Hello!
Some more really blingy nails to show off today. These were inspired by my awesome phonecase that I got for Christmas. It's covered in pink glitter, pearls and dimante. What's not to love?! Since I got it I knew I needed to have matching nails, but have been waiting for a special occasion to wear them to. I was at a party last night, so thought these nails would be perfect!
For a base coat, I went straight to my new prizes, the Barry M textured glitter collection. I couldn't decide which of the two pinky shades was most like the pink of the phone, so I went for one coat of the darker pink, Princess, under one coat of the paler pink, Duchess. I thought this gave a really gorgeous, understated sparkly pink. I totally love these polishes so far!
I then used my usual method of sticking the pearls and dimantes into a wet slowdrying topcoat, using a bit of bluetac on the end of a dotting tool, and sealing in with a few more layers of topcoat.
I bought the pink pearls on eBay, and the little silver gems came from the end of one of my nail-art pens that I've had for a while. The white pearls I've wanted for ages and been looking various places in my local town centre - I felt sure Claire's would have some in a nail-art wheel, but they didn't. I also checked the nail-art sections in Topshop, New Look, etc but no luck. I really wanted white pearls as well to mix up the look a bit. The last shop I went in was River Island, and I was thrilled to find a nail-art wheel full of studs in their sale section, with one little section in the wheel containing white pearls! Score! And it was only £1 so I grabbed two. Here are all my 'ingredients' (the white pearls were in the section near my little finger, used nearly all of them in this mani!) :
I thought they ended up matching the phone case really well, despite the phone case not having white pearls, I still loved this manicure! Unfortunately I'm back at work today so have already removed it, but it looked great last night and I had a fab time at the party!
Right hand, with flash:
Left hand, no flash:
Hello!
It was my work's xmas do yesterday evening, and I wanted to go for really bling nails for the occasion. I really like the idea of lots of sparkles/studs on nails anyway, and what better chance to have a go than for a Christmas party? I also wanted something a bit OTT and wacky since I can't have that kind of thing at work.
I started with two coats of the beautiful Charm Bracelet by Seventeen. I loooove this beautiful gold textured glitter, and it's fab for Xmas! I then grabbed all of my studs, rhinestones and gems from various places - some of these are from nail wheels from Poundland, some came in little kits where you get a nail art pen with some gems, and the more metallic studs are from Born Pretty.
I decided I definitely wanted to go for the big, pearly coloured gems. I added two or three of these onto my nails, pressing them into a thin coat of wet topcoat to stick them down. I was going to leave it at that, but all my other gems were calling out to me. I decided to add green, pink and gold, as well as the odd different-shaped or coloured stud to add to the randomness.
I finished off by adding a good few more coats of topcoat to seal them all in. They look so sparkly and chunky and fab- very OTT but that's what I wanted! And I think I only lost one or two gems throughout the night - and I've even done the washing up this morning and they're all still in place. They're not as obtrusive as you'd think to have stuck to your nails - I felt sure they'd ping off at the slightest thing but they all seem very well stuck down!
Hello!
I wanted to create another bright and bling manicure for tonight. I first tried to recreate my phonecase, which is white with silver studs, but I couldn't get it to look right. After a few attempts I took it all off and thought I'd just do something completely different. After staring at my tin full of different studs and dimantes for ages, I eventually came up with this.
As a base, I used Charm Bracelet by Seventeen from Boots. This is a new purchase that I bought along with one of Barry M's new matte polishes. I was going to get one of their new textured glitters too, but I'd seen some swatches of the very similar one that Seventeen had done and decided I liked this better. And as it was buy-one-get-one-half-price in Boots, I decided to go for it!
This is two coats of Charm Bracelet. I love how packed the glitter is! It feels all gritty to the touch, but I don't mind that with it being glitter.
On an accent nail, I decided to add some random dimantes. Most of these came from a wheel I picked up from Poundland or from those nail-art pens that have some dimantes in the end. I've seen some phone cases recently absolutely packed with gems/pearls/crystals/studs, and although they look slightly tacky I think they also look AWESOME! I'd buy one but I like my phone to be able to fit into my pocket! So that's what's kind of inspired this look.
I don't think these gems will last long despite the layers of topcoat over them, or be very practical, but they were fun to create!
Right hand:
Left hand:
Hello!
Tomorrow I am going to London, and my very lovely boyfriend told me he'd gone online and bought two tickets for my all-time favourite musical, Wicked. Very excited as I've not seen it since the beginning of the year, so there'll be new cast members in all the main roles - looking forward to seeing what they are like, and just re-living the magic again. Such a fab show, amazing songs, but also beautiful costumes and sets and lighting, which inspired these nails.
I decided to create some Wicked-themed nails for the show tomorrow, and also because my boyfriend asked if I was going to (he knows me well).
As I've said before I'm not great at actually drawing things, so I didn't want to try and recreate the logo or try and draw a witches hat or anything, because I knew I wouldn't be satisfied with the outcome. As I mentioned, the costumes on-stage are great, so sparkly and so much attention to detail & I wanted my nails to reflect this.
Here are all the things I used:
From L-R;
Insta-Dri - Sally Hansen
Hot Stuff - Models Own
Dancing Queen - Models Own
Silver Holo - Seventeen
Grapefruit - Barry M
Grass Slipper - Sally Hansen
Glitterball - no7
& at the bottom;
2x pots of pink glequins - born pretty
dotting tool with blue-tac for picking up rhinestones!
rhinestone wheel - poundland
The
main two characters for anyone who's not seen the show are The Wicked
Witch of the West (Elphaba) and the Good Witch (Glinda) - see above! All of
Elphaba's costumes are dark, and her skin is green! My first two fingers
keep this in mind with the combination of green and sparkle. Glinda loves pink and glitter, and all of her costumes are SO sparkly. I used these in my ring and little finger. My thumb has a mixture of green and pink glitter.
My favourite nail is the little finger with all the glequins - it's so sparkly when I move my fingers about! You can't really tell in the pics because of how the light catches them, but I used a random mixture of dark and light pink glequins. Here's lots more pics because I couldn't decide which ones were best! X
I've created a mixed mint manicure for tonight! This was basically because I wanted to try out my new flocking powder set, AND my new yogurt polishes from Born Pretty.
The flocking set is a Nail Rock Kit, and I got it for my birthday. It has pale green varnish/flocking powder, and three different types of studs - diamante type ones, pearl teardrops and big pearl bows. I also got a purple set that has little purple flowers instead of studs. So much stuff to use on my nails! Also I've never used flocking powder before, as I wasn't sure what I thought about it! But really wanted to try out my new stuff.
All of my nails have a base coat of Nail Envy, then two coats of w7's Spearmint.Then, from thumb to little finger, I have:
1. flecks using my new striper polishes (see previous post)
2. One coat (so much glitter!!!) of Born Pretty's Yogurt Polish #3.
3. studs from the green flocking powder Nail Rock kit
4. flocking powder!! Feels really weird, but better than I thought. Kind of like felt!
5. One coat (not so much glitter, but lovely subtle mix) of Born Pretty's Yogurt Polish #9.
I like the look of these, they're a subtle colour and all match because of the colour scheme despite the different methods used on each nail. Not sure what reaction I will get at work - I know they're a pale colour but they're very noticeable! Maybe I'll go back to plain (if I possibly can!!) for Monday.
I know I've totally failed at keeping up with the year long challenge, but here's my attempt for week 27 (you can find the full list at the start of my blog, in the January section).
This week was bling, which to me is obviously dimanté! For this mani I used Barry M's Lychee and some pale pink gems, and the Barry M pink nail art pen for the bits of colour. This is kind of lots of ideas thrown together - I want to do what I've done with my index finger using studs rather than gems and a different colour combo, and I think I'll do the ruffian look I've created on all my fingers for a more 'safe for work' look for tomorrow!
Also, please remember to follow me with bloglovin if you don't already! :-) x
This week I was supposed to create something in Violet. I realised that I actually didn't have any polish that would really count as 'violet'. I had two really pale purples, and two really dark ones. I don't really do purple nails! I haven't been near any shops luckily, or I think I would have talked myself into buying a new polish just for this challenge.
Instead I decided to improvise. I found a pale purple Barry M polish that I've had for about 6 years and hardly ever used. It'd gone all gloopy so I added a few drops of nail varnish remover. I then added blobs of pink and blue varnish to make the colour darker. I shook it all up, and I'd managed to come up with a purple that was a bit darker and a bit richer. And I've still got my other, newer bottle of pale purple so it's all good!
Here are the results! I quickly blinged it up with some purple gems from my poundland wheel, and Barry M's Amethyst glitter. This is definitely not the neatest mani I've done, as it's my Dad's birthday today and I've got to wrap presents, make cakes, go and visit etc, so I kind of rushed.
Also I've got lots of other ideas I'm desperate to try, so wasn't really inspired by Violet! Still, I'm enjoying the challenge and how it keeps making me step out of my comfort zone. Looking forward to Spring & Easter week that are coming up!
A quick update today - wanted to show these off! I'm new to this matte polish, and obviously you can't add a tough top-coat as you'd undo all the matte-ness... so after 24 hours of wear, my manicure (see previous post) was looking a bit marked and dented. I hate to keep noticing big imperfections, so decided to add another coat of matte tonight. Before I knew it I'd added these little gems - I've wanted to try this kind of studded pattern for ages, and I just went with the urge! Love them... wonder how long they'll last...
(not long I expect, as I'm looking forward to our challenge week 4!)
Sarah x
