A little note.. to say thank you!

Just wanted to quickly say hello and thank you to everyone now following me! My last two Flip Flops will be a bit late. We got notice today at work of Ofsted arriving tomorrow for two days.. so I will be AWOL from the blog until at least thursday night (where I will possibly be on the wine.. these things are needed after Ofsted!) So i will 'see' you when I get back. For now, please keep following and sharing - over 750 entries already to my giveaway :) really chuffed! xxx

Try It On Tuesday! (TIOT) - Revlon Watermelon Fizz

So the challenge is drawing to a close - my thoughts were what can I do next? I don't fancy another challenge as intense as FFF again just yet - I just want to enjoy the moment (and that its over!) I know I prepped many in advance, but its just the time of year where I am full of busy!

I thought this would be a nice little post once a week :) I've seen everyone posting their pictures over on Jilltastic's facebook page and have been thinking for awhile that I would like to join in!

Here is my first TIOT - Revlon Watermelon Fizz. I picked this up from the 'Bargain Barrow' in the Metro Centre - its one of the first places I go to have a browse for new (to me) shades on a budget. This cost me £1.99, which I am really pleased with.

Watermelon Fizz is a beautiful shade. I find it quite difficult to explain it other than to me, its pinky orange red and is very bright. It has a gorgeous jelly texture, which is quite on the thin side, so it needs layering for full effect. I have 3 coats on all nails (no undies) and you can still see a visible nail line at some angles. I think this could easily be fixed if layered over the right polish. The formula is like most Revlon polishes - quite runny. If done thin enough, the coats do dry quickly though.

The wonderful thing about this polish is that its SCENTED. I was sceptical at first, but I LOVE the smell of this - it really does smell of watermelon once dry. So this for me, overcomes all the other not quite perfect elements to it!

What do you think? Have you tried any scented polishes before? Are you a fan?

Flip / Flop February Challenge - Day 26 - A Theme You Missed / Favourite Polish

Couldn't pass up an opportunity to wear one of my fave polishes! Not worn it for ages but this has reminded me just how much I love it! :D

This is 2 coats of KBShimmer's Quantum Leaf and one of topcoat. Its also a rare picture of my wonky hand! :)

Check out everyone else's offerings today!

Flip / Flop February Challenge - Day 25 - Youtube Tutorial / Tape

This one was dead easy for me to pick because I was really stuck for later days.

Day 27 is recreate someone elses mani. There are two that have really stood out in my mind, but I can only do one of them. So today, I picked this one because you can find Youtube tutorials to do similar and I don't think I could have done it without one!

The one I love is Cazzy's at Special Girl Nails which you can see here :) I love the classic colours and they look stunning on her nails, but they don't suit me as much, so I was over the moon to find this tutorial that uses colours that suit my skin tone more :)

Vintage Rose Tutorial

The roses and leaves are slightly different to Cazzy's but I think they still look good in the tutorial. I am pretty happy with my final nails for my first attempt. What do you think?

Colours used are:

Models Own Pro - Jade-anna for the accent nails base, with George Cupcake on its own and mixed with a little white for the roses and Barielle - Central Park on its own and mixed with white for the leaves.

I used George - Cupcake for my pinky, index and thumb too. I am super happy with this polish as Becca at Kittys Painted Claws gave me it as a freebie as it didnt suit her skin tone. Its my only pink that I really love! Also, as I've almost used it up, its not expensive to replace - I just hope Asda still have it in!

Check out everyone else's mani's today!

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!

My very first mini giveaway!

I was going to wait until I hit 25/30 followers, but I am so grateful to all of you already following that I wanted to set up the giveaway early!

The giveaway will run until my birthday (31st March), which means plenty of extra chances to enter through shares, tweets etc. If there are enough entries, I may have a second prize to add :)

The giveaway will be open internationally. This is one of my biggest bug bears when entering contests as so many are US only.. sad panda! I know this is because of shipping costs and shipping problems to a lot of countries, but if I can ship it to your country, I will :)

Check out the widget below.. if you have any problems let me know - its the first time I have used Rafflecopter! *noob*

So the prize is... a brand new bottle of KBShimmer's Oh Splat! (One of my personal favourites!)Any questions, feel free to send me an email at rachosnl at gmail dot com :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Pokémon Nail Art Challenge - Week 6 Normal - Snorlax

Hi everyone!

Week 6 already for the Pokémon challenge - can't believe it!

This week is normal pokémon, so I chose Snorlax because he's epic in the game and I always remember him from the animé for eating boat loads of grapefruit before Ash catches him, and then for a funny episode where he is entered into a Pokémon wrestling match to win a years supply of food which he ends up eating in around 2 minutes :)

I am not 100% happy with these, so you may see a second mani at some point - it may be Snorlax again, it may not. I had this amazing idea in my head with a pale blue and yellow gradiented background but I am a 100% fail at gradients and it didn't work out.

So this version is inspired by the unexpected weather (for me anyway as I dont often watch news or weather forecasts!) that we have at the moment. The sky is thick and full with snow and its falling quite merrily at the moment - enough to send all fair weather drivers into their usual annoying panic!

The polishes I used:

Cagedbird Lacquer - Iced Mint Macaron for the base
Barry M - Watermelon for Snorlax's Body
Fearne - Lemon Drizzle mixed with Essie - Muchi Muchi for Snorlax Face, Chest and Feet
Zoya Purity and Raven for Claws, Outline and Z's


Also, my thumb does not bend for the camera. I really envy how people take shots of all 5 nails - I took a million photos and had severe hand ache by the time I managed to get a few semi decent photos!

Hope you like! :)

Flip / Flop February Challenge - Day 23 - Lightning / Bows

I saw this mani on facebook, but it was linked through a fan page and I can't find who it was originally by. Either way, I loved the simplicity of it and have had it in my mind for ages to have a go.

Polishes used - Ciaté - Headliner, LA Colors - White, Frost French Floozie - Black.

 

Check out everyone else's 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!

Rachos Nail Love is growing :)

You can now find me at the following places:

Twitter (RachosNL)
Instagram (RachosNL)
Facebook (RachosNailLove)
Pinterest (rachoxxx)

As you can see I've added these icon links to the side bar too. If any of you are on these platforms and would like a follow, let me know. I would appreciate any of you following me too!

Keep an eye out - once I get some more followers (30+) i'll be having my first giveaway!

Have a great day!

Rach x

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!

Pokémon Challenge - Week 5 Flying - Butterfree

It had to be done after Caterpie last week! Butterfree!

I am a little unhappy with these nails - I might redo them and post some new photos. I have been painting and swatching all night to get ahead with my other challenge, so I could keep these on for a few days.I think with me now being quite tired, theyre not as good as they could be! I don't have a list of colours for these as I had to mix a few to get closer to the right shades - especially for Butterfree's body.

Anyway - these nails are an ode to by far the saddest (but also happiest) episode of Pokémon that I have ever watched!After Ash's Metapod evolves into Butterfree, he has many amazing adventures, including a near trade for a Raticate. But Ash loves his Butterfree so much that he asks to trade back.

On his travels not very long after, Ash sees lots of people in balloons releasing their Butterfree over the sea. Ash finds out that Pokémon trainers around the world have travelled to release their Butterfree to find a mate and go scatter their eggs across the sea. Ash releases his Butterfree and sends him into the crowd to find a mate, but Butterfree returns disappointed that he can't find anyone to be his mate. Then another lady releases her Butterfree, who instantly catches Ash's Butterfree's attention, as she is pink.

Ash's Butterfree tries to woo her but she's having none of it.. so he flies off upset into the forest while Ash runs off to find him.

When Ash finds him, he gives him a little yellow neck scarf to set him apart from all the other Butterfree and tells Butterfree that Pink Butterfree will realise how special he is. During this time however, Team Rocket have hatched a plan to catch all the other Butterfree. When Ash and co return, they've all been captured inside a metal net. Butterfree is determined to free all the other Butterfree and save his love, and so he bashes the net over and over until he is so tired, he can only manage one more attack. He tackles the net one more time and manages to break the net and free all his friends.

Pink Butterfree has watched his heroics and has fallen in love with him, and agrees to travel over the ocean to lay their eggs together.

The sad bit is at the end when Ash has to say goodbye to his Butterfree and he cries as he watches them fly away. I cry every time! It always makes me think that if Pokémon were real, I'd never be able to release one and say goodbye - I cry when I have to leave Milo (my son aka cat) for holidays!

Anyway - here's my nails!

Check out everyone else's amazing flying nails!

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!

Flip / Flop February Challenge - Day 19 - Wings / Outline

So I cheated a little bit here.. well, it depends on what you see as cheating - I see it as 'recycling' one of my earlier FAIL's haha! :)

So on Day 1, I produced a TERRIBLE blue and white gradient (above). So rather than wasting it, I decided to modify it to use for today. I'm going to try for Butterfly Wings - there are loads of examples about, but I followed the easy tutorial from Distinkt Nails and changed the outline slightly. I probably should've stuck to the tutorial as I see now that it was hard to clean up the black edges around my cuticles and the end result is a little messy but quite good for my first attempt if I do say so myself :)

I have stuck my hand in my OH's face for about 10 minutes asking him what they are.. he didn't get it, but he's an idiot.. (love him really!) but I asked the cat and he knew.. LOL. :D

Only nail I wasn't happy with is my middle one - I have only noticed it now I've done all the photos and how sloppy it is!

Flip / Flop February Challenge - Day 18 - Galaxy / Rhinestones

Today I went for Rhinestones!

This is one of my favourite Sephora by OPI's - Read My Palm, which I got in the Tinsel Town set.

I actually had some studs from Born Pretty Store on my accent nails,  but as I lost some, instead of repainting I decided to 'refurbish' my mani as it was only a day old.

Here I have triangular clear rhinestones (£0.99 for the whole wheel from ebay) around 1 gold stud which like I said, are from Born Pretty Store.

 

Here are everyone else's manis:

 

Flip / Flop February Challenge - Day 17 - Delicate Print / Newspaper

Updated!

When i think of delicate, i think of japanese cherry blossoms :) here is my take - these actually looked much better in person! Very soft and feminine!