The Christmas Edition // Look Fantastic Beauty Box December 2018 Nails

I had a lot of fun translating this months box into a nail art design; it just screams "Christmas" and has made the perfect Christmas party nails. This was my first time using a dotting tool as well. I've had them for a while but been scared to use them.

The design of the box also has this matte and shiny striped background and for the life of me I just couldn't get the red right. Roses are Red is close however it's kind of hard to see the difference between the matte and shiny sections like on the box. 

Also, out of the thousand stamping plates I have, one of them doesn't contain the outline of a square...honestly. Looks like I need to buy some more then....I ended up creating some decals which I'll explain later on.

I started out with one coat of Roses are Red and then applied a quick dry top coat. I followed it up with the Barry M Matte top coat and let it dry for around 5 minutes. Then I used the BP-L061 plate with the same polish to create the striped background. 

Using a small dotting tool and the gold stamping polish I created dots on all fingers except the middle and ring finger. On some silicone mats I applied a layer of top coat, then stamped on a red square using the same colour polish. I then applied a layer of gold, another layer of top coat and peeled it off the mat. I cut it out to the desired size so there was just a neat gold outline and stuck it on my nails. I did it this way because when peeled off the mat, the bottom side is always matte and I needed the squares to be matte without applying another layer of matte top coat (as I needed the shiny parts of my nails to stay shiny). 

When making decals, you need to leave them for a good 15 minutes to harden up otherwise they'll be to malleable and you won't be able to do much without leaving fingerprints or ripping them. Don't leave them on to long though or they'll just flake off in bits.

I then stamped on the L and F using the Typography 04 plate and used the dotting tools around the image in the same style as on the box. 

I can't believe I only used two polishes for this look though! Or well, 2 polishes not including top coats...who knew top coat could be so important for nail art!

Stay tuned for some beauty box nail art as I've got both the Birchbox Advent calendar and beauty box planned as well as some other Christmas looks. I've got an assignment due on the 18th though so that's why I haven't been posting as much. 

Polishes/Tools Used:

- Avon Gel Shine // Roses are Red (red)

- Born Pretty Stamping Polish // #1 (gold)

- Revlon // Quick Dry Top Coat

- Revlon Colorstay // Diamond Top Coat 

- Barry M // Matte Top Coat

- MoYou London Stamping Plate // Typography 04

- MoYou London Stamping Plate // Holy Shapes 20
- Born Pretty Stamping Plate // BP-L061

Ciaté Mini Mani Month 2018 // Days 1 - 7

Ok, the first 7 days of the Ciaté Mini Mani Month are over (already??) and I'm here to do a quick round-up of the week. You can check out the first 7 days of the 2013 version here and you'll see that they really stepped their game up over the years because every single shade this week is just beautiful. We got 3 amazing shimmers, 3 pigmented creme's and 1 shiny top coat. Lets get straight into them.

Day 1 - Cyclone // Purple shimmer with green/gold shift

Formula - Gelology

Inside the bottle this looks stunning and I couldn't wait to get it on my nails. After two coats I kind of feel it looks like a bruise however dat shift tho. I found it a little hard to capture the shift but I'm so glad I finally have this shade in my collection because I've been staring at it on the Ciaté website for many months now.

Day 2 - Hoopla // Bright Coral Pink Creme

Formula - Paint Pot

Look at that shade! So bright, so pink, so spring! This shade is the perfect cross between peach, pink and coral and it's bright but not neon. I love this shade, I have a feeling it will be a staple in my spring looks next year. I'm wearing two coats and it's a little thin in some places however if you apply it properly, only two coats will be needed.

Day 3 - Prima Ballerina // Muted Grey Beige Creme

Formula - Paint Pot

At first I thought this was exactly the same as the OPI shade I just received in the November Mani & Lola however, you can see that it's just ever so slightly different as Berlin There Done That has more of a purple undertone and is a little warmer but in the bottle they look identical. I love both these shades though and they're perfect for scarf looks (as seen here). I'm wearing 1 coat in the photo and if applied thinly will need two, but one thick coat does the trick nicely.

Day 4 - Purple Rain // Scattered Purple Shimmer

Formula - Gelology

This is more of a top coat than a polish to be worn on it's own. I'm wearing 4 coats in the photo and you can still see my nail tips peeking through. It is a beautiful topper though with an icy pink shift. It also has specks of red and blue in there which you can see under a light however my camera was just refusing to pick up them up. 

Day 5 - Gelology Top Coat

This is a great top coat. It's super shiny and thick but not to be used with stamping polishes because it smears them instantly. However this is perfect for smoothing out glitter polishes and dries pretty quick. It does have a weird smell but I can deal with it. I just wish the brush picked up more product.

Day 6 - Iced Frappe // Dusty Pink/Nude Creme

Formula - Gelology

I've actually owned this shade for several years but in the Paint Pot formula. I got it in a glossybox many moons ago and since then it's been one of my go to nude pinks. I much prefer the gelology formula though; it's just so thick and shiny. I'm wearing 1 coat and whereas it can sometimes drag if you've not got enough on the brush, I find it very easy to apply. 

Day 7 - Golden Hour // Rose Gold Shimmer

Formula - Gelology

And the last shade this week is the amazing Golden Hour which has become my favourite rose gold shades. I've been using this quite a bit over the last couple of weeks (I may have opened this calendar a bit early....) as a stamping polish and you can see here that it stamps beautifully. This is one I would definitely buy full size.

And that's the first week down! First impressions of the new Gelology range is; I want more! That said they seemed to have vastly improved their Paint Pot formula as these peform so much better than other Ciaté polishes I own. or it could just be because their new and my bottles are getting on quite a bit now. Either way, the mini bottles are super adorable and the shade range is everything you would expect from a Christmas Calendar with a nice balance of shimmers to creme's. Roll on next week!

Days 8-14
Days 15 - 21
Days 22 - 24

Three Nail Polish Removers #1 // Beauty Outlet & Wilko

Since becoming obsessed with doing my nails I'm reading more and more articles about caring for your nails. In the old days I just used to think polish remover was well polish remover and there wasn't any difference between them. I thought it smelled horrible and left my nails looking white and dry. However, since then I've learnt that removers differ vastly and I'm now on the search for the best remover. 

Beauty Outlet // Gel Polish Remover (150ml - £1.49)

I bought this after trying to do clean up with standard nail polish remover that I bought around 10 years ago. As you can tell I never used to do my nails that regularly (like once every 3 months) and so remover would last me years. However, since I've started doing nail art, I've gone through a 150ml in just under two months. 

This is blazingly fast as a clean up remover and allows you to create sharp lines. It evaporates almost instantly and leaves the skin feeling ice cold. Because of how powerful it is though I found that it would often mess up the polish (especially since I always wear a peel off base coat) and cause it to bunch up and lift prematurely. I try to avoid using it to remove my polish completely though because it's extremely drying and the skin looks white after using it. The scent is quite strong but not as bad as others. I would probably re-purchase this as back up for when I have nothing else but after trying others it isn't my favourite.

Beauty Outlet // Acetone Free Remover (150ml - £1)

This I want to throw in the bin because it's absolutely useless. It can't remove regular creme polish for shit so forget about glitter, no matter how long you leave it on. I've only used this a couple of times before I realised acetone-free remover is a gimmick and should never be used. Forget about clean up, you'll be there for eternity swiping your nails and afterwards you'll be left with dry skin. In the unlikely event it does manage to remove something, the nails are left dry and flaky. I would pour this down the drain but I'm scared the drains will forever smell of this horrid product.

Wilko // "Lift Off" Nail Polish Remover (250ml - £1)

The last remover did not smell great but winner of the unholy nail polish remover scent goes to this thing. With the gel remover running out quickly and the acetone free being useless, I picked this one up whilst doing a quick shop. I was lured in by the "fast acting formula" claim and the "lift-off" slogan. I thought this would solve my problems as it contains vitamins and glycerine as well as being predominately acetone; boy was I wrong. I hate this stuff; it smells god awful. No amount of ventilation will save you; the scent will follow you to the ends of the earth and after all that it will maybe remove some polish. But your nails will be left white and dry and they'll stink for ages. Clean up is a joke with this stuff so like the acetone free it's now languishing on my shelf as I'm unsure of what to do with them. 

And that's it for this post. Look out for another one next month as I have a few more that I've been trialling; one of which I think is a keeper and only £2.50!

Christmas Doilies // Clairestelle8Christmas 2018 Challenge #1

My very first Christmas nail art look! And my very first challenge entry as well. I see the challenges a lot on instagram but I'm always to scared to take part (and I have too many assignments...I should not be doing my nails yet here I am...) but I've taken the plunge because why not?

The entry was for the 2nd of December so I'm a day late posting it (whoops!) and the theme was Icicles or Snowflakes. Inspired by the new Crystal plates I got from MoYou and the polishes from my very first Meebox (post coming soon) I came up with this! 

It is supposed to be icicles and snowflakes of course but I couldn't resist throwing some of that basic rose gold in there. Because of the shades though these nails do remind me more of my grandma's doilies than winter but I just love pastel shades so much.

I started out with 3 layers of Crush in Lake Como (which is the perfect sheer pink), and 2 layers of Lake and then slathered on some matte top coat; followed by some rose gold art using Golden Hour and Crystal Plates 01 & 03. I then used a combination of Crystal 3 and BP-01 for the snowflakes.

Is it the best Christmas look ever created? Probably not but it's pink and rose gold. I should do some marble nails with a Christmas tree and have myself a very basic Christmas....

Polishes/Tools Used:

- Cuccio Colour // Crush in Lake Como (sheer pastel pink)

- Zoya // Lake (mint creme)

- Barry M // Matte Top Coat

- Ciaté Gelology // Golden Hour (rose gold shimmer)

- Born Pretty Stamping Polish // #4 (white)

- MoYou London Stamping Plate // Crystal 01 & 03

- Born Pretty Stamping Plate // BP-01

Ciaté Mini Mani Month 2013 // Days 1 - 7

It's time to kick off the festive season with a throwback calendar from 2013!

Day 1 - Snow Globe // Clear Polish with Flakies

Finally! I finally have a polish with flakies because now I can do MATTE FLAKIES. Matte Flakies are the best kind of flakies but most high-street nail polish brands don't do flaky polishes all that often so thank you Ciaté! That said, the flakies are sparse and will need to be sponged on for better effect. They also tend to stick out and no amount of top coat will smooth them down. They're nice for a little something extra though.

Day 2 - Boudoir // Red Creme

A pinkish bright red almost bordering on raspberry. You definitely need two coats of this one but it's nice and bright. I don't really wear red shades on their own but this will be perfect for ombre's and what not. This looks a lot darker than it is in photos but this thing is almost neon. It's not for me and it stained the nail fold liek nothing else. Clean up took quite a while with this polish. If you love bright reds though, this is the brightest red. 

Day 3 - Hopscotch // Orange Creme

Oh why didn't I get this in time for Halloween?? Oh well, there's always next year. This is a beautiful true orange shade that will work in the summer though so not all is lost. It's quite pigmented as well and one coat almost does the trick. You can definitely get away with one coat though if you don't look too closely. In the photos it looks a lot more red but trust me this is an orange shade; a hot one at that. I might try and use this for stamping as well.

Day 4 - Miss Mistletoe // Sequins

This is a mini pot of red, gold and pink sequins. I was a little shocked at first when I took the lid off and saw no brush; I thought it was broken! It was very handy of Ciaté though to include a little funnel with the calendar. The glitter pieces are a hexagonal shape and quite large so if you had the patience you could do a nice Christmas style glitter look by placing each piece individually. However, I don't have the patience (or well I didn't the day I did this) so I just tried to place as many as I could on before the top coat dried. Not gonna lie, not my favourite tub of glitter.

Day 5 - Encore! // Dark Orange Creme

This is almost a direct mixture of Boudoir and Hopscotch. It needs two coats and is much thicker in consistency. It also hasn't photographed correctly either as this is definitely more of a burgundy shade. I do like this much more than Boudoir though as it's no where near as neon bright. If I had to wear a red this is more my style.

Day 6 - Sugar Plum // Sheer Lilac Creme

My favourite shade so far! This is my kind of colour for a polish. It's a delicate pastel lilac that's sheer; not streaky. I adore this shade. Due to it's cool undertone it's perfect for winter and spring and think it would be perfect as a background colour for a cherry blossom look. You do need around 3 coats though but this is a shade I would probably buy full size.

Day 7 - Fit For a Queen // Linear Silver Glitter

And ending the week's polish is this silver polish. This is practically identical to the one I got in November's Mani & Lola only it needs more layers to achieve full opacity. This is definitely not a shade I would wear on it's own as it's not my thing but is more useful for details and stamping.

And that's it for this week, stay tuned for the others!