Shamrocks on Gold French Tips

A simple little green and gold manicure for St. Patrick's Day today - gold french tips with hand drawn green shamrocks.

Lilac & Pink Roses Manicure

Lilac and pink roses for the Lilac prompt of the GOT Polish Challenge today ...

Red and Gold Half Moon Manicure

I did this manicure just before I cut my nails. It was one of my sparkly manicures for the festive season.

For these nails, I used Essence  My Fortune Cookie, a sparkly, dark gold. I used paper hole reinforcement stickers like these to mark out the half moon shape on the nails, once the gold polish was dry. Then painted the rest of the nail with Sally Hansen Insta Dri Quick Brick. Took of the stickers while this polish was still dry. Lastly added the hex glitter to outline the half moon shapes. The colours on the accent nails are reversed. All the nails are finished with top coat.

Candy Cane Nails

I think its time for some Christmas Nail art! Here are my candy cane nails ...

For this manicure, I used a textured nail polish, Essence Sparkle Sand Effect in me & my lover. The polish is definitely textured though not quite as much as the OPI Liquid Sands. Its a lovely sparkly colour, specially for the holiday season.
The candy canes are stamped from the MoYou London image plate 03 from the Festive Collection, with Essie No place Like Chrome. I debated between using a white or a silver polish for the stamping. In the end, I decided, silver was better to add some extra sparkle - it is a festive manicure, after all!

Top Ten Polishes!

My favourite polishes change all the time and its really quite hard to pick just ten individuals bottles. So I am going to share with you, with some new manicures and some old, my top ten favourite categories of polish, whether based on brand or colour, in no particular order.

1. Sally Hansen Insta Dri Polishes: Not only are the insta dri polishes good to wear on their own, they are also great stamping polishes. They come in a variety of shades and finishes. They are mostly one-coaters, they are quick dry and they stamp very well.

Stamped with Sally Hansen Insta Dri Jumpin Jade

2. Essie Metallics: I love the Essie Metallics for stamping and use them very frequently. The ones I use are Essie No Place Like Chrome (Silver), Essie Penny Talk (Copper) and Essie Good as Gold (Gold).

OPI Get Your Number stamped with Essie No Place Like Chrome

Stamped with Essie Good as Gold

3. Nude/Near Nude: A nude or near natural nail colour is a must have in every girl's polish drawer. Not only are they good to wear on their own, they make an excellent base for nail art.

OPI Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh?

4. Pastels: I really like pastels for a pop of colour. These shades really make me happy and are a great pick me up.

Starting from the thumb, Sinful Colors Mint Apple, Sinful Colors Cinderella, Revlon Cupid, Barry M Gelly Guava and Essence Off to Miami.

5. Barry M Gellys: Not only are the Barry M Gellys great to wear on their own - they are one-coaters, quick dry and glossy! They also stamp really well.

Starting from the thumb, Barry M Gelly Blackberry, Pomegranate, Watermelon, Blood Orange and Plum.

6. Black!: You always need a good creme black - like a nude, its great to wear on its own and great as a base for nail art.

Boots No 7 Just Black

7. Textured: Textured nail polishes are a new favourite. I didn't think I would like them since I do like a glossy finish but I was surprised at how much I loved these. I love how they have a matte finish but there is still a lovely sparkle to them.

OPI Get Your Number

8. OPIs: As I have started using a wide variety of nail polishes, I have come to love my OPIs. The formulas are good and they have a huge range of colours and finishes.

OPI The Spy Who Loved Me

9. Color Club Holo Hues: Everyone likes a Holographic nail polish! I only have a couple of the Holo Hues. And although I do like wearing them on their own, I love stamping with them.

Color Club Cosmic Fate

Stamping with Color Club Harp on It.

10. Top Coats, Base Coat/Nail Strengthener: When you think of favourite polishes, base and top coats may not immediately come to mind, but they are very important parts of a good manicure.
I am a loyal user of the OPI Nail Envy. It has really helped my nails to strengthen and get into better shape and I use it all the time as a base coat.
I have recently started using the Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat and I think its a great top coat to use, specially as an intermediate layer when doing nail art.
And I guess I don't have to say much for Seche Vite - the quick dry, super glossy top coat which has such a huge fan following!

What are some of your favourites? I'd love to know!

Sparkly nails for Guy Fawkes Night

We enjoyed a great bonfire and barbecue at a neighbour's and a gorgeous firework display at our local park on Saturday for Bonfire night. But since Bonfire or Guy Fawkes Night is officially on the 5th of Nov, I have some sparkly nails to mark the occasion!

For this manicure, I painted the pointer and little fingers with Revlon Gold Coin topped with two coats of Butter London West End Wonderland. The other nails are painted with Essence prom-berry. The stamping is with Essie Good as Gold and the MoYou London XL Plate 13 from the Princess Collection. I think these images from the plate are so pretty - they are rather unusual fireworks images and so beautiful!

You can really see the sparkle in the sunlight ...

Diwali NOTD: Peacock Nails!

I have a lovely, shimmery peacock adorning my nails, this Diwali Day!
For my peacock stamping nail art, I started with Sally Hansen Insta Dri Blue Streak. I sponged on some green and purple polish - Rimmel 60 Seconds Camouflage and Essence prom-berry. This is how the base looked before stamping ...

The green I used is quite dark but it appears as quite a subtle tint on the nails. I could have worn these nails on their own because the gradient looked very pretty - I really like these colours.
I then used Color Club Holo Hues Harp on it and the MoYou London Suki 01 to stamp the peacock on my finger nails and some peacock feathers on the thumb. The stamping is more subtle than striking but very pretty with the shimmer of the Color Club holo!

Celebrating the Festival of Lights with Nail Art

Wearing nice new clothes is an important part of the Diwali celebrations - so of course, you need pretty nails to match! The Diwali inspired nail art today uses a traditional Indian colour combination - dark red and gold. Also, Diwali is the Festival of lights and traditionally tens of small earthen lamps (diya) are lit by every household on Diwali. And the day is not complete without some fireworks! I have tried to include all these aspects of the festival into my manicure.

For my Diwali nails, I used China Glaze Fast Track on the middle and ring fingers and Sally Hansen Insta Dri Quick Brick on the other three. I then used a nail art brush and the polishes, SH Quick Brick and Essence My Fortune Cookie to paint the diyas and the sparkly fire fountain from those fireworks flower pots. I added gold and red hex glitter for extra sparkle.

To everyone who celebrates this festival, wish you a very Happy Diwali!

31DC2013: Day Thirty - Inspired by a Tutorial

There are so many wonderful tutorials available to help with various nail art techniques today. Some of these have really helped me so much. I really appreciate all the wonderful bloggers who have shared their experience and expertise with  us. I have used a few tutorials to do some of my challenge manicures. I used various tutorials to do my water marble and galaxy nails, although I didn't follow one tutorial for them - it was more a mix of what I learnt by watching various video tutorials. I also used tutorials to do my Flowers, polka dots and animal print manicures.

My nails today are inspired by a dry needle marble tutorial. These nails are not hard to do and are quite unusual, unstructured and fun.
I used two colours for my nails - Essence My Fortune Cookie and Color Club Ulterior Motive. I painted one thick stripe with the gold, then one stripe with the glittery pink and again a third stripe with the gold. I used a needle to zig zag lines across the nails. I then added topcoat and the rhinestones.

31DC2013: Day Twenty-Six - Inspired by a Pattern

For this part of the challenge, I knew I had to go with a sari pattern! There is such a large variety of patterns to choose from and the colours are so vibrant and gorgeous. I chose this beautiful silk sari -

And here are the nails, inspired by the pattern ...

For this manicure, I applied base coat and once dry, I taped off the ends with the french manicure guides. Then I painted the top part of the nail with Color Club Secret Agent. I stamped the paisley image from the plate QA59 with Essie Penny Talk. I painted the tips with Essence My Fortune Cookie and added the hex glitter.

This is my first Essence Polish. Its a glittery, yellow gold, which was exactly what I wanted. I got it on a recent trip to Belgium since I had heard about this brand but never tried it. Right after I got it though, I found out that Essence is coming to Wilkinson's in the UK soon. I believe its already available in selected stores. Check out the Essence Facebook page for details, if you are interested and live in the UK.