Red Silver Stamping (and Seche Vite review)

Again I have gone off track with the 31 Day Nail Challenge!  I just haven't found the right time to wear yellow nails!  Here are some red and silver nails for today!  I promise I will get back on track with the nail challenge soon!

I used:

Barry M - Raspberry

Barry M - Silver Foil

Seche Vite

BM213 

This is also the first time I have used Seche Vite before so here is a quick review.  I have seen a lot of the other nail art bloggers I follow use this for finishing off their designs so I thought I would give it a go after seeing all their good reviews about it.  It applies really easily and nicely without streaking the polish, I used it on the last coat of my plain red nails and the shine that it gave off is AMAZING!  I love the shine of it!  I find Barry M polishes chip and have tip wear extremely easily (within a few hours sometimes) but with the Seche Vite topcoat I have none so far (after dishes, ironing, showering, exercising in a day).  I am a huge fan of this :) recommended for extremely shiny hardwearing nails :)

I plan on posting here once a week from now on because now with my new job I am super busy all during the week :)

Hope you like this design!

Nails Inc - Sweets Way Swatch

Nails Inc recently released a Sprinkles collection of Nail Polish.  I saw a swatch of this somewhere and I knew I had to have it!  I love it!  It is a milky white nail polish with blue, white and pink glitter throughout it.  The swatches above are 3 coats and went on very easily.  No need to fish for glitter like some glitter varnishes :)  !  You can buy it on the nails inc website here.  This is one of my new favourite polishes!  I didn't want to take it off but I have so many new nail polishes (and stamps!) for my birthday to try out so I just had to put it on my toe nails!

The only thing I HATE with glitter is taking it off!  I have so much trouble with it but I found a great tutorial here with step by step instructions which worked perfectly and removed this so easily!  I even use acetone free nail polish remover and it worked brilliantly :)

I hope you like this swatch! 

OPI Thanks a Windmillion Swatch

OPI "Thanks a Windmillion"

Here is a swatch of the Holland collection called Thanks a Windmillion.  It is a gorgeous creamy dirty green colour.  I think it is VERY similar to Mermaid Tears.  Full coverage in two coats and I love the colour :)

Red lights ahead...where? Swatch

"Red lights ahead...where?"

This was the next colour of the OPI Dutch Treats mini's from the Holland Collection.  It is a bright red (with hints of orange but still quite red!).  Great coverage even after one coat and a lovely smooth formula.  I don't have a bright red in my collection and finally I do now!

This completes my OPI mini Dutch Treats swatches!  Overall I loved this little box collection.  Great to try out a selection of different colours :)

Kiss Me in my Tulips Swatch

''Kiss me in my Tulips"

This is the next OPI Dutch Treats mini's I did a swatch of.  It's called Kiss me in my Tulips and is a bright pink.  I only used one coat in the swatches above and it was pretty much opaque but two would give perfect coverage.  Very easy to apply and a nice formula.  I really love this colour, it's so girly!

What do you think of this collection?

OPI Dutch Treats Swatches

I bought the OPI Dutch Treats mini collection from the Holland Collection.  Here are the first two swatches I have reviewed. 

"Pedal Faster Suzi!" and "I Have a Herring Problem" were the colours used in this swatch!  I got impatient and didn't want to wait to do two separate swatches!  But these pictures show the true colours perfectly.  They are both gorgeous glittery polishes and both gave full coverage after three coats (Pedal Faster Suzi! was still a little sheer after three coats, I could still see the whites of my nails very slightly but I loved it).  Both very easy too apply also.

I will upload the other two colours from this mini collection soon!

Purple Tipped

Max Factor - Boji

Essie - Nice is Nice

Tape

Striping Tape

Firstly I got this idea from Pshiiit.  I have loved it for ages but never had a lilac to try it out with until now!  I bought Essie - Nice is Nice last week and I love it!  Three coats gives full coverage and it is such a lovely creamy lilac.  Here is how I did these nails:

1. First paint your nails all over with your chosen base colour.
2. Next once your base coat is dry put tape in a diagonal line so only part of the tips are showing and paint your second chosen colour.
3. Remove your tape before the polish dries.
4. Once this is dry take your striping tape and cut it to size and place over the line between the two colours.
5. Finish with a couple of top coats to keep the striping tape in place.

I found that striping tape is very difficult to stay put!  It only lasted a day, but it was neat underneath so it looked fine when it did decide to come off!  

China Glaze Electric Beat Swatch Electropop Collection

This is a swatch for China Glaze Electric Beat from the Electropop collection.  I bought this last week because it was my favourite colour out of the electropop collection. I LOVE it!  I used OPI Pirouette my whistle on my ring finger just for some fun! 


It is really easy to apply and is a lovely creamy blue colour.  Two coats for perfect coverage!

OPI - My Pointe Exactly swatch

My swatch of OPI my pointe exactly from the New York City Ballet collection.  This took 4 coats to get it to the colour above.  I really like this colour.  It is such a subtle grey colour.  It looks great when it has been matted with a topcoat (have a look at the newspaper nails to see what I mean).  It goes on really easily and looks gorgeous after a few good coats!  Another nice subtle colour from this collection.

OPI - Don't Touch my Tutu swatch

Here is my swatch from the New York City Ballet collection of Don't Touch my Tutu!  It goes on so easily.  It is a sheer nail polish.  To get it to the colour in the picture above it took  5 coats.  But it is so worth it, I am not a fan of bright white full nails but this adds such a nice subtle white colour to your nails.  My favourite colour in the New York City Ballet collection so far!

Newspaper Nails

After painting my nails with my new OPI - my pointe exactly I realised that is is a great colour for doing newspaper nails.  I have tried these before and the writing came out smudgey or not very strong on most nails.  But these ones turned out great!  I think it must be based on the first nail polish you put down as well as how you apply the print onto your nails to get it nice and clear like this. Here is how I did it:

OPI - My Pointe Exactly 

George - Matte Finisher

Gin (60%) but any strong alcohol works

Cotton Wool

Bits of newspaper writing cut out to nail shapes

1. I first painted my nails all over with the OPI varnish.  It took 4 coats to get it to a usable colour for these.  
2. I waited till they were COMPLETELY dry (or you may have actual pieces of newspaper stuck to your nails!)
3. I dipped my finger into the gin and then dipped the newspaper cutouts into the gin while holding it with tweezers.
4. Then I carefully positioned the newspaper print side down over my nail the way I wanted it and covered it with the cotton wool and pushed down an even pressure all over my nail for about 20 seconds. 
5. I removed the cotton wool and gave the newspaper a quick last push down to make sure as much ink got off it as possible and gently peeled it off with the tweezers.
6. Any excess paper left on my nail I picked off with the tweezers gently.  But don't worry too much about little fluffys left because they are not noticeable after a topcoat.
7. Repeat these steps with all your nails and you should have these!
8. I finished with a topcoat and then a matte topcoat (because newspapers are not shiny :))

Hope this tutorial made sense and was easy to follow.  Leave a comment about how it worked for you and leave a link if you tried it out and snapped a photo :)

Julie