Not My Nails

The post today is going to be a brief description of the nails I did for my friend for our night out on friday. We decided to do mattified black nails with a silver accent nail on each hand. I was intending on stamping a design on the silver nails (Genie chose little bats) but however much I tried, I could not get the design to transfer to the stamper, let alone onto her nails. I tried 3 different black polishes and a dark purple, but it wasn't happening (may have had something to do with the numerous tequila cocktails though!)

In the end we just left the nails as black with a silver accent nail, but this worked well anyway and was a good look, my friend was pleased with the effect that the matte top coat resulted in too. I used the Constance Carroll base coat and hardener, followed by Stargazer nail polish in 129 (black) on all but the accent nails, finished with Rimmel Matte Finish Matifying Top Coat, and Constance Carroll Diamond Gloss in 248 Diamond on her ring fingers. Here is the final result -

Pretty basic, but we were both happy with how they turned out in the end. I was also very pleased with the silver nail polish, being a cheapy from the bargain basket I was pleasantly surprised that in only required 2 coats :)

In my post tomorrow I will show you the Rimmel Metal Rush polish in Pearly Queen, I love it, it is so pretty and I'm not bored of it yet despite not having any nail art on the go at the moment.

More about that tomorrow, S x

Interlocking Dots Design

Hi all! Sorry I have been quiet for a couple of days, have been recovering after a big night out with the girls! It was an awesome night, even if I am a little out of practice, my neck still aches from all the windmilling 48 hours on! So worth it though.

Anyway, this post is about the nails that I created for that night out, we were going to my favourite rock night in Bristol, so I needed something suitable for the occasion! I thought I would do something a bit more exciting than the usual all black, and eventually settled on trying an interlocking dots design in black and red, and I've got to say, I was very happy with how it turned out, and can't wait to try it in other colour combinations.

I started off with one coat of 17 Fast Finish in Knockout Red, used a striper brush to paint a diagonal line across my nail in Rimmel I <3 Lasting Finish in 080 Black Cab and just used the nail polish brush to fill in the area below the line so my nails looked like this -

Actually really liked them just like that too, but wanted to try out the interlocking dots design. This is what I ended up with, after finishing with glitter topcoats in Stargazer 148 red glitter and on my thumbs and ring fingers BarryM in 339 Gold Glitter -

If you would like to see the tutorial I followed to achieve this look (with a couple of minor tweaks) here is where I found it http://nailsbeautiqued.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/blue-monday-interlocking-dots.html. I added the gold glitter mainly just to test out one of my new polishes, but I like how it turned out, made the whole mani a little more eye catching I think :)

If you try this design, be careful what nail polishes you choose, I chose ones which were quite difficult to work with, the fast finish 17 polish kept on going tacky when I was trying to add the dots and leaving fine lines of red between the dots. The black that I chose was also quite tacky, but that is just because it is an old one, and nearing the end of the bottle.

Anyway, hope you like this one as much as I liked wearing it, tomorrow I will be posting about my friends nails for that night, a birthday treat for her (I think) they didn't quite go according to plan, but I will tell you all about that next time.

Mwah, S x

Black Over Holo

Just a quick update, I decided to add some black nail polish to my holographic base coat, and this is what I came up with -

I achieved this look using only the nail polish brush, if I attempted a similar look in the future I would use a striping brush just to outline, in order to get crisper edges. I really like this look on the whole though, it was easy to achieve, and has made the holographic nails completely different for another day of wear.

Weirdly, after doing the washing up, the whole lot just peeled off of my index fingernails, strange! I don't know if this was due to the base coat or the holographic nail polish, I wasn't complaining though, there was very little tip wear and I wore them for almost 3 days, and they pretty much fell off when I got bored of them, perfect! I have a different nail art design now ready for my night out tomorrow, I will show you that soon. Not sure if I will get a chance to blog you tomorrow, as I am out most of the day and all night.

Until next time, S x

Holographic Nails!

So, I have just been trying out a couple of the new nail polish colours that I bought. I tried the technic strawberries and cream colour, just because I was really curious to see what colour it actually is on. I apologise about the quality of these pictures, it really was just to see what the colour was like, so please ignore the blue stained cuticles and the mismatched nails on my right hand - when the broken one has grown a little bit, I will cut all of my nails to match. Anyway, here is technic strawberries and cream on -

I quite like the colour, it did require 3 coats, and take a long time to dry (hence smudgyness) but it is subtle and shimmery and just pretty :)

Nevertheless I was so excited to test out the holographic nail polish that this pretty much came straight off. After a shower most of the blue came off of my cuticles too, thankfully! I took quite a few photos of the holographic polish (17 Holo in silver) to try to capture all of the different colours.

Pretty huh? I really love it, having never worn holographic nail polish before, it is strange to look down and see all the different colours sparkling up at me :) This is 2 coats over base coat and hardener, but even just one coat provided quite good coverage.

Anyway, that's it for today :)

Blog you soon, S x

My Shopping *happy face*

So, as promised, I am posting about all the goodies that I bought yesterday :) I had a small nail related disaster yesterday whilst at my friends house (mid way through the second bottle of wine) - whilst opening a tub of ice cream, I broke my middle fingernail of my right hand! Really really short, it's sore :( I also bruised underneath my index fingernail, so any photo's that appear of my right hand will be a little mismatched for a few days. The ice cream was really good though, strawberry flavour, with whole strawberries in! A small comfort after ruining my nails. Anyway, to the goodies!

There are also a couple of nail photos at the end of this epic long post, so if you get bored of scrolling through the nail polishes, just skip to the end :)

First is what I actually went to buy, nail varnish remover and pure acetone -

The acetone was behind the counter in the chemist and was £1.40 for this small 50ml bottle, I'm sure it will last a while. The twist and out nail polish remover tub was £1.49 in Just Beauty, I just wanted to try it out. I have to say I am not impressed with it, I have only used it twice, the sponge is already stained, and tiny bits of the sponge are falling away and keep going up my fingernails, most irritating. It is easy to use and very quick though, so not all bad.

Next are the metal rush polishes by Rimmel -

On the left is 100 Pearly Queen, and on the right is 80 Purple Reign, these photo's don't do the polishes justice, even in the bottle they shimmer different colours, hopefully when they are on my nails it will be easier to capture all the shades.

Next I was super excited to find some Rimmel Pro Matte Finish matifying topcoat, I've wanted to try this out ever since seeing it on someone elses blog, this is what the bottle looks like -

My next exciting find was a holographic silver nail polish by 17, something else I have been meaning to try out since seeing it on other blogs -

The colour of this one is just described as silver.

Next I found some BarryM glitters I wanted to try, when I found these, I put the Revlon glitters back on the shelf, they were more than twice the price so I thought I would try out the BarryM ones first. I selected a gold glitter for any Christmassy manicures, and a chunky pink glitter -

These are Nos 339 Gold Glitter and 352 Pink Sapphire Glitter, the latter seems to be big and small pink glitter, and silver strands, very pretty :)

Next are the bargain bucket goodies I found in Just Beauty, there are a base coat, hardener and top coat by Constance Carroll -

I have learned the importance of a base coat, as my cuticles are pretty stained right now from the Betty Blues I used for my spotty manicure, I just thought I'd get the whole set. Not sure how much I will use the hardener, as my nails tend to be quite strong, but I'm sure I will use the base coat and top coat lots.

There were also some striping polishes by technic, so I picked up all the colours they had as I am keen to try some tribal designs, even if the available colours aren't that suitable -

As far as I can see these bottles don't even have colour names, we'll just have to see how they turn out :)

I finally found some good grass and sky colours, These are by Constance Carroll and are called Diamond Gloss Nail Polish in 355 Neon Green (looked grassy to me) and 365 Pastel Green (looked blue to me) I am not familiar with this brand, so again will just have to see how it turns out, anyway here they are -

It definitely looks blue right?

The next one is by technic again, the colour is called strawberries and cream, I just thought it looked like a really interesting colour to try out, it is different colours in different lights -

The last polish is another Constance Carroll Diamond gloss, in colour 248, Diamond (I think it says 248, it's really difficult to tell) this is another one that I bought for Christmassy purposes :) -

Anyway that's it!

I was so excited to try out a couple of them that I quickly put some over the little fingernails of my spotty manicure on both hands. I tried out the matte topcoat, and the BarryM pink glitter, and this is what happened -

I think that this picture is really good, as you can see the difference the matte topcoat makes compared to a standard topcoat, cool huh? I really love this effect, completely different to anything I have tried before.

 It was difficult to capture the glittery nail polish, as the background already had so much going on, I just wanted to see what it looks like, and have concluded that it is pretty cute.

I also thought I would take a couple of better pictures of the full manicure (after alterations) just because of how dark the photographs on the previous post were, these are a little better :)

 I loved this manicure, I wore it for 3 days, and only had to touch up a tiny chip on my right had index fingernail. I received a fair few compliments on it too :)

Anyway, if you have managed to read this whole epic long post, you're amazing. That's it for today though I think! I have removed the spots now, after the breakage, so there will be some new nails for you tomorrow.

Much Love, S x

I've Been Naughty...

I went shopping today, the only nail related product I intended to buy was some pure acetone, but ended up going a little crazy with some new things to try :)

I am going to a friends house for dinner this evening, and there will be wine involved, so unfortunately I do not have time to post the pictures (there are lots) this evening, but will do that tomorrow, I was just so excited I had to share :)

I bought a base coat (about time too) a nail hardener and a standard top coat, 3 striper polishes, a grass green and a sky blue (I have a sheepy manicure I want to try out and needed a background) a silver, and a really strange colour called strawberries and cream. These were all bought for £9! It was £1 per item or 10 for £9 so I had to right? The brands of these are technic and constance carroll, neither of which I am familiar with, so will let you know how they are as I get to them.

I also bought some Rimmel polishes from their metal rush collection, they were just crying out to me the minute I saw them, I had to try them out, even if just to satisfy my curiosity about what colour they actually are on your nails! There were some Revlon polishes with chunky glitter in them that I really wanted to try, but at £7 a bottle, they can wait until next time, so instead I chose a couple of BarryM glitters. I also bought a Rimmel matifying top coat, after seeing this on other peoples blogs I had to try it out myself, for the same reason I also chose a 17 holographic polish.

I am super excited to try them all out :) I have tried out the matte top coat and the BarryM chunky glitter over my spotty manicure, just because I couldn't wait, only on my 2 little fingers though. I will post pictures tomorrow of how they look too, you can see how the matte top coat compares to the stay perfect top coat.

Anyway, sorry this one is all rushed, I just wanted to share my excitement before I go out! I will show you the photo's tomorrow :)

Mwah S x

More of my journey...?

I have had some constructive criticism from a friend who reads my blog today, and she has suggested that I should include any mistakes I make when creating my nail designs, and how I corrected them, rather than just showing you the stages and the finished product. As she rightly says, the mistakes I make are part of my journey too, and how I overcome them may be useful, so from now on I will try to talk about that too.

I do tend to be a bit of a perfectionist, and I don't like people to see my mistakes, so up until now I have just been cleaning up without even thinking about photographing the evidence! I'm sure I will break this habit though :).

I have not redone my nails today, my dotty nails are still going strong with zero chips, and since I quite like them I am leaving them on for another day, although I have so many designs I am looking forward to trying out. Anyone who follows my craft blog knows that I have a little bit of an owl obsession, and I came across an adorable owl design which I will definitely be trying out when I have practiced my brush technique. I also really like the looks that can be created through water marbling, and am eager to try that out too, although not very hopeful that I will produce anything good for a while! But you will of course be able to read about any nail art I mess up from now on as well :)

Sorry I have no new nails for you today, I'll do some soon :)

Until then, S x

Just Dotty About Nails

Yesterday was a busy day for me, transporting rodents from Gloucester to a rescue, I ended up with 8 rats and at least 15 mice in my car! I may have accidentally decided to keep one, he is too cute, but incredibly difficult to photograph! Hopefully I will be able to take a picture that's not just a blurry ball of fur to show you soon.

So, my nails today did not go at all according to plan, I was trying to do a romantic mani with hearts and kisses for my boyfriend using plate BM02, but the polishes I chose did not stamp at all, so I gave up and went a bit crazy with my new dotting tools instead :) Here are the colours I used -

The pictures today are a little dark, I didn't realize how dark they were until I uploaded them onto my computer, and by then I was feeling too cold and lazy to redo them :p my apologies! The colours I used today were -

• No7 Stay Perfect in 280 Betty Blues
• Collection 2000 Frosted Nail Polish in 297
• 17 High Gloss Nail Polish in Miami
• No7 Stay Perfect Top Coat

It was the 2 pink polishes that I originally tried stamping with, and didn't have any luck with either unfortunately, so this is what I did instead -

As you can see, the dots were very effective at covering the botched stamping attempt! I know this design is very simple, but it is still a fun and striking design to have on my nails :)

Much Love, S x

Autumn Leaf Nails

So I thought I would try out doing all of my nails with a stamping design, and am proud to report that I only had to take off and redo one nail! I have decided that I am going to try to use the bundle monster plates in order, so I try out more of the designs rather than just picking my favourites, so this design was picked from BM01 and here is the plate -

I like all of the designs on this plate, but after a lot of deliberating I decided to use the single leaf design to try to create an autumn themed manicure. I tried to choose my most autumn related colours from my (extremely small) collection, and this is what I decided on -

The gold colour that I decided to use as a base is just called a touch of gold, it was a christmas present a number of years ago, and doesn't seem to have a brand. I decided to stamp the leaf design in both Rimmel Pro in 440 Orange Bliss, and No7 Stay Perfect in 100 Temptress. I then finished with No7 Stay Perfect Top Coat.

I had to apply 3 layers of my base colour, and this is the effect I ended up with -

I like this colour, it is subtle and pretty, and dried quickly even with 3 coats.

After waiting for the base colour to dry, I stamped on the orange leaves on each nail, before proceeding to stamp red leaves onto each nail. The orange is very subtle against the gold, but both colours stamped well, and I now am wearing this subtle autumn look -

I must've taken about a hundred photos of these nails, and I'm still not 100% happy that the photos look as good as the nails, but I'm sure my photography technique can only improve right?!

I'm really happy with how these nails turned out, I love how shiny the gold polish is, and the subtle effect of the leaves. I am also really enjoying the use of stamping, it is so easy to get a neat design, even when using my non-dominant hand (I am right handed and actually prefer the nails on my right hand which is a first!).

I'm sure there will be many more photo's of designs achieved through stamping :)

Bye for now, S x

First Ever Stamping Attempt

So, this one is highly experimental, as I have never used this technique before, but I had a lot of fun trying it out, and am happy with how it turned out on a least a couple of the nails! I spent a long time looking through all the plates, I have BM01 - BM21, I think a lot of the designs are really cute, which is great at such a low price.

I decided to try out BM19 the main reason I chose this plate was because I thought that the dots looked easy, but in the end I tried out all 6 of the designs.

Here is the plate BM19 -

It took me a while before I figured out how to get the blue plastic off, but once I worked out how to do it, it was very satisfying for some reason! This is the plate without the plastic -

Shiny! :)
So yeah, I pretty much just tried out each of the designs. I used No7 Stay Perfect in Betty Blues, over No7 Stay Perfect in Hot To Trot, and this is how each hand turned out -

As you can see most of my nails are too long for these little designs, and my main problems arose from trying to get the designs onto the empty parts of my nail left from the designs being too short (or my nails too long!) When a couple of my nails break I do generally cut them all off, so I am going to save these full nail designs for when my nails are shorter. I really liked the playing card design, and the circles, I actually liked all of these designs, just a shame I found it so difficult to line them up to cover the tips of  my nails.

I didn't put a topcoat on these, as I literally only wore them for a few hours like this, was just playing around to see what I could do really :) Am now deciding which of the little motifs to try next, I have got as far as deciding to use plate BM01 but that's as far as I've got, will blog you tomorrow to show you what I decided on :)

Cheerio for now, S x

New Nail Supplies!

My package from Amazon arrived today, I have been super excited for it to arrive since ordering it on Saturday! I'm just going to show you a few pictures of the things I bought. I am very new to Photoshop and have been experimenting with cropping/watermarks, so please bear with me :) I'm sure I'll get the hang of it eventually, I just realized that my pictures are pretty poor in comparison to a lot of the nail blogs that I am following, so thought I'd try and do something about it. Any advice on how to improve my photographs would be gratefully received :)

Anyway, here are all of the things that arrived in the post today:

This is my nail art brush and dotting tool roll, a Konad stamper/scraper and my pack of 21 Bundle Monster plates. Amazon also sent me a naked wines voucher, I thought I would include this because I will most likely end up using it as a scraper. I have unwrapped and photographed all these things too (except the wine voucher of course :p)

This is the contents of the roll of brushes, they close with a magnetic fastening too. Anyone know what the 2 big fluffy brushes are for? I'm yet to work it out. I also took a photo of the dotting tools so the sizes are clearer:

I thought I would photograph the stamper and scraper in my hand to give you an idea of the size of them, they are slightly smaller than I expected them to be. Incidentally the nail varnish I am wearing here is No7 Stay Perfect in Hot To Trot, I soon stamped over it though!

Finally here is a photograph of all of the Bundle Monster plates. You won't be able to see the designs, but I will post a photo of the plate I have used whenever I post a stamped design :)

Anyway that's about it :) I will post again later (as soon as I have sorted out the photographs!) to show you the results of my first ever go at stamping! I will warn you now, it was far from perfect, heehee. I think this technique will need a fair bit of practice!

Blog you later! S x