Ciaté: Regatta

I've only tried one other Ciaté colour before (I know shock horror) which was a mini one that came with Marie Claire magazine a while ago but I really liked it, so when I saw this beauty in TK Maxx I knew I had to get it, along with some other super polish finds as well of course!

I got this full sized paint pot of Regatta which is such a pretty denim blue with shimmer, plus who can resit that cute little bow?  The application was so smooth and the formula is amazing.  I could have just left this at one coat, but I always like to use two for longevity.  

I barely had to do any clean up because the brush was so precise it meant that I made hardly any mess.  I tend to find painting with dark colours is often more tricky, but it wasn't the case here.  I really like that this is a more subtle blue rather than an electric blue.  In some lights it almost looks like a steely grey/blue making it a brilliant addition to my polish collection.  Although I think I could make any polish feel quite a home amongst my other bottles of pretties!

Do you have any Ciaté favourites that you would recommend?  It was just a quick one this week to show off this gem, but I've got a few more reviews coming up soon and an exciting triplet design to look out for so come back soon.

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x

OMG Nail Strips Review*

Before Christmas I was asked if I wanted to review some nail strips from OMG Nails Strips.  I took up the opportunity as I'd never tried out any full nail wraps before so thought it would be a good opportunity to test them to see what they were like.

*Press sample - sent to me for review 

Blue Stamped Flower Nail Art

This week it took me a while to choose what to do on my nails so I had a bit of a rummage around in my stash for an untried polish.  I had a clear up and organise a while back I haven't got that many untried, but I found Pop Fiction from Miss Sporty and thought it was quite fitting with the cold wintry weather that we have at the moment.

Pop Fiction is such a pretty colour, but it was rather tricky to apply. The first coat was quite streaky, and I don't know about you, but I always find a bit disappointing when that happens; It was fine after a second coat though.  The other problem I found was the size of the brush.  It's really wide and when painting it covered almost all of my nail in one stroke, but it wasn't quite wide enough, leaving little gaps down the sides.  I had to be very careful not to get polish all over my fingers.

I then used Models Own Inky blue and my MoYou Pro Plate 09 to stamp on a pretty flower design, but there wasn't as much of a contrast between the two blues as I had hoped.  To fix it, I stamped again with the same design, but turning it the other way around, with Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream. I really like the effect that it has given because you can see all the different blues in the gaps of the pattern and it almost looks like a paisley pattern.

So my nails ended up being a happy accident, but things don't always work out that well.  Do you have any tricks that you do if your nails don't quite go to plan?

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x 

Sparkly New Year Dotticure

First off let me say Happy New Year everyone, I hope you've had a brilliant holiday season.  Even though Christmas is over (boo) I'm not ready to give up glitter and to be honest I always like to add a bit of sparkle to my nails.

I wanted something fairly simple to do, but looked really effective, so I decided on this sparkly dotticure gradient.

I started off two coats of Bora Bora from Models Own, it's a beautiful fine glitter that gives full coverage.  I then used different sized dotting tools and black and white polish to create the dotticure gradient.  I started with the largest dots at the tips of the nails and then filled in the gaps as I worked up towards my cuticles whilst ensuring that I left space at the cuticles to give the gradient effect.

Polka dots are my 'go to' nail art staple if I want something quick but effective.  What are yours?

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x