For the last couple of days I've been wearing this beautiful dark red Jacava polish, Black Forest Gateau. Today, I painted roses over it for a different look.
I used three Barry M Gellys for the roses - Pink Lemonade, Rose Hip and Acai Smoothie, and two MoYou London stamping polishes for the leaves - Spring Green and Key Lime.
I've topcoated over everything for smoothness and shine.
I don't think I'll ever get bored of doing floral nails!
Recently Lauren from The Naily Mail has been having a polish sale, and I took the chance to snap up some more Jacava polishes. I LOVE Jacava, and they seem to have gone out of business, so I was really happy to get these.
I used three of these for this look, all purples. I started with a base using Purple Promise (the dark creme) and Blueberry Muffin (the lilac creme) and then used Marrakesh Nights (the dark purple shimmery one) and some tape for the triangles.
Marrakesh Nights is a bit too dark to really show over Purple Promise in these photos, but in real life it's a bit more visible.
Both the cremes are the usual excellent Jacava quality - Blueberry Muffin is a one coater and I used two for Purple Promise.
I love the Jacava brushes as they're very narrow, which works really well for me, and the long handle makes them really easy to control.
I've been a bit lacking in enthusiasm for blogging recently. No real reason, I just haven't felt like it.
Anyway, these are the nails I wore for a few days earlier in the week. Yes, I did both hands.
This is a base of Barry M Pearl, and the stripes were done using China Glaze Glow with the Flow and Jacava Crimson Crush and some striping tape.
I deliberately made the stripes uneven in size and pattern as I knew if I tried to make them the same I wouldn't manage it!
I don't do Hallowe'en, but I'd seen lots of nails like this recently and wanted to do some too!
I started with 4 purple polishes and made a gradient. I used Barry M Black Currant and Blackberry, Jacava Holbein Place and Barry M Fondant, to take it from an almost-black purple to a pale lilac. I started with a base of Jacava Holbein Place, and then sponged on the gradient.
I really like how this came out, and I wore this on its own for a day, with topcoat to make it glossy.
The cleanup round the cuticles was quite awkward - that Barry M Black Currant again! I still liked this though.
I then tried this matte, just to see what it was like. I like this too!
I then used a Barry M nail art pen to freehand a tree and some gravestones.
I like the contrast of the black against the sort of sunset sky, and the glossy against the matte.
I wish Black Currant wasn't so messy round the edges though!
Tonight's nails are quite simple, but I LOVE the colour combination! First I just painted my nails with Jacava Passion, a gorgeous bright berry pink. Then, because I had nothing else to do and didn't want to stop playing with my nails, I sponged on a gradient of Passion and Phene Street.
I had a little difficulty cleaning round my cuticles, as I managed to sponge Passion quite deep into the skin!
I think the colour combination is gorgeous though, so rich and glossy.
Both these colours look gorgeous on their own, but they really work well together.
I think I may stamp over these tomorrow evening, so I can wear these for an extra day. Maybe some gold leafy pattern? What do you think?
I'm excited about today's post! I have a third lovely Jacava polish to show you, plus some nail art I've done using the new polishes, plus details of an exciting Jacava giveaway which will allow one lucky person to win the entire Woodlanders polish collection!
Photo credit: Jacava.com
These were the three polishes I tried:
You can see my swatches of Holbein Place and Justice Walk by clicking on the links. Today I have Phene Street to show you.
This is the darkest of the three, and is a gorgeous muted, dusky purple. I really love the tone of all three of these polishes (and of lots more in the collection) which really does fit in with the misty autumnal woodland idea of the collection.
Phene Street is another polish with a fantastic formula and finish. This is two coats, although this was opaque with one. I only added a second out of habit!
I really like how these colours go together, so I also used them for a couple of nail art looks. First off, I used sellotape to make a simple blocked tape design.
I was really pleased with this, and wore this for a day at the weekend.
The colours go so well together, I think!
Then today, I've used the colours to make a gradient and a water marble.
These worked really well for water marbling, I was very impressed! And they're fabulous for gradients - I love how nicely they blended.
Last up, the exciting news! Jacava are running a competition which will allow someone to win the entire collection! (See the range here - that's SEVENTEEN bottles of polish!) All you have to do is check out their Twitter or Facebook, and follow the instructions to enter.
These polishes were provided for my honest review. I don't get anything if you enter or win the competition (I'm entering it too!) See my Disclaimer section for more information.
Today I have the second of my new Jacava polishes to show you, Holbein Place. This is the second of three polishes from the new Woodlanders Collection that I have to show you. This is Jacava's Autumn-Winter collection, and is full of gorgeous dusky autumnal hues.
Photo credit: Jacava.com
Holbein Place is a pretty pinky lilac creme. I wore this for three days with one coat and no topcoat, and it stayed perfect for almost the whole time. There was a teeny tiny bit of tip wear this evening, because I've been typing all day at work for three days, so I touched up slightly and added topcoat before taking these photos.
Isn't this a pretty colour?
The formula is excellent. Like Justice Walk, this is a one-coater, with a smooth, even consitency, which is self levelling when you apply it.
I've made no secret of how much I love Jacava polishes. This is definitely one which will be getting a lot of use from me this autumn.
Keep your eyes open for news of a fab competition from Jacava coming soon!
This polish was provided by the company for my honest review. All opinions are my own. See my Disclaimer section for further information.
I've made no secret of it on this blog, but I adore Jacava polishes. The bottles are beautiful, the brush is fantastic, the colours are gorgeous and the quality is superb. When I saw they'd launched the new 'Woodlanders' collection, I got quite excited, because I mean - look how beautiful they are!
Photo credit: Jacava.com
I was even more excited when Jacava asked me to review some of these new polishes. Look at these beauties!
Today I'm showing you the bluey-grey one, Justice Walk.
This is such a beautiful colour! Depending on the light, it's a gorgeous dusky blue, or a pretty slate grey.
The formula is excellent - this is one coat, with topcoat. This is a thickish coat. As I was painting, there were a couple of patches which went on a tiny bit unevenly, and I thought I'd have to go back and do a second coat. However, the polish is lovely and smooth, and evened itself out like magic!
I love this colour, it's really lovely, don't you think?
Jacava polishes are 9-free, meaning they don't contain formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, toluene, parabens, camphor, DBP, xylene, ethyl tosylamide or lead. It's also free from all ingredients tested on animals, so is completely vegan-friendly. You can read more about this here, although you may not want to click on all the links and read about what these nasties can do to you, if you want to be able to use your cheap drugstore polishes without worrying!
I'll be showing you the other two colours over the next few days, as well as some nail art using the colours. And if you fancy trying these out, watch out for a fab competition coming very soon! You could win the whole Woodlanders collection!
I received this polish from Jacava for review. Opinions are entirely honest however - see my Disclaimer section for more details.
I toyed with the idea of keeping my French mani plain for a day, but I just couldn't do it!
I used a fine paintbrush with China Glaze Mingle with Kringle and Jacava Blackberry Fool in order to do this design. It's only simple but I do like it.
The gold lines are a bit thicker than I meant to do, but I suppose that doesn't matter.
What do you think?
It's my birthday today! I haven't actually done anything about it because I'm old and it's been a ridiculously busy week at work, but I have had a lovely lazy day with a long sleep and some wine, and I have been wearing SPARKLY nails!
As you may have noticed, I'm getting increasingly fond of 3D nail charms, especially the really sparkly ones! This is one I spotted on the Born Pretty Store website a while ago, and was lusting after for quite some time. And now I've been sent one to review! This is item #9798 and is officially called "3D Nail Art Sticker Bling Rhinestoned Drop-shape Design Nail Art Decoration". It costs $1.99 at the moment, which is a total bargain!
As you can see, it's a teardrop metal shape in a gold colour, with lots of sparkly multicoloured rhinestones and some tiny pearly beads. How PRETTY is this??
I wore it first over my earlier polish (see previous post) of Essie Naughty Nautical, a lovely shimmery green.
I really like the charm paired with this greeny turquoise, as it matches some of the rhinestones and ties it together.
Then today, as it was my birthday, I decided to really go for it, and put it with Jacava Knightsbridge Opulence (a goooorgeous shimmery pink which I previously received for review) and some more rhinestones.
Not content with just the sparkles, I wondered what it would look like with a gold louboutin reverse polish on the backs of my nails, and the mega ridiculous sparkly ring I bought online last year (but have never worn because... well!)
...and the answer appears to be BLINGTASTIC!
The gold on the back of the nails is Barry M Gold Foil (the limited edition Christmas one).
I'm in love with this 3D charm! It's comfortably chunky and has a nice feeling of weight on my finger, without being heavy or rough-edged. It doesn't catch on things and sticks down easily with topcoat, and is obviously easily reusable. It's slightly curved, so sits easily on the nail. I have very long nails at the moment and it fits easily on the nail. If you have short nails though it may overhang at the front, and that could look pretty cool too, for a special occasion!
This charm is also available in a silver and white design, which also looks REALLY pretty! I think I will have to buy a couple of those too.
If you do fancy getting something like this, they are currently on sale at BPS, and you can use my discount code to get an extra 10% off as well!
This charm was provided for review purposes. See my Disclaimer section for more details.
