Then and Now #2: Mermaids

Hello lovelies :)

I hope you all had a good start to the week (ugh, Monday!).  There was not enough coffee in the world to make getting up this morning bearable lol.  I hate mornings...

Anyhoo, today I have for you my second Then & Now post!  This time I'm recreating this old manicure:

That was with my old camera...check out the quality lol.  This manicure was inspired by the polish itself - OPI Mermaid's Tears.  I spent flipping ages painting that little mermaid (and then wore it for like well over a week, obviously).  I believe it was doing this manicure that finally pushed me over the edge to buying some Sharpies!  You can see the original post here.

Not only have I acquired Sharpies since then, my mermaid has also lost some weight, and stopped being some a little hussy and is now wearing a shell bra.

I stuck with the OPI again, but this time added a gradient with Barry M Aqua Glitter, because mermaids need glitter obviously.

I used the DIY decal technique to make this little lady.  I painted top coat on to a sheet of plastic, then traced a picture of a mermaid with a Sharpie.  I then coloured her in fully with my white Barry M nail art pen so that I wouldn't need to use a million coats of all my colours, and then I went ahead and coloured her in!

I find this quite funny really.  I thought my first mermaid was really good, but looking at her now she looks so rubbish lol.  She doesn't even look like she's got top coat on, what was I thinking...?

Please pop over to the Facebook album HERE to like the manicure you'd like me to recreate next week!  It's currently a tie between quite a few, so it'd be good to have a clear winner :)  You can vote for as many as you like!

So what do you think - do you prefer the old or the new?

Flip Flop Challenge

This is a round up of the Flip Flop Challenge!  Just click on a picture below to see the full blogpost.

Mica Moma Franken Kit

Helloooo!

I can't believe it's only Wednesday!  Argh!  I'm so tired, I can't wait for the weekend and a lie in.

Anyhoo, today I'm showing you a pretty darn exciting product.  I recently came across Mica Moma.  They sell a range of products for making your own cosmetics and bath products, INCLUDING NAIL POLISH.  Yes indeedy ladies, suspension base and all, available in the UK!

In addition to selling everything you need to become an indie polish making maestro, they also sell this Indie/Franken Nail Polish Kit for those of us who just want a bit of a play.  When I let them know how brilliant I thought this idea was, they very kindly offered to send me some products to review.

Here's what I got:

This is just a little sample of the franken kit.  The actual kit contains a looooot more (details at the end of the post).  There's suspension base, mixing balls, scoops, a funnel, pigments and glitters. Phew!

So I began by looking at all the pretty things and thinking 'umm...I have no idea how much pigment or glitter I'm supposed to use...'.  Fortunately, there's a helpful video on micamoma.com that advises you to use 2 big scoops of pigment and 1 of glitter.

The bottles of suspension base were full to the brim, so I tipped a little out so I had room for all the pigments and glitters.  First up I went for the blue pigment.  I added a scoop of green glitter and one of those mini scoops of the copper glitter.

I'm not gonna lie, this was pretty darn exciting.  And equally as messy (I'd recommend laying down some newspaper and ensuring your other half is out of the house so you can scrub all the polish off the bathroom sink before he sees!).  The mixing balls are super big, so apparently you only need one.  So one is what I used, and it mixed seriously easily.  Like a few shakes and it was good to go.  Seriously impressed.  I'm thinking of buying a few of these to pop into some of my other polishes that settle (OPI Teenage Dream, I'm looking at you).

Anyhoo, I was very pleased with this, but felt it needed more glitter.

SO!  Next up I went for the purple pigment, and this time added two big scoops of the copper glitter.

This is my favourite :D  Packed full of glitter, and I think the colours are so pretty together.  Apologies for the lobster hands, but this is colour accurate!  Woohoo!  I've finally beaten the camera.

All that suspension base that I tipped away, I actually tipped into an old empty bottle (because I'm not crazy) so I could make a third polish!  This time I added equal amounts of blue and purple pigments, and a good helping of the magenta glitter.  Check this beauty out...

How gorgeous is that colour?  I just want to show everyone my masterpieces...  I went into town with the purple polish on on Sunday and I so wanted someone to comment on my nails so I could tell them I made it lol.  I'm such a child.

Right then, final thoughts.  This was GREAT fun.  I shall definitely be getting myself some more to play with.  Oh I should also mention that these have sat untouched since Saturday night and they haven't settled in the slightest.  Slight negative - the finish was a little bumpy, so I'd go for two coats of top coat.

And here are all the details!  You can see the kit here.  It costs £19.90 (plus £3.50 postage if you're in the UK) and that includes:

3 x 15ml bottles of suspension base

3 x 10ml empty bottles

2 measuring spoons

Funnel

10 steel balls

5 x glitter

5 x mica

You can even choose which pigments and glitters you want if you have something in particular in mind that you'd like to make :)  I think this would be great for Christmas presents as well.  Now I just need to work out which members of my family don't read my blog so that it can be a surprise!

What do you think, is this something you'd be interested in?  Let me know if you have any questions :)

Then and Now #1: Elephantastic

Hello all!

Firstly, sorry for all the seemingly random post on the weekend.  I was tidying up my 'Reviews' tab, and it totally didn't occur to me that if you follow via Bloglovin' you'd have got an email with all those posts in!  However, the Reviews tab is all finished and tidy now, so do take a look and let me know what you think of the new layout.

You'll also notice something new at the bottom of my posts!  I've added some pretty buttons to allow you to easily share my posts.  Please also let me know what you think about these, both in terms of how they look and functionality.

Anyhoo, on to the nails!  Aaaages ago I said I was going to do a series of Then & Now posts.  I've seen these on a few blogs, and I liked the idea of revisiting some of my old manicures and seeing if I could do any better now.  However, due to being of the procrastinating nature that I am, I never got round to doing it.  Until now!  So, I present you my first then manicure...

I thought this was like proper awesome at the time.  And to be fair, it did have googley eyes.  This was actually the first ever manicure I posted on this blog!  Aww...  You can take a look at the original post here.

To be honest, I was a bit worried about doing this, because I was worried it would prove what I've suspected for a while...that my nail art is getting worse rather than better.  Here goes...

I went for a slightly different approach this time, but still with the googley eyes of course!  I stuck with Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream for the base, but this time I used Barry M Grey, OPI Skull & Glossbones and a touch of OPI Sparrow Me The Drama for the elephant.

So what do you prefer, then or now?

Don't forget to pop over to my Facebook page HERE to vote for which manicure you'd like to see my recreate next week!  

Nailtopia

Nailtopia is a UK-based nail art store.  They stock the biggest range of nail art stickers I've ever seen, along with all the other essentials like rhinestones, glitter and stripers.

Click on a link below to see the review of that product.

Safari Animal Stickers

Silver Star Stickers

Tropical Parrot Stickers

Visit the Nailtopia website here: www.nailtopia.co.uk

BeautyUK Cosmetics

BeautyUK is a (unsurprisingly) British brand.  Amongst their huge range of cosmetics, they produce high quality nail polishes at purse-friendly prices.  These are available direct from their website or from Superdrug stores.

Posh Polish

Gold Digger

Intergalactic

Queen of Hearts

Twinkle Twinkle

Visit the BeautyUK Cosmetics website here: www.beautyukcosmetics.com

Indie Polish

Femme Fatale Cosmetics

An Aussie brand producing polishes that are jam-packed with glitter.  They do ship worldwide, and they also stock a whole range of other indie brands.

Bottle of Infinite Stars

Lime Thief

Noble Garden

Sea Pony

Nelly Polish

A UK indie brand, and the first ever dried nail polish!  That means these can safely and legally be shipped anywhere in the world.

Beeny

Bodmin

Viva La Nails

Viva La Nails is a European nail art mega store.  It was set up by a nail technician, so you can buy happy in the knowledge that they select only high quality products.

Click on a link below to see the review of that product.

Nail Art Goodies

Flower Water Decals
Glitter

Polish

Truth or Dare
Creme Brulee
UV Polish

Visit the Viva La Nails website here: www.vivalanails.co.uk

KKCenterHk

KKCenterHk is a Hong Kong-based store that supplies a huge range of nail art products at very good prices!  If you fancy treating yourself to something, don't forget to use the code polishedart for 10% off!

Click on a link below to see the review of that product.

Nail Art Goodies

Bluesea Nail Decoration
Rainbow Foil
Star Studs

Polish

Ebalay Glitter Polish

Water Decals & Stickers

Fish Decal

Visit the KKCenterHk website here: www.kkcenterhk.com

Born Pretty Store

Born Pretty Store supply a huge range of nail art products - literally, if you can imagine it, they probably sell it - as well as an ever-increasing range of polishes. If you fancy making a purchase, don't forget to use the code LKL91 for 10% off!

Click on a link below to see the review of that product.

Nail Art Goodies

Chains
Dried Flowers

Gold & Silver Foil

Heart & Bow Pearl Decorations

Neon Studs
Shell Studs

Silver Nail Art Pen

Polish

Ylin Mood Polish

Yoghurt Glitter Polish

Stamping

Plate QA18

Plate QA42

Silicon Stamper

Water Decals & Stickers

Animal Print

Chinese Lady

Glitter Star Stickers

Gold Stickers
Lace Decals

Leopards

Nautical

Visit the Born Pretty Store website here: www.bornprettystore.com

Something Fishy...

Hellooooooo!

It's almost Friday - woohoo!  Bottle of wine is in the fridge ready...  I'm currently watching The Wonder of Dogs, and awww they're so flipping cute!  Dogs are literally the best thing ever.  I'd happily replace all my family with dogs :D (I hope they're not reading this...).

Anyhoo, today I have some water decals from KKCenterHk to show you.  Well, a water decal.

It comes as one whole sheet!  You just need to cut out the bit you want, and then the usual soak in water for about 20 seconds, slide off and place on your nail.

I really like the design on these :)  I used them over some white polish to make the colours pop.  I just cut out rough rectangles and then removed all the excess with acetone (just like clean up when you've gotten a little messy with the polish), so you don't need to worry about cutting them out the right size and shape and all that.

A few little things that I had issue with.  I think I have fairly small nails, and they're quite short here, but I needed to use more than half the sheet for one hand.  This might not be a problem if you cut them out a little more closely to the width of your nail I suppose, or you could always use it for a few accent nails!  My other concern was that the design on the sheet is different at the top and bottom, so even if you could cover all 10 nails you couldn't get both hands to match.

That being said, super quick and easy to apply, and a really bold pattern :)  If you're wondering what's going on on my little finger nail btw, I applied my topcoat before the decal had dried, so be careful!

You can see these decals here.  A sheet costs $2.82 (about £1.74) and you can get 10% off with the code polishedart. Happy shopping!