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.

OPI Liquid Sand Swatch & French Tipped

Howdy y'all!

I'm trying out my first texture polish today, and also have my first swatch! This is Stay the Night, one of the Liquid Sand polishes from OPI's Mariah Carey collection. This is a black base with red glitter flowing through it. I decided on this one after seeing it on some other blogs and how amazing it looks when it's top-coated. 

I decided to make it a bit more nail arty by adding some freehand chevron tips. The red I used for these is Chelsea from NYC's In A New York Minute range. I was hoping the tips would show up a bit more, but I was putting it over black, so I'm not sure why I was expecting it to stand out more (duh, Marilyn!).

I top-coated Stay The Night with two coats of Seche Vite before adding the tips, and I added one more coat after the tips were dry. These textured polishes eat top-coat though, after a few hours of drying, my nails still had a slightly rough texture to them.

I haven't worn this in its natural state for a long period yet, so I'm not sure if I'd like having the rough texture on my nails permanently, but I'll report back once I've had a chance to live with it for a while. I do love this one with topcoat though, the glitter really stands out.

I think I like this textured trend. I think the OPI and Zoya collections look best though, as they have added glitter, which I think sets these apart from other brands. The others just tend to look like your normal polish that's been slept on before it's fully dried. I do have one from 17 that I haven't tried yet though, so maybe that will change my mind. I'll post some pics of that one soon.

Thanks for reading!

Ciao for now x

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

Glitter Gradient

Good day to all!

I hope everyone’s week is going well. I've been a bit haphazard with my posting this week – the downside to actually having things to do in the evenings this week! Normal service will resume after the weekend when my social calendar goes back to being empty as usual :p

Anywho, back to the nails (this is a nail blog after all). Today I’m trying out some new polishes I picked up last week from Essence. My lovely base green is two coats of Upper Green Side, a new shade from their Colour & Go range. Once that was dry, I applied the gradient with a new Essence glitter topper, Glitter On Me. I applied about three coats for the gradient using the bottle’s brush, and I think I applied either two or three full coats of the glitter to my accent nail. I topped it all with one coat of NYC Grand Central Station and one coat of Essence Better Than Gel Nails.

Going Dotty!

Howdy peeps!

I hope everyone is having a good week so far, and enjoyed the weekend. I was out shopping on Saturday, and didn’t buy a single nail polish! I managed to convince myself that the 11 bottles I had bought last week were enough for the moment :p

I‘m finally out of my polish ban, so I’m happy I can now indulge in all of the pretty new polishes out. I’ve also decided that I’m going to start swatching all of the new polishes I buy, and all of the untried I have. That way, I’ll get to have them used, and I’ll have some extra posts on the back burner, in case I’m stuck for posts, or if I’m away. It’s a win-win for everyone!

Anyway, today’s nails are mostly OPI-centric. I think it’s the fastest growing brand in my collection, along with Essence. I just really love their polishes, I never have too much trouble with the formula, and the colours are great. I’m also a sucker for themed collections, and OPI always release some great ones!

Nerdy Nails Issue 1: Supernatural

It’s no secret that I love nail polish and trying out loads of different nail art to jazz up my talons – I do blog about it after all! It’s not my first love, however, and not the first thing to make me obsessive over something.

I am also a bit of a sci-fi nerd, and partake in a few nerdy fandoms in my spare time. I wasn’t surprised when I suddenly got loads of ideas of how to celebrate my favourite nerdy things on my nails, so I’ve decided to start posting a series of nerdy nail art. I’m going to do my best to post once a week, on either a Friday or a Saturday, but that may change, depending on how busy I am!

So, for my first Nerdy Nails venture, I've gone for a tribute to one of my favourite TV shows at the moment: Supernatural! I love nothing better than sitting down and getting immersed in the weird world of demon hunters, Sam and Dean Winchester every week. For this art, I've painted some symbols and wardrobe items that will be quite recognisable to a Supernatural fan, but I’ll explain each nail for anyone who wouldn't be familiar with them after the jump.