Models Own - Hot Stuff and Japonesque

Hi everyone,

This month has been Breast Cancer Awareness month and there have been a lot of pink manicures floating around. I think it would be a bit depressing for me to highlight the statistics of the amount of women, families, friends etc who have been affected by cancer so I won't.

Here is my pink ribbon offering:

 Models Own 'Hot Stuff' over Sinful Colors 'Beautiful Girl'.

Look at that glitter!

 

I created the ribbon out of acrylic paint. My camera just did not want to capture the beauty of this pink polish, or my ribbon. Meh.

I received this Japonesque Manicure Set a while back but didn't get around to posting about it. It's such a beautiful pearl pink and a portion of the sale price will be donated to Breast Cancer Research.

 All the tools you'll need for a good manicure...you just need this and a tube of cuticle oil!

I love this Japonesque kit because it's perfect for home use (my husband loves the cuticle nippers) and it's suave enough to take on set too. I won't be taking this to any set though. When I worked at London Fashion Week, someone nicked my acetone pump bottle!

I do have some more Japonesque goodies to show you, so please bear with me.

Thanks for reading folks.

xx

Models Own - Disco Inferno

Hi everyone.

I have my next Models Own polish swatch. This is Disco Inferno over Rimmel's Black Out:

Same formula - clear jelly with gold, orange and green glitters.

The glitter is a lot more vibrant in real life. My camera seems to be on it's way out...it's not as good as it used to be *sigh*.

 These colours reminded me of Halloween, so three days after I painted my nails (that's right, no chips yet), I did the below:

I was actually in the processes of thinning my detail brush and thought I'd test out the thickness. It's still not thin enough yet though. I need a brush that has about three hairs in it, so I'm back to clipping this one.

If you partake in the Halloween festivities over the weekend, enjoy!

xx

Models Own - Freak Out!

Hi everyone.

Here are some pretties that I picked up on the weekend. Here are only three of the five glitters in the Mirror Ball collection - these were my favourite.

 L-R: Disco Inferno, Hot Stuff and Freak Out all from the Mirror Ball collection.

This is three, count 'em, three layers of polish over a pale blue .  The glitter, hex's, strips and mylar shreds are suspended in a clear polish.

I only put one layer of Seche Vite on, so some of the mylar (at least that's what I think it is), was sticking up.

I do like this polish, but I wish I could wear it just on it's own and have full coverage. Welp, I have two more polishes to try so I'll see what I can do!

xx

Models Own Green Grass

Hey folks, I hope you've all had a good start to your weeks.

Tonight, I don't have any 'art' for you; quite frankly I've been uninspired this weekend.  Instead, I have a straight up block colour for you:

 Models Own 'Green Grass'.

For a long time I hated the colour green. I used to wear a bottle green uniform to school and to me, the colour signified all that was dull and dreary. There were other schools in our vicinity who wore lovely uniforms. Another girls school near us wore a beautiful royal blue kilt with red and gold threading...and then there was us. In green. Green was not a cool colour, it was the colour of bogey. When the girls at school were rallying for the introduction of trousers to our uniform repertoire, I kept my gob well and truly shut - can you imagine...bottle green polyester trousers?! In the SUMMER?!! Thank goodness our Head Master (who held an MBE from the Queen, don't you know) threw that idea out of the window...along with allowing boys to come to the school!

Years later, I've come to like green quite a lot although I do not own a stitch of bottle green clothing. I just can't do it.

As I look at these pictures, I'm quite disappointed that I didn't have the time or the gumption to get my stamping plates out. I think I will this week.  In fact, I'm off to paint my nails right now!

Take care all...

xx

Models Own Beetlejuice collection - part 2

Hello my lovelies.

Tonight I have a few swatches for you (yes, I'm still way behind).  Models Own recently added a few new colours to their 'Beetlejuice' collection and given the fact that I missed out on a few of them the first time around, I picked up those and also a few of the new ones.

This is 'Indian Ocean' - pearlised blue with a subtle pink shimmer.

This is three coats. I think you'd have to use the entire bottle to get this opaque, so it would make sense to use it over a similar colour - like a pale blue or white perhaps. I think it looks nicer in the bottle than it does on the nail, but it's still gorgeous.

This is 'Aqua Violet'. More Aqua than violet though and I think I'd actually prefer it the other way around.

You can just about see the violet here. At the moment, this is one of my favourites.

That violet is really trying to get out isn't it? Three coats worn here.

The last one for this post.  'Purple Blue' looks slightly brown in these pictures, I think.

Not so purple really, but it does have a cool blue shimmer to it. This is just two coats but it did need another.

I do have a few more colours to show you, so I will be back with them soon.

Take care.

xx

Models Own Beetlejuice collection - long overdue!

Would you laugh if I told you that this post is four months overdue? Well, you'd better get your giggle on then.

I sat on these swatches for a little while because frankly, I didn't want the beauty of them to be overshadowed by 50 million other polish-aholics swatching them the same week they were released. The Models Own Beetlejuice collection actually came out in November 2011 and was highly coveted to say the least. So much so that the complete sets (comprising of 5 gorgeous duo-chrome polishes being sold for £5 each or less if bought in a set) were sold out instantaneously on the Models Own website. I had heard that ASOS were selling sets of three for less than £15, so I went over and had a look at the sets. Unfortunately, out of the 3 polishes I really wanted, the set only had one. I bought the set anyway because the other two colours still looked intriguing.

This is Golden Green.  Yes, it is golden and also green at the same time! The formula is smooth and it took three coats to get this level of coverage.

In real life, this polish is all the more striking. With a bit of sunshine this will burn your retinas!

Emerald Black.  These photographs do not do this polish justice. In one light it looks like black ink, but then in another, the emerald is clear to see. It's a very pretty polish, but I doubt that I'll get much wear out of it simply because I want the other colours. I know, I'm such a spoilt child!

Ah...Pinky Brown! Now this one is definitely a looker. The dual colours are blatant and nowhere near as subtle as the two colours before.

Here you can see the brown (which looks more like bronze to me) and also the dark pink.

Aqua Violet and Purple Blue are still on my list to buy and if you buy from the website, you can get a discount on either three or five bottles. You can't say fairer than that can you?

Have you got any of these polishes?

P.S. If you're looking for wallet-friendly options for nail polish, try these coupons for Overstock.

xx

31 Day Manicure Challenge Day 29 - 'Nails inspired by the supernatural'

Oooh, helloooo.

How's it going everyone?

Tonight I'm feeling a lot better and have a bit of energy for a change!  The challenge for today was to create a manicure inspired by the supernatural. I decided to hunt down my matte top coat specifically because I haven't used it for so long.

This is a random polish my husband picked up for me at our local pharmacy. He told me that he and the kiddie were deliberating for ages as to which colours to get for me :)

The red was layered with a pink hexagonal glitter (by Peripera), then layered with Nfu-Oh 50, stamped with Models Own 'Gold Digger' (using BM 223), then mattified with Rimmel Pro Matte Finish. It's not awful...could be worse!

Boo!

xx

31 Day Manicure Challenge Day 17 - 'Glitter'

It's Thursday!

Today is glitter day and I have some abismal photos to show you. It was so dark this morning that I couldn't take any pictures before I left for work. I chucked a bottle of polish and my camera into my handbag and decided to take the pictures on my lunch break.

Oh dear.  I was sculking around the back door, squinting, changing light settings and posing the polish bottle so as not to cover the label with my fingernails, whilst at the same time I was trying to act natural just in case someone caught me acting like a weirdo. With all the jumping and rushing, every photo I took was pants...apart from two.

 I started with Models Own Pro in 'Midnight Blue'  bought in Boots at Brent Cross. The picture does the colour no justice and I will get around to swatching it properly at some point. I then layered a gradient of OPI's 'Absolutely Alice' and Sinful Colors 'Frenzy'. When I had finished, it was so bright, I would have caused a distraction in a very, very serious meeting I had at work, so I tried to dampen the bling (oh, how I hate that word) with some stamping.

I used a blue Konad special polish and BM plate 201.

I'm not so fond of this one, but I was rushing and didn't have time to do it the way I would have liked.

xx

East Asian inspired mani!

Hey friends (big wave to my new subscribers x)

Sooo... this is what I'm wearing today. I thought I'd better make up for my lack of posts by doing something a little intricate.

The polish, in order of use:

 Color Club 'Resort to Red', Essence Nail Art Twins 'Carrie', MUA Shade 2, Models Own (yeah, I know it's a mess!) 'Gold Digger', Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat.

 I stamped on the fans first and then the above image (I don't know what it's called - if you do, please let me know)

I'm actually going to wear this until it starts to chip on me.

I hope you like it!

xx

More sponging and stamping.

Hi Friends, I hope everyone is well.

The weather has been so nice here recently.  That's one reason why my photos look different. I'm trying to make the most of the natural sunshine and my light box is in tatters (still) because I haven't had time to mend it!

I have a nice one for you today. Okay, I think it's nice anyway.  I was having a look at this blog the other day and it got me thinking; why haven't I tried to layer my stamping? Something I'd done before, but not intentionally. It's so simple and it makes perfect sense, so I thought I'd step up my stamping game.

Here ya go.

 This is NYC's 'Times Square', two coats.

L-R: Wet n Wild 'Tipsy (one layer), Sally Hansen Nail Prisms 'Golden Cinnebar' (sponged on first up to mid-nail), Essence Metallics 'Copper Rulez!' (sponged on tips)

BM14 (stars) and BM19 (circles) stamped with Models Own Goldigger

I loved this until I tore my middle finger and had to patch it. I hate patches but I'm trying to grow my nails out.  I'm so fed up of short nails that I've even been toying with the idea of acrylics again :-0!! I don't think I will though.

xx