My OH Paints My Nails

PIC HEAVY POST

The British Nail Bloggers are having another fun group post this week that I thought I'd join in with: My Other Half Paints My Nails. As the name suggests this is asking nail art newbies (not necessarily just partners) to paint your nails for you. I asked my Australian if he'd be up for doing that and he was surprisingly excited! He decided to do a skittle mani across all my nails, incorporating many techniques. He even opted to do a fishtail nail which I thought was pretty impressive! So these are all his nail art, he chose the colours and did them all and I think they look really fab. I'll hand over to him now:

So Ah... Hi!
Having spent so much time with Jenni over the last 7 or 8 months it is unsurprising really that I was asked to do her nails at some point. I have done several "He picks my polish" things, and Jenni has done several designs on my thumb nails, so I guess this was the next logical step. So without further ado here they are:

Left Hand

Right Hand

So I know this isn't how Jenni usually does her posts but I am going to do a nail by nail breakdown with the polishes I used for each nail and the technique used, also possibly some other bits and pieces. (See more after the break)

Mish Mash Challenge Week 26-Favourite Nail Art Technique

This is another one of the themes that I suggested originally, and when I did I had one thing on my mind-fishtails! I do love the way fishtails look when they're done but I don't love the amount of time and patience you have to have with them. Since the challenge has been ongoing, I've discovered a new favourite technique and that's gradients-I love getting the colours to blend nicely together and they're a fab way to have neutral nails but in more than one colour! I decided as a nod to my excited just-started-nail-blogging self I'd combine the two for this mani.

Polishes used: Barry M-Plum, Sinful Colors-Amethyst, Barry M-Prickly Pear, Revlon-Cloud, OPI-I Juggle...Men

They're not the best gradients in the world cos my polishes wouldn't play nice, but they were still quite pretty. I do still love fishtails but they are a pain in the butt to do! They look awesome when done though so can't complain.
There you go, pretty purple pretties.

Don't forget to check out all the other lovely nails in the inlinkz!

~Nail Art Novice~

My giveaway is running for another week! Make sure you're entered =)

A Rather Royal Rain

Hey lovelies, hope you all had marvellous weekends!

Today I've got a random fishtail design I did because I have too much time on my hands at the moment, haha. I chose three colours that always make me think of 'royalty'-Red (Rimmel-Red Carpet), Purple (Rimmel-Purple Addict) and Bronze (Avon-Fabulous). On my other fingers I have yet another gorgeous British indie polish - Pocket Money Polishes-November Rain. I've wanted this sparkly beauty for ages and to my delight Charlie surprised me with a bottle when she returned some stamping plates to me earlier this week. Within half an hour of my opening the parcel it was on my nails, haha! November Rain is a gorgeous collection of bluey/grey, copper and gold microglitters and it really is just as lovely on my nails as I thought it would be!

What can I say? I love a fishtail mani (even if they are a pain to do!) and I love this glitter and I've been enjoying feeling like royalty, even if only with my fingernails, haha!

Thanks for stopping by

~Nail Art Novice~

Funky Fishtails

Hello lovelies!

As you may have guessed by my erratic posting schedule of late, I've been away a lot-visiting friends around the country and staying with my boyfriend up in Sheffield. This means I've not been looking after my nails very well-and I've had a lot of breaks as a result so I'm back to stubby nubbins again. It also means I've not really been doing much nail art because I didn't want to take a load of stuff with me, so when I got an opportunity today to just sit down for a while and paint I took it! I decided to do fishtails because I still really like them and I hadn't done them in a bit...so long in fact I'd forgotten how long they take to do! I mean they're worth it and it was nice to just chill out for an hour or so but I'm so used to doing quick and easy "on the road" nails that it felt like forever! Haha.
Polishes are all Barry M Gellies-which seem to be my go-tos at the moment because I love the bright colours! I used Key Lime, Guava, Plum and Prickly Pear.

I'm really loving these exceptionally bright nails, they make me feel pretty happy which is good because the day I did them was a bit rubbish and I needed a bit of a pick me up.

Anyway, hope you are all having happy weekends!

~Nail Art Novice~

ABC Challenge: P is for Purple Phishtail Plaits

So I may have taken a little liberty with the name there ;) Forgive me?

I was going to do penguins originally for this mani but thought they would be too similar to my owls in the end. Also I've been working at my friend's Dad's factory this week and am frankly too exhausted to do anything fancy-so I've done a simple fishtail. I love these manis, they're so effective! Also I apologise for not doing a Try Something Tuesday post this week-the simple fact is that I fell asleep for most of Tuesday night when I got in and therefore didn't do any nail art!

Polishes used were Rimmel-Marshmallow Heaven (pinky-lilacy colour), Rimmel-Purple Addict (shimmery purple loveliness) and Marks and Spencer-Blue (dusky purpley blue). Incidentally it bugs me when people call what are clearly purple polishes 'blue'.
After I'd finished the mani I felt like it was missing something, so I added a layer of Absolut Lacquer-Maybe I'm Crazy to my non-fishtail nails and I think it's really added something magical. It's basically a rainbow glitterbomb in a pot-every colour of glitter imaginable and it's so pretty. It's also the first indie polish I ever bought, so it has a special place in my heart!

It's a really simple mani but I reckon it's really quite pretty too! I just noticed the chip on my middle finger though, boo =(

~Nail Art Novice~

Check out what the other particpants have done this week:

Bonus Post!

Just a quick one for you-I managed to squeeze in this quick fishtail mani (I still love them) in the small amount of time I had at home yesterday. This was attempt two, the first one wouldn't work because two of the colours were too sheer, so they will have to come out another day. Also, Sheffield has been hard on my nails, I've lost both thumbs plus my left index and middle fingers so I have teeny nubbins again at the moment!

Polishes: Rimmel Lycra Pro-Aqua Cool (Not a clue why this lovely shade of periwinkle is called 'Aqua' but there you go), Revlon Top Speed-Hazy and Barry M-Greenberry

Oh and I cleaned up. I cleaned up FOR HOURS. I spent longer cleaning up than I did doing the actual mani, and in the end I got cross and left it like this. I hate cleaning up, it's the worst. Just so that's out there.

OK, that's all for now, I've got another mani from Rara coming up soon and I'll (hopefully) be back at the weekend.

~Nail Art Novice~

Try Something BLUESday-Fishtail/Plaited Mani

Ha, sorry, I can never resist a terrible pun. This was what I had planned a couple of weeks ago when I was ill but never got around to it-my first fishtail mani! (Incidentally when did we stop calling them plaits? That's what this reminds me of, plaiting my hair as a youngster when it was still waist length.)
I found this tutorial on Youtube by MissJenFABULOUS a while ago through someone's blog and used that for references when I was doing my practices. Once it came to the real thing I just went for it because it's actually pretty easy to know what you are doing-just a matter of using the colours in the right order each time.
Polishes used were Revlon-Silver Screen, Rimmel I Heart Lasting Finish-Azure and Barry M-Navy which look SO good together, IMO. But then I'm a sucker for blues (and greens) so I would say that. I only did fishtail accents because I thought it would take forever to do a full hand, it's not a quick technique that's for sure! I really love it though.

I really love this technique and this mani. I love how it's such a simple technique but it looks really complicated and how it makes what would otherwise be something plain and boring into something really interesting to look at. This would look completely brilliant on a full mani, if I had the time and patience to execute it properly. I'm a really happy Novice this week! So much so that I am going to enter this into The Crumpet's March Amateur Nail Art Contest-a happy coincidence that the theme for this month is simply 'Blue'. Go and check out some of the other awesome entries too, and come back and vote next week if you like 'em.

~Nail Art Novice~