Pretty Poppet: Review and Swatch

Last week I picked up the Ciaté Dolls House Collection in TKMaxx for the bargain price of £6.99.

I was super excited about these and wanted to try out these polishes straight away, so I started with a nice, simple mani using Poppet, a pastel lilac shape.

I love the colour of this polish. It is a pale lilac, so pastel it could almost be mistaken for white in certain lights. 

This polish is advertised as a 'porcelain finish'. Basically, it's matte. I love matte polishes, however this dries so fast that is makes application difficult as the polish has dried onto the brush before you manage to cover the whole nail. This means you have to use a really thick coat to ensure the polish doesn't dry too quickly, which then leads to a slightly streaky finish. Kind of a lose, lose situation!

I also found that this polish chipped so easily. On my left hand I wore the mani without topcoat and on my right hand I added my favourite super shiny Essence topcoat.

Considering my right hand generally gets used a lot more, after a day the right hand was still perfect, however the left hand had huge chunks of polish missing. The polish on my index finger literally peeled off in one big sheet, about 3/4 of the way down my nail.

For most polishes this would not be a big deal, as I would usually wear topcoat anyway. But what is the point in having that lovely Porcelain finish, if I then have to cover it in topcoat to make my mani last more than a few hours?!

Overall, I was not impressed with this polish at all. I love how it looks but the poor application and lasting power really let it down. I really hope the others in the collection are a bit better and this was just a bad bottle!

I was however really impressed with the studs I added. This were a bargain from Poundland. I used a blob of a cheap No.17 clear topcoat on the bottoms of them and stuck them in place with tweezers. I wore this mani for two days and managed not to lose a single stud, even on the hand without topcoat! :)

Poetry Nail Art: Winnie the Pooh

The Llama Nails challenge is nearly over, this is penultimate prompt! What am I going to paint on my nails when it ends!?

Anyway, this weeks prompt is Poetry.
The first poem which came to mind when I saw this was the 'Tiddely-Pom' poem from Winnie the Pooh! You can tell I spend too much time with children, haha! I have included the poem at the bottom, just in case anybody has no idea what I'm talking about!

I tried to represent the snow by doing a glitter gradient on my index and little fingers and using a flakie on all four nails. I painted Piglet and Pooh walking through the snow on the middle and ring fingers.

 I love this mani so much, piglet came out exactly how I planned. Pooh isn't bad either, although he is looking a little slim!!

I used all Ciaté polishes for this. Sweet Pea and Paper Doll from the Dolls House Collection, as well as Snow Globe and Confetti. Pooh and Piglet were painted with Black acrylic paint.

This is the image I based it on:

      The more it snows 
      (Tiddely pom), 
      The more it goes 
      (Tiddely pom), 
      The more it goes 
      (Tiddely pom) 
      On snowing. 
      And nobody knows 
      (Tiddely pom), 
      How cold my toes 
      (Tiddely pom), 
      How cold my toes 
      (Tiddely pom), 
      Are growing. 

Check out the other entries to the challenge:

An InLinkz Link-up

Mythology Nail Art

This weeks llama nails prompt is Mythology movies/films.

I have to admit, my mani this week is a bit lame. I've been feeling ill all week and haven't been bothered to paint my nails. Usually I paint them three times over the weekend, and I've done them once!

I loosely based this weeks mani on the film Hercules, painting Pegasus on my ring finger.

The nose went a little wrong, but I'm reasonably happy with how it turned out.

The base is Ciaté Poppet, with Pegasus painted in acrylic paint. I bought the Ciaté Dolls House collection earlier today for a bargain £6.99 in TkMaxx and I love it! The porcelain finish is beautiful. Watch out for swatches later in the week, when I'm hopefully feeling a bit better. 

An InLinkz Link-up

Watermarble Nail Art Tutorial

This week I have created some watermarble nail art. 

Over the past few weeks a lot of my non-nailie friends have been sharing pictures of watermarble nails on Facebook, so I thought I would create a tutorial to show them how to do it! :)

The polishes I used were Essence, That's What I Mint!, OPI Kiss Me I'm Brazilian and OPI Where Did Suzi's Man-Go?

Here is a pictorial. See below for step by step instructions to go with it!

1. First paint the nails you intend to watermarble onto in a light colour: white or nude are good options.

2. Now, gather together everything you will need. Water, polishes (open the lids), cocktail sticks, Vaseline, kitchen roll.

Some people recommend filtered water, however I just use tap water. I do let it sit for about an hour beforehand though, to ensure it is room temperature otherwise the polish will dry too quickly.

3. Cover your cuticles and the backs of your fingers in Vaseline. This makes cleaning up afterwards so much easier! Careful not to get it on your nails though.

4. Now you are ready to start. Drip your polish into the water and allow it to spread.

5. Working quickly add drops of your other chosen polishes into the centre.

6. Once you have plenty of polish in there take a cocktail stick and move the polish around to create a pattern.

7. When you are happy with the pattern you have created dip your fingers in, nails down and leave them in the water. Use a cocktail stick to gather up any leftover polish floating on the water, otherwise this will ruin your mani when you remove your fingers.

8. Take the fingers out of the water. Ta Da! You have a beautiful watermarble design. Don't be tempted to dry your fingers yet, allow them to air dry or you risk smudging your marble.

9. The excess polish on your fingers should wipe away easily with kitchen roll, because you used the Vaseline. More accurate clean up can be done around the cuticles with acetone and a small angled paintbrush.

10. Now all thats left to do is paint the rest of your nails and topcoat. I like to use one of the polishes I used for the marble, to keep it matchy!

I hope this has helped.

Try it yourself!

Fairytale: The Swan Princess

For the Fairytale theme of this weeks Llama Nails Challenge I already posted my Ella nails. However, I had forgotten that I painted these last weekend for this theme!

The Swan Princess was one of my favourite films as a child. In fact, I still have the VHS but am unable to play it!

I'm afraid this mani is a bit of a nail fail! I contemplated just ignoring the fact that this had ever existed as I don't really like it!

Although I am quite pleased with my sunrise, the swan looks more like a goose due to having too short a neck!

The other two nails I did in a super sparkly silver holo, which is not captured well on these photo's. This was supposed to represent this princess-ness, however I feel it just doesn't go with the other nails.

The holo polish is by Wonderful and Strange Nail Lacquer and is amazing! The background for the other nails was Jess Polish, Calypso. On my middle finger I created a gradient with this and an orange Missguided polish. I then painted the sun with Sally Hansen Sugar Coat in Sweetie.

The swan/goose was painted with Barry M Matte White.

Fairytale Nails: Ella

This weeks theme is Fairytale. Of course, I could have just continued down the Disney route, however I wanted to do something a little less obvious.

These nails are based on a book I read to my class at school called Ella. Ella is a ladybird, who lives in Paris. She has two evil wasp stepsisters and she attends a ball, where she loses her glasses. The handsome spider who is holding the ball invites bugs to try on the glasses in an attempt to find her.

Yea, basically its a modern version of the classic fairytale Cinderella, with bugs!

I used Barry M Matte White as a base colour on most fingers, with Rimmel Red, Steady, Go! on my index finger. I then used Barry M Black for the dots. The flowers were done using Rimmel Cupcake Pink, Rimmel Space Dust in Luna Love and an old Limited Edition Barry M Pink, which I don't know the name of! The Eiffel Tower was stamped with a Born Pretty Store stamping plate and a dark silver No.17 polish. All finished off with my favourite topcoat, Essence Quick Dry.

An InLinkz Link-up

Review: Wonderful and Strange Nail Lacquer

A few weeks ago now a page called Wonderful and Strange Nails liked a photo of mine on Instagram (@nailsmustbepainted). I visited their IG (@wonderfulandstrangenails) and realised they made Indie Polishes.

At the time I had been considering buying some indies for a while. However, there is not a huge number of indie polish brands in the UK and I was struggling to find one selling polishes I loved.

Not anymore! Straight away I knew I was going to love the brand, so I visited their website and soon bought two polishes to try out! Doll Parts and Neon Nude.

This is Doll Parts. A beautiful pale blue base with neon pink, dark blue and white glitter pieces.

I am so in love with this polish! Apparently the name is very relevant too... I showed this to my bf, who didn't know the name of the polish and he said it made him think of children's toys!

I applied four thin coats of polish for opacity, although one coat would look great layered over a white or pastel blue polish. The glitter pieces spread themselves out nicely, without too much persuasion!!

Next up is Neon Nude:

The colours of this polish are pretty amazing too! It is a slightly off white/cream base colour with neon green, yellow and orange glitter pieces. 

 I have to admit, after using Doll Parts first I had high expectations for this polish.

Although I still really like it, I was slightly disappointed in comparison. This polish was much thinner than Doll Parts. The pictures were taken after 4 coats and you can see it is still not fully opaque. This polish was also a little bit more difficult to apply, with a patchy finish.

However, I love the glitter and will definitely still wear this polish, I will just be sure to wear a white/nude base underneath next time!

Overall, I was very impressed with these polishes, especially considering they were only £3 each.

Delivery was speedy and they arrived in a super cute packaging which brightened my day! :)

I have to tell you, I have already bought another polish from this brand as I was so impressed, so keep an eye out for swatches of that soon. I'm waiting for a sunny day as it's a super glittery holo!

Now, everybody go check out my new favourite polish brand here! :D

Liebster Award

Hello!
Today I have been nominated for a Liebster Award by Emily from Nailsxo.

Here are the rules:

1. You must link back to the person who nominated you

2. Answer the 11 questions asked by that person

3. Tell us 11 random facts about yourself

4. Choose 11 bloggers to nominate for a Liebster Award

5. Post 11 questions for those nominated to answer

Here are the questions Emily asked:

1. What’s your favourite animal?

My little hamster, Simba! :)
2. What is your favourite nail polish brand?

This is constantly changing, at the moment probably Sinful Colors.
3. Is there anything you dislike about blogging?

The time it takes! Taking photo's, editing photo's, writing posts!
4. What do you do to make sure you have time for your blog in the busy lives we all lead?

Do lots of mani's over the weekend and try to pre-schedule posts.
5. Which is your favourite social network for posting your work & interacting with other bloggers?

Instagram... so quick and easy. @nailsmustbepainted
6. Do you have any other hobbies outside of your blog?

I'm a teacher so I don't have much time for hobbies! Occasionally running.
7. What’s your favourite food?

Chocolate!
8. What manicure are you currently wearing?

Pink watermarble - excuse the bad quality picture from my phone!

9. Do you plan which manicures you want to do, or sit down and decide at the time?

I sometimes try to plan but usually change my mind when it comes to it, so I just do what I feel like!
10. Do you watch any T.V. series? If so, which is your favourite?

Educating the East End.
11. What’s your favourite film?

Not sure I could choose just one favourite! Frozen and Little Mermaid are both up there!

11 random facts about me...

1. I was born with teeth!

2. I am very short, 5 foot 1.

3. I love anything creative - painting, drawing, sewing, photography.

4. I have a degree in Educational Psychology.

5. I am a major Disney addict.

6. My car is bright yellow.

7. I like to be busy. I get bored so easily!

8. I come from Yorkshire.

9. But currently live in Southampton.

10. Floral is my style!

11. I taught at a school in Kenya earlier this year. There were 72 children in my class!!

Now I have to try to think of 11 people to nominate. I don't know many nailie people so I have tried to pick blogs/instagram accounts I love!
1. Nail Parade! 

2. Pound Store Manicure

3. Elanor's Nails

4. Mama Hearts Polish

5. The Sparkle Queen

6. Life In Lacquer

7. Roz's Nail-scapades

8. Vicky Loves Nails

9. Tipped off Nails

10. Fixin to Faff

11. Light of the Moon Nails

My Questions...

1. What is your all time favourite polish?

2. Where do you get most of your inspiration?

3. What is your favourite indie polish?

4. What is your favourite pattern?

5. What is your favourite song?

6. What is the most interesting place you have travelled to?

7. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?

8. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

9. What is your favourite Disney film?

10. Do you have any pets?

11. What colour do you wear on your nails most often?

Phew... longest post ever!! Hope you will all join in the fun. :)

Disney: Ratatouille Nail Art

And I've done another Disney!
Can you tell I love Disney?! Haha!

This time I went for a less common Disney film though... Ratatouille.

I really like the colours of this mani.

I used Revlon Blue Lagoon as a base colour. On my ring finger I did the Saran Wrap method with Blue Lagoon and Sinful Colors Cool Gray. This was followed by a coat of Grey Holo by Wonderful and Strange Polish, which I also used on my little finger (3 thick coats, no base).

I painted Remy the Rat using acrylic paints and the Eiffel Tower was stamped using a No17 unnamed dark metallic grey and a BornPretty stamping plate.

An InLinkz Link-up

Disney Nails: Minnie Mouse

This weeks Llama Nails theme is Disney.
Disney is my all time favourite film genre!! I know, I'm sad!

 I have chosen to paint Minnie Mouse on my nails today. Though I have to admit I have another  Disney mani coming tomorrow!
I know she doesn't feature in many Disney films nowadays, but in the past she has been in lots!

I used Essence Do You Speak Love? for the ring finger, thumb and the dots, Ciaté Amazing Gracie for the middle and pinky fingers and an unnamed nude Revlon for the index finger, with details painted using Barry M Black.

I really like these. Themed, without being too much for a change!!

An InLinkz Link-up