Glitter Gradient

Hello everyone! Today marks the official countdown to Christmas. Monday 1st December. And what better way to mark this monumental monday than with a manicure!? I actually did these nails last week and they lasted a whole week just in time for my Christmas party on Friday night.

I did this really simple mani using my red lollipops polish I got in my Glossy/birch box (I can't remember which) as it is such a good bright red especially for Christmas. I then used this 2 true nail glitter I got in my most recent Glossybox on a clear coat of polish. I dropped it on the ends and then patted some glitter down the nail to get the gradient. and then sealed it all in with another coat of clear polish.

This is a really simple look that anyone can do, and it would look great with all kinds of colour combinations!

Pumpkin Delight Swatch

I know I usually do a bit of nail art to justify having a full post on just one manicure, but this colour is so so cool I wanted to show you, plus the Halloween-y name is perfect for the up and coming holiday. The aptly named polish is 'Pumpkin Delight' by Jessica, and is a two toned glitter polish that glints between gold and orange/pink. If you follow my instagram, then you will see I posted a very similar polish from Ciate. As Ciate isn't stocked anywhere where I live, I gave this one a go instead. Jessica polishes are £10.50 but I got my one for around £6 with my staff discount which was a steal :)

This is a perfect colour for Autumn, and would look really nice for a night out or with just a plain wooley jumper! Are there any other polishes you have seen that you need for the Autumn?

Day 6: Sparkles

Today is day 6 of the Nail art challenge and so I give you my design for 'Sparkles'

For this design, I used Pink Gold from the new Mavala Metropolitan range. I will be doing a full review on this range, but this is just a little sneak peak of what you can expect! It's an amazing gold colour which turns pink under some light. I used this as my inspiration for the rest of the design as it has a metallic sparkle. I used Nails Inc 'Brompton Place' for the index and ring finger, and free hand the diamonds, using a pink nail art pen on the gold finger to make them stand out. Obviously diamonds sparkle, so I used my new Barry M top coat to add the finishing shine. The diamond design is one used in Wah Nails a lot so I took the inspiration from there.

before the Sparkle

finished look

Christmas Nail Varnishes Design

If you follow my instagram account you would have seen on Christmas day, I uploaded a picture of the 3 nail polishes I received from family and friends. Luckily the 3 colours had purple tones, so I knew I could use them altogether to create some nail art.

 The O.P.I colour is called 'Lincoln Park at Midnight' which is a beautiful deep purple with a slight silver metallic running through it. The Purple Barry M polish is called 'Prickly Pear' from their Gelly collection, and the glitter Barry M is a limited edition exclusive to Superdrug.

I wanted to see what the glitter polish was like on lighter colours and darker ones so experimented with both, and then felt it needed something extra to make them pop, so I used my MoYou stamper and used the O.P.I colour to create the twirly effect. Its a very simple nail art design but I thought it was sophisticated and still festive!

Christmas Nails 3!

Sorry I have been so rubbish at posting this month, I am sure you have all been just as busy as me, and working in retail means you spend pretty much every hour in store in the run up to Christmas. A few days ago I did these nails! I think you'll agree they are pretty cute and festive. All the nail art was done free hand using Models's Own nail pens.

The green statement nail was done using the glitter effect from my Ciate Emerald collection which I reviewed a while ago. I highly suggest checking it out if you haven't already here.

I hope you all have the most fantastic Christmas! I shall be back very soon with lots of new products. Enjoy your day and relax!

Love Steph x

Mavala Jewel Collection

The Mavala Jewel collection came out a few weeks ago now and I had meant to post this so it was hot off the press. I wasn't happy with my pictures though, as they did the polishes no justice whatsoever. I have finally got some better shots now so I think I am ready to show you!

So here we have The Jewel collection!

 Mavala have done a glitter collection before but the Mavala Jewel collection isn't just any glitter collection, the glitter is so so fine and easy to remove, which is what I usually hate about glitter. The colours are multi tonal and perfect for the upcoming Christmas parties.

Gold Shimmer is a very sparkly gold. Everyone must have a sparkly gold at this time of year!

Topaz Gem is a pretty light blue. Maybe more appropriate in summer but you called also do some pretty snow effect nails with this!

Quartz Rock is a light pink. Would look good over any pink colour for a girly manicure.

Ruby Dust is perfect for christmas! This could/should go over everything!

Moonstone is an unsual mix of pink and blue glitter. It's quite ethereal and a bit dreamy.

Diamond powder, again, could be used for a snowy effect manicure or for a touch of sparkle.

Mavala Sublime Collection

Ivory Beige

This is a beautiful brown nude colour which makes the nails look flawless. I don't usually got for nudes but this makes hands look so sophisticated. 

Poetic Rose

This is a dusty red colour that hovers on pink. It is a very cute colour and reminds me of winter berries. I have been told that it looks lovely on toes!

Amethyst

At the Mavala stand at work, this has absolutely flown off the shelves! I personally think it looks better with one coat as the vampy purple colour shines through more, and two coats dampens the purple. It is a really lovely colour though. Perfect for this season.

Espresso

As I said earlier, I don't really do brown shades but this is absolutely to die for. It has such a deep brown tone and looks really effective and beautiful just on its own. I added glitter on top and it really popped!

Twilight Blue

This is one of those colours that doesn't look all that in the bottle, but when its on it really shines. When I wore this I got so many compliments on the colour, and it really is like nothing else out there. Its a lovely matte deep blue.

Warm Grey

This is another colour that looked quite bland in the bottle, but again, once it was on, people really started to notice it. Its lighter than my favourite Mavala shade 'Elle' but has warm hues to warm up the skin a bit like the 'Ivory Beige' does. This colour reminds me of some big chunky knitwear.

I thought I'd do some autumnal nail art to go with this collection as the browns really inspired me to do somthing special. Below, I used the 'Ivory Beige' and 'Espresso' on the accent nails. For the gold glitter, I used the Mavala 'Gold Diamond' which is a lovely fine glitter, that has a soft effect. The Brown french tips were done with 'Espresso' also. For someone who stears aways from browns, I was quite happy with these and felt I had captured the golden autumnal season. 

Ciate: Emerald Collection

I have been so excited to show you the Ciate Emerald collection! I bought it a while ago for £25.00 online. The reason I bought it was because I have wanted to try the crushed velvet manicure so badly, but didn't want to buy just the kit on its own in case I didn't like it. When I saw the kit contained not only the crushed velvet, but caviar and glitter I knew it was the kit for me. Based on the lovely green emerald colour that is going to be the colour of 2013, I was really impressed with the kit, and want to buy all the kits individually now!

The kit contains everything you need, including a tray for all the mess, a clean up brush, and even a little funnel so you can decant the excess back into the bottle for no wastage! Little things like that really make something special to me so I was very impressed.

The actual emerald base colour supplied is called "ditch the heels", and is a full sized Ciate colour. I left one nail without any effects on so you could see it. It is a really lovely colour and I'd happily wear it alone.

None of the effects require a fiddly glue or anything, you just apply it to a wet second coat of the green base. For the caviar effect, you simply shake the bottle over the wet nail, and gently push in the balls to make them stick, and that's it! I love the colours of the beads. The gold, light and dark green give it a really festive feel, and I will certainly be sporting the collection over the Christmas season.

The glitter effect is achieved by dipping the wet second coat into the pot of glitter, and then wiping of the excess with the little brush. You can even afford to sweep over the whole nail to make the surface more flat. I am not 100% happy with the way mine turned out. I think I dipped my finger in a bit to hard, so I have a very uneven surface. I think less is more with this look, and it will last much longer without lots of layers, as I found they keep falling of due to there not being enough surface area for the glitter bits to cling onto! You also don't get such a good look at the pretty array of colours when it's heavily built up.

Finally, the velvet effect. As I bought the whole kit to try this effect I was really hoping I wouldn't be disappointed, and I really wasn't. Applying it was so easy, and the finished effect is exactly how I wanted it to be! It feels and looks exactly how you think it would, and I can't stop touching it. Due to this I think I have actually worn quite a bit of it away after a day, but the look is so versatile and it has really got the cogs in my head turning for future nail art ideas for example fluff, Christmas tree effect, grass??

The general staying power of these effects is actually really good. You can get your hand wet, then towel dry them and have no trouble, mine even stayed pretty tight after a hair wash which I thought would ruin it all. As I said about the glitter before, if you overload it then prepare to have a trail of green and gold glitter behind you. The velvet still feels very velvety after a day at work although the look is probably not as obvious as when I first did it. Quite a few of the caviar balls have fallen off, but after a day at work doing deliveries and opening boxes I would be very impressed if it had stayed on! Most of them are still in tact though and its the ones round the edge of the nail that have fallen off, and even where the balls have fallen off, they leave a little gold/silver imprint so it still looks like there is an effect on them.

Basically, if you want the nails for a certain occasion or party, then do the nails the day that you need them before because that is when they will look they're best.

 

 I absolutely love this kit, but I would love to know what you think about it? Is it perfect for the run up to the Christmas season or just too OTT?