Tag: Nail Lacquer

Ciaté Haute House Nail Lacquer Review

I’m always fond of the Ciaté nail lacquer collections, so of course when I recieved this Haute House one for Christmas, I was pleased. However, it’s took me all the way until now to finally get round to wearing all of the colours in the collection. Of course I could have just reviewed these shades by simply painting each nail of one hand a different colour but I thought I’d wait until I’d actually worn them all to get the full effect.

First of all I have to say that I love all of these shades, they are each quite dark and seductive and I personally think they make great shades to wear for an night out.

The Haute House collection comes beautifully packaged in this ‘house style’ box with little windows giving a peek of each gorgeous Ciaté shade inside. You can then open the front of the box to get a full view of the nail lacquers inside.

The quirky packaging of these polishes actually makes it perfect for a gift to someone (probably the reason I recieved it for Christmas). It could make a great Mother’s Day present (15th March, don’t forget) or Birthday gift for a friend.

I applied each nail lacquer with two coats (although many are bold enough with just one coat). I haven’t used a top coat in these images, just so you can see what the colours look like alone. I actually like how glossy they look even without a top coat and they all seem to stay on rather well too.

Below you can see each fabulous shade in all their glory. My favourite is For the frill of it, which is yours?

Can can

For the frill of it

Sass pot

Knee highs

Tickle my fancy

Shop more Ciaté collections and offers here

Samio x

February 27, 2015
O.P.I Rust Gradient Effect
On Saturday I was out for a friend’s birthday. Before hand I had my outfit all planned and I’d picked out a cute stripe and floral print dress I hadn’t worn before. I decided to paint my nails to match my dress and go for what I like to call a rust gradient effect.

How I achieved this nail art effect…

Step one:

What you will need.
- As I wanted my colours to match my dress I chose three nail varnished in similar shades to my dress: OPI shades – Lady in Black, Your Villa Or Mine and Alpine Snow. (Base coat and top coat are optional)
- Foam is needed to apply the gradient effect. For this you can use a clean sponge, some packaging or as I have done, use the foam that you often find inside jewellery boxes.
- Scissors will be required to cut your foam.
- Tweezers will help you hold the foam when applying the polish.
- A cotton bud and some liquid nail polish remover to neaten up the edges at the end.
Step Two:

Paint all your nails with a base coat (optional), then apply your first chosen colour and wait for it to dry.

Step Three:

Cut a small square from your foam (roughly half an inch squared). Pick up the cut piece of foam with your tweezers and with your second chosen colour, lightly apply the nail varnish to your foam.

Step Four:

Gently dab the coated foam to your nails, building up more and the ends and padding lighter towards the top to achieve the fading speckle effect…

… Continue this on all your nails. Reapply the nail varnish to the foam when needed.

Step Five:

Cut a new clean piece of foam and choose your third colour. Again repeat the the previous process, this time focusing on the tips of the nails and fading into the previous colour….

… You should be left with something similar to the image below, but if you’re anything like me, you will have made a mess in the process. So now it’s time to neaten up!

Step Six:

Neatening up is probably the easiest part. Simply get your cotton bud and dip it into your nail varnish remover liquid. With the cotton bud tip, rub around the edges of your nails to remove any excess nail varnish. Continue this until all the edges have been cleaned up. For an extra polished look, add a top coat to finish.

The Final Result

And that’s my tutorial on how I achieved my rust gradient effect nails… You can also try this look with so many different colour combinations, even adding more colours into the blend. Or how about adding glitter polish to the tips to add some sparkle!

I always love the results I get from this effect and it’s a simple technique you can use time and time again with so many different colours.

Samio x
October 1, 2013
O.P.I – Monochrome

I’m a big lover of O.P.I Nail Lacquers. A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to receive an O.P.I case full of an array of gorgeous O.P.I shades, as part of a Christmas gift off my grandparents. I’ve been hooked on the brand ever since and I’m always adding to my collection. I’ve been meaning to start doing some posts like this for a while, showing off some of my favourite shades and colour combinations. Now I’ve finally gotten round to it and for my first nail polish post I’ve gone Monochrome.

The black shade of O.P.I I’ve used, is often one of my go to shades. Especially for when I don’t know what I’ll be wearing, as this colour mostly goes with anything and the super glossy finish gives it a really slick and polished look. This weekend I fancied something different and thought I’d try out one of my crackle varnishes. I’ve actually had this particular white crackle for a while but this is the first time I got round to using it. I’ve used crackle varnishes in the past but never before in this black and white colour combo. I love it and think it almost has quite a gothic look to it.

To achieve this look I used:
O.P.I base coat
One coat of O.P.I shade, Lady In Black
Followed with one coat of O.P.I White Shatter
O.P.I top coat to finish

Longevity:
I applied this nail look on Friday evening and it lasted (chip free!) until Monday when I removed it.

Samio x

August 6, 2013