Rara's Nautical Nails

Helloooo again!

For this mani I used Nails Inc-Big Red Apple, Tara's Talons-Supersoaker and a base of Barry M-Matt White. Also I used the anchor decals from The Vinyl Boutique. As you can see I recently bought some vinyl decals and I have been playing! I have never used them before so I was really pleased with how easy and simple they were to use especially to a complete beginner like me!

I used striping tape to do the lines on the accent nails but as I am very impatient and don't have a fast dry topcoat I always end up pulling the base coat off when I remove the tape and have to fill in the holes I have left behind!

I decided to only use my accent nails for the decals and I am glad I did because I think it makes the design look more striking!

This was a really quick and easy mani to do and I love all things nautical so it made me very happy!

*note to self* buy a fastdry topcoat!

~Rara~

Guest Post-ProcrastiNails

Hello hello! Katherine here from ProcrastiNails! I'm super excited to be here today doing my very first guest post for the lovely Jenni @ Nail Art Novice. I have a fun, bright and simple look to share with you today. I think it's perfect for the season, and it made me feel happy all day just to know it was on my fingers. :)

This look used a bunch of the polishes I got in my April Julep Maven Box: Julep Maren, Julep Flora and Julep Bailey. From the minute I saw them I knew I wanted to pull them together into a cheery summer look. I went with the cloud technique because I think it's a fun and simple way to see how different colours look together. I also varied the heights of the clouds to add a bit of visual interest. 

I really like how much the blue pops off of the more subtle purple and pink in this look, and I like how the pink is so subtle it almost looks like a nude in the right light. All together they make a striking combination! Definitely pleased with how this turned out. :) Let me know what you think! Thanks for reading, and thank you Jenni for letting me share my post with you! xx

Rara's Zigzags and Lightning Bolts

Hello all! Rara here again! Thought I'd do some blogs for Jenni while she was away, keep an eye out for them =)

Polishes used Barry M-Guava and Nails Inc-Belsize Park. I also added Tara's Talons-Fairy over the top of the bolts. Zigags and Lightening bolt decals from the vinyl boutique.

I loved this mani and I got loads of compliments on it (mainly from men which was weird!) It reminded me of Usain Bolt because the yellow turned the blue into a green and it kinda reminded me of the Jamaican Flag!I kept this mani on for ages and ages because I loved the strikingness (yes that is a word) of it!!

~Rara~

Guest Post-Pocket Money Polishes

Hello Nail Art Notice Readers!

Big thank you to Jenni for having me back and I hope she’s having a great time on her travels! My mani today was inspired by tropical summer sunshine (sorry for the slightly dry fingers, I had a bit of a frustrating painting session before this mani which involved a lot of removing and starting again).

 I used Leighton Denny-Pure White which as whites goes is not too bad for application although needs three coats for completely even coverage. While these coats were drying I applied Dollish Polish-Auld Lang Syne which was gifted to me by a lovely polishy friend who wasn’t keen on the gold colour… I LOVE IT! This is the perfect soft holo-y gold, reminds me of hot sand glistening. Really lovely formula, I used two coats for full opacity. I think this was a special edition polish for one of the Llarowe indie boxes but these things do pop up on nail sale from time to time. You could probably get a similar finish using Ciate Sand Dune and a holo topcoat. On my second accent nail (you lucky devils getting two!) I used two coats of OPI-Kiss Me I’m Brazilian from the spring/summer Brazil collection – I find this needs two normal coats and a good three stroke technique for the best even application but is a lovely pigmented bright pink.

 I went back to my white nails and added a coat of Iconic Effect-Subtle Holo Topcoat to add a bit of fizz and slightly soften the all white finish. It is a really lovely soft linear holo which is perfect for me although I am sure it would look equally amazing with a stronger holo although slightly more silvered when not in direct light.

 I added an abstract flower design to my pink nail – inspired by the tropical flower designs on girly surf wear. I am not 100% happy with how the flower came out, I wish I had used acrylic paint rather than nail polish as it is a lot easier to work with. I finished everything up with a coat of HK Girl Topcoat which for me has been a massive game changer in my love hate relationship with topcoats – I am feeling ALL the love with it right now. I bought mine from Rainbow Connection which stocks a few different sizes from a regular 15ml all the way up to salon size bottles (WANT!).

 Hope you’re all having a lovely day wherever you are and will come and check out what I am up to over on Pocket Money Polishes soon! What do you think of mix and match manis? What are your go to sunshine mani colours? I definitely love a good holo and a soft gold in the summer, just making a refreshing change from neon brights sometimes. Let me know your thoughts with a comment below!

Straya Baby!

So this is it! This is my last 24 hours in this country until the end of July which is both exceedingly exciting and also nerve racking!  One of the reasons I'm going to Australia is to meet my boyfriend's parents so I reckon I'm allowed a jitter or two! I know it's going to be a truly amazing trip but I will miss home a lot, I love Britain!

In honour of the occasion I have done Australian themed nails using Aussie flags, their national colours and a couple of adorable marsupials! Polishes used were: Barry M-Navy, Spring Green,  Rimmel-Red Obsession and Revlon-Electric, plus my Barry M white nail art pen. The decals were from YRNails.

I know the Union Jacks aren't quite right but since I only have dotting tools to work with I thought it'd be too fiddly to fill the blue in again, and I still really like em! I'm hoping they last a good few days as I have no idea when I'll next get to do my nails (which feels really weird!). I honestly don't know how much time I will have to post any manis I do do, but never fear, I have lots of guest posts from lots of fabulous nail artists to keep you interested! Also I am going to try and update my manis to instagram even if I cannot blog them, so if you want to keep in touch with me on my travels make sure you follow me over there. Also also, make sure you stick around for when I'm back cos I have a giveaway or two planned, so you don't want to miss that!

Right, that's me for now! I will leave you in the very capable hands of all my guest posters and I will see you soon! Have a good summer my lovelies!

~Nail Art Novice~

31WNAC 12-Stripes

Hello loves!
This is my last 31(ish)WNAC before I jet off to Australia on THURSDAY, eek! So I will pick up the challenge with 'Animal Print' when I get back. But back to this week's 'Stripes'! I used another one of my Mentality microglitters-this one is Intense which is black, white and yellow. As a base coat/on my accents I used my all time favourite yellow-Revlon-Electric. The stripes were with W7-Black and some more of my Nail Stickrs nail vinyls-this time the thicker stripes. I drew the bees with my Barry M nail art pen and added their iridescent wings with Picture Polish-Mirage, which I really need to use properly at some point, it's gorgeous!

What do you reckon? I think they're kinda cute! Plus you know I love doing nail art with these micro glitter polishes...although not cleaning them up! It's a real pain!

As I said, I am heading to Australia on Thursday, but hoping to get another mani up before then if I possibly can! I've also got lots of lovely guest posts and manis from Rara to come whilst I'm away, and I will try to post when I can too! If not, have a brilliant summer!

~Nail Art Novice~

Nail Stickrs Review II

Hello! How're you all doing? I'm getting really excited cos I go away to Australia in a WEEK! SO much still to do though, eek!
I've got some more nail art using the Nail Stickrs vinyls (see my first review here) today, also incorporating some texture and my boyfriend's absolute favourite technique-the jelly sandwich. I used the zigzag vinyls, both in a 'tape mani' style and as a stickers to create a skittle mani using Revlon-Silver Screen, Kiko-643 (a gorgeous shimmery green Sugar Mat I picked up in a blog sale a few weeks ago), and Barry M-SLE'13B  for the sandwich (cos my boyfriend really wanted me to use the stickers under layers!).

On my index/ring fingers I started with a coat of Silver Screen and then applied the vinyls on top. They come in a set all together so I just placed them on as one unit and then used tweezers to remove every other strand, which was tricky but doable, even on my off hand! I then applied the Kiko over the top and pulled them off while it was still wet to make the pattern. On my thumbs I did the opposite-started with two coats of the Kiko and then placed the silver zig zags over the top once it was dry-I wanted to see how well they stayed on for. I topcoated over the top of them to secure them, and so far they haven't budged at all, even through multiple hand washings/showers/washing up.

The butterflies are normally silver, but I actually quite like the shade of gold they've turned under the green, and the fact they're still really sparkly, even with topcoat. The vinyls themselves are really easy to use-although a pair of tweezers is always useful to have on hand to help with placement-and I really love all the fun things you can do with them. If you're a newbie to the nail art world you should definitely think about getting yourself some cos they're really easy to use and give you some awesome looking designs  (when we all know they're so much easier to use than they look, but shhh ;) )

You can find Nail Stickrs here: 

  Website | Facebook | Twitter

Thanks for reading! I've got one more design with/review of these coming up this weekend so keep an eye out for that.

~Nail Art Novice~

Nails Stickrs Review

~Some items in this post were sent to me for my honest review~

Hello lovelies!
A few weeks ago someone posted in one of the nail groups I am in asking if anyone would like to review some of their nail vinyls and of course I said yes! I received a nice little package last week with lots of goodies in-loads of different designs and lots of fab colours too.

There are two ways you can use these Nail Stickrs-either simply as stickers by painting a base colour on, sticking the vinyl on top and using top coat to secure it. The other way is to use them is as a tape mani-painting your base colour, applying the vinyl, painting another colour on top and then removing the vinyl. I chose to do the second option today with some of the hearts. Nail Stickr vinyls come 'unweeded' meaning you get both the shape and the outline of it-so you can use both!

The base I used for this was the fabulous Mentality-Moody, an awesome mix of black white and bright blue microglitters-I love using fun backgrounds like this for my nail art. I layered 3 coats over one coat of Sally Hansen-Brisk Blue to make sure it would be opaque, then stuck some fast dry topcoat on top (my trusty Seche Vite!). Once I was sure it was dry, I applied the vinyl to my nails and painted on some Barry M-Coconut on top and then peeled the sticker off. I used just one sticker for all 6 of my nails because they're a really good size (3cm x 2cm)

As you can see the hearts came out really clearly, even the tiny ones, and I think it's a really fun look! I was going to add the heart stickers to my other nails but thought it might be a bit too much so decided against it.

I would definitely recommend these vinyls, they're good quality, come in loads of different designs and are a really easy way of sprucing up a plain mani-I'll definitely be taking some away with me on my summer holidays!

You can find Nail Stickrs here:

Website | Facebook | Twitter

and you can get the nail vinyls from their site starting at $4.99 for 100, which is a pretty awesome amount!

I'm going to be doing a couple more designs with these this week, so keep an eye out for them!

~Nail Art Novice~

31WNAC-11-Polka Dots

Hey lovelies! Hope you are all having a good weekend thus far!

I've got some simple polka dots today-when I was choosing the colours of these I just wanted something bright but not too flashy. I found it in Barry M-Kiwi which is an absolutely gorgeous summery green from their new line-bright and summery without making you reach for the sunglasses. The dots and accents I added with Barry m-Coconut which is just the right shade of off white to not be too harsh! They're not the straightest dots in the world cos I was tired when I was doing them, but I still like em =)

Squse the dry cuticles!

I really like this colour! It's a bit greener in real life but my camera didn't want to play apparently. I love a dotticure-they're such a simple way to make a plain mani more fun.

Short and sweet today! Get out there and enjoy the sunshine =)

~Nail Art Novice~

Tara's Talons-Not A Custom, Hook, Vegas Baby! and Cloudy Skies

~VERY Pic Heavy Post~
~Products in this post were sent to me for my honest review~

This posts comes tinged with sadness for me-this is my Tara's Talons Team welcome box which I received yesterday and I was really excited to be starting this new venture with one of my absolute favourite indie makers. Today, however, Tara announced she was temporarily closing her shop due to personal reasons, which is absolutely gutting! One way or another this has not been a great week for indie makers but boy did this one hit hard-I'm really going to miss Tara's lovely creations!

Onto nicer things though-the package! I got some lovely things-polishes, hand cream, some jewellery and some nail arty bits and bobs-but I'm just showing you the polishes today. I'm going to try and not be too wordy and just let the lovely pictures speak for themselves! I will say though that I had no problems applying any of them-they all had a lovely formula and went on great. I didn't fish for any glitters-even in Vegas Baby!-although I did place them onto the nails because they wanted to clump together somewhat-but that's what chunky glitters always do so not an issue!

OK, picture time!

Not A Custom-Accents: 3 coats alone, Others: 2 coats over Rimmel-Red Obsession

Hook-Accents: 3 coats alone, Others: 1 coat over Barry M-Navy

Vegas Baby!-So much going on in this one! Definitely managed to capture the gaudy opulence of Vegas! Two coats over Rimmel-Moonwalking and two coats over Sinful Colors-Cool Grey

Cloudy Skies-Brother to Clear Skies, made on my suggestion to Tara! Two coats over Sinful Colors-Cool Grey (for opacity)

So there you go! I really love them all, even Vegas Baby! which surprised me given how pink it is, but it's so sparkly and lovely that it totally won me over!

If you want to grab yourself a bargain and secure yourself some TTs for the last time (at least in a while) then head on over to her Etsy store before it closes at Midnight! Use the code SUMMER at the checkout to get 50% off your order-but hurry-the shelves are emptying fast!

I just wanted to say a huge thankyou to Tara for the opportunities she's given me to work with her and all the beautiful polishes she's made. I wish her all the best and hope she will return to polish making soon, because the world will be a lot less sparkly and a lot less lovely without her and her creations in it. I don't think I've gone a single month without featuring a TT polish on my blog since I got my very first one, and I certainly don't think I will in the near future either! Tara-we all love you! Thankyou for being the first UK Indie and for making so many people so happy! It's been amazing working with you (however briefly) and I will treasure all my TTs for years to come. 

~Nail Art Novice~

Rimmel Space Dust-Moon Walking

AKA that time I wore a polish on its own with no fancy bits =P

So yeah...this is the lovely Moon Walking by Rimmel. It's from their Space Dust line-textured glittery polishes and it's just so pretty! I had originally planned to do something over the top but once I got it on I didn't want to-it's too lovely. And to think when I started blogging I was adamant that I would never wear textured polishes-ha!

This went on really easily and was almost a one coater, but I used two to make sure I got full coverage. I know a lot of people dislike the flat Rimmel brushes but they work really well for me-they cover my nail well and mean I need to do less clean up (always a bonus!).

It's so sparkly and in addition to the texture has some tiny microglitters in, although my camera seems to not want to find them in the photos. I love the way the light plays across this, it's super pretty! It's not too textured either-it definitely feels rough but it isn't spiky or uneven like some textured polishes I've used previously.

Isn't it lovely! It's very rare that I put a polish on and don't feel like it needs something on top to make it more fun, but this was definitely one! I just really like it...and it's not even green! I think I need a lie down ;)

What do you reckon to textured polishes?

~Nail Art Novice~

31 Week Nail Art Challenge 10-Gradients (And HOLOS)

I realised that I did a gradient last week for my rainbow nails so I would have to do something a little different this week. Instead of creating one gradient with lots of colours I created lots of gradients with only two colours instead-and managed to use 7 of my untrieds (denoted with a *) to boot!

Polishes used (thumb to little finger on right hand): Freckles Polish-French Martini, Freckles Polish-Purple Planters Punch*, Freckles Polish-Blue Hawai*, Smitten Polish-Bifrost, Too Fancy Lacquer-Cooper Trooper*, Freckles Polish-Caipirinha* (no, I have no idea how to pronounce it either =p), GOSH-Holographic Hero, Layla-Flash Black*, A England-Rose Bower* and Layla-Retro Pink*. Phew! They aren't the best gradients in the world, I think some of them needed a third colour in the middle to get them to blend properly, and some of the Laylas had a pig of a formula to try and do gradients with, but overall I'm happy with them! They look really awesome when they catch the light!

Taken in the fab lighting in my kitchen to
try and show you those rainbows!

What do you reckon? Are you a holo lover or hater? (How can you hate them, they're so pretty!?)

Also how is it JUNE already?! I'm going away in 18 days, eeeep!

~Nail Art Novice~