Pink Ombré Nail Art

I think sometimes simple can be more effective, and that's what I've gone for this week with a pink ombré.

I've done a similar look before with purple tones, but it was a long time ago now.  I think the colours that I picked this time around compliment each other much better and I prefer the light to dark ombré starting with the lightest shade on my thumb.  I think it looks more balanced.

From thumb to little finger I have used the following colours - Essie Ballet Slippers, Models Own Strawberry Tart, Barry M Strawberry Ice Cream, Revlon Fuchsia Fever, and China Glaze Traffic Jam.  To match the finish up on all the shades I've finished with a coat of Collection Sparkle Top Coat.

I've got some exciting reviews and a nail swap coming up on my blog so keep an eye out for those soon.

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x

Choose Happiness Coca Cola Inspired Nail Art

If you're anything like me you will spot nails from a mile off, whether that's because they are nicely painted, sporting a bit of nail art, or the more upsetting flipside of this, all chipped and sad looking.

Well, I was watching TV the other day and the adverts came on, so it was a perfect opportunity to scroll through my social media feeds, but I happened to spot nail art in one of the new Coca Cola adverts.  It's only on screen for a fleeting second or so, but never the less there it is, so I decided to recreate it.

To make this nail art even more fitting I used OPI Coca Cola Red - how could I not?  My thumb, middle, and little fingers are Coca Coal Red with black spots and my index and ring fingers are the opposite.  I used Graffiti Nails Jet which is one of the best black polishes I've used.  I tend to find that some blacks are a bit patchy, especially on the first coat, but Jet is so opaque, and glides on really smoothly.

Where do you get your inspiration from?

Thanks for stopping by
Aimee x

PS I've embedded the video below so you can see the original.  It's part of Coca Cola's #choosehappiness campaign.

Revlon Colorstay Gel Envy: Winning Streak with Dry Marbled Hearts

I was a very lucky girl and I got a happy Friday present last week from my fiancé - he brought me home a pretty bottle of purple goodness!  Otherwise named, Revlon Colorstay Gel Envy in Winning Streak.

This is such a pretty colour and the coverage is amazing.  I could have left it at one coat if I wanted, but I had in mind to try out this dry marbling to create some pretty hearts.  I first tried this technique out on my Valentine's Day nail art wheel which you might have seen over on Instagram back in February.  This is so easy to do, but I love the finished effct.  All you have to do it paint on another coat of your base colour, add a row of dots in a contrasting colour whilst the base it still wet and then drag a thin nail art brush down the middle.

You can use this technique for more complicated marbled designs as well.  Madison over at Fundamentally Flawless has some great designs and I loved the swirl design she did at Christmas as part of her Advent Calendar.

The two purples I chose mix together beautifully to create the hearts.  If you don't have a thin nail art brush you can use a toothpick or a pin.  Just be careful that you don't drag the polish too hard otherwise you could end up creating bald spots on your nails.  Also you do have to work quite quickly, but if you have a bit of a practice first you'll get the hang of it quite quickly.  If you leave the dots of polish too long and they dry when you drag them together you'll end up wrinkling your polish.

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x

Models Own: Colour Chrome Stamping

I know the Colour Chrome collection came out a while ago now, but I haven't actually had time to try them out yet.  I have to say, whilst they are pretty, they weren't my favourite collection from Models Own so I only bought two as they were my favourites out of the 10 available.

I have read loads of blogs where everyone has said how brilliant chromes are for stamping, so I thought I'd give it a go myself.  I chose my MoYou Sci-Fi 08 plate which features funky whole nail designs.

I have mainly seen the chrome collection stamped over black, which looks lovely, but black nails are a bit heavy for summer, so I picked a neutral base, Utopia, also from Models Own.  I paired this with Chrome Cerise for my stamped design.

If you have used stamping plates before you'll know that you can't hang around when picking up your design, and I found that the chrome colour dries really quickly, meaning I had to work even faster than normal.  Unfortunately this meant that I have a couple of little patches where the whole design didn't quite transfer, but I'm not going to tell you which nail in case you haven't noticed!  The large dots in the middle of my chosen design weren't as sharp as I would have liked them to be, but to fix them I used a small dotting tool and dotted over them.  I tend to find that the whole nail images on MoYou plates are not quite long enough for my thumb nails unless I have really short nails, so I used Chrome Cerise over the whole nail as a bit of a contrast.

Overall I did like the colour for stamping and I think the finished effect is lovely, but have to say that I am not keen on the over-all chrome finish.  There are far too many visible brush strokes for my liking and they aren't very forgiving on any little imperfections.

Thanks for stopping by
Aimee x

Nails Inc with In Style Magazine

Whilst shopping at the weekend I noticed that there were lovely Nails Inc polishes in with In Style magazine, so I would have been silly to walk away from such a good offer.

There are four different colours to choose from, but I was good and just picked up one, The Tide is High.  It's a really pretty minty greenish blue.

I had a pretty busy weekend as I was wedding dress shopping (yay - so exciting!), but it did mean that I didn't have much time to do anything too fancy with my nails, so I thought I'd try this colour out.

It's a really pretty colour and will be brilliant over the summer.  I find it really difficult to leave nails plain so I added a coat of Models Own Micro Dots over the top, which I think works really well as the green flecks in it really compliment the base colour and the rest give a nice contrast.

Just a quick post this week, but I have an exciting nail swap coming up soon, so keep an eye out for that soon.

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x