On Stranger Clouds

Happy Tuesday!

Today I have for you my first attempt at a cloud manicure.  This also falls into the category of sensible work manicures (er...sort of).

I used a base of OPI Planks A Lot, then drew on the clouds using Barry M Gold Foil and OPI Stranger Tides (gotta love those Pirates of the Caribbean polishes).  I added a little sparkle using Saffron 01 and BeautyUK Gold Digger.

I have to say, from all the cloud manicures I've seen on other people's blogs, I thought it would be easier.  It was flipping difficult.  The brush on the OPI mini was perfect for this though, and I have a much easier time with that than the full size Barry M brush.

I was very pleased with the end result anyway :)  What do you think?  Have you tried a cloud manicure?

Pink Fridays #2

Happy Friday!  Woo!

October is breast cancer awareness month, and so I've decided to make my Friday's pink!  You can find out more about breast cancer and Pink Fridays at Breast Cancer Care.

This week for my pink manicure I decided to have a go at a pink sponged manicure, like the one I did inspired by my doggy for the My Favourite Things challenge (which you can see here).  But in pink, obviously.

I used a base of Barry M Matt White and then sponged with Max Factor Disco Pink, Barry M Bright Pink and a Special FX polish (they don't have names, poor things).

In keeping with sponged manicure tradition, here's a picture of Bailey playing with her bear and looking very pleased with herself :)

I'd love to see how you're making your Fridays pink!  Post your pictures on my Facebook page! You should actually be able to now as well, I didn't realise it was set so that people couldn't before, sorry!

Do you have any exciting plans for this weekend?  My boyfriend's parents are currently on the M25 somewhere en route to coming to visit us for the weekend. I haven't seen them since August, so it should be good! (The wine's in the fridge...).

31 Day Challenge - Day 18: Half Moon

Good morning lovely people :)  Sorry this post is late (again).  We moved into our new flat this week, and I've had my first piece of coursework for my masters, and various other excuses...  I actually did this manicure on Sunday, I just didn't get round to taking a photo until yesterday.

So anyhoo, day 18 of the 31 day challenge is to create a half moon manicure.  I gave it a good go, but as you'll be aware if you've followed my blog for any length of time, I am rubbish at anything resembling a tape manicure.  I did consider freehanding the half moons on, but I thought I should at least have a go at using stickers.

My colour choice was basically inspired by what polish I had that's a really good one coater.  And in my hungover state I decided orange and silver would be a perfect combination.  So here you have it, my retro-futuristic half moon manicure:

I used Max Factor Bright Orange, Stargazer 232 and then added some little dots on with OPI Roadhouse Blues.

I don't particularly like it to be honest, but I've had looaads of comments about them.  Funny how you can do a manicure you adore and no one notices, and then when you don't like one everyone's saying how much they like it!

Have a look at all the other (probably better executed) half moon manicures produced by the ladies yesterday:

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

Thanksgiving!

Today is Canadian thanksgiving.  My Dad lived in Canada for a few years back in the day, so he's taken to celebrating it in recent years.  As I said in yesterday's post, we had a big meal with loads of people round (I'm still not sure how we fit that many people around the table...).  I think we've all just about recovered now - today was the first morning for a few days that my boyfriend didn't throw up from drinking too much the night before; my parents are a terrible influence.

So anyhoo, here are the nails I did for Saturday night.

I had a bit of a Barry M fest here; I used Bright Red, Matt White and Red Glitter.  The glitter isn't quite what I wanted - I thought a chunky red glitter would've looked nice but I don't have one (clearly a sign that I need to buy more polishes).  I was pretty pleased with how my maple leaf turned out though :)  Certainly better than my sister's attempts at drawing one on the front door lol.

So anyhoo, happy thanksgiving to any Canadian readers (and any with a Dad who likes to think he's a little bit Canadian) - I hope you're all stuffing your face with turkey.  I certainly did.

31 Day Challenge - Day 17: Glitter

Happy Sunday lovely people!

We're all feeling a little delicate today...  Last night we had a meal for Canadian Thanksgiving, and much wine was consumed.  Much much wine in the case of my boyfriend.  Bless him, it's been a hard day...  However, despite my hands being occupied stuffing a constant stream of carby foods into my mouth today, I managed to do my nails.  The uni work wasn't quite so successful.

So here are my glitter nails for day 17 of the 31 day challenge (14 to go!).

This is four coats of Revlon Radiant (I think this is also called Mosaic?), with a few stickers stuck on.  A proper lazy day mani lol.  Radiant is made up of blue glitter, with some larger green and silver hexes.  Very pretty.  Next time I wear this I'll use a colour underneath; I just wanted to see if I could get it opaque.

Next up in the challenge is a half-moon manicure.  I haven't tried this technique before, but I've successfully nicked some stickers off my sister for it.

Since you can never have too much glitter, take a little looksy at all the other manicures today:

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