Easter Mini Eggs

I used a mixture of Models Own and Yes Love polishes to create this Easter themed Mini Egg manicure.  I'm pleased with how it turned out but seeing the two brands side by side has made me think I might need to add more Models Own Speckled Eggs to my collection.

 

 

The hex pieces in the Yes Love polish are much more sparse and I think I like the busier look of the Models Own versions.

 

Overall I did like this manicure though and I thought it was suitable themed for the Easter weekend, which is when I wore it.

Models Own - Polish for Tans & Speckled Eggs

A little parcel arrived to cheer up my Thursday!  A Models Own order I placed yesterday, super fast delivery which is always pleasing, I was expecting to have to wait until after the weekend for these!

 

 

First up I ordered the Polish for Tans Collection which are apparently "the first-ever collection designed to enhance and compliment a natural tan. Five essential summer shades chosen to highlight golden skin from sunrise to sunset. These tan-enhancing neon-pastel shades are the perfect combination of muted brights - the ultimate collection for beach babes!"

 

I couldn't resist the bright neons and had to get the whole collection:

Sun Hat, Shades, Beach Bag Bikini & Flip Flop

 

Next up a couple from the Speckled Eggs Collection, I already have a few Yes Love Speckled polishes which are very similar so it seemed silly to double up, which is why I only bought two; Magpie (minty green) and Goose (yellow).

 

As you can see from the first picture I also sneaked in a bottle of Utopia from the main collection to make the order up to £30 so I got free P&P; a great way to convince myself I am saving money by buying more polish.  Stand by for swatches over the next few day.

Yes Love - Coloured Speckled - Blue

I have a lovely blue polish to show you today, it's one of Yes Love's Coloured Speckled polishes which I was given as a gift by my lovely friend D a little while ago.

 

 

The polish consists of a blue crelly (jelly cream) base with various sizes and colours of glitter speckled through it, these pictures are three coats, two cover adequately but I like to add a third for extra glitter bit goodness.

 

I think these polishes will be pretty hard to track down if you're based in the UK but if you happen to be in Europe for a holiday then it's well worth keeping an eye out as Yes Love do some rather fantastic dupes of polishes from much more expensive lines.



Yes Love - Coloured Speckled - Swatches

I was (still am, really) planning on doing Christmas manicures all through December like I did last year but somehow the start of the month has sort of sneaked up on me and I'm not really ready for it!  So, before I launch into a month of more festive themed nails I have yesterday's Speckled polishes on my nails to show you. 

 

Although these polishes are far from Christmasy I couldn't resist trying these out after I received them, there was no way they could wait until the new year to get an outing.

 

 

I couldn't quite make up my mmind which to use first so I decided to just try them all out as they're nicely compatible pastel shades.

 

These pictures are just two coats of polish, it applies really nicely and there wasn't too much need to poke about and reposition the glitter which is quite often a problem with this sort of polish.

 

In the bottle the blue was my favourite but since trying them on my nails I have fallen in love with the green, it's just SO pretty, although I do still love the blue and peach too.  I can't wait to try these out as full manicures and have a go stamping over them too, I think they'll be a great base for stamping designs so look out for that in the future.



Yes Love - Coloured Speckled

These polishes are the slightly more jazzy version of the Yes Love Speckled polishes I posted about a few times after picking them up in Spain in the summer.  They have the same sort of cream base but this time with multicoloured glitter spread through them rather than just black. 

 

As far as I can tell there are 6 in the collection and I am lucky enough to have 3 of them to show you, sent to me by my very lovely friend D.

 

 

1 - A mint green coloured base polish with large blue hex, medium pink, purple and black hex and small black hex glitter scattered through it.

 

2 - A soft creamy peach coloured base polish filled with large red hex, medium red, lilac and black hex and small black hex glitter

 

3 - My favourite of the three, a baby blue base coloured polish with medium pink, yellow gold and black hex and small black hex glitter through it.

 

From my hunting online there are also lilac, pink and yellow base polishes but I think I've definitely got three of the best here!  I can't wait to try them out, I hope they apply half as well as the regular Speckled line from Yes Love as they are firm favourites of mine.

 

More Speckled Stamping

I really wanted to try out one of the plates from my new Bundle Monster Holiday Collection so I decided to try one of the designs over my Speckled nails from yesterday.  I stamped over Speckled nails the other week and was quite pleased with the result so I thought I'd have another go. 

I chose a pair of love birds from BM-H22:

In hindsight the design is probably a little delicate for stamping over a busy background like Speckled polish so it didn't turn out exactly how I had hoped, the design is quite hard to make out.

From a distance you can barely tell there is any stamping and up close although you get a general idea of leaves the birds aren't very clear.  I do love the design though so I'll be giving it another go over a plain base colour some time soon.

The lesson here is that sometimes less is more when it come to stamping over a busy background colour, something like my previous attempt of simple lines would probably have worked much better.  Still, you live and learn!

Yes Love Green Speckled

I've previously shown you the Lilac and Blue versions of this Speckled polish from Yes Love and today I have the green one from the collection on my nails.

 

 

The base colour is a lovely soft pistachio green and shows off the large and small black hex glitter beautifully.  These pictures are 3 coats (again this is more due to my OCD about the glitter placement than the polish not being opaque in 2 coats).

 

I'm so pleased with these Speckled polishes, they are a fantastic alternative to the really expensive Illamasqua ones I have been lusting after. :)

 

Stamped Speckles.

I decided to use Bundle Monster plate 316 to jazz up my speckled nails from the other day.  I didn't want too heavy a stamp which would hide the effect of the polish so I went for the fine lines in the image at the top of the plate.

 

I'm really pleased with how it turned out, the effect is sort of like a subtle join the dots and the white stamping polish lifts the colour a little and somehow makes my nails look much more three dimensional.

 

I really love stamping over slightly different base polishes, like these speckles, as I think you can get such a different effect than you do with a plain cream base.

Yes Love Blue Speckled

Another from my recent holiday haul today, this time the blue Yes Love Speckled polish, you can see the Lilac version HERE.  I like the blue just as much as I did the Lilac.

 

 

Again it applied really nicely, especially for a cheap polish with limited fishing for glitter and a nice smooth application.  These pictures are 3 coats, it was pretty much opaque in to but my fussiness of glitter spacing led to me adding a third.

 

 

I really like the base colour, it's a bright, vivid blue but at the same time quite a soft shade and it highlights the large and small black hex glitter beautifully.

 

 

Here's a sneaky bottle shot so you know what to look for if you're ever near a Chinese Bazaar. ;)

 

Yes Love Lilac Speckled

Another polish from my holiday haul today, this time one of the Yes Love speckled polishes which to me look very like Illamasqua's I'mPerfect collection nail polishes. 
 

I've been lusting after the Illamasqua versions for a while now but I could never quite justify the £14.50 price tag, so imagine my delight when I found something very similar for just 80cents each in the China Bazaar in Spain.

First off I decided to try out the lovely lilac shade on the left in the photo above.

These pictures are 3 coats, 2 would suffice to get the polish opaque but I put the 3rd on so that I could get the exact spread of glitter I wanted. 

For a cheap nail varnish it applied pretty well, a decent amount of glitter came out on each dip and it spread around the nail with relative ease.

Drying time was fairly quick and wear time was excellent, I ended up having this polish on for a good few days and it lasted really well.

Overall I am really pleased I picked these up, they're the prefect cure to my Illamasqua lusting on a much smaller budget.  I'm just annoyed I couldn't find anymore to bring back and spread the love.