Jacava: Too Hot To, Red Velvet, and Cherry Brandy*

Hi all,

I have some gorgeous colours from Jacava London to show you today.  These are some of their latests releases and are definitely brilliant additions to the Jacava family.

* Press sample - sent to me for review

My Favourite Nail Products

Hello all,

A bit of a different post this week where I thought I would show you some of my favourite nail products that I use the most when I do my nails.

First things first, to take of the previous week's design or colour I use Cutex Nourishing Nail Polish Remover.

Apologies for this being a phone photograph, but I decant my remover into a bottle with a twist and pump lid so I didn't actually have a bottle any more.  This says it's for weak nails, which I don't consider myself to have, but I love the moisturising and nail whitening of this remover.  I have very flaky nails and I always find that I need added moisture and this is perfect.  I do think it does a good job of removing basic stains, although I have worn some colours recently where stains have not budged.  Having said that I don't think that's because of this remover, but just the colour of the stain.  Compared to the smell of most removers this has quite a nice smell which makes taking polish off that bit nicer.  This is £1.60 for a 100ml bottle in Boots.

Next up, it's generally time for a buff and file down or shape.  I use an Andrea Fulerton buffing block, a basic 4 sided buffing block and QVS nail files.

Christmas Present Nail Art

Hello all,

Continuing the Christmas theme I have cute present nails this week.  And what could possibly make a present better? That's right, glitter!

I used Models Own Sardonyx from the Velvet Goth collection for my base colour.  You need two coats of this as it's a little streaky first of all.  It dries with a matte finish which means that it dries really quickly which worked out well for me as it meant that when I came to doing the bows my base was nice a dry.  I always make a mess when I used red polishes for some reason and this was no exception, clean up was a little tricky as it's glitter, but it worked out ok in the end.

To create the bows and ribbons for my presents I used the Models Own WAH Nail nail art pen in gold.  This was perfect for it as you have the striper brush when you twist the lid, but then you have the pen if you pull the lid off.  I started with two lines creating an offset cross on each finger and then used the pen end to draw two loops and tassels of the bow.

I topped this off with Sally Hansen Ista-Dri top coat to add a nice shine.  I really love how this turned out and it reminds me of Cartier in New York at Christmas...

Here's a picture I took whilst I was there in December 2006