April Showers Challenge - Eggs & Chicks

Hello everyone :)
Today I have another April Showers Challenge post for you all! I really enjoyed thinking something up for this one... Eggs & Chicks! I've been waiting for this one to come up since the start of the challenge as I had so many ideas for it. However, i went with something simple, cute and effective :P

I decided I wanted to do chicks on all of my nails and use an egg for an accent nail, just to break things up a bit but not look too confusing :)

I used 3 coats of OPI You Callin' Me A Lyre? from the new NYC Ballet collection as a base on all nails. For the nails with chicks on I used 2 coats of China Glaze Happy Go Lucky for the bodies, Revlon Lunar and OPI Alpine Snow for the eyes, OPI In MY Back Pocket for the beaks and China Glaze Mahogany Magic for the tuft on their heads :) For the egg nails I used 2 coats of OPI Alpine Snow, followed by a layer of Models Own Disco heaven and one layer of OPI Don't Touch My Tutu over the top.

I'm really pleased with how these turned out! I've received so many compliments on them today which has really made me smile :) I'm really loving this whole challenge actually, it's pushing me to try new nail art ideas and I'm getting better with each challenge I complete. I'm looking forward to finding new challenges to take part in when I've finished this one. So if you know of any let me know in the comments :)

Do you like animal inspired nails? Let me know in the comments :)
Thanks for reading :)
Charlotte xxx

250 Follower Giveaway

Hello everyone :)
Here's my 250 follower giveaway! It's open internationally to all my followers :)
There will be 2 winners.
The prizes are:
1 Barry M magnetic nail polish in Dark Silver & 1 Barry M magnetic nail polish in Blue.
Good luck! :)

April Showers Challenge - Butterflies

Hello everyone :)
I have another April Showers challenge post for you today... Butterflies! I've been dying to do butterfly nails for a long time and never got round to it so I was so excited to see it in this challenge! I've been looking around online and seen some beautiful butterfly nails, so here's how mine turned out...

I think these turned out quite well for saying it was my first go! My boyfriend had no clue what they were when I showed him but my son knew straight away :P My inspiration for these nails was a monarch butterfly, even though they're orange and not pink :P

For these nails I used two coats of OPI Pink Flamenco, I could have gotten away with one coat if I was more careful. This is such a vibrant pink polish, I've fallen in love with it! :) I then used my Models Own Nail Art Pen in black to draw the lines and used a dotting tool and OPI Alpine Snow to create the dots.

I'm so pleased with how vibrant and cute these turned out :) Again, this is one of those kinds of nail art that is very versatile depending on the colour combination. I'd love to try this over a sponged base.

Have you tried butterfly nails? What colours would you use with this nail art? let me know in the comments :)

Keep an eye out for my 250 follower giveaway tomorrow! :D

Thanks for reading :)

Charlotte xxx

April Showers Challenge - Fresh Cut Lawns

Hello everyone :)
Another quick April Showers Challenge post today! The theme for today was... Fresh Cut Lawns. For this theme I was just going to paint my nails green as I was at a loss as to what to do. So I started painting them and then thought that I wasn't trying hard enough, and I'd be put to shame by the other girls amazing nail art! :P So I sat down and thought again and this is what I came up with...

I did a lawn mower cutting grass! :P Not the best or most original idea, but better than just plain green :)

I used OPI What's With The Cattitude? for the sky, OPI Alpine Snow for the cloud tips, Sally Hansen Going Green for the grass and China Glaze Poinsettia & Revlon Lunar for the lawn mower. I used different sized dotting tools to create the grass blades and the lawn mower and the polish brush to create the clouds.

These turned out okay but they looked better in my head :P I hate when that happens but.. oh well :P

I'm really looking forward to the next theme in this challenge...Butterflies!! So keep an eye out for that post soon :) And I have some very exciting things coming up for you all in the next few weeks so watch out for those too ;p

How would you have portrayed Fresh Cut Lawns in nail art? Let me know in the comments :)

Thanks for reading :)

Charlotte xxx

April Showers Challenge Matte Magic & Competition Entry

Hello everyone :)
Today I have another April Showers Challenge post for you. I really struggled with this one.. Matte Magic. Now I know it's simple, but after having challenges where the nail art was laid out already for you this was a hard one :P I didn't want to do a plain colour, so I went to do a layered glitter mani last night to mattify, and it turned out awful. So this morning I sat down and thought about what I could do. I thought about using the word magic in the challenge title in my nail art but couldn't think of a way to do it.
After a while thinking my mum came home from shopping and gave me the Disney Magical Moments cards that me and my son are collecting :P As I was putting them away I noticed the Disney Princesses set and this set off my idea! So I went and drew out some design ideas in my nail art book and when I was satisfied I started painting my nails, here's what happened...

I based my nails on Beauty & The Beast. L-R: Belle's first dress. The Beast's suit. Belle's ball gown. Belles hair with ribbon. This was before I applied the matte top coat.

I actually think I preferred this nail art after I'd applied the Matte top coat. Here's a list of the colours I used:
Belles first dress: OPI Alpine Snow, Sally Hansen Iced Coffee, OPI Ogre The Top Blue & Revlon Lunar.
The beast's suit: Color Club Total Mystery & China Glaze Happy Go Lucky.
Belles second dress: Sally Hansen Iced Coffee, Revlon Lunar, China Glaze Happy Go Lucky & Hot Looks Lemon Soda.
Belles hair with ribbon: China Glaze Mahogany Magic & OPI Ogre The Top Blue.
I created these nails by using the polish brushes and dotting tools.

I'm so pleased with how these turned out! A few months ago, I never would have been able to pull anything like this off. I think these pictures really show how much my nail art skills have improved if you compare them to some of my first blog posts :P I think taking part in challenges have helped me :)

I'm also entering these nails into Neverland Nails Magical Nail art contest :)

Have you done any magic inspired nails? What do you think of Beauty & The Beast? Let me know in the comments :)
Thanks for reading :)
Charlotte xxx

April Showers Challenge - Glitter Tips

Hello everyone :)
Another April Showers Challenge post today :) As soon as I saw glitter tips on the challenge list I knew exactly what I was going to do. Before I set my blog up I did some beautiful glitter tips, which were the first kind of nail art I really attempted that turned out how I wanted them to :P But I didn't even think to take photo's of them at that point.. so I thought I'd recreate them for this challenge! :)

I did gradient glitter tips rather than a solid block of glitter as I think it's prettier to look at and The sparkle looks like it's raining down my nails :P

So for these nails I used 3 coats of OPI Isn't That Precious? as the base colour and then added 1 coat of  OPI Princesses Rule to add some pretty shimmer :) I then used 2 coats of Models Own Juicy Jules on the tips and dragging it down to the middle of my nail. I then added 1 coat of Models Own Pink Fizz in the same way, then 1 coat of OPI Mad As A Hatter to add some more colour. I then added a final coat of Models Own Juicy Jules just to top it all off. Super Sparkly!

Surprisingly these nails weren't really thick and gloopy like I thought they'd be after using so much glitter. I did use a thick coat of top coat though to stop them being so gritty and horrible :P

I used so much glitter on these nails and i loved it! Glitter makes me happy especially when it's colourful and holographic :p I really want to try this out on different coloured bases with matching glitters, I think bright green or orange would be a fun look for summer, I can't wait to try all these ideas out :)

Do you like doing glitter tips? What are your favourite glitter polishes? Let me know in the comments :)

Thanks for reading :)

Charlotte xxx

Week 16 Dotticure Mani

Hello everyone :)
Today I have week 16 of the 52 Week Challenge. This weeks theme was a dotticure mani, and I knew straight away what I was going to do. Over the past few weeks I've seen a few posts on some dotty nails and I loved the look of them and was dying to try them out. I thought I'd wait and save them for this weeks theme, here's what I came up with...

I dotted over the top of yesterdays Ombre nails seeing as I loved them too much to take off just yet :P I created the dots using several different sizes of dotting tools.

I used OPI Alpine Snow, OPI Pink Friday and OPI Pink Flamenco to create the dots, as well as the Gradient which you can read more about in my previous post :)

I really love how this turned out. I used to hate doing nails with polka dots, but now that I have proper dotting tools it is definitely much easier and one of my favourite techniques for nail art. I will be trying this again  with different colours schemes, it's another very versatile way to do nail art.

Do you like using polka dots in nail art? Let me know in the comments :) Also let me know what kind of polishes you'd like to see included in my 250 follower giveaway as I'm going shopping very soon ;)

Thanks for reading :)
Charlotte xxx

April Showers Challenge - Ombre

Hello everyone :)
Today I have another April Showers Challenge post for you. This challenge was Ombre! I've only ever done ombre before and I did it with green polishes. My last ombre was a different shade of green polish on each finger, so this time I decided I'd do a gradient ombre on each finger to make it a bit different from my last attempt.

I was originally going to a different coloured ombre on each finger but I thought that would be too distracting and you wouldn't know where to look. So I just went with pink as it's one of my favourite colours and very pretty for spring :)

I started by painting two coats of OPI Alpine Snow onto all my nails as a base colour to sponge over. I then sponged one thin coat of OPI Pink Friday to the bottom half of my nails. I then topped this with one thin coat of OPI Pink Flamenco to the top half of my nail. I sponged in the middle while the polish was still wet to make the colours blend together a bit better. I then topped it all off with a coat of Wet N Wild Hallucinate to add some sparkle to it :)

These nails are very versatile, just like all the nails I've done recently. You can change the colour scheme so that they're suitable for all occasions, I really want to try this with nudes and glitter, I think they'd be beautiful :)

Have you tried an ombre/gradient mani recently? What techniques and colours do you use? let me know in the comments :)

Thanks for reading :)

Charlotte xxx

April Showers Challenge - A Rainbow After The Rain

Hello everyone :)
Another April Showers Challenge post from me today :) This one was so much fun, I had so many designs I thought about doing. You can google rainbow nails and get so many different kinds of nail art, I was overwhelmed with things to try :P In the end I settled on something, so here it is...

I decided I wanted to do a pretty blue sky and rainbow and cloud kind of design after the gloomy colours from the last mani. So I sponged OPI What's With The Cattitude? over OPI Alpine Snow to look like the sky. I then used a dotting tool to create the rainbow design with H&M Berry Love (red), OPI In My Back Pocket (orange), China Glaze Happy Go Lucky (yellow) and Models Own Jade Stone (green).

For the ring finger I sponged H&M Berry Love, OPI In My Back Pocket & China Glaze Happy Go Lucky onto my bare nail. I really love how this sponged nail worked out. I really like how it looks over a bare nail, I think doing it over a white base would have made it brighter and would have taken too much focus away from the other nails.

I really want to try this again with my nail art brushes to create the rainbow, I think it'd be a lot smoother that way. This will be a really great mani for the summer moths, I think I'll be sporting it quite often :P

Have you used sponged in mani's before? What tips do you? Let me know in the comments :)
Thanks for reading :)
Charlotte xxx

My Stash

Hello everyone :)

Today I have quite a long post for you all. I thought it was about time to show you pictures of all my polish, especially since my collection has expanded rather a lot since I started blogging :P This post is picture heavy so I'll post pictures after the jump...

April Showers Challenge - April Showers

Hello everyone :)
I have another April Showers Challenge post for you today and it's a good one! I;ve seen a few girls from the group do some wonderful April Showers nails and I wanted to do something that none of them had done already. I started searching around for pictures to inspire me and then I thought about some nails I did a little while ago. Here's what I did...

A cloud mani! I did some of these not too long ago and I thought that they'd be perfect to use for this challenge, just using different colours.

I used two coats of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Gray By Gray for the base. I then added two coats of OPI I Vant To Be A Lone Star and created the cloud shapes with the polish brush. I then added 2 coats of Essence Twins Romeo to create the final cloud shapes. I then topped it off with one coat of Essence Twins Blair on the base colour to make it look like the clouds were raining.

I absolutely love how this turned out! Originally, I planned on doing rain covered tulips but I know it would have turned out awful :p. Cloud nails are so versatile, you can create so many different looks just be changing the colours you use.

Have you done a cloud mani? What tools and colours do you use? let me know in the comments :)

Thanks for reading :)

Charlotte xxx

April Showers...Challenge - Glitter Sammy

Hello everyone :)
Today I have another April Showers Challenge post for you! I've been thinking about this glitter/jelly sandwich mani for a while, ever since I started the challenge actually! :P I love doing these kind of nails but I don't own many jelly polishes. However, I found one I liked that I thought was spring appropriate and I went to work...

I decided that for this challenge I wanted to use flakies instead of glitter. That still counts as a glitter sammy doesn't it? :P 

For these nails I used two coats of OPI Guy Meets Gal-Veston as a base, this is one of OPI's sorbet polishes from the Texas collection and it's such a beautiful colour :) I then layered one coat of the White Snowman Polish, which is a dupe of China Glaze Snowglobe. Followed by one coat of Essie Shine Of The Times. I then topped it all off with one more coat of Guy Meets Gal-Veston.

I really love how squishy and bright these nails look :) I think I'll be doing a lot of jelly/glitter sandwiches in the coming warmer months :)

Do you like jelly/glitter sandwich nails? What polishes do you use? let me know in the comments :)

Thanks for reading :)

Charlotte

Week 15 - "Easter Day" Mani

Hello everyone :)
Today I have this weeks 52 week challenge nails to show you! I actually still had my lady bird nails on for Easter Sunday but I wanted to try my first dry water marble for my Easter nails. So last night I created my design on a bag and let it dry over night so that it would be ready for this morning :) So here's what happened...

Okay,so they turned out pretty awful :P But I thought I'd still post them to show you all, and then hopefully they'll get better as I keep practising. They actually didn't look too bad, but camera's show all the flaws :P

I really want to try this out again though as I find it a really interesting idea without the hassle of water marbling, which I hate :P

For these nails I used OPI Pink Friday, OPI Rumples Wiggin', OPI Mermaids Tears, OPI Alpine Snow & OPI What's With The Cattitude?

Also, you may have noticed I reached 250 followers last night!! :D So I'll be having a giveaway starting on the 24th April (that's when I get paid :P) So keep an eye out for that, I have some great prizes in mind for you all :)

Have you tried dry water marbling? How do you make it work successfully? Let me know in the comments :)

Thanks for reading,

Charlotte xxx

April Showers.. Challenge - Ladybirds

Hello everyone :)
Today I'm back with another April Showers Bring May Flowers challenge post. Today's challenge was ladybird nails! Originally I was going to do a scene across my nails like a garden with lady birds but I didn't have enough time :( I will definitely try it in the next few days though :) So here's what I came up with...

I decided to go with ladybirds that are more real rather than cartoon like. So I searched for pictures of lady birds and tried to copy it as well as I could :)

I used two coats of H&M Berry Love for the base on all nails. This polish is my favourite red, it's a jelly polish but it's so bright and beautiful :) I then drew on black tips with Revlon Lunar and added dots for the eyes with OPI Alpine Snow and a dotting tool. I also used dotting tools to create the spots on the wings and the line down the back.

I'm so pleased with how this turned out, I think it's obvious what they are and they're so cute and appropriate for the season at the moment :) Also, my nail art skills are getting better as my right hand looks just as good as my left and that never happens! My son has an obsession with ladybirds at the minute so we've had lots of fun making them crawl all over him :P
what do you think about ladybird nails? Have you ever tried them? Let me know in the comments.
Thanks for reading :)
Charlotte xxx

April Showers Bring May Flowers Challenge

Hello everyone :)
Today I have a new challenge post for you all! I've joined a lovely group of ladies to take part in the "April Showers Bring May Flowers" Challenge. The challenge was created by Hannah over at Polished Prisms. Here's the graphic so you can see what challenges will be coming up...

So the first challenge is spring pastels! Now when I started thinking about this I picked out all my pastel coloured polishes and picked the ones I liked the most together and they reminded me of these...

Yes, mini eggs! So I decided to paint my nails with these colours and make them look like mini eggs :p Here's what my nails turned out like..

I used the following colours for the bases:

Thumb: Hot Looks Lemon Soda

Forefinger: OPI Mermaids Tears

Middle finger: OPI What's With The Cattitude?

Ring finger: OPI Pink Friday

Little finger: OPI Rumples Wiggin'

I also painted little brown dots on my nails to make them resemble mini eggs, I think I could have done a few more to be honest :P I used Sally Hansen Iced Coffee for the dots with a dotting tool. I then covered all my nails with a matte top coat :)

I'm really looking forward to the rest of this challenge :) I'll create a tab at the top of my blog with the challenge list and a list of participants so you can keep track without me having to post it on every challenge post :)

Thanks for reading :)

Charlotte xxx