought these would be the perfect way to try the technique out.  These are also my first Ciaté polishes.  I decided to use the Fairy Dust set first.

Sugar Plum is such a pretty lilac shade and I am really impressed with it.  It was extremely streaky on first coat so I was a little worried, but when I applied a second coat it evened out.  Looking at it now I think a third coat would have been even better but it's ok.  This has to be the glossiest pastel colour I have used.  I didn't really need to apply a top coat to add any shine.  It's very different to have a finish like this with a pastel shade.  The Ice Queen pearls are a mix of different colours in silver, purple, clear and iridescent blue. I think the idea to apply the pearls is to pour them over the wet polish.  I thought this would get fiddly and very messy so I poured them into a bowl and dipped my nail directly into the pearls.  All I had to to then was gently press them into the wet polish to secure them.  Over all I am very pleased with my first Ciaté caviar nails and I am looking forward to seeing how long the pearls last.  Day one, so far so good, a few have made a bid for freedom, but there aren't any glaring gaps.

Will you be trying out any of the mini caviar kits?

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x

Models Own: Sticky Fingers Review*

Hi all,

I've got another review of one of Models Own's latest collections.  I am a bit behind on talking about this one because of a theme I set myself for the month of March, but here it it... better late than never.  In March Sticky Fingers were launched.

From left to right we have Drops and Blobs, Pastel Petals, and Sweet Candy.

*Press sample - sent to me for review

Polish Party: Chevrons

Hello all,

It's Polish Party time again and this month's theme is chevrons.  I have to say that this was not my favourite theme, as chevrons were not something that I had thought about doing before but I gave them a go.  I guess I wont like every theme that we vote on, but it's all about the challenge and trying new things!

I chose to use three different shade of purple from Models Own to create my gradient of chevrons.  I started with a base of Grape Juice from the Fruit Pastel collection, so my nails smell yummy.  Once that was dry I then painted my first chevron using Lilac Dream from the Ice Cream Sundae collection.  I created two lines in a point towards the tip of my nail.  Once this was dry I finished of my design with Pukka Purple from the Ice Neon collection.  It's really tricky to get a good picture of Pukka Purple, but this is pretty accurate!

Even though I am not a chevron fan I think these turned out ok.  Have you done chevron nails before, drop me a link so I can take a look! I always look forward to seeing what the other Polish Party girls come up with, make sure you check them out below 

An InLinkz Link-up

Models Own: Southern Lights

Hi all,

As you may have seen I got lots of new polishes for Christmas and I still haven't been able to try them all yet, but I went with one from the Wonderland collection this week, Southern Lights.

I have had my eye on both Southern and Northern Lights for a while now, so I was very pleased my friend picked them for my present.

This is such a pretty colour and unfortunately I couldn't get a picture that would do it justice.  It is super super sparkly.  The polish is jam packed with loads of holographic glitter particles along with lilac glitter so give the shimmy effect.  When my nails catch the light it is just amazing!

 On first coat it was a bit patchy which I have to say I wasn't expecting, but with a second coat it's perfect.  This isn't the easiest glitter to use as it's quite thick, and I was worried at first that it wasn't going to dry, but I am very happy with the results.

I cannot wait to try out the rest of the Wonderland collection.  What's your favourite? Have you tried any of the Wonderland collection? 

Purple Reverse Glitter Gradient featuring Nina Ultra Pro

Hello all,

This week I decided to use some more of my new polishes.  I got a set of three from Nina Ultra Pro and I decided to use all three to create a reverse glitter gradient.  I really loved the last glitter gradient I did, so thought I would try another one.  I have to say that I love this one even more!

I started off with a base of Royal Purple.  On it's own this is such a gorgeous colour.  It's a deep purple with a metallic blue-ish shimmer running through it.  I used two coats to give a nice even coverage over the whole nail.  I found this quite tricky at first because the brushes are so wide.  The next step was to use Boys 'n' Berries for the first staged of the glitter gradient.  I started off by removing most of the polish from the brush, dabbing what remained of the polish by my cuticle and dragging in lightly down the nail.  This meant that there was a tiny bit of glitter over the whole of the nail, but not so much as to ruin the effect.  After this I continued the same steps again, but only pulling the brush part way down the nail.  I continued this using more polish and shorter strokes the closer I got to my cuticles before just dabbing a lot of the glitter polish at the very top.  Whilst this looked lovely on it's own, I am a bit of a sucker for glitter so I also added on some of the Holographic Topcoat.  Again I wiped most of the excess polish off the brush before starting to layer this glitter up as well.

I am so pleased with the finished effect.  Boys 'n' Berries had tiny specks of purple glitter alongside slightly bigger circles of glitter in a clear base giving great dimension to the sparkle.  Holographic Topcoat is made up of tiny gold specks of glitter with larger holographic glitter particles.  The overall effect is super shimmery and sparkly and I think this is one of my favourite manicures for a while.

the only negative thing I would have to say about the Nina Ultra Pro polishes is that the brush is huge! I practically needed only one swipe of the brush over all my nails and they were covered.  Now whilst this sounds like it could be a good thing, it did make trying to be neat very tricky!  But with the colours being so amazing I really think I can forgive them the brush!

I really love all things shiny and would love to see if you have done a glitter gradient... why not leave me a link to have a nosey of?

Blue and Purple Laser Nails

Hello all,

Just a really quick one today!  I have been having glitter withdrawals these past few weeks so I decided to try out Bourjois Laser in Blue Neon.

I started with a base of Models Own Blue Med with an accent nail in Models Own Purple Imperial.  The Bourjois glitter is so pretty and the picture doesn't really do it justice!  I use two coats of everything here just to make everything bold and bright!

Doing this manicure I have rediscovered Purple Imperial... I have forgotten how pretty this colour was and I will have to use it again soon x