Model's Own: Fruit Pastels and gradients

Happy Easter (or happy chocolate day)!  Hope you're having a lovely time and eating more chocolate than you thought your body could possibly handle.

I do have ASOIAF mani coming up in the next day or two but I did a fun gradient effect last night and wanted to post about it.  I used all five of the shades available in the Model's Own new Fruit Pastel shades and I added a pastel orange to complete the effect.  It's the first time I've done a proper gradient and as you can see below I did the gradient from side to side rather and top to bottom to switch it up a little bit.

Sorry about the clean up.  I swear I thought it was much better than that!  This photo was taken in a light box environment but the colours hold true.  I like the effect but the blue to green shading on the ring finger is much too subtle probably down to the shades being quite similar.

This photo is taken in natural light and I'm sorry for the slight blurriness.  I could not get the camera to stop shaking for love nor money for this shot but again this demonstrates the colours nicely.

Thanks for stopping by!

N

China Glaze: Avant Garden

Needed to get a couple from the new Avant Garden collection from China Glaze as they are so very stunning.  I bought Life is Rosy (a deep rose crème) and Fancy Pants (a deep blue with pink and gold shimmery bits). 

First up I tried Life is Rosy.  The coverage is really very good.  It goes on well in one coat and doesn't need a second unless (like me) you feel naked without one. I love the colour, I really do but something just doesn't work with my skin tone, I think.  So I slapped on Disco Gold from Rimmel from their Rock your Colour line. Still not sure about Life is Rosy which is disappointing because it really is a pretty pink.  I'm going to keep persevering with it in nail art, though to see if just being a highlight colour works.

Anyway, the proof of the pudding and all that:

and in slightly better light:

What do you think? Yay or nay?

Thanks for stopping by.

N

Up next: A manicure inspired by A Song of Ice and Fire in honour of the premier of the third season on Sky on 1st April.

China Glaze: Black Diamond + added stamping!

I fancied something simple and elegant so decided to go with a dark background and a pink/silver stamp.

I used China Glaze's Black Diamond over a coat of CG's Liquid Leather.  I had tried to use the Black Diamond on its own but it was much too sheer and even with three coats it didn't look like it had a lot of depth to it.  So I nixed that one and put one coat over one coat of Liquid Leather. 

This is what it looked like without the stamp:

I personally think it's absolutely gorgeous.  A lovely black creme but with miniscule shimmery bits that almost takes it to an ultra dark grey.

I covered that with a top coat of CG's fast dry top coat (which I love but could do with someone chiming in on whether seche vite is worth the extra cost for a better product?).

And because I can't leave a good mani alone I wanted to put some stamps on top. Last week I received the Fairy Set from Gals Cosmetics and used two small images (from GA30 and GA38) overlapping each other on the tip of the nail with a pink foil effect nail polish from Beauty UK. And this is the result:

I really like this.  It's quite subtle until the light hits and then just lovely and shimmery.

N

Up next: Avant Garden with something extra!

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Inaugural manicure: St Patrick's Day

This is my first ever attempt at proper nail art using various techniques like gradients and fish tail and I've even had a stab at free hand drawing (eek!)

I think they've turned out OK but not quite how I've pictured them in my head but I think for a first go they're alright.  Also I must apologise for the picture quality but I've taken my initial photos with my mobile camera because there's no point having a St Patrick Day themed mani come out at Easter!

Hopefully my future manicures will be better executed and certainly better photographed!

Anyway, I enjoyed doing them and I'm sure I'll enjoy them until they chip (in about 4 hours or so).

I've used Model's Own Snow White, and their black nail art pen.  Barry M's 284 and an unamed orange colour from Front Cover.

Have you got any tips for stopping nail polish chipping?

See you next time

Nx