Things have quietened down a bit around here and I’m starting to get my blogging spirit back. However there’s still one big, important and exciting project that’s taking most of my brainpower and will be for just a few more weeks. I just wanted to check in here and let you know that I’m not going anywhere, I’m just a little preoccupied!
In between running a mountain of errands and hanging out with my dog this weekend, I managed to squeeze in a video tutorial. I’ve been putting it off for a while (like 3 months, a while) but suddenly had a surge of determination to just get it done. I wish my brain worked this way all the time. And while I’m making wishes, if the weekend could be twice as long that would be nice too!
Seems like I’m not the only one who finds it impossible to decide what I should wear on my nails on Christmas Day! I saw that so many of you guys had the same problem and then I didn’t feel so bad about the whole schtick. I actually ended up painting two Christmas manis and surprisingly, the final version is one of the most simple manis I’ve posted all year. I don’t even think it counts as nail art!
The first set I painted on Christmas Eve was a skittlette complete with a waterfall, glitter gradient and sparkly gold foil.
I used piCture pOlish LakoDom as the base coat for the nail art. The waterfall was created with Barry M Gold Foil, Rimmel Raw as Night and Essie Mojito Madness. Waterfall tutorial here.
The glitter gradient was created by dabbing W7 Cosmic Green on to the tip with a makeup sponge.
The gold foil is A-England Excalibur and it’s all topped with a coat of Glisten & Glow HK Girl.
For mani number two, I went with something insanely simple. This velvety blue is Delush Eat Sleep Chic and I used piCture pOlish LakoDom and Lynnderella Mlle Violette de Bleu for some accents. Again, it’s all topped with a coat of Glisten & Glow HK Girl.
When I tweeted about a certain new video game the week before last, you may have thought I was joking when I hinted that I wouldn’t be around much in the coming days. I seriously wasn’t joking! I’ve been out of commission for a while (although not just because gaming) and for that, I’m sorry. Noone wants to hear my excuses and I don’t really feel like bringing the mood down around here so let’s leave it at that. I’ll try to do better next month!
For this nail art, I’m borrowing heavily from an art design that I did over a year ago for the 31 Day Challenge 2013. I can’t believe it was that long ago! I didn’t even have to go back to the pictures or watch the tutorial to remember the pattern. I loved it so much that it’s been ingrained on my brain since the day I first pained it. I switched it up a bit this time with different patterns on all the nails and I had so much fun doing it. It’s definitely reignited my nail art spark.
In other news (still related to this nail art), I stumbled across one of those incredible odds-and-ends beauty stores in Bridgend over the weekend that seem to pop up all over the place before disappearing within a few months. I can never walk past one of these stores without going in. EVER! This one had a whole wall of neatly stacked nail polish, which I really appreciated because normally you have to dive through huge bins full of bottles to find the good ones! I restrained myself and left the building with only 5 bottles and a few make-up items. Two of them feature here today!
I used Sally Hansen Blinding Blue and Sally Hansen Coat of Arms as my base colours. For the lines, I used NYC Full Metal Jacket with a skinny brush from Winstonia. It’s all topped with a coat of Glisten & Glow HK Girl.
I think I died and went to heaven. They have all my favourites!! pic.twitter.com/J3Jcwx2kxw
— Sammy|TheNailasaurus (@TheSammersaurus) November 23, 2014
Winter is coming so it’s officially acceptable to crack out the chunky knit jumpers and your sparkliest nail polish. While I’m not a big fan of the chill or inevitable British rain, I’ve always been a night owl so I do really love when the dark nights start closing in. I’m more than happy to spend the evenings snuggled up under my favourite fluffy blanket with a hot chocolate and my Kobo or couple episodes of Grey’s Anatomy.
I’ve been pretty much inseparable from my thermal cup recently (although less because I need the thermal properties, more because I’m a huge klutz and the sippy cup is essential!) and I’ve teamed up with eBay to create a collection around this image. If you follow me elsewhere, you may have already spotted the inspiration pic. It looks so cozy and warm so I thought it would be perfect for some autumn inspiration.
My new collection features some of my Autumn Essentials when it comes to nail art and I’m still adding to it. Let me know if you think I’ve missed anything!
For this nail art, I used Barry M Coconut as my base colour. I stamped on the design using the most perfect winter stamping plate, MoYou Festive 06, with Sally Hansen So-nata Problem and Rimmel Rock N Roll. In order to get the two colours on one stamp, I had to carefully paint the design on the plate first and scrape very carefully to leave the colours where I wanted them. It’s all topped with one coat of Glisten & Glow HK Girl.
For the chance to win a £20 eBay Gift Voucher all you have to do is hop over to my ‘Autumn Essentials‘ collection and give it a follow. It really is as simple as it sounds:
When I saw that Hannah from The Dalai Lama’s Nails listed Winstonia Store’s brushes in her ‘Can’t Live Without’ products in this month’s Nail It! magazine, I knew I had to get my hands on some. I went for the 5-piece set (recommended by Hannah) and also the 1.4cm and 1.65cm stripers. All the brushes are really amazing but you can’t beat a strong, skinny striper for some tribal nail art.
I also have to give a shout out to these Skinny Chevron Guides by What’s Up Nails. I threw them in to my Winstonia basket along with the brushes, but they also have their own site where you can buy too (and you can get 10% off all vinyl products with the What’s Up Nails code: NAILASAURUS10). All the chevron decals/guides/stickers/vinyls I’ve used in the past have been bigger and I can never fit all that many on my nails but the skinny size works so well on my tiny little nail beds. Can’t wait to try more things with these!
Tomorrow, I’m off to Nail Harmony HQ to spend the day mastering Gelish. It’s very exciting since I’ve never (EVER!) used gel polish before but I really want to learn more. Gels are such a huge thing now, even some of my friends who normally show little interest in nails have been asking me for advice about which techniques and products are best. They get a bit of a surprise when I sit there quietly and tell them I have no idea! Normally you can’t shut me up when someone asks anything vaguely nail related! It should be a fun day and I can’t wait to meet some new bloggers. As always, you can follow me on Twitter for updates on the day (and maybe a selfie or two!).
For this nail art, I used a base of Barry M Coconut and topped it with a thin coat of Glisten & Glow HK Girl.
For the chevron nails, I used What’s Up Nails Skinny Zig Zag Guides with piCture pOlish Sizzle and NYC Hudson Breeze.
I freehanded all the tribal details using the 1.4cm striper from Winstonia. The colours are NYC Hudson Breeze, piCture pOlish Sizzle and Sally Hansen Tahitian Sunset.
It’s all topped with two coats of HK Girl.
There’s a tutorial that keeps popping up in my Pinterest feed by Hannah Rox Nails for LuLu’s Blog and every time I see it, I promise myself I will try it out one day. Well today is that day! This was the first tutorial my mind jumped to for the penultimate day of the 31 Day Challenge. It looks so beautifully intricate but there are only two really simple steps to achieve it – a gradient and some squiggly freehanding! See the original tutorial for this nail art here.
1. I used Barry M Pearl as my base colour again today, then created the gradient using Rimmel Mind The Gap, Victoria (tutorial here).
2. The detail is freehanded with a nail art brush using Graffiti Nails Ice White.
3. Finally, I topped it off with Glisten & Glow HK Girl.
