Snowflake Nails (plus bonus Christmas dog!)

 

I have been very lax recently - no excuse, but my nails have been shocking.  Partially cos I keep doing really stupid things, and knocking the corners of them off!  And then I decided to try thinning scissors out on my cocker spaniel, and ending up thinning my index finger instead - ouch!  You might notice in the pics below that I am tucking my index finger a little out of view - no-one needs to see that....

But it's December and I am seeing snowflake mani's everywhere, so thought I would try out my Bundle Monster plate 323 that I have been saving for a suitably festive period!

To start with though, I started with two coats of OPI Cuckoo For This Color, a gorgeous teal green shimmer.  Over the top, I tried something I have been waiting to try for ages - Models Own Jack Frost, a fine - medium irredescent glitter.  Really lovely and I wished I had taken some pics before I stamped over the top, as the snowflakes somewhat obliterate it, but I may try it on its own over another colour another day.  Really pretty and insanely sparkly!

Then the final stamping, with a few accents using bits of glitter from OPI I Snow You Love Me.  Very festive!

Base coat Orly Bonder
2 coats OPI Cuckoo For This Color
Stamped with BM323 and Konad Special Polish White
Top coat Seche Vite
Glitter accents from OPI I Snow You Love Me

 

 

And completely off topic, here is the pic I took of Lottie, my eleven month old spaniel, which I am waiting to arrive on custom printed Christmas cards!  The portable studio lighting and tripod I use for photographing my nails came in very useful!!!   However, Lottie is in her first season at the moment, so is mooching around like a hormonal teenager....  oestrogen has a lot to answer for!

OPI Grape....Set....Match

 

Apologies for the lack of posting for over a week - work has been mental and have been travelling to various locations around the country to do roadshow presentations, which has been fairly exhausting.  I did do what was meant to be a lovely mani at the beginning of the week, and it turned out so pants that I couldn't bring myself to post it  sure we've all those mani's before!  Topped of with having to cut all my nails short as I managed to damage about four of them in quick succession (hefting laptops around in rucksacks while travelling around didn't help). 

OPI Grape...Set...Match... was from a Serena Williams Grand Slam Duo from a couple of years ago.  It is a gorgeous, true royal purple shimmer, adorned with a mixture of fuschia pink and electric blue microglitter.  One of my favourite purples and I don't wear it nearly enough!  It is a little sheer, but builds up nicely -  I did use three coats for this mani.

I remembered seeing a gorgeous Indian pattern of the same purple and gold, so decided to use my Bundle Monster 2012 plate 312, and stamped with Barry M Foil Effects in Gold.  As I didn't want to cover up the gorgeous purple too much, I did it just one on accent nail, and added a few dots (oh I love dots!) on the rest of my nails.  Good job really - I am terrible at centring stamping still, but on one nail I think I can just about get away with it! Oh well, I didn't even do any stamping till about a month or so ago, so can only get better....

Base coat Orly Bonder
3 coats OPI Grape...Set....Match...
Top coat Seche Vite
Stamped / Dotted with Barry M Foil Effects in Gold

Orly Star Spangled

I was quite excited to see that for the December issue of Cosmopolitan magazine (UK), they are giving away a choice of four mini Orly shades.  Well, of course I had to get one!

The one I went for was this - Star Spangled.  I didn't have a red glitter in my stash, whereas the other shades available (Country Club Khaki, Naughty and Hair Band) were a little similar at least to what I already have.  I also was excited to try it, as I read that it was a good alternative to China Glaze Ruby Pumps, arguably one of the best red glitters you can get, and which sadly I don't have at the moment.

It is a beautiful deep red jelly, packed with bits of red glitter and when you see this in the sun, it just glows.  Application was lovely, even with the annoying tiny mini brush, as I found with all my (disappointingly small....at the moment) collection of Orly, although it did take three coats to build up to opacity (and it's still not quite opaque).  I just love this polish - the fact it was a freebie was amazing!  I may well have to order a full size bottle though.

I also decided to do an accent with it, so on my ring finger, I did a base of Barry M Lychee, and stamped Bundle Monster plates 311 and 303, using Konad Special Polish in black and dark red respectively.  It's like a tiny love letter, kissed with red lipstick!  Had lots of compliments on my nails today - I hope you like it too!

Base coat Orly Bonder
3 coats Orly Star Spangled
Top coat Seche Vite

Models Own Southern Lights & Bundle Monster 321

 

Just a quick one - I thought the sparkliness of Models Own Southern Lights was so gorgeous, that I would try stamping over it, as I didn't want to take it off just yet.  I wanted to keep it quite subtle so I used the flower image from Bundle Monster plate 321 from the 2012 collection and stamped it with Konad White Special Stamping polish - I like the effect, it looks rather wintery!  The snowflakes would look lovely as well, but I didn't want to use them as I have some very pretty snowflake stickers that I want to use at some point, so went with the flowers this time.  Getting better at this stamping malarkey!

As before, I had to take these under my kitchen lights to try and get a hint of the sparkle (nothing like what you see in real life!) so apologies for seeing anything like shadows and tiles in the background.

Base coat Orly Bonder
2-3 coats Southern Lights
Top coat Seche Vite
Stamped with plate BM321 and Konad Special Stamping Polish in White

 

 

Models Own Southern Nights

I did say I was going to stamp something pretty over the Barielle Secret Encounter that I swatched the other day, but don't you just know it, less than 24 hours later, massive chips everywhere put me off!

So here we have another untried - Models Own Southern Lights from their Wonderland collection.   Southern Lights is a lilacy grey base, PACKEDD with fairly fine holo glitter.  The sparkle on this one is just WOW (I ended up painting my best friends four-year-olds nails with this too, but good for girlies young and old!). 

This would be great layered over another colour (I will try this at some point) or, as I did here, just layer it up until opaque.  I used 2-3 coats to get an opaque finish - it is a little rough textured, so I used Seche Vite to smooth the whole thing over.

Of course, holo is quite difficult to photograph, and I did my best but not that happy - and then I went into my kitchen with overhead halogen lights, and immediately found my rather large light box (my kitchen cabinets are cream, so are the backdrop haha).  So the first couple of pics are my normal light box, so you can see the soft lilacy-grey and then the last one is with my kitchen lights!  Unfortunately it did make my hands turn the colour of lobster....

Base coat Orly Bonder
2-3 coats Southern Lights
Top coat Seche Vite

 

Barielle Secret Encounter

 

This is another Barielle polish I picked up on a mahoosive TK Maxx visit, a couple of months ago now, but has remained untried till now.  I don't know why - it is so my sort of colour.  A deep, rich, burgundy, plummy purply colour with the most gorgeous fuschia shimmer that only shows in the brightest of lights.

I will probably do some kind of stamping over this later, but love this so much, I just had to show it in its virgin polish goodness.  Unfortunately it was so damn glossy, it was quite hard to photograph!

Base coat Orly Bonder
2 coats Secret Encounter
Top coat Seche Vite

 



Team Helmer!

I can finally join team Helmer - picked one up the other day, put it together without too much swearing and then even managed to customise it a little with some wall stickers I picked up from Ikea at the same time.  Fits in beautifully underneath my desk (Ikea desk as well, so guessing it was made to fit as standard) - I think it looks okay! 

And of course, Lottie had to get in on the photographing - my pup is such a poser.  I am still figuring the best way for me to organise it, but I still have a relatively small collection (less than 200) so currently it is separated by various brands in four of the drawers, I have a nail art drawer and a nail care drawer.  If you have one, how have you organised yours?

 

Barry M Plum with Born Pretty Store stamping plate QA27

 

It's getting colder and colder, and we are heading further and further into the recesses of winter, so decided to go with something dark and vampy.  This is Barry M Plum, from their Gelly Hi-Shine range.

I didn't do the best job with application on this one - was probably not concentrating as much as I should have been - but it is a gorgeous, deep vampy plum, which to my eyes dries a little darker than the bottle, but like the rest of the range, has a gorgeous, smooth shiny finish, which you don't need top coat over.  I actually have about seven bottles from this range now - perhaps I should do a swatch of them?

Over the top, I used a plate I had picked up ridiculously cheaply on my last order from Born Pretty Store but hadn't used yet.  Having only used Bundle Monster and Konad so far, I am actually quite impressed with the quality for the price - seems to stamp cleanly for me (not that my stamping technique is the best).  I used a Konad Special Stamping Polish in a bronzy colour - sorry, I don't know the names of my stamping polishes (well apart from black and white of course) - I grabbed a load when they were selling them for £2.00 each and the mini bottles don't have names on!

And I am rather excited - I am on a weeks leave from work and planning a trip to Ikea to get my very own Helmer!  I don't have NEARLY enough to fill it, but hey - nothn' wrong with a little room to grow, is there?

 

Models Own Amethyst (Velvet Goth)

Before anything else, please excuse the shape of my index finger nail.  I knew I shouldn't have mentioned a week or so ago that I was happy how my nails were looking - on Saturday I lost the corner of that nail by catching it on the lead attached to a very excited puppy.  And don't even mention my ring finger nail on my right hand - currently being held together by a teabag!  Oh well, they soon grow again!  But I have had to take the length right down, and the nail on my index finger is a rather odd shape at the moment....

Today I've got for you Amethyst, from the Models Own Velvet Goth collection which I picked up as part of a special offer from Boots.  The best way I can describe Velvet Goth polishes are heavily glittered polishes, which are then mattifyed to boot.

I found application a bit gloopy for me, but that may have just been my bottle.  Amethyst is a gorgeous royal purple - much more red leaning than I could capture in the photos, even with a bit of tweaking, but hopefully I got fairly close.  The glitter in it is a mix of deep fuchsia pink small glitter (which sadly didn't come out too well in the photos), and very fine silver glitter.  It is an interesting effect - a cross between a textured and a matt polish, but being a huge fan of glitter, it felt a little wasted to me to not have the sparkle there.

Although, quick tip, I was in a meeting this afternoon and absent mindedly scratching the surface of the polish, which suddenly got some of the tiny bits of silver glitter sparkling!  I wonder what effect a light buffing might have?

Anyway, back to business.  As I love my sparklies so much, I whacked a coat of Seche Vite over the top.  Wowzers - all of a sudden, the purple became so much richer and the glitter just started to pop. 

So my vote would be with a topcoat.  Which way do you prefer?

Base coat OPI Nail Envy Original
2 coats Amethyst
Top coat Seche Vite where applicable



Without topcoat



Without topcoat

With topcoat

With topcoat

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Sparkling Roses with Essie Sew Psyched and Barielle Stardust

 

I asked a friend at work what she would like to see me do as a mani  "Pink with delicate flowers on".  Well, I started out with a pink paint job, but it just didn't suit me that day, if you know what I mean.  So I thought "What else would go with pink roses?" having already decided I wanted to use some of my rose decals from Born Pretty Store, and thought a soft green would go nicely.

I only actually have one soft green, but what a lovely green it is.  Essie Sew Psyched is a gorgeous, dusty sage green crème and always applies perfectly in two coats.  And then, I had one of those random thought of "I wonder what will happen if...." and layered a coat of Barielle Stardust over the top.   I had picked it up with a set of four, ridiculously cheaply at TK Maxx last month, and hadn't tried it yet and there it was, twinkling suggestively away in its bottle, just waiting for me to crack it open.

Stardust is a clear base, packed with small irredescent pieces of glitter, that look for the most part white in the bottle.  Layer over a colour (and it applies wonderfully evenly with loads of glitter in one stroke) and you can see it coming to life with blues, greens and silvers.  A really, really beautiful glitter. 

And then finished off with water decals of pink roses, which I bought last month from Born Pretty Store.  So pretty - I love the one with the little bud on it.  And with the glitter, it made me think of roses in rain or dew.  I love this mani and will be sad to take it off.

Base coat Orly Bonder
2 coats Essie Sew Psyched
1 coat Barielle Stardust
1 coat Seche Vite

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

OPI DS Glamour

 

Still full of yucky cold, so did a simple paint job, but with one of my most beautiful and prized polishes - OPI DS Glamour.  This was one of my very first lemmings, and when I got it, I almost didn't want to use it because I didn't want it to run out!  But of course, polishes are made to be worn.  Especially when your sinuses feel like big wads of cotton wool....

This is just a perfect polish - a gorgeous blue with a beautiful linear holo shimmer scattered through it.  It's just a pity there are no direct sunlight shots, but chance would be a fine thing!  It applies flawlessly in two coats (although not absolutely perfect, I didn't do any cleanup on this mani) and I just LOVE it.  Why, oh why did OPI stop making these original DS polishes?!   I didn't use any topcoat on this polish either. 

I was debating stamping over it, and couldn't - sometimes a polish is just perfect on its own.  Apologies about the pic overkill - I was trying to get all its different nuances under varying light sources.

As an aside, I am quite pleased with the general state of my nails at the moment - they are finally in a shape I am happy with (although I have a small split on my right hand....aaaargh!) and are growing like weeds.  All the cuticle oil and hand lotion I am slathering on seems to be doing its job!

Base coat Orly Bonder
2 coats OPI DS Glamour

 

Black and gold

I was streaming with cold when I did this (well, still am) and just wanted to do something simple.  So I did 2 coats of Barry M (a really nice glossy black) and instead of sponging the tips, I sponged the base of my nails with OPI Goldeneye.

Of course, this backfired, as I now had fingers COVERED in gold glitter which was a complete pain in the arse to get off!  Nevertheless, I do like the combination of black and gold, and may still do my original idea soon, which was a black and gold skittle mani.  Just need to get rid of this damn cold first!

Base coat Orly Bonder
2 coats Barry M Black
Sponged OPI Goldeneye
Top coat Seche Vite

 

 

Models Own Mystic Mauve & Purple Ash triangles

This is just a simple taped mani (sometimes my taping is good, sometimes terrible - today was "meh") using two polishes from Models Own - Mystic Mauve and Purple Ash.  I have also used OPI I Snow You Love Me from the Mariah Carey Holiday Collection 2013, but I will do a proper swatch on that at some point, as I didn't use it as a polish in this mani, I just picked bits out!

Mystic Mauve is a foil effect pale lilacy colour - very pretty and applies smoothly with hardly any streaking.  Purple Ash is a gorgeous dusty purple creme - I love this colour!   Again, it applies smoothly and as an aside, I really get on well with Models Own brushes! 

To finish off, I embellished the point of each triangle, using OPI I Snow You Love Me as a glequin source!  It actually worked okay - the pics don't show the holo effect massively, but there is a pattern on each circle, so it gives a pleasing 3d effect on the nail, while still laying flat. 

Base coat OPI Nail Envy
2 coats Mystic Mauve / Purple Ash, plus additional taping layer
Glitter from OPI I Snow You Love Me
Top coat Seche Vite

 

 

Off Topic Thursday: Meet Lottie!

Lottie - 9 months

I've been asked a couple of times about the puppy on my avatars, so thought I should get round to showing her off a bit! Her name is Lottie, and she is a nine month old English Cocker Spaniel in red/gold.  And the name of this blog is a small tribute to her! The Paws bit, that is, not the Polished bit - she would live in mud if she could!

 

I had wanted a cocker for many, many years.  Decades in fact, since I fell in love with a little golden girl at the age of seven, but until a year ago I lived in London where it simply wasn't practical (second floor shared flat, no garden, dog walkers expensive etc).  Then, my job relocated to Milton Keynes, and after not enjoying the daily commute for a few months, decided to up sticks and move to a little country village on the outskirts of MK.  And within a few months, a tiny ten week old furbaby came home. 

Every day, I think I struck gold with Lottie - she has a beautiful temperament, is obedient and just loves every man, woman, child and dog out there, although I have dedicated quite a lot of time to training.  As I type this, she is curled up on my feet - I love this little lady to bits.  She does go mud-snorkelling, as one of the pics will attest to, but I am becoming expert at seeing the bogs before she does!!   Enjoy the pics below - a selection from 6 weeks to today.  Please excuse the photo quality - nearly all of these are mobile snaps. It is so difficult to photograph a bouncy puppy! 

First day home - 10 weeks

 

The day I knew she was the one - 6 weeks

Helping in the garden - 12 weeks

Posing with a new collar - 14 weeks

Looking tiny in a new bed - around 20 weeks

Working those eyes - 24 weeks

A week or two before her first groom - 8 months
 

Guess who's been mud snorkelling!  8 months

Turning into quite the little lady.  8 1/2 months