I'm back with stamping and gradients!

Hello Chickpeas!

Oh my, looking back and it's been since 13th June that I last got all creative! Basically my nails are just shot. A combination or extensive typing and lots of washing up of baby things has just done a number so about two weeks ago (before my holiday) I just thought "sod it" and got some falsies.

I got home from our holidays on Wednesday to glorious nail mail - some of which contained five of the new Cheeky Plates (Viva Mexico, Holiday, Princess, European Romance and Tropica Holiday) and inspiration struck for a sea themed mani.

I used three Barry M shades of blue (NP317, NP291 and Gelly Guava) for the gradient, BM's silver foil for the stamping.  Generic base coat and liberal applications of Seche Vite througout and to finish off. This is what I got:

Forgive the lobster fingers in the last two trying to adjust to get accurate colour.

I love this mani and feel like I'm just about to set off on my holidays and not like I've just come back from them.

Check out what the other talented British Bloggers have been doing.

N

An InLinkz Link-up

Glitter Mani: Barry M and NYC

Hello dears!

I fancied doing something a little bit elegant and sparkly that I've seen on numerous nail blogs over the past few months. So with my brand new bottle of Blackberry Hi Jelly Shine from Barry M and an old glitter from NYC that I've never used before but seemed perfect, I did a simple glitter gradient by dabbing on the glitter with a make-up sponge.  This method is truly idiot proof and I think looks so good.  You may be seeing a few more of these from me as I get over my infatuation with them.

The Barry M polish is absolutely divine.  It's coverage is so good that one coat is sufficient but they don't call me Two Coat Tilly for nothing. (Actually no-one calls me Two Coat Tilly, sadly). And so I put another coat on for good measure.  It's a beautiful formulation and colour and I can't wait to try some more in the series.  I do hope Barry M continue to bring new shades out in this line.

Please ignore the cuticles.  A combination of spring cleaning and a dry cold winter means I can't keep my hands moisturised for love nor money.

What's your favourite idiot-proof manicure?

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