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

One from the vault..

Hey all!

Never believed I would do my nails often enough to have 'a vault', but I do have one mani to show you. I was saving this for a nail art competition, but I got rejected so many times for even being in the short listing that I just gave up even trying. 

So here are my nails which I was going to enter into the Grazia and Nails Inc competition on Twitter. They were a second version of my black and white nails with a twist which were a couple of weeks ago. I loved these and wore them for several days.. I really love neon still and am gutted that summer is coming to an end and all the autumn colours are coming in.

My pointer and pinky have two black Born Pretty studs each. What do you think?

Rachael xxx

An InLinkz Link-up

Pokémon NAC - Week 2 Fire - Cyndaquil

Hey all!

What a surprise, I'm super late with this one.

Cyndaquil is the HARDEST ever pokémon to freehand. And I chose to do him on two seperate nails? Whats wrong with me?!

Anyway, here is my mani. Not my best work but its all a learning curve :)

Still loving my Sinful Colors UFO glitter which is on my middle and pinky over the Zoya base colour.

What do you think? Is it as bad as I think it is?

Rachael xxx

Swatched - Zoya Mata Hari

OHHHHHHHHHHHHH EMMMMMMMMMMMM GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

I found a purple. I. Found. A. Purple. Okay, so its verging on not really being purple, its what I would call metallic cherry coloured. But its still a purple really. And I LOVE IT!

Picked this little beauty up in a blog sale over at Princessly Polished. Rochelle is selling off her mom's Zoya polishes and I FLEW in there and bought up a whole lot of them ha! I worked out the overall price and I picked them all up for between £4-5 each including the postage which is amazingly good value considering what they cost over here!

So anyway, onto the formula. Perfect one coater! I love shimmery, metallicy polishes for this reason - they just level really well and this one is well pigmented and the formula is just the right consistency. Lovely!

What do you think? I will definitely be wearing this more come Autumn / Fall, but I still love it now anyway!

Do you like the colour? Do you own any Zoya polishes? Which Zoya is your favourite? 

Rachael xxx


Other posts you might like:
 

Love the basics - Zoya Raven

Hi all!

I've been sat today preparing a couple of manis for a new challenge I'm starting next week, when I realised how much I ADORE this polish.

I was very lucky to pick it up when Zoya had a promotion on, and a very kind friend let me have it posted to him, then he sent it across the water for me. So I am really not looking forward to the day this runs out, and I do keep swapping between it and my trusty Sinful Colors.

I always forget how much I love black manicures. I always think oh it'll wash my hands out, look too gothic for me and make me look pale. But it doesn't. It looks classic, timeless, elegant.. I could go on. I really love Zoya Raven for this because of its formula and finish. It dries glossy, has a beautifully smooth formula, and is a definite 1 coater with careful application.  I can't capture it on my camera but it also has a very very fine, faint charcoal grey shimmer to it. It also dries speedily, but not so fast that you have to rush your nails. Perfect. It is also a staple colour for pretty much all manicures - I hardly ever don't have a black element somewhere in the mix.

So what do you think - are you a black mani fan? Have you tried Zoya Raven or do you have a different favourite black polish? 

Rachael xxx

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 27 - Recreate Someone Elses

I did this from memory as at the time, I couldn't find where I had seen it.

I eventually found it - at Rambles of a Polish Addict. Her little owls that she did as her skittles mani were so cute!

I realise now where I went wrong - the eyes are not quite right on these, making them look not quite as owlish. The other half thought they were dogs *sigh* but live and let learn and all that! :) I definitely will try owls again at some point as I love them so much :)

Polishes used:

Models Own Pro - Aqua
Zoya - Purity
Nicole by Opi - Loyalty to Royal-ty

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 21 - Flames / Dots

Today I went for the safe option of dots! I've used my dotting tools for awhile now and there are endless ways to use them on your nails! :)

Here is today's simple black and white dotticure :)

Check out everyone elses efforts too!

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 NAC - Day 3 - Kisses

Been so busy this week so only just had chance to do these last night.

I really quite like them, although I caught one around 5 minutes after I photo'd them and it took off almost the full nail, so they came off very quickly.

Really glad I picked up KBShimmer's Berry Xmas.. its beautiful <3

I used Zoya Storm for the hugs and kisses :)

 

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

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