Something Blue… Layla CE82

So I’m flying off to Finland this afternoon and have just one last pale blue polish to show you before I make my choice of which polish to take for my wedding day. This polish was labelled “Ceramic Effect” but I’m not sure exactly what that means. At first I thought it might be some kind of crackle effect but it just seems to be normal nail polish. It is nice and shiny if that’s an effect. Anyway, this polish needed three coats to look good and has very nice coverage with the three coats, looking even and streak free. I think the colour is a little bit too much towards the green side of the pale blue spectrum to be perfect for my wedding.

Ciaté Mini Mani Month Round-up

I really enjoyed my mini mani month calendar despite there being some polishes I wasn’t all that impressed with, but that’s inevitable right? I don’t think I’ve had many nail polish sets where I’ve loved every polish and half the fun of this was getting a little surprise each day.

So we’ll start with my favourites…

These are the ones I can see myself using a lot and would even consider replacing in the future. I especially loved Pillow Fight and Tweed and Tails.

As I was opening the doors I felt that a high proportion of the polishes were pinks or reds, which I know have always been the most classic nail polish shades with the widest appeal, but I’ve always thought of Ciaté as modern and innovative rather than classic. Still, there were some beautiful shades of pink and I even learned to love one (maybe two) of the reds!

(Seeing all the photos next to each other like this really shows me I need to work on the lighting in some of the photos and try to be more consistent with it!)

Next up I have the non polishes. The calendar contained 4 bottles of caviar beads, 1 loose glitter and a pot of sequins. I’d never played with loose glitter or sequins like this before and I really enjoyed the ease and impact of the loose glitter so I’ll be experimenting with this technique more in the New Year.

Finally here are four polishes which didn’t quite fit into any of the categories above. I really liked Starlet but it wasn’t quite in my top 6. Chinchilla was a lovely colour with horrible application. Snowglobe was a fun flaky holo glitter which I might get some use out of in future and I already owned Fit for a Queen which I love but didn’t think it was right to stick in the favourites list as I already knew I loved it!

So that’s it for the Ciaté Mini Mani Calendar. In case you’re wondering it cost me €42,50 and I think I got a pretty nice selection of polish for my money. I would have appreciated a wider range of colours but I think I’ll get a lot of use out of several of these polishes over the next year. What do you think of the selection in the calendar?

Ciaté Mini Mani Month – Play Date

Here’s the last of the mini mani month swatches. The calendar finished on a classic looking red called Play Date which needed three coats to look good. It’s a bold and beautiful red but I have to say I as a non-red-nails-loving girl I’d probably choose the darker, less classic looking red Boudoir which I got on the second day of this calendar if I was going to have a red nails day. This is a still a lovely shade which might be more exciting for those who love red nails!

Ciaté Mini Mani Month – Cupid’s Arrow Caviar Pearls and Something Blue… Blueberry Muffin – Models Own

This is a combination of the two things I’ve been working on recently. First I swatched Blueberry Muffin by Models Own but somehow the photos got deleted off the camera… By the point we realised that I’d already got the Cupid’s Arrow caviar pearls that came on day 23 of the calendar out and so this post has to show both!

The blue is nicer than I thought and the formula was better than I thought! I’d bought this polish back in the summer when I came to the UK and had used it then and decided it had the most horrible texture I’d ever tried! Now I’m not so sure – it really didn’t seem that bad when I used it to do this swatch. It didn’t dry all that fast but went on well and looked smooth after two coats so I have no idea what I was complaining about last time!

Cupid’s Arrow caviar pearls were pretty with a nice combination of colours and are seen here without topcoat as I didn’t intend to wear them for any length of time.

Ciaté Mini Mani Month – Hopscotch

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I had a lovely day with my family and am getting very excited about my wedding which is one week today! Anyway, I must finish off posting my Mini Mani Month swatches. I have to admit the last ones were a bit rushed as I’ve been so busy and are maybe not as tidy as I’d like…
This one is Hopscotch an orangey red which had slightly streaky application but looked quite nice in three coats. Orangey reds are not a shade I wear very often as I’m not sure they really suit my skin tone all that well. This one is a nice shade though and I’m sure it would look great on someone who does suit these kind of colours!

Something Blue… Dollish Polish: Drop your Sword

I’d swatched this polish several weeks ago but somehow we managed to mislay the photos. We checked all the different memory cards for both the cameras my fiancé has, various files on the computer but the pictures had vanished into thin air. I was debating on whether to re-swatch it as I knew I probably wasn’t going to use it for the wedding. It’s a very pretty colour and I love the mix of large and tiny gold glitters but it’s very sheer and would need a lot of coats to get the look I was hoping for for the big day.
I knew I would definitely come back to it in future though as I haven’t played with sheer polishes that much and want to experiment with them more. And just as I was thinking about how I could experiment with sheer polishes the obvious idea of layering them came to my mind. I looked at my nails which had Ciaté’s Fit for a Queen on them and thought these two might just be a beautiful combination. And they were! One coat of Drop Your Sword over Fit for a Queen looked fantastic and I loved the effect of a sheer blue over a sparkly silver. Suddenly Dollish Polish’s pretty blue was back in the running for my wedding nails.

Ciaté Mini Mani Month – Fit for a Queen

This was the only polish from the advent calendar that I already owned. It’s a beautiful polish which is my go to silver and I use quite frequently. The picture shows two coats, it applies really well and is very pretty and festive.

Ciaté Mini Mani Month – Starlet

I was really excited when I opened the door of my polish calendar back on Friday (yes, I’ve got really behind with my posts what with packing, travelling back to the UK and then an epic day of shopping yesterday!) Starlet is a predominantly dark blue/purple duochrome which is just so different to everything else in the calendar. The first coat was a bit streaky but the second made it look great and third even better! It caught the light nicely and has a lovely green/gold shimmer. It was really difficult to photograph but hopefully this gives you an idea of what it’s like.

Ciaté Mini Mani Month – Dallas Dolly Sequins

I got a pot of sequins on day 19. It was another first for me as I’ve never tried a loose sequin mani like this before. I have used sequins and painstakingly positioned each one with a dotting tool but never just showered my nails in sequins! It was fun to do and no messier than a caviar mani. The colours in Dallas Dolly are perfect for Christmas with red and green hex glitters and little pearly/holo bar glitters. The kids in my classes loved them for the last day of term and thought I’d done them specially for Christmas. I topcoated them when I finished as most blogs had advised doing this and said that sequin manis are quite long lasting. I can’t say I really tested the durability but 24 hours after I’d applied them they still looked perfect.
I’m not sure it’s a look I’d go for very often – although I did go totally over the top by doing it on every nail – it might be more wearable as an accent nail!

Ciaté Mini Mani Month – Tweed and Tails

For day 18 I found Tweed and Tails behind the door of my nail polish advent calendar. It’s a beautiful khaki green that has a perfect formula and looks stunning in 2 coats. It’s a very flattering and wearable shade and I think I’m going to get lots of use out of it. This is definitely one of my favourite polishes so far from the Mini Mani Month.