Easter Chick

Easter can only mean one thing, Models Own Speckled Egg nail varnishes!

Index Finger - Models Own - Dove

Middle Finger - Models Own - Magpie

Ring Finger - Models Own - Goose

Little Finger - Models Own - Swan

Bottle - Models Own - Duck

Stamping Polish - MoYou Black Knight

Stamping Plate - MoYou London - Festive Collection 60

Back from a Blogging Break

I've been away from my blog for a little while now, but my love for nail painting didn't stop, I was still posting weekly on Instagram, but felt I was struggling to keep up with posting, along with finishing the planning for my wedding.  I have enjoyed my little break, but I want to get back to my blog again.

I thought I'd share the nails that I did whilst I was away.  I won't go into details about them as there are quite a few, and they are all on Instagram, but I thought it would be a nice post to get me started again.

January - Blues and Sparkle

January tends to be grey and miserable, so it's always nice to have pretty nails to brighten the month up.

I'd asked for some MoYou goodies for Christmas, so I decided to use them for my first  design for the month.

Ciaté Regatta was the perfect base for my MoYou Silver Dust stamping with SciFi Plate number 08.  I was a little disappointed that I managed to smudge my stamping when I added my top coat, but I was still happy with my design overall.

I love darker colours in the colder months, and hadn't used OPI Black Cherry Chutney for a while so thought I'd do a simple manicure with a glitter accent nail.  This colour is such a gorgeous deep purple red, and is perfect for a gothic look.  You can't see how pretty In True Stefani Fashion is in this photo, but trust me when I tell you, all the different shapes and sizes of the glitter really catch the light.

Despite the previous manicure to this one, and loving darker colours for winter, I've got a rather important even coming up in a few weeks time so want to steer clear of the darker shades for a bit to avoid any staining.  Bearing this in mind I decided to go for Heather from the Barry M Silk collection.  It's such a pretty and delicate colour on its own with a beautiful shimmer, but I couldn't resit adding a coat of NYC Lights, Camera, Glitter.  It has to be one of my all time favourite glitters and I have used it over many different base colours and haven't found a combination that I didn't like.  My mum looked for a new bottle of this one, as she likes it too, but couldn't find it in Superdrug, so I headed to Amazon, and bought three bottles to be sure we didn't run out any time soon!

I still can't decide whether my final design for the month was a nail fail or not.  I wanted to do a bit of a different kind of ombré across the nails rather than on all nails, so I chose Models Own Beth's Blue and Grape Juice.  I think the colours complimented each other and gave the ombré look, but I'm just not sure it's what I had in mind.  I added some little love hearts with Jacava Lavender Court to finish off the look.

My favourite this month has to be my sparkly Lights, Camera, Glitter, nails.  I can't resit sparkle and shine, so it just ticked all the right boxes.

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x

December - Christmas Fun and Sparkle

December of course meant that it was time for Christmas nails and what says Christmas more than cute characters and glitter?

It's always difficult to decide which Christmas style to start with, and normally for me it would be snowflakes, as I do snowflake nails each year, but I saw lots of them popping up all over Instgram, so thought I'd save them for later and go for a cute snowman design first.

Back in September I had thought of a snow scene design using China Glaze Chillin' With My Snowmies, so I incorporated this in with the snowman.  I started with a base of Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream for a chilly feel and added a coat of the China Glaze topper on all my nails, expect my middle finger.

I then used White Knight from MoYou London to paint a small circle for the snowman's head.  I then used Barry Mushroom, and Graffiti Nails Tuscany for the details.

A couple of years ago I did a dotticure Christmas tree design which I absolutely loved, so I thought I' recreated it, but in non traditional Christmas colours.  I used Models Own Snow White as a base and then used, Kiko 277, Barry M Sparkling Amethyst, China Glaze Frostbite, and OPI Turn on the Haute Light for all the fun dots.  Dotticures are one of my favourite nail designs to do, so it's always lots of fun to add them to a Christmas design.

As I mentioned before each Christmas I do a snowflake design, and inspired by my 'non traditional' colours in my previous design, I decided to use Sparkling Ruby from Barry M for some dramatic snowflakes.  For the base of the snowflake nails I used Happy Anniversary by OPI which came in my November Nail Box.

 

To finish off the year, I went for something simple, but gorgeous.  Thunder and Lightning from Models Own is just the perfect choice for new year's, the holographic glitter looks just like all the fireworks set off to celebrate.  It is a little thin on application, so you need at least three coats, but that's a small price to pay for the amazing glitter.

What was your favourite design this month?

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

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 

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

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

Pastel Galaxy Nail Art

I have got back into the swing of more detailed nail art over the past few weeks.  I have been doing some more simple things recently, and whilst pretty, I haven't felt overly inspired.  This week I decided to break out lots of shimmery pastel colours and some brights to create a fun pastel galaxy.

I had always thought galaxy nails would be difficult to do, until I had a go myself using more typical purple shades.  You can see them here.  This time around I wanted to try them them in more spring friendly colours, so as I said, I raided my shimmers and brights to see what I could come up with.

Pretty in Peach - Sparkle and Studs Nail Art

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do on my nails this week, and when that happens I always find that going for something simple is the best plan.  I had seen a peach manicure whilst scrolling through social media and the colour just stuck with me.

I chose Models Own Peach Melba from the Fruit Pastel collection and can't stop smelling my nails.  Overall I'm not sure if it smells like peaches, because I can't remember the last time I had a peach, but it's a pretty scent anyway.  I would say, if I had to, that it smells a bit like a fruity sorbet.

I paired this with Crystal Glaze from Barry M.  This is such a pretty topper.  The flecks of iridescent glitter are so subtle but give a really lovely shimmer when they catch the light.  I then finished off my whole manicure with small gold studs at the base of each nail.

Just a quick post this week.  I hope to get back to some more detailed nail art soon.

Thanks for stopping by
Aimée x

Pink Dot Pond Manicure

I really enjoy scrolling through my social media feeds on Twitter and Instagram and seeing all the lovely manicures other people have been trying out, and in the last few days I have been seeing a few pond manicures pop up here and there and just had to have a go myself.

When I was looking at my polish collection I couldn't find anything quite sheer enough to get the right look.  I decided to use Models Own Pink Fever which is quite sheer with one coat, but when you build up further coats it wouldn't work effectively for this technique.  Using an empty polish bottle I mixed my colour with clear top coat to create something more sheer.  For the dots I used my Mo You stamping polish in White Knight.  The opacity of the stamping polish made it a perfect choice as I knew it would be visible through the rest of the layers.

To start I applied one thin coat of my new sheer pink, and then added on white dots in varying sizes. When this was dry I added another thin coat of pink and white dots.  I continued this process for about four layers.  I love the depth this technique gives.  As you build up the layers the dots gradually change in colour getting darker with each layer giving an ombré effect using only two colours.  I have tried overlapping dots like this before using different shades of a colour and it has always ended up looking messy, but I think the depth makes all the difference here.  I decided to leave the last dots white to make it look as though they were floating on the top layer.  I also thought that another layer of pink might have made the first lot of dots blend in too much.

I really like this technique and want to try it again with something more complicated than dots so I'm on the lookout for some nice sheer colours.  Any suggestions?

Thanks for stopping by
Aimée x

My Top Three Nail Colours

Posts like this are really difficult to write because how, out of my collection of 192 colours, can I just pick three?  I figure that if I use a colour a lot that it must be a favourite otherwise why would I keep reaching for it over and over?

I whittled down my choice to these three beauties, and tried to include something for everyone, and to suit most budgets.  Also, they are all great for spring.

Pastel Strawberry Nails

I'm just popping by quickly to show you my fun spring nails.  The sun was shining so what better way to celebrate than cracking out the pastels again?  I decided on Models Own this week.

Fruit nail designs are generally quite straight forward but always look cute.  I chose Strawberry Tart scented polish so thought it would be very fitting to paint my nails to match.  I used Jade Stone and Lemon Meringue, both from the Ice Cream Sundae collection, to finish off my strawberries.  I added little leaves at the top of each nail by my cuticles using a small dotting tool, and then used a tooth pick for the strawberry seeds.

What fruity designs do you like to do?

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x

Pastel Chequered Ombré Nail Art

We were treated to some lovely spring weather over the weekend, and spring always has me reaching for pastel colours.  Who else is excited for pastels?

There have been some gorgeous new releases recently, fuelling our polish addictions, but not being quite so good for our bank balances!  Having said that I have managed to resist most of the new ones recently as there is a particular collection I have my eye on, so this week I looked through my already rather large stash to revisit some old favourites from Models Own.

I opted for a white base with a combination of Beth's Blue, Lilac Dream, and Pastel Pink.

Beth's Blue has been a long time favourite pastel shade for me and unfortunately you can't get it any more, but there are some other similar beauties in the Hypergel range and also Blueberry Muffin. You can also see my comparison of this against Duck from the Speckled Eggs collection.

Using my MoYou Princess 10 plate meant that this was a really quick ombré without loosing any of the effect.  I have already had lots of compliments and questions as to how I got the look.

Confession time, I haven't got the checks on thumb nails.  I used Lilac Dream for those as I just can't seem to stamp very well on my thumbs with an all over design like this.  I thought it might look a bit odd, but it actually ended up being quite a cute, if not traditional, accent nail.  When I try all over stamps like this pattern I end up with bare ends where it hasn't been quite long enough and you can never get it to line up properly to try to add an extra bit on the end.  Does anyone else have this problem?

What pastel colours are your favourites for spring?

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

Christmas Tree Nails with Born Pretty Store Nail Stud Review*

Hello all,

It's nearly here, only three more sleeps!  With that in mind, it seemed like a really good time to do some more Christmas nails.  I decided to go with cute and colourful Christmas trees featuring gold and neon nail studs from Born Pretty Store.

*Press sample - sent to me for review

I Heart New York Nails

Hello all,

I have been fairly quite on social media since the week before last because I was away, so it seems like ages since I last posted anything properly, but this week I wanted to share with you my nails to match my holiday.

I'm sure you've guessed from the title of the post where I went; the fabulous New York.  And it's true, I really do love it!

I used my MoYou Tourist 02 plate for a quick, but super effective design.  I have been to New York before and visited The Statue of Liberty, but this time I was lucky enough to get tickets to go inside and stand on the plinth (I just missed out on crown tickets - drat!).  I thought it was only fitting that I stamp Liberty herself on my thumb nail on one hand.  And what better background for my picture?

On my other hand I decided to stamp the American flag.  This is the first time I have tried stamping where I've coloured the design with different polishes.  I don't think I did too badly, but there is room for improvement.  Has anyone got any tips for how best to scrape the excess polish away when doing this so the colours don't all blend?

Times Square was the backdrop for this hand and it's a must do visit if you haven't been before.  There are so many lights, so if you're anything like me and love anything sparkly or shiny, it's the place to go.

I used a white base on all nails with Models Own Snow White, which has been my go to polish of the year I think.  It's been the only colour nail polish that I have ever used a whole bottle of before it's gone gloopy.  I stamped the I heart NY on my other nails using Graffiti Nails Jet and Barry M Red.

And just because I do love New York so much here's a quick picture from my trip

Thanks for stopping by
Aimée x

Models Own: Asscher Blue with Snowflakes

Hi all,

It has become something of a tradition for me to do a snowflake design each year, so with the weather turning very frosty and cold today I thought it was very fitting to add some festive flakes to my nails.

I picked Models Own Asscher Blue as my base.  This is perfect for a wintry look because of the diamond dust in it.  I then used a thin striping brush with Snow White to paint asterisk star shapes on all of my nails.  I wanted quite big snowflakes so I only had room for one per nail.  I wanted to add in details on each snowflake, so I used a dotting tool to add a dot at the end of each line, and then used a tiny paint brush to create little lines under each dot.

To finish off I added in a few extra dots where there were some spaces on my nails and a pale blue nail gem in the middle of each flake.  I think when it comes to wintry nails you can't go wrong with extra added sparkle.

These are the best snowflake nails that I have done and I am really pleased with how they turned out. You can see the progression of the different ones I've done here.

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x

P.S. It's also Polish Party time and my nails happen to fit in nicely with this months theme.  We had a tie this month between autumn and weather.

Don't forget to check out which theme the other girls chose and click through to their blogs to see their designs 

An InLinkz Link-up

Models Own: Hyper Gel Pitch Purple with Reverse Glitter Gradient

Hello all,

I loved the Ebony Green HyperGel that I used last week so I just had to try one of the other new shades that I got.  I love darker shades in autumn and winter, and also it's the perfect excuse to add glitter to a manicure.  Ok, lets face it, I don't really need an excuse for that - If you read my blog regularly you'll know I'm partial to sparkly nails!

This is such a gorgeous colour purple and the gel effect is brilliant.  It's so glossy even without a top coat.  I decided add a reverse glitter gradient using Jack Frost from the Wonderland collection and Banger from the Fireworks collection.  Both these glitters go really well together and with the purple.

I started by adding Jack Frost very sparingly on all nails so I was left with only a few particles of glitter.  I then went over this again, but only at the base of my nails by the cuticles.  Because Jack Frost is an iridescent glitter it works really well for a gradient as it takes on the main colour from the base polish.  I then topped this further with Banger.  The blues and pinks in this really compliment the purple.

What are your favourite combinations for glitter gradients?

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x