Green Ombre Nails

Hello everyone :)
Today I have pictures of my most recent mani to show you. I've been seeing ombre nails around since last summer and kept telling myself I'd do them and never got round to it :P So I finally sat down and decided I'd do it. Even though I have quite a collection of polishes now it was still very hard to find 5 similar colours and shades that would look okay together, and that were all cremes that didn't have any shimmer or flecks or anything. So finally I decided on 5 colours and here's what happened...

I used 3 coats of Essie Playa Del Platinum on my thumb (even though you can't see it in the pictures :p), 2 coats of OPI Stranger Tides on my index finger, 2 coats of OPI Mermaids Tears on my middle finger, 2 coats of OPI Don't Mess With OPI on my ring finger and 3 coats of Julep Diane on my little finger. 

Three of these colours were untrieds so I'm glad I got to use them as I love them all! I really love how this mani turned out, it looks really interesting from a distance and as usual I had many people comment on them as they'd never seen them done before. A few people told me that they didn't like them as they weren't all the same colour! :P I personally think they're very interesting and can't wait to do them again in different colours for spring and summer :)

What do you all think of the ombre nails trend? and what colours do you think look the best for this style?

Also, I'm not too far away from 250 followers! Look out for a giveaway when I reach that massive milestone! :D

Thanks for reading :)

Charlotte xxx

Week 9 Vintage Mani

Hello everyone :)
So this weeks 52 week challenge was a vintage mani. Now I've been searching this for a while as I've been dreading this week since the start of the challenge :P I found a manicure that women used to do to save nail polish that was seen as a luxury item back then; especially during the war when things were rationed. The manicure used colour on the nail bed and left the moon and the tip of the nail clear of any polish. However, I thought this was quite an easy option and that many of the other ladies taking part in challenge would do, so I trawled through hundreds of pictures and found something that caught my eye and then modified it slightly, so here's what I came up with...

I used two coats of Essence Romeo as a base then added two coats of OPI Pink Friday on top to create the rounded section of the nail. I then added a white stripe using OPI Alpine Snow to separate the colours a bit more.

I really loved how this turned out, it's simple yet elegant at the same time and I would class it as a vintage manicure, however I'm sure other people would not. I will definitely do this manicure again using different colours in the near future. I think these photos show quite a lot of improvement for me since the start of this challenge. My lines are nowhere near as wobbly and I freehanded this whole design! :D

As always, let me know what you think of this weeks effort in the comments and also if you're liking my new attempts at taking photos :P

Also, as a parting note, here's a picture of me and my son at a nature reserve type thing that my Fiancé took us to today...

Thanks for reading :)
Charlotte xxx

Five Friday Favourites

Hello everyone :)
It's been another busy week for me with all my uni work but I get a week off this week so expect lots of exciting nail posts and maybe even a tutorial ;P Anyway, it's Friday which means only one thing... Five Friday Favourites! Here are my picks from this week...

1. These ice cream nails would be super cute for summer - http://adayinthelifeofdollface.blogspot.com

2. This water marble is so simple and beautiful - http://lalicanailart.blogspot.com/

3. I am in love with the simple idea of this nail art - http://pshiiit.com

4. These pastel coloured dot nails are so cute :) - http://spektorsnails.blogspot.com

5. Pikachu nails! I need to do some pokemon nails soon - http://omgpan.blogspot.com

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and blogs I featured this week :) keep an eye out for several new posts from me in the next few days :)

Thanks for reading,

Charlotte xxx

OPI Don't Mess With OPI & Essie Shine Of The Times

Hello everyone :)
I have a new mani to show you all today, after browsing some nail blogs I came across some pretty pictures of Essie Shine Of The Times used over different colours. I thought I'd try it over one of my untried polishes so here's what I came up with...

I used two coats of OPI Don't Mess With OPI and then layered one thick coat of Essie Shine Of The Times over the top. I love Shine Of The Times at the minute, my boyfriend bought me my bottle as a gift and I love it so much :P I never even thought to use it over a green polish but I really love how this turned out.

I have no idea why but these colours together remind me of dinosaurs, like they're skin and the texture :P Does anyone else think this or is it just me? :P I really like it though. Again, I've had several people comment on this mani and ask me what I've used etc.. I really love being able to tell people what I've used and even recommend certain blogs to look at colours and nail art on :)

Here's a picture in sunlight so you can see the beautiful green base colour and all the colours of the flakies. Isn't it beautiful? I'm so in love with this combination :)
Hopefully my corset mani nails will be up tomorrow, I'm getting behind! :(
Thanks for reading :)
Charlotte xxx

New Blog Layout

Hello everyone,
Just a quick post before I put up a new mani post. I've created a new layout and header for my blog and just wondered what you all thought of it? I quite like it myself but I also want my followers input :)
If you could leave a comment telling me what you think then that would be great :)
Keep an eye out for another post from me later :)
Thanks for reading,
Charlotte xxx

100 Follower Giveaway Update

Hello everyone,
Just a quick update post on my 100 follower giveaway. I've extended it until 23/03/2012! This is mainly to allow all of my followers more time to enter and also I get my scholarship from university then and I want to add some little extra's to the prize so keep an eye out ;P
Thanks for reading :)
Charlotte xxx

Cloud Nails

hello everyone :)
Today I have a new mani for you all to feast your eyes on. I've loved the "cloud" style manis i've seen on nailsides blog, and I always said I'd give it a go and never got around to it. well I finally did and I absolutely love how it turned out! Take a look...

I used 2 coats of OPI Play The Peonies as the base colour. I then used 1 coat of OPI Pink Friday to create the first cloud shape and then topped this off with 1 coat of OPI Super bass Shatter to create the final cloud shape. 

Here's a closer image so you can really see the different colours I used. I liked using the two subtle pinks together and then adding a deeper pop of colour with the purple shatter, I think the colours work really well together. I also think this picture shows how well my photography is progressing, leave a comment telling me what you think and maybe some tips to help me improve even more? :)

To create the cloud shapes I let a drop of polish collect at the tip of the brush and used that to create the rounded end of the cloud shape, then repeated 3 times on each nail. The shatter was harder to do as I had to be really careful not to overlap strokes or I ended up with darker patches or less crackle etc :P Overall, I really enjoyed this mani, everything about it made me smile. a lot of my friends at uni had never seen anything like this before so I had to explain several times how to do it :P I will try this mani again soon but with different colour schemes. 

I'll be putting the 52 week challenge post up tomorrow :)

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment on anything about this mani or my photo skills :)

Charlotte xxx

Five Friday Favourites

Hello everyone :)
Wow, it's Friday again! This week seems to have gone so quick, where has the time gone?
anyway I'm back with another of my five Friday favourites, here's what I picked for you all this week...

1. These green ombre nails are perfect for the coming months - http://www.alllacqueredup.com/

2. I love all things nautical, that includes these cute nails - http://thelacquerfiles.blogspot.com

3. I've fallen in love with these delicate flower nails - http://thecrumpet.blogspot.com

4.  These nails look so interesting, need to try! - http://www.nailpolishwars.com

5. Spiderman nails!! - http://nailasaurus.blogspot.com/

That's all for this week. Keep an eye out tomorrow for a post on a new mani I tried out and also a new challenge post on Sunday!

thanks for reading,

Charlotte xxx

52 Week Challenge Week 7

Hello everyone :)
This weeks 52 week challenge was Valentines Day nails. I spent a long time looking for inspiration for this weeks challenge and their were several things I was sure of: I wanted to use pinks and white and I wanted some sort of nail art at the tip of the nail. So here's what I came up with...

I used 4 coats of OPI Isn't That Precious as the base colour. This polish is a new one and its absolutely beautiful, even though it took several coats to build up the colour pay off is worth it :) I then used two coats of Models Own Pink Blush for the V shaped tips, which I freehanded and am rather proud of :P I then used OPI Alpine snow and a dotting tool to add the small dots. 

Originally I wanted to add a love heart to the thumb and ring nail to add a little extra something to this mani but I knew I'd mess it up and get angry at myself, so I left it. I really like how it turned out actually. The colours worked well together and it was super cute and sweet and girly.

Also since I've been using Nail Envy for around 3 weeks now I've noticed my nails haven;t been chipping. Usually my nail polish starts to chip around 1-2 days after application, after using nail envy this doesn't happen anymore. I've also noticed my nails no longer peel or split horizontally, I am very impressed. Also I've barely made a dent in the bottle and I use it all the time :P

I hope you like my Valentines day mani, let me know what you think in the comments :)

Thanks for reading :)

Charlotte xxx

Nail Mail

Hello everyone :)
Just a quick post today on all the nail mail I've received in the past week and a half :P There's rather a lot, I didn't think there was that much when I sorted through it all in my head but when I got them all together to photograph.. well that's another story :P Some of these polishes you'll have seen before in my Secret Valentine post but I thought I'd still include them to give you a better look at them :) Most of these polishes were from swaps with ladies who wanted bottles of Max Factor Fantasy Fire and other Barry M and Models Own polishes.

Top row, lefgt to right - Technic holographic polish, H&M Berry Love, Essence Twins: Bella & Edward, Gabriella & Troy, Romeo & Julia and Chuck & Blair

Middle row, left to right - Max Factor Fantasy Fire, China Glaze: Tickle My Triangle, Octa Gone Wild & Fireside Glow, Sinful Colors Hottie, Wet N Wild: Lady Luck & Hallucinate, Sally Hansen: Caribbean Coral, Pink Boa & Going Green, NOPI Yellow, It's Me.

Bottom row, left to right - Julep Diane, Funky Fingers Diva, Kleancolor: Starry Purple & Aurora, Sally Hansen: Gray By Gray & Iced Coffee, OPI: Mad As A Hatter & Russian Navy Matte.

Pheww.. I'm tired after listing all that polish :P And I have more on the way :P I definitely have a problem :P
But just look at how beautiful all my new beauty's are :P I have fallen in love with Mad As A Hatter even more now that I own it :D What are you favourite ways to wear glitter polish? I want to use Mad As A Hatter in a really creative mani somehow :P
Thanks for reading :)
Charlotte xxx

Five Friday Favourites

Hello everyone :)
I'm back again with another Five Friday Favourites post :)  here's what I picked this week...

1. I love peter pan collars on everything so these nails have made me fall in love! :D - http://thebeautydepartment.com

2. Another beautiful nude and lace mani - http://wackylaki.blogspot.com/

3. This double heart mani is super simple and extra cute - http://ohthatsyou.com/blog/

4. I've never tried galaxy nails but seeing stuff like this really makes me want a go! :P - http://mrcandiipants.tumblr.com/

5. I love these graducted heart nails, they're so cute especially for Valentines day ;P - http://www.chalkboardnails.com/

That's all for this week guys :) Keep an eye out tomorrow for a nail mail post and the 52 Week Challenge post on Sunday :)

Thanks for reading :)

Charlotte xxx

Fantasy Fire, Essie Shine Of The Times and Finger Paints Twisted

Hello everyone :)
Wow, this week has been so hectic. I got my choreography marks back today and I got a 2:1, I'm so pleased, hopefully this means I'll get my scholarship again next year :D Anyway, on to the nails. I['ve done about 3 mani's this week that I'll be posting over the next few days. I thought I'd start by showing you how I used my new bottle of Max Factor Fantasy Fire :D...

I used 4 coats of Max Factor Fantasy Fire as I didn't want to layer it and lose the base colour. However, as it's such a small bottle of polish next time I will layer it over a similarly coloured purple polish. It really is a gorgeous deep purple colour that shimmers different colours in the light, on its own it has a very sheer/jelly like sheen to it, it really is beautiful.

I then layered 1 coat of Essie Shine Of The Times over all of my nails except for my ring finger which has 1 coat of Finger Paints Twisted. I love how the flakies look slightly pastel coloured, it's beautiful. I will definitely try this combo out again with other flakie polishes.

These pictures make it obvious how sheer the polish is but in real life you couldn't see the tips of my nails as clearly as this. I really love fantasy fire, i urge all of you to go out and buy a bottle right now! :P
Also, keep an eye out this weekend for a post on all of my nail mail. I've received lots of international nail mail this week from different ladies. I sent them all a selection of models own, Barry M and Max Factor Fantasy Fire. yesterday I received a package containing: China Glaze Tickle My Triangle, China Glaze Octa Gone Wild and...drum roll please... OPI MAD AS A HATTER!!! :D So keep an eye out for that post :P
Thanks for reading :)
Charlotte xxx

Cute Blog Award

Hello everyone :)

I've been given the Cute Blog Award by Amy over at Marzipan Stairway, check out her blog if you haven't already; it's amazing :)

So here are the rules...
Link back to the person who awarded you
Answer award questions
Share something about yourself you haven't shared on your blog
Award as many blogs as you think are worthy of this award

Questions:
1.What is your go to make up product?
Probably my eyeliner, it makes my eyes look huge :p

2. Favourite fashion trend of 2011?
Skater skirts :)

3. Favourite colour?
Any shade of pink :D

4.What was the last song you listened to?
David Guetta and Nicki Minaj - Turn Me On

5.Cats or Dogs?
Cats, I have 3 :)

6. What's your middle name?
Louise

Something I've never shared on my blog before...
When I was about 2 years old I fell over with a baby bottle in my mouth and split my tongue straight down the centre and took a chunk out of the tip. I have a scar that makes me look like a snake on my tongue now :P

I'm just going to go through the blogs I follow and pick 5 at random to award this to:
http://persistentglitter.blogspot.com/
http://pishposhandpolish.blogspot.com/
http://caitlinscreativecorner.blogspot.com/
http://www.nailedblog.com/
http://therockchicksrambles.blogspot.com/

Check out all the above blogs they are awesome :)
Thanks for reading,
Charlotte xxx

52 Week Challenge Week 6

Hello everyone,
For this weeks 52 week challenge we had to do a half moon manicure. Now I've been looking at beautiful half moon nails since last summer so I knew what it was supposed to look like. After reading several blogs I knew that hole reinforcement stickers were generally used so off I went to find some around town. Nowhere had any. So I looked for plain circle/dot stickers that I could use. Nowhere had any. I was not happy at all, so I had to freehand my nails and I'm a perfectionist so naturally I hate them because the line isn't clean enough :P Anyway here's my take on half moon nails...

Now for my first attempt and having to freehand it, I don't think I did too bad. I really love the colours I used. I imagine this would look lovely in the summer especially when I have more colour to my skin :P

I really like the style of half moon nails and you can use so many different colour combinations, it's one of those things that will suit everyone. I used three coats of China Glaze Happy Go Lucky and two coats of NOPI Yellow, It's Me for the base then used two coats of Sally Hansen Going Green for the top colour. I think I will defiantly try this again when I can get my hands on some hole reinforcement stickers. I really love how this looks on the nails, it's such a simple mani that you can make more complex with different colours etc. I took it straight off after taking the photos though as the messy lines were killing me to look at :P
Thanks for reading :)
Charlotte xxx

My Paa Secret Valentine Has Arrived!

Hello everyone :)
Over at the Polish-aholics Anonymous group on facebook we arranged a Secret valentine. Much like the secret Santa we did at Christmas but for Valentines day. We had a limit of $15 which is just under £10. :P People have been putting pictures up in the group of their wonderful packages and I was desperately waiting every day to see if it was the day for mine turn up. Yesterday the postman turned up in a van with about 8 parcels for me all tied together with a rubber band, the biggest at the bottom had a customs form on and soon as I saw it I knew it was my secret valentine. I had to restrain myself to not rip it open straight away as I had to fetch my camera :P So here it is...

So here's my package, It was super heavy I was so excited. I just wanted to rip it open so fast! :P So after taking the obligatory package shot I went to work ripping the thing open :P

The package was literally like a magical bag, I just kept pulling things out of it, I was genuinely amazed at how much you can get in America for $15. In the UK we're lucky to be able to send more than 4 polishes for the price limit, and if you get something like this you feel bad because our polish is super expensive :( As soon as I took this photo my son ran off with his bath scrub and the sweets, he was so excited as Cars is his favorite film, I was so pleased that my Valentine included something for him :)

Everything was wrapped so well so I had no breakages or anything which is also great :) After unwrapping everything I went in the purse and found a super cute bracelet and a note from my valentine: Giovanna Rivas Hernandez. When we applied for Secret valentine we had to fill in a clue form to help our valentine pick polish that we would like.. My valentine got everything spot on. Most of these are brands I've never tried or don't have access too so I was so pleased and I know I will wear all of the colours she picked for me. 

Here's a close up of just the polishes. From left to right I got: Julep Diane, Funky Fingers Diva, Wet N Wild Lady Luck, Kleancolor Starry Purple, Kleancolor Aurora, Sally Hansen Going Green, Sally Hansen  Pink Boa, Sally Hansen Caribbean Coral, Nicole By OPI Yellow, It's Me, Sinful Colors Hottie and Wet N Wild Hallucinate. I was so excited about all of these polishes, I put Yellow, It's Me on straight away! :P 

I hope you've enjoyed reading about my wonderful present :) I'll be doing more posts of nail mail this week as I've got a few packages coming from several girls in PAA.

Thanks for reading,

Charlotte xxx

Five Friday Favorites

Hello everyone :)
It's time for Five Friday favorites :) I've realized when I'm looking for interesting mani's on pinterest to post here I always seem to find things that I can use in the 52 week challenge, its so weird :P Anyway here's my five favorites of this week...

I'm loving these nails for valentines day :) - http://www.nail-art.fr/

I love these different shaded dots, they're so fun and cute :) - http://anotherbottleofpolish.blogspot.com/

I am in love with these heart leopard print nails - http://thesugarcubeblog.blogspot.com/

I'm on a roll with all these valentines day nails but they're so cute!! - http://www.rina-alcantara.com/2012/01/nail-art-tutorial-cluttered-hearts.html

These owls are super cute :) I have such an obsession with owls at the minute :P - http://www.chalkboardnails.com/

make sure you check out all the amazing blogs I've listed above, they're great to read and all the designs are brilliant, I'm so jealous :P

Thanks for reading :)

Charlotte xxx

OPI Guy Meets Gal-Veston & China Glaze Dynasty

Hello everyone,
I've had another busy week this week. It was sons 2nd Birthday yesterday so we had lots of fun playing with new toys! :D So I've not had much time to do my nails this week as I was preparing things for my sons birthday but here's how I did my nails for his birthday.

I used 4-5 coats of OPI Guy Meets Gal-Veston. I love this polish, my pictures make it look red, it's actually more of a coral colour but it is gorgeous. I originally bought this polish with several other of the sorbet finish polishes to use in jelly sandwich nails but I used it in this mani as a base for a new glitter....

I layered 2 coats of China Glaze Dynasty over the top (The bottle is China Glaze Love Marilyn, I couldn't find Dynasty to take the photo :P) This glitter is gorgeous, it looks orange in the bottle so I didn't know what would happen when I layered it but the base colour didn't change in the slightest I just got all the lovely glitter :D

On me this polish looks very red but I really liked it, I don't normally wear reds/corals as I'm so pale but I think this combination might have converted me! :P Also, if you wondered why I did this for my sons birthday.. His favorite film is Cars/Cars 2 and he is obsessed with the main car in it (Lightning McQueen) and he is red :P And I added some sparkle because my little boy loves "sparklies" as he calls them :P Tell me what you think of this combo in the comments :)
Thanks for reading,
Charlotte xxx

Off Topic Post

Hello everyone! :)
This post is a little bit off topic but here it goes anyway. This past week I've got a new Iphone 4s and was looking into buying a blinged out case for it, all the ones I found online looked rubbish to be honest and I thought I'd have a go at making my own :P So all the stuff arrived yesterday and I got stuck into it. Here's what I made...

I'm so proud of it and how it turned out! It's super cute and I've had many comments on it already, quite a few people couldn't believe I'd made it myself :P Several people told me I should sell them which got me thinking. So I'm asking my followers to find out if anyone would buy them. I'd make them so you'd pick the colours, design, the big pieces etc, so every piece would be one of a kind and at an affordable price. I really enjoyed making these so I wouldn't want to rip people off, I just really enjoy creating things and want to make people happy :) So if you could let me know in the comments section if you or anyone you know would buy one.. it's not you saying that you will definitely buy one, I just want to see if there's interest :) Although, if you do see this and think, "OHMYGOD I need one now," then please email me at charlotte_louise_xo@live.co.uk for more information. Also for the polish-a-aholics amongst us, I can get nail polish pieces to put on these cases ;P
Also, keep an eye out for a nail post later to make up for this off topic one :P
Thanks for reading :)
Charlotte xxx