A-Z Weekly Challenge - A is for Ciaté Apple and Custard

Hey everyone!

I've joined a new weekly challenge called the A-Z challenge. I needed a kick up the bum to get back to blogging as although I am still avidly painting my nails, I am not finding time to blog!

I am a few weeks behind, so here is my A - Ciaté Apples and Custard, with an accent of R&R Lacquers Shisou.

You can get Ciaté Apple and Custard from their website for £9 per 15ml bottle. R&R Lacquers is an indie brand (handmade). Shisou is part of our spring collection which you can find here for £6.50 a bottle or any 4 bottles (from any collection) for £22.

Don't forget to check out everyone else's manis for A by visiting the A-Z hub page!

Rach xxx

ER31DC - Day 14 Flowers

Hey all!

Back again with Day 14 of the Extra Relaxed 31 Day Challenge. Today is Flowers. As you know I love floral patterns and you'll see a lot of vintage roses, poppies and sunflowers on my nails. I decided to go a bit different today though and took inspiration from another of my favourite flowers - the Iris. Then I just went a bit abstract on my nails - they're sort of IKATish maybe?

What do you think? It looks quite nice from afar - I quite like the colour combination, but it doesnt really look anything like an iris, does it? The colours I used were Illamasqua Faux Pas for the base, Sinful Colors Snow Me White, Black on Black and Lets Meet.

Don't forget to check out everyone else's floral manis!

Other posts you might like:

ER31DC - Week 3 - Yellow Nails

I hate yellow week! Yellow is the colour that is either yellow yellow, or pastel yellow. So I have 4 polishes in yellow, 3 are yellow yellow, one is pastel yellow. They often look different in the bottle but they all end up the same on your nails!

So i hope its okay that I twisted the yellow theme slightly to things i associate with yellow. Pikachu, and lightning (which is also associated with pikachu - win win :))

I was a little disappointed with the eyes because i got them just a smidge too close together but otherwise got to be one of my best pokemon nails to date :) never done lightning nails either so canny pleased with those too.

Polishes used: Loréal - soft chinchilla, ciaté - big yellow taxi, Essie - Forever Yummy, Zoya - Raven / Purity.

 

What do you think? 

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

 

Pokémon Nail Art Challenge - Week 9 Poison - Vileplume

Yaay we're upto week 9 - where has the time gone?

This week is Poison - there's not a massive choice of Poison pokémon, but as I was stuck between two for Grass, Poison was the perfect week to do Vileplume <3 . I love Vileplume, its one of my favourite pokémon from the original 151. I think its really cute :) it never has amazing story lines in the animé - infact i HATE the Jessibel episode where James returns home. If she was a real person, I might actually lamp her. Can't believe she has a Vileplume! And the way she says it... ACK!

Anyway onto the mani. The polishes I used are:

Base - Catrice - The Monkey Gets Funky
Vileplume - Loréal Color Riche - 607 Rue Montmartre, Essie - Forever Yummy, Essie - Case Study, Ciaté - Big Yellow Taxi, Zoya - Raven for outline.
Vileplume's stun spore (across the other nails) - Ciaté - Ladylike Luxe

Quite pleased with it :) even managed to get outside to take some pictures. Please don't forget to check out everyone else's Poison nails and feel free to let me know what you think about mine! 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 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 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 15 - Stamping / Jelly Sandwich

This has been a right 'mare of a day :(

I can't figure out this stamping malarky, they won't go on straight so I've had to use little individual  stamps to try and create a hawaiian style effect.

I'm not a fan, but its done and out of the way! Blue finger didn't end up looking as good as I had hoped - need an opaquer polish to stamp with. Should've chosen jelly sandwich!

 

See what everyone else did today! 

Datyorkloves NAC - Day 7 - Tape Mani

I still cant do these but i finally got some scotch tape which has really improved what i can manage! Dahlia (datyorkloves - host) has done a lovely heart mani for this, so i had a go - nowhere near as good but proud for my first attempt despite a little leakage :)

This is also on my 'cackhand' as i'm lefthanded - hardest thing was trying to pose and photograph - too hard for a dork like me! :p i don't do backwards well haha!

Polishes used: Rimmel 60 seconds - Torrid and Ciaté Ladylike Luxe.

Flip / Flop February Challenge - Day 11 - Splatter / Cocktail Nails

Today I chose to try Splatter nails! Like every other type of nail art, I've not done it before! I completely failed with the straw effort, so I decided to bang my brush over my nails - which as you can see had the same sort of effect :)

Polishes used:
Ciaté - Big Yellow Taxi, Mojito and Headliner
Barry M - Bright Pink
LA Colors - White

I mixed the colours with a tiny bit of polish remover to help them be more 'flickable' haha :)

Quite pleased with the result but I have learned - tape my nails first to help with clean up - sooooooo messy!

 

Check out everyone else's efforts <3

 

Flip / Flop February Challenge - Day 5 - 3D / Decal Nails

I decided on 3D nails for today.

Here are mine - Ciaté - Headliner with Ciaté Caviar Pearls in Sundance.

 

Check out everyone else's nails today!

Flip / Flop February Challenge - Day 4 - One Stroke / Ombre Nails

So for today, I decided on an Ombre mani :)

I finally got to use all 3 of my Nail Junkie polishes from Aleta's Cafe Polish line - Cocoa, Tea, and Coffee. I also used Ciaté Ladylike Luxe for my thumb and a Maybelline £1 beauty for my little finger.

 I think next time I need a colour between tea and coffee shades and to miss off the Maybelline shade. It was really difficult to capture the colour - it looks almost black in the photos, but is in RL a really dark, rich and sparkly brown.

 

Don't forget to check out all the other lovely blogger's nails today!

Flip / Flop February Challenge - Day 1 - Gradient / Skittle

So I've signed up for JillTastic Nail Design's 28 Day Flip / Flop February Nail Art Challenge. This is the first challenge I have ever done, so I hope you like my offerings - I can't guarantee miracles, but I will do my best!

Before I begin, I just want to say thank you to Jill for organising this - really excited to be a part of it and to try out some new techniques and hopefully improve on my existing ones!

So today's nails - I've chosen gradient as I havent really done one before. I had a hard time picking what colours to do as a lot of my colours are shimmery cremes and they just disappeared into my sponge and left my nail almost blank. So I started with 2 coats of China Glaze - Pop the Question then sponged Ciate - Headliner and a cheap white polish over the top.

It doesnt look great, but I think I could use it for a later nail art :) good as a base but not finished product I dont think!

 

And don't forget to check out all the other lovely Day 1 efforts! I am sure they will be much better than mine!

 

Sunday Swatch Spam

So it was supposed to be saturday but my hangover got the best of me and i only managed a few swatches as i got the hand shakes.. :/ this is why i generally do not drink!

These swatches are of what i have gotten from my advent calendar so far.. I am generally very pleased with the selection!

 

This is Cupcake Queen - I am not a big fan of pink, but I was pleasantly surprised when I picked this up to swatch - I was originally pretty disappointed to pick up a pink on Day 1 of Advent. When you look close, it has a beautiful blue tinted shimmer, but due to my camera quality (phone) I couldn't pick it up. Only downside was the dodgy brush!

This is Speed Dial - by far one of the top colours I've had from my advent calendar. In the bottle, this looks really REALLY bright, but it was lovely on the nail. A jelly like consistency, this was two coats. Love.

This is Mistress. Although it looks quite red, in person it is more orangey. Probably the first 'red' I have ever really liked on me, as I have a very pinky red skintone and reds usually look terrible. This is 2 coats.

This is Vintage. Again, like many of the Ciaté colours, it looks completely different on the nail. The grey has a blue/green hue to it, but I really like it. Strikes me as a sensible work choice. Only downside was the terrible bottle brush. Really not impressed with the brush quality!

This is headliner, a gorgeous blue shade. Again, I have two coats. Application was brilliant, although the bottle brush again needed to be trimmed.

This is Glass Slipper. Glass Slipper is a clear top coat with microfine royal blue glitter. Here I have put it over Headliner and over black on the accent nail.

This is Twilight. I can't make my mind up on this one. It looks so beautiful in the bottle, but A, the brush was again RUBBISH, and B, the formula was strangely thick and a bit gloopy, so it was really hard to get a smooth finish.

This was my Xmas Party mani. Ciaté Ladylike with Ciaté 'Sundance' Caviar Pearls on the accent nail. They lasted quite well - I only lost a few at the tip during the night - I didnt think there would be many left! Pleasantly surprised :)

I then updated my mani when I removed the pearls. I really love the gold, and as you can see I got a new rose gold coloured polish from The Nail Junkie called Cocoa. So I decided to attempt a tape mani, and I quite liked the results - but I think I may have not needed tape for something as similar as this.