Mermaid Water Globe…

So I’m afraid this is going to be a design that you’re going to love or hate – water globes are certainly not for everyone.

I used my trio of homemade polishes called ‘A mermaids life‘ for the base and then added lots of sealife bling, pearls and beads which were all from BornPrettyStore.

To make the orb part, I rolled some ‘picker gel‘ in to a ball and covered it in two layers of gel polish, curing it between each of course. I then carefully picked out the gel and was left with a little hard orb shaped shell.

I then filled it with my glitter, put some gel nail polish round the rim and stuck it to my nail. I cured that first, and then painted around the sphere more thoroughly to ensure it was leak proof. It was then time to fill the orb with oil, and to do so I drilled a little hole in the top (with a nail drill used to attach dangle charms) and pipette some in! I sealed the hole with some more gel polish, cured it, and that’s all there was to it to be honest. I’d watched some tutorials on Youtube and they had like needles and proper UV sculpting gel or whatever, so even though mines was a little more  fiddly I think it still turned out well.

What do you think, do you dig the water globe look? It’s not particularly practical but it’s well stuck down so I doubt it would fall off. I would worry about it popping though as it doesn’t feel incredibly hard.

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BornPrettyStore: Fish Scale Stencils…

So Born Pretty Store sent me some ‘Fish Scale Stencils‘* to review this week. There are 9 stencils in a packet which is a little strange if you intend to use one for each finger though, presuming you have 10 nails to paint of course.

They come on a clear backing which you need to peel them off of and sort of as one sheet. I’d advise being careful when trying to detach them from each other as the stencil vinyl is pretty thin and feels a little delicate. As you can see I managed to tear off the corner, so maybe cutting them would have been better.

The first thing to do is to apply a base colour, I chose a metallic silver, and it’s important you let this dry completely. If you were to place the stencil on any sooner you run the risk of peeling the polish off with it.

Make sure your stencil is fully stuck down on your nail, any gaps will result in the polish leaking underneath it creating an uneven pattern. There are many ways to apply the polish on to the stencil but I chose to sponge it on. By doing it this way I find that it minimizes the amount of leaks, compared to painting it on which can flood the stencil more easily. The length of the stencil is very generous meaning there shouldn’t be an issue if you have longer nails than me. (Let’s face it, that’s not hard.)

After sponging/painting on your top polish, carefully peel off the stencil and hopefully you’ll like what you see! The stencils weren’t as durable as others that I’ve reviewed from BPS, however I still got two nails done from one which isn’t bad going. I didn’t want to push it any further as they were starting to feel too flimsy.

I finished the look off with a top coat and added some typically related decorations – pearls, micro-beads and a shell. (Yawn.) But doesn’t it look pretty!

I know this might seem strange, but the actual stencil part was looking really beautiful after being sponged with my top colour so I trimmed it to fit my nail and stuck it down. I had to apply two coats of seche vite to get it thick enough to achieve a smooth looking finish. Doesn’t it look cool?

The next polish I tried the stencils with was a thermal one – because they’re just so much fun. It’s a lot easier to see the pattern definition with this colour combination too. As you can see there was very little leakage, nothing major enough that it couldn’t be corrected, meaning the stencils did their job – well done stencils!

Below are some Coldfish Scales. Bahahaha goldfish, coldfish? Because the thermal polish is cold. So funny!

The image below quite interesting as a comparison guide. (This is the thermal polish hot by the way.) Can you tell which two nails I did with a fresh stencil? Yup the index and ring. The edges of the fish scales that were done with a used stencil are slightly fuzzier looking, nothing too noticeable and people aren’t usually looking that closely at your nails. (Right?…)

If you would like to try out these Fish Scale Stencils, they are available from BornPrettyStore and are currently (19/10) selling for $1.39 – pretty cheap huh! Don’t be concerned that it’s in dollars, paypal converts your total for you in to your preferred currency, or be worried about the potential cost of shipping – it’s free! If you use my code ‘AZYW10’ you will also get 10% off all full priced items.

Caught in a FishNet…

So for this design I’ve used some ‘Nail Apps’ by OPI in the style called ‘Fishnet’. I’ve used them before, and they are really amazing for a nail wrap – they apply well as they’re flexible and sticky enough, and they don’t chip as easily as normal nail wraps (these are made from real nail lacquer), but they do smell rather strong.

I decided to elevate them from normal nail wraps to nail wraps of the sea gods by adding subtle and controlled sea-themed embellishments. I find it very hard not add to much and know when to stop. At first I only wanted to do an accent nail, but then the other nails looked to naked…

As these are applied and not painted, my right hand was able to make my left hand look pretty for once. Fortunately my non-dominant hand could even manage the placement of some charms, so I went out looking even more like a normal person. (I only ever have one hand painted, and I doubt anyone ever notices but it does worry me in case they think I’m trying to start a strange trend or something.) Look how cute that wee seahorse is!

A Mermaid’s Treasures…

So here’s the design that I created with the three polishes from my ‘A Mermaid’s Life‘ set, displaying how well they work together. Isn’t it just beautiful! I found them so pretty that they became a serious driving hazard. I used ‘A Mermaid’s Tale’ as the base, then coated them in  ‘A Mermaid’s Tears’, finally painting them with ‘A Mermaid’s Dream’ in an ombre style. The pearls and sea-life studs are from BornPrettyStore.

It’s got such a beautiful depth to it, and is super shiny in reality. I’ve actually been wearing them since Wednesday because I can’t bear to take them off. They are also surprisingly chip free, considering I’ve cleaned out my four guineapigs, water changed my 6 fish tanks and been in the pool teaching.

Below shows my layering of the polishes before the additions. It’s a weird one because in the photos the base (A Mermaid’s Tale) looks a lot more blue than it is, it definitely has green and gold tones.