Hello!
A few weeks ago, I won a competition ran by Superdrug/Barry M on Instagram. I was expecting to receive the new Speedy-Dry collection as my prize, but when it came I got so much more! I did receive the full speedy-dry collection (9 polishes) but I also got the three new spring gellys and the new plumpy topcoat. I was thrilled! But on top of all of these gorgeous polishes, I also got a massive range of make-up brushes (which I've passed on to my sister as I don't really wear a lot of make-up) and some make-up bits including a cheek contour kit and two gelly lip paints. I've kept the two lip paints because the colours are gorgeous, and my sister has got the other bits. All in all, a FANTASTIC prize that must have been worth quite a bit. A lot more than I was expecting and it was great to be able to share some of it with my sister as well!!
So I was eager to try the new gelly shades. I'd actually already purchased Cotton (the white) but I'm glad to have another because it's a perfect white, and I go through white polish quite a lot as I often use it in nail art. The two other shades I'd resisted buying as I thought they were quite similar to gelly shades I already had. But they're absolutely beautiful and I'm so glad I now own them - they are actually quite unique and not too similar to any colours I already own.
The pink is called Fondant (love that name) and it's kind of a muted pastel pink, with a bit of a purple tone to it. Much more dusky and pigmented than the other pale pink gelly I have, Rosehip. The blue is called Sky Blue (not as imaginative a name!) and I'd thought it was going to be like Huckleberry and Elderberry, but it's not. It's much brighter and a really gorgeous shade of blue, lovely for spring.
I created these nails as I'd not done flowers for a while and they're easy to create with a dotting tool. I added a stud to one flower-middle per nail to make them more interesting. I also added a gradient on the other nails as I wanted to see how these colours would look blended together. I'm really pleased with this mani, I think it looks really Spring-like!
Hello!
Again I've not had much time for posting due to my work. However, here's some pictures of a manicure I did a few days ago. I've wanted to try a full pastel gradient for a while now - where the gradient goes across all of the nails on the hand. I used my usual gradient method and the polishes I used were:
Banana Split by Models Own (yellow)
Peach Melba by Models Own (peach)
Strawberry Tart by Models Own (pink)
Grape Juice by Models Own (purple)
Powder Blue by Models Own (blue)
Sugar Apple by Barry M (green)
...if I'd had all of the Models Own Fruit Pastel collection I would have used them all as they're the perfect pastels, but I don't have the blue and the green so had to substitute them with one of the new Hypergels and a Barry M gelly, but I think they still looked nice together!
If I'd not been at work I would have added a single silver stud at the base of each nail I think, which would have finished the look off nicely. But I still love these!
Hello!
Another gradient to show today - gradients always make me happy! This time I wanted to create a full rainbow of colours. I selected pastels for several reasons, one because they seem to blend together really well, two because I'm at work and my nails can't be too 'in your face' and three because clean-up is always easier with lighter colours!
I picked Miss Sunshine (Accessorize) Sugar Apple & Huckleberry (Barry M) and Pink Veneer (Models Own). I also started off by using a pastel purple between the blue and the pink, but realised I didn't need it because the blue and the pink blended together really well creating their own shade of purple.
Sorry about the state of all the bottles in the folllowing pic, I'm so messy!
I used the usual sponge method, dabbing the sponge higher/lower each time to blend the colours. This took about three rounds of 'dabs' on each nail to get the colour to this level. I finished off with my new Nails Inc topcoat which I love! And I forgot to mention that before I began the gradient I started off with a base coat of the lightest colour I was going to use which was Huckleberry in this case.
This was really hard to photograph so I only have the photo at the top which is from my phone - my camera washed these out and they just looked white! They do look really nice in real life though, I'm really pleased with them :-)
Hello! Here is today's manicure! I've wanted to do something like this for a while. I used:
This photo has made me realise how messy and polish-covered all my bottles are, oops.
I began by painting all my nails with two coats of Utopia, the nude shade. Once fully dry, I then concentrated on my accent nail (which is only on one hand...!) I drew a random shatter-pattern using my white nail-art pen by Barry M. I then used the pastel yellow, blue and green to carefully fill in each shape. I just used the brush in the bottle for this, as it didn't need to be fully exact. Once these were dry (I used fast-drying topcoat to speed this up) I used the white nail-art pen again to go over my lines, which hid any imperfections and make the sections more separated.
I thought the rest of my nails looked a little plain, so I decided to use the pastel colours again to create a slight gradient on the tips. Last time I did a gradient with pastels, I tried to focus it just on the tips of my nails, but because I was using three colours it didn't really work that way! This time, with only using one other colour with the base colour, I was able to achieve the 'tip' gradient quite well! As usual, I used a make-up sponge for this, and alternated the colours from the mosaic pattern on all my tips.
I really like how these have turned out, and when I have more time I'd like to try this mosaic look on all my fingers, I reckon it could look really striking! Also, the gradient is more apparent in real life, the pics seemed to fade it somewhat! More pics, right hand with accent nail:
left hand, all gradienty:
Hello!
These are my back-to-work-again nails. I've had lots of indies, glitter and gems on my nails over Christmas, so it's nice and cleansing to have pretty pastels back on my nails in a simple manicure.
These nails are a win and a fail at the same time. My aim was to create a smooth pastel gradient (win) but I wanted to do it a bit differently to usual, so in my mind I wanted the gradient right at the tip of my nail - so they were mostly pink then just fading to purple/blue at the tip (fail). There is a bit more pink on these than purple and blue, but not majorly! I needed thinner strips of purple and blue on my sponge I think. Anyway, they still look reasonably pretty...
For these nails, I used these polishes:
Pink Color Club, and blue and purple Ciate minis. I started with two coats of pink on all of my nails. Once dry, I used a make-up sponge to create the gradient, painting on strips of each colour and dabbing them onto my nails. I had to 'dab' each nail about three times to build up the layers to create the gradient.
To smooth it out and blend it all in, I finished with two coats of Ciate Speed Coat. I got this in the advent calendar and was originally a bit annoyed it was just a topcoat and not another pretty colour. I thought I wouldn't use it because I already have a great topcoat. But I gave this a go and I'm actually REALLY impressed with it. It dries just as quick as my usual Insta-Dri (Sally Hansen) and gives a lovely, shiny finish. I'm really happy with it!
I then cleaned up with a small brush dipped in acetone. Gradient nails are messy, but at least pale colours are easier to clean off your skin and cuticles than dark colours!
This mani was soooo hard to photograph. My camera decided my nails were basically white and kept washing them out, losing the colours and the gradient! I promise these look much better IRL, and I'll attempt to get a better photo tomorrow in daylight. The photo I've used at the top is probably the best and that was taken on my phone! Here's a few more...
I was thinking I've done a similar mani before, so had a browse through my blog and found these nails from June '13. Same colour-scheme, but opposite order! I think the ones I've done today are definitely blended better and cleaned up more nicely - I think it's helped that the three polish colours are more alike. I remember thinking these were fab when I did them in June but they look really blotchy compared to my today ones - oh dear! I'm happier with my nail-length now too :-)
A bit late to the party here, but pastel galaxy nails have been on my 'to try' list for ages, and I decided I definitely needed to do them after seeing my friend Naileymabob's version - so pretty! I also wanted to give them a go because I've been crazy about Indie polish recently and been posting lots about them, swatches etc, and I felt I should make sure I also post nail art - I've not being doing much recently.
For this design I started off with a base of Utopia by Models Own - I love this color, but I reckon any pale base coat would be fine for this look. I then used a make-up sponge to add on various pale colours in random patches on each nail. I used:
Miss Sunshine by Accessorize (yellow)
Prickly Pear by Barry M (purple)
Spearmint by W7 (green)
Cinderella by Sinful Colors (blue)
And an un-named pink by Glam.
These are my usual go-to colours for pastel nails - they're all fab! Here's all my equipment, on my 'nail art table' aka my laptop lid:
After the sponged colours had dried I then used the white Barry M nail art pen to add on the little dots and stars. I finished off with a topcoat of holographic glitter, from Claire's Accessories, and then Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri for the shiny finish.
These were sooo hard to photograph! I totally need a lightbox... so here's a selection taken in different lights, with flash on/off...
Hello!
I've created these gradient nails because everything else I've tried this afternoon has gone wrong! :-(
First I was desperate to try Sugar-Spun, but it ended up turning out way harder than I thought! I tried with a few different polishes but couldn't get either to go 'stringy' enough when I was trying to drag it across. Ahhh. I then tried a glitter gradient with a new polish, but there was hardly ANY glitter on the brush each time I tried to add a coat so that didn't look good either.
I needed something not too bright for work, so ended up creating this gradient with Barry M's Blueberry, Prickly Pear & the new pink SLE.
I usually just create a gradient by painting my nails one colour, then dabbing on the second colour with a make-up sponge, building up the layers from the middle towards the end of my nail. This time though, I followed nuthin' but a nail thing's tutorial and it's turned out so much better! The only thing I didn't do is start with a white base (because I only decided on a gradient once I'd done two coats of the purple!) but the rest of it worked really well, and I reckon would be even more improved with a white base. :-)
This looks a lot 'smoother' and blended in real life, and I'm very happy with how it turned out - hope it doesn't chip, but I reckon it will very soon :-(
Also, look at this amazing t-shirt I spotted while out shopping this week:
Hello!
As you've probably seen in an earlier post, I got a handful of polishes from Claire's Accessories a few days ago due to them being £1 each! I pondered for ages over which to pick up, but as soon as I saw these two I had to have them. There was a blue as well, but it was similar to a speckle polish I already have.
On the receipt they're just called Pink Speckle and Grey Speckle, even though I think the grey one is more brown. I was desperate to try them out together, so came up with this simple gradient. Both the colours are so pretty, and so perfect for spring/summer. I especially love the grey/brown shade. (apologies about my gross dry skin, I definitely need to make more time to moisturise! I have in the 2nd pic but not in the first...)
I've had this idea in mind for a while, but haven't yet tried it because I thought it would take ages as it involved so many polishes! And I wasn't quite sure how it'd turn out.
For this look, I used two coats of white (Sally Hansen's Lavender Cloud) and let it dry. I then splodged on a range of pastel colours - some I just splodged around with the brush, and some (the darker colours mainly) I dabbed over with a sponge.
I used:
Blueberry (blue), Papaya (orange) and Prickly Pear (purple) - Barry M Gelly
Miss Sunshine (yellow) - Accessorize
Spearmint (green) - w7
Unnamed Pink - Glam
I finished off as usual with a topcoat of Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri to smooth it all out. I've still got some cleaning up to do around the cuticles, so apologies for the messiness in the pics! Still not sure what I think of this look - not sure whether it's come together well or not. It definitely looks better from a distance rather than close up. Hmmmm
Hello!
I called these circus nails because that's what all the colours remind me of. I love these, I think they're my favourite creation ever! So many pretty colours! Can't stop looking at them. I have had these on about 36 hours now, including with a busy day (at the zoooo!) yesterday, and only about 5 glequins have fallen off. Score!
I used Miss Sunshine by Accessorize (the yellow) and Endless by Color Club (the pink), the latter of which is from my new Color Club Kaleidoscope mini collection. It's very similar to my other favourite pale pink, which is good! Anyway, I used two coats of each, most nails yellow and an accent pink on each hand.
I then picked up my set of 12 glequin-colours that I bought for an absolute bargainous price from Born Pretty, and tipped a little of each out onto a magazine (so they didn't go everywhere). It's quite hard to just tip out how many you need - with a few colours I ended up spilling loads! But there are SO many in each pot, there's no need to worry about running out.
I used the end of a small dotting tool to pick up a random colour from the pile and placed them around the edge of each nail, on top of a wet top coat. I finished with another coat of top-coat to seal them in. People have commented that it must have taken ages, but it was actually quite quick! Here's some more pics, sorry about the amount, but I wanted to show off the shinyness! Also, my nails are much shorter than in my last blog post, I filed them down to make it easier to practice with my contact lenses. I actually don't mind them this short.
Lastly, I spent a fab day at London Zoo yesterday with some awesome friends, most of whom did their nails for the occasion. Naileymabob's are the pink and green leopard print, and Kathie's are the white with black outline. So much prettiness!