Fall Into Autumn Challenge!

Hello everyone!
Today I have the first post from the new seasonal challenge. This one is titled the Fall Into Autumn Challenge! Without a doubt this is going to be my favourite challenge is it includes school and halloween and all things fall :) So here's a look at all the themes included in this challenge...

So the first theme in this challenge was Back to School. I had an idea in mind from the moment I set eyes on this theme, here's what I came up with...

I decided to do crayon nails! When I was still at school I always used to buy big oxes of crayons to use to colour with, I had to have the biggest and best because that's the way I was :P I still do the same thing now I'm at university ut it's coloured pens instead of crayons :P

For these nails I used lots of different coloured polishes! For the bases of the crayons I used pastel colours (L-R) OPI Pink Friday, OPI What's With The Cattitude, NYC Hint Of Mint and OPI In MY Back Pocket. On top of these colours I used slightly brighter colours to create the actual crayon tip with a small art brush (L-R) Jesse's Girl Cupcake Frosting, Jesse's Girl Girls Night Out, Color Club Twiggie and Color Club Wham! Pow! I then used my Models Own Nail Art Pen in Black to create the black lines. I also used a small brush and acetone to remove some of the base colour around the crayon to allow my natural nail to show through.

I am so impressed with these, I never thought they would turn out as well as they did, I want to use so many different colours to create more of these now! :P I'm really looking forward to the rest of this challenge, there are lots of themes that are quite broad so I can be pretty creative. Keep an eye out for some more posts from me soon! :)

Thanks for reading :)

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 :)

April Showers Challenge - Spring Design of Your Choice

Hello everyone :)
Sorry for the lack of posting over the weekend, I've been ill again :( I'm okay now though so back to the nails! :P
This is the last post for the April Showers challenge :( But I have a few challenges coming up that I'm taking part in so keep an eye out for those soon!
Anyway, this last post for April Showers was labelled as the spring design of your choice. I've been thinking about this one for a while and decided I wanted to combine two things, here's what I came up with...

I knew I wanted to try gradient nails again but I also wanted to do sheep as they remind me of spring and they weren't included in this challenge. So that's how I came up with this idea :)

For these nails I used two coats of OPI What's With The Cattitude? for the base. I then sponged on Color Club Twiggie for the grass and OPI Ogre The Top Blue for the sky. I then used a dotting tool and OPI Alpine Snow to create the sheep's body, Revlon Lunar for the legs and eyes, OPI Pink Friday for the nose and Essence Twins Romeo for the ears. Wow! That's a lot of polish :P

I'm so pleased with how these turned out! You can actually tell what they are and I really like the effect the gradient gives to the background of the sheep :P I'm really going to miss this challenge I had great fun coming up with different designs, but hopefully the next challenges I have lined up will be just as fun and creative :)

What colours do you think look nice in gradients? let me know in the comments :)

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

Floam! & New Models Own Polishes

Hello everyone :)
Today I have a nail post for you all and some swatches of the new models own hed kandi glitter polishes!
I've been looking for the new glitters for about a week since I heard that people had started seeing them pop up in their local boots. Where I go to University, there is a large boots store so I was hopeful I'd find them sooner rather than later. I ventured in today feeling quite happy, the sun was shining and as soon as I walked in these beauties greeted me...

L-R Models Own Disco Heaven, Models Own Indian Ocean & Models Own Ibiza Mix.

I couldn't get my hands on these bottles quick enough! Obviously this put my in an even better mood and off I went to Uni, where I painted the glitters on my already painted nails. So here's some swatches of Disco Heaven and Ibiza Mix over Floam :P I will swatch them again tomorrow on their own and also over black :) if you;d like to see any more layered colour combo's then let me know in the comments and I'll include them in tomorrows post :)

This is two coats of OPI What's With The Cattitude with a layer of Sinful Colors Cinderella on top and then two coats of Nail-Venturous Floam. The blue polishes created a lovely base for Floam to layer on. All the blues melted together and It looked lovely, many people commented on these nails before I put the models own glitter on top. They all suggested it looked like Floam and were happy to know that was the polishes name :P On my ring finger is two coats of Models Own Ibiza Mix, this polish reminds me of a lighter version of OPI Rainbow Connection. It contains small and medium sized multi coloured glitter in a clear base. 

Then there's Models Own Disco Heaven...

This swatch isn't great so I apologise but I'll swatch it again tomorrow for everyone :) Models Own Disco Heaven is a gold glitter that also contains some blue and green glitter scattered within it. It's a really beautiful polish that will look lovely in the coming summer months :)

Also, if you're looking for these polishes in boots at the moment, all cosmetics are 3 for 2 so these 3 polishes cost me only £10. As if you needed any more reason to grab them :P

Thanks for reading :)

Charlotte xxx