Gemstone Polish

Afternoon People! It may be officially Summer here but buckets of water are still falling from the skies :( Typical Britain. I think we may have already had our one and only heatwave back in March.... Anyway, today I've got my first 'Green' manicure to show you guys. This one is a kind of an abstract interpretation of countryside fields and hedges. I kept it nice and loose so it was really fun to paint :) I started off by painting all my nails with China Glaze 'Highlight Of My Summer' which is a neon pastel apple green. WOW this is bright! Would look awesome as a pedicure with tanned skin on holiday :) Once this was fully dry, I created a rough, painterly gradient using the following nail polishes (cuticle to tips); China Glaze 'Highlight Of My Summer' , Zoya 'Midori' (apple green with strong gold shimmer), Barry M 'Spring Green' (grass green) and Rimmel 'Camouflage' (conifer green with pale gold shimmer). To loosen...

Hello There! One of the best things about living in the British countryside is how green it all is. It completely changes the mood of the landscape and makes me so happy. So in order to celebrate that kaleidoscope of greens and lush vegetation, I've decided to create some awesomely green nail art! In the past, I've created manicures that were dominated by one colour (Pink) but I haven't done Green before so that will make things interesting! Sometimes it's good to narrow down the subject as it tends to make room for more creativity (I hope!)  :) Thanks For Reading! Kayleigh :)

Hello! Today, I have my last Spring floral manicure for you! A tiny bit late as it's practically Summer now but never mind :) For this Tulip inspired manicure, I wanted to do a more painterly style rather than an exact representation. I much prefer doing artsy styled nail art as it leaves room for a few mistakes and of course it's fun to do! First, I painted all my nails in Essie 'Virgin Snow' which is a lovely soft lavender toned pale blue creme. Amazingly, this is almost a one-coater! Unfortunately I ended up painting over most of it but you can see the blue peaking out here and there. I then lightened the bottom half of each nail with Essie 'Blanc' (white creme) thinned down with Orly Nail Polish Thinner and a fluffy brush. Over that, I painted on rough sword-like leaves using Barry M 'Pole Position' (bright pastel green) and Orly 'Coachella Dweller' (light pistachio green), both thinned with nail polish thinner. Unfortuna...

Hello Everyone! For today's Spring inspired floral manicure, I decided to take a more whimsical approach, in that it's more about the bright and fresh colour palette rather than actual Spring flowers. Does that make sense?! I came across the image below while browsing Pinterest and completely fell in love with the colour combination! The clean background, the fresh and frothy bursts of green with peach and pink accents. All of it just really appealed to me and so I decided to try and capture those elements in a fun, floral manicure! :) I started this manicure by painting all my nails with Revlon Parfumerie 'Lavender Soap' which is a lilac tinted, pearlescent white. I expected this to be heavy on the brushstrokes but found that a thicker final coat produced a lovely smooth finish. It's just so pretty and delicate! Once that was completely dry, I started to paint in loose roses using a detail brush and Essie 'Peach Side Babe' (bright peach...

Good Afternoon! I'll be honest with you, today's manicure is not one of my best. Some things just don't translate well onto teeny weeny canvases! I was going for a kind of floral flat lay but it ended up getting overcrowded and messy looking. I'm posting it here anyway as there are some aspects that I really like :) For the base of the manicure, I wanted a soft but bright white so I used China Glaze 'Dandy Lyin' Around' on all my nails. This is a beautiful, delicate nail polish but has a pretty problematic formula. It took over 4 coats to become opaque and had major bubbling :( Once that was completely dry, I used a thin striping brush to paint in the flower stems and leaves on my non-accent nails. For this, I used the following greens; Barry M 'Key Lime' (lime green), Barry M 'Spring Green' (grass green) and China Glaze 'Highlight Of My Summer' (pastel neon green). On my accent nails, I used KBShimmer 'Happily E...

Good Afternoon! In my last post, I mentioned how much I enjoy a floral manicure :) Well get ready for a floral party!! With Spring finally here, I've been inspired by all sorts of budding flowers including tulips, hyacinth and daffodils. I love the combination of colours in these images; bright yellows, dusky purples, soft whites and cool greens. So fresh and clean! Thanks for reading! Kayleigh :)