Pick A Polish - An Unnamed Color Club!

Hello my loves. I hope you are all well. I have a day off work tomorrow, so I am looking forward to having a day to catch up on bloggy stuff. These challenge posts keep creeping up on me too quickly!

Today I have this week's Pick A Polish post to show you, a day late since I was posting for the Christmas challenge yesterday. This week was number 157 in my stash, an unnamed Color Club. I hate having unnamed polishes, but I got this in a set from TK Maxx and I find whenever I get a set of Color Club polishes from there they never have names on.

This a a light pink jelly polish, my swatch shows 3 coats. It was very sheer on the first coat but was quite build-able. There was still a fair bit of visible nail line, more so in real life than in the photo. The formula was good and self levelled nicely. This would definitely be an appropriate polish for a french manicure, so that is what I did a twist on for my nail art...

Over my base I freehanded some french tips using a white cream (another unnamed Color Club). I haven't done proper french tips since my nails were a lot shorter, I think I definitely prefer them on shorter nails.

I freehanded the swirls using a detail brush and Rimmel - Black Cab. My thumb was my favourite.

I added some accents and dots using OPI - This Gown Needs A Crown.

I definitely pushed my freehanding skills with this mani, I'm not 100% happy with the outcome but it is always good to try something different. 

What's you opinion on french manicures? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for looking.

My Birthday Cocktail Nails

Hello everyone. How is everyone? I have finally finished work, a late shift on a Friday is not my favourite thing.

Today I am going to show you the nails I wore for my birthday celebrations last weekend. I had a few friends over to my flat and attempted to make some cocktails. Naturally I needed to have my nails matching the occasion so I created some cocktail nails :).

I started with a black base using Rimmel - Black Cab.

I then freehanded the shapes of my cocktails using a white cream so the colours would show up against the black.

I used about a million colours for these nails so here goes... 

Thumb - an unnamed Color Club orange, NOPI - Hit The Lights, China Glaze - Hey Sailor and Barry M - Spring Green.

Index finger - Barry M - Blue Moon, Barielle - Surfs Up and Revlon - Violet.

Middle finger - Sally Hansen - Green Tea, Barry M - Key Lime and Barry M - Ltd Edition Pink.

Ring finger - Revlon - Violet, Barry M - Berry Ice Cream, Models Own - Peach Sherbet and Essie - Fear or Desire.

Pinky - Barry M - Ltd Edition Pink and Barielle - Surf's Up.

I outlined the glasses with OPI - This Gown Needs A Crown.

I was pretty happy with these, definitely fitting with the occasion. My thumb has to be my favourite. 

Which one is your favourite?

Thanks for looking.

Winter Textured Gradient.

Hello everyone. I hope we all have exciting weekends planned. I'm having a few friends round this evening to celebrate my birthday so I am spending the day sorting out things for that. 

Today I have some simple nail art to show you. I have seen a few other people do gradients with textured polish and I wanted to have a go too. I decided to go with a wintery, icy feel to match the current weather. I made the stupid mistake of not bothering to tape my fingers up before doing the gradient.. big mistake. Clean up took hours (literally), it made me want to cry! 

I used OPI - Tiffany Case and Barry M - Lady for my gradient.

I did this by painting the two colours next to each other on a sponge and then sponging it onto my nail.

I didn't really get them to blend together very well, gradients aren't my strongest point anyway but I found it even harder with textured polish. I think sponging has made the polish look more textured also, possibly a little too textured. It ended up looking a bit lumpy in places. 

I wasn't completely happy with how these came out, but I have seen other people pull this off. So I think I may just need to practice my gradient skills a bit more. 

What are your thoughts? Have you tried anything similar?

Thanks for looking.

#BritishBloggerSelection: Favourite Make Up.. Kinda!

Hello lovelies. I hope everyone's day is going well. I have just finished work and I have the rest of the week off as it is my birthday tomorrow, its so good to just relax!

Today I have another instalment of the #BritishBloggerSelection for you. This weeks prompt was your favourite make up. Now I am no expert when it comes to make up, and I have a pretty limited collection (all my money is spent on nail polish). So since this is a nail blog I decided to show you my current favourite 10 polishes in my stash. I think a group of bloggers did a post like this last week, which I wanted to join in on, as I had just heard about it after I had done all my swatches. But it would have been the wrong week for this post so I decided to go it alone instead lol.

This post is pretty picture heavy so read on after the jump.

Argyle Print Nails

Hello lovelies. I hope we're all having great weekends so far.

Today I have some argyle print nails to show you. I had been shopping before I did these and admiring lots of wintry clothing. So when I got home I decided to go with a wintry jumper feel for my manicure.

My base colour was Leighton Denny - Coconutty.

I then freehanded the darker brown triangles using OPI - I Knead Sour Dough.

I added the white using a striping brush and a white creme.

These nails were much easier to do than I thought they would be and I got quite a lot of compliments whilst wearing them. I am not usually a massive brown polish lover, but I may have been swayed - it isn't so bad after all.

What do you think? Are you a brown polish lover or hater?

Thanks for looking.

Rockstar Studs

Hi everyone. I hope you are all well. Its almost the weekend, one more day to go!

Today I have a design to show you which I copied from Galorious here, so all credit to her for the idea. As soon as I saw this mani I dropped everything and had to put it on my nails immediately, I loved it that much! The original design used gold studs, but I didn't have any gold squares, so I had to make do with silver.

I started with a base of W7 - Black on my thumb, OPI - Don't Burst My Bubble on my index finger and pinky and OPI - My Paprika Is Hotter Than Yours on my middle and ring finger.

On my thumb I freehanded the diamond with OPI - My Paprika Is Hotter Than Yours, once this was dry I added the studs on with topcoat.

On my index finger and pinky I added the french tip using W7 - Black. I freehanded the half moon with OPI - My Paprika Is Hotter Than Yours and added the studs round it with topcoat again.

On my middle and ring finger I freehanded the diamond using W7 - Black and secured the studs with topcoat.

I really enjoyed wearing these, its a bit more edgy than what I usually go for but its nice to change things up once in a while. 

What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for looking.

Halloween Cobwebs.

Hello lovelies, I hope everyone is well. I am trying to make the most of my weekend before I go back to work on Monday :(.

Today I have some Halloween themed nails to show you. As much as I love Halloween  I haven't felt very inspired to do lots of Halloween nail designs. This is the only one I have done so far, and its nothing too adventurous. 

I started with a base OPI - Peace & Love & OPI. 

I then freehanded the cobwebs using a striping brush and a white creme.

That is all there was to it. These were much easier to do than I had first anticipated.

I was pretty happy with these, I think using a duo-chrome as a base makes it look a bit more interesting.

Have you been getting in the Halloween spirit this year?

Thanks for looking.

Abstract Circles.

Hello everyone! This is a scheduled post so providing this works I should currently be sunning myself in Cyprus :).

Today I have some nail art to show you that I did based on this image. I am not 100% sure what it is meant to be, but I really liked all the circles. This was really hard to capture on my nails, so I haven't replicated it exactly. But I am still pleased with my interpretation.

I started with a white base and sponged OPI - I Saw.. You Saw.. We Saw.. Warsaw (that name is way too long) and Rimmel - Blue Eyed Girl over the white. I feel this may have been a bit of a pointless step because you couldn't really see it once I did everything over the top.

I sponged OPI - Live and Let Die and OPI - Uh Oh Roll Down The Window onto the tips.

I then made some circles with a white creme using my largest dotting tool. I diluted a bit of Barry M - Blueberry using nail polish remover and added this in blobs over the circles.

I added more circles using the same technique and did the diluted blobs using Rimmel - Blue Eyed Girl. I also diluted a bit of OPI - Uh Oh Roll Down The Window and added a tiny bit of this.

I really enjoyed doing these, it was something a bit different. They definitely aren't a perfect replica of the inspiration but you can kinda see the connection right?

Thanks for looking!

OPI Pink Of Hearts Nail Art

Hello everyone. It's the weekend and I am going on holiday in a few days, this makes me very happy :).

I bought the OPI - Pink Of Hearts 2013 set a little while ago, and since October is breast cancer awareness month, I figured what better time to try it out. I set out with the intention of this being a fully fledged breast cancer awareness themed manicure, with the little ribbons and stuff. But that kinda went out the window whilst I was doing it and I ended up with something else lol. Does that ever happen to anyone else?

The Pink Of Hearts set consists of a pink creme (Pinking Of You) and a matte glitter (More Than A Glimmer), I wasn't blown away by this set. Pinking Of You was nice, but nothing special. More Than A Glimmer just wasn't my kind of thing unfortunately, but I know a lot of people love it. I don't regret purchasing it though as it is for a good cause.

For my nail art I started with a base of Pinking Of You on my thumb, index and middle fingers. On my ring finger I used 3 coats of More Than A Glimmer.

On my thumb I added some pink and purple studs, secured using topcoat. 

On my index and middle fingers I added the lines with China Glaze - Fancy Pants and Barry M - Raspberry. For the dots I used Essie - Splash Of Grenadine.

On my little finger I did a gradient using the same 3 polishes.

I can't say I loved how these came out, I started them quite late in the evening and I feel I ended up rushing them in the end cos I needed to go to sleep. Nail art and rushing are not the best of combinations!

Has anyone else purchased this set? What did you think?

Thanks for looking.

Wavy Lines

Hello lovelies. How are we all? I have two more days at work to go then I have two weeks off, to say I am excited would be an understatement! I am on holiday for a week of that but I will try and schedule some posts for while I am away.

Today I have some nails to show you that I based on this dress. I really liked the pattern, so I decided I needed it on my nails. These are by no means perfect, but I was still quite proud of them. Free-handing squiggly lines isn't the easiest of tasks.

I started with a base of Sally Hansen - Without A Stitch.

I then free-handed all the lines on with a detail brush. I used Barry M - Dragonfruit, Sally Hansen - Fairy Teal and OPI - A Taupe The Space Needle.

I added a top coat and I was finished.

It sounds simple but it was actually very fiddly and took a long time. A lot of the lines don't match up, but I sort of like it like that :P.

What do you guys think?

Thanks for looking!

Red Zebra Nails

Hello everyone :). How was everyone's Monday? I have one more week at work then I go on holiday, very excited!

I felt like doing some animal print the other day, which is something I don't often do. I didn't want to do just plain animal print though so I tried to mix it up a bit. I was quite pleased with these and I got quite a lot of compliments whilst I was wearing them also. 

The base I used was OPI - My Paprika Is Hotter Than Yours. I love how bright this shade is.

I freehanded the white using my Colour Club white and a detail brush. I was going to tape it, but I was feeling too lazy to cover myself in striping tape, I don't think they came out too uneven.

For the black zebra stripes I used my Barry M nail art pen. This was really fiddly and looks a bit messy close up, but didn't look so bad from further away.

Then as always, I added my topcoat and I was done.

What's your favourite type of animal print?

Thanks for stopping by.

Swirly Floral Nails

Hello lovelies. I hope everyone is doing well.

I wasn't really sure what to call this design, hence the title. I was feeling a bit uninspired when I was doing these so I just sat down and painted and this is how it turned out.

I started with a base of Sally Hansen - Without A Stitch.

I added the swirl down the middle using China Glaze - Goldie But Goodie and a nail art brush.

I then added the flowers and other dots using OPI - Live and Let Die and China Glaze - Goldie But Goodie again with dotting tools.

It was as simple as that, so easy to do. But I still was happy with how these came out. I think they are quite appropriate for autumn, as summer is well and truly gone now.

Thanks for stopping by!

Angled French Manicure.

Hello lovelies. I hope we all had nice weekends, I'm not loving the fact that it is Monday again!

Today I have a nice simple design to show you. I felt like wearing something simple but couldn't face being completely normal! Lol.

For these nails I started with a base of OPI - I Theodora You. 

I then added the silver stripe at different angles on each nail, using the brush from the polish. I used an unnamed W7 silver.

I then added the colours to the tips, again using the brushes from the bottle. The green is Essie - Naughty Nautical and the purple is MAC - Heroine.

I added a topcoat and I was done.

I got a lot of compliments whilst wearing this. Plus it was nice to do a design only using the polish brushes, less tidying up for me!

How do you do your nails when you are feeling something simple?

Thanks for looking.