Yesterday I did a pretty purple gradient using three Barry M polishes - Fondant, Sugar Plum and Blackberry.
I really liked this, and wore it alone for the day.
Today I wanted to do something else to it, and decided to do a freehand floral design over it. I used some thin brushes and Konad White to make some grassy leafy stems, which I thought looked quite pretty.
However, because I never know when to leave well enough alone, I started adding Barry M Lilac Foil - which wasn't too bad when it was just the stems, but then I added stupid flowery blobs on top of the stems too, which was a mistake. I don't like how this all looks, so I've taken these off now. Boo.
I opened a box of posh teabags yesterday (Pukka mint and matcha if you want to know) and loved the pretty design inside the box. Straight away I wanted to replicate it on my nails.
I started with a base of Barry M Golden Sands, the pretty creamy nude Boots limited edition with a bit of sparkle.
I then stamped over this with Barry M Satsuma and MoYou London Flower Power 06. I added topcoat a couple of minutes too early, which slightly smudged a couple of the nails, boo! Still, it's not massively visible.
I really like the overall end result.
What do you think?
I know I do freehand roses quite often, but I really do love doing these!
This is a base of Barry M Sugar Plum. I then freehanded the flowers using Barry M Cotton, Blood Orange and Pink Lemonade, and the leaves using MoYou London Key Lime and Spring Green.
I was really annoyed with myself for topcoating these slightly too early, which made the design bleed a bit. But when I actually looked properly, it doesn't really show, so it's not as frustrating as I thought.
And just to prove that I do always do my right hand as well - here you go, with my awkward right hand pose and my less neat cuticles!
Today I wanted something vaguely spring-like. I ended up going with these blue and yellow floral stamped nails.
The base is two coats of Jacava Justice Walk, a pretty slatey grey-blue with a great formula.
I then stamped using MoYou London Bahamas Punch, and a Bundle Monster plate, the Lucy's Stash blogger plate BM-XL209.
I added topcoat for extra shine. I really like how these turned out!
Oops! I've managed to go ages without blogging again, somehow. I have been doing my nails though, honest! So here's a quick catch up of some of the nails I've had over the last couple of weeks.
I wore these for 4 days or so before Christmas. This is two coats of China Glaze Ruby Pumps (one of my favourite polishes ever) with an accent nail using China Glaze Mingle With Kringle and a stencil from What's Up Nails, and a stud for extra accent.
These nails were made with some polishes I got as a Christmas gift set - this is a base of Maybelline Watery Waste, a silver metallic polish. I then used tape and Maybelline Downtown Red on top, and Maybelline Black Magic on top of that. Black Magic is an interesting matte finish glitter, which I really liked. I added topcoat for shine.
These nails were something I wore for a couple of days around new year. I started with a base of Barry M Persian, a pretty purple-gold duochrome. I added rhinestones, and an accent nail using sparkly white glitter dust.
I love wearing rhinestones!
Finally, these are the nails I'm wearing now - I've had these on for a couple of days now. I started with a base of Barry M Butterscotch Sundae, and then used What's Up Nails vinyls and a variety of polishes for the pattern.
I sponged on a mix of Barry M Guava and Blood Orange, Illamasqua Prosperity, and Models Own Island Hop, Sarong Wrap and Beach Fire. I'm not totally happy with how these came out, as the colours got a bit murky in places - I really wanted a brighter, zingier blend. I'm still pretty happy with them though.
When this Barry M glitter polish came out, I wasn't crazy about it as it wasn't great for whole-nail application. But on a whim this week, I wondered what it would look like sponged over just the tips of my nails, and the answer was fab!
I started with a base of Essie Mademoiselle, and then sponged Barry M Jingle Bells over the tips with a small makeup sponge. I added two coats of topcoat to smooth it down, and wore these for two days.
I love how sparkly and pretty they look!
I even got compliments from two different cashiers in shops!
Regular readers will know how much I love the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield - I've posted about it and done nails here, as well as having done snooker nails here. Last night though, I got a very exciting opportunity which deserved its own nails!
Every Christmas, the Crucible does a classic musical. This year's is Annie Get Your Gun, which I'm very excited about because OMG! Cowboys! Chaps! Saloons and comedy shooting competitions? What's not to love? It opens on Friday and runs to the end of January, and I've got tickets for a week on Saturday. But yesterday I was lucky enough to be part of a group of twitter fans who got to have an exclusive backstage tour, and it was SO MUCH FUN! We met the musical director, who took us to the remote orchestra pit under the stage and gave us some sneak peeks at the music secrets. We went to the wardrobe and costume department and chatted to the staff, and tried on lots of hats (and oohed and aahed at Kenneth Branagh's Richard III costume). We ate pizza, we chatted panto and musicals and theatre, and we got to watch some of the technical rehearsal for AGYG itself. There's a TRAIN! And hats! And chaps!
The nails are inspired by the production artwork, which is gorgeous!
You can read all about Annie Get Your Gun (including lots of photos and cute video trailers) here.
Anyway, on to the nails! I started with a base of Barry M Mustard, and sponged a mix of Barry M Satsuma, Full Throttle and Models Own Sarong Wrap to make the blended background.
I really liked how these looked, and wore these for two days as they were.
Tonight I added the bullet holes, using Konad Black sponged on and then Konad White dotted on over the top. I then mattified everything using Barry M Matte Topcoat. Then, because I never know when to leave well enough alone, I added a fringe to the ring nail, using nail glue and some edges from a fringe on an old scarf, as well as an accent stud. Because every cowboy mani needs fringes!
The fringe wasn't massively successful to be honest, but I suppose it's quite fun. It was too short to have any weight though, so it wouldn't swing very well.
I'll let you know what I make of the show when I go - I really can't wait!
Last week I bought my first stamping plates from Bundle Monster - the first plates I've bought that aren't from MoYou London in a very long time. I bought a set of 5 blogger plates, and the nails in this post use the plate by YaGala.
I started with a base of Barry M Golden Sands, and then stamped using Konad Black and Bundle Monster BM-XL208 and a lacey design.
I wore these for a couple of days without topcoat, and then for another couple of days with topcoat. I like how they look in closeup, but at arms' length I felt they looked sort of grubby... Whether that was the colour combination or what, I'm not sure.
I hate this time of year! It's wet and cold and clammy and work is stressful and everything is just generally uurgh. Hence the lack of blogging I suppose. I have done my nails, but I've only taken photos of some of them.
Anyway, here are some nails I wore a couple of weeks ago. I started with a gradient using China Glaze Riveting and Barry M Sparkling Amethyst. I wore these like this for a couple of days at work.
I then stamped over the gradient using Konad Black and.... probably one of the MoYou London XL plates, although I can't remember which one.
I really liked how these looked. The stamp is supposed to be floral, but I think it's ended up looking more abstract here. I love Riveting (the shimmery orange one) but haven't worn it for a really long time - I clearly need to dig it out more often!
Tonight is the start of the baseball World Series, and the Cubs are there for the first time since 1945, and haven't won it since 1908. I'm not a huge follower of baseball these days, but I do really like it. I was forced to a game in New York in 2001, and absolutely LOVED it, and then got addicted to the old Channel 5 MLB shows back in the day. I went to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field in 2007, and loved it even more.
So today I've got Cubs nails. They're not perfect - they look much neater with my eyes than they do in photos! I wish the lines were cleaner.
I started with a base of Barry M Cotton and then used some stencils (which I won from Claire at Kerruticles in a giveaway) and Barry M Blood Orange to make the baseball nail. The pinstripe nails and the W (the Cubs 'fly the W' over Wrigley Field when they win) used tape and Barry M Blue Grape. The Cubs logo was rather wonkily freehanded using both colours and a thin brush.
I did do both hands, but just did the pinstripes and baseballs on my right.
I probably won't be watching the World Series this year, because it's not on telly here, and I can't be staying up til stupid o'clock to stream things. If it's on at the weekend and I'm not dead to the world, then I might... I would love to see the Cubs winning!
