Thursday 30 January 2014

Chinese New Year Nails




So I'm here again with another nail art that I wasn't planning on doing! I have never done my nails for Chinese New Year before, and thought I'd make this year the first and hope that it also fetches myself and my family some good luck, as 2014 hasn't been the best for us so far!!

Painted my nails with one coat of Kate Spade Nails Inc Big Apple Red. I normally do two coats but as this manicure wasn't planned and I need my nails to be dry to put gloves on when I go out, I only did the one coat. Saying that though this polish is good for a one coater.


With flash

Without flash

As is so dull and overcast it was hard to get a good photo. But anyway when this was dry I used Barry M Gold to stamp a pretty floral design from Konad M73.


With flash

Without flash

Outside in the rain!
Not the best of paint jobs, but I'm pleased with how this looks, and the double stamping as the image on the plate is way too small for my nails. It's hard to noticed that they were doubled stamped :)
I hope 2014 is being good to you so far, take care and much love. Thanks for reading and feel free to leave me a comment :)


Tuesday 28 January 2014

Valentines Nails

Hearts and Teddies


Hello there, I was hoping to get this post written last night, but couldn't get on the pc!! I wasn't planning on doing my nails again, but the design I wanted to do looked so awesome when I tried it on a swatch nail, I just had to do my own nails lol.
I needed a pale grey polish, but from all the polishes I have, you guessed it, not one pale grey! So I took a half bottle of white polish and added about 5 drops of black polish, shook and voila a beautiful pale grey polish. 



Painted my nails with two coats of my newly made polish, and when it was dry I stamped the writing with the Collection polish from plate QA7. I was aiming for a newspaper print look, without doing actual newspaper nails. I did try, but the print was too faded and not what I wanted.




Silly of me, but I didn't take a photo when I finished stamping my nails, as time was getting on and I still had more to do on my nails! With red acrylic paint and a dotting tool, I made small hearts in random places on all nails, except my ring finger and thumb. When these were dry I added a small white shine line. I painted a teddy bear on my ring finger and thumb with grey acrylic paint and added details with black and white paint. Then added hearts in the gaps. I'm happy with how they look, and not a bad attempt for another freehand design. I should do more as I'm very self critical!!
What do you think?





I love reading your comments, and reply to every one! So till next time, take care and much love....


Saturday 25 January 2014

Gradient Nails

MUA Pink and Blue Gradient


Me again! Hello to you all :) I have been seeing a lot of gradient nails around just lately, and wanted to try them myself. I have done gradient/ombre nails before but always rainbow colours, so wanted something plainer this time round lol. I sorted through my polishes and chose to use MUA for this manicure.


Strawberry Crush, Natural Days, All Nude, Shade 9 and Bold Blue

Wasn't using all these together, just the pinks for some nails and the blues for the other nails. Started out by painting two coats of All Nude on my nails.




Then with a makeup sponge, striped the polish on and sponged onto my nails. All nails took 4 lots of sponging the polish, but each coat dries pretty quick. Fingers were a bit messy and I should have tapped them like I do for water marbling, but the clean up didn't take too long. Its when you apply the topcoat that the gradient really shows. 






Loving this effect and the colours. Not sure how long they will stay plain though!! Already have an idea in mind what to do over this gradient.....I'll post photo's here if I decide to add anything.

Thats all for today, take care and much love...


So I ended up adding some reverse gradient hearts to each nail. I made the stencil for each heart from the medical tape I used for the taped water marble nails. Added a sparkly topcoat to each heart, love how they look :) 



Thursday 23 January 2014

Revlon Neon Nail Polish

Revlon Neon Swatches and Review


Just a quick post today, as I wasn't expecting to be doing this! Yesterday my daughters got me some polish :) 8 Revlon Neons from Poundland and an Avon Speed dry polish. I tried the Avon one first and can say this is an awesome polish. Opaque in one coat but I did two anyway as the box suggested this. It was dry in 30 seconds!! Seems to look a bit like a gelly polish :)
The Revlon Neon ones are double ended polishes. White one end and the colour the other. As painting your nail whits first does make the neon polish 'pop'. The white polish was a bit streaky, but as it was being covered with a colour I only did one coat. The colours were also streaky with the first coat, but most were sorted with a second coat. No top coat used on any of the swatches. Some of the Revlon's dried with a shine, and some matte looking. What do you think?




Avon Speed dry in Rebel Rose

Left to right: Amped Up, Atomic Pink, Ultra Violet, High Voltage, Laser Beam, Killer Watt, Neon Light and Fluorescent.


They are nice polishes, not sure how many manicures you would get as they are only small bottles, just over 7ml, but for £1 each you can't go wrong. I really wouldn't pay £7.99 from Boots for them!!
Would love to hear your thoughts on these, have you got them?

Take care and much love....


Wednesday 22 January 2014

Charity Nail Art Challenge

PDSA Inspired Nail Art


Hello all! Dawn from Sassy Little Nails is running a monthly blog challenge. Each month there is a theme for a different charity, and the first for January is Animals/Wildlife. I have chosen to do a nail art inspired by the PDSA, who is the UK's leading veterinary charity, caring for more than 400,000 pets. This year PDSA will provide more than 2.3 million free treatments to sick and injured pets and more than 420,000 preventive treatments. This is funded entirely by public support and is from many donors, customers and volunteers, who ensure PDSA is here to provide a healthy life for all our pets.

I think the PDSA do an awesome job, looking after pets that need treatment. Only last June, our beloved family cat who had lived with us for 18 years (we thought she would live forever!) became very ill and the PDSA where lovely and very caring. Sadly Tilly was so ill that she was put to sleep. One of the hardest decisions to make..






She was a very loving cat who loved to join in with everything. She also loved boxes :)
Anyway back to my nails. These are the polishes I used for this manicure...



I painted my ring and pointing finger white, and the others blue. Then dotted white paw prints on the blue nails, and painted a cat and dog on the white nails. 





Happy with how they look. I'm getting better at freehand :) Hope you like these.....

Take care and much love :)


Saturday 18 January 2014

Taped Water Marble

Taped Water Marble Nails


Well hello again! It feels like I haven't been here for ages, but its been a weird week for me. I have been messing around with some new nail art, and practising my one stroke on paper. But for today nails I wanted to try a taped water marble. I loved the taped nail design I did as my last nail art of 2013, that I wanted to do another in a different way. I didn't want a pure white base polish, so opted to use Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Crinoline. I painted my nails with two coats yesterday as I needed the polish to be totally dry before using the tape.

Crinoline


I have used striping tape, masking tape and sellotape for other nail art designs, but as I was attempting a water marble I wasn't sure how well the sellotape or masking tape would work. So while out shopping I noticed in my local pound shop they had some white waterproof medical tape. Hopefully this will work!!
I'm also using Jesse's Girl polish for the water marble design.



Fashion Friday, Crush, Mermaids Lagoon, Cupcake Frosting and Girls Night Out

So I started out by cutting strips of masking tape to save on the clean up, and then with the medical tape, I cut squares and then cut those in half to make triangles. The same way I did my nails for my last nail art of 2013, but there I used sellotape.


Working on one nail at a time, I taped each finger like so. Sticking the triangle on the tip of my nails this time. Made a stripe design water marble, and here are my finished nails after clean up and topcoat.





As I always use my left hand for showing my manicures, and only sometimes show my right hand, I wanted to show you how this design looks with no top coat. So took a quick photo of my right hand, before I topcoated it.

No topcoat
The medical tape worked really well for this taped water marble. I removed some of the stickiness from it first, but as my base colour was totally dry I don't think it would have mattered if I didn't. Happy with how this came out, a sort of freaky french tip design :)
I have been trying out some other striping tape designs, and may do that as my next manicure. Not too sure yet as I have a watercolour paint design I tried out and really like too!!

So for now, wishing you all a fab weekend and much love :)


Saturday 11 January 2014

How Fast Time Flies!

Just for my Mum


Hello to all you beautiful people! Although this is my normal Saturday nails, I'm doing this for Monday, which is a sad day and a time to remember a very special person, my Mum who sadly died 14 years ago...
I'm doing them today as on Monday I will be too busy, I'm sure you understand why. I want to share a photo of my Mum with my eldest daughter when she was younger, its a beautiful photo and was taken professionally for The Motor Neurone Disease Association, which is what my Mum had. 





Anyway back to my manicure. As roses where one of my Mum's favourite flowers, I have always done a rose inspired remembrance nail art. But wanted to do something different than a single red rose. So I painted my nails with two coats of Pretty by Quest Concrete Effect polish in White.



Not a true bright white polish, but I didn't really want that. A bit of a textured feel, and nice silver shimmer, that dried quite quick to a matte finish. 



Then using Cheeky plate CH11 and my cheap brown polish I stamped the criss-cross pattern, as I think it looks like a trellis in a garden.


Some dodgy double stamping lol, but the roses and leaves would cover this, a bit rustic looking! I stamped the roses from plate B44 with Sally Hansen Insta-dri in Rapid Red.


I dotted on the leaves with the Beauty UK green, and finished off with La Femme Clear and Sally Hansen 30 second dry topcoat.






I'm so glad the sun made an appearance for these photos, as I love love love how this looks! A fitting nail art for a special lady :) 
Stay safe and much love to you all.....