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Green
L’Oreal Confetti is a polish I’ve been wanting for quite a while now but for the longest time I couldn’t find it on shelves anywhere… I was obviously late to the party! I finally found some in Boots last week and promptly picked up two bottles. In hindsight, maybe I was a little overexcited at the time and I realise now I’ll never need two bottles. It’s just always nice to have that spare one there, you know, just in case!
Confetti is a pretty topper that contains two sizes of hexes in matte black in white glitter. There’s also a very, very subtle shimmer in the clear base. I used two coats but it looks just as good after one. It’s probably not one I’d normally wear on every finger like this but you all know how much I like a good glitter accent nail and this polish will be just perfect for that.
This swatch is two coats of L’Oreal Confetti over Sally Hansen Green Tea and Sally Hansen Crinolin all topped with Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.
Does black and white glitter get your thumbs up? Or do you prefer to keep your manis colourful?
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A little while ago, Sally Hansen got in touch to see if I’d like to be a Nail Art Ambassador for their I ♥ Nail Art campaign. As you’ll know if you’ve been reading for a while, my undying love for Sally Hansen is no big secret around here so of course I was more than happy to get involved!
Each month there’s a new theme and you can submit your nail creations for the chance to win amazing prizes. I’ll be bringing you two tutorials every month and for the month of April, the theme is Colour Blocking!
Before you start, make sure you have everything you need:
Three (or more!) colours. I’m using Back to the Fuschia (what an amazing name!), Lively Lilac and Mint Sprint.
A quick drying top coat. I’ve picked Dries Instantly for this one.
Some Scotch tape, or anything similar. I decided to invest in one of those nifty gadgets which slides over your knuckles and dispenses it in little strips. If you’re cutting from the roll it’s a good idea to snip off some little strips before getting stuck in to the painting.
Start by painting on your base colour, this is the colour that will show at the sides. At this point I apply a top coat to make it dry nice and quickly.
Sticking scotch tape to wet nails is a big no no so wait until it’s completely dry before moving on. I normally give it about 15-30 minutes just to be sure.
Apply one piece of scotch tape diagonally across your nail…
… and then another at a right angle to that piece. You want to be able to see an exposed patch in an off centre triangle shape at the bas of your nail.
Make sure your tape is pressed down firmly so that absolutely no polish seeps underneath. You can use a pair of tweezers to make things a bit easier.
Paint your second colour on to the exposed triangle and immediately peel off the tape… very slowly and carefully!
Once that patch is mostly dry, I apply another top coat to speed up the drying but still wait about 15-20 minutes before applying any more tape.
Apply the second batch of tape in the same way. First with a strip diagonally across your nail (this time you can use the patch that’s already there as a guide), then another headed towards the tip of your nail.
Paint on colour number 3 and peel off the tape.
Finally, add one last top coat and use a small paintbrush dipped in acetone to clean up any mess around your cuticles!
You can enter your own colour blocking manis in to Sally Hansen’s I ♥ Nail Art competition and check out the gallery for plenty more inspiration here.
Although I kept the base coat the same on every nail, I alternated the colours I used to paint on my patches. There are so many ways to make this mani your own. Your can mix up your base colours, try out some different patches and even experiment with the angles!
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When I was out shopping on the weekend, I spotted a pen with a funky chevron pattern and of course, the first thing that ran through my brain was ‘I can put that on my nails!’. I bought the pen solely for that reason! I actually only planned to paint a chevron and maybe a few stripes on each nail but I may gotten a little carried away.
The colours I used are Barry M White, W7 Black and Sally Hansen Fairy Teal. I varied the base colour on each finger and painted on the details with a nail art brush. True story.
It’s all top coated with Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.
Every now and then, one of those special manis comes along. The ones you absolutely love and never want to take off. This is one of those! I wore it for very close to 48 hours which is probably the longest I’ve kept anything on my nails all year.
The green polish is NYC Mint Macaroon although I’d say it’s closer to Jade green than mint, stuck somewhere in between.
For the pinstripe nails, I started with a coat of Born Pretty Matt White then used the striping tape method to create the thin stripes (tutorial here).
I freehanded the roses with a nail art brush using Models Own Utopia, NYC Moma and a hint of the Born Pretty White. The leaves are NYC High Line Green.
The glitter on my ring finger is Sonnetarium Snowfall.
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3 years ago, on this very day, I sat down at my computer, signed up to Blogger and created this blog. I didn’t have big dreams for it at all, at the time it was just my little contribution to the very small online community of people who were passionate about polish and quite honestly a great way to procrastinate on my school work!
Today it’s a huge part of my life and I could never have imagined it would become what it is today. I feel like I owe a lot to this blog and I know my life would be very different today if I hadn’t spent the last three years diving head first into my nail art obsession! Of course, I owe all of this to you guys. Thank you so much for reading, commenting, sharing and just generally being an awesome bunch of readers!
I thought I’d take a look back through the archives and dig out an early mani to recreate it and I’ve gone with the ‘Mint Mesh‘ from July 2010, about 3 months in to my blog. Back in the day I used to post exclusively stamping manicures on a daily basis. I didn’t start experimenting with other nail art techniques for months and it was almost a year before I tried my first freehand nail art. It’s good to see the immense improvement in the photography and my neater nails and cuticles.
This time around I used Sally Hansen Green Tea as my base colour, then stamped on the fishnet design from Konad Plate M57 using Barry M Gold Foil.
On my accent finger I used one coat of PVA Glue before applying three thin coats of Sally Hansen Gilded Lily. I used one top coat of No7 Stay Perfect.
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Whenever I’m stuck for ideas I always come back to the gradients. I don’t care if they’re so last year, I just love them!
I used Sally Hansen Green Tea as my base colour then created the gradient using this tutorial with Barry M Light Blue. It’s topped with one coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri.
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