Kiko 251 Stamped

I decided to stamp over yesterday's polish and chose this cute bow design.

I used Kiko Mirror Nail Lacquer, my current stamping obsession, in Violet.

I'm pleased with how this turned out, it's cute without being too cute and the colours work well together.

Kiko 251

251 is a bright shimmery pink shade with a sort of blue sparkly undertone to it.

Definitely a Barbie sort of pink.

It's quite a sheer shade, you can tell in these photos because even after 3 coats you can still see the ghost of the blue staining I have on my nails at the moment.

251 is a perfect summer pink, now I just need to weather to match it in Scotland!

Ask a British Nail Blogger - How do you store your polish?

This is the second "Ask a British Nail Blogger" I have taken part in, and this one is a bit of a cheat on my part, I have to admit.  I did a post on how I stored my polish collection fairly recently so I'm going to use this post as a chance to link to that again and also expand a bit on other storage solutions I have when it comes to my collection.

First up, how I store my actual polish bottles.  Like many other nail bloggers / polish hoarders I use a Helmer from Ikea (two in fact!)

The Helmer is a set of 6 drawers on wheels, although you can easily leave the wheels off to stop them moving around or if you want to stack them.  You can see a detailed post of how I organise my Helmers here.  But basically it's broken down like so:

Helmer 1 - Drawer 1:  Reds, Yellows, Oranges & Golds

Helmer 1 - Drawer 2:  Pinks

Helmer 1 - Drawer 3:  Purples

Helmer 1 - Drawer 4: Blues

Helmer 1 - Drawer 5: Tools, Cotton Wool, Top Coats, Thinner

Helmer 1 - Drawer 6: Nail Art

Helmer 2 - Drawer 1: Greens

Helmer 2 - Drawer 2:  Nude, Brown, Black & Silvers

Helmer 2 - Drawer 3:  Toppers and glitter top coats

Helmer 2 - Drawer 4: New, unswatched polishes

Helmer 2 - Drawer 5: Stamping plates and supplies

Helmer 2 - Drawer 6: Extra removers and moisturisers

You can click through on the link to see photos of what it all looks like in place.

Next up, I thought I would also link back to how I store my stamping plates, keeping them in folders has made life so much easier, and tidier, for me so I thought the post I did on how I organised them was worth linking to again too; you can see it here.

I have two folders now, one slightly larger than the other, which hold all of my stamping plates.

Finally I thought I would also include a bit about my Swatchicles, and a link to the full post about them as I find them invaluable in keeping my stash organised.  The one downside to the Helmers is that you can't see what you have in them without opening the drawers and looking through so having my Swatchicles on hand is a simple way to see exactly what colours I have at a glance.  See the full post on them here.

So, a slightly cheaty post as this is more a selection of links to older posts but I think between the three of them they explain pretty comprehensively how I store my polish collection and accessories.

Kiko 378 with Full Spectrum Accent Nail.

Not a huge amount to say about today's NOTD, I just fancied using 378 as it's such a pretty heathery sort of colour, but then I spotted Full Spectrum and couldn't resist a sparkly accent nail.

Both polishes are two coats.

I'd forgotten how pretty Full Spectrum was I think I might need to give it a full manicure outing soon.

Technic Mad Alice

As soon as I saw Mad Alice on Claire's blog, Nuthin but a nail thing, I knew I had to have it and being the lovely creature that she is Claire offered to send me a bottle in the post, she managed to find it for just £1 a bottle!

Mad Alice is a dark purple gelly crammed full of multi-coloured glitter piece in different sizes, the glitter comes in blue, green, pink and silver.

The base is very dark once you have a couple of layers on (these photos are two coats over yesterday's Mauve Suede) which gives a really interesting effect with the glitter.

I found it pretty hard to photograph, it was much prettier in person than it seems in these shots, possibly due to the horribly dull weather and lack of sunshine.

A quick close up so you can see the lovely glitter.

Yankee Candles Q2 2013

Recently I decided to try out the new Q2 fragrances from Yankee Candles.  This quarter there are 4 news scents; Fireside, Summer Scoop, Honey Blossom and Pineapple Cilantro.

 

I was pretty excited when I read about the new fragrances, particularly as Pineapple Cilantro was one of the scents I had my partner's mum send over from America at Christmas and was previously unavailable in the UK.  Fireside also appealed as I was hoping for a warm, toasted marshmallow sort of scent.

My photos are only of 3 of the 3 fragrances as there seems to be a bit of a stock issue with the Pineapple Cilantro tarts at the moment.

First up, Fireside, I am SO disappointed with this scent. :( It's the weakest of any Yankee tarts I have ever tried and unless you hang your head directly over the burner when it's lit there is practically no fragrance at all.  Even then there is only a vague hint at sweet marshmallow. 

Yankee says: The joys of camp ... mesmerised by the fire, singing and laughing, while toasting marshmallow to rich, gooey perfection.

Now, I've never been to 'camp' but I'm pretty sure it doesn't smell of the nothingness that the Fireside tart did, such a disappointment, especially since I imagined this being one of my favourites of the collection.

Next is Summer Scoop; Delicious memories of creamy, homemade strawberry ice cream on a hot summer day. One scoop or two?  It's pretty much as described, sweet, sugary strawberry with a hint of creaminess about it.  Probably not everyone's cup of tea as it is SWEET but I quite like it.  It's definitely a fake strawberry scent rather than that of a fresh strawberry.

Honey Blossom: The beautiful blend of flower nectar, honey musk, freesia and woods makes this both full and delicate.  This tart was the surprise of the collection for me, I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I do.  I'm not always a huge floral fan when it comes to tart fragrances but this one is tempered with a sugary sweet honey note which makes it a bit different.  I'm surprised by how much I like this summery floral.

Finally, Pineapple Cilantro; A tropical treat ... fresh, island pineapple served with a citrus touch of cilantro and sweet coconut.  As I mentioned I am basing this on the tart I had sent over from the US as Glasgow seems to have been missed off of Yankee's tart delivery list for this fragrance so far. 

I really like this scent, it's bright and fresh and very obviously pineapple,  don't get much of the cilantro (which is maybe just as well, I'm not a massive fan) but the sweet pineapple is lovely and this is a great juicy, fruity summer scent which I will definitely be buying more of when they eventually turn up.

Have you tried any of the new Yankee Q2 fragrance yet?  What do you think?

W7 & In Vogue Suede Nail Art

There's a good reason why I don't do freehand nail art very often, it always ends up looking a bit rubbish.  This attempt is no different.

 

Some People are excellent when left to their own devices with a dotting tool, I am not.

 

 

To create this look I painted my nails with Aqua Suede and then taped off half the nail on an angle, then I applied In Vogue Emerald Dust over the top to create the two tone look.

 

 

Next up I dotted Pink and Purple Suede over the join to add a dotty effect.  Finally I added a top coat to take away the suede effect and make the surface a little bit smoother.

 

 

Overall not too bad an effort but my dotting skills are still put to shame by the rest of the blogging world.  One of the many reasons I stamp instead of freehand 95% of the time.

 

W7 Mauve Suede (with Top Coat)

Once you apply a top coat to the Suede polishes they lose their suede effect, however they do become glittery and shimmery and rather lovely.  Unlike my nails (excuse the peely tips and dry cuticles, I think a serious rescue mission needs to be mounted)

These pictures are two coats of Mauve Suede with a top coat over them.

The polish lasts much better with a top coat and isn't so prone to chipping, it also becomes a rather gorgeous sparkly Cadbury purple shade.

Kiko 344 & 298 OR Another reason I love Kiko...

I'm not hugely impressed with how this manicure turned out but I think it's worth posting for another reason, it perfectly demonstrates one of the reasons I love Kiko polishes so much. 

 

I took these pictures after a day of sanding down gloss covered woodwork in my kitchen, an arduous task which was not kind to my nails, nail varnish and sandpaper are not good friends.

 

But even after a days hard labour; sanding, scrubbing and having my hands in and out of water countless times the polish still looks relatively presentable.

 

 

You can see a little bit of tip wear and a couple of minor cracks but overall they look pretty good, I certainly wouldn't have been ashamed to go out with them looking like this like I am when polish chips or flakes off badly.

 

It's a testament to the staying power and great wear time of almost every Kiko polish I have ever tried, they apply so nicely and more than that they last really well, even after a day of seriously hard on the nails work they still look presentable.

 

I used 344 as the base and then topped with 298 which is a sort of glass flecked topper style polish and while it's not one of my favourite colour combinations I think it's worthy of a post based on it's toughness and tenacity in the face of some pretty horrible DIY.

Double Stamping

I added some more stamping in Barry M Silver Foil over yesterday's stamping, I love it so much I didn't want to take it off just yet. 

 

Unfortunately the photos don't really do it justice.  The lighting is pretty horrible but hopefully these two shots give you a rough idea of what it looked like.

Kiko 319 & 621 - Subtle Stamping

I'm so pleased with how this turned out, the colours work much better together than I thought they might and because 621 -Violet from the Mirror range - which I stamped with has such a foil finish my nails looked like foils or wraps.

I had several compliments on this in real life which doesn't happen all that often so I was really pretty pleased with myself and how this turned out.

The Mirror collection really do stamp SO well, I am very tempted to pick up a few more when I am out in Spain next month.

A brief moment of sunshine in Glasgow, that has to be worth photographing. ;)



Kiko Sugar Mat - 641- Strawberry Pink

Another Kiko Sugar Mat another polish I LOVE, that's every one of the collection that I have tried that I adore, a pretty resounding success for Kiko in my books.

Strawberry pink is a bright coral pink which verges on looking almost neon in some lights, it's shot through with pretty gold glitter.

As with all the Sugar Mat polishes it has a rough textured finish, not unlike fine sandpaper.

This shade is a perfect summer pink and very wearable, as with the rest of the collection it applies nicely and dries fast.

These pictures are 3 coats, no top coat.

Nail Junkie Stamped

I decided to stamp over yesterday's Nail Junkie manicure with another of the fantastic Kiko Mirror Collection, this time I used 629 Copper.

 

 

I'm not too sure what this design is supposed to be, maybe some sort of animal print, but I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.  I used Gals plate GA32.

 

The copper colour goes well over the teal glitter and makes for a nice contrast, and yet again you can see that the Kiko polish stamps really well and it totally opaque.

 

I like the fact that from a distance this stamping looks like a full cover nail wrap.

Sinful Colors - Nail Junkie

This is one of the Sinful polishes I picked up in Boots the other week, Nail Junkie, I couldn't resist it with a name like that and all that glitter packed into the pretty teal base.

 

 

These pictures are two coats over W7 Suede in Aqua, although now I've used it I reckon Nail Junkie would hold it's own without a base if you applied 3 coats.

 

The teal coloured jelly base is filled full of different coloured glitter peices; blue, green, turquoise and a coppery golden colour too.  To me it basically looks like Last Friday Night from OPI's Katy Perry Collection but with a darer teal base, the glitter combination is pretty much exactly the same. 

 

I really like this polish, it's bright and glittery and would be perfect for a summer holiday manicure. 

 

I did have one minor issue though, when I removed the manicure it has stained my nails REALLY badly, I'm not sure whether that was down to the W7 polish of the Sinful one seeping through, either way even through a base coat this manicure has turned my nails a horrible blue colour!  So, beware if you're trying a similar combination, make sure you have a good base coat on and maybe even add an extra layer, just to be safe.