Belated Breast Awareness

You'll notice a theme here in the titles of my posts...late, late, late.  But shouldn't we be aware of breast cancer all the time?  Yes indeedy, so why the heck not have breast cancer awareness nails in November?

I wanted to keep it quite simple, so I just went for Butter London Rosie Lee (which has come out a bit of a funny colour in this picture - definitely more of a light pink IRL) with a ribbon drawn on with my Barry M Nail Art Pen in White.

This is the first Butter London I've tried.  I was in town one weekend and saw that there was a new make up shop in the shopping centre.  They had loads of Butter London and Bad Apple (and I got excited when I saw lots of China Glazes but they were all crackles...boo), so I definitely paid over the odds for this, but I was so darn excited I just had to buy something.  And it is super pretty, so it's all good.  I do love full coverage glitters...sigh.

I hope you've all had a lovely start to the week!  I'm heading into London to do a bit of MRI tomorrow, which means an early start.  Bad times...  At least I don't have to brave the tube though!

Some Very Late Halloween Nails (Ish)

Hello my lovelies :)

Sorry for doing a bit of a disappearing act there!  A few weeks ago I was meant to do my Then & Now nails and then I got a phone call with bad news about the honeymoon (hopefully all ok now!) and then I felt too sorry for myself to do anything other than eat chocolate.  Then since my other half got home it's been pretty hectic.  My friend recently got engaged, so last weekend we went back home so I could go dress shopping with her.  In the same day I also went bridesmaids dress shopping for my wedding and went to try my dress on again, then we had people round for dinner in the evening.  Pretty exhausted by Sunday!  So we're just having a nice, chilled weekend this week.  Did a spot of online Christmas shopping yesterday (figure I just won't look at my bank account...) and think we'll smash it up on Star Wars Lego today.

But, since I've actually got a bit of free time, I thought I should give my blog some much needed attention!

I was supposed to be participating in a Halloween challenge, but that just didn't happen unfortunately, but I did produce one set of nails for it, that I just never got round to posting.  They're supposed to be candy corn nails (whatever that may be) but...er...more about that later.

The inspiration for these nails actually came from the polish, which has a little bit of a story to it.  I'm a member of the UK Indie News group on Facebook, and a few months ago who should pop up on there but an old friend from school!  Jess is the creator of FatPuss Polish (which you can find on etsy here), so obviously I had to buy some!

Here is FatPuss Ginger Tom over my candy corn nails, with the colours the wrong way around because I didn't google a picture.  Whoops!

For my stripes I used Barry M Matt White, Viva La Nails Garden of Colour 30 and Max Factor Bright Orange.  Application of Ginger Tom was great - honestly as good as a big brand.  I used two coats, and was really happy with the coverage and spread of glitter (no dabbing required!).

And look how flipping cute the labels are!

And just because I can...here's a picture of us on the school bus together!

I hope you're all having a lovely weekend!

Then and Now #2: Mermaids

Hello lovelies :)

I hope you all had a good start to the week (ugh, Monday!).  There was not enough coffee in the world to make getting up this morning bearable lol.  I hate mornings...

Anyhoo, today I have for you my second Then & Now post!  This time I'm recreating this old manicure:

That was with my old camera...check out the quality lol.  This manicure was inspired by the polish itself - OPI Mermaid's Tears.  I spent flipping ages painting that little mermaid (and then wore it for like well over a week, obviously).  I believe it was doing this manicure that finally pushed me over the edge to buying some Sharpies!  You can see the original post here.

Not only have I acquired Sharpies since then, my mermaid has also lost some weight, and stopped being some a little hussy and is now wearing a shell bra.

I stuck with the OPI again, but this time added a gradient with Barry M Aqua Glitter, because mermaids need glitter obviously.

I used the DIY decal technique to make this little lady.  I painted top coat on to a sheet of plastic, then traced a picture of a mermaid with a Sharpie.  I then coloured her in fully with my white Barry M nail art pen so that I wouldn't need to use a million coats of all my colours, and then I went ahead and coloured her in!

I find this quite funny really.  I thought my first mermaid was really good, but looking at her now she looks so rubbish lol.  She doesn't even look like she's got top coat on, what was I thinking...?

Please pop over to the Facebook album HERE to like the manicure you'd like me to recreate next week!  It's currently a tie between quite a few, so it'd be good to have a clear winner :)  You can vote for as many as you like!

So what do you think - do you prefer the old or the new?

Flip Flop Challenge

This is a round up of the Flip Flop Challenge!  Just click on a picture below to see the full blogpost.

Mica Moma Franken Kit

Helloooo!

I can't believe it's only Wednesday!  Argh!  I'm so tired, I can't wait for the weekend and a lie in.

Anyhoo, today I'm showing you a pretty darn exciting product.  I recently came across Mica Moma.  They sell a range of products for making your own cosmetics and bath products, INCLUDING NAIL POLISH.  Yes indeedy ladies, suspension base and all, available in the UK!

In addition to selling everything you need to become an indie polish making maestro, they also sell this Indie/Franken Nail Polish Kit for those of us who just want a bit of a play.  When I let them know how brilliant I thought this idea was, they very kindly offered to send me some products to review.

Here's what I got:

This is just a little sample of the franken kit.  The actual kit contains a looooot more (details at the end of the post).  There's suspension base, mixing balls, scoops, a funnel, pigments and glitters. Phew!

So I began by looking at all the pretty things and thinking 'umm...I have no idea how much pigment or glitter I'm supposed to use...'.  Fortunately, there's a helpful video on micamoma.com that advises you to use 2 big scoops of pigment and 1 of glitter.

The bottles of suspension base were full to the brim, so I tipped a little out so I had room for all the pigments and glitters.  First up I went for the blue pigment.  I added a scoop of green glitter and one of those mini scoops of the copper glitter.

I'm not gonna lie, this was pretty darn exciting.  And equally as messy (I'd recommend laying down some newspaper and ensuring your other half is out of the house so you can scrub all the polish off the bathroom sink before he sees!).  The mixing balls are super big, so apparently you only need one.  So one is what I used, and it mixed seriously easily.  Like a few shakes and it was good to go.  Seriously impressed.  I'm thinking of buying a few of these to pop into some of my other polishes that settle (OPI Teenage Dream, I'm looking at you).

Anyhoo, I was very pleased with this, but felt it needed more glitter.

SO!  Next up I went for the purple pigment, and this time added two big scoops of the copper glitter.

This is my favourite :D  Packed full of glitter, and I think the colours are so pretty together.  Apologies for the lobster hands, but this is colour accurate!  Woohoo!  I've finally beaten the camera.

All that suspension base that I tipped away, I actually tipped into an old empty bottle (because I'm not crazy) so I could make a third polish!  This time I added equal amounts of blue and purple pigments, and a good helping of the magenta glitter.  Check this beauty out...

How gorgeous is that colour?  I just want to show everyone my masterpieces...  I went into town with the purple polish on on Sunday and I so wanted someone to comment on my nails so I could tell them I made it lol.  I'm such a child.

Right then, final thoughts.  This was GREAT fun.  I shall definitely be getting myself some more to play with.  Oh I should also mention that these have sat untouched since Saturday night and they haven't settled in the slightest.  Slight negative - the finish was a little bumpy, so I'd go for two coats of top coat.

And here are all the details!  You can see the kit here.  It costs £19.90 (plus £3.50 postage if you're in the UK) and that includes:

3 x 15ml bottles of suspension base

3 x 10ml empty bottles

2 measuring spoons

Funnel

10 steel balls

5 x glitter

5 x mica

You can even choose which pigments and glitters you want if you have something in particular in mind that you'd like to make :)  I think this would be great for Christmas presents as well.  Now I just need to work out which members of my family don't read my blog so that it can be a surprise!

What do you think, is this something you'd be interested in?  Let me know if you have any questions :)