blue

I’m back, tentatively dipping my toe back into blogging.  I’ve had a rough time over the last 18 months, so even doing my nails has been a struggle.  There is a new Cirque Colors group on Facebook, where last week an inspiration photo of turquoise waves crashing on a pink beach was posted, so I gave it a go.

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I’ve been having one of those weeks where I feel a bit blah. I’ve got no energy and I think I might be getting a cold. Do you ever feel like that? This week I revisited some old inspiration to create this Millefiori nail art based on artwork by Fabian Oefner.

My right hand fingers with my Millefiori nail art and silver holo

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New, fun Chanel polishes are out, and you’re going to love these spring colours! I’m swatching them for you with a quick review, starting with Chanel Verde Pastello, a fresh turquoise creme.

My bottle of Verde Pastello has some weird wrinkles in the glass, just below the cap.

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I visited Professional Beauty 2018 in London this week, and I was really happy to find a brand on sale that I haven’t seen in the UK before.  Ella + Mila Polish is available in Target in the US, and online, but I found it on sale from a vegan beauty retailer here too! I bought some of their shades, and used two for this easy but effective design of a glitter gradient.

The grey-blue creme and copper glitter is a lovely contrast, and I was really impressed with the Ella + Mila polish formula.

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Now it’s December, we can really bring out the Christmas nail art ideas!  I’ve got ten different Christmas themed designs that will make your nails look awesome this holiday season… Click on each image or the link to get tips and a list of polishes and tools needed to create your own!

Christmas nail art ideas

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When you are short on time but still want to look polished, grab one bottle of gorgeous polish and get painting!  I didn’t need to add any embellishments or nail art, so have a look at my AEngland Captive Goddess swatch – with some beautiful macro photos as well.

Holographic sparkle from AEngland Captive Goddess

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Fluid nail art is the latest trend to be adopted by nail artists.  It’s inspired by fluid art, where acrylic paint is mixed with a little silicon, before dripping or pouring it over a canvas.  The silicon helps to stop the paint from mixing, so you get little ‘cells’ of different colours appearing, and an organic forms and lines of colour from the movement of the paint.

There are a number of different techniques, using both normal polishes and some special ones.  In this case, I used the Sinful Colors transforming topcoats with regular polishes, which are designed to separate and create the cells I mentioned.  It’s definitely a more advanced nail art technique, but I found this way much less messy and less wasteful of polishes than others I’ve seen for creating fluid art. You could always limit it to one or two feature nails to make it more manageable.

Fluid nail art – fingers

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It’s time to reveal what nearly 200 nail artists have been working on for our Maniswap Circle! This month we’ve focused on white and blue nail art designs in memory of Liam Kowal again. As a result, all our designs are blue and white, and some include a ribbon too.

This time I was recreating the work of Meredith from Merely Nails. I chose a stamped geometric pattern, which left me space to add a freehand ribbon.

White and blue nail art for Maniswap Circle

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As part of my series inspired by semi-precious stones, I’ve been looking around for my next project. The photo (scroll down) really caught my eye, so I’m trying this Fire Obsidian nail art. It’s an experiment in progress so I think I’ll be coming back and trying this again.

Fire Obsidian nail art macro

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Since I’ve been doing a lot of green nail art lately, I needed some outside colour inspiration. One of my Instagram friends Tanya suggested navy blue, one of her favourite colours.  For some quick and easy nail art matte navy blue is really chic, and very work appropriate.

Macro of easy nail art matte navy blue

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