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!