Faded Sour Apple

Hello friends.

Tonight I want to show you a manicure that I have been wearing, without a chip, since Sunday.

This is 'Sour Apple' by The Garden of Colour from Viva La Nails.

For the blue tips, I used Face it's BL607 - a polish sent to me by Anastacia some time last year.

I really like this green!

The crystals are from eBay and they were stuck on with only nail polish. 

Next post I'll have pictures of a few designs that I've done recently...

xx

31 Day Manicure Challenge Day 10 - 'Gradient'

Hey everyone, hope you are well.

Today's manicure is one of my favourites of late and I'm loathe to remove it, if I'm honest with you. I enjoy doing gradients and sponging - mostly because it's pretty easy to do.

Essence's Purple Diamond, sponged with Rimmel's Pompous and stamped with Stargazer Silver. Pinks and purples are my most favourite colours to use for a gradient.

The rhinestones were a part of a sample pack that was available for review, provided by Viva la nails.
I don't know about you, but whenever I use rhinestones, I find myself debating whether or not to use a top coat or just glue them on and go. Sometimes a top coat will dull the shine of the stones but failure to use one can also result in them falling off into your cornflakes at breakfast time. Not good for the teeth or the digestion.  Luckily, after using a top coat with these, I'm happy to say that they are still pretty shiny. Good stuff.

 I have so many to play with and if you look closely, you can see that the stones come in three, if not four sizes.

The plate used.

I'm going to enjoy wearing this for the day, but I'll have separation anxiety after removing it :(

Until tomorrow...

xx

Leopard gradient

Hey, hey!

Today I would like to introduce you to my first (and possibly last) animal print manicure.  I don't know what it is...I like looking at them on other people, but not so much on myself.

Inside picture:

I used three different polishes to do the gradient, a pink to make spots and then some black acrylic paint to outline them (click  for a gradient tutorial). As usual, Clever Clogs forgot to take bottle pictures, so if you really want to know what I used, let me know in the comments section.

 Don't know what this colour is because I gave it away shortly afterwards, when I realised I had a dupe for the gold AND the purple. I don't like to hoard duplicates. If I have two colours that are similar, it's either by accident or because I want a back-up bottle.

 That pink flower? That was one of my sculpted acrylic trials. I don't have any hot pink acrylic; it was white and I painted it with the same colour polish I used for the spots! This picture shows the gradient a little better.

Hope you like it! Have a great week.

xx

More sponging and stamping.

Hi Friends, I hope everyone is well.

The weather has been so nice here recently.  That's one reason why my photos look different. I'm trying to make the most of the natural sunshine and my light box is in tatters (still) because I haven't had time to mend it!

I have a nice one for you today. Okay, I think it's nice anyway.  I was having a look at this blog the other day and it got me thinking; why haven't I tried to layer my stamping? Something I'd done before, but not intentionally. It's so simple and it makes perfect sense, so I thought I'd step up my stamping game.

Here ya go.

 This is NYC's 'Times Square', two coats.

L-R: Wet n Wild 'Tipsy (one layer), Sally Hansen Nail Prisms 'Golden Cinnebar' (sponged on first up to mid-nail), Essence Metallics 'Copper Rulez!' (sponged on tips)

BM14 (stars) and BM19 (circles) stamped with Models Own Goldigger

I loved this until I tore my middle finger and had to patch it. I hate patches but I'm trying to grow my nails out.  I'm so fed up of short nails that I've even been toying with the idea of acrylics again :-0!! I don't think I will though.

xx

Snowflake nail art

Hi everyone, I hope you are keeping yourselves warm...

Today is just a really quick post.  Here is a design I did a few weeks ago but I just didn't feel like doing it on my own nails. I think I was into plain polish that week.

Anyway, here it is.

This was to welcome the first few flakes of snow we experienced here some weeks ago.

Here are the things I used:
Konad scraper bought from this retailer, Konad Stamper, Electric Blue Polish, Special White Konad Polish, Models Own Juicy Jules, a piece of sponge (from an old sponge roller) and the BM14 image plate.
1. I painted on two coats of  Electric Blue by Beauty UK.
2. Next, I sponged on a white gradient with some regular white polish not pictured here. I intend to do a short tutorial on sponging very soon. It will go in the 'How To' page.
3. BM plate 14 was used to stamp on the snowflake and star images.
4. On the white gradient and images, I painted on a little glitter.
5. Lastly, a topcoat (no name) was painted on!

 The snowflake and stars at the top of the plate.

The next time I do a design I will try to show all the equipment I used and break down the steps too.

I hope you like the design!

Rimmel - Apricot Punch Reeeemmmmixxxxx!

Sorry, got a bit carried away there in the title.  I had five minutes spare (literally all the time this took) so I thought I'd spice up the colour.

I sponged on a diagonal gradient of yellow and put a layer of Nubar 2010 on.

And now for the picture spam!

 You can see the green and orange on my index finger...

Okay, I'm done for now

Thanks for having a look.