New Year Catch Up

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.  

Crucible Theatre Nails v2

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. 

Blue and White Chevrons

I recently won a giveaway hosted by the lovely Claire at Kerruticles, and won not one but FIVE different sets of stencils by Smart Nails.  These are the first ones, the chevron design. I decided to make a nautical style colour combination of blue and white. 

This is two coats of Barry M Pearl, from the Silks range. The stencils are really neat little squares of plastic with the design cut out - they're tinted, so that you can easily see where they are on your finger. They stick down nicely to the dried polish, but not so firmly that they lift the polish. 

I used Barry M Blue Plum to paint over the stencils and make the chevron design, and then peeled off the stencil. I really liked how crisp these lines came out - when I've used stencils before, the polish flooded underneath in places and made a blotchy mess. 

I really like how these came out!  I know it's not festive (I'm not feeling Christmassy!) but I'm off to see Anything Goes! at the Crucible tonight, and I know there are sailors in it, so my nails are sort of appropriate. 

 

 

My Nails Were Made in Chesterfield!

I live in Chesterfield, in lovely Derbyshire, and I love it here. This week I was feeling very uninspired for nail designs, but then on Monday I saw a competition to make "something" inspired by Chesterfield, which gave me some ideas!  It may well not be what they're wanting, and it's not about winning, but at least I got some inspiration!

If you don't know Chesterfield (and you probably don't!) then it's a smallish town near the Peak District, and the most famous thing is the Crooked Spire, which you can see from the train if you're going THROUGH Chesterfield, which if you've ever travelled north-south in England, then you've probably done. But there's more to Chesterfield than the Crooked Spire!

So here are my inspirations:

The Crooked Spire:

Linked to this, the logo of my workplace (although we often use this in lime green):

Photo credit: Chesterfield College, chesterfield.ac.uk 


The historic market:

Photo credit: chesterfield.gov.uk 


The half-timbered buildings of Knifesmithgate:

Photo credit: geograph.org.uk 


The super cool snail sculpture. This is a sculpture by an artist called Liz Lemon, and can be found near the train station.
 



Photo credit: Waymarking.com

And of course, the football team!

Photo credit: chesterfield-fc.co.uk  

And here are my nails!

I used a base of Barry M Pearl on my little, ring and middle fingers, a base of Barry M Mist on my thumb, and Barry M Blue Grape on my index finger. 

I then painted the snail freehand using a fine brush and OPI Push and Shove. I accented this with Barry M nail art pens in black and white. I also used the Barry M pens to do the CFC logo on my index finger. I didn't add the red that's in the proper logo, as I don't have a fine enough brush to do this or a red nail art pen. 

I used She Sells Seashells straight stencils to make the chevrons for the market stalls, using Barry M Spring Green. I painted the spire and the frame round it using Barry M Key Lime and a fine brush.  The little finger is a bit messy! I used Barry M Cocoa, and a fine (not fine enough!) brush. I wasn't thrilled with how that one in particular turned out, but I suppose the half timbered buildings are a bit rustic too... 

These weren't hugely successful!  Most of my colleagues didn't know what most of this was meant to represent - EVEN THE ONE THAT IS OUR WORK LOGO!  Oh well, at least I had fun!

Autumn Chevrons

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. 

Doctor Who Ring! And Fifth Doctor Nails!

I don't know how I've managed this, but somehow I have NEVER posted any Doctor Who nails! This is despite the fact that I am a fan (especially of classic 'old' Who) and that I have definitely done Who nails on more than one occasion. So now I'm remedying that. 

I bought this ring from the Born Pretty Store recently - it's described as "Question Mark Shaped Ring", but we all know that means DOCTOR WHO!  It's only $1.59 too, which puts even Claire's Accessories to shame (and I love their cheapy jewellery!) 

To go with this, I did nails inspired by my favourite Doctor - the Fifth. I love him LOTS. He had a lovely crickety outfit with lots of beige, and I ADORED him.  (Photo: BBC)

This is a base of Barry M Pearl (the white one from the Silk range), with stripes made using striping tape and Barry M Truffle and Crush - these are Five's trousers. For the accent nail, I used a base of Pearl, which I taped off and then added Essie Allure for his jumper. I used a Barry M nail art pen in black, and Crush again (with a striping brush) for the jumper details. I then added a matte topcoat.

While I know these aren't perfect, I'm pretty happy with them - I've been wanting to do Fifth Doctor nails for quite a long time and now I have, so I'm happy. And I LOVE this ring! It's really cute, and feels nice and solid too, so I'll definitely get some wear out of it.  

You can of course still use my discount code if you want 10% off any BPS items:

 

February Polish Party - Chevrons

I'm a bit late posting, but the theme for February's Polish Party is... CHEVRONS. When I've done chevrons before I've used either special tip guides (I bought some in Superdrug, but they've all be used up now) or sellotape, but today I made my own out of paper labels. I folded one label in half lengthways, and then cut it off in diagonal strips, giving symmetrical guides. Because in the past I've done chevrons pointing towards or away from the tip of my nail, I decided to do these sideways instead, and to try and get them to look like chevron road signs.

I wanted a silver holo base, so I used my ancient Sally Hansen Nail Prisms in Diamond. Because that's so thin, I started with a base of Barry M Silver Foil, then added two coats of Diamond. Then I placed my guides, and added a coat of OPI 4 in the Morning from the Gwen Stefani collection.  

I like the contrast of the matte black and the holo silver. I like that the silver looks dull in some lights, and crazy holo in others, just like the road signs. 

 I also tried this with a topcoat, just to see what it was like. I'm not sure I like it as much though. 

My main excitement today is that I bought a tent light box!  My boy Ferg immediately claimed it!

I took a couple of photos in it quickly, but of course the holo doesn't show properly in it. I need to have a play around with my lighting to get this working properly, but I'm excited! No more wavy bathroom wall background!

Somehow my skin looks MUCH drier in there!

To tie in with this month's theme - this week I encountered a teenage boy called... CHEVRON. Yes, really.




Check out the other Polish Party posts here:

An InLinkz Link-up

Crucible Theatre Nails - aka Chevron Skittles

I am lucky enough to live within a 20 minute drive of Sheffield's wonderful Crucible Theatre. I've been going there since I first lived in Sheffield in the mid 1990s, and even though I don't live in Sheffield any more, I'm close enough that it's easy to get there.  

I have spent many MANY hours watching snooker at the Crucible (it's an absolutely wonderful snooker venue!) but probably almost as many there for plays. I have been a keen theatre goer since the early 80s - I have so many fabulous memories!

The Crucible is a very special theatre. It's 40 years old this year, and has had a major revamp over the last few years. As a venue for plays, the auditorium is wonderful - there is no bad seat in the house. The thrust stage means that nobody is ever more than 20 metres away from the actors. It's a very intimate and powerful place. I absolutely love the energy you can feel when you walk in.

I've seen so many wonderful productions there over the years. I think the very first was a production of David Copperfield (the Dickens novel, not the magician!) where the auditorium was completely transformed with boats everywhere. I've seen many wonderful Shakespeare productions (Kenneth Branagh on a rack in Richard III, camp sailors dancing in Twelfth Night, Sam Troughton with painted toenails in As You Like It, a Russian production of Winter's Tale, complete with surtitles...) I loved Marlowe's Edward II with Joe Fiennes, Moliere's Don Juan with tiny and lovely Tom Hollander... Last year I loved the production of Company, starring the Crucible's wonderful artistic director, Daniel Evans (not to mention one of my favourite theatre moments in recent years, Samantha Spiro singing the fastest song I have EVER heard and yet being entirely understandable - and funny - at every point). 

Last night I went to see Pinter's Betrayal, with John Simm. It was magnificent;  not the most jolly of plays, although there were some funny moments, but truly excellent. The whole cast were excellent, but I especially loved Ruth Gemmell, she was really moving.

The Crucible is wonderful. The staff are great - many have been there for years, and they're always so helpful, friendly and human. The bar is nice. There are lots of ladies' toilets (with recycled wellies as a splashback behind the sinks, no less) which is unusual for a theatre. There is a jazzy carpet. The prices are good (none of this London £50-a-ticket malarkey!) and the restaurant is fabulous. 

ANYWAY, this is meant to be a nail blog, so here are the nails! If you've been to the Crucible, you will recognise these as the entry doors from the bar area to the auditorium. If not, then this is a skittle chevron tape mani. I used Barry M Cobalt, Bright Purple and Bright Green, OPI Roll in the Hague, Orly Ma Cherie and Rimmel Black Out.  I swear that the bleeding on the colours isn't visible in real life. Either that, or I'm going blind!

Chevron Tape Nails - Barry M Raspberry & Models Own Gold Rush

So, having discovered the amazing nails that Erika has done with SELLOTAPE at Chloe's Nails (seriously, have a look at them, they're amazingly neat and perfect and creative and intricate!) I have been buzzing about wanting to give it a go. 

First I painted my nails with Models Own Gold Rush, which I love as a colour.  My quest for the perfect gold nail varnish is a whole other post entirely - I'll save that one for a rainy Sunday. Gold Rush is a nice sparkly gold. 

Then I started on my left ring finger, and tried out Erika's amazing rays idea with tape and Barry M Raspberry.  It worked, but it was really fiddly and time consuming (I struggled to cut the tape narrow enough) so I did all the others with a chevron design.  I only smudged one, so for a first try, I'm quite pleased with the results. 

I've been wearing these for three days now - there is a little bit of tip wear, but that might just be shrinkage from the multiple layers of Seche Vite! Otherwise, they've held up well. 

 

It struck me later that this looks very Gryffindor! The Barry M is officially a rich raspberry pink, but it looks very red to me, especially over the gold.