Pastel Retro Squares

Good evening! Sorry I haven't blogged for a while, life got in the way. :( I'm back with a fun nail art design inspired by spring and the sixties: pastel retro squares. I chose pastel colours because I thought it was very nearly spring. Having said that, I did this design on my nails last night and woke up this morning to a blizzard!

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. :)

Owl Always Love You

Happy Valentine's Day! I'm single (again) this year, but instead of moping I like to think of it as a 'me' day. So I'll be spending the day with my hamster Claude, plus Molly Ringwald and the rest of the Brat Pack - yup, I will be watching cheesy eighties films this evening. :) Are you doing anything for Valentine's Day this year?

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!

OPI Stay the Night (Liquid Sand)

Good evening! Today I have one of OPI's new Liquid Sand effect polishes to show you, Stay the Night. I ordered this and Can't Let Go online before Christmas but they only arrived on Friday...and, fair warning, I am about to rant about why.

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?

Happy New Year!

I'm a day late, but happy new year! Did you do anything exciting? A couple of friends and I went to the top of a hill and watched about ten different firework displays going off in the town below us. It was really beautiful.

Today I'm showing you the manicure I wore to celebrate. It doesn't really scream 'New Year' but I haven't done leopard print in a while so that's my excuse! I used a base of OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons, which is now my go-to nude shade, and China Glaze Angel Wings, a dense gold glitter, for the blobs. Finally I outlined it using my trusty black Models Own Wah nail art pen.

This might be one of my favourite leopard print designs yet! :) What did you wear on your nails to ring in the new year?

Black and Gold French Tips

Evening! It was my birthday on Friday - yup, I was born only three days after Christmas. A lot of people seem to think this sucks, but I actually really like it. I don't usually have to work on my birthday, and my friends are usually all around too so it works out pretty well. I turned a quarter of a century old so to mark this feat I went on a night out with my friends. I was pretty restrained in my alcohol intake and only got a little tipsy, yay me. I was wearing five inch wedge boots so my feet were not happy by the end of the night, but apart from that I had a great time. :)

Because I am a weirdo I always like to have a colour theme when I go on a night out, and for my birthday it was black and gold. For my manicure I started with OPI Goldeneye and added a coat of holographic glitter, China Glaze Golden Enchantment, on top. Once it was completely dry I used tape to paint the tips black. Simple but effective.

Do you have a colour theme in mind when you dress up for a night out, or are you less anal than I am? How do you do your own nails for your birthday?

Christmas Snowflakes

Happy end of the world! I celebrated the fact I'm still alive by going shopping and buying myself lots of clothes I don't need. It's my birthday in a week and my friends and I are going on a night out, so obviously I had to get some new shoes. I bought the most ridiculous/amazing black studded wedge boots from Primark...I might break my ankle but at least I'll look awesome doing it. How have you spent the non-apocalypse?

Anyway. Today I have a Christmas snowflake designed inspired by one I saw on AbbieNail last week (you can find it here). Abbie is really talented at freehand nail art and I am so envious of how long her nails are - how does she not break them all the time?!

I didn't have the same polishes as her so I had to improvise. The purple base is OPI Ink and the silver glitter is China Glaze Fairy Dust. I used a Models Own nail art pen for the snowflakes, which took forever to draw. I tried to make them all look a bit different, as everyone knows no two snowflakes are alike. Finally, I stuck a rhinestone in the middle of the larger ones and disco glitter around the edges of the smaller ones.

I also drew them on my right hand and they didn't turn out completely terrible! Hurrah! I actually loved wearing this design - unfortunately it chipped quite badly on the third day, otherwise I'd probably still be wearing it!

Christmas Trees

I have my first Christmas nail art to show you today, and as should be obvious from the title, it features a Christmas tree!

Christmas trees are one of my favourite things about this time of year. Every year my parents and I go to our local tree farm to pick one - my mum and I are really particular about what tree we get so we often spend over an hour choosing. I remember one year my dad had to work at the weekend so my mum and I went together, found a tree, and had a hell of a time squeezing it into her VW Polo to take it home!

I wanted to try this design by Nailside but was short on time, so I simply used a striper and China Glaze Holly-day to make a green triangle on my thumb and ring finger. I filled it in with China Glaze Golden Enchantment and then added some loose disco glitter to represent baubles. Finally I topped the tree with a gold rhinestone and covered with top coat. On my other nails I did two coats of OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons and one of China Glaze Golden Enchantment.

Polished Nail Bar

Last weekend we had a Christmas Fair at work, and I was lucky enough to be one of the stallholders. My colleague in charge of the Fair asked the staff if any of us had anything we wanted to sell and so I suggested a nail bar. To my surprise she loved the idea - the Polished Nail Bar was born!

I had so much fun painting nails. I was there both days and although the weather was rubbish we still had a fantastic turnout (the final figure for the weekend was over 3000 people!). On Saturday I only had six customers, but I was much more popular on Sunday and had a steady stream of people who wanted their nails painted. As it's only a hobby I don't have any professional equipment, but I think I managed to make my stall look pretty good anyway.

The base coat I used on everyone was Nubar Foundation Base Coat, and the top coat was Poshe Super-Fast Drying Top Coat because it dries really quickly and isn't toxic like Seche Vite. Interestingly, although the Christmas-inspired nail wheel I created for the occasion was much admired, everyone went for standard nail painting rather than art or rhinestones. Two of the most popular colours were a-england Avalon and Perceval, which I showed in my previous post.

Finally, here were my own nails for the occasion. On Saturday I wore China Glaze Poinsettia with OPI The Man With the Golden Gun (not my favourite gold leaf combo, it turns out) but I forgot to photograph it, and on Sunday I wore Nails Inc Baker Street with China Glaze Glistening Snow as a French manicure, plus a line of rhinestones.

People keep asking me since if I would do the Christmas Fair again if given the chance, and the answer is: in a heartbeat. I wouldn't want to make a career of it, but if I could spend a couple of days a year painting nails and discussing nail polish...how could I resist?!

OPI The Man With the Golden Gun

Hello! I have a very special nail polish to show you today. OPI The Man With the Golden Gun is the only other polish I bought from the Skyfall Collection (you can see Goldeneye here and On Her Majesty's Secret Service here). I initially passed on buying it because of its completely insane price tag of £30, but guess what? I caved. I know, I'm weak.

The reason The Man With the Golden Gun is so special, and so exorbitantly priced, is because it's a gold leaf top coat. I was so excited when it arrived in the post that I put it straight over what I was already wearing, which was Nails Inc Foubert's Place, a grey/green shade:

This is one coat plus a bit dabbed on where I felt it needed it. The clear base colour was a bit watery and didn't really have enough gold leaf flakes in it, but with a little effort I think it looks great. I tried it over a different colour and I think I like this combination even more. This is one coat over Nubar Boyfriend Jeans:

Do you think the price of this polish is justifiable? What's the most you've ever spent on a single nail polish?

OPI Tasmanian Devil Made Me Do It

Evening! A quick post today because I'm trying something today called intermittent fasting and I am so. So. Hungry. It's supposed to have all sorts of health benefits though (such as lowering one's risk of heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and cancer) so I'm sticking with it. All I can think about right now is food so I'm going to bed pronto - I'm looking forward to eating normally again tomorrow!

OPI Tasmanian Devil Made Me Do It is my favourite red creme in my collection. It's bright and orange-toned and kinda sexy. I don't wear reds very often but when I do, this is the sort I reach for. It has a fantastic formula and slides on in two easy coats.

OPI On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Evening! I've got another OPI Skyfall collection colour to share with you today. OPI On Her Majesty's Secret Service has a greyish blue base with a green, turquoise, pink and purple shimmer. The shimmer is pretty special in that it's really lots of very small flakes (my camera is rubbish at extreme macro shots, but A Polish Addict has a great one here). It's really really beautiful. It had an easy application but the formula was a little sheer and needed three coats for opacity.

So I mentioned recently that when I reached thirty followers I'd have a giveaway. I've already bought the polishes but I was wondering if anyone knows the rules about posting polish within the UK and abroad? I had a look on the Royal Mail website but it wasn't very clear and basically seemed to say, 'Nail polish bad'. Obviously others have done it though so there must be ways!

Post Halloween & OPI Goldeneye

Hi guys! Today I'm showing you my Halloween nails. I meant to post this yesterday but I was ridiculously tired and fell asleep really early! Oh well. Instead of doing more nail art for Halloween itself, I wore a polish to match my costume. I dressed as Clio, the Muse of History, because I am a nerd and history and Greek mythology really interest me. I wore a white Grecian dress and everything else was gold - lips, eyes, nails, jewellery, etc. I think I looked pretty good, if I do say so myself!

The exact nail polish I wore was OPI Goldeneye from the recent Skyfall collection. I absolutely love this polish - definitely one of my favourites of the year. It's a stunning yellow gold colour that seems to be comprised of tiny gold flakes. The first coat was very sheer and I could feel my heart sinking, but by the third coat it was opaque and I was smitten.

I love it so much that I've worn it for four days and will probably wear it even longer. I honestly can't remember the last time I wore the same nail polish for that long!

My Halloween night was brilliant. Three of my best friends came round and we decorated the Halloween-shaped sugar cookies I'd made (you are never too old to do things like this). We then ate too much food and played on Just Dance 4. I even had some trick-or-treaters, which was fun because they were all under the age of about eight and accompanied by their parents. They looked so cute in their costumes! Here are a couple of photos from the night:

My vampire pumpkin

I bought some fingerpuppets which we constructed. This is my friend Becca's Dracula puppet trying to eat her cookies!

The (blurry!) Halloween design I did for my friend Hayley. Two coats of China Glaze I'm With the Lifeguard, one of a random glow-in-the-dark polish and one of Nails Inc Camden crackle - it's meant to look like radioactive waste or something

What did you do for Halloween this year? Is it something you get really into or are you not fussed?