Diagonal Dotted French Tips

I did this manicure with my March Nail Art Challenge in mind, the prompt for which was a 'Dotticure'. I don't think I do French tip manicures often enough - I am not a big fan of the plain white tips but I do love a more fun and colourful take on it, like this one ...

Valentine's Day Manicures

The last Valentine's Day manicures for the year ... and since I'm late in posting, I have two instead of one!
First up, is a pond manicure, where stamping images are sandwiched between layers of jelly (translucent) nail polish.

Blowing Kisses!

I love those "girl blowing dandelion" manicures and have wanted to try one for a while. But since its close to Valentine's Day I thought I would do hearts instead of dandelions. I didn't have a stamping plate with the face though so I thought I would try my hand at painting mine freehand. It is much trickier to paint the silhouette of a face on your nail than on paper, let me tell you! This is how it turned out ...

Hearts for Valentine's Day

A pink manicure with hearts - just the thing for Valentine's day, right?! I thought I would add a bit to it though by filling in the hearts in different colours with the advanced stamping technique.

Black Stamping manicure on a pink copper duochrome

Today, I have a stamping manicure on a pink duochrome nail Polish from the Barry M Aquarium Collection. Barry M Mediterranean is a pink copper mix. I have it here as two coats over a black polish.

Tropical Flowers Nail Art - GOT Polish

I have some catching up to do with my GOT Polish challenge. And one of the prompts I missed was for something tropical! I did, in fact, do the manicure earlier - just did not get a chance to post it. So here it is, at last.

Neon Tortoise print! - GOT Polish

Its been sometime since I last posted. I was away from home for a few weeks and the last few posts were scheduled before I left. After I came back, we were all sick one after the other and I just did not feel like painting my nails - which is unusual! Also, I broke a nail and had to cut them off. And when I did this manicure, it seemed to me like I had lost touch with my whole paint-clean- photograph-post routine. So although, the manicure turned out all right, I am not too happy with my clean-up, pictures and other details like that - but hoping things will settle back into the old routine from the next one!

Coralicious Leopard Print for Golden Oldie Thursday

The prompt for the day is a Coral. I chose a very bright coral for my manicure today. And I thought it would be fun to add a leopard print to go with the bright nails!

It looks a bit red in the photos but the coral I have on here is Rimmel 60 Seconds 430 Coralicious. I love that name too! And this is the perfect summer polish - so bright and cheerful!

Speckled Colour Block Mosaic Manicure - Tri-Polish Tuesday!

I have the speckled blue, pink and yellow Models Own polishes here again in a colour block mosaic manicure.

I started with a base of Barry M Matt White and waited for it to dry completely. I did the nails one by one - marking out the blocks with striping tape. I filled the blocks in with Models Own Speckled Egg Nail Polishes in Duck Blue, Dove Pink and Goose Yellow.

Roses and Pearls Spring Manicure - GOT Polish Challenge

I have another Spring Manicure on the blog today! The colours I have used in this manicure are just perfect for spring, in my opinion. And when you think of Spring, you have to have some flowers so I did some roses on my accent nail. And to top it off, I thought I would add some pearl studs.

Starting from the thumb, the nail polishes used are Revlon Cupid, Barry M Gelly Greenberry, Rimmel 311 Spring Yellow, Barry M Matt White and Barry M Gelly Blueberry. On the accent nails I did freehand roses with the colours on the other nails and the leaves with Sally Hansen Insta Dri Emerald Express.

Peach Manicure with Copper Stamping - GOT Polish

There may still be a slight chill in the air but the flowers are in full bloom in my garden and the days are longer and brighter. Spring is definitely here at last! And I continue my Spring theme here on the blog with a lovely pastel peach manicure!

I painted my nails with Barry M Gelly in Papaya. For the accent nail, I painted half the nail with the peach and the other half with Sally Hansen Insta Dri in Jade Jump. I added pastel studs to the accent nail and sealed them with top coat. For the other nails, I stamped them with images from the MoYou London XL Image Plate 01 from the Pro Collection. The stamping polish is Essie Penny Talk. I finished with top coat.

Purple - Quilted and Flakies - GOT Polish

Purple is one of my favourite nail polish colours so I really enjoyed doing this prompt for the GOT Polish Challenge. Also, even though I love the manicures I have seen with the Layla Butterfly Effect Nail Polish, it has been in my heap of "un-trieds" for a while - so I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to break out the gorgeous flakies for this manicure!

On three of my nails, I am wearing a base of Barry M Gelly in Plum topped with two coats of Layla Ceramic Effect CE52, The Butterfly Effect nail polish. For the other two nails, I first painted the nails with Catrice 07 Genius in the Bottle. This is a gold-green duochrome. I marked out the criss-cross quilted pattern with striping tape and painted with Sally Hansen Insta Dri Grape Escape on top. I removed the tape while the Grape Escape was still wet and finished with top coat.

Skittle Nails with glitter French Tips - GOT Polish Challenge

The prompt for the GOT Polish Challenge is a Skittle Manicure - where each nail is painted a different colour, inspired by the sweets with the same name. The colours I used for my Skittle nails are Rimmel Riviera Red, Sally Hansen Insta Dri Brisk Blue, OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips, Revlon Emerald and Barry M Gelly in Plum.

I used striping tape to mark two sections on the nail tips and painted this with Barry M (Textured Nail Effect) nail polish Lady. Now this in not really one of my old polishes but since its only for the nail art, I think I can get away with it - what do you think?!

GOT Polish Challenge Orange Nails

I am really late with my Orange Nails for the GOT Polish Challenge. But it was a much busier week than usual and I completely missed posting anything last week. I had even done my manicure in time but just didn't get a chance to post it! So here are my nails for the challenge, at last!

For this manicure, I used one of my favourite orange nail polishes, Barry M Gelly in Mango. The gradient and stamping is with Essie Penny Talk. And the beautiful stamping image is from Pueen 33.

Chevron Nails - GOT Polish Challenge

The prompt for the challenge is Chevron Nails - which I love. I had planned to do the design with tape - but you know how some of those tape manicures end up - not very well! So I had to start over and then I decided to stamp the chevron image from my Bundle Monster Create Your Own Set. The chevron image in this set is one of the images I got the set for, and I haven't used it before this - so I was glad of that chance.

The polishes I used for this manicure are Barry M Gellys in Pomegranate and Plum. Plum is a beautiful dark purple cream - though it appears almost black here. The chevron image is from the plate, BM-423, stamped with Essie No Place Like Chrome. The ring finger is painted with one coat of Essie No Place Like Chrome, topped with two coats of Barry M "Boots Ltd Ed" silver glitter.

Got Polish Challenge - Dotted Blossoms Nail Art

The prompt for my Golden Oldie Thursday Challenge is Green. I loved the cherry blossom stamping nail art that I have done in the past so much (here & here), that I wanted to do that again for this. But instead of stamping the image on, I thought I would try a simple little free hand this time. So here are my blossom laden branches!

The green polish is Barry M Greenberry. The branches are done with Barry M Black. The dotted flowers have been done with the polish Bourjois 10 Days No Chips No. 15.

Tri-Polish Tuesday - A City at Sunset - Gradient Manicure

The combination of yellow, orange and red just calls out for a sunset gradient manicure - so that's just what I have on my nails today for Tri Polish Tuesday.

I painted my nails with a base of Rimmel Spring Yellow. Once this was dry, I sponged on a gradient with  Rimmel Spring Yellow, Barry M Gelly Mango and Sally Hansen Insta Dri Rapid Red. I recently got the Bundle Monster Create Your Own Set. I stamped on the Cityscape image from the plate BM-414 from this set, in Konad Black.

Got Polish Challenge - Turquoise and Gold Saran Wrap Manicure

I am late with my Challenge manicure but here it is at last! The prompt for the Got Polish Challenge for the day was Blue. I wanted to use one of my favourite oldies for this prompt - the Barry M Gelly in Gauva. Originally, I thought I would do the Turquoise Stone nails with the Water Spotted Nail Art Technique. But halfway, through I had a change of heart.

I used saran wrap (cling film) to dab on some Revlon Gold Coin on to the Guava. Most tutorials that I have seen on this technique paint the second colour on to the nail when the base is dry and then dab it with the cling film. I have tried that earlier and I found that I ended up dabbing on too much or too little and wasn't happy with the result. So I tried it a little differently this time.
I started with a base of Barry M Guava. Then I used a scrunched up piece of cling film painted with some of the gold nail polish and dabbed it very lightly on to my nails. If there was too much gold in some spot, I went back and touched it up a little with some blue polish on the cling film.

I love the gold on turquoise in this manicure. I loved it so much, in fact, that I decided to wear it as is it was. I thought the blue this way is more appropriate for the challenge, anyway!

Tri-Polish Tuesday - One Stroke Floral Nail Art

For my Tri Polish Tuesday manicure today, I have some one stroke flowers on my nails.
The red base polish is Rimmel Riviera Red. The freehand floral nail art is done with NYC Lexington Yellow, Barry M Mango, Key Lime and Matt White. I used a flat nail art brush for the flowers, a fine detailing brush for the leaves and a fine dotting tool.

There are a lot of great tutorials on the internet for these one stroke flowers. I saw a few of these tutorials on youtube for inspiration although I didn't follow anyone exactly.
The tutorials that I saw for these flowers use acrylic paints for the nail art. I used nail polish for mine but I can see how it would probably be easier to use acrylics. I guess the best way to describe it is that acrylic paints would glide on easier - nail polish gets a bit sticky, specially when its been sitting on your palette for a few minutes and it can smear your base polish a little. Also, acrylic paints can be washed off with water if you make a mistake and want to start over without messing up your base polish. I was just too lazy to go dig out my acrylic paints - but I might have to try that the next time!

Tri-Polish Tuesday - Fishtail Braid Manicure

For the Tri-Polish Challenge, I need to use three colours for a manicure, so what better time to try out the lovely Fishtail manicure? I tried it first here - 31DC2013: Day Thirty-One. I absolutely love this look. It does not need any special equipment other than three colours of nail polish and is relatively easy to do and looks great. What's not to like?!

I used NYC Lexington Yellow, Barry M Gelly in Mango and Rimmel Riviera Red for these nails. The rhinestones are from Cheeky. I began by painting three nails yellow - other than my middle and little fingers. Then I painted the fishtail pattern on the two nails with alternating, overlapping, diagonal criss-crossing stripes! Its good to wait a minute or two between each stripe to let it dry a bit, specially when you cross a dark colour (like red) with a light one (like yellow) - that can smear if very wet. I finished with top coat. It was sunny today and this is just the look for a day like that - it would be a great summer manicure!