What’s Christmas without a fresh manicure?! Generally speaking, Gold has gone way out of style this year in favour of other metallic shades so I wanted to offer up a few alternative ideas for Christmas nail colours. Nothing too extreme – we’re just gonna keep it classy and mix in some glitter. And if you’re the nail art type, don’t forget to follow me on Instagram where I post all of my Christmas nail art!
If you follow me on Instagram you will have seen a very coy sneak peek of these nails yesterday and since it’s my absolute favourite mani for a while I had to honour them with a blog post. I also wanted somewhere to put the video tutorial so you guys could see how I got the gradient effect in the stamp. So, hey if you’re back here from Instagram!
I’ve always quietly wondered if and/or when my creativity would ever dry up and I feel like perhaps now is that time. I don’t think it’s gone for good, but I’m definitely in the middle of a long drought. The feeling’s been creeping in ever since late last year but for a while, I pushed on and forced myself to create new things. Only recently did I allow myself just let go – I decided that if there was nothing I was excited to create or blog about, it wasn’t worth pressuring myself. Although I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a little voice in the back of my mind the whole time (however quiet and distant) making me feel guilty, counting the days since I last blogged.
If you’re a seasoned stamper like me, you’ll know that nothing compares to chrome finish polishes when you want to get the job done. When I first heard about the new Colour Chrome collection of 10 polishes from Models Own I immediately got to wondering how they’d hold up when put to the test. So, naturally, when I got my hands on a select few of them I went straight to work trying them out with some different designs.
As you can see, they don’t disappoint in the stamping department. I stamped them over Cirque Memento Mori which is a flawless deep black and they held up without any issues (the designs are from MoYou Fashionista Plate 05). They’re all very opaque which makes them ideal for the job. The consistency is quite creamy and easy to work with but I think that once they’ve aged and thickened up a little, they’ll be even better.
If you’re in the UK and are into your stamping, or even just a beginner, I’d seriously recommend investing in a few of these as I collections like this never seem to be around for long. I’m going to snap up Blue and Gold as soon as they’re in stores.
As for wearing them alone, it’s advised you ditch the base coat and top coat and just apply 2-3 coats of the chromes over freshly buffed nails. I was curious, so I tried both anyway! Base coat is a no-no as it gets dragged around by the chrome and makes little unsightly lumps underneath. Top coat is a-okay as long as you wait until the colour chrome is completely dry first.
This swatch is two coats of each with no base or top coat. From thumb to pinky, the shades are Rose, Cerise, Olive, Mauve and Indigo. You do have to use a very light hand and use as few storkes as possible to get a decent finish. Each shade has its own level of streakiness and they cling to any ridges or imperfections on your nails which is, I suppose, why it’s recommended you buff before application (I skipped that step, oops!). I’ve never been a fan of the all-over chrome look and I think I’ll only use these for stamping but I could be converted by Mauve and Mauve alone!
The full collection of 10 Colour Chrome Shades will retails at £4.99 each. They’ll be available at modelsownit.com from 29th January, from UK Models Own bottleshops on the 31st January and Superdrug stores nationwide on the 11th February.
I had an unofficial birthday celebration last night with my family and this evening I’m heading straight out after work to grab some nibbles with my friends so I’d say it’s shaping up to be a pretty great week. I’m one of those (kind of annoying) people that likes to really milk their birthday for all it’s worth and I use ‘It’s my birthday week though’ as an excuse to get away with everything! Fess up… you know you do it too!
For the gradient, I used Barry M Heather as my base colour fading to Barry M Bright Purple to Sally Hansen Plum Luck. There’s a gradient tutorial here.
The stamped pattern is from Bundle Monster Plate BM419 and I used BK Matte White.
For the accent fingers, I used two coats of Models Own Amethyst. Can you tell I’m loving the Velvet Goth Collection.
It’s all finished off with Color Club Top Coat .
I used Sally Hansen Crinolin and W7 Baby Pink as my base colours.
The glitter is Sally Hansen Razzle Dazzle and I freehanded on the ribbon using Models Own Bubblegum and a nail art brush.
It’s all topped off with two coats of Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat.
Twitter ♥ Bloglovin’ ♥ Tumblr