Catrice Ombre Top Coat: swatches and review

When I spotted Catrice Ombre Top Coat, I knew I had to have it. I love ombre nails, and this top coat promises that you can easily turn all your pale creme polishes into ombre manicures with just the one bottle – none of the frankening and desperate scrambling through your Helmer to find the perfect polishes to get a …

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Permanent Marker Nail Art Tutorial (aka I’m Nail MacGyver!)

I feel like I’ve been on fire with DIY nail things lately! Here’s my latest discovery – how to successfully use permanent marker on your nails. I’m not too shabby with a fine brush (years of weighing out micrograms in a lab will do that to you), but I can’t count the number of times I’ve wanted to just throw …

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Artsy Wednesday: Leafy autumn nail art

The theme this week for our Artsy Wednesday nail art challenge is leaves, which is convenient since autumn (or for you Americans, “fall” :P) has just started – I did a gradient of autumny colour across my nails, then stamped over it using BM-205.  I’ve been really into cremes recently, and ulta3 has a solid selection of nail art staples …

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Artsy Wednesday: Sponging

purple-gradient-nails

The theme this week is sponging. I did a simple sponged gradient with ulta3 Berry over Rimmel Lively Lilac, which is the least lively purple I’ve seen to be honest! For my sponged gradients I’ve been using a dishwashing sponge – they’re so cheap I don’t feel bad throwing them out after one mani. I want to try more interesting …

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Artsy Wednesday: Newsprint Nails

This is a new technique I’ve never tried before, and it turned out a lot easier than I expected! All you need to do is let your background colour dry thoroughly, then dip your nails in alcohol (vodka, rubbing alcohol, methylated spirits etc.) so there’s a thin alcohol layer on top. Then you quickly press a rectangle of newspaper onto …

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