Glittery Gradient

In today's post I will show you some nails a did for a good friend. We had a little trouble deciding what sort of design to do, so we looked through my photo's on my phone, and my gradient manicure was the one that caught Kim's eye, so I recreated it on her nails, with a little added glitter :)

I'm not going to go into the details too much, as it is just a recreation of this manicure, with a little added glitter for good measure :) I used the same nail polishes as I did for my gradient, and the glitter I used was BarryM's Pink Sapphire Glitter no 352. Here is the finished design -

She was happy with the design so I was too :) I think if anything, they probably came out slightly better than my last attempt, and I really like the glittery accent nails, they don't distract from the design too much, and pull the gradient together a little.

Since seeing these nails, another friend has asked me to do hers, so hopefully there will be more unfamiliar hands making an appearance soon! It's so nice to do other peoples nails, and it's all good practice :)

Bye for now, S x

Stamped Metallic Skittles

Hi all, again sorry for the infrequent posts, my life has suddenly become quite busy since moving back to Devon! That and it's so difficult to motivate myself to trawl through the hundreds of photo's I've got to decide which ones to show you. I do have a couple of hours this evening though, so I have got my music on, and am getting down to the business of sorting my photo's! I have a few mani's that I am particularly excited to show you, so hopefully those will be making an appearance soon.

This manicure was an experimental one really, after I got all those new polishes I shared with you in my previous 2 posts, I was eager to see how the black and the white would stamp. I was also eager to wear ALL of the gorgeous Essie metallics too, so I have a different colour metallic polish on each finger, with some little salamanders stamped on in black and white.

What I used -    

• Essie Blue Rhapsody
• Essie No Place Like Chrome
• Essie Penny Talk
• Essie Good As Gold
• Essie Nothing Else Metals
• w7 Black no 28
• NYC Pinstripe White
• NYC Top Coat Grand Central Station no 202
• Bundle Monster Stamping Plate BM15

And here is how the manicure turned out -

Cute huh? The white salamanders don't show up that great, purely because white isn't best suited to the base colours used, but it was still nice to stamp with :) I need to practice my stamping technique, I found it quite difficult to pick up the whole salamander, his tail was often left behind so I had to place him strategically on a couple of nails! I love all of these polishes, especially since I got them so cheap. I am looking forward to trying out stamping using the metallics too.

Until next time, S x

Shiny New Things! Part Two

As promised, here is the second part showing you the rest of the new additions to my nail polish family (that's right,  family heehee). I have been longing to try out Essie nail polish for sometime now, but at nearly £8 a bottle I just couldn't justify it... Until finding some of last seasons polishes at £3 a bottle in The Original Factory Shop! I bought every single colour they had, even a bright orange that I have no idea how I'm going to use! It was just an opportunity too good to miss.

After getting home with my new polishes, I decided to do a bit of reading about what I had bought (something I usually do beforehand, but it was so spur of the moment). I am so glad I had bought these polishes before I read what other people had to say about them, as it wasn't very positive, so I probably wouldn't have bought them. Which would have been a shame, as I LOVE them! The polishes that were on offer were the Essie Mirror Metallics 2012 collection -

From left to right; No Place Like Chrome, Blue Rhapsody, Nothing Else Metals, Penny Talk and Good As Gold. Here is what they looked like on my nails -

I cannot emphasise enough how much I love these, I don't have many metallic polishes in my collection, and these are just perfect. I have read a lot of comments saying that the formula was poor, and really streaky, but my nails pictured above was just one coat, it went on like a dream, and I am very happy with the finish - this doesn't even have a top coat! Also it dries in seconds, literally, it is perfect. I am super excited to try out stamping with it too, since it gives such an opaque effect with just one coat. Here is a closer look at the colours -

Above is Blue Rhapsody, a brilliant Metallic blue. Next is Nothing Else Metals, which has a girly pink/lilac colour -

The next polish is a metallic silver, called No Place Like Chrome, it is now my favourite silver in my collection -

Next we have a copper toned polish called Penny Talk, it is beautiful with a pinkish bronze colour, and is unlike any colour I have seen before. It is probably my favourite of the collection, although Blue Rhapsody is a very close second! Anyway, here is it -

The final polish is Good As Gold, which is a subtle metallic gold -

Pretty huh? I'm sure you can tell how excited I am about these polishes, they will be making an appearance again very soon!

The last new addition is a bit of a random one, I just found it all by itself, it is another Essie, in Orange, It's Obvious, which is a really rich reddish orange that I can't wait to try out... I just need to find the right occasion or nail art design! Here it is -

Definitely a different one for my collection! I am immediately thinking back to my autumn leaf mani of last year, the orange I used then didn't show up too well, I'm sure this one would, perhaps I will recreate my design this autumn using this Orange - the ideas are forming up already :).

Anyway, I really hope this kind of post is interesting to you, as they actually take ages! I just like to share my excitement :) I will soon be sharing some actual nail art with you though, if you are getting bored of reading about my shopping!

Much love, S x

Shiny New Things! Part One

Hi lovely readers, I'm sorry it has taken me longer than anticipated to do this post for you, it was difficult to motivate myself to sort through and crop all my photos! There are lots :) here they are now though which is the main thing!

Today's post is to show you all the new nail polishes I couldn't resist buying last friday. I went into The Original Factory Shop, and found a load of Essie polishes at £3, as well as some other brands that I wanted to try at crazy low prices, so I ended up spending £24 and walking away with 11 new polishes! I was only looking for a white! Well worth it though :)

The first polishes I want to show you are a couple of Sally Hansen Diamond Strength polishes (only £1 each!)

The pink colour is Pink Promise 06, and the pearly colour is 17 Platinum. I tried them out by themselves, over white, and over black nail polish, and here are the results, firstly we have Pink Promise -

It is 2 coats by itself on my index finger, and one coat over one coat of white polish on my middle finger. It went on easily and is a really pretty sparkly pale pink :) not a colour I would usually choose to wear by itself but I thought it might look nice over other colours, as it does have a very fine glittery finish. Here it is over black nail polish -

The pretty glitter is more obvious over a darker colour :) Next we have the Platinum both by itself and over white -

The ring finger is one coat by itself, and the little finger has one coat over white. Excuse the messy cuticles, I was just experimenting with what the colours looked like! Here is how the platinum looked over black -

As you can see, it does have some quite heavy pink tones in its finish. I'm not sure how much I like this polish, I didn't think it would be quite so opaque, I had hoped that I may be able to use it as a pearlescent topcoat, but it would just take over the whole look. I'll think of something I'm sure!

The white used above was also a new one, by a brand I haven't used before, NYC -

I bought NYC Pinstripe White 132, and a fast dry top coat which is called Grand Central Station 202, and I have to say I am so impressed with both of these since the brand is a relatively cheap one anyway, and these were even cheaper at £1 a bottle. The white has a smooth, streak free finish in 2 coats, and I have since used it successfully for stamping and with striping tape. The top coat does just what it's meant to, providing a smooth glossy finish.

Another brand that is new to me is w7, I bought their Black 28, as one of my blacks is on its way out, and one of my favourite bloggers uses w7 polishes quite a bit in her designs, so I figured it must be good! This one was £2 for a 15ml bottle -

Again, I am very impressed with this polish, it gives a good finish with just one coat, is easy to apply, and as with the NYC white, I have successfully used it for stamping and with striping tape, so all good :) It may have just become my go to black since my Rimmel Black Cab is nearly gone!

I am starting to realise what an epic long post this would be if I included the 6 Essie polishes I bought as well, so I shall save those for next time, in part 2 :) I also have some nail art to show you soon, as well as even more shiny new goodies, yey!

Blog you soon, S x

Stamping Attempt and New Stuff!

Hi all, just a brief post for now, I have so many photos to crop and show you all, but not tonight as I am too tired! I found a few bargains today that I simply could not resist, so in the near future there will be a post showing you my shiny new nail polishes! And I mean shiny :)

For now though, I will show you the alteration I made to my gradient from last time, mainly just to practice my stamping and see what the results were like, but it turned out quite nice so I kept it for a day anyway. As I said when I first posted this gradient, I did feel like it needed something more, even though it was good by itself. As it was my first attempt at a gradient the colours didn't flow quite as smoothly together as I'd have liked, so I tried to think of something that would fix that.

I decided to stamp an all over nail design in a silver colour - I chose silver as it would give a subtle look over the colours I was wearing. The idea was mainly to complete the design rather than add a new design and I think it worked quite well at this. It was a really difficult look to capture in a photo, but hopefully you can see that the pattern distracts from the slight flaws in my gradient, without taking over the whole look. Here is how it turned out -

Again, sorry about the rubbish photos, I really need to find myself a photographer! All in all I really liked how this turned out, the silver was a very subtle look, but I think it did work to make the design feel more complete :) The silver I used was Constance Carroll Diamond Gloss in 248 Diamond. To see how I achieved the original gradient and the colours I used, the original post is here

Blog you soon, to show you all my exciting new goodies :)

Mwah, S x

First Gradient Nails

I have been meaning to try gradient nails for a while now. I have seen that there are loads of different techniques people use to do gradient nails, but I tend to prefer the sponged look. Here is what I used-

From left to right -
Collection 2000 Frosted Nail Polish in 297
Collection 2000 Frosted Nail Polish in 183
No7 Stay Perfect in Vivid Violet
Constance Carroll Top Coat
Acetone, for cleaning the edges
Normal household sponge.

To achieve my gradient look, I started off by applying 1 coat of the Collection 2000 in 297, and allowing to dry. I then painted stripes of each of the colours of my gradient onto the end of my piece of sponge, like this -

And just dabbed the gradient on :) I used just my darkest colour on the other end of the sponge, just to add a bit more definition to the very tips of my nails. I finished off with a top coat, cleaned up the edges with my acetone, and here is the finished result -

For a first attempt I'm really happy with how these turned out. I found it quite quick and easy to do, I do feel that maybe it needs something more though, some glitter or stamping perhaps. The lighting isn't brilliant for showing the frosted polishes at their best unfortunately, the middle colour is more noticeable than the pictures show :)

Hope you like them, S x

My Valentines Day Mani

I know, I feel terrible that it has been a month since I last posted, but being in the process of moving, it has just not been practical. My nail things were amongst the first  to get moved to Devon, and since I have been spending most of my time in Bristol sorting out the flat, my nails have been naked for a long time! It has probably been good for them, they were starting to get a faint yellow tinge to them (from my cheap base coat I assume) which has since completely disappeared luckily.

Anyway, all of my nail things have been successfully unpacked, tidied and put away in a somewhat organized fashion, so once again, I have pretty nails!  Of course I had to choose a valentines themed manicure today :) sadly, I am not with my valentine today, but at least I have pretty nails :) and here they are -

The base colour is Revlon in Timeless No 310. The hearts are drawn on using dotting tools, and a 17 Fast Finish nail polish in Knockout Red. I finished this manicure with my No7 Stay Perfect top coat.

I am not 100% happy with how these turned out, I should have learned by now the doing nail art with fast drying nail polish is a big challenge! It was just the colour that I thought would go best with the base colour, and I still think that the colour combination is great. The hearts went a little streaky when I added the top coat too, which is also a mistake that can easily be avoided with a little more patience! Overall though, these are cute, and from a distance I don't notice the little mistakes so I'll keep them for a while :)

Hopefully my blog will be a bit more active soon, I am still not quite done moving, and will be going back to Bristol in the next couple of days to clean the flat, but after the 20th I should be back to doing regular posts again :)

Wishing everyone a beautiful valentines day, with lots of love, S x