Silver Stamping & Hex Glitter

I haven't had a chance to post the last couple of weeks but I was busier than usual and even though I did paint my nails, I just didn't have the energy to post! So I hope you like the bit of bling on my nails today!

Free hand Striped Nail Art

I have a simple but striking manicure today ...

Red, White and Black

I have a beautiful red textured nail polish today, that has been patiently sitting in my pile of "un-trieds" for ages ... here it is at last ...

Sparitual Groove - Swatch and Geometric Nail Art

I have today a gorgeous grey-cornflower blue, creme polish - Sparitual Groove from the Sparitual Spring 2015 Collection, and some nail art ...

Gold & Purple Swirls

I got these swirly nail vinyls ages ago and never got around to using them - here is a manicure with them at last ...

One Stroke Purple Flowers Nail Art

I love one stroke nail art and keep thinking I ought to do it more often so that I can improve upon my previous attempts. So here is my latest manicure with some one stroke purple flowers ...

Colourful Leadlight Stamping Manicure

I got some of these Born Pretty Stamping plates specifically for Leadlight manicures, where you colour in the stamping with other polishes for a colourful end result. This is just one such manicure.
I have used a very pretty white polish with a gold shimmer for the base and the pink and blue polishes also have fine glitter in them. I don't know if my photos do justice to this shimmery gorgeousness but I did so enjoy wearing these nails!

Chrysanthemums - Floral Stamping Nail Art

I got this Messy Mansions Leadlight Lacquer stamping plate A05 mostly for this image - it reminds me so much of the gorgeous chrysanthemums that my mum used to grow when I was a child! I love how the colours of this manicure turned out too.

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.

Love is in the air!

I have one more Valentine's Day manicure for you today. Just a little scene set at dusk with two people in love, meeting at the end of the day for an evening together.

Happy New Year 2015!

A New Year means new beginnings - so here's to a new beginning for my little blog!
I have been painting my nails and doing some nail art these past few months - but not as much and I think it shows! I am a little rusty but it can only get better from here.
Here is a fireworks manicure for the New Year celebrations.
The base polish is Models Own Diamond Luxe Marquise Maroon. The images stamped are from the MoYou London Festive Collection Plate 05. The gold polish used for stamping is OPI Love Angel Music Baby.

OPI Push and Shove - Swatch, Review & Nail Art

I am not a huge fan of chrome polishes but I do like them from time to time, specially for my toenails in the summer. When I recently came across OPI Push and Shove from the Gwen Stefani Collection, it promised a metallic ultra-chrome reflective mirror finish - so tempting - I had to try it!

Lilac & Pink Roses Manicure

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

Textured Quilted Manicure - Tri-Polish Tuesday

Continuing with the blue & pink theme for Tri-Polish Tuesday but with something entirely different from previous weeks - a textured quilted manicure!

I painted all my nails except the ring finger with Maybelline Dazzling Diva, a fine silver glitter. I painted my ring finger with Claire's Sand Effect in Silver. Once my base polish was dry, I used strips of striping tape to mark out the quilted pattern on the rest of the nails. Its really important to make sure your base is dry - a quick dry top coat can help here.

Hot Pink Manicure with a cherry blossom accent - GOT Polish

I have been looking forward to this manicure because I like wearing a pink manicure from time to time - they are like the equivalent of comfort food in manicures for me! Nothing too out there, sweet and pretty!

I love OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips and wanted to keep the focus on the polish itself. So I kept my nails simple and just added some rhinestones to the pink painted nails. For my accent nail, I painted it with OPI Alpine Snow and stamped it with Konad Black.

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?!

Tri Polish Tuesday - Dotted Half Moons

I think it is a bit of a challenge to incorporate both grey and brown in a manicure at the same time - the pink helps though! Since one manicure in the month needs to use all three colours at once, here is my attempt with grey, brown and pink for the February part of the challenge ...

I started with a base of Color Club Silver Lake, a light grey polish. I used paper hole re-inforcers to mark out the half moons and painted the rest of the nail with OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips. Then I used a double ended dotting tool to add the dots with Sally Hansen Insta Dri Coco a-go-go.

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.

Textured Stamped Roses

I think I've said this before that I never thought I would like textured polish but I've loved them since the first time I used one. And I really like stamping over them. Although, after this manicure I realised that bold images with thick lines show up the best with textured polishes. I used OPI My Favourite Ornament as the base polish for this manicure - its a very pretty Champagne glitter. I don't think OPI states clearly that its textured (not to my knowledge, anyway!) but it does have a fine textured effect to it.

I stamped on top with Klean Color Metallic Purple (on the accent nail) and Metallic Pink. The images are from the MoYou London image plate 04 from the Pro Collection. The Klean Color Metallic Pink is so highly pigmented that it stained my stamper - but it does stamp very well. I didn't use any topcoat on these nails to keep the textured effect.

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.