First Impressions Of Kiko Milano's New Nail Art Line

*Press Sample. Item(s) in this post may have been provided for reviewing but I will as always give my full and honest opinion.

Allo polish Pals!

How are you doing today? I hope you are doing great! I just want to remind you that there are currently two giveaways running now – in case you missed this mornings post you can now enter to win a $15 from Born PrettyStore and of course do enter the nail art giveaway if you have not already.

This is a long post with lots of pretty pictures so please bare with me! Today I am showing you three beautiful polishes and a whole new line of nail art products from Kiko – exciting, yus, yus?

Three Kiko polishes, four types of nail art stickers and Kiko's very awesome nail art brush set.

From left to right: Ruby, Colbalt Blue and Ribes Red.

 Lets take a look at these items more closely!

Minty Freehand Flamingos

Allo polish Pals!

I hope you are having a beautiful day, do you have anything nice planned for the weekend? I have to say I'm having a real hard time painting things that please me, I have at least 12 scheduled posts already planned but I just seem... blocky. 

I created this mani a short while ago and I'm overly displeased with it; I feel like I'm so inconsistant in my nail art. I'll paint something and work so hard at it and I love the feeling of seeing it achieved... And then I make nail art like this which.... does nothing to for me.  I wanted to test the boundries of pink and green again. As I mentioned before I really like the combination if you get the correct shades!   Nail fail!

For this manicure I primarily used Essie's 'Muchi Muchi' and 'Mint Candy Apple'. I decided to created a few mixed nails by adding polka dots and a gradient with stripes. For the flamingos I used my Oumaxi paints and beloved bamboo brush.

I don't think the flamingos came out well at all but I do still like the combination! I feel proud of some of my art like the last unicorn and some of the posts still to come.. then I make this?! :/ I was doing really well with painting positively and now, my attitude in all aspects is just.. blah. I'm just a little down and now I wish I wasn't posting this at all!

What do you think of my minty green and pink flamingos? Have you created a manicure with pink and green before?

Have a beautiful day!

Love

Ithi

Triangle Design Fashion Studs - Born Pretty Store Review

*This item was sent for a review but as always will contain my full and unbiased opinion.

Allo polish Pals!

How are you today? I hope your having a beautiful day so far. Yesterday me and Mr Bravo went to help out at his Nan's house, which probably means that I am still so full of yummy food, haha. She always feeds us up! Today I have a review for you of these adorable 'triangle design fashion studs' from The Born Pretty Store.

Don't forget you can get 10% off your next order when you use the coupon code DRX31

These cute little cut out triangle studs come in a little plastic baggie containing around 15 pieces. They measure 3mm in size – perfect for some really cute and dainty nail art. They sit nice and flatly on the nail bed and have survived a trip to the store and house work just by using a top coat to apply them. You can be really creative with them, pair two together for a diamond or even create a star shape but I chose to show them simply here. They are also really cute when paired with classic colours like Essie's 'Bobbin' For Baubles' to add a really simple but sophisticated look. I am really fond of these studs because it is just a simple way to elegantize (Yes I'm making words up..) your manicure in a fast and easy way.

For this manicure I used three polishes, Mary Kay's 'Pink Bamboo', Barry M's 'Coconut' and Maybelline's 'Gilded Rose' from the brocade collection. I created alternating chevron patterns using these colours and added my triangles to the point of my triangles. I found using my pointed tweezers allowed me to apply these studs with ease.

What do you think of these golden triangle studs? Would you wear studs like these?

Have a great day!

Love

Ithi

Feeling Fancy With TheFinderThings.net

This item was sent to me to review but as always you will get my full and honest opinion.

Allo polish Pals!

How are you today? I hope you've had a wonderful week. I'm still so backwards since my eye swelled up (In fact it still isn't quite back to normal :/ ) that I am posting as I create. I don't like this, I like to be a little ahead of myself. How do you guys schedule your posts? Do you have a particular method? Do you have weeks of posts in advance or do you work from post to post as you intend to blog? I'm really interested to know. Today I have a simple post featuring gorgeous bow stencils from TheFinderthings.net, you can read my review below.

Purple And Green ~ Inspired By A Dress

Allo Polish Pals!

How are you enjoying your weekend? Let me ask you something; What do you think of purple and green together? I guess this is something I've always been on the fence about, it took me long enough to get over pink and green and even then I think it has to be the right sort of shades. Today's manicure is inspired by *this* dress on Pinterest.

I used just three shades for this manicure, using Barry M's 'Plum' and 'Coconut' and Essie's 'Mint Candy Apple'. I originally wanted to do a gradient with all three of the colours but it just wasn't happening. Instead I decided to split the colours up into block coloured stripes and used coconut mixed with the two shades to create some slightly lighter tones. I finished this up with a simple taped gradient and added some silver studs.

What do you think of this manicure? Are you afraid to mix these colours?

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Love

Ithi

Blue, Grey And Green Organized Bling

Allo polish Pals!

I hope you all had a fantastic New Years? Did you do anything special? We had a pretty quiet night but it was actually really nice :) I started the new year off in good spirit and have already worked out twice – go me! Tonight I am going out with Mr Bravo and my sister and brother in law; Mr Bravo has some new swanky darts he wants to test out so we will be going out to the pub; I'm looking forward to going out. Today I am sharing with you a design I did a few days ago, I think its a bit odd actually... But I'll let you decide!

For this manicure I began with George's 'Oh La la' on my index and ring finger, I then created a gradient using Essie's 'Chinchilly' (Oh my word, so much love!) and added a small sequin (glequin?) to the top of the nail. On my remaining nails I created a diagonal blocked colour look using striping tape and the previous nail polishes – On the tips I used Tip Top Nails 'Jazzberry Blue'. I finished these nails off by applying more of the sequins around my nail.

I do wish I had got my sequins applied in a more neater and uniform way but I quite enjoyed wearing this manicure, even if only for a day or so! I think my gradient could have been smoother too but ah well :)

What do you think of this grey, green and blue mixture? Do you like adding borders to your nails?

Have a great day, my beautiful nail friends!

Love

Ithi

Manicure Swap With Robin of Roaring Nails

Allo polish Pals!

How are you? I hope your going to have an exciting weekend! As you are reading this I am probably on the plane, or have arrived in England! Yaaaay! That doesn't mean I don't have a good post to show you. I've been in talks with the lovely Robin of Roaring Nails – Have you seen her blog? She is an incredibly sweet and lovely lady who comes up with nail art designs that always blow me away. She has such precision and her nail art is always flawless in my opinion. Skills! I recently discovered we share a love of sushi – sushi lovers unite! Of course I had to ask her if she would be interested in doing a manicure swap with me and I was delighted when she agreed. Robin decided to recreate my pigment nails and in turn I chose to recreate her beautiful 'Minty Window' Nails.

To start us off on this epic adventure we have ABOVE my pigment nails on the left, and Robin's beautiful creation on the right. Her version is so beautiful and I just love it! Robin did something SPECIAL to add to her pigment manicure. I could tell you everything but I really advice you go visit her blog to see what extra detail she put into her manicure. You've seen my tutorial but Robin stepped it up! Much loves!

Left: My recreation of Robin's Minty Windows. Right: Robin's stunning and original design.

I have to say I found this manicure really challenging, it was really hard to get a perfectly neat square on the nails so I really admire how amazing Robin's original manicure looked. I was up for the challenge but I really don't think I could have done these nails justice. I did one thing slightly different to Robin's Minty Windows. The square was supposed to be negative space which means removing all the polish within that square but I hate my stained nails so much that I added a very thin layer of nude polish. I think this is where my lines became unnecessarily messy.

For my recreation I used two coats of Essie's 'Minty Candy Apple' and once dried I then used tape to create my square window. I then removed the polish within that square using nail polish remover. I then added a very thin coat of Paris Memories nude polish and added my gold flakes with Nails Inc's 'Fleet Street'.

I absolutely love Robins recreation. The fact she added a spray marble on top is simple amazing. The effect on Robin's nails are outstanding. Robin has yet again inspired me to try something new just by doing my own manicure. I am inlove with her nails, their shape and her amazing attention with cleaning up and having perfect nails. Robin did a super job with the pigment nails!!! <3 br="">

I'd like to say a massive thank you to Robin, it's been great getting to know her and to take on her beautiful and challenging manicure. If you have not already checked out her blog please, please, please do! You will fall in love with her designs as much as I did :)

Have a great day my polish Pals,

Much love from England!

Ithi

Starfish and Shell Themed Stamping Plate - Born Pretty Store Review

*This item was sent to me to review but as always will contain my full and honest opinion. :)

Allo polish Pals!

How are you today? I hope your doing good! I'm in a pretty up beat mood today, I finished my four mile work out and it makes such a difference to how my day starts. I'm also happy because I have a really beautiful stamping plate from TheBorn Pretty Store to share with you. I have to say, I am not the most confident stamper but I couldn't resist the stunning design. This is plate #10, Starfish and Shell Themed.

You can get a 10% discount on all Born Pretty Store items when you use the coupon code: DRX31

 As you can see from my first picture this plate features one huge beautiful design and several smaller designs including a star fish, a seashell and various other little patterns. As I mentioned I am not the most able stamper but the patterns are really well etched into the plate which means that picking up the pattern was insanely easy. I am a big fan of the large design as there are so many sections of it that you can use for a really unique manicure. I originally saw this plate and knew I had to do blues and greens, throw in some glitter and would hopefully end up with something quite oceanic and whimsical. However I completely back tracked on this idea as I know it is too easy for me to reach for the blues often.

I started with two coats of Barry M's 'Mustard' and once this had dried I sectioned off the tips of my nails in a chevron style. I then applied Essie's 'The Lace is on'. Allowing this to dry I then back tracked back to the section of my nail and created a gradient on top of 'Mustard' with Essie's 'Meet Me At Sunset'. Again, allowing my gradient to try I then used tape to protect 'The Lace Is On' and stamped on top of the gradient using Barry M's 'Gold Foil'.

I am really pleased with how this turned out. The colours and pattern remind me of traditional Indian dresses. The stamping plate was great fun to use and I urge big stamping fans to take a look at The Born Pretty Store's stamping plate collection. They have many more large designs like this on – many of them are really beautiful. One of my other favorites is the peacock stamping plate.

What do you think of this stamping plate? Have you tried large stamping plate patterns?

Have a gorgeous day!

Love

Ithi

Tropical Treasures

Allo polish Pals,
Hope you are well today? I had quite a busy and great weekend but unfortunately I am now pretty sick (Don't worry, just my usual stomach syndrome. I am barely able to think past the pain – realistically I probably shouldn't have done those 5 miles this morning know I was not feeling well.) so I am going to keep today’s post really short and sweet. All I can really say about this manicure is that when I was planning it that I started off with green and blue, somewhere along the way I ended up with what you see here..

On three of my nails I began with Rimmel's 'Tutti Frutti' and created a gradient with Model's own 'Pink Punch'. I then used striping tape to create a pattern and added Sally Hansen's ' Green With Envy' on top. I finished these nails by adding some silver square/diamond studs to the centre. On my remaining nails I used all the same colours to create a simple chevron look and added some small triangle studs to their centre points. I kind of wish the finished look was slightly neater, I see bubbles and such but hey ho.

What do you think about this bright three coloured look? Have you created a striping tape manicure with a gradient?

Have a great evening!

Love

Ithi

Glitzy Purple With Hearts

Allo polish Pals!

Happy weekend to you all! Do you have any lovely plans lined up? I think this weekend will be a quiet one for me. This past week I've done pretty well at pushing myself with exercise and eating well – people are used to me sticking seaweed in my salads now which is a pretty normal thing for me! Today I have a manicure I am really on the fence about. Personally I hate how it looks in these pictures but in person I think it looks a little prettier, ah well tough luck.

I'm very unimpressed with this manicure..

 On all my nails I started with two coats of OPI's 'My little Petunia' which is the polish I picked up last weekend for a bargain of 4 Euro’s! I then used some striping tape and applied Catrice's 'Let's Get Lost In Las Vegas' to half of my nails. I applied a top coat and stamped these aligned hearts in Barry M's 'Silver Foil' over 'My Little Petunia' using the Nail Craze plate 'NC01'.

Unluckily for me the Catrice glitter had big pieces of glitter which meant that as I removed the tape it left some fairly ghastly uneven lines. My pet peeve with striping tape manicures is when the lines are not perfectly neat.... I still decided to show this anyway.

What do you think of this purple pairing? What colours do you enjoy stamping with the most?

Have a beautiful weekend!

Love

Ithi

Manicure Swap With Natalia of Polished Polyglot

Allo polish Pals!

How are you today? I'm actually writing to your from the future. I'm here in England now but thought I would do this as a scheduled post to keep myself up to date. Do you remember a short while ago I did that really fun manicure swap? I was lucky enough to have the beautiful Natalia of Polished Polyglot email me to ask if I would like to do a manicure swap with her. I of course had to say yes! I've known Natalia's blog right from the first few months of starting my own blog. She's a lovely person, always so warm and friendly. She was so kind to me during my father's heart attack. I've always enjoyed visiting her blog and seeing her newest creations.

I was so excited to take part in recreating one of her many beautiful designs, it was incredibly hard to decide which of her manicures to recreate as she has some really stunning designs. Please go take a look at her website, you wont be disappointed!

Here is Natalia's Design (Left) and my recreation.

I finally managed to decide to recreate Natalia's 'Night Out' nails because I thought they looks so elegant and glamorous. I couldn't help think that she nailed the brief perfectly, I would certainly want to wear these on a fancy night out! For my version I used Hema's nude polish and applied a layer of Collistar's '#37' glitter. I then used striping tapes to add Fearne's 'High Tide' and added a small rhinestone to match Natalia's design.

Natalia decided to recreate my 'Gleaming Oceanic Gradient Nails'. On the left is my version and the right is Natalia's; I love the colours she used and I think her creation is simply gorgeous, I think she made this manicure look so much better than the original!

I think Natalia's manicure is beautiful and looks great wit her nail shape. It's got me wishing for my rounder nails again...

What do you think of this manicure swap? Have you taken part in a mani swap before?

Have a fantastic day!

Love

Ithi

Simple Stripes & Holographic Tape

Allo polish Pals!

How are you today? I hope you are all well! Sorry for my mini disappearing act, I've been busy looking for my immune system since my last post. It seems like a lot of people are suffering from summer colds at the moment and I am one of them. I've felt pretty rotten and I am pretty gross right now. I hope you guys are feeling healthier than me! Today I felt well enough to attempt a simple manicure. Its nothing fancy (The original idea was so much cooler) but I do really like the colours :)

So, for this manicure I started with two coats of Yes Love's 'K025' (the light grey) on my thumb, index and pinkie nails. Using a combination of Yes Love's '364' and 'G2-2 I created stripes and added these two polishes to my ring and middle finger. To finish off my stripes I added some deluxe holographic striping tape and some of the N.Nail sweet series gems. I also added a white heart on my ring finger using white Oumaxi paint (Via Sammy Dress)

What do you think of this very simple manicure? Do you use striping tapes for manicures or do you only use them to create lines and then remove the tape?

Have a great day!

Love

Ithi

Glossy Neutral Stripes That Glow In The Dark

Allo polish Pals!

How are you today? Have you been up to much this week? Can you believe its Thursday already? Gawsh! I've been having a pretty good week so far. I'm feeling pretty damn good! As I mentioned recently that I was lucky enough to get a few new nail polishes last week from Yes Love I thought that today I would show you my new love. This totally makes me feel like a kid... Glow in the dark nails! I'm so easily amused by simple things, ha! :) Get ready for neutrals v positive glow!

Not the best photo ever but you get the point! :)

For this manicure I only used Yes Love nail polishes. Am I obsessed? Quite possibly!
On all my nails I started with the nude shade from Yes Love and applied three coats of 'Glow In The Dark Snowflakes' on top. Once completely dry I used my striping tape and Yes Love's black polish to create some not so creative diagonal lines. I finished this up with my top coat.

I actually really like this manicure. I know its simple with stripes but I love how the white glitter pops out from the nude base and peeks through the stripes. Neutrally cheeky, I think!

What do you think of this manicure? Do you own any glow in the dark nail polish?

Have a great day!

Love

Ithi

Frightfully Bright

Allo polish Pals!
How are you doing, did you have a good weekend? My weekend plans were cancelled since I was so poorly last week but I'm glad we will be going to the zoo next Sunday! Today I'm taking it easy with lots of Green tea, Farmville 2, a small trip to the mini mall and the season finale of The Walking Dead with Mr Bravo, do any of you guys watch that show? Last night I created an incredibly bright manicure and I was so excited to show you today. All I can say is... If I was to recreate it now I'd do a lot differently, but I'll show you anyway. Please excuse the messy cuticles (cry) it was so hard to clean this up with the rubbish nail polish remover I am now using (Love, love, love Cutex but can't find it here in Holland)

On all my nails I started with two coats of Barry M's 'Peach Melba' and created a gradient using Model's Own 'Sophie's Pink', Picture Polish 'Wisteria' and Barry M's 'Guava' on the tips. I then used striping tape to create a 'sun ray' sort of design and applied Barry M's textured polish 'Station Road'.

What I would do differently next time: I would make the tape design more abstract like the thumb nail, I think that design looks better. I would also have hoped for a better clean up for a better end result.

What do you think of this manicure? Do you like textured polish paired with this gradient?
Hope you have beautiful day!

Love

Ithi

Subtle Stripes And Vibrant Flowers

Allo polish Pals,

How are you today? Are you having a good weekend? Tomorrow is St. Patrick's day, as I am sure most of you know. I guess I've been living in a bubble because I only just realized. Luckily this manicure has a little green to it but I am planning something generously green for tomorrow!

This week has just been one of those weeks. I've been less than satisfied with my manicures and even with this one I am picking out mistakes. I'm sure this coming week will hold a lot more hope!

On all my nails except my ring finger I began with two coats of Model's Own 'Blueberry Muffin' and created diagonal lines with striping tape and Rimmel's 'Fizzy Applicious'. I then created the blue flowers using acrylics and tried to create more depth to them using a dark blue and a lighter blue. I then decided to outline these in black for more oompf and added some N.nail whitesweet series studs to the center. For my ring finger I applied two glitters, Essence's 'Glorious Aquarius' and Sinful Colors 'Call You Later'.

What do you think of this manicure? Have you tried acrylic flowers before?

Have a great weekend!

Love

Ithi

My Heart Beats Holographic-ally!

Allo polish Pals!

Here's wishing a fantastic and sparkly start to your week! Are you feeling refreshed and ready? Today is going to be a good day, I can tell! The sun is shining, my head is full of manicure ideas! Today I have something you could consider a valentines manicure to show you. I'm really not one for posting holiday manicures all through the month but I came up with the colour concept (Inspired by this manicure I did a few months ago) a few days ago and I'm the biggest sucker for holographic polishes.. so here it is!

On my thumb and ring-ding finger I began by painting two coats of Rapsodi Pacific Nail Polish in shade '23'. I then painted on a weird heart shape (Mr Bravo calls them graffiti hearts!) using Models Own 'Utopia', 'Purple Grey' and finally Color Clubs 'Cloud Nine' in the center. On all my other nails I started with two coats of 'Utopia' and added an angle before applying '23' to the tips of my index and pinky. I then applied two little holographic hearts which I picked up months ago from the Born Pretty Store. On my middle finger I applied Model's Own 'Hot Stuff' shredded glitter.

Every nail has a little slice of holo! Sadly the hearts didn't want to co-operate too well and show their full holo beauty.

What do you think of this manicure? Do you like holographic polishes as much as I do? Do you like to see other colours used for valentines manicures?

Have a great day!

Love

Ithi