New Technique: Watercolour

Hellooooo!

Last week you voted for me to try out the watercolour technique!  I have to say, I wasn't looking forward to this.  I did, rather sensibly, actually google a tutorial for once though.  I happened across a cheat's version, and I was oh so tempted...  But no, I stuck with doing it properly.  I glanced at a few tutorials to get the general idea, but I don't remember which ones, sorry!

So, the grand unveiling...

I really liked it...although I don't know if I like it in the photo.  I used a base of Barry M Matt White to begin with.  Then, using one colour at a time, I added one or two dots to each nail, then used a nail art brush dipped in acetone to sort of smudge the polish around a bit.  My top tip: use less polish than you think you need; the first colour I did was the purple, and my blobs were too big so it didn't go as faint as I'd like.  Oh, and topcoat over your base colour!  Otherwise you'll end up taking off some of your base when you start with the acetone, and no one wants  to see naked nail!

The other polishes I used are Jessica Ruffled Bottoms, Nails Inc Grosvenor Street, and Max Factor Bright Orange and Cactus Green.

Thank you to everyone who voted, it's lovely getting you all involved!  Don't forget to pop over to my Facebook page to vote for next week's new technique.  Acrylic paint is winning at the moment, so if you'd rather see me attempt needle drag or DIY spotted, get voting!  And if you have any other suggestions for new techniques you'd like to see me try, just leave a comment :)

New Technique: Acid Wash

Before I did my little June disappearing act, I had a vote for which new technique I should try out, and acid wash won.

I can't believe I'm even showing you this.

I think I went in a little too cocky, and definitely too ambitious.  I didn't bother looking up a tutorial or anything, looked straight forward enough.  And I had this wonderful idea of using all the colours of the rainbow!  How amazing right??

Well, not so much.  Here we go... (please don't judge my nail art abilities by this photo lol)

Utterly disastrous...

I used, from bottom to top, Jessica Ruffled Bottoms, China Glaze Man Hunt, Barry M Spring Green, Nails Inc Notting Hill Carnival, Max Factor Bright Orange and OPI Flick Chick Cherry.

Six different polishes was definitely too much.  There was so much polish to get through to show a bit of the purple, that all the other colours just ended up blending together into some sort of brownish mess.  And I had like full on craters in my manicure lol.  You can also see in some bits where I went right through all the layers and revealed some bare nail - lovely!  I've since learnt that I should've top coated between colours.

Oh well, you live and learn!  I'll definitely give it a go again, maybe with white on top and just two colours underneath, so it looks like a gobstopper :D  Any tips for success for next time?

Don't forget to pop over to my Facebook page to vote for which technique I should try next!  And more suggestions are always welcome :)

New Technique: Jelly Sandwich

Ah, it's the weekend! We were promised horrible weather, but it looks pretty nice outside to me! I'm going to take a stroll in to town later (this will undoubtedly result in some nail polish being purchased...).

So last week you voted for me to give a jelly sandwich a go. I've dodged this technique for quite some time, the main issue being that I don't own any jellies...

But anyway, that's not going to stop me! I decided to use China Glaze Manhunt - when I first used that I thought it had jelly-like qualities, it's quite glassy and squishy-looking.

After two coats of Manhunt, I used two coats of Barry M Hologram, which is made up of medium holographic silver hexes.  I was going to add one more coat of Manhunt to finish off, but then panic struck.  Would it be too opaque?  Or maybe too streaky?

So I cheated. Instead I finished off with a coat of 2true Glitterati Shade 3, which is essentially a pre-made jelly sandwich.  You can still see the later of Barry M glitter through it though, so I think overall it ended up being very pretty.

I can't believe how difficult this was to photograph though!  It was super squishy-looking and shiny, but the photo has just made it look totally flat!  Any tips for how to capture this sort of look well on camera?

Are you a fan of jelly sandwiches?  Or would you go for quick cheat like me...?

Pop on over to my Facebook page to vote for which technique I should give a go next week :)

New Technique: Velvet Nails

This week you voted for me to have a go at velvet nails!

My boyfriend's sister bought me a selection of flocking powders for Christmas (and some adorable owl water decals that I neeeeed to use).

I used one coat of China Glaze Man Hunt and covered it in flocking powder while it was still wet.

For my little finger, I attempted to stick my nail in the tub, which ended up...er...a bit of a mess.  Had to take that off and redo it.  So for the other nails I picked a bit of powder up and put it on each nail.  I lightly pressed it down, and then after leaving it to dry for a few minutes, I used a fan brush to brush of the excess powder (on to a sheet of paper so I could put it back in the pot of course!).

I'd recommend using two coats of polish underneath.  Or rather, however many coats you need for it to be opaque, as I think these look a little patchy?

I'm a little bit in love with them though...  Will definitely be doing this again!  And I have 11 other colours I have to try :)

Have you tried velvet nails?  Or is fluffy not your thing?

New Technique: Sugar Spun Manicure

Ok, so this wasn't a total disaster!  Yay :)  I really did think it was going to be...especially when 10 minutes in my polish just wasn't doing the strandy thing.

But anyway, here's the finished manicure!  Quite a cute manicure for Valentine's Day maybe?

I used Barry M Matt White, did my strandy business with OPI Flick Chick Cherry, and then added the heart with Barry M Bright Pink.

I did my ring finger first (I figured if it was horribly difficult I could just leave it at a ring finger accent), and you can see I hadn't quite waited long enough.  When I started it was just about making strands long enough to cover half the width of my nail, if I was super quick.  When I moved on to the next nail I was getting really long, fine strands.  Like thinner than hair.  This is what you want!  I just whizzed it back and fore across my nails :)  It honestly took about 20 minutes to get to that consistency though.  I don't know if that would've been affected by the fact that it's an old polish and full of all those nasty chemicals they don't use any more.

My thumb does not feature in this photo because...er...it didn't quite work out.  This is what happens if you leave the polish too long.

It looks like I had a horrible accident whilst chopping the vegetables for tea.

Anyhoo, you can now head over to my Facebook page to vote for which new technique you'd like me to have a go at next week!

If you have any suggestions for techniques, please leave me a comment and I'll add it to my list :)

Have you had a go at the sugar spun technique?  Or are you like me and shy away from trying new (and messy) things?

New Techniques and Best of British!

There is s much snow.  So.  Much.  Snow.  This is terrible.  And more just keeps falling out of the sky.  I'm hoping for a miraculous temperature rise before my walk to work tomorrow morning..could happen right?

Anyhoo, first things first.  As of next week, I'll be attempting one new technique each week.  I've made a big list of techniques I've yet to try (although suggestions of things to add are still welcome!) and each week I'll randomly (literally randomly - I am sad enough to use a random number generator for this) select three from the list for you to choose between.  This week the three options are:

sugar spun manicure

velvet nails

jelly sandwich

So pop over to my Facebook page now to vote for which one you'd like to see me attempt first!

If you don't use Facebook, just leave a comment here with your vote, and I'll add it to the totals from the Facebook polls :)

And now to find out what all the lovely British Bloggers have been up to this week!

This week Lyndsay at Pie's Eyes has created a beautiful Feather Manicure using her stamping plates.

The 31 day challenge still going strong over at Emma's Little Corner with this watercolour mani and this stamping over a gradient.

Wendy at Wendy's Delights found a gem of a very old untried Saffron polish, which is super sparklicious!!

Sam at Polished Art was inspired by all the Christmas chocolate she's still munching away on to create this Ferrero Rocher manicure!

This week The Teenage Shopaholic has been... trying out furry nails! She swatched and reviewed MUA Fur Effects and was pleasantly surprised!

Susan at Lacquerland has been trying the 3 day oil & naked nail challenge here and was very happy with the results!

JustTalkNails has swatches of A Englands Dragon - one of the best scattered holo greens!

This week Nada tried her hands at some flocking; she couldn't resist her furry nails! Check it out!

Mimi tries her hand at tribal eye nails and LOVES them!

Simple Star Stamping this week for the ABC Challenge on Enigmatic Rambles.

Tara at TarasTalons took her basic flock mani up a notch! Check it out here :D  Why wait until Easter!

Claire at nuthin' but a nail thing has been doing some nail art with incorporating her latest Lush Lacquer haul. This one's a blue fishtail manicure with Dreamsicle.... sparkles!

Ruth hasn't had the chance to post since New Year's, but why not look at her New Year nails until she has the time to do some more fun posts!

Steph at Never Mind Suzi is getting to grips with stamping after all - practice makes perfect.

Vic is finally back (and already has posts scheduled to the end of February, just in case she runs out). One of her faves from this week is Song of the Black Swan.

PrettyKittyClaws is trying out the new Enchanted Polish Care Bear collection with Daydream Surprise.  So sparkly and pretty!

Pish Posh and Polish's Kerrie has been working on her 31 day challenge this week, but a simple swatch of ORLY's It's Not Rocket Science is her favourite post of the week and may be her top green polish of all time!

Danielle created a purple skittle manicure using a-England and Zoya favourites over at Totally Nailed, and also swatched some new Zoya purchases this week!


Lou has been having lots of fun with Illamasqua polishes this week starting with the Raindrops reissue and then the lovely Glitterati.  This may be the beginning of a beautiful love affair.



What have you been wearing on your nails this week?