Candy Canes

Happy New Year!  I hope you all have had a lovely (if somewhat hungover...) start to the year :)

I'm not quite done with Christmas yet though.  Since I've been so busy, I haven't had a chance to post my last Christmas manicure.  And my boyfriend and I haven't exchanged our presents yet, so it's basically still Christmas.  Flawless logic.

So here it is, my final Christmas manicure until next Christmas!

I used Collection 2000 Ninja (borrowed off my sister because I forgot my Barry M Spring Green...I dread to think how stained my nails are going to be when I take this off) topped with a few coats of OPI Fresh Frog of Bel Air.  On my index and middle finger, I used Barry M Matt White and then drew on the candy canes with Sharpies.

I'd like to get a bit more organised with my blog this year, maybe introduce some weekly features and that sort of thing.  I have a few potential ideas, but I'd like to hear what sort of things you'd like to see my posting in the coming year.  Is there something I'm already doing that you'd like to see more of?  Something new you'd like to see me try?  It'd be great if you could post your thoughts in the comments :)

31 Day Challenge - Day 11: Polka Dots

Happy Wednesday!  My boyfriend's back from sea today (although I don't get to see him until Monday - argh!); it's nice knowing he's back on solid land and isn't getting stressed with work :)

So today is day 11 of the 31 day challenge.  I have a confession...today's manicure is one from the depths of the vault.  I fully intended to do a new one.  The thing is...since I've started work I tend to do 4 or 5 on the weekend ready for the posts for the week ahead.  So what happened was I was on manicure 2 this weekend, but then I really really liked it and didn't want to take it off.  So I never quite reached the polka dot manicure on my list...

But anyway, here you go!  It's still nails, and it's still polka dots, so it's all good!

It's from before I shaped my nails square and everything...weird.  The polishes I used were Collection 2000 French White and a Special FX polish without a name.

I promise my stripes manicure on Saturday will be brand new just for you!

Check out the other ladies participating:

Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner

Kat at Hooked On Polish

Diana at Nails By Diana

Aly at Wonderland Beauty

Meredith at Perfectly Polished

Nicole at The Color Republic

Kate at The Painted Pony Nails

Cee at Absolutely Cee

Nail Narcotics

Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed

Shelby at Shelby's Swatches

Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful 

Mixed Mama

Joanna at Sweet Polish of Mine

Patty Greenberg

Liz and Lisa at Lozlosa 

Mari at Nailista 

Greta at How Was Your Day?

Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 

Gini at Sassy Paints 

Chameleon Stampede 

Pam at Nail-E-Glance 

Me, Myself and Polish

First Water Marble

I have for you today a little nail fail to start the week.

I finally got round to trying out water marbling with, er, interesting results.  I shall let the photo do the talking.

I used a base of Barry M Matte White, then for the marbling I used 17 Nightshade, Barry M Grey and Collection 2000 Star Dust.

Guess which nail was my first attempt...  I'm quite pleased with my index finger though!  And I quite like my little finger, even if it is wobblier than was intended.  As for the mess on my hands, that's because I decided to ignore the countless blogs I've read that said to tape or vaseline your fingers to make clean up easier.  I am a fool.

Are you a fan of water marbling?  Have you had more success than me with this technique?

I'll have two posts for you tomorrow - the first of the My Favourite Things challenge hosted by Kelly at Ooh La La Polish! and my favourite Teal Tuesday manicure so far!

I was trying to work out how to add a suggestions box to this blog, but that was another fail.  I'd still love some suggestions for what nail art I should try though, so if you've got any ideas then post a comment on here or on my Facebook page :)  It'd be great to get a regular feature going of readers' suggestions.

French Tips

Just a simple manicure today.  I did these the other week for a wedding reception I attended - I didn't want anything too busy going on, but I wanted them to coordinate with my black and silver dress.

I used Collection 2000 French Pink and French White, and then nail art pens for the black, silver and glitter lines.

Only a short post today sorry, but I'm far too distracted by the Olympics still.  I hope you all saw how well we did yesterday :p  The last time we won five gold medals in one day was in 1908, and then we went and won six :D  Good times.

I'll have two posts for you on Tuesday, as I'm taking part in both Teal Tuesdays and Polish Days.  I'm looking forward to seeing what manicures everyone else comes up with!

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

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 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 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.

Floral Mani

Whilst painting my nails this morning, I managed to kick over a cup of coffee.  The nails got ruined in the clean up, so here's an old mani instead!

I've done flowers using a dotting tool loads of times, so I wanted to try a slightly different floral pattern.

I feel the need to say that the pattern on the sofa behind was not my choice...

For this design, I used Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream as a base.  The roses were done using Barry M Bright Pink and Max Factor Disco Pink, and the leaves were done using Barry M Mint Green and Spring Green.  If you hadn't guessed, I've got quite a few Barry M polishes in my collection...  The highlights were done using Collection 2000 French White, and it's all sealed with a coat of OPI RapiDry.

I think they ended up looking quite Cath Kidston-esque.  What do you think?