Green Jelly and Hot Pink Chrome Stamping...

Hi guys, every time I post these days I feel like somewhere in the text is an apology!

I don't want to be one of those people who's full of false promises, or always saying I'm planning to do certain things by a certain time.  I'm doing my best. The truth is, my love for blogging and nail art just isn't the same.  Don't get me wrong, I still love sharing what I've done with my nails, and I've even bought some new stamping plates recently.  However, as life is a mushy haze of work, driving lessons, gym (no matter how short my visit :P) and people I love, the effort I put into my nails comes after that.

At the moment I'm actually letting my nails grow slightly, and they're oval/round rather than the mostly natural square they grow in.  I'm debating going for slightly more of an almond shape in a week or so too.

Anyhoo... onto the nails rather than the tiny rants.

Base Coat: CND - Stickey

Base Colour: Barry M - Watermelon#

Stamping Colour: NYC - Foil'er Up

Image Plate: Cheeky Jumbo Viva Mexico

Top Coat: Sally Hansen Advanced Hard As Nails

So this was a little bit of an odd combination, and I'm not 100% how it came about as this was about two months back now.  I think it may have came from not owning many stamping polishes other than chromes that can stamp over dark colours.   Now, Barry M - Watermelon is not the darkest, but it is a very strong bold colour.  I think NYC - Foil'er Up sort of works.  Sort of.

Here's a swatch shot of Watermelon in case I haven't shown one before.  Lovely Deep Green that's almost muted.

Hope you've all had a lovely weekend. Mine was another lazy one, snugged up in bed or the sofa watching TV. Bliss.

Red & Gold Aztec Using Bundle Monster

Hi all,

I thought I was going to have a load of time this weekend to blog, but as it turns out, loads of plans occurred, and I've only just had time to do my nails/blog tonight (Monday).

These are some nails I did quite a while ago, as are most of my mani's so far this year.  These were some quickie nails midweek at some point back in January.  Orly - Naughty is a really lovely super dark red polish, it dried really well, but after stamping with Barry M - Gold Foil and adding a top coat, it pulled through some of the colour and made some of the stamping look pink-ish.  I had heard of this before, but never actually experienced it.

Base Coat: CND - Stickey

Base Colour: Orly - Naughty

Stamping Colour: Barry M - Gold Foil

Image Plate: Bundle Monster BM410

Top Coat: Sally Hansen - Advanced Hard As Nails

Gradient and Aztec stamping with Cheeky Viva Mexico

Hi guys, hope you've all had a good weekend, I've not had the most productive but I thought that after a very stressful two weeks worrying about the interview I mentioned in last post I thought a long chilled weekend was the best call.  Especially as I've been in a particularly good mood as I totally nailed the interview =D so after I write this post I'm going to watch a film and maybe colour in, carry on the chilling.

Base Coat: CND - Stickey

Base Colours: Cliché - Opala, Alessandro international - Pomegranate

Glitter: Essence - Space Queen

Stamping Colour: Konad White

Image Plate: Cheeky Viva Mexico

Top Coat: Sally Hansen Advanced Hard As Nails

 

Not the best quality pics as these were taken on my phone, but you get the idea :] Here's a picture of the base pre-stamp:

NOPI - Love Song & Barry M - Gold Foil Stamping

Hi all, happy Monday, can you believe there's only just over two weeks left until Christmas?!

I'm hoping I may get the chance to post some festive manicures before Christmas rolls around but I don't hold high hopes - so I may not even do any, and how crazy is that?!

Today I have a little post showing the lovely NOPI - Love Song with some stamping from the Viva Mexico Cheeky Plate using Barry M - Gold Foil.

Base Coat: CND - Stickey

Base Colour: Nicole by OPI - Love Song (Selena Gomez collection)

Stamping Colour: Barry M - Gold Foil

Image Plate: Cheeky Viva Mexico

Top Coat: Sally Hansen Advanced Hard As Nails

And here's a swatch shot of Love Song.  It's a really gorgeous Lilac shade, with very slight shimmer, which is mainly hidden on the nail but it definitely lightens up the whole thing.

Hope you've all had a good Monday so far.  I think by the time this posts I will be setting up the Christmas tree in the office :]

*This NOPI polish was sent to me for consideration of review*

Summer Splatter and Aztec Stamping with Cheeky Viva Mexico

Hi all, today I have some fun nails I did probably in the end of August? 

Now, some of you may be aware I have zero skills when It comes to doing splatter manicures, and for a couple years now I've opted to use the rough side of a kitchen sponge to create a similar effect.  I used the rough side of  a sponge again for this manicure, and I added a top coat before stamping.

Base Coat: CND - Stickey

Base Colour: Colour Club - Blue-ming

Splatter Colours: Natural Collection - Antique Coral, Kiko - Cornflower Blue

Stamping Colour: BYS - Black Satin

Image Plate: Cheeky - Viva Mexico

Stamp Colour: BYS - Black Satin

Top Coat: Sally Hansen Advanced Hard As Nails

Sadly my trusty BYS - Black Satin had started to thicken and it was really really hot the day I did these so sadly the stamping isn't as clean as I would have liked.  

Here's the base:

Hope you're having a good Monday so far!

Evening Seduction & Aztec Simple Tape Design

Another quick post today, I have a banging headache so would like to get off the laptop rather quickly and make a cup of tea :]

Base Coat: CND - Stickey
Base Colour: China Glaze - Evening Seduction
Top Colour: Accessorize - Aztec
Top Coat: China Glaze - No Chip Top Coat

Indoor

I have such a hard time photographing this polish, the last photo does it the better justice, but you really notice the colour shift in it more obviously in real life.

Wintery Pastel Aztec

These didn't really take too long to do, however I had to rush to finish them for my mate Dom coming over, and only got a chance to take a photo the next morning before rushing out to meet some friends. So one photo blog posts are back for today! Sorry for the naff photo too, but I couldn't not post these after all the effort, even though there's a lot to be improved upon!

Base Coat: CND - Stickey

Base Colour: Models Own - Utopia

First Stripe: Barry M - Grey

Second Stripe: Beauty UK - Smokey Lilac
Third Stripe: Beauty UK - Soft Grey
Nail Pens In Black & White
Top Coat: China Glaze - No Chip Top Coat

Bright Aztec

A week or so back I asked my brothers girlfriend if I could do her nails, and the only thing she knew is that she wanted bright ^_^. I'm starting to really love doing other peoples nails though I'm always nervous as hell and don't wanna hurt them when pushing back cuticles and such, and I have some shake issues sometimes :P

Anyhoo I got some nail inspiration pics from google and she decided on aztec. I think I might've tried aztec on one finger on myself  a few months back, and then decided it was too much hassle to commit to a whole mani, taking my weaker hand into consideration. So doing a full mani of aztec on someone else was rather fun.

Base Coat: Total Nail RX - Stuck On You
Base Colour: P2 - Pink It Up!
Yellow: Manhattan - Lemonade - 15
Green: P2 - Artful
Black Nail Art Pen

I think If I hadn't been a little hesitant I would've paid more attention to the spacing between colours, but I still love how it turned out. It was quite hard working on small nails (she's a biter) but she's said she didn't bite her nails as much having them painted, and I'm doing her nails again tomorrow :]

So a thank you to Steph for playing model :]

Rasta Aztec

 I've been dying to try the Aztec image on the Bundle Monster plate 221 and I was happy as larry to stamp it in black over a nude base colour, but the other half convinced me to use a few colours. I was doing this in my crappy bedroom lighting.. at about 11pm so I didn't really think they'd come out looking Rasta, using a turquoise and pink, but I liked them anyways :]

Here's what I used. Left - Right:
CND - Stickey
Sally Hansen - White On (not pictured)Miss Sporty - Hip Pop
Barry M - Lemon Ice Cream
Beauty UK - Turquoise Shimmer
BYS - Black Satin
China Glaze - No Chip Top Coat

 I started with my base coat, and then did one coat of white so the yellow would be a bit more opaque (it's a bit thin). I then used the yellow to paint a strip down the middle of the nail, when that was dry I used a piece of tape to tape off the yellow from the other sections to get a crisp colour line, and then I painted them too, using turquoise and pink. In the end I did two coats of each colour, so the white wasn't really necessary. I then stamped the aztec design using my favourite black, trying to get the lines to match. And added a top coat.

I went to bed before these were fully dry ;( they needed another top coat in the picture. Woops.