Tag: Nail Varnish

The Funky £3 Manicure – Nude & Dots Nail Polish

you know me, always a sucker for a beauty bargain and as I’ve been continuously wearing nude on my nails lately, my favourite O.P.I shade (Don’t Pretzel My Buttons) has been getting it’s fair share of usage and so I’ve been on the look out for an alternative.

It was whilst I was shopping in H&M the other day that I came across these pretty polishes. I hadn’t purchased nail polish from H&M before but when I saw the price I couldn’t help but give them a go.

This nail polish in shade nude, was only 99p! It’s minature 5ml, so it’s a perfect one to pop in your handbag. I usually always carry one round with me anyway, as I can’t stand chips, so this one is the perfect size. Plus sometimes when you get a large nail polish, it can dry out before you even reach the end, so at least the mini size is bound to stay fresh until you’ve finished it.

As the polish is only small, of course the brush is too but it’s still easy enough to apply onto the nails.

It needs two coats but afterwards it looks perfect.

This funky spotty polish called, Free Your Mind, also caught my eye, it’s full of pretty blue, white, lime green and peach speckles (very summery).

This one also comes in 5ml and is £1.99. It’s been ages since I bought a fun nail polish like this. I usually avoid the confetti type polishes, as although I’m often drawn to them, in reality I know I’ll only use them a few times and then it will be a whole nail polish waisted. As this one was only small though, I thought it would be just enough and I love the colour of the speckles as I think I’ll wear this one a lot and it goes perfect with nude.

I just went for painting the ring finger this time but I think it will look great all over too. This was just after one application and the coloured spots came out on the brush really easy as the polish is full of them.

I’ve only had these polishes on my nails for a couple of days, so I’m yet to see what the longevity is like. But so far so good and I’m loving my funky £3 manicure.

What do you think? Have you tried H&M nail polish before?

Samio x

March 25, 2015
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
Ciaté Very Colourfoil Manicure

In this post I will be showing you step by step the Ciaté Very Colourfoil Manicure and how it works.

This is the content of the box when opened. There is the base coat nail polish, the pack of Colourfoils and the glue to apply them. The kit also comes with a small leaflet on how to do each step.

I couldn’t work out what the transparent nail disc was for. The nails don’t seem to pull off the disc and they are all the same size, so they can’t be to stick on nails. Maybe I’m just being silly and it’s for something completely obvious, so if anyone could enlighten me, that would be great.

When you take the Colourfoils out of the pack you have an array of foil sheets in jazzy shades and metallics looking something like this (different packs vary).

Firstly apply the base coat. My pack came with shade Cream Soda, which I applied two coats of. I actually really like this shade on it’s own but anyway we’re here to do the Colourfoils so let’s continue…

Next it’s time to apply the Ciaté Foil Fix, or as I like to call it, glue.

Apply the glue in dots to the parts of the nail you want to foil to stick. Wait till the glue goes transparent to apply your first foil.

After applying and removing your first foil you are left with something like this. I found each foil was about enough to do each hand once.

Then repeat. Here I went for a metallic green for the second shade. I actually really liked the effect as it was at this point but as I wanted to see the full results using multiple shades, I decided to continue.

And another one… I repeated this until the nails were covered in the Colourfoil. Once I was done I cleaned up the Colourfoil from around the edges of the nails.

Here is the end result. I took this after having washed up (silly I know) and as you can see it has changed the texture of the foil a little. I think it has more of a scrunched up tinfoil look rather than a smooth tinfoil look as some of the foil did start to wash off as the glue underneath went a bit stringy. I think this could be prevented by applying a top coat when finished, which I did eventually do after I’d washed up. Ah well, you live and you learn.

Samio x

January 8, 2014
December Favourites

I’ve had this nail varnish forever and I never seem to wear it, maybe it’s because when I’m not painting my nails nude I opt for something more bold like bright red. When I came to paint my nails this time however, I was feeling rather festive and so this O.P.I shade, Bastille My Heart, seemed the perfect Christmassy shade. I’ve not stopped using it since so it’s definitely a December favourite.

I’m often asked how I treat my hair differently during winter. If I’m honest, I’ve never really thought about it before and often my hair care routine doesn’t change too dramatically from season to season. This month though, I decided to invest a little more treatment time into my hair routine, doing more braiding treatments before bed and I also bought this great product. I am a avid user of Aussie product, so I decided to give their, 3 Minute Miracle Deep Conditioning, a go. Applied just after washing when the hair is wet, this product gives your hair a deep conditioning in 3 minutes (exactly like it says on the bottle). For me this product works wonders and straight away my hair felt softer and more manageable. I think the results were obvious after drying too, my curls now feel and look healthier.

My third and final December favourite is this turtle neck jumper I bought from H&M. I’ve wanted a jumper like this for a while, so when I finally got my hands on this one I was delighted with my purchase. I bought a size too big because I wanted it to feel oversized and cosy. It looks great thrown on with a pair of jeans and I’ve even found myself even wearing it round the house because it’s just so comfy.

Samio x

December 15, 2013
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