Sunday 29 June 2014

Neon Dotticure

Today I have another super summery look!
This weeks Simples challenge is a dotticure using different sized dots together. So this is what I came up with:



I really like this. It reminds me of glow-sticks! I think a splatter mani in these colours would be amazing!

I used Barry M Matt White as a base colour.
Then I did the dots with dotting tools, using Sinful Colours Cream Pink, La Femme Beauty Ultra Green and W7 Fluorescent Yellow which I placed randomly around the nails.

Saturday 28 June 2014

Tropical Leaves

Last week I discovered this lovely website, Print and Pattern. I saved it straight away, knowing it would be great for Nail art inspiration. So today, when I needed help thinking of something to paint I headed here for ideas!



 This is what I came up with! I found the pretty pattern below, which is by Holly Maguire Illustration and loved it so this was my inspiration! Simple to paint without much difficulty, but pretty and summery at the same time!



Here is a close up of the flower:


I painted this completely using polish.
 The white base colour is Barry M Matt White. 
The pink and green are both OPI; Kiss Me I'm Brazilian and AmazON, AmazOFF.
The Yellow is a Sally Hansen Sugar Coat polish in Sweetie.

I really like this! And it's not very often I have so much Green on my nails so it's a nice change!

Wednesday 25 June 2014

Glitter, Glitter and More Glitter!!

So, I went a little overboard on the glitter today!! Used 4 different glitter polishes!

My mani is also different on each hand, as I got a bit carried away experimenting, but nevermind! 


So this is how I started out, on my left hand. I used a base colour of Sally Hansen Fucshia Flare. On most fingers this was followed by a coat of Pretty, Pink Polka Dot, which is a clear base with pink small and large hexagonal glitter. On my Index finger I tried to create a sort of glitter jelly sandwich! I did a coat of Pretty Scatter Effect, followed by a coat of Pretty Polka Dot Effect, followed by another coat of Scatter Effect!
I love how this finger turned out! 


 I then topped the whole thing with another glitter - Barry M Diamond.
Before doing my right hand I realised how similar the Pretty Scatter Polish looks to Barry M's White Sequin Effect Polish.


So of course, I had to test them out next to each other for a proper comparison. I haven't used the Barry M polish before, so can't compare with old pics! 
Turns out they are nothing like each other!! I hadn't realised the Barry M polish was textured. It was also more opaque than I expected and the overall outcome was not very nice!!


I removed all polish from that finger and started again. This time doing just 2 coats of the Barry M, without a base colour. It looks much better like this, but I'm still not keen on the texture. I'm just not a lover of textured polish in general.


Once again, I finished with a coat of Barry M Diamond.
Here are your left to right comparisons:


I think I actually prefer my right hand. Which do you prefer?

I seem to have waffled on an awful lot in this post today. Sorry about that, and well done if you made it this far!!!



Sunday 22 June 2014

Leopard Print

Today I have a tried a pink Leopard print look. This is something I have seen around a lot but it never really appeals to me. For some reason though, I felt like giving it a go!


I used Sally Hansen Strawberry Icing for the base colour, which is much pinker than it appears here (There is a more colour accurate picture at the bottom of this post). The spots were done with Barry M Silk in Heather, and outlined with Barry M Black.


I actually really like how this mani turned out. I think the colours work really well together.

I liked my Left and Right shots I did on my last post, so here they are again!! This may become a regular thing, although I find it difficult to photograph my right hand, as I shake too much and they end up blurred!


This picture is a little more colour accurate than the rest as it was taken in natural light.


When I was in Kenya, I actually saw a Leopard on Safari, so I am adding this to my Kenya Inspired posts, although I haven't done any of those for a while!
Here he is... Just chilling in a tree!




Thursday 19 June 2014

Red Roses and Dots

Here is my latest mani! I love it so much! Had so many lovely comments on these nails over the past few days. I had to use falsies for this though. :(  Two of my nails snapped whilst cleaning, so I had to cut them all short.


I used Barry M Matt White, Rimmel Red, Steady, Go! and Sally Hansen Kiwi Bikini for this.
I was so pleased with this mani that you even get a rare shot of both hands!! I think I may even prefer the Right hand. Although the dots aren't as even, I think the roses turned out better!
I was a little impatient with my topcoat on these so there is a little bit of smudging, especially on my thumb!


The sun is making me lazy with blogging these past few days. I've had my nails like this since Monday, but only just got around to posting them! Woops!

Monday 16 June 2014

Saran Wrap

Last week for the Simples group, the challenge was to do a Saran Wrap mani.
I had a go but mine was not very successful in the end (here, if anyone really wants to see!), so I decided to have another go at the weekend!

This was the outcome:


I much prefer them to my last attempt and may even be  beginning to like Saran Wrap mani's!! 
This time I chose to use more contrasting colours, to make the effect more obvious, as I felt this was the biggest problem last time (OPI, Where Did Suzi's Man-Go? and Barry M Black). I also used a 'dabbing-off' technique, rather than dabbing the second colour on, which I did last time. I think this was much more successful! :)

Sunday 15 June 2014

OPI, Where Did Suzi's Man-Go?

Here is the next swatch from the OPI Brazil Copaca Babies Collection.
This is 'Where Did Suzi's Man-go?', which is a pale orangey crème.


I am in love with this colour! It's a really one off in-between type colour. I would say it's somewhere between pastel orange and peach. However, my boyfriend described it as Coral. I would say Coral is a bit pinker, but you get the point, this isn't really any particular colour!

As with the other OPI's in the collection, I found it applied quite streaky, needing 3 coats for an even, opaque finish. I have decided this streakiness might be something to do with the brush rather than the formula, as it doesn't seem to hold the polish very well and I find myself re-dipping between every stroke. However, I found this one dried smoother than the other two I have tried and has a much shinier finish. The picture is without topcoat.

I am much happier with this one than the first two. :) 
Hopefully the last one, 'Kiss Me I'm Brazilian' will be more like this too!

Friday 13 June 2014

Father's Day Nails

For Father's Day I have painted my nails based on a passion of my Dad's!
His Classic Car, a Morris Minor 1000. This was very tricky!!


I used Barry M Matt White as a base colour. I then used a black Berol to carefully draw on the front half of a Morris Minor. I based this on the picture below, which can also be found here. This was very difficult and I have to admit, this was my second attempt!! The first was not so successful, although I am reasonable happy with these. 
I painted my Index finger with Barry M Black, to represent the oil this car leaks really badly and which my Dad ends up covered in whenever he work's on the car!!
I then used a Barry M Blue Crackle polish on my other fingers and also on the background of my ring finger, to make the car stand out more. His car is white/cream, so I left the car itself as it is.
I finished with a Primark Matt Topcoat on all except the black finger. As this finger represents oil, I thought it should be left shiny!


I did this mani to enter into the Nailpolis Father's Day Contest, which can be found here.


Sunday 8 June 2014

Lace Saran

This week's Simples technique was Saran Wrap.


I used Sally Hansen Fuchsia Flare as my base colour, then dabbed on Sinful Colours Cream Pink and Barry M Papaya. These blended much more than I had hoped, creating a very, very subtle saran effect! You can tell if you look very closely but only just!

If you haven't already realised, I can never leave my nails plain, so I had to add some nail art! I used white acrylic paint to paint a lace design onto my nails, varying the pattern between each nail. I then finished with a matte top coat.
I really like these! My middle finger didn't quite turn out as planned but overall I still like them. :)






Thursday 5 June 2014

L'Oreal Confetti

Last weekend I had a little haul of 5 new polishes.

One of these was a L'Oreal Confetti called Graffiti D'Amour, which is a matte hexagonal glitter. I absolutely fell in love with this and couldn't wait to try it! I wouldn't normally buy these due to their price, but Superdrug had a 3 for 2 offer on!


I love it! My biggest problem was what colour to wear underneath it!! As it had white, pink and red pieces, it was difficult to find a colour which would go with all three, without hiding one of the colours.
So I used a grey accent nail. This is Sinful Colours Cool Gray and the red is Rimmel Red, Steady, Go (Both also new buys!).
It goes on nicely, with a reasonable spread of glitter pieces, although I did have to place some of them to ensure I had no bare patches.


Overall, I am glad I bought this polish! :) After using it I still love it as much as I do in the bottle!