33DC Art with your most used colour

The challenge today is to use the colour you have the most of to create some nail art. I have so many blue polishes- I know I have too many but I just cannot stop myself from buying them, I'm addicted! I used three different blue polishes for this; Barry M Blue Grape, My Ten Friends Space Sauce and NYC Aqua Mystic.

There are so many layers to this art but they're not really visible, I started with a base of Blue Grape topped with Space Sauce then stamped over the top with Aqua Mystic and Moyou Suki Collection Plate 09. I just chose some bits off the plate to do each nail but I like the basket weave image on this plate. I'm also super excited to use the koi image.

I then used a medium length striping brush to add in the stripes with Blue Grape. This looked so good in person, Space Sauce gave it a really nice holographic effect and it looked really complex (my boyfriend couldn't immediately work out how I had done it).

I love the complexity and simplicity of this mani :). Tomorrow I have a skittle mani to show you.

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33DC Geometric

For my geometric nail art I decided to use these parallelogram loose glitters I have to create cubes on my nails. I love how it turned out and can only apologise for the light I had to take this in.

The base for this is NYC A suitcase and a donut, a gorgeous greyish, blackish navy, I am showing you two coats which were just perfect for this polish.

These little glitters are incredibly holographic and I just love this easy cube effect. However, on reflection I wish I'd considered the camera and put my cubes the other way up... here's what they looked like for me :):

There we go, I loved this but I have to admit it only lasted for a couple of hours because I pick glitter off my nails...

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NYC has new polishes in Superdrug

It's no secret that I love the NYC polishes, I use them all the time and most of my basic cream finish polishes are from them. I also have all of their foil polishes as they are amazing for stamping with (apart from the orange which is watery and disappointing). So as you can imagine I get quite excited when new ones appear in Superdrug which they have. These are part of the NYC Expert Last Range so £2.49 each and several new metallic finish polishes have popped up along with a couple of cream finishes. The ones I picked up are Grey Haze, Money never sleeps and A suitcase and a donut. From initial swatches on a bit of paper I think Grey Haze and Money Never Sleeps (the two metallic finish polishes) will show brush strokes but the colours are just incredible. A suitcase and a donut is almost a dead ringer for Ink stain but in a cream finish not a metallic one which I absolutely love. There were a few other additions, a metallic red, a black cream and a beautiful metallic pink called Blush. If Blush had been a creme I would have bought it immediately because the colour was amazing but I'm not sure about metallic pinks, it's a little bit too Barbie for me.

I also picked up a Maybelline Colour Show Brocade in Foil Flash- perfect for those wintery scenes we'll all be creating over the next few weeks and Barry M in Lychee because my bottle of OPI My Vampire is Buff has gone ridiculously thick and Lychee is a more affordable alternative.

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33DC Pixellated Gradient

Pixellated nail art is something I first did back in July. I have been seeing it around a lot more recently and thought it would be a great way to incorporate the prompts of three colour gradient with a pattern. I love the colour scheme of blue, grey and yellow that I used for this, they just go together so well. I used a single polish for each and then used white polish to change the saturation but keep it the same hue.

The polishes I used were A England Dorian Gray, Barry M Blue Grape and NYC Lexington Yellow. The yellow was the hardest to get different shade of at the right thickness, hence why there is so much less of it.

I did these nails by using the base I already had on (Nails Inc Covent Garden Ballet), putting OPI Matte Top Coat on and drawing a simple grid using my white Barry M nail art pen (these pens work so much better over a matte base. I then used a small brush to fill in the small squares, mixing a colour and putting it in across all my nails, then mixing the next colour. It took a surprisingly short amount of time to do- in the range of half an hour but I didn't have to paint my base colour on as well.

I love how this looks, it's so simple but really effective. If you're going to use the same effect as me with the lighter squares it's easier to pick a dark colour and lighten it in stages with white polish than it is to try and darken a colour without greying it. Tomorrow will be a small update about some new polishes available in the (UK) shops with a few swatches.

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Cambridge Nails is busy

Hi all :). I have no challenge post for you today as I am away at an interview. I am in the middle of a very busy week attending three job interviews in a row and I am really hoping that one of these will become my future place of employment. Therefore research is taking up the time I normally dedicate to the blog and there will be no post tomorrow. I hope to be back on Friday resuming the 33 day challenge with Europe (hopefully my new moyou plate will have arrived). I've made my first ever video below where I explain a bit about what's going on.

To tide you over I thought I'd share some pictures of my halloweeen get up (and my bf's- I did his face paint) and some cinder toffee I made- it's the best sweet ever and so easy to make.

Sorry this pic is so blurry- it was taken at the end of the night... I was the spider queen and the one on my face had little nail studs for eyes that you unfortunately can't see. Stuart was a climber who had fallen off a cliff so I painted him on a black eye and the blood trails. At the start of the night his lips were pale blue as well but that wore off quite quickly...

This was super quick and a really effective halloween look (I think it took 10 mins to paint on).

This is cinder toffee it's a sugary treat which I've never come across anywhere but the north of England (apart from in the middle of Cruchies)... I used a recipe from A Thrifty Mrs to make this- it took 20 minutes from start to finish and as I cleaned off the pan immediately with boiling water it was also really easy to clean up after.

Best part is that this makes just about the right amount and I have some to carry around on this week's marathon interview run.

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Top Ten Polishes for Winter

I think Autumn and Winter are my favourite seasons, I put together a colour scheme for Autumn to keep running through my posts although I did not share it with you. I thought I'd share with you my top ten polishes to wear in Winter. Half are big brands and half are indies and I have included polishes over a range of prices.

We have NYC Ink Stain (£1.99, Superdrug), the perfect deep blue for when nights are drawing in- it will work with any outerwear and add some definition to your hand. OPI I'm Not Really a Waitress (£11.50, OPI), an idyllic deep red for when you need sophisticated nails to go with your little black dress Nails Inc Maida Vale (£11, Nails Inc) is a full coverage icy glitter that will remind you of a snow storm. Use this as an accent nail in a white dotticure for maximum impact. Also by Nails Inc Covent Garden Ballet(£11, Nails Inc) is a soft grey polish with a blush shimmer running through it, this is nail polish to wear as you cuddle up by the fire in your favourite cashmere cardigan. For the most stunning and powerful ice queen nails try this stunning ice blue holographic polish Moondance by Topshop (£6, Topshop).

Next we have the indies, Fandom Cosmetics Snowing(US$8.50, Fandom Cosmetics) is a clear based bright red glitter with black circles and white hearts, use this as an accent nail with some red rose nail art over a white background for a striking look. Next up we have two Ethereal Lacquers, Callisto the amazing deep grey holographic polish with blue glitter and Thigh Highs a nude polish with a subtle gold shimmer. These are both fantastic soft polishes great for when you just want to wrap up warm and snuggle up. Serum No. 5 Shrinking Violet is a very sheer pale purple polish with blue and purple glitter and gold shimmer. Faerie Wisdom by Liquid Sky Lacquer is a clear based glitter with a great combination of matte neon glitters and holographic glitters. This is a great way to make neon wearable in winter

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33DC Inspired by a Tutorial

This wasn't really a tutorial but it is someone else's design. Dressed up Nails did these awesome dotty hearts and when I saw them I knew they were what I wanted to copy for this challenge. I did mine in neon pink and pastel lime green- a fabulous combination which is under appreciated.

The colours used here are Jessica Lime Cooler and Lilypad Lacquer In Pink We Trust- an exclusive made for the UK store Sally Magpies. I did the dots with a dotting tool and freehanded the stripes with a medium length striping brush.

I really like this manicure. I like how in your face it is but also isn't because the pastel green tones it down, just awesome :).

Tomorrow I will have a post summing up my top ten polishes for the winter season now that the clocks have gone back and some of them are a little wild cardy so come and see if you agree with me :).

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