31(ish!) Week Nail Art Challenge 17-Glitter

Hello lovelies!

I'm back with another 31WNAC prompt today, although I hardly feel it's right for me to call it that any more, it's taken me SO much longer than 31 weeks, haha!

Today is glitter which surprisingly I'm not sick of yet, even with all my Glitter Me Monday posts! I've got another fun microglitter from Mentality today. This one is Antisocial-teeny tiny black and white glitters in a clear base. I used a layer of my trusty Barry M-Coconut for undies and then added about three coats of the glitter on top.

After a layer of Seche Vite I added some striping tape in horizontal lines and then added a rainbow of colours on top: Revlon-Fire, Sally Hansen-Man-go Team!, Sinful Colors-Pistache, Barry M-Damson and Sinful Colors-Amethyst.

I still really enjoy doing simple nail art over these busy bases-and it occurs to me looking at those photos that this glitter would look really quite cool underneath some jelly polishes, might just log that one away in my mind for future reference!


I'm going home for the weekend tomorrow to go to the fair (Yay!), and I hope you have as much fun with whatever you're doing as I'm going to!

~Nail Art Novice~

Glitter Me Monday: Autumn Glitters

Hello lovelies!

I've been a very lazy blogger and not posted anything all week, oops! I did do my nails but just couldn't find the motivation to sort the pictures out and get them uploaded =(

BUT I am back and will hopefully be getting them all sorted and up here over the next week to make up for it so YAY.

For today's GMM I used lots of autumnal polishes/glitters-I LOVE autumn and so this mani made me very happy! I did some gradients using the Barry M autumnal gellies in Mustard, Paprika, Chilli and Cocoa. On my accents I used a coat of China Glaze-White Cap and then added some autumnal leaf nail vinyls which were from Make It Stick Designs. On my other fingers I used a variety of Autum glitters-Tara's Talons-Chocolate Orange, Nelly Polishes-Prototype and Absolut Lacquer-Falling Leaves.

What do you reckon? I kinda love these if I'm honest, they remind me of scrunching through leaves and large mugs of warming drinks. I love these sorts of colours together and they went together really well in the gradients.

What's your favourite season?

~Nail Art Novice~

Tara's Talons NEW COLLECTIONS swatches

~PIC HEAVY POST~
~Items in this post were sent to me for my honest review~

Hello lovelies!
Today I have some exciting swatches from Tara's new collections. Tara's Talons is re-opening on Sunday at 1 minute past midnight and she has four new collections on offer for you. Today I have swatches of polishes from the Autumn and Return of the Randoms collections, and there's also a halloween collection based on the movie Scream and a topcoats collection featuring four different top coats to make your manis look even more fabulous.

First up is Back To School from the autumn collection. This is three coats. It's a grey crelly with what looks like at first just black mini glitters in it but when you get it on you notice that there are some blues and holoy glitters hidden in there too.

Application was smooth and easy although the finish was a little rough, but nothing that a layer of topcoat couldn't fix! This was in one of Tara's new mini bottles-still 5mls but now round so they match her larger ones-and with new shiny labels too! 

Next up is Blackberry-also from the Autumn collection. Again this is three coats, although I only needed two for opacity. It's a gorgeous purple with a fuchsia shimmer and plum coloured hexes.

This one went on really smoothly and has a really gorgeous shiny colour. It's really opaque-almost a one coater. The only "problem" (for want of a better word) I found was that as it was so opaque the hexes got lost in multiple layers and just added a strange bumpy texture to the nail instead (you can kind of see this at the top left of my middle nail-although it was more noticeable in person). I'd say thin coats or a single coat over undies would be the best way to wear this one if you didn't want that to happen. 

This next polish is Luxe from the Return of the Randomness collection. I really like this one! It's a bright aqua cream with gold microglitters throughout and the effect is so pretty! Three thin coats shown here:

This one has a slightly tricky formula in that it dried fairly quickly, so thin coats are needed and you have to work quite fast as you do so. It dries ever so slightly matte so needs a lick of shiny topcoat to bring out its full potential-but I think it's really lovely! I can see me wearing this one a lot.

Last but not least is Rainbows which is also from the Return of the Randomness collection. A gorgeous glitter bomb of every colour and size of glitter in a bottle. One coat over Back to School and two over Barry M-Crush.

Even from the mini bottle I had no trouble getting glitter onto my brush-it came out well loaded with the bigger shapes every time. I had to space them out a little given the tendency to clump together but that's how it is with all glitter bombs like this. Personally I think everyone should own at least one polish like this one because they're fun and bright and awesome. I'm loving them over autumnal colours right now too.

So that's my swatches, which one's your fave?

You can buy all these and many many moreTara's Talons from her Etsy store which will open at 0:01 on Sunday morning and she's having a 50% off sale to celebrate her re-opening! When you make an order enter the code BACK50 to get the discount, but the sale is only on for 24 hours! Don't worry though, if you miss it you can still use my blogger code to get 15% off any order after that. Just enter NailArtNovice at the checkout =)

Welcome back Tara!

~Nail Art Novice~

Glitter Me Monday: Tara's Talons-Fun House

Hello my lovelies! Finally getting my nails back on my blog again after more than a month! I had a fantastic time in Australia but my nails have really suffered for it and are now back to being nubbins again-boo!
In a bid to use up some of my many many glitter toppers, I am introducing a new feature to my blog-Glitter Me Mondays-where each week I will use a different glitter topper or glitter polish. I reckon it could take me a fair while to get through them all!

For the first Monday I have gone with a really cheerful polish to brighten up my little nubs-Tara's Talons-Fun House. It's an explosion of different colours and shapes of glitters and it's just a little bit mad and I love it! I've gone for two coats over Barry M-Kiwi  (definitely becoming a summer favourite of mine!) so together they're a really bright splash of colour.

I don't even mind my poor, short nails with this combo, so bright and fun =)

Don't forget that I have a Tara's Talons giveaway going on at the moment and that you can do some nail art as an entry option. I currently haven't had any entries this way so there's a good chance of winning if you do ;)

~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~

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~

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~

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~

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~

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~

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~