Although I've been toying with the idea of starting a blog for some time now, I'd always talked myself out of it thinking that I'm not much of a writer, nor photographer. I have been randomly posting nail art (and the occasional hairdo) to Instagram for over two years now, but more recently I found myself taking lots more pictures, more regularly and becoming more interested in the latest products and polish releases. Yesterday something clicked, and I decided the time had come to bite the bullet and get started on this blog.
I chose the name of the blog, to ideally reflect the content I'm planning to publish. So expect lots of nail polish, (simple!) nail art, swatches and hauls, broken up with my ramblings on hair care and perhaps the odd pretty lipstick.
To finish off, I wanted to include a few nail pictures. Since Autumn officially began last week, and the past few evenings have felt distinctly chilly, I thought I would do something completely unseasonal and show you my favourite manicure of the summer!
This was my first attempt at leopard print, and I decided to use some of my favourite bright polishes - the Ice Neon collection by Models Own. The neon colours stand out nicely against the pure white base and black rings, and I like the subtle contrast between the matte white and the shiny black.
I started with a base coat and then used two generous coats of Models Own White Light to give a smooth white background, which I then topped with one coat of Rimmel Matte Top Coat (old-style bottle shown in photograph).
Next I used a small dotting tool with the Ice Neon polishes to make rough 'blob' shapes all over the nails. I used two colours per nail and tried to be sparing with the blobs, if you add too many there won't be enough room to add the ring shapes and it would look too crowded. I went over the spots a second time to intensify the colour.
Once the spots were dry (neon polishes dry quickly) I used the Models Own Artistix Nail Art Pen to make small 'C' shapes around each spot. Finally I used an extra small dotting tool to make small dots and curves in the remaining white space. No top coat was used as I wanted to keep the matte effect of the base colour and the shine on the black polish.
Overall I was happy enough with this design, considering it was my first go at leopard print. I absolutely love these neon polishes and will try and keep using bright colours for as long as I can - probably until I start Christmas manicures (yes I just said the C word!)
I hope you enjoy my blog, please come back again soon. And let me know if there's anyone else out there who likes to ignore what colours are seasonally 'appropriate'!
