Tag: foil

Patchwork nails

After seeing patchwork nails post on Karen’s blog (Frazzle and Aniploish) I thought it was fantastic! I would never of thought to put tape on my nails to section the colours, I just assumed it would ruin the polish, silly me! I followed the same tutorial as Karen from Chloe’s Nails and gave it a go! It worked out pretty well, better than I expected! I just used ordinary cellotape, I had some thin tape lying around which is about a centimetre wide, which made the sectioning quite easy. I think I would have struggled a little bit with thicker width tape. Anyhoo, this is what I ended up with!

I went for a frosty Christmas patchwork manicure. :) I used Models Own Feeling Blue as a base (2 coats) and put on a coat of Essie Good to Go. When that was dry I cut a short piece of tape, about 5 cm and stuck the tape to my palm 3 times to make it less sticky. I then placed the tape at an angle near the bottom of my nail and carefully painted a thin coat of Models Own Blue Moon and then peeled the tape off while it was still wet. I repeated this on all my nails and by the time I had done them all the first ones were dry and I could section off the tip at an angle. I did the same as before, but used Models Own Sterling Silver. I thought it worked out pretty well and I really enjoyed doing it. :)

I even managed to do both hands to a similar standard! I was imagining a disaster on the right hand, but because of the tape, no matter hope sloppily I applied it, it worked out ok! :) The only thing I found to be careful of was when you position the tape you have to make sure it is really flat to the nail. One of my thumbs and a couple of fingers were a bit…not crinkled, but not completely flat when I curved it round at an angle on my nail. When it wasn’t completely flat it was difficult to get the polish right to the edge and not have it run underneath the tape a little. All in all, a successful attempt, I will definitely use tape for sectioning again. I think of all those poor french manicures that could have took less time and looked better with a bit of tape I had in a draw! :P What do you think? Do you use tape in your manicures? Or do you think you will give it a go? I’d love to see! :D

5 Comments by  /  December 15, 2010  /  Posted in: NOTD
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Barielle Jess’ Champagne Toast

I wore this a few weeks ago, but forgot to put up any pictures. I bought two Barielle polishes when they had an offer awhile ago. I bought Elle’s Spell and this one, which is Jess’ Champagne Toast. I had seen both in the winter Holiday Hustle range and out of range these two stood out. Elle’s Spell looked like a red with flakies and  Jess’ Champagne Toast looked like a lovely purple with lots of glitter.

However, although the bottle looks the same as the press pictures, the glitter does not really come through on the nails. The metallic purple is still nice, but I liked the polish for the glittery-ness. Without direct sunlight it looks a lot like Models Own Mystic Mauve. The application is good though, this is two coats and it dried quite quickly.


This is it in direct sunlight, where you can see the glitter a bit more clearly. It isn’t a bad polish, just not as great as I thought it could be. I think I’m being a bit harsh on it though, probably because I have a similar colour, plus these polishes are £8 each! Luckily, I got mine in a BOGOF offer or I would be more disappointed.

I recently bought a Crystal Shimmer from the Accessorize range, I think this polish would be better if I put some glitter on top. So in summary, it’s a nice colour, but I want that nice glitter sparkle that is in the bottle on my nails! :P

I have plenty of uni work to do this weekend, booo! Seeing as I only have 4 hours taught time now, I spend a lot of time doing work for uni. I’m starting to enjoy the course I originally disliked, mainly for comedy reasons. It is about creativity and it is paired with a book to read alongside it then we have to make blogs about each chapter. The problem is it’s a bit wishy-washy…a lot of instructions to medicate and do little exercises. The most disturbing of these was to imagine a giant strawberry that you have to climb inside. When you get to the top you had to imagine yourself sat on the strawberry and waving at other people sat on strawberries who are covered in stickly goo…’they look so happy’. Slightly disturbing! It made me laugh anyway, but now I have to write a blog about what I thought about creepy giant strawberry land! :S Oh well, work work!

Have a lovely weekend everyone! I’m happy the wind has died down today, hope no one got blown away this week!

4 Comments by  /  November 13, 2010  /  Posted in: Blah, NOTD
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Models Own Lili’s Pink and Pink Fizz

Here is what I wore all week. I really liked this. It is two polishes from my Models Own haul. This is Lili’s Pink and Pink Fizz on ring fingers. Lili’s pink is the same as other Models Own foils, e.g, Champagne, Blue Moon etc. I really like them, they dry quickly and if your careful you can just do one coat and it looks great. All the foils are based the same and when you remove them you find that the colour comes off the nail, but you are left with a silver shiny foil base. It’s not hard to remove, but I assume all of them have the same base with different colourings added.

Lili’s Pink is slightly different to the other Models Own foils in that it is quite a neon type pink and as with most neons, it dries to a satin finish (I took a picture, but on a day without sun, so it looks awful). I don’t mind a satin finish, but I do like my topcoats. :)

Incidentally this was the first time trying out Models Own 3 in1 Base, Top Coat and Gloss. I only used it as a top coat, I still have plenty of my favourite base coat left. It’s a good topcoat, quite watery so you can just slop it on, but dries fast and to a nice shiny smooth finish.

Pink Fizz was really nice too, there are 3 coats on my ring fingers, for full coverage. 1-2 coats is fine for a sparkly layering. It’s not too thick after 3 coats, which I love. Some glitter polishes need so many coats for full coverage, you end up with thick polish nails, and I’m sure that’s fun to remove! I do loved the colour of the sparkles , a rosey gold colour, very pretty. I was tempted to do my whole hand glitter, but chickened out.

I really liked this look, I didn’t want to take it off. The 3 coats of glitter (plus base, pink and top coats) on my ring fingers made it even harder! :/ I really liked that the Pink Fizz is a rosey gold colour and I found it matched really well with my engagement ring, which is rose gold. Something to remember to wear when I actually get round to booking the wedding. So far I’m pretending I don’t have to do it, I can’t organise my own lunch never mind a large gathering of friends and two sets of family. EEK! Oh well, just have another look at the pretty nail polish! :)

3 Comments by  /  September 6, 2010  /  Posted in: NOTD
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NOTD Models Own Blue Moon and my first tag!

I received Models Own – Blue Moon from Jenni a little while ago. Jen had a swatch of it ages ago and I fell in love with it, so I was excited to try it.

It applies in a very similar way to Models Own Champagne, it’s the same kind of shimmer, but blue not gold. It’s a one coater, I didn’t want to risk a second coat as I know Champagne bubbled quite badly, but it doesn’t really need a second coat anyway. I love the shimmery blue!

I cut my nails down as I was starting to make too many typos. My fingers look all short and stubby now! :S

Now for my first tag! I was tagged by Jenni at nailpolishUK
4 things in my bag
  • Wallet, I’ve had the same wallet since I was 12ish, but I love it and it’s leopard print!
  • Phone.
  • Keys.
  • Usb stick with all my work on it, to loose this = diaster!
4 things in wallet
  • Lots of cards, mostly rubbish. I still have an old M&S staff card and an MVC card.
  • Money.
  • Photos of my other half/pets.
  • Lots of paper i.e. receipts/bus tickets/movie stubs.
4 fave things in my room
  • My kitty, happily asleep under the bed, until my foot dangles over!
  • My comfy bed.
  • DVD’s.
  • My growing box of nail polish.
4 things I’ve wanted to do
  • Finish my degree, preferably with a good grade!
  • Live in London or at least nearby so I can visit more often.
  • Go abroad, I’ve been to Scotland, but I’m told it doesn’t count.
  • Get a permanant job I enjoy doing, more of what I’m doing at the moment would be fab!
4 things I’m currently into
  • Indie music.
  • Art.
  • Nail polish.
  • Gaming, just recived an invite to World of Warcraft Cataclysm Beta, I know I quit, but it is rude to turn down an invite!
4 songs I can’t get out of my head
  • Everybody Was In The French Resistance…Now! – He’s a “Rebel”
  • Maximo Park – Once, A Glimpse
  • The Coral – Dreaming Of You
  • Idlewild – Roseability
4 things you may not know ’bout me
  • I’ve been to sci-fi conventions and I enjoyed it!
  • I used to work in web development before I decided to do psychology as it seemed less stressful and more interesting.
  • I’m serious when I’m joking and joking when I’m serious.
  • I could sit and watch Diagnosis Murder all day, I don’t care if it is silly, that’s what makes it awesome.
I’m meant to tag 4 people, but I don’t have many followers and a lot of people have done this already. :) However if you have not  done this and would like too, I challenge you to a race around the…I mean, I tag you!
3 Comments by  /  August 12, 2010  /  Posted in: NOTD
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