Nails Inc Aspen with Ciate Enchanted Rose

Another bright mani to show you tonight. I've gone back to brighter colours for some reason...

This is Nails Inc Aspen with an accent nail (ring finger) of Ciate Enchanted Rose, which was a limited edition colour for the Mini Mani Month calendar. I love Aspen, and it looks even nicer with a sparkly nail!

Nails Inc and Ciate are available at QVC HERE.

Two coats of Aspen, and two of Enchanted Rose, under Seche Vite topcoat. My basecoat at the moment is still Essie Trillionails, because I love it.

Do you like red polish?

Ciate Mini Mani Month in Power Dressing 063

Happy New Year everyone! As always, I prefer to spend my New Year's Eve at home with my husband (I'm the most boring person...) What did you do?


Today's blog is to show you Ciate's Power Dressing 063. I really like this one. It's a very dark, inky blue. At first I was worried that it would just look black but it's lovely in the light. This is two coats with Seche Vite topcoat.

I've been using a lot of dark polishes recently. I guess it's because it's winter, they just suit.


Do you prefer bright summery polish, or dark, vampy winter polish?

Ciate Mini Mani Month in Twilight 072

Tonight I've got yet another Ciate Mini Mani Month polish to show you. This is Twilight 072. It's a dark creme full of gold sparkles. I'm ignoring the obvious vampire based comparisons, because that's just not my thing, but I wonder if that was what Ciate were thinking of. Either way, very nice polish. This is two coats. It's not too bad to paint with, but as with all dark polish, you need to be really careful.

Ooh, free Kindle shot. I didn't notice that.

What do you think of Twilight?

Ciate Mini Mani Month in

Another lovely colour from Ciate - This is Glass Slipper used as an accent nail, along with No7 Stay Perfect Sing the Blues. I couldn't face a whole 10 nails worth of glitter (it has to be very special for that!) so I went with an accent. This glitter is a bit thin for application on it's own but was fine in one coat over another polish.

Just enough sparkle :) This is two coats of Sing the Blues and Seche Vite (of which I desperately need a new bottle - mental note)

What do you think?

Ciate Mini Mani Month Vintage 018

Tonight I have another Ciate Mini Mani Month polish to show you. I really like this one! It's called Vintage.

Now, whilst I really like the colour, I didn't like the application much. Ciate is normally lovely, but this one was tricky. When Ciate call them 'Paint Pots', this is what they mean. Thick, emulsion like, gloop. Not self-levelling at all and it goes patchy straight away on the first coat. But I got there in the end!

What do you think? Is the colour worth the hassle of the horrible formula?

Ciate Mini Mani Month Cutie Pie 026

The polish that was behind the door of the Ciate Mini Mani Month calendar was one that begged to be stamped over!

It's been a while since I used any of my Konad stuff so here's what I came up with...

Cutie Pie is a very sheer cream. It's too sheer to wear on it's own, in my opinion, so I'm glad I stamped over it. This is Konad plate M71. I love the lace pattern, it's very pretty and striking.


What do you think?

Ciate Mini Mani Month Day 2 - Dangerous Affair and Day 5 - Cabaret

Just a quick one...I'm officially useless, I can't keep up with swatching every day!

So, here are days 2 and 5 of the Ciate Mini Mani Month!

The top picture is three coats of Dangerous Affair 013 - you know I love a classic red and this one is beautiful.

The second picture is three coats of Caberet 046, a fairly muted sort of purple. It's nice but not outstanding.

Both are with Seche Vite topcoat.


So I guess I need to amend my statement...I'll do my best to swatch the polishes as they come, but I'll probably end up doing the ones I like best ;)

Ciaté Mini Mani Month Day One!

Finally it's December! I got to open the first door of the Ciaté Mini Mani Month calendar that my husband bought me!


If you haven't seen it, the Mini Mani Month is an advent style calendar with mini nail polishes behind each door - what an amazing idea!

What's inside...

As you can see, today's door concealed a beautiful pink polish. This shade is called Cupcake Queen 011 and it's lovely. Fairly sheer, this polish took three coats to cover the nail line. It's pictured with a topcoat of Seche Vite. Lovely. I really lovely Ciate minis. The brush is not much different from a full size polish, and the Ciate formulas are so smooth.

I already can't wait for tomorrow! I can't promise that I'll swatch on time, but I'll do my best to show you the calendar each day!

Oh, and because I'm a spoilt girl, I was also lucky enough to purchase a Latest In Beauty advent calendar (you can still purchase it here) and look what I got in it this morning:

 

It's a little bottle of Mavala Rouge Rubis polish that's been made into a tree ornament! I love it! Christmas/holiday time should always be full of nail polish! I'm quite excited, because I've never tried a Mavala polish. It's a very holiday appropriate red glitter that I'm looking forward to wearing.

What do you think? Did you get a lovely advent calendar?

Nails Inc, Models Own - Lazy Blogger! Also, La Roche-Posay

Wow I've been rubbish at blogging recently! I'd like to say that I've been busy doing amazing things, but I can't think of any (unless you count making forts out of the incredible huge box our new bed came in, more of which later...)

Anyway, I'm back, and as usual I have a few different manis to show you!

Nails Inc Chalk Farm with Models Own Freak Out!

Nails Inc Henrietta Street

Exposed in Mystic with Nails Inc Electric Lane accent

Nails Inc Berkeley Square with Butter London The Black Knight tips

Oh...and me in the box ;)

So, there's a catchup of all the nails I've worn recently. I promise to try and be good and upload as I go. You'll be pleased to see that I've shared a picture of me in the box too. Seriously, it's better than the bed!


Also, recently I've been using La Roche-Posay skincare as my skin has a bad time every winter (I was designed for warmer climes, without doubt) and it's really very good. Just thought I'd mention in in case you happen to be reading and suffering from the same problems as me - oily forehead and dry cheeks are the issue. Also, some really painful spots. I've been using La Roche-Posay Effaclar Duo as well as their toner and Micellar water, and I've just ordered Effaclar K. So far, so good. My skin is calmer and smoother, and the spots have stopped flaring up. It's a big deal for me, as I have always had very good skin in the past, but now I've reached the grand age of 28, something has changed!


The recommendation came from Ruth Crilly at A Model Recommends, so I'm very thankful to her!


The only other thing I wanted to mention was that I'm very excited to start opening my Ciate Mini Mani Month calendar soon! I'll be blogging it as I go.


That's all for now - if anyone is interested in more details on the skincare, or the polish, just leave a comment below! Thanks for reading.

Exposed Déjà Vu, Barry M Aqua, W7 Cerise Pink, Nails Inc Piccadilly Circus, Ciaté Mini Mani Month

Two recent nail looks to show you tonight. The first is one that I wore a few days ago:

This is Exposed DéjàVu (2 coats) with Barry M Aqua Glitter as the accent nail. I really love this Barry M glitter. Oh, and Seche Vite topcoat of course. It reminds me of mermaids. It's also not too bad to remove! The Exposed polish is good too. They're about £2.99 but really very good for the price. 'Long lasting' is not something that bothers me particularly, I don't wear any one polish for more than 2-3 days, but range of colours and consistency is very important to me. Exposed are great.


Next are the nails I just did and am trying not to smudge as I type:

This is Nails Inc Piccadilly (1 coat!! One!) with 2 coats of w7 (I have never heard of this brand before) in Cerise Pink on top. (again, Seche Vite topcoat) The pictures really don't do this polish justice. It's a beautifully shimmery, sparkly jelly. Too thin for wearing on it's own (unless you love doing about 6 coats) but lovely for layering up. I love layering. People often ask me what the polish I'm wearing is called, and look a bit baffled when I tell them two or three names for what appears to be one colour, but I love making different combinations.


Anyway, what do you think? Pink or blue?


Oh! I almost forgot! My husband bought me the Ciaté Mini Mani Month advent calendar from Selfridges!!

You can just see it peeping through the lovely spotty paper! I can't wait until December to start opening it. I will be doing a mini blog post each day and swatching as much as I can!

The calendar is still in stock, priced at £38 plus p&p - buy it from Selfridges online HERE

Ciaté Mini Mani Month advent calendar

Ciaté Pom Pom

This is Ciaté Pom Pom and I love it! It's one of the extra items I received in my Selfridges Beauty Box. It's a bright, classic red which leans toward the orange side. The thing I like best about it is the application - it goes on like a dream, so smoothly. The picture is two coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

What I used:

• Essie Trillionails basecoat
• Ciaté Pom Pom (2 coats)
• Seche Vite topcoat

Beautiful, right? I've asked my husband for the Ciaté Mini Mani Month calendar set for Christmas/late birthday present...so I might have a few more of these lovely minis to use soon.

What do you think? Will you splash out £38 on the Calendar?