Bubbles

Evening folks.

Tonight I want to show you a bit of stamping that I did recently.

 The plates used were B06 and B10 from KKCenterHk

I'd had intentions of painting the fish in their respective colours, but at that point I was lacking the will and the patience. The white stamping polish didn't want to work with me, hence the reason why some of the bubbles look more like semi-circles! The images on the plates were crisp and clean, so yes, I do think I need to replace my polish.

 

This is one of those manicures that looked a lot prettier in my head...ho hum.

Have a brilliant weekend all...and wish me luck for my last day at college tomorrow (sob, sob).

xx

Tutorial: Nail art stamping - lots of pictures!

Hey everyone, I hope you are well.

I've listened to what you've said and have made a pictorial to let you know how I create manicures with nail art stamping.  I'm sure other people have their own special techniques, but for those who are interested, here is how I do it.

I must apologise for the photographs; some were taken in natural light and others under the orange light of my kitchen. They aren't optimal conditions, but I did the best that I could....

First, start with your favourite base colour OVER A BASECOAT. Don't scrimp on the basecoat if you don't want stained nails. This is 'Purple Diamond'.

Sponge on your second colour. Put some polish on your sponge and dab it off onto a paper towel, then dab your nails, starting on the very tip first and then working towards the middle of the nail.

Sally Hansen's 'Red Carpet'.

Add a layer of glitter! This is 'Pinky Glitter' and these three gorgeous polishes were given to me by Marisa at Polish Obsession in a swap we arranged recently.
Use a layer or two of top coat over the glitter to smooth out the surface after the glitter. Doing this helps your stamping pattern to look like it's 'floating' on your nail. That's the preparation done.

Materials to use are a stamping polish or a highly pigmented regular nail polish, stamper, scraping knife and image template. You can get a starter kit from various places. I got my first a year ago here. Bundle Monster does fantastic plates for a fraction of the price Konad charges.

 Cover your chosen image with polish.

 Scrape away the excess polish.

Immediately roll the stamp onto the image...

 When you remove the stamp, the image should be transferred onto the rubber.

 Blue didn't go with the polish I was wearing so I tried again with a white 'special' polish from Konad. This polish IS good, but sometimes you can get a normal polish that is cheaper but just as effective. MUA does brilliant black polish which only costs £1.

Position the image and slowly roll it onto the nail with a little pressure. Roll it all the way over to ensure that the image is transferred. It should transfer nicely but if it doesn't, lightly swipe the image off your nail with a cotton bud dipped in nail polish remover. If you covered your main polish with a top coat, you shouldn't have any issues with smudging.

Cover your nail with a clear top coat. Put a big drop of polish on your nail and try not to let the brush touch the nail when doing so. Don't worry if you flood your cuticles with polish at this point - you can remove it later.

 Finished product!

I tried my very best to make this as concise as possible... 

This is what works for me - what do YOU do?

Thanks for reading folks, I'm off to bed :)

xx

Milani Neon Pink and a little tutorial

Hey friends.

I'm taking a little break from checking giveaway entries to post a manicure that I did prior to the 31 Day Manicure Challenge.  

If you follow me on Twitter (click my button >>), you will recognise this manicure - it's my twitter icon.

I started doing this when it suddenly occurred to me that I should actually do a tutorial just in case anyone was interested. 

Ready?
Okay!

1. Start with completely dry nails in the colour of your choice. Tape some thin strips of tape in random places on the nails you want to accent.

2. Paint over the tape and let it dry completely.

3. Choose your stamping image - I chose the top left full image on plate M60 bought from Bornprettystore. This plate was actually in the sale and was a little over $2...you KNOW I love a good discount :-p

4. Use white stamping polish to stamp on the image. This was easy to do, because the images on the plate were clean cut and deep. As a result, I was able to get the whole image to transfer onto the stamp in one attempt.

5. When the polish is completely dry, SLOWLY remove the tape and add some random lines of glitter.

6. Slap on your favourite top-coat and you are good to go!

I hope you like it.

xx

31 Day Manicure Challenge Day 25 - 'Nails inspired by fashion'

Evening all.

I'm not really a follower of designer fashions, but I was thumbing through a magazine prior to this challenge and I found some pictures of Dolce and Gabbana's 'Galactic' print:

image

I tried to replicate Fergie's dress:

Yes, Yellow Peril makes another appearance as a base colour and also a stamping colour too.

Excuse the smudging - I was a little too hasty methinks.

Would you wear this print (as an outfit, not a manicure)?

xx

31 Day Manicure Challenge Day 22 - 'Nails inspired by a song'

Good evening my dears.

Tonight's challenge installment is inspired by a song...Follow the Yellow Brick Road from The Wizard of Oz. I know. Of all the songs in the world, why that one? Because my husband chose it and the fact that he's interested in the challenge really makes me smile.

Beauty UK's 'Yellow Peril' with stamping from the S5 plate.

I was trying to find a plate with a brickwork image on it but I didn't have one...but I bet 'The Kween of Konad', Sarahlouise has a few in her stash though! I had to settle for something that looked like dry, cracked earth.

Stamping was uber sloppy for a number of reasons...carelessness being the main one.

See ya to-marrah!


xx

31 Day Manicure Challenge Day 17 - 'Glitter'

It's Thursday!

Today is glitter day and I have some abismal photos to show you. It was so dark this morning that I couldn't take any pictures before I left for work. I chucked a bottle of polish and my camera into my handbag and decided to take the pictures on my lunch break.

Oh dear.  I was sculking around the back door, squinting, changing light settings and posing the polish bottle so as not to cover the label with my fingernails, whilst at the same time I was trying to act natural just in case someone caught me acting like a weirdo. With all the jumping and rushing, every photo I took was pants...apart from two.

 I started with Models Own Pro in 'Midnight Blue'  bought in Boots at Brent Cross. The picture does the colour no justice and I will get around to swatching it properly at some point. I then layered a gradient of OPI's 'Absolutely Alice' and Sinful Colors 'Frenzy'. When I had finished, it was so bright, I would have caused a distraction in a very, very serious meeting I had at work, so I tried to dampen the bling (oh, how I hate that word) with some stamping.

I used a blue Konad special polish and BM plate 201.

I'm not so fond of this one, but I was rushing and didn't have time to do it the way I would have liked.

xx

East Asian inspired mani!

Hey friends (big wave to my new subscribers x)

Sooo... this is what I'm wearing today. I thought I'd better make up for my lack of posts by doing something a little intricate.

The polish, in order of use:

 Color Club 'Resort to Red', Essence Nail Art Twins 'Carrie', MUA Shade 2, Models Own (yeah, I know it's a mess!) 'Gold Digger', Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat.

 I stamped on the fans first and then the above image (I don't know what it's called - if you do, please let me know)

I'm actually going to wear this until it starts to chip on me.

I hope you like it!

xx

Glorious Gasoline

Hi friends.

I'm officially out of my slump and have a manicure for you. I did this ages ago and although it was gorgeous in real life (to me anyway), it was an absolute monster to capture on film. The pictures don't do it any justice, unfortunately.

  I sharpened this image to show the detail.

 The main colour is GOSH's Gasoline with black sponged tips. I love this polish so much. As you know, I'm a sucker for glitter and this has it all. I may even have to pick up another of these bottles the next time I see one.

 I used BM image plate 04 (the older set of plates) . The colours used to stamp were Petites Color Fever 'Black Diamond', MUA's Black shade and Essence Metallics 'Copper Rulez!'

xx

Rimmel 'Electric' and BM plate 208

Hiya friends, how's it going?

I have another mani for you, courtesy of Bundle Monster and my favourite pink at the moment.

 I used BM plate208- both images on my nails are on that plate.

Don't worry about the cuticles - they are flooded with my top coat and I couldn't be bothered to clean up. Lazy girl.

xx

Nubar Absolute and my new BM plates

Hi friends, how's it going?

I got my BM plates a few weeks ago and just had to try them out.

Here is an image with Nubar's Absolute.

Love.

xx