More Stranger Stamping

Hello everyone.

Today is probably the hottest day of my life.  It's literally insane.  If I don't literally melt by the end of the day it will be a miracle.

My daughter currently refuses to let me put her to bed, so while my husband is doing that (after me trying and resulting in her screaming the house down - sorry neighbours!) I thought I'd catch up on some blog posts.  You know, because the cleaning can wait.

So this is the final look I have that I did over my base of OPI On Stranger Tides with the Sensationail Polish to Gel Transformer top coat.  As the floor outside Swansea train station says, ambition is critical.  Sometimes, however, you need to reign in that ambition and be realistic about your capabilities.  So this time I only attempted stamping on one nail instead of them all.

The gold accents are my old faithful Barry M Gold Foil.  Yet again my Seche Vite smudged my stamping so we're not on talking terms at the moment, although it's probably my fault for neglecting it for like two years and then using it without adding any thinner.  Oh well.

Anyhoo, this is the last manicure I did over my Sensationail base because I received some items to review for Born Pretty Store and I was itching to try the thermal polish.  This was great though, so easy to remove the nail art with an acetone-free remover so you can switch it up a bit, meaning you get all the benefits of gel without being stuck with the same boring manicure for two weeks.  Yay!

Blue Feather

Hello once again :)  It is so nearly Friday and  I cannot wait for this week to be over!  I STILL have a cold and I'm feeling very fed up, but sadly not ill enough to not go to work :p  I'm meeting up with some friends this weekend though, which I'm very excited about.  We haven't all gotten together since Christmas :)  We're going for a spot of lunch, followed by wine tasting and I imagine it'll all go downhill from there (we once managed to drink a pub dry of prosecco, but I like to think that's because they were poorly stocked...).

Anyway, nails.  I bought some feathers absolutely ages ago after seeing a great feather nail art tutorial on the Nailasaurus (which you can see here), but they've since sat unused and unloved like so many other nail art supplies...  So I decided it was finally time to use them!  

When I bought these, for some reason they only had brightly coloured feathers in Hobbycraft.  Nothing remotely natural looking.  So, I present to you my bright blue feather manicure:

Remember that glitter from my last post that I said ended up everywhere?  Yep, that's it there on my middle finger.  Oops.

The polish that has been unceremoniously dusted with leftover glitter is China Glaze Manhunt - definitely one of my favourite blues.  It's just so darn glassy.  On my thumb I added a coat of Barry M Blue Glitter over the top, and then added a little freehand feather just to try and tie the look together a bit.

On my little and ring fingers I used Nails Inc New York Noir - I know it's irrelevant because I top coat everything, but this polish is so amazingly glossy.  For the feather accent I pretty much did what's in the Nailasaurus' tutorial except not as well.  I decided I didn't want all the thin, sparse bit at the end of the feather on my nail so I just stuck like a middlish part of the feather on my nail and for some reason thought I'd be able to trim around my cuticle with scissors afterwards?  I blame my cold...it's affecting my brain.  Anyway, as you can see, that didn't work,so don't do that.  I did manage to trim it down a bit shorter but I stopped before I started shredding my cuticles, so it isn't as clean a line as I'd like.  You live and learn... Also, I added another coat of Seche Vite after filing off the excess feather, just to ensure my ends were wrapped and it was all sealed in.

What do you think?  Have you tried using feathers in your nail art before?  I'd love to see if you have :)

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An InLinkz Link-up

Halloween Challenge #4: Inspired by a Film or TV

It's finally here!  It's still Halloween week so it isn't really that late (we'll just ignore the fact it's November).  the next challenge I shall be more prepared, honestly!

So the prompt for the final day of the challenge is Halloween themed TV or movie inspired.

I'll be honest...mine aren't inspired by a TV or film (is that cheating?), so take your pick - Sabrina, The Worst Witch...

Here's what I did anyway:

Let's just take a moment to appreciate the fact that my camera has managed to accurately capture the colour of a purple polish :o

Moment over.  Anyhoo, hopefully you can tell I was going for witchy nails!  I used China Glaze Put A Bow On It for my base, and then all details were added using my Barry M Nail Art Pen in Black and White, with a touch of Barry M Gold Foil on my thumb.  Apologies for the very poor tip-wrapping on my thumb!

What are your thoughts?  I did fully intend on actually using tape on my ring finger, but laziness got the better of me.  Plus I flipping hate tape.  I also intended to colour the hat in a dark grey so that the creases would be black, but I decided maybe it'd look odd that nail being more grey when the others were black?

As always, don't forget to check out the final challenge manicures from all the other lovely bloggers participating!

An InLinkz Link-up

I hope you all had a great Halloween!

Halloween Challenge #1: Classic Orange and Black

Hello!!!

So I decided a little while ago that I was going to join in with the Halloween Nail Art Challenge in the Challenge Your Nail Art group on Facebook.  Here are the prompts (and a very cute graphic!):

I saw this a little while in advance, giving me plenty of time to prepare.  And it's only 4 prompts, so there is some small chance that I may actually finish it.  So how many manicures did I prepare in advance?

None.

I am a fool.

I am DETERMINED to actually do this though, so I have just been furiously painting my nails, and here's my first challenge manicure!

Yes, I did indeed attempt a water marble.  Yes, I have lost my mind.  I think it's not my worst attempt though...?

I used Barry M Black and Max Factor Bright Orange.  Then I added W7 Orange Dazzle on my little finger nail, and painted the stem of my pumpkin with Barry M Spring Green.  I'm pretty happy with this actually :)  Although, I confess, it's only on the one hand...  Must remember to take it off before work tomorrow!

Have you done any Halloween nail art yet?  I'd love to see - leave your links in the comments or post a picture on my Facebook page!

And don't forget to take a look at all the other orange and black manicures!

An InLinkz Link-up

Honeymoon Nails: Dragonflies

Aloha!

As I mentioned a few months back, we went to Hawaii on our honeymoon.  It was literally the most amazing thing ever.  We stayed at the Fairmont Orchid on the Big Island, and oh my word, it was paradise.  I was all for just staying there (I think we'd have got away with it for a few months at least?) but my husband said we had to leave :(

So, these are not the nails I wore on my honeymoon.  My honeymoon nails were just my wedding nails, which after about two days of playing in the sea were frankly disgraceful.  So they came off, and I went naked for the rest of the honeymoon.  Oo-er.

Rather, these are nails inspired by our honeymoon :)  I have a few of these to show you, but I'm starting with dragonflies!

The resort had loads of these lovely koi ponds all around.  I thought Bridal Falls was the most appropriate to share!

While we were standing looking at the fish one day, we saw these lovely purple dragonflies flying over the pond.  So pretty! More creatures should be purple, definitely.  So I decided a purple dragonfly manicure was in order.

I used a base of Barry M Elderberry.  I drew my dragonflies using my trusty Barry M Nail Art Pen in Black (seriously, when are they going to make more colours...?) and filled them in using Barry M Vivid Purple and Star Gazer 232.  I then added a little Above the Curve Diva P onto the tips and wings for a bit of sparkle.

This was actually the first time I'd been outside of Europe.  I'm not really much of a holidayer, although I do enjoy city breaks and sightseeing.   I've now totally got the bug though, although I basically just want to keep going back to Hawaii lol. What's the best holiday you've ever been on?

I'm Married!

Okay so I've actually been married for two months, BUT I am now finally getting round to blogging!  I have been working away doing lots of manicures today to show you over the next few weeks, but I thought today I'd show you what nails I had for my wedding :)

I'm just not a french manicure kind of person (plus I'm absolutely flipping terrible at doing them).  I wanted something a little different, but also didn't want to go wild and do something that I'd look back on in a few years and say "what on earth was I thinking...?".  So, I decided to keep it simple and go for a plain colour.  Believe it or not, it genuinely took my like a year to decide on these nails, and I now own about 7 different nail polishes in this shade, but in the end it had to be the polish that inspired the whole colour scheme (don't tell my husband) - Barry M Peach Melba.

For my bridesmaids, I went with a glitter gradient of Barry M Gold Glitter over OPI My Vampire is Buff, to match their gold and pearl accessories.

What are your thoughts?  Would you go more traditional or more adventurous?

(Shout out to Amber Skye Photography for our wonderful photos :) )

Colour Me Crazy: Red

Hello lovelies!

I hope you've all had a lovely weekend :)  I had to pop in to town yesterday for a few bits.  I somehow lost my shopping list en route though so I ended up just buying clothes.  Totally essential of course...  Today I had a MUCH needed lie in and general lazy day.  I'm so exhausted after going to Liverpool last weekend for my hen and home the weekend before for a wedding, I was desperate for a lie in!  Thank goodness I had a weekend off before hen night number two :p

So, I've been a member of British Nail Bloggers for aaaaages (you may have noticed the tab here).  This week they started the Colour Me Crazy! Challenge.  It's a once a week challenge, which I should hopefully be able to keep up with (I'm sure we all remember the 30 Day Challenge fiasco...).

So here is my manicure for the first challenge prompt - Red.

I finished putting all my polishes on swatch stick this week (well, okay...I underestimated my collection so I ran out of sticks) so an ombre seemed like the thing to do now that I have all my polishes in some sort of organised fashion where I can easily compare them :D  Rather unhelpfully, the last three polishes have photographed as almost the same colour though...

From dark to light, I used Max Factor Ruby Fruit, Ciate Dangerous Affair, OPI Chick Flick Cherry, Liz Earle Knockout and Ciate Mistress.  The random pattern - not sure what they're supposed to be but it's one of my go to patterns - was drawn on using my Barry M Nail Art Pen in Black.

Please take a little look at all the other lovely red manicures this week:

An InLinkz Link-up

Barry M Countess (+dupe?)

Hello hello hello!

So yet again I've been rubbish at posting - it's this wedding I tell you!  Come September I'll actually have time to paint my nails again.  The other half is away this weekend on his stag, and I've actually run out of wedding-related things to do (for the time being...) so I thought I should take the opportunity to write a few blog posts!

I'm still working through the back log of photos, so today I have a swatch of Countess, from the Barry M Royal textured glitter collection.  This is yet another polish that I bought really soon after it became available thinking I could get some swatches up while there still weren't many about...and then didn't post them for several months.

I decided just to pick up the one polish from this collection, since I have a well-established dislike of textured polish.  I thought at least one was worth a go though, since I hadn't tried any sparkly textures before.  For some reason I chose Countess - it is a mystery to me why I keep buying colours like this when I hate them on me, but there we go.

Here it is in all it's lumpy glory!

Yum...  So yeah, I hate it just as much as I hated all textures I tried before this.  It is super sparkly though!

Ooooooooooh!

So anyway, I was looking at this abomination on my nails and thinking it looked quite similar in colour to Cirque Planet Caravan.  Except that the Cirque isn't a texture of course.  So I did a quick comparison, adding some Seche Vite to the Barry M to smooth it out.  Cirque on index and ring, Barry M on the others!

So...I was kind of right?  Clearly not dupes but the colours are very similar - that sort of black base with purple shimmery particles through it.  The particles in Countess are clearly bigger than in Planet Caravan though.

I actually prefer the Barry M, it's more sparkly and I do love me some sparkle!  For me, the Cirque is just too dark and vampy.  In terms of formula though, you obviously need to topcoat the Barry M if you want it to look like this, and although I haven't done a wear-test with this particular polish, I generally find Barry M polishes chip after a day or two.  This is the only Cirque I own, and the application is lovely.  You may remember I used this for a comparison of two different top coats - turns out this polish just does not chip!  And it smells of lavender, always a bonus!

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend, whatever you're doing :)

In Keeping With The Late Theme...

Hello lovelies :)

So 11th November was a little while ago, but today I have some poppy nails to show you.  These are water decals that I was sent from KKCenterHk.

I foolishly forgot to take a picture of the decals before I used them, so here's a picture from the website:

It's one of these full sheet ones that you just cut out the bit you want.  Shall I start with the negatives and end on a high...?  The sheet isn't big enough for all 10 nails.  I think you'd be lucky to get 7 nails maybe.  And I think I have fairly average width nails, not particularly wide.  Also they're very long - obviously that's a bonus if you have very long nails!  But it does mean if your nails are short or mid-length you're not going to fit the full design on.  That being said, I think the length of the design I managed to fit on my nails looked good :)

So here's the manicure I did!

 I used the decals over Barry M Matt White.  The decals were great to use, as always from KKCenterHK.  I used Barry M Red and Red Glitter for my accent nails, with a few splodges of glitter on the poppies as well.

You can see these decals here.  They cost $2.54 (about £1.55), and don't forget you can use the code polishedart for 10% off all orders.

I have something quite exciting coming up this week...  You may have seen the Crumpet's British Blogging Christmas, and I shall be making an appearance!  Keep your eyes peeled :)

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!  

Prairie Charms Project Blogger

Evening ladies, are you all enjoying the start of your weekend?

I was recently contacted by Prairie Charms on Twitter asking if I wanted to take part in Project Blogger.  Prairie Charms make really cute, unique pieces of jewellery, including headbands and the like.  All very cute so do check them out.  And they'll also make custom products if you've got something in particular in mind that you'd like!

Also, 10% of all their profits go to Great Ormond Street Hospital, so you can do a good deed while you shop :p

Anyhoo, what does Project Blogger involve?  Well, they offered all participating blogs a 50% discount code to purchase some products to include in blog posts.  This post then serves as your entry into their competition to win the opportunity to design a custom product to be sold on their website!  As well as that, you get a discount code to share with all your readers.  Happy days!  So here's my attempt at saving all you ladies some money!

I chose to buy a couple of bracelets, and today I'm showing you this Sadia Bracelet.  I don't wear a lot of jewelry (apart from my engagement ring of course!), but when I do I tend to go for bracelets :)

The bracelet is made up of these lovely marble effect beads, which I attempted to recreate on my nails!  I used the DIY spotted technique.  Well, I attempted to use this technique.  Instead of doing to nice spotty thing, it just sort of split up and clumped together.  I'm pretty pleased with how my middle finger turned out anyway, but my index finger's a bit of a disaster...  Any tips?

For the marbles nails I used Barry M Matt White and Grey, with a smidgen of Barry M Black in there as well.

On my other nails I used Barry M Black, and painted a little feather to match the bracelet using Barry M Gold Foil.  It seems I created another unintentional Barry M fest...

I think the bracelet is really cute, and the quality seems great :)  I'm now just pondering whether or not I can start wearing jewelry to work...

I also ordered another bracelet, but I'm currently testing out the Vinylux top coat, so if my nails ever chip I shall remove my current manicure and do one for the other bracelet!  And don't forget to pop by Prairie Charms to see if there are any products that take your fancy :)

Black & White Challenge #6: Recreate a design

It's the final post for the Black & White Nail Art Challenge!  A big thank you to Yohana from Beauty-Shoes-Nails-Fun for hosting this challenge - do be sure to pop over and check her blog out :)

for the last day of the challenge, we had to recreate someone else's manicure.  AND we got to add a colour - woohoo!  I chose to recreate Nicole from Glitter Me This' faux fur manicure, adding a hot pink twist.  Here's what I ended up with!

I used Barry M Matt White for my base and then a black 2-way nail art pen for the zebra stripes.  If you want to have a go at zebra print but don't know where to start, don't forget I have a tutorial!

Then I added the pink stripe and highlights on some of the stripes with a striper brush (that sentence had far too many stripes...) and Orly Miss Conduct.

So, I'm done!  And only two days late, that's probably some sort of record for me...

Next week, I'll be starting a 'Then and Now' series of posts.  I'd like you, my lovely readers, to choose which of my 'then' manicures I should recreate, so please pop over and vote here (just 'like' a picture to cast a vote!).  Thank you, lovelies!

Black & White Challenge #5: Faux Fur

The fifth challenge prompt in the Black & White Nail Art Challenge is Faux Fur!  How perfect!  Here's something I'm never going to struggle with inspiration.  I LOVE animal print nails, and possibly I'm deluding myself, but I actually think they mostly look quite classy.

Today I went with good old reliable leopard print.  I did try to push the boat out a little with my base though, and I attempted the dreaded gradient!

You may notice I've had a slight length reduction since this morning... I quite like nubbins but it takes a bit of getting used to - they make my fingers look so big at first lol.

Anyhoo, I used (do I even need to say it?) Barry M Matt White and Black, with the Barry M Nail Art Pen in Black.  I'm really pleased with how my gradient turned out for once!  It could've done with being a bit further up my nail I think, but heck, it's the best attempt I've had yet!

Pop back tomorrow to see whose manicure I choose to recreate for the last day of the challenge!

Black & White Challenge #4: Glam or Cute

TGIS!  (We all know Saturday's better than Friday).  What are you all doing with your weekend?  I was going to wander in to town today and pick up a few things for my fiance's birthday, but I'm feeling nice and chilled out in the flat, so I'm going to be lazy and put it off until tomorrow instead!  So today I'm just going to paint my nails, read a bit...maybe clean, if I get really desperate.

Anyhoo, on with the nails!  Day 4 of the Black and White Nail Art Challenge was glam or cute.  My initial idea for this was to have black nails, with blinged up white accent nails.  I was also planning on sticking a bow on somewhere, but when I went to do that last night it turned out my bows were pink not white...whoops!

Anyhoo, it ended up being totally different to what I started off intending.  And I don't really like it, but there we go!  I'm already days behind, no time for redoing manicures lol.

I used Barry M Matt White on all my nails, then I added Barry M Hologram to my thumb and ring finger, and added a Born Pretty Store pearl heart (because these were white!).  On my other nails, I added a coat of Barry M Black Multi Glitter, and removed with cling film.

Two more to go!  Hopefully I should have all the manicures posted this weekend!  Then maybe I should give up on challenges for a bit...

Black & White Challenge #3: Freehand

Today is actually the last day of the challenge...er...but there we go!  I went home to my parents last weekend and I BOUGHT MY WEDDING DRESS so I've been a little distracted!

Anyhoo, here's my freehand manicure :)

I used W7 Salt n Pepper for my base, and added the flowers using my Barry M Nail Art Pen in Black.  It hadn't even occured to me that I didn't literally have to only use my plain black and white cremes until I saw one of the other girls use a glitter polish like this!  Silly Sam...

Here's a reminder of what else is coming up in this challenge:

And just a quick aside, I joined Twitter last week, so if you'd like to follow me my handle is @PolishedArtBlog

Black & White Challenge #2: Stamping

I WILL get this posted today!  Don't know why I'm feeling so lazy recently!  I also need to pack for a weekend at home, but I've been sitting here watching TV all night instead...

Anyhoo, yes, today the challenge prompt is stamping!  Ok...I can do that...maybe only on one hand, but all the same...

Here's what I came up with:

Of course, once again I used Barry M Matt White and Black, with a Barry M nail art pen on the black nails, and Konad M73 on the white nails.

Sorry, just a short post today!  I need to go and pack all my nail polishes for the weekend!

Don't forget to have a look at all the other black and white manicures!

Black and White Challenge #1: Get In Shape

Nail Art Challengez is yet another Facebook group that I've been a member of for longer than I can remember, but have yet to join in a challenge in.  But, today is the day!  They're currently running a black and white nail art challenge, hosted by Yohana at Beauty-Shoes-Nails-Fun.

Here's the challenge schedule:

After much discussion in the group, it has been clarified that YES black and white means ONLY black and white (but if I mix black and white together I can use the grey right...?  Or I can just use a grey polish and lie to you all :p ).

Anyhoo, the first challenge is geometric.  I painted a few nails with Barry M Matt White, and a few with Barry M Black, and then went to town with my Barry M nail art pens.

All in all, a bit of a Barry M fest.  You'll be seeing a lot more of these over the course of this challenge as well...

She Who Does Nail Art: Stickmen

I've been a member of this group on Facebook since its inception, but somehow I haven't got around to joining in with a challenge until now!  There've been some awesome themes that I'v missed as well, silly me!

So the idea of this group (which you can find here if you're interested) is that each week there's a different theme, and you can post as many manicures (or as few in my case..) as you like for that theme.  It's a bit more laid back than other challenges, there's no specific day you need to post or anything, so it's worth checking out if you're looking for a relaxed challenge.

The theme for this week was stickmen.  Now...this is rather embarassing.  I actually did this manicure Tuesday night.  I was using my Sharpies, so I painted my base, seche vite'd and left plenty of time to dry before drawing on my design and all that faff.  I only did it on one hand, so obviously I removed it for work the next day!  So I'm in work on Wednesday morning, and as I was washing my hands I was thinking about the manicure, and the thought hit me "er...I don't remember taking any photos of it...".

So yeah, I'm an idiot.  This is version 2 of the manicure, that I repeated on Wednesday night!

I used Barry M Matt White for my base, and then just doodled with Sharpies.  The skinny ends of my red and green have dried up though, which is annoying!  I shall have to invest in some more I think.

What do you think?  Have you had a go at notebook nails?  They're actually something that's been on my to do list for ages, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to get them done!

Royal Baby!

So it's just been announced that Kate and William have had their baby today, and the country has a new little prince :)

Think that means it's time for some nail art!

I prepared these a week ago, hence the blue and pink!  I've been waiting very patiently for her to hurry up and give birth so I could post this.

I used Barry M Lemon Ice Cream, OPI Can't Find My Czechbook, Nails Inc Grosvenor Street, MUA All Nude and on my little finger I used my pink Barry M nail art pen.

I did intend to give the duck a crown, but evidently I forgot!  Any guesses what they're going to name the baby?

Bunting!

You know what...I sorted these pictures out when I got home from work, and I've only just realised I didn't actually post them.  I think the heat's finally gotten to me.  That being said, we were in a lovely air-conditioned room today - it was heaven!  The room was built for doctors, rather than lowly physicists like us, so it was rather swish.  And there was free lunch, which never fails to make me happy :)

Anyhoo, two weeks ago I was walking home from the train station on a Saturday morning, so obviously I had to pop into Superdrug and buy four nail polishes.  One of those was my first Barry M Gelly, in Guava.  I popped it on the other day, since it seemed suitably bright for this fabulous weather we've been having!  It's like seriously super bright.  And for some reason, I just kept thinking it needed a bit of bunting...

When swatches of these were first posted, the Crumpet commented on how hard it was to capture the colour of this polish.  I couldn't help but think "yeah right, it's not like it's purple!".  But seriously, I can't believe how much this is not the colour of the polish.  It is bizarre.  I was taking pictures and just looking at the images on my camera baffled!  It sort of leans a little more teal, but isn't teal at all...  Just buy it and find out!

So then I added the bunting using the Barry M Nail Art Pen in White, filling it in with Barry M Peach Melba and Mint Green, Nails Inc Grosvenor Street, and Rimmel Sunshine.

I want more bunting!  I'm trying to think what other designs I could combine it with to create summer fete skittles :)