Snowflake Nails (plus bonus Christmas dog!)

 

I have been very lax recently - no excuse, but my nails have been shocking.  Partially cos I keep doing really stupid things, and knocking the corners of them off!  And then I decided to try thinning scissors out on my cocker spaniel, and ending up thinning my index finger instead - ouch!  You might notice in the pics below that I am tucking my index finger a little out of view - no-one needs to see that....

But it's December and I am seeing snowflake mani's everywhere, so thought I would try out my Bundle Monster plate 323 that I have been saving for a suitably festive period!

To start with though, I started with two coats of OPI Cuckoo For This Color, a gorgeous teal green shimmer.  Over the top, I tried something I have been waiting to try for ages - Models Own Jack Frost, a fine - medium irredescent glitter.  Really lovely and I wished I had taken some pics before I stamped over the top, as the snowflakes somewhat obliterate it, but I may try it on its own over another colour another day.  Really pretty and insanely sparkly!

Then the final stamping, with a few accents using bits of glitter from OPI I Snow You Love Me.  Very festive!

Base coat Orly Bonder
2 coats OPI Cuckoo For This Color
Stamped with BM323 and Konad Special Polish White
Top coat Seche Vite
Glitter accents from OPI I Snow You Love Me

 

 

And completely off topic, here is the pic I took of Lottie, my eleven month old spaniel, which I am waiting to arrive on custom printed Christmas cards!  The portable studio lighting and tripod I use for photographing my nails came in very useful!!!   However, Lottie is in her first season at the moment, so is mooching around like a hormonal teenager....  oestrogen has a lot to answer for!

Models Own Southern Lights & Bundle Monster 321

 

Just a quick one - I thought the sparkliness of Models Own Southern Lights was so gorgeous, that I would try stamping over it, as I didn't want to take it off just yet.  I wanted to keep it quite subtle so I used the flower image from Bundle Monster plate 321 from the 2012 collection and stamped it with Konad White Special Stamping polish - I like the effect, it looks rather wintery!  The snowflakes would look lovely as well, but I didn't want to use them as I have some very pretty snowflake stickers that I want to use at some point, so went with the flowers this time.  Getting better at this stamping malarkey!

As before, I had to take these under my kitchen lights to try and get a hint of the sparkle (nothing like what you see in real life!) so apologies for seeing anything like shadows and tiles in the background.

Base coat Orly Bonder
2-3 coats Southern Lights
Top coat Seche Vite
Stamped with plate BM321 and Konad Special Stamping Polish in White

 

 

Models Own Southern Nights

I did say I was going to stamp something pretty over the Barielle Secret Encounter that I swatched the other day, but don't you just know it, less than 24 hours later, massive chips everywhere put me off!

So here we have another untried - Models Own Southern Lights from their Wonderland collection.   Southern Lights is a lilacy grey base, PACKEDD with fairly fine holo glitter.  The sparkle on this one is just WOW (I ended up painting my best friends four-year-olds nails with this too, but good for girlies young and old!). 

This would be great layered over another colour (I will try this at some point) or, as I did here, just layer it up until opaque.  I used 2-3 coats to get an opaque finish - it is a little rough textured, so I used Seche Vite to smooth the whole thing over.

Of course, holo is quite difficult to photograph, and I did my best but not that happy - and then I went into my kitchen with overhead halogen lights, and immediately found my rather large light box (my kitchen cabinets are cream, so are the backdrop haha).  So the first couple of pics are my normal light box, so you can see the soft lilacy-grey and then the last one is with my kitchen lights!  Unfortunately it did make my hands turn the colour of lobster....

Base coat Orly Bonder
2-3 coats Southern Lights
Top coat Seche Vite

 

Models Own Amethyst (Velvet Goth)

Before anything else, please excuse the shape of my index finger nail.  I knew I shouldn't have mentioned a week or so ago that I was happy how my nails were looking - on Saturday I lost the corner of that nail by catching it on the lead attached to a very excited puppy.  And don't even mention my ring finger nail on my right hand - currently being held together by a teabag!  Oh well, they soon grow again!  But I have had to take the length right down, and the nail on my index finger is a rather odd shape at the moment....

Today I've got for you Amethyst, from the Models Own Velvet Goth collection which I picked up as part of a special offer from Boots.  The best way I can describe Velvet Goth polishes are heavily glittered polishes, which are then mattifyed to boot.

I found application a bit gloopy for me, but that may have just been my bottle.  Amethyst is a gorgeous royal purple - much more red leaning than I could capture in the photos, even with a bit of tweaking, but hopefully I got fairly close.  The glitter in it is a mix of deep fuchsia pink small glitter (which sadly didn't come out too well in the photos), and very fine silver glitter.  It is an interesting effect - a cross between a textured and a matt polish, but being a huge fan of glitter, it felt a little wasted to me to not have the sparkle there.

Although, quick tip, I was in a meeting this afternoon and absent mindedly scratching the surface of the polish, which suddenly got some of the tiny bits of silver glitter sparkling!  I wonder what effect a light buffing might have?

Anyway, back to business.  As I love my sparklies so much, I whacked a coat of Seche Vite over the top.  Wowzers - all of a sudden, the purple became so much richer and the glitter just started to pop. 

So my vote would be with a topcoat.  Which way do you prefer?

Base coat OPI Nail Envy Original
2 coats Amethyst
Top coat Seche Vite where applicable



Without topcoat



Without topcoat

With topcoat

With topcoat

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Models Own Mystic Mauve & Purple Ash triangles

This is just a simple taped mani (sometimes my taping is good, sometimes terrible - today was "meh") using two polishes from Models Own - Mystic Mauve and Purple Ash.  I have also used OPI I Snow You Love Me from the Mariah Carey Holiday Collection 2013, but I will do a proper swatch on that at some point, as I didn't use it as a polish in this mani, I just picked bits out!

Mystic Mauve is a foil effect pale lilacy colour - very pretty and applies smoothly with hardly any streaking.  Purple Ash is a gorgeous dusty purple creme - I love this colour!   Again, it applies smoothly and as an aside, I really get on well with Models Own brushes! 

To finish off, I embellished the point of each triangle, using OPI I Snow You Love Me as a glequin source!  It actually worked okay - the pics don't show the holo effect massively, but there is a pattern on each circle, so it gives a pleasing 3d effect on the nail, while still laying flat. 

Base coat OPI Nail Envy
2 coats Mystic Mauve / Purple Ash, plus additional taping layer
Glitter from OPI I Snow You Love Me
Top coat Seche Vite

 

 

Models Own Banger over OPI Russian Navy

Tis my birthday, so decided I wanted somethin' sparkly on my nubbins!  I picked up Models Own Banger the other week, which is from the Fireworks collection, a set of glitters.  This one is made up of small fuchsia glitter, large hexagonal blue glitter, medium hexagonal pale blue glitter and strips of holo blue/green glitter (think there's a few other varieties in there as well!).  And the bottle is PACKED with glitter - no fishing around with your brush with this one. Fabulous in other words!  I really love the mix of different shapes, and the blues, greens and pinks are just lovely.

Although I love layering glitters over black, I don't want to be a one trick pony, so I did a base of OPI Russian Navy, a deep blue/black, which set it off beautifully.  Banger is named well - reminds me of fireworks in the night sky!

Base coat Orly Bonder, 2 coats Russian Navy, 2 coats Banger, top coat Seche Vite.

 

 

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Models Own Mermaid Tears

I was just a little bit speechless after I had finished this mani.  As always, pics do not do it justice, but have tried to capture the sheer awesomeness of it anyway!

I have been a bit naughty recently and this week, I have ended up a few (edit: a lot) bottles better (edit: or worse) off.  One of the gorgeous little things I picked up was Models Own Mermaid Tears, from the Splash collection of topcoats.  Kinda wish I'd picked a couple more of them up now!

I started with two coats of L'Oreal The Black Swan and then went and dabbled this beauty over the top.  Mermaid Tears is a cloudy purple blue base, PACKED with opalescent flakies.  Appropriate seeing as my birthstone is opal (just trying to convince myself of a good reason why I bought it!).  The flakes are iridescent on their own - layer them over black, and all of a sudden you are hit with shades of turquoise, royal blues and purples.    I have been staring at my nails all day.  Even in the middle of a very important meeting......

It is not a smooth finish by any means, even with two layers of topcoat, but the payoff is worth it.  You have to dabble the flakies around a little to get a nice even distribution, but it isn't too painful.  The photos below go a very little way in showing just how much they shimmer and glow in the light.  Reminds me of those very glamorous kitchen worktops in black granite, with lots of sparkly bits in!  My inner magpie is much appeased with these nails.

OPI Nail Envy as a base, 2 coats L'Oreal The Black Swan, 2 coats Models Own Mermaid Tears, 2 coats Sall

 

 

 

y Hansen Insta-Dri topcoat.