NOTD: My First Glitter Gradient & New Blog Layout

Hi ladies! You may notice Polished Criminails has had a little make over. It's been a long time coming, and I'm not 100% happy with the layout as it is at the moment but since I received my brand new customised blog banner from the amazingly talented Gia from Lovely Serendipity yesterday, I needed a new layout to match! I'm still getting used to using X-Large pictures on my blog, to me they seem a little too big, but I'm sure as time goes on I will get used to that!

To celebrate my new banner and layout I thought I would also match my first post with the colour scheme by attempting my first ever glitter gradient! I started out with a base of Headline Colours - Poolside Party* (collection post coming soon) and used China Glaze - Lorelei's Tiara* for the gradient. I smoothed everything over with Eye Candy London - Gel Wrap Top Coat*! I'm really happy with how everything turned out, especially since this was my first ever attempt at a glitter gradient! Enough talk...let's see the finished result!

What do you think to my brand new layout and my first attempt at a glitter gradient? I love the way the colours work together! Stay tuned for some upcoming posts including the brand new Spring/Summer Collection from Headline Colours, formerly known as Killer Colours, Nails Inc Leather Effect in Noho and some swatch spam from Sation, Catrice and Essence!


The product(s) in this post that are marked with a (*) have been sent to me by the company or their PR team for my honest review.

Swatch: A England - Tristam & Saint George

Hi ladies! You may notice a drastic change in my nail length, that's because I've had these sitting in my 'to post' pile for a while and never gotten around to it. Since March has turned into a little 'holo' month so far, I thought I may as well continue that trend and have a clear out at the same time. 

Saint George is a gorgeous Emerald Green scattered holo. I love A England polishes, they're so easy to apply and have some serious staying power as well as a wow factor. I applied 2 coats of Saint George without a base/top coat.

 Tristam is a deep Purple a scattered holo with leanings towards Blue. I applied 2 coats of Tristam without a base/top coat.

NOTD: Stamped Gradient

Hi ladies! This is a bit of a different post today, I never usually post Nail Art posts outside of a challenge, but since I'm completely out of fresh swatches, I thought I would post this as a substitute. Please excuse the crap photo quality/clean up. It looked a lot better *I thought* IRL and I took these very early morning before running out the door to go to work.

I started out with a base of OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls to bring out the gradient colours that little bit more, then using a cut up make-up sponge, I painted a strip of OPI - Can't Find My Czechbook and OPI - You're Such A Budapest from the new Euro-Centrale collection (swatches of my picks will be coming shortly). After the gradient was dry, I knew I wanted something stamping over the top, so I went through various image plates before settling on CH-53* from the Cheeky Summer 2012 collection, which was stamped using a White polish from the Rio Nails Stamping set*. I finished off with Eye Candy Gel Wrap Top Coat* to smooth out the Gradient and protect the stamping and here is the result.

I was really pleased with the overall look of this mani, and it's only the second time I've ever done a gradient! it took a while for me to make sure the transitions were good enough, but I think I got there in the end. To give you an idea of how pleased I am with this, I did this mani on Monday night and I'm still wearing it now! Yes, that's 5 days of the same nails, which is a rarity. The best thing? There's only minor tip wear!

What do you guys think? Would you like to see more of my stamping adventures or would you rather me stick to swatching terribly.