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China Glaze

Glitter, Stamping, Uncategorised

Roundquins?!

27th May 2013

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It’s been a while since I wore any glequins and it’s been playing on my mind so I decided to dig out some of the little things and get busy. When I dove in to my supplies to pick out some colours, I spotted these round versions of my hexagonal favourite which I’ve never tried out. I couldn’t quite believe it myself.

These, um… round-quins are from Born Pretty Store (betcha didn’t see that one coming huh?) and they come in a pack of 12 colours. 9 out of the 12 are iridescent and I must say I’m not a fan of those, but there are holographic gold, silver and black ones which are just beautiful.

The main purple colour on show here is China Glaze Tart-y for the Party, the glitter on my pointer is La Femme Purple Glitter and the round glequins are from Born Pretty Store. On my thumb and pinky, I stamped a design from Winstonia plate W111 using A-England Bridal Veil. My middle finger is a base of Bridal Veil and I used the striping tape technique with a top colour of CG Tart-y for the Party. It’s all topped off with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

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Freehand, Glitter, Uncategorised

Happy Easter Again!

31st March 2013

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More Easter nails today! I couldn’t resist trying on this sugary sweet combination today and I added a fishtail accent which I absolutely love! I can’t believe I’ve never tried it out before.

The clocks jumped forwards in the UK last night and the sun was shining until about 7pm today which was just amazing. I am SO ready for summer to come but until it does I’ll be wearing plenty of pastels on my nails to remind myself it’s not too far away!

The base colours (thumb to pinky) are:

China Glaze Tart-y for the Party

Sally Hansen Green Tea

China Glaze Fade into Hue

China Glaze Pink-ie Promise

Each nail is topped with two coats of Sonnetarium Samurai Princess.

For the fishtail accent, I used CG Tart-y for the Party, SH Green Tea and CG Pink-ie Promise.

Finally, I used two coats of No7 Stay Perfect Top Coat.

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Glitter, Uncategorised

It’s My Birthday and I’ll Blog If I Want To

25th March 2013

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Yep, today is my Birthday! It’s just a quick post to show you one of my favourite combinations of late. I’ve been wearing a lot of glitter and found the perfect pairing with Sally Hansen Big Money and China Glaze Tart-y for the Party. The little purple hexes in Big Money perfectly compliment the lilac purple.

There’s a (not so subtle) clue in the mani…. can you guess how old I am today?

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Stamping, Uncategorised

Happy Mother’s Day

10th March 2013

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Here in the UK it’s Mothering Sunday today. My brothers and I have been laying treats on my mum all day! She’s had smellies, chocolates and flowers galore and I’m just about to go and cook a roast dinner for tea. Marks and Spencer meal deals F-T-Dubz!

I’m still in love with the pastels from China Glaze’s Avant Garden collection recently and knew they’d be perfect for creating a girly mani for the day. I’ve also started playing with my new Winstonia* stamping plates which are incredible and also girly!

I used China Glaze Tart-y for the Party, Life is Rosy, Dandy Lyin’ Around and Pink-ie Promise as my base colours.

I used stamps from the first generation Winstonia plates (Winstonia Store/Amazon) W102, W111 and W119 on my thumb, pointer and pinky. If you order the plates from their online store, you can get 10% off (the plates only) with code THENAILASAURUS.

The polish I used to stamp is the BK Matt White from Born Pretty. If you’re looking for a decent white stamping polish, look no further. I bought it after I saw it on Katrina’s Nail Blog to use as a good white base but I find it slightly too thick for normal application. This is never a bad thing for me. Runny polishes are a dime a dozen, but it’s hard to find thick ones for stamping – especially white ones! WIN!

I used some striping tape on my middle and ring fingers to mark off the criss cross patterns before painting over them with BK White and China Glaze Life is Rosy, then peeling off the striping tape.

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Freehand, Glitter, Uncategorised

Press Play

9th March 2013

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Since I was 16, I’ve had a pair of headphones almost permanently attached to my person. Whenever I’m on my own, I put them in my ears and disappear in to my own little world. The best mp3 player I ever had was a Creative Zen Micro. Does anyone remember those?!

I actually had a total of four in my time, one in almost every colour, because I’m a klutz and I break pretty much every piece of technology I touch! Even when they stopped manufacturing them, I’d be straight on eBay scouring for a new one as soon as mine bit the bullet. You can even still buy them! The symbols on the touchpad glowed blue and that’s the inspiration behind today’s manicure.

I used China Glaze Tart-y For The Party as my base colour. The dark purple details are Barry M Blackberry and I outlined them in Calvin Klein Blue Wants to be a Millionaire.

The glitter on my ring finger is La Femme Purple Glitter and I did the stripes on my pinky by applying a few strips of striping tape, then painting over them using the Barry M and quickly peeling them off.

It’s all finished with a coat of Seche Vite.

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Tutorial, Uncategorised

Money Smart Nail Art: The Toothbrush Method Tutorial

6th March 2013

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Here’s the tutorial for the hodge splodge nail art I posted earlier in the week. It had a great response and 5 of you guessed my tool correctly – it was a toothbrush! Angie D, TheNailNut, Caitlin, TheBeauBow and Lisa all got it right… give yourselves a high five from me!

This is my entry to Money Supermarket’s Money Smart Nail Art competition. I don’t make any secret of the fact that I am a stingy SOB and I like to think myself a thrifty, bargain sniffing miss. For this criteria, I really wanted to create a tutorial for a nail art look that only used nail polish and tools that you would already have around the house, or that cost literally pennies to buy. It really doesn’t get much more money smart than an 18p pack of toothbrushes. That’s a quarter to my American friends.

To create this nail art, you’ll need to pick a polish for your base colour, a few others that you want to use for the splodges, a toothbrush and a top coat. You’ll also need nail polish remover or acetone because there’ll be a bit of cleaning up to do at the end.

The colours I’m using here are (l-r) China Glaze Sunday Funday, Barry M Greenberry, Barry M Blueberry and China Glaze Pink-ie Promise.

I got these toothbrushes from Tesco and for 18p! You can but cheap toothbrushes pretty much anywhere that sells toothbrushes but try to make sure you get ones where the bristles are all the same length.

Step 1: Paint on your base colour and wait for it to dry completely.

Step 2: Paint your first splodge colour straight from the bottle on to the bristles near the end of the toothbrush. Be quite generous with the polish otherwise it won’t transfer on to your nails.

Step 3. Carefully dab the brush down on to your nails to create your first splodges. Wait for them to dry before moving on.

Step 4. Apply more colours in the same way until you’re happy with the look. Between each colour, you’ll need to clean the toothbrush and wait for each layer to dry. You can clean the toothbrush by wiping it with a tissue or dipping it in to nail polish remover/acetone and drying on a cotton pad.

Step 5: The finished result might be a bit bumpy so apply a thick layer of your top coat.

Step 6: Finally, use a small paintbrush dipped in acetone or polish remover to clean up any of the bits that got around your nail and you’re done!

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Uncategorised

Harlekwins

5th March 2013

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Sorry this ain’t no tutorial – as promised it is coming this week, just not today. I’ve had these little diamond glequins just as long as the hexagonal ones but at the time I saw so much potential in the hexes that these got swept under the rug and neglected until now. I know I say this too often but I love this manicure! Since the new year I’ve really done a u-turn and these days I can’t get enough pink. I blame the Avant Garden collection! The diamond glequins are available from Born Pretty Store here (#5) and I can see myself investing in a couple more colours very soon.

I used China Glaze Pink-ie Promise as my base colour and applied the glequins, which are from Born Pretty Store (colour #5), in a harlequin pattern using this method. Finally I topped it off with one coat of Seche Vite.

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