Guest Post Week! Vicky Loves Nails

Hello Nail Art Novice readers! My name is Vicky and I run a blog called Vicky Loves Nails. I was super excited when I saw that Jenni was looking for guest posters whilst she is moving, thanks so much for having me Jenni!

It took me a while to decide what to do for this post, but I finally decided on a vampy gradient with some gold leaf for good measure. I know how much Jenni hates clean up (I feel her pain on that one) so my original plan was to do photos before and after clean up which I know is similar to a post Jenni has done before.. but I got carried away and did my clean up without thinking and didn't take any photos. I couldn't face doing all that clean up twice so I just decided to show you the finished product instead.

For my gradient I used OPI - Miss You-niverse and OPI - In The Cable Car Pool Lane and added two coats of OPI - Man With The Golden Gun over the top.

These were very easy to do but I think they look quite effective, I love the dark, vampy colours even though it isn't my usual style.

Thank you once again Jenni for having me on your blog, it has been an honour and I hope your move goes swimmingly.

Guest Post Week! Boom Shaka Lacquer

Hello all you lovely people! I was delighted when Nail Art Novice said that she was looking for some guest posters! She graciously has allowed me to guest post on her blog.  I always love exposing myself to new readers.  Yes I know how that sounds.  I decided to go with it anyway - I’m kooky like that!

Since this IS a nail art blog I will be following up my review with a cool new to me nail art technique!  First I’m going to show you an absolutely gorgeous polish by Royal Lacquer!  It is called Blue Confusion:

 Blue Confusion is a deep royal blue, I mean purple, I mean teal...wait I don’t know what color it is!  Hence the name!  Depending on the angle this polish is royal blue, royal purple or a beautiful teal green jelly packed with tiny holographic sparklies, don’t you love my technical terms?!

 The formula on this lusciously squishy jelly polish is just divine!  It was actually opaque in two coats.  No need to layer this baby it’s going to work for you on its own!  I had no problems with application.  I will say that my cuticles are a wee bit dry so while I was removing it the blue did want to hang around my dry skin - didn’t take too much hassle to remove it completely however!

The minute I saw the sheerness of the first coat I KNEW I wanted to try the “stampwich” technique!  I first saw it on the Ellagee website and realized that creativity with jelly polishes goes way outside the regular jelly sandwich!

I started with two coats of Blue Confusion and then I stamped a series of images from the MoYou - Sailor 04 plate with Sally Hansen - White On.  Once it dried a bit I then went back and put another thin layer of Blue Confusion over that!  A super easy but really fantastic looking effect! You can find Royal Lacquer (and their vinyl nail decals, Vynails) in their Etsy Store.  You can also keep up to date with all the goings on at their Facebook page!  Go on by and say hi, the maker is super nice and I have been pleased with everything I have gotten from them so far!

Thank you for letting me ramble on and if you’d like to come over and see me, you can find me over at the Boom Shaka Lacquer blog, and I’m also on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.  I promise that I don’t bite...much!

I'm Moving, Moving, Moving, Moving House!

You may remember way back at the start of January I had a lovely guest post done for me because I was supposed to be moving house that week but it had all fallen through. Well now I really am moving! I've got a lovely little flat in Sheffield with my boyfriend and I get the keys tomorrow! Both scared and excited in equal measure. Because of this, I won't be blogging for at least the next week, but never fear! I have a week of guest posts lined up for you, from lots of lovely ladies so be sure to keep reading to see all of their awesome posts.


Today I've also got some fab Disney nails from Rara that she did last time she came to visit me at my house. She used far too many polishes for me to remember what they were but if you want to know something specific just ask and I will try to find out. The base was Barry M-Matt White.

She did these simply because she'd never done Disney nails and just wanted to! On her right hand she's got Flounder (The Little Mermaid), Mufasa (or Simba, can't remember) (The Lion King), Mickey Mouse, Tigger (Winnie the Pooh) and Chip (Beauty and the Beast) and on her left there's Dumbo, a green alien (Toy Story), Dopey (Snow White), Jasmine (Aladdin) and The Cheshire Cat (Alice in Wonderland)...although she does admit he looks more like a monster from Monsters Inc! I think she just googled pictures of the random characters she wanted to do and then recreated them on her nails, cos she's clever like that!

Don'tcha think these are really fun? Gotta love Disney! I think my favourite would have to be Tigger, he's fab!

That's all from me for the next week or so, but keep an eye out for all my lovely guest posters!

~Nail Art Novice~

In case you were wondering, the title is from this song =D

Resolutions Check-In

At the start of the year I made some blogging resolutions, which you can read in this post. I promised to post on how well I was keeping to them in a bid to shame me into actually sticking to them!

Resolution #1-Lemony Flutter

I did buy myself some Lemony Flutter at the start of the year and I have been using it...sporadically. I have to say I don't remember to do it 9 manis out of 10 so I don't think my cuticles have seen much improvement this month. However, I am trying to remember to put it on every night before I go to bed, and hopefully that will help them a little more.

Resolution #2-Spend no more than £20 on polish things a month and/or buy no more than 4 polishes a month

I had to be very harsh on myself with this one because it's very easy to just nip into poundland and pick up 10 new pretties and still have spent nowhere near £20, but I'm including all things nails (excluding remover but including delivery) so that I don't just splurge! January was meant to be a no-buy month for me and I did really well (for me!) but caved in towards the end of it. 

Items bought: 

-Lemony Flutter, £6.50

-2 SJ Polishes in her closing down sale (and only because she was closing down!) for £10 (including postage).

There's been lots of UK Indies closing their doors this month, which is really sad to see, and I had to stop myself ordering from them all! I did place a Pocket Money Polish order before she closed, but Charlie has very kindly allowed me to delay my payment until February, meaning they will count on next month's total. 

Total spent: £16.50

Under/Over budget: Under

Number of new polishes acquired: Two

Fewer/More than four? Fewer 

So I guess that's two thumbs up for this month. My boyfriend has challenged me to keep this up ALL YEAR but we'll have to see how that goes for me. I can't promise I'll be so good once I have regular income, haha!

To end I'll share some pics of this month's pretties:

It's only in uploading this picture that I've noticed
the spelling mistake...that's annoying.

Matte Party, Sprung

Matte Party (over Sinful Colours-Amethyst)
Sprung (over Sally Hansen-Himalayan Blue)

That's all for this month!

~Nail Art Novice ~

Mish Mash Challenge Week 27-Green

Greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen! =D

Ahem. Sorry about that. You might remember way back in this challenge for 'blue' week I did a colour block mani with some of my blue polishes, and made a comment about how awesome it'd look with all of them? Well this time around I did exactly that-a colour block using all 40 of my greens! (Not including holos or glitters as they live in a different drawer, haha!) I mean I could hardly pass up an opportunity like this to use every polish I own in my favourite colour, could I?

The bases are Barry M-Matt White and Revlon-Minted. I felt like a challenge so at the end of this post I have actually listed all the other colours I used, in case anyone is interested!

Please excuse my stubby left middle nail, I think all the appliances in this house are out to get it!

All of the green loveliness! I have to say I really like these, I love how each nail is different and there's so many different finishes going on, it's really fun and really green =D

Don't forget to check out the other gorgeous green manis!

~Nail Art Novice~


Polishes used: Rimmel-Peppermint, Camouflage, Pear Drop, Jaded Glamour, Mermaid Green, Camouflage Chic, Block Your Green, Barry M-Greenberry, Key Lime, Watermelon, Mint Ice Cream, SLE '13 B, Spring Green, Cosmic Glow, Revlon-Minted, Emerald City, Emerald, Chroma Chameleon Gold, Sally Hansen-Fairy Teal, Grass Slipper, Going Green, S-teal a Base, OPI-Don't Mess With OPI, Thanks A Windmillion, Cairuo-Greeen Tea 22, Blueberry 19, Stargazer-#101, Unknown, Tara's Talons-Dasher, Carollers, Sinful Colors-Mint Apple, Bad Apple Cosmetics-Russett, L.A Colors-Green Tea, Avon-Midnight Green, Essie-Mojito Madness, BK Polish-#5,L'Oreal Color Riche-Luxembourg Garden, George-Under The Sea, Collection-Hidden, Miners-Tra La La

Make sure you've entered my giveaway! It ends tomorrow!