A-Z Challenge-Copy Cat

Hello lovelies!

I apologise for my absence this past week, life got  a bit hectic and I just didn't find the time to post! I also have big news, but I'll tell you more later on that subject.

This week's A2Z challenge prompt is 'Copy Cat' and I chose to copy the pattern from my graduation dress because it's a bit different and interesting:

I used the blobbicure method, and I have to give some credit to Starfish Nails for reminding me of this techniques existence with her bold mani last week. I started with a base of W7-Black which is currently the consistency of glue and is a pain to work with. I need a new black! Whilst my second coat was still wet, I blobbed on Barry M-Spring Green and Maybelline-Bare It All and then added black dots in the centres of some of the blobs with the W7.

These were really fun to do-watching the polish spread out over the nails was fun. I think I matched my dress pretty well too, which is what I wanted! As ever make sure you check out the hub page/inlinkz for all the other awesome designs.

OK so my big news is that I got my very first full time job, starting on Monday!!! I'm excited and terrified all at once, and I don't quite know what this means for my nails. Hopefully, as I won't be interacting with any customers face to face it won't be too restrictive, but for the next few weeks I might keep it low key just in case. *Sadly puts holo polishes away*. I will certainly try to keep up with the challenge, especially as the next two prompts are easy to make work appropriate, but I shall have to see how it goes. Wish me luck though!

~Nail Art Novice~

A-Z Challenge-Bold

Hello lovelies!

Back with the A2Z challenge again this week and the prompt is bold. I love how these non-specific prompts are really open to interpretation so that everyone comes up with something different. Two things sprang to my mind for the word 'Bold'-black and white manis and really bright colours. As I did some pretty bright colours for last week's prompt I decided to go down the black and white route, but add a hint of bright colour to make it fun.

I started with a base of Barry M-Matt White and then triple-stamped on top of it using MoYou London-Back to the 80s 03 changing up the angle that I put the stamp on and generally playing around with them. For my stamping colours I used Sally Hansen-Brisk Blue and Lightening and Barry M-Satsuma.
This is how they looked at this stage (pre clean up) and I think it's a kinda cool effect!

I'm definitely going to have to do this again someday cos I like how it looks a bit mad and random.

Over the top of that I did some vertical stripes with striping tape and W7-Black.

What do you reckon? I think they're pretty bold and I love the flashes of colour underneath the stripes, plus they were really fun to do-not having to think about where you're placing your stamps is liberating!

That's all from me as I have to head out five minutes ago, but make sure you check out all the other Bold manis in the inlinkz and on the A2Z hubpage here.

~Nail Art Novice~

Happy Halloweeeeeen!

Hello lovelies and a Happy Halloween to you all!

This is my Polish Party mani for this month because the theme couldn't be anything other than Halloween, could it! I couldn't pick a single theme for this one so just did a skittle-it was lots of fun.

Base colours: W7-Black, Moyra-#63, China Glaze-But Of Corpse and Stop That Train! (both from my Coloristiq box) and Barry M-Matt White.
Glow In The Dark toppers/colours: Violet Rose Polishes-Es Paradis and Amnesia, Dark Metal Lacquer-Beings Of Light and BK Polishes-#5, #6 and #10.

I used vinyls from She Sells Seashells for the pumpkins/bats and freehanded the rest!

I kinda love my little ghostie's reflection ^_^

So there we go! Hope you all had a good Halloween and didn't get too many tricks ;)

Check out the other spooky manis 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!

Twinsie Nails-Roses

It's Twinsie time once again here on my blog and this month I have two twinnies because there was an odd number of participants taking part. I was paired with the lovely Lothwen from Manis and Makeovers and the fabulous Hannah from The Dalai Lama's Nails and we were given the prompt Roses (this month's theme is flowers). We were discussing our ideas and decided we didn't want to do the traditional vintage style roses and that we'd try something a bit funkier-and eventually came up with the idea of doing our roses in black, white and a splash of colour, but do our own thing within those parameters. I'm looking forward to seeing what the other ladies came up with!

I used Barry M-Matt White, W7-Black, Topshop-Cloud and Barry M-SLE2013 B for my splash of colour (such a catchy name that one!) and did vintage style roses in a very different colour scheme!

I really like em! OK they don't look hugely like roses in the pictures but they do in real life, and I love the colour scheme-feels almost classy somehow, but with that bright green to liven it up. I'm really intrigued to see what my twins have come up with too-once their posts are up I will link to them here-make sure you go and see theirs too!

The Dalai Lama's Roses

Manis and Makeovers' Roses

You can get involved with the Twin Nails group on Facebook here but get in quick if you want to join in for June (the theme is Candy) as the pairings will be chosen soon. It's a really good way to meet more nail bloggers and it's pretty fun! I will sadly be missing the next couple as I will be in Australia (eee!) so get in there and take my place aspiring nail artists ;)

Don't forget to check out all the other twin posts in the inlinkz below =)

~Nail Art Novice~

31 Week Nail Art Challenge 7-Black and White

I really feel like I should change the title of these the the '31-ish Week Nail Art Challenge' cos I just do them as and when I feel like it, haha!

Today's prompt is Black and White and I wanted to do something simple and classy. Inspired by my latest Polish Party mani (which was inspired by someone else!) I chose to do stripes in a mixture of sizes-although this time I kept the stripes the same way around on each nail, cos I thought it would look better.

Polishes used (nice and easy today!): Barry M-Matt White and W7-Black.

So there we go! My lines aren't all perfectly crisp but I still kinda like it! It does feel quite a grown up mani, I think it's the lack of in your face colours. Still it's nice to have a palette cleanser every once in a while, ey!

What do you reckon, do you like black and white manis or are you a neon and glitter gal at heart?

~Nail Art Novice~

Raise Your Glass If You Are Wrong In All The Right Ways

Hello lovelies!
Happy Friday! Just a quick post today. I'm wearing W7-Black with Tara's Talons-Raise A Glass over the top and I am LOVING this combo. Raise A Glass is an awesome gold flaky, I've never seen one similar and I love it! I reckon it'll look awesome over a whole heap of colours and I love the irregularity of the shapes and the way it makes my nails flash in the light. This is only one coat too so you get loads of glitter per brush stroke-it's basically fabulous!

Please excuse my poor, sad nubs and my shoddy attempts at clean up-I am currently visiting friends so am not able to access my clean up stuff and so had to make do with cotton buds!

It's so pretty though! Sparkle sparkle =D

Enjoy the weekend!

~Nail Art Novice~

12 Days Of Xmas Nail Art 12-Freestyle Christmas

Well we've finally reached almost the end of December and the end of this little challenge! I'm quite sad to see it go, I've had a fantastic time doing these and shared the experience with some really lovely ladies. Originally my plan was to choose some of their manis to do on my nails today but there have been so many lovely ones that I couldn't just choose 10, and I also would not be able to do them credit at all. So instead I want to dedicate this mani to lovely ladies who have taken part alongside me-there's been over 150 fabulous designs created for the various prompts and I, for one, have really enjoyed myself. I want to say thankyou to everyone who took part with me, whether it was just once or every mani-I never thought when I had this idea in November it would have become something this great! You've all been really awesome company, and I've loved seeing so many different designs. I can't wait to see what you've all come up with for today!

My 'freestyle' mani is made up of various things I've done along the way, and I used about 30 polishes in total for it! I won't list them, most of them have been used in the other Xmas posts anyway, but if there's one you want to know for definite just ask =) Also I used this tutorial from The Little Canvas to do the reindeer.

Here we are then, my final Christmas mani of 2013:

And just because it's Christmas, and I haven't yet, here's some pics using decorations too:

I can't believe it's over! Look out for my round up coming soon, but other than that I would just like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas (if you celebrate it), and I will be back after the festivities have quietened down a little!

~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 7-Christmas Animals

OK so I did a very silly thing this week. I'm currently up in Sheffield visiting friends/rehearsing and performing in a show and I brought all my polishes with me to do this mani. Or so I thought. I'd actually (somehow!) managed to forget both my base coat and top coat, which is basically a massive fail for a nail blogger! I had to go out and buy some more and could only find Sally Hansen Double Duty. Don't get me wrong, it's pretty decent for what it is, but man I missed my Seche Vite! I don't know how I ever managed to function before I owned fast dry top coat, because these took hours to feel like they were properly dry, and even in the short time between finishing them and taking the pictures they got a little battered/dinged up. SIGH. Lesson learned there, methinks.

Anyway, enough of my idiotic-ness. I used lots of polishes for this one so I'll zip through them quickly: Rimmel-Red Obsession, Barry M-Red Glitter, W7-Black, Barry M-Matt White,Mango, Mushroom and Lemon Icecream. I also used some reindeer water decals which I picked up on ebay here.

I do think they look better in white but I wanted to try both colours out

So there's my Christmas animals-cute little robins and penguins!

Rara
So for some reason the majority of my Xmas animals are birds! I've done an owl, penguin, robin, reindeer and another robin. Not sure why it was so hard to think of Christmas animals but it was and I was sorely tempted to redo my Christmas pigs!! However I am pleased with how these came out, especially after I added the Santa hats...no Xmas mani is complete without a Santa hat!! Polishes used - base colour NYC-Sidewalkers, Avon-Express Mocha, Tara's Talons-Three Wise Men, Barry M-Matt White, Barry M-Red Glitter and an orange nail art pen. 
Friday 13th...hope it was a lucky nail art one for you all!!

~Rara~

Don't forget to check the inlinkz out for more awesome festive manis =)

~Nail Art Novice~

Mish Mash Challenge Week 13-Rainbows

I always knew I would love this week because I'm a massive rainbow fan-they're so bright and colourful and never fail to make me smile-whether in the sky or on my nails! This design was inspired by a couple of things-firstly by my boyfriend's idea in 'tape week', because his gradients looked really awesome, and secondly by an awesome glitter that I bought in a blog sale a couple of weeks ago. To combine them together I used the glitter over black and then did rainbow accents.

Polishes used: W7-Black, Barry M-Passion Fruit, Mango, Spring Green, Blue Grape, Revlon-Electric, Sinful Colors-Amethyst, Seventeen-Monochrome Graffiti Effects and Krafty Gurl-It's A Fiesta.
Here's what I ended up with:

Can you believe that this is only one coat of that Krafty Gurl glitter? SO MUCH PRETTY. I love love LOVE this mani, it's awesome and amazing and I don't want to take it off ever ever ever. It's making me happy =D

Don't forget to check out all the other rainbow coloured brilliance in the inlinkz below!

~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:

Guest Blog from Pocket Money Polishes

Right now I am in Brighton, doing my final rehearsal bits before my first performance of Titus later, woo!
So last Saturday I was chatting on FB with Charlie from Pocket Money Polishes and really cheekily asked her if she would be willing to do a guest post for me whilst I was away-completely expecting her to say no. To my surprise she readily accepted so I'm sending out a MASSIVE thanks to her. With no further ado, I'll let her get on with it!

~

Hello Nail Art Novice Lovelies!
My name is Charlotte and I have a blog called Pocket Money Polishes. I'm delighted to say that I've been asked to do a guest post for you this weekend-apologise for the intrusion. I'm having a crazy busy week between deadlines, blogging and other projects so I have put together a simple look today using some of my favourite trends and techniques.

First I created a block ombre across my nails (going from light on my thumb to dark on my pinky), I excluded my ring finger as that is my finger of preference for an accent-this I painted white. I used a total of 5 varnishes for this look: Fast Track from China Glaze is a beautiful neutral gold that glistens and has a great textured appearance but is smooth to the touch, it does take a little building up and this photo shows 3 thin coats. Barry M's Mushroom is a grey leaning brown and one of my favourite polishes for the days when I need to have serious nails.Cackle is from George (Asda) and is a fairly standard brown with a good formula for easy consistent coverage. Finally, the darkest brown on my little finger is Roasted Chestnut by W7, which is one of my most beloved polishes with its deep chocolate brown colour and coppery shimmer. To these colour block fingers I added a slightly curved column of white dots to one side of my nail, as always my white is from the Natural Collection at Boots. Dots are a nail art staple and such a quick way to spice up a simple mani.

I painted my accent finger first to ensure that it had plenty of drying time as I was using thin striping tape, and if you don't give your base enough time to dry it will just be ripped up when you remove the tape. I used three pieces of tape, two horizontally across the nail and one vertically down the middle. The next step was to randomly add a square of each colour to my nail, and then while this polish was wet remove the tape. I then added some top coat to smooth the edges and voila-all finished! I am describing this manicure as 'coffee squares' in my head as it has all my favourites-latte, cappuccino and vanilla colours.

Thanks for having me today, please feel free to pop over to my blog and see what I am up to-I am usually up to something!! Wishing Novice luck with her polish buying ban and hope she's having a good weekend away.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
 <3 Pocket Money Polishes

~

Yay! Look at those pretty nails =) I love this look, I'm definitely going to try it out myself soon! BIG THANKS to Charlotte for doing this so last minute for me, I'm so impressed that she managed to fit it in her busybusy life! Please do go check out her blog, I'm sure she'll be glad to have you!

I'm back on Monday so normal posting should resume on Tuesday!
I'll see you then

~Nail Art Novice~