Ciate Competition Prize

I don't know about anybody else but I am always entering myself into competitions and giveaways! A few weeks ago I entered a Ciate one on Twitter. I had to give a description of why I liked a trio of their polishes. My answer was that they were colours which you could use either in the day time or for a night out. To my delight I won!!
I received this trio of polishes:

They are: Cutie Pie, Unrestricted Glam and Poppet.

Cutie Pie is a pale pink, it was very sheer on application and needed about three coats. After I had added a top coat it reminded me of one of the gel style polishes. It was sheer but at the same time wasnt.

Poppet is a pale purple colour and drys to a matt finish. This one only needed one coat! I did find that this one however chipped quite quickly so maybe I should of applied two coats for strength.

I used these two colours together:

Unrestricted Glam is black. It is quite sheer upon application of a first coat but soon becomes opaque with a second coat. I haven't worn black polish in ages but love how it stands out.

You can find Ciate polishes on their website and they have a great colour picker on there for you to play with.

https://www.ciate.co.uk

An InLinkz Link-up

What is Indie Polish??

Although I have been painting my nails since a young age I am still quite new to 'Indie Polishes'. When I first heard this term I had to google it to find out what it meant. For those of you who are still in the dark about it here is a quick explanation:

Indie Polishes are nail polishes which are handmade by ladies just like me and you. There are an uncountable amount of indie brands out there and I am only just scratching the surface. A great place to buy indie polishes is from
www.rainbow-connection.co.uk

This is run by a lovely lady called Annette who I met through Facebook.

You can also buy indie polishes from etsy and from the girls own web pages.

I have so far purchased 4 indie polishes for myself. The first 2 I brought directly from America as I had not discovered Rainbow Connection. Rainbow Connection stocks British Indies as well as ones from over seas!

These are 3 of my Indie polishes:

These are: Chivalry is dead (thermal) by Black Cat Lacquer, Rave by Jindie Nails and I lost my marbles by Polish Me Silly.

The above manicure was using Rave by Jindie nails.

This christmas manicure was done using Mistletoe Madness by Polish Me Silly. This is a Thermal polish which is basically a colour changing one. Thermal polishes are usually one colour when warm and another when cold.

Hope this was helpful for any nail newbies out there :-)

Thanks for reading xx

Customised Drawers

One of my favourite places to go shopping is.... IKEA!!!
I recently purchased these drawers to store my nail bits and bobs in. (they cost £15)

However, I decided that they were a bit boring and needed cheering up, so.....
I got out the sand paper..

I smoothed off all the surfaces and then painted them with a white base coat and two coats of white satin wood.

Already they looked quite different. I am a very organised person and therefore felt I needed to label the drawers.

I found a font I liked and then using tracing paper transferred it onto the drawers.

Finally I added a few personal touches. For the decoration I used acrylic paints.

Lastly I added the most important things....... my nail bits and bobs

Thanks for reading xx

Purple nails in support of BEAT eating disorder awareness week

So for those of you who didn't know this week is eating disorder awareness week. In fact I myself wouldn't of known if it was for Emily Georgina Hackett. I am friends with Emily through a facebook group called All Things Nails. Emily had a lovely idea for all of us girls in the group to do purple manicures in support of this week as the group BEAT use purple as their ribbon colour.

                                               

BEAT provides support for adults and young people in the UK to beat their eating disorders.
www.b-eat.co.uk

Here is my manicure...

I used 6 different purples in my manicure, these were: Models Own 'Pukka Purple' and 'Purple Haze', MUA 'frozen yoghurt', Barry M 'Berry I/C', Rimmel 'Pompous' and Essie 'Nice is Nice'

here are some of the other girls mani's :-)

Below is Emily Georgina Hackett's manicure, she used OPI ink and PP Aurora

Next is one of Jennett Crawley's Mani's using a Zoya Pixie Dust

 

Below is Nicola Easton's Mani using Sinful Colours 'Professional Fig' and Rimmel 'Metal Rush'

Next up is an OPI liquid sand by Caroline Goodwill

Below is a holographic purple, this is Louise Leaning's mani using Lacquer Lust 'Tanzanite'

There are so many beautiful manicures by all of the lovely ladies and are still more being uploaded. Unfortunately I can't post them all. I am so glad I was able to show a little bit of support for this as it affects so many people in so many ways.

Thank you for reading.

GlossyBox February 2014

Well after a few months of average Glossyboxes I was very happy to receive this months box! First impressions were good, I love the pattern on the box, I wish they were like this every month :-) My only criticism this month is that it was a valentines box that yes was dispatched on valentines day but because of this you didn't have it in time to actually use on valentines day!

I was excited to get this box as I had seen that some boxes were to have a Ciate paint pot in. I was like a kid at Christmas opening my box and was really happy with the contents.

So first up is the one I was waiting for. I love the Ciate paint pots and had decided that if I didn't get one I was definitely unsubscribing. My beauty profile states that I like nails but I have missed out on several nail items. I got it in the colour 'pocket money'. I don't have this one and don't think I have a colour similar either!

These are worth £9 for 13.5ml (full size) and this is what you receive.

Next up is Maybelline New York Big Eyes Mascara. This is also a full size product and is worth £8.99. This mascara comes with two different brushes, a small one to magnify your bottom lashes and a bigger push up brush for your upper lashes. I am looking forward to trying this one.

The third and final full size item is an NV chunky eye crayon. This is worth £5 and is a Glossybox premiere.

I got it in the colour 'Fondant Fancy' which is a really lovely baby pink. This is a good colour for me as I have pale skin. I like the fact that you can use this crayon on eyes and lips! I swatched a small amount on both and love how it applys and looks! You also get a code for 20% off your first order! 

Nougat London Sparkling Body Shimmer is a decent sized sample. You get 100ml which is worth roughly £5. I thought this would probably smell too strong but it actually smells quite nice. I will be interested to see how it looks on. I did put a bit on my hand and it did look shimmery but subtle so we shall see!

These 3 sachet samples are by giovanni. They include a shampoo, conditioner and a hair mask. Ok they are only sachet samples but at least there is one of each thing to try! They are a natural product and only £7.99 to buy full size so very affordable! I will be giving these a whirl tomorrow for sure :-)

Last but not least was this bar of lindor milk chocolate! I think this was a nice touch for the valentines theme and it is a big bar, it is also milk chocolate so a big thumbs up from me! They have even provided a 25% off code for the lindt website :-)

This box is worth just over £28.

Thanks for reading :-)

How To Remove Glitter Nail Polish

A good glitter polish always looks so pretty but lets face it, it's a pain in the ass to get off!! After searching on the web I found a much easier way to get it off.....

Above picture is Barry M 'GreenBerry' and 'Aqua Glitter' and Ciate 'The Hamptons'.

You will need :- Nail Polish Remover, Cotton Wool Balls, and some Silver Foil

Step one: Apply some polish remover onto a cotton wool ball and hold it onto your nail

 

Step Two: Rip some silver foil off the roll and then rip this into squares. Take one square and put it over your nail and cotton wool ball. Scrunch it around your finger/thumb so that it stays on.

Step Three: Do this to all of the nails with glitter on.

Step Four: Leave this on your nails for about ten mins or so to give the polish remover time to work. Before removing the foil massage over the nail area.

Step Five: Massage over the foil on each nail and pull off. Your glitter should be removed!!

Much easier and kinder to your nails than scrubing to get the glitter off :-)

Follow me on instagram @georges_artandnails

CIATE MINI MANI MONTH

During the christmas period I saw this, the Ciate Mini Mani Month. I was unable to bribe anyone into getting it me for advent so when I saw it for half price in their January sale I treated myself! :-)

The Ciate Mini Mani Month consists of 24 windows of nail goodies and was therefore a must have for a nail addict like myself! Behind each window was a quote, such as "keep calm and paint your nails". The nail goodies consisted of a top coat, base coat, mini polishes, caviar beads, loose glitters, a mini funnel and one full size polish.

      

 As I am doing this as one blog post it would be too long if I was to swatch all of the colours for you. I have put the normal and glitter polishes on a colour wheel and have used some for nail art...

     

In the nail art above I used : 'Pepperminty', 'Ferris Wheel', 'Serendipity', and 'Amazing Gracie'. I also used Konad stamping.

So, in conclusion I absolutely loved getting this and it is definitely worth the money (by this I mean at full price which was £42)

To see the polishes up closer check out my review on my youtube channel : 

www.youtube.com/user/georgesartwork