Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I hope, whether you're in a relationship or not, you've all had a lovely day. Me and my boyfriend aren't massive on celebrating it but we got each other cards and had a takeaway together which was nice. Of course, I had to have Valentine's nails too, so I created this simplistic look for Divine Caroline using polishes from the new OPI - New Orleans collection*. If you want to learn how to create these you can check out my tutorial here.
Hey everyone! Today I have some more valentine's nail art to show you. I really like heart nail art, if you hadn't already figured that out, and I definitely don't contain creating heart designs to Valentine's day. But, it does give me an excuse to post more, and I've combined it with another favourite: florals. And another: Essie - Beyond Cozy. What could be better? If you'd like to create these yourself, or just find out more about the colours etc. I've created a tutorial over at Divine Caroline. They're actually very similar to a very old design of mine, if you want to see my awful nails from many years ago click here.
Originally I planned to do just the one Valentines themed manicure, but after coming up with this red rose design for my client I just couldn't get it out of my head.....and decided to put it on my own nails!
Her decision got me thinking.....which ended up with me deciding what was good for the goose is good for the gander - if one client can have my mani then I can have my other clients mani!
My client's manicure was created using IBD Scarlett Obsession gel polish. I didn't fancy soaking off my Sparkling Holographic mani so I did a #soakoffgelpolishcoverup. I used OPI Ro-man-ce On The Moon and it covered my nails in just two easy coats. The polish did the job beautifully, letting just a hint of the holographic sparkle beneath shine through.
I used a combination of Romance On The Moon and Hit The Bottle Poison Apple to stamp the gorgeous rose from Uber Chic Collection 1-03. I love all of the images on this plate, I am taking the opportunity to use these images on my nails while they are still short!
The original version of this manicure has a burnished dusting of mermaid glitter underneath the stamping for additional sparkle but I didn't do this on my manicure.
I love experimenting with extending the duration of my manicures and reducing soak offs by covering them with regular polish. I did this manicure quickly so I didn't polish it perfectly, but I love it so much I couldn't resist sharing.
I recently reviewed two new Crystal Clear Stampers and thought what better opportunity to put them to the test along with the gorgeous Erin from Magpie Glitter which I also used to create this pretty pastel Valentines day manicure.
Erin arrived earlier this week from the fabulous Magpie Beauty and as soon as I saw her twinkling away in the Magpie jar, I couldn't wait to soak off my last manicure so I could free her. I absolutely love this blush toned pink when it comes to clothing and nail polish and I think it is a perfect examole of the Pantone Colour Of The Year for 2016 - Rose Quartz and it works well with my skin tone.
I have been working towards creating a resource for colour swatched on darker skintones. The purpose of which is to make it easier for people to gain an idea of whether a colour type or particular polish will work for them. This project is in the early stages, recently I have been using the hashtag #swatchesondarkerskin on both relevant Facebook and Instagram posts. Hopefully, this will not only be a resource for people looking for a particular polish but perhaps it will kick-start professional, indie and drugstore brands to showcase their products on a more diverse variety of complexions and share the love with a wider consumer demographic.
For the base colour beneath Erin I used IBD Ooh La Lace, a lovely dusty rose creme which applied easily in three coats.
I used two different techniques to apply the glitter. On my index finger I sprinkled the glitter onto a thin uncured layer of the gel polish before curing and brushing off the excess and topcoating. I used three coats until smooth. This is a method which I recently picked up from Sarah, the lovely owner of Magpie Beauty. On the middle finger and thumb I burnished the glitter into the tacky layer of the cured gel polish as normal before topcoating twice.
The base colour underneath Magpie Glitter Blossom is IBD Carte Blanche a gorgeous opaque white creme which applies in three coats and can also be seen on my ring finger - minus the glitter. Don't forget you can click the images for a higher resolution image to really see that glitter sparkle.
For the stamping, I used Uber Chic 4-03 image plate and used a metallic regular polish from Pure Ice called Outrageous.
I love vampy colours but there is something about a romantic pastel pink manicure like this that just gets me and I love how this one turned out.
Check out my review of the Crystal Clear Stampers to see the even more sparkle of this manicure and how easy it is to place an image with these awesome stampers.
I have a super easy manicure to show you for Valentines Day!
I was looking through my blog roll yesterday and saw a post by Imagination In Colour which I just had to recreate because it looked so simple yet perfect for my current nail shape.
This simple Valentine Heart Manicure was very easy to create using only the polish brush in a small swooping motion from side wall to the tip of the free edge and repeated the process on the other side of the nail. I then used a small detail brush dipped in acetone to tidy up the heart shape a little bit. A quick coat of topcoat added the glossy finishing touch. Et' Voila!!!
NailTek III Basecoat OPI Underneath The Mistletoe Seche Vite Topcoat
The original mani which I took inspiration from okay straight out copied can be found by clicking on this link Imagination In Colour.
