Valentines Hearts

I painted these a few days ago, in the run up to Valentines day.
They are very cutesy and girly, not really my usual style of nails but I quite like them!

I used all Ciaté polishes for this skittlette design. 

The base colour is Strawberry Milkshake, which is one of my favourite pink polishes. I then used Serendipity to create a glitter accent nail and I stamped the heart pattern with Kiss Chase and MoYou London Mother Nature plate 01.

They are definitely girly-girl nails, which I am, but I very rarely show this side of me on my nails! 

Kitsch Floral Nail Art

Tonight I have painted my mums nails rather than my own.
She wanted Cath Kidston style roses and dots, so that's what she got!

I very rarely paint anyone else's nails and it felt very strange, but we were both very happy with how they turned out. :)

The polishes I used were Ciate Ferris Wheel as the base colour. Sally Hansen Fuchsia Flare and Sally Hansen Wine Not for the pink roses. Sally Hansen Grape Race and Sally Hansen Plum Luck for the purple roses. I then added dots with Barry M Matte White and we finished with a clear UV gel polish to make it last as long as possible!

This is very similar to one of the first pieces of nail art I did, which you can see here and I have definitely improved!

Glitter, Glitter and More Glitter!!

So, I went a little overboard on the glitter today!! Used 4 different glitter polishes!

My mani is also different on each hand, as I got a bit carried away experimenting, but nevermind! 

So this is how I started out, on my left hand. I used a base colour of Sally Hansen Fucshia Flare. On most fingers this was followed by a coat of Pretty, Pink Polka Dot, which is a clear base with pink small and large hexagonal glitter. On my Index finger I tried to create a sort of glitter jelly sandwich! I did a coat of Pretty Scatter Effect, followed by a coat of Pretty Polka Dot Effect, followed by another coat of Scatter Effect!

I love how this finger turned out! 

 I then topped the whole thing with another glitter - Barry M Diamond.
Before doing my right hand I realised how similar the Pretty Scatter Polish looks to Barry M's White Sequin Effect Polish.

So of course, I had to test them out next to each other for a proper comparison. I haven't used the Barry M polish before, so can't compare with old pics! 

Turns out they are nothing like each other!! I hadn't realised the Barry M polish was textured. It was also more opaque than I expected and the overall outcome was not very nice!!

I removed all polish from that finger and started again. This time doing just 2 coats of the Barry M, without a base colour. It looks much better like this, but I'm still not keen on the texture. I'm just not a lover of textured polish in general.

Once again, I finished with a coat of Barry M Diamond.

Here are your left to right comparisons:

I think I actually prefer my right hand. Which do you prefer?

I seem to have waffled on an awful lot in this post today. Sorry about that, and well done if you made it this far!!!

Lace Saran

This week's Simples technique was Saran Wrap.

I used Sally Hansen Fuchsia Flare as my base colour, then dabbed on Sinful Colours Cream Pink and Barry M Papaya. These blended much more than I had hoped, creating a very, very subtle saran effect! You can tell if you look very closely but only just!

If you haven't already realised, I can never leave my nails plain, so I had to add some nail art! I used white acrylic paint to paint a lace design onto my nails, varying the pattern between each nail. I then finished with a matte top coat.

I really like these! My middle finger didn't quite turn out as planned but overall I still like them. :)

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.

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!

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.

Valentines Nails

I'm sure everyone agrees, Valentines day is the perfect time to make your nails so pretty! And there's so many cute patterns and colours you can use for that gorgeous girly look!

Here are my Valentines Nails for this year:

 

To do these I used Barry M, Matt White as the base coat and Rimmel's Urban Purple for the stamping. For the stamps I use MoYou's Mother Nature Landscape Plate 01 and Princess Collection 08.

I think these are really cute! It's not very often I have different patterns on each nail as I tend to think it looks too busy, but I really like this combination of patterns together.