Wednesday 30 April 2014

31 Week Nail Art Challenge 6-Purple

I called this a 31 Week nail art challenge but I have to confess that I'm not really sticking to posting one every week very well, this should really have gone up by Sunday but oh well!

For my purple challenge I used a new polish and a new technique-the cloud mani. I've always thought these looked quite fun and I don't know why I've never tried it before! The base colour is the beautiful Cirque-Baptisia which is another polish I won in Emma's giveaway at the start of the month. It's a really deep purple packed with bluey shimmers, and it smells of lavender too, mmm! On top of that I added the "cloud" shapes in Loki's Lacquer-Buddy and Revlon-Purple Addict, both favourite purples of mine.



I'm totally in love with this, the colours together are just stunning! I have to say though, I'd not really thought about doing this one with my off hand-and it's really hard! Keeping the lines at the right height while at the same time trying to keep the lovely blobby shapes at the top was really difficult, and you can see some of the ones on my right hand are less than perfect. I still like it though!

Here's what I've got coming up next week, or at least at some point in the indeterminate future haha!


~Nail Art Novice~

Saturday 26 April 2014

Polish Party-Inspired by Kerruticles

Hello lovelies! It's the last week of the month again which means it's Polish Party time and this month the theme was 'Inspired by another Polish Party member'. I chose the lovely Claire from Kerruticles because I have been following her for almost as long as I have been blogging and she has some really fabulous nails. Claire is the Queen of clean, crisp lines in her striping tape manis and often comes up with some really elegant but deceptively simple manis. I had a quick scout through her blog for some inspiration and came up with these three manis: (33 Day Challenge taping, Holiday stripes, GOT Challenge Chevrons)


All photos from http://www.kerruticles.com and used with permission
I decided to incorporate elements from all of them into my nails for today, but wanted to stay away from the blues/purples because I've been doing a fair few blue manis lately! The colours I chose were: A England-Iseult, Barry M-Mango and Passion Fruit.




My lines are nowhere near as crisp and clean as Claire's (and my clean up is frankly atrocious!) but I like these nonetheless, they're really bright! Obviously as my nails are shorter I have fewer stripes than her as well, but I hope these are still a good homage to those fabulous manis!

Also, here's a picture of Iseult on its pretty little onesome-I am always surprised by how much I like this polish. I won it in a giveaway ages ago and thought I'd never wear it (what with it being a PINK and all =p) but that subtle silver shimmer running through it lifts it into something really lovely!


That's me for today then, don't forget to check out the other PP lovelies in the inlinkz!

~Nail Art Novice~

Wednesday 23 April 2014

Stamp, Stamp, Baby!

Hello loves!

Apologies for being a little sporadic with my posting lately, I keep doing manis and never managing to get pics of them before they start chipping off =(
I've got some stamping today and this is going to be a thing I'm going to be doing fairly regularly (once a fortnight hopefully) because I've got a fair few stamping plates that just never get used and I am inheriting some more from a lovely polishy friend as her nails have outgrown them. I do love stamping (when it works), it's such an easy and quick way to get nails that are more interesting than a plain colour so I reckon I should really do more!

Today's base is a first for me-my very first Mentality polish that I won in the lovely Emma's giveaway recently. Cobbler is a really pale blue matte polish crammed with blue shimmery bits and is really pretty on its own:

but then I stamped over it with Revlon-Emerald City and MoYou London-Pro Collection 09.



And while that did look really cool, I am a shiny girl at heart, so I added a layer of Seche Vite to seal it all in and add some shine:


It really brings out the sparkle in both the polishes, and I think it's pretty!

Happy St George's Day!

~Nail Art Novice~

Friday 18 April 2014

31WNAC 5-Blue

Hello lovelies! Hope you're all having an awesome Friday bank hol and have been enjoying the sun-I am a little pink around the cheeks from it, oops!
It's Blue week in the 31 Week Nail Art Challenge and this colour/glitter combo is something I've been wanting to do for a while. I've used Rimmel-Out Of The Blue and paired it with the very lovely Pocket Money Polishes-Alien Like You which is one of the very last ones I got before Charlie closed her doors in January (sob!). To go with the Alien theme I've done some accents in Maybelline-Ceramic Blue, Collection-Look At Me!, Revlon-Silver Screen and Rimmel-Double Decker Red.



The flash on my camera seems to sort of 'flatten' the glitter a little, so I took one in more natural light (complete with my kitchen worktop in the background!) to show it off to its full, lovely, potential:


These nails are so much fun, I've had a couple of comments on them and I just LOVE flashing that glitter around in the sun too =D

Here's a reminder of the 31WNAC prompts, come back next week for 'Purple'.


Enjoy the rest of your Easter Weekend!

~Nail Art Novice~

Tuesday 15 April 2014

Fingerfood's Theme Buffet-Fishtails (+ My OH Does My Nails!)

I was complaining to my boyfriend the other day that while I really like fishtail manis, they just take so long to do and are basically a bit of a pain and I really couldn't be arsed to do one for this challenge. His eyes lit up and he told me he had an idea and this was the result! I painted the base coat and he did all the details with dotting tools and I have to say I love them!

Polishes used: Sinful Colors-Ciao Bella (which is a simply gorgeous blue jelly filled with sparkles!) and Revlon-Silver Screen, with my black Barry M nail art pen for details.



He also insisted I include this pic too (along with adorably re-enacting the last face-how could I refuse?!)


So there you go, my slightly less traditional take on fish tails, and a host of other marine life too. My boyfriend just asked me to point out that he realises that octopi etc are not strictly speaking fish, but hey, who's counting? I love them, they make me smile every time I see them, plus that base colour is gorgeous! And how awesome are the little octopus/squid/crab? I'll make a nail artist out of him yet =p

See you next time!

~Nail Art Novice~

Sunday 13 April 2014

31WNAC 4-Green

Hello lovelies!
Sorry it's been so long since I last posted, I went away with my Gospel Choir last weekend and didn't manage to post beforehand! This is my green mani for my 31 Week Nail Art Challenge and I decided to do interlocking dots with a couple of holos. I got A England-Dragon in their anniversary sale at the start of the month (oops, had a little splurge!) and wanted another green to go with it. None of my green holos went that well (means I totally need more, right? =p) but in the end I went with Color Club-Angel Kiss so it would show up well. It looks really blue in these pictures but it's definitely green IRL!




I really like these, I love the way the colours play together and the two different holos work together. Dragon is just gorgeous too, that lovely red shimmer is a nice surprise! These looked amazing in the sun today in the park.

As a bonus, here's the nails I wore on tour-can you guess where we went? (These aren't the best nail art ever, they were done at about 1 am!)


I had a really brilliant time away and did lots of awesome singing! But I hope to post more regularly now I'm back lol.

Laters,

~Nail Art Novice~

Friday 11 April 2014

Beauty and the Beast Nail Art

Hello! It's Rara! It's been rather a long time since my last post, I am still doing nails but Jenni is doing such beautiful manis that I don't want to tread on her toes (or fingernails!!).]

However, she has asked me to do a post for her about my current mani which is a Beauty and the Beast inspired mani. I used A LOT of nail varnishes and I'm not entirely convinced I've remembered them all!!
Avon-Garden Green, Barry M-Bright RedMatt WhiteGuavaRed GlitterPearl, NYC-Skin Tight DenimSidewalkers,  Nails Inc-Uptown GlamourBelsize ParkEssie-Cascade Cool, Sinful Colors-Pistache, Black on BlackEasy Going, Tara'sTalons-Three Wise Men, Orly-Naughty, Andrea Fulerton-Rain Fall and Barry M-topcoat and basecoat!!

I decided I wanted to do Beauty and the Beast because I had seen so many people drawing faces and characters and I wanted to see if I was able to do it too. I only used a long thin brush. I realise that most people use Acrylic paint when they are doing such intricate details but A) I didn't have any acrylic paint and B) I kind of think it's cheating not to paint using nail varnish!

The characters I decided to paint were (left hand) Mrs Potts, a rose, Belle, Beast and Lumiere, (right hand) Cogsworth, Chip, Gaston, Fifi and another rose! I am a bit sad that I've got two roses but I did my left hand about three hours before my right and then I got to my little finger on my right hand and it is so tiny that I could only do another rose!




I am really pleased with Mrs Potts, Gaston and Belle especially, they turned out SO much better than I thought that they would and I can't stop looking at them. I will be super sad when I have to change my nails or when they inevitably chip or I break a nail!!So I hope you all enjoy my nails as much as I do and I hope to blog with a bit less of a gap than this one!!


Until next time,
Rara!

Wednesday 2 April 2014

Fairy Cakes Nail Art

Hello lovelies!
This will have to be a quick post as I am running out the door in about 10 mins so please forgive me if I don't talk much!
I got one of the Nails Inc Sprinkles polishes from ebay the other day and thought it would be perfect for this nail art!

Polishes used: Barry M-Prickly Pear, Sinful Colors-Amethyst, Revlon-Blue Lagoon, Barry M-Cobalt Blue, Revlon-Sunshine Sparkle/Electric, Rimmel-Peppermint, Barry M-Greenberry, Rimmel-Tangy Tangerine, Barry M-Satsuma, Barry M-Matt White, Nails Inc-Sweets Way and Rimmel-Movie Star



I have to say these are making me really happy, which is good cos today I'm just having one of those days where you want to curl up in a ball under your quilt and wish the world would go away, so these are very welcome at the end of my fingers!

As I said, sorry for the brevity, but gotta dash!

~Nail Art Novice~
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