31DC: Monochrome

Monochrome nails today!
I have had a grey 'spotty' polish with black matte glitter pieces in for a while. It is from Primark and I havn't even tried it since I bought it around 6 months ago, so I was determined I would use that polish. Other than that I had no plan for this mani when I started out. I just started painting and thought, 'I'll see what I come up with!'.

I then stamped the diamond pattern and the roses using MoYou London Gothic plate 03 and Barry M Black Multiglitter.

The 3D rose, which can be found here was sent to me in a set by Born Pretty Store. They are the perfect size for my nails. Big enough to stand out but small enough that they don't take over my whole nail! You can see the size compared to a hair grip in the picture below. They also sit nice and flat on my nail, reducing the chance of them being pulled off each time I run my hand through my hair!

Remember you can get 10% these using the discount code EHG10.

Catch-Up: Christmas / New Year Nails

The second post in my catch-up series will show you a few extra Christmas nails I painted, plus some which were not originally intended for New Year, but would work well.

First up, the Christmas nails:

This nail art is based on the film Polar Express, My index finger shows the bell from the movie, my middle finger represents the present Santa leaves for the little boy. My ring finger is supposed to show the train ticket, which has the word 'Believe' punched into it by the conductor.

I used Sinful Colors Blue by You, Sinful Colors Cool Gray, Sinful Colours Nirvana, the gold is an unnamed PS by Primark polish, Rimmel Red, Steady, Go!, La Femme Ultra Green and Barry M Black.

This picture was posted on my Instagram, however I never took any camera pics to add it to my blog, hence why it never made it here. I didn't think it was particularly good, however it ended up being one of my most liked Instagram photos ever! 

I used Sally Hansen Cosmic blue as the background, George Natural White for the moon and painted the details in Black acrylic paint.

Another Instagram pic. These were my Christmas day nails. I didn't have much time for blogging over Christmas, however I did still paint my nails and Instagram is much quicker to use!

I used a red Models Own polish and a Red Models Own Glitter for this, which I don't know the names of as they belonged to my mum! I also used Ciaté Fit for a Queen for my ring finger and I created a stamping decal for the flower.

Now for the New Year Nail inspiration!

I wore this for Christmas eve. I really love it, however that glitter placement took such a long time, And it is pretty messy compared to others I have seen! The black is Ciaté Unrestricted glam and the glitter pieces are from Born Pretty Store.

I painted these ages ago and at the time loved them. I'm not really sure why they were never posted. I used Barry M Black and Rimmel Space Dust in Aurora,

These I painted on my sisters nails. She saw my nails in the above picture and wanted something similar using the Rimmel Space Dust. This is what we came up with! Sorry, I'm not sure what other polishes were used, these are from July so I don't remember! Again, excuse the poor quality phone picture. 

Catch-Up: Swatches

Over the past year there have been many times I have done my nails, photographed them, edited pictures then for whatever reason, not put them up here on this blog.
I want a fresh start in the new year, not to be uploading old pictures! So today I have a series of 3 posts where I am going to show you some of the nail art that never quite made it, for various reasons!

This first post is going to show you four swatches that never quite made it:

I love this picture and the polish (Make up Gallery, Scarlett Sparkle) is one of my favourites. It is a beautiful raspberry coloured gelly with tiny pieces of glitter. I would recommend anybody to go buy this! I love it so much!

This was never posted simply due to lack of time! Such a shame as it is so gorgeous!

This second swatch is H&M Blue Bliss, which is a glitter topcoat in a very pale blue gelly. I swatched this over lilac, blue, grey and black, though I don't remember what the polishes were! This picture was taken back in August, hence the pointed nails and I honestly don't think I have used the polish since, it didn't make a good first impression!

This third picture shows you Ciaté Baby Doll, which is actually a pastel pink, not orange as the poor photography appears, hence why this was never posted. Oh and no, I don't have green fingers either! Also, all my nails are different lengths and shapes. What was I thinking?!

The polish has a lovely matte 'porcelain' finish, however it chipped off within hours.

Finally, another that I love. This is an unnamed PS by Primark polish. It is a beautiful dark pink and gold textured holo polish. It is truly beautiful and the colours change completely in different lights.

This was also not posted due to poor photography, however I managed to find this one awkward looking, but salvageable picture.

12 Days of Christmas: Do You Wanna Build A Snowman?

Today's prompt for the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge is Snowmen.
Of course, being a primary school teacher I had to paint everyone's favourite snowman of the moment... Olaf!!

I used a Primark Blue Glow in the Dark Polish for this. It doesn't actually glow, but the colour is just beautiful. Although the polish is blue, it has a very subtle gold shimmer which appears in certain lights. I also added a coat of Sally Hansen Sugar Coat in Royal Icing on my index finger. Olaf is painted using acrylics.

The snowflakes were sent to me to review by Born Pretty Store. 

They arrived in a little plastic pot which was actually a lot bigger than I had expected.

They are very cute and sparkly. Because they bend easily they sat quite flat on the nail, meaning they stayed on around a day... which is longer than I manage to keep most 3D type things on my nails! I would say they are definitely worth the £2.33 they are on the website for!

Get 10% off these here or other items at the Born Pretty Store with voucher code: EHG10.

Check out the other entries to the challenge here:

An InLinkz Link-up

12 Days of Christmas: Christmas Trees

Today's prompt for the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge is Christmas Trees.

I started out intended on a really simple mani for this one. Then I kept adding to it, though I'm not sure if I was improving it or making it worse! I took photo's at each stage anyway, so you can decide for yourself! I think my favourite is the second one.

I started with a base coat of OPI AmazON... AmazOFF on most fingers and a PS by Primark unnamed Gold polish on my ring finger and thumb. I used striping tape to create the shape of the tree on my ring finger and added a small star stud from Poundland. 

Then I decided it needed more glitter, so I added one coat of Ciaté Party Shoes and one coat of Barry M Starlight, both on my Index finger.

Next I felt the actual tree was missing some glitter/decoration. I remembered I had some caviar beads I had never used before aptly named 'Christmas Tree Caviar' by Ciaté, so went about creating a string of beads on the christmas tree. This is where I ruined it I think. It's just a bit too much!

Which is your favourite stage of this mani?


Check out the other entries to this challenge below:

An InLinkz Link-up

Autumn Days

Today I have an autumnal mani to show you.
 I have been planning this one a while but was awaiting the arrival of the leaves from the Born Pretty Store which took two months to arrive. Hence, this is not really seasonal anymore!

The above photo was taken in natural light and is a lot more colour accurate. The below photo was taken under my new LED lamp, which is a lot better than photographing under my 'normal' lights, but still not great. I am contemplating making another light box.

Anyway, I was going for a 'leaves blowing in the wind' look for this. I quite like how it came out, though it's not quite as I envisioned it would be! My pinky was supposed to be the pile of leaves, then the other fingers showing them blowing away, with the swirly lines representing the wind.

I used Jess polish in Innocence for the background. The swirls were Sinful Colors Nirvana and an unnamed gold PS by Primark polish. The gold leaves were from the Born Pretty Store.

You can get 10% off these leaves and anything else on the Born Pretty Store with my discount code: EHG10.

Fringed Nail Art

Today I have some very... different nail art!
I heard about the Quiz Dress Your Nails competition and wanted to take part. I was looking through their dresses to find the one I wanted to use when I came across this fringed dress.

Straight away I knew what I wanted to do, I just had to figure out how I could possibly make it work!

A quick Google search found a grand total of 0 other fringed nail designs, so I had to figure it out for myself!!

.

This is how it turned out. Not quite what I had in mind, but not too bad!!

I had a nightmare trying to figure out how I was going to do this! I ended up using white cotton thread. I used a piece of kitchen towel, which I painted in Barry M Black. Once dry I began gluing pieces of cotton onto the kitchen towel. I then splodged the ends of the cotton with black acrylic paint and a small amount of gold Primark nail polish to get the colour.

Once I had two pieces of kitchen roll complete with 'dyed' cotton thread I painted the nail black. I then used clear topcoat to attach the kitchen roll pieces onto the nail, overlapping them slightly as is the case with the dress.

These didn't turn out quite as I had imagined, but it took an awful lot of experimenting and I am quite proud that I eventually found a way to make this idea work, even if they aren't the most attractive nail art! At least they are original! :)

Glow in the Dark by Primark

A few weeks ago I bought two glow in the dark polishes in Primark. One looked yellow in the bottle but was a clear topcoat, the other was blue.
I didn't expect much from these. The blue barely glowed at all, as I expected.
But the clear topcoat was pretty impressive!

Here are my nails in 'normal' light:

I started with a base colour of Rimmel New Romantic. This was followed by a coat of the Glow in the Dark polish. Once all was dry I stamped on top using MoYou London Princess plate 08 and Rimmel Right Royal Red and topcoated with my usual Essence Quick Dry Topcoat.

Now you'll have to excuse the picture quality, photographing glow in the dark nails is so difficult!! I took around 100 pictures and this was the best I got.

But wow, I was amazed when I saw this in the dark! I did not expect it to be so bright! If you want a glow in the dark topcoat on a budget I definitely recommend this! Bargain!