Models Own: Asscher Blue with Snowflakes

Hi all,

It has become something of a tradition for me to do a snowflake design each year, so with the weather turning very frosty and cold today I thought it was very fitting to add some festive flakes to my nails.

I picked Models Own Asscher Blue as my base.  This is perfect for a wintry look because of the diamond dust in it.  I then used a thin striping brush with Snow White to paint asterisk star shapes on all of my nails.  I wanted quite big snowflakes so I only had room for one per nail.  I wanted to add in details on each snowflake, so I used a dotting tool to add a dot at the end of each line, and then used a tiny paint brush to create little lines under each dot.

To finish off I added in a few extra dots where there were some spaces on my nails and a pale blue nail gem in the middle of each flake.  I think when it comes to wintry nails you can't go wrong with extra added sparkle.

These are the best snowflake nails that I have done and I am really pleased with how they turned out. You can see the progression of the different ones I've done here.

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x

P.S. It's also Polish Party time and my nails happen to fit in nicely with this months theme.  We had a tie this month between autumn and weather.

Don't forget to check out which theme the other girls chose and click through to their blogs to see their designs 

An InLinkz Link-up

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!

Models Own: Tropical Sun and Ibiza Mix

Hello all,

I hope you have had a lovely Easter weekend and the Easter bunny visited.

I got a bit ahead of myself thinking that it was time for this month's Polish Party design, but that will be next week, so keep an eye out for that.  As I have more time to plan for that I went for a pretty spring colour.

This is Tropical Sun from the Beetlejuice collection topped with Ibiza Mix.  Tropical Sun is a fairly sheer coral/peach with tiny gold glitter specks.  It's so pretty and catches the light and sparkles away.  I have used two coats here because I was topping with glitter, but I think if you were wearing it on it's own three coats might be better.  I added Ibiza Mix over the top because you just can't go wrong with this glitter.  There are so many colours of glitter in Ibiza Mix it simply takes on the colours in your base and just seems to work, whatever you use it with! This is one of the most versatile glitter polishes I have ever come across.

What pretty spring colours have you been trying out recently?

Rimmel Space Dust: Moon Walking

Hello all,

I have another Space Dust polish from Rimmel to show you today - my mum got me another one! Eeeek! Best mum EVER!!  Space Dust are gorgeous textured glitters, packed with sparkle and shine.  I have already tried Total Eclipse and loved it, and for a textured polish it was really easy to take off which I was pleasantly surprised about.

This is Moon Walking, which as you can see is such a pretty purple.  It's a sort of lilac base packed with glitter.  There are larger silver circles of glitter and slightly smaller dark purple bits of glitter.  Moon Walking is even more sparkly than Total Eclipse, I can't stop looking at it when it catches the light.  As I said before these Space Dust textures are my favourite textures... Only question now is which one next!!

I'd love to see any of the other colours if anyone has tried them.  Leave me a link so I can have a good old nosey x 

Breast Cancer Awareness Month Nail Art

Hello all,

Did you know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month?  Breast Cancer is the most common cancer in the UK and Breast Cancer Care would like to raise as much awareness, help and support for those affected by it.

Over on Twitter @JosephineJakobs asked if anyone would like to get involved to help spread awareness by creating fabulous pink manicures to show our support and share them all to help promote the cause.

So here are my pink nails.  As you can see I have gone all out pink on pink to show my support.

I used Models Own polishes to create my nails, using Pink Fever as a base for all my nails other than my ring finger where I have used Pastel Pink. 

On my thumb I used a fan brush dipped into Patel Pink and gently brushed it over the nail to create stripes.  I then did the same again, but using Pink Fever to create the marbled stripe effect. 

Moving on to my index finger I have done a reverse glitter gradient using Magenta Devine and Hot Stuff.  I have done this look before and really loved it, although here I let Hot Stuff take over a bit more in comparison to my previous manicure as it's such a sparkly glitter and I really wanted to make an impact with the pink. 

On my middle finger I have again recreated a dotty design that I've done before in monochrome colours, this in fact remains my most popular post.  Here I have used Pastel Pink and Strawberry Tart. 

On my ringer finger I used Pastel Pink for my base, as I said above.  I then hand painted a Breast Cancer Ribbon on using Pink Fever.  These were a bit tricky to paint, especially on my right hand (or Cinderella hand - have other people seen this used before, as in, the one that does all the work, but never really gets noticed?), but I got them to look ok in the end.  I added a little pink gem in the middle of the ribbon.

Then on my little finger I have just painted a block coat of Magenta Devine.

I really hope my nails get spotted by people and that they make people think about Breast Cancer and perhaps even donate to such a fabulous cause.  I found something perfect for you nail junkies out there to get if you wanted to make a donation.  How about these cute mini nail files for just £2? I hope you like my awareness design and I look forward to seeing what everyone else comes up with 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



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



How to Remove Glitter Nail Polish

Hiya,

Has this ever happened to you when you try and remove your glittery nail polish?

I'm guessing the answer is yes!  It's a pain right?  Takes forever to remove?  Uses so many cotton wool pads you lose count?  Well, I have seen a lot of people say that they struggle with removing glittery nail polish and I felt their pain... until I saw a tip on Pinterest.  I've just had a look on my boards and I don't seem to have the pin where I saw this tip.  I think I must have been so keen to try it that I just didn't pin... sorry!

Anyway, I have put together my own step by step of the method to help all you other glitter polish lovers out there!

Models Own: Pukka Purple

Hi all,

This week I decided to go neon with my nails! I have had lots of pastels on recently for Easter and spring, but I felt the need for something bright this week for a change.

I did a post a few weeks ago about Models Own Ice Neon Collection (you can see it here) and I don't really have anything extra to add about Pukka Purple that I didn't already say about Pink Punch.

 

 With the Pink Punch, I recommended two coats, but with this gorgeous Pukka Purple I have only done one coat.  The formula is so good that there aren't any streaks and I didn't feel the need for a second coat.  The colour is very difficult to photograph as it tends to come out blue in pictures, but I managed to get it in the end!

 

As you can see I have finished this off with a simple gold stripe down the middle of each nail and a top coat.  The Ice Neons dry with a matte effect finish, but as I said before, I like a bit of shine!

 

 

The gold striper is from Primark and I am actually very impressed with it.  Primark are selling two nail art pens for £2 and 3D nail art kits for £2.50.  The nail art pens are stripers and pens in one, so you can either use the thin brush for lines like mine, or if you pull the top of the cap off there is a pen nib that you can use for dots or smaller details.  At the bottom of the striper/pen, there is a clear compartment that screws on with nail gems in a co-ordinating colour to use along with the striper if you want to.  I wasn't expecting something as good for the money, and for a simple stripe down my nails what's not to like! It's gold, it's shiny, it's a stripe! What more can you ask for?

 

 

Let me know your thoughts on the Ice Neon collection; if you've tried it, if you keep yours in the fridge like Models Own suggest (I don't), if you can't get enough of the bright colours x

Barry M: Amethyst Glitter

Hello all,


I have a new glitter polish in my life - Barry M Amethyst Glitter.  My mum got this for me whilst she was out and thought that I needed it, as lets face it, a girl can never have too many nail polishes!!

 

 

 

As you can see this is a gorgeous glitter.  Normally with glitters you have to use quite a few coats for this amount of glitter, but this is just one coat!  That's right, just one!  There is so much sparkle jam packed into this polish it's just lovely.

 

There are tiny flecks of light blue glitter and then larger fleck of pink and turquoise glitter.  These all sparkling together give this the purple amethyst look.  But that's not all, there are also flecks of round gold glitter too.  There are just so many layers of sparkle, and if you're like me and love a bit of glitter then you can't go wrong with this colour. 

 

I have used this over an M&S polish called Duck Egg.  This is a go to polish when I want to wear a light colour, but still have something really pretty. 

 

I tried out a Rimmel glitter a few weeks ago and found it to have a rather grainy finish even after top coat, but I haven't found this to be the same.  I have used two coats of top coat over to protect and add shine, but I think Barry M have done really well to avoid that 'bitty' feel after using this.

 

I would 100% recommend this glitter and I will probably be going to look at some of the other glitter colours in the range 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.

 

Rimmel: Precious Stones - Ruby Crush

Hello all,

I decided to treat myself to a bottle of Rimmel Precious Stones in Ruby Crush.  It caught my eye sparkling away so I couldn't resist.  You can see it in the cover photograph at the top of my blog.

 



As you can see it is a gorgeous rich red sparkle polish with larger round particles of silver glitter.  The first coat was a little patchy in places and the polish is quite thick to apply, but after two coats it sparkles away beautifully.  It reminds me of Dorothy's shoes in The Wizard of Oz.  The polish dries very quickly which is a bonus, however it dries with a very grainy finish.  I finished my nails off with two coats of top coat and there is still a grainy feel to my nails and I am worried that this might mean it will chip quite easily.

 

I think this might be better for an occasion rather than an everyday colour, but fingers crossed it proves me wrong and lasts well.  I have nothing bad to say about the colour as it looks as good on my nails as it does in the bottle.

Candy Cane Inspired Nail Art

I have been working my way through some Christmas designs and have been really pleased with the results so far!

I think this week's are my favourite that I have done though.  I was thinking of Christmas things that could inspire my nail art and I decided that candy canes would look fab.  Rather than go for red and white stripes I wanted to take a different approach.

 

 

This design was very easy to create, but very messy with watermarbling!  I painted three of my nails in Bright Red by Barry M and added my Collection 2000 sparkle top coat.  I love the top coat because the glitter is so fine but so pretty.

 

I painted my ring finger and thumb with a base of  white polish, I used Sally Hansen.  Leave this to dry and then comes the messy part.  To do water marbling you need a cup of room temperature water and your polishes.  New polishes work best.  You can use as many colours as you like, but you need to work quite quickly.  Drip your first polish on the surface of the water, I let a few drips fall to make sure I had enough.  The polish will start to spread out on the surface of the water.  Then add some drips of your other colour.  Then taking a tooth pick draw some swirls or stripes into the polish on the surface of the water.  When you are ready bend your finger placing the nail directly down onto your swirled polish, then straighten your finger straight down into the water.  You will see that there is polish still on the surface of the water.  Before removing your finger you need to get rid of the polish from the surface otherwise you will ruin your design.  Blow gently on the polish on the polish on the water, then using your tooth pick swirl it around on the surface and the polish will start to stick to the tooth pick.  Once the polish has gone from the surface of the water you can carefully remove your finger from the water.  You will have a lot of polish all around your nail and on your finger, which can look a bit scary, but all it takes is a cotton bud dipped into nail polish remover to take it off.  To help with this you can also use Vaseline around your nail and on your finger to stop the polish sticking so much.

 

Repeat those same steps for each watermarbled nail and voila - you have candy cane inspired nails!  I finished these nails off, once they were dry and cleaned up, with a coat of the sparkle top coat.  What's great about watermarbling is that no two nails look the same so you never really know what you might get.

 

I hope you like them and maybe try out watermarbling yourself.  If you get stuck there are loads of videos on YouTube that will help you out.

Icy Blue Snowflake Nail Art

It's that time of year again.  I am feeling Christmasy as the decorations have gone up today - YAY! My nails over the next few weeks will also be festive for the season.  I hope you enjoy.

This week as it has been rather frosty and cold I thought I would go with a design that matched the weather.  I went with snowflakes on an icy blue background.

The base colour for this design is a gorgeous duck egg colour from Marks and Spencer with Collection 2000 sparkly top coat over the top.  This gives a beautiful base for the design as it looks like a snowy scene.  To create the snowflakes I used a dotting tool to make three small lines on each nail in the shape of a star.  I then added a dot of polish to the end of each of the lines to make it look like a snowflake.  Adding in extra dots makes it look like there is falling snow around each of the snowflakes.

This is a really cute and easy design to try.  If you don't have a dotting tool you can use a toothpick to get the same effect.

Check back soon for more Christmas designs - I am already planning some others!