Brighten Up A Lonely Day

Hello lovelies!

Today's mani was born out of me just pulling out random colours from my untried pile that I thought looked quite good together. I started with a base of the very gorgeous Dark Metal Lacquer-Lonely Day which is a grey polish with a subtle linear holo running through it that I think looks really pretty. To add a little colour I pulled out two bright matte polishes-Barry M-Cancun and Sinful Colors-Dream On. I did a skittle mani with various different vinyls and tapes to make different shapes on the nail.

I actually really like the contrast between the matte and the holo and I think the colours are fab too! HOw about you?

Happy weekend!

~Nail Art Novice ~

Stamp, Stamp, Baby!

Hello loves!

Apologies for being a little sporadic with my posting lately, I keep doing manis and never managing to get pics of them before they start chipping off =(
I've got some stamping today and this is going to be a thing I'm going to be doing fairly regularly (once a fortnight hopefully) because I've got a fair few stamping plates that just never get used and I am inheriting some more from a lovely polishy friend as her nails have outgrown them. I do love stamping (when it works), it's such an easy and quick way to get nails that are more interesting than a plain colour so I reckon I should really do more!

Today's base is a first for me-my very first Mentality polish that I won in the lovely Emma's giveaway recently. Cobbler is a really pale blue matte polish crammed with blue shimmery bits and is really pretty on its own:

but then I stamped over it with Revlon-Emerald City and MoYou London-Pro Collection 09.

And while that did look really cool, I am a shiny girl at heart, so I added a layer of Seche Vite to seal it all in and add some shine:

It really brings out the sparkle in both the polishes, and I think it's pretty!

Happy St George's Day!

~Nail Art Novice~

#HePicksMyPolish October Edition

Sometimes I can't be bothered to think of a new mani idea and so I get my boyfriend to choose for me, coz I'm lazy like that. When I asked him this time around he didn't even have to deliberate but picked out two of my newest polishes-Barry M's Crush, one of their gorgeous new mattes, and their black Croc Effects to go with it. I'd never tried the Croc Effects before, so had no idea if this would even work, but persevered anyway!

Firstly, Crush. It's bloomin beautiful! I love me a dark red and this one's a really nice colour-like red wine stains on white table cloths. This is two coats:

The finish is interesting too-it sort of looks like wax crayons to me but I like it! I think it's very autumnal and I really like that colour!

Next I added the Croc Effects-I had to play around with this for a bit to get it to work, I don't think matte bases are the best ones to use underneath it, certainly not for a first time! It certainly didn't create the nice reptilian patterns I've seen in other people's manis (like this one from Pretty Purple Polish, for example) but it definitely worked a little! Apologies for the clean up on these, I am currently separated from my acetone and brushes/cotton buds so this was the best I could do!

I do like the effect but I think it would work better over a normal polish as the mattes dry so quickly! I intend to play around with it some more in the near future and see if I can get a better effect, although I still think it looks pretty cool. This takes me back to my pre-blogging days when I used to use a lot of crackle effects on half my nails-it's kinda nice reminiscing about how little I knew then haha! 

I think my boyfriend's choice wasn't all that bad actually! If you want to see more brave ladies who let their fellas free on their stash then check out the inlinkz below. If you want to join in sometime, head on over to the #HePicksMyPolish facebook group where they do a monthly link up.

Happy Saturday!

~Nail Art Novice~

Four Petal Flowers

Hello loves! I am back from my weekend away camping and we had a really amazing time-the weather held off for us and it was a really good weekend. I didn't end up doing any camping-related nail art and for once I actually went with naked nails by choice-shocking! When I got back yesterday though, I wanted to do something a bit pretty to make up for the time I'd missed so I chose these little four-petal flowers. I think my nail art skills are getting a little rusty through under-use though-these are all a little wobbly and imperfect. Ah well!

Polishes used: Barry M-Lychee for the base/centres, and the flowers were done in Rimmel-Block Your Green, Revlon-Fire, Barry M-Cobalt Blue & Satsuma and Sinful Colors-Amethyst which is my new favourite purple cream.

The green seems to have bled through the Lychee a little and turned it a little yellow which is annoying but I can deal with it. As I was taking the pictures, I had a sudden urge to see what this would look like Matted so I added a top coat of Rimmel's Matte Finish and I think I actually prefer them this way!

As I said, they're a little wibbly but I still like them-I'm really enjoying the more subtler look rather than inyourfacecolourseverywhere like I normally do, haha.

That's all from me for now, I'm hoping to get back to blogging regularly again now summer is over and I shouldn't be jetting off all over the place as often so I'll see you soon!

~Nail Art Novice~

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:

Doc Martens Nail Art!

-Pic Heavy Post-

Hello lovelies!
Today I have a confession: I have another love outside of nail polish/nail art and that's my Doc Martens. I've got 5 pairs (at the moment) and keep adding more every year. My mum always rolls her eyes whenever I get a new pair and says "You can only wear one at a time!" so I thought I'd try and prove her wrong with some nail art. I had a quick search and couldn't find any previous examples out there so I came up with this design all by myself! I've been waiting to do it for months and months, because I needed the perfect blue and finally I have it (thankyou Barry M!).

Firstly, let me introduce you to my lovelies:

 I got the bright green ones in 2007 and have basically been obsessed with them ever since! I really love wearing them with miniskirts and opaque tights-it's sort of become my signature look really and it always makes me feel amazing.

Anyway, on to the mani! I wanted to recreate the colours of my Docs as closely as I could so I used many many polishes! Red-Revlon-Fire, Teal-Sally Hansen-Fairy Teal, Blue-Barry M-Blue Grape, Patterned White-Barry M-Matt White, sponged with Topshop-Cloud and  Rimmel-Tangy Tangerine and for the bright green Barry M 2013 Superdrug Limited Edition (such a catchy title)-Neon Green. I used two coats of them all, and put two coats of Matt White underneath the neon green too. For the iconic brown soles I used OPI-Suzi Loves Cowboys (over some curved French tip  guide stickers) and for the instantly recognisable orange stitching I used a Stargazer polish-number 103 (UV-glow Orange). The black lacing details were done with the black Barry M nail art pen. Phew! I also used my H&M Matte top coat on my index/ring fingers to simulate the leather effect, as opposed to the patent shiny shiny ones. I'm not sure how well you can tell in these pics though! (I have to admit I had a lot of fun taking them!)

What do you reckon? Are they too cool for school or what? I could do a tutorial for these if people wanted, although I reckon they're pretty easy to figure out! If you do your own version, let me know =)

They make me super happy! =D

~Nail Art Novice~

In a total piece of blogging serendipity, I didn't even realise that one of the nail art groups I'm part of has the theme of 'Shoes' for this week! So here's some more footwear inspired manis:

A Few Things

~PIC HEAVY POST~

Hello!
No Try Something Tuesday this week, but for good reasons (explained later, I promise), I thought I should mention a few things instead:

• Firstly you won't be seeing any of Rara's lovely nails for a while because she broke her wrist on Saturday =( She's all plastered up and feeling a bit miserable, so please send her lots of get well messages!
• I'm going to be away this weekend as I am performing in this: http://boxoffice.brightonfringe.org/event.aspx?evId=4891#container at the Brighton Fringe festival, (which you should all come and see if you live nearby =p) so won't be around to post anything from Friday-Monday. Fear not! I have got a guest post lined up for you so there's something fun to look at whilst I'm away =)
• I have now put myself on an indefinite polish ban-until I've paid all my debts off! (To friends, I mean, not student loans!) The reasons for this will become very clear shortly. And as I'm not the richest person in the world this might be for a good couple of months! (The only exception I am allowing myself to this is a white Barry M pen if I come across one, because they're SO useful for nail art, but that's IT.) Also I figure if I tell you guys then I have to stick to it, don't I?
• In other news I have a job interview tomorrow! (Hence why I haven't done the TST I had originally planned, as I need work appropriate nails) It's only for a part time job but money is money and it's better than nothing at this stage! Please keep your fingers crossed for me lovelies =)

Now onto why I decided that I needed to ban myself:

I popped into H&M yesterday to pick up their Matte top coat (I need matte black nails for my show and didn't own a matte top coat) on a recommendation from Charlie from Pocket Money Polishes. Whilst I was there a couple of other polishes happened to make their way into my hands...

L-R: H&M Matte Top Coat, H&M Glitter-Blue,
H&M-Silver Frost

(I realise now I've uploaded this picture that you can't actually see what Silver Frost is-it's a silver glitter topper with small hexes and microglitter in a clear base.)
I'd wanted the Blue glitter since I saw it used on Fairly Charming's blog with underwater themed nail art on it-it's the perfect 'water' colour and really different to anything I've seen anywhere else! I'm not 100% sold on the bar glitter toppers that are popular at the mo, I can't help but think they look a bit hairy, but this is really lovely! All of these polishes were £1.99 so I reckon I got a bargain really!

Then I had to go and get my watch battery changed, and the little stall was right outside a new beauty store I'd not been in before. I went in solely with the intention of asking if they had any acetone (they didn't) but then my eye was caught by the polishes and I was lost.

Top Row L-R: Revlon-Blue Lagoon, La Femme Beauty Unnamed x2,
Revlon-Emerald City
Bottom Row L-R: Cairuo-Green Tea 22, Cairuo-Blueberry 16,
Cairuo-Blueberry 19

Those Cairuo's say they're 12mls on the front, but they're definitely not! They're about the same size as the smaller Rimmel bottles, which are 8ml. They're nice colours though, and were cheap so can't complain (even if I can't pronounce the name!). Geordie Nails has some swatches of two of these shades up at the mo. These were all £1 apart from the Revlons which were £2.50 I think.

Here's a close up shot of those pretty glitters, I'm so sad they don't have names though! (As far as I can tell they don't even have numbers!)

The one on the left has purple microglitters with turquoise and gold small hexes, and the one on the right has green and blue microglitters with hexes in red, pink, yellow and blue. 

Then when I arrived at home worn out with my day's shopping I discovered I had a package from Fragrance Direct with my new OPIs in-I couldn't resist when I saw them up there for only £3.99! They've got most of the Texas and Holland collections, with a few others.

L-R I Don't Give A Rotterdam, I Juggle...Men, I Have A Herring
Problem, Thanks a Windmillion

I've wanted Windmillion for ages now, it's a lovely shade of green. I couldn't choose between Rotterdam and Herring Problem so got both, and Juggle Men is a pretty iridescent shimmer topper which I think will look awesome over darker colours! 

Finally, after all that, I knew I had to do a post with them all in. But THEN when I woke up this morning I'd received some Awesome nail mail from Above the Curve with my beautiful new indies in, so I thought I'd add those too. For those who don't know ATC you should check them out, they make some really beautiful glitters and holos, and $1 from every bottle of polish is donated to a charity that helped the founder when she was younger.

L-R: Mother Earth, Field of Tulips

Can you believe that this is my FIRST EVER holo polish? I'd wanted one for ages and never really could afford one, or find sites that shipped them to the UK so I treated myself when ATC had a sale on a few weeks ago. It's a beautiful browny/coppery coloured holo with the full rainbow effect and I love it! It's what I am going to wear to my interview tomorrow because it's neutral enough to be work appropriate but still incredible!
As for Field of Tulips? I don't understand why I can't find any swatches of this floating around the blogsphere, it's so pretty! In the photo the glitters have settled where it was lying during transport but on the nail it has all those colours in a pale minty green base and it's lovely! I took a couple of swatch shots to show you them better too.

Field of Tulips, 3 coats

Mother Earth, 2 coats

So yes. I definitely am no longer allowed to buy polishes, especially as I have another 3 on their way to me in the post, Royal Mail permitting! I dread to think how much I've spent on polishes this month-Fragrance Direct have had a lot of it, so they're going to wonder what's happened to their profits over the next few months! But it's something I definitely need to do because I really don't have the money to spend on them, and I can't really warrant it when I owe lots of people lots of money. 

So that's you all caught up! I'm gonna head off now, but will try and get another post up before I leave on Friday!

~Nail Art Novice~