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Gold

    31 Day Challenge, Uncategorised

    31DC2013 Day 18: Half Moons

    For my half moon nails I’ve gone back to that old favourite, black and gold! I was trying to figure out ways to spice it up – maybe adding a gradient, a waterfall, some glitter – but then I thought why mess with the proven formula? I do love half moons. I think they’re very, um… sexy, especially in any combination that includes red, black or nude. I mean there’s a reason it’s Dita Von Teese’s nail art of choice!

    I used NYC Full Metal Jacket as my base colour followed by a coat of No7 Stay Perfect Top Coat to dry it quickly. Next I used hole reinforcers to mark off the half moon and painted over the rest of the nail in W7 Black. Then I topped it all off with another two coats of Stay Perfect Top Coat.
    I wrote a full tutorial for half moon nails here.

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

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    31 Day Challenge, Freehand, Uncategorised

    31DC2013 Day 8: Metallic Nails

    I was really struggling with ideas for today’s Metallic Nails prompt but when I came across NYC Full Metal Jacket I knew it was the one! And of course, what else would I pair it with other than black?!
    Since my Great Gatsby inspired manicure I’ve been itching to try something similar and I’m so pleased with the result. I’ve been on such a freehand kick this weekend – trying lots of new things and pushing my own boundaries when it comes to freehand nail art. I’ve really surprised myself with what I can actually do! 

    I used A-England Lancelot as my base colour then freehanded the details in NYC Full Metal Jacket with a nail art brush. It’s all topped off with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

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    Glitter, Studs, Uncategorised

    Cirque Helios with Pastels

    I have another Cirque polish to show you today! Here we have Helios… a very fine gold glitter with holographic glitter sprinkled in. I decided to dress it up with some pastel colours. When pairing up gold with another colour, I normally go straight to black but I’m wayyy happier with the pastels this time.

    For the glitter fingers, I used one coat of Barry M Gold Foil with 3 thin coats of Cirque Helios. You could wear Helios on its own with 3 coats but you’d have nail poking through the glitter so I chose to put a similar shade base colour underneath.
    The pastels I used are Sally Hansen Green Tea and Barry M Prickly Pear.

    It’s all topped off with a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly and one of Essence Top Sealer. I added some 1.5mm gold studs on top while the Essence polish was still wet.

    Visit cirquecolors.com for stockists or to buy directly.

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    Uncategorised

    The Great Gatsby Inspired Nail Art

    Since I first saw a trailer for The Great Gatsby I’ve been completely besotted. I like Baz Luhrmann and I love Leonardo DiCaprio (who doesn’t amirite?!) so I can’t wait to see the movie. I’m a sucker for beautiful looking films and I’m sure this one won’t disappoint in the aesthetics department. The posters alone are gorgeous enough and you know I can’t resist a good gold and black combo so today’s nail art is inspired by the amazing art deco pattern plastered all over the artwork for the movie.

    For the base I used one coat of  Barry M Gold Foil and one coat of Sally Hansen Gilded Lily to get the luxurious, glistening gold look. I painted on a thin coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly and waited about 15 minutes before applying striping tape where I wanted the gold to show through. Next I painted W7 Black over the top and swiftly removed the tape. There’s a full striping tape tutorial here which explains in more detail. Finally I topped it off with another two coats of Dries Instantly to smooth everything over.

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    Beauty, Gradient, Makeup

    Beauty and the Beach Part 2!

    Last year I entered Travel Supermarket’s Beauty and the Beach competition and this year I’ll be joining the judging panel as the judge of the nail art category. Pretty cool huh?! I’m so excited to see all the nail art entries and I’m sure I’ll be finding plenty of inspiration for the coming summer months.

    Beauty and the Beach is a competition for bloggers and to enter all you have to do is show off your best holiday hair, nail and make-up looks. Nothing we bloggers don’t do every single day! You can enter all 3 categories or just one or two. There will be a winner selected in each category who will receive a £500 cash prize and there’s one overall prize which will go to a blogger who entered all three and that prize is £1500… cold hard cash! The competition opens today so I’m going to show you my own holiday looks, run through the rules and tell you how you can enter.

    The Nails
    Evenings are my favourite part of any tropical holiday and I love nothing more than sunset on the beach. I wanted to try and recreate the colours of a sunset over the sand so of course it had to be a gradient!
    The base colour is NYC Lexington Yellow and I created the gradients using Rimmel Urban Princess and Barry M Papaya following this tutorial. The glitter accent on my ring finger is Lac Attack’s Felix Felicis and I topped the whole thing off with a coat of Seche Vite.

    The Make-Up
    When I think of holiday make-up my mind wanders straight to bronze and gold so of course that’s where I started. I added the green highlight in the hopes of bringing out the green flecks in my eyes that sometimes make an appearance when the sun’s out.
    To create this look I used FrontCover’s Moondust Collection, Barry M Gel eyeliner, a slick of Avon SuperExtend mascara and a sprinkling of individual lashes just at the outer corner for a flirty flutter. I normally wear strip lashes but when I’m on holiday I like to keep my make-up as light as possible – strip lashes do not feel light!

    If you want to enter the competition yourself (why wouldn’t you?!) here’s how:
    1. Upload images of your best holiday hair, nails and make-up with an explanation of how you achieved the look. You can enter all three categories, or just one or two.
    2. Make sure you mention the competition page within your post:
    http://www.travelsupermarket.com/c/holidays/beauty-and-the-beach-two/
    3. Nominate 5 fellow bloggers that you think will be up to the challenge and let them know via Facebook or Twitter (#beautyandthebeach2).
    4. The closing day for entries is 5th June 2013 and you can let us know you have entered by one of the following:
    • Email beautyandthebeach@travelsupermarket.com with a link to your post.
    • Tweet @travelsupermkt with the hashtag #beautyandthebeach2 with a link to your post.
    • Or, tag the TravelSupermarket.com Facebook page in a post linking to your blog post that you are entering.
    5. For each category, the judges will select a winner from their respective category of hair, nails and make-up, each winner will win £500.
    6. For the overall winner, the three judges will collectively decide on who has achieved the best holiday look. The winner will win £1,500 in cash.

    I think that about covers everything but full terms and conditions and more details can be found at the Travel Supermarket site here.

    Good luck everyone!

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    Swatch, Uncategorised

    Cirque Tibetan Nights Swatch

    Today I have another incredible Cirque polish. Are there any that aren’t incredible?! Tibetan Nights* is a deep blue jelly polish containing small shreds and squares of blue and silver glitter. I used two coats for these swatches and application is flawless. I should note that I used a base coat of PVA glue on account of all the glitter to make removal super easy.
    This polish is available from Sally Magpies in the UK but if you’re anywhere else in the world, check out the Cirque website for stockists.

    For the accent finger I used a few bits of striping tape to mark off the lines and painted over it in Sally Hansen Gilded Lily before peeling off the tape.
    The cute bow decal is from Born Pretty. They come as flat metal decals and I use a pair of tweezers to gently curve the metal so it sits flush on my nail. Finally I finished it off with a coat of Seche Vite.

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    Glitter, Studs, Uncategorised

    Dressed To Kill, You Look So Right

    If you don’t think Black and Gold is one of the top 5 colour combinations known to mankind, we’re gonna have a problem! This gold glitter is another one from Poundland and getting it to cover my whole nail like that was not easy. I started off using a sponge to dab it on, then resorted to a toothpick to place more glitter in the gaps. The end result was worth it and a two coats of Seche Vite glazed it nicely.

    Nails Inc Leather Effect
    Chit Chat Gold Glitter

      Studs/Bullion/Caviar from NPW
    Kiss Gold Glitter Striper

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