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Gold

Glitter, Uncategorised

Confessing My Love

21st January 2013

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I love Sally Hansen. It’s true. I only realised it today, but there’s no denying it!

Recently I’ve been finding a lot of Sally Hansen Complete Manicure polishes in Poundland. Yeah, you read that right. That shop where everything is just £1 – it’s the equivalent of a dollar store in the US. Anyways, there are normally only a few good colours on the shelves at any one time so I’ve picked up one or two at a time and now have a total of six bottles and I think it’s my new favourite line of polish.

Today I found two new colours – Fairy Teal, which I first fell in love with years ago when I saw it on a blog that I unfortunately can’t remember the name of anymore, and Green Tea which is the perfect mint creme that I’ve been searching for all these years. Ladies, if you’re in the UK, you need to go to Poundland. Now. Like, yesterday!

In order to fully express my love for this brand, however fleeting it may be, today’s mani was created with nothing but SH polishes.

I used Sally Hansen’s Green Tea and Bamboo Base Coat. Then I applied two coats of Gilded Lily* as my base colour and applied one coat of Insta-Dri*.
Next, one nail at a time, I placed small strips of striping tape where I wanted to keep the golden base coat visible. I did this using some nail art tweezers – it’s way too fiddly to do it precisely using just your fingers. I applied Green Tea and Fairy Teal over the striping tape and peeled off the strips while the polish was still wet. Finally, I topped it off with two coats of Insta-Dri, which I would definitely rate highly as a fast drying top coat.

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Christmas, Stamping, Uncategorised

Christmas is Coming

2nd December 2012

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It feels like someone flipped a switch yesterday which just made everyone go mental! Suddenly everyone has gone crazy for Christmas so I thought I may as well leap in to the mania head first and get started on some Christmas manis. I’m sure there will be more to come, I just thought I should ease myself in today with something mildly festive!

I started with one coat of PVA Glue (I know it sounds insane, but it makes removing the glitter so much easier). Once that was dry, I used 3 coats of Sally Hansen Gilded Lily* and stamped on a swirly design from Bundle Monster Plate BM314 using Sally Hanses InstaDri in Rapid Red.

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Stamping, Studs, Uncategorised

Best of the Bundle

17th July 2012

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The Houndstooth design is by far my favourite from the most recent set of Bundle Monster plates. There aren’t a lot of patterns in the 2012 Bundle that really stand out to me but this is one of them. And it stands at the front! I love those stamping patterns that are so seamless, you can’t tell which colour is the base and which was stamped on. I was going to leave it open for interpretation but I’ve totally given myself away with the black accent finger!

Stamping Plate: Bundle Monster BM322
Barry M Gold Foil and W7 Black
Square Studs from Born Pretty Store
Top Coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast

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Freehand, Gradient, Uncategorised

Under Lock and Key

12th May 2012

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Today’s nail art is inspired by a piece of jewelry from Anna Sabino – a New York based handmade jewelry designer. When I saw this key pendant, I instantly had the idea to fashion a lock and key on my nails which I think turned out incredibly cute! I’ve even worn this mani for more than a day which is a surefire way to tell I love it!

The black and gold gradient just makes this mani. You can never go wrong with black and gold together, it’s a classy and chic combination but adventurous and kind of wild at the same time.

I used W7 Black as a base and Barry M Gold Foil for all the details including the gradient. The gold glitter stripes were done using a Kiss nail art striper.

You can get 20% off any order at LucidNewYork.com using the code LN20D.

Sorry if you’re sick of me reminding you, but the Bundle Monster Facebook Competition is still open and every vote counts! You can go straight to my entry here and if you like it, it would be great if you could drop a vote in the pot for me. Thank you!

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Studs, Uncategorised

Fish Egg Friday!

13th April 2012

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Today’s nails are inspired by some nail art that Dashing Diva created for the Cushnie et Ochs show at Fall 2011 Fashion Week which you can see here!

I’m sure you’ve all been seeing a lot of this style manicure recently and I’ll be honest, I wasn’t completely sold on the look. And I also thought it would be a nightmare to apply. Now that I’ve finally tried it, I’ve surprised myself at how much I actually like it and it was way easier than I expected. It literally is a case of pouring the beads over your nail and letting them stick!

It doesn’t show in the pictures, but these beads are so sparkly in real life. My nails are like mini mirror balls!

It’s a long post today! More after the crack ↓

I used Barry M Gold Foil and Silver Foil as base colours. One nail at a time, just after painting the second coat of colour, I held my nail over a plastic container and sprinkled the bullion over it. There were a few gaps so I placed a few of the beads using a sticky toothpick to fill them in. Finally, I used a toothpick to shape around the edges and flick off any beads that didn’t quite fit nicely!

I didn’t add a topcoat because I just knew it would all go wrong at the final moment like these fiddly things have a habit of doing! If you’re planning on wearing this style for more than a few hours though, it will definitely need a top coat to seal everything in and make it last.

There are countless places online where you can buy the Bullion or ‘steel balls’ to create this Fish Egg manicure and you might even be able to find them in a craft store near you.

I got these from eBay here for 99 pence with free P+P. However, these are kind of big for nail bullion. They are very tiny but still big in relation to other bullion I’ve used in the past.
(eBay Listing)

My absolute favourite bullion EVER is from Viva La Nails here. They have a great selection of colours at £1.95 per 5g pot and Viva La Nails is a great place for nail art supplies so have a look around!
(Viva La Nails Product Page)

If you want a great selection of colour, Born Pretty have a set of 12 colours for $5.41 and each colour comes in a little pot so you won’t have any mix ups! However, if you’re so inclined, you can have fun mix and matching your own colour combinations.
(Born Pretty Product Page 7% off with the code SA5X31)

If you want to see more Fish Egg manis today, loads of lovely ladies have also posted theirs!

Ivana at Ivana Thinks Pink

Stephanie at Sincerely Stephanie

Jeanette at The Swatchaholic

Christina at Starlett Approved
Salla at OMG! Polish ‘Em
Esther at Fab Fingertips

Emily at The Lacquerologist
Tiffany at 2 The Last Drop

Cristina at Let Them Have Polish

A Laquered Affair

Anna at Pretty Digits

Susan at Subtle Shimmer

Melissa at Melissa White Nails
Jen at The Polishaholic
Goose at Gooses Glitter
Danielle at Rock n Polish
Katie and Allie at The Daily Varnish
Deez at Deez Nails
Phedre at Colour is Magic
Lacquer and Lattes
Danielle at Mid Western Girlie Girl
Zelinda at Unhas caseiras da Z
Stephanie at Aquaheart’s Obsessions
Julie at Esmaltes de Julie
Ria at Ria Loves Pawlish
Shooting Star 0218
Rhonni at Polish Ninja
Poliship at Oje Gemisi Kalkiyor
Jamie at Plisherrific
Jessica at Jessica’s Nail Tales

You an also follow the #FishEggFriday action on Twitter!

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Freehand, Uncategorised

Black and White Challenge Day 5: Color base with Black

13th April 2012

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I’m so excited to post today’s nail art! For Day 5 of the Black and White Challenge – Color base with Black, I’ve created some nail art inspired by the One Ring from The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. I was going to wait to do this for the release of The Hobbit which I thought must be some time soon but it’s not until December!

This nail art was first posted on Billy the Brime’s Tumblr and couldn’t wait to give it a go myself. Allison’s mani is more accurate to the original source material than mine and fair play to the girl, dang that inscription is fiddly!

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them

One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

I used Barry M Gold Foil as my base colour and black acrylic paint with a nail art brush for the details.

Don’t forget to visit the other ladies’ blogs to see their Day 5 manis!

Rie at Nails and Noms

Cris at Let Them Have Polish!

Esther at Fab Fingertips

Stephanie at Sincerely Stephanie

Emily at The Laquerologist

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Freehand, Uncategorised

Lana Del Rey Inspired Nail Art

17th December 2011

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The video for Lana Del Rey’s new single, Born To Die, was released on Wednesday and I’m not exaggerating when I say I’ve been listening to the song on repeat ever since I first heard it (apart from the hours I spent at work or sleeping). This chick is just gorgeous and she’s my hair idol. Mine WILL look like that one day!

Lana’s nails in the video are so sexy. These were the best screen shots I could get of the nails but you can watch the stunning video in full here.

I used Cult Nails Cruisin’ Nude as a base then freehanded the chevrons with La Femme Cherry Red (3rd day in a row I’ve used this shade!) using a striping brush.

I used Barry M Gold Foil with a smaller striping brush to freehand the gold lines.

If you don’t have steady, line drawing hands, you can use scotch tape to mark off the area you want to paint red, just make sure your base colour is completely dry before you go sticking tape on your nails.

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