Random Picks – W7 Mosaic and Sally Hansen Jaded

I recently sorted through my stash and separated out all of the polishes that I haven't gotten around to using/swatching yet, and I was a little surprised at the amount that I had. I was able to fill a whole drawer of my Helmer with them!

In the few weeks since I've done this, sadly, I still haven't touched the drawer, and I'm still buying more polishes, so I've decided that I’m going to try to stave off my polish buying and use up some of my untrieds. So, I'm going to try and randomly pick two polishes from the drawer every week, and create a mani using those, to get my stash used. This consists of me holding my hands over the drawer with my eyes closed and picking two random bottles. I’m sure I look great doing it. Heh.

This week, my hands randomly picked Mosaic from W7 and Sally Hansen's Jaded. Both of these polishes are quite sheer, and I was initially stumped as to what to do with them. Eventually, I decided I would try jelly sandwiching them, since their formulas were perfect for the technique.

Mosaic is a sheer blue base with a scattering of blue and gold glitter. Jaded is a lovely, jade-green jelly. I painted 2 alternating coats of each, starting with Mosaic and finishing with Jaded. Because I can’t leave well enough alone, I also applied a diamond tile-styled stamp from Bundle Monster plate BM-203, and Barry M gold foil. Initially, I wanted to do some type of fishy, underwater style stamp, as the combination reminded me of the green you'd see under the ocean, but I didn't have any, so my eye was drawn to this stamp. I actually think it works really well, it makes it look quite mosaicy to me (if that makes sense…).

Again, I forgot to take a picture before I stamped (d'oh!), so I hope the stamp doesn't cover the paint job up to much, that you can still see the two polishes together. I think they look quite good, and it turned out better than I thought it would.

Happy days!

Belated Valentine Stripes and Gradient

I didn't really get around to doing much nail art for Valentine's Day this year, although I did try out a few ideas to see how they would look. Two I did in particular looked quite good together, I thought, so I decided to use them as a full set. Plus, I painted these on Valentine's Day, so this technically is a Valentine's mani. I'm sticking with that anyway, lol!

For the gradient nails, my base is 2 coats of Barry M Pomegranate, followed by a sponging of A-England Rose Bower on the tips. I think I went a bit high with the gradient, it's not the best! It still looks ok though!

For the stripe nails, I started with a base of 2 coats of OPI Love.Angel.Music.Baby from the Gwen Stefani collection. This is a gorgeous gold with a satin like matte finish; I've been wanting this ever since swatches started popping up on nail blogs, and I'm really glad I decided to splash out on it! The stripes were done with Pomegranate and Rose Bower.

I took some pics with my flash on as well, because why not? I think Rose Bower stands out much better in the flash photos.

I was really impressed with the amount of stripes I managed to get on my thumb, but I ended up being a bit more heavy-handed with the other nails as I got a bit more complacent!

One last close up with flash to catch a bit of the A-England holoness! <3

I really like the simplicity of this, mani - I like getting the striping practice in, and it took me less than an hour to do both of my hands, which is unusual for me! It's nice getting a good mani done in record time!

Nerdy Nails: Exploding TARDIS

My other passion in life, aside from nail art, is the many fandoms in which I currently partake. I love bringing my two passions together, and celebrating my fandoms in my nail art, so I am very happy to bring my Nerdy Nails back to the blog! I was really in the mood for a good nail art session this week, and after seeing this amazing rendition of the Exploding TARDIS on Adventures in Acetone a few months back, I knew I wanted to try to recreate it myself. Figured now was as good a time as any!

For some background, the Exploding TARDIS came about in series 5 of Doctor Who, as a painting done by Vincent Van Gogh in the episode The Pandorica Opens. One of my favourite episodes, with my favourite Doctor, so I was keen to try and do this as best as I could!

I started off with a base of Bobbing For Baubles from Essie (2 coats). The blue I used in the TARDIS pieces is OPI Keeping Suzi At Bay, and I mixed this blue with some white (NYC Pinstripe White) for some highlighting. The white detail for the windows and note on my index finger is OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls (I really need to get a new bottle of this – I use it a lot for nail art, but it’s half gone now, and gone all Super-Gloop, and getting harder to use!). For the flame sections and spirals on my pinky and all of my right hand, I used Essence Little Miss Sunrise and OPI My Vampire Is Buff on their own, as well as mixing them for a paler yellow to add to the mix. The burnt orangey-red mix is a mixture of a bunch of colours just to add a bit of contrast (Essence Little Miss Sunrise, OPI My Vampire Is Buff, Barry M Mango, Rimmel Jungle Princess, NYC Fine Red Wine, Rimmel Celebrity Bash).

There was no way I was going to be able to paint a TARDIS with my non-dominant hand, so I took a leaf out of Jacki's book and just replicated some of the swirly flame aspects of the painting to bring both hands together. Everything’s topped off with two coats of Glisten & Glow HK Girl Topcoat.

This type of nail art always looks much better in my head than it does when I actually get to paint it on my nails, but I’m quite happy with how this turned out. And, as always, practice makes perfect, so I know all of these hours will pay off in the long run!

Baroque stamp with Picture Polish Ultra Violence

I mentioned my long-time craving for some Picture Polish shades in my last post, so when I was ordering from Rainbow Connection, I could't just get one! I also picked up a second beautiful shade, Ultra Violence.

This one was also created through their Blogger collaboration – this time with Lab Muffin. 

This is a gorgeous royal purple shimmer with pink flecks, and larger coral hex glitters that are also holographic in the right lighting. This was a little sheer at first, but was completely opaque in 2 coats, and I had no issues with application.

I thought putting a nice baroque style design stamp would go well with this one. This design is from Bundle Monster plate BM 214, and stamped with Barry M Silver Foil. This is topped off with 2 coats of Glisten & Glow HK Girl topcoat.

I absolutely love this polish, I'm so glad I picked it up and I'll definitely be wearing it loads!

Peacock-style stamp with Picture Polish Kryptonite

For as long as I've been reading nail blogs, I've been dying to get my hands on some Picture Polish shades, but, seeing as they are an Australian brand, and I’m half the world away, it's not been the easiest task. But now, to my delight (and my bank balance's dismay) a UK based online polish store, Rainbow Connection, have started to stock Picture Polish! Needless to say, I was super excited when I heard the news, and snapped up two polishes the minute the brand launched on the store.

Today I’m showing the gorgeous Kryptonite. This shade was part of one of the brand's Blogger collaborations, and was made in collaboration with More Nail Polish. It’s a beautiful, squishy green jelly with a scattered holo effect. I’ve been eyeing this one for over a year now, so it was a no brainer that I’d snap this one up given half the chance. Here, I've done a simple accent stamp, using a peacock tail style (it's not really, but that's what it reminds me of!) stamp from Bundle Monster plate BM 212, and Barry M Gold Foil. The round parts of the stamp were filled in using OPI Tomorrow Never Dies and a dotting tool. I topped it off with a coat of Glisten & Glow HK Girl topcoat (which I also picked up on Rainbow Connection, and after my first use, I'm really impressed!).

Here's a mediocre shot in direct light, as I try to catch the holo goodness! :p

I really like the stamp on this, and I'm totally in love with the polish. I’m already trying to think up of more nail art ideas for this one so I can use it again! So, Picture Polish definitely get a thumbs up from me, and I already have my eyes on lots more of their shades!

Grungy Tribal

I love checking out other nail art blogs, and seeing all the new techniques and ideas that the amazing bloggers are coming out with. I can struggle a lot with thinking up with unique ideas myself, so I find reading other blogs great for sparking inspiration and ideas. With today's mani, I decided to try out the Distressed Nail Art technique from one of my favourite blogs, the amazing Chalkboard Nails. I thought that this technique, done with some bright colours, would be a great base for a dark tribal design.

I started out with a white base of NYC Pinstripe White. Then, I followed Sarah's tutorial for her Distressed Nail Art, and painted the almost-dry polish brushes in stripes over the white (the tutorial explains this a lot better!), using Essence colours Wanna Be Your Sunshine (yellow), Upper Green Side (green) and Free Hugs (pink), Barry M's Gelly Nail Paint in Mango (orange), OPI You're Such A Budapest (purple) and NYC Blue.L.ita (blue) (also, what a strange name!). I then topped all of this with a coat of No 7 Stay Perfect Topcoat to quickly dry everything and to smooth it out a bit. I then stamped a great tribal design from MoYou London’s Explorer collection plate 11, using Essence's matte black stamping polish. A final coat of No7 Stay Perfect topped everything off and sealed it in.

In hindsight, I think I used too many colours when doing the distressed technique, I probably could have done with only using two or three colours at most (as Sarah also advises in the tutorial). A couple of my nails looked a bit muddy when I put the orange over the green, but once I put the stamp on and finished it up, I actually really liked the result. I'll definitely try this technique again with some other colours, and I'll remember to take a picture of that part before putting anything else over it the next time!

Girly Argyle

Howdy peeps! Today I've got a girly take on a jumper design – the Argyle sweater! I've been wanting to try this design out for a while, but just never got around to it until now. Also, I made a light box during my time-out, so this was my first time trying it out!

The base is Essence Free Hugs, and I used some squares of sticky tape and then painted on OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips to create the diamond effect. I used Barry M Silver Foil to finish off the silver stripes. Everything's topped off with a coat of Seche Vite. Nice design for some tape and striping practice!

I remember that I used to have a string top when I was about 17 with this design and colour scheme, and I loved it, and thought I looked the bee's knees when I wore it out! I think I’ll stick with wearing this on my nails from now on!

Ciao for now! x

Lace pattern with Rimmel Salon Pro and Barry M Nail Art Pens!

Happy Tuesday!

I still haven’t gotten around to spending an afternoon doing a lot of swatches/nail arty things, so my post schedules are still a little haphazard/flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants styleee. Hopefully in the next few weeks I’ll be able to devote some quality hours to my beloved hobby (although, with two UK trips and a move coming up in the next 6/7 weeks, that's probs unlikely. Nice to have goals though, eh?).

To the nails! Today, I'm showing you some new nail swag, in the form of the new Rimmel Salon Pro polishes, and Barry M's Nail Art Pens!

This swag was a complete impulse buy last week. I was in Boots for my bi-weekly perusal, which usually consists of me staring at all the lovely polishes, and testing my purchasing will power. Said will power went completely out the window once I saw that they recently stocked Rimmel's new Salon Pro range. After staring at all the bottles for an age, I finally decided on Barmy Blue, a new, lovely royal blue colour that I assume is in the core range, and Britpop, a cool blue-green from the Kate Moss shades. 

Just as I was about to walk to the counter, I spied the Barry M stand, and my eyes landed on the new Nail Art Pens, and I nearly mowed down a couple of fellow shoppers to get my hands on them. I limited myself to the black and white ones, as I figured I’d use those more (I've since gone back and bought the pink and silver pens, and I’m currently rattling my brain, trying to think of a good idea to use them for!).

So, I couldn't wait to break these babies open, so once I got home I got to nail artin'! I couldn't decide on what ones I wanted to use first, so I just decided to incorporate them all into this mani! I used Britpop on my thumb and ring fingers, and Barmy Blue on the rest. You could get away with one coat of Britpop, it’s a great opaque creme, but I used two here just to make sure my nails were covered. Barmy Blue is a bit more sheer, but two coats was all I needed for total coverage. I plopped a coat of Seche Vite on top to quick dry the polish so I could test out the nail art pens. I decided on trying my hand at a lace design for the first time, and used the black over Britpop, and the white over Barmy Blue, as I didn't think the black would be very noticeable over that one.

I really like the Rimmel polishes, the polish goes on well and the brush is nice and wide so minimal strokes are required (same as always with these bad boys). The star of the show for this one is the Nail Art Pens for me though. I absolutely LOVE these, they are going to completely change my nail art for the better. I’m still struggling with getting to grips with using the small, thin brushes for my art, but these pens are so easy to control, and I know I’ll be using these a lot! I'm particularly looking forward to trying out circular/spiral shapes, as they are my nail art kryptonite when it comes to using brushes! I really hope Barry M decide to release these in a bunch more colours, because they really are brilliant.

I hope y'all liked these today, and apologies for the wordy post! I just felt like adding a bit of a review on these I guess, particularly since I love the pens so much :)

Thanks for reading!

Ciao for now x

Nerdy Nails Issue 7: Legend Of Zelda

It’s the weekend! Which means more Nerdy Nails! I have to say, I always look forward to the end of the week and getting stuck into my geeky nail art. It doesn’t always turn out how I imagine, but I love getting the proper art practice in, and I love figuring out the best/easiest way to draw a particular idea.

This week, I've picked one of my favourite video game franchises, Legend of Zelda! This Nintendo classic has been around donkeys years, but I only started to fall in love when The Windwaker came out on the Nintendo GameCube. A great fantasy take on the classic average boy on a quest to save the world from the bad guy, and saving the girl in the process. As always, I've listed each design and colours used to save word space.

Vintage Pattern

Howdy peeps! The start of another week! I hope everyone has some fun-filled things planned to break up the working week.

I've been a bit strapped for time lately, and for me, the easiest way to get some nail art in that isn't going to take hours is usually to go with some stamping. It's been a while since I had the stamping plates out as well, so I was looking forward to getting stuck in.

Nerdy Nails Issue 6: Avatar: The Last Airbender

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Howdy peeps! Time for another issue of Nerdy Nails! After the unexpected hiatus last week, I decided I would come back with an idea I've had and have been wanting to paint for ages. These are in tribute to one of my favourite animated shows, Avatar: The Last Airbender!

17 Rock Hard Nail Effects swatch

Hi there!
I must apologise for the quietness of the blog in the last week, I'm a bad blogger! I've had a crazy couple of weeks, with very little time to myself in the evenings, so unfortunately I didn't have time to write up posts or even properly paint my nails! Thankfully, the madness has abated now, so regular posting will resume once I've caught myself up and have time to get some serious nail art going!

Today I’m showing you some pics I took a couple of weeks ago of a textured polish from the Boots brand, 17. This is one of their rock Hard Nail Effects polishes, their version of the popular textured polishes available these days. There are 4 colours, black, grey, red and blue, and I decided to go for the blue one.

This is two coats with no topcoat. I decided to jazz my thumbs and ring fingers up a little with a snakey stamp from an Essence stamping plate and Barry M Silver Foil.

Easter nails with (mostly) OPI and Essence!

Howdy peeps!

I hope everyone is having a good long weekend, and enjoying the end of Lent and eating loads of chocolate!

In celebration, I’ve decided to decorate my nails with some Easter egg and chick and bunny art! I was thrilled to get stuck into these ones – the bright colours really cheered me up after the miserable week of snow and coldness we’ve had.

Nerdy Nails Issue 5: Doctor Who

Happy Easter y'all!

Hope everyone's enjoying the long weekend so far. Mine has just started, as I had to work today, but I'm looking forward to enjoying my three days off!

Today's Nerdy Nails are in celebration of one of my favourite TV shows, Doctor Who! DW is back this Saturday for the second half of Series 7, and its very exciting! So I had to do my nails in tribute to everyone's favourite Time Lord. As before, I'll try to keep it short, and explain the design for each nail and the colours used.

Nerdy Nails Issue 4: Star Wars

I'm really happy with how my Nerdy Nails turned out this week; after my mediocre Avengers attempt last week, I wasn't feeling too confident but I managed to pull these out of the bag. Star Wars holds a special place in my heart - it's the first thing I ever went totally nuts for, and the first fandom I fell into. I really wanted to pay a decent tribute to my first love, and I think I did a pretty good job. I'll try to keep it short, so I'll just list the character on each nail and the colours used.

Nerdy Nails Issue 3: The Avengers!

I've come to the conclusion that drawing circle free-hand on my nails has become the bane of my nail art existence. Maybe I just wasn't in a good mind set for elaborate nail art this week, but my Nerdy Nails didn't turn out too good.

Picture Fail: Swirly Floral

Hola lovelies!

My posting has started to get a bit sporadic of late. I wanted to get into a routine and post the same days every week, hopefully building up to one post a day, but I've been falling behind a bit :( Hopefully I can get back on track, and get some more art and start to get some swatches done so I can build up a backlog of posts, and get a bit more organised.

Today, I have a bit of a picture fail I'm afraid. I have a lovely stamping mani to show you, but I only noticed after I had taken it off that in most of my pics you can't see the actual stamp due to the reflection of my lamp on my nails! Such a rookie mistake, I need to get a light box sorted asap! Also, the sun needs to stick around a bit longer so I can start taking pics in the daylight after work :p

Aaanyway, here are the nails! The amazing blue colour is Bleu Fabuleaux from Bourjois' So Laque range.

I've been looking at it but walking past it for months, but I finally took the plunge after Karen at LovelyGirlieBits reviewed it here a few weeks ago. I'm so glad I did, I think it's my favourite blue at the moment!

I decided to jazz it up a little with a simple, girly, swirly, floraly stamp from a Cheeky plate CH26 and my Barry M Silver Foil. Unfortunately, my indoor pics do not show off the stamp due to reflection, but you can see it better on the couple of daylight ones I managed to get on the bus home from work one day!

I'll defo be wearing this blue a lot, and I have a fab art deco design I want to try with it. I'll be sure to take better pictures next time too!

Thanks for reading!

Ciao for now x

Nerdy Nails Issue 2: Pac-Man!

As well as being a sci-fi nerd, I’m also a big lover of video games. There’s little I love more than sitting down and spending hours being immersed in a completely new world and forget about real life for a while. 

I have quite a few ideas inspired by my favourite video games that I want to try out on my nails, but I thought I’d start out with something relatively simple, so I decided on Pac-Man! Everyone loves this little circle “wakka wakka”-ing his way around the screen collecting his pellets while being chased around by the colourful monsters, Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde. It’s a classic, but one that always frustrates me! I’m ashamed to say, I don’t think I’ve ever actually been able to get passed one level on this without losing all my lives! Clearly, I just need more practice! :p

So, for my nail art, I decided to dedicate each nail to the five main characters of the game.

Thumb – Pac-Man: I was dreading doing my thumb, as I knew I had to draw a circle free-hand. It didn’t turn out too bad, but this was my second attempt, the first was awful. Colours used were: OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls (base), NYC Lexington Yellow (yellow), China Glaze Liquid Leather (black)

Index – Blinky: These guys were easy enough to do – I just painted my full nail the colour for the monster, then filled in the eyes and the black bits with a dotting tool and a brush. The main colour for Blinky was China Glaze Red Satin, and his eyes were OPI MBSW again, and Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream for the blue. The black is Liquid Leather.

Middle – Pinky: Next is Pinky. I followed the same method as Blinky above, the base pink is Show Off from Rimmel’s Lycra Pro range, and eyes and black bits are the same as above.

Ring – Inky after power pellet: uh-oh! Poor Inky isn’t looking too good! This is what happens to the monster when Pac-Man eats one of the power pellets, so he can eat these guys and give himself a break from the chase. Here, I used Essence The Boy Next Door for the main blue, and his eyes and mouth were done with Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream. Black is LL again.

Pinky – Clyde: I love that he has a normal name that doesn’t have any resemblance to the other guys. I’m also easily amused :p This little guys was painted with Coral from Barry M, with eyes and black bits the same as the rest of the guys above.

 

Here's a close up of ol' Pac-Man himself (I didn't notice the two random yellow spots until after I had taken the photos, I must have dented the polish doing something)

I could have done these guys a little better, but I’m happy with them for now. Pac-Man was the hardest, as I’m still getting used to free-handing art, but hopefully with more practice I’ll get there in the end.

Hope you enjoyed this issue of my Nerdy Nails. I have a great idea to assemble for next week’s edition, I just hope I can pull it off!

Thanks for reading!

Ciao for now x