Pride 2012

Nuff said really....

Off to a party later, and lets just say what I am wearing matches my nails, and not vice versa! :D

El Ombre!

I have been having a nightmare time with my thumbnails lately. Of all my fingers they are the ones with the most badly damaged nails, the nail beds themselves are soft and porous, which means the surface has to be filed, they are flattened from the years of biting, and although they are improving, the sides are still in a parlous state. This means if any nail is going to break at the quick, its usually and often, my thumbnails.
I mostly to resort to silk wrapping whilst a break grows out, which is a REAL pain when continuously changing nail polish, and have yet to find a decent nail repair kit. I am currently trying daily applications of Sally Hansen's 'Hard as wraps' (clear) but I have to say I am unimpressed thus far, nail polish chips within hours! despite heavy application of Seche Vite.

Despite current nail trials, I have a nice Ombre mani at the moment,
Layer 1: is a frankenpolish because I couldn't find a milky coffee light enough.
Layer 2: Rimmel Pro 'Beige Babe'
Layer 3: 2True shade No 38 (it's a dark brown....duh!)
Layer 4: Orly 'Chocolate Martini....a truly lovely copper foil type.

I did make one or two boobs because the 2true did not apply well with a sponge... it seems to dry REALLY fast...but i don't really mind , some things look better when they are not perfect.

Burgundy is the new Red?

According to fashion mags Burgundy is the 'in' colour for the next season, I'm down with that, as you know a deep vampy red is my favorite colour, add a touch of purple and I am in vamp heaven.

So with that in mind, and the fact that due to new job and stress over Uni placements I have been neglecting you , if not my nails, here is ....

This is a lovely dark red from Rimmel Pro called 'Celebrity bash'. Maybe not dark enough to be a true vamp, but dried blood like it is, so I say Yay!
The spiral pattern is done by hand with Amazing Shine silver nail art pen, £5 from Amazon and available in Gold and Red as well, easy to use and handy for those not confident with brushes.
Top Coat is Seche Vite...as always these days :D
In other news, my place at University of Brighton is now confirmed, so roll on September, if any of you are going there, find me and i'll do your nails for you ;).

Recovery

Its been a while. I decided to rest my nails for a week, they were getting a little flaky at the ends, and as I had had to shorten them so much it was time for a manoliday.
However it is my sisters 40th tomorrow, and that demands a nice nail job, so out came the trusty Cuter Pewter from Models Own Pro and some black nail art accents...something abstract..ish. The nails are not quite back to perfect length, but a week or so should do it.

Lilac...nope still not doing it for me.

I love Lilac as a colour....it however does not like me, clearly blue toned pinks in a light polish..or clothes..are not for me.
However, I have a job interview tomorrow so needs must and pale polish it is. Well as pale as I can stand anyway.

It also makes my cuticles look even worse than they usually are :(.
never mind, this is Models Own Lilac Dream, unlike some pales, it was opaque in one coat, and went on beautifully, it must have known I wasn't impressed with the colour on me. I do not like the way pale colours always look like the have a dark border on me, like I have missed a bit.
I am sure however that if it survives the nervous chewing tomorrow it will make a nice base for some spicing up with nail art later on.
Wish me Luck!

Chameleons BarryM

Three New BarryM's came out this month, so I used some saved points and splurged on all three today.
These lovely foils change colour when you add a clear topcoat, making it east to do some nice designs.
This one is Chameleon Pink, with a strip of Pink Silver Glitter down the middle, and one side top coated to show the changed colour. The glitter also causes the colour change and adds a nice sparkle.

 I cant wait to try out the other two, Chameleon Lilac and  Chameleon Blue. I also got a free BarryM Nail Paint for spending over £6 on BarryM products, it's called Retro red, and is gorgeous, so expect to see that soon.

The Quest for the Perfect Green...Level Complete

I have been up to London this weekend, a scary prospect for me in itself. It was a wonderful party , full of wonderful people. There were however one or two problems...well four to be exact. Repeated conflicts with my suitcase caused the death of no less than FOUR nails! Now this may seem like a disaster, but to be fair, the tips of all were getting a bit frail, so it's the perfect opportunity to file them back down to beggar all and start again, boy! typing feels odd again.
The weekend itself was only improved upon by a visit to the Grayson Perry exhibition ' The vanity of small differences' at Victoria Miro Gallery , to which my friend Suzanne selflessly took me along with some of her friends....it's a must go see, the Tapestries are wonderful, and the Pottery is....well its inspirational ;)
....and She also gave me This!

TA DA!

Yes! it's the perfect green at last, meet OPI 's Here Today Aragorn Tomorrow, as about a black a green as you can get.

Level Complete.

Plainly Delicious!

I am going to a party at the weekend, this is not something that happens often, so BIG effort made. you are probably going to wonder why the plain mani, but it's because of the shoes. Ever since seeing the Wizard of Oz.Moosh has always owned Ruby slippers, its a thing...whatever I wear...Red shoes...or a variant of red. This particular pair, which took 3 days to find, are Coral Red, within ten minutes i will be in blinding pain, cos  I cant do heels these days but , they have heels, not particularly high, but anything over 5cm is high. The Polish matches..............perfectly..........always a GOOD day when that happens.

This Is Revlon 's Delicious from the Colourstay range

..and these are the shoes.

Upscale Fishy Tale

Having the day off today I had plenty of time to indulge in a mani I have been planing for a while. So out came the dotting tool and some foil polish and visions of mermaids tails flashing in the sun as they dive beneath the waves. Yes I know mermaids don't exists, stop being a party pooper!

This is a 4 colour job, the base is Models Own Beetlejuice, and then I alternated BarryM's Foil Effects Silver and Gold with their Silvery Lilac.This takes ages, but is simple to do, just start dotting at the cuticle end, and alternate all the way to the free edge, overlapping as you go, try it!

The Search For the Perfect Green Continues...

This sadly is not it, it would be if it was a plain colour, but is a micro-fine glitter, beautiful in its own way.

Meet Revlon's Rain Forest, a lovely dark green with micro fine sparkles. Application was a bit patchy sadly, so it took a good 2 coats to opaque, but it has a nice brush which made up for it, not as wide as the Rimmel but flat. Float a coat of Seche Vite on and Voila!

The search for the illusive darkest green however goes on.

MOAR VAMPING!!!!

Who knew......now remember yesterday when I said I had picked up a half price China Glaze for £3.96?
This is it.

 Unlike the No7 from yesterday although the colour is similar, this one has a slight sheen, but it covers beautifully in 1, yes 1 coat! unlike the No7 which took 3 to opaque. The downside was despite a topper of Seche Vite it was slow to dry, I wrecked one 10 minutes later and had to redo. It is called Loft-y Ambitions and it is Vamp-a-Licious!

Vamping.....you know you want to

Most nail polish afficianadoes ( for that read nutters) will admit at some point, they like to *vamp*, there is nothing better than fingertips dipped in dried blood, and if you have  label complex there is only one place to go, Chanel Rouge Noir. If you cant or wont pay £27 for a nail polish you look for a dupe....found one. I was as usual looking for the ultimate green, no glitter, no sheen, just a pure dark forest green...failed again, although I got  close, as I was buying another failure, and I had a £5 voucher I spent £2 on Temptress... dried blood personified.

End of Term Crafty Tips...

Yay! last exam done, last essay in, only the exit interviews to go and ...........summer. Well they call it summer its not been too great so far, not just flooded cuticles round here, the rain has been endless.
I celebrated in my usual Wednesday style, hit the shops. First was for Models own and  a nice little Revlon in the search for the perfect green, still not found it. Didn't come away empty handed though, and then headed to Sally's for a hair colour, and of course they had a half price sale on China Glaze, typical.
Now my local Sally's is small, and their range is a tad 'spare' to say the least, but at £3.96 a bottle I had to employ much restraint and only bought one. More of that later this week maybe.
Today we have these:

'Oh Gods' I hear you say, not another gold, well sort of ( and I LIKE golds!) this is Models own Copper Pot, and it is a gold, but with a coppery/yellowy/green tinge , hard to see here, great in sunlight . The tips are a microfine black craft glitter I picked up a big tub of in a craft shop, usually used for card decorating. I use the tip and dip method with a top coat, then float Seche Vite over the top when its dry. It's a very hungry glitter so I only bother with one coat to seal it, and this bonds it but leaves it matte. I love the tiny coloured sparkles in the black base.

Oh No She Didn't?

Oh yes she did.
No pics today, this is just a short blog post to admit to a cardinal sin...having ordered some more Seche Vite, (because yes I am hooked and getting the large salon top up bottle makes sense) I found  my  half empty bottle is getting a tad gloopy. So rather than spend out for Seche Vite Restore, I used ordinary polish thinners from Sallys. Yes I know , naughty me, but here is the thing...it worked just fine, still dries super fast, and still has a high gloss finish...at a fraction of the cost.

So I am not in the least contrite.

Only One Exam To Go....

Struggling to keep up with blogging at the moment, final week of college and revision up the wazoo, however there is always time to relax with a manicure so I have still been taking the pictures.

Bourjois Violet Bleu with BarryM Lilac Foil Dot design.

 and this is a Revlon scented polish called Gum Drop, lovely colour, nice smell, HATED the polish, 3 coats to opaque, runny, slow to dry, and even after a coat of Seche Vite it dented after an hour.
I did however love the little 3D flowers, which I found in a kiddies nail art kit in my local chemist, £2.50 for 6 little glass vials of different coloured hearts and stars.......Bargain!

In other news I broke  a nail and had to silk wrap it :( but i don't think you can tell which one.

Spot the Difference?

I have never worn Orange before, this is Rimmel's Hot & Spicy. It took a remarkable 3 coats to get an even orange! good job it's from their 60 second range and dried quickly
I's growing on me though.

I dressed it up with a diagonal stripe of matte topcoat, then alternated clear and matted spots with my dotting tool.
I shall be glad when exams are over and I have more time again for daily Mani's.

Raspberry Ripple

ProTip: do not go shopping with your mother when trying to avoid buying nail polish. having already spent my monthly limit in one go online for some delicious China Glaze polishes, I was determined not to buy any more for the rest of the month...Cue my mother and a trip to Superdrug. Mua polish £1 a pop is tempting enough but having a 3 for 2 offer on was just evil....had to be done.

This is Shade 3..they don't seem to have colours, but this is a nice muted Raspberry.

 
..and of course with the sun out it was crying out for some holographic pepping up, so it got a coat of Ma.nish.ma Way Out Fuscia.

Summer is totally here.

It's all about the Bees

Sometimes it just for the sheer fun of it, sometimes it's for a point...there is nothing I like better than combining the two.
It's spring and nothing could be more apt than this mani that's been floating around the internet and I was keen to try, and as the Campaign to save Bees is in need of all our support, I thought now is the time.
Base Coat is BarryM Blue Moon, another pale, tad patchy, but opaque in two good coats, sealed with a coat of Seche Vite to give a good base for the art work using striping pens.
Please visit the link and show your support.

http://www.helpsavebees.co.uk/bee-intro.html

Completely Dotty

I fancied a bit of monochrome fun this week, so by bypassing some nice new glitters on my shelf, I headed for white base. I hate white, never yet found one that covers well, Models Own white of which I own 2 bottles ( don't ask, it is useful for water marbling at least) is appalling and takes at least 3 coats to reach opacity, its gloopy and patchy and ...well nuff said.
BarryM mat white is only slightly better, 2 coats to achieve anything workable, but slow to dry , so I slapped a coat of Rimmel matte finish over it, and got my dotting tools out.Dotting covers a multitude of sins in the white finish :D

That was a week, that was....

After a week of Horrendous Homework I haven't had a chance to blog, let alone do a manicure, endlessly tapping away at the laptop is not conducive to nice nails...and I bit my cuticles again...stress is a nail killer.
However there are a couple of pics of Mani's I managed midweek before the deadline panic set in, and tonight I will treat myself.

This is Rimmel's Aye Aye Sailor, a deep deep dark blue, almost black and lovely, looks great as a ruffian mani over Models Own Mystic Mauve foil effect polish.

and yes BarryM again, this is Denim, although its top coated here its a semi matte finish normally, a really lovely denim blue muted holo sparkle finish. BarryM silver foil special Effects for the signature swirls.

 now I know I have said in the past I am not a 'blue' person, but the fantastic range of darker blues and iridescent blues this season are slowly converting me.

In the Pink..

Today's is a Pink statement, with a Rimmel Strawberry Fizz base, and a Border manicure in Tesco's own 99p All about Nails Raspberry ( surprisingly good nail polish, nice consistency).
I have not done a border mani before, and I am not sure its really me, but I had plenty of compliments and the two colours go together really well.

One for the weekend....

I fancied a nice simple one for the weekend, well as simple as it gets for me.

 This is a base of BarryM Mushroom, as usual lovely consistency, flowed on and was opaque in one coat, then a coat of Rimmel Matte Top Coat, to end up with a lovely suede look, and added a deep french tip in Models Own Gold Rush.

Jelly Sandwich

I know you thought you were going to get a Glitterganza after deliveries yesterday, but It didn't happen, instead I took my favorite red Bourjois Red Diva and made a nice jelly, then made a glitter sandwich with the Kleancolor Chunky Holo Bluebell.

Bourjois is one of the few brands that does a red I really like, not that the jelly does it justice, but it was perfect for the glitter sandwich, the holo performed beautifully leaving dazzling specks of red and lilac peeping through.

Prior to this I needed to do a glitter clean again, now you will have seen the glitter removal tutorial I posted previously, but I am a real fidget and doing nothing for 15 minutes is practically impossible unless I am asleep, so I took the idea a step further...disposable gloves, trickier to do than tin foil, but meant I could touch things while the nails cleaned off.

 15 minutes later and perfect removal.

Naughty Postman

ARGGHHHH! I deliberately waited until the postman had been to do today's mani, and begger me, this turned up later by parcel post. 

Kleancolor Chunky Holo Bluebell

Oh well, at least we know what tomorrow holds...or do we? because these came as well

this could get messy *grin*

FrankenFingers

Last night was a polish heavy event due to all the new goodies so I figured today's mani should be something nice and simple.....yeah right!
When I was a pre-teen many many years ago I remember mixing nail polishes together to get a new colour, it's been a while. Apparently it has a name now , Frankenpolish, quite apt when I think back to some of the muddy monsters I created back then!
Over the years in between bite-fests I have still on occasion mixed colours, usually in my search for the elusive perfect blood red, but not been very adventurous really....until Foil effects, boy are they fun to mix up with other colours, and Holo's and glitters and all things shiny...phew nearly needed a lie down then.

I may have mentioned in passing that I love Models Own/Pro foil effect polishes, and Gold Rush was sitting there tempting me this morning, whilst China Glaze Watermelon Rind was purring softly in the background ( although that may have been one of my cats), so I thought 'why not? time for a wedding'. Now another good reason for keeping a nail blog is pictorial evidence of the mix and the proportions, so.....

The mix here is one coat, 4:1 Gold Rush to watermelon Rind

Two coats of the same, loved the colour but still too gold not enough green so I changed the mix.

This mix is 3:1 Gold Rush to Watermelon Rind

Perfection! hard to show without direct sunlight ( because its spring so its grey and raining again), but the darker it is the greener it is, then flashes gold in natural light.. I am liking it a lot.
I top coated with Seche Vite, which is growing on me not least because it dries so fast.
This one SHALL pass!

Letter to Self

Seeing as I posted the tutorial, I thought what the hell, and gave it a go....not bad for the first attempt!
the only problem is, as usual, the base colour...they always make my hands look grubby, they are really not my colours.

Still, the vodka was nice ;)

The Polished Medic: Newspaper Nails (with Tutorial; alternative method...

The Polished Medic: Newspaper Nails (with Tutorial; alternative method...: If you cannot or do not want to use vodka, please CLICK HERE to see what else you can use. Today, I have for you my first AND second atte...



This tutorial is definitely worth a plug, especially as it has my favorite tipple involved ;)

Postal Stash

eek I am sooo excited I can hardly breathe...ok slight exaggeration, but not by much. The problem with Bank holidays is the post is always delayed, by days...the good thing about Bank holidays is the delayed post always turns up almost all at once...yep we have an Ebay delivery en masse!
Nail Polish? what on earth makes you think that?

laterz.

PS.
this has of course brought to an end the Seche Vite trial, can't be helped need to play with new polish.
However, some comments:
Although there wasn't any noticeable shrinkage, this may have been due to the fact the mani was already set and a day old.
It's still shiny, oh so shiny and the drying time did impress, the price doesn't and I am not sure the benefits justify the price for me, however, I shall be using a Rimmel hi gloss topcoat next to compare.
Tip damage from use is the same on all the nails, so it has not proved any more durable in that sense than the cheaper one.
Oh! and here is a picture of the stash, including my first Essie a little holo mini, and my first China Glazes, has to be done ( also peaking out on the right, yeah, a duplicate BarryM... that's what happens when you go shopping and cant remember what you ordered).

Update:
and now for the mani, it was so hard to choooose *sob* but I picked the china glaze because I had heard such good things, and as there is no sun it made sense not to test out the holo's yet.
I used two coats of China Glaze 'watermelon rind' as a base coat, this flowed on like a dream, I can't tell you how impressed I was, if only they had the Rimmel Pro Maxi Brush it would be perfection itself.
I topped this with a coat of Rimmel Pro Matte finish which gives a pretty cool effect over a semi-glitter.

( yes I have been biting my cuticles again, one step at a time ladies, I didn't bite the NAIL!)

Now came the fun part, I was eager to try out the Shredded Mani with Scotch Tape featured on Chloes Nails but I failed miserably.
Despite getting the scotch tape as un-sticky as I could, it wrecked two nails and I had to touch up the others with my trusty striping brush, and although the ones that did work gave nice crisp lines, I have to say it was just easy and quicker to do it by hand, so on my left hand I did.
Now if you are not confident with a striping brush, I get it, it could be an efficient way to do it, but for me it was too slow, too fiddly and a mess.
The China Glaze 'electrify' however did NOT disappoint, wow what a colour! now it is a glitter so all the issues that come with glitter apply, so my new fave BarryM is way better for gradients, but this POPS!

  ( and YES, I know, Cuticle chewing must STOP!)

Top Coat Challenge

Yes, again today no mani! shocked? I am but that doesn't mean I don't have a post and some pictures. The pictures are of the same mani...and before you ask I haven't been drinking the varnish thinner.
My Boots advantage card finally turned up today, and I had a shedload of points to go on it, I was going to be really good and not buy any varnish as part of the reason I have not done a new mani yet is the fact that I am awaiting goodies in the post, delayed by the miserable Bank Holiday we just had.
So there I am with money on my card and good intentions, and then I spotted something I didn't realise you could get in this country...Seche Vite!  and at £9 a pop I am not sure I am happy about it, cos that is kicking the arse out of it price wise for something I get through gallons of..topcoat.
But hey, the points were found money so I figured at least try it out and see what all the fuss is about.
Now I was at college in the library on a computer, and boy are they serious about no spillables near the hardware, but I could not resist a sneak preview, so I opened the bottle and did my pinky nail, nearly got caught cos it is not without a certain pungent odour, nothing nasty, just strongish, but it quickly dissipated.
Boy this stuff dries fast, now admittedly the mani was done two days ago so was well set and very hard, but the Seche Vite dried in literally seconds, and shiney, its really glossy and shiney :D ok so what? its shiny, it is shinier than my normal, not that cheap, cheapy topcoat, I mean I use a LOT of topcoat changing my mani daily, so I figure lets test the Seche Vite's other properties, durability, non-chipping etc etc...so the mani stays, all nails bar one got a coat, I left one as a test nail with just the old topcoat on. Now as usual the sun went in at photo time, so it may be hard to tell from the photos, but can you tell which nail doesn't have a coat? I can definitely tell the difference close up, but not sure that alone can justify the £9 a bottle, we shall see.

I will test this for a few days for durability, then use it on a plain mani to see if I cant show off the shiney a bit more.

Glitter Gerrof!

Yes I know it's Bank Holiday Monday, but there will be no Mani today...shock!
The thing is ii like last nights so much I am keeping it, not quite a first but nearly, and I have actually extended it to my toes. It looks awesome although my toenails are not as recovered as my fingernails ( no, I did not bite my toenails, ewwww, did pick at them though)
I only did two colours on the toes, as three was hard to fit on, the main problem was removing the old pedi which was layers and layers of foil and glitter, looked great but a real bugger to remove.
This is why I am not a glitter girl, but I may have found a solution. I am sure all you nail crazies out there already know this, but I am going to share it anyway, because it worked a treat.

How to remove glitter nail polish

with gratitude to

Sarahlouise1986 over at Spellbinding Nails

BarryM Rocks My World

Ok so now we have caught up a bit, lets check out today's mani. I went shopping for pork this morning, I found pork, but a slight detour into superdrug sent me home with a handful of BarryM's again. I completed the foils set and started on these:
Black Multi Glitter 333
Silvery Lilac 324
Copper 335
I also picked up Denim 325 but 4 colours on one nail as a gradient was kicking the arse out of it even for me.
Base coat was the Black Multi, the other two were sponged on, which always surprises me as to how easy and quick it is to get an awesome effect.

Now this is not a great photo, I will try for a better one tomorrow, we are seriously in need of some sun down south before I get my Holo's out.

hard to see the colours, but let me tell you , Katniss Everdeen! eat your heart out.

Catch Up

 This one was foil, its called elven green and is a nice green/gold smudgy look, the tips are done with one of my favorite Foil polishes, Cuter Pewter by Models Own.

 I cant recall which lilac this was, ver possible a Beauty UK one called Soft Lilac No59 because thats the one I use for water marbling pastels.The white lace is down with a Nailstar nail art pen ( I treated myself to a set of 60 colours.....well I did SAY it was an obsession!)

 The base on this is one of my very favorite colours by Models Own 'Mystic Mauve' half zebras done with nail art pens.

 Now I am not a big fan of Blue, and yet a seem to own a lot of them base is Models Own 'Feeling Blue' abstracts with nail art pens, topped off with Models Own 'Bluebell' glittery coat.

 I had been meaning to try this one for a while, however, although it came out very wel, I dont like it, its too fussy for me and takes too long to do each nail.

 Animal prints YEAH BABY! love these, Base coat is the love Models Own 'Mystic Mauve' foil polish, pens for the print, and Beauty UK 'Soft Lilac' for the spots.

 Ok , now I LOVE water marble effect, but we all know its a messy old business doing it, and pastels are nos SO last week, this is a fave effect though, Beauty UK 'Voodoo' and Models Own 'Cuter Pewter' base and in the mix.The great thing about some foils is they dissipate so well in water, leaving the red 'jelly' looking as if its the only colour there.

 I adore matte finishes, I use Rimmels matte top coat so I can apply it on any colour I own, It dries quick and goes totally matte not satin.Great over glitters too.

 Sigh, loving the gold foils as usual, this is a Models Own Pro 'Golden Globe' a more orange gold than my usual.

 Sometimes I just like to funk it up, Deadpool and anarchy on one hand? OH YEAH!

Do you remember back when BarryM first came out? I do, they were considered cheap and nasty, I loved them. well they are still inexpensive, but...oh boy the colours, this is BarryM 'Navy' , its lush , iridescent, and oh my word is it glossy, perfect for this Ruffian mani, combined with Models Own 'Sterling Silver' foil polish.

I am not a BIG glitter fan, I prefer foils and Holo's, but this is 'DiscoMix' Hedkandi by Models Own and I couldn't resist it, it's laid on over a base coat of BarryM Limited Edition Effects 'Lilac Foil' and then a matte top coat leaving the tips free to glitter. 24 hours later despite ts perfect look I was swearing at it as I attempted to remove it .