Day 11: Polka Dot Nails

Polka dots are so fun and easy and yet they make your nails look completely amazing!

When I first got my dotting tools I hated using them and was just never happy with my results but after a bit of practice, I absolutely love them and they're SO versatile. I use them for all kinds of nail art, not just dots.

Today's nails are in my favouritest colour ever - purple, purple and more purple!

Head over to see Rie and Cristina's Polka Dots challenges too!

Polishes used

Base colour: Barry M Berry Ice Cream

Dot Colours:

Nails Inc Victoria

Collection 2000 Minx

Barry Bright Purple

Twitter ♥ Bloglovin' ♥ Tumblr

Day 7: Black and White Nails

I toyed with a few ideas for today's nails before deciding to play it safe and go with Zebra print. It's been so long since I wore this pattern and colour combination (I normally go for the tiger colour combination) and I forgot how amazing it is. It's definitely not a subtle look, but I think I pull it off okay!

Don't forget to check out Cristina and Rie's nails today for some more crazy black and white designs.

I used an unnamed Collection 2000 White then stamped with W7 Black and Konad Plate M57.

Twitter ♥ Bloglovin' ♥ Tumblr

Vampy Half-Moon manicure... but not as you know it

A few days ago, an idea struck for a half moon manicure but I couldn't find the stickers I use for them anywhere. I spent more than an hour searching my room top to bottom for the dastardly things to no avail!

I found myself in an 'odds and ends' kind of shop yesterday and remembered just as I was leaving that I needed some of these and I found a packet of about 500 stickers for 60p. Such a bargain!

The stickers in question are THESE hole reinforcers. I cut them in half and used them to mark off the half moon shape at the base of my nail but instead of painting a new colour over the top, I used a stamp.

Konad Plate: M64
Base Colour: W7 - Black Cherry
Konad Colour: Collection 2000 - Moonlight Shine
Top Coat of NYC

On Monday, Cris @ Let Them Have Polish, Rie @ Nails and Noms and I will be starting the 31 Day Challenge (click here for details). We decided to do it together so that we won't be tempted to stray from the strict 'post every day' rule! I think it will be fun but also challenging to go back to posting daily after relaxing my blogging schedule since the new year. I can't wait to start and I'm hopefully my enthusiasm won't dwindle too quickly!


Twitter ♥ Bloglovin' ♥ Tumblr

Half-Moon Nudey

This is another look from New York Fashion Week, this time from the Odilon show. 

The design comes from Minx Nails who, in case you don't know, make a special kind of nail sticker that really bonds to your nail and is normally applied by professionals. However, lots of the designs are easy enough to recreate at home with polish and nail art brushes. 

You may have seen Beyonce, Rihanna and other stars sporting the famous Minx chrome manicures. Hopefully, one day, the powers that be will create a polish that gives you the same effect as the amazing chrome Minxes.

I couldn't find this design on Minx's website but you can click here to see the models sporting the look.

I used Collection 2000 White as a base and Cult Nails Cruisin' Nude for the half moons which I applied using a small nail art brush.

Twitter ♥ Bloglovin' ♥ Tumblr

Born Pretty Plate M73 and White Stamping Polish Review

As you may have noticed, or read here before, I never use Special polishes for stamping. This is partly because of the price tag but mostly because I have been lucky enough to find plenty of regular polishes that work well for stamping. You can see my list here, although it needs a bit of updating!

The white I use for stamping from Stargazer isn't 100% opaque so I wanted to try a special polish to get the extra oomph!

From the Born Pretty Store, I ended up ordering a white stamping polish [here] and the duplicate M73 plate [here]. 

I've written a quick post in the past with my thoughts on the BP plates [here] and everything I said still stands.

The image of the musical notes is not very well 'carved out' at all, there is next to no definition so I don't think I will be using it. But this is clear in the picture on the product page so at least you know with BP that what you see is what you get and they aren't using pictures that misrepresent their products.

I went ahead and decided to use the white polish with the swirly flower design which is the one I was most excited about and I cannot express how disappointed I was when my mani turned out like this!

My stamper hardly picked up any of the design and I'm inclined to blame it on the plate since my stamper has worked perfectly forever and the polish worked (albeit not that well, but we'll get on to that later) on the geometric design.

I don't think this white qualifies as a stamping polish. It's actually less opaque than the Stargazer White I use currently which you can see stamped here.

Konad Plate: Born Pretty M73
Base Colour: Collection 2000 - Hot Purple
Konad Colour: Born Pretty White Stamping Polish
Top Coat of NYC

So to sum up, I am disappointed with these two prodcuts from Born Pretty. If I was desperate for a white stamping polish this would probably suffice but I don't think I'll be using it. I'm going to leave it on my windowsill with the lid off for a few days to see if it works any better then. Also, the bottle is very small. I can't find exact details anywhere on the site or on the bottle but I would guess it's about 5ml.
If you are looking for a white polish for stamping, take a look at Marta's post here. She uses Sally Hansen Whirlwind white and it looks incredible, completely opaque! If anyone knows where to get this and would be willing to send it to me, please get in touch because I need it in my life!

As you can see, I only tried two of the designs from the plate. The scattered square design works great but the flower one isn't usable. It's no devastation because I only paid a few dollars for it but still, you expect your designs to come out no matter how much you pay. If the designs don't work, is it even an image plate or just a slice of metal?

Twitter ♥ Bloglovin' ♥ Tumblr

Internet > Chocolate

I have such a short attention span! I've been sat here since about 9pm with these photos open in Photoshop, getting them blog-ready and I've been distracted at least 4356 times. It's now just after 1am and I have managed to focus long enough to upload them and write this post!

When I sit down in front of a computer, I go in to a complete trance and until I snap out of it don't realise that I've just spent 4 hours of my day watching The Shaytards and amusing myself with every single #Parks and Recreation post on tumblr. If I have one addiction in life, it's the internet.

Plates: Bundle Monster BM201, BM224 and BM211
Base Colour: W7 Black Cherry
Stamp Colour: Collection 2000 Moonlight Shine
GOSH Metallic Purple
Top Coat of NYC

Twitter ♥ Bloglovin' ♥ Tumblr

Like A Broken Record

Todays Pink Wednesday post is insanely similar to last week's but I love the comic book/onomatopoeia design so much so I had to try it again! This week, it's a bit more exaggerated and 'in your face'!

Plate: Bundle Monster BM209
Base Colour: Nails Inc. - Paris (for Diet Coke)
Stamp Colour: Collection 2000 Hot Looks - Dynasty
Black acrylic paint for the outlines
Top Coat of NYC

Twitter ♥ Bloglovin' ♥ Tumblr

Payday. Payday. Gotta get down on Payday.

Tomorrow will be my first payday for almost two years so I'm super excited! While I was in Uni I was lucky enough that I didn't need a job (just to be clear, I wasn't sucking on a silver spoon the whole time, I was just very scrupulous when it came to spending the money that I did have!).

My eBay watch list has tripled in size this evening and I have a post-it stuck to the wall in front of me with a list of stuff I want to buy! The first thing on that list is the Babyliss Big Hair styler which I have been drooling over for months. If anyone's tried it I'd be very interested to hear what you think of it.

Konad Plate: Bundle Monster BM212
Base Colour: NYC - Prince Street
Konad Colour: Collection 2000 - Moonlight Shine
GOSH - Metallic Purple for the dots
Top Coat of NYC

Twitter ♥ Bloglovin' ♥ Tumblr

Pink Wednesday: I Missed You, Half Moons

I was scrolling through my archives a few days ago and remembered how much I like half moon manicures. It's been ages since I did one so I'm rocking the look today for Pink Wednesday.

I used BYS Flirty Sparkle as a base, Collection 2000 Moonlight Shine applied with a brush for the moons and some bullion from Born Pretty Store. All topped off with a coat of NYC Top Coat.

Twitter ♥ Bloglovin' ♥ Tumblr

Nautical Nails

I've been looking for a nice navy blue polish for months since I caught on to the nautical trend for summer and after finally finding one yesterday, I was inspired to create a nautical nail look. I found this bargain in Asda as part of their George Make Up range for £1 (normally £1.75), the colour is Bloom.

I used some really old Collection 2000 polishes for the white and light gold, they don't even have names. The red is Barry M Raspberry and for the Anchor, I used Sally Hansen Chrome in Amber. I'm running perilously low on this so if anyone knows any gold/bronze chromes that I can get my hands on in the UK, please please please let me know because I'm getting desperate!

Join The Dots

I've spent my evening getting ready for tomorrow's day trip. Some friends and I are going to a theme park called Drayton Manor which is about two and a half hours drive north and I am so so so excited! I always like to be prepared for these kinds of trips so I already have my rucksack filled with a packed lunch, spare clothes, camera and all the other standard day trip paraphernalia!

Plate: Bundle Monster BM211

Base Colour: Rimmel Blue My Mind

Stamp Colour: Collection 2000 Moonlight Shine

China Glaze Adore for the dots

Top Coat of NYC

I Might Miss My Day At The Races

Things are pretty hectic with my exams at the moment but I'll be squeezing in a post when I have time! My last one is on Monday and it can't come fast enough.

I've seen loads of swatches of the new Cult Nails collection - A Day At The Races - and I fell in love with a few of the colours. However, they're a bit out of my normal 'price comfort zone' for polishes but after some coaxing from a few ladies on Twitter and Maria herself (the owner of Cult Nails) informing me that they were running an offer that ends today, I ordered 4 bottles. The shades I chose are Let Me Fly and Cruisin' Nude from the 'Races' collection (swatches here and here), and My Kind of Cool Aid and Iconic from an older collection.

BUT, I saw a blog post from Cult Nails (here) this morning explaining that they're having some problems with international shipping regulations after one customer's order was destroyed before she received it because the contents broke some rules. So all international orders are on hold for the time being. It's kind of annoying that I may not get my order, but better that than Maria risks posting it and something horrid happening to the package.

Plate:  Bundle Monster BM221

Base Colour: BYS Blue Night Star

Stamp Colour: Collection 2000 - Moonlight Shine

Top Coat of NYC

Lol at the missing handle, I think the bottle got trodden on once a long time ago and the lid cracked to pieces.

Molten Metals

Not much to update today. I know it's been a few days since I last blogged but it seems like nothing has really happened except a trip to the dentist today where I had another wisdom tooth pulled out. I've spent a lot of time sat inside staring at all my notes from school because I have an exam on Friday which I need to study for but it's such a mammoth task I have no idea where to start! My plan is to knuckle down tomorrow and cram enough information in to my brain to pass.

Plate: Bundle Monster BM223

Base Colour: L'Oreal LaquiResist 837

Stamp Colour: Collection 2000 Moonlight Shine

Top Coat of NYC

St Patty's Day Mani

I know these aren't really shamrocks because they have four leaves but hopefully no one will call me up on it today!

Plate: Bundle Monster BM03

Base Colour: Collection 2000 Hot Looks - Spangles

Stamp Colour: BYS - Fern

Top Coat of NYC

Nebula Nails

Here is my attempt at creating some of those 'Galaxy Nails' that have been floating around a lot recently. I first saw one of these designs months and months ago but I thought it would be too hard so I didn't even attempt to create it myself. Boy, was I wrong! Considering how pretty this look is, it's some of the easiest nail art I've ever done and I think it's absolutely fool proof. I was worried it wouldn't turn out very well, but I don't think this look could turn out badly even if you tried to mess it up! That's the beauty of it.

All you need is a selection of cosmic colours and some textured paper tissue (i.e. kitchen roll) and I'd recommend using at least one holographic polish in the mix. Paint on your base colour and just start dabbing the colours on in patchy, thin layers. 

Asami has a great video tutorial of the method.

This was the colour inspiration for my version.

The polishes I used (in this order) are:

NYC Glossies - 243B

E.L.F - Party Purple

BYS - Glittering Purple

GOSH - Holographic

E.L.F - Twinkle

Collection 2000 Maxiflex - Moonlight Shine (dotted on for the stars)

And of course, a Top Coat of NYC (not pictured)

Has anyone done their own galaxy nails? Please leave a link to your mani in the comments, I love looking at them!

Out of Spice

Sorry about the lack of variety over the last few weeks. I migrated home over the Christmas holidays and could only bring a limited amount of kit with me. I've only got 35 polishes with me - that's actually a lot now I've counted but when I look at them in the drawer it looks like nothing! - and only 2 of them are any good for stamping so my manis have been a bit samey.

It also occurred to me that many of you may not be aware of the Bundle Monster plates so I've put a link there underneath the picture for you to check out the Amazon listing. If you want to get into stamping but don't want to splash out big bucks on the Konad plates, the BM's are great. You just need to make sure you get a stamp and scraper (or you can use a credit card to scrape like I do) from somewhere.

Plate: Bundle Monster - BM21

Base Colour: E.L.F - Purple Pleaser

Stamp Colour: Collection 2000 - Moonlight Shine

Top Coat of NYC

Barry M Dusky Mauve

Here are a few pictures of Barry M Dusky Mauve. This is rumoured to be a dupe for Chanel's Paradoxal. I can't give you a solid opinion on that claim but judging from swatches I've seen of the Chanel, I'd say it is pretty darn close!

I wore this on New Years Eve and lots of my friends commented on it. My bestie (who has never bought a polish in her life!) even said she's going to get some to wear at work because it looks so sophisticated.

I also have Models Own Purple Grey in my collection which you can see here. This polish is a good match for the colour of Dusky Mauve but doesn't have the shimmer - it's just a plain creme.

And of course - I had to put a Konad over it and matte it up.

Konad Plate: M57

Base Colour: Barry M - Dusky Mauve

Konad Colour: Collection 2000 - Moonlight Shine

Top Coat of Essie Matte About You