Nail designs from last month

Here are a few things I've done over the past little while:

 

Water colour effect with outlines.

 My favourite in a long while: Water colour effect with gold border

 Patchwork nails

Hand designed 'Mock Croc'

These were some nails that I was preparing for a photo-shoot, but I'm not sure if I'm going to use them yet.

On that note, I'm off...until next time :)

xx

Water marble Easter manicure (late, I know!)

Hi friends, I hope you've had a nice Easter (if you celebrate it).

This is what I wore over Easter - yes, I water marbled for real this time! I also included a step-by-step for those who aren't familiar with the technique.

Before I go on, I am NO expert on this technique. Quite frankly, I can't water marble without a bit of foul language thrown in.  You may notice the air bubbles...can you imagine the vocabulary those invoked?!

I used: Barry M's 'Matte White' (it's not matte by the way), Beauty UK's blue, scotch tape, a beaker of filtered water at room temperature, a cotton bud and a cocktail stick.

Start with white nails. Your base doesn't have to be perfect.

Put some scotch tape on the skin around your nail - this will reduce the amount of cleaning up you'll have to do. I wouldn't skip this step if I were you...

One drop of white....

One drop of blue - yes, that's blue polish. The pigment spread so well.

Another drop of white. Continue until you have a nice 'bullseye'. I reckon that 15 drops of polish may be enough, but you can put in more if you wish.

Ta daaa!

Take your cocktail stick and draw it through your bulls eye. You can go for random patterns or try to make neat, precise patterns.

Draw the stick through the opposite side of the bulls eye.

Make some vertical lines in the polish.

Position your nails over the part of the pattern you like the most, then place them nail surface down, onto the pattern. The excess polish on the surface of the water can be removed with the cotton bud. This step is not pictured because I don't have three hands!

Give those fingers a wiggle to reduce the likelihood of air bubbles. You'll note that it didn't work for me though!

The next step is to remove the tape gently, add some glitter (or not) and that's it!

I hope you like the design.

Have you mastered the art of marbling yet? Do you even want to? Perhaps your polish collection is too precious to waste on such a technique. Let me know either way and thank you, as always, for reading.

xx

The irk-some Ruffian

Good evening all.

How's it going? Three days into January and so far so good? Hopefully you are doing great, but if you aren't, take heart because things can and will get better. 

Okay. I thought I'd try water marbling again because I had an 'good' experience during the 31 Day Manicure Challenge I did last year. Oh my goodness. I spent about two hours painting a flawless white base colour, dripping polish with anticipation, making rubbish patterns, cursing the water, the polish, my fingers and the cup. In the end, I was left angry...and still wearing a white base colour. I grabbed the first colour I could find and whilst painting over the white, it occurred to me that I had never created a Ruffian manicure. 

 I'm not sure why it's called 'Ruffian' but I love it. My husband doesn't. He thinks it's irk-some and it reminds him of 'pus at the top'. Erm, cheers :-\  I should be offended, but I'm not because he is one of my biggest fans.

I didn't use any tape or manicure guides. I painted one layer of pink over the white with a steady hand and then one layer of purple over the pink. A little dab of glitter and there you have it - pus nails!

So, do you like them? With the right colours you could continue layering perhaps. Oh, by the way, hubby just looked over and said 'I like the concept'. Yeah, you're too late mate, I saw your involuntary shudder when I showed you my masterpus, I mean masterpiece :-p!

Thanks for reading folks and thanks for your comments.

xx

31 Day Manicure Challenge Day 20 - 'Marbled nails'

Gahhh, I tried my best to post whilst it was still Sunday, but I'm nearly an hour late. Never mind!

Here is my take on water marbling. I had some difficulty with some of the polish not spreading properly, but overall, it was less stressful than the last time I did it. I was able to do this on the first go - with no mistakes!!

Barry M's 'Matte White' (again), Nails Inc 'Claridges Street (bright red) and Nails Inc 'Victoria' (dark red).

I did two fingers at a time. You can see that by the placement of the swirls.

I think my favourite nail is the thumb. Overall, it's not perfect and I've seen better, but I like it nonetheless.

See you later with nails inspired by a colour. Only 11 days left :'(

xx

More marbling...getting better!

Happy Sunday everyone.

Remember I was complaining about marbling recently? Well, I tried it again and realised that I was probably just making a big deal of nothing.  The main issue seemed to be that the polish would not spread or dry fast enough in the water so the patterns were not well formed.  Yes, I did spend some time re-trying, smudging and re-polishing, but practice makes perfect.  Um, I'm still practicing.

For this I used two coats of:

Rimmel Lemon Drop (and yes, it DOES smell of lemon when it dries!!)

 Some NYC pink which is so old the label is gone, a purple from Nails Inc and some more of the lemon drop.

I put a few lines of glitter in to give it some 'umpf'.

My right hand has more yellow on it, but the designs ended up being so random that I wasn't really sure I liked it. Hence, no pictures.

What are your experiences with water marbling? Do you like different patterns on each nail or do you try to replicate the same pattern each time? I'd love some tips or feedback...

Thanks for reading!

First water marbling attempt - kinda

Who said that this water marbling malarkey was easy? I mean, really?!

I've always liked the look of water marbling especially because whenever I've tried marbling, it has been with a tool...and the result is 'manufactured', I guess. 

I'd like to consider myself to be pretty nail savvy, by my own admission. Like lots of people, I have learned by trial and error, rather than by being shown what to do. So I went against my stubborn nature and decided that if I was going to be 'taught', it would have to be by one of the best (none other than Colette @ My Simple Little Pleasures ) Cue a visit to her YouTube channel and an evening of drooling over my keyboard.  She makes it look so easy, so why couldn't I get it right?

Variables were the polish density, awful colour combinations, polish drying too quickly, me smudging the final result etc. At one point I was in the kitchen sticking sellotape to my fingers (I didn't have any scotch tape), the cat commenced her 'Midnight Madness', scared me half to death and I ended up pulling off half my base coat on one nail with a rogue piece of tape I didn't know was there.  It really was ridiculous. Here was a woman who can apply acrylic, fibre-glass, gel overlays AND extensions to her own nails but can't water marble without wailing and gnashing of teeth!

Barry M Sea Green - I'd put on two coats of this because I was NOT going to bed with naked nails. Then I thought I'd give the marbling one more attempt.

 

Lamp (I do my nails at night)

 I used a yellow by Nails Inc. I can't remember the name, please slap me.

Freezing cold daylight shot. Brrrrr!

So, the conclusion then.  Erm, I'm inpatient, stubborn and probably a bit too critical of myself.  It takes a bit of practice to get things right sometimes, but perseverance sure pays off.  I just need to try different colours next time because I felt a bit like a mermaid for a few days.