Guest Week: Pish Posh and Polish

Hello lovely readers my one of my polish besties, Caitlin asked for guest posts while she went on holiday I jumped at the chance. I love Caitlin’s blog and think her nail art especially is to die for. Sadly my own can’t really compare but I am honoured to have the chance to post on this amazing blog!

Anyway as Caitlin is coming over to my neck of the woods I thought i would share a topical manicure with you. Thats right today you are getting a Best Of British manicure complete with my favourite British nail polish Brand Barry M!

This gave me just the excuse I needed to try a brand new shade that Barry M has just brought out for this very special summer (read Diamond Jubilee’s and big sporting events). Jewel Britannia  is a patriotic polish mixing holographic silver micro glitter with silver, red and blue multi-sized hex’s. It reminds me of alot of an indie polish with it’s unique combination of colours and is also similar (and much cheaper) than the new Jubilee polish by Nails Inc. This polish was easy to work with, being just the right consistency so that in just one coat you picked up lots of glitter, yet it wasn’t goopy! Underneath are two coats of Barry M Matte White which really helps pick up the brightness and sparkle of the glitter. I feel with a white base this looks really fresh but also quite funky.

What I love most about this glitter is that it would look great on top of any coloured polish and I can tell that I am going to loads of fun creating brand new combinations with this. I also think that with about 3 layers you would be able to build up the opacity of this polish to wear it alone (if you bear the glitter removal process). Also with a top coat of Seche this polish is completely smooth. So top marks Mr M!

For an accent I ‘attemped’ a Union Jack. I have two excuses for it’s messy-ness which I hope your forgive. Firstly it is hard to paint such a iconic and complex design on nubbins and secondly although I love Barry M Bright Red (the blue in case you are wondering is Barry M Cobalt)  it is the only Barry M polish I know that always smears when I use it in nail art. However from further away it does look better than these macro pictures- trust me! In fact I got some really nice complements on these nails!

Although Jewel Britannia doesn’t seem to be limited edition you can only get this online at the moment, either directly from barrym.com or the Boots website. Hopefully it will start spreading to stores soon.

Anyway I really hope you enjoyed my post and if you would like to see more British polish (and some better executed nail art) feel free to pop over to my blog at http://pishposhandpolish.blogspot.co.uk/. And finally to Caitlin, thank you so much for allowing me to guest post on your blog and I hope you have a safe and wonderful trip and if you are down my way give me a shout!

Love Kerrie
http://pishposhandpolish.blogspot.co.uk/

Guest Week: Crazy Nail Lady

 YEAH for my first guest post! and YEAH for it being for someone such a great nail artist as Caitlin  Caitlin's Creative Corner.  She is always so creative and unique from doing book covers to teal tuesdays.  Thanks Caitlin for letting me post on your blog :-) And have a great vacation!!

My other first is that I got my very first Indie polishes today and was soooo excited to try them out.  I have been drooling over some Indie polishes for a while now and for one reason or another have not bought any.  So, I finally decided to give one a try and they are AWESOME! I came across D & R Apothecary last week while searching through Etsy.  I could not get over all her awesome colors.  She also makes handmade soaps....which she sent me a little sample of :-)

So, I got three shades from D & R.  Rock Star, Champagne, and Bumble Bee.  I am saving the Bumble Bee for my Steelers nails later in September.  Black and Gold!!! I am also saving the Rock Star for later too.  I know I scheduled Rock Star Nails somewhere in my 52 week challenge.  So, I chose to do the Champagne nails.  Take a look at this color! It is so purty, you really want to drink it and get all giddy on bubbly.

I used Decades of Dysfunction as my base coat.  This is the first time I used this color....its quite pretty really. It's an off white with a hint of pink or lavender.  It's hard to tell 

I'm a little bummed that I couldn't get the real color to show up in these pictures.  But it's still pretty.  It is a gold base with purple and gold flecks.  Just gorgeous. It looks coppery in the pictures which it really isn't. Oh well.  It was also real easy to put on.  I love glitter but one of my complaints of most glitters is that you have to blob it on.  This went on in a nice smooth motion.  My hats off to you D & R Apothecary! Thank you for such a job well done!

She is also discontinuing some of her older colors if you want mini bottles for only $2.50.  She needs more room :-)  So go check out her Etsy page here

Thanks for looking! All comments are appreciated!

Crazy Nail Lady
 http://crazynaillady.blogspot.com/

Guest Week: Cuti-CLUE-les

Hey all!

Guest posts are one of my favourite things to do so when Caitlin asked if some bloggers could help out while she was on holiday I was delighted to lend a hand :) I had a fair bit of trouble thinking up a fun design that anyone could do but I eventually settled on a Super Mario theme. I love super mario and I have done a much harder version before.

Yoshi is my favourite character and the egg design is so easy to replicate and it is so eye-catching. I went with a white base to really make the colours pop. For the tips I used the hat colours of the other characters. Red-Mario, Purple- Waluigi, Green-luigi and yellow- Princess Peach. I used the same colours for the spots on the egg.

Red- Miss sporty Red tang, Purple- Catrice Plum play with me, Green- Catrice Run Forest Run! and yellow- Catrice Birdy Reloaded. For the white background I use No7 White tip.You can pick up cheap striping tape on ebay. I just slap on a layer of top coat and it keeps it safe for a day or two :) A good tip when you are painting on your white base is to first stick on some striping tape, paint on the white base and remove the tape while the polish is still wet. This mean when you finish your mani you have a nice clean layer of striping tape and it lies flush with the polish so you can't pick at it ;)

That's all there is to it! One of the easiest designs I have done but I think it turned out great. The more vibrant the polish colour the better! I just wish the Irish weather was nice enough to really show off this manicure.

Thanks Caitlin for letting me post on your blog! I hope ye all like it!

Cuti-CLUE-les
http://cuti-clue-les.blogspot.com/

Guest Week: Walk in my Eyeshadow

Hey guys,

My name is Natalie Elise and I was asked by Caitlin to do a guest post while she is away on vacation (lucky duck). I have my own blog over at WalkInMyEyeShadow so if you like my post, please follow me to my domain. I love getting new followers and receiving feedback on my work. Anyway, onto the post.

This is a manicure that I created this past week. I normally do my nails really late at night because I am more of a night person and nail art is what I do when I want to start winding down of an evening. This particular manicure was created at 3am (as I said, I'm a night person lol)

As a base for my manicure I used OPI "A Grape Fit" which was released in 2009. This colour is a nice and vibrant lavender creme polish which is very similar to China Glaze "Spontaneous"

I then decided to stamp over this polish with one of the new Bundle Monster images because I haven't used them yet. I chose this pretty floral design from image plate BM306 and stamped it using Konad White Special Polish

I then applied my usual combination of Kami Nail Art Sealer and Seche Vite. I have found that this combination of top coats helps protect my nail art from chipping.

The Kami Nail Art Sealer acts as a great substitute for Konad Special Top Coat, although it is never as glossy as I really want it to be. By adding the extra top coat of Seche Vite, my manicure becomes extra protected and has the glossy appearance I desire

..:: Items Used ::.

Base Coat: China Glaze "Calcium Gel Fortifier"

Nail Polish" OPI "A Grape Fit"

Stamping Polish: Konad White Special polish

Image Plate: Bundle Monster BM306

Top Coat: Kami Nail Art Sealer and Seche Vite

I hope you have enjoyed my guest post here on Caitlin's Creative Corner. I want to say thank you again to her for allowing me to do a guest post and help me to gain more followers.

Wishing you all the best with your own manicures,

www.walkinmyeyeshadow.com

Guest Week: Mademoiselle Candy - Nail Art

Hello Caitlin's Creative Corner visitors!

Some time ago the lovely Caitlin asked for a guest post and I immediately said yes! As a rear of her pretty blog myself is an honor for me to be featured on her blog! :)

The mani I prepared for you shows a purple paisley design. I wanted to try a paisley design for a long time but I imagined doing it  in orange tones with little touches of white and pink. But yesterday I was attracted to purple nail polish so here is the result:

  

I started by applying two coat of OPI - Louvre me Louvre me not. This nail polish is really special, it is very dark but has a bright/neon aspect and it is shimmery. I really love it!

For the paisley design I freehanded the green drops and details with Essie - Navigate Her. I used Miss Cop - Pop Fluo n°06 for the light purple details and Wet'n Wild - Black Crème & OPI - Alpine Snow for the ornaments inside the drops.

I hope you liked this mani ;)
Happy polishing! <3

Mademoiselle Candy
http://misscandy-nails.blogspot.fr/

Guest Week: Perfectly Polished

Hi! My name is Krystal, and I'm the author of the blog Perfectly Polished. Caitlin has so kindly allowed me to do a guest post, and asked that it included nail art. Well I'm not all that great at nail art, so I did my best. I decided to use my striping tape for the first time EVER, and I should say that some nails turned out better than others. I figured I'd post it even with the messed up nails, so you all could see what would happen if you tried it with not-so-dried nails. WARNING: Its not pretty.

So first off, I started off painting my nails the base color I needed them to be. With striping tape manis, you always want to put whatever color you want peeking through on the bottom. As with any manicure, make sure you start out with a base coat, and if you're like me, I always put a conditioner on my nails before any manicure. I use Revlon's Calcium Gel Nail Hardener to help build up my brittle nails from my acrylic days. Then I use OPI Start to Finish for my base coat.

Then, I used China Glaze Pool Party for the pink on my accent nail, and Color Club Almost Famous.

Next, and this is a very important step, MAKE SURE YOUR NAILS ARE COMPLETELY DRY. I personally suggest painting your nails the base colors, and then waiting a few hours at LEAST or doing this step the next day. I wouldn't suggest trying to do this mani in one, short sitting.

After you're 100000% sure your nails are dry, apply your striping tape. Since my pink polish dried extremely fast, I did that nail first. I applied the striping tape in whatever design I thought would look cute. You can use whatever design you'd like.

After the striping tape is all down, I painted over the pink with the yellow polish, causing the whole nail to look plain yellow. Make sure you get enough polish on your nail to cover the color underneath. If you're doing this mani with a light color and a dark color, my suggestion is to put the light polish on first.

Immediately after you'd reached desired coverage, remove the striping tape. You shouldn't wait until its all dry to remove the tape, because that will make it much more difficult to remove. MAKE SURE YOU REMEMBER WHICH STRIP YOU PUT DOWN FIRST! If possible, use different colors of tape, so you know which color went down first and last, that way you don't smudge your mani trying to pull up the wrong strip. It should look something like this if done properly.

Then, I did my other 4 nails. I used the same process, tape first, then polish.

Then I removed the tape. If you look close enough, you can see where my index finger wasn't dry, and neither was my pinky finger. So they're not nearly as neat as the others.

These are the nails that turned out as desired. I really like this mani, and the colors go really well together. I would definitely do this mani again, but I'd make sure ALL my nails are dry before putting the tape down.

Well, thats all for my guest post! I really hope you all love this mani as much as I do! I wanna give a big thank you to Caitlin for helping me get my name out there and I would love it if you'd all come by my blog and check it out! So thanks again for reading, and HAPPY POLISHING! <3

Guest Week: Nail Wish

Hi girls!

First of all I want to thank Caitlin from Caitlin’s Creative corner for giving me the chance of making a guest post. I really hope she likes what I’m going to show you.

For this post I wanted to do something special, because Caitlin is such an amazing artist with nails and I wanted her to be proud of me, so I searched through her blog and I found that she stamps like a goddess and makes simple but amazing manicures, so I tried to do the same.

I chose a stunning color that I have used very little, H&M Lady Luck, a green and blue Duochrome polish. It’s opaque in two coats, and, like all metallic duochromes, the application was a little bit tricky. But I love the result.

I stamped with Konad Stamping Polish in Black and BM-204. I was looking for a stamp that showed the color well and I realized I had never used this stamp before! And now I love it.

 I think that you don’t really know how pretty a stamp is until you try it. Just like clothes. And I am thinking I have a few ones untried I should give a chance.

Here I can see the duochrome effect clearly, in the bottle and on the nails. I can’t spend a lot of money on expensive polishes and I think this 9mL bottle for 3,99€ is pretty good.

Isn’t it amazing? Do you love that color as much as I do?

I hope you liked this manicure and don’t forget to have a look around Caitlin’s Creative Corner, she has amazing manicures!

 www.nailwish.blogspot.com

Guest Week: Missy's Mani's

Hello lovely readers of Caitlin's Creative Corner!

A few weeks back Caitlin asked in the Fairy Crumpet Challenge Group if any bloggers would like to do a guest post for her while shes away on holiday, and having never done a guest post before I jumped at the chance! I'm a huge fan of Caitlin's blog and so this is a real honor :)

I had a hard time deciding what to do for this post so I had a look back at past manicures Caitlin has done for a bit of inspiration. I came across a fabulous Mickey mouse manicure that Caitlin did for a 21 day challenge back in March. I loved it so much I decided to do a similar Minnie mouse manicure.

Caitlin based her manicure on the old school Mickey mouse and so I decided to base mine on the modern Minnie mouse. I love Minnie mouse and pink is my favourite colour polish so I was really excited to do this!

I used Barry M - Bright pink for the base colour and a white Rio nail art pen to create the polka dots and the Minnie Mouse faces.

To create Minnie Mouses face on my thumb I used acrylic paints and a small brush. I mixed white, red and a little yellow paint to create the fleshy colour for Minnie's face and black and white paints for the rest of her face. I topped it off with good ole' Seche Vite to seal in the design. 

Here's Caitlin's wonderful design of the old school Mickey mouse that I based my design on:

I hope you've enjoyed my guest post as much as I've enjoyed putting it together! Thank you for reading and thank you to Caitlin for letting me do a post for her fab blog :)

(http://missysmanis.blogspot.co.uk)

Guest Week: Sincerly, Obsessed with Polish

Hey everyone, I'm Amanda from Sincerely, Obsessed with Polish. I want to first thank Caitlin for letting me do a guest post. I absolutely love her blog! I have been loving floral prints lately, so I decided to use this as inspiration for this mani. I love doing floral manis. I used Sinful Colors Pink Forever, Essence Sundancer, and different acrylic paints (pink, white and green). I loved wearing this look. It's so girly to me. Enjoy!!

Sincerely,
Amanda
sincerelyobsessedwithpolish.blogspot.com

Guest Week: Manicured Monkey!

Hi Everyone!! The Manicured Monkey here invading Caitlin's blog for the day :) I have a neat-o polish to share with you guys- OPI Black Spotted.

First I put down two coats of my favorite pink: OPI Strawberry Margarita. This one is a medium pink creme that I absolutely love for a mani/pedi combo and I think it's versatile enough year round. I let that dry (apparently not enough but I'll get to that) then I put on a super thin coat of OPI Black Spotted. This effect polish is so incredibly different from the shatters; it separates like water and oil does and it is an instant effect.

Now, I did notice a few cracks and I think that's either because I didn't let Strawberry Margarita dry enough and/or I used too much Spotted. I did top coat it (it dries like a vinyl/rubber look). I'm still experimenting with it but I look forward to perfecting this effect, I hope we get it in the U.S.!!

Thanks again to Caitlin for letting me take over today :)

Kristen
www.manicuredmonkey.blogspot.com

Guest Week: Gnarly Gnails!

Wooo! To kick off my week of AWESOME guest posts, I have Missy from Gnarly Gnails! I absolutely love her blog, and it is a must read for any nail polish lover! I'll get on to her post. ;)

Hey there friends of Caitlin's Little Creative Corner here...I'm so thrilled to be guest posting on her blog today! Caitlin is a nail genius and has quickly become one of my favorite bloggers to watch blossom! Anyway - I'm Missy, I ramble over at Gnarly Gnails (http://gnarlygnails.blogspot.com) - hope you like what I have put together for you today!

Today I am doing a loose interpretation of a camouflage design.
It consists of using a makeup sponge (or 2) and a LOT of colors!
8 in total!

For this design I started with a light gray (Zoya Dove), and then I sponged on each color, going from dark to light to dark to sort of balance it out. Each nail was done in a different order to give it a more variated look.

Colors I used for this were:
American Apparel - MacArthur Park
Catrice - It's Rambo No. 5
Borghese - Euro Green
Zoya - Bevin
Orly - Au Champagne
Zoya - Dovima
China Glaze - Recycle
and Zoya Dove.

Hope you enjoyed and thank you so much for reading!
Missy
www.gnarlygnails.blogspot.com

Guest Post at the Crumpet!

I did a guest post over at The Crumpet! Head on over and check it out!

http://thecrumpet.blogspot.com/2012/06/celebration-500-guest-post-caitlin-from.html

XOX Caitlin

Guest Post: Jeni from Polish Me Lovely!!

I asked Jeni from Polish Me lovely to do a guest post for me, and she has done an amazing job, Just look below.  Thanks so much Jeni for this amazing post!


"Color Club Wild at Heart

Hi everyone, I'm Jeni, from Polish Me Lovely. This is my first guest post and I am honored to be posting on the lovely Caitlin's beautiful blog!! She has such flawless nails and very creative nail art!! Love her :)

I recently purchased Color Club Wild at Heart and Fashion Addict at 8ty8beauty.com and I am in LOVE. They have a very light holo effect to them in certain lighting and it is just gorgeous! Wild at Heart completely blew me away as soon as it touched my nails!! It is almost a one coater! The shade of deep purple with a beautiful reddish holo shimmer in sunlight, is just GORGEOUS and the formula is absolutely flawless.

I decided to try out my new dotting tools, and used a few different sizes for the randomly placed dots on my accent nail. I used Fashion Addict for the dots, and then went back over the bigger dots with Wild at Heart to make them look more like bubbles. I love it!!!

My husband took these pictures for me with his awesome Nikon camera! Now I never want to use anything else!!

Thanks for having me Caitlin!! :)

-Jeni"



Jeni you are more than welcome, I am so happy to have you!

this is a gorgeous polish! I need Wild at Heart in my collection!! It has been on my wishlist, and now I NEED it. :P

 Thanks so much for doing a guest post!  Your nails are gorgeous and your little nail art is so cute! :)

Guys, you should totally check out her gorgeous blog!  http://polishmelovely.blogspot.com/

Thanks again Jeni!

XOX, Caitlin