Polish Party: Recreate Your First Nail Design - Red and Black Hearts

Hello all,

The end of the month brings around a Polish Party design.  July's theme is a good one - Recreate your first nail design.  I have been painting my nails since I was quite young and I remember painting my nails alternatively with lilac and a dark purple and I'm sure I must have painted the odd stripe or dot here or there, but I reckon we'll just go for the first one blogged about!  This works out as an especially good theme for me as my blog turned two at the beginning of the month, so it was nice to look back and see how I launched Pinkglow's Pretty Polish.

Red and black Valentine's hearts

I almost don't want to show you the original as it would be something I wouldn't dream of including on my blog now, but it does show progression...

Models Own: Sweet Shop Collection Review

Hello all,

I am really excited about what I have to show you in this post... Who doesn't love gorgeous new polishes? And if that's not enough these ones are even more yummy as they smell just like sweets.  What could be better?

From left to right I have Fizzy Cola Bottles, Pear Drops, Rhubarb and Custard, and Gumball.  Also available is Liquorice Allsorts, but that's not one for me.  Keep reading for a closer look and to see what I think of the Sweet Shop collection.

Essence: Let's Get Lost and Magnetic Top Coat Review

Hello all,

I'm sure you will all know by now, but Essence has come to the UK!  They have stands in local Wilko shops and also a shop in Westfield.  If you follow me on Instagram you will have seen that I live near by the shop at Westfield and have already managed to visit there a few times.

I've already used Party Princess, It's Raining Men, and Roller Coaster (all from the top right picture).  It's Raining Men and Roller Coaster were featured in my Las Vegas nail art.

Today I have Let's Get Lost and I have tried it out Essence's Magnetic top coat.  I have tried out magnetic nail polishes before so was very interested in how a magnetic top coat would work as it has huge potential to mix up your whole polish collection.

The magnetic top coat comes in a standard nail polish bottle and you can get different magnets to create different patterns.  I chose Sweet Heart and Funky Check.  I decided to test our the heart one first.

Looking at the top coat it seems a bit scary at first because it's silver, but that's just the magnetic particles.  The idea is to paint your base colour and leave it to dry fully.  Then you paint on a 'generous layer' of the magnetic top coat.  Before it dries you then hold the magnet above your nail and the particles move into the shape of the pattern.  So here was my first attempt.

You can just about see the little heart shapes here.  They are not very easy to photograph, but I promise they are more obvious than this in person.  I do however think I need to practise a bit more with this magnet.  This one seems a bit more tricky than others I have used before because it's a single shape on the magnet rather than a pattern that covers the whole nail.  I don't think I held the magnet over my index finger for long enough as the edges of the heart are a little faint and on my ring finger I think I must have moved the magnet slightly as I have a bit of a double edge.  I don't have a clue what happened to my little finger... It doesn't seem to be a heart at all! Ooops!  The other thing I found with this being a single image is that you can still see some of the magnetic particles around the edges of the nail.  To see if it made a difference, I used a false nail to paint just a patch of the top coat, rather than the whole nail, but I only got half of the heart shape.  You'd have to be really certain where the shape was in the magnet to make sure you got the particles in the right spot.  Over all I am still very impressed with this concept and I am looking forward to trying the Funky Check design as it's a whole nail pattern.  Have you tried this Sweet Heart magnet and have any tips?

The colour, as I mentioned before is Let's Get Lost.  I love this colour.  It's such a pretty turquoise blue.  It paints on beautifully and has a nice rounded edge brush which makes it very easy to apply.  It was a bit patchy with just one coat, but with two it's perfect.  I also love Essence's bottles.  The lids match the polish, making them easy to find in your stash and the rounded end makes them comfortable to hold whilst painting.

In my haul pictures at the top of the post you can see that I have also tried out the Quick and Easy Sponge Nail Polish Remover.  It worked really well to take off glitter polish (the one in the picture is Party Princess).  My litter finger and ring finger show three coats and my middle finger shows it in progress of removal.  You might be able to see on my index finger that my nail is peeling/flaking at the end.  I get this quite a lot, so I got the Express Nail Peeling Pen.  It has a little rubber massage applicator at the end which helps to massage the product into the nails and cuticles.  This seemed to really help even on the first use, so I will keep you updated.  I also got, and have tried, the Express Nail Oil Pen.  I have been using a Nails Inc nail oil pen which I really liked, but it ran out and is rather expensive to repurchase, so I thought I'd give the Essence one a go.  The brush tip is lovely and soft and the oil smells fresh and... well, I don't know how to describe it, but it's nice!

So far I am loving all the Essence things I have tried, so I wouldn't think it will be long before I need (yes need!) some more.  I haven't tried it yet, but I'm really excited about the Glow In the Dark topcoat that I got as well.  It's really bright in the bottle.  My first little haul of three colours was only about £4.99 and then my second haul of 11 items (which also included a mascara) came in at under £24! As far as I'm concerned, you can't go wrong.  Which items do you think you'll be trying out?

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x

MoYou Nails Stamping Plates Review*

Hello all,

I have recently had quite a few goes at stamping and have found it really fun so I was pleased to be asked to review MoYou Nails stamping plates.  I chose plates numbers 102 and 220, and pink polish to review.

*Press sample - sent to me for review

I was sent a catalogue of all the latest products, a bottle of special polish in pink, the two plates, and a stamper and scraper, which is obviously very handy.  Both plates have floral designs, 102 have small single designs and 220 has larger designs meant to cover the whole nail.

It's quite tricky to get a picture of the plates, but this one I uploaded to Instagram shows them quite well.  On first impressions the plates seem rather thin and therefore not very sturdy when picking up the images.  I think they could do with a thicker backing.  The stamper and scraper are pretty standard in comparison to others that I have come across.  I had trouble with another stamper before which was very shiny on the surface so I had to buff it before it would pick up an image.  This one wasn't shiny, so I thought that it would be better however I still had to buff it quite a lot before I was able to use it properly.  

To get going with the manicure I started off with a coat of pink polish on all my nails apart from my ring finger.  For this one I chose to use Essence in It's Raining Men.  I wanted a darker colour to test how the stamping polish would work over a darker colour.  I then stamped with the opposite colour to the base.

I found that the polish dried really quickly and it needed two coats to get full opacity.  Whilst the speed of drying time was good for stamping on to, it wasn't brilliant when trying to stamp with it.  You have to work pretty quickly when stamping anyway, but with a quick drying polish it did make it more difficult.  As you can see I have stamped a selection of different designs from the plate which are very pretty.  On my ring finger I stamped a full nail design with the pink polish.  It worked quite well, but doesn't show up as much as I would have liked.  I think in that respect it's a little disappointing for a stamping polish.

Overall these are not my favourite plates, but there is a nice selection of different designs.  Do you have any tips for stamping to get the best out of them?

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x

Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nail Art

Hello all,

Last week I was contacted by Vegas.com, who are looking for inspiration for the perfect night out on the town.  The featured hotel this month is the Aria Resort which looks amazing and what better way to plan a manicure for a night out in Vegas than thinking about all the things that it's famous for and what's more famous than the casinos and the strip?

I decided to paint each nail differently but still following the theme.  On my thumb I have gone for a dice.  I used Models Own Snow White for the base (this is also the base for my middle and little finger) and then my Barry M Nail Art Pen in Black for the dots.  My index finger features a bright red poker chip.  I used Essence Roller Coaster for the base to look like the green felt of the table.  Once that was dry I painted on a white semi circle on the tip of my nail, this was so that when I painted on Barry M Bright Red the colour would really pop.  I then used my White Nail Art Pen to add in the detail.  My middle finger is stamped with a dollar stamp from my MoYou London Tourist Plate 02 (shhhh, it's actually the New York themed one, but no one has to know!).  When thinking about Vegas, I thought of the wedding chapels.  I used a base of Essence It's Raining Men, which has a beautiful shimmer, I then added a nail art sticker of a silhouetted couple with a heart, to represent a couple getting married under the stars.  My little finger nail is the ace of clubs.  I did the details with my black nail art pen.

I think my nails are all set for a night out in Vegas... What do you think?

Aria Resort Vegas - Photo from Vegas.com

Now all that's left is to actually go! One day....

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée