A-Z Challenge: Dark

Hello lovelies!

Only a day late with these! I'm really struggling balancing work with my home life. I'm sure it's something I might get used to in time but for now I am just wiped out when I get in and doing anything is too hard!

For my 'Dark' nails I did a green and black gradient. It was originally going to be purple and black but somehow that idea changed to green and I can't complain too much haha!

Polishes used: Revlon-Black Star, Rimmel-Mermaid Green and Camouflage. All gorgeous shimmery colours!

I really like these, they're my colours! They feel a bit witchy to me.

I'll add all the inlinkz later when I get back from work (still not used to saying that) but I just wanted to get them up for now.

Happy Friday folks!

~Nail Art Novice~

Glitter Me Monday: China Glaze-But Of Corpse

Hello lovelies!

I got this lovely polish through Coloristiq and when I added it to my wish list I had this exact mani in mind. All in all it was quite quick and simple to do-two coats of But Of Corpse and then the rest I did with my Barry M nail art pen (and a couple of dots of Coconut for the eyes). BoC has a fairly matte finish so I added a matte topcoat to finish everything off and Voila! Adorable Frankenstein's monsters! I thought they were quite fitting given the name =p

I don't think the real Frankenstein's monster would be quite as chipper as these ones are (he was a bit angsty in the book) but I think they're cute! And I really like that green (of course I do, haha!)-I'm sad I have to give it back in a couple of weeks.

Happy Monday!

~Nail Art Novice~

Glitter Me Mondays: Dark Metal Lacquer-U-Fig

Hello lovelies, happy (?) Monday to you!

For this week's GMM I just really fancied doing something silly again as I haven't done any daft nail art in a while. The glitter I'm using as my base is Dark Metal Lacquer-U-Fig which is from a new (to me!) British indie and I won it and a couple of  others in her end of summer giveaway. It's an almost khaki green full of tiny black microglitters that reminds me of kiwi fruits. I used three coats because the first looked a bit patchy but it filled in really nicely with a second (and the third was just to get a couple of bits I'd missed). Once it was on my nails I realised it was just crying out to be turned into silly monsters! For the eyes I used Sally Hansen-Man-go Team!, Collection-Look At Me! and Maybelline-Ceramic Blue plus Rimmel-Rose Libertine for the tongues. The black and white details were (of course) done using my Barry M nail art pens, and I added a layer of Rimmel's matte topcoat to finish.

Hehe! What do you think? I love fun nail art like this sometimes. I really like the glitter too, I think it's one that wouldn't be for everyone but it's definitely for me!

Here's a shot before I matted it so you can see the glitter in all its glory (this is with a coat of Seche Vite, it's actually a bit matte itself without topcoat)-it's really different to anything I've seen before but I like it!

See you soon!

~Nail Art Novice~

31 Week Nail Art Challenge 13-Animal Print

Hello lovelies! I thought I'd get stuck straight back into the 31 week challenge in a bid to get it finished by the end of the year. This week's theme is animal print and I had originally planned to do zebra print but it went disastrously wrong so I started over and went with leopard print instead. I chose an awesome neon green for the base (Moyra-#66) and shiny black (Revlon-Black Star) and white (Barry M-Matt White) for the spots because I wanted something bright and in your face! These are my first Moyras and they're kinda awesome-I'm wearing three coats and there's only the tiniest hint of nail line left, and it applied so nicely!

You can't deny that they're bright! I think they're fab, and I reckon I've improved a little since the first time I tried leopard print too!

Anyway, gotta skidaddle, it's Bake Off time! (Who else is excited?!)

~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~

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~

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~

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 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~

Twinsie Nails-Peacock Print

Hello lovelies! Today I've got another 'twin nails' post, where you and another person create the same/similar manis. I'm in a FB group for this (which you can join here) and for this months theme I was paired with the lovely Jessica from Be Happy, Buy Polish. The theme this month was 'animal print' and we got randomly given Peacock print. Jessica had loads of ideas and inspiration for this (which is great cos I had none!), but this is what we eventually took for our inspiration:

Source: Cake Wrecks

After messages flying back and forth we eventually decided to concentrate on the green/blue circles and the crest on the top to make a sort of de-constructed peacock print. We also added a peacock feather as an accent on the thumb, using this fab tutorial by the Nail Nerd.
Polishes I used: Barry M-Blue Grape, Guava, Key Lime, Rimmel-Serene, M&S-Blue

My dots are a little all over the place but I kinda like them anyway, they're funky!
Here's a collage of our nails together, and make sure you go and check out Jessica's post over here too!

This was really fun to do actually, I love seeing how two people can recreate the same idea slightly differently. I'll definitely be joining in in future!

~Nail Art Novice~

And Make It Evergreen

Hey loves! How's things? Feels weird being back on my blog again after ignoring it for a couple of weeks, but back I am, and with a gorgeous polish too! Before I get onto that though, I just want to apologise for the state of my cuticles/hands in general. I've been visiting my boyfriend (who is still in hospital!) every day and the combination of the crappy weather plus LOTS of antibac hand gel on the ward is ruining my skin-so please try to ignore the bleedy/cracked/dryness of them as much as you can!

Now onto nicer things-the polish! This is Black Cat Lacquer-Evergreen. I saw this in one of the nail-related FB groups I'm in and it was green, had scattered holo sparkles and smelt of cinnamon-all things I totally love, so I knew I had to have it! As a bonus, it's also a thermal (my first) which was kinda fun to play with too!

Warm state

Cold state

Best transition photo I could get cos my hands warm up too quickly!

Seriously, this is just stunning! It's so green and sparkly, and although the warm colour is a little sheer it's still absolutely lovely! And the smell is AMAZING-it really makes me hungry for cinnamon buns and biscuits and stuff. It has faded a little over the three days I've been wearing it but it's still there, nom nom nom.

What do you reckon to this one-love it as much as me?

~Nail Art Novice~

Guest Post Week! Katie's Lost And Found

A Green skittle

Actually I really dislike Green skittles :p

Yea hi. I'll admit I had no idea where to start with this post. So I came and wandered around here looking for inspiration and eventually decided to use the lovely color theme here as a starting point. Seemed like a fun idea cos I never use green... until it occurred to me that, well, I never use Green and have no idea what to do with it!

 Anyway, after many changes of mind along the way we have this.

Polishes are Nails Inc-Battersea on ring. Nails Inc-Green Park for the darker green and Sinful Colors-Mint Apple for the paler Green. The bonus being I'd not yet got round to playing with any of these before, and I like them a lot.

Hope it turned out ok.

Katie, http://www.katieslostandfound.blogspot.co.uk

Guest Post Week! Penguins Left Green Polish

Hey Girls!

Yaaay! Guest post for one of my favourite bloggers <3 :) I'm loving that I am in a group with amazing nail bloggers! I always jump at the chance to be able to do a guest post!

Today's guest post is for Jenni over at Nail Art Novice! I absolutely love her blog, Her pictures are lovely and a pleasure to look at! Love how she doesn't give a toss about messy nails and that is inspiring!

Over at my blog, I'm on a recent crazy with a glitter topper by NYC called Lights, Camera, Glitter! I've been layering this beauty on everything!! I've layered it over a minty green HERE and over a greeny gradient HERE ...And while I'm writing this post I just realised I've layered the glitter over greens!! :D 

Here is the beautiful glitter layered over Essie's - Going Incognito...this time a dark green!! I've included a swatch of the green because I love how beautiful it is! Two layers of greeny goodness!!

With the Glitter topper!

Love it :D But i'm a bit biased! Lol, what do you guys think?!

Thank you Jenni for having me on your blog :D 

You can keep up with me through:

www.Penguinsleftgreenpolish.blogspot.com

Bloglovin' - PenguinsLeftGreenPolish 

Facebook - PenguinsLeftGreenPolish

Mish Mash Challenge Week 27-Green

Greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen! =D

Ahem. Sorry about that. You might remember way back in this challenge for 'blue' week I did a colour block mani with some of my blue polishes, and made a comment about how awesome it'd look with all of them? Well this time around I did exactly that-a colour block using all 40 of my greens! (Not including holos or glitters as they live in a different drawer, haha!) I mean I could hardly pass up an opportunity like this to use every polish I own in my favourite colour, could I?

The bases are Barry M-Matt White and Revlon-Minted. I felt like a challenge so at the end of this post I have actually listed all the other colours I used, in case anyone is interested!

Please excuse my stubby left middle nail, I think all the appliances in this house are out to get it!

All of the green loveliness! I have to say I really like these, I love how each nail is different and there's so many different finishes going on, it's really fun and really green =D

Don't forget to check out the other gorgeous green manis!

~Nail Art Novice~


Polishes used: Rimmel-Peppermint, Camouflage, Pear Drop, Jaded Glamour, Mermaid Green, Camouflage Chic, Block Your Green, Barry M-Greenberry, Key Lime, Watermelon, Mint Ice Cream, SLE '13 B, Spring Green, Cosmic Glow, Revlon-Minted, Emerald City, Emerald, Chroma Chameleon Gold, Sally Hansen-Fairy Teal, Grass Slipper, Going Green, S-teal a Base, OPI-Don't Mess With OPI, Thanks A Windmillion, Cairuo-Greeen Tea 22, Blueberry 19, Stargazer-#101, Unknown, Tara's Talons-Dasher, Carollers, Sinful Colors-Mint Apple, Bad Apple Cosmetics-Russett, L.A Colors-Green Tea, Avon-Midnight Green, Essie-Mojito Madness, BK Polish-#5,L'Oreal Color Riche-Luxembourg Garden, George-Under The Sea, Collection-Hidden, Miners-Tra La La

Make sure you've entered my giveaway! It ends tomorrow!

It's Behind You!

On Saturday my family and Rara's family went to see the last night of our local pantomime-something that's become a bit of a tradition in recent years. I know they're not for every one but I love a panto-they're just wonderfully silly and I think they have something in for everyone! This year's was 'Jack and the Beanstalk' so I did some appropriate nails.

Polishes used: Gradients- Rimmel-Mermaid Green, Camouflage and Jaded Glamour with a topping of China Glaze-White Cap for added shimmer. The beanstalks were done with the same polishes on a base of Revlon Chroma Chameleon-Gold. I have to say I'm a bit disappointed with these duochromey polishes-they look like they have so many colours in the bottles but I've not found they translate onto the nail at all! Boo!

Anyways, pics!

I loved these-they were SO GREEN =D Made me very happy, although they didn't last very well, and the panto was huge amounts of fun, oh yes it was!

~Nail Art Novice~

Don't forget to enter my giveaway if you haven't already!

Eye of Newt and Toe of Frog...

I seem to have accidentally got into the spirit of all these halloween manis that I've seen floating around the web with my latest creation. I wanted to use green polishes because I hadn't done a green mani for some time and picked out a couple I thought went well together-Sally Hansen-Grass Slipper and Barry M-Watermelon. I had originally wanted to stamp one on top of the other but utterly failed at stamping-I don't know if it's my technique, my stampers or my new Cheeky plates but I just can't seem to get the polish to lift off the plate and onto the stamper at all which is incredibly frustrating. Having given up on that idea I wanted something simple and grabbed my dotting tools and did a double dot mani. Looking at them-I think they look a bit like eyes, hence the title!

Oh and let me apologise for the ridiculous length of my left ring finger-I don't know what I do but I somehow always manage to break/tear this nail and it's always right down to the quick. I'm going to have to file the rest of my nails down too so it looks less silly, sigh.

Anyway, pictures!

Nothing amazing but still I think it looks pretty cool!

Hope you all had awesome weekends

~Nail Art Novice~



Title taken from Shakespeare's Macbeth

Mish Mash Challenge Week 5-Music

Hello lovelies! I am back from my many adventures and finally posting a Mish Mash challenge mani on the right day for once-hurrah! I had to think about this one, as I like a lot of very strange music and wasn't exaactly sure how I would ever manage to represent any of this on my nails but then I had a much better idea!

One of the reasons I keep my nails short is because I play the bass guitar and find that long nails get caught on the strings and make it really difficult to play. I really love my bass-she's not the most expensive or well made of instruments but she's mine and I think she's really gorgeous (and yes, for reference, she does have a name as well). So I decided to do black and green gradients in tribute to her-plus accents designed to look like the neck of the guitar. Polishes used were: Barry M-Spring Green, W7-Black, OPI-Suzi Loves Cowboys plus the silver Barry M nail art pen. I matted the accents with Rimmel Lycra Pro-Matte Finish.

It's not quite the right shade of green but I love this colour combination and how bright it is, plus the accents which match my bass perfectly.
So there we go! I'm off to jam out for a bit now, laters!

~Nail Art Novice~

If you want to read about my Edinburgh adventures then check out my other blog: http://www.ordinaryextraordinarylife.com/

Don't forget to check out the other awesome participants in the inlinkz: