Saturday 29 November 2014

Have a holly jolly Christmas - it's the best time of the year

My first proper Christmas mani of the year! Inspired by @polishandbeyond on instagram. Check out her account so many lush designs!
For this I used; OPI - Natural base, Sinful colors - Snow me white, ELF - Smoking hot, Acrylic paint for the green leaves, OPI - Liquid sand and Essie - Set in stones for the accent nail. Rituals for the top coat. 
I love the simplicity of this design and the accent nail. However, the holly leaves were the hardest nail painting I've ever done! As simple as it looks - it took me longer than expected. But as always - worth while!
Definitely room for improvement in the acrylic paint area but I love using it, it's so easy to remove mistakes with water, which is always a bonus. I also need a new detail brush, let me know of any recommendations of brands. 
Many many more christmas mani's to come - it's only November!
I cannot wait to open day 1 of the ciaté mini mani month advent calendar, I'm going to try swatch every one of the polishes! 
Happy Saturday everyone.
xox


Monday 24 November 2014

Mani swap!

I've been seeing so many other bloggers mani's that I wanted to recreate so myself and @coffeeandnailpolish decided to do a mani swap. She has so many mani's to choose from so it was really hard to decide which one to do! 
The polishes I used were; OPI - Natural Base, Essie - Mint candy apple, Sinful colors - Snow me white, Body Collection - Gold, Rituals - Top coat, Striping tape from eBay and Gold leaf from Hobby craft (amazing value you fellow UK bloggers) 
Shannon decided to recreate my feather mani which looked so amazing she did such a good job! So make sure you check out her instagram account. 

This design was a lot more time consuming that I expected - it definitely didn't take up my whole day off haha. However, it was well worth it because I obviously love wasting time when it is nail time and also because it's such a pretty design.
The gold leaf flakes were soooo cheap I got a huge box of it for £6 - it will last an absolute life time. Whereas, in Sally's it costs £5 for a tiny pot so I was very chuffed with this find. 
Anyway, the effect is the best thing I've ever seen, I am beyond in love with the it! I think I'll be using it in nearly every mani from now on! 

I loved doing the mani swap with Shannon it was so much fun and really nice seeing her recreation as well as showing her mine!
And of course, had to do her classic coffee picture (I'm a starbucks girl but there is a drive thru costa on my way to uni so it's my new regular!)
I have more mani swaps lined up to do in the coming weeks, and my first proper christmas mani coming this week - the christmas nails can never come too early!
Have a great week nail peeps!
xox








Wednesday 19 November 2014

Christmas Pearlfection

Before getting onto any of this nail business I want to introduce my new blog logo - I haven't had a chance to completely redo my blog yet but how beautiful is the logo! Leilani Hayward is an illustration student and kindly created it for me. She is super talented and has a really pretty instagram: @leilaniparuzzolo so please check it out and give her a follow. I think she may be creating a blog/website soon when uni work gives her a break - so i'll be sure to let you all know what that is and you can browse for yourself. 
I'm just in looooove - can't wait to get my blog to an equal pretty! 

Nail time! 
I wanted to go a little festive but then remembered it was only mid November. Therefore, went for a sparkly cute silvery mani. 
Using; OPI - natural base, Sinful colors - Snow me white, Essie - Pealfection, Rituals - top coat and some striping tape from eBay.
Essie - Pearlfection is becoming one of my favourites it adds a glitter shine top coat and looks great on literally every colour combo - it also adds a little christmas to a plain colour so whats not to love?
I should mention that I saw this mani on instagram: @craftyfingers but the mani was created by @kristina.nails I instantly fell in love with it and recreated straight away! 
I had to include the picture with my watch getting involved because it only cost me £4 and I'm still immensely proud of this bargain haha. 
Have a festive filled week and weekend everyone.
Thanks for reading as always,
xox






Saturday 8 November 2014

Oh Smokey Plum

My first experience of using ibd Just gel at home was a successful one.
Using the instruction pack from the training day to refresh my memory, it was a breeze.
This is using three coats of Smokey Plum - such a gorgeous fall colour. 
I decided to do a plain mani to see if my efforts pay off and see how long it lasts to improve on next time. However, I might add some striping tape in a week or so. (I'll report back if I do)
How amazing is the shine too - I cannot stop looking at it!
This colour is perfect for my week ahead as it is quite neutral and goes with every outfit I have planned. I am off to London to do some work experience and won't have any nail art up for a week but will still be instagramming as always. 
xox



Tuesday 4 November 2014

IBD blogger event



I was lucky enough to have been invited to Grafton International last thursday for their ‘IBD geeks - back to school’ blogger event.
It was a day packed full of practical and theory, learning all there is to know about the simple mani and gel nails. 

We arrived to a beautifully drawn poster from one of the ibd nail ladies, and yummy pastries whilst we got to know the other guests. We then met Laura the IBD nail tech who led us into the lush nail room, filled with lots of beauty products and SO much nail polish.

The morning was spent doing a bit of nail theory; learning everything from nail anatomy to the history of manicures. As I have always been self taught in my nail journey, I didn’t know any of the information we were being taught so for me it was such an interesting extra to the day I didn’t expect. It will really help me when doing other peoples nails in the future and definitely widened my overall nail knowledge.
Laura followed by showing us the simple mani; including filing, cuticle care and french manicure whilst answering our many questions.
This was followed by a practical lesson, giving each other mani’s putting our new skills to the test. 

The morning went so quickly and before I knew it, it was lunch time. We enjoyed a cup of tea and sandwiches chatting everything there is about blogging, taylor swift and christmas nail collections. 
The afternoon was all about the IBD Just gel collection. They have 114 gel nail polishes in their staple collection. 
We were shown how to do a french and a plain gel colour. As a complete gel novice I found this part of the day particularly interesting and had so many questions. Laura made the whole process super easy to understand and remember. I thought it was going to be very complicated but it really wasn’t (when taught the correct way!) 
We then had a go on each other and were all in awe of how shiny the IBD polishes were… our absolute fave was Smokey Plum - a perfect autumnal colour. Safe to say I had made my mind up about buying it later in the day. 
Then onto our lesson in removal - I had the assumption that this was the most annoying - not to mention nail ruining experience. Of course Laura proved my expectations were myths. After putting this to the test and asking lots more nail related questions along with a bit of singing to Taylor Swift’s new album the short course was complete. And by this time we all had our eyes on the products we were going to get our hands on, and were eager to get browsing. 
The IBD ladies then came into the salon with huge IBD goodie bags! They were filled with so many exciting things - I couldn’t wait to get home and try it all out! 
I feel so fortunate to have been a part of the day and had the chance to learn so much in such a small space of time. I was also really delighted by the generosity of IBD - I absolutely love the products they had gifted to us and cannot wait to try them out/review them and share my experience. 
I've included lots of pictures below - so have a good scroll!

Ps - be sure to check out the ‘colour map’ on their website. Using skin tone and nail shape you can try on their colours. Such an amazing idea! xox














Sunday 2 November 2014

Hospital escapee

Today's post is a Halloween one - I haven't had a chance to do many halloween nails at all, but I think I got my halloween nail fix from viewing everyone else's nail posts, they keep getting better and more creative every year!

So for my nails:
I used; Sinful colors - Snow me white, elf - Smokin hot, OPI - Natural Base and Rituals - Top coat. 
The splat effect was created with a straw, literally blowing paint through it. Actually harder to get first time than it sounds. But once you get the technique right, it creates great nail art. 
Make up:
My face using; Benefit - Hello Flawless, Estee Lauder Double wear in 2C3 Fresco, W7 - night glow (amazing product) Calvin Klein - subliminal purity loose powder and loreal paris - glam bronze.
My eye make up was; Mac this & that, Maybelline - Expert wear natural smokes and a bit of blackheart from the naked 3 urban decay. Also, a Chanel eyebrow pencil to fill in my brows. 
My bruises; Mac - Texture velvet, Front Cover - Twinkling Grape, Natural collection - midnight and a cheap red lipstick dabbed on. Then a bit of fake liquid blood.
I had no idea how to do bruises, had never done it before just blended a bit of everything!
Finally, I wore Revlon - Black cherry. I absolutely LOVE this lipstick but never wear it because it is so dark and I don't have the guts to wear it in the day! 
My outfit was literally a ripped up hospital gown with fake blood and a bit of eye shadow on it. 
I hope you all had a lush Halloween. 
Now onto Christmas themes ... YAY! 
xox