Monday, 7 October 2013

33DC Your Oldest Untried Polish

Over the weekend I have reached over 90 followers on bloglovin with some more on gfc, twitter and facebook. I really hope you enjoy my posts and thank you for following :). Today is the 33 day challenge nail art with your oldest untried polish. Although I'm not entirely certain that this is my oldest untried (I seem to have accumulated masses of untried polishes) it came in a Llarowe mystery grab bag and is simply gorgeous. This is Nail'd It Water layered over NYC Water Street Blue as it is too sheer otherwise. It has various different shapes of glitter in blue, purple and green.
For my nail art look I added an accent nail of Pocket Money Polish Summertime (another untried) placing the heart glitters in a diagonal line across the nail. This glitter topper is beautiful but I don't think Charlie is selling it anymore-sorry! I then stamped birds from my new Bundle Monster plate set onto the rest of my nails with NYC Full Metal Jacket.
I love this bird design, it would be awesome for making nail decals. 
I'll be back tomorrow with another stamped design from the Bundle Monster plates but right now check out the other 33dc designs and the second inkslinks for UK Indie month.

Saturday, 5 October 2013

Dots and Stripes Tutorial

I'm not entirely certain what to call this design but I thought I'd put together a quick tutorial for it :). As I  freak out at the sound of my own voice on tape I have put together a picture series.
dots-stripes-tutorial-nail-art-manicure-pink-holographic

1) For this you need a pale pink polish (I like sheer but you choose one you like), a holographic pink polish, a medium striping brush, a small dotting tool and either a white and black Barry M nail art pen or polishes to dot with.

2) Paint on two coats of the pale pink polish

3) Use the holographic polish and the striping brush to make curves on your nails (as shown on the middle and ring fingers). Then fill the shapes in with the striping brush (as shown on the index and little fingers)

4) Add dots on the sides of the shapes using the pink polish and your dotting tool

5) Add white dots along the sides of the pink shapes

6)Add black dots to any gaps for definition.

The polishes I used are OPI Bubblebath and Emily de Molly Where Boys Fear to Tread















There you go :). If you try this design out I would love to see it!

Friday, 4 October 2013

33DC Textured Gradient

I showed you Barry M Countess alone yesterday and for today I sponged another textured polish, OPI Alcatraz Rocks, over the tips of my nails then added studs from the Born Pretty Store which came in a wheel with a few different types of stud.
To apply the studs without changing the texture of the polish I used dotting tools to add a dot of clear polish where I wanted the stud then used the dotting tool while slightly tacky to pick up and place the studs. The studs are thin and lie close to the surface of my nails which I really like.
I've gone for some more arty shots that I normally do, I love the one below and the one above shows you just how thin these studs are.
I hope you like this :), tomorrow I'm going to be showing you a design I made with the awesome new bundle monster collection.

Thursday, 3 October 2013

Barry M Countess

I don't normally do standalone swatches but my nails need a break after the 31 day challenge so I'm going to show you Barry M Countess alone today then the nail art I did with it tomorrow.
This polish is simply gorgeous, a deep aubergine colour with holographic glitter in every colour.
You are not supposed to top coat texture and I didn't want to cover it up for tomorrow's design so I've left it as is.
Make sure you enter my giveaway :)

Wednesday, 2 October 2013

33 DC Mexican Sugar Skulls

The only thing I ever really see on people's nails about Mexico are the Cinco de Mayo sugar skulls. So I used this tutorial by Pretty Squared to draw skulls onto my nails.
The polishes I used in this were Barry M Guava and Passion Fruit, Jessica Radioactive, Lilypad Lacquer In Pink we Trust, NYC Lexington Yellow, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, Orly Hottie and Holla. I used NYC Matte Me Crazy to give it a satiny matte finish. The details were all drawn on with Barry M Nail Art pen.
I've added a link to my giveaway below, enter to win a bottle of my Pocket Money Polish custom Sparks and OPI Tiffany Case. UK ONLY sorry international readers :(

a Rafflecopter giveaway

6 month round up and giveaway

I have been blogging for six months as of yesterday- exciting times :). I thought I'd take this opportunity to show you some of my favourites from that time and to have a little giveaway :).

My favourite manicures


My most looked at manicure
My minion nails :)


My progress
The first mani I ever posted on this blog was my half moon planets mani, I recreated this for the half moon day of the 31Day Challenge in September and I thought I'd put them side by side to see if I have improved :). Unfortunately I cropped my most recent one in such a way that you can't quite see all of the fingers- sorry. But just look at the improvement in clean up and finger placement :).

Giveaway
For this giveaway I collaborated with Charlie of Pocket Money Polishes to create a unique glitter topper. This is inspired by the Taylor Swift song Sparks Fly. It is shown below layered over Nails Inc Motcomb Road I have also layered it over red here. You will receive your own unopened bottle of Sparks and there are only a handful of them in existence :). You will also receive an unopened bottle of Tiffany Case by OPI a pale blue glittery texture polish I have used here.
The rafflecopter is below. Unfortunately this giveaway is only open within the UK but I have plans for an international one fairly soon :).a Rafflecopter giveaway



Tuesday, 1 October 2013

31DC Recreate Your Favourite

My favourite manicure done for the challenge was the Nailasaurus' rainbow manicure (here). This was my first time attempting the waterfall technique that she pioneered but I absolutely love it- everyone who saw me while I was wearing this complimented me on it!
I used far too many nail polishes in this to tell you their names but the base is OPI My Vampire is Buff. My bottle of it is starting to become a little gloopy I've used so much of it.
I finally figured out how to add the google friend connect widget to my sidebar- so if you'd like to add me please do :)
And there we have the end of the 31 day challenge! Its been fun but I'm looking forward to having a little break :). I'll probably do a round up this weeks showing you which designs I'm most proud of.