Sparkly Zig Zags

As I said in my last post, I am starting a new job tomorrow (aah!) and I don't yet know what the rules will be regarding nails so for the first couple of weeks I'm going to go with toned down nails which will be weird! Because of this I decided that I would do one last ridiculously colourful/sparkly mani before I go for something much more work appropriate later this evening.

I started with a base of Dark Metal Lacquer-Flashy Sparklies which is an amazing gold holo glitter polish that just looks fabulous. I used some zigzag vinyls from VyNails and then added bright colours on top using Barry M-Satsuma, Blue Grape, Kiwi, Passionfruit, Key Lime, Sinful Colors-Amethyst, Dream On and Sally Hansen-Brisk Blue, Sonic Bloom, Man-go Team! 

Bright and cheerful! I figured I'm probably not going to be able to wear most of these colours at work so I'd give them a final showing before they go into semi retirement for the time being. Also that base polish is just gorgeous, I love the way that it sparkles!

Wish me luck for tomorrow lovelies!

~Nail Art Novice~

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 ~

31ish Week Nail Art Challenge 18-Half Moons

Hello lovelies!
Being a bad blogger again recently and also had interference from work shifts so haven't got anything on my blog for a while even though I've had these done since Friday...forgive me?!

These aren't your typical half moons but there are half moons on my thumbs so they totally count, right? I've wanted to redo my owl nails for a while just because they're cute and this was the perfect opportunity!

I used lots of polishes for this one! I started with a couple of coats of Sinful Colors-Social Ladder to give my natural nails a bit of a shimmer. I used Smitten Polishes-Bifrost on my thumb and did the moon in Dark Metal Lacquer-Lonely Day which is a grey holo which I really need to use on its own because it's really pretty! For my owls I used Barry M-Chilli and Damson, Sinful Colors-Exotic Green and Collection-Twilight. I did the eyes with Collection-Look At Me!, the beaks with Barry M-Mango, and the tummy patches with Barry M-Lychee.

They didn't end up being the neatest things ever but I like em-they're fun and bright!

I don't really have much else to say for once!
Hope you all had a good weekend =)

~Nail Art Novice~

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~

Polish Of The Week: Rimmel-Serene

Hello lovelies!
Here's the start of a new feature on my blog that I'm hoping to do every week if I get chance. I, like many other nail polish addicts, have an ever growing collection of polishes and some of them don't get much chance to see the light of day all that often. For Polish of the Week (POTW) I'm going to choose a polish with a random number generator and my swatch book numbers and then use it in some nail art. This was an idea that I first came across on the lovely Vicky Loves Nails' blog where she calls it Pick A Polish and I thought it was a really clever idea to make sure you use some of those long forgotten beauties in your stash. I hope she doesn't mind me borrowing her idea here!

So my first POTW was Rimmel-Serene, a lovely white shimmery polish. It is unfortunately rather sheer so for this (pre-clean up!) photo I used two coats over a layer of white undies.

For my nail art I did a quick striping tape mani, using Sinful Colors-Let's Talk over the top. For some reason my camera just couldn't see this colour properly and has made it much more blue than it actually was

This one (normal lighting) is more colour accurate but still doesn't really show how bright this shimmery purple is-I'd suggest googling some swatches if you want to see it in all it's brightness!

I also had a friend visiting at the time and she wanted me to do her nails too so of course I obliged! She had a lovely maxi dress with chevrons on it and asked if I could match her nails to it. I used Serene and Smitten Polish-Bifrost plus some chevron vinyls and really like how they turned out!

I think I actually like hers more than mine, plus that holo polish looked amazing in the sunshine at the beach we visited.

So that's my first POTW done, hope you enjoyed it!

~Nail Art Novice~

Fingerfood's Theme Buffet: Science and Technology

Hello loves!

It's been a while since I joined in with the Fingerfood challenge but when I saw this week's theme was science and technology (two of my favourite things!) I just had to do this one. I treated myself to some Messy Mansion stamping plates a good while ago and haven't had opportunity to use them yet. The one I used today is my fave of the three I got-MM25-a science themed plate that I just love! I couldn't decide which full nail design I liked best so I just used all of them, plus some of the smaller designs on my thumb.

Base colour is Sinful Colors-Shine Annie which was sent to me from America in an awesome parcel of goodies from the wonderful Liz who is the creative genius behind A Mani Maniac and really made my day! Shine Annie is a gorgeous bright red, slightly jelly like and full of a shimmer that my camera refused to see. I used three coats to get rid of VNL although probably could have only gone with two.

 I stamped on top of it using Color Club-Over The Moon for both the contrasting colour and the sort of shiny shimmery technology sort of feel to it (I might be talking nonsense here =p)

First pic without flash to actually show the stamping and second pic with flash to show the pretties =D I'm loving the rainbows and those designs! I think my favourite is the DNA strands though.

Don't forget to check out the other nerdy nails in the inlinkz

~Nail Art Novice~

Guest Post-Vicky Loves Nails

Hello everyone! My name is Vicky, I run a blog called Vicky Loves Nails and I am very happy to be
guest posting for Jenni today whilst she is off travelling in Australia. I am incredibly jealous, I want to
come too!

But since I can’t crash Jenni’s travels, I decided to use it as some inspiration for nail art (the next best
thing right?!). I spent a while trying to decide what to do for these, in the end I decided to go for
something incredibly stereotypical, but it is always the first thing I think of when I think of Australia...
Kangaroos!

I started with a gradient using Nicole by OPI – Hit The Lights and Essie – Fear or Desire. I freehanded
my kangaroo silhouette using W7 – Black. I decided to add the plant type thing on my thumb as I
thought the design needed something a little extra, for this I used W7 – Black and Sinful Colors –
Snow Me White.

I was pretty pleased with how this came out. I was unsure if I was going to be able to paint a
realistic kangaroo, but I think I did a pretty good job (well I can tell what it is at least lol). I hope you
all like it.

Thanks so much Jenni for letting me guest post on your blog, I hope you have an amazing time in
Australia!

31 Week Nail Art Challenge 9-Rainbows

Hello lovelies!

I love a good rainbow, so I've been excited about this post for weeks =) They're just so bright and colourful and awesome. I started with a base of Barry M-Coconut (from their new summer Gellies line) so that my gradient would be more opaque. Then I created a rainbow gradient with Revon-Fire, Sally Hansen-Man-go Team!, Sinful Colors-Pistache, Barry M-Damson and Maybelline-Mellow Mauve (although you can only see it on my thumb!).

On top of the gradient I used some more of my Make It Stick Designs nail vinyls, and on all but my accents another coat of Coconut. It was a bit of a messy job getting the stickers off again but I have to say I really love the effect!

What dya reckon? I love them-they're so bright and fun! I think if I had to choose nail art to sum me up perfectly then something like this would definitely be my choice! I'm really sad I have to take them off tonight for something more neutral and work appropriate, booo!

~Nail Art Novice~

Fingerfood's Theme Buffet-Fishtails (+ My OH Does My Nails!)

I was complaining to my boyfriend the other day that while I really like fishtail manis, they just take so long to do and are basically a bit of a pain and I really couldn't be arsed to do one for this challenge. His eyes lit up and he told me he had an idea and this was the result! I painted the base coat and he did all the details with dotting tools and I have to say I love them!

Polishes used: Sinful Colors-Ciao Bella (which is a simply gorgeous blue jelly filled with sparkles!) and Revlon-Silver Screen, with my black Barry M nail art pen for details.

He also insisted I include this pic too (along with adorably re-enacting the last face-how could I refuse?!)

So there you go, my slightly less traditional take on fish tails, and a host of other marine life too. My boyfriend just asked me to point out that he realises that octopi etc are not strictly speaking fish, but hey, who's counting? I love them, they make me smile every time I see them, plus that base colour is gorgeous! And how awesome are the little octopus/squid/crab? I'll make a nail artist out of him yet =p

See you next time!

~Nail Art Novice~

March TPT The Fourth

Hello lovelies! Happy Tuesday-hope the weather near you is nicer than here, it's very grey today!
Today brings the final instalment of the March Tri-Polish Tuesdays challenge, the colours for which have been green, blue and purple (so I have been very much in my element!). Today's mani is bright and a bit mad to look at-I love it!

Polishes used: Sally Hansen-Grass Slipper, Sally Hansen-Brisk Blue and Sinful Colors-Amethyst 

I decided to do a double tape mani with them, because I really love the way the colours play together and thought they'd look awesome all peeking out from under each other-turns out I was right!

What can I say? I love a double tape mani. They do take ages to do but they way they come out is so unique and fun that I will always forgive them! I have enjoyed doing these Tri-Polish manis, but I am yet to decide if I am taking part in next month's as the dreaded PINK is one of the colours haha. We shall see!

As ever, don't forget to check out what the other talented ladies have done in the inlinkz below!

~Nail Art Novice~

Feb Resolutions Check In

So you may remember that last time around when I did this, I had had a really good month and had kept up with my resolutions really well. This month has not been so successful...oops!

Resolution #1-Lemony Flutter
So I have...not used my LF all month. I really should have been but I just haven't. I think the fact that I've moved up to Sheffield and that my boyfriend has been in hospital so much has really just thrown me off. My cuticles look really bad on it though, so I am going to try and use it every night before bed in March if I can!

Resolution #2-Spend no more than £20 on polish things a month and/or buy no more than 4 polishes a month
Ah...this one I have done really terribly at this month. In total I have acquired SIXTEEN new polishes, which is 4 times more than I should have done! I did only pay for half of them though, as I have been very lucky this month and got a lot of freebies from various places. Lets have a look at my collection then:

...oops

Top Row: Pocket Money Polishes-She's Like The Wind and Alien Like You, Black Cat Lacquer-Evergreen (all bought by me), Rara Avis-Cast Iron Cannon (made and given to me by Rara!!)

2nd Row: Sally Hansen-Cherry Drop, Revlon-Haunted Heart, Rimmel-Out Of The Blue, Sinful Colors-Ciao Bella, Sally Hansen-Razzleberry (all bought by me)

3rd Row: Nails Inc Shine On Collection-Elm Park Road, Raphael Street, Cadogan Gate, Lyall Street (bought for me for Valentine's by my boyfriend)

Bottom Row: Chubby Owl Polishes-Roses Are Red, Midnight Owls, Violets Are Blue (I bought Midnight Owls and Jenna included the minis as a lovely surprise in my parcel!)

Here's a pic of the glitters swatched so you can enjoy them!

L-R: Alien Like You (over Out Of The Blue), She's Like The Wind (over Cast Iron Cannon), Midnight Owls, Roses Are Red, Violets are Blue

So my total spend this month was...£35.79-eep! I am officially on a no-buy for the forseeable future now, sigh. I'm going to have to avoid Poundland like the plague and it's going to take all my resolve! Hopefully this month's pretties will keep me occupied for a while!

Total spent: £35.79
Under/Over budget: Over, way, way over!
Number of new polishes acquired: Sixteen!
Fewer/More than four? SO MANY MORE.

I guess that's a double fail for me this month, oops! :-/ Will try harder next time!

See you next month,

~Nail Art Novice~

Slowly Growing Stars

Hey lovelies! This is a post I've got scheduled well ahead because I haven't been painting my nails much recently what with everything going on. This is actually what I was wearing when I moved in on the third! It's really kinda fun though.

Polishes used: Gloss n Sparkle-Slowly Growing Deaf (which I won in a giveaway ages ago!) and Sinful Colors-Amethyst. I recently bought myself some fun shaped cutters to use in nail art and that's what I wanted to do here. For most of my nails I cut stars out of Scotch tape and applied that to my nail and painted the purple over it, and for the accent I took the cut out stars and put them on where I wanted them-hence the reversey effect.

I think it's really fun and I love the contrast between the busy glitter and the plain cream on top, how about you?

Here's a pic of SGD on its gorgeous little ownsome too:

These were such fun to wear! I'm hoping to get back with some more nail art some time soon! And a Happy Love Day to you all too ;)

~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

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 =)

New Year's Triple Whammy!

Hello lovelies! I'm going away for a couple of days to celebrate New Year's with lots of light entertainery types and I'm really looking forward to lots of giggles! Of course I did nails especially for the occasion, combining a couple of my favourite manis of the year. To add to that I also did my boyfriend's thumbs AND (for the first time ever!) my mum's nails too! So there will be lots of pictures and I'll try not to waffle too much!

Nail Art Novice
Polishes used: Barry M-Passion Fruit, Mango, Spring Green, Blue Grape, Black Multi Glitter, Revlon-Electric, Sinful Colors-Amethyst.

Bonus shot-my (messy) pre-tape rainbows!

Mr. Novice (teehee!)
These were meant to be fireworks but turned out a little flowery...still, he's happy!
Polishes used: Smitten Polish-Bifrost, Rimmel-Movie Star, Barry M-Mango, Revlon-Electric, Silver Screen.

Mummy Novice
Mum wanted something to match her NYE outfit and I decided to jazz them up a bit with some silver stamping too! (Please note, my Mum does have more than 3 nails, I just didn't get a decent photo!)
Polishes used: Rimmel-Movie Star, Calvin Klein-Silver, MoYou London-Pro 8

All that's left for me to say is have a very Happy New Year, whatever you're doing!
I'll see you all in 2014!!!

~Nail Art Novice~

12 Days Of Xmas Nail Art 11-Christmas Trees

Squeezing this post in before the end of Saturday so I can still claim to have posted on time, haha. I've been visiting my boyfriend today so haven't been able to post yet.
The penultimate Xmas challenge mani! Boo! I've had such fun doing these every day and sharing the challenge with some awesome ladies. For 'Christmas trees' I've known what I wanted to do ever since way back when in Metallic week of the Mish Mash challenge. I festived them up a bit but that's where the idea came from.
Polishes used: GOSH-Holographic Hero (not that you can really see the holo any more, many layers of topcoat killed it. It did look pretty awesome to begin with though!), Barry M-Cosmic Glow (magnetic), Maybelline-Winner Takes It All, London Girl Polish-#79, Rimmel-Red Carpet and Barry M-Teal. I added some gems that I won in a giveaway prize because hey, it's Christmas, and I fancied trying something different. Amazed how well they've stayed on actually!

These are fun! I did find the gems a bit weird at first because I wasn't used to having 3D things on my nails but I forgot about them fairly quickly. These make me feel VERY festive!

Rara
Polishes used: Base of Layla-Mermaid Spell, thumb xmas tree; nail art pen with Tara's Talons-12 Days over the top, index finger; Avon-Noir Emerald with nail art pen decorations, middle finger: Essie-Mojito Madness with Tara's Talons-Bauble over the top, ring finger; Avon-Garden Green mixed with Sinful Colors-Pistache with Andrea Fulerton silver nail pen for tinsel and little finger; as before. All trees have Avon-Express Mocha stumps and yellow nail pen stars.
I am very surprised how many greens I actually have as I don't really like green!! I like how all of my trees are different and my favourite two have to be the ones on my thumb and index fingers! 

Really sad that we only have one more mani left to do :'(

~Rara~

I'm also quite sad we've only got one left-it's been a really fun month trying to organise these around my life haha! Don't forget to check out the other ladies trees in the inlinkz. I'll be back on Monday with the FINAL mani, booo!

~Nail Art Novice~

12 Days Of Xmas Nail Art 2-Snow/Winter

Hey lovelies, it's day 2 of my Xmas challenge and I've got a lovely wintry mani for you. I was feeling a little indecisive when I was planning this one, so I did a skittle in the end. Sadly, my new snowflake decals haven't arrived yet so I wasn't able to include them-Boo!

On my thumbs/little fingers I have the gorgeous Barry M-Lady from their autumn textured line-it's the most perfect 'snow' polish I think, pearly and shiny and shimmery white-the way the light plays across it is quite lovely! The darker of my fingers is a couple of coats of Absolut Lacquer-Snow Daze over Rimmel-Royal Blue (a bit of an homage to my first ever blog post!), and the lighter is Pocket Money Polishes-Ice Ice Baby over Revlon-Blue Lagoon. On my middle fingers I have OPI-I Don't Give A Rotterdam! and a freehanded snowflake done in my Barry M nail art pen (thanks to this easy tutorial from Nailside).

These are minimal effort nails really-I've not really done anything taxing at all but I still really like them, they definitely feel wintry to me! I'm sure it won't be long before we have the weather to match either and then it's time for snowball fights and snowmen and then steaming hot cups of hot chocolate to warm up again-lush!

Rara's
So today is 'Snow' and I obviously had to draw a snowman...one of my favourite things about winter is making a snowman when it snows (no matter how small it ends up!) The polishes I used were Sinful Colors-Cinderella (which is a gorgeous baby blue with shimmery pinks in it), Barry M-Matt White, Andrea Fulerton dot and flick black/silver and green/orange nail art pens from Paperchase. On my thumb I did a house/cottagey thing with snow on the roof, then what was meant to be trees but they didn't turn out the best, a snowflake, a snowman and some snowflakes. I love my snowman. Can't wait to see the other manis for this theme!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! Don't forget to check out the other wintry manis in the inlinkz, and here's a reminder of the rest of the prompts:

~Nail Art Novice & Rara~