Day 5 - 33DC: Mexican

Hola lovelies,

It's the fifth day of the challenge and today's prompt is Mexican.  In a fit of unoriginality, I've gone with sugar skulls.  I had a fun if long time doing these and I've used a whole bunch of nail polishes:

Base: BM's Matte White and Black art pen
Colours: BM's Cyan Blue, Bright Purple, Pomegranate, Model's Own Pukka Purple, CG'sTurned Up Turquoise and Sinful Colours Let's Meet.

And here it is:

These babies are not easy to do but I think I just about managed to pull it off.

N

Day 2 of the 33DC - Most used colour

Hello gumdrops

Well it's a Wednesday so it's challenge day.

Today's challenge courtesy of the 33DC that The Crumpet is running is artwork featuring your most used polish.

My most used polish is Utopia from Model's Own - it's a fantastic base for most artwork and doubles as a lovely colour in it's own right for work or anything lowkey.  I was just going to have her on my nails with an accent of glitter (Barry M's Rose Quartz) but I'm now pathologically incapable of just having a plain colour so I chucked some dots on there using BM's Matte White. So now I've got a quirky subtle take on a frenchie.

And here we go:

I'll love and leave you until Friday.

See below for some more pretty pretty art.

N

TPC days 3 and 4: Tequila sunrise (and some truly dodgy stripes)

Hello Butterflies!

What a mare! I haven't been able to get onto blogger for two days which meant that I missed the deadline to post my TPC day 3 mani (I still cheekily uploaded it to The Crumpet's FB group).

So you get two for the price of one. This post may be a bit picture heavy because two manis. You know the rules by now - 4 manis, 3 colours, at least 2 colours per mani.

Here's TPC day 3 (which I hate, by the way, but I ran out of time)

So this is just a base of W7's Mojito, stripes of Sinful Colours Unicorn, Barry M's white nail art pen and Model's Own silver nail art pen. It's all freehand (as you can tell). And it's all hideous - which again it down to my choice of polishes, specifically the green.  I'd chosen the green because it worked for two of my four.

Enough of that - let's get onto my TPC day 4 mani that I actually really like.

This one is using CG's Infra-red and Sinful Colours Unicorn. The stamp is from the MoYou Pro09 plate using Konad black (which I <3).

That's me done for today. See you soon!

N

AIS and TCP challenges: very very late!

Hello peardrops!

As I mentioned in my last post my old camera went the way of the dodo with about five manicures on it. At the weekend I got my new camera and managed to salvage some of my photos. One set is for the tri-colour polish challenge for May and one set is for the Adventure In Stamping challenge for 19th May. So I thought I'd combine them in one post so there's double challenge goodness.

First up is the AIS challenge. It was to stamp over a skittles base. My reading of that was to use two different colours in five different designs and then stamp over them with one stamp design. (I know that differed from many other interpretations where each fingernail was a different colour.) I used OPI Don't Talk Bach to Me and Barry M's Bright Purple as my base colours.  I used Barry M's silver foil for stamping with plate CH50. And then the Model's Own silver art pen for additional details.

And I ended up with the below. The thumb is just freehand argyle print.  The forefinger is a scalloped edge half nail design. I used my trusty dotting tools on my middle finger. Striping tape for my ring finger and finally I freehanded the chevron design on my pinkie finger.

I quite liked this design.  I hadn't really thought I would use that colour green but it worked wonders with the deep pink. Of course, as with every other manicure I have it chipped in a day (sadface) but i did enjoy it whilst it lasted.

Up next was my entry for TCP day 2 but I'm so late for that I should probably wait until those colours roll 'round again! But I wanted to show you this one in contrast to my first one. As per the challenge rules I used the same blue (Barry M's Blueberry) and red (Raspberry) as I did for the first one but this time I used them in a gradient with a gold polish OPI's Oy, Another Polish Joke. And look how different they are! (ignore the pink fingers haven't yet figured out the white balance and I took these on the fly)

I only have one more photo of that particular mani but it's a close up and I just fell in love with the shading.  I thought the blue one looked like an opulent lagoon as you could see the shimmer slowly fading away underneath it.

So those are my two challenges that I manage to do but couldn't get uploaded in time.  And now my nails are in such a state I've had to cut them right back and baby them.  Fingers crossed Duri Rejuvacote works!

What have you lovely ladies been up to?

N

Tri-colour challenge: Day 4

Hello sweeties

I have failed the tri-colour challenge miserably as I didn't have mani ready to go for Tuesday on account of my utter ineptitude and also camera failings.  But I thought if I can't have the one I did for day 3 up (which was beautiful and I'm considering recreating it for next month) then I could soldier on with something simple for day 4.  And this is as simple as it gets.

So, as we know: 3 colours in 4 manis posted on the last two Tuesday and Thursdays in the month.  Black, white, gold, silver and glitter can be used. Go wild!

I used Model's Own Pink Sorbet, Barry M's Turquoise and W7s Flaming Orange with Barry M's Gold Foil for the detail.

So, I did this last night and I wasn't wild about it but didn't have time to redo it but it's growing on me now.  Don't get me wrong I'll do something that's a little more 'me' tonight but I don't hate this.

What this challenge has taught me is 1)I don't have enough orange nail polish and 2) pick your colours with care. I think this and one of the other ones I did would have been more successful if the pink had been a deep creme finish instead of an almost sheer shimmer.

N

Adventures In Stamping Challenge

Hello poppets,
It's Sunday!! And what do we do on Sundays? We stamp on Sundays.

This week it's a mani inspired by Earth Day. I thought of animals and trees when thinking of something to do. So I came up with the below.

For base coat I used Sally Hansen Miracle Cure (I can only hope!).  The colour on my thumb, ring and pinkie finger is a gorgeous copper glitter with hints of red and tan from Barry M (imaginatively entitled Copper), that is opaque in two coats. The photos do not do this justice at all. I used a stamp from GA12 for the bark like effect and it's stamped with Barry M's Lychee.

The colour on my forefinger and middle finger is Barry M's Lychee which is opaque in one coat but I like two coats for luck.  The spots are Barry M's Copper and outlined with Model's Own nail art pen in black.

I am so happy with this manicure.  It's turned out exactly how I wanted it to, which is a first.  I can't stop staring at my nails.  I'm going to be upset when this eventually chips.

Until next time!

N

Tri-Colour Challenge: Day 2

Hello sweetiepies

Day 2 of the Tri-Colour Challenge. Obviously the same nail polishes as last time but this time I've done a spot of stamping which I'm not sure if it's entirely successful.

I used an image from the Prince's set from Gals Cosmetics and I thought it was vaguely mediaeval in appearance but looking at it now it seems a bit tribal.

What do you think?

See below for some truly talented manicures for this challenge.

N

Tri-Colour Challenge

Hello gorgeousnesses!

This is the first challenge I've ever participated in. Quite excited by it all, to be honest.

The three polishes I've used for this challenge are Model's Own Pink Sorbet, Barry M's Turquoise and W7's Flaming Orange.  So here it is.  I was quite please with it for the first bash at doing proper nail art with a pen and everything.

The focus is a bit dodgy on this one but I still think you get the idea.

Got a couple of nifty ideas for the other three manis, just hope I get the time to do them.

N

A Song of Ice and Fire inspired mani

Hello dears!

Monday, 1st April saw the premiere of the third season of Game of Thrones.  I thought I'd do a manicure inspired by the series as these books are incredibly dear to my heart.

I just went with the simplest theme of ice and fire (I'll leave the sigils to more talented people than I).

All nails have a base coat of GOSH matt top coat and two coats of China Glaze's fast drying top coat.

On my thumb, middle and pinky finger I have:
1st coat: Model's Own Snow White
Ombre: Model's Own Blueberry Muffin, Barry M's Hi Jelly Shine Blueberry and China Glaze Fancy Pants
Stamping: Art Deco White Stamping polish
Highlight: You're a Star by Nicole by O.P.I.

On my forefinger and ring finger I have:
1st coat: Rimmel's 405 Fantasy Minerals range
Flames: Rimmel's 324 Fever, Unnamed orange colour from Front Cover and a Yellow stamping polish from MoYou

The gradient isn't a new technique to me but the flames are.  This hadn't turned out as well as I'd had hoped but I was quite eager to give the flames technique a go and hopefully I'll get better.

Next year hopefully I'll be able to be more arty.

Have you done a manicure inspired by books or a film or telly series.  I'd love to see them.

N

P.S. As requested a closer close-up of the nails.  (I think they probably look better from a little bit further away :p)

Model's Own: Fruit Pastels and gradients

Happy Easter (or happy chocolate day)!  Hope you're having a lovely time and eating more chocolate than you thought your body could possibly handle.

I do have ASOIAF mani coming up in the next day or two but I did a fun gradient effect last night and wanted to post about it.  I used all five of the shades available in the Model's Own new Fruit Pastel shades and I added a pastel orange to complete the effect.  It's the first time I've done a proper gradient and as you can see below I did the gradient from side to side rather and top to bottom to switch it up a little bit.

Sorry about the clean up.  I swear I thought it was much better than that!  This photo was taken in a light box environment but the colours hold true.  I like the effect but the blue to green shading on the ring finger is much too subtle probably down to the shades being quite similar.

This photo is taken in natural light and I'm sorry for the slight blurriness.  I could not get the camera to stop shaking for love nor money for this shot but again this demonstrates the colours nicely.

Thanks for stopping by!

N

Inaugural manicure: St Patrick's Day

This is my first ever attempt at proper nail art using various techniques like gradients and fish tail and I've even had a stab at free hand drawing (eek!)

I think they've turned out OK but not quite how I've pictured them in my head but I think for a first go they're alright.  Also I must apologise for the picture quality but I've taken my initial photos with my mobile camera because there's no point having a St Patrick Day themed mani come out at Easter!

Hopefully my future manicures will be better executed and certainly better photographed!

Anyway, I enjoyed doing them and I'm sure I'll enjoy them until they chip (in about 4 hours or so).

I've used Model's Own Snow White, and their black nail art pen.  Barry M's 284 and an unamed orange colour from Front Cover.

Have you got any tips for stopping nail polish chipping?

See you next time

Nx