A2Z Series - K Is For 'Kitchen Sink'

A2Z Series - K Is For 'Kitchen Sink'

A2Z Almond Nails Blogger Challenge Decals Nail Art Nails Pink Shimmer Polish Stamping

Hi NaiLovelies!

I'm very excited to have my manicure completed for week 11 of the A2Z Challenge and to mark the occasion, I am actually posting on time for a change,  Whoop whoop!!!

This week, we have reached the letter 'K' in the alphabet and the prompt word is 'KITCHEN' i.e. everything but the kitchen sink!

I must admit, before I entered this weekly challenge I never even knew what a Kitchen Sink manicure was!  I had a go and came up with this kinda skittle manicure albeit a kinda crazy yet a kinda subdued one.  This mani moves effortlessly over from skittle to kitchen sink because every nail is different, although the colours and designs used compliment each other perfectly.

I'm really pleased with how this manicure turned out.  Even though every finger is painted with different colour/polish/technique/style, I still think it is a very wearable manicure.

For the manicure I used so many polishes I am a bit hesitant to name them all!  However, for the sake of the blog the are listed below:

All nails have a base of Orly Bonder and the topcoat used is All That Jazz Double Top Topcoat For Glitter

Pointer Finger
DRK Enlaced Theme Plate - (click here for my review of the plate)
White Konad Special Polish
China Glaze Fairy Dust

Index Finger

OPI More Than A Glimmer x 2 coats  - no topcoat

Middle Finger
Stamping Decal using Konad white, filled in with Color Club foils and Halo Hues

Pinky Finger
OPI It's Frosty Outside Liquid Sand x 2 coats
OPI Muppets World Tour x 2 x coats

Thumb
Gradient of OPI It's Frosty outside and Silent Stars Go By Liquid Sands

Even though I love the end result, I don't think I will do another manicure like this - it took entirely too long!

You can check out the fab manicures created by the other bloggers participating in this challenge by clicking on the Inlinkz below and by visiting the hub to see all the manicures created in this challenge series. 

Ciao 4 Now  

An InLinkz Link-up

A2Z Series - J Is For 'Jewel'

A2Z Series - J Is For 'Jewel'

A2Z Almond Nails Blogger Challenge Decals IBD Just Gel Indie Nail Art Nails Pink Shimmer Polish Stamping Swarovski

Hi NaiLovelies!

I’m back again with my manicure for the current week of the blogger A2Z Challenge.  This week we have reached the letter 'J' in the alphabet and the prompt is JEWEL.

Now, this is one manicure that I instantly knew the polish I would pick – the radiant and glowing beauty that is the jewel toned fabulousness of Berry Buttoned Up by Gelish! This is an absolutely stunning polish. When I purchased Berry Buttoned Up I knew it was a beauty and quite unique in my gel polish collection but I got even more than I bargained for with this one as it has a hidden surprise only visible once on the nail – it has a subtle duo-chrome shift from magenta toned purple, to red and back again.

I could not believe my eyes when I saw it and I can only assume this shift along with the almost metallic finish gives it that awesome glowing finish. This polish is just divine and the perfect jewel toned polish for this weeks manicure.  Oh, did I mention this one is soooo hard to capture on camera - I might have to feature it in a new stamping video at the weekend!

I chose to keep it fairly simple with the design as I want the polish to truly shine without much fuss on the nail so I delved into my ‘Ale’ bags of nail art goodies and found the perfect embellishments for this manicure, some beautiful multi-sized opalescent studs.  I added these to my nail in a paisley'esque swirl using an old thickened bottle of Seche Vite (works perfectly for me!).  I broke up the design of the jewel placement with some small opal and clear sparkly Swarovski crystals.

The 'Ale' pronouned Ally bags!

 I want to be able to wear many of my untried polishes over the top of Berry Buttoned up either as stamping, complimentary manicures tying in the existing colour or a complete cover up so keeping the gel manicure 100% smooth is essential. Therefore, I was unable to set the gems in gel polish base and topcoat.....although I wish I did because I love how it turned out!

This is an accurate photo of the colours when shifting!

 As you can see from my photos, I have chosen to return to my beloved almond shaped nails and as always, I reshaped my nails whilst wearing my previous challenge manicure. I find that this is the best way for me to achieve consistent results with the shape of my nails. If I file on naked nails and follow my smile line I can get wonky nails as my smile lines are not all 100% symmetrical and aligned. Filing whilst wearing polish lets me instantly see the end result.

You can check out the fab manicures created by the other bloggers participating in this challenge by clicking on the Inlinkz below and by visiting the hub to see all the manicures created in this challenge series.

Ciao 4 Now

An InLinkz Link-up

Negative Space Lace Decals

Negative Space Lace Decals

Ahead of the Game Almond Nails Decals Morgan Taylor MoYou UK Nails Negative Space Stamping Stamping

Hi NaiLovelies!

After wearing the Ahead of the Game manicure for a couple of days, I decided to try my hand at a spot of negative space stamping....for the first time.

I used MoYou Bridal XL 07 plate for the stamping and decals and the same image for stamping the little fingernail.  Unfortunately, I ran into a small issue as the image used is a little bit too small for my ring fingernail.  

I had to stretch the image before stamping it onto the decal tabs, which was another first for me. To stretch the design I picked up the image onto the stamper as normal but before transferring it to the decal, I removed the silicon stamper heard from the holder and stretched the image by lightly pressing the sides of the stamper head closer together.  This method can be used to both widen and or lengthen the required image.

This is the plate I used and the image has been highlighted above

The entire inspiration for this manicure came from the fantastic blog Nail Lacquer UK.  Thankfully, accompanying her fab blog post AJ also included a great step by step tutorial which shows very clearly how to create decal for this design.

I  really love how this turned out and I can't wait to try this design again and using a different colour for the base!

Ahead of the Game - Morgan Taylor
Black Creme - Wet 'n Wild
Bridal XL 07 Plate - MoYou
Topcoats - Ciate and HK Girl fast drying topcoats

Ciao 4 Now

Hey, I Pink It's Summer!

Hey, I Pink It's Summer!

Almond Nails Decals La Paz-Atively Hot Nails OPI Stamping Tutorial Video

Hi NaiLovelies!

 

I updated my OPI La Paz-Atively Hot manicure with some gorgeous summer inspired decals.  I thought it would be a great idea to make  a video tutorial over on my YouTube channel of how I created this manicure.

 

 

 

For this manicure I started with the base of OPI La Paz-Atively Hot, I then made decals using Pueen Stamping Buffet plate 72 which I stamped in black.  I filled in the flowers using OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, Morgan Taylor Ahead of the Game and Max Factor Bright Orange, a colour I have used before when making decals.

 

 

 

The video shows the process from start to finish.

 

  

This is only the third time I have made decals and I still have some practice to do but I love the effect achieved by adding decals and how they open up a ton of possibilities for stamping plate images.

 

Ciao 4 Now

It's Blooming Springtime...!

It's Blooming Springtime...!

Decals Giveaways Mentality Polish Nail Art Nails Regular Nail Polish Sourball Stamping

Hi NaiLovelies!

I have something a little different to show you today.

Whilst creating my second ever decal mani, I decided to complicate matters by taking a few photos of the process I followed to achieve this springtime manicure....

1.  I grabbed my trusty bag of CND Shellac Remover Wraps.

2.  Each wrap comes with a removable tab which covers the adhesive tape on the wrap.

3.  During my soak offs I keep all of the tabs from the wraps used, they are great for making decals as they are the perfect size for the stamped image and super easy to peel the decal off once completely dry.

4.  This is what the each tab looks like once removed from the Remover Wraps (I have a stash of these saved up).

5.  I grabbed my trusty MoYou stamping plate which has the tulip image I chose to use for this manicure.  I also used my Magno nails stamper and Wet 'n Wild black creme polish.

6.  I applied a thick coat of topcoat to the shiny side of each of the four tabs (I only used three decals for this manicure but always make at least one extra just incase I mess it up!). I left this for about half an hour before stamping the image.

7.  This image shows how much of the tab is covered in topcoat.  I leave a boarder to make removing the decal easier.

8.  I stamped my chosen image onto the topcoated tab.

9.  Next for the fun part of colouring in!  I make sure to select opaque one-coater polishes so grabbed my trusty Sally Hansen Insta Dri polishes along with a couple of OPI's and Mentality polish.

10.  I coloured in each of the flowers carefully using the polish and a dotting tool placing a drop of polish onto a tile to make the process easier.

11.  Once left to dry for a couple of hours the decal is ready to be removed from the tab ready for use.

12.  I use my pointy tweezers to pull the decal off the tab after loosening around the entire edge with an orange wood stick.

13.  Once removed from the tab I cut off the excess polish using nail scissors.

14.  I applied topcoat to my nail and then quickly yet carefully, applied the decal to the wet topcoated nail and smoothed it onto the nail using the pad of my finger, being sure not to overwork the decal as it softens upon contact with the top-coated nail.

15.  I smooth the tip of the nail using a nail file, acetone on a clean up brush or my finger - whichever is most appropriate for the amount of excess decal.  I also clean up the sidewalls and cuticle area if needed using my clean up brush.

16.  I finished the manicure with a final coat of topcoat.

Mentality Sourball - Base
MoYou Pro XL 12 - Stamped image
Sally Hansen Insta Dri, OPI, Golden Rose & Mentality polishes - For decal infill
Ciate Rapid Dry - Topcoat

I love how this turned out.   I still need a little more practice though!

Don't forget to enter the 'Giveaway'.  Ends on 22nd April 12am (GMT).


Ciao 4 Now

Cherubic & Silent

Cherubic & Silent

Cherubic Color Club Decals Halo Hues Liquid Sand Nails OPI Regular Nail Polish Silent Stars Go By Stamping

Hi NaiLovelies!

It's been no secret over on Facebook that I have been scouring my local Sallys stores this weekend in order to pick up a few polishes from the OPI Mariah Carey Holiday 2013 collection.  They are limited eddition and have been reduced to amazing prices!  On Saturday I managed to pick up a bottle of Silent Stars Go By, which is a shade I hadn't even considered before.  

 

Silent Stars Go By is a very pretty pale pink toned nude.  As I mentioned previously, this is not a colour I thought I wanted but at £2.50 +VAT, this was not about to be left in the shop waiting for some other lucky lady (or fella) to snap up!! 

As you can see from the pictures, Silent Stars Go By was not the only polish I used in this mani.  I wanted to pull something together which is easy to wear [Silent Stars Go By certainly is easy to wear] and I didn't want all of my nails to be textured.  I had a quick rummage through my Monsoon Trolley (from Roo Beauty) and picked out my untried bottle of Color Club Cherubic from the Halo Hues collection.   I think these two polishes compliment each other incredibly well!!! 

 

As this is a nude mani I decided to try a spot of stamping.  I had no idea what image or colour to use so I made sure to add a layer of Kiss Everlasting Gel Polish Topcoat to the Color Club holo as this would give me the option of trying the stamping over and over again without wrecking my base colour.  The gel topcoat also adds a tough layer of protection which will add longevity to the holo goodness which is Cherubic.

I tried many images, with black and white as my colours of choice.  As you can see from the stamped image above, I went for a tone on tone combination using my trusty MoYou plates.  I'm not sure if I like it though.   So, I thought this mani would be a great opportunity to try out nail art water decals.  I've never used decals before and I found these roses from Born Pretty Store incredibly easy to use - even though I had to double up on the decals because they were too small for my nails!

Silent Stars Go By - OPI Mariah Carey Holiday 2013 Collection

Cherubic - Color Club, Halo Hues

Mother Nature Collection 01 Image Plate - MoYou London

Rose Nail Water Decals - Born Pretty Store

Existinbg gel polish manicure

Gel Topcoat - Kiss Everlasting Gel Polish

The highlighted section of this plate is the area I used for the stamping, although you can barely see it unless the sun is shining allowing the holo to shine beneath the stamped hearts and butterflies.

Silent Stars Go By applied just like any other OPI Liquid Sand - easily and in two coats with no topcoat.  The formula was fantastic, just like my other Liquid Sands.  Cherubic applied perfectly in two thin coats.  I am impressed at how well both of these polishes covered this bright orange manicure, just take a look at the picture below which shows just one coat of esch polish.

Awesome coverage......!

I managed to mess up the polish on my pinky so what better opportunity to take a picture showing the OPI Gelcolor Deutsch You Want Me Baby? manicure underneath and still 100% intact.  The gel mani is now at day 12 and has been through numerous polish changes in that time - some removed with acetone as I'd run out of acetone free remover!

Excuse that little stray hex glitter from the Liquid Sand I had just removed.

Ciao 4 Now