Summer Gradient

Hi friends!
Well it's been a while. I've been a bit awol - sorry to anyone that's noticed or missed me! I'm a bit besotted with gradients at the moment, we've had a whole WEEK of sun in Wales (almost unheard of amidst the constant rain) and I seized upon the chance to get a bit summery with my nails.

 This is Essie Orange, It's Obvious and Boots No.7 Me! Me! Me! I did a base layer of white nail polish before sponging, to make the colours pop more, and added a topcoat of Seche Vite to smooth it all out. It's not as obvious as the previous gradient I've done, but the similar colours merge really well and help it look a lot smoother.

I can't wait to do a few more bright gradient combos...I might even get around to uploading them this year haha! ;) 

Alice

xXx

9 Days of Shimmer - Day 3, Carmen Glitterbomb

9 Days of Shimmer - Day 3 

Today I'm sharing Shimmer's Carmen polish, a lovely burnt orange gold stuffed with subtle, tiny multi-coloured glitters. Application on this was slightly harder to manage as it was so jam packed with glitter, which made it difficult to get a smooth cuticle curve. I layered it over Butter London Knees Up to give it an Autumn feel- I love the red peeking around the edges! There's two topcoats of Poshe on this mani and one coat of Gelous- this glitter has serious munchies.

I was hoping to get a decent shot of the sparkle explosion in the sun, but the weather was being a pain in the arse and didn't want to come out and play :( The perils of living in rainy Wales!

As I already had a glitter party going on, I thought to myself "What could better this?" And the answer was obvious- MORE GLITTER. I used Milani Red Flash and Purple Gleam over striping tape to create the lines, two lovely glitters that I acquired in a swap from the lovely Whitney from Apple Drops. They ended up looking like Christmas presents...and seeing as I had my first Christmas assault yesterday (a random gift magazine in the post) I guess it only seems apt!

 These are some heavy duty bling. There's three coats of glitter, one of Gelous, and FOUR layers of Poshe on these babies....they seriously weigh about a pound each!

Tomorrow I've got the best named polish in the collection....Alice, obviously. Stay tuned!

xXx

Visit Shimmer' website here
Visit Shimmer's Etsy store here
 

This polish was sent for review

It was Acceptable in the 80s

Hello my sweetlets,
I am so excited about my post today. It was a long, messy road but j'adore the final result. I went to an 80s themed party on the weekend (I know, I know, lycra spandex of doom, WHY DO PEOPLE DO IT TO ME) and in between crimping my hair and cracking out the tacky fluorescent bling I whipped up these babies.



please excuse my oily cuticles...I look like I'm about to enter my nails into a bodybuilding competition!

splaticures are a messy, messy bizniss

These are super, super neon, but neons are a total bitch to photograph so they look quite muted.

I used: (deep breath)
Revlon White
China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot Bikini
Color Club Koo-Koo Ka Choo
Color Club Jackie Oh!
Color Club Twiggie
No. 7 Stand Back
Seche Vite
Thin straw
Newspaper (a must!)
Sellotape (also essential)

I painted two coats of white on my nails, taped off my fingers as close to the nails as I could, mixed a little nail polish in my palette, dipped the end of my straw in, and blew it all over my nails. I thought that I was going to pass out at one point!
N.B. I found that short, sharp, powerful puffs worked the best by far.
Also, it's probably worth repulsing you all by telling you that I managed to get spit all over my nails doing this. Classy.

What do you guys think about the splaticure look? I love it, but it is a LOT of effort, and clean up is a pain in the arse. Major dry cuticles from the excessive acetone! Also, mine peeled off in sheets two days later as it was so thick from all the polish.
As a bonus picture, here is my hand in all its 80s glory. All I can say is, thank god I was a teenager in he nineties. I love me some neon, but my lord, this is the decade that fashion forgot!

Alice

xXx

this hand was born in the 80s!

Tequila Sunrise Gradients

Good morrow all,
I'm jumping on the gradient bandwagon today- they've been absolutely everywhere in the blogging world lately and I am loving them!

Nearly everyone who saw these thought that they looked like a Tequila Sunrise cocktail, which is what I was going for! Any excuse to bring booze into the equation.

Tequila Sunrise...mmm!

What I used:
Leighton Denny Do Me a Flavour
Barry M Yellow
Cosmetic sponge
OPI Nail Envy
Seche Vite

Love,

Alice

xXx

Splatticure!

So I've finally tried my hand at a splatter manicure! Very exciting stuff. I used two layers of OPI Nail Envy (standard), then put on two coats of gray- Mavala no. 217 'New-York' on, then used Leighton Denny 'Do Me a Flavour' in orange for the paint effect, as well as Avon 'Viva Pink'. Absolutely loved the contrast between the bright colours and the gray, it gave it a really modern vibe. 

I half cheated on the splatter- I used the straw method as well as just putting a dollop of varnish on and spreading it with a dotting tool (see my left pinky for an example!) I found the straw method a bit unreliable for creating the right effect- sometimes it looked awesome but other times it came out like a huge blob and looked crap. I topped the mani of with two layers of SV and it made it so glossy and lovely.

Not happy with the fact that I've had it on for an afternoon and I already have tip wear on my thumb...! Not sure if it's my extreme clumsiness or the fact that there's quite a lot of layers involved so it's bound to get a bit raggedy.  

Might have gotten a tad picture happy with this one so bear with me.......

I love it! Really hoping it lasts a decent amount of time. Although I am looking forward to experimenting with some dotting tools....watch this space!

xXx