Showing posts with label Gradient. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gradient. Show all posts

Thursday, 9 October 2014

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

Friday, 3 October 2014

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

Monday, 9 September 2013

Pokémon NAC Week 6 - Grass - Chikorita

Good morning!

Got some more Pokémon nail art for you today! Still trying to best my Chinchou nails, but not sure I'm there quite yet. 

I chose Chikorita cause its definitely the cutest starter from Gen 2. I always want to collect all 3 starters, but I normally choose Cyndaquil or Chikorita to start as Totodile is just annoying in the anime and my dislike has kind of stuck! I also love Chikorita in the anime as she adores Ash and is dead jealous of Pikachu and any other pokémon's relationship.



I used my new A-England's Dragon and St George and tried a gradiented base. Semi successful I think?


Chikorita kept going derpy, so this is attempt 2. I couldnt get the eyes quite right! I realised after I took the mani off that they didnt photo quite right either, but I was still pretty pleased with them anyway.


What do you think? Do you think it looks right? 

Also, check out all the other cute pokenails this week!

Rachael xxx

Tuesday, 28 May 2013

The Tenner Challenge @ Pocket Money Polishes

Morning all!

I decided to share something a little different with you today. Charlie at Pocket Money Polishes currently has a competition running with Sally Magpies to win a £10 voucher. All you have to do is explain what you would spend your only £10 on polish wise.

I worked quite hard to make good use of my £10 - so I thought I would share with you today :)

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If I only had a tenner to spend, I would definitely like to get my moneys worth. I am the same with clothes - theyre only worth it if I can wear them a number of ways. So first of all, to save money I would use my own DIY tools. I use things you can find around the house pretty easily - a rubber, paperclip, pins and nails of different sizes (free). I can then put these together (stick in the rubber to make it easy to hold each one) to make some different sized dotting tools. There is an orange stick here, but it is only for mixing which you can also do with the paperclip :)






I would then spend £2.20 on some Scotch Tape (available most places - mine is from Asda). Scotch tape is really versatile and you can use it to make lots of different patterns. I would also splash out on some striping tape from eBay - its a little faffy but so cheap I dont know how they afford to make and produce it without a loss. I got mine for around £0.25 for 10 different colour rolls.

My favourite thing at the moment is the Bling it On sets from Nails Inc - in particular the large skulls and studs sets. I can't afford one of those sets on a good day for £19, especially with the measly number of studs you get - so back on eBay again - a pack of 10 skulls in either silver or gold for £1.49. If you want to be slightly different there are two other skull choices for an extra 10p a pack.



Now for the colours. Like I said, I like to shop around and get the best deal. Poundland is one of my favourite places to check - I know some people are wary of the age of the polish, but if you use your common sense you can pick up some decent products - my favourites are the Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure and Insta-Dri ranges, (the former which still retails at £6.99 in places like Boots) and also the odd Sinful Colors, Wet n Wilds and some others which pop in occasionally. My latest find for £1 is Me Me Me! in Carefree, which looks bright blue in the bottle but comes out an acceptable blue navy on your nail. While I'm in Poundland, I'll also spend £1 on some makeup sponges which work out nice for gradients and mottled effect backgrounds.


Total spend so far: £5.94
I did originally choose to use my LA Colors Art Deco pen. Theyre around £1.50 but only place I know I can get them is Boyes - which are few and far between. So i changed my mind - the basis of my collection is now my extensive Sinful Colors range so I picked a white from that instead. They do some gorgeous colours as well, all at only £1.99 each. If you can catch them on Boots 3 for 2 offers, then you can pick up a good range fairly cheaply. The colours I can't live without are Snow Me White and Black on Black, but I use the white much more often. Its great for mixing and you can then franken any lighter shades you might need. So I have picked two colours for today - Snow Me White and a muted pink - Soul Mate. (£3.98). Watch out for Snow Me White in Poundland - I have picked up a few back up bottles from there for the reduced price of £1. :)

Total spend: £9.92



And here is my final mani - a bit of a skittle but gives you ideas of how you can really stretch that £10 to come up with some different designs.



And also with some roses :)

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What do you think? Would you spend your £10 in a similar way?

Please please please go check out Charlie's blog. You can find details of the competition here along with some of the entrants (including mine!), and you can check out what other people would spend their £10 on here and here. Even if you don't plan on entering, please go take a look - there are some fabulous ideas in there!

The contest is open until 30th May 2013 so a winner can be picked on 31st May. Good luck to you if you have entered / plan on entering!

Rachael xxx




Sunday, 28 April 2013

Different Shades of Blue - Autism Awareness - Ribbons

Hi all,

Been so so busy this last week, really trying to get back into regular posting!

I really want to finish this challenge - I may not make it within April, but they will appear eventually :)

Here are my awareness ribbons. I was really quite pleased with the finished result.



The polishes I used are:

Sinful Colors - Snow Me White
Essie - Bikini So Teeny
Utopia's Polish - Ice Princess
OPI - Absolutely Alice

What do you think? x

Everyone else's are already waaaaaaaaay finished, but you can check them out here:

Carmina from Cubbiful
Cordia from Seriously Swatched
Jessica from Nail Polish Anonymous
Kelly from Peace Love Lacquer
Laura from Little Laura Loves
Nicole from Dipped in Lacquer
Paulina from Paulina’s Passions
Rachael from Rachos Nail Love
Roxana from Beautylicious









Friday, 12 April 2013

Different Shades of Blue - Autism Awareness Challenge - Day 3 Ombre or Gradient

Hi all! 

I just thought I would let you know that I suck at both of these. I have quite a nice collection of blues, but I can never put them together to make ombre nails.. and my gradient skills are terrible. So i thought I would try a dotted gradient as I saw them on one of the blogs I read recently and I thought they looked pretty good :) 

So here's my attempt! Not quite sure its as gradiented as it should be, but hopefully next time they'll be better! :) 




Don't forget to check out everyone elses nails today! :) 

Cordia from Seriously Swatched
Jessica from Nail Polish Anonymous
Kelly from Peace Love Lacquer
Laura from Little Laura Loves
Nicole from Dipped in Lacquer
Paulina from Paulina’s Passions
Rachael from Rachos Nail Love
Roxana from Beautylicious

Tuesday, 19 February 2013

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!

Saturday, 16 February 2013

Datyorkloves - Day 9 - Ombre or Gradient

I am still rubbish at gradients, but here is my effort for today!

Polishes used:

Barry M - Gelly Hi Shine Greenberry
Barry M - Gelly Hi Shine Papaya





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