Nails of the Day - Using Konad

I ordered some Konad items off eBay a few days ago and they arrived today!

I ordered 2 image plates, a scraper and the stamp. 

For my first attempt I decided to use OPI's Done Out In Deco as the base and then Rimmel's Lasting Finish in 239 Your Majesty for the pattern with a floral print from Konad plate M71.

It was actually pretty easy to use, you just paint over the pattern with the colour of your choice (in my case Your Majesty), scrape off the excess, roll the stamp over the pattern then roll the stamp onto your nails!  The finished product....

I absolutely love the effect!  With the silver polish the pattern looks more like snowflakes than flowers so perfect for Christmas time, but seeing as that is a distant memory :( next time I will probably use a different colour scheme.  The only tip I would say for the Konad is, clean the scraper, plate and stamp with some nail varnish remover after each nail to get a sharper finish and stamp quickly after scraping or the polish will dry up!

I can see this fast becoming a new obsession....

Slowly but surely

I am building up my OPI collection. :D

I bought my first OPI in the Summer from Sally's which happened to be Pink-ing Of You.  I absolutely adore it - it is an amazing colour which glides on smoothly and lasts on the nail for a long time.  I also love that the bottle itself (15ml in size) has lasted from September to now without going claggy as so many cheap polishes do.

So, after growing my nails over the Christmas holidays I decided to treat myself to a few new bottles.  I bought them from this eBay seller in the US as they worked out at a mere £3ish for a bottle compared to £10 here in the UK.  These are the colours I decided on....

From L-R: Coney Island Cotton Candy; Russian Navy; Done Out In Deco

The Coney Island Cotton Candy I have to admit was a purchase due to the thumbs up from Laura over at Lollipop26, although I am yet to try it.  As for the Russian Navy, I decided on it purely because I love navy polish and although I haven't tried this yet the colour looks amazing in the bottle - navy with an almost purple hue to it.  I immediately tried out the Done Out in Deco as I am addicted to purple/lilac polishes.  This was, as expected, a dream to apply. It has a fantastic creamy formulation and was opaque in two coats.  Here is the finished product.

I absolutely love it and it is official, I am addicted to OPI.  I'm not sure I would bother buying Barry M etc anymore unless it was was a really amazing colour because they just do not last long for me.  After one or two applications the polish becomes completely overworked and they also take ages to dry on my nails whereas OPI takes only a few minutes as only thin layers are require to get the desired effect.  I did however also buy this OPI Nail Laquer Thinner so maybe this will save all my other past-it polishes?!

I really recommend this seller - my items arrived so quickly.  I was also slightly worried as my items came to just over the £18 Royal Mail limit for duty/customs tax etc.  However, the lovely seller had only declared the package to be worth $12.  I'm not sure if I was just lucky though so next time I will ensure to order under £18 to be sure!

Are there any other OPI colours that you can recommend??  I just feel overwhelmed at the choice of colours!  Maybe one day I will have them all?!

xoxox

My Nail Savour: Boots Nail Strength Solution

After my first year at University I realised in the Summer that my nails were seriously damaged. I had had so much free time on my hands during term time that I had changed my nail varnish once, sometimes twice a day, with no regard for nail care. I sawed my nails with emery boards, never used a base coat and if I ran out of nail varnish remover I would quite happily just buff all the polish off. Urrgghhhhh it sends shivers through me now! In the end, my nails were paper thin and so short they became little circles as you can see in this photo.

They looked so awful and I couldn't wait long enough to grow them that I had a brief love affair with fake nails.  I loved how they looked but didn't love how ridiculous I looked when I lost one in the middle of the day or how thin my natural nails became underneath them.

I therefore decided this Christmas to get my natural nails long and healthy.  And the result one month on??

I really can't believe how good they look now and I put this all down to this little beauty...

I bought this from Boots purely because of the price. I think this was £3 or £4 compared to the £8 mark for Sally Hansen which I have used in the past but don't really rate.

I am so glad I bought it as it has done wonders for my nails as the pictures show!  I purely use this as a base and top coat and well, it does what it says on the bottle.... My nails have become so strong that in turn they have grown rapidly and do not break, chip, flake or peel. 

If you are trying to grow your nails I highly, highly recommend this!