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 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!
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!
Today's nails are an autumnal waterfall design. I started with two coats of Barry M's new black gelly, Black Forest. I was SO excited to hear that Barry M are finally doing a black in the gelly range - they've got so many colours and a really good formula, but so far no pure black. Anyway, it's finally here, and it's really nice.
Over the black, I then used a thin striping brush and added stripes of China Glaze Riveting and Colours by Llarowe The Heart Bleeds and Golden Rule.
I love how this came out! It's sparkly without being too over the top, and the colours blend together really nicely into an autumnal look.
What do you think?
I have no idea what to call these nails, or how to describe them!
Recently I've been consciously trying to NOT use Barry M polishes, because I'm aware that I use Barry M far more often than any other brands. So a couple of days ago I painted my nails using Tami Gleneagles Glamour, which is a really pretty rose gold with holo glitter. I then thought it was a bit boring, so I freehanded a black line and a bit of a curve round the cuticle... using a Barry M nail art pen! Oops.
I really liked how these looked, but I don't think my colleagues were very impressed. Several people said things along the lines of "oh... they're... different. I loved the ones you had on yesterday though!"
Oh well, I don't care. I liked them.
For the last couple of days I've been wearing this beautiful dark red Jacava polish, Black Forest Gateau. Today, I painted roses over it for a different look.
I used three Barry M Gellys for the roses - Pink Lemonade, Rose Hip and Acai Smoothie, and two MoYou London stamping polishes for the leaves - Spring Green and Key Lime.
I've topcoated over everything for smoothness and shine.
I don't think I'll ever get bored of doing floral nails!
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!)
I was so excited to be asked to review the June Nailbox! I've seen so many of these subscription boxes around for everything from dog toys to makeup to sweets, and only fairly recently heard about Nailbox. I'd heard good things, so I jumped at the chance.
Nailbox is a subscription service where for £13.50 a month, you get a box with
three or four different nail polishes, and one or two nail care or nail art items. These include lots of big brands like OPI, China Glaze, MoYou London, Nails Inc and many others. I was skeptical at first - I have so much nail varnish already, surely I would get a duplicate or colours that are similar to what I already have?
The June 2016 box is themed around Festival Fever, and contains 4 polishes and some nail art tape.
OPI Is Mai Tai Crooked - usually costs at least £9
Bourjois Turquoise Block - usually costs around £5.99
Rimmel Cheeky Chap - usually costs around £2.99
Essie Jazzy Jubilant - usually costs around £7.99
Elegant Touch Metalllic Nail Art Tape - usually costs around £4
So I calculate the value of the box at around £30, which is obviously lots more than the £13.50 the box costs! In fact in some shops, you couldn't buy one bottle of OPI for that amount.
It was also a big plus in that there were no duplicates in my collection, and the OPI and the Essie weren't even similar to any polishes I own. The nail art tape is gorgeous! There are five long strips each of 6 different colours. I use striping tape from time to time, and not as often as I'd like, because I generally find the rolls really fiddly to use. I love the idea of having nice short strips all ready for you to peel off the card! Plus, look at that third one down! It's copper, but it's full of rainbows in the light!
So, what did I do with the contents? I decided to try two different looks. First up is a floral design. I started with a base of the Rimmel, which is a one coater that applies nicely and dries to a matte finish. Then I freehanded some leaves with the Bourjois, and flowers with the OPI. I found that the green didn't really contrast with the blue enough to show clearly in the photos, but it was more obvious in real life. I sponged a bit of the glitter from the Essie into the flower centres and topcoated everything. I wore these nails for two days.
My thoughts about the polishes after making this first design was that the Rimmel was really nice, and I really really like the peachy orange of the OPI. I didn't feel I used enough of the Essie or the Bourjois to really comment.
Next up I wanted to swatch all the colours individually. I made a skittle across all my nails, and then used the tape to make a rays design on two of my nails.
The green swatched beautifully - it applies really well and is another one coater. The OPI is a gorgeous colour, but is a bit thinner and streakier than the other two, and needed two coats. I preferred to topcoat the Rimmel one, as I wasn't crazy about the matte finish.
I did the ray design freehand and then added the tape to cover any wobbles on the joins. I topcoated over everything just in case the tape wasn't sticky enough (I think it was though) and because I want to wear these for a couple of days.
Overall, I'm massively impressed! I'm trying really hard to spend less at the moment, but I am so tempted to sign up. The August box is called "Into the Sunset", which sounds gorgeous. It's my birthday in early September, so maybe I need to treat myself!
You can check out Nailbox on their website here.
This box was provided by Nailbox for my honest review. See my Disclaimer for more details.
My friend Wendy and I have both been lacking inspiration a bit recently, and on Friday we challenged each other to do 80s nails. Here are mine!
My nails are inspired by an awesome top I had around 1985ish. It was a batwing, slash neck, off the shoulder, cropped delight, with a graffiti style turquoise grid pattern, and some big orange roses. I have managed to recreate the pattern, if not the batwing amazingness.
The base is Barry M Cotton. I then stamped using Barry M Guava and Born Pretty stamping plate BP-40. I then freehanded the roses using lots of different oranges, and a yellow, and two greens.
I'm really pleased with how these turned out. They're a bit garish, but they're certainly how I remember the 80s. After I'd been wearing these for a few hours, it struck me what the background reminded me of - J cloths!
I wore these Out last night (yes, I did both hands) and just as I got home, one nail on my left hand broke right off! Luckily it didn't break down past the nail line, but I've had to file all my nails down pretty short to match.
Here are Wendy's! Aren't they ace? They're SO 80s.
Check her out on Instagram!
These are the nails I've been wearing for the last couple of days.
I used some more Barry M Gelly colours that I hadn't tried before, Chai (the grey one) and Pink Lemonade (the pale pink one) as the base. Both of these are really really nice - Chai is definitely a one coater, and Pink Lemonade could be if you're careful, although I did two thin ones.
I then freehanded the flowers using Barry M Aloha (one of the new Coconut Infusion range) and Pink Lemonade, and MoYou London Bahamas Punch for the flower centres.
I love pink and grey together. It was my favourite part of the 80s, and I do miss how common it was as a combo! I had a gorgeous ankle length pink and grey flannel skirt with big pockets trimmed with pink rickrack.... Oh dear. Maybe these things are best left back in the 80s!
I've been stamping a lot recently, and I felt the urge to do some freehanding for a change. The weather has been grey and damp, and I wanted something bright and cheerful, so I went for my favourite flowers, sunflowers.
I started with a base of China Glaze For Audrey (my bottle has gone a bit thick and gloopy - it's now a PERFECT one coater!) and freehanded the flowers using some MoYou stamping polishes and a fine brush. The yellow is Bahamas Punch and I used two greens for the leaves, Key Lime and Spring Green. I really like how pigmented and rich the MoYou London stamping polishes are - they're not too gloopy to do nail art with, but they're still opaque over strong colours.
The brown flower centres are Barry M Cocoa.
And just to show you that I do always do both hands (apparently some people don't! Who knew?) here's my other hand as well. The cleanup's not quite as good, but I'm pretty pleased with these.
Weirdly, I posted a pic of these on Twitter, and my friend Wendy from MASPOOASE pointed me at the sunflower nails she did almost 3 years ago today, and they're almost identical!
Today's nails are some freehand floral nails. I haven't done flowers in far too long!
I started with a base of Barry M Sugar Apple, a pretty blue-green creme. I then used a fine brush to freehand the flowers. I used a combination of Konad White, then Barry M Pink Punch and Rose Hip for the petals, with Yellow for the centre, and Key Lime and MoYou London Spring Green for the leaves.
I'm really pleased with how these turned out!
And just to show that I do always do my right hand, even if it's not quite as neat, here's my other hand! Sorry, I can't pose it properly or hold the camera level!
I kind of wish I'd added lots more flowers now!
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!
I don't do Hallowe'en, but I'd seen lots of nails like this recently and wanted to do some too!
I started with 4 purple polishes and made a gradient. I used Barry M Black Currant and Blackberry, Jacava Holbein Place and Barry M Fondant, to take it from an almost-black purple to a pale lilac. I started with a base of Jacava Holbein Place, and then sponged on the gradient.
I really like how this came out, and I wore this on its own for a day, with topcoat to make it glossy.
The cleanup round the cuticles was quite awkward - that Barry M Black Currant again! I still liked this though.
I then tried this matte, just to see what it was like. I like this too!
I then used a Barry M nail art pen to freehand a tree and some gravestones.
I like the contrast of the black against the sort of sunset sky, and the glossy against the matte.
I wish Black Currant wasn't so messy round the edges though!
