Easter Nail Ideas: Mini Eggs-Inspired Nails with L'Oreal Confetti Top Coat

L'Oreal Color Riche Nail Top Coat Confetti

With Easter coming up in just over a month away (insert sentence here about how quickly this year has gone?!) and Model's Own relasing their answer to Illamasqua's speckled polishes I thought I'd post the budget way to achieve Mini Eggs-inspired nails. While Model's Own's new range of Speckled Egg polishes are much cheaper than Illamasqua's range, (£5 compared to £14) to get the look of the different colours of Mini Eggs you'd have to invest in at least a couple of them which still works out quite pricey. 

However L'Oreal's Confetti top coat, which usually costs less than £5, can be used for just the same effect! Being a top coat you can paint it over any colour you want so for the image above I just painted it over some Mini Egg-like colours I already owned. I wore this manicure last weekend and got lots of compliments on it so I'll definitely have to repeat it for the Easter weekend!

NOTD | Valentine's Nails: Heart Tips

Heart tips:

No7 Stay Perfect Nail Colour in Devil's Delight

Base colour:

Essie Nail Lacquer in Neo Whimsical

I've seen this nail design around for a while but I had never attempted it before so I thought Valentine's Day would be the perfect time to try it out! I was a little nervous about getting the heart design right but I found these were actually pretty simple to do. I'll definitely need a bit more practice doing my right hand though... Damn my non-ambidextrous hands!

For the base colour I used Essie Neo Whimsical which is a very pretty pale purple-pink colour and for the tips I dug out No7 Devil's Delight which I had in a Christmas gift pack a couple of years ago. I'm not usually a fan of bright reds all over my nails which is why I had never actually tried this polish before now but I was pleasantly surprised with it. The brush is thick and flat which makes doing this design much easier and the consistency is brilliant. It only took one stoke for each curve of the heart which was great because I think if I had to go over them, these wouldn't look half as neat!

If you'd like to try these out for yourself, you can find the tutorial I used here. Hope you had a lovely, relaxing Valentine's day whatever you did!

NOTD | Essie Neo Whimsical & Barry M Rose Quartz

Essie Nail Lacquer in Neo Whimsical

Barry M Glitter Nail Paint in Rose Quartz

Bowknot Midi Ring from eBay

Sorry for the double nail-related posts but as I've been on a bit of a spending ban I've recently been concentrating on playing around with my existing nail polish collection. I've always loved glitter tips but I'd not tried them before as I was worried I wouldn't be able to do them very well but I think these have turned out quite well for a first attempt! Now that I've finally mastered getting rid of glitter nails (guide here) I'll definitely have to try these out more.

NOTD | Icy Winter Nails

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Barracuda

OPI Liquid Sand Nail Lacquer in Solitaire
Ring from Accessorize

Another Wintery-themed NOTD! I was given the Sally Hansen polish for Christmas from one of my friends and it has been a very welcome addition to my collection. The colour is so pretty and versatile and it applies like a dream - only two coats and it is perfectly opaque.

I've also been loving this OPI Liquid Sand polish from their Bond Girls collection. My flatmate originally introduced me to the collection and I ended buying both the mini collection and a full size bottle of Tiffany! These seem to have a bit of a love/hate reaction in the blogging world but I've been really impressed with them. They are fairly easy to remove so they make a great alternative to glitter polishes when you fancy sparkly nails!

P.S. Sorry the polish isn't looking too great - I used a cheap topcoat instead of my beloved Seche Vite. That'll teach me for painting my nails in the middle of the night!

NOTD | Simple Christmasy Nails

Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine in Watermelon

Models Own Velvet Goth in Absinthe

A bit late but better than never! This is the look I went for my nails on Christmas Day. I acquired both of these polishes just before Christmas and I thought they'd look perfect together. I've been a huge fan of Barry M's Gelly polishes ever since I tried my first one and 'Watermelon' was no exception. I was luckily given it as part of my Secret Santa present from my flatmate and I fell in love with the colour instantly. And then when I came across this Models Own polish in Boots I thought it would be great for a Christmas manicure.

I've not tried any of their Velvet Goth polishes before. They have a matte finish to them which I'm not particularly fond of (as you might be able to see in the second picture) but its nothing a coat of Seche Vite won't fix! It looks so sparkly, I'd definitely like to pick up a few more when my bank balance has recovered from Christmas!

Have you tried either of these polishes before?