November - Odds and Ends

I have had a bit of a mix and match month this month, with some darker nails, some lighter ones, and a bit of fun nail art.

I was inspired by the colours in my October Nailbox box, and for my first design this month I did some cute owl nails.

I started off bt masking my nails with round stickers on my middle finger and ring finger.  I then painted a base colour of NailsInc Kensington High Street on all fingers.  I had to peel the stickers off carefully to create the ears of the owls.  I decided to add a reverse glitter gradient on the 'non owl' nails with Essie Summit of Style.  This is just such a pretty antique gold glitter that really sparkles.

For the details on my owl nails I used Rimmel Caramel Cupcake for the tummy feathers, with individually placed glitter particles from Summit of Style.  Then I dotted on white and black for their eyes and orange for a beak.

With a little less time to come up with a nail design I tend to fall back on to nail stamping because it's quick and easy and looks really effective.  I went for a lacy butterfly effect with this design using Essie Ballet Slippers as a neutral base, and white stamping over the stop using MoYou London White Knight and the number 10 Princess Plate.  I really liked the overall look, but wish that I had been able to vary the stamped image.

I was recently having a look around in Kiko, and I was taken with three sparkly shades.  I was going leave them and put them on my Christmas, but my fiancé wouldn't let me leave and bought them for me.  This is 531.  How pretty is this?  I am a little disappointed that it doesn't have a fun name to match the beautiful sparkle.

To finish off the month I decided to go with a metallic and black plaited nail design.  I only added the plaited effect on my ring finger and thumb because it can take quite a bit of time to get the finished look depending on how long your nails are.  I used True Brit London Taxi Cab, Barry M Grey, and OPI Turn on the Haute Light for this look.

So, as you can see, a bit of a mixed bag overall.  I think the owls were my favourites this month.  What;s yours?  Leave me a comment and let me know.   I can't believe December is already knocking at our door, but that does of course mean it's time for Christmas nails - yay!

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x

October - Autumn Fun and Glitz

Autumn is my favourite month, I love all the changing colours and being able to snuggle up in cosy hoodies and boots.  I also love darker nails.

At the start of the month I went to see The Martian, so I decided to do some space nails.

Now I know that The Martian is about Mars, and that Mars is the red planet, but I thought that it was pretty fitting to use Rimmel's Space Dust in Total Eclipse polish for this manicure.  I love the MoYou Sci-Fi stamping plates, and this little astronaut is just so cute.

Barry M got it spot on with their limited edition glitter Gelly polishes, and I just couldn't resit them.  This is Sparkling Amethyst, and it's just stunning - I think it's made it's way into my list of favourite polishes.  I love the subtle glitter and beautiful shine of the Gelly formula.  I also got Sparkling Ruby, which will be making it's way into Christmas designs.

As I said before, I love the changing colours of the autumn leaves, so really wanted to do a manicure to reflect them.  I remembered that I had come across this design on Pinterest a while a ago and it gave me the inspiration for my falling leaves design.  I used Graffiti Nails Tuscany, Barry M Mushroom, and Bright Red, and Jacava Cherry Brandy for my autumnal colours.  I added in quite a few more dots and falling hearts than in the original design, and was worried that I might make a mess when drawing the tree, but I was really pleased with my design and it was my favourite this month.

I think it's part of nail law that in October you must do at least one Halloween design.  This year I had order some brilliant nail vinyls from She Sells Sea Shells, so it made my pumpkin nails really easy to do.  Tuscany from Graffiti Nails was the perfect base.  I got Taxi Cab from True Brit London and Queen Victoria Street Nails Inc, in my Nailbox subscription and both were perfect additions.  I think my pumpkin leaves look a bit more like hair than leaves, but they are still cute overall anyway.

Do you agree with my favourite this month or did you prefer one of my other designs more?  Make sure you follow me on Instagram to keep up with me weekly.

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x

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

August - Colours and Designs

You may have read in my previous entry that my posting schedule was going to change and the end of August brings my first round up of what I have been up to.

Overall I kept things quite simple this month, which gave me the chance to try out some colours that I hadn't got round to using yet, and some new colours that just happened to fall into my basket whilst out shopping.

At the beginning of the month I got my first Butter London polish so, of course, I had to try that out right away, and I paired it with a beautiful new Orly colour as well.

I started with Fluorescent Fuchsia from Orly, as my main colour and used The Black Knight from Butter London as an accent nail.  Orly polishes that I have tried before have a lovely smooth application and this is no different.  With it being a florescent colour it dries to a matte finish, but I simply used my normal top coat to as shine.  The Black Knight is opaque in two coats, which also means you get a good helping of glitter.  The glitter particles are tiny pink and blue flecks, with even smaller gold sparkles running throughout.

I have really been enjoying watching the International Space Station fly recently, so I thought I'd do some nails inspired by watching the night sky.  I started with a base of Essence It's Raining Me, which has a subtle shimmer so it seemed like an appropriate colour to start with.  For extra stars I added a coat of Disco Ball from Rimmel because it has varying sizes and colours of glitter giving the idea of distant stars in the sky.  To finish off I stamped the ISS and The Plough constellation from my MoYou Sci-Fi 03 plate.

I hadn't done a gradient in a long time so thought I'd crack out some nice summer coral shades so this one.  I started with a base of white to make the colours really pop and then sponged on the gradient with a make up sponge using Model Own Peach Melba and OPI Toucan Do It If You Try.  I smoothed it all out with a glitter top coat and then added small white hearts with my dotting tool.  I got lots of compliments with this design.

I have had a busy few days towards the end of this month so I used my limited nail painting time to try out Models Own Blue Spray which I've had for a long time, but never used.  The Artstix from Models Own are a really brilliant idea meaning that you have a colour and a glitter polish all in one. You can use just the base colour or just the glitter, or both together.  Blue Spray is made up of Blue Maldives and Sea Spray which you used to be able to get as full sized polishes, but I think they have now been replaced by other collections.  The Sea Spray glitter has silver bar shapes, red glitter dots and large diamond holographic flecks that really catch the light.

Lastly this month I tried out Barry M Sunset nail paint.  This is another new one, but I didn't even put it in my basket... It was my fiancé, so I don't feel guilty about the purchase - ha ha!  When I first read about the Sunset collection I wasn't sure that the daylight curing finish would be much different from a gelly, but it does feel different somehow, plus, look how pretty Fuchsia Generation is.

Which has been your favourite design of mine this month?  Make sure you visit my blog again at the end of next month for my next round up, but in the mean time keep up with my designs weekly on Instagram.

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x