Simple Dotticure

Okay, okay, I know it's been over a month since I posted AGAIN! I'm really going to make an effort to post every week from now on, at least once.

Essie - Fashion Playground, Essie - Blanc

I used my Orly Dotter Dup to create different sized dots. I love this mani, it's so quick and easy to do! 

Is there anything you would like to see me blog about?

The girliest nails I have ever seen...

So last night, I decided that I was going to re-do my nails. I haven't done anything other than plain nails in a long time, mainly due to my contracted hours at work being increased I just don't have the time any more. But, as it was a Friday night (I know how to live, right?!), I decided to go wild and do something different. 

One of the children at the Nursery I work in requested I do "pink with diamonds", and while I didn't have any diamonds kicking around to stick on my nails, I went for the next best thing - pink glitter. 

Essie - Blanc, Essie - Romper Room, Seche Vite top coat.

Do excuse the state of my cuticles, they have been subject to a lot of cleaning lately and they really do not enjoy it!

What do your nails look like this weekend?

Essie - Spin The Bottle

Well, it's official. I have a new favourite nude polish. I don't often wear nudes as I find they look a bit weird on my skin tone. However, the new offering in Essie's hide & go chic collection really stood out to me so I picked it up to give it a try! 

It's the best nude I have used and, unlike other nudes, doesn't make my skin tone look yellow.

The only negative I have to say about this polish is the consistency of it. It's quite hard to work with which is unusual for an Essie polish. It took 3 careful coats and even then it was running on to my cuticles. 

Overall, I love this colour! What's your favourite nude? Should I add glitter to this?

Nails

Yet another post for the Blogger Challenge! I promise I will get back in to regular blogging soon but I have been so busy at work and have been really struggling to find time! 

Topic 5 is 'nails'. As you all know, I am way too addicted to changing my nail colour. I've got a bit better lately at leaving my nails the same for longer than 5 hours, and only really change it twice a week. My nails were pretty strong to begin with but I have noticed that the condition of them is much better since I stopped using nail polish remover on them so regularly. I definitely need to start taking better care of my hands as I can be very lazy with it. 

If anyone has a good hand/nail care routine I would be really interested to see it! 

Everyone knows my favourite nail polish brand is Essie for multiple reasons. Firstly, I love the range of colours - there truly is something for every occasion. Secondly, the consistency and the opacity of the polish is definitely some of the best around. Finally, aesthetically, the bottles are a very nice shape which makes my collection look neat!! 

It's absolutely impossible for me to choose a singular favourite colour, however my favourite general colour would be lilac/purple. Essie- Play Date, Essie - Full Steam Ahead and Ciate - Sugar Plum being definite contenders for number 1!

What is your current favourite colour??

Essie Gradient!

Hi guys,

I went out at the weekend and was sick and tired of having boring nails! My creativity wasn't exactly high so I decided on a simple gradient!

I love using Essie - Rock the Boat and Full Steam Ahead to do gradients as I think they blend really nicely together!!

What do you have on your nails today? Let me know!!

Snowflake Nails!

Hi guys, 

Just thought I'd share these with you as I've received quite a few compliments on them today! 

I used GOSH - Tilted Blue for the base, Essie - Blanc and Barry M - Foil Effects 

I really like this, I hope it encourages snow for real! 

Let me see your Christmas/Winter nails!

An InLinkz Link-up

Shades of Christmas!

Aah!! YES!! It's December, and we all know what that means! CHRISTMAS. And what does Christmas mean? GLITTER!

I absolutely love this time of year, its a good excuse to wear a lot of glitter nail polishes (and regret it as soon as I have to take it off!). I have a serious case of festive fingers (is this a thing? it should be a thing!) right now and went a bit crazy with my winter/Christmas nails so I thought I'd share them with you.

I used Essie - Russian Roulette (red), Essie - Blanc (white), Barry M (Nail Effects 319) and Models Own -Jucie Jules

As you can see I have changed my pinky nail from white to red. I had Blanc with Pure Pearlfection from the Essie Winter 2013 range, originally. Although in real life this combination looks amazing, it did not pick up on camera and as I love the effect Pure Pearlfection has on a nail I really wanted to be able to show you it!

Isn't Santa's hat so cute? Have you tried any Christmas nails? If you have then please share them with me!!

Look forward to lots of glittery nails over the next few weeks! 

French Manicure - With a twist!

Hi guys,

Two posts in two days! Wow.. 

I got a bit fed up with my Halloween mani, and seeing as I'm not at work until Wednesday I figured I'd redo them for Halloween. I decided to do a French Manicure with a twist.

I started with two coats of Essie - Vanity Fairest, I then used Essie - Blanc to paint the tips. I used Essie - The Lace is On with help from a Nail Art Brush to draw the lines and then added the butterfly detail (they were supposed to be bows but turned out like butterflies, hey ho!) and finally Essie - Black for the edge detail.

I really like this look, it makes my hands feel elegant! What are your favourite nail looks?

An InLinkz Link-up

Halloween!

Hi guys,

I know it's been a while since I last posted, I've had a very busy two weeks, couple that with the fact my internet connection is intermittent at best I've not had a lot of time to blog!

Seeing as it's Halloween this week, I thought I'd show you my very basic Halloween nails. I work in a Nursery and I'm going to be working Halloween, I'm excited to carve my first pumpkin and make chocolate covered apples!

Barry M - Black, Essie - Blanc, Revlon - Mango

I'm going to change the pumpkin nail into a spider as Thursday approaches! 

Should I add any other details? I'd love to see your Halloween nails!

An InLinkz Link-up

Essie's Autumn Shades! (Part One (Finally...))

So guys, here's the first instalment of a two post review on Essie's Autumn/Fall Collection "For the twill of it".

Twin Sweater Set

When I first applied this colour, I felt like I already owned it.. Probably because I pretty much do! Russian Roulette, also by Essie, is a very, very, similar colour and I wouldn't recommend purchasing this colour if you've already got a primary red shade, there really isn't anything special with this one!

After School Boy Blazer

I tried to get a good picture of this colour, its a dark navy blue, which with two coats looks almost black. This is a lovely colour which, if you're looking for a dark shade but not wanting black, is perfect! 

Vested Interest

Surprise nice colour of the bunch! When I first picked this colour up I thought it was hideous but I bought it for the purposes of this review! I put it on my nails and I was seriously impressed. It's such an unusual colour and I do not own anything remotely similar (surprising for me!). 

As always, these polishes are £7.99 from Boots but are currently on a buy one get one half price!

I must say, the wear of these nail polishes isn't great and the formula isn't as good as some of the other Essie products but I do really like these 3 colours! 

Is there anything you'd like to see me do? Let me know!

An InLinkz Link-up

Autumn's here!

So guys, it's officially that time of year again. I love Autumn, its my favourite season. And a new season means its a great excuse to go back to the old favourite colours from last year! My favourite Autumn shade is Bahama Mama by Essie.

Essie describes the colour as a "warm, rich, creamy deep plum". Plum, in my mind, is far more purple than this polish, however. I think it's definitely more of a red than purple.

I obviously couldn't leave this plain, so I added Models Own - Juicy Jules to the tips of two fingers and used my Revlon - Top Coat (more about that soon!).

I love this so much and I seriously can't wait to get my hands on the Fall collection from Essie (no where near me seems to be stocking it?!)

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Do you have a go-to polish for Autumn? I'd love to try out some new colours and brands if anyone has any recommendations!

I'd really appreciate it if you could go and follow my blog via bloglovin!! There's a link on the side :)!

An InLinkz Link-up

Tutorial: Gradient Nails

Whenever I wear this style of nail, I always have people saying "how do you do that?!", so I figured I would show you all! I originally saw this technique in Amarixe's video. It's actually pretty easy and can be done with 2 or more colours. I find that 2 colours works fine for me. You may want to put some tape around the edges of your nails to make clean up easier as this can get quite messy!

I start with getting all my equipment ready, you will need a triangular make-up sponge, which can be found in any drugstore, a pair of scissors and your nail polish colours. I'm using Essie - Rock the Boat and Full Steam Ahead.

Cut the sponge to a size that will fit your biggest nail.

Barry M - Matt White

Start by painting your nails white, or the lightest colour if you have more than 2 colours. (optional)

Paint stripes of the polish on to the sponge, be sure not to use too much polish or it will just pull the bottom layer up.

Line the sponge up with the side of your nail and roll across. Dab around the nail and slightly up and down to create the blended gradient. Repeat until you are happy with the opacity. It took me about 4 coats.

After clean up:

Hope you like this nail look! I'd love to see your attempts! 

What else would you like to see?

Essie - Full Steam Ahead

Essie's Summer range was beautiful this year, and I have already reviewed one colour, Rock the Boat, which can be found here. Full Steam Ahead is a stunning lilac colour with a 'pearlescent punch'.

The colour applied smoothly for me and with two coats was completely opaque, a third coat really deepens the colour. I always start with a thin coat of colour, and then add a thicker. The brush is the perfect size for my nails and the formula, I found, was not sticky, nor runny. As with the other colour's in this range, the shimmer really brings something more to the lacquer and as its such a subtle shimmer I think it definitely makes this product stand out.

Ciate's - Sugar Plum looks quite similar to this in the bottle, however, I definitely prefer Full Steam Ahead because I find the Ciate polish requires a lot more coats (and patience!) before the colour stops looking streaky. The Ciate brush is also very thin in comparison.

I didn't want to do just a standard nail so I used Orly's dotter duo and Barry M's Matt White to create the flowers. If anyone would like a tutorial on this let me know!

(The colour definitely looks less blue in real life)

I've worn this nail look for a week now, and there's no chipping and hardly any noticeable wearing, even around and edges of my nails which I was very surprised with. In fact, they look like I have just applied the colour which I love!

I think this is such a pretty look for Summer!

Essie - Rock the Boat

Essie's Summer 2013 range has hit the shops in recent months and as soon as I saw the “Naughty Nautical” collection, I knew I wanted every single colour! I held off and so far only have my 3 absolute favourites, which I'm quite proud of! All the colour's in this collection have a hint of shimmer which makes for a lovely addition to the formula and doesn't make it difficult to remove, as so many glitter/shimmer polishes do (and which I was slightly apprehensive about when I saw them!).

 £7.99 from Boots

Rock the Boat is described as being light blue with a hint of periwinkle, and as periwinkle is one of my favourite colours I knew this was the one I had to review first!

The shimmer is subtle, however is still visible.

This nail lacquer is quite sheer and takes about 3 coats to reach full opacity. However, as you can see, once on the nail the colour is beautiful and whenever I wear it I get complimented! I found the formula to be easy to apply and wasn't messy or sticky. The first coat can seem a bit uneven but after putting a second on this evened out and I only added a third for complete opacity. After wearing this lacquer for 4 days I found that the colour had lasted extremely well, which is to be expected from Essie polishes and there were no chips (aside from general wear and tear!).

 I LOVE this lacquer and would recommend going and getting this before the shops take them off the shelves!!