These are the nails I've been wearing for the last couple of days.
I used some more Barry M Gelly colours that I hadn't tried before, Chai (the grey one) and Pink Lemonade (the pale pink one) as the base. Both of these are really really nice - Chai is definitely a one coater, and Pink Lemonade could be if you're careful, although I did two thin ones.
I then freehanded the flowers using Barry M Aloha (one of the new Coconut Infusion range) and Pink Lemonade, and MoYou London Bahamas Punch for the flower centres.
I love pink and grey together. It was my favourite part of the 80s, and I do miss how common it was as a combo! I had a gorgeous ankle length pink and grey flannel skirt with big pockets trimmed with pink rickrack.... Oh dear. Maybe these things are best left back in the 80s!
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.
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.
For months now, every time I have a bath I've looked at my bathroom window and tried to work out how I could get that on my nails. The flowery pattern against a pale sky is so pretty!
Today's nails aren't really anywhere close to it, but they were inspired by it, so they count!
I did a gradient using Barry M Huckleberry, Essie Maximillian Strasse Her (I still don't understand that name!) and Barry M Grey.
I then stamped over it using Konad White and the MoYou London ProXL 14 plate.
What do you think? Success, or not?
Today I have another Born Pretty Store stamping plate to show you. This is plate BP-58, which is available here for $2.99. As you can see, this plate has lots of cute birds, and some lovely individual feathers.
I did two looks with this plate, one with a full nail design and one with an individual feather.
This first design has a grey base of Nella Milano Mercury Haze. I then stamped using the birds on a wire part of the plate and Barry M Silver Foil.
The plate stamped really well, apart from that one spot on the tip of my index finger - that was my fault though, not the plate's.
The second look I did was with the peacock feather in the centre of the plate. I started with a base of Chanel Peridot, which is a polish I just love for its gorgeous greeny gold finish. I had initially planned to stamp using a bright turquoise metallic blue, but apparently none of my polishes were suitable as they just didn't show over the gold. Nothing to do with the plate, it was just the polish wasn't pigmented enough.
Instead, I used China Glaze Don't Make Me Wine, which is a gorgeous dark metallic reddy purple. This stamped beautifully, and I love how this looks! Don't look at my poor stumpy thumbnail! It broke badly across the corner a week ago, and is still not really presentable.
This looks fab in the evening sunshine!
I think this is a really nice stamp, and I can definitely see this one getting a lot of use. I think the cute cartoon birds in the heart would make a lovely spring or Valentine's mani.
The plate is currently $2.99, but you can get 10% off using my discount code.
I received this product for review purposes, but words and opinions are entirely my own. I do not receive anything if you use my discount code, although when it's been used ten times, BPS will let me host a giveaway for my readers! See my Disclosure page for more details.
Today I have another new brand for you! Nella Milano is a new company - you can see their website here, where all their polishes are for sale. I love the range of colours on offer - they look so bright and zingy and pretty!
I have two to show you, Mercury Haze and Chestnut Road. Strangely, out of all the colours I already have, both of these are sort of unique in my collection! First up is Mercury Haze, a pretty grey.
This is really nice grey. I think it has a greeish edge to it, which makes it quite different to other greys I've tried. It's a very slatey grey, which I like!
This is two coats of Mercury Haze. I added topcoat, because I wore it to work for a day, but it didn't really need it, as it's really glossy already.
I also wore this for another three days with stamping over the top (see my previous post), and I can confirm it wore really really well, no chips, peels, tip wear or anything else.
My second colour is Chestnut Road. I first thought this would be a blood red vampy colour, but with the second coat it's definitely more of a rich chocolate brown, with reddish tones.
Isn't it gorgeous? This colour really is right up my street!
This was almost a one coater, although I did two for perfection. This is with topcoat, but again, it really doesn't need it.
The bottles are nice - they look elegant and simple, and I like the swirly pattern on the lid. The brushes are really nice - narrow (which is definitely my preference) and quite firm, and comfortable to use. The formula on both of these was excellent - thin, without being runny or streaky, no pooling round the cuticles, no lumps, bumps or splodges. Both were beautifully even and smooth, and dried very quickly. I'm really impressed! These sell on the Nella Milano website for £8.95 each, which is in the OPI/China Glaze price range. They don't have the colour range of either of those brands (yet) but of course, this is a brand new company. I think the quality of the polish is just as good though, and the brush is definitely far nicer for me than the OPI one, which I find far too wide.
You can follow Nella Milano on Facebook here, where they have just released a special offer! For the next 5 days, you can get 50% off any order! I think that's a total bargain, so I've got my eye on quite a few colours there!
You can also follow Nella Milano on Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.
These polishes were provided for my honest opinion. See my Disclaimer section for more details.
Just a quick post tonight - I've been pretty lacking in nail mojo so far this year!
This is a base of a pretty grey creme from a new brand, Nella Milano. This is two coats of Mercury Haze. I'll have a full review of this and another colour coming up in the next few days.
I stamped over this using Barry M Silver Foil and the MoYou London Pro XL 06 plate, using the pretty filigree design.
I really loved how this came out, and have worn this for three days.
Amongst the thermals I bought from Rainbow Connection last week, was this grey one by Polish Me Silly, Grey Matter.
This is a grey polish, with white, black and pink matte glitter pieces. This is three thin coats, with topcoat.
Application on this was ok, but it was a bit watery and runny, and quite sheer. I was a bit disappointed with how little pink glitter came out onto my nails, as there's quite a lot in the bottle. The grey & pink combination was one of my very favourites in the 80s - I had several grey & pink outfits in my teens! I was hoping for a bit more pink on the nail with this.
This did dry well, and the brush is nice, so three coats was no trouble, it just took a while. There also seems to be some tiny black particles in there too, which made this look a bit gritty in places, which I wasn't too keen on. I've seen swatches of this online that look GORGEOUS, so this was a bit less exciting than I'd hoped.
The thermal effect on this has been almost invisible so far. It's a pale grey when warm, and darkens slightly when cold. But it's nowhere near as pronounced as the swatches I've seen online. I realise my nails are quite short though, so there is that. But even with hot and cold water, I can't get much colour changing effect to show.
In an attempt to improve the effect of this, I stamped over it using Barry M Pink Punch, and MoYou London Pro XL plate 14.
I think this is a huge improvement! I do love pink and grey as a combination, and I think the design is really pretty - cow parsley, or Queen Anne's Lace, or whatever it is. I'm still a bit... unconvinced about the whole thing though.
I've been feeling cold all weekend, so my mind turned to snowflakes.
I started this look with a white base of Barry M Coconut. This is another of the Gelly range, and is a really nice slightly off-white creme. I don't think it's as good as Models Own Coconut Cream, as the MO one is a bit more opaque (and smells nice into the bargain) but it's a nice polish. I then sponged using Essie Maximillian Strasse-her and Barry M Grey to get a gradient.
I then stamped over everything using MoYou London Festive plate 02, and Barry M Silver Foil. The Barry M foils (silver, gold and lilac) are fantastic for stamping - they're opaque, shiny, smooth... I wish they'd do them in other colours! A red and a green would be awesome for Christmas.
Anyway, I'm really pleased with how well this came out! I don't think I've stamped over a gradient before, but I do like the effect.
Incidentally, I snapped this photo in the middle of the process because it amused me - gradient and stamping together is MESSY!
About two months ago, I saw this pack of temporary tattoo things in Accessorize, and snapped them up! Finally this week I got the chance to use them.
These were £4 for a pack of 14. As you can see, there are a variety of sizes of dripping blood designs. The instructions are simple - you peel off the covering plastic, place them on the fingers, press down with a wet piece of fabric or kitchen roll and then peel off the paper.
First I painted my nails - I started with a base of Barry M Vanilla, and then sponged over a whole variety of splodges, all with Barry M colours. I used Mustard, Black, Grey, Berry Ice Cream and Blackberry, in varying amounts for that bruised and battered effect. I then added a coat of Barry M Matte Topcoat.
The transfers came out looking really shiny and blood-like, which I think looked fab! I loved how gory these look!
I like how the slightly gluey bits where they touch my cuticles in places actually make them look more realistic.
I had hoped to keep them on all night and then wear them for work tomorrow, but sadly, the shiny finish was a bit sticky, and they got quite grubby rubbing against clothes and so on. I think if you were at a party or something, and only handling drinks, then you'd be fine, but these don't last overnight!
Still, I was pretty pleased with this look!
