Absence & Getting Ready for Summer

I have been awful at updating my blog recently!

I had to get knee surgery so haven't been doing many nails recently but hopefully this will be rectified soon as I'm beginning to feel better and I'm itching to get back to the salon.

I wanted to work on some summer colour pops the other day so have managed to come up with a few. Here's what I've got so far:

Gelish Summer Nail Art

I used Gelish to create all of these designs, they are all freehand apart from the fruit and ice cream decals which are by DIY Nails (I'm going to do a post about these amazing decals soon!) I'd tried to create summery, tropical and bright designs as that's what I like to wear on my nails in the summer. I think even just having one nail on each hand painted like this will brighten up any manicure for summer!

I'll be updating much more regularly now so more posts to follow :)

All That Jazz "Madeline's - Beauty and the Chic"

So yesterday I received another exciting parcel - a new All That Jazz colour to review!

This new colour is called "Madeline's - Beauty and the Chic" and is definitely my favourite so far. It's a super sparkly black. The flecks of glitter are a sort of blue/green colour which looks really good against the black polish base. (it also helps that black is my favourite polish shade to wear). The only downside is that it was really hard to photograph! So much so that I don't think my pictures show just how nice it really is.

Hopefully this can give an idea of what this colour is like but it's really a million times nicer up close.

As with all the other All That Jazz colours I've tried - it applies really easily and smoothly. This colour was opaque with 2 coats and dried really quickly too. As I use gel polish most of the time now I really appreciate when a polish dries quickly and evenly - it saves so much time!

I'll be sure to update on how long it lasts in my next blog post but I've managed 7-10 days from my other two colours so I'm hoping this will just be exactly the same!

You can check out the full range of colours here: http://www.allthatjazzuk.com

Two different takes on a Valentine's Manicure

As it's valentines day on Friday I thought I'd try out a couple of heart inspired nail art designs, to show that even if you're not too fond of the 14th of February you can still have some fun nails!

I used Gelish for both of these designs.

This first design uses Gelish "Night Reflection" which is a lovely deep shimmery purple and on the ring finger I used some loose pink glitter to make a heart design.

The second design I tried out was using a nude coloured base "Eur so Chic" and I filed the nails into a more "almond" shape so the hearts I painted on the tip looked better. I used Gelish "Hot rod red" for the hearts.

Both of these are good examples of Valentines nail art but I think that they prove that you could wear these at any time of the year too!

New Colours & Tartan Nails

Hello!

In the past week I have picked up a couple of new Gelish colours. The first new colour I got was "Let's hit the bunny slopes" from the new Snow Escape Collection. I had originally wanted all of the polished from this collection when I first saw a blog post about them back in the autumn time. However, after looking at pictures online I decided a few were similar to colours I already have so I opted for "Let's hit the bunny slopes" as it's a really nice shade of grey which my Gelish collection was lacking.

I also opted for "Night Reflection" which is really nice dark shimmery purple.

L - "Let's hit the bunny slopes" R- Night Reflection

I decided to try out the grey colour on my own nails. It applied really well and was opaque with 2 coats. I also added a tartan design to my ring finger on both hands.

I really like the grey, I've been wearing it since Saturday and I don't feel the need to change it any time soon (which is rare for me!) 

I updated my colour pops too so now I just need to get working on some more nail art!

All That Jazz "Catherine's - Canary Fairy"

So I was lucky enough to get to review another new colour from the fantastic "All that Jazz" nail polish range. The first colour I received to review was "Jazz's - Toast to the good life" Which was an amazing metallic pewter colour. I really loved this colour as not only did it look great but I managed to get 10 days wear out of it with only a few tiny chips! I was also given "Base Line" - the base coat from the range which I was also really impressed with. It applied evenly and dried super quickly. I received a lot of compliments on the colour and a few of the clients in the salon were really interested in this new brand of polish and asked to try it out on their own nails!

Here's the colour on my nails

So, the colour I have received this time is "Catherine's - Canary Fairy" This colour is an amazing bright yellow colour! It has tiny flecks of iridescent glitter through it which means when it catches the light it looks amazing! Again the consistency of the polish was great and had an opaque finish after two coats. It also dries quickly too. I made sure to use the "Base Line" base coat I'd received previously with this colour. I think this amazing yellow would look great in the summer but it will definitely brighten up your nails in the winter too!

Catherine's - Canary Fairy 

Happy New Year!

As it's the 19th of January I know I'm a bit late but I was really busy over December and was on Holiday until Friday. I've made a promise to myself that I will update this nail blog regularly with new pictures of sets of nails I've done and with new products that I've come across and colour swatches when I update my Gelish collection.

I was in America from the end of December up until Friday on holiday but I still managed to pick up a few nail related things..

Firstly I managed to find a Sally's store and got a couple of the new Gelish Trends collection. I picked up a couple of the "mini's" to try them out. The colours I picked up were "Are you feeling it?" and "Let me top you off". I also picked up a Vitagel mini to try it out as I have heard mixed reviews on this product but wanted to try it out anyway. I got the green Strength version of Vitagel.

Gelish Mini's

Let me top you off is a sort of thinner glitter polish with pink purple and blue flecks and Are you feeling it is a much more dense polish with good coverage in an amazing sparkly teal colour.
I also managed to pick up two sets of loose glitters in various colours for "Rockstar" nails (gelish with loose glitter) as these look really good. I picked up a set of neon glitters which will be great for summer nails and a more muted set which I've tried out already (and look amazing!)

Neon Glitters

I've tried out the glitters on a few sets of nails since I got back as I'm not back in the salon until the weekend and I couldn't wait until then!

These are actually my own nails using Gelish "are you feeling it" as mentioned above. I really liked this colour and it applied great with three coats.

The next couple of sets are using the loose glitter which gives a great sparkly effect.

Created this amazing colour using Gelish "brights have more fun" with a couple of coats of "let me top you off" and a tiny amount of loose glitter

These are Gelish "you glare I glow" and loose purple glitter.

Hopefully I'll get to try out the rest of the glitters on clients nails soon!

All That Jazz Polish Review

Already being a huge fan of Gelish I was really excited to get the chance to review the new All That Jazz range. From what I’ve seen online there is a vast array of colours from brights and jewel tones to glitters and metallics so I couldn’t wait to try them out.

This week I have received the colour Jazz’s – Toast to the Good Life and Base Line.  Jazz’s Toast to the Good Life is a metallic pewter sort of colour which is perfect for autumn/winter. It’s a great colour as it pretty much goes with anything!

I firstly prepped my nails to apply the polish. Then it was time to try out “Base Line” the base coat from the range. The application of the polish was great – not too thick or thin and applied evenly to my nails. The brush was a good size too. The drying time is great – by the time I’d finished my other hand the nail I polished first was dry.

After applying Base Line it was time to apply the colour. Again, the consistency of the polish was great – not too thick or too thin and it had great coverage. I only needed two coats for the colour to be opaque. The colour coat was also fast drying (which is a big plus!!)

Jazz's Toast To The Good Life Polish

Overall I was really impressed with the polish and Base line base coat. I like the design of the polish bottles, the colour was great, good consistency and fast drying. I can’t wait to try out more colours!

Here is a couple of pictures of the finished result: