Polka Dot Diagonal French Mani with Added Roses!

Yesterday's red polka dotted French tips, and now today's addition, were inspired by my new duvet set, which I love!

The duvet has a slightly green-tinged beige base, with big pink roses and green leaves, and on the other side has a red base with polka dots. Every night for the last week, I've gone to bed thinking about how to transfer this to my nails!

The base is Essie Sand Tropez, with a tip of Rimmel Pro Heart on Fire, and dots with a Barry M Nail Art Pen.  I then painted on roses using my Born Pretty Store brushes and Jacava Raspberry Bourgeois and Barry M Gelly Dragon, and leaves using Barry M Gelly Key Lime and China Glaze Keep Calm, Paint On.  I added a few highlights to the roses using the Barry M pen again.

Somehow... I just don't like these. I love the combination on the bedding. I don't think it looks right on my nails. I don't know if the pinks are the wrong shade, or the base is too brown, the leaves are too pale, the roses just too untidy, or what... but overall, while the roses look ok, I just don't really like it.

Diagonal French Mani with Polka Dots

Today I'm wearing nude nails with a red diagonal French tip, to which I added some polka dots.

This is two coats of Essie Sand Tropez, which I then taped off and added a coat of Rimmel Pro Heart on Fire. When that was dry I added a coat of Seche Vite, then added polka dots with my white Barry M Nail Art Pen.

I like how this looks! I have plans to add things to it tomorrow - so fingers crossed that it works!

Barry M Raspberry

This has been sitting on my shelf for months and months, since I bought it and never got round to trying it out on its own!

This is Barry M Raspberry. This is two coats, with topcoat, although to be honest, one coat would have been enough, and it didn't need topcoat to make it shiny.

This is an absolutely gorgeous dark berry pink, almost red really.  It's a great consistency, and the normal good Barry M brush. It goes on really well - smooth and even, and no bare patches at all. 

It's also REALLY glossy.  

I absolutely loved this colour, and wore it alone for two days.

The tips then started to get a bit of wear, so I added silver tips with Rimmel Your Majesty. Just for a change, rather than adding straight tips, I used curved tip guides and put them on diagonally. 

I loved how this looked, and got several comments from people about these today.

Friday Lilac & Purple

Apparently I have been under the illusion for the last six months that this colour is called Lilac. I've just realised that it isn't!  This is Barry M's Berry Ice Cream.  I wore it a few times in the summer, and liked how light and summery it was.  This week I've worn it again for a couple of days - I felt I needed a calmer, plainer colour after all the glitter bombs I've had on my nails over the last few weeks.

I couldn't stop looking at my nails with this colour on. They looked so shiny and smooth and pretty. This is two coats - one on its own was a bit streaky - and a coat of Seche Vite.  As usual with Barry M, this was a nice easy application, a good brush, and a smooth, even coverage. 
 
I think this is a really pretty colour. Having worn it for two days though, I was getting some tip wear, and I was itching to do SOMETHING to it... 

I dug out my unused bottle of something I'd picked up for £1.99 in Superdrug. It's probably full of nasty chemicals, but it's so pretty that I don't care! This comes in a little, thin bottle. The brand is 2true (I'd never heard of them before) and the colour is the imaginatively titled "Shade 4" (I also have "shade 2", which is a shiny teal-y blue colour).  I taped off the tips of my nails, and added one coat of Shade 4 to the ends, then peeled off the tape and topped with more Seche Vite.

I apologise for the state of my cuticles! I'm really struggling to get the light at the moment, as I'm leaving for work in the dark and coming home in the dark. Today I got home a bit early, and the sun was still shining, so I dashed out to take photos without checking my hands - and didn't notice that my fingers were all dry and peely from a day in a very hot office.

Shade 4 is a rich, shimmery purple with plenty of sparkle. It's quite a thick polish, and this was one coat. The brush is quite skinny and long, and I'm not sure I fancy painting my whole nails with it, as it isn't as easy to control as some other brushes. It was nice coverage though, and it looks so sparkly.

Today I had a bit of a splurge on nail varnish!  My favourite local shop was having a 20% off sale, so I bought a new bottle of Seche Vite, and a China Glaze and an Opi. Then I went to Superdrug, and they were doing 3 for 2, so I bought four Barry M polishes and a Bourjois one and a striper pen. I had a nice heavy bag full!  But this means my nail varnish collection now stands at over 110 bottles, which makes me feel a bit ashamed!  I definitely have a problem!  I plan to try out my new polishes over the weekend, and of course share them here.

Diagonal French - Barry M Navy & Gold Foil

Yesterday's gold was chipping very slightly at the tips, so I decided to cover them up with something else. I chose Barry M Navy, which is a lovely rich shimmery blue.  

I used sellotape to tape off the lower portions of the nails, and painted away.




I like that it matches the ring I was wearing today - this is a family ring that was left to me by a relative. We think it's from the early 1900s. 


 

Oh dear! My cuticles look terribly dry in close up! I hadn't realised - I swear they look fine in real life. Time to get some hand cream out I think!