GuestPost - Keely's Nails

FUN Lacquer Shana with Rainbow Connection

Hi everyone!  I'm Keely from Keely's Nails, and thank you to Dina for letting me guest post.  I've got a swatch of a FUN Lacquer collaboration shade made with Rainbow Connection, which is one of a set of three inspired by the cartoon Jem and the Holograms.  This is FUN Lacquer Shana.

FUN Lacquer - Shana with Rainbow Connection

Shana is a purple crelly polish packed with tiny square holographic glitter and irregularly shaped silvery flakes.  In these swatches I used two coats and top coat.  I think that really thin coats show off the glitter in these types of polishes the best, as you can see the glitters peeking through the different layers, and you see much more depth.

FUN Lacquer - Shana with Rainbow Connection

This was a tricky polish to photograph, and it looks a bit more blue here than it does in person. It does dry fractionally darker than the bottle though.

FUN Lacquer - Shana with Rainbow Connection

I love this macro photo! It really shows the shape of the glitters and flakies, and just how many there are.  It's packed!!

Fun Lacquer Shana

I can highly recommend this polish, it's beautiful and definitely attracts compliments.  It would be lovely in the summer too, I can imagine that the sun would make it sparkle so much. Even though my photos aren't totally colour accurate, I think anyone would like this polish.

If you've never tried any FUN Lacquer before, they are a beautiful indie brand from Singapore.  There's always lots of glitter and sparkle in one of these polishes. If you want to see more, have a look at Cepheus and Ursa Major, both inspired by constellations, and made in collaboration with French blogger iParallaxe.

Thank you again for letting me guest post for you Dina!  Good luck with the newest addition to your family.

Opulent Essences - Devils Gold

Polish was sent for swatching purposes, but the opinions expressed are solely mine, nothing else to disclaim.

Opulent Essences - Devils Gold

Devil's Goldan excellent definition for oil considering the problems it is causing
We are living in a fools paradise if we think we can rely on the Devil's Gold forever.

 

Opulent Essences - Devil's Gold while the name might make you think about oil, this not an oil-spill / oil-slick sort of polish, it is a semi sheer black jelly base with golden flakes and smooth glitter. that shifts in green, gold and blurple, a blueish purple.


Opulent Essences is a Vegan Friendly Nail Polish Maker from the UK. Behind the brand is the duo Sharon and Zoe, if you ever have any questions, the girls are lovely to chat with.

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Devils Gold 10 ml - 6 £

Opulent Essences - Devils Gold

Today has been super busy with house-hunting, and I found this gorgeous little terrace house close by a park, that I have filled out the paperwork for and applied for.

If I get this place I will get a larger nail polish room, and it does not have to function as a Nail Cave / Spare Bedroom, it will ONLY be for my nail polishes. 

Fingers crossed.

For the picture swatches on the blog here, you can see one coat of Opulent Essences - Devils Gold over Wet n Wild - Black Creme. On the Live Swatch in the video over here, you can see what Opulent Essences - Devils Gold looks like layered over Barry M - Blue Grape, a cobalt blue polish (dupe for YSL - Bleu Majorelle)

More color combos for Opulent Essences - Devils Gold

For the nail art today I opted for a simple accent stamping using Moyra - Ornaments plate 03.
I used Sinful Color - Snow Me White for this.

Opulent Essences - Devils Gold layered over Wet n Wild - Black Creme with accent Barry M - Blue Grape, Opulent Essences - Devils Gold over and stamped using Sinful Color - Snow Me White and Moyra - Ornaments - 03

Polish was sent for swatching purposes, but the opinions expressed are solely mine, nothing else to disclaim.

Flakier Fire

This post contains a "Refer A Friend" link and an affiliate link, nothing else to disclose.

#glossybox #nails #nailpolish #angèle #angele #manicure #rednails #mani #swatch

A photo posted by Dina Ramse (@secretarysnailart) on Jan 18, 2016 at 2:27pm PST

I have been subscribing to Glossybox for about a year now and I am quite happy with the service.
Pay 10 £ a month and get sent makeup, lotions, cleaners, face masks and what not, every month, sometimes they even include nail polishes.
Which is the reason why I am mentioning it in today's post, as the January box contained a nail polish from the brand Angèle, and it was a crelly red.

On the swatch above you can see it with one coat, and the picture below has two - tree coats.

Angèle Nail Polish

Now I wasn't going to stop there, after all I am the Secretary's Nail Art, so I dived into my untried box and found this gorgeous red flakie polish. Layla - CE53. I got this polish on a sale while on my holiday in Finland last year, so it was about time it got on my nails. This polish is gorgeous, absolutely amazing. It is rich on flakieness, so I only applied one coat of this on my nails.

Angéle Nail Polish topped with Layla - CE53

To finish the look I decided to use Vivid Lacquer - VL016 stamping plate that I recently bought, and you can see a review and stamping tests of the plate over at my Youtube Channel: Secretary's Nail Art, or you can find it on my blog by following this link.  To make sure that the flames was lined up right along my cuticles I tried using the Clear Jelly Stamper that I purchased from Born Pretty Store (affiliate link).  I think I would have done a better job at the look had I used a sticky marshmallow stamper instead, but I am so new to the Clear Jelly Stampers I wanted to see if I could get a feel for it. Once I have figured them out, I am sure there will be a video up on my Youtube Channel.

Angéle Nail Polish topped with Layla - CE53 stamped using Essie - Little Brown Dress and Vivid Lacquer - VL016

This post contains a "Refer A Friend" link and an affiliate link, nothing else to disclose.

Cult Nails - Coveted

Major lemming today girls.

urbandictionary

Long, long time ago there was a company called Cult Nails. They had gorgeous nail polishes, but is no longer around. Ever since I moved back to the UK after I had been in Spain, I have been keeping my eye out for Nail Polish Sales posts on various platforms.

It has payed off, as I have managed to get hold on some lemmings of mine. This time I managed to get my talons on Cult Nails - Coveted.

It is EVERYTHING I hoped it would be. I am so so happy with it.

Cult Nails - Coveted

I recently bought a jelly stamper from BornPrettyStore and I wanted to see if I would do better at lining up stamps with the jelly stamper than I am with my normal XL stamper. As you can see by the result below, I did not do the best of a job on lining it up perfectly with my nails.
It was my first attempt, so I still might need some more practice to get it right. 

I did noticed that it was a little hard to see through the jelly stamper when trying to line it up with my cuticles and nail tips, so if you have one on the way, I would suggest making sure you are in a well lit room. My ceiling lamp was not enough.
If you have the Original Jelly Stamper, or any other Brands with a jelly stamper I am curious to know how they worked for you.
Leave me a comment and let me know.

Cult Nails - Coveted stamped using China Glaze - Midnight Kiss and Bundlemonster WORK IT! - BMXL175

I stamped using China Glaze - Midnight Kiss and Bundlemonster WORK IT! - BMXL175
(a full review on that plate is in the making).

Let It Snow

Products in this post has previously been sent for reviewing purposes, to view the original post, follow this link.


So the part of me trying to only post about one and one of the Advent Calendar polishes, to avoid spoilers for others is going out the window. I got a bit eager on trying them out, so I will just post them as I see fit.

Creating backgrounds for mail art

I started out with Ciate - Ferris Wheel, and Ciate - Boom Box, both polishes turned out to be quite sheer so I decided to build them up over each other to create a sort of marbleized background for my nail art today.

First I prepared the Uber Chic Stamping Mat with some base coat, just to note to you there that the base coat from Ciate that you get in the Advent Calendar is not good for this purpose.
Once prepared, I dropped two drops of each polish on to the mat close to each other and squished the stamper head down over them and did a little twist before transferring the polish from the stamper head to the prepared surface on the mat. This process was repeated 5 times in order to build a suitable opacity.

Once the decals where dry, I peeled them of and stuck them on my nails and cleaned away the excess polish.

Ciate - Ferris Wheel, and Ciate - Boom Box marbleized together

When it was all done, I added two quick coats of Ciate - Snow Globe over all my nails, and topped that off with 2 coats of topcoat, preparing it for the next step.

...

adding snowflakes, stars, a reindeer, and some extra dots using a dotting tool and Sinful Color - Snow Me White.

I am using the BornPrettyStore D264 Water Decals again.

This look took many steps to complete, but I am so happy with the final result. The extra coats over the flakies from Ciate - Snow Globe really helped creating a smooth surface to put the decals on.

Ciate - Ferris Wheel, and Ciate - Boom Box marbleized together, with Ciate - Snow Globe over, and dots using a dotting tool and Sinful Color - Snow Me White and water decals from BornPrettyStore in D264

Ciate - Ferris Wheel, and Ciate - Boom Box marbleized together, with Ciate - Snow Globe over, and dots using a dotting tool and Sinful Color - Snow Me White and water decals from BornPrettyStore in D264

For more Christmas themed nails check out my other designs here.

Products in this post has previously been sent for reviewing purposes, to view the original post, follow this link.

Ceramic Elaine

Fall is all over us and people everywhere is getting ready for Halloween. Having done all sorts of elaborate stamping designs lately I felt like toning it down a little.

As I am writing this I have been struck with a sudden loss of hearing and everything is rolled in cotton balls. First sign of the weather getting colder I suppose and a cold getting ready to strike me. Hopefully it will pass as soon as possible.

For this manicure I used A England - Elaine. Fully opaque in two coats, and used one coat of Layla - CE52 over. I really like how this looks, and I am sure it makes the perfect base for some elaborate stamping, but today I am going to enjoy it as is.

A England - Elaine with Layla - CE52

If you love flakies, this is truly a gorgeous polish and I just love how Layla - CE52 looks over Elaine. This is a very obvious pairing, since CE52 looks very purple in the bottle, and I am sure it will look just as gorgeous over other polishes. Which polish would you use? Leave me a comment down below and I will try it out for you.

A England - Elaine with Layla - CE52

For those of you thinking that this could possible be a dupe for Cult Nails - Seduction, I am sorry to disappoint while they both are in a purple base, and have gold shimmer in the flakies, he flakies in Layla - CE52 is leaning red and green, while the flakies in Cult Nails - Seduction is leaning blue. Layla - CE52 is also denser.

A Wizards Hat - mani

I needed a mani fit for my 2 month blogiversary, so I decided to go for some Disney. Cause we all love Disney, right?

Todays inspiration was Mickey Mouse Wizards Hat. 

Dark blue with stars on it. When light hits it, you can see some glitter to the blue. Or that's how I remember it atleast.

For this mani I used Misa - A Sin Worth Committing, China Glaze - Luxe and Lush, and star shaped rhinestones in blue. So here are the steps:

So You Want To Be A Wizard?