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Nail Art

Christmas, Freehand, Uncategorised

Christmas Nail Mashup!

22nd December 2012

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Another December day, another Christmas manicure! As you all predicted I couldn’t keep my nails away from the festivities for too long. These are the nails I did for the Christmas ‘Do’ at work. I think the phrase ‘Christmas Do’ is a very British thing. In the US, you’d just call it a Christmas Party right? Or do you have another name for it?

My base colour is Barry M White. For the candy cane nails, I used one coat of Seche Vite before marking off striped sections with thin cuts of scotch tape and painted on Rimmel Heart on Fire. While that was still wet I peeled off the scotch tape and, once dry, used a nail art brush to paint Barry M Red Glitter over the stripes.

The Rudolph nail is one from last year. I used Essie Glamour Purse as the base colour, Rimmel Desire for the lines and Barry M Red Glitter again for the nose.
Finally, the Christmas Tree which was inspired by a Wacky Laki manicure was created using glequins from Born Pretty Store (tutorial here).
I topped it all off with two coats of Seche Vite to smooth it over.

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31 Day Challenge, Freehand, Studs, Uncategorised

31DC2012: Day 31 Recreate Your Favourite Challenge (Part 1)

18th December 2012

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It’s here! Technically, today is the last day of the 31 Day Challenge – Recreate Your Favourite Challenge. Although it’s not really because there’s another instalment of Day 31 coming very soon. I just erm… haven’t had a chance to do that mani yet!
Like last year, we decided to recreate our favourite challenges from each other for Day 31 rather than recreate our own manicures.

Today I recreated Cristina aka Let Them Have Polish’s Day 18 manicure – half moons which you can see here. What can I say, she used studs, so I had to!

I used Rimmel Heart on Fire as my base colour on every nail and then freehanded on the chevrons at the base using a nail art brush and W7 Black Cherry. For the accent nail, I painted everything but the chevron with the W7 polish. The studs are from Born Pretty Store and I finished with a top coat of NYC.

Head over to Cristina’s blog to see her recreations of her favourite from mine and Rie’s challenge manicures.

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Christmas, Freehand, Glitter, Uncategorised

Wrap Me Up

15th December 2012

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I think this will be my last Christmas themed nail art for a while. I say that like I’m drowning you in them, but this is only the fourth! I’m really struggling to come up with fresh ideas, I really don’t know how I came up with 12 of them last year! It’s weird to look back at those and see how much my skills have improved since then. What a difference a year makes!

For the green nails I used two coats of NYC Flat Iron Green (creme) as a base, then two coats of Sinful Colors Call You Later (glitter). The red nail is one coat of Rimmel Heart on Fire (creme), one coat of Barry M Red Glitter and one coat of Sinful Colors Paris (gold glitter).

Next I used Barry M Gold Foil to stamp on some bows from Bundle Monster plate BM317, then freehanded the ribbon lines with a nail art brush. Then I went over the bows, because they didn’t stamp very well, and outlined everything with black acrylic paint.

All finished with two top coats of NYC.

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Stamping, Uncategorised

Festive Fingertips

14th December 2012

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I popped in to town a few days to go thinking I would pick up a new matte top coat as my Essie Matte About You ran out a long time ago and I never got round to replacing it. What a near impossible mission that turned out to be! I tried Boots and Superdrug as I was almost certain 17 and GOSH both had their own matte top coats but Rimmel came out on top as the only one available.

I also picked up Heart on Fire, this bright creme red. It’s my favourite red creme without a doubt. I always find they’re too runny or leave stains all over my cuticles when I remove them. Well, this one is opaque in two coats and left absolutely no staining. WIN.

I used two coats of Rimmel Heart on Fire as my base coat and stamped on the design from Bundle Monster Plate BM323 using Sally Hansen InstaDri Whirlwind White. I added some glequins from Born Pretty Store and finished it with a coat of Rimmel’s Mattifying Top Coat.

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31 Day Challenge, Studs, Uncategorised

31DC2012 Day 30: Inspired by a Tutorial

13th December 2012

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Day 30’s nails have to be inspired by a tutorial. I gotta admit, I did these more than two weeks ago! When I was researching potential tutorials to be inspired by I came across this look and just couldn’t wait another day to do it.
The tutorial I followed for this look is a brief but brilliant one from Jen at The Polishaholic and it was inspired by a phone case. What I love about Jen’s nails is they really do look quilted. She really nailed the 3D texture but mine has come out a bit… flatter! Either way, it’s a great look. Thanks Jen!

The colours used here are GOSH Pool Party and Cult Nails Tulum. The caviar beads*, or studs as I like to think of them, are from NPW Nail Art. I used one coat of Seche Vite to finish off. To see a tutorial for this look, go to The Polishaholic.

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31 Day Challenge, Stamping, Uncategorised

31DC2012 Day 29: Inspired by the Supernatural

12th December 2012

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This challenge has really gone belly up recently! We started out so well but unlike last year, when we were so regimented and determined, we’ve gone way off track and are all behind schedule. However, I’m determined to complete it before the end of the year if it kills me (which I’m sure it won’t, I’m just being melodramatic). I’m thinking of it as my end of year resolution! There are actually only 3 days left so I’d have to be reallllly lazy not to get it finished wouldn’t I?!

I spent so much time stressing about this challenge but in the end I just went for the obvious again to get it over and done with. It’s actually exactly the same as last year, I even used the same polish to stamp with!

Don’t worry, tomorrow’s challenge post is awesome!

I used 3 coats of Deborah Lippmann Fashion* as my base colour and stamped on the ghosts from Bundle Monster plate BM223 using Sally Hansen InstaDri Whirlwind White. I used two coats of NYC Top Coat for the glassy finish.

You can follow Rie’s challenge here and Cristina’s here.

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Freehand, Glitter, Uncategorised

Christmas Jumper-y

10th December 2012

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Here’s another Christmas mani featuring Essie Jag-u-are, a polish I picked up in TK Maxx just because I thought it was Christmas-y. I don’t normally go for frosty, shimmery polishes like this but the shimmer in this is subtle so I don’t hate wearing it on my nails but I’ imagine after this month, it’s going to sit at the back of the drawer until next December.

For the snowflake designs on this mani, I followed Coewless Nails‘ super simple Fair Isle Snowflake Tutorial.

I used Essie Jag-u-are as my base colour and painted on the white detail with acrylic paint and a small nail art brush. The gold glitter on my tips is Sinful Colors Paris and I dabbed that on using a sponge.

Finally I topped it off with two coats of NYC.

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