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.

Easter Eggs & Bunny Manicure - Tri-Polish Tuesday

Continuing with the eggs theme for Easter and the pink, blue and yellow colours for Tri-Polish Tuesdays, here's another Easter eggs manicure!

For this manicure, I used the same base as before - Models Own Speckled Eggs Nail Polishes in Duck Blue, Dove Pink and Goose Yellow.

Holi Manicure

Holi, (Pronounced the same as "Holy"), also known as the Festival of Colours is a Spring Festival. To quote Wikipedia, " It is an ancient Hindu religious festival which has become popular with non-Hindus in many parts of South Asia, as well as people of other communities. Holi celebrations start with a Holika bonfire on the night before Holi where people gather, sing and dance. The next morning is free for all carnival of colours, where everyone plays, chases and colours each other with dry powder and coloured water, with some carrying water guns and coloured water-filled balloons for their water fight. Anyone and everyone is fair game, friend or stranger, rich or poor, man or woman, children and elders. The frolic and fight with colours occurs in the open streets, open parks, outside temples and buildings." I found this Youtube video for Holi, that you may like to see.

I decided on this colourful manicure to celebrate Holi. This manicure also uses my Tri Polish Challenge colours.

Valentine's Day Nails - GOT Polish Challenge

I am late with my Challenge Valentine's Day manicure but here it is at last.
I haven't really done much for Valentine's Day in the last few years. But this year we did make an effort and I have to say, that it was really nice! It made me realise that if you have another day (other than anniversaries and birthdays) to have a nice meal and spend some quality time with your loved one, surely that is not a bad thing! What do you think?

Anyway, on to the nails ... For this manicure, I did a holographic gradient on four nails with China Glaze Holographic Astro-Hot and Infra Red. The ring finger is painted with Infra Red. These China Glaze Holographic polishes do not have a very strong holographic effect but they still look very pretty. The stamping images are from the Pueen Love Elements Set, Pueen 29 and Pueen 34. The stamping polish is Essie No Place Like Chrome.

Neon Hearts French Manicure

The Valentine's Day theme continues with a Neon Hearts & coloured French Tips manicure. I got these cute neon heart rhinestones off eBay and I thought they would go beautifully with my Neon Pink polish. Since its such a bright pop of colour, I thought it would look good as a heart shaped French manicure tip to mirror the shape of the rhinestone. I don't do this type of a manicure often but I love this look!

The nails are painted with OPI Don't Touch My Tutu! I did the tips with Kleancolor Neon Pink. I outlined the heart shaped tips with a small, thin striper brush and then filled it in with polish. Then on three fingers, I dotted the outline with Kleancolor Neon Amethyst. And on the thumb and ring finger, I added the heart rhinestones with top coat.

Gold Hearts on Red

Since Valentine's Day is almost here, I think its an excellent time to try out all those hearts images that I don't use as much throughout the year.  The image I chose for this manicure is from Konad M93. This Konad plate is one of their more recently released ones, which has larger images and they stamp great as always.
The gorgeous red polish is Layla Ceramic Effect 53 Killing Red. Although the gold flakies in this polish make it really beautiful and its gorgeous to wear on its own, I don't think I have been able to capture them that well in my pictures, unfortunately. They peek through quite prettily in between the stamping.

I stamped the hearts with Essie Good as Gold. And added the gold rhinestone on to the ring finger. I finished with a coat of Seche Vite.

Tri-Polish Tuesday - Pink Hearts & Lace

The colours for the Tri-Polish Challenge for February are Grey, Brown and Pink. My stamping manicure today uses two of these colours. And since its getting close to Valentine's Day, I thought I would go for an image with lace and hearts!

The grey base polish is Color Club Silver Lake - its a very light, almost white grey - although there is really no silver in it, as the name might suggest. It does look grey in the bottle, although it appears almost white when you apply it - its a good base for nail art, if you don't want a stark white. The stamped image is from Pueen 27 and the stamping polish is China Glaze Holographic Infra Red. The Infra Red is more fuchsia than red and stamps pink - it does not have a strong holo but its good for stamping.

Christmas Challenge 2013 Manicures Roundup

Happy New Year!
I thought I would do a quick round up post of the Christmas Challenge I participated in.
Here are the prompts that I did the manicures for ...

And here are the manicures... Please click on the pictures to go to the original posts for details. My Candy Cane and Gingerbread nails were not exclusively for the Challenge but since they were part of the Christmas manicures that I did, I have also added them to this roundup post.

White Christmas - Winter Lights and snowflakes	Winter Nature - Woods in the snow and a snowman	Holiday Colours - Red and Gold Festive Nails	Christmas Traditions
Toys - Russian Dolls	Christmas Food - Festive Food!	Christmas Food - Candy Cane Nails	Christmas Food - Gingerbread Men
Winter Characters - Reindeers, Snowflakes and Snowmen	New Year's Eve - Champagne Bubbles for New Year's Eve

Champagne Bubbles for New Year's Eve

The New Year is almost here. To prepare for the various celebrations in the next couple of days, here is a shiny, sparkly manicure!

For my Champagne bubbles nails, I used Boots No 7 Just Black on my middle finger and thumb. I stamped with Essie Good as Gold, the champagne bubbles image from the Messy Mansion image plate, MM02. The accent finger is painted with Nails Inc. Luminous Red Metallic. The bubbly glasses are from the MoYou London image plate 05 from the Festive Collection.

The pointer and little fingers are painted with OPI My Favourite Ornament from the Mariah Carey Holiday Collection 2013.

Hope you all have a great New Year's Eve!

Reindeers, Snowflakes and Snowmen

My last Christmas manicure of the year today.

For this manicure, I used the Deborah Lippmann polish, Lady Sings the Blues - a dark blue glitter polish. Its highly pigmented and even one coat would do, though I used two.

The snowflake images, which I love, are from the MoYou London image plate 03 from the Festive Collection, stamped with Essie Blue Rhapsody. The reindeers on the pointer finger are from the same plate, stamped with Essie No Place Like Chrome. The snowmen are from the image plate GA33 from the Gals Fairy Set also stamped with Essie No Place Like Chrome.

Hope you all had a great Christmas and are enjoying the holidays!

Festive Food!

Food is an important part of any festive celebration - and the prompt for my Christmas Nail Art Challenge. And Christmas has so many foods that are eaten specially at this time of the year. This manicure celebrates some of these yummy treats - Christmas Pudding, mince pies, gingerbread men and sparkling wine!

The base polish is Revlon Hot for Chocolate. The little finger is stamped with gingerbread men from the image plate GA41 from the Gals Fairy Set with Essie Good as Gold. The mince pies on the pointer are also stamped from an image plate from the same set, GA47. The bubbly on the ring finger is from the Messy Mansion plate, MM02. The middle finger and thumb have a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust on top of the brown polish. The Christmas pudding is painted free hand with OPI Alpine Snow, Sally Hansen Insta Dri Quick Brick and Jumpin Jade. I finished everything off with top coat.

Russian Dolls

I have to apologise for my erratic posting lately - life has just been a bit busier than usual.
The prompt for my Christmas Challenge was Toys. And although I did think of a few ideas for proper toy themed manicures - I wanted a very adult manicure with plenty of bling! Which is why I chose this particular image and colour for the nails.

The gorgeous nail polish I have used here is Deborah Lippmann Good Girl Gone Bad. The stamped image is from the plate KD28. The stamping polish is Essie No Place Like Chrome.

It may be a very broad interpretation of the prompt and maybe its not particularly festive - but it would be a great look for all the parties, this festive season!

Christmas Traditions

There were many Christmas traditions to choose from, for my nail art today. So I picked Holly, because I love the beautifully shaped leaves with the red berries. And since a lot of the festivities revolve around the little ones in the family, I couldn't leave out all the excitement in hanging up those Christmas stockings and finding lovely little presents in them and under the tree!

For this manicure, I used a base of Revlon Gold Coin. I love these shiny, glittery polishes but really struggle with the clean up. I can't seem to get rid of some of the glittery particles - if anyone has any tips, I would love to hear them!
I stamped images from the MoYou London image plate 03 from the Festive Collection. The stamping polishes are Sally Hansen Insta Dri Quick Brick and Jumpin Jade.

Red and Gold Festive Nails

More festive nails today ...

For these nails, I used Nails Inc in Luminous Red Metallic. I did a glitter gradient on three of the nails with Butter London West End Wonderland and Revlon Sequins. For the glitter gradient, I painted on a thin layer of Butter London West End Wonderland starting at three-fourths of the way up the nail. Once dry, a second layer of the same polish halfway down the nail and a third coat just at the tips. When this was dry, I painted on the big glitter in Revlon Sequins on the glitter part of the nail. 

On the other two nails, I stamped an image from the MoYou London image plate 03 from the Festive Collection with Essie Good as Gold. 

Gingerbread Men

Gingerbread man on my nails today!

For this manicure, I used the polish, China Glaze Fast Track. I love this polish - its a natural beige but has a lovely sparkle to it. I stamped these three nails with the Gingerbread men image in Konad Black from the GA41 image plate from the Gals Fairy Set. The other two nails are painted with Revlon Hot for Chocolate. I painted the Gingerbread Man on the ring finger and thumb freehand with OPI Did You Ear About Van Gogh? The hand painted gingerbread man is decorated with chocolate buttons!

Woods in the snow and a snowman

The manicure today is my attempt at winter nature. I painted the snowman freehand. The trees are stamped and I dotted on the snow. The trees in the snow looked better in my head, I have to say! But I guess, you can still make out what I was going for!
For this manicure, I used a base of OPI I Don't Give A Rotterdam. I stamped the trees with Revlon Hot for Chocolate from the MoYou London image plate 04 from the Mother Nature Collection. I dotted on the snow with Barry M Matt White and finished with a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust. The snowman is painted on with a nail art brush in Barry M Matt White.

Winter Lights and snowflakes

Some more festive nail art! For this manicure I used Barry M Gelly in Blueberry on three nails. On two of my nails I used OPI Don't Touch My Tutu with two coats of China Glaze Fairy Dust on top. The images are stamped from the MoYou London image plate 03 from the Festive Collection. The snowflakes are stamped with Essie Bohemian Rhapsody and the Christmas lights with Konad Black. Lastly, I used red and green polishes to dot on the lights before finishing with top coat.

The OPI Don't Touch My Tutu is a white jelly. I got it because I really liked swatches that I saw on other blogs. But even after three coats, you can still see the nail line and it does  not really go completely white. I am just wondering if it might be better to use it with a base coat of opaque white polish. I would love to hear comments from anyone else who has used this polish or similar.
I was planning to do the Christmas lights free hand but this image looked so cute, I had to try it first! I love the blue on blue snowflakes. I can't get enough of these snowflake images - you might see a lot more of these on the blog in the next couple of months!

Edited to add one more photo when I noticed how the nails shone with the China Glaze Fairy Dust in indoor light!

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!

For "Children in Need" - Pudsey Nails

Children in Need is a BBC UK charity which has the Pudsey Bear as its mascot. Since 1980 it has raised over £600 million to change the lives of disabled children and young people in the UK. You can support the charity by donating here.

One of the ways, I am showing support is with my cute Pudsey manicure!

For these nails, I used the polishes, Barry M Matt White and NYC Lexington Yellow to paint my nails. The dots are done with a dotting tool and NYC Lexington Yellow, Sally Hansen Insta Dri Rapid Red, Barry M Cyan Blue and Revlon Top Speed Emerald. Pudsey's face and paw-prints are done free hand with a nail art brush with Barry M Black.

Poppy Nails for Remembrance Day

"Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day or Armistice Day) is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth countries since the end of World War I to remember the members of their armed forces who have died in the line of duty.
Remembrance Day is observed on 11 November to recall the end of hostilities of World War I on that date in 1918.
The red remembrance poppy has become a familiar emblem of Remembrance Day due to the poem "In Flanders Fields". These poppies bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders in World War I, their brilliant red colour an appropriate symbol for the blood spilled in the war."

For my manicure today, the red polish that I have used is Essie Russian Roulette. The white is Barry M Matt White. I painted the poppies free hand with a small nail art brush, with the polishes: Sally Hansen Insta Dri Rapid Red, Barry M Matt White and Black.

This manicure is a small way to pay tribute to the soldiers who have laid down their lives to protect us.
"Lest we forget ... "
R.I.P.