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!

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

 

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

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

 

 

Peacock Feather nails

 

I picked up some silver peacock feather water decals from Hail the Nails ages ago, so decided to try them out today.

The decals are all silver, so wanted a way to bring all the peacocky colours in, so I started with a base of OPI Yoga-ta Get This Blue, and sponged on randomly patches of OPI Catch Me In Your Net (a very awesome polish of turquoise glitter) and OPI Goldeneye, much like you would with a galaxy manicure I believe (I haven't tried one yet).

I then added the water decals and put a tiny little bright blue rhinestone in the centre of each feather "eye", which I got from Born Pretty Store.  They could have done with being a bit bigger,  but I only have 1.5mm rhinestones....at the moment.  I fully intend on ordering a rainbow set of 2mm ones soon! 

Finished off with lots of Seche Vite.   Having had a disaster with designs earlier in the week, which I removed without a hint of a camera in a strop, I'm fairly pleased with how these turned out!

 

Models Own Banger over OPI Russian Navy

Tis my birthday, so decided I wanted somethin' sparkly on my nubbins!  I picked up Models Own Banger the other week, which is from the Fireworks collection, a set of glitters.  This one is made up of small fuchsia glitter, large hexagonal blue glitter, medium hexagonal pale blue glitter and strips of holo blue/green glitter (think there's a few other varieties in there as well!).  And the bottle is PACKED with glitter - no fishing around with your brush with this one. Fabulous in other words!  I really love the mix of different shapes, and the blues, greens and pinks are just lovely.

Although I love layering glitters over black, I don't want to be a one trick pony, so I did a base of OPI Russian Navy, a deep blue/black, which set it off beautifully.  Banger is named well - reminds me of fireworks in the night sky!

Base coat Orly Bonder, 2 coats Russian Navy, 2 coats Banger, top coat Seche Vite.

 

 

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

OPI Make Him Mine (Mariah Carey Holiday 2013)

After trying my first sand effect polish from Claire's, and being rather wonderfully surprised at how pretty it was, I decided to try one of the gorgeous Liquid Sand shades from OPI's Mariah Carey Holiday 2013 collection - Make Him Mine. 

This is a gorgeous soft, rose gold shade (and I loooove rose gold), though very subtle.  Described by OPI as "textured glistening rose", it has a gorgeous shimmer to it with medium pieces of glitter, and is a very flattering shade (would be work appropriate as well I think, if you are restricted to the colours you wear).  My only small gripe would be that after two coats, I still have some visible nail line, so I think it would take 3 coats to make fully opaque.

I'm thinking that this could potentially make a nice textured gradient with the Claire's one that I reviewed here as well.....

Base coat Orly Bonder, 2 coats Make Him Mine.

And as a bonus, I spent 6 hours doing hardcore gardening on Sunday and managed not to break a single nail.   Amazing!  Although I have now tempted fate, and I'll probably break one on a cushion, or something stupid like that.... 

Breast Cancer Awareness Month October 2013 - Pink Friday mani!

So we are in October, and the whole of October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, with "Pink Fridays".  So perfect excuse to do a pink themed mani!

Now, I will say right up I wasn't particularly happy with it - it's cute, but it didn't go particularly smoothly.  Plus those tip images on stamping plates are a bugger to get straight!

So, to start of with, 3 coats of China Glaze Something Sweet.  On my little finger, Barielle Pink Diamond - a really beautiful pink glitter.  I did a silver sponged gradient on two nails, using Barry M Foil Effect in silver which is probably the bit I was most miffed with as I completely botched my middle finger (but was too tired and ran out of time to do it again). Stamping is done with Bundle Monster plates BM324 and BM321 and a Konad Special Polish in one of the pinks (sorry, don't know which one - I have the tiny little bottles and can't find it on them!) and then finished off with tiny little pink crystals to accentuate, from Born Pretty Store.  And COPIOUS amounts of Seche Vite....

 Well, at least it's massively pink!!!

Barry M Guava with Barielle Starchild glitter tips

Barry M Guava is another polish from their Gelly collection.  I love these polishes - they are so glossy and high-shine, apply beautifully and have the most vibrant colours.  Guava is a gorgeous deep turquoise / aqua shade - another tricky one to capture, but I think it leans a little more green in real life.

I picked up a set of Barielle glitters from TK Maxx the other day (five for £8 - bargainous!) and used Starchild to daub on simple glitter tips over Guava.  Starchild is a clear base with a mixture of hexagonal holo glitters and a finer holo glitter.  It looks a little similar at first glance to my OPI Servin' Up Sparkle, but I haven't done a direct comparison, nor have I looked closely at SUS for quite a while.  Anything holo is always good though, and Starchild is gorgeous.

Base coat OPI Nail Envy, 2 coats Guava, top coat Seche Vite.

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Claire's Sand Effect Purple

I have always shied away from textured polishes - initially the cream ones really didn't appeal, but then the glittery ones started coming in and they peaked my interest somewhat more (I am still not keen on the cream varieties).  But I still hadn't tried one for myself until now - I was about to order some of the OPI Mariah Carey Christmas 2013 collection, which I will probably still do, but out on my wanderings, I went into Claire's for the first time in years, and saw they had a surprisingly large range of polishes now, including some "Sand Effect" ones. 

And I have been converted - this one is a gorgeous lilac that applies perfectly in two coats, and dries to a gorgeous, sandy yet even textured finish, that twinkles in the light.  I love purple anyway, and this really did pleasantly surprise me with the quality and ease of application - for £4.50, way to go Claire's!  I will be paying another visit very soon....

The last picture was taken with a flash, to try and capture the twinkle.

Base coat Orly Bonder, 2 coats Sand Effect Purple, no top coat.

 

 

OPI In The Cable Car Pool Lane & OPI Goldeneye Reverse French Manicure

In The Cable Car Pool Lane is from the OPI San Francisco Collection 2013 and it is a deep, wine red / burgundy jelly.  It is so shiny that I had great problems photographing this and you can see annoying reflections in nearly all the photos!  Nevertheless, it is a gorgeous colour - I always have a weakness for these deep berry colours, so it's a winner for me.

To glam it up a bit, I paired it with Goldeneye, another OPI polish from the Skyfall Collection in 2012. after seeing the combo over on Nailz Craze in a different mani.  I decided to do a reverse French manicure, just to have a hint of the gold, but really, my photos do this polish a serious disservice.  This is probably the most stunning gold polish I have worn, a perfect warm, yellow gold.  It is a densely packed glitter, but after about three coats, builds up to an almost foil finish and is absolutely beautiful, sparkling in the light.  Well, apart from the light around my camera that is.

And as ever, you do what looks like the perfect mani to the naked eye - but once you take the photos and zoom in, it don't look quite so good!  Oh well, I think I'll start doing all my mani's under a humungous magnifying glass!

I've taken some pics with flash and without to try and capture them, but for both these polishes, the photos seriously under-represent what they look like in real life!

Base coat Orly Bonder, three coats Goldeneye, two coats In The Cable Car Pool Lane, top coat Sally Hensen Insta-Dri.

 

With flash

Without flash

Without flash

With flash