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

An InLinkz Link-up

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

An InLinkz Link-up

BNB Colour Me Crazy - Blue

Hey!

Here are my blue nails to bring me up to date. These are inspired by @sr_nails from instagram.

I had decided ages ago that I wanted to use my new OPI Blue Chips for this mani. I just didn't know what exactly I wanted to do with it. OPI Blue Chips is a renamed version of The Flowers are Blue-ming from the Katy Perry collection. Whatever the name, its really pretty and worth the £3.99 price tag I paid for it.

My thumb, pinky and pointer are 3 coats of OPI Blue Chips. My ring and middle fingers are two coats of Models Own Hypergel White Light, striped with Kate Spade for Nails Inc - New York Noir and the flowers are freehanded with the above black, white, blue and an added lighter shade of MoYou holographic blue polish. I didn't realise how hard zebra stripes are!

What do you think?

Rachael xxx

Don't forget to check out everyone's blue nails!

An InLinkz Link-up

A-Z Challenge - F is for China Glaze For Audrey and PMP Fairest of All

Good morning!

I have two F polishes to show you today! The base is China Glaze For Audrey, and the beautiful silver and holographic shards are a topper by Pocket Money Polishes called Fairest of All.

I am lucky enough to get to paint my nails often at Becca's (Kittys Painted Claws) house, which means she gives me full choice from her helmer. She is very organised and has every single polish cataloged in a spreadsheet. I started to follow her example, but I gave up when  I expanded to a 2nd helmer,  I couldn't be bothered after around 20 polishes into the 1st helmer. 

So she looked up all her F polishes for me and as soon as I saw For Audrey I had to try it.. it's such a beautiful mint shade. But then I saw PMP.. I have so few PMP polishes (I came into the game late!) that I had to try one that was new to me. Most of my PMP polishes are part of the colabs that Charlie did with Tara from Taras Talons. Oh how I miss the colabs! 

Anyway, I digress... here is my mani!

Sparkly! <3

What do you think?

Check out the other F manis over at the hub page!

Rach xxx

A-Z Challenge - E is for Layla Emerald Divine

Hey all!

Today I have a beautiful holo for you - Layla Emerald Divine. What a beaut! However, it is an absolute pain in the backside to apply without an aqua base (which I do not have!) and so this was 3 extremely careful coats and 4 on my middle finger. It just refuses to stick, and any sudden movements and you remove a full nail! ARGH!

..But it was worth every painful application for this holo! Wow!

Anyone got any hints for applying tricky holos without an aqua base?

Check out all the other E manis at the hub page!

Rach xxx

A-Z Weekly Challenge - C is for Mentality Cyclone

Hey again! 

3 days in a row! WOW!

Well today is a little more complex - this is by far one of my favourite manis ever. The base is Mentality Cyclone, a lovely holographic pale purplish brown colour, depending on how the light hits it. The formula on this was excellent - one coater for my currently short claws.

I then took Mentality Monsoon and used this to stamp over with a floral MoYou XL image from their Pro 14 plate. The effect was pretty subtle but it was just perfect for a week at work, and lasted a whole 6 days before I had to remove it!

What do you think? 

Rach xxx

(Don't forget to check out the hub page for all the C manis!)

A little hallowe'en stamping

Hey all!

Last week may be a bit quiet as I have one of my other loves in my life. Pokémon! Yes, it was released last weekend, so I have devoted a fair amount of my life to it!

So I sat down yesterday and decided to have a go at some designs and get making my blog a bit more lively. No matter what, they just weren't working out.. apart from this one.

A nice simple design, but I love it none the less - the polishes and the plate are just perfect together! I wanted something I could wear for work and I got so many compliments, nobody believed I had done myself - I got accused of having salon nails and also of having used foils - compliments indeed!

I used the MoYou London Pro Collection 05 XL plate and used the cobweb design from the top row. The polishes I used are Zoya - Raven for the base and Mentality - Scalawag (my favourite stamping polish) for stamping over.

I am so pleased with how these stamped - the Mentality polish is perfect opacity and in light has a beautiful holo rainbow to it. Beautiful! And the stamp, I am so in love with these MoYou London plates so far - they are just perfectly engraved, pick up beautifully.. I just can't fault them at all!

What do you think? Do you like the simple finish or would you have gone more detailed and added something else? 

Dont forget to check out what other British Bloggers are doing!

Rachael xxx

An InLinkz Link-up

Swatched: Taras Talons - The Best Things in Life are Polishes!

Hey all! Got another one of my TT beauties today to share - nabbed this awhile back as I love circle glitters, and I am pleasantly surprised which how much I love this!

The Best Things in Life are Polishes (TBTINAP) is a very pale mint-leaning off white crelly with a fine sprinkling of small gold circle glitters and large blue/teal holo circles. I impulse bought this for the circles, without thinking about whether the colour would suit me, but as it isnt stark white, I really like how it looks.

It is very thin in consistency, and this was 4 coats to build full opacity. Because of the small amount of glitters in the polish, I think it would be best as a topper to make sure every mani gets a fair share of glitters. I did have to fish for the circles but it wasnt a massive effort, I just wanted big circle glitters on every nail (have to be even!).

This had a beautifully soft look to it - I had loads of compliments while I wore it for work.

What do you think? Is it something you would consider buying? Are you a lover or a non lover of circle glitters and/or crelly polishes? 

Rachael xxx

Swatched - A-England St George

Good morning!

I have my 2nd A-England purchase today. I picked up this beauty and Dragon when A-England had their £6 sale.

I have to say, I love this even more than Dragon. You will have to pry this from my dead hands! 

Again, pigmented but a much richer colour with 2 coats. This is Nail Envy base, 2 coats of St George and 1 coat of SV.

What do you think? Did you pick up any lovelies in the A-England sale??

Rachael xxx

Swatched - A-England Dragon

Good morning!

Just a quick swatch today - I used these a few days ago for my Chikorita nails and they are so beautiful they deserve their own post.

This is A-England Dragon - perfectly pigmented for 1 coat coverage, shown with a coat of topcoat. I'm in love! So pretty!

What do you think?

Rachael xxx

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

Giveaway at Glitter Obsession

There is a BEAUTIFUL swatch post over at Glitter Obsession.

Not only are there many many many beautiful swatch photos, but there is also a giveaway!

Make sure you check it out, and check out all those beautiful holo swatches!



and here is my favourite of the lot - just incase you were thinking about NOT having a look!



(Image Source: Glitter Obsession.com)

This is Color Club Angel Kiss - I'm not usually a fan of holos but I seriously love this! Such a cheery shade to put a smile on your face on all these cold dark days where you wake up and its dark, and finish work and its dark! Put a bit of shine into your life! :)