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~

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~

Polish Party-Chevrons

Hello lovelies!
One of the new groups I am taking part in challenges with is called Polish Party and they choose a theme each month and post nail art on that theme in the last week. This month's theme is chevrons.

I started with a base of Barry M-Matt White, and then added the chevron guide stickers (from this set, although I cut them in half). I painted the very gorgeous Chubby Owl Polish-Midnight Owls on one half of the sticker and Barry M-Majesty on the other, then removed the sticker.

I really like the way this has turned out, I love the colours together, especially Midnight Owls which is just all kinds of beautiful! I don't do chevron nail art very often but I think I should cos it's really effective!

Check out what the other Polish Party lovelies have done for their chevron posts too, and I'll  be back soon =)

~Nail Art Novice~

Textured Dots

That's probably the most boring title I've ever written for a post! But it describes things pretty accurately to be fair. I fancied something bright and cheery and so I pulled out a new textured polish I picked up from Poundland the other day-Sally Hansen-Cherry Drop. This is a super bright polish so fitted the bill perfectly-I used two coats. Of course I couldn't just leave it plain so I added in some dots using Barry M-Matt White and I kinda like the way they look a bit worn on some of the nails, it's quite fun!

What's your opinion on the textured trend?

~Nail Art Novice~

Guest Post Week! Pocket Money Polishes!

And it’s all purple! Hello all, Charlie here today from Pocket Money Polishes– anyone familiar with my blogs knows that I am only just learning to like purple so to see an all purple combo from me is a very new phenomenon. Deep breaths. It’s ok. I LOVE BOTH OF THESE POLISHES.

OPI Vesper comes from the Bond Girls collection which was one of the earlier incarnations of the texture polish trend from OPI. I used two coats for full sugary effect and this polish does take a long time to fully develop its finish (about 45 minutes) but this doesn’t mean it is prone to damage for the same amount of time – it’s pretty solid after about ten minutes.

As you can see from the photos this really ends up barely thicker on the nail than normal polish and for full effect you shouldn't top coat. I found that this had absolutely no impact on the wear time of the polish vs regular nail polish. In my pictures it may look black but it is blackcurrent purple and reminds me of fruit pastles – all sugary and deep. I did find that compared to other OPI polishes the brush seemed to be thickly loaded but it wasn’t hard to work with – just whack it on and wait for the magic. Removal of the Liquid Sand is similar to a glitter and does require some patience but it is a very hard wearing polish and just so gosh darn pretty. I found the finish on this polish to be less rough than What Wizardry Is This?

For my accents (which also applied to my thumbs) I have Zoya Daul which I have only worn once HERE and is insanely pretty. I love it so much on this second time round – the shimmer/sparkle/magic in it is just breath taking and the entire polish changes look depending on the light.

 I used two medium coats and topcoat in the pictures and I did actually find the dry time a little slow although I was painting quite late at night so perhaps that’s why. Application on this polish is super smooth and easy – I needed a little tidy up around the edges as it was slightly thinner than the OPI I was pasting on but there were no issues with flooding.

 The way both of these polishes sparkle in the light is just beautiful. So much so that this is the first mani that I have worn until it has chipped and worn away in a very long time. I honestly couldn’t stop waving my hand around in varying lights. Have you ever had a mani like that?

 I’ve just been spending the evening admiring the swatching for the upcoming OPI Brazil collection and they’re looking prettier and prettier, I can’t believe that the bright liquid sands will only be available in mini form though, check out the yellow swatch HERE. You might need sunglasses! My favourite places to buy OPI include The Nail and Beauty Link and Nail Polish Direct at the moment and I am watching with baited breath to see when these pretties arrive. I passed on the Gwen collection so need to scratch my new OPI itch some how. If you’re looking for bargain OPI then keep an eye on Fragrance Direct!

On the Zoya front I have ended up buying more since my haul including Tamsen and Elke – I am just waiting for the postman to deliver them to me and I will be reviewing them on the blog. Thanks for letting me share a post with you today, I hope you’ve enjoyed it and will come and see what I am up to soon!

Space Dust And Stamping

I've got a sparkly sparkly mani for you today! Before Xmas I picked up one of the new Rimmel Space Dust polishes-Total Eclipse. It's a gorgeous black polish with duochromey flakes in-they shift from fuchsia to green in the bottle and it's just a lovely effect. The Space Dust polishes are technically textured ones, but I found that there wasn't really much texture to this one once it was applied. More than a creme, yes, but less than some of the other textured polishes I have tried.

This is three coats of Total Eclipse on it's own, isn't it pretty!

I decided that, pretty as it was, I was going to add some stamping to it. I used Color Club-Over The Moon and MoYou London-Back To The 80s 2 for a cool space age/time travelly sort of effect. My camera really didn't like this combo, it was a bit dazzled! I also added a layer of topcoat to smooth everything out.

Sorry this is a bit pic heavy, I was trying to get good ones:

As I said, my camera was pretty dazzled but I think you can still see how cool this looked...right? I've been playing with the holo sparkles in the light a lot =D

~Nail Art Novice~

Don't forget to enter my giveaway!! Closes in three days!

Sparkle And Shine

Hello lovelies! Hope you're all doing well and enjoying the year so far. I had a brilliant time at my New Year's gathering, but it really took it's toll on my poor nails, they're the shortest they've been for a very long time at the moment! I've got no free edge left on most of my nails, it's making me really rather sad =(
So much so that I was feeling really uninspired for what I should do on them once I took off my fabulous rainbows so I made my boyfriend choose something for me! (#LazyBloggerSyndrome lol). He decided he wanted something sparkly and so this is what I ended up with: Revlon-Silver Screen, Avon-Fabulous and Barry M-Majesty from their autumn textures. I decided to keep it simple and do a mixed size dotticure with the Barry M on top of the other colours.

Apologies for the tipwear in these, it wasn't apparent in real life!

This was so sparkly and pretty! I wish I was better at doing these kind of dotticures, I think it looks a bit of a mess personally, but I know they can look amazing because I always admire the ones Emma from Emma's Little Corner does (like this one!), but I just can't get them too look that good! Siiigh.

Anyway, that's my first mani of 2014 done, woo! Onwards!

~Nail Art Novice~

12 Days Of Xmas Nail Art 10-Santa

~Pic Heavy Post~

So we're down to the final three manis of this challenge and I still can't really believe that it's gone by so quickly-I mean in a WEEK Christmas will have been and gone, what's that about?! In the spirit of all things Christmassy, here's some Santa nails-hope you've all been good this year ;)
I saw some awesome ones by Pause For Polish yesterday and decided to recreate them as accents, along with some Santa hats. For my Santas I used Rimmel-Red Carpet/Serene plus W7-Black and Maybelline-Winner Takes It All. On my hats I added Barry M-Lady to add a touch of sparkle and to make the fluff look fluffier, oh and the background is Revlon-Silver Screen. My other fingers have a base of Tara's Talons-Carollers from my Advent Calendar which is a lovely forest green with gold glitters. On top of that is two coats of the appropriately named Absolut Lacquer-Mrs Claus' Night Out for that perfect mix of Festive colours!

First (pre clean up!) pic is to show Carollers in all its glory.

I also grabbed one without flash to show off Mrs Claus to her full potential-she's packed full of silver and red micro glitter and larger silver pieces:

I really like these! They're super festive and really rather cool I reckon. My Mum liked them so much that she asked me to do some on her too (and that's a big deal because she never ever wears nail polish!), which I think is pretty cool =D

Rara
Polishes used: Barry M-Retro Red, Essie-Cascade Cool, Nails Inc-Uptown Glamour, Barry M-Matt White and Andrea Fulerton black and silver.
I love my Santas!!!!!! I'm not sure if you can tell but they are tiny boots on my little finger! I like how happy and cutey my Santas' faces are!!!

It's "Christmas Day" today so I'm meeting Novice and we're going to swap gifts so it actually feels like Christmas now!!

~Rara~

Haha, yeah, we're going to take our Santa nails and eat some scrummy food whilst exchanging presents today, yay! I love Christmas!
Here, if you need them, are the challenge prompts one last time-only two left to go now.

And check out the other Santa manis too!

~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~

More Easter Nail Art!

Rara's back today with another awesome Easter/Spring inspired nail art. Yes I know it's been and gone, but is that any reason to stop wearing awesome things on your nails?

~

Hi again! I'm back with my second Easter nail art and for this one I decided I'd use several different ideas-Easter eggs, a chick, a rabbit and a butterfly.
I used this rather impressive array of polishes:
Avon-Inspire, Avon-Orchid Splash, Avon-Red Reveal, Barry M-Matt White, Barry M Gelly-Watermelon, Barry M-Pink Flamingo, Barry M Textured-Atlantic Road, Andrea Fulerton Dot and Flick-Black and a green nail art pen I got from Ebay a while ago.
These were my results:

I'm not as enamoured with the chick and the rabbit as I was last time but I still think they turned out OK! The butterfly was hard to do but turned out pretty well in the end. I have, however, realised I need a baby/sky blue that isn't textured...oh no, that means I need to go nail polish shopping, how awful for me! [Novice- I said she was a bad influence on me, didn't I!]

Also my (not-so) little sister wanted her nails doing too so I whipped up another spring-themed mani for her on her tiny nubbins!

I used Avon-Orchid Splash, Barry M-Matt White, Andrea Fulerton Dot and Flick-Black and the same green nail art pen to do some rabbits:

I will admit that it was really hard to do such tiny faces so some of them do look a bit cross or worried, and I never realised how difficult it was to paint someone else's nails! I think they turned out pretty well though.

This concludes my Easter eggstravaganza (Sorry...), I hope you all had a good one and that the Easter bunny visited your house and left you lots of scrummy treats!

Until next time, 

~Rara~

~

Oh dear, that was a terrible pun! That aside, I really like these nails, especially that they're so detailed because they're tiny! I'm impressed at least. And I love the worried rabbits!

Big thanks to Rara for these posts, and I'll be back at the weekend with some blog post challenges, and hopefully a new mani if I get time. Otherwise I'll see you on Tuesday!

~Nail Art Novice~

Bluffy Funnies

As I mentioned the other day, this week I'm separated from my polishes so will be unable to post, so Rara is filling in for me with her excellent Easter inspired manis! As it's Tuesday and I would normally 'Try Something', here's a post featuring something new to this blog:

~

Hello again!
Hope that you all had a good Easter and enjoyed the extended weekend (if you're in the UK, at least!)
This was my first easter mani.
I used the following polishes: Avon-Inspire, Avon-Sea Breeze, Avon-Orchid Splash, Barry M-Matt White and Andrea Fulerton Dot and Flick in Black.
I also used some yellow and white flocking powder from Ebay-I got a really good deal-16 colours for under £4! (Think it was this listing)
I wanted a cutesy design for this mani so I thought I would go with fluffy chicks and rabbits-literally!

I love the rabbit on my thumb!
I painted the rabbit head and ears/chick head and added the fluff on top using tweezers and then flattened it all down using a nail art brush. I then used the Dot and Flick to paint on the details. The fluff felt a bit strange at first but I soon got used to it-in fact I couldn't stop stroking it!! The only downside was that where I work I have to handle a lot of money and the fluff soon got dirty and started to look a bit grey =(
But all in all I would definitely recommend flocking powder to anyone who doesn't mind strange textures (unlike Novice, the big weirdo)

I'll see you next time, 

~Rara~

~

Yeah, I can take being called a weirdo, I guess, in return for this adorable fluffy nail art!

Introducing...Rara!

I'm really excited to tell you all that my friend of the awesome ladybird nails post has decided to contribute to my blog from time to time as she doesn't want to start one of her own but still wants to share her designs. Like me, she's fairly new to this whole nail art thing, but she's already braver than me at trying new and interesting things. Rara (as she will be known on this blog) has known me my entire life and we've basically grown up giggling together, so I'm really pleased that she wants to help me out with this project. I'm hoping to get her writing her own posts soon, but for now I'll use her pictures to show you what she's been up to.

So with no further ado, I give you Rara's Water Marbling (her first time trying it,  and my first post about it!):

Polishes used: Avon Plum Seduction, Avon Starry Sky, Barry M Cobalt Blue as well as a Barry M topcoat.

The whole reason she wanted to try Water Marbling was because she found this blog post  by Chloe's Nails showing a step by step photo tutorial of how to successfully water marble, and she decided to have a go. Also, because she's just treated herself to the entire MUA Constellation collection she also did a caviar bead accent nail in the Leo colours. These are designed to have easy applicable bottles, and do look pretty fancy when applied! (Another good thing about these posts from Rara-she does things I don't. I'm not really a fan of textured nail art/polishes on myself, but she likes them, and this way you'll get more variety!)

Here's the results:

Not bad for a first timer, ey! Obviously they aren't perfect as there's a few holes and there are thin patches which aren't opaque but I've definitely seen worse first attempts at such a complicated technique. I'm really impressed with her thumb-the way the silver outlines the purple as if it was drawn on is awesome! And those beads on her accent nail look really pretty too. I know she's really pleased with the mani overall though, as am I, it's a really cool look and definitely on my to do list for when I'm feeling brave.

UPDATE
Between me writing/scheduling this post on Saturday night and it going live on Sunday night, Rara has done another water marble mani with better results, keeping the same beads on her accent nails. This time she substituted the Barry M with another Avon colour-Berry Shimmer, which seems to have worked better with this techinque:

As you can see, there are a lot fewer gaps around the edges of her nails, and (apart from the little finger) she has a lot better patterning across them all. The beads have lasted through washing up, which is pretty impressive considering they're only stuck on with a thin layer of polish and topcoat. You can pick the MUA beads up in Superdrugs (UK) for about £3 each.

Overall, I'm impressed!


~Rara & Nail Art Novice~