Browsing Tag:

Sally Hansen

31 Day Challenge, Freehand, Uncategorised

31DC2012: Day 12 Stripes

30th October 2012

Leave a comment

It’s the day before Halloween and I’m only just posting my slightly Halloweeny themed manicure. Much like last year, this one was also very last minute. I needed some stripes for Day 12 of the 31 Day Challenge and I needed some colours so I went with Orange and Black, the most Halloweeny colours I could think of.

Hopefully, I’ll have a proper Halloween manicure up tomorrow but we’ll have to see how things go!

As always, Rie at Nails and Noms and Cris at Let Them Have Polish will have some killer manis for you today too!

I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed as my base colour and freehanded on the stripes with a Nail Art Brush. I topped it with two coats of Seche Vite.

Twitter ♥ Bloglovin’ ♥ Tumblr

31 Day Challenge, Gradient, Uncategorised

31DC2012: Day 10 Gradient Nails

27th October 2012

Leave a comment

So I don’t know if you heard, but gradients are kind of a big deal around here! Since I popped my gradient cherry, I just can’t get enough of the things. I think this might be my favourite colour combination yet. These were just the two polishes within reaching distance at the time but they work together perfectly together and this is one of my favourite combos to date.

Don’t forget to pop over to Cris and Rie‘s blogs to see their gradients today!

I used Sally Hansen Ion as my base colour. Before I started on the gradient I applied Liquid Pallisade* around my nails to prevent too much mess. I created the gradient using NYC Water Street Blue, following this tutorial. I finished it off with two coats of Seche Vite to smooth it over.

Twitter ♥ Bloglovin’ ♥ Tumblr

31 Day Challenge, Uncategorised

31DC2012: Day 9 Rainbow Nails

25th October 2012

Leave a comment

When you think rainbow, you think bright, happy, colorful right? WRONG! Today’s ‘rainbow’ mani is kind of dreary but I think that’s just the way I was feeling when it came to painting this mani. Also, my rainbow is upside down… not the sign of quality craftsmanship and attention to detail but hey ho, here we are anyway!

Don’t forget to see what rainbow manicures Rie and Cris created today!

I used Sally Hansen Ion* as my base colour, which is my new very favourite greige, and attached the glequins while the second coat was still wet on the middle finger.

I finished it all off with two coats of Seche Vite.

Twitter ♥ Bloglovin’ ♥ Tumblr

Stamping, Uncategorised

Late Polish Days: Get Sentimental

15th October 2012

Leave a comment

I totally missed Polish Days last week. The date completely passed me by and I didn’t even realise until this weekend! I’ve had the idea for this theme since I received the first email and I didn’t want to let it pass me by so I’m posting it today, almost a week late. Whoops!

The theme for October is Get Sentimental so I went back to the very first manicure I ever posted on this blog and recreated that. You can see the post here. Looking back is so cringe worthy. Let’s just say I didn’t have any concept of decent lighting or healthy nails back then! When you look at that picture and these pictures side by side, you wouldn’t even know it’s the same hand.

In other news, I got some Seche Vite this week. After the rather long post about my top coat history last month, so many of you have been offering me recommendations for potential new beaus. The ones that cropped up the most were INM Out The Door and Seche Vite.

The only reason I’ve never tried Seche before is the price tag. I know it’s amazing from everything I’ve heard but I just could never bring myself to spend £10 on a top coat that will be all used up within a few weeks (at the rate I paint my nails!). A lovely lady on twitter tipped me off to Urban Outfitter’s sale where they’re selling Seche at £5 a bottle plus an extra 10% with the code UO10 and free delivery. How could I not buy it?! If you want some yourself, you can buy it here.

I ended up ordering two bottles for £9 and the delivery was insanely fast. So far I love the stuff but I’ve yet to experience the dreaded shrinkage!

Both of the polishes I used for that manicure are long gone so I had to use new ones. I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pacific Blue as my base and stamped with Sally Hansen Plum Luck and GOSH Metallic Purple using Konad Plate M57. I finished it off with one coat of Seche Vite.

Twitter ♥ Bloglovin’ ♥ Tumblr

Freehand, Uncategorised

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

13th October 2012

Leave a comment

To make up for not posting for the three whole days this week, get a whopping 3 posts this weekend! You had Day 2 of the challenge this morning and you can expect day 3 tomorrow as well as this gem in the middle.

In case you couldn’t guess, this mani was inspired by playing cards. I’m not big on card games myself, I can just about manage the simpleton ones like rummy and pig but my brother is big in to poker. For his 18th birthday I wanted to take him on a night out to play casino games but totally chickened out. What a lousy sister I am! Maybe that will have to be his surprise this year.

I used two coats of OPI Samoan Sand as my base colour and then freehanded around the shapes with a nail art brush to get the cutout effect. They really remind me of a set of window shutters I once saw that looked something like this.

The red is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Rapid Red and the black is… of course W7 Black! It’s topped off with a coat of Sally Hansen Advanced Hard as Nails plus one coat of thickened Essence Better Than Gel Nails to smooth everything over.

Twitter ♥ Bloglovin’ ♥ Tumblr

Freehand, Uncategorised

Put The Pieces Back Together

17th June 2012

Leave a comment

This idea has been sitting on a post-it note for a while now. I actually have a wall covered in post-its with nail art ideas on, I just need to find the time to get through them! Blue is my favourite colour to wear on my nails and it’s been way too long since it graced my nails. Since I couldn’t decide exactly which shade I wanted to wear, this design was ideal.

I used Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream for my base colour. Next, I freehanded on 2/4 of the puzzle shapes on each nail with No7 Poolside Blue, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Brisk Blue, and a nail art brush.

I outlined the shapes using the same small nail art brush with white acrylic paint.

Finally, I topped it with two coats of Cult Nails Wicked Fast.

Twitter ♥ Bloglovin’ ♥ Tumblr

Uncategorised

Sun Kissed Tips

22nd May 2012

Leave a comment

Summer weather has returned to Britain, but probably for a few days at most, so I thought I’d feature this sunny shade today. I pretty much detest extreme heat, even when it’s caused by sunshine so I’ve opted out of every exotic family holiday since 2007! I really only look forward to Summer because it means I get to rock a pair of Aviators every day. I’ve been less of a summer grinch the last few years and always try my best to join in with everyone’s excitement whenever the sun is shining.

I think tips are quite boring but I always get cravings to wear them so I try to work in another element that will spice it up a bit. I was kind of stuck for spicy elements today so I just added an extra line. It’s very simple but quite sophisticated and I like it!

The base colour is Sally Hansen Sun Kissed and I used Barry M Gold Foil and a striper brush to paint on the tips and the extra little line.

Twitter ♥ Bloglovin’ ♥ Tumblr