New Year New Neon…

So I received a set of Nails Inc ‘Stay Bright Neons’ for my Christmas and decided to use one of the polishes (‘Claridge gardens’) as the base for my new year nails. The set includes a ‘neon activator’ which you have to apply as a base for the neon colour – it looked a lot like normal white nail varnish to me but it sure did make the neon pop!

I then threw on a sprinkling of holo glitter, which has disappointingly photographed as just silver, and some green round glitter to give me that ‘lets have a party’ feeling.

All the best for 2018 everyone!

Nails Inc Stay Bright Neon Pink.JPG

Nails Inc Stay Bright Neon Pink Party Nails.JPG

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Teal Tassel…

So even though I’ve now broken my ‘no buy’ spate I’m still trying to use the unused, which brought me round to using this little tassel. Now why on earth I would buy a tassel to put on my nail beats me, but at the time I clearly was inspired (way back in March 2016), so I just had to go with it. Turns out tassels are now ‘on trend’ so does that technically mean I was ahead of the curve?…

To be fair, it is pretty cute and somewhat of a novelty being able shaking it around however in terms of day to day practicality I’m not sure how it would really fair. The gemstone’s pretty large and could be easily knocked off…

Tassle Nail Art.png

Too pink?…

So pink is certainly not my default colour. Weirdly enough though, I actually own more nail polish in pink shades than any other. Anyway, with Valentines fast approaching (even though I am actually in a relationship, we don’t technically ‘celebrate’ it) it’s time for another themed design. I love the look of striping tape layered close together, I’ve done it once before in blue tones, and I had plenty of tape in pink to create the same effect. Ta da!

Unfortunately this is a little too pink for me, blergh…

LoveHeartStripingTape
PinkStripingTape

Flamingo…

So I cannot take any credit for the design of this one, it’s a re-creation of a design belonging to Natalia aka Kraken Nails. She’s been a little MIA lately (she’s okay, just super busy) and it was her birthday at the weekend so a group of us on Instagram got together for a collaboration surprise. Unfortunately my email went walk about or I missed the deadline due to being in a different time zone (I’m still not sure) and didn’t make it in to the collage. *sad face* But I still want Natalia to know I’m wishing her a happy birthday so thought I’d share my ‘re-creation’ as a lone wolf seeing as I missed the pack!

If you head on over to my Instagram you’ll be able to see a comparison picture. Natalia creates amazing nail art, usually with just some toothpicks for tool – crazily amazing!

FlamingoNailArt

Sweet Stuff…

So who didn’t get a whole heap of chocolate related gifts this Christmas?! I managed to fool myself into thinking that I’d have some self control and ‘ration’ myself day to day but I’ve basically gorged myself like a vampire in a blood bank. What’s worse is that there’s still loads more left to be eaten… It seemed fitting that I had something sweet on my nails too.

PoseWithPlate
I was gifted this nail stamp from my mum for Christmas. It’s made by a company called ‘Apharsec’ (which I’d never heard of before). The stamping ‘plate’ looked so different as it’s silicone and thick, I really wasn’t sure how to use it so I had to watch the ‘how to’ videos on their website.

Apharsec15
Apharsec15Plate
I understood it quick as it’s so simple and oh my goodness it’s great – there’s no scraper or stamping pad needed! Say what?… You apply the polish to the stamp, then smudge the excess off on a piece of paper, then press the stamp on to your nail. That’s it, done! You know how sometimes with the old stamp/scraper combo it can sometimes be patchy? Not with this bad boy.

PolishApplied
PolishSmudged
If there’s any untidiness around the image, you can just pick it off as it’s silicon!There’s another cool trick to do with it, but I’ve yet to try that out…

I wanted to include photos of the pink ombre stage as I’m now using liquid latex! It saves so much time on clean up plus the peel is so satisfying.

OmbreBeforeThePeel
PinktoPinkOmbre

BornPrettyStore: Colourful Diamond Glitter…

So I think glitter placement is a must do nail design for this time of year – it just screams ‘festive night out’ to me. Although after wearing them for a few days, it’s actually starting to scream ‘any day or night will do as it’s totally fabulous to wear’.

DiamondGlitterGradientPink
This tub of ‘Diamond Glitter‘* was sent to me by BornPrettyStore. It’s absolutely jam packed with the stuff and I advise care upon opening. I had a little look at all the different colours included (blues, pinks, gold, black, silver) and thought it would be perfect to a pink gradient and a blue gradient with them.

ColourfulDiamondGlitter
That tub looks like hell to sift through for the specific colours, but I used my life changing picker gel that I bought a few months ago. (Look how much of it I still have left, you only need a tiny amount and its very ‘reusable’ – I just take it off the toothpick, squidge it around a bit and it’s good to go again!) It makes the job so much easier. I tip the tub out, use the picker in one hand and a normal toothpick in the opposite: the picker picks up the glitter/gem and the toothpick in your other hand helps remove it from the gel.

BPSPickerGel
PickingOutTheColours
So after painting a base coat and applying some slow drying top coat, it’s now time to stick on some of the glitter! Do one nail at a time, obviously, and I use my picker gel for this too. Because it’s malleable you can get it to a really fine point making the small shapes easy to pick up. All I can say is wowza – look at that glittery goodness! (If you’re not following me on Instagram then you should be as I’ll soon be posting videos of just how shiny they are.)

PinkDiamondGlitterGradient
SideViewDiamondGlitter
I’m not the neatest as these kind of placements clearly, I mean they look fine until you take a close up picture like this and you notice all the squint ones… Below you can see a photo with the flash on, weirdly the light pink is coming up gold and the whole colour scheme looks a lot uglier. Fortunately the photos without the flash have been dead true with showing up the real colours.

DiamondGlitterWithFlash
I made sure to double top coat them to seal them all in. No one wants catchy nails *shudders*. Although the diamonds are small enough to almost curve around your nail. I photographed my ring finger as, along with my pinky, it’s my most curved nail meaning that if they were to stick up it would certainly be on that nail – but they don’t!

FlatViewDiamondGlitter
The colours included in the tub work fantastically together, as here’s another gradient except in blue. This one was a little trickier to photograph, as the grey looking ones are actually brilliant silver.  If I’m being honest, I think I prefer the blue. Maybe because it’s winter just now or maybe it’s because I’m not really a ‘pink’ girl. Which do you prefer?

DiamondGlitterGradientBlue
Remember the Diamond Glitter doesn’t have to be used like this, if you click on the link and go to ‘customer images’ there’s a heap of photos to help inspire you (the same with any item from BornPrettyStore actually). I’ve sometimes found it handy for things that I’ve liked the look of but had no idea what to do with them.

Right now, 27/11/2015, you would be able to get the glitter for $1.34 as it’s on sale. (Remember postage is free.) If you order products that are not on sale, you can use my code ‘AZYW10’ to get 10% off.

OMD3 – Day 7 Glittery…

So glitter is just amazing! There was so many glittery things that I could have put on my nails – sequins, loose glitter, glitter polish, charms BUT I went for a loose glitter ombre. Even though it was pink (I’m not really one of those ‘pink girls’) I really liked having it on, I was so reluctant to take it off, insert sad face.

(I could not get a good picture however, so please excuse an out of focus pinky and super cropped photo.)

Day 07 Glittery

Valentines Blobicure…

So this is my second entry into a Valentines Nail Art Competition. Those letters were super tricky, remember I only use polish, so ‘o’s and highlights were pretty hellish. I’m happy with how these turned out!

Valentines Blobicure Nail Art
Valentines Blobicure Nail Art

MiniManiMonth Members Only…

So you know one of those designs that your brain just seems to automatically do when you’re not thinking about it. Well this is one of those designs. When I was done sticking the tape down, and took a look at my fingers I was like ‘Oh no, not this again’. Honestly it’s almost exactly the same as this design from last year. Shockingly uninspired.

Ciate Members Only

Valentines Nail Wheel…

So I’m still not really in the mood for nail art! How terrible. But it’s Valentines day, so who couldn’t paint some themed nail art. To be honest though, they aren’t very loved up looking. Some of them even look suitable for Mothers day… I dislike the majority of them but I’d certainly like to try a few of the techniques again. Sorry or being in such a strange mood! I feel as if I’ve went backwards in my painting/creativity. Anyone agree? Below is this years (2014) and then the photo after that are my designs from last year (2013). What’s wrong with me!

Valentines Nail Art Wheel 2014

Valentines Nail Art 2013