Jacava swatches

Hi everyone.

Tonight I have some Jacava swatches for you.

This is 'Damson Delight' - a dark red jelly polish...to which I added a few hand painted designs.

 'Marrakesh Nights' - this is a purple with a pink and blue shimmer.

 Last, but not least - 'Passion'. 

Personally, I think Damson Delight is my favourite out of the three although the other two are beautiful colours too. The formula is smooth and does not streak when applied. Have you tried any Jacava polishes?

xx

To gloss or not to gloss? That is the question.

Hello there!

Tonight, I want to share one of my Poundland bargains. I have at least 15 Revlon polishes - only one of which was bought for the full price (£6-7). This one was bought for £1...

Revlon's 'Red Ribbon'. Yes, it's a matte polish and yes, it did look like suede...but when adhering the rhinestones, the polish became glossy in some areas. To fix it, I covered it with a glossy top coat.

Admittedly, I do love glossy polishes. I'd rather turn a glossy finish into a matte by using a matte top coat, because that eliminates streaks (for me, anyway).

This is what happens when you use cheap rhinestones! As soon as I embedded these rhinestones in the top coat, their backs started to wrinkle. Any integral shine they had diminished immediately. I ended up smothering them in top coat in the end. Now they don't even look like rhinestones!

So, how do YOU feel about matte polishes? Are you a sucker for gloss, like me or is matte the way forward for you? Let me know in the comments box.

Take care!
xx

Strawberries and cream

A few weeks ago I was in the mood for some Eton Mess. Yes, that lovely, simple dessert comprising of meringue, strawberries and whipped cream was on my brain for days. When I'd made up my mind to go and buy the ingredients, there was not a strawberry to be found at my local Sainsbury's!  It was when I was staring at my lonesome double cream in the fridge, that I had an idea...strawberries and cream!!

You'll see that I found my strawberries in the end! I went for pouring cream...made out of acrylic. The white acrylic powder was sent to me along with 17 of it's colourful friends, courtesy of Born Pretty Store. If you've never visited before, please do - and  use the 10% discount code in the sidebar for any purchases.

Out of the 18 tiny pots of acrylic contained in the package, I used the one pot of white powder with a monomer, or acrylic liquid. Because the powder is specifically for creating art structures, it was 'slow setting' and I was able to mold and shape the acrylic without it drying out too quickly. This acrylic is a different consistency (in my opinion) to that which you would use to create a french tip on a sculpted acrylic nail extension. Unfortunately I spilt the little pot of powder after doing these nails, hence why I left the two fingers 'creamless'. Honestly, I could've kicked myself.

The 'seeds' are plastic yellow bullion. No glue was used - they stuck quite well in a clear top coat which was covered in a further two coats of Seche Vite.

Another gratuitous shot of the highly sought-after strawberry.

I loved them so much that I decided to make some false nails...using some white molding acrylic powder (for extensions) which has a different consistency to the previous powder. It wasn't the same, but I had to improvise because having this idea bouncing around in my head would cause me to have sleepless nights. Really.

I'm not usually one for wearing fruit on my fingers (it's not quite office appropriate, is it?), but I thought these were cute.

Would YOU wear food on your fingers??

xx

Gellux: Oriental Poppy and Gold Rush

I know I've said that I'm usually not partial to gel nail polish, but I cannot deny that it is really practical for me.  I suppose my main concerns were that I wouldn't be able to find a good variation of colours and that doing art would be too difficult.
Welp, I've proved myself wrong.

This is Oriental Poppy, with Cherry Blossom (pink) and Gold Rush.

This took a little longer to create (not much) than a manicure with normal polish might've...but this is because I had to cure every single layer of gel polish that I applied, before going on to the others. Sound excessive? Well, it wasn't, considering it only took 30 or so seconds for each coat to cure under an LED light (it would've taken 2 minutes with a UV light!)
The only thing I had issue with was the black acrylic paint. Initially, the lines were much thicker, but after curing, the top coat over the thick lines bubbled. After each layer of gel is cured under a UV/LED light, there is a sticky layer left. This is not removed if you are going to continue applying more colours or topcoats - this sticky 'dispersion layer' is what bonds one layer of gel to another. I have a feeling that I covered too much of this dispersion layer with my acrylic paint and this caused the topcoat to bubble in these areas. Had I used a black gel polish, I wouldn't have had this problem. I just picked off the bubbled area, buffed the shine off the polish and then repainted the lines. I always find a work around and I enjoy experimenting to make things work for me. 

I'm going to try my best to stick with this manicure over the next few weeks - just to test Gellux's longevity. Hopefully, if Santa is good to me this year, I might be able to increase my Gellux stash!
I should also say that despite there being reviews suggesting that there have been issues with removal, I've not encountered any problems.  On this occasion I've used Salon System Profile's new 'Easy-off' base-coat...we'll see how it goes.
xx

31 Day Manicure Challenge Day 1 'Red'

Okay, so here is my first installment in the challenge. Today is 'Red' day!
I generally don't wear much red, and if I do, then it's a dark one. I think bright reds tend to make my hands look big, so I steer clear of them.  For this challenge I left my comfort zone and went for this:

Rimmel's Double Decker Red. I love Rimmel and I like this red too...but it was a monster to capture on camera! I looks like it has an orange hue, but no, it's the colour of a good old double decker and a post box. The formula is a dream and I honestly can't fault any of the Rimmel colours.

See what I mean about the colour? It's not true to life at all.

 Here is an old photo of a SIMILAR polish with a bit of shatter and some stickers:

Side note: I think I like my nails this shape...

I have another red that I wore recently, by Maybelline:

 

How are you doing with your challenges??

xx

I don't do red...

Do you ever feel that there are some colours that just don't suit you? I'm like that with bright reds. I have big hands and red just makes them look even bigger. 

I got smooth coverage with two thick coats of MUA colour and I added some Zoya Astra for a bit of glitter.  The colours are lovely, but on me? Meh.

 This is a more accurate representation of the colour

This one isn't - makes it look orange.