Pink Ombre

This week in the Simples Nail Art group the theme was Ombre.

This is not something I have done before. I'm not a huge fan of having different colours on each nail unless they all tie in somehow. But I tried it out anyway, with a selection of pinks, intending to take it off again once I had taken photo's. I'm actually quite surprised how much I like this mani! I'm even considering doing the other hand the same, rather than just taking it off!!

I used (Thumb to pinky):
Barry M Superdrug Birthday Polish
Barry M Limited Edition Pink, Sorry I don't know the name!
Sally Hansen Fuchsia Flare
Rimmel Cupcake Pink with a topcoat of Kiss Glitter #EL1228 Step 2
Nails Inc. Warwick Avenue.

Magazine Nails

This week the challenge prompt on Llama Nails is 'Newspaper Nails'.
I don't read Newspaper's, so I wasn't going to go buy one just for my nails! Instead, I improvised and used a magazine. You could use any kind of image/text on paper to do this really.

I love these nails! They are so unique and different! 

The polishes I used were; an old limited edition Barry M pink which I don't know the name of; Maybelline, Dark Denim; Barry M Matte White.

I'm so glad I discovered how to do this, so now I'm going to share the method with you. 

Yay, my first tutorial! 

All I used for this was:

• Magazine
• Scissors
• Cotton Wool
• Water
• Nail Polish

1. First I painted my nails! Lighter colours such as white will work best for this. Wait for it to dry before moving on.

2. Now, find the pattern/type you want to use and cut a square around it.

3. Place the piece of magazine over your nail.

4. Grab some cotton wool, dip it in water and press onto the paper. Make sure the paper is nice and wet and you press on it. I didn't time how long I pressed for, but I'd say at least 30 seconds. The longer and harder you press, the better the image will transfer.

5. Now peel the paper off your nail. Some paper will be left behind. Don't worry about that, we'll sort it out in the next step.

6. Once your nail has dried, dip a finger into the water and very gently rub on the nails you have used magazine on. This will remove any leftover paper. Don't rub too hard though, or your pattern will start to rub off, as mine did on my middle finger! Finish with a clear topcoat to stop the prettiness washing away!!

And now you have beautiful, unique magazine nails! :)

I hope I have explained this clearly enough! 

OPI: Next Stop... The Bikini Zone

Today I have swatched another of the OPI Brazil Copaca Babies Collection.

This time I have used Next Stop... The Bikini Zone. This was incredibly hard to photograph, so apologies for the pictures, they are not the best! The first is in natural light, the second in my light box.
This is a lovely, shimmery, duo-chrome polish which changes between silver and purple, depending on the light.

My biggest issue with this polish is that it took 4 coats to get to this opacity. And I'm still not completely happy with it, but I got bored!! I think it is probably one I am more likely to use as a topcoat, to add a bit of a shimmer to another colour.

When this first arrived I thought it looked very similar to a Barry M polish I already had called Dusky Mauve. However, putting them side by side I can see that the OPI is much more silvery.

On the nails there is a clear difference! The OPI is much lighter and has more of a shimmer to it, whereas the Barry M is a thicker consistency (this was only 1 coat), which is more of a brown colour with only a slight hint of purple in comparison.

I have had the Barry M several years, and can't say it's had much use, so hopefully I will use the OPI a little more often! It is definitely a prettier colour, but the thinness will put me off using it, as I tend to go for thicker, 1 or 2 coat polishes which don't take long to apply!

Born Pretty Haul

The postman came this morning with my latest order from the Born Pretty Store. :)

It's so long since I ordered it that I couldn't remember what I had ordered, making it more exciting!!

Looks like Blogger has decided to start rotating my pictures itself again. Annoying!

4 sets of pretty water decals. :) I am excited to use the Panda's! No idea what for, but they are super cute!

Black and White Stamping Polish. 

I used to have no problems using my Barry M Matte White for stamping but recently I haven't been able to get it to work, so I bought these to see if they are any easier to use. Hopefully I'll be testing them out soon! 

And a cuticle pusher. I generally just leave my cuticles alone. Or use my other nails to push them! But I figured I should start doing it properly!

I also ordered a '3 Item Lucky Bag'. I didn't expect much from this! I actually got 4 items though and 2 of them I will definitely use. 1, maybe, the last, no way! Unless it fits in with a fancy dress theme somehow!!

I got this cute stamping plate with little japanese (?!) characters on.

Some Water Decals. On the left are butterflies, on the right are cobwebs. The butterflies will defo get used and the cobwebs will be perfect for Halloween!

These false nails. I can honestly say I will never, ever wear these! Not my thing at all! If anybody would like to swap these for something feel free to get in touch!

Not sure what to call these... Nail Decorations?! I like the Hello Kitty ones, they are cute and will definitely be worn at some point. Although I'm not sure how I would attach them, or how long they would last. The bows would be nice if they didn't have the dangly bits. I might wear them. Or I might try and pull the danglies off first!! Haha!

All in all I'm quite impressed with this lucky bag. For 60p I have got 3 things I will probably use. Not bad! I'm quite impressed  too that they have looked at what else I have ordered. All of my order was for nail things, so they have only sent me nail things in the lucky bag.

Nature: Birds and Feathers

Second post of the day, aren't you lucky!!

I used the OPI AmazON... AmazOFF as a base for some nature inspired nail art.

The bird and feather are water decals. On my index finger I used a real feather. On top of my base coat I added a coat of clear and used this to stick down the end of the feather. I then trimmed around the edge, added another two coats of topcoat to smooth it down and filed down anything overhanging the edge.

 I love this finger!!

OPI AmazON... AmazOFF

These little beauties arrived earlier this week.

My first ever OPI polishes. Lets see if they live up to their popularity!

Today I have tried out AmazON... AmazOFF. In the bottle this looks like a very deep forest green type colour, which is similar on the nails.

I found this polish was quite thin. The first coat was rather streaky where the polish was so thin, meaning I had to do at least 3 coats. I did like the brush though. Quite often mini polishes have mini brushes, meaning it takes twice as long to apply, but the brush in these was a normal sized brush in a mini bottle. I love the colour and it dried nice and smooth and shiny, even without topcoat.

I'm not sure I'd pay the price for a full sized bottle of OPI from this swatch, but at £2 a mini bottle it's not too bad. Maybe the other colours will be better!

Neon Skittle

Today I have experimented with the ultimate summer mani!!
The Neon Skittle! It's so so bright, way too bright for everyday wear, but it's still amazing!

These are the polishes I used:

H & M, blue nail art polish

Sinful Colours, Cream Pink

W7, Fluorescent Yellow,

La Femme Beauty, Ultra Green

Missguided, Missmatch.

OPI Copaca Babies Collection

Look what arrived yesterday! :)

My first ever OPI polishes: The Brazil Copaca Babies Collection.

I haven't had a chance to try them out yet. I have an interview today so didn't want to go for anything too bright on my nails!

First impressions, I like the colours and the bottle, it is a really nice shape to hold. Next Stop... The Bikini Zone (on the left) looks very much like a Barry M polish I have (Dusky Mauve), which I can't say I have used more than once or twice, so I'm not sure this one will get much use. But I love the colours of the other three.

Watch out for some swatches of these over the weekend!!

Neon Pink Sinful Colours

Today I bought my first Sinful Colours Polish, in Cream Pink, which is actually a gorgeous neon.

The photo's are two coats. I love how bright this polish is, and its such a lovely shade of pink. So summery, perfect for today! It went on nice and easy. Was touch dry very quickly, but I soon realised it wasn't completely dry underneath when I managed to smudge my thumb!

  On my accent finger I did a layer of Barry M Diamond Glitter, followed by a coat of Barry M Crystal Glaze. I managed to get this amazing macro of this nail and it looks so good!! Unless you look really close it just looks glittery but I love the detail in this picture!

Beautiful Bows

A little while ago now I got a bit stuck for nail inspiration. As a result I joined lots of challenge groups, so I always had a theme and a starting point for my nail art.

Although I love these groups and participating each week, recently I have been feeling limited by these themes, as though they are stopping me from doing what I want! So I've decided to stop taking part in those so much, although not completely, and start doing my own thing more often! :)

This is my own thing!! Lots of pink and girly-ness!

This is 3 coats of Rimmel's Cupcake Pink which is a lovely pearl effect polish. I then painted the bow using Rimmel Urban Purple and some black acrylic paint. On my ring finger I used a Kiss pink glitter polish topcoat.

I love these!! I don't remember the last time I had such feminine nails! They remind me of being a child and candyfloss and they make me feel a little happy inside each time I look at them. I know, I'm sad!

Frozen Nails

I've had this idea in mind for a little while now as Frozen is currently one of my fave films!

Every week I participate in Fingerfood's Buffet Challenge and this week's theme was 'For Scarlett'. I read on the Facebook page last week that she also likes Frozen, so I've waited until now to do this. I know it's not perfect but I hope she loves it as much as I do!

I used Barry M Matte White and Revlon Blue Lagoon as my base colours, on different nails, then painted the rest in acrylic paints.

Also, below I have included a picture taken without my DIY light box I showed you here, just to show how amazing the difference in picture quality is!

Pretty Poppies

The sun is shining and it has inspired me to paint these nice, summery Poppies. :)

This is probably one of my favourite mani's I have ever done. I love it so much!

I used Sally Hansen Sugar Coat in Sweetie, as a base colour.
I then used a combination of Rimmel Right Royal Red, Rimmel Coralicious, Sally Hansen Red Hot and Barry M Papaya, to paint the poppies, using the different colours for shading.
Finally, I finished using Barry M Black and a very thin detail brush to do the outlines and centres before covering in a Barry M topcoat.

Light Box

Tonight I'm very excited to say I have made a light box, so I can (hopefully) take better photo's of my pretty nails! :)

I spent ages looking at various tutorials on the internet but felt disheartened. I needed white fabric or tissue paper, I needed a 16x16x16 box. Blah, blah! I wanted to make my light box now... so I went for a rummage around the flat.

I found myself a box full of teabags. Out came the teabag's and I had my box! Now to find something to cover it in... I don't have tissue paper, I don't have white fabric scraps. But I found a solution in napkins, yay! (I have a very large bag of napkins as my hamster enjoys using them to make his nest!). Luckily I have a Stanley Knife, as a result of working in print finishing in the past so I dug that out, found a roll of sellotape and I was ready to go! Zero cost, whatsoever! :)

And here it is:

I know it doesn't look great, but I don't care! I only ever get chance to do and photograph my nails on an evening so my photo's are never very good because of the poor light. Hopefully, things will change now!

I have just taken my nail polish off so haven't had chance to test it out yet but as soon as I do I'll post some photo's. I was so excited about this I had to tell people straight away!!

Fingerfood's Buffet: Oriental

This week's theme for the Fingerfood buffet challenge was oriental.

My boyfriend is a bit of a China enthusiast, so it had to be related as soon as I saw it! In fact, he helped me by painting the symbol on my right hand, which apparently means Cherry Blossom, hence why this is accompanied by some pink flowers on another finger.

On the other hand I had a slightly more adventurous idea... a dragon!

I'm not sure about this. My brush wasn't thin enough to get the lines as accurate or to get as much detail in as I would have liked. I still like the idea of it, and generally like how it turned out, I just wish I'd had a thinner brush. I feel this might be a mani I recreate sometime once I do have a thinner brush!

I used an unnamed Revlon polish as the base colour. In the bottle this looks like a nude colour, but on the nails it is a sort of soft gold. I used Rimmel Right Royal Red for the dragon and finished with a matte topcoat from Primark.

For the other hand I used the same base, the Chinese was done in acrylic paint and the flowers are stick on ones from Poundland.

ImPRESS Nails

I love nail art on my real nails and don't think I have ever worn false nails before.
But for Christmas last year I was given a set of imPRESS nails, which look like this except mine are a different pattern.

They have been sat around in my nail box for a while as
1. I just don't do false nails and
2. They were 'short' sized and generally my nails have been longer than them!
Also, I just expected them to be bad so I didn't want to wear them!

When I got back from Kenya, I cut all my nails right down, as they were very dirty!
So I've taken the opportunity whilst my nails are short to put them on.

I was really surprised with how good they are! The idea is that they are already sticky, so you don't need glue. This meant they literally took 2 minutes to put on, with no drying time. Although, I had a slight issue pulling the sticky back off once I had the first few nails on, I had to get my bf to do that for me!

You get 24 nails in a pack, so there are plenty to choose from to find the perfect sizes.

I expected them to only last a day or two, as I'm always busy and always using my hands. So far I have had them on for 5 days and there's no signs of them coming off anytime soon or any damage to them, they are still as there were when I put them on!

My biggest issue is that I'm having nail polish withdrawals!!! I feel like I need to paint my nails, but don't want to pull these off when they're still in such good condition! I'm just hoping that when they do come off they cause no harm to my own nails.