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Nail Art

    31 Day Challenge, Freehand, Uncategorised

    31DC013 Day 5: Blue Nails

    5th September 2013
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    I was really stuck for ideas today but I quite like the nail art I came up with in the end. I wanted to do something freehand and when I thought of blue the only thing that I could picture was Facebook!
    My nails seem to be growing at double speed recently and I’ve been wondered if I should try to grow them out a bit and see how long I can get them. At the same time I love my nubbins, I kind of feel like short square nails are my signature look and I find long nails kind of annoying to have on me! It’s like telling yourself you’re gonna grow out your hair down to your waist but inevitably end up chopping it all off anyway! What do you guys think? Should I stick by my shorties or try a longer look?

    I used Essie Mezmerised as my base colour and freehanded the details using a nail art brush and white acrylic paint. I added a little bit of detail on the ‘Like’ using Barry M Blueberry. It’s all topped off with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

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    31 Day Challenge, Galaxy, Studs, Uncategorised

    31DC2013 Day 4: Green Nails

    4th September 2013
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    My green polish for day 4 of the challenge is NYC’s Blue Sky. I spotted this shade when I was in Superdrug recently to pick up my second bottle of NYC Raindrop which is my favourite polish that I’ve purchased all year!
    Blue Sky is a weird name for a green polish huh? I actually began to question my eyesight when I saw the name, but this polish is definitely green! I would describe it as a very vibrant mint green as there is definitely a pastel tone about it but it’s bright at the same time. 
    I couldn’t resist adding the pastel galaxy nail accent! I’m still completely obsessed with this nail art and slide it in to my manicures every chance I get!

    My base colour is NYC Blue Sky and I added some 2mm pastel blue studs from Born Pretty Store. I created the galaxy nail with NYC Raindrop, NYC Lavender Cupcake, NYC Lexington Yellow, a coat of Calvin Klein Blue Wants to Be a Millionaire and white acrylic paint for the details. 
    It’s all finished off with a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

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    31 Day Challenge, Gradient, Uncategorised

    31DC2013 Day 2: Orange Nails

    2nd September 2013
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    This challenge is bringing a few issues to my attention. Today it was the fact that although I have quite a few bottles of orange polish, they’re all pretty much the same shade! I seem to have a real penchant for bright, tangerine orange. I eventually found something a bit different – Barry M Papaya which is a creamy, coral orange and decided to mix the two up in a gradient for Day 2 of the challenge.

    I started with a base colour of Barry M Papaya and created a gradient with Essie Fear & Desire. Click here for a gradient tutorial. It’s all topped off with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

    Find out what’s coming up next in the challenge here!

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    Glitter, Studs, Swatch, Uncategorised

    Nail Lacquer UK Sticks and Stones Blue

    30th August 2013
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    Not too long ago, AJ from Nail Lacquer UK got in touch to see if I’d be interested in trying out a few of her polishes and I of course jumped at the chance to review some Indies from a UK based maker. There are so many amazing glitters in her store that it took me a while to decide on just a few but I asked if I could try Sticks and Stones Blue and Dog Days. I’m so happy to see a UK indie maker with such an amazing selection. The best part is that I can buy up as many bottles as I want without insane shipping or import costs! 
    Another sweet little detail I want to mention is that each polish comes with a little handmade charm themed to suit the polish. You can either keep these round the bottle or clip them on to a charm bracelet (or anywhere else you want to wear them) with the lobster clasp. I’m currently rocking on one my purse! How’s that for a loving touch?
    Today I have a swatch of Sticks and Stones Blue to share. This polish is a classic black and white, bar and hex glitter with some lavender and blue additions with extra squares. There’s a really good amount of glitter in the bottle – I only had to use one coat for this swatch. I’m really impressed with this polish and I really can’t wait to try Dog Days too. Nail Lacquer UK polishes can be purchased in AJ’s Etsy store. Mini bottles are £3.50 and the full sizes range from £5.50-£7.50.

    My base colour is NYC Raindrop and I used one coat of Nail Lacquer UK Sticks and Stones Blue.
    For the accent nails I use striping tape to mark off some racing stripes, then painted Barry M Matt White straight down the middle and NYC Lavender Cupcake at the sides. I added a pastel purple stud from Born Pretty Store.


    It’s all topped off with 2 coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

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    Freehand, Glitter, Uncategorised

    Baby Blue Ruffian

    27th August 2013
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    As most of the UK ladies will already know, Boots has recently started stocking Sinful Colors polishes in the UK. I’m a bit late to the party on this one really! I’ve walked past the (always well stocked) stands a couple of times now and always refrained from purchasing but a few of the colours caught my eye and have been on my mind. So I went back on the understanding with myself that I would just buy 3 bottles!
    I went for Island Coral which is exactly the shade of Coral I’ve been hunting for weeks; Nail Junkie, a blue/green multi glitter; and Cinderella, the shimmery blue featured below. Originally I wanted a duck egg blue creme that I can’t recall the name of but they were all out of that so I opted for the next best thing which was this light blue polish with a pinky gold shimmer. Although it’s not something I’d normally choose for myself, I really like this polish. The shimmer is very subtle and complimentary of the shade. It’s a shimmer done very right!

     I started with 3 coats of Sinful Colors Cinderella, then freehanded on the ruffian design using Collection Think Pink and a nail art brush.
    The glitter accent is Sally Hansen Lady Luck and I applied that over a base coat of PVA Glue for easy removal.
    It’s all topped off with one coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly then one coat of Essence Better Than Gel Nail Top Sealer to smooth things over.

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    Freehand, Uncategorised

    inFamous Inspired Nail Art

    25th August 2013
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    Today’s nail art is inspired by the inFamous game series. I’ve been playing them a lot recently so I really wanted to dedicate some nail art to Cole Macgrath. If you’re not familiar with the series, it follows Cole who has the power to manipulate and control electricity. Throughout the games, you have to decide doing the good thing or the evil thing. If you follow the righteous path you remain a handsome hero whose electric is blue but if you’re naughty, your electric goes red and you start to look kinda nasty too!

    It took me a few tries to figure out a method to make the lightning look realistic but I think it turned out quite well in the end! I started by painting on the darkest reds and blues that were in my collection as my base colours.
    Next I mixed up red with Rimmel Daisy Chain to create a semi opaque, shimmery version of 
    red and used a nail art brush to paint on a lightning strike pattern. 
    When that was dry, I used white acrylic paint to paint on thinner lines and create the final effect. I repeated that with blue in the place of red for the other two fingers.
    My middle finger is freehanded (rather badly!) over a base of Barry M White using Black acrylic paint.
    I finished it all off with a coat of  No7 Stay Perfect Top Coat to smooth it over and then a coat of NYC Matte Me Crazy for the matte look.

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