Palm Trees

I love wearing brightly coloured nail polish in the summer so this week I wanted to do a nail art design with a bright coloured gradient. I decided to put palm trees over the colour gradient to give it a summer holiday feel so it looks like a sunset on a tropical beach. 

I used four colours and a makeup sponge to create the gradient base. The pink polish is Strawberry Margarita by OPI, the coral polish is Access All Areas by Ciaté, the orange polish is Speed Dial by Ciaté and I don't actually have a yellow bottle of polish so I used the polish from my Wah London yellow nail art pen. I drew the palm trees using my black Wah London nail art pen.

The best way to create a gradient like this with four colours is to start with a white base polish. Use the rectangle end of your makeup sponge and draw a stripe across it with each polish so you have four different coloured stripes on your sponge. Then lightly keep dabbing the sponge onto your nail until the colour gradient transfers onto your nail. If it is too light just apply more polish to the sponge and dab again. Draw on your palm trees using a black nail art pen and don't forget to add a big yellow sun setting behind one of the trees!

Let me know if you like this design or if you have any design requests by messaging me @KathleenEmilyy on Twitter and Instagram!

Swarovski Pedicure

A few years ago I had a Swarovski crystal pedicure done for my birthday. I absolutely loved it and I've been wanting to get it re-done ever since. Now I am qualified in gel nails I decided to give it a go myself.

I used a whole pack of Swarovski crystals from Charlie's Nail Art - they cost £1.25 for a pack of 100 crystals. If you are looking for crystals or other nail art supplies I would recommend this website because their prices are great and all the supplies I've used from there have been good quality. 

The crystals are super sparkly in the sunlight so this pedicure is great for the summer when you will be wearing sandals all the time. It would also be great for special occasions like weddings and looks really glamorous with a pair of matching sparkly shoes.

I will soon be offering Swarovski Pedicures as a treatment for my mobile nail clients in Beverley, so let me know if you are interested!

You can follow me on Instagram and Twitter @KathleenEmilyy 

Colour Changing Nail Polish

I went on a gel nails training course this week so I can start doing gel manicures on my mobile nail clients. I have been using gel polishes from Blue Sky - this is a fairly cheap brand of gel polish but it is good to practice with while you are learning. I will be investing in some more expensive gel polishes to use on clients but for now I have been having fun with Blue Sky's colour changing polishes from their Chameleon range. 

I was skeptical when I purchased this polish because I have read reviews of colour changing polishes before which said they were rubbish and hardly changed colour. I was amazed with this polish because it works great and it changes colour all the time when I am wearing it. In the bottle the polish is a dark purple colour but when it is applied on your nails it either turns bright pink when it is warm or dark purple when it is cold. I find that most of the time throughout the day it creates a great ombré effect between pink at the cuticle and purple at the free edge of the nail. 

I have created a video of the gel polish below which shows it changing colour in hot and cold water:

I'd love some gel polish brand and colour recommendations so let me know your favourite gel polish colour @KathleenEmilyy on Twitter and Instagram.

Ciaté Orange Choc Pot Review

Ciaté have got some new chocolate scented nail polish remover pots. You can choose from: dark choc, mint choc, orange choc and white choc. Today I am reviewing the Orange Choc Pot nail polish remover.

I really like using nail polish remover pots because they are quick and easy to use - you just dip your fingers in the pot one at a time and twist them on the sponge to remove your polish. They are really useful if you are travelling as they are small and compact and you don't have to worry about spilling a whole bottle of liquid nail polish remover in your bag.

When you open the Ciaté Orange Choc Pot and smell it, it does have a very strong chemical smell which doesn't really resemble chocolate orange. But smell your hands after you have used it and it does leave a lovely orangey chocolate smell on your fingers.

It took about 5-10 seconds to remove the nail polish off each finger. It was a very speedy process to remove the polish and it definitely worked quicker than any other brand of remover pots I have tried. I was surprised at how dry the sponge felt at first as most other pots I have tried have a very wet sponge but this did not seem to be an issue as it removed my polish perfectly.

I really like the Orange Choc Pot and I would love to find out what the other pots smell like. You can buy the nail polish removers from Ciaté's website here. If you have tried out any of the other chocolate scents let me know what you think and send me a message @KathleenEmilyy on Twitter and Instagram.