Funky matte french

So I'm not a huge lover of matte top coats - often finding they just make you look like you've scratched the sheen of a nice glossy polish. But I think it all depends what colour you're top coating and also the quality of the top coat. I've found one I really love from Models Own Pro which gives a lovely satin finish rather than dull matte.

This twist on the classic french manicure is two coats of Essie Nail Lacquer in Fancy Pants, followed by a free hand striking fuchsia tip using Models Own in Purple Passion (I personally think it's more pink than purple!). Finished off with the Models Own Pro Matte top coat. You can't really tell from the photo but the finish is a lovely muted sheen rather than being completely dull matte.

I think the colour combo works really well. The key is to use a muted sophisticated colour for the base and then a colour that really pops for the tip. It's a great way to venture into nail art or to take a boring work mani to the next level without being over the top!

Happy painting... the nailist xxx

Dash dash dash

Well I have basically been a bit rubbish with the posts lately - I've got a bit of January inertia! I plan to make a more concerted effort from now on!

I'm using two new polishes in today's post. I went on a bit of spree before Christmas so have quite a few to try.

The base blue is from a RCH Style Society gift set in the Boots Christmas range. After two coats of that had dried, I applied a horizontal brush width stripe on each nail using Essie Nail Lacquer in Fancy Pants (love this name!). Any wonky lines I just straightened up with some more of the blue.

The I simply added some pink and white dashes using Models Own nail art pens.

This is one of the designs that there's no need to worry about being exact as the overall effect is what you're after.

I finished it all off with a coat of Save the Nail 45 Second Top Coat to make it all nice and shiny!

Happy Painting.. the nailist xxx

Polish days - MAN-icure

It's Polish Day time!.. the monthly blogger event put together by Hannah @ PollyPolish.com. This month's theme is MAN-icure in honour of it being Movember. The brief was either a the iconic moustache design or a tribute to any special men in your life.

I decided to go literal and simple....

I had a bit of trouble with the moustaches due to a gloopy black nail polish but no time to redo unfortunately! Still loving it though - makes me laugh every time I look at my nails.

And what makes me giggle even more is that if I look at them the other way the moustaches, unintentionally, look like eyebrows and I have angry/surprised faces looking back at me!

I opted for muted 'manly' base colours:-

Thumb - Nail Polish by H&M in Nerd

Index - W7 in 29 Grey

Middle - Models Own in Concrete Mixer

Ring - Bourjois 1 Second Gel Silicone Texture in 04 Taupe Classy

Little - Bourjois 10 days No Chips in shade 23

Happy painting.. the nailist xxx

Muted bling!

I love Autumn! My favourite season is finally on the horizon (although the weather seems to think it's summer - finally!) -  I love crisp sunny days and amazing sunsets, layering clothes and scarves and the knowledge that I'll soon be able to put my boots back on, instead of showing willing and wearing sandals but inevitably getting wet feet due to our unpredictable British weather.

One of the main things I look forward to is the autumnal warm muted colour palettes, in both fashion and nail polishes. Some of my favourite polishes are beiges, heathers and smokey grey, however, I do still like a bit of bling. This is what's inspired today's design...

I used two coats of Nails Inc in Caramel as the base colour. Followed by a central stripe of on each nail of Models Own Pro in Swan Lake just using the width of the brush. I had to apply a million coats to get the effect, as this is one of those polishes which looks amazingly dense in the bottle but in fact the glitter covering is frustratingly thin. I should have used a denser glitter (I have enough!) but I really love the tone of this polish - it's basically a champagne/beige glitter rather than gold or silver, so really complements the base colour.

I was going to leave it at that but last minute added definition with a black nail art pen... I fear this was a mistake as the design went from subtly sophisticated to looking a bit clumsy  - note for next time!

Happy painting... the nailist xxx