Ciaté Mini Starry Night Polish and Caviar Duo

So following nipping into a supermarket to pick up a couple of bits and bobs, I couldn't help gravitating towards the magazine stand and could not resist picking up the latest issue of Marie Claire magazine for the free Ciaté polish and nail caviar! It was a tough decision between the two they had stocked; Starry Night or Sunset Shimmer but I settled on Starry Night and hurried to the till before I could change my mind!

So the set consists of two bottles, one is the Ciaté Mini Polish in Ferris Wheel and the other is the Ciaté Mini Nail Caviar in Frost Yourself...

Initial thoughts were that Ferris Wheel was a little thin... 

As you can see, at one coat the polish was still pretty transparent but I suppose that can be forgiven seeing as it is such a light colour. I think after using Barry M for most of my nail designs I'm used to a thicker, more opaque polish!

But I stuck with it and I'm glad I did! As you can see, after two coats the colour began to show a little more! The lazy person inside me kind of wishes it was more opaque because it wasn't until three coats that it began to look a little like this...

I have to say that those three painstaking coats (okay I'm being a little melodramatic now) were definitely worth it because the colour result is just gorgeous! Especially for summer!

Next challenge was how to apply the nail caviar! I've never had anything like this for my nails before, but I know people who have and they got a funnel with the bottle. I'm not sure if the normal Ciaté set comes with a funnel but it seemed an impossible task to poor the tiny pearls directly from the bottle and onto my nails. 

After much thought, I decided the best plan of action would be to poor some tiny peals onto a piece of paper and push my wet nail down gently into them. Although I didn't get full nail coverage I'm pretty pleased with the results! 

I left them to dry/stick to my nail and after seeing a couple of the beads/peals had fallen off, I decided to apply some of my Color Club Top Coat, making sure to dab it on in blobs rather than in strokes to make sure I didn't know any more off! A couple of hours later they're still intact so I think I can safely say mission accomplished!

What do you think of the Ciaté Mini Sets? If I were to cheekily invest in another, what colour would YOU recommend?

My favourite nail design... so far!

So ever since I started nail stamping around 6 months ago, I'm obsessed with trying new stamps, polishes and combinations.

I just thought I'd do a quick post and share with you my favourite design I've done so far...

 

 

These are my owl and heart nails, done using Rimmel Salon Pro in Peppermint (which I love!). I then stamped with Konad Special Polish in White with plate M89. When this was dry I stamped the owls and hearts with Konad Special Polish in Black, the owls are M95 and the hearts are M83.

 

 

Hope you like them as much as I do!

 

Laura xxx

Tiger Nails!

So I've been racking my brains to try and decide what to write my first real post about and so I thought I would share with you my nails at them moment and my reasons behind them.

So here are my tiger nails...

 

They're a little messy but I did them quickly in the dark! Most of the time I use my Konad nail stamping kit for my nails, hence my name Patterned and Polished! Nail stamping involves using an engraved metal plate, over which you paint on a layer of polish, you then scrape this off using the scraper (or an old credit card will do) to reveal the pattern. You then pick that up with a special stamper and apply to this nail! Next thing you know you have perfectly printed nails without spending time and the stress of painting them all individually! (If you're interested in nail stamping, take a look at my Instagram account, which I've linked at the top of my page, and you can see all my designs from over the past 6 months!)

 

Now to the reason behind my nails! Behind the girly, nail polish loving me, I LOVE football. In particular, I love my local team, Hull City AFC. I've supported them for as long as I can remember, got my first ever shirt when I was 3 and went to my first game at 5! I'm now almost 21 and a season ticket holder. If you don't know, Hull City are also known as the Tigers, hence the nails!

 

Anyway, I've come to regard my tiger nails as a bit of a lucky charm, so I always put the design on my nails whenever there's a big game; it worked last Saturday, we won!

 

I hope you've enjoyed my first real post and be sure to pop back for more if you did!

 

Laura xxx