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~

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~

31 Week Nail Art Challenge 10-Gradients (And HOLOS)

I realised that I did a gradient last week for my rainbow nails so I would have to do something a little different this week. Instead of creating one gradient with lots of colours I created lots of gradients with only two colours instead-and managed to use 7 of my untrieds (denoted with a *) to boot!

Polishes used (thumb to little finger on right hand): Freckles Polish-French Martini, Freckles Polish-Purple Planters Punch*, Freckles Polish-Blue Hawai*, Smitten Polish-Bifrost, Too Fancy Lacquer-Cooper Trooper*, Freckles Polish-Caipirinha* (no, I have no idea how to pronounce it either =p), GOSH-Holographic Hero, Layla-Flash Black*, A England-Rose Bower* and Layla-Retro Pink*. Phew! They aren't the best gradients in the world, I think some of them needed a third colour in the middle to get them to blend properly, and some of the Laylas had a pig of a formula to try and do gradients with, but overall I'm happy with them! They look really awesome when they catch the light!

Taken in the fab lighting in my kitchen to
try and show you those rainbows!

What do you reckon? Are you a holo lover or hater? (How can you hate them, they're so pretty!?)

Also how is it JUNE already?! I'm going away in 18 days, eeeep!

~Nail Art Novice~

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~

November Tri-Polish Challenge 3

Hello lovelies! I hope you all had good weekends. I had hoped to get my Doctor Who mani uploaded but I just never got round to it-but I loved the episode! It was wonderful =)
I'm back with the third installment of this month's Tri-Polish challenge-where you do 4 manis with three polishes. This months colours are grey, blue and purple and my polishes are L'Oreal Color Riche-Metropolitan, Rimmel-Aqua Cool and Barry M-Prickly Pear.
This time I've gone for a gradient, along with a topping of China Glaze-Fairy Dust for a little bit of sparkle.

I'm kinda disappointed that these didn't blend together better-you can kinda see it on my thumb/little finger in the bottom picture but for the most part I've still got three distinct lines. Oh well, can't have it all can you, they're still quite pretty!

And as a bonus, here's a picture of my Doctor Who nails, just because I can...please excuse my dodgy TARDIS, I was rushing at this point because it was nearly time for the episode and I didn't want to miss it!

Isn't that blue holo (thumb) gorgeous? It's Smitten Polish-Bifrost if you're interested.

I'll be back on Thursday with mani number 4 for the TPC, tata!

~Nail Art Novice~