Smouldering Embers Manicure

Hello!

Both Halloween and Bonfire Night are coming up, and I had an idea for a glitter manicure to encompass the two. I call it smouldering embers!

My base polish was Black Tie by Jade, a sparkling opaque black jelly. I then sponged on a gradient of Love Letter by Ciaté, an orange-tinted pink glitter, using a normal washing up sponge. I used two coats of Sèche Vite to make the mani nice and glossy.

I hope the idea comes across!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Ciaté ~ Love Letters

Hello!

Welcome to my first scheduled post! From now on you'll see regular Geordie Nails posts on Monday and Wednesday lunchtimes, with bonus posts if I've been doing a lot of manis. Hopefully this will give a bit more structure to the blog without being restrictive. Thanks so much to those of you who commented and gave me valuable feedback ^_^

Today's manicure shows off another of my glitter purchases from TKMaxx last week! Love Letters by Ciaté is a very warm-coloured glitter, pink with a duochrome flash of orange. It consists of very fine glitter with larger pieces mixed in. Disappointingly it doesn't quite give full coverage so I had to apply two coats over a base of pink polish (Vivacious by MeMeMe). Here it is...

I really love the look of this mani; the duochrome gives it an extra dimension and the result is warm and romantic like its name. I only wish it gave better coverage on its own!

See you on Wednesday!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Feather Manicure

Hello!

During my last outing to Newcastle I popped into TK Maxx, and found a Ciaté Feather Manicure kit for £2.99! Since the RRP is £20.00 that is a bargain I could not say no to. The kit includes an envelope packed with different coloured feathers, nail scissors, a full-sized top coat, a mini nail polish, nail file blocks and instructions. Again, for £2.99!!!

My first attempt was not successful at all - I ended up with a mess of feathers whose colours didn't show properly over my choice of neon pink nail polish. But today I used them as two accent nails paired with another new polish purchase, the sheer Ballet Slippers by Essie, and got a better result!

I am a lot happier this time!

Once applied, the feathers lie nice and smooth on your nails - a few layers of top coat helps! And I'm sure the feathers would look even nicer if you had longer nails to show off more of the feather. As for the Essie polish, I love a French polish and this one is lovely and sweet.

I'm going to have to keep going into town if TK Maxx are stocking bargains like this!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Instagram Inspiration ~ Roses

Hello!

I love using Instagram, both to post my own nails and to get inspired by other girls' beautiful designs. This week two users served as my inspiration for a hand-painted rose manicure - go visit ipaintnails_ and juliajor and you will see why! I've also posted photos of their inspiring rose manis further down this post ^_^

For my own manicure I did two accent nails of rose pattern, with the rest of my nails painted in Ciaté's Sweet Pea. To make the roses I took three shades of pink; I started by dotting the darkest pink on with a dotting tool, then I used a nail art brush to add highlights of the lighter pinks. Top coat sealed the nail art and glossed up my green nails.

I never normally would have tried this because my freehand nail art is terrible. However, Rachel and Julia's nails looked so pretty that I got brave and did it! My roses are nowhere near as refined as theirs (see below) but I loved wearing this mani.

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Autumn Leaves Manicure

Hello!

I was still in the Autumn mood for this manicure (seriously, it's so chilly!) so I dug out a Bundle Monster plate with a leaf design, BM04. For my base I painted Ciaté's Cookies & Cream and then I basically used a few different golds, silvers and bronzes to stamp crisp fallen leaves over my nails.

I'm sorry for the slightly rubbish photos today! The second pic better shows the leaf detail even if the lighting is awful.

Hugs,

Lisa xx