CND Vinylux and MoYou London Plates

I took the neon gel off my nails so I needed to do my nails again, luckily my other plates from MoYou London arrived. I got 8 different plates, including one full of moustaches :-)

I chose to do a mani with the 80's and 90's plates, from the Time Traveller set, as there are so many great images on them. Everything I stamped worked really well. I used 2 coats of  CND Vinylux Cream Puff as a base and used A-England Camelot as my stamping polish, with a layer of Vinylux topcoat at the end.

So far I've found the plates/images to be really clear and easy to use, so long as you are light with the scraper (I use a plastic one so as not to damage the metal). No problems with any of my orders either, they were shipped out quickly, once the new plates were in stock.

MoYou London Suki Collection Plate 01

I think I may have forgotten how to blog, forgive me, it's been so long.

I recently joined a group on Facebook specifically for stamping, it's a great place for inspiration but not at all good for my bank account. I came across a company called MoYou London, who are a UK based on-line shop selling accessories for hair, nails and body. The uniqueness of the plates and imagery on the site instantly drew me to them. I initially only ordered one plate as I was cautious about the quality but I needn't have worried. I have ordered 6 more and with more releases coming next week I'm sure there will be plenty more on the way. The plates are not all produced yet so there is up to a 5 week wait on the newer ones but any queries can be directed to their fab customer services.

I had a little play to see if the tiger could be made into a long image and it worked great, I'd already finished my nails so I just did it on paper (excuse the crude nail shape drawings)

The base is CND brisa lite gel mixed with glitter and pigments.

CND Vinylux

CND Vinylux, A quick review and comparison

I'll just say this to start off with I love CND's Shellac so I was expecting a lot from this polish when they released it. It is a long wearing (up to a week), quick drying (8.6 minutes) 2 colour coat + topcoat system.

I was lucky enough to attend an Event where I received a few to try before they went on sale. I've tried 2 colours so far and they are great, they really do dry fast and the topcoat is very shiny. I have not worn a colour for a week though as I can only wear my polish when I'm not in college but my teacher has had it on a full week.

I ordered a few new colours as my set mainly included white, pinks and reds. One of the colours I thought was similar to some other polishes I own, when it turned up, I released it was identical so I'll probably sell the others.

So from left to right we have CND Vinylux Gilded Pleasure, Chanel Peridot and OPI's Just Spotted the Lizard

They are identical in colour and colour shift to my eye. The application for all 3 were a little streaky but vinylux smoothed out with 2 coats. The others took an extra coat for opacity and smoothness but the  brush strokes could still be seen with Peridot although that may have been my application. Peridot had slightly more shimmer than the Vinylux and OPI but with the Vinylux topcoat, Gilded Pleasure came out slightly shinier.

Illamasqua Pink Raindrops - Limited Edition

Illamasqua Pink Raindrops - Limited Edition

When Illamasqua's Facebook page received 100,000 likes they celebrated by releasing a Pink version of their cult polish "Raindrops". I love the original but don't think it suits my skin tone so It barely gets used, I was hoping the pink version would look better. I bought it here as soon as it was available and it turned up this morning, pretty fast postage. I only got a quick look at it as I was running out the door and thought it didn't look very pink, more along the lines of a pink toned neutral or nude.

I did a quick swatch (over my acrylics) when I got home. It has the same clear shimmery flakes that the grey version has and is less sheer but I think I was hoping for something pinker. It does suit my skin colouring better though so maybe it'll grow on me. I think I'd like it more on my nails if they were shorter.

Here is my blog post about "Raindrops"

Hotski to tchotchke and Ruby Ritz Shellac

I'm so full of cold, I haven't changed my nails since last week and I don't see me re-doing them in the near future, fortunately I love the colours and design so It's not all bad. I used 2 coats of Hotski to Tchotchke. On 2 of my fingers I mixed up some sparkly green glitter and some green iridescent bar glitter and pressed that in, I then stamped them with a hounds-tooth pattern from a bundle monster plate. On the other fingers I added a thin layer of Ruby Ritz which changed it to a lovely deep purple red glittery shade which looks amazing in person. 

This photo was taken a couple of days after I'd done them. The photos below are from today, a week after they'd been done. So you can see the green glitter better. Not much tip wear or a massive gap by my cuticle so I think I can get another week out of them easily :-)

CND Shellac

I thought I would post a few of my shellac manicures as I really love the product. As I don't have the time to change my polish that much any more, I tend to use the shellac on myself a lot, as well as doing my friends and family. I only trained fairly recently so I feel like my application could improve.

I should probably add that I only use CND's Shellac as they created Shellac I feel the others on the market are cheap imitations and as I don't know how safe/hypo-allergenic they are I would not use them.

This was super pretty. 2 coats of Tutti Frutti with holographic pink glitter on the ring finger

I did something similar on my own fingers but added a coat of moonlight and roses over the Tutti Frutti to soften it a little.

This I did on my sisters nails, It was 2 coats of Hotski to Tchotchke (I have to keep checking the spelling on that one, lol) with a mix of green and blue glitter over all the nails. It was ridiculously shiny, the pictures don't do it justice.

And last but not least my New Years Eve nails. I used 1 coat of Hotski to Tchotchke and then brushed in as much green holographic glitter as I could and stamped on some leopard print. The looked amazing, I did not want to take it off but had to for college :-(

And now for something completely different

Ahhh, it's been so long since I made a post. Since I started college I haven't been painting my nails nearly as much as I used too but that's no excuse. I recently trained with CND to use Shellac so when I do get the chance to do my own nails that's what I'm using and as its a "professional" use only product I didn't think it worth posting but I don't like my blog sitting idle. So I have decided to keep track of my course progress by posting pictures here, it'll be mainly mani/pedi's, shellac or liquid & powder (extensions). Hopefully this will encourage me to post more regularly :-) If not...I give up.

This was just practising a dark polish on one of the girls in my class, I couldn't resist adding fantasy fire (max factor) on top of the plain purple polish.

This was on my "client" (and best friend) I used 2 of my favourite polishes, Barry M Indigo and Barry M Prickly Pear. Prickly Pear is one of their Gelly range and is super shiny.

These are 5 of my nails for a calender shoot, I used mostly Bettina polishes as they are easy to work with.

I will put together a post with a few of my shellac manicures as I'm really loving doing them, especially with holographic glitter.