I'm sorry this post is a day late, as i said on Friday night i spent the day in London on Saturday, so this was always going to come a day late. As i've said before, better late than never!
I am really proud of these nails as to be honest i had no idea what to do for todays challenge. I know there is a lot of choice to be had but i had 'nail polish block'. I was flicking through my konad and bundle monsters and came across the haunted house, so i went with it....although i didn't want to stamp so i attempted doing it freehand....i am so glad i did! Don't get me wrong i love to stamp and happen to believe that is an art form all by itself as it can be tricky to stamp right...but i do love a bit of freehand where i can take all of the credit lol.
These nails arnt so much supernatural..more spooky Halloween nails..but hey supernatural and Halloween go together like hand and glove so i think this still qualifies! My inspiration for these comes really from visiting Disneyland in Paris and seeing the haunted mansion there....up on the spooky hill, love it!!
My untried for the day is colour club outworldly...omg what a fantastic polish!! It is a really bright sparkly blue....not that it looks like that in these pictures because the other colours used has really dulled it...trust me it is amazing!
I am so sad this challenge is almost over....i have enjoyed trying my hand at things i would never usually do and for the most part i am super proud at what i have achieved as before i did this i thought i was very limited in what i could do.....now i know different from all your lovely comments. I have one more mani to recreate for tomorrow then that's it for the 30 day...fear not though as i have many other lovelies coming your way!
Awwww it's the last day of the challenge....boooooo, i have so much enjoyed doing this challenge and very sad to see it is coming to an end, but i must admit it will be nice to wear regular manicures again. Rest assured i will be popping up in other challenges because this has really tested my abilities and gave me the confidence i have needed to try more adventurous stuff. Here's my tutorial....
Step 1....paint nails
to the desired base colour, i used a classic white..OPI Alpine Snow and a coat
of Girly bits January morning for a little shimmer
Step 2....Using a black striper
pen draw 2 vertical lines down the side of the nail...sweep it round the cuticle
area, taking care to leave a small gap, so not to flood the cuticle, then make
another line coming up the side wall area (again, be sure to leave a small gap
so polish doesn't flood).
Step 3.....fill in between the
black lines with black paint, i used china glaze liquid leather. Be sure to
'tuck in' the black polish over the edge of the nail, so when you look down the
barrel you see the split of black, white and black polish.
Step 4....with your black striper
pen draw good sized crosses down the middle of the nail...i chose to do 3
crosses, you can do more if you wish.
Step 5....using dotting tool,
place your white 'hole' directly where the join of the laces would be. Using
your black striper pen gently sweep the black round the cuticle to join the
black.
Step 6....Clean dotting tool, and
with black paint (or your striper pen) place a very small amount of polish
directly in the centre of the white.
Step 7....clean up any excess
paint where needed
Step 8...when the nail is dried,
apply a shiny topcoat
Now you are done, with funky shoe
lace nails to show off. Hope you guys enjoyed this tutorial. If you do attempt
this please feel free to send me your pics, i would love to see them. Also if
you have any other requests then let me know xx
Awww I'm so sorry guys this has taken me so long to post, i have just missed midnight...bummer!! But you know what better late than never, and if i do say so myself i think these are a great addition to the fantastic flag nails the rest of the contestants have entered.
I used the fab Daring Digits polish yesterday for a new york giants design so i must admit i did keep 3 fingers painted for this manicure in that polish.
I wanted to do a little spin the the other plain flags i have done in the past so i thought i would stretch myself and do a traditional underground sign to accompany the flag...the pinnacle of Britishness me thinks! The giants polish, being predominately red white and blue makes for a perfect touch to draw this look together. For the base colour i used the amazing OPI dating a royal (another British theme!).
I will just say i wont be posting today's manicure (supernatural) until sunday now as i am off for a well earned night out to the O2 tomorrow to see Micheal Mccintyre with my amazing sister. So see you guys Sunday! have a fab weekend! xxx
I was so super excited to receive this polish! When i spied this little number on the Daring Digits website i had to tell my husband straight away, as he is such a fan of the giants.
I was sitting there last night deciding what design to do when i thought i would do a Giants logo on my ring finger and the NFL logo on my thumb, and to bring the look together was the supreme Daring Digits Giants.
I can't tell you how beautiful this polish is in the bottle, on the nail and even on screen!! As you all know by now, i love blue, so i layered this over OPI dating a royal...wow wow wow!! This was the perfect colour to use to layer this beauty as they complimented each other so well. The Giants polish consists on blue, white and red glitter with larger silver hex glitter, all suspended in a clear base. The glitter layed perfectly flat and only needed one layer of seche vite to make them smooth. Application was perfect with the glitter evenly distributed onto the nail.
Giants is such a versatile polish, this would look fantastic over a variety of colours, i am thinking a vampy dark colour would really be a stunning combination!
Ashley at Daring Digits, makes some stunning polishes so i would really recommend a visit to her etsy shop, and f.y.i she has to be one of the loveliest sellers i have had the pleasure of interacting with.
I really do hope you like this as much as i do, i am quite proud to be rocking this manicure at the moment. xxx
Now i must admit i did post this yesterday with no intention of submitting them for todays challenge, but i have received so much positive feedback for them i had a rethink...especially as when i was browsing the net i found this picture by Dayton Jean and saw how much it resembled my mash up from yesterday. I called these kaleidoscope nails.
I needed a little release today, doing nails is therapy for me so i had a little play and this is what i came up with. I know nothing of art so this was just pure pot luck they were so similar hehe...or maybe now i have the mind of an artist?.....no, luck i think!
When i showed my hubby he said they reminded him of kaleidoscopes so that's what I've named this mani. I didn't really set out for them to look this way, i was just playing about and this is the direction they took. I must say i loved them!
As i say i have many more swatches coming over the next few days so stay tuned folks. Be free to tell me your feedback on these nails! xxxxx
Ahh i do love an early posting of the challenge days, most times i leave it right down to the last few hours but yay today i am nice and early! Today's challenge is pattern nails, and wow i have some really pretty nails i did, i LOVE this pattern!
I love a flower pattern on the nail, its one of my favourite designs and this one turned out much better than i had anticipated. You know when you are doing a mani and you know they are going to look good straight away, i was like, 'oh yes'! hehe.
My untried of the day is the most amazing purple! It is disco dress by color club. I picked this up moday when i was at Olympia..ohhh my! It is a beautiful purple, neon as it dries really quite matte. It is bright and vivid and gorgeous!! I used nails inc old park lane for the design and added out the door holo top coat for a sheer sparkle.
I hope you guys like this design as much as i do, have a fantastic day my lovely readers xxx
Today challenge is inspired by fashion, and being a shoe lover, this was an easy choice for me. I've never done a shoe related design except on my cinderella nails, i think they are quite cool!
My untried for the day is a little number i picked up from olympia yesterday, its seche vite magnifique. I was super excited to try this one as they are new polishes. I was keen to try it out and see if tey measure up to the amazing top coat they do. I loved it! the colour is amazing, a purple with supreme pink shimmer, with blue undertones, it's a colour like no other (although similar to reggae to riches by china glaze).
I added the shoes and tiny little angel wings which always make an appearance at any fashion show...job done!
Ahhhh you gotta love a bit of Smitten Polish, in my last order from Llarowe this little gem was included. I adore a good blue polish, a good portion of my stash is made up of blues and i am proud to have this in my collection.
This is a stunning polish indeed, a beautiful blue mash up of blue and silver glitter suspended in a blue base. Im not sure if my eyes deceive me but i swear i could see very sparse black glitter in there to. This reminds me very much of the hungry Asians sneeze breeze (which i have winging its way to me as we speak so i will be sure to compare them when i get it).
Application was very trouble free, i used 3 coats for the pictures. This polish really ate top coat though which i thoroughly expected due to the amount of glitter in this. All in all this is a stunner, if like me you are a blue lover, this might just be a firm favourite!
I have such a fantastic husband, i have to say this first and foremost, he supports my addiction and i want to say a huge thank you to him and for him prompting me to go along to London today. I am not good on trains and undergrounds by myself so i was going to give this a miss because i was going alone, but as i say Mark prompted me to go knowing i had been looking forward to it all year and i am SO glad i went!
After a minor mishap starting off at the wrong station for a direct route once i was on my way i was very excited, it has been awful weather here in the UK but i wasnt going to let a bit of rain get me down!
Trains accomplished i entered Olympia to a mad crowd of people all pushing through the doors...every man to for himself so i surged forward. I went through those doors and i swear i heard bells chiming and birds singing..nail polish stands everywhere!! In front of me was a giant Essie stand....my pulse was already quickening! then i spot color club to the right...OMG!! now us UK girlies only get a really limited supply of cc so this was one of the main reasons i went, i wasnt disappointed! i managed to snag otherworldly, youthquake, covered in diamonds, wink wink twinkle, gift of sparkle, disco dress and sky high!
Then it was over to the madness that is the huge OPI stand. I struggled to really get a good look at the Opi's because it was just so busy but i did get to look at the new ds and new bond collection. It would have been rude not to snap up some of these so i snagged DS indulgence, you only live twice, the spy who loved me, live and let die, on her majesty's secret service and the world is not enough...job done!
I was made up when i went to see the Misa collection, they were reduced so i scooped up mermaid dreams, frozen in time and office polish-tics. Ahhhh to many choices were giving me a headache, then i spied seche vite. Now i love a bit of seche, as does any self respecting polish addict, imagine my surprise when i see they are actually selling colours!! I never knew they were doing their own polishes and i was told by the sales lady they have only just launched them so i was super super excited to buy magnifique and enamored! I ant wait to try these and to see if they live up to the amazing topcoats they do!
On to nubar. Now i love a bit of nubar and wished i owned more so i remedied that by getting the black polka dot and White polka dot polishes and one called scratch...made for the scratch magazine i also picked up! I was so excited to get the polkas because i have been wanting them forever...triple yay!!! Oh dear then i spot Orly....oh my goodness they had some really pretty polishes and looking back i wish i had gotten more!! i did however get star spangled, miss conduct and the new halloweeny R.I.P. To go with my polishes i got a couple of nail art brushes, a funky purple acrylic paint, konad m47 and m73 plate and a peggy sage plate.
What do you guys think of my haul?...i say its a job well done! While i was there i also checked out the nailympics which was fab, i only wished i could have gotten a closer look at the work because it was set back from us spectaters, which is fair enough don't get me wrong. The work these people do is amazing, i am in awe of their talent seriously. My pictures wont show you the real intricate work that goes into the nails, i was so glad i was able to spectate and see it. Guys if you can go next year and watch it, do it, you wont be disappointed!
Throughout the day there are all kinds of seminars going on and again, i only wish i could have attended all of them but time wasn't on my side as i wanted to get home in time to have dinner with my beautiful daughter.
All in all i am so so glad i went. I managed to get more polishes than i thought i would. I adored the atmosphere in Olympia its completely non bitchy or intimidating and i managed to meet some lovely people. A few of my lovely facebook friends have suggested next year to all meet up there and attack Olympia together...i say YES...if you are interested in joining us then nearer the time i am going to organise a meet. Now i am off for a well earned cup of tea and a snuggle with my amazing hubby, polish hugs to you all xxxx..... now i will spam you with pics from the show
