CND Shellac Summer 2013 Summersplash Swatches

So I FINALLY got hold of the Shellac Summersplash collection from CND - they crept up on us with that one didn't they! My last post about the launch of these is proving to be quite popular on my little blog, so I thought it was well overdue that I brought you a swatch of them myself. 

 

The Summersplash launch was of 4 bright 'Summer' typical colours, named appropriately of course! And they bring the total number of launches this year so far to 9.

Here's a bit more of a close up so you can see them a more clearly and I'll run through a quick recap of the colours:

little finger - Water Park - a metallic 'sea' blue. This is quite metallic, think Hotski to Tchotchke or Iced Cappuccino. I don't tend to wear metallics that often so I would have preferred this to have been a creme, but hey ho, we can't be fussy, at least they've brought out a blue. Plus, I've found a new technique to rid the metallic sheen - mix in a little Cream Puff!

ring finger - Lobster Roll - a bright red-orange. I'd actually go as far as to call this a jelly which is different for Shellac because they don't do many! I absolutely LOVE this colour and I've had so many requests for it. It looks great on pale skin and a-maz-ing with a tan and without doubt will be my pedicure of choice for the Summer.

middle finger - Grape Gum - a rich 'grape' purple with slight shimmer. I like that they've launched two purples so far this year and completely different shades as well. I do love this colour and can't wait to do a full manicure in it (maybe with a little glitter fade...) but find three coats is necessary for a true opaque finish.

index finger - Pink Bikini - a bright creme pink. I was least excited about this one as I felt there was already enough in the pink spectrum with Hot Pop Pink, Gotcha and Tutti Frutti to name but a few. But this actually makes Gotcha look very bubblegum and Hot Pop Pink appear more of a blue-pink. This is the perfect go between and it's grown on me.

And cue obligatory solar-oil-hand-grasp....

So what do you think? In my opinion, if you haven't tried one of these yet, Shellac lovers you NEED to have at least one of these shades on your next appointment!

Disclaimer - All products used for this manicure were bought myself, for more info about myself and CND Shellac please check out my disclaimer page here. Once you Shellac you never go back!

CND Shellac Spring 2013 Sweetdreams Swatches

It seems yonks ago since I told you about the CND Shellac Sweetreams collection release this Spring - here.

Kate (last seen here) went easy on me with the nail art requests this time and simply wanted a rainbow of pastels. So we picked out the four main colours from the Spring collection and went for a good ol' skittle mani. Now I did something different with the green so let me explain the colours:

little finger - Azure Wish - a gorgeous soft pale blue with the tiniest hint of shimmer. I love the fact that CND have brought out another blue, just keep them coming!

ring finger - Lilac Longing - a beautiful creme lilac. This expands the 'purple' Shellac selection quite nicely now and it looks great paired with the blue above in nail art.

middle finger - Cake Pop - a pale pink creme. Which when put next to the other pinks in the Shellac range, looks almost a very pale lilac.

index finger - Limeade  mixed with some Cream Puff - now the green is semi-sheer and has a sparkle finish (not to my taste or Kate's either) when worn alone. So a little trick I've discovered is to mix it with some white in a ceramic dish - it takes away the sparkle leaving it completely creme and now pastel-fied. I love it like this, but it did need three coats to make it opaque.

I don't know about anyone else, but I have found that with this collection (other than Grapefruit Sparkle not shown here) I get horrific shrinkage from the nail tip. I've tried everything and it still doesn't help. So I'm finding that these tend to need three coats as a minimum to get the required finish. Has anyone else had that issue?

Despite the application issues, I'm just so glad that Shellac finally dipped into the pastel market. Here's to many more... I hope!

Disclaimer - All products used for this manicure were bought myself, for more info about myself and CND Shellac please check out my disclaimer page here. Once you Shellac you never go back!

CND Shellac Christmas Nail Art - #2 Red, Green & White

With flash

Finally, a little break today so I can get posting these Christmas manicures! Here's the second one of the season, in Shellac again of course, but this time it's Gemma. You've yet to see Gemma on here but I have some of her ideas to post about soon, she likes to push the boat out with nail art, almost as much as Stacey!

She ummed and ahhhed over different ideas, and as she couldn't decide on just one, we decided to mix it up with something different on each nail. Gemma was set on red, green and white so we then took a little while to decide on what arrangement of colours we'd do the designs in. After much deliberation we came up with red and green as a base and then green and white for nail art detail. 

As you can see below, the first, middle and little fingers got the Wildfire treatment - the perfect Christmas red. The thumb and the ring finger got a glittery Christmas green glitter paste. Now Shellac don't do a classic 'green' so we improvised - in a palette I mixed a couple of drops of Pretty Poison with a couple of drops of Hotski to Tchotchke and added some Gosh Nail glitter in Jade Green - it made the perfect Christmas Tree Shade.

Base colour - before nail art

I then painted the various patterns on top of the base colours pictured above. Gemma decided on the following:

First finger - snowflake and snow design in Cream Puff painted with a detailer brush
Middle finger - present ribbon design using the green glitter paste from before, painted with a detailer brush
Ring finger and thumb - left as the green glitter base
Little finger - candy cane stripes, thick and thin, in Cream Puff painted with a detailer brush

Without flash

These were nowhere near as time consuming as I thought they might be; it gave me the idea to try out more of the mix'n'match WAH nails designs I see on Instagram. What do you think?

Disclaimer - All products used for this manicure were bought myself, for more info about myself and CND Shellac please check out my disclaimer page here. I might not be a professional, but I sure love me some Shellac nail art :)

Skittle Mani with Nails Inc.

Left Hand

Right Hand

Bonjour! Just a little quick one to show you today - a Nails Inc. skittle manicure that I had on about 2 weeks ago.  I used three of the colours I picked up from my TK Maxx Haul that I posted about on Brush up and Make-up! earlier.

They were a purple - Duchess Street, a red - Park Walk and a turquoise - Reeves Mews. All really easily to apply and easy to remove, EXCEPT Reeves Mews that stained my nails - I had to really buff my nail bed in order to get rid of the staining but maybe that serves me right for not bothering with a base coat!

I picked up this pack from TK Maxx recently for £14.99 - that's under £3.75 per polish! It's worth taking a look if you have a store near you as they seem to have a lot of Nails Inc. in at the moment.

Keep posted for some more Shellac nail art posts coming up soon!

Disclaimer - I have not been compensated in anyway by this post. I just like Nails Inc. and occasionally splash out on their polishes.