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.
I wore these bright gradient nails for four whole days this week, because I liked them so much.
I used four of the Models Own Polish for Tans for these - Sarong Wrap, Beach Fire, Barrier Reef and Island Hop.
These blended so easily, they were so easy to make a gradient with. I added topcoat for shine and longevity.
I was planning on stamping some kind of tropical flower design over these, but in the end never did, because I liked them as they were.
I wore these for a couple of days at the end of last week. I used 6 of the Models Own Polish for Tans for this watermarble.
I started with a base of Models Own Coconut Cream, and then used Island Hop, Barrier Reef, Boat Party, Sarong Wrap, Beach Hut and Beach Fire to watermarble over the top.
These polishes spread so easily on the water and are perfect for water marbling. I imagine I'll be doing plenty more of these in future.
I love how these came out!
I've done freehand rose nails before more than once, but it's something I end up doing fairly regularly, because I like them so much.
The base for these nails is Barry M Rose Hip and Huckleberry. I then used Models Own Coconut Cream, Island Hop and Barrier Reef to paint the roses, and MoYou London Spring Green and Key Lime for the leaves. I then topcoated over everything for a smooth finish.
I'm pretty pleased with the right hand too - although don't look at my messy cleanup and dry cuticles! Somehow I can paint my nails on the right hand, but not do the cleanup!
I'd love to know your thoughts! Comments are lovely (even if you have criticism!)
SOMEHOW, I mysteriously acquired these fabulous Models Own colours today. They just fell into my basket when I wasn't looking.
I mean, oof. Look at them! Some of them are from the new 2016 Polish for Tans range, and a couple (I think the yellow and the bright orange) are from older ones that I didn't have.
Anyway. This is what I did with them. I used the base colour I was already wearing (Barry M Fondant) which had been on for a couple of days) and some What's Up Nails vinyl stencils, and sponged on random blobs of all the new polishes.
I love how this came out! The stencils were a bit fiddly to use, especially on my other hand, but I'm happy with the result, and I'm hoping I can keep these on for a couple of days.
There are one or two splodgy areas where the polish went under the stencil, but I'm choosing to pretend you can't see them.
This is another of the new Barry M Gelly range for 2016, Cream Soda. This is another off-white creme, this time with a slightly greeny-yellow tinge.
This is two coats, with topcoat. I like this colour, but I'm not sure that it's as flattering with my skin tone as some of the other pale Gelly shades.
Formula is the usual good Barry M Gelly quality, and I'm starting to get more used to the big brushes now. I didn't like them when they first came out.
I stamped over this using Models Own Chrome Gold and MoYou London Pro XL14. I think this looks really pretty, and the gold tones down the greeny shade in the polish.
Today is NET Cancer Day and lots of the British Nail Bloggers are doing nails in support of this. I'd never heard of NET (neuroendocrine tumour) cancer until last year, when our nail blogger friend Emma (of Em's Little Corner)'s husband was diagnosed. Thankfully, he is on the mend.
The NET organisation uses the analogy of the zebra to raise awareness, effectively saying that if something looks like a horse and clops like a horse, the mostly likely chance is that it is a horse. However, it could possibly be a zebra, and so people shouldn't necessarily write symptoms off as the most likely cause, because it could be something else. Emma's post (see links below) explain it so much better than I can!
Anyway, on to the nails, which are pink and zebra, in honour of the NET Cancer logo.
I was a bit scared of doing zebra nails, because I've never done them before. I don't have any zebra stamping plates, so I had to freehand these. I was quite apprehensive!
I started with a base of two coats of Barry M Coconut on three nails, and two coats of Barry M Pink Punch on the other two. I then used a black Barry M nail art pen to freehand the zebra stripes. I also added a tiny French tip on the pink nails using Models Own Gold Chrome.
I topcoated over the pink nails, and used a matte topcoat over the zebra nails.
I am so pleased with how these turned out! My right hand is also not bad at all, so I'm really chuffed with myself! If I look at them too much, I start thinking they look like twigs instead of zebra stripes, so I'm trying not to look too closely!
Just a quick post today to show you what I've been wearing the last couple of days.
I started with a base of Models Own Pear Purple, from the Diamond Dust collection. I then stamped using the Temix purple polish from this review post here, and MoYou London Festive plate . The plate is actually an Easter Egg design, but I think it looks abstract enough to be fine for non-Easter too!
I'm really happy with the end result.
My nails are getting really long recently too! Having said that, I'll probably break them all now...
For the last couple of days I've been wearing China Glaze Mingle with Kringle, a gorgeous, sparkly, gold foil polish. It looks wonderful on its own, but last night I decided I wanted to add to it.
I stamped using Models Own Chrome Cerise, and a Born Pretty Store stamping plate BP-48, which I blogged about previously here. This is a really nice plate, one of my favourite Born Pretty ones.
As you can see, apart from the bit I missed on the side of my thumb, this has stamped really cleanly, and I think it looks fab!
The pink looks more red over the gold, which is fine with me.
Today I had a play with two of the Models Own Diamond Luxe polishes, and came up with this lilac to purple gradient.
The Diamond Luxe polishes work really well for a gradient - they're nice and thick and opaque, and the shimmer is so pretty.
I was going to stamp over these with something gold, but then I broke another nail, so I ended up taking everything off so that I could fix it.
Still, I was pleased with how the gradient turned out.
I'm back! I've been away on holiday (camping in the Lake District) with no internet, which was lovely. The only downside was that I broke the thumbnail on my blogging hand, really low down across the quick, ouch! So you won't be seeing my thumb in photos for a while!
Today I have another Born Pretty Store review for you. This is the stamping plate BP-40, which has a mix of floral and leafy patterns, a cute bow, a dog, and a couple of other patterns. The plate is available here on the BPS website - and it's currently half price, at only $1.50!
For these nails, I started with a water marble base, just because I fancied something different. I did this marble using Models Own Gold Digger, and Barry M Dragon, for a subtle pinky gold combination. I then stamped using Models Own Chrome Cerise and the rose pattern.
I love the effect of this design! And the colours look fab in the sunshine.
For some reason this plate didn't pick up the polish as easily as they usually do, although I only tried the one polish, so it's perfectly possible that it was that, and not the plate. I had initially wanted to use the bow design, but I couldn't get it to pick up the polish cleanly. The rose worked fine though!
The Born Pretty plates are such good value! You can also get an additional 10% off with my discount code:
I received this product for review purposes, but words and opinions are entirely my own. I do not receive anything if you use my discount code, although when it's been used ten times, BPS will let me host a giveaway for my readers! See my Disclosure page for more details.
Recently I've been seeing alcohol spray nail designs everywhere (often referred to as hairspray manis). This is a form of water marbling.
The way this works is that you drop the polish on the water as you normally would, but instead of dropping concentric circles and swirling them, you spray some form of alcohol on the surface after the first drop of polish has spread out. This should break up the surface of the polish into lots of little holes, which you then dip the nail in to.
I started with a base of Models Own Coconut Cream, a lovely creamy white polish. I then used Bubblegum and some Impulse body spray to make the first layer of colour. This is what it looked like!
I was using liquid latex to keep the skin round my fingers clean.
I then used Chrome Cerise to make a second layer, and Sun Hat to make a third. I then cleaned up and added topcoat.
I'm a bit disappointed in the lack of contrast between the colours - next time I'll choose something far more contrasting - but I LOVE the way the patterns formed and the way this turned out. I like the index finger nail best.
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!
I didn't want to take off my marker pen orange-pink blended design from Friday, so I decided to stamp over it! I used this new plate from Born Pretty Store, BP-65.
As you can see, this plate has a variety of floral designs - four really pretty full-nail designs and four individual images. Aren't they pretty?
I stamped using Models Own Chrome Cerise, and the geometric flower design from the plate.
I LOVE how this looks! While the pattern is a flower, it also reminds me of citrus fruits, so I think it goes really well with the zingy, bright colours.
The plate itself is the usual Born Pretty standard - the stamping transfers cleanly and crisply, and the plate is solid and nicely backed with a BPS logo. The plate also comes in its own little card sleeve to protect it as well.
The plate is available here for $2.99, and you can also get 10% off and free shipping worldwide with my discount code.
I received this product for review purposes, but words and opinions are entirely my own. I do not receive anything if you use my discount code, although when it's been used ten times, BPS will let me host a giveaway for my readers! See my Disclosure page for more details.
