Winter Wonderland Nail Art!

I suppose I should've waited for it to snow before posting this manicure (the synchronicity would be satisfying!), but I still feel bad for leaving you all alone for a month so I'm cracking out all my best stuff.

Now, I really like the design of this manicure, but it was executed badly - this, I fully admit, is my own fault. I acquired the base colour (Barry M Aqua Blue) from The Clothes Show Live, and I didn't realise it was so sheer before I began applying it. Had I known, I would've used a pastel blue base because it took about 6 coats to achieve opacity. Too many! This, paired with the 4 coats of Claire's Holographic Silver Glitter Topcoat that I added to the tips, created that horrible "too many coats of polish" look. It's kind of bubbly and icky and raised off the nail - not a fan! As if it wasn't bad enough, my Seche Vite has gone thick, and caused shrinkage, exposing the very tip of my natural nail. Here are the photos anyway, just try and ignore the poor execution and focus on the pretty glitter and snowflakes! Eeee!

cuticles are GRIM, sorry sorry sorry!

How I created the glittery snowflake tips:

Once my Barry M Aqua Blue base was dry, I added a thin layer of Claire's Holographic Silver Glitter Topcoat, starting about halfway down the nail. On the second coat of glitter, I started my brush strokes slightly close to the nail tip, and repeated for another two coats to create the glitter gradient effect. Once dry I stamped the Snowflake image from Bundle Monster Image Plate BM14 at different places on each nail tip using Konad Special Polish in White. With Claire's White Nail Art Pen, I filled in some of the gaps with dots, to make tiny snowdrops. I topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite, to make it super smooth.

Thanks everyone! Let me know what you think on the comments, I'd love to see it if any of you give it a go! I kept this on for a few days, I really liked it, especially when it caught the light!


xxx

Cath Kidston Nails

I wouldn't describe myself as a girly-girl, but I really like Cath Kidston Prints! I would never paper the walls with it, but I love it on accessories. It will always remind me of my friend Alice as well, because she is obsessed! I'm not sure how internationally well-known Cath Kidston is, but she's a pretty well established High End brand over here in the UK. A British Fashion Designer, Cath Kidston is famous for her signature, nostalgic floral patterns and home furnishings. I decided to incorporate my favourite print of hers into a manicure:

Here is the original print I based the design on, and I think it's as intricate as I can get it, seen as nails are SO SMALL.

For the accent nail I switched up the base colour from blue to Leighton Denny Babydoll - my new favourite Pink from the October Glossy Box.

I created the design by painting a base of either Bootie Babe Blue Baboo (see below) or Leighton Denny  Babydoll, and painted the large white flower shapes and polka dots with Claire's White Nail Art Pen. I then added a blob of MUA pink in the centre of each one. Now, I reckon I'm quite well known for my freehand work, and although I seem to be able to do an alright job on Dinosaurs or Super Mario (like in my previous posts), I have never been able to get the hang of drawing roses - I just have no idea why! Because of this I enlisted a bit of help with this design from Bundlemonster Image plate BM04, stamping the rose image on top of the MUA Pink circle using American Apparel Coney Island. After transferring the image to the stamp, I dipped a cotton swab in varnish remover and cleaned off the edge of the image, leaving only the heart of the rose, because I needed the design to be so small. After I had stamped all of these, I added some green foliage with a dotting tool and American Apparel Office and Barry M Spring Green. After a coat of Seche Vite, I was good to go!

I'm popping in a review here too, as I've been waiting on these polishes for AGES from brand new polish company Bootie Babe. Their polishes are packaged in novelty "booty" bottles that look like little bums! It's a bit gimicky, but it's fun and I think that is important with cosmetics! I was sent Blue Baboo and noticed that it was the perfect shade of sky blue for my Cath Kidston idea. The polish formula is O.K...it drags a bit and is a little paint-like, but definitely workable. Now, as much as the bottle makes me laugh, and I think it's a fun idea, the handle is almost impossible to use. It is absolutely tiny, and tapered so it slips out of your fingers. I gave up after a couple of nails and used a different brush to apply it. All in all, I like the idea and the novelty, but the quality of the polish and the handle design could be improved. Here is Blue Baboo on its own, as well as some shots of the bottles!

See how small the bottle handle is compared to my fingers? Very fiddly. You get just over 9ml of polish in these bottles.

A lovely shade of blue and not quite like any other shade in my arsenal. I would definitely head over to their website and check them out, there's loads of other great shades to get hold of.

I hope you like this one guys! I realise I don't post as much as I used to, but I think the posts I put up these days have much more crammed in to them, and have A LOT more time spent on them! I have some great designs coming up for you all :D

In other news, the Winner of my Glossy Box contest from 2 weeks ago was Vicky at Manicured Maniac - Congratulations to her! She has been notified and her very own Glossy Box is on it's way to her! WOOP VICKKKYY!!!

Glossy Box are also hosting a Nail Art competition, and I urge you all to get involved to win the OPI Muppets Collection! Emily's Nail Files also has a mention as a place to go for inspiration! Well, you're already here so you're one step ahead of the game! I'd love to see some of you enter, I know you're all SO creative xxxx

Leighton Denny Sweetheart Nail Art - Win Your Own GlossyBox !

 This month's Glossy Box is here! If you're unfamiliar with the concept of Glossy Box, once subscribed, you receive 5 (6 this month though, due to it being an anniversary special) high end, luxury samples, with one of them being a full size product. This is for £10 a month, plus shipping, and there are other similar companies out there like Boudoir Prive, Carmine and Birchbox in the USA. This month's box contained a Leighton Denny polish, and mine was a pink, cream one called Babydoll. I'm glad of this, as the other two options were pearlescent, and you know how much I love cream finishes! I'll let you know at the end how you can WIN AN OCTOBER BOX FOR YOURSELF!

*EDIT - COMPETITION NOW CLOSED!*

I'm not sure if there's a name for this type of manicure, so I'm giving it one - the Sweetheart V-gap. A variation on V-gap pioneer Sophy Robson's original design, I made this to look like a pink heart, and added some rhinestones because - well, blue, sparkly heats just make everything a little more fabulous, don't they? I started with a white base of Natural Collection White, then freehanded in the sweetheart shape with the (very pliable) Leighton Denny brush. I then added some BundleMonster Blue, Rhinestone Hearts, and a coat of Seche Vite:

This has become my favourite pastel pink, it's beautiful in two coats, high-gloss and a really rich shade of pastel pink/rose. Here's a comparison with a few other pastel pink shades that I own:

Remember, you can click to enlarge!

As you can see, Babydoll is slightly more red-toned and deeper than the others I won. It's lovely! Also, ten points to whoever can guess which of my nails is a falsie hahaha - damn these breakages!

This is what also arrived in this month's Glossy Box. They usually have a variety of different products and it's a lucky dip which ones you get, but this month all boxes are virtually the same as it's a celebratory box for their 6 month anniversary:

• Dermalogica Age Smart Multi-vitamin Thermofoliant
• Dermalogica Age Smart Multi-vitamin Power Recover Masque
• Leighton Denny Expert Nails Colour and Care
• Stila Smudge Stick Eyeliner in Moray 
• 3 Robert Piguet perfume samples
• Dermalogica Age Smart Lip renewal Complex
• Dermalogica Beauty Bag

All in all, it's a very good box for me. I don't feel put off by the anti-aging products because I don't 'need' them, as an intense moisturiser is always good in my books! The lip gel is very small, but absolutely lush, it smells really nice and I'll definitely be using this at night time, while the winter cold creeps in on us Brits. The Stila Eyeliner deserves a post of it's own as it is really lovely and I have a lot of positive things to say - so I'll do a makeup look with it next week! Yay! I tried the Face Mask today and it really is lovely. It is a cream and doesn't dry tight on the face, leaving it soft and smooth! I have yet to try the exfoliator, but I reckon it will be just as good.

The only downside to this box is that I HATE perfume samples. I never, ever, like how they smell (even though I know it's just me being very scent-fussy). These parfums are really floral, and not up my street at all. You can't even re-use them as stocking fillers, because that would be naff - who wants tiny vials of flowery old lady perfume from Santa? Exactly. Not me. Nor from Glossy Box. I'm sure plenty of people out there would love them though.

NOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO WIN THIS MONTH'S BOX?!?!

YOU DO?!

THEN IT'S YOUR LUCKY DAY! (If you live in the UK - I can't accept international entries this time, ladies, I'm so sorry!)

*EDIT - COMPETITION NOW CLOSED!*

Glossy Box have kindly provided me with an extra box, and being the wonderful, loving, giving person that I am, I'm giving it away to one UK-based winner! All you have to do IS:

•  Make sure you live in the UK
• Make sure you are a follower on GFC or Bloglovin'
• Leave a comment below with your email address - feel free to write it in some sort of MI5 code so the spam-bots don't get it, just make sure I can understand e.g JaneDoe(at)gmail(dot com)

I will leave the competition open for 1 week, ending on the 26th OF OCTOBER - That is next Wednesday! I will pick the winner via a random number generator. Good Luck Glossy Girls!

*EDIT - COMPETITION NOW CLOSED!*
xxxx

Just Bumbling Along...

Afternoon! A freehanded, summery bumblebee manicure today - just as the weather here in good ol' England has taken a turn for the (almost) wintery. I felt daft wearing this in monsoon weather!

I started out with 3 coats of Essence Speed Of Light Blue, a lovely (and cheap!) baby blue. Using Nail Art Pens from Ebay, I painted the flowers by making 5 small coloured dots in a circle, then adding the centre dot in yellow. Using Claire's Black Nail Art Pen (which, I find, is better quality than the Ebay pens, it's more opaque), I added the small dots to make the 'bee-line' and the stripes on the Bee. After adding some Silver wings, I used a coat of Rimmel 60 Second Clear Polish, and was ready for the short-lived sunshine!

There you are! I want the sun to come back out, so I cant take some great photos of this OPI Holographic that I'm wearing! No fair, England, no fair. I hope you're enjoying the summer wherever you are!

Also, you may have noticed a Cosmopolitan Blog Awards button on my page, to the right, because the time to nominate your favourite blogs is here! It's a great way to show your favourite bloggers how much you enjoy their writing. Although my blog is now 6 months old (almost to the day!), I still fit into the New Beauty Bloggers catagory! Awesome! I've nominated my favourites, have you?

x

Bananarama

Facts about Bananas:

• In 2001, Britain recorded 300 incidents of injuries related to bananas. The majority of these involved people slipping on banana peels.
• In Eastern Africa you can buy banana beer. This beer is brewed from bananas.
• A cluster of bananas is called a hand and consists of 10 to 20 bananas, which are known as fingers.  

These are MY banana fingers, a take on the, ever popular, Wah Nails Prada Banana Manicure:

I'm holding a banana, because there are bananas on my fingers - clever, I'm sure you will agree.

 Yep, my nails have had the chop. I had A LOT of unfortunate breakages, all at the same time, so didn't really have a choice! Thought about getting some Calgels on, but I have absolutely NO dollar at the moment! Full-Nail designs look great on both long ad short, so I'll be sporting them for a while! This is part of the reason for my unplanned absence, as well as trips to London, graduations, moving home and unpacking! 

I started with a base of Barry M Turquoise, my favourite blue evveeerrrrr - it's lovely and bright! I then made yellow crescent moon/banana shapes, using a fine brush, with Miss Sporty Taxi, and added a light yellow highlight using Rimmel's Lemon Drop. After outlining the whole thing using the striper in Claire's Black Nail Art Pen, I topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite. 

I realise it's not my best freehand work, pretty much if you can tell it's a banana, I'm happy! It didn't take very long at all, and is a really fun, summery look! I'm going to wear something different for my birthday, though, which is tomorrow! WOOPAH!

Hope you like it! Let me know which summer looks you've been wearing!

Stars, Skulls, Swirls, Sponging and Stamping. (Giveaway Winner, too)

God, I love it when an alliterative post title comes together.

The whole shabang for you today, I went a little stamp crazy...

All photos in natural light

Please ignore the smudge-tasic index finger! After all that work, there was no way I was re-doing it haha!

I'd been wanting to use the Skull image from the new Bundle Monster Image Plate set for a while, but was in danger of utilizing it to create some kind of gross emo-dream/Pirates of the Caribbean tribute! I decided, in the end, to keep the colours light, and add some swirly pattern and some stars :D

I started with a base of Barry M Turquoise, and sponged on Models Own Blooboo in differing places on the nail. I then repeated this with Silver, from Claire's Silver Nail Art Pen. Now, I've mentioned this before, but however wonderful this silver is (and it is), it gives you the WORST glitter herpes ever. You can scrub and scrub at your silver-stained cuticles but it Just. Won't. Go. Away. So, I apologise for the sparkly cuticles haha! I also added a little bit of Rimmel Sky High to the sponged base too :)

After adding a coat of Seche Vite to smooth it out, I stamped the swirly, planty image from BM225 using Konad White Special Polish onto different parts of each nail. Then, using THIS method, I mixed my own pastel Special Stamping Polishes and stamped some pink, green and purple Skulls from plate BM211. I then did the same with the Star image from BM206, adding them sporadically to make a pattern. I added some coloured rhinestones to the Skull eyes (a later addition - I liked it without, too) that you can get from Nail Art online store Born Pretty.

If people like this look, I may do a sponging/stamping tutorial, because it looks rather busy and difficult, but it's really very simple, when you know how!

Also, I'm going to quickly announce the Giveaway winner (I know it's been a long time coming, soorrryryyyy).
I have contacted her and she's accepted, the winner is...

Lily over at Beauty's Bad Habit!

Congratulations! I'll be posting your goodies after my exams (next week :D)

I used Random.org to select a random number, then simply found that numbered entry in my spreadsheet!

(Didn't want to include your email, Lily!)

So, there we are! My first Giveaway, over and done with! As you can see I had a colossal amount of entries, so they took a while to verify - thank you for your patience, and for entering in the first place!

I hope you enjoy your prize Lily, check out her blog Beauty's Bad Habit!

I also got some great feedback from the giveaway question "What would you like to see from me in the future", so I'll be sharing some of the suggestions with you soon! 

Thanks Everyone!

Easter Manicure

I wanted to quickly show you what I was sporting on Easter Sunday, but first - I have reached 500 followers today! How cool is that?! Thank you so much to everyone who reads! If the 100 follower Giveaway wasn't already running, I would do something to celebrate - I'll rack my brains for something after it's ended!


For this Manicure I used a base of Models Own BlooBoo for all but the ring finger (Rimmel Lemon Drop)  and thumb (American Apparel  Coney Island). I then used Claire's Nail Art Pens and a dotting tool to create the nail art. If you have any questions about any colours, just pop it in the comments and I will let you know - there are too many to name!

 So we have an Easter Chick and an Easter Bunny, who has dropped some eggs off in the grass :D

I love Pastels and Creams, so this was a nice Mani for me to have on! I hope you all had a lovely day and you're not getting as fat as me from over indulgence!

Sorry for the rather sporadic posts, after this MASSIVE piece of work is handed in to Uni, I will be back on form :D

If you haven't already, enter my International 100 Follower Giveaway - PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE pop your details in the Google Docs form! I can't accept entries that are added to the comments! Good Luuuuck!

Nauti-cool nails

...Yes, I'm just THAT pun-tastic. I don't know why I'm loving nautical this week, but here's another super-sailor manicure done with mostly Bloom Polishes - only managed one good picture:

Didn't come out terribly neat, I think I had a clog in my Claire's Black Nail Art Pen but I was too lazy to jog upstairs and poke a pin in it.
I didn't want a bright white, so did a base layer of Nails Inc Caramel, followed by two coats of Bloom's Nicole - looove this polish, it's a muted cream - goes on really nicely and dries shiny shiny. Good for both an opaque look or a frenchie.

 

 I then added some red stripes with a stiping brush, using Barry M Red, and added a coat of Seche Vite.

Ha horizontal stripes make you look fat. When it was completely dry, I taped off the nails diagonally, and added two coats of Bloom's The Cassette Society 1. My original plan was to stamp the anchor image from one of the Bundle Monster Image Plates, but my nails are too little at the moment and it was too large, so I resigned myself to free-handing them in using Bloom's Goldie and Barry M Mushroom.
I used Barry M mushroom and some yellow acrylic paint (which was a bit of a gloopy disaster) to make the rope, first as a stripe, then adding the detail with Claire's Black Nail Art Pen. LAVLY.

I hope you like it! Let me know what you think! Is it a look you would wear?

Also, I found an old sketch book today, and this little guy was cotching in it. I must've been fourteen when I drew this. I forgot I could draw, how weird is that?! I freakin' LOVE crayons. Like a lot. Too much.

oh heeeeeey

I can smell a frog Manicure. It smells of old leaves and awesomeness.

:D

Nails Inc Under The Sea Mani!

Hellooo! The next Nails Inc that I'm swatching for you is the turquoise cream Upper Street. It was quite overcast today so here are some sunshine-less outdoor pictures of it by itself:-

Upper Street is a muted turquoise cream, and applies really nicely - 3 coats were necessary though, probably could have gotten away with 2 if I was in a hurry/no-one was going to look too closely!

I decided to add some "under the sea" inspired free-hand nail art, using polish and my new brush set (which I am not overly pleased with, dont think it's a marked improvement on the toothpick art! let me know what you think!). *a bit pic heavy from this point on, I apologise, thought you might want some close ups :D*

Came out a bit Finding Nemo-ey! Say Hi to Bruce and Nemo.

Let me know what you think on the comments! If you want to know what any of the polish colours are, just holla at me - there's too many to list!

xxxx

Hello Kitty

Morning everyone! I received my Free Gift Hello Kitty Stamping Plate from BornPrettyStore yesterday, so decided to do a Hello Kitty themed Manicure for your viewing pleasure.
I started with a Skittle-patterned base of Models Own Blooboo, Barry M Strawberry Ice Cream and Elegant Touch White, here is the swatch, as promised! Remember, you can always click to enlarge these photos, if you really want my hand all up in yo' grill.

Pinky and index are Barry M Strawberry Ice Cream, Ring finger is Elegant Touch White, middle finger is Models Own Blooboo. A wee smudge on the pinky but sssshhhhhhh.

I then stamped white polka dots on to all but the ring finger from Konad M79. I stamped the Hello Kitty Image off the BornPretty plate, and filled in the bow and nose in Barbara Daley Neon Pink and Miss Sporty Taxi! respectively. I added a pink rhinestone to the middle of her bow using Nail Glue, and free-handed a silver tip with Claire's Nail Art Pen Striper, topping it with 2 coats of Claire's Holographic Glitter Topcoat. Here's how it came out, all without Flash, in natural light. Colours are accurate.

The glitter is really pretty IRL, it's a shame it was an overcast day today.

you can see a bit of that holo glitter in this one

There we are! Let me know what you think :) I have a habit of running my hands through my hair quite a lot, so the little rhinestones snag and annoy me a bit, but apart from that, I like it! I realise it's not very original and there are a ton of other Manicures like this one out there, but I really wanted to try the new plate, so I'm sure you can forgive me :D

In other news, the Blog Round-up that we took part in yesterday was a success, I hope you got to see some new designs and we helped to broaden your bloggy horizons! Tune in next week where there will be even more collaborators. If you're interested in including some of your artwork, please please get in touch! The more the merrier!

Bundlemonster, the creators and distributors of the image plates I own, are also holding a contest over at their Facebook page so if you own any of their products, get involved! There are 25 prizes to be won! 25! waheeey! I'm definitely going to enter (what have we got to lose....right? Gulp.) so may be asking your valued opinion on a few designs and ideas before submission day!

Anyone else in the UK watching Friday Night Dinner?! I've just watched this week's episode and it made me creeeeaaase! Bloody love it!

In with the Cat Theme of this post (and trust me, there won't be many as I am hideously allergic to the bloody things and have therefore developed a general dislike for any and all feline creatures - except Lions. Lions are sik), Katy Perry has a cat called Kitty Purry - Baaaaahahaahahaaaaaaaa, it's funny cus it's like her name but for a cat, innit.

Finally, Happy Blogiversary to Sam at Nailasaurus :D