Chevron Nails - GOT Polish Challenge

The prompt for the challenge is Chevron Nails - which I love. I had planned to do the design with tape - but you know how some of those tape manicures end up - not very well! So I had to start over and then I decided to stamp the chevron image from my Bundle Monster Create Your Own Set. The chevron image in this set is one of the images I got the set for, and I haven't used it before this - so I was glad of that chance.

The polishes I used for this manicure are Barry M Gellys in Pomegranate and Plum. Plum is a beautiful dark purple cream - though it appears almost black here. The chevron image is from the plate, BM-423, stamped with Essie No Place Like Chrome. The ring finger is painted with one coat of Essie No Place Like Chrome, topped with two coats of Barry M "Boots Ltd Ed" silver glitter.

Tri Polish Tuesday - Dotted Half Moons

I think it is a bit of a challenge to incorporate both grey and brown in a manicure at the same time - the pink helps though! Since one manicure in the month needs to use all three colours at once, here is my attempt with grey, brown and pink for the February part of the challenge ...

I started with a base of Color Club Silver Lake, a light grey polish. I used paper hole re-inforcers to mark out the half moons and painted the rest of the nail with OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips. Then I used a double ended dotting tool to add the dots with Sally Hansen Insta Dri Coco a-go-go.

Valentine's Day Nails - GOT Polish Challenge

I am late with my Challenge Valentine's Day manicure but here it is at last.
I haven't really done much for Valentine's Day in the last few years. But this year we did make an effort and I have to say, that it was really nice! It made me realise that if you have another day (other than anniversaries and birthdays) to have a nice meal and spend some quality time with your loved one, surely that is not a bad thing! What do you think?

Anyway, on to the nails ... For this manicure, I did a holographic gradient on four nails with China Glaze Holographic Astro-Hot and Infra Red. The ring finger is painted with Infra Red. These China Glaze Holographic polishes do not have a very strong holographic effect but they still look very pretty. The stamping images are from the Pueen Love Elements Set, Pueen 29 and Pueen 34. The stamping polish is Essie No Place Like Chrome.

Neon Hearts French Manicure

The Valentine's Day theme continues with a Neon Hearts & coloured French Tips manicure. I got these cute neon heart rhinestones off eBay and I thought they would go beautifully with my Neon Pink polish. Since its such a bright pop of colour, I thought it would look good as a heart shaped French manicure tip to mirror the shape of the rhinestone. I don't do this type of a manicure often but I love this look!

The nails are painted with OPI Don't Touch My Tutu! I did the tips with Kleancolor Neon Pink. I outlined the heart shaped tips with a small, thin striper brush and then filled it in with polish. Then on three fingers, I dotted the outline with Kleancolor Neon Amethyst. And on the thumb and ring finger, I added the heart rhinestones with top coat.

Gold Hearts on Red

Since Valentine's Day is almost here, I think its an excellent time to try out all those hearts images that I don't use as much throughout the year.  The image I chose for this manicure is from Konad M93. This Konad plate is one of their more recently released ones, which has larger images and they stamp great as always.
The gorgeous red polish is Layla Ceramic Effect 53 Killing Red. Although the gold flakies in this polish make it really beautiful and its gorgeous to wear on its own, I don't think I have been able to capture them that well in my pictures, unfortunately. They peek through quite prettily in between the stamping.

I stamped the hearts with Essie Good as Gold. And added the gold rhinestone on to the ring finger. I finished with a coat of Seche Vite.

Got Polish Challenge - Dotted Blossoms Nail Art

The prompt for my Golden Oldie Thursday Challenge is Green. I loved the cherry blossom stamping nail art that I have done in the past so much (here & here), that I wanted to do that again for this. But instead of stamping the image on, I thought I would try a simple little free hand this time. So here are my blossom laden branches!

The green polish is Barry M Greenberry. The branches are done with Barry M Black. The dotted flowers have been done with the polish Bourjois 10 Days No Chips No. 15.

Tri-Polish Tuesday - Pink Hearts & Lace

The colours for the Tri-Polish Challenge for February are Grey, Brown and Pink. My stamping manicure today uses two of these colours. And since its getting close to Valentine's Day, I thought I would go for an image with lace and hearts!

The grey base polish is Color Club Silver Lake - its a very light, almost white grey - although there is really no silver in it, as the name might suggest. It does look grey in the bottle, although it appears almost white when you apply it - its a good base for nail art, if you don't want a stark white. The stamped image is from Pueen 27 and the stamping polish is China Glaze Holographic Infra Red. The Infra Red is more fuchsia than red and stamps pink - it does not have a strong holo but its good for stamping.

Models Own HyperGel - Swatches, Review & Stamping

(A word of warning - Very long and photo heavy post!)

All Models Own Products on their website are on a half off offer until the 4th of February 2014, to celebrate their Facebook page reaching 250,000 Likes. This includes their yet to be launched Hypergel Nail Polish range. This range will be launched in stores by mid-February. This is how Models Own describe their Hypergel range - "HyperGel! 10 brand-new mega-shine shades that are highly pigmented, long-lasting and chip resistant. Enriched with lotus flower oil, the gel-like finish gives the professional shine of a salon manicure. The collection is completed with limited edition colour caps, topped off with colour-matched high-shine swatches on the lids that reflect the gel effect finish of the polish so you can select the perfect shades!"

Delivery was extremely quick for me and came bubble-wrapped in a pretty box - I got it within one day of ordering. I have swatches and reviews for six of these new shades. And I also tried stamping with them to see how they performed. I have to add here that this is the first time that I have swatched so many polishes. Its only when you do it yourself, do you realise how difficult it is to take colour accurate pictures of the swatches! It made me appreciate even more how much great work some of the bloggers put in with their beautiful nail polish swatches!
The range is quite similar to the Barry M Gellys, in my opinion. The colours are gorgeous and the formula is good and easy to work with. The formula is generally thick but it does vary from colour to colour - some are thicker than the others. The thick ones are good one-coaters. But I think for the thinner ones, two thin coats give good results. All the polishes are super shiny and glossy and I loved all the colours I got. All my swatches are two coats without a topcoat, other then the stamped manicure, where I used top coat.