Teal Tuesdays: Teal Triplets

Today is Tuesday, and therefore teal!

This week's theme is triplets - we did a poll to see which teal polishes everyone has, and then selected the top three, and we all had to use one of those to do our manicures this week :)

 Of the three polishes, the one that I have is Zoya Zuza.  I was feeling summery, as it was actually sunny for once when I did these, so I wanted to combine Zuza with some bright colours.

I used striping tape to do this manicure.  The underneath colours are both Max Factor - Cactus Green and Bright Orange. I added a layer of Seche Vite and a little fimo orange (just because I bought them months ago and hadn't used them...).  I like how this turned out, but putting all the striping tape on takes so long!

Have a ganders at all the other Teal Tuesday participants:

Gnarly Gnails

Nails Beautiqued

Geeky Owl

Mandy's Polish

Fancy Phalanges

Colorsplash Nails

Simple-and-Beautiful

Persistently Glittery

No Holos!

Cherries Sweets

The Frenzied Polisher

Caitlin's Creative Corner

Lacquered Libra

Nail Polish Lane

Once Upon a Polish

Subtlety is Overrated
Elyssian Beauty

Brown and Blue Stripes

I was feeling brown and blue, and stripes and dots yesterday, so this is the manicure I ended up with.

I used OPI Over The Taupe, Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream, Barry M Bright Pink, Collection 2000 French White and a white nail art pen.  Topped off with Seche Vite of course.

It's a little different to how I'd initially pictured it, due to a lack of skill with the striper brush, but I'm really pleased with how it turned out :)  I just think the colour combination's really cute.

My Collection

People sometimes say to me "You must have so much nail polish!".  I always insist, of course, that I don't.  to be fair, it all used to fit in a shoe box.  It doesn't any more, but it's still far less than a lot of people's (I don't yet have a room devoted to nail polish, although I am working on my boyfriend...).

So anyway, I thought it'd be a good idea to photograph my collection so people could see what I have.  And because I was bored.  So here you go - all polish names are from left to right.

OPI 

Not Like The Movies, Fresh Frog of Bel Air, Teenage Dream, Grape...Set...Match, Over The Taupe, Mermaid's Tears, I Juggle...Men

Colour Block

I have just bought so many nail polishes...the internet makes it far too easy.  I've ordered the rest of the W7 dupes of the Nails Inc sprinkles, as well a few (ahem) Barry M polishes, including the rather fabulous Jewel Britannia, which I only discovered existed today.  Although, I think I exercised fantastic self control, personally.  Only two of the polishes purchased were OPIs, and there were far more than that in my basket to begin with...

Speaking of OPI, I have a problem.  I am in love with the colour of Dutch Ya Just Love OPI, but I don't want shimmer, I just want the purple with a creme finish.  Does anyone know of a polish like this??  Here's a picture of it for reference:

http://www.fashionpolish.com

Anyhoo, enough lusting, here's some nail art.

This is a tape manicure that I did a little while ago.  I'm  not very good at taping...hence the addition of the black lines between the segments!  (How messy do they look compared to the swatch above!)

I used Max Factor Disco Pink and Bright Orange, 17 Seabreeze and a black Sharpie.  And I think my ring finger has a coat of Seche Vite...

I was planning on doing a few manicures tonight, and then discovered I only have three cotton pads left, so, alas, twas not to be.  I am currently wearing China Glaze Harvest Moon though, so I'm going to go attack that with some gold polish and a striper brush.

Teal Tuesdays: Monochrome

Good morning :)  Today I'm participating in Teal Tuesdays for the first time (had a good old rummage through my nail polish collection to find everything that resembled teal).  This week's theme is monochrome.

This is definitely a manicure that looked better in my head...but oh well, here it is:

I used OPI Mermaid's Tears, Max Factor Graffiti and for the little stamped flower that you can't see because I made a colour choice fail I used Nubar Reclaim.

Here's another picture so that you can actually see the flower.  I was originally going to do this in the Max Factor polish, which I think would've looked better, but I felt like I needed some holographic polish in my life.

I'm not really a fan of this manicure, but at least the colours are pretty :)

Check out these other teal lovelies:

Gnarly Gnails

Nails Beautiqued

Geeky Owl

Mandy's Polish

Fancy Phalanges

Colorsplash Nails

Simple-and-Beautiful

Persistently Glittery

No Holos!

Cherries Sweets

The Frenzied Polisher

Caitlin's Creative Corner

Lacquered Libra

Nail Polish Lane

Once Upon a Polish

Subtlety is Overrated

Blue Dots

A little bit of housekeeping first - I've added the option of following this blog by email, so if you don't have or want a Google account you can be updated when I post by email.  Alternatively, I've added a Facebook like button, so you can follow the blog on Facebook.  That one took me a while to work out so please use it :p  It's great seeing that people from all over the world are viewing my blog, but I'd love to know who you are, so please follow via one of the three options so I can find out a bit about who you are :)

Anyhoo, now for the nail art.  I saw this manicure on Chalkboard Nails a little while ago, and I think it's so beautiful, so I wanted to try something similar myself.

I did this while I was away in London for a few days, so I had limited supplies (and no clean up brush...evidently).  I used Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream, 17 Seabreeze, Collection 2000 French White and Barry M Red Glitter, topped off with Seche Vite.  By the way, my Seche Vite is doing my head in - does anyone know if the thinning drops are any good or if I'd be better off buying a new bottle?

This is such a quick and pretty manicure, I'll definitely be doing it in a few other colour combinations :)  What do you think?  Is this something you'd wear?

Summer Challenge 4: Travel

Today is the last day of the Summer Challenge being hosted by lady_flower123 over at The Polishaholic.  Today's theme is travel.

My boyfriend is a sailor, and a little while ago he told me I should have a go at painting the ship he works on on my nails (I think I've fooled him into thinking I'm far more artistically skilled than I am).  Anyhoo, today seemed like a good time to try this, so here you go:

Unfortunately, my dear Seche Vite made the black bleed a fair bit, so please excuse that!  I used Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream, 17 Risky Red, and black and white nail art pens.

Matte Stripes

Here's a design from a few months ago - my first go using matte polish.

I used 17 Nightshade, and OPI RapiDry and Rimmel Pro Matte Topcoat for the stripes.

Hope you're all having a good week :)  I'm attempting a ship for the final day of the summer challenge on Friday, so watch this space...

Summer Challenge 3: Island

Today is the third instalment of the challenge hosted by lady_flower123 over at her blog (check it out here), and the theme is 'island'.

I had a few ideas for this involving palm trees, sand etc., but I couldn't really come up with anything I could translate on to my nails.  So I cheated slightly.  I went for a British theme - Britain is an island after all...  And I wore them to a red, white a blue party that I went to on Saturday.

Anyhoo, here are the nails.

I used Collection 2000 French White, and 17 Risky Red and a blue that I've totally forgotten the name of...

I've seen some lovely skittle nail art on various blogs, so I really wanted to have a go at something like this.  I'm pretty pleased with the overall look, but I haaaate the gradient nail.  I should've just redone it as something else, but I felt I'd already committed to the gradient.  Oh well!

Happy Monday everyone :)

Summer Challenge 2: Sunset

Today is the second instalment in the summer challenge hosted by lady_flower123 (check out her blog here), and the theme is sunset.  I decided to try a gradient for my background, and then I drew in (my interpretation of...) the Liverpool skyline.

I used Rimmel Sunshine, Max Factor Bright Orange, 17 Risky Red and Barry M Bright Purple for the background (it seems all the purple ended up on my fingers rather than my nails) and a nail art pen for the silhouette.

Sorry for the late and brief post - I have a migraine and am too busy feeling sorry for myself.

Mermaid's Tears

I'm still wearing my sunflower nails, in some attempt to convince myself it really is summer, even if we haven't been able to see any blue sky through all the cloud for like a week.  So, today I've got one from the vault for you.

She's far from perfect, but I love her all the same.

The base colour for this is OPI Mermaid's Tears from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection.  It's a gorgeous colour and super shiny even without a topcoat (although obviously I used one anyway...).  My little mermaid was made up of loads of polishes, so if you want to know a particular one, just ask in the comments.

Happy Tuesday :)

Summer Challenge 1: Sunflowers

As I mentioned the other day, I'm taking part in a summer nail art challenge hosted by lady_flower123 over at The Polishaholic.  This is my first ever nail challenge, all very exciting.

So the first theme is sunflowers.  This design came out more or less as I'd pictured it in my head, other than the fact that in my head I have a lot more artistic talent than I actually do.  Anyhoo, here's what I did:

I used Collection 2000 French White and Ninja for the background.  The yellow is H&M Rising Sun that my lovely mum bought for me yesterday, the gold/brown is a nail art pen, and then I used a black sharpie for the detail.

I'm pretty happy with how these turned out :)  They possibly look more like buttercups than sunflowers, but they're all flowers...

Check out what the rest of the participants have produced over at lady_flower123's blog.

Mum's Nails

So here are my mum's nails for tonight.  She's wearing a navy dress with gold accessories, so I wanted to do something to go with that (not that my own nails ever coordinate with my outfits).

I used an old Special FX gold polish that I dug out of a desk drawer, and the accent nails are OPI Into The Night.  There's a little VNL on the gold nails here, but you really can't see that in person.  She's happy anyhoo :)

Grey Glitter Gradient

Yay for alliteration!

Anyhoo, I'm still at my parents with my limited polish supply, so something simple for you today.  I'm still trying to get the hang of this gradient business, so I thought I'd have another go.

I used Beauty UK Soft Grey, with Barry M Grey sponged on the tips.  That's topped with Saffron 07 and a coat of Seche Vite.

I'll attempt a three colour gradient sometime soon, maybe I'll get better blending between the colours then.  I do love how this simple technique makes a mani look so much better though.  Now I just have to do my mum's nails before we go out tonight!

Hope everyone's having a good weekend!

Lava Flow

I was very excited when I saw W7 Lava Flow, Mosaic and Salt N Pepper on another blog.  These are far more unusual than I'd expect from this brand, so naturally I bought one.

Here's 2 coats of Lava Flow over 2 coats of OPI Your Web Or Mine?  I didn't think the base would be as opaque as it was, so I was intending for it to have a pale pink background.  You could probably wear this on its own with 3 coats.

Lava Flow contains red and matte black glitter in a pale grey, almost white, base.

The formula on this wasn't bad.  The only issue was that the glitter tended to be far more dense at the base of the nail, although I actually quite liked this.  It made it look sort of like a reverse gradient, and I would've left them like this with just the one coat if it wasn't that I'd already drowned my ring finger nail in the stuff.

Overall I was really pleased with this, especially for the price.  Now to buy Mosaic and Salt N Pepper.

Here's Your Web Or Mine? on its own - I don't really go for pink polishes, but I thought this looked lovely.  And I thought it made my hands look quite tanned, even if they do look their usual milky white in the photo...

On Sunday, I'll be starting a summer nail challenge hosted by The Polishaholic (check out the schedule here).  The first one is sunflowers, which since I'm currently at my parents' house with a limited selection of nail polish, none of which resemble yellow, this is definitely going to be a challenge!

Leopard On Safari

So I was unable to resist buying a few of the China Glaze On Safari collection.  So far I've picked up Kalahari Kiss and Desert Sun.  I'll definitely be picking up more of these - the formula on them is great and there are some other colours in the collection that I desperately want.  And the glitters...sigh...

I wanted to use these two polishes for a mani, and I thought I should keep the safari theme going with animal print.

I used Kalahari Kiss as the base, with Desert Sun sponged on the tips.  This is the first time I've tried this technique and I was really pleased with the effect.  The spots are Barry M Fuchsia and the lines are a nail art pen from ebay. And a coat of Seche Vite of course.

I was originally going to do gold or brown spots, but I thought the fuchsia (I keep spelling this wrong!) would be bolder.  What do you think?

Glitter Gradient

Hello all, I am now back from sunny Aberdeen (I have literally never seen so much rain), and I have some more nails for you.

Today I decided to try out a glitter gradient with a gorgeous new glitter I picked up last week.  This was my first attempt at this sort of manicure and...er...I failed a bit.

This is Beauty UK Soft Grey and Barry M Magenta Glitter, with a coat of Seche Vite.  The glitter's lovely, it's packed with really fine glitter and then has some larger pieces dispersed through it as well.

I don't think there's enough of a gradient effect, and the line where the glitter starts is too defined.  I might have been better off using a less dense glitter?  Any tips for how to do this more successfully next time would be much appreciated!

Penguins

Here's a really simple mani I did that went down very well with the kids in school!  Although one of the boys insisted he couldn't do his work because my nails were too distracting...nice try.

I do enjoy having animals on my nails :)

Hope you're all having a lovely Sunday!