Happy New Years...some CND shellac, acrylic & nail art

It's been too long since I posted, I've given up apologising as I guess I'll just post as and when I have the time, hope no one minds :-)

This post will mainly be pictures to be honest, I'll write details if I can remember them.

The nails below were for my birthday/holiday. I attempted a 3d flower which worked out...okay. I used Frosted Glen CND shellac, which is one of my all time favourite colours. I went for simple black and white on my toes, I think the design is meant to be like the inside of a shell, I had these on forever, haha.

 I kept my nails this shape and length for a while and just changed the design, below are my attempt at a "glam turtle"

And these purple ones I did to match a dress for a Christening, they took about 5 hours as I didn't have a clue what I was doing. The owls were stamped on and dotted with colour, the roses were hand made decals. These were one of my favourites from the year.

I also learnt some fiddly stuff in college, 3D roses, gems and twirls made using acrylic (liquid & powder)

I did quite a lot of different nails over Halloween but the orange and black were the ones I liked the most, done with polish for a change. I also customised a skeleton hand bracelet for my Halloween costume, I used acrylic, various glitter and rhinestones.

I also won a competition and got some Irresistible glitters which are amazing, I did a super glitter pink leopard print design (using CND shellac)

I played some more with foils, I did my mums nails (using CND shellac) and then loved them so much I copied them using Vinylux and foil adhesive.

I learnt to make jewellery with polish and CND shellac from a fellow nail technician

And some of my college work was put into a Calender to help make money for a local charity

These were my Christmas nails, I went for classic red and gold, using CND shellac, glitter and some stamping to finish off.

And last but not least my New Years nails, I will end the year with my favourite shape and colours. Hope everyone has had a good year x

Short Nails for Autumn (CND Vinylux and MoYou London Stamping)

I have trimmed my lovely long nails off for college (sad times) and I'm missing them so much already. I feel like my fingers look all short, lol.
So, I decided to treat myself to a nice shiny mani for the few days I'm allowed to wear it. I went to my trusty Vinylux polish, Gilded Pleasure, as it dries so quickly I don't have enough time to smudge it. I sprinkled on some Irresistible Glitter (Chameleon Iridescent) and topcoated 3 times to get it smooth.
I love this glitter as it changes depending on what colour the base polish is.
I then stamped over it with MoYou's Pro Collection 05 Plate using 17 Silver Holo Polish to give the spider web a shimmery/silvery appearance and topcoated again.

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.

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.