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.
Recently I was sent this set of beatiful studs from the Born Pretty Store to review. Aren't they gorgeous?
This is a set of very shiny metallic studs in circles and oval shapes, in a variety of bright colours. See here for the details on the store website, where they cost $2.32 for this pack.
I decided to wear these with some of my favourite holographic polish. I used Jade Deja Vu and Jade Mystic Gold, and then stuck on the studs using topcoat.
The studs themselves are light, and have a flat back. Because they are quite large, I bent the oval ones slightly by bending them round a pen, so that they lie flush on my nails. This was really easy to do, and makes them lie on the nail much more easily.
I think these studs are pretty fantastic, and they're even better paired with a sparkly holo polish. They looked amazing in the sunshine!
If you fancy trying out these, you can get an extra 10% off using 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.
Today's nails are a bit of an all-in kitchen sink mani! I started with no overall plan in mind, I just added bits and made it up as I went along!
I started with two coats of Barry M Full Throttle. This is a really pretty peachy orange colour, but it's a streaky, awkward formula, which I always forget. Still, it's a good colour.
I then taped off a couple of nails with a grid of striping tape, and sponged a gradient of Full Throttle and Barry M Satsuma. I decided to add some glitter for good measure, and used China Glaze Electrify, which is packed full of gold and red glitter. I sponged this over the tips, with the odd dab further down the nail.
I loved how the quilted nails looked, but it took a while to do, and was quite fiddly, so I did something different with the other two, and used striping tape, Satsuma and Electrify to add some blocks of colour. The Satsuma looked quite overpowering on its own, so I then added the tiny studs.
I'm so pleased with how these look! And they were a total happy accident, which makes them even better.
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.
The second of the Models Own Diamond Luxe collection that I thought I'd try, is Radiant Pink, the bright pink one. Like Pear Purple, this has a thickish but beautifully smooth formula, filled with shimmery diamond dust particles.
Rather than just wear this on the full nail, I used some tip guides to mark off half moons at my cuticles, because it occurred to me that I had still never tried a negative space mani. I then painted two coats of Radiant Pink and removed the tip guides.
Then I used topcoat and added these studs from the Born Pretty Store. I reviewed the studs previously here, where you can find full details of where and how to buy them. I really like these studs! They kind of remind me of eyes... which makes me think that I could do an OWL design with stud eyes! Omg, how awesome would that be?!
Anyway, I really like this polish - the formula is really good, and the colour is a lovely bright zingy pink. And I really like the studs - the coloured ones are really shimmery and rich, and the black ones I used here give a really good contrast with the pink polish.
The studs are really light, and are easily reused - after the last time I used them, they stayed put for a good 24 hours, until I just picked them off and put them back in the pot to use again.
As always, you can use my Born Pretty Store discount code to get 10% off any order.
These studs were provided for review purposes. See my Disclaimer section for more details.
So after a morning tidying up my nail desk (see post here!) I finally got round to actually painting my nails! It's been almost a week since I did anything worth posting. Today I wanted to finally get round to trying more of the Barry M Autumn Gelly colours, so I started with Cocoa. Cocoa is a gorgeous, dark, chocolately brown. This is two coats.
The formula is great - opaque, smooth, even and glossy. Really lovely. I decided to pair this with some really lovely studs I have been sent for review from Born Pretty Store.
Just look at them! Aren't they fab? There are circles and squares of various colours. There's a gold coloured base, and then a super shiny, glowy coloured centre. I decided just to stick with one colour for this look, and used the orangey brown ones.
I love how this looks! The contrast between the gold metal border and the coloured middle looks so fancy! I really like the bullseye effect.
The studs themselves are light, and stick down very easily with topcoat.
These studs are on the Born Pretty Store website as item no 15332, and cost $5.32 for the whole set. I really like them, and can think of loads of looks I want to try out.
You can also get 10% off this price using my AKJ61 discount code at the till.
These studs were provided for review purposes. See my Disclaimer section for more details.
As I like the Barry M Silk polishes so much, today I bought the two other colours that I hadn't bought previously. I think it's the first time I've every owned a whole collection of something! This is Truffle, the nude coloured one, which I decided to wear with some neon studs from the Born Pretty Store.
Truffle is just as good as the other Silk polishes. This is two coats.
The studs are this item from the Born Pretty Store, which I reviewed previously here and here. I really like these studs - they're bright and cheerful, and are thin and light enough to stay stuck down easily with topcoat.
As always, you can use my 10% discount code when buying any items from BPS - and there is free shipping too.
These studs were provided for review purposes.
This week's Friday Challenge is... Sweet Shop!
I wanted to go for a sweets-inspired look, rather than actually painting sweets themselves onto my nails.
For this design I used two coats of Barry M Blossom from the Silks collection (my bottle is down to 2/3 full! I'm going to need a back-up!) on three fingers, and two coats of Jacava Raspberry Bavarois on my thumb and ring fingers.
I then added studs to the Blossom fingers. The studs are from the Born Pretty Store, and are stuck down with topcoat. I used striping tape to tape off stripes on my Raspberry Bavarois fingers and then added a coat of Barry M Princess, the textured pinky gold glitter, for a sugary texture.
I'm quite pleased with this look. It's pretty and sweet, and I think it meets the brief! I was really pleased with how well the studs stayed put too - they've been on for 24 hours now and have survived intact, which doesn't always happen with studs and topcoat for me.
I've posted both these polishes before on my blog, but I was a bit lacking in inspiration today. This is Jacava Chocolate Melts, with an accent nail of Ruby Wing Strawberry Shortcake, and some studs.
Indoors, Strawberry Shortcake is a beautiful sparkly gold glitter, with various extra colours in there giving lots of extra sparkle.
In the sunshine, the clear base for the glitter changes colour, becoming a rusty browny red colour.
Even outdoors in the shade, there's a distinct colour shift.
I wore this with the ring that I made from the same polish a couple of weeks ago (full post here), which also changes in the sunlight.
I do love this combination!
I thought I'd post about some of the cool nail stuff that's made it to my Christmas list this year! (Or my when-I-win-the-lottery list, haha!)
I've seen these on loads of blogs recently, and they look SO nice! MoYou stamping plates are definitely on my list. They are beautifully packaged, and the plates themselves look stunning. I haven't really tried stamping yet, although I did buy a £1 set in Poundland, which worked. I just wasn't blown away with the designs. So I'd like some nice designs, like:
Photo: MoYou
The Rockstar Collection, plate 1. I want the skull! And the flames and especially the guitar!
I also love their huge plates with whole designs, where you can use bits and pieces for stamping, but the plate itself is a work of art:
Photo: MoYou
Especially this Mother Nature Collection plate 2. Isn't it beautiful? They have all sorts of plates - I could keep adding them all day!
The next thing on my list would be some polish. I LOVE the look of Zoya Payton, from this year's Christmas collection. I loved Storm and Blaze, and this is the purple version of the same thing.
Photo: Zoya.com
I've also got my eye on this amazing orange-gold holo from Jade, Uau (although it's sold out at the moment at the wonderful Sally Magpies shop).
Photo: Jade & Sally Magpies.co.uk
Next on my list would be water decals! I LOVE water decals, they're so versatile and so easy to use, and just transform a design immediately. There are hundreds on the Born Pretty Store website, but today I think I want these ones:
Photo: BornPrettyStore
These are this item.
Another water decal set I'd like to try is this new feathers one:
Photo:Born Pretty Store
..which is this item. I love the pretty pink/blue ones on 1738 and the cheetah print ones on 1746 in particular.
My last choice is these spike studs, also from the Born Pretty Store:
Photo:Born Pretty Store
They're a bit crazy, and not the kind of thing you could wear to work, but they do look so cool!
So, what's on your (nail related) Christmas wishlist?
