Pick and Mix - Week 4

Week 4 time! I really struggled with inspiration for this one.

The choices were 70's or Grey and Colour. I really wanted to try 70's, but I found it really hard to come up with any ideas.

So here is my mani!

I used OPI French Quarter for Your Thoughts - a warm nude leaning grey, Sinful Colors - Snow Me White and China Glaze - Yellow Polka Dot Bikini for the accents. I had seen something like this somewhere recently, but after an extensive search of Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest I just can't find it. I really wanted to credit my original inspiration aswell. Nevermind.

What do you think?

Rachael xxx

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Pick and Mix - Week 3 Texture

Hi again! We're on week 3 already!

This week is Matte / Texture or 60's. I'm not really a massive fan of either, but I do like the odd texture so will give it a go!

So I raided Becca's (Kitty's Painted Claws) polishes for this - I (We) chose a base of Sally Hansen - Bewitched and Barry M - Duchess for the texture. I own Duchess myself, but it has sat untried for around a year.. poor polish!

I applied one coat of Barry M - Duchess to my thumb, pointer and pinky, and 1 thick coat of Bewitched to the other nails. 



I then wanted to try the 'quilted' sort of look, so I taped some criss cross diagonals and painted over with some Duchess and then removed the tape. 





I then added a second coat of Duchess to my other nails as it didnt look even. You can see the shift between purple to goldy-brown quite well on the above picture.

What do you think? Are you a texture fan? Have you done quilted nails before? Would love to know your thoughts!

Rachael xxx

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Halloween Nails - Take 1!

Good afternoon!

I wanted to get an early start on halloween nails this year, as I didn't get the chance to get many designs done last year!

This is my first design - I used my new gradient skills (still a bit shaky!) to create a blue gradient background using 3 Barry M shades - Huckleberry, Elderberry and Matte Malibu. I then used Nails Inc New York Noir to freehand a graveyard design across my nails.

We've recently released our Glow in the Dark Halloween range in our etsy shop, and I was dying to use Ectoplasm - our GITD topcoat. We made two different colours, so I decided to use the Aqua version in keeping with the background of my nails.

As is usual for GITD, it works best over light colours (especially white) but it does still work over dark colours. I have traced the outlines of my graveyard scene, highlighted the moon and also added a ghost on one nail so you can see the varying degrees of glow. It was SO HARD to get these photographs!

What do you think? I would love your feedback!

Our topcoat retails at £3 for a 5ml bottle and you can choose either green or aqua blue. Alternatively, you can get a free bottle when you buy a full size bottle of Stay Puft. Our other two halloween offerings also glow in the dark - please check them out!

Rachael xxx

Pick and Mix - Week 2 - 2nd Prompt

Hiiiii

Well, I was feeling challenged, so I thought I would give a 3 colour gradient a go! I saw some beautiful nails over at Shamelessly Polished. I can't pull off those tones, but they inspired me to try my own version.

I used two coats of L'Oréal - Rose Bagatelle as a base, then sponged over a gradient of that plus Sinful Colors - Timbleberry and Sinful Colors - Soul Mate.

Here's my final gradient - not 100% but hopefully some more practice will make it better. I am certainly happy to have my beautiful points back anyway.

I then thought what can I add to improve this - the answer is always glitter. So I put a layer of China Glaze - Fairy Dust on it. 

What do you think? If you have any tips on gradients I'd love to hear them!

Rachael xxx

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Pick and Mix - Week 2

Hiiii!

Well I had this fantastic idea, but as per usual it involved something I am no good at - chevrons!

Practice will make perfect I hope! Anyway, this week one of the prompts is pink. I used two coats of Sinful Colors - Timbleberry, and one coat of Sinful Colors - Pinky Glitter for most of my nails.

My accent is 3 coats of China Glaze - Glistening Snow with some fairly wonky chevrons of Nails Inc - New York Noir.  I cut strips of Scotch tape and laid them over my accent nail before adding a layer of polish, but for some reason even though I removed straight away, the tape broke in two places so I had to go all surgery on them with a pair of tweezers to try and salvage it.

What do you think? If anyone has any tips for chevrons then I would love to hear them!

Rachael xxx

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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