Pick and Mix - 52 Week Challenge - Week 1

Good morning! Long time no see, I thought I would try and get myself back into the swing of things with a challenge. This one is Crumpet's Nail Tarts 52 Week Pick and Mix Challenge.

Every week there are a choice of prompts. You can choose to do just 1 prompt, both prompts seperately or a combination of the two. This week is Teal or 2-colour gradient.

I chose to combine the prompts - I did actually do this in advance, but then being a complete tool I forgot to photograph my nails, and I had to remove for work. I was gutted and so annoyed at myself! They were much better gradient wise than these, as I had the expert help from Becca (Kittys Painted Claws). I just can't do gradients! Maybe in another 2-3 years haha!

Anyway, I digress as per usual! The base for my nails is Zoya Wednesday and Sally Hansen Fairy Teal. I then used Nails Inc New York Noir and freehanded a sort of tribal pattern. 

And I'm going to be honest, I stuffed up my ring finger twice so if in doubt, cover it all in China Glaze - Glittering Snow.

Ta da!

What do you think?

Rachael xxx

An InLinkz Link-up

Pokémon NAC - Week 13 Bug

#Uninspired.

I already did Spinarak for Poison, so I wasn't really feeling this week. I also wanted something I could wear every day, so I went for an 'inspired by' look, seen as I mainly do freehand and was looking for something a little different. So I chose Ledyba as my inspiration.

I coated all my nails in 1 coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Rapid Red, then I dotted some black spots onto two of my nails and coated the other two with 1 coat of Maybelline Color Show - Rosy Rosettes. I love this polish - its one of their new Brocades range. Its lovely!

What do you think?

Rachael xxx

ER31DC - Day 19 Galaxy Nails

Day 19 tiiiiiiime :) Galaxy Nails!

I've done these before but it doesn't matter how many times I do them, they always feel new! I do always try different colours - this time I used Illamasqua Faux Pas and a dark navy blue Sally Hansen I can't remember the name of. I really quite like the result!

What do you think? This could be my favourite colour combo I've tried so far!

Don't forget to check out everyone else's galaxy nails!

Other posts you might like:

ER31DC - Day 16 Tribal

Hey all!

Here I am again - am I sick? Maybe. Catching up super quick for the 31 Day Challenge. Today is Tribal. I took inspiration from the tribal artwork we used to study in art at school. Absolutely loved it and still stop to ogle it if i see it in a gallery or shop window. This is the picture I took inspiration from - can you see the different sections I took from? 

The colours I used were Sally Hansen - The Sky's the Limit, Barry M - Mushroom and Sinful Colors - Black to Black and Snow Me White.

What do you think? Would you wear it? Does it look tribal to you?

Other posts you might like:

Flowers for Mom Nail Art Challenge - Day 5 - Poppies

Good afternoooooooooon! <3

How are we all today? The sun has been a shining here, had a lovely chilled out day.

Only a couple more days until I am back to work, so enjoying my time while I can - getting caught up with this and hopefully a few other challenges! :)

Here are my poppies for today - I quite like these. Only problem is that the base (Sally Hansen - Dorien Gray) was a total ***** to dry - took over 10 minutes and still turned out tacky in places so I tried to cheat with Seche Vite and there may be the odd smudge.. sorry!

Don't forget to check out everyone else's flower manis - I am only a few behind now and some gorgeous abstract flowers got posted yesterday / today! :)

Rachael xxx

Cubbiful  

 Dipped in Lacquer 

  Makeup and Nails, Not War 

 Paint Those Piggies!  

 Paulina’s Passions  

Polish and Repeat 

 Tes Did It Nails

Pokémon Nail Art Challenge - Week 13 Rock - Golem

Hello!

Finally got my nails done for Rock week!

I chose Golem - and I thought, Golems so 'grr manly' that he can rock some hot pink nails haha!

The polishes I used are:

L'Oréal - Opulent Pink (base)

Sally Hansen - Choco Latte mixed with Nail Junkie - Coffee for head and arms

Sally Hansen - Grass Slipper mixed with Nail Junkie - Coffee for shell

Sinful Colors Black to Black and Snow Me White for details.

What do you think?

Check out all the other rock pokémon nails so far!

Pokémon Nail Art Challenge - Week 10 Fighting - Guess Who?

Hello again! It's Pokémon time!

I knew roughly which pokémon I would be choosing from for this week - however, it seems I have boatloads of polish and do not have anything near what I need to do this in full colour, so I decided to go off on a tangent today.

And that tangent is... back to the animé! YAAAAAY :D Does anyone remember the interlude guess who game in the middle? It was one of my favourite parts - I don't think I ever didn't know the answer :D I saw this while looking for nail inspiration, and thought I'd share - I did laugh (easily amused!)

 

 So anyway, here are my nails - can you guess who it is? :D Answers in the comments please haha!

Polishes Used:

Essie - Forever Yummy (we think - unlabelled bottle donated by the lovely Becca :) )

Sally Hansen - The Sky's The Limit

Zoya - Raven and Purity

and LOTS of basecoat - not taking a chance at staining! :p

Decided to include a few swatches of the base colour too - I have two coats on here with no top coat, fine for what I need it for, but I think if worn alone it needs a third coat to hide the VNL.

And here is the finished design :)

 

Don't forget to check everyone else's nails out! x

Flip / Flop February Challenge - Day 24 - Tissue Paper / Rainbow

Hi everyone!

I had such grand ideas for this one! However, being on a budget I had to make the sensible decision to utilise what I have.

So no tissue paper today - rainbow :)

I didn't want to go TOO easy, as we do have Theme Missed / Favourite Polish for Day 26. But seen as I am doing both of those (see tomorrow's post and you will understand a bit more!) I thought I would do something else. So dots it is :) again! I did think about trying sugar spun again but I was a bit more pressed for time.

So here they are!

Accent is Zoya Purity dotted with:

Barielle - Reddy to Rumble
Ciaté - Big Yellow Taxi
Barry M - Papaya
Ciaté - Mojito
Sally Hansen - Thinking of Blue
Ciaté - Cabaret

All other nails are 3 coats of KBShimmer Oh Splat! (LOVE)

Hope you like them! What do you think of KBShimmer Oh Splat - am I on my own in loving it so much?

Check out everyone else's tissue paper / rainbow manis!

Flip / Flop February Challenge - Day 22 - Plaid / Moustache

I am really quite liking these! I have to admit, I have serious shaky hand, so my lines arent even straight, let alone thin or even, but nevermind!

I really like the colours together:

Zoya - Purity
Barry M - Blueberry Ice Cream
Sally Hansen - Thinking of Blue

What do you think? Would you do (a better) plaid design on your nails?

Check out everyone else's efforts too!

Flip / Flop February Challenge - Day 20 - Flowers / V Gap

I felt pretty uninspired by today's challenge - I couldn't think of anything exciting or different!

I went for flowers, using my large dotting tool to add flowers as an accent. I really love my background colour (Sally Hansen - Green Tea) and my flower centres (Ciaté - Big Yellow Taxi) but I didn't pick the right shade of blue.

I love this blue (Sally Hansen - Thinking of Blue) but it just doesnt match with my other colour choices. Nevermind!

I also updated my Day 17 with my take on Delicate Print - which you can find here:

http://rachosnaillove.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/flip-flop-february-challenge-day-17.html

Today's nails in photos:

Check out everyone elses flower / V Gap manis!

Datyorkloves - Day 10 - Inspired by a Participant

As soon as I saw this dotticure, I loved it.

I've taken parts of it to make my own design, but tried to keep the accent nail the same.

The colours I used are:

Sally Hansen - Greige Gardens
Zoya - Purity

Datyorkloves - Day 8 - Splatter

I tried and failed at this for the Jilltastic nail comp, so I had another go with some new polishes. The end result was a bit gloopy but I did like the colours together! :)

 Sally Hansen - Griege Gardens
Barry M - Gelly Hi Shine Greenberry

Pokémon Nail Art Challenge - Week 4 - Bug

I had this week planned for a long time :)Caterpie has a wonderful storyline in the Pokémon anime. Caterpie is one of Ash's first pokémon that he catches (and is the first that evolves).When Ash first catches Caterpie, Misty is terrified of it and tries to avoid it - Caterpie is really upset and talks with Pikachu about it one night. He looks up into the sky and tells Pikachu that his dream is to grow up to be beautiful and to be able to fly across the sky. So today's nails are an ode to one of my favourite episodes - Caterpie's Wish (i don't think it's called that, but thats the best part of the episode - so I think it should be!)

 

Colours used were: Zoya - Storm for background, Sally Hansen - Grass Slipper for Caterpie's body, Revlon and Nails Inc for rest of caterpie, Models Own Pro - Jack's Black for Caterpie's eye and Barry M - White for the moon he's staring up at.

Also, I'd just like to say thank you again to Sharra at The Blahg and Nichole at Adventures of the Nail Friends for running this nail challenge.. I absolutely love it! 

Don't forget to check out everyone else's manis for this week, and if you fancy joining - join the Facebook group

<3

Polish Haul

I went for a look in my local Poundworld after Becca from Kitty's Painted Claws mentioned she had picked up some Sally Hansen Insta-dry in 2 beautiful red shades.

Now i was unlucky on the red front, but i did manage to pick up a range of gorgeous blues from various Sally Hansen ranges, as well as a gorgeous Revlon topcoat. I also picked up some cute butterfly fimo slices (there is a green dragonfly in there that i want!) and some nail wraps.

I then may have ventured into Superdrug, where an invisible presence forced me to pick up some Barry M, including one of their new chameleon shades.

THEN, I wandered into TKMaxx (another tip from Becca) and i stumbled upon.. A Butter London (Lips and Tips set) and a set of 5 Barielle colours! I ended up unwrapping these as soon as I got in - both had pretty battered boxes but I'm pretty chuffed! The Barielle colours are not amazingly different but I have some nail art in mind and the shades are perfect. Apparently Barielles are quite good for water marbling too - god knows i need all the help I can get with that!!

So all in all, a very very good day!