Lilac Chevrons

Sorry I haven't been around much since completing the 31 Day Challenge. After all that I needed a bit of a break! Plus I seem to have been really busy.
I have still been painting my nails regularly (though not every day!), just not blogging, so now I have a few posts to catch up on.

The first is this simple stamped chevron design.

I used Barry M Matte White as my base colour and stamped the chevrons with MUA Frozen Yoghurt and Born Pretty Store plate QA91.

Remember, you can get 10% of anything from Born Pretty Store using discount code: EHG10.

I was pleased with how clean the lines were from the stamping, as I was uncertain whether vinyls would have been a better purchase. Vinyls would have been much more fiddly so I am glad this plate stamps well!

12 Days of Christmas: Blue and White

The promp for today was 'Icy Blue and White'.
I felt a bit lost for what to do with this prompt, I much prefer the more structured prompts!

I went for a simple sponged white to blue gradient using George Natural White, Revlon Blue Lagoon and Make Up Gallery Sky Blue.

On my index finger I used a blue Barry M crackle polish followed by MUA Luna, the pretty glitter.

Finally, I added a little bow stud from Born Pretty Store on my ring finger. I think it finishes off the look nicely.

Overall, I'm not too sure about this. I didn't really have a direction when I started, I just made it up as I went and I think you can tell that.

Check out the other entries:

An InLinkz Link-up

MUA Luxe: Luna

Today I bought the new MUA Luxe polish in Luna. My previous experiences with MUA have not been great, but I couldn't resist buying one to try as they looked so pretty!!

This is a glitter polish with hexagonal pieces in blue, white and lilac, glitter bars in black and white and very tiny, fine blue holographic glitter pieces.

This was the finished result. I swatched it on several different colours, to compare how it looked best and to ensure all the colour were visible on at least one of them!!

However, although the finished result was good, this is how it looked after one coat:

Not great. I applied a thin layer, but the glitter seems to stick to the brush. I found that the best way to apply was to not wipe the brush on the side of the bottle, just use it straight out. This meant that the polish was extremely thick and took an awful long time to dry. But, this is also the way to get the glitter!!

I do like the finished look of this polish but it has certainly not changed my thoughts about the quality (or lack of!) of MUA polishes.

I also took close-up photo's of the individual nails to make it easier to compare how it shows up on different coloured bases. It stands out the most on the grey and pale blue nails. The base polishes I used were: No Polish, just base coat, Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream, Barry M Silk Heather, Sinful Colours Cool Grey and Barry M Matt White.

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.