Leopard Print

Today I have a tried a pink Leopard print look. This is something I have seen around a lot but it never really appeals to me. For some reason though, I felt like giving it a go!

I used Sally Hansen Strawberry Icing for the base colour, which is much pinker than it appears here (There is a more colour accurate picture at the bottom of this post). The spots were done with Barry M Silk in Heather, and outlined with Barry M Black.

I actually really like how this mani turned out. I think the colours work really well together.

I liked my Left and Right shots I did on my last post, so here they are again!! This may become a regular thing, although I find it difficult to photograph my right hand, as I shake too much and they end up blurred!

This picture is a little more colour accurate than the rest as it was taken in natural light.

When I was in Kenya, I actually saw a Leopard on Safari, so I am adding this to my Kenya Inspired posts, although I haven't done any of those for a while!

Here he is... Just chilling in a tree!

Fingerfood Theme Buffet & Africa Inspired: Fishtail Braids.

So this week I entered the Fingerfood Theme Buffet, for the first time ever, although I was a little late! The theme was fishtail, which was apt considering this was one of the techniques I wanted to include in my Africa Inspired Mani's, so it works as both!

I wanted this included as an Africa inspired mani as all the girls in the school who actually had any hair, had their hair braided. Apparently, this is a bit of a status symbol. Many of the children had their hair shaved, including girls, for ease. Those who had their hair braided are the ones who have a little bit more money. The girls in the school also began to braid my hair whilst I was there, although they didn't get very far, as I have so much more hair than them!

I've never tried a fishtail technique before and found it to be very time consuming, despite two of the polishes I used being Insta-dry! Hence why I only did the technique on one finger, rather than the full hand. I just wish I had got the sizes of the stripes a little more accurate, as some are much smaller than others.

The colours I used are MUA Plum Noir, Sally Hansen Grape Race and Sally Hansen Fuchsia Flare.
I also wanted to give a quick review of the MUA polish in this post. I had heard good things about them, so invested in two, Plum Noir and Frozen Yoghurt. I used Plum Noir in this mani, (the main base colour) and have to admit I was not very impressed. The polish was difficult to apply evenly and left lines on my nails from the brush which you may be able to see in some of the pictures. This was two coats, but really it needed at least another one, if not more.

Africa Inspired: Waterfall Nails

Whilst in Kenya, I visited and climbed a waterfall called Thompson Falls.

As part of my Africa Inspired posts, I wanted to recreate the beauty of this waterfall, on my nails.

I sort of used the waterfall technique, but wanted to make it quite realistic so blended the colours together more than you usually would in the waterfall technique. I started with a base of Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream, then used stripes of lots of different shades of blue, to try and create the look of the water. I also sponged Barry M Matt White onto the tips of the nails, to create the foam that forms at the bottom of the falls and finished with a layer of glitter, Barry M in Diamond.

All the polishes I used were (From left to right):
Maybelline Dark Denim
H&M unnamed blue polish
Revlon Blue Lagoon
Revlon Chroma Chameleon in Aquamarine
Barry M Matt White
Barry M Glitter Diamond
Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream.

Kenya Nails

Hello!!
I'm back from Kenya, which was the most amazing experience, and hopefully soon back to doing my nails. It's safe to say the heat and dirt, along with chlorine from the pool, climbing up waterfalls and other activities has well and truly ruined my nails!
Had to chop them all short to get rid of the chips and peeling and put lots of Sally Hansen Nail Nutrition on them, hopefully this will sort them out!

Over the next few weeks I plan to do a series of Mani's based around Kenya, some of the experiences I had and the photos I have taken.
These are some of the ideas I already have for these:

• Waterfall nails based on Thomson Falls, a waterfall I climbed down.
• Safari inspired nails.
• Giraffe print nails, inspired by the giraffe sanctuary I visited.
• Nails inspired by some of the beautiful scenery I saw.
• Gecko nails, to pay tribute to the Gecko we shared our hotel room with!
• Plaited hair inspired nails - Because of the hair of all the little girls I was teaching, and they tried to do my hair similar!
• Handpainted flower nails. I did an art lesson with the children, where they were asked to paint flowers.

I have not planned specific times to do each of these mani's but I think I will try to do at least one a week, so I still have chance to do other things with my nails too! If anybody would like to join in with any of these ideas, feel free and if you do I would love to see your mani's, so leave a comment and let me know!

Isn't it beautiful!

This is me with some of the girls I was teaching: Alice, Susan and Falilia.

Africa Inspired: Tiger Nails

Next Saturday I am going out to Africa, to teach in a school out there. So this week I wanted to do a few mani's inspired by Africa, as its a good excuse to Google pictures and get myself even more excited!!

But yesterday my bf came home with a new polish he had bought me :) He really liked the colour and was desperate for me to try it out. I thought, maybe I'll see tigers on safari, they're orange! So I went for a Tiger mani. I have since found out that tigers tend not to live in Africa, so I probably won't see one but shh! We'll just forget about that!

I started off with my new Sally Hansen Nail Nutrition base coat. I'll be doing a review of this in a few weeks, once I've been using it long enough to see how well it works! I then did two layers of Rimmel Golden Hour. This didn't really need two coats as it covered really well with just one, but I did another anyway, out of habit really. Then I sponged a little Barry M Matt White onto my thumb and ring finger, to create those little white patches tigers have! Next, I got a thin striping brush and freehanded some stripes on using Barry M Black. I didn't want these to be too neat and tidy, as that wouldn't be realistic! Finally, I finished off with a Barry M topcoat on the Thumb and ring finger. The Rimmel polish is so nice and shiny I didn't really need topcoat on the other nails.

I didn't think I'd say this when I first saw it, but I really like the colour of this polish. In some lights it's a vibrant orange, but as you move your hands, there's a lovely gold shimmer to it which isn't immediately obvious but makes its very pretty! You can just about see this on my little finger in the below picture.