Twinsie Nails-Roses

It's Twinsie time once again here on my blog and this month I have two twinnies because there was an odd number of participants taking part. I was paired with the lovely Lothwen from Manis and Makeovers and the fabulous Hannah from The Dalai Lama's Nails and we were given the prompt Roses (this month's theme is flowers). We were discussing our ideas and decided we didn't want to do the traditional vintage style roses and that we'd try something a bit funkier-and eventually came up with the idea of doing our roses in black, white and a splash of colour, but do our own thing within those parameters. I'm looking forward to seeing what the other ladies came up with!

I used Barry M-Matt White, W7-Black, Topshop-Cloud and Barry M-SLE2013 B for my splash of colour (such a catchy name that one!) and did vintage style roses in a very different colour scheme!

I really like em! OK they don't look hugely like roses in the pictures but they do in real life, and I love the colour scheme-feels almost classy somehow, but with that bright green to liven it up. I'm really intrigued to see what my twins have come up with too-once their posts are up I will link to them here-make sure you go and see theirs too!

The Dalai Lama's Roses

Manis and Makeovers' Roses

You can get involved with the Twin Nails group on Facebook here but get in quick if you want to join in for June (the theme is Candy) as the pairings will be chosen soon. It's a really good way to meet more nail bloggers and it's pretty fun! I will sadly be missing the next couple as I will be in Australia (eee!) so get in there and take my place aspiring nail artists ;)

Don't forget to check out all the other twin posts in the inlinkz below =)

~Nail Art Novice~

Stellar Polishes-Sungodown (Thermal)

Hello lovely readers =) Today I've got a lovely polish to share with you from a new to me British Indie brand-Stellar Polish. Sungodown is a gorgeous orange-yellow thermal with tiny pearly white glitters sprinkled through it. I layered it over one layer of Barry M-Coconut to make it opaque more easily as it's very sheer. I then used 3 coats of Sungodown over the top-it's really weird painting your nails with a brush that's one colour and nails that are different, really messed with my head haha!

This is a bit picture heavy I'm afraid, and I apologise for my wet fingers-the only way I could get the cold colour to come out was to stick my hand in ice water (ouch!) for a couple of minutes. The things I do for you lovelies ey ;)

Sungodown-Warm

Sungodown-Cold

Transition

Transition

It's so pretty and bright, I'm a bit gutted that the sun has disappeared so I can't enjoy it properly. I thought it looked a bit plain on its own though (on my warm hands it's just yellow!) so I added some stamping with Rimmel-Azure and MoYou London-Back to the 80s 2:

What do you reckon about thermals? Yay or nay? I love this one, I just wish my nails were longer so I could appreciate it more. It's also one from my untried pile ticked off ;)

~Nail Art Novice~

The Untried Challenge + Exciting Things!

So you may recall at the start of this year I was trying to reduce the amount of polishes I bought...and basically failed! I had a really good March where I nearly managed a month long no-buy and since then I sort of gave up and bought lots all over again. As I am trying to save up money to spend on my summer trip to Australia, this isn't the best of plans, really, and there's just too many pretty things. My boyfriend has therefore set me a challenge-not to buy any more polishes until I have used all of my untried ones...which is a fair amount.

A ridiculous amount really-I estimate there's about 60-70 polishes there, which has got to be at least a quarter of my collection (eek!). I've defined "untried" as a polish that I know I haven't worn, something that I personally haven't used on myself, or in some cases simply something that hasn't been blogged about. I reckon it's going to be quite a while before I get through them all so it could be quite a while before I am "allowed" to buy something again-eep! I have already started chipping down the pile-in my rainbow nails I managed to use four new ones so hopefully it won't take forever.

However, as I said in the title, exciting things are afoot! Regular readers of mine will know that I have a small obsession with the British indie Tara's Talons and that I often post blogs raving about her polishes. Well she has recently selected a small group of bloggers to be on The Tara's Talons Team to help her review her collections regularly and get sneak peeks and such like-and she asked me to be one of them!!!!! Words cannot describe my excitement levels. You'll be seeing more of that soon I'm sure-keep an eye out-and hopefully it'll help me with my no buy too ;)

In addition to that, if that wasn't awesome enough, Tara has also given me (and the other bloggers involved) a discount code for her shop and Etsy store, so if you want to nab yourself some of her gorgeous polishes, now is your chance!

To get 15% off at http://www.tarastalons.co.uk/ and https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TarasTalons use the code

NailArtNovice

at the checkout!!!

There is no minimum spend and the code has no expiry date, so you can use it as often as you like-go treat yourself to some pretties ;)

So there we go, that's what's ahappening on my blog at the moment. Also as I mentioned I will be taking a trip to Australia in summer, so I will be filling my blog with guest posters again for the duration (and might just pop in every so often myself too) but hopefully you're as excited as I am by all the new stuff kicking off =)

Happy weekend!

~Nail Art Novice~

31 Week Nail Art Challenge 9-Rainbows

Hello lovelies!

I love a good rainbow, so I've been excited about this post for weeks =) They're just so bright and colourful and awesome. I started with a base of Barry M-Coconut (from their new summer Gellies line) so that my gradient would be more opaque. Then I created a rainbow gradient with Revon-Fire, Sally Hansen-Man-go Team!, Sinful Colors-Pistache, Barry M-Damson and Maybelline-Mellow Mauve (although you can only see it on my thumb!).

On top of the gradient I used some more of my Make It Stick Designs nail vinyls, and on all but my accents another coat of Coconut. It was a bit of a messy job getting the stickers off again but I have to say I really love the effect!

What dya reckon? I love them-they're so bright and fun! I think if I had to choose nail art to sum me up perfectly then something like this would definitely be my choice! I'm really sad I have to take them off tonight for something more neutral and work appropriate, booo!

~Nail Art Novice~

Rawr!

Hello lovelies! Hope you've all been having wonderful weekends in the sunshine! It's been lovely!
I've got a fun combination today that's really making me smile. I used Tara's Talons-Don't Be Jel (again from my Treasure Trove, although Tara deliberately included it for me as I liked it so much!) and then on my accents I added some awesome dinosaur vinyl stickers from Make It Stick Designs. Nail vinyls are all the rage at the moment and I went browsing through Etsy (dangerous!) the other day looking for some I liked. Make It Stick have loads of choices and also loads of different colours, and I just couldn't resist these little dinos (and a few others too, oops!).

How cute is this little tricey? =D

There are four different dinosaurs in the pack and I used one of each for this mani-aren't they cute?! I have to say I really love this-the base is lovely (jam packed with green and yellow glitters of various sizes) and I am LOVING the dinos too =D

Whaddya reckon?

~Nail Art Novice~

31 Week Nail Art Challenge 8-Metallic

Hey lovelies!
I've got some cool metallic nails today. I was originally going to do these in the more usual metallic colours-gold, silver and bronze, but then I remembered a couple of polishes I inherited in a blog sale a while back and decided to throw them into the mix instead. Polishes used: Revlon-Silver Screen, Color Club-Millennium and Sally Hansen-Purple Bolt. I also used some zig zag stickers from my French Tip set but cut them in half as they were a little large for my nails (hence why my zig zags vary in width!)

Admittedly it's not the neatest nail art I've ever done but I actually like the result. It reminds me of knitted vests from the 70s but in a good way-haha!

I don't really have much more to say on these-for once you get a short and sweet blog from me haha!

Next week-rainbows =D

~Nail Art Novice~

Tara's Talons-Clear Skies

This is one of the polishes I received  in my Tara's Talons Treasure Trove box and I couldn't wait to use it! I had liked it since I saw Tara's pictures of it when she announced her Spring collection and knew it had to be mine!

It's a gorgeous bright blue jelly jam packed with white glitters of various shapes and sizes-a jelly sandwich in a bottle! This is 3 (or possibly four?) coats and there's still a fair amount of VNL in the photos, but it was hardly noticeable in reality. I think in future usage I will use a layer of similar coloured undies to reduce the amount of layers needed, though!

Isn't it pretty?! I was going to do some nail art over the top but in the end I decided I didn't want to because I really liked it as it is! It got me lots of compliments too, lots of non-nail people couldn't understand how I'd done it and it's very eye catching. Basically I love it!

You can get Clear Skies and many many other pretty polishes from the Tara's Talons Etsy shop but don't blame me if you end up bankrupt, haha!

What do you reckon? Do you love Clear Skies or is this type of polish not for you?

~Nail Art Novice~

31 Week Nail Art Challenge 7-Black and White

I really feel like I should change the title of these the the '31-ish Week Nail Art Challenge' cos I just do them as and when I feel like it, haha!

Today's prompt is Black and White and I wanted to do something simple and classy. Inspired by my latest Polish Party mani (which was inspired by someone else!) I chose to do stripes in a mixture of sizes-although this time I kept the stripes the same way around on each nail, cos I thought it would look better.

Polishes used (nice and easy today!): Barry M-Matt White and W7-Black.

So there we go! My lines aren't all perfectly crisp but I still kinda like it! It does feel quite a grown up mani, I think it's the lack of in your face colours. Still it's nice to have a palette cleanser every once in a while, ey!

What do you reckon, do you like black and white manis or are you a neon and glitter gal at heart?

~Nail Art Novice~

Tara's Talons Treasure Trove!

Last month Tara's Talons turned 1 year old and to celebrate Tara ran a competition where you sent in photos of her polishes to help her celebrate. I was lucky enough to be picked as one of her winners and today I received my prize-a Tara's Talons Treasure Trove goodie box! It also contained some polishes that I'd ordered so it was a bit of a huge (and really exciting!) haul =D

This was what was waiting for me when I opened the box. This is a photo from my phone because I was far too excited to think about finding my camera at this point, haha! Four of those parcels are from my order but there's still loads from the Treasure Trove itself! I got two full size TT polishes, three minis, a black nail art pen/detailing brush and some cuticle oil PLUS some striping tape, some caviar beads and 3D nail art decorations, and the sweeties that Tara includes with every order cos she's awesome! Treasure Trove is definitely the right word for this box of magic =D

Here's what I got in a bit more detail:

My Treasure Trove polishes
L-R: Out Of This World, Kiki's Blue, Vy, Butterfly Dreams and Don't Be Jel
plus detail pen

The extras, plus the bow from the box it came in cos I thought
it was a nice touch!

As I said, also included in the box was my latest order from Tara containing some of her lovely spring polishes, and I grabbed a quick photo of these too!

My purchases
L-R: Party Bag, Clear Skies, 100% and The Mill Creek Killer

So basically this was a really awesome day! Although now I am faced with a complete dilemma about just which one I should wear first! They're all so lovely. Here's what they look like swatched (except Kiki's Blue and Vy cos I ran out of wheel!)

L-R: Clear Skies, The Mill Creek Killer, 100%, Party Bag
Don't Be Jel, Out Of This World, Butterfly Dreams

Which one would you choose?

You can get your hands on a Tara's Talons Treasure Trove over at The Tara Emporium-and there's lots of other monthly/yearly subscriptions too. I'm sure whichever one you choose would be amazing!

~Nail Art Novice~

U.G.L.Y, You Ain't Got Not Alibi

Ah Daphne and Celeste =P

One of the naily FB groups I am in has a weekly theme and this week's is 'Ugly Polishes'. I scoured my collection but could only find some slightly questionable browns with terrible formula that I really couldn't bring myself to use and this one. Now I don't think this one is too bad at all, but I know it won't be everyone's cup of tea-but then again I like all greens! This is 2 coats of Collection-Hidden, a camo-green colour which I quite like!

I didn't just leave it like this though, I don't like wearing plain colours on their own any more so I added a bit of Springy glitter (SJPolishes-Sprung) to jazz it up a little!

It doesn't look like much in the photos but in real life there was lots of gold glitter scattered through the green and the effect was rather pleasing on the eye!

What do you reckon, ugly or not? I think that ugly polish is in the eye of the beholder, so no polish is really ugly (with the exception of the Barry M sequins which seem to be unanimously awful!).

Happy Friday!

~Nail Art Novice~