Royal Wedding Nails

As it is the Royal Wedding on Friday I thought I’d better do a design for it!  I’ve been preparing things for a Royal Wedding Party in the pub I work at today, and after doing these nails I’m actually quite excited for the Wedding now!  

For this design I used Models Own: Red Alert, True Blue, Snow White and their white nail pen, along with Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat and some other coloured nail pens that I got off eBay a while ago.  This design was quite difficult to do and in total took nearly 2 hours, so hopefully these will last until Saturday because I don’t think I’ll have time to do another one before Friday!

After a nasty comment was made on Twitter about these nails I would like to point out that even though I love spending time doing my nail designs I am not some kind of crazy cat women who owns ‘17 cats’…I actually don’t have any pets but would love to have a fat, floppy eared house bunny sometime soon!

Easy Easter Nails

Just a quick post for today as I’m about to go out!

For these I used Models Own: Pastel Pink, Lemon Meringue, Blooboo, Jade Stone, and Lilac Dream.  I used a cocktail stick shaped nail tool to do the dots and Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat.  This design only took about half an hour and was easy to do, but was a bit annoying doing the dots with the nail tool!

Smash-Up Black Take 2

So here’s my second attempt of using the Models Own black Smash-Up polish.  As you can see from the photos this design did come out better than my first attempt but still not quite as good as the silver one did!  This time I applied Seche Vite dry fast topcoat over my base coats and waited over an hour before applying Smash-Up.  The crackle is more consistent and is pretty much what I was expecting.  So I think the trick with crackle polishes is to wait as long as you can (a few hours I'd say) to make sure the base coats are completely dry before applying the thinnest layer possible of the crackle polish.  Hope this helps anyone who has been having trouble with these polishes!

Smash-Up Black

I thought I would try and replicate what is on the lid of the smash-up polishes so I used 16 Models Own polishes for the base coats, which were (from left to right) Top Turquoise, Blooboo, Feeling blue, True Blue, Prussian Blue, Purple Passion, Pastel Pink, Sophie’s Pink, Raspberry Crush, Red Alert, Coral Reef, Fuzzy Peach, Nyla Nude, Lemon Meringue, Jade Stone and Green Grass.  I painted the base of my nails like this:

As I was in a rush to go out, I quickly applied the Smash-Up black over the base coats but found that it didn’t crack as well as the silver one did, and so these where defiantly a fail in my opinion but most people who I saw that night said they loved them but it wasn’t the effect I was aiming for!

 I think the reason this happened was because I didn’t give the base coats enough time to dry and them also applied too much Smash-Up.  When I used the silver Smash-Up I put it over a nail design that I did a day earlier and also it was much easier to put a thin coat on.  Later on today I’m going to try this exact design again and I’m going to put a dry fast topcoat on and wait a few hours before applying Smash-Up, so will post my results later…. fingers crossed my theory is right as I’ve noticed a few people have been having trouble with these Smash-Up polishes.

Models Own Smash-Up Silver

Here is the long awaited Smash-Up polish that Models Own released this week!  The Smash-Up polishes cost £6 each or (for a limited time) 2 for £10 and so far only the black and silver shades have been released but in the near future the other shades will be released too!  I was desperate to try out Smash-Up and so I put a thin layer of it over my previous nail design:

The Smash-Up polish was easy to apply but took longer to crackle than the Barry M Nail Effects that I tried out before so at first I wasn’t sure if it was working but was pleasantly surprised a few seconds later.  Smash-Up gives a nicer, more consistent crackle than Barry M Instant Nail Effects in my experience and you can see what I mean in this photo:

Smash-Up gives the effect I was expecting to have with the Barry M one as it looks exactly like the design on the lid of the Barry M pot but this could be because I did a thicker coat of the Barry M one.  I can safely say I prefer Smash-up to Barry M Instant Nail Effects as it does exactly what you would expect it too but I suppose it depends what kind of look you are going for!  I’ll post a design using Smash-Up Black later on tonight or tomorrow.  What do you think of the Smash-Up polish?

Louis Vuitton 'Spring Collection' Inspired Nails

I decided to do a nail design using a spring print as inspiration so I had a look online for a flowery pattern but came across this year’s Louis Vuitton Spring Collection and these dresses caught my eye.  For this design I used Models Own Sophie’s Pink, Models Own Top Turquoise, my black Models Own Nail Pen and Seche Vite Dry Fast Topcoat.  I painted the base colour using Sophie’s Pink, waited for it to dry and then applied some of the Top Turquoise using a nailbrush (that I bought off eBay a while ago).  I then used my nail pen and finished with a coat of Seche Vite.  I am really pleased with how this design turned out and I think the colours look really good together. 

My new Models Own polishes arrived today!  Here is a quick photo of what I got:

From left to right - Blooboo, Nyla Nude, Bronze Rage, Smash Up Black and Smash Up Silver.  I really can’t wait to try out the Smash Up polishes so will post my Smash Up design tomorrow! :)