"Florals for spring... Groundbreaking"

This mani was inspired by one of my all time favourite nail artists @Ninanailedit.

I literally love every single one of her mani creations and have to try them out myself!

For this mani I used: OPI - Natural base coat, Sinful colors - Snow me white, Nanacoco - Love black, Acrylic paints for the flowers and Seche Vite - Fast dry top coat. Also using a dotting tool and tape to create the monochrome nails. 

To create the flowers - First, I put a few acrylic paints onto a palette to mix the colours I wanted. To create the flowers I layered on 3 different colours creating circular shapes. It's very much a trial and error process when creating flowers! There are lots of good beginner video tutorials on Youtube. 

I love the flowers because light blue/turquoise are my fave colours - I'm going to try them again with different accent nails to see what I can create! 

Please excuse my poor cuticles at the moment - they've been suffering from a little neglect. 

Thanks for reading! 

xox

Snowflake Solitaire

I'm in love.

Recreated from @stylethosenails - It caught my eye on instagram because it's such a pretty mani. 

Polishes used were; OPI Natural base, MAC - Frosty much adored, OPI liquid sand - Solitaire, Sinful Colors - Snow me white and Essie - Good to go. Also added some tiny beads for the centre of the snowflakes.

Liquid sand it one of my favourite and this time I tried sponging it on which worked so much better than painting, it gave way better coverage.

The snowflakes are hand painted, I'm trying to up my skill in the hand painting area because some nails bloggers out there have mad skill...which I strive towards!  

I absolutely adore this mani, it's so festive without being over the top (like most christmas nails) (but we still love them) 

Apologies for not painting my thumb (which you probably didn't realise until I pointed it out) it was going through a bit of repair so I didn't paint it.

xox

Frozen teal the end

Who doesn't love a bit of frozen for inspiration? I certainly do, so when I saw this on @xlaurenelliottx instagram I had to give it a go.

Using; Sinful colors - Snow me white and Teal the end, Essie - Pearlfection Essie - Good to go. So far so good with my first use of the good to go topcoat, though I'm not sure about longevity as a top coat because I never keep a mani for long enough! 

I don't think this is the best blue colour to use but believe it or not, out of my double figure blue colours I couldn't find the perfect one. 

I had to sponge each finger four times to get full coverage which created a slightly more messy result than I would have hoped for but I really think the white and blue ombré combo works and really wanted to share this design. 

Blog posts every other day this week & I have something exciting coming up early January so keep reading! 

Thanks for all the love.

xox

Mani swap time!

I've been rubbish with blogging the past week. I'm ashamed but have had tech difficulties and been coming home for christmas break so have been slightly preoccupied. 

Today I am sharing a recent mani swap with @mynailpolish_addiction - check out Jessica's gorgeous instagram for daily posts!

Using: OPI - natural base, Sinful Colors - Teal the end, Sally Hansen - Gunmetal gray, Gold with no name and Essie - Good to go.

This is a technique I have tried once before, I love it so much because it's really simple to create.

I love that Jessica used two colours both the black and the gold I think it works so well, the gold adds a lush glitter to the nail. 

I really love doing mani swaps, it's so fun seeing how the mani's turn out and getting to see peoples take on designs!

More Christmas mani's coming up and also Ciaté mini mani month swatches.

xox 

Monochrome Monday

I am posting a mani that I did early last week because I have had some major technology issues this week - currently posting from my uni library (which makes blogging far less appealing!) 

Using; OPI - Natural Base, Sinful Colors - Snow me white, Acrylic paints for the black and Rituals - Top coat. 

Inspired by @adoredollsparlour - I fell in love with their simple negative space mani so had to give it a go for myself. I wanted to practise my free hand lines using acrylic paints - something of which I never do! 

I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out - obviously there is so much room for improvement but when isn't there? I find it hard to make acrylic paints looks sleek and 'non-gloopy' - I think this is down to practise and also in need of new brushes! 

I am hoping to blog my ciate advent calender (on instagram) and swatch the polishes in it. And also an exciting mani swap to come this weekend. However, this may be a little delayed due to my life and soul (Macbook) currently out of use! 

Have a fab first week of December! 

xox 

Have a holly jolly Christmas - it's the best time of the year

My first proper Christmas mani of the year! Inspired by @polishandbeyond on instagram. Check out her account so many lush designs!

For this I used; OPI - Natural base, Sinful colors - Snow me white, ELF - Smoking hot, Acrylic paint for the green leaves, OPI - Liquid sand and Essie - Set in stones for the accent nail. Rituals for the top coat. 

I love the simplicity of this design and the accent nail. However, the holly leaves were the hardest nail painting I've ever done! As simple as it looks - it took me longer than expected. But as always - worth while!

Definitely room for improvement in the acrylic paint area but I love using it, it's so easy to remove mistakes with water, which is always a bonus. I also need a new detail brush, let me know of any recommendations of brands. 

Many many more christmas mani's to come - it's only November!

I cannot wait to open day 1 of the ciaté mini mani month advent calendar, I'm going to try swatch every one of the polishes! 

Happy Saturday everyone.

xox

Christmas Pearlfection

Before getting onto any of this nail business I want to introduce my new blog logo - I haven't had a chance to completely redo my blog yet but how beautiful is the logo! Leilani Hayward is an illustration student and kindly created it for me. She is super talented and has a really pretty instagram: @leilaniparuzzolo so please check it out and give her a follow. I think she may be creating a blog/website soon when uni work gives her a break - so i'll be sure to let you all know what that is and you can browse for yourself. 

I'm just in looooove - can't wait to get my blog to an equal pretty! 

Nail time! 

I wanted to go a little festive but then remembered it was only mid November. Therefore, went for a sparkly cute silvery mani. 

Using; OPI - natural base, Sinful colors - Snow me white, Essie - Pealfection, Rituals - top coat and some striping tape from eBay.

Essie - Pearlfection is becoming one of my favourites it adds a glitter shine top coat and looks great on literally every colour combo - it also adds a little christmas to a plain colour so whats not to love?

I should mention that I saw this mani on instagram: @craftyfingers but the mani was created by @kristina.nails I instantly fell in love with it and recreated straight away! 

I had to include the picture with my watch getting involved because it only cost me £4 and I'm still immensely proud of this bargain haha. 

Have a festive filled week and weekend everyone.

Thanks for reading as always,

xox

Hospital escapee

Today's post is a Halloween one - I haven't had a chance to do many halloween nails at all, but I think I got my halloween nail fix from viewing everyone else's nail posts, they keep getting better and more creative every year!

So for my nails:

I used; Sinful colors - Snow me white, elf - Smokin hot, OPI - Natural Base and Rituals - Top coat. 

The splat effect was created with a straw, literally blowing paint through it. Actually harder to get first time than it sounds. But once you get the technique right, it creates great nail art. 

Make up:

My face using; Benefit - Hello Flawless, Estee Lauder Double wear in 2C3 Fresco, W7 - night glow (amazing product) Calvin Klein - subliminal purity loose powder and loreal paris - glam bronze.

My eye make up was; Mac this & that, Maybelline - Expert wear natural smokes and a bit of blackheart from the naked 3 urban decay. Also, a Chanel eyebrow pencil to fill in my brows. 

My bruises; Mac - Texture velvet, Front Cover - Twinkling Grape, Natural collection - midnight and a cheap red lipstick dabbed on. Then a bit of fake liquid blood.

I had no idea how to do bruises, had never done it before just blended a bit of everything!

Finally, I wore Revlon - Black cherry. I absolutely LOVE this lipstick but never wear it because it is so dark and I don't have the guts to wear it in the day! 

My outfit was literally a ripped up hospital gown with fake blood and a bit of eye shadow on it. 

I hope you all had a lush Halloween. 

Now onto Christmas themes ... YAY! 

xox