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.

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 ...

The Last of the Festive Nails!

I have two manicures today - one that was done for Christmas in 2014 and the other for New Year's Eve. First up is the Christmas manicure, which I did with a new Born Pretty Stamping Plate. The Born Pretty store has recently released a range of new stamping plates which have really pretty images and stamp very well. The Stamping plate for this manicure is the BP01. The stamping polish is Essie No Place Like Chrome on a base of Zoya Dream. I used a dotting tool to depict the snow around the reindeers.

The second manicure I wore for the New Year's Eve's celebration. I chose the colour teal to match a teal and black lace dress that I wore and used the lace image on the index and little fingers to depict that. I used the gold for stamping though, since black didn't show up very well on the teal.
The sparkly base for these nails is one Coat of Sally Hansen Lustre Shine Scarab topped with two coats of Sally Hansen Triple Shine 360 Sparkling Water. The images are from the MoYou London plates from the Festive Collection - 05 and the Bridal Collection - 07. The stamping polish is Mentality Shirin.

Guest Post at Life in Lacquer - Pink Butterflies Stamped Manicure

If you like this manicure, then head over to Life in  Lacquer to read all the details and see more photos. I am posting there today to fill in for the lovely Jade who is away on holiday!

Textured Stamped Manicure - GOT Polish

I don't think I have any textured polishes that are over a year old to use for this challenge. But these Sally Hansen Sugar Coats have been sitting in my pile of un-trieds for quite some time so I am hoping they qualify for the challenge in that respect. They come in some really pretty colours and I have been looking forward to trying them out but just haven't got around to it.

I painted my nails with Sally Hansen Sugar Coat in 300 Cherry Drop, which is a gorgeous slightly orange red. The green is 250 Spare-A-Mint?, a pretty teal green. The stamping polish is Essie No Place Like Chrome, one of my favourite silver polishes to stamp with.

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.

Ruffle French Tip Manicure - GOT Polish

The prompt for the GOT Polish Challenge is the Ruffle Manicure. For this manicure, you just need to use a large dotting tool to create a line of dots on your nails. Then follow it up with successive lines of slightly overlapping dotted lines in a different colour. The end result looks like fabric ruffles. There's a good tutorial on Chalkboard Nails.
I thought it would be nice to use the ruffle nail art as an accent and french tips rather than the whole nail so this is what I did.

Its a pretty simple technique and the end result is very cute and colourful. This is my first attempt at this kind of nail art. I painted my nails with China Glaze For Audrey. And I did the ruffles with Sally Hansen Insta Dri Flashy Fuschia and Revlon Gold Coin.

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?!

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.

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 2014 - Stripes

Its been quite interesting going through my stash and trying to decide which ones of my old polishes to use for the manicures for this challenge! The next prompt in the GOT Polish Challenge is Stripes. I considered stamping the stripes on - there are some really nice stripey images on some of my plates. But then thought I would try my hand at striping tape one more time. And going a bit further with it, I decided to use three colours in stead of the two that I have normally used before.

The base colour for this manicure is China Glaze Fast Track, which is a really nice nude with a gold shimmer in it. The stripes on top are done with Sally Handen Insta Dri in Ruby Rush and Emerald Express.

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.

"GOT Polish Challenge 2014" - Pink and Silver Criss-Cross

You know how you see this beautiful bottle of nail polish in the shop (or online) and think that you have to have it? Then you buy it and end up using it once and then just never get around to using it again.  And sometimes, that bottle of polish lands on your heap of "un-trieds" and doesn't even get used once! Well, I am very excited about doing two nail art challenges this year - the second of which shows a little love to just some of these forgotten polishes in the nail polish stash!

The Golden Oldie Thursday - GOT Polish Challenge 2014!

The basic rules of this challenge are that the nail polishes used should be at least a year old or one of the oldest that you have, preferably previously used, though you can use an old one never used before too. More than one polish can be used if it fits the themes and the rules. The prompts are:

The prompt for the day is "Pink".

For this manicure, I painted three nails with Revlon Silver Dollar. The other two nails are painted with Sally Hansen Insta Dri Presto Pink. The pink rhinestone on the ring finger is from Cheeky. I used striping tape to mark out the criss-cross pattern on the thumb and the middle finger. I painted the presto pink on top, removed the striping tape while the pink was still wet, in the "last on first off" order.

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.

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.

Japanese Landscape

MoYou London has some beautiful Japanese images on their plates in the Suki Collection. The manicure today uses one such plate to create a Japanese Landscape.

I used a base of Color Club Silver Lake from the Girl About Town Collection. I stamped with the polishes, Konad Black, Sally Hansen Insta Dri Quick Brick and Rimmel 60 Seconds 830 Camoflouge. The images are from the MoYou London Plate 02 from the Suki Collection.

I liked how the colours go together to create a restful scene. It made me think of a pleasant, quiet morning with a Samurai practicing his moves under a tree!

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!

Guest Post at "Penguins Left Green Polish"

If you missed me yesterday, I am over at the lovely Nada's blog with a guest post. She's got a great blog with the cutest name! Thank you Nada, for the opportunity to share the post with your readers!
Here's a preview ...