I started with two coats of Revlon Minted and, when this had dried, painted on a coat of Essie Mojito Madness. When this was still wet I dabbed it with scrunched up cling film and followed with a coat of China Glaze Golden Enchantment for a bit of sparkle.
I started with a white base before using striping tape to mark off the squares. I used the bottle brushes to carefully paint each coloured square - you definitely need steady hands for this! The colours I used are OPI Done Out in Deco (lilac), OPI Banana Bandanna (yellow), Revlon Minted (green), and a random Color Club pink that doesn't seem to have a name.
I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out, but if you look closely you can see the white bled a bit on my index and little fingers. Boo. Oh well, you can't tell from a distance. :)
It's a bit more pink than it appears in my photos; it's one of those shades that's very difficult to photograph accurately!
My Valentine's manicure this year is based on a design by Chalkboard Nails. She freehanded an adorable pair of owls and I knew I had to give it a go. I love owls - according to my parents I've been obsessed with them since I was little - and recently I've been going owl mad. I've bought an owl necklace, jumper, snood and ring. Owl nails seemed an obvious progression!
The base colour for this design was OPI My Very First Knockwurst, a pinky nude. The two pinks I used for the owls themselves are Essie Tour de Finance and Essie Sure Shot (which I also used for the hearts on my thumb). The heart-shaped rhinestones are from a set I got on eBay.
Right, I'm off to watch Sixteen Candles and eat too much chocolate. Have a great day!
I really liked wearing this but it's not very practical for everyday wear! I think it would look great for a night out though. :)
I used two coats of the leather effect polish. It's not quite as opaque as a normal black so it does really need both coats. It takes a little longer to dry than normal nail polish and you obviously can't apply a top coat or it will ruin the effect, but as long as you're prepared to wait it's fine. It's worth noting that while the polish doesn't dry smooth it also isn't gritty - it doesn't snag on anything. I actually found it quite entertaining to stroke my nails with this on!
The set costs £19 on the Nails Inc website and includes some 3D skulls, but I chose not to use these. I did, however, do some different nail art with this polish, which I'll show you tomorrow. :)
Have you tried the Nails Inc leather effect polish? What do you think of the texture trend? Are you a fan or do you prefer a smooth finish?
After the Rain has a blue shimmer base with multi-coloured glitter - I could see white, red, green, yellow and purple glitter. The base is pretty opaque so it doesn't need undies; this is two coats on its own. It has a great balance of glitter to base and was a breeze to apply.
If We Could Meet By the Sea has small teal and white hex glitter, smaller white glitter and teal bar glitter in a clear base. It's a really pretty combination and it does remind me a bit of the ocean. I've shown a single coat over Essie Turquoise & Caicos - again, it application was very easy. I think this is my favourite of the two!
I ordered from Nail Polish Direct and my previous experiences with them have been very good, but there is no way in H-E double hockey sticks I'm ordering from them again. When my order hadn't arrived after two weeks I emailed them twice to ask where it was and received no reply either time. Like I said, it finally arrived on Friday with no word, just as I was planning to see if I could get my money back through PayPal. Their Facebook page, it turns out, is full of stories similar to mine - although I'm one of the lucky ones because my order did eventually turn up. So basically...order from them at your own risk.
An-y-way. I had to put Stay the Night on immediately. It has a black base with hot pink glitter and dries to a gritty finish. I thought it would mostly just be like glitter that hasn't been top-coated, but it's definitely got something matte going on. I used two coats for the photos.
I wasn't sure what I'd think of the Liquid Sand effect but I actually really like it. I'm still wearing it and I keep running my fingers over my nails to feel the texture. It's rough but not enough so that it's going to catch on anything. My dad is usually pretty uninterested in my nails but when I showed him these he thought they were pretty cool - then suggested I sandpaper the banister with them!
Have you tried any of the OPI Liquid Sand polishes? What do you think of them?
I wasn't the murderer and didn't even guess correctly who it was...boo. But I had a great night anyway. :)
Bad Things is inspired by the TV show True Blood, so I knew I had to buy this polish. It has a deep red jelly base with different shaped red glitter, small black hexes, and silver holographic micro glitter. It also has red hearts - you can see one on my middle finger! This is a surprise favourite for me; I didn't expect to like this polish quite as much as I do. You can build it to opacity on its own but I chose to layer one coat over Orly Ruby.
Second is Diet Cokehead. I love love LOVE the name of this one - it describes me perfectly! Hello, my name is Sophie and I am a Diet Cokehead. I drink it every day (sorry, teeth). Anyway, the polish contains red square and hex glitter, black hexes, and red and black bar glitter in a shimmery silver base. Basically, it looks exactly like a can of Diet Coke can. As with Bad Things it's opaque on its own but I layered it over Barry M Silver Foil instead.
Finally I have Snow Day to show you. It has matte white glitter and disco glitter (which looks slightly yellow in my photos for some reason...) with an iridescent blue shimmer. It's a wintry polish but I think it can look good all year round depending on what you wear under it; I used Essie Borrowed & Blue here. It's packed with glitter so I dabbed it on rather than applying normally, but it wasn't really a bother.
As with yesterday's, the polishes needed two coats of top coat to make them perfectly smooth, and there were no curling glitters. I am a huge fan of Glitzology now and I'll definitely be placing another order very soon. :)
First up is As You Wish. I'm not ashamed to admit I bought this mostly for the name, as The Princess Bride is one of my favourite films. It has large white and holographic teal hex glitter and smaller fuchsia and lavender glitter in a clear base. I layered it over China Glaze Gothic Lolita; there is a lot of glitter in As You Wish so I had to be quite careful applying it that I didn't overload my brush. It gave great coverage in just one coat.
Next up is My Viking Boyfriend. The creator of Glitzology, Stacy, says this is named for her boyfriend, which I think is really cute. This is blue and silver holographic hex glitter, silver squares, dark blue hexes, and silver holo micro glitter. As with As You Wish it's absolutely packed with glitter, so I found it easier to dab it on rather than apply it normally. This is one coat over Nails Inc Baker Street.
Finally I have Skeleton Key. I believe it's inspired by the movie Beetlejuice, which I haven't seen. I absolutely love this one, I think it's my favourite of the three. It has matte black and white glitter (instant WIN) and two shades of purple glitter, all of various shapes and sizes. It contains bar glitter so if don't like that I'd steer clear; I personally love bar glitter! Again this polish is crammed with glitter so you have to be a little careful applying it. I layered one coat over Rimmel Grey Matter; as you can probably tell, I did a slightly thicker coat on my middle finger.
As a general note about all three polishes, they gobble up top coat so I did two generous coats of Poshe to make everything smooth. I'm happy to report I didn't experience any problems with curling glitters (hurrah!). Thanks for reading and pop back tomorrow for part two! :)
