#ColourMeMarch Pastel Gradient

Today, March 11th, is Ladies Day at the Cheltenham Racecourse and this year it's all about colour, dressing up and being a royal for a day. When I heard about the #ColourMeMarch campaign from Etail-Pr I know I had to join in. Traditionally the campaign looks at outfit ideas, what to wear to the races. I have to be honest, I'm not very good at putting outfits together... but I can do my nails!

I've created a super festive colourful spring look, that's classy and fun at the same time!

I wanted something bright that'll pop right off the nails, but at the same time I didn't want something that was too crazy, too complicated and something that would take away from whatever outfit I'd decide to wear.

Gradients are one of my all time favourite things to do. They're easy and always look so impressive! For this gradient I used the new Neon Pastels set from Shop Eighty4. This is an American 5 free hand crafted nail polish line. I fell in love with their nail polishes on Instagram and knew I had to have them. The set comes with 8 neon pastels which arrived just in time for ColourMeMarch!

I started off with a white base using Barry M Cotton. This is one of the best white polishes I've used. I actually only used one coat!

I then applied some Bye Felicia Latex Nail Tape from Shop Eighty4 to protect my skin and for easy clean up. I finally understand the hype about these things! They're incredible!

I then used a cheap cosmetic sponge and applied First Date (pink), Creamsicle (Orange), S.O.S. (yellow), Candy Mint (green, and Power Puff (blue). I slowly dabbed it onto the nail making sure every "coat" was dry before sponging on a new one.

I pulled off the Latex Nail Tape and had hardly any clean up left to do. Perfect!

I'm so happy with how they turned out. They're really simple yet festive and they're definitely very colourful!

What do you think of my #ColourMeMarch nail art for Ladies Day at the Cheltenham Racecourse? Would you have any outfit ideas that could go with these nails?

xx Elaine

Free Nails Inc with Marie Claire

This month Marie Claire magazine is giving away 4 Nails Inc nail polishes! Yes... I bought the same magazine 4 times....

I think Nails Inc is a great brand. The majority of  my polishes actually came from magazines or toothpaste. Not only can you always get freebies, the quality of the nail polishes are fantastic too! One of the nails polishes that came with the Optic White toothpaste I ended up wearing to my brothers wedding!

Anyway, back to the point. These are the four freebies! Very springy.

First up is Fizz. Fizz is a stunning very light pastel pink. It's one of the lightest pinks I own with a creme formula.

I only needed 2 coats for the swatch! It's a very opaque formula, but not thick at all. The first coat was only slightly streaky and if you do a thicker coat you can probably get away with just one.

I didn't use top coat.

The second colour is Fiesta. This is a bright raspberry pink! This isn't the most unique polish, but it's another great formula.

I find that Nails Inc polishes practically apply themselves. I never have issues with flooding my cuticles or getting an uneven line around my cuticles.

I used 1 coat for the swatch and no top coat.

Next up is Festival. This is the least spring-like nail polish of the bunch, but I guess if you're in a neutral mood this'll be great.

It's a a pretty brown. I kind of know how to describe colours, but a brown is a brown. It's not too dark or too light. It's more warm toned than a taupe, but not orangey.

Another amazing formula and I only needed 1 coat.

The last colour is Fashion. This is Fizz's little brother. It's another very light pastel but this is a blue/purple/grey shade. I think it's a very unique colour and best of all... it's a ONE coater!

I only applied 1 coat for the swatch and no top coat.

It's another very opaque formula, just like Fizz, but I had no streakiness with this one.




Again I'm in love with all the freebies. Nails Inc retails for £11 and Marie Claire is £3.99. I'm happy Nails Inc has decided to include some unique shades rather than all the reds.

Kandy Colors Swatches

I'm starting to really fall in love with indies. I have a whole Alex drawer from Ikea dedication to my small but growing indies! Today I'm writing about Kandy Colors, a UK indie brand.

Kandy Colors is based in the UK, is 5 free and cruelty free! They sell a wide range of nail polishes from cremes to glitters and everything in between as well as cuticle oils! She regularly does discounts so make sure to keep an eye out on her website and instagram!

First up is this absolutely beautiful shade called Rhose.

Rhose is a gorgeous strawberry pink with small silver holographic glitter. The formula is a little thick meaning that I only needed 1 coat! ONE coat for the swatch. I was very impressed.

The downside is that because it's a thicker opaque formula all the holographic glitter was completely lost, but it still dried down to quite a gritty finish. I had to use 2 coats of top coat to smooth it all out.

When I emailed Haydawn from Kandy Colors she explained to me that they're reformulating the polish and removing the glitter. It's just going to be a super opaque gorgeous strawberry pink with a glossy non gritty finish.

This is the perfect colour for spring. It's a bright pop of colour, but it's definitely not close to a neon. A great transition colour.

The second colour I received is Vamps Lair. This is the total complete opposite of the bubbly happy Rhose. This is very dark and vampy and I was worried I wouldn't like it...

This is a little more sheer and I applied two coats for the swatch. This is a colour that builds up beautifully. One coat is a little sheer but completely even purple. Adding a second coat darkens the colour and covers the nail line.

It's a very dark eggplant purple with very small shimmer. The shimmer is still very visible on the nail but doesn't turn into a frosty finish.

I didn't apply topcoat to the swatch, it's glossy all on its own!


I'm very impressed with the brand Kandy Colors. It's great that it's a UK brand, 5 free and cruelty free. Both Rhose and Vamps Lair have great easy to work with formulas. These are the mini bottles of 5ml, but the full size bottles (10ml) retail for £5.50.