Manhattan Polish South African Inspired

As i mentioned in my previous post, I have recently purchased a few new polishes from +Fragrance Direct. Two of these polishes were Manhattan Rock Topia Polishes priced at a bargain 49p! i can not resist a bargain like that!

I also used Silver special effect foil polish from Barry M and some gold striping tape to complete the design.
I must say i am very impressed with these polishes and they give a nice opaque colour in only two coats but unfortunatly +Fragrance Direct only have 2 colours in stock. These!

Number 5 and Number 4

 

Number 4 is actually much more of an apple green when used on the nail and is used in the feauter nail.

 

I think these as well worth 49p!

I hope you all have a great Bank holiday weekend!

Does Myleen Have Klass?

Time to try some nail wraps. Ive seen nail wraps for sale everywhere and there are so many different types and a few differnet types of application.

Myleen Klass nail wraps require no heat to apply and come in a pack of 24 for use on fingers and toes.

they were actually very easy to apply and looked lovely on, can you hear my suprise? :)

The only problem i had with them was that there wasnt ebough of the size i needed. There is a strip included so you can cut your own or you can trim one of the other wraps.

A nail file is also included.

The glitter also looks fab and the wraps are lovely and shiny

The next day they did start to come away at the free edge so maybe a topcoat run over the edge would help.

But all in all they would be fantastic for a night out and i applied them in 10 mins so a very fast application!

Good Job Myleen 

City Siren With Star Stamping

 

China Glaze's City Siren x 2 and NYC French Tip White

 

 

Beautiful starry design using a Cheeky stamping plate, purchased from Amazon.co.uk

Cheeky plate, like bundle monster, are a cheaper version of Konad. The quality of the plates are pretty much the same and they have some beautiful designs.

I choose cheeky and bundle monster over konad any day.

 

 

I think the feature nails look great in this design, but i think i would have prefured white stars on all the nails, not just the thumb.

I love China Glaze, Of course :p, and this colour is a lovely shade.

Plum And Leopard Stamping

 

 

2x Coats Of Plum By Kleancolor. Bundle Monster stamping Plate 221 and NYC white to do the leopard print. 

 

Please bare in mind that the NYC polish is very old and thick that's why it is so good for stamping, so don't chuck away your thick old nail polish! It'll come in very handy for stamping

 

As I've mentioned before, i love nail stamping and I love Bundle Monsters Plates. They work just as well as Konad but at lower cost.

I also used to use stamping alot when i was doing other peoples nails and it really is a crowd pleaser and people always comment on my nails when i have stamping on.

 

i prefer to just have stamping on the ring fingers on maybe the thumb too but this design would look just as lovely on all fingers.

 

Feature nails, as i call them, are very fashionable and if you look at celebrity nails you will find lots of people with just the ring finger "accessorised." Making this style suitable for both work and play as its not too "in your face"

 

This Kleancolor polish is very thin and didn't cover very well.Patchy and Streaky :( If using this colour again i would do 3 coats.

 

Ive been finding the Kleancolor with lumos bottom and base coat has not been lasting long at all on me. I think its my fault as i think i put the kleancolor on too thick. I have never had a problem of polish lasting on me when i use China Glaze and Lumos. China Glaze is a much better polish obviously, but it still doesn't really bother me as i don't tend to wear polish for more than a day :P

Ravishing dahling with added moons :)

 2x coats of ravishing Dahling by China Glaze with 1x glitter from Kleancolor Pinky Moon

 

Lumos top and base coats

Pinky moon has lovely holographic dots,lines and moons.

Picked the moons out using a cocktail stick to avoid too much polish on the nail.

think the glitter could of benefited from another coat as the glitter is quite sparse.

I fine that this China Glaze polish can be quite patchy, so could benifit from more coats if wearing alone.

 

The painting of my nails looks quite messy here and i always find that of darker red colours.Any mistakes are harder to rectify as it sort of smudges it

 

Cute stripy and dotty Kleancolor Pattern

Kleancolor Pastel Purple & Barry M White

 Cute Spots And Stripes

I used striping tape to do the stripes but it didnt come out as crisp as i hoped. **EDIT** the reason it didnt come out very crisp is because i left the tape on too long. Always remove tape when polish is still wet.

Then dotting tool to do the spots.

Mocha With Stamping, Yummy!

 Kleancolor Mocha With Cheeky Stamped Hearts

I know im using a lot of kleancolor polishes but i just bought a load and really want to try them all out :P

This is mocha 2 coats and i stamped a heart design using a Cheeky Plate and NYC White Polish (which i left open to go thicker for a few hours) topped off with lumos

I love nail stamping and believe me youll be seeing alot more stamping on this blog lol.

Cheeky Plates can be bought on Amazon for a fraction of the price of konad and they work so well. They have so many designs too.

Bite Me! Sexy Colour By Kleancolor

2X Bite me and Lumos top coat.

 

 

Kelancolor Bite Me is one of the most beautiful colours ive ever worn!!

 

after 2 coats it is fully covered and opaque.

Sexy Vampy Red Glitter At Its BEST!!

 

unfortunatly the pictures really dont show it as well as id hoped.

 

 

Velvet nails,fluffing rubbish!!!

As promised i have given the MUA nail fluff a go and all i can say is its infuriated me.

I followed the instructions on the back and its just messy and doesnt really work how i expected, maybe i need more practise but after that i dont think ill be doing it again. This picture shows my SECOND attempt! 

Even the neon Kleancolor Neon was patchy, i dont think its my night :(

Would the Sam biddles velveteen work better?

it just wouldnt bloody stick! It looks sooo messy!!

** Disheartened**

The Velvet Manaicure, Fluffy!

"Its been around for ages" I hear you shout, yes it has but im still yet to try it!

When i first saw it on +Sam Biddles Website i admit i thought i was strange but very funky and i love new innovations but on later reflection and when pictures kept popping of really messy application i really changed my mind. Plus i really love Sam Biddles products and have followed her career avidly since i got into nails.

But when i went for a stroll in Superdrug i noticed that MUA  now do a range of nail fluff i just had to give it a go. And it was only £3 for a quite big pot.
EDIT: it is now £2 on thier website HERE

 

Questions keep popping into my sceptical head like, what happpens when it gets wet? how long will it last? Is it easy to apply?

Later on today im going to have a nice old mess around with it and see if it will infact change my mind.

Keep your eyes peeled for my design later tonight x

Oyster nails, a new nail trend of 2013?!

Well good morning all, so I saw this picture in Scratch magazine and it really caught my eye.

The oyster nail has been all over the catwalk this season but will people start wearing this, in my opinion,strange nail design?

It can't be too practical I mean think of all the stuff that's going to get stuck under there, gross!!

I also would imagine they would get caught on everything! Nothing worse than a nail ripping off!! Ouch!! 

I'm not keen on this at all and can't see it being practical for an everyday audience but it sure is a talking point for the fashion world! 

Would you wear these? 

Monochrome With a Hint Of China Glaze

Monochrome with a splash of colour :) 

Hello again :) second post of today, think I'm getting abit addicted. Well who wouldn't want to talk about nails all day eh?! 

Today I've Chosen monochrome, classic! But then added a slash of colour to make it a tad more lively

I purchased some striping tape today and surprisingly I have never used striping tape before. 

So I decided to have a bit of a play. 

I used Barry M white and black and China Glaze Papaya Punch. 

Started off with Lumos Basecoat, of course! No nail staining for me :P 

I used two coats of Barry M white, I was in a rush so in a bid to seal the polish and speed up drying time I then used the Lumos top coat. 

When that was COMPLETELY dry I then got creative :) I have never used striping tape before so I just wanted to have a go. Firstly it was a bit of a pain to get dead on straight so it is abit on the wonk, with more time and practice I'm sure that will improve. 

After I had done my designs with the tape I then painted over the top with Barry M black and China Glaze Papaya on the ring finger. There are all some very small glitter fragments on the thumb and ring finger. 

Then topped it all off with Lumos top coat. 

Unfortunately I was in a rush to get out of the house and put on the topcoat prematurely, resulting in a slight drag of colours. As I as it was just a practice so at least ill know for next time. 

This way of doing stripes I will use again, imagine the possibilities!

  

Lumos Top and Bottom coat

Lumos high speed top coat and instant impact bottom coat are bought to us by Famous Names, who you may know is run by Jim and Linda Nordstrom, Jim was the co creator of CND until it was sold and is now also the creator of Sweet Squared. Sweet squared is an online supplier for the nail professional and also they run salon geek. 

I have owned these polishes for only a week but already I am so glad I listened to other professionals and purchased these. They came so highly recommended by other nail techs and I was worried they wouldn't live up to expectations but boy was I wrong! (And you won't catch me admitting that often!)

The base coat has a thin consistency but it is not hard to apply at all and dries instantly to form a bond between the nail plate and colour. 

The top coat can be applied to wet nails, although I have not tried this as I am always worried about the colour tinting the top coat. It dries COMPLETELY in 20 mins if that! I have never used a top coat that actually does what it says and I had no smudges or chips, I even went in the bath pretty much straight after applying. 

The box boasts that the polishes can be used right until the end of the bottle without becoming gloopy but as I've only just bought these I can't comment on that even though I have heard good things. 

Usually I can't wear polishes for more than a day without them peeling and chipping but this product keeps the colour firmly in place without it being hard to remove when the time comes. 

As with all coats of polish remember to cap the free edge to ensure longevity. 

This is a professional only product and I purchased mine here

www.ellisons.co.uk 

Check them out here +Ellisons Hairandbeauty 

Top marks for Lumos!! 

Kleancolor polishes Pastel Blue with glitter.

KLEANCOLOR PASTEL BLUE PLUS GLITTER 

 polish in order of pic 95 Disco Ball. 33 Starry Blue.Pastel blue.233 Chunky Holo Teal.

Okay so here it goes..... 

I've recently purchased a few Kleancolor polishes from the Internet and today I had a very basic play with them. 
Kleancolor isn't available in shops in the UK, as far as I'm aware, so I had to get them online. They retail for as little as $1 in America but be prepared to pay quite abut more for them in the UK.

So I started off with Lumos base coat and then applied 2 coats of pastel blue.It is quite streaky to begin with but to be honest I've found this with a lot of the lighter polishes from other brands too, even the higher end ones.The second coat does even it out near on perfectly but saying that if I didn't put the glitter on I would have done a third coat just to make it completely opaque. 


 This is how the pastel blue looked after two coats. Please be aware this was taken under unnatural light given I started doing my nails at gone 11 :P

After that I started layering on glitter three different types to be exact, I love glitter! Plus I wanted different sizes of glitter to give the full effect. 

I started with the smallest glitter particles and worked my way up to the biggest. I started with Chunky Holo Teal and brought this just over half way up. Chunky holo teal is a beautiful glitter looks really blue in the bottle but basically it come out almost clear. First bottle on the right.

I then went on to layer Disco Ball ontop which has round blue and pink glitter. Bottle on the far left. 

I finished it off by using Starry blue. On the first few fingers I used the brush to position the big chucks of glitter but I found it put far too much clear varnish on the nail and not a lot of glitter so after that I used a cocktail stick to pick out the biggest bits of glitter and position it on the nail. It's also give you the biggest amount of control of the glitter placement and you can put then exactly where you want them. Second bottle on the left.

Then topped it all of with Lumos top coat. 

unnatural light.

 these two were taken under natural light... Can you see the difference?

These polishes were very nice to work with but geez they stink! Personally not a problem for me but you may want to crack a window ;) 

I know this is a very simple design but when I'm sat with 40 new polishes in front of me I just can't decide! 

All in all these four are lovely polishes to work with, I just love blue and I love glitter so I love this!

If I lived in the USA I'd own all of the Kleancolor range but they are very hard to come by in the UK, unless you go to EBay or Amazon but I'm glad I purchased these and will purchase more.

 

 

My First Post, Ever!

Hello and welcome to my blog!

I have never done this before so please be patient.

I am a qualified nail tech and love trying new products and I just love being creative. I search a lot online for info and swatches before I buy products and after finding myself at a loss with what to do when my two little uns are in bed I thought I'd jump on the blogging wagon and show you guys some of my nail art, swatches and reviews on products in the nail biz.

I am as I said qualified as a nail tech and was until about 7 months ago taking a few clients in my home of an evening, but after having a second child my little business empire has been put on hold, so I suppose this is just another creative outlet so I don't go mad! :)

I hope you all enjoy my work and my ramblings and if you have any questions or requests just drop me a line.

:)