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

Coloristiq July Manicure Box - Summer Getaway - Swatches, Review, and Nail Art Tutorial*

The lovely ladies at Coloristiq contacted me a little while back and asked if I'd like to put together a tutorial for their July Summer Getaway Manicure Box.  It took me all of a few seconds to say yes.

I got the lovely gold box through the post filled with gorgeous polishes worth almost a whopping £50 and started planning my design to fit the theme.

*Press sample - sent to me for review

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

My Favourite Nail Products

Hello all,

A bit of a different post this week where I thought I would show you some of my favourite nail products that I use the most when I do my nails.

First things first, to take of the previous week's design or colour I use Cutex Nourishing Nail Polish Remover.

Apologies for this being a phone photograph, but I decant my remover into a bottle with a twist and pump lid so I didn't actually have a bottle any more.  This says it's for weak nails, which I don't consider myself to have, but I love the moisturising and nail whitening of this remover.  I have very flaky nails and I always find that I need added moisture and this is perfect.  I do think it does a good job of removing basic stains, although I have worn some colours recently where stains have not budged.  Having said that I don't think that's because of this remover, but just the colour of the stain.  Compared to the smell of most removers this has quite a nice smell which makes taking polish off that bit nicer.  This is £1.60 for a 100ml bottle in Boots.

Next up, it's generally time for a buff and file down or shape.  I use an Andrea Fulerton buffing block, a basic 4 sided buffing block and QVS nail files.