Russian Doll Manicure

Hello again!

Well, despite telling myself that I wouldn't make my blog a nail blog, it seems a disproportionate amount of my posts involve manicures, well it is my current love, so I forgive myself!  I've been planning a manicure this week which I'm calling "a reflection of me".  Like all of us I think of myself as an onion (or a Kinder Egg), lots of layers, and each of those layers are significant and different. 

I had the terrible feeling that this weeks manicure was going to go the same way as last weeks, which was a total fail, but after an hour or 3 of experimenting (dotting, striping, acrylic paints etc etc) I finally got a result I'm pleased with!  I've called it a russian doll manicure as it's a colour inside a colour, inside a colour.  Heres what I ended up with:

The polishes I used were (from cuticle to tip)

Base coat: Sally Hansen Miracle Cure

Pink: Nails Inc Bruton Street

Dark Red: Leighton Denny Saturn Seduction

Black: L'Oreal Color Riche Black Swan

White: OPI Alpine Snow

Pink: again Bruton Street

I love the fact that it looks like an elongated bullseye, and its much more punchy in real life.  Have had to post a day early this week as I'm off down home this weekend, am super excited to be spending the whole weekend with my family and besties, should be lots of music, dancing and feasting!

Hope you have a fab weekend, please feel free to comment, and see you soon!

Take care

MASPOOASE X X X

Nails - Getting Even

Hello again!

I hope you have all been well this week, the weather has finally calmed down here over the weekend.  It wasn't my intention to blog about nails this week, but as you can see from the pictures below they were starting to get a bit out of control and scraggy looking.  Also I have some dark polishes I want to try and personally I prefer dark polishes on short nails.


  









So then, time for a cut! Not using those scissors obviously, I have some small nail scissors and a file.  I like the Leighton Denny crystal file because it files down my nails quite quickly, I can file in both directions, and I can rinse it under the tap when I've finished using it:

Yes, somehow I managed to get nail polish on my scissors at some point, no idea what I was doing to manage that...

Anyway! I'm not very good at judging where to make the first cut in my nails to get them all even, so I had to devise another way to do it - I decided french tip nail guides would be a good idea!  I don't know if alot of people do this, or if no-one does it, but it works for me so I thought I'd share.  Simple really, just place the french tip on your nail so that you have covered the amount of nail you want to keep - like so:

I then use the small scissors to cut close to (not not right next to) the guide, and file the last little bit.  This is because sometimes when I cut my nails the top layer of nail peels back and I end up having to cut a bit shorter than I want. 

Also if you hold your nail up to the light and look from behind, it helps to get the tip on straight, you can judge it against the curve of your finger like so, and keep repositioning until you find the length you're happy with:

So there we go, repeat this process for each nail, and you're done!  This is what I ended up with:

Much neater and nicer than the nails in the 'before' shot, and all ready for a nice coat of dark colour...   ooooh, which to pick!

I hope this helps you if you have trouble getting your nails an even length like I did before I thought of this.  If you have a different way to do it I'd love to hear about it!

Until next time, take care and have fun,

- MASPOOASE X