Lazy Days of Summer Challenge - In The Garden

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the lack of posting just recently. I dropped my laptop on the floor and broke my charger so I couldn;t do any blogging :( My replacement charger came today though so prepare for lots of Lazy Days of Summer Challenge posts tomorrow, as we start the Autumn Challenge on Saturday!

So today I have another challenge post for you all, todays theme is In The Garden. I struggled to come up with something creative for this theme. I wanted it to reflect what's in my garden at home and I didn't want to do bugs or insects. I sat down and looked at my back garden for a while and decided to base my nails around the fence at the bottom of our garden, we have blackberries that grow entertwined with the fence and I thought that would look quite good...

For these nails I created a sponged gradient as the base. I painted two coats of OPI What's With The Cattitude? and sponged Jesse's Girl Girls Night Out onto the tips. I then used Models Own Nails Art Pen in Black to create the fence shapes and the birds. I then used a medium sized dotting tool and Fingerpaints Hipnotic to create the little blackberries. 

I'm very pleased with how these turned out, I wanted to add little leaves but I didn't want to ruin it :P 

Keep an eye out tomorrow for lots of catch up posts before I start tje new challenfge on Saturday! :)

Thanks for reading :)

Besr of British roundup 26/08/2012

The weather in the UK may have improved a little but not enough for Vic to justify running off to Cornwall to catch the surf. Instead she's made do with her Surfin' USA mani.

It's been KBShimmer Week this week at The Crumpet 5 polishes, but which was her favourite ?

Laura has been trying out stamping for the first time this week and was particularly fond of her classyblack and silver floral design .

PrettyKittyClaws has been making the most of the sunshine by copying The Crumpet wi th a Red Holo Dotticure. feautring Ozotics 518

Helly at the Nail Newbie got her holo on with a purple holo gradient featuring OPI DS Original!

Charlotte at Charlottes-nails has been catching up with the lazy days of summer challenge with a ruffle accent nail.

Alexis at Glitter Tips managed to overcome a nasty case of nail art block with a Black and Gold NOTD inspired by her jewellery collection.

Claire at nuthin' but a nail thing managed to get hold of some OPI Black Spotted and gave it a go over some bright NEONS.

Seeing as the British weather has been seasonably rainy, there has been a lack of barbaques this year. Unless it is in the form of nail art from Enigmatic Rambles.

Lou entered the Golden Jungle over at Painted Nails & Baking Scales finding some new polish species to describe

This week at Northern Nails there are Turtles in a Guest Post , Also Jo has started a new series of posts called Mashups!

Emma's been busy swatching the newBarry M Burgundy Croc Effects over different colours on Imagination In Colour!

It's texture time in the BFF Challenge and Kerrie from PishPosh and Polish made great use of Heart-Shaped beads but was it a success?

Ruth had some fun with pastel colours and created some colourful zebra nails using her new stampers!

Steph is showing off. Peacock feathers in the (rare) sunshine.

It's been a special week for Allie and in celebration she's been wearing some Sea Green Glitter Birthday Nails.


Dimpal is absolutely loving these fish egg nails Fish Egg Nails she also did Nicole's Me+Blue Mani

Sarah Louise reviews LeaLaC's Stamping Plate XL - A See the post for swatches and a manicure using her first Bettina Nail Polish.

Sam at Polished Art kicked off the 31 Day Challenge with a red leopard print mani.
Kerry starts the first off Nail Inc Sprinkle swatches with Sweets Way.

Lazy Days of Summer Challenge - Dotting Tool Summer Fun

Hello everyone!

As promised, here's another post from the Lazy Days of Summer Challenge! Apparently the Autumn Challenge will be starting on the 1st of September so I need to get the rest for this challenge finished off, so I may post more than once on some days :P Anyway, the theme for this post was dotting tool summer fun. My first thought was to do more flowers with a dotting tool but I wanted to try something I haven't done before. So I decided to do a ruffle mani!

I didn't want these nails to be too in your face so I only did ruffles as an accent nail, I also only used two different colours but I really love how it looks.

 For these nails I used two coats of China Glaze Grape Juice. This is a new polish I bought last week and I absolutly love it. I don't own too many purples and this has beautiful shimmer running all the way through it. It also applied like a dream so naturally it's become a new favorite :P I then used OPI Rumples Wiggin' and China Glaze Octa Gone Wild and a large dotting tool to create the ruffles on my ring finger.

I'm really pleased with how this turned out. However, I think next time I try a ruffle mani I'll use more than two colours for the ruffles, I feel like it isn't as obvious as I'd like. I think this is a good way to wear the ruffle mani without making it too obvious, maybe a work appropriate look? Now, I want to try this out with nude polish!! :P

Thanks for reading :)

Lazy Days of Summer Challenge - Pool Party

Hello everyone!

I'm back to regular posting now and I've really fallen behind with my challenge posts so I'll be posting a lot of these over the next week :) There's even talks of an Autumn challenge happening soon so I better get my skates on and finish this one :P

Today's theme was Pool Party. I found this difficult as I've done a few mani's based around pools and water and things so I really struggled. When I heard pool party though, my first thought was what water looks like when sun hits it, it's all sparkly and bright but also calm and serene, so that's where my inspiration came from...

I decided to keep it pretty simple and go for a water inspired base colour and to create the sparkliness of water reflecting light with glitter.

For these nails I used two coats of Jesse's Girl Mermaids Lagoon for the base, This colour has such a lovely shimmer running through it in the bottle but it barely translates on the nail :( apart from that, the application and colour are perfect! I then layered one thick coat of OPI Last Friday Night over the top.

I really love these two polishes together and they do remind me of water :P I really want to layer Last Friday Night over so many colours as I've only used it over blues, I think it would look beautiful over white, or even in a jelly sandwich! :P

Thanks for reading :)

Birthday Night Out

Hello everyone!

Todays post is focusing on my nails and outfit from my Birthday night out on Saturday! So my theme was pink and sparkly so I tried out loads of idea for my nails, I eventually settled on these...

 I decided to do a sponged graident going from light to dark pink. Please ignore the stupid chipping on my middle finger, clearly my nails don't enjoy clubbing :P

For these nails I used three coats of Color Club Blushing Rose as the base, I then sponged the tip of my nail using Models Own Pink Blush. I was very impressed with how the gradient turned out and I didn;t want to cover it with chunky glitter. So I used one thick coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust, to give just the right amount of sparkle :)

My nails colour coordinated with my outfit and shoes and everything quite well. Here's what I wore on the night...

Super sparkly!! My aim was to look a bit Barbie like... I think I succeeded :P Overall I had a really good night and everyone enjoyed themselves. I got a lot of compliments on my nails in the toilets as well funnily enough :P

Thanks for reading :)

Best of British Roundup 19/08/2012

 Hello everyone!

Here's the second weekly round up of the best of British nail bloggers! I hope you enjoy checking out all the amazing things the wonderful ladies below have been up to this week. Also, keep an eye out later for the final post on my birthday nails and outfit!

It's been a week of Themes over at The Crumpet - the new collection from 365 Days of Color and Red Week - which was your fave? Naturally Debbie wants to show everyone her Monkey See, Monkey Do mani: Britishness.

Vic got a little carried away with one of her Summer Challenge manis this week.Bumble bees suddenly takes on a whole new meaning. Perhaps you've already guessed...

Lou played with some of her polishes from a recent US Polish Swap and had a lot of fun!

Helly wears her heart on her nails with her Love Love mani featuring OPI Steady As She Rose

Has Misha mastered the freehand acrylic paint flower on Enigmatic Rambles?

Abi celebrated her A-England haul with one of her favourite stamps at Volatile Varnish.

PrettyKittyClaws is feeling summery with a Summer Sunset Gradient and has been making room for more with a blog sale!

Emma put up her first giveaway of GOSH Golden Dragon after arriving back from a relaxing holiday!

Sarah played with some of her recent Tony Moly Glitter polishes and created a Yummy Strawberry Manicure .Also check out her swatches for Tony Moly's GS10 - Pinky Star, GS08 - Milky Way & GS09 - Shooting Star.

Jo has been real busy in the real World this week and has a rather empty blog Busy Busy but if you check back later today you may find a suprise post! ;) .

Steph showed us a few of her "favourite things" Also check out her attempt at some nail art =)

Kerrie over at PishPosh and Polish attempted Tribal Nails as part of her Black and White Challenge this week and is happy with the result.

Charlotte from The Colour and The Sparkle has a review of some W7 fluorescent polishes.

Charlotte at Charlottes-nails has been swatching China glaze deviantly daring from her recent polish haul.

Thanks for reading :)

China Glaze Deviantly Daring Swatches

Hello everyone!

Just a quick post from me today. I went on a massive nail polish haul yesterday, oops! :P I visited my local beauty supply and almost cried when I spotted the New Bohemian collection from China Glaze. I only picked up Deviantly Daring though as I'd nearly ran out of money at this point :( So here it is!

This polish is truly beautiful. It's a beautiful blue teal that flashes green in certain lights. It reminds me of Zoya Charla without the glass flecks.

I used two coats of Deviantly Daring for all these swatches, however you could definitely get away with one coat. The application was flawless, I'd liken it to spreading butter :P I think this polish really speaks for itself in the pictures, it's so gorgeous! I just can't stop staring at my nails, I'll be doing something and I'll catch a flash of green and have to have another look at them :P

I'm so glad I picked this beauty up. If you haven't already bought this, then run and do it now!! You seriously won't regret it! :)

Thanks for reading :)

Best Of British - 12/08/2012

Hello everyone!
This is the first weekly round up post for British Nail Bloggers. Every week I'll post a list alongside the other lovely ladies outlined below, which will showcase what we've all been up to.
I hope you all enjoy reading what these ladies have done this week :)

It's been a busy week over at The Crumpet, with tutorials, Time Capsules and the start of a great new series, A to Z of Polish, beginning with A is for England.

Lucie has been busy doing nail art again! Check out her Aquadelic summer nail art dotticure over at Lucy's Stash.

Charlotte at The Colour and The Sparkle shared her first themed manicure: GB Colours.

Lou continued her obsession with all things magnetic on Painted Nails and Baking Scales with Barry M Super Nova.

The Nail Newbie is ready (for her kids) to go back to school with an apple for the teacher.

Enigmatic Rambles took on another nail art challenge this week and dabbled with textured deck chair nails too!

PrettyKittyClaws has been to the Olympics with a British Braid Mani.

Kerrie has been having fun over at PishPosh and Polish creating a Jelly Sandwich manicure with the new HITS MTV polish, Pink Pop.

Jo over at Northern Nails is Rocking a new mani and Rocking the town with photographic evidence! Rock on dude!

Charlotte's been celebrating her 20th birthday in style this week over at Charlottes-Nails with pretty pink fingers for her birthday nails.

Vic at Glowstars.net is still trying to master one stroke painting and her Summer in the Hamptons mani shows that she is at least improving.

Rachel-Karina over at Polished Criminails is bringing a much needed pop of colour to brighten up the British summer with these edible shades from the Beauty UK Candy Collection.

If you're a British Nail Blogger and would like to join all the lovely ladies listed above, then just leave a comment on this post and you will be added to the facebook group :)

Thanks for reading :)

Birthday Nails

Hello everyone!

Just a quick post today to show you what my nails looked like for my birthday! I'm very girly so I decided that my nails would have to be pink. I finally decided I wanted to a do a pink ombre, using different finishes of polish. So here's what I ended up with...

For these nails I used the following polishes from top to bottom: two coats of OPI Pink Friday, three coats of Barry M Pink Silver Glitter, Two coats of OPI Rally Pretty Pink and two coats of China Glaze Tickle My Triangle.

I really loved how these turned out. I got many compliments on them from family and friends as they were all different finishes :P I want to try this style out again in so many different colours now!

I'm still doing nails in the theme of pink and sparkly for my late night out for my birthday; which is next Saturday. So if you have any suggestions please leave them in the comments :)

Thanks for reading :)

Slight off topic post...

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the lack of posting just recently but I've been preparing for my birthday! I turned 20 yesterday and I had such a lovely day so I thought I'd do an off topic post to show you all about my special day :)

The day before my birthday I spent three hours cooking my own birthday cake, here's a slice to show you...

I made myself a six layer rainbow cake! It took hours but I'm so impressed with how it turned out. As were my friends and family as they all thought I'd fail at baking this :P Clearly I'm a master baker ;)

I received a beautiful present from my mum, dad and little boy...

They bought me a Pandora bracelet! The little teapot charm I bought myself with my birthday money from family members and I bought myself the heart charm so my bracelet wasn't too bare :P I've also bought a clip to stop my charms from sliding around but it's not arrived yet :P

And I went for a beautiful lunch with my best friends, here's a picture courtesy of one of them who has an obsession with taking pictures of whatever we eat! :P

Everyone has steak apart from me and my son (who's in the blue top!) The food was super yummy and I had a great time catching up with my favourite people :)

There will also be a post up tomorrow featuring my birthday nails for you all to look at. Again, sorry for the off topic post but I thought some of you might be interested :)

Thanks for reading :)

Birthday Nails Part 2

Hello everyone :)
Just a quick update post today for my birthday nails, I added something to my pink and sparkly nails I posted yesterday. If it's possible I think I've fallen in love with them even more! :P Here's what I added...

I added two coats of Revlon Lunar to create the cloud shapes and then topped off with one thick coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust to add even more sparkle to these nails :)

I really do love these. I thought of adding one of my Hello Kitty water decals on my ring finger as an accent but thought it might look too cluttered. I'll probably add one tomorrow before I do a polish change, so keep an eye out for that :)

Let me know what you think of these nails compared to yesterdays in the comments.

Thanks for reading :)

Pink & Sparkly!

Hello everyone!

It's my 20th birthday next tuesday (August 7th) and me and my friends are going out to celebrate. The theme for my night out is pink and sparkly so obviously I've been thinking about what to do with my nails :P 

So over the next week I will be sharing my experiments with you all :)

Today I have a simple pink and sparkly look that I actually have fallen in love with, however, I'd  like to include more nail art for my birthday mani! Here's what I did..

For these nails I used two coats of Color Club Foil Me Once. I could have gotten away with one coat of this polish but I did two out of habit :P It's such a beautiful light pink foil and it applies beautifully, would you believe this is the first time I've worn this! I then added two thick coats of Models Own Pink Fizz over the top. These polishes compliment each other beautifully, they blend and look like it's one polish rather than two separate ones, it's so gorgeous to look at! :)

I really love how these nails turned out! They're so sparkly and cute. My friends all told me that they're very "me" :P But I want my birthday nails to represent me a bit more, I'd like to add more nail art of things that I love and stuff. This week will be very interesting seeing what i come up with :)

Please leave any suggestions or ideas in the comments to help me! :D

Thanks for reading,