A2Z Series - J Is For Jewel

Greetings All!

Another quiet week on the blog, my apologies. I have now got all my nails back to a bloggable length so things will pick up I promise!

This week for the A2Z series the prompt is Jewel. I had lots of ideas for this but time got away from me a little bit so in the end I went with something easy.

I've been wanting to do rhinestone laden thumbs for a while, but I did want to pair them with nude, or matte black or some sort of plain fingers. Instead I chose Glitzology Rhinestone Jumpsuit and went for the full on jewel encrusted look! The gold is Barry M BLE2012 A.

You can catch up with all the manicures from the series here

An InLinkz Link-up

A2Z Series - I Is For Inspired

Greetings All!

It has been a while! I'm currently nursing a couple of broken nails and I'm just now getting back to that point where they're all nearly even so I haven't had much to post. I'll have stuff very soon though.

Fortunately I had this prompt prepped before I broke a crucial nail so I can continue with the challenge! The prompt this week is Inspiration, which is nice and broad. What is currently inspiring me is the vast amount of polish I currently own. My goal this year is to try and whittle my collection down a bit by trying to use up some non-essential polishes.

One I've already managed to use up is a bottle of Asda Lavender Fantasy. The Asda polishes are only 7ml and this one had a bit of usage already. I managed to use it for about half a dozen manicures over the last few weeks and now it's all gone! So that's one less in the collection.

So here are four of those manicures all using Lavender Fantasy as a base.

So this one is my first ever attempt at, well, not really gradient stamping, but stamping with more than one colour. Konad Black and White and MoYou Pro XL 10 with matte topcoat. I'm reasonably happy with it, for a first attempt!

A bit of classic leopard print. The first nail art I ever attempted and still one of my favourites. The brown is another Asda polish I forget the name of, but it has also now been used up!

Glitter! This one is TarasTalons Magic Lamp.

And finally some purple on purple stamping with Barry M Gelly in Plum and Pueen SE03A.


I also wore this polish plain with matte topcoat, and with a holo topcoat. By that point it was nearly impossible to get enough on the brush to cover a nail. I thought I should try to pick a favourite out of these, but I'm having trouble!

Either the glitter or the leopard I think.

You can catch up with all the manicures in the series here

An InLinkz Link-up

SpecialGirl Nails Is Two Today!

Greetings All!

Happy New Year to you all, and Happy Birthday to my little blog, which has been going for two years! Over 600 posts, and nearly 100,000 page views. Thank you to everyone who has popped over to have a look at my nails.

It's strange - it doesn't feel like two whole years since I started blogging, but at the same time I feel like I've been doing it forever!

Here's to a great 2015 filled with gorgeous nails!

I do have some nails to post. I felt like I needed to! To celebrate, I've used a few of my favourite things in this manicure. BUT it's not red and black!

My base is Butter London Slapper. I went absolutely mental for Butter London in 2014. It all started with Billy No Mates, a warm soft pale grey. I just loved the colour, and it did apply like, well, butter! So I spent a good chunk of last year trawling the net for cheap BLs. I don't like them enough to pay £12 a bottle! My collection has exploded, and satisfyingly they do get quite a bit of use. This year I'm going to try and buy a lot less polish (I would actually like to end 2015 with less polish that I own now but that seems like a ridiculous goal...) so I'm sure I'll be getting plenty of use out of these this year!

I stamped with Sally Hansen Shiny Penny, which isn't a perfect stamping polish, but stamps well enough to get away with (I'm definitely going to use it for a WAMM soon). The rose stamp is from PUEEN SE03A. I got this set a little while ago and of course I had to use the roses first! I like that is has an outline and an inline of the same image - it means you can do roses in any colour combination!

Butter London, Sally Hansen, and roses. Three of my favourite nail things!

My Christmas Nails

Greeting All!

Just a quick post. I hope you all had a pleasant festive season if you did. This is the polish I wore for Christmas Day, Freckles Polish Good G-wreath.

3 coats of delicious green jelly with plenty of glitter. Including circles!

You can buy Freckles polish here.

Suede Christmas Trees

Greetings All!

This is the third and final festive manicure I've done this year. I do have some Christmassy polish that I'm hoping to wear over the next couple of days, so you may see some of them. Then everything can get back to normal!

My base is Revlon Emerald City, I believe the first suede/matte polish I ever owned. It's so beautiful I can't even describe - the colour and formula are just perfect. Of course I had to leave this manicure without topcoat to retain the gorgeousness!

I stamped with Mentality Dapper and the Happy Holiday Cheeky jumbo plate. I feel like I've given these stamps fair usage this year, especially as fitting them on my nails is a little difficult. For these Christmas manicures I chose images I could tilt a little so I could fit them on at an angle!

Candy Cane Nails

Greetings All!

Another Christmas themed manicure?! No I'm not getting carried away with the festive spirit. It's just that one of my holiday themed plates (in this case one of the Cheeky jumbo plates) happens to have some rather cute Christmas stamps that are a little difficult to use any other time of the year.

Candy canes, for example. I do actually like candy canes because I like peppermint! So here are my candy cane nails.

Super simple but quite cute. Konad Red and the aforementioned Cheeky plate over Sally Hansen Ivory Skull.

Red And Gold Snowflakes

Greetings All!

Here's something you don't see much of on this blog - Christmas themed nails!

I'm not the most Christmassy person ever (shocker) so I don't tend to wear festive nails much. Something dark and moody with a bit of gold is what I tend to wear for the majority of December.

However, I have several stamps that just never get used, and I feel a little bad for them. OK, I have a lot of stamps that don't get used. But you can only really use some of them at certain times of the year. So here is the first of several festively themed manicures!

Snowflakes in red and gold - pretty Christmassy!

My base is the beautiful Butter London Knees Up. Butter London has definitely been one of my favourite brands this year - I've been obsessed with them and my collection has exploded in 2014 from around 5 to around 50!

I stamped with the Happy Holiday Cheeky plate and Barry M Gold Foil.

A2Z Series - H Is For Holographic

Greetings All!

Sneaking in only slightly late this week. Technically these should have been posted yesterday but I'm only a day out!

This week the prompt is Holographic. I love holo polish but I often have problems getting good pictures. Unless the sun is shining.

Unbelievably, the sun was shining! I had to do holographic nails for a challenge, and the sun came out so that I could get photos. In December. Incredibly lucky!

So here are my Holographic nails.

Lots of picture because sunshine!! A holographic gradient using Color Club Kismet, Eternal Beauty and Beyond. Full credit for the inspiration goes to the lovely Nail Lacquer UK.

And a quick indoor shot to show the gradient (and sickening lack of holo!).



You can catch up with all the manicures from the series here.

An InLinkz Link-up

Icy Gradient

Greetings All!

Posting two days in a row?! I know. Just go with it.

Today I have some nails inspired by all the freezing cold weather I've been...enjoying lately.

A cold blue gradient of Barry M Gellys - Elderberry, Blueberry and Blue Grape, with some China Glaze Glistening Snow for some extra frosty looking tips. This is pretty much what my fingers feel like some mornings!

A2Z Series - G For Gold

Greetings All!

Late again. I'm giving up making excuses. I'm getting all the nails done in plenty of time, I'm just struggling to write about them. I would quite like to just post some pictures and then put 'ta da!' and just run away at the moment.

So on that note here are my Gold nails.

I was kind of hoping G was going to be for Gothic so I managed to inject a little bit into this manicure. I'm not normally the biggest fan of the skittle (I kind of prefer my nails to match) but I couldn't decide on a gold or even a style and that is when a skittle comes in very handy! I'll mention again how strange it is that I love gold polish but nothing else gold. I'm currently attempting to try some gold jewellery but I still much prefer silver.

As you may notice my left thumb nail is looking a little...short. Well hold a moments silence because it broke.

Fortunately my left thumb was all warmed up as a substitute. Here it is with 3 coats of OPI Goldeneye, one of my favourite golds. The sparkle and the shade are both just glorious.

On the nails that survived we have W7 Black and Freckles Polish Anne Teak, which isn't quite as gold as some golds but still falls within the category. I was just itching to use it again - this polish has shot right up my list of favourite polishes!

On the black nails we have the classic gold crucifix and gold leaf combo. On Anne Teak I stamped with Konad Black and MoYou Gothic 05 for some subtle black tips.


Looks like I did have things to say about this manicure! I did quite like it.

You can catch up with all the manicures in this series here.

And so on to next weeks. Which is sitting ready. Let's see how late I am with it!

An InLinkz Link-up

A2Z Series F For Fashion

Greetings All!

Late late late again with this weeks (last weeks) prompt, and for no good reason. I had the nails done and ready, but I couldn't post them on Thursday, and then I just kept putting it off!


This week the prompt is Fashion, something I know sooo much about! However I recently purchased a cardigan. I'm not normally a cardigan wearer, but I bought this one specifically because I knew I could match my nails to it. That's the sign of a real polish addict there!

My Fashion nails.

And my cardigan.

I used OPI Rendezvous In My Boudoir, again. Officially my favourite red of the moment! I stamped with Konad Black and MoYou Pro 07


You can catch up on all the manicures from this series here

An InLinkz Link-up

A2Z Series - E For Elegant

Greetings All!

So these nails are rather late. They should have been posted last Thursday. I don't even have a good excuse, the pictures have been sitting ready to be used, I just haven't really got around to blogging them.

Better late than never? Hopefully!


My Elegant nails.

I went for a jelly stampwich, because I think the muted stamped look is rather elegant!

The jelly is OPI Catch The Garter, a peachy neutral. I used two coats either side of my stamping with Konad White and MoYou Gothic 07. I even included an accent nail of OPI Pure. I would have liked to only put one coat of CTG over it, but the base was kind of yellowed so it needed two and became very subtle.

Please also excuse the tip wear - I wore these nails for work. I didn't take pictures before work because I was so confident in my polish (it's OPI after all!) but I do have a little bit of wear. Typical!


You can view all the manicures from this challenge here.

An InLinkz Link-up