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. 

Boots 17 Holo Nail Polish

So I went shopping for some make-up the other day and I nearly escaped without buying any nail varnish but a new one from boots own brand 17 caught my eye. It's a holographic silver, I own a few already but for £3.99 I figured one more wouldn't hurt.

The nail polish went on really smoothly, I found 2 thin coats were opaque enough for me. It did not need a top coat so I didn't use one in case it dulled the holographic effect.

I might grab a few spares of this as I think it would be really good for stamping with as well. It has changed my mind about the brand as I considered it to be just "cheap" but they seem like good quality, over all I'm made up with it.

Available from Boots online and in-store.

Models Own Wonderland Collection Part 2 (with a real camera)

So I managed to borrow a camera :) Here's a few pictures of Jack Frost over Color Club Revvvolution (as I've run out out of plain black :-S) with a foil accent nail.

Models Own Wonderland Collection

First off, sorry for the absence, I'm a bad blogger, lol. I have no camera and I've started a nail technician course so I'm not actually painting my nails all that much, I generally have someone else on the course do them for me so its not all bad. Models Own have a brand new collection called "Wonderland" that are all super glitzy, they are on sale on the website from Oct 12th but available in Boots stores and their flagship store in London as of now. I only picked up 3 of the 5 as I have something similar to the other 2 already, aren't I good?

I picked up Jack Frost, a blue/pink shifting glitter, Snowflake, iridescent shards and Southern Lights which is a light purple holographic glitter. Please excuse the terrible grid photo, instagram style. I really need to sort out a camera ASAP.

My favourite is Jack Frost, its easy to apply and dries quickly. It looks really nice over dark colours but looks completely different over light ones, so might look interesting over a gradient mani.
Snowflake looks great in the bottle but just appeared golden on the red and green I used, so very Christmas appropriate, it was a little difficult to apply like most "shard" polishes.
Last but not least was Southern Lights, super pretty but the purple was a little too subtle to me, maybe I need to layer it over a dark purple to show it off better, it did dry nice and quickly as well.
I am really glad I picked up all 3 though as I'm sure I'll use them lots over the next few months.

Summer Fun Challenge Day 8 - Last Day :(

I can't believe this is the last of the challenge, it went so quick but it was great fun. So thanks to Lindsey at Neverland Nail Blog for organising it. Todays mani was an anything goes sort of deal and this week my Rainbow Honey glitters had arrived so I wanted to use one of those.

I used 2 coats of Zoya Zuza as a base, which is a stunning polish all on its own and then 2 coats of Rainbow Honey's 20% Cooler, it went on really easily. Its packed full of glitter and shimmer. I added a thick topcoat to smooth it out.

Below is a bottle shot to show how complex and shiny it is, lol.

This is Zoya Zuza on its own, it applies perfectly and dries super quick, I cant fault it.