I live near Sheffield, and there is currently a fantastic art installation and charity fundraiser going on across the city, called the Herd of Sheffield. You can read more about it here. To cut a long story short, Sheffield is full of elephants - the big ones have been created by various artists, and the small ones have been made by local primary schools. There is SO MUCH nail art inspiration amongst them all!
Today's nails were inspired by this theatrical baby elephant, Nelly Noodle, who is inside the Crucible (my very favourite Sheffield place!). I LOVE her toenails.
I did a simple skittle using Barry M Guava and Key Lime, Illamasqua Prosperity, Essence Flashy Pumpkin and Barry M Blood Orange. I then used topcoat to stick on my smallest rhinestones in a random colour order.
I realised afterwards that I'd got the purple and the orange the wrong way round, but never mind!
I love rhinestones! I haven't worn any for ages, but now I see these, I can't think why! Look how they're reflecting in the sunshine!
So sparkly!
People always ask whether rhinestones are really messy and impractical, but if you stick them down with topcoat and then topcoat over them, they pretty much stay in place through a normal day.
I will not be leaving it so long til I use rhinestones again! And I will definitely be doing more nails based on the Herd of Sheffield elephants!
I've posted before about how much I love the Crucible Theatre (see here for my previous nails) and I was there on Thursday night for Artistic Director Daniel Evans' leaving do, so I decided it was the perfect time to redo my Crucible nails.
I love the Crucible so much! It's my far my favourite theatre ever, and I go often (although not often enough for my liking!)
These are just a straightforward chevron skittle. I used nail vinyls from What's Up Nails to make these. The base colours are Barry M Blue Grape, Essence Flashy Pumpkin, Barry M Blood Orange, Illamasqua Prosperity and Barry M Key Lime. The black top colour is OPI 4 In the Morning.
I'm happy with how these came out. They're much tidier than my previous effort, and the colours are clearer.
I saw some gorgeous neon nails the other day that were a white background with lots of different neon looks on each nail. I can't find it now though! If anyone knows what it was I saw then please let me know so that I can see how mine compared and credit the inspiration!
Anyway, I started with a white base (Barry M Cotton) and then used dotting tools, striping tape and a fine brush to add various patterns. The colours I used were Models Own Sun Hat, Bikini and Shades, Barry M Superdrug Limited Edition 2013 and Cyan Blue, and Essence Flashy Pumpkin.
I know these aren't perfectly executed, but I am happy with how they turned out. They're bright and colourful (brighter than these photos, which look a bit washed out) and cheered me up during a busy day at work.
And just to prove that I do do both hands every time, here's my right hand!
I know it's less neat, especially with regards to the clean up (and don't look at my scabby cut on my thumb cuticle!) but it isn't significantly different from my other hand, so I'm quite pleased. I was a bit surprised to see a nail blogger on YouTube the other day (NOT the same blogger who did the neon nails I liked) who had gorgeously decorated long nails on one hand, but short, bare nails on the other hand! I understand that sometimes someone will only swatch colours on one hand because it's coming straight off again, but I do nail art because I want to wear it, so I always do both hands!
Today's nails are an autumnal colour combination, using more She Sells Seashells chevron stencils.
The orange nails are two coats of Essence Flashy Pumpkin, with a stud from the Born Pretty Store added as an accent.
The other nails are a base of two coats of Models Own Coconut Cream, and then the stencils used with Barry M Cocoa.
I love these stencils - they're so easy to use, and so much better than sellotape, as they're that bit stronger, and less sticky.
It's time for Hallowe'en nails! Everyone is doing them, so I thought I'd join in.
Today I've done a variety of designs. My starting point was with the Cobweb Nail Stencils from She Sells Seashells which I bought recently. You can buy them here. I used a couple, with two different combinations of colours.
On my ring finger is two coats of OPI Push and Shove as a silver base, and then OPI 4 in the Morning combined with the stencil. On my middle finger is a base of 3 coats of Barry M Rockstar, with 4 in the Morning. Rockstar is the black one from the Glitterati collection, and is a sheer black polish filled with silvery holo glitter that shows all sorts of colours. It's really sparkly!
On my little finger I had a base of OPI 4 in the Morning, and was making a pretty, geometric design using orange glequins. But then half way through I accidentally caught the edge of the pot and tipped them everywhere, so instead it's a thick pile of glitter in a random not-pattern!
On my index finger I have two coats of Essence Flashy Pumpkin, which is a fabulous neon orange that's lovely and glossy and opaque. I used a Barry M Nail Art Pen to draw a simple spider, and added black sparkly eyes with glequins. Apparently I had forgotten that spiders are meant to have 8 legs! Oh well. My spider is so vicious that she lost two legs in combat.
On my thumb is two coats of OPI 4 in the Morning and a nail charm from She Sells Seashells. I just love this skeletal hand! I love the combination of shiny gold, sparkly diamante, and a gory subject. Lovely. On a practical note, this charm is curved at the back so it sits really comfortably on the nail, and although it's fairly raised up from the nail, it doesn't have any rough edges or odd bits that catch. It stuck down perfectly easily with a couple of dots of nail glue.
I never thought my battered old shed would be seen on my blog, but I thought it suited the nails!
I quite like how these turned out! I didn't want to do cobwebs on every nail, as there are only ten on the sheet, and I wanted to keep some for next time too!
Today I realised that I had still never worn the other Models Own Polish for Tans that I bought, Shades. I thought it was about time to remedy that.
This is two coats of Shades, with no topcoat.
I found this really difficult to photograph! It's a neon coral pink, but the photos look more orange than it really is I think. It definitely leans pinker than this.
It's a lovely colour though; I really like it.
And just look at it under UV light! Isn't that something?
Application is really nice, as with the other Polish for Tans range. No issues at all there.
I decided not to leave it at that though, and added one of the new Essence sparkly glitters which I bought last week in Wilko's. This is one coat of Glitz and Glam over Shades.
Glitz and Glam is a clear base with pink and silver glitter and lots of tiny iridescent shimmery particles which have a white-green-pink sheen depending on the light.
I think it's really pretty! I'm not so sure it goes so perfectly with Shades as a base colour, but it's still nice enough I think. I bet it would look amazing over a black or a dark purple though!
Over the last few months I've developed a bit of a love for 3D nail charms. I always assumed I wouldn't like the bulkiness or the sticky-out bits, but it turns out I actually love them! Today I have some stunning diamante 3D charms from the Born Pretty Store to show you!
As you can see, this is a wheel of 24 diamante charms, 12 each of a square design that's pure colourless diamante, and of an oval design that has a holo finish so it shows multiple colours. I used the oval ones for today's look.
I applied these over yesterday's Essence polish, Me and My Lover (see here for details). They are just stuck down with topcoat. As the charms are nice and light in weight, topcoat is absolutely fine to stick them down with. These were secure and didn't feel at all bulky.
I love these ovals, they are just SO sparkly, especially in the sunshine!
These are totally reuseable - I just wiped the polish off the bottom with a bit of nail varnish remover when I took them off, and they're good as new.
Aren't they BEAUTIFUL? I think so!
You can get these from Born Pretty Store - they're item #14589 and cost $3.72, which works out at 15c per stud! And if you use my discount code, you can also get another 10% off on top of that, so they're a total bargain.
These charms were provided for review purposes. See my Disclaimer section for more details.
My friend Lorraine tipped me off that Wilko's is currently stocking Essence polishes, so today I toddled off to check them out. I've seen Essence on blogs, but not tried any, as I'd never seen them in actual shops.
This is what I got! They were on 3-for-2, and they're all dirt cheap (£1.75 or £1.80, that sort of price). What I don't understand is WHY the bottles are all different shapes! That's already 4 different sorts of bottle, and possibly 5 if you look closely.
The first one I tried is the red one, Me and My Lover. This is a "sparkle sand effect" which I suppose is the equivalent of the Zoya Pixie Dusts, the Barry M Textured Glitters, and the OPI Liquid Sands. The brush is really nice - it's a flat handle and a wide, flat brush with a rounded end. It's not so wide that it's like a paddle (like some Sally Hansen brushes!) but was just the right size for my nails.
Me and My Lover is a glittery red textured polish. This is two coats.
I'm not thrilled with the texture to be honest. It's a pretty colour, and applies really evenly and easily with no pooling or need for cleanup. However, I think it's a bit ordinary as texture goes. It's not really textured enough in my opinion - if it wants to be textured it needs to be much more so, like the Zoyas or the OPIs. It's neither one thing or the other at the moment, I feel. It's a nice colour though.
Then I used the XXL shine gel-look topcoat to see what it looked like glossy. Nice! I like this a lot more with a glossy finish. It's much sparklier and brighter.
I've heard a lot about this topcoat, so I was pretty excited to try it. However, it was just an ordinary topcoat in my opinion. It was nice and glossy, but not more than many other topcoats. And I can't see much of a gel effect, it's just a glossy topcoat. And I have to say - these nails did take quite a long time to dry, and with only three coats, I think that's not great.
I'd say it's definitely worth checking out the Essence polishes in Wilko. They're cheap, and it's nice to see a different range to the usual high street polishes. But I'm not blown away by excellence. And I suppose at that price, it's fair enough.
Oh, I meant to add! My camera broke! I'm having to take photos on my phone for now til I can either get my very beloved camera fixed, or buy a new one.
