New Year's Triple Whammy!

Hello lovelies! I'm going away for a couple of days to celebrate New Year's with lots of light entertainery types and I'm really looking forward to lots of giggles! Of course I did nails especially for the occasion, combining a couple of my favourite manis of the year. To add to that I also did my boyfriend's thumbs AND (for the first time ever!) my mum's nails too! So there will be lots of pictures and I'll try not to waffle too much!

Nail Art Novice
Polishes used: Barry M-Passion Fruit, Mango, Spring Green, Blue Grape, Black Multi Glitter, Revlon-Electric, Sinful Colors-Amethyst.

Bonus shot-my (messy) pre-tape rainbows!

Mr. Novice (teehee!)
These were meant to be fireworks but turned out a little flowery...still, he's happy!
Polishes used: Smitten Polish-Bifrost, Rimmel-Movie Star, Barry M-Mango, Revlon-Electric, Silver Screen.

Mummy Novice
Mum wanted something to match her NYE outfit and I decided to jazz them up a bit with some silver stamping too! (Please note, my Mum does have more than 3 nails, I just didn't get a decent photo!)
Polishes used: Rimmel-Movie Star, Calvin Klein-Silver, MoYou London-Pro 8

All that's left for me to say is have a very Happy New Year, whatever you're doing!
I'll see you all in 2014!!!

~Nail Art Novice~

Checking In

Hello lovelies! I hope you had a fantastic Christmas and got lots of lovely things and ate too much food. Today is the first day I've really had available to blog because we had a house full of Australians for Christmas (my boyfriend, his best friend from home and his brother!) and they left yesterday. I had a really good time, it was really nice having a house full of people and noise and SO MUCH GOOD FOOD. I must have put on a stone. It was goooood. 
So I thought I'd swing by and check in and reassure you I'm still around and show you a quick mani I threw together to replace my Christmas nails.

Polishes used: Revlon Chroma Chameleon-Cobalt (which I found in Poundland the other day, woo!) stamped with GOSH-Holographic Hero. The plate was MoYou London-Back to the 80s 2. These were really hard to photograph because of the shiny but I tried my best!

Without flash to try and show off the pattern better

I hope everyone is still enjoying the post-Xmas hangover and relaxing and being awesome and stuff.

I will try and post again before the New Year!

~Nail Art Novice~

12 Days Of Christmas Nail Art Round Up!

Hope you're all having a good Christmas Eve! I thought I'd take this opportunity to show you the round up of my Christmas manis, just in case someone is checking blogs today! Because I'm still signed up to inlinkz, I created this as a collection on there, so you should be able to click the link below each picture to be taken to the post.

As a bonus, here's my Tara's Talons Advent Calendar polishes-it's been really fun opening them throughout the month! (If you're wondering why there's only 12 it's because me and Rara shared the Calendar so she has the other half!)

L-R Dasher, Christmas Fairy, Mistletoe, Santa's Helper, Naughty or Nice, Angel, Vixen,
Rudolph (misnamed!), Carollers, Comet, Happy Elf, Deck the Halls

L-R Dasher, Christmas Fairy, Mistletoe, Santa's Helper, Naughty or Nice, Angel, Vixen,
Rudolph, Carollers, Comet, Happy Elf, Deck the Halls

Have a very Merry Christmas, all!

~Nail Art Novice~

12 Days Of Xmas Nail Art 12-Freestyle Christmas

Well we've finally reached almost the end of December and the end of this little challenge! I'm quite sad to see it go, I've had a fantastic time doing these and shared the experience with some really lovely ladies. Originally my plan was to choose some of their manis to do on my nails today but there have been so many lovely ones that I couldn't just choose 10, and I also would not be able to do them credit at all. So instead I want to dedicate this mani to lovely ladies who have taken part alongside me-there's been over 150 fabulous designs created for the various prompts and I, for one, have really enjoyed myself. I want to say thankyou to everyone who took part with me, whether it was just once or every mani-I never thought when I had this idea in November it would have become something this great! You've all been really awesome company, and I've loved seeing so many different designs. I can't wait to see what you've all come up with for today!

My 'freestyle' mani is made up of various things I've done along the way, and I used about 30 polishes in total for it! I won't list them, most of them have been used in the other Xmas posts anyway, but if there's one you want to know for definite just ask =) Also I used this tutorial from The Little Canvas to do the reindeer.

Here we are then, my final Christmas mani of 2013:

And just because it's Christmas, and I haven't yet, here's some pics using decorations too:

I can't believe it's over! Look out for my round up coming soon, but other than that I would just like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas (if you celebrate it), and I will be back after the festivities have quietened down a little!

~Nail Art Novice~

12 Days Of Xmas Nail Art 11-Christmas Trees

Squeezing this post in before the end of Saturday so I can still claim to have posted on time, haha. I've been visiting my boyfriend today so haven't been able to post yet.
The penultimate Xmas challenge mani! Boo! I've had such fun doing these every day and sharing the challenge with some awesome ladies. For 'Christmas trees' I've known what I wanted to do ever since way back when in Metallic week of the Mish Mash challenge. I festived them up a bit but that's where the idea came from.
Polishes used: GOSH-Holographic Hero (not that you can really see the holo any more, many layers of topcoat killed it. It did look pretty awesome to begin with though!), Barry M-Cosmic Glow (magnetic), Maybelline-Winner Takes It All, London Girl Polish-#79, Rimmel-Red Carpet and Barry M-Teal. I added some gems that I won in a giveaway prize because hey, it's Christmas, and I fancied trying something different. Amazed how well they've stayed on actually!

These are fun! I did find the gems a bit weird at first because I wasn't used to having 3D things on my nails but I forgot about them fairly quickly. These make me feel VERY festive!

Rara
Polishes used: Base of Layla-Mermaid Spell, thumb xmas tree; nail art pen with Tara's Talons-12 Days over the top, index finger; Avon-Noir Emerald with nail art pen decorations, middle finger: Essie-Mojito Madness with Tara's Talons-Bauble over the top, ring finger; Avon-Garden Green mixed with Sinful Colors-Pistache with Andrea Fulerton silver nail pen for tinsel and little finger; as before. All trees have Avon-Express Mocha stumps and yellow nail pen stars.
I am very surprised how many greens I actually have as I don't really like green!! I like how all of my trees are different and my favourite two have to be the ones on my thumb and index fingers! 

Really sad that we only have one more mani left to do :'(

~Rara~

I'm also quite sad we've only got one left-it's been a really fun month trying to organise these around my life haha! Don't forget to check out the other ladies trees in the inlinkz. I'll be back on Monday with the FINAL mani, booo!

~Nail Art Novice~

12 Days Of Xmas Nail Art 10-Santa

~Pic Heavy Post~

So we're down to the final three manis of this challenge and I still can't really believe that it's gone by so quickly-I mean in a WEEK Christmas will have been and gone, what's that about?! In the spirit of all things Christmassy, here's some Santa nails-hope you've all been good this year ;)
I saw some awesome ones by Pause For Polish yesterday and decided to recreate them as accents, along with some Santa hats. For my Santas I used Rimmel-Red Carpet/Serene plus W7-Black and Maybelline-Winner Takes It All. On my hats I added Barry M-Lady to add a touch of sparkle and to make the fluff look fluffier, oh and the background is Revlon-Silver Screen. My other fingers have a base of Tara's Talons-Carollers from my Advent Calendar which is a lovely forest green with gold glitters. On top of that is two coats of the appropriately named Absolut Lacquer-Mrs Claus' Night Out for that perfect mix of Festive colours!

First (pre clean up!) pic is to show Carollers in all its glory.

I also grabbed one without flash to show off Mrs Claus to her full potential-she's packed full of silver and red micro glitter and larger silver pieces:

I really like these! They're super festive and really rather cool I reckon. My Mum liked them so much that she asked me to do some on her too (and that's a big deal because she never ever wears nail polish!), which I think is pretty cool =D

Rara
Polishes used: Barry M-Retro Red, Essie-Cascade Cool, Nails Inc-Uptown Glamour, Barry M-Matt White and Andrea Fulerton black and silver.
I love my Santas!!!!!! I'm not sure if you can tell but they are tiny boots on my little finger! I like how happy and cutey my Santas' faces are!!!

It's "Christmas Day" today so I'm meeting Novice and we're going to swap gifts so it actually feels like Christmas now!!

~Rara~

Haha, yeah, we're going to take our Santa nails and eat some scrummy food whilst exchanging presents today, yay! I love Christmas!
Here, if you need them, are the challenge prompts one last time-only two left to go now.

And check out the other Santa manis too!

~Nail Art Novice~

12 Days Of Xmas Nail Art 9-Snowmen

I was looking at my manis for this challenge and realised none of them were particularly in your face bright amazing colours, so I decided to rectify that for this prompt! The base for this mani is the ever beautiful Tara's Talons-Ol' Blue Eyes (over a similar base colour to make it more opaque) and it's just gorgeous. My little fingers have decals I got on Ebay here and then the rest of the snowmen were freehanded all with a dotting tool. Other polishes: Rimmel-Serene, W7-Black, Barry M-Mango and Rimmel-Red Carpet.

When I was doing these I wasn't sure I was going to like them but actually I'm pretty pleased with the way they've turned out in the end! I love the contrast of colours over that blue, think it looks fab!

Rara
Polishes used Avon-Starry Sky, on my thumb is Tara's Talons-I Love Winter and on my ring finger is Tara's Talons-Ice Ice Baby then Paperchase nail art pens. The only problem I encountered was with the I Love Winter...it took me AGES to get any of the snowflakes and stars out it was mostly the polish that came out.
I didn't want to do a conventional snowman as I'd already done one in an earlier post. So I decided to do the main aspects of a snowman...the carrot, scarf and hat. I apologise now about the smudges on my nails...I took the photos after a trip to the pub and also I piggled the skin on my little finger...oops!! So I am including the photo I took before I did my clean up. Only 3 left :'(

Only 3 left :'(
~Rara~

Don't forget to check out the other lovely snowmen in the inlinkz. Also, does anyone else now have 'Do You Wanna Build A Snowman?' from Frozen in their head? LOVE that film!

Until next time,

~Nail Art Novice~

12 Days Of Xmas Nail Art 8-Holly

Hey lovelies, I'm back with day 8 of my Xmas challenge-can't quite believe how quickly these have sped by. There's only 4 left! I'm also reunited with my beloved fast dry topcoat, so there are a lot less dings in these nails than the last-phew!
So today's prompt is 'Holly' and I decided that I'd just do accent nails because I really wanted to use some of my festive glitters! The base for these is Revlon-Silver Screen and the glitter is Iconic Effect-Red, Green + Gold which is fabulously festive and basically does what it says on the tin. I sort of dabbled on two coats-could have used one as it looked quite pretty but this is Christmas time so I wanted ALL THE GLITTER =D
 The holly leaves are Rimmel-Camouflage and Revlon-Emerald and the berries are Rimmel-Red Obsession topped with Barry M-Red Glitter.

It's weird, in real life the stripes down the middle of the leaves look much darker than the leaves themselves but there you go-must be the different finishes playing with my camera. Look at that glitter-isn't it fab?

Rara
Polishes used: Avon-Noir Emerald, Nails Inc-Uptown Glamour, Tara's Talons-Bauble, Barry M-Diamond Glitter, holly berries are Barry M-Red Glitter and leaves are Avon-Garden Green or green nail art pen. I was a little under inspired for these nails-I'm not the greatest at drawing holly leaves and lacked the imagination to make them exciting. However I am pleased with the final results!

~Rara~

I really like them! She's talking nonsense about not being able to draw the leaves I reckon. Also I loooove that glitter on her index finger-we have a joint Tara's Talon's advent calendar and she got that in it-bit jealous!

So there's our holly berries. As ever, don't forget to check out the other awesome ladies in their holly-day manicures (haha!) in the inlinkz.

Here's a reminder of the remaining prompts too, only four more to go!

~Nail Art Novice~

12 Days Of Xmas Nail Art 7-Christmas Animals

OK so I did a very silly thing this week. I'm currently up in Sheffield visiting friends/rehearsing and performing in a show and I brought all my polishes with me to do this mani. Or so I thought. I'd actually (somehow!) managed to forget both my base coat and top coat, which is basically a massive fail for a nail blogger! I had to go out and buy some more and could only find Sally Hansen Double Duty. Don't get me wrong, it's pretty decent for what it is, but man I missed my Seche Vite! I don't know how I ever managed to function before I owned fast dry top coat, because these took hours to feel like they were properly dry, and even in the short time between finishing them and taking the pictures they got a little battered/dinged up. SIGH. Lesson learned there, methinks.

Anyway, enough of my idiotic-ness. I used lots of polishes for this one so I'll zip through them quickly: Rimmel-Red Obsession, Barry M-Red Glitter, W7-Black, Barry M-Matt White,Mango, Mushroom and Lemon Icecream. I also used some reindeer water decals which I picked up on ebay here.

I do think they look better in white but I wanted to try both colours out

So there's my Christmas animals-cute little robins and penguins!

Rara
So for some reason the majority of my Xmas animals are birds! I've done an owl, penguin, robin, reindeer and another robin. Not sure why it was so hard to think of Christmas animals but it was and I was sorely tempted to redo my Christmas pigs!! However I am pleased with how these came out, especially after I added the Santa hats...no Xmas mani is complete without a Santa hat!! Polishes used - base colour NYC-Sidewalkers, Avon-Express Mocha, Tara's Talons-Three Wise Men, Barry M-Matt White, Barry M-Red Glitter and an orange nail art pen. 
Friday 13th...hope it was a lucky nail art one for you all!!

~Rara~

Don't forget to check the inlinkz out for more awesome festive manis =)

~Nail Art Novice~

12 Days Of Xmas Nail Art 6-Decorations

-PIC HEAVY POST-

Do you ever have those moments where you do some really awesome nail art that you're really proud of one one hand and just know you're not going to be able to recreate it well on the other? Yeah, this was one of those! I took inspiration for these from Chalkboard Nails' Functional Christmas Lights and for this decided to stray away from the Christmas colours I've been sticking to at the mo! I did a base of Revlon-Minted and then topped it with my Iconic Effect-Extreme Holo Topcoat...because I couldn't resist using it again haha! I did the "string" with my black Barry M nail art pen and drew "bulbs" with the white to provide a good base for my slightly jelly like glow in the dark polishes. I used BK Polishes in 05, 06 and 10 to colour them in. On my thumb I did a sort of Christmas tree with the lights which I really like. Then it came to my right hand. My Barry M pens started playing up and the bulbs all came out different sizes and shapes. I did attempt the tree to match but it just wasn't playing so I gave up in the end, haha! Ah well, can't have it all ey?
I feel I should warn you that my camera was a little dazzled by the holoyness of these, poor thing, so these are a little blurry around the edges.

While one hand is definitely better than the other, I do really like these! And look, they really glow:

GITD nail varnish makes me so happy, which is good because I had crappy news today so I needed a pick me up!
Anyway, let's see Rara's decorations too!

Rara
I had absolutely no idea how to do decorations...so I kind of cheated. I decided to use a new polish from a TarasTalons goodie bag called Paper Chains. I layered it over the top of Avon-Forget-Me-Not Blue. Paper Chain is a beautiful many coloured glitter and makes me happy! To try to match it I painted my other nails with Layla-Mermaid Spell (Holographic effect) and attempted paper chains with my nail pens from Paperchase. Not sure you could tell what they are unless I had already told you though!

Bring on Christmas Animals!!!!

~Rara~

I actually really like those paperchains, they're so colourful, and that glitter is loooovely! There you go, lots of holoy goodness and pretty decorations. Here's a reminder of the rest of the prompts, can't believe we're half way through already!

Don't forget to check out the inlinkz for some more fabulous 'decorations' manis!

~Nail Art Novice~

Mish Mash Challenge Week 20-Nail Stamping

Hello lovelies!
Today I've got a Mish Mash mani for you, and those with a keen eye will notice that it's actually an upcycled mani. Because I'm busy doing the 12 Days of Xmas Nail Art, I've had to schedule this post well in advance to fit everything in! I've stamped over my TPC Gradient with Sally Hansen-Purple Bolt and my MoYou London-Back To The 80s 2 plate. My stamping isn't perfect, especially with my non-dominant hand but oh well! I really like this repeating star image!

I really like the way the sparkles from the base peek through the stamping and twinkle in the light, it's so pretty!

Don't forget to check out the other Stamping manis in the inlinkz below, and I'll be back later with another Xmas mani!

~Nail Art Novice~

12 Days Of Xmas Nail Art 5-Bells

Hello lovelies!
I'm back with another Xmas mani today-I can't believe how quickly these are going past. Today's is Bells and I've freehanded some slightly wibbly ones! I started with a base of Rimmel-Purple Addict and on all but my accent fingers topped it with a coat of Iconic Effect-Extreme Holo Topcoat which is basically my new favourite thing ever. A way to make any polish not only holoy but extremely so? I had to have it! I get the feeling I'm going to be using it a lot, haha. For my bells I used Maybelline-Winner Takes It All and added a little detail with Rimmel-Red Carpet/Camouflage.

Please ignore my stubby nubbin of a middle finger =(

I love the bells but I'm more impressed with that holo topcoat-look at those gorgeous rainbows! You can get it on the Iconic Effect Etsy site and it comes in three intensities depending on how much holo you want! Because I am a true "holo ho" (to quote a lovely lady in one of my nail groups on FB) I had to have the extreme one, but I'm sorely tempted to pick up the others with some of my Xmas money too!

OK, so there's my bells, now let's have a look at Rara's:

Rara
Today I used Avon-Garden Green which is quite a nice shimmery green. The bells were done using Nails Inc-Uptown Glamour which I got out of a magazine for £1.40! And the bow detailing I used Barry M-Bright Red. The lettering was done by my trusty Andrea Fulerton...think I might love that woman! I wasn't too sure how to draw bells so they could quite possibly have looked nothing like they needed to. But in the end I think you can tell what they are! Jingle all the way to the next challenge...decorations, where I'm completely stumped......

~Rara~

I love Rara's little bells, I think they're fabulous! I think it's interesting how we both have our own favourite nail art pens-she loves the Andrea Fulerton ones but I'm much more of a Barry M fan! Each to their own ey?

Don't forget to check out the rest of the manis in the inlinkz!

~Nail Art Novice~

12 Days Of Xmas Nail Art 4-Festive Colours

Hey lovelies-can you guess what I did for my Festive Colours mani from this pic?

Haha! Aside from about 20 strands, that tape is all from one mani which I think is a bit impressive! I had originally planned to do a sort of gradient of the three "Festive" colours (red/green/gold) but decided to try them out like this on a swatch stick and liked it so much I did a full mani of it! It's another one of my double layered taping manis which take forever to do but I think give some really awesome results!

Polishes used: Maybelline-Winner Takes It All, Rimmel-Red Carpet and Camouflage plus copious layers of Seche Vite!

As I said, I really like these-they're definitely very festive but also a bit different and quite eyecatching too! I do feel that I should probably step away from the striping tape now though-3 of my 4 Xmas manis so far have used it-oops! I just love the awesome things you can do with it-and so does Rara by the look of things:

Rara
I used Barry M-Red Glitter, Silver Multi Glitter and Gold Glitter and Andrea Fullerton dot and flick black and silver. I wasn't sure what to do for this mani and I'm not completely happy with this one. I tried to do a striping tape mani and I just don't know what went wrong with it. However it is really glittery yay!! Hopefully I'm going to be more impressed with the up coming manis!

~Rara~

Ahh my eyes! It's so sparkly! Gotta love a glitter fest =D

Here's a reminder of the rest of the prompts, and if you want to join in then the FB group with the details is here.

Have a look at the other fabulous festive manis too!

~Nail Art Novice~