Rainy Day Nails

Weather? Miserable.

Company? Excellent.

Tea? Twinings English Breakfast.

Nail Polish? OH YES.

LET THE FUN COMMENCE.

The beauty of painting my best friend Katie's nails is that when I ask her what she wants me to do, her response is always the same: DO ANYTHING! :)

So, I did!

Starting with a base coat of Sally Hansen 'Complete Care Extra Moisturizing 4-in-1 Treatment' (Katie recently had acrylic nails removed, so her nails are in need of extra TLC), I then went on to paint alternate nails with Essie 'Sunday Funday' and China Glaze 'Keepin' It Teal'. Essie polishes are definitely among my favourites. It only took 1 coat to get full coverage, the brushes are the perfect size (especially for Katie's baby-sized nails!). It is a beautiful coral coloured polish with a gorgeous shimmer to it. 

The China Glaze polish on the other hand, took 3 coats to build up a good coverage. The bottle was quite deceptive, I was expecting a thick cream polish, but this one was quite translucent. Don't get me wrong, the colour is stunning, and it applied really evenly, but because of the need for so many coats, Katie's nails were quite thick by the time I'd finished the base colour.

Now for the detailing. 

• Thumb - Onto the thumb I painted a pretty little flower using Barry M '308 Berry' polish, Rimmel 'Sunshine' and a dotting tool. 
• Index finger - This was the star of the show. On a shopping trip to Boots, I stumbled across these in their clearance section. They are nail art stickers made by Umberto Gianni, and I got them for a mere 75p! Technically I didn't use these as they were intended, they are only temporary stickers that wash off, but they were too pretty to ignore, and I made sure to cover them well with top coat!
• Middle Finger - To each of the middle fingers I dabbed on a coat of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in ' Mermaid's Tale'. This is a deep blue translucent polish full of green and blue chunks of glitter. Fab consistency, and application is a doddle with the big brush. 
• Ring finger - Using a black Models Own Nail Art pen, I drew a heart and surrounded it with dots. The pen is really easy to use, and gives you the option of using a fine metal nib, or by unscrewing the lid, a fine brush. Glides on easily and gives a very dense black colour.
• Little finger - Onto the little fingers I dabbed a coat of Seventeen Off The Wall Graffiti Effect in 'Monochrome'. The black and white flecks work really well against the China Glaze teal colour.

The whole manicure was finished off with a couple of good coats of Seche Vite to keep it all in place.

Over the Taupe

Please excuse the cut on my pinky, I was involved in a fight with a vegetable peeler. 

It won.

So this is my first blog post. And what a beautiful colour to begin with!

This is a gorgeous colour from OPI, called 'Over the Taupe'. It is a beautifully creamy polish that gives a gorgeous rich chocolate colour. It is much darker than I expected from the bottle, but I am in love with it all the same.

As I like a nice bold colour, I used 3 coats of polish over a coat of OPI Nail Envy as a base coat (though I'm sure 2 coats of polish would be enough over a more opaque base coat), topped with a coat of Seche Vite.

You definitely cannot go wrong with a good OPI polish, they apply smoothly, and have a fantastic shine, even without top coat. Would highly recommend this, although they are at the higher end of my spending budget, a girl's still got to treat herself every once in a while ;)

I ❤ Confetti

On days when I'm not feeling ambitious enough to be artistic with my nails, or I'm a bit pushed for time, this is my go to effect.

Firstly, I applied Sally Hansen Cuticle Eraser and Balm to each of my nails, soaked my hands in warm soapy water to wash it off my nails, and pushed back my cuticles. Then, on top of 2 coats of OPI Nail Envy, I painted 2 coats of Loafer Love For You! by Rimmel on 3 nails, and Posh by Revlon on 2. I adore these colours. The Revlon is very easy to apply, regardless of only having a thin brush, and even 1 coat gave good coverage. The Rimmel is a little bit more difficult to apply, and definitely needed 2 coats. Again, it has a thin brush, but my least favourite thing about it is the horrible chemically smell to it, much worse than any nail polish I've ever smelt. But I can definitely power through all that for the gorgeous colour.

On top of this I used Seventeen Off The Wall Graffiti in Monochrome. It is AMAZING. I love the randomness to it, the size and shape of the black and white confetti pieces. I use the brush to dab on, as I find applying it like I would with other nail polish just moves the confetti around.

Some of the confetti is quite chunky, so I used 2 coats of Seche Vite to top it of and give the manicure a fabulously glossy finish. Last, but most definitely not least, I brushed my cuticles with OPI Avoplex Nail and Cuticle Replenishing Oil. 

Ruby(pumps) Tuesday

This has definitely made it into my favourite polishes of all time. Apologies for my picture not doing it much justice, it is truly beautiful.

I am a total lover of red nail polish, if I had to survive on just one colour and give away the rest, I would definitely keep red.

This could even be the keeper. It is called Ruby Pumps by China Glaze, and has a gorgeous formula, glides onto the nail really easily courtesy of a extremely precise brush, and has the perfect amount of tiny red glitter in it to give it its fabulous shine.

This only took 2 thin coats, dried quickly, and had a lovely shine, but I topped it with Seche Vite out of sheer force of habit :)

Hand Therapy

My current addiction is hand cream. I can't get enough of it. Which can only be a good thing.

The newest addition to my slowly growing collection is this beauty from Crabtree & Evelyn. It is absolutely divine. The consistency is thick, yet not greasy, and sinks into the skin fairly quickly, but without losing its 'newly moisturised' feel.

Hand Therapy is available in many different fragrances, but I went for Rosewater. It has a delicate, feminine, clean scent with a faint hint of nostalgia, reminding me of times spent with my Grandmother as a little girl.

In fact the only thing I don't like about it is that the tube is pink. I don't like pink. At all.

Really looking forward to trying this in other fragrances, La Source being next on the list :)

Accent Nails #1

Accent nails are my favourite type of nail art. I think it really glams up a manicure without being too over the top.  

This is one of my favourites, modelled by one of my favourite people :)

I love this leopard print design, and as well as being affective, it is also really easy to achieve.

Firstly, the nails were given a coat of Sally Hansen Complete Care Extra Moisturising treatment (not pictured). I painted the accent nail with 2 coats of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Naked Ambition, and the rest of the nails with 2 coats of Please Red-Cycle from the Nicole range by OPI. I then used a dotting tool to apply red dots to the accent nail. These don't need to be perfectly round, in fact, it adds character if they aren't! Using a black nail art pen by Models Own I added the leopard print detail, and followed it all up with Essie Matte About You top coat.

Both of these polishes apply effortlessly and coverage builds really well. Naked Ambition has a lovely shimmer to it (my photo does not do it justice). The fine tip to the nail art pen makes intricate work a doddle. And I just love the finish the Essie top coat gives. Beautiful.