Challenge 12 - Violet Nails.

Hi Girls,

I've sucked this week, sorry for lack of posts. Have you ever had one of those days/weeks where you've just wanted to hide away from the world? That was me this week. There is no real reason for it. My Nan is home from hospital, My Brother is okay. I'm not sure if everything just hit me all at once, but I've hidden away in the bedroom for the majority of the last week. I do my nails in a special area in the living, 'cause I'm special, don't ya know ;-) This meant no manicures whilst hiding.

However, I'm back.

Last weeks challenge was Violet nails. I have not done violet nails. I don't own a violet polish, so I've gone with Purple. I must warn you, this is a rushed job. I wasn't too fussed for this challenge, & I have ideas for the week 13 challenge, so just wanted to go this one done, so I didn't 'Fail.' 

So, not particularly great, but it got this weeks out the way. I think the reason I screwed up the stamping was because it was a bit of a half-arsed manicure. My mind wasn't really in it. Also, where I haven't done anything with my nails this past week, including moisturising, they've really suffered. I've dolloped on an extra lot of moisturiser, & shall make myself carry on from now on. No slacking.

I should be posting something new tomorrow. Maybe. We'll say how I feel tomorrow. :P

Challenge 11 - Glitter Nails.

"I'm like a shooting star, leaping through the sky..."

Hi, Girls!

Sorry for being AWOL. I've had a bad week. My Grandmother is in hospital, & my Brother had a car crash yesterday. The Good news is, someone is watching over us! It's strange, when my Nan went in hospital, I went outside for some me-time and 'spoke' to my Grandpop. He died when I was five, but I was very close to him. I asked if he could watch over all my family & make sure everyone is safe. I'm not a believer in God as such, but I really do believe that he may have helped. 

In other good news, I had a ridiculous amount of things arrive from my Amazon wishlist. Seriously, a ridiculous amount. Our cats are good for food for months.

Because of this, I wanted to do a shooting star manicure to go along with this weeks challenge. They're lucky, & you make a wish on them. Seemed perfect for this week. 

I've said it before, & I'll say it again. Sally Hanson polishes are a bitch to tidy up. Major staining. I've acetoned & I've had a bath, & this was the best I could do clean up up wise.

I'm using a very shoddy camera right now, & this manicure looks so much better in person. All fingers were supposed to be the gradient, but I buggered up the shooting star on the accent nail, & I couldn't be bothered to re-do the gradient. I don't think it looks too out of place. I ended up using a star gem I got in a kit from Poundland. I thought it would make it look very tacky, but I don't think it looks too bad.

I also got a few presents from people to help with Nail Art. I am getting a new camera from a lovely person, so I can't wait for you to get some decent photos.

Love to you all.

"Like a shooting star, across the midnight sky, wherever you are you're going to see me fly."

Challenge 10 - Blue!

Hi Girls!

HAPPY 1st OF MARCH!!!

We have new kittens at The Kitten Cam which gives me something to watch whilst I do my nails. They are adorable. I love black cats!

This weeks challenge is BLUE! I'm not the biggest fan of the colour blue. I used to love it as a kid, then I grew out of my tomboy stage & became more girly. I don't actually have a huge blue selection in my nail polish collection
 I was going to do a blue ocean type design, then I saw Sammy at The Nailasaurus had done this, & after seeing her AMAZING mani, there was no way I was going to touch that one, not without a lot of practice (& tears!)

In the end, I've gone with a simple gradient. As I've said before, it's something I struggle with so will use any excuse to practice the technique.

I don't have hairy fingers. Just a fluffy white cat who has fur that gets EVERYWHERE!

I used Sally Hansens 'Navy Baby' & a silver L&B polish. I still need to work on my sponging, as it still has sponge marks which is annoying.

As you know I'm a big SH fan, however I find the darker shades stain my skin like I've never known. As you can tell, I might have got a bit OTT on the clean up, & then I led in a bath for an hour. I think I've managed to do a good enough job.

You may also be able to tell I broke the nail on my little finger. Sad Face. He's being held together by some nail glue but this weekend I will have to sort him out as  he's a tad ugly, poor fella.

One last thing. My Mum thinks she has a spare camera lying around. This means I get a hand me down & may finally be able to get some decent photos of my manicures, which will make easier viewing too.

Good times.

EDIT: I almost forgot, please go visit my lovely friend, Kathie's Blog. She's pretty awesome.

Happy Valentines Day!

It's here!!! One of my most favourite days of the year. Now, I must confess, we don't actually celebrate Valentines Day as such. I get all excited, but the Mr, not so much. However this year, he's cooking me dinner! I know it doesn't sound like much, but due to his disability, he can't stand for long periods of time, & he can easily fall if his hip locks, but he's said this year he's attempting it. For most people it will be the norm, but when you have a disabled partner, these small things actually mean the most. That isn't to say I wont have my phone at the ready to call for an ambulance if he manages to set the place alight!

Onto my nails! We got all our things back from Alans sister, & I had FIFTY nail polishes, all of which seem to be in a good condition. Happy Kay! I broke a couple of nails sorting things out, but because I worked so hard, I decided to treat myself & sort out my extensions. Took me bloody ages. Where it's not something you need to do very often, it's hard to practice. Still pretty nails again, although I've gone shorter than usual.

I've been undecided about what mani to have for the big 14/02. In the end, I decided to Water Marble again. It's fun, & the results are pretty. Plus the more you do it, the better you become.

Super bad clean up job, but I considering how time consuming this technique is, & how late it is, there was no way I was taking a chance of ruining the design & starting again. Luckily, you can't tell in real life, it's only in the extra large imaging it show.

I'm still having trouble with the air bubbles on a couple of nails. Any girls have any advice? The water I used was freezing, considering it's been snowing outside & we have no heating, that was only to be expected. It hasn't gone too bad.

I used the Sally Hansen Lavender as my base colour, then used all three SHs in the water marbling. I then went over with the Miss Sporty Pink glitter, finishing with the Top Coat. Easy Peasy!

I hope all you girls have an amazing Valentines Day. & because it is the day of love, let me be mushy & add a pic of me & the Mr.

Under The Seaaaaa

One of the things I love most about my guy, is that he will not let me give up. As I said in my previous post, I could not manage to do the fishtail design. I've had one of those nights where I have my thinking head on, & start worrying about things. Doing my nails will usually calm me down. I attempted fishtail again, & whilst it stressed me out, it did take my mind off real life for a while!

I used only Sally Hansen colours, as they really are my favourites right now. I was worried the brush might be a little big, but it's all trial & error.

Granted, it's a bit of a drunken fishtail, but not bad for a finished first attempt. I'm not even going to admit how long that one nail took. I definitely could have been sorting out the flat in that time, or taken a sleeping pill & actually slept. Still, considering I shall be functioning on two hours sleep later, at least I shall have pretty nails to look at, and let's be honest, that can change your whole outlook.

Feeling Navy

Hi, Girls!

I have not had a good Nail day. Everything I tried went tits up. I really want to do the Fishtail Braids, but it would not work. I tried Geometric & it wouldn't go my way, so instead I jut tried out my new Navy Baby by Sally Hansen. I have used it before, but not a a main colour.

I'm feeling very tired & down, so I just wanted to do something really simple so I wouldn't go to bed with naked nails. Really hope I'm not coming down with something!

Along with Navy Baby, I used Barry Ms Peach Melba,Rimmel Matte top coat & finished off with a stamping.

I don't know why, but all Sally Hansens stain my skin. No amount of acetone or warm soapy water will clean it up. I will admit I did a bit of a half arsed job of the clean up. I really must invest in a lamp so I can actually see what I'm doing. The light my living room gives off, my skin actually looks completely clean with no staining at all. It wasn't until I uploaded the photos I saw it, so please forgive me & blame my flat for poor lighting.

Tomorrow I have to move everything in the flat about. We moved here nearly two years ago from a bigger place, & most of our stuff has been at the boyfriends Sisters. We're getting it all back Tuesday! It's making me want to cry. On one hand, I can't wait to get our goodies back, on the other, I have no room!!!

So I'm not sure if I'll get to do a post tomorrow. Depends if I end up in tears & need to take a break from finding non existent space!

Wish me luck!

x

P.S I Love You

Hi Girls!

It's 0300hrs & guess who can't sleep! I hate nights like these, I'm exhausted but sleep still evades me. What is a girl to do, other than paint her nails.

A lot of manicures going round the past few days have been going with the Valentines Day theme, so I thought I'd have a play.

I'm not happy with this, but thought I'd share anyway. It was basically an 'Oooh, I remember I have rhinestones, let me play' moment. I am planning on doing a 'proper' mani, but this is the results of insomnia Nail Art!

A complete girly manicure. I wanted to practice free handing hearts for design I end up with for Valentines Day. Easier than I thought.

I just need to figure our a final design. Although we're staying in for Valentines, & my lovely Boyfriend will not notice what my nails look like, I still want them to look the part.

Any suggestions?

X

Getting my Water Marble on.

Hi guys.

So today I went back to one of my favourite styles of Nail Art. The water marble. A lot of people seem to dread this one, but I adore it.
I can never seem to avoid air bubbles, but as they say, practise makes perfect.

I'm sure there are tidier ways of doing this, but although I try, I still seem to make a mess.

For this design, I used three Sally Hansons: Fairy Teal, Yellow Kitty, & Lavender Cloud. It's the first time I've used this brand in Water Marbling, I usually use Barry M, but these spread like a dream.

Not the prettiest in-bowl design I've done, but it's so much fun. I will say, if you haven't tried this, don't use a bowl that you love. I use one of our breakfast bowls, as I didn't realise it would be useless to use for anything other than playing.

A lot of people say it works at room temperature. I don't really follow this rule. I put 3/4 warm water from the tap, & top up with cold water. I then put a white base coat on, & tape up my fingers. By the time that is done & my base is dry, I go right ahead & it always seems to work.

The clean up after isn't much fun, & I don't know about anyone else, but whilst I have been converted to Sally Hansen, I find it stains my cuticles & surrounding skin, despite using acetone & warm soapy water. My fingers have started looking bruised from when I painted them two days ago. If anyone has any advice on how to make my skin lovely & pink again, I'd appreciate it.

I have another idea I want to play with that I saw on another blog, So there shall be a post on that eventually.

So until then...

Catch You Laters

x

Thunder Bolts & lightening, very, very frightening...

Hi everyone!

I've wanted to try this manicure since I discovered http://nailside.blogspot.co.uk/ (Who everyone should go and follow. Like, Seriously, go now!

She is an amazing artist, & I am indeed jealous of her skills. She is also lovely enough to do tutorials, which is what I used to do her lightning nails. (Tutorial here)

I am SO annoyed with myself. I've been working so hard to try & make my manicures tidy, & these were so nearly there. I tried cleaning, & it STAINED my skin! I used acetone, and warm water, but was so worried about ruining the design, I've thought sod it, so please just excuse the mess.

Of course, nowhere near as good as the tutorial. My lines aren't precise enough, & my accent finger went so wrong after making my boyfriend a cup of tea, that instead of starting again I just covered up with the purple.

As you can see, I'm sticking to Sally Hansen, & I used Fairy Teal & Anenome of Mine. The top coat was part of a cheapy set from Sainsburys. It is pretty amazing though!

I will definitely try this one again, as well as the other Tutorials. Housework is done, so I have the afternoon to try out different designs. Yay!

Catch you Laters

x