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

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

Week 12 Skittle Mani

Hello everyone :)
Here;s my 52 week challenge post! This week we had to do a skittle mani. I've never done one before but I've seen so many great takes on this mani on many blogs. I chose to use basic colours as they looked the best, and also very bright colours to stand out more :) Here's a bottle shot of the polishes I used..

From left to right: H&M Berry Love, Models Own Pink Blush, OPI In My Back Pocket, China Glaze Happy Go Lucky and OPI Did It On 'Em

I used many of my untried polishes in this mani, I've discovered some new favourite colours for summer ;P Anyway onto the nails...

I even managed to get my thumb into this photo! :)

I used two coats of all polishes although I could have gotten away with one coat of Berry Love on my thumb, it's super opaque. 

Overall, I really loved this weeks challenge. I think I'll be wearing this mani in different shades and colours throughout the summer. It's just such a fun and cute way to wear colour on your nails.

Have you done a skittle mani? What colours did you use? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for reading :)

Charlotte xxx

Week 11 St. Patrick's Day Nails

Hello everyone :)
Here's this weeks 52 week challenge post! This weeks challenge was to create St. Patrick s Day nails. As soon as I saw this was coming I started looking for ideas on google. Obviously I knew green would involved somewhere :P I finally decided that I wanted to play around with different textures with these nails and use four leaf clovers in the design. So here's what I came up with...

I used 2 coats of OPI Here Today...Aragon Tomorrow Suede for the base on all nails. I then used different sized dotting tools to create the four leaf clovers using Milani Hi-Tech.

I love the different finishes of these polishes together, I think it makes me clovers look they're on grass :P I'm really pleased with how these turned out actually, I think I might be getting the hang of doing dots now! :D
Let me know what you think of this weeks attempt in the comments :)
Thanks for reading :)
Charlotte xxx

Week 10 Polka Dot Nails

Hello everyone :)
Time for another 52 Week Challenge post! This week our challenge was Polka Dots. Now when I think of polka dot nails I think that they're boring, |I don't know why. So I've never done one as they never appealed to me. However I knew this was coming up so I'd been looking around on google for a few weeks to prepare :P I came across some pretty pink and white spotty nails that I liked the look of and decided to combine them with something from one of the other challenges that I wanted to revisit, so here it is...

I used two coats of OPI Nail Envy base coat as a starting point for this mani. I then added reinforcement ring stickers and added 3 coats of OPI Pink Friday. I used OPI Alpine Snow to create the grips with a hair grip as I wanted large polka dots and then topped it all off with OPI Rapidry Topcoat.

I really wanted to go back and try half moon nails again and I found some of the reinforcement stickers a few days ago and I was dying to try them out. I thought they would fit quite well with what I wanted to do for this weeks challenge. I left my thumb and ring finger nail plain as I thought if I did all my nails it would be too much and I wouldn't like them. I really like them like this though, I'm so glad I went back and redid the half moon nails :)

I need to work on my polka dot skills though! :P They're not all the same size and shape which irritated me but I don't think they're too bad for my first try :) I think I'll be doing a lot of dots in future mani's to try and get better :p

What do you think to polka dot nails? Have you got any tips on how to create perfect dots? Let me know in the comments :)
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

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

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

52 Week Challenge - Week 5

Hello everyone :)
It's week 5 of the 52 week challenge! It's going so quickly! But I'm really enjoying this challenge. This week we had to do a newspaper manicure. I've wanted to try this out since I first saw it a couple of months back but never had the time so I'm so glad it came up in the challenge, so here's how I did...

I really loved the whole idea of this weeks mani and was so excited to try it out, however I was rather disappointed :( The print on my nails was so faint you could barely see it unless you got really close to it, which most people don't :P

I used 3 coats of OPI Mermaids Tears, which I have been lemming for a while and finally got my hands on! :) I then dipped my finger in vodka (maybe this is why it didn't work so well? You're supposed to use rubbing alcohol) and covered my nail with a strip of newspaper for about 15-30 seconds depending on how long I could wait :P 

This picture is more an accurate representation of the colour of Mermaids Tears, it's a beautiful muted green :)

I'm really glad I got to try out a newspaper mani finally :P But I wanted a very bold print on my nails compared to this :( Have any of you done a successful newspaper mani? If so let me know what you did in the comments, I really want to try this again until I get the results I want :)
Also don't forget to enter my 50 and 100 follower giveaways :D

Thanks for reading :)
Charlotte xxx

52 Week Challenge Week 4 - Plaid

Hello everyone :)
This weeks 52 week challenge was Plaid. Now I'm not a big fan of plaid nails. They just seem a bit weird to me :P I don't know why but anyway I had some new polishes arrive this week and wanted to use one for the base colour so here's what I came up with...

I used 4-5 coats of OPI Guy Meets Gal-Veston as the base. I've never used any of Sorbet finishes before but I really loved this polish it's such a gorgeous colour that builds really well, this would be perfect for a jelly sandwich :) I then used Models Own Black Nail Art Pen for the black stripes and OPI Alpine snow for the white blocks. I'm not happy with how messy this looks but I never have steady enough hands :P

I'm really enjoying this challenge so far, it's making me try things that I would never normally try and I'm learning a lot of new skills in the process. Also, I've added a page especially for the challenge at the top of my blog, it's got the full list of the challenge and the other girls who are participating so it saves me from keep  posting it every week :P
Hope you enjoyed reading this weeks post :)
Charlotte xxx

52 week challenge - week 3 colour block mani

Hello everyone :)
Today I have my colour blocking mani from the 52 week challenge to show you. Now, when I read it was colour blocking I had to google it as I had no idea what it was :P I looked at lots of mani's that people had done with this theme and they all seemed centred on clothing and patterns, I thought I'd base mine more on colours so I went searching and found this picture..

This shows different colour schemes and I thought I'd use one of these and incorporate some patterns into my mani. So after lots of debating I picked my colours and set out to work.

I decided to use OPI Alpine Snow, OPI Pink Friday, OPI DS Coronation, Barry M Grey and Revlon Lunar as my colours. I started off by painting my nails in alternating colours as the base and then just adding stripes/blocks of colour as I pleased, it was all a bit random this mani :P

Here's a picture of my nails in the sun to show you the scattered holo effect of the DS I used. I only got a few pictures of this mani as I really don't like how it turned out or how it looks. I really like the colour combination but the whole idea of colour blocking isn't something I really like and don't think I'll be repeating any time soon.

What do you think of colour block mani's? What colours and patterns would you use? let me know in the comments, I love reading comments from everyone :) Also, don't forget to enter my 50 follower giveaway :)

Thanks for reading,
Charlotte xxx