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China Glaze

Glitter, Uncategorised

MoYou Fairytale Collection Nail Art

14th December 2013

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When I ordered my Fairy Dust, I popped a few extra polishes in the cart too. This purple beauty, China Glaze Cowgirl Up, was one of them. Multi-dimensional polishes like this don’t normally catch my eye unless they’re purple. It reminds me of my old favourite W7 Purple Paradise with an extra hint of fuschia and if you get up really close, you can see tiny blue specks in there too.

The purple base colour is two coats of China Glaze Cowgirl Up.

The stamped designs are from MoYou’s new Fairytale Collection on Plate 02. I used NYC Power of Elements to stamp the design.

The glitter accent is two coats of Cirque Queen Majesty over one of Cowgirl Up.

It’s all topped off with one coat of Glisten and Glow HK Girl (which, by the way, is currently on sale for $4.50!).

Glitter, Holographic, Stamping, Uncategorised

When Whimsy Collides

10th December 2013

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Today’s nail art is very simple. I mean VERY simple! I tried a few nail art possibilities with the purple holographic polish but in the end I decided to keep it as it was in all its mauve beauty.

This holographic glitter was first spotted on the blog last week and I’ve worn it almost every day since. I’m completely obsessed. I’ve never been someone that was distracted by sparkly shiny things but there’s something about a glitter that glistens like this that has me hooked. It really is like magic! In the same post, I mentioned my long standing desire to own China Glaze Fairy Dust and over the weekend I finally ordered a bottle. As if by fate, I had an email from Nail Polish Direct declaring a China Glaze sale and took it as a sign from the Fairy gods!

The blue base colour is piCture pOlish Whimsy and the purple holographic polish is China Glaze When Stars Collide.

I stamped on the wavy design from MoYou Sailor 05 using BK Matt White.

The glitter on my index finger is Claire’s Holographic Glitter.
It’s all topped off with a coat of Essence Better Than Gel Nails Top Sealer.

Stamping, Uncategorised

Pearly Whites

16th November 2013

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Press Sample

This textured white polish from Barry M is one that I featured in my top 3 holiday nail shades this week on Divine Caroline. I wasn’t a huge fan of it at first but now that the winter and festive season are closing in, I have a new appreciation for the effect it creates. It looks just like freshly fallen snow, with a bit of extra glitter!

I used a coat of China Glaze Dandy Lyin’ Around followed by two coats of Barry M White Pearl for the white accents.

The pink is China Glaze Pink-ie Promise. I added a few 1mm pearls and some stamping from MoYou Sailor Collection 05 plate with BK Matte White polish.

Freehand, Uncategorised, Waterfall

A Waterfall Fit for Fall

8th October 2013

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It’s been a while since my last Waterfall mani and seeing all of the amazing combinations you guys have been posting on Instagram gives me a bit of fresh inspiration every day. Now that the days are drawing in and winter is approaching, I thought it would be a good time to try it out in some autumnal shades.

Although I still really love this mani, it didn’t come out as wintry as I’d hoped. I pictured it with a creamy caramel brown as a base and I searched my whole stash for something similar but didn’t have any luck. Now I have a new quest for the next time I go shopping. I love it when I have a mission, it focuses my attention and prevents me from getting distracted by every polish bottle in sight!

I used China Glaze Fade Into Hue as my base colour and created the waterfall using a nail art brush with Essie Glamour Purse, H&M Midnight Mystery, Sally Hansen Gray by Gray and Barry M Watermelon.

There’s a waterfall pictorial here.

It’s all topped with one coat of No7 Stay Perfect Top Coat, then one of Rimmel Mattifying Top Coat.

P.S. My post on Divine Caroline this week is a tutorial for Nicole Miller’s NYFW Runway Nails. Click here to see the post!

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Glitter, Gradient, Stamping, Uncategorised

Cosmopolitan Blog Awards 2013

5th October 2013

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As some of you will know, this year I was shortlisted in the Best Established Beauty Blog category at the Cosmpolitan Blog Awards. On Wednesday, after months of waiting and planning and getting all excited, the big event was held in London. I made my way to the big city, giant suitcase in tow, to meet up with Alice, Amelia, Lucy and Allie and we headed to the ceremony together!

I had such a great time at the awards and I really loved getting to meet up with the other lovely ladies in attendance. I didn’t win in my category but Alice from One Nail To Rule Them All was representing the nail blogs by taking home the title of Best New Beauty Blog! It was definitely a night to remember and I owe a huge thanks to all of you lovely people who nominated me and made it possible! I’ll try not to get too soppy but I really do well up when I think about you guys taking the time to nominate and vote for my blog. Thank you so so much!

I spent most of the day before trying to decide on nail art to wear for the night and this is the design I settled on. I’ve also included a few snaps from the event after the jump!

For the gradients nails I used NYC Raindrop as the base with China Glaze Sunday Funday and added some little black studs. There’s a gradient tutorial here.

The beautiful blue glitter on my pointer finger is Azature’s Blue Diamond Polish. I stamped on the chevron design from Bundle Monster Plate BM-201 using W7 Black over Barry M White.

It’s all topped off with one coat of No7 Stay Perfect Top Coat and one of Essence Better Than Gel Nails High Gloss Sealer for a super shiny finish.

And here are a few shots from the night, I even make a brief appearance in Cosmo’s video of the event at 1.10!

Photos courtesy of Amelia

Of course I had to squeeze in a cheeky selfie. Check out my favourite T-Rex Necklace!

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31 Day Challenge, Freehand, Gradient, Uncategorised

31DC013 Day 22: Inspired by a Song… ROAR!

22nd September 2013

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The song that inspired this manicure was Katy Perry’s Roar. I think Katy Perry is one of the best pop stars ever and she’s well known for her love of nail art so I wanted to create something that would do her justice. This actually turned out way nicer than I expected. With animal print in a busy manicure I always worry about going over the top but I think the background is subtle enough not to overpower the whole mani. I used a lot of different techniques here and it was fun to mix and match within one manicure.

I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter, dancing through the fire

Cause I am a champion and you’re gonna hear me roar

I started with a base of China Glaze Dandy Lyin’ Around. I painted some Liquid Palisade around my cuticles to prevent a big mess and created a gradient using that and Sally Hansen Sun Kissed. There’s a gradient tutorial here.

Next I stamped on the tiger print from Konad Plate M57 using Barry M Gold Foil.

Then finally I freehanded on the letters using black acrylic paint and a nail art brush.

It’s all topped off with two coats of No7 Stay Perfect Top Coat

Day 22: Inspired by a Song 2012

Day 22: Inspired by a Song 2011

See what’s coming next in the 31 Day Challenge 2013!

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31 Day Challenge, Freehand, Uncategorised

31DC2013 Day 21: Inspired by a Color

21st September 2013

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Wow, I really can’t believe we’re on the last leg of the challenge already! This month has completely flown by and I’ve had so much fun doing the challenge so far. Here’s to hoping the last 10 days will be as smooth sailing as the rest.I think this is when the challenge starts to get a bit tricky!

I think ‘Inspired by a color’ is a very vague prompt and I never really know where to start looking for inspiration. So, as you do, I just googled ‘colours’ and ended up reading a list of colour names to see if anything jumped out at me. The colour that did was Cornflower Blue.

I wasn’t confident that I even owned a cornflower blue polish but I found China Glaze Fade Into Hue and knew it was meant to be! So today’s nail art is inspired the Cornflower on a cornflower blue base. I daren’t try to replicate the flower exactly – far too many angles for me to get wrong – so I decided on a more abstract take on the flower.

I used China Glaze Fade Into Hue as my base colour and let that dry.

Next I freehanded on a sort of star burst design using a long thin nail art brush with an unnamed royal blue Miss Sporty polish near the bas of my nails. When that was dry, I painted on a smaller star burst with Barry M Prickly Pear.

When everything was dry, I topped it off with two coats of No7 Stay Perfect Top Coat.

Day 21: Inspired by a Color 2012

Day 21: Inspired by a Color 2011

See what’s coming next in the 31 Day Challenge 2013!

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