Thursday 31 October 2013

Hidden Eye Nail Art with Crows Toes One Trick Pony

Everyone and his dog has done this nail art but I really like it and thought it would work very well on the base of Crows Toes One Trick Pony.
One Trick Pony is a purple-teal colour changing holo. Battling the english weather I managed to get a little of the holo to show in the above photo but under artificial light this one really sparkles. It applied very easily and this is three coats although two would probably have been sufficient if you're not taking macro photos.
I drew on the black spaces with my Barry M nail art pen. These dry really fast so I didn't have to wait long before I could draw on the eyes with my white nail art pen. I made them all look in different directions and I do think my hidden monsters in the dark look a little afraid themselves.
I loved this, I wore it for three days with no tip wear and I didn't stop liking it, I was very sad to eventually have to take it off. Happy Halloween!

Wednesday 30 October 2013

33DC Artwork with your favourite brand

I couldn't really pick a favourite brand- for a start I have a load of indie brands I couldn't choose between for my glittery and holographic polishes. So I decided to change this prompt a little bit and I am showing you artwork with my favourite cheap polish brand NYC. NYC is only available at Superdrug, all their polishes are named after New York City and they do a good range of amazing cremes, glitters and foils.
I got Lincoln Center fairly recently from Fragrance Direct and it is an amazing burgundy colour in two coats (on the first coat it does look like blood). The foil effects range has four amazing stamping polishes in it (avoid the orange) and their gold is actually my go to stamping colour and as they're so cheap at £1.50 you don't mind the wastage you get with stamping so much.
I decided to do a tone on tone stamp with these two colours and I hope you like this more subtle look. I got the stamping centre on my nail by rolling the stamper vertically up my nail- looking from the tip towards the cuticle end to make sure it was lined up.

Tuesday 29 October 2013

Cambridge Nails shop on Etsy

I wanted to share with you the good news that I have started selling nail polish jewellery and hand paint false nail sets on Etsy. My shop name is Cambridge Nails and I have some pictures below to show you the kinds of things I've been making :)
These rings are all hand painted by me and as you can see some of them include stamped images from the new Bundle Monster set.
I have also been painting up some false nail sets with my signature pink line motif, some eyes in the dark and a subtle snowflake design for wear in the run up to Christmas. I would love it if you checked it out to see if there's anything you fancied or maybe as a very unique Christmas present for a friend :). The link to my shop is https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/CambridgeNails

Monday 28 October 2013

33DC South America Aztec Temple

Today's post is late because I took off my first manicure for this prompt without taking any photos. I didn't want to do the same things again so I give you the aztec temple in silhouette:
The base here is a Nelly Polish sample which she was selling off and I did the step detail in Barry M Espresso.
It's another one that looks great when your hand is in exactly the right position and weird the rest of the time...
Tomorrow I'll be sharing some exciting news so be sure to check in :).

Sunday 27 October 2013

Textured bats

I am finally getting into the swing of things for halloween- it's not such a big deal here as it is in the States but I am still going to a party dressed as a sugar skull. Anyway I got a sudden desire to paint bats on my nails and I did it with one of my textured polishes- Barry M Countess.
bats-halloween-nail-art-manicure-texture-orange
The base for this is a matte ruffian of Barry M Mango and Vivid Purple.
I just painted on the bats with a small nail art brush and I'm really pleased with how they came out :)

Saturday 26 October 2013

Lacquer Lust Bow Chica Wow Wow Ruffian

I am desperately trying to work my way through my pile of untrieds and am having some success but it's definitely something I have to think about other wise I do resort to using familiar polishes. The main polish in this manicure Lacquer Lust Bow Chica Wow Wow is one of my untrieds- a deep blue holographic polish I decided to pair it with the bright pink of piCture pOlish Electric Dream in my current favourite manicure style- the ruffian.
I loved this, the sun helpfully came out for a little bit while I was wearing it so I do apologise for the background of the two sun photos, I took them on the move in case the sun went back in.
Bow Chica has a really strong holo effect but it's more of a scattered holo than a linear one- although as you can see below there is some bend to it.
I love this combination, it's really fun and very simple to do. Because it is quite plain this mani is also very easy to wear and could be dressed up or down depending on the occasion.
I'll be back tomorrow with some halloween bats :).

Friday 25 October 2013

33DC Woodland Animals

The prompt for today is animals and I had to use this mani from Eeeek! Nail Polish as my idea because it was so gorgeous (much better than mine ;)). We have here a badger, a fox and erm... a dog? My boyfriend thinks it's a squirrel... Plus the tail of the brown creature which was my little addition to this :).
I love this so much- I still need more practice with acrylic paint to make it do what I want it to (my fox was a little lumpy).
For the base I used A England St. George then stamped with Moyou Pro Plate 8 (I think) and NYC Magic Earth to produce a leafy background. The stamping alone looked incredible- I wish I'd taken a picture before I attacked it with acrylic paint. I know it's quite a common thing to do tone on tone stamping but I personally haven't done it before. With my new squishy stamper I am able to do art over stamped backgrounds because I don't have to wait ages for polish to dry before stamping.
I love these little woodland critters :)

Thursday 24 October 2013

The colour challenged picks my polishes

So I am jumping on the bandwagon of people who have had their significant other choose a few nail polishes for them to do some nail art with and today my lovely Stuart picked out NYC Lexington Yellow, piCture pOlish Orbit, Pocket Money Polish Yellow Submarine and OPI Taylor Blue. While I'm mentioning Taylor Blue Work, Play, Polish posted today that it's going to be sold again in November so check out the link to her blog to read about that.
I really don't use ruffian nail art enough, it's really suited to the round shape that my cuticles have. I loved the look here before I added Orbit although I do like the dark contrast on the tips.
I thought I would talk you through my thought process here: I knew that the yellow would have to go on first because it is definitely a two coater and I would struggle to get it opaque over either of the blues. I then thought it would be really cool to have a bright pop of colour be painting on the OPI as a ruffian and then putting the PMP over the top tying those colours together. I meant to use Orbit to do the ruffian on my accent nail but totally forgot so the only way I could think of to include it without throwing the whole mani off was to paint on a thin tip with it but it's quite thick and difficult to manipulate.
Not too bad really :), at one point he had both of the blues and an orange very sheer jelly polish and I was worried. I had fun doing this and it was really interesting to see what my boyfriend pulled out of my collection.

Wednesday 23 October 2013

33DC: Abstract Lines

Abstract is such a hard prompt because it is so wide- I typed it into Google and came up with a picture of some lines and thought it would be a perfect chance to try some fan brush nail art. This is not exactly what I was picturing in my head but for a first try it's not terrible.
I like the blue side of this more than I like the red side. I'm getting a bit worried that I won't have an easy new technique to try for that prompt in this challenge; if there are any techniques you'd like to see me attempt please feel free to comment and let me know.
I'm not going to tell you any of the colours I used here because I put them away before noting them down and also because you can't really tell what colours are in it anyway. I'm going to try to use a fan brush to get a vertical gradient on my nails at some point because I seem to fail doing it any other way.
It's not terrible but I don't really like this either. It lasted on my nails for about an hour before I swapped it out. Friday's challenge is animals and I already know exactly what I want to do...

Tuesday 22 October 2013

Crows Toes Tiki Torch Swatch and Nail Art

When the latest Crows Toes collection came out there were a few I fancied (One Trick Pony, Storms Never Last, Boat Drinks) but the only one I had to have come hell or high water was Tiki Torch. Tiki Torch is a purple jelly with tiny glitters which flash up holographic in the colours of fire.
I mean who could look at that and not be enchanted! It looks very much like you have the embers of a fire on your nails. I didn't want to cover up much of the base with nail art so I decided to apply some rose water decals I was sent along with some indie nail polish.
These decals were very easy to use and look very effective considering how little effort they take to apply. I did all of my nails on both hands and had matching nail art for a few days which was really nice :).
Also the pictures were actually taken on the third day of wear with no visible tip damage which is impressive for me as I'm quite hard on my nails.
I love Tiki Torch so much and I'm really glad I managed to get hold of it.

Monday 21 October 2013

33DC: Chinese Pandas

This is possibly one of the most stereotypical things you could think of when it comes to China and I don't even want to guess how many people will do pandas. However I couldn't resist the opportunity to do some subtle stamped bamboo and then stamp pandas over the top.
The base for this is Ethereal Lacquer Thigh Highs which I showed you yesterday. I stamped using 2 True Arete, NYC Full Metal Jacket and Konad Black. During this I managed to knock my konad black off the table and spill it onto my clothes! Ah the casualties of nail art.
I love my little pandas sitting there munching on bamboo.
Ok so I could have done something a little bit more original but I love this and it's a very neutral direction (as opposed to the red and gold dragon I was also considering). Tomorrow's post also features a new indie polish that I love so come back to see how I wore that one :).

Sunday 20 October 2013

Ethereal Lacquer Thigh Highs Swatch

I only got my first Ethereal Lacquer polishes this week from Rainbow Connection but I am in love already. I showed you Callisto yesterday and today I am showing you Thigh Highs a gorgeous cream polish with a golden shimmer running through it. As you can see it is very sheer- this is three coats with top coat but I don't mind because I quite like the visible nail line with neutral nail polishes. I can never explain to you how beautiful this polish is, you'll have to buy it to see (but get Callisto as well if you do!).
It can be difficult for me to find neutral polish colours which don't clash with my incredibly pale skin but this one just looks gorgeous. The golden shimmer gives it this extra life that other similar polishes I own don't have. I am going to have to try a single coat of this over a black polish to see what it looks like.
So what do you think? Will you be adding this beauty to your stash? Need one last photo to convince you?
Well there you have it, a gorgeous polish well worth a look. I will be showing you some nail art over this tomorrow but it was too lovely not to show you alone.

Saturday 19 October 2013

Ethereal Lacquer Callisto with Stamping

I am in love with this design. I got hold of Ethereal Lacquer Callisto yesterday and immediately put it on. I have some swatch photos for you below as well as this nail art. Sadly I had to cut my nails down for a job interview but I am planning to grown them back out to my round shape.
So here is Callisto, it's a grey holographic polish with bright blue glitter in it. Due to the rubbish british weather I haven't really been able to show you how holographic this is but you can see some of it in the first photo whereas the second showcases the gorgeous grey with blue glitter that shows through when it's not being ridiculously holographic. This is two easy coats with topcoat. I purchased this from Rainbow Connection in the UK.
I stamped over it with this stamp fromt he new bundle monster collection. I think it looks like arrowheads but there is also a hint of fish skeleton there as well...
The glitter on my index and little fingers is Pocket Money Polish Sparks Fly, my custom which i love and goes perfectly with this grey base.
I love this nail art more than anything I've done for a little while and i'm not looking forward to taking it off for Monday's 33 day challenge prompt which is Chinese (I'm thinking dragons).

Friday 18 October 2013

33 DC: Based on Pattern in home

Again this is going to be a quickie because I'm quite busy at the moment. I got some Deborah Lippmann polishes really cheaply from TK Maxx and I wanted to show you them so here is Cleopatra in New York and Nefertiti with a bundle monster splatter stamp (which I love!)
You might be asking what's the pattern- it is mess, I love having a lot of stuff out on my desk which is perfectly organised to me but messy to others. Sadly this is the last design for a while in which I will have long nails because I had to cut them down to look a bit more professional for an interview :(. I'll be back tomorrow with a pre prepared post and some awesome nail art :)

Thursday 17 October 2013

Swirly gradient stamping

I'm still in the prcess of working my way through all the stamping plates I already own but the new bundle monster collection just has so many amazing images I want to use right now and this is one of them


Short post today because life just got busy but ask if you want to know any of the polish names :)

Wednesday 16 October 2013

33DC 3D with Born Pretty Store Leaf Studs

Recently the Born Pretty Store sent me these leaf shaped studs to review. I thought they would fit in perfectly on the 3D day of the 33 day challenge. The studs are fairly small and oval shaped and come in a range of fluorescent colours but I chose the green ones because I might want to use them as leaves in future nail art.
I applied three studs in a lotus pattern at the base of my nail. Although these studs cannot be bent to fit the curve of your nail they are small so they don't stand up an unreasonable amount.
The base here is Black Cat Lacquer Midnight City which you can see on its own yesterday
I also received these square decorations
These are quite large if you have small nail beds like I do but I still like them. They do not bend well to fit the curve of your nail. You can find these here.
The Born Pretty store has a lot of great nail art items available for great prices with free 
worldwide shipping. Remember you can use my coupon code to get 10% off your purchase.