52 Week Challenge - Week 2

Hello everyone :)
So it's Sunday again, which means only one thing... a new mani for the 52 week challenge ! :) I'm so excited to check out what everyone else has done with their nails, that's one of the best things about doing a challenge like this, you get to see how others interpret the themes. Anyway it's week 2 which is listed as a french tip mani, now I'm not a big fan of french tip mani's as they're very delicate and have to be perfect or they don't look too great. They look beautiful on some people but I don't really like them on myself. So originally I was going to do a funky tape french mani, but then I changed my mind :P I got a couple of ideas in my head that got a bit ambitious :P Then I decided I'd keep it to a simple french with classic colours but jazz it up a little bit, so here's what I came up with...

I really loved how this turned out. I used two coats of Rimmel French Rose which is a very sheer pale pink polish. I then layered one coat of OPI Princesses Rule over the top to give a beautiful shimmery effect, which I really love :) I freehanded the white tips with OPI Alpine Snow and then used OPI Glow Up Already along the edge to hide any imperfections. I then used my Models Own black nail art pen to draw a lace pattern onto my ring finger and thumb nails to make them more interesting to look at and added a heart from NOPI Step To The Beat Of My <3 onto the corner of the accent nails.

Here's a close up of my thumb so you can see the lace design better. I really love how all the polishes together and the designs came together to make it look just enough, so it's not too over the top and didn't load down the nail with too many designs/colours.

I really love this challenge already. It's making me try different things that I never would have tried if I wasn't taking part in this challenge. As I said at the start of this post I really don't like french mani's and this has changed my mind. I love how this look turned out, it's simple and cute but the accent nails make it pop just enough to make it interesting without being too much. I'm so excited to see what the others have come up with.

Here's a list of the other girls taking part:

Liz Marie at http://imsimply-complex.blogspot.com/

Kristen at http://darlingnails.blogspot.com/

Caitlin at http://addicted2nails-caitst.blogspot.com/

Sarah at http://prncesssarah02nailloving.blogspot.com/p/challenge-time.html

Jenna at http://www.jennafroggy.com/

Rachel-Karina at http://polishedcriminails.blogspot.com/

Nicel at http://operationnailit.blogspot.com/

Lissa at http://lissasnailblog.wordpress.com/

Liz at http://nothingbutnailpolish.blogspot.com/

Olivia at http://olivia2901.blogspot.com/

Cindy at http://squarepolish.blogspot.com/

Marie at http://polishpolishpolish.blogspot.com/

Laurie at http://lauriestrodesfunwithnails.blogspot.com/

Charlotte at http://nailsactually.blogspot.com/

Kaki at http://www.glitterobsession.com/

Treselaine at http://treschicnails.blogspot.com/

Gypsy at http://gypsysglitter.blogspot.com/

Carol at http://nailsbycarol.blogspot.com/

Thanks for reading :)
Charlotte xxx

The Versatile Blogger Award

I got this award from two lovely ladies from Northern Nails and Nail Project 2012. They're both lovely with great blogs so check them out :)

There are two rules that come with this award:

1.) List seven things about yourself

2.) Pass to 15 bloggers

Seven things about me:

1. I'm a first year University student studying a BA Hons in Dance.

2. I have a wonderful boyfriend and a beautiful little boy :)

3. I'm slowly turning some of my friends into Polish-aholics :P

4. I have a great love for all things pink, sparkly, leopard print and hello kitty :)

5. I am allergic to oranges, pineapple and cinnamon.

6. I am desperate to have pastel pink hair

7. I am terrified of spiders and clowns.

I forward this to:

1.http://glam-polish.blogspot.com/

2. http://thethingilikenow.blogspot.com/

3. http://nailsactually.blogspot.com/

4. http://caitlinscreativecorner.blogspot.com/

5. http://www.groupieglam.com/

6. http://www.jennafroggy.com/

7. http://www.glitterobsession.com/

8. http://pointlesscafe.blogspot.com/

9. http://hookedbyhollysagemini.blogspot.com/

10. http://addictedtoopi.blogspot.com/

11. http://colourismagic.blogspot.com/

12. http://somethingpolished.blogspot.com/

13. http://nothingbutnailpolish.blogspot.com/

14. http://manicurity.blogspot.com/

15. http://followtheyellowpolishroad.blogspot.com/

Check out all the above blogs too, they're well worth the visit :)

And make sure to watch out for Week 2 of the 52 week challenge tomorrow.

Thanks for reading,

Charlotte :) xxx 

Five Friday Favorites

Hello everyone,
I'm starting a new weekly feature which will help keep me posting regularly to my blog :) I spend a lot of my spare time browsing blogs and pinterest for nail art and swatches so I thought why not share my favorites with you each week? and keeping with the alliterative Friday favorites why not have five :P So here we go, my first five Friday favorites :)

1. This penguin accent nail from http://followtheyellowpolishroad.blogspot.com/ is so cute. :)

2. These super cute owl nails are from http://supanails.tumblr.com/

3.These nails remind me of delicate china vases :) http://joyful.blogg.no/

4. These bumblebee nails would be great for summer :)  http://emilysnailfiles.blogspot.com/

5. These nails remind me of cookies :P Simple but so beautiful. http://pandoras-nails.blogspot.com/

I hope you've enjoyed seeing some of my favorite nails from some very creative people, check their blogs out :)

Thanks for reading,

Charlotte xxx

My First Award :)

I'm so excited to tell you all that I received a Liebster Blog Award from Nail Project 2012 and I'm Still Thinking.... Thank you so much, this award means a lot to me so thanks for sharing :)

"Liebster is a German word, meaning dearest or beloved, but it can also mean favorite.  The idea behind the Liebster Blog Award is that it is given to bloggers who have less than 200 followers in order to create new connections and bring attention to these wonderful blogs!"

The Rules are:

1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.

2. Reveal the five blogs you have chosen and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

3. Copy and paste the award onto your blog.

4. Request that people you have sent the award to forward it on to their favorite bloggers.

The bloggers I choose for this award are:

1. http://agirlandherpolish.blogspot.com/

2. http://thedragonlady-nailstoscales.blogspot.com/

3. http://polishandcharms.blogspot.com/

4. http://www.nailedblog.com/

5. http://colourismagic.blogspot.com/

Check out the above blogs, seriously they're all amazing :)

Thanks for reading :)

Charlotte xx

OPI Rumples Wiggin' & Color Club Sugarplum Fairy

Hello everyone :)
Today I have another sparkly mani for you to feast your eyes on :P I wanted to use one of my untrieds from Color Clubs Beyond The Mistletoe set and decided on Sugarplum fairy which is a beautiful mix of light purple and holographic glitter. I decided I wanted to layer it over a similar colour and decided upon another untried OPI's Rumples Wiggin' from the Shrek Forever After collection. So here's what I came up with...

I really love how this mani changes depending on the light you see it in. In the shade it's very subtle and cute but when the light hits it the holo glitter comes out to play and even with a thin layer its really striking.

For this look I used three coats of OPI's Rumples Wiggin' which covered well and gave a great pastel purple colour without being too pale. I then layered one coat of Colour Clubs Sugarplum Fairy over the top and sealed with Seche Vite. I was very surprised with this mani as usually my nails chip after 1/2 days and have major tip wear. I've had this mani on for 3 days and only have one minor chip and barely any tip wear, colour me impressed :)

I also messed around with some bottle shots and I really liked how this one turned out, slightly blurry so you can see the holo effect. I think i'll start taking bottle pictures for my posts from now on, they look much cleaner and more professional.

Thanks for reading :)
Charlotte xxx

52 Week Challenge - Week 1

Hello everyone :)
Whilst browsing around the PAA facebook I found out about the 52 week challenge from a post by Liz Marie Rodriguez over at http://imsimply-complex.blogspot.com/. I thought it would be interesting to take part in, so here's the list for you to look at..
1. Jan. 1st - "Make it Sparkle" Mani
2. Jan. 8th - French Tip Mani
3. Jan. 15th - Color Block Mani
4. Jan. 22nd - Plaid Mani
5. Jan. 29th - Newspaper Mani
6. Feb. 5th - Half Moon Mani
7. Feb. 12th - Valentines Day Mani
8. Feb. 19th - Corest Mani
9. Feb. 26th - "Vintage" Mani
10. Mar. 4th - Polka Dot Mani
11. Mar. 11th - "St. Patricks Day" Mani
12. Mar. 18th - Skittle Mani
13. Mar. 25th - Ruffian mani
14. Apr. 1st - Striped Mani
15. Apr. 8th - "Easter Day" mani
16. Apr. 15th - Dotticure Mani
17. Apr. 22nd - "Earth Appreciation" Mani
18. Apr. 29th - Cartoon Mani
19. May 6th - Floral Mani
20. May 13th - Bows Mani
21. May 20th - Fruit Mani
22. May 27th - Splatter Mani
23. Jun 3rd - Ombre Mani
24. Jun 10th - Flag Mani
25. Jun 17th - Pride/Rainbow Mani
26. Jun 24th - Neon Mani
27. July 1st - "4th of July" Mani
28. July 8th - Gradient Mani
29. July 15th - "Rockstar" Mani
30. July 22nd - Water Marble Mani
31. July 29th - Crackle Mani
32. Aug. 5th - Needle Marble Mani
33. Aug. 12th - Galaxy Mani
34. Aug. 19th - "Bling" Mani
35. Aug. 26th - Cupcake Mani
36. Sept. 2nd - Tape Mani
37. Sept. 9th - "We Remember 9/11" Mani
38. Sept. 16th - Metallic/Magnetic Mani
39. Sept. 23rd - Dry Marble Mani
40. Sept. 30th - Animal Print Mani
41. Oct. 7th - Patchwork Mani
42. Oct. 14th - "Pink 4 Breast Cancer Awareness" Mani
43. Oct. 21st - Spider Web Mani
44. Oct. 28th - Halloween Mani
45. Nov. 4th - Tribal Mani
46. Nov. 11th - "Mustache 4 Movember: Prostate Cancer Awareness" Mani
47. Nov. 18th - Thanksgiving Day Mani
48. Nov. 25th - Feather Mani
49. Dec 2nd - Glitter Sandwich Mani
50. Dec. 9th - Snowflake Mani
51. Dec. 16th - Red Mani
52. Dec. 23rd - Christmas Mani
53. Dec. 30/31 - You've learned enough, go all out and show 2013 what it's all about!!

Other bloggers taking part in the challenge:

Liz Marie at http://imsimply-complex.blogspot.com/

Kristen at http://darlingnails.blogspot.com/

Caitlin at http://addicted2nails-caitst.blogspot.com/

Sarah at http://prncesssarah02nailloving.blogspot.com/p/challenge-time.html

Jenna at http://www.jennafroggy.com/

Rachel-Karina at http://polishedcriminails.blogspot.com/

Nicel at http://operationnailit.blogspot.com/

Lissa at http://lissasnailblog.wordpress.com/

Liz at http://nothingbutnailpolish.blogspot.com/

Olivia at http://olivia2901.blogspot.com/

Cindy at http://squarepolish.blogspot.com/

Marie at http://polishpolishpolish.blogspot.com/

Laurie at http://lauriestrodesfunwithnails.blogspot.com/

Charlotte at http://nailsactually.blogspot.com/

Kaki at http://www.glitterobsession.com/

Treselaine at http://treschicnails.blogspot.com/

Gypsy at http://gypsysglitter.blogspot.com/

This challenge will let me try all different sorts or nail art and techniques and will also give me something to post about every week. I will also continue to do post any other mani's I do between the ones listed above. I'm really looking forward to doing this as there's several things in the challenge which I haven't yet tried.  

Anyway onto the first mani of thew challenge.. Make It Sparkle !


So for this first mani I thought lots of gitter and maybe a firework type of look, here's what I came up with....

Overall I like how this turned out although it doesn't look like fireworks like I had hoped :P

I used two coats of Revlon Lunar as a base for the black nails and two coats of OPI Alpine Snow for the white accent nail. I layered one thick layer of OPI I Lily Love You over the black nails which really bought out all the flakies and glitter and I love all the different colours you can see in the light. I layered one coat of Milani Gems over the accent nail and topped it off with a matte top coat to give the nails different finishes.

A lot of people said they liked the simple colours used in this mani but the glitter and flakies really jazzed it up and make it sparkle. I really enjoyed this mani just because of all the different colours going on :P

I hope you enjoyed this mani and I look forward to continuing with this challenge :)

Charlotte-Louise. xxxx

Penguins

Hello everyone,
Today I'm going to show you a manicure I did a few days ago that I absolutely adored. This was one of my first attempts to do anything Christmas nail art related and I really loved how it turned out. I was browsing around weheartit and pinterest for inspiration for my nails and I stumbled across many penguin manicures and decided this is what I wanted to do. So here we are...

Here are my baby penguins :) Excuse the dragging on my index finger penguin, they took forever to dry :( Anyway I used two coats of Nails Inc. Eagle Street which is a beautiful dusty pink, I originally bought the nails inc set it was in just for this colour :) This polish surprised me with how opaque it is, in future I could get away with using just 1 coat with better application. For the penguins I used Barry M White and a nail art brush, followed by Barry M Black for the eyes with a dotting tool. I then used OPI Chopsticking To My Story for the beak and feet with a dotting tool. Also on my ring fingers I used Nails Inc. Shelton Street (from the same collection) to fashion a little bow tie for my penguin, how cute is that? :) 

Here's a close up of one of my penguins :) I was really pleased with how they came out, everyone I showed them to knew instantly that they were penguins so I'd say they were a success :p 

So I hope you enjoyed seeing my penguin mani and you're all getting ready for a lovely Christmas :)

Charlotte xxx

Snowmen

Hello everyone,
Today I have my snowman mani to show you. I really enjoyed doing this nail art, it took me a while to get it right but when I did I really loved it. Many people who saw this mani thought they were stickers and were amazed when I told them I did them, hopefully that means I'm getting better at my nail art :P Anyway, on with the pictures..

To create this look I used two coats of OPI Ski teal we drop as the base colour. I was really surprised y this colour I could have gotten away with using one coat but I wanted to make sure it fully covered everywhere on my nail so I did two. This colour is such a beautiful dark blue/green mix, reminds me of the night sky which is exactly why I picked it for this mani. I then layered the white glitter snowman polish over the top to give the illusion of snow falling :) It looks beautiful when the light hits the glitter and really does look like the glittering snow.

I did an accent on my thumb nails for once and I'm really pleased with how well my snowman turned out. So here he is :) I used OPI Alpine Snow for the snowman's body, I was surprised at how well this covered the dark base colour as all the whites I've used in the past have basically been rubbish but this one is perfect. I then used Revlon Lunar for the eyes, mouth and buttons using a dotting tool. For the nose I used chopsticking to my story with a small nail art brush. I finally used OPI Come To Poppy for the scarf. Overall I feel this was quite a simple way to do Christmas nails without having to spend a long period of time on them.

I've also been playing about with my camera in the last couple of days, I'm still getting used to it but hopefully my pictures will be improving as I learn more things :) Also, please excuse the state of my cuticles, being old in the cold and the wind for hours everyday really do not help me and I can't seem to get my cuticles to be hydrated and lovely looking :( Any suggestions can be left in the comments section as always :)
Thanks for reading :)
Charlotte xxx

Jelly Sandwich

Hello everyone :)
Today I want to show you all my very first jelly sandwich, I was browsing pictures from blogs and I came across a beautiful jelly sandwich manicure using rainbow connection and a white jelly. So I started thinking bout colours I could use and this is what I came up with...

I used 4/5 coats of Ciate My Fair Lady as a base, this is such a sheer polish but it builds up into such a gorgeous colour I knew this would be beautiful for a jelly sandwich. I then layered Milani Gems over the top and topped it off with one more coat of my fair lady.

I absolutely loved how this turned up, the soft muted pink of my fair lady toned down the bright colours of the glitter and made it more pastel coloured. I had many compliments on these nails, many people told me they reminded them of cupcakes. I think this is great way to wear glitter in a more subtle way, it's so feminine. I will definitely be doing this manicure again with different colours.

Thanks for reading :)
Charlotte xx

Milani Hi-Tech

Hello everyone :)
Today I'll be showing you pictures of Milani Hi-Tech.

This is a little blurry just to show the holo effect of this polish, it really is beautiful to look at. I used two coats of Milani Hi-Tech and topped it with Seche Vite, this is one of my favourite mani's so far.

 I love this polish, it's such a vibrant colour and really catches people's attention. I had several people ask me about it at uni last week. Also the holo effect of it is beautiful, I just couldn't stop staring at my nails :P

I've also been working on "the gap" and it really does make everything look much neater and I'm really pleased with how I'm coming along :P
Anyway thanks for reading :)

Charlotte xoxox