I live near Sheffield, and there is currently a fantastic art installation and charity fundraiser going on across the city, called the Herd of Sheffield. You can read more about it here. To cut a long story short, Sheffield is full of elephants - the big ones have been created by various artists, and the small ones have been made by local primary schools. There is SO MUCH nail art inspiration amongst them all!
Today's nails were inspired by this theatrical baby elephant, Nelly Noodle, who is inside the Crucible (my very favourite Sheffield place!). I LOVE her toenails.
I did a simple skittle using Barry M Guava and Key Lime, Illamasqua Prosperity, Essence Flashy Pumpkin and Barry M Blood Orange. I then used topcoat to stick on my smallest rhinestones in a random colour order.
I realised afterwards that I'd got the purple and the orange the wrong way round, but never mind!
I love rhinestones! I haven't worn any for ages, but now I see these, I can't think why! Look how they're reflecting in the sunshine!
So sparkly!
People always ask whether rhinestones are really messy and impractical, but if you stick them down with topcoat and then topcoat over them, they pretty much stay in place through a normal day.
I will not be leaving it so long til I use rhinestones again! And I will definitely be doing more nails based on the Herd of Sheffield elephants!
This morning, Emma from Em's Little Corner spotted this gorgeous mani by PiggieLuv and shared it with me because she knew I'd got the OPI Color Paints recently.... and wow! What a fantastic design! I knew I had to have a go at doing my own version.
I did mine a bit differently, as I didn't want to paint white over the top of glitter and end up with it lumpy, and certainly didn't trust myself to do neat lines freehand. Instead, I started with a base of white (Barry M Cotton) and use curved tip guides to tape off the central section of the nails.
Then I painted a silver glitter over the curved central section. This is 2true Sequins Christy, which is a lovely dense one-coater but with small particles which won't overlap the tape too much.
I topcoated over the silver to make it smoother (Christy has a rough finish to it), and then used the Color Paints to paint my rainbow. I removed the tape, added more topcoat, and there you go.
It's not as fantastic as PiggieLuv's, but I'm pretty damn chuffed with this! The Color Paints look fab over glitter, and I love the contrast of white and the colours. I included this blurry photo because it shows how glossy and juicy these colours are!
What do you think?
Following on from yesterday's big post about the OPI Color Paints (click here if you missed it!) here are two more quick looks I did this morning while I was experimenting with them.
This is my first attempt at leadlighting. It's not the tidiest, but I do love the effect! I started with a base of Silver Canvas, then stamped using Laqa & Co Black Gloss and MoYou London Holy Shapes XL 04. Then I used a fine paintbrush to add the Color Paints in the spaces.
This gradient look was done with a white base. I then added a stripe of Color Paints down each side of the nail (yellow and pink, and yellow and turquoise) which I then dragged sideways using the polish brush. Where the yellow and turquoise meet, they make green. Where the yellow and pink meet, they make orange. I love this effect!
Ever since I first saw the press release for these, aaaaages ago, I have wanted the OPI Color Paints polishes! They're described as "blendable nail lacquer" colours that can be combined for all sorts of artistic effects. Officially, these aren't on sale in the UK until July 1st, and will only be available in Selfridges. However, they are available on Amazon from lots of different sellers. I bought a set of the minis, as I couldn't decide on what colours I wanted, and didn't want to spend a fortune buying several and then be disappointed.
This set has Silver Canvas, the 'undercoat' polish, and then 5 of the 8 colours: Primarily Yellow, Chromatic Orange, Pen & Pink, Purple Perspective, and Turquoise Aesthetic.
How sheer are they?
They're sheer, but very pigmented, so they're nowhere near as sheer as polishes like the Sheer Tints. Depending on the colour, some are more sheer than others. They are beautiful, glossy and pigmented jellies.
Here are, left to right, Primarily Yellow, Chromatic Orange, Pen & Pink, and Purple Perspective with one coat each.
Here they are with two coats each.The yellow is obviously more sheer than the others. The purple in particular is almost opaque. But I love how juicy and glossy they all are!
Do I need the silver base?
Well, it's going to be up to you. You probably don't need this specific silver base. Do you need a silver base? No, but it does do something different to the polishes.
Here is Turquoise Aesthetic left to right over the silver base, no base, and a white base. As you can see, the polish is less streaky over the silver base, and the colour pops much more. On its own, you have the sheer effect and less colour-pop, and over white you get the colour-pop but have some streakiness. Which you prefer is going to be a matter of personal taste.
How does the silver compare to other silvers?
Left to right, I used Models Own Chrome Silver, Barry M Silver Foil, OPI Silver Canvas, and OPI Push and Shove. These are all one coat, except the Models Own, which is two.
The Models Own Chrome Silver is good for stamping, but I find it hard to use as a polish on its own as it is quite thin, and drags a bit on application, so ends up streaky unless you're really careful. As you can see, it's a bit uneven in application. The Barry M Silver Foil is excellent for stamping, but nothing special to wear on its own. Silver Canvas is nice and even. OPI Push and Shove is really nice as a shiny chrome, and is definitely shinier than the others here. I found the two OPIs very similar in application, although Push and Shove is more of a mirror-shine. Silver Canvas is really nice to apply, and isn't nearly as brush-strokey as many metallic polishes are. If you already have a silver chrome/metallic that you like, then you probably don't need Silver Canvas too.
I tried the Color Paints over all the silvers. As you can see, they're much of a muchness, so if you already have a silver you like, I wouldn't buy another just to use with the Color Paints.
How do they compare to the OPI Sheer Tints?
Very well! I was really excited when the OPI Sheer Tints came out, but they were so disappointing. Formula was gloopy and thick, and the colour was far more sheer than I'd hoped for. The Color Paints are what I hoped the Sheer Tints would be.
Here I've compared Purple Perspective and Don't Violet Me Down from the Sheer Tints range. Left to right is one coat of Don't Violet Me Down over silver and on its own, then Purple Perspective over silver and on its own. This is typical of the difference - the Sheer Tints are very pale, just a hint of colour, where the Color Paints are very pigmented. The formula of the Sheer Tints is also really difficult to work with as it's so thick and sticky. The Color Paints have a much better formula - it's much less thick, and not at all gloopy. It seems strange to me that the formula can be so much thicker on the Sheer Tints, and yet the colour less visible, but I suppose that was what they were going for. Anyway, Color Paints beat Sheer Tints hands down for me.
Do they water marble?
Yes. I struggled to get the mini bottles to drip well, which meant that the colours dried more quickly than I could work with, but the actual spread is really good, and they look really zingy.
Left is over silver, right is over white. I think my issue was only because the mini bottles are so small that you need to be careful with the brush, so the dripping takes longer and leaves time for the polish to dry on the surface of the water. With full size bottles, I think this would be fine.
Do they stain?
Generally, no. But you probably need to be very careful with Turquoise Aesthetic!
Can you stamp with them?
No. But you can stamp with black over a base, and then use them for leadlighting. This is my next mani plan for these - I'll add a link here when I've tried this!
What can you do with them?
Lots of things! Here are two designs I did.
This ruffian design uses the Silver Canvas base. I then painted on Chromatic Orange and Purple Perspective on alternate nails. I also added a stripe of another colour over the original - Primarily Yellow over the orange (which doesn't show) and Pen & Pink over the purple (which does!).
I wore these for a day, and loved how glowy they were.
My second design was this freehand flower art, which I did using all the colours and a fine paintbrush. I don't have the green one, so I used yellow and turquoise together.
I love how this looks!
It really glows in the evening sunshine!
What's the formula like?
It's good. Even and smooth, and not too thick and gloopy like the Sheer Tints, but not so runny that it floods the cuticles. Application is nice and easy, and drying time is normal.
Overall, I LOVE this collection. I am definitely going to buy the red one in a full size, although I'm not sure I need the darker blue or the green. I may well also buy some of these mini colours in the full size, although I need to wait til after pay day!
This is a bit of an odd one! I was in my local small independent beauty shop the other day, which sells China Glaze, and the lady was putting out a 'new' China Glaze display. She was using the card stand from the Hologlam display, but I could see that they were bright neons, so I assumed they were the new summer collection. I started looking, and we chatted a bit, and she said they were the new collection, and weren't they gorgeous? I agreed, and chose this one, Turned Up Turquoise, as it was a shade I really don't have at all in my collection.
This is two coats of Turned Up Turquoise, no topcoat. I was a bit surprised to find this dried matte. It also had a really tricky application - it dries ridiculously quickly, which means you have to work fast if you don't want lumpy bits. It also stains A LOT. Because I didn't recognise that as one of the 2013 collection, I googled, and apparently this is from the 2008 WOW Factor collection! It must have sneaked on to the display by accident!
Anyway, I am not convinced. I like the colour - super bright neon bluey-green (although it's impossible to capture on camera!) - but the application was so awkward that I don't know if it was worth it.
I also found the clean-up really tricky - as you can probably see, it was almost impossible to clean off my cuticles neatly. So overall, not a huge hit with me!
