Tri Polish Challenge July 2013 - Manicure 1

Greetings All!

It's that time again already! The Tri Polish Challenge! The rules are simple - to create four manicures, using three polishes representing three pre-determined colours. If you want to join in, you can do here.

The colours this month are blue, blue and green. Here are the polishes I will be using all month:

Barry M Gellys again! This month I'm using Blueberry, Blue Grape and Key Lime.

I can't get enough of Barry M at the moment, especially the Gellys. They give great coverage, many of them stamp, and they're so very shiny! A great selection of colours too, which is why I'm using them again!

I also set myself a little 'challenge within a challenge' for this series. You have to use all three polishes at least once, and you are allowed to use black, white, gold, silver and glitter. I try and use all three polishes for all four manicures, and to not use any other polishes (well, I would probably allow myself to use glitter!). It's just a silly little thing I like to do. This month I succeeded!

So, here is my first manicure. There will be three more this month, using the same colours.

I started with a base of Blueberry, then used the cling film method with Blue Grape and Key Lime. I like the effect - it reminds me a bit of algae on water.


Check out everyone else's TPC nails!

Sun-Tried-Day: Seche Colors - Not Easily Swept Away and Takes Chances

Greetings All!

There hasn't been a Sun-Tried-Day in a couple of weeks, but I've brought it back! Last month I was in Sally's browsing, and the Seche Colors were 3 for 2. I hadn't tried them before, but I had been aware of them, and I was curious. So I bought three. And I'm showing you two today, plus some nail art!

Llama Nails Nerd Challenge - Inspired By Literature

Greetings All!

It's Double Challenge Friday! I'm quite happy with today, because I did a watermarble, and I tried a new technique! The prompt for today is literature, so I decided to try out newspaper nails!

The base is OPI Did You Ear About Van Gogh? because I thought it would look more like an old book. I then used vodka to transfer the newsprint. I found it really difficult! The newspaper kept sliding and smudging, and didn't really show up well enough for my liking. Still, it isn't too bad for a first try! I quite like it with matte topcoat.

In unrelated news, I am now 12 days in to my 'No-buy for July', and I haven't bought any polish! Which is pretty good for me. I also discovered today that my Helmer is very nearly full, so I'm going to have to buy a second one!

Relaxed 31DC Week 20: Watermarble

Greetings All!

And so it has come upon us - the most dreaded of all challenge weeks - the watermarble. I find this to be the most difficult, time consuming and generally faffy nail technique out there. Still, I attempted it! For the second time ever.

I used the same colours I did last time (W7 Black and OPI The Thrill of Brazil), in the hope that I would be able to see some improvement. Here's a reminder of my first ever watermarble.

Certainly my pictures have improved, and my nails and cuticles are nicer now, but I'm not sure there is more of a difference skill-wise. I'm still rubbish at watermarbling!

This design grew on me a bit though - I quite like the abstract feel it has. It definitely looks marbled too, just not all that pretty! It's kind of cool though.

I'm not sure if I'll try this technique again! Probably only if it comes up in a challenge lol

Jindie Nails Bruised Ego

Greetings All!

My my, things are getting awfully indie round here! The third indie post in a row - Jindie Nails Bruised Ego. This is my first Jindie polish, again from the sale section of Llarowe. I can't resist a bargain, and I loved the colour combination of this one! It has black, white, blue and purple small matte glitter in a clear base. I layered it over Asda Witchcraft for these pictures.

My liking for black and white glitter has been well documented, and I loved the addition of blue in this one - it's a brilliant shade of bright blue. The hint of violet also adds depth to it, and overall it's a very smart, intricate little glitter. I'm sure it would look great with lots of colours, but I thought grey would still let the colours 'pop' while still showing off the black and white. I'm really happy with the combination!

You can buy Jindie Nails from their website, and you can also buy them at  Llarowe, Ninja Polish or Mei Mei's Signatures (I did the research this time lol). It's apparently being discontinued, so if you like it, I'd try to bag one while you can!

Nail Pattern Boldness Le Big Party

Greetings All!

Yes, two indie brands in one day! Because I have now definitely been bitten by the indie bug! Two picture heavy posts too.

This little pretty was in my favourites on Etsy for a while, so when I found it in the sale section of Llarowe, I knew I had to have it!

Le Big Party is a rainbow of small, matte glitters. You can build it on it's own, or layer it over a base colour. I tried both!

UK Indies - Iconic Effect Pop Rocks and Psychedelic Snarl

Greetings All!

Guess what? I found another UK polish maker to share with you! Iconic Effect launched last month with their 'Can I Have A P Please, Bob?' collection, and I recently bought two polishes from their Etsy shop. This post gets a bit picture heavy, so let's dive straight in, shall we?

Gold Stamping Over Barry M Bright Purple

Greetings All!

I haven't been around much these last few days - I'm tempted to blame the heat, but whatever it is, I just haven't really felt like blogging lately. I hope you'll all forgive me!

I have still been painting my nails though. These nails are based on a bag I saw in TK Maxx, it had some sort of hair appliance in it (a blowdryer or curling tongs or something), and I liked the colours and the design, plus I knew I had a stamp that was similar!

Barry M Bright Purple is a beautiful, berry-coloured shade. It's really rich, and kind of perfect. I then stamped with Barry M Gold Foil (what else!) and my favourite stamp from DRK-B. On the bag, the gold was outlined in black, but I really didn't have the patience (or the skill!) to outline this. I think the bag was also a touch more magenta, but I'm pretty happy with this!

Tomorrow - more new UK indies!

Llama Nails Nerd Challenge - Science Fiction

Greetings All!

It's time for another installment of the Nerd Challenge, run by Llama Nails. The theme this week is science fiction. Confession time - I'm not really a fan of science fiction! In fact, I'm a bit of a rubbish nerd. This challenge is going to be tough for me!

I like a few kind of sci fi things - The Big Bang Theory, Futurama, and my all time favourite, Red Dwarf. I don't know how many people outside the UK are familiar with this programme, but I think it ruined things for me - I once watched Star Trek, but it was just like an unfunny version of Red Dwarf!

I thoroughly recommend giving it a watch (you could do so here), because it is brilliant. Dave Lister is a technician on the mining ship Red Dwarf. He is put into suspended animation, as punishment for smuggling a cat on board. There is a radiation leak, and Dave emerges as the last human being alive, 3 million years later. His only companions are Rimmer, a hologram of his dead bunk mate, Cat, a creature that evolved from the cat he smuggled on board, Kryten, a service mechanoid, and Holly, the ship's computer. Stranded in deep space, their mission is to get back home, or at least to make it through the day!

I grew up watching this show, and I love it!

And here are my Red Dwarf nails!

OK so these will need a bit of explaining lol. My little finger is H for hologram, because Rimmer is a hologram.

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Hopefully it's fairly obvious that my ring finger is meant to be Earth. Even though they are 3 million years away from Earth, they are desperate to get back there, back home.

My middle finger represents the Cat's sharp suits. Cats evolved from cats, the same way that humans evolved from monkeys.

 

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My index finger is a (rather poorly rendered) Scutter.

  

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And my favourite nail, my thumb, is Starbug, which is a smaller spacecraft they could explore in (and easier to draw than Red Dwarf itself!)

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So there you go! Hopefully the pictures helped explain the weird shapes on my nails a bit lol. I used loads of polishes for this. The holo sparkle is Butter London Frilly Knickers. Everything else just isn't quite as important!

Relaxed 31DC Week 19: Galaxy Nails

Greetings All!

I've been a bit absent this week, but I'm back in time for Double Challenge Friday! Later on I'll have some nerdy nails for you, but right now, galaxy nails for the relaxed 31dc!

I love galaxy nails - they were one of the first nail art techniques I learned, along with leopard print and butterfly wings. I always think I've messed them up - the wrong colors, or the wrong shape - but when they're all done and finished, they always look better than I thought they would! They're kind of...difficult to ruin lol. Plus I always think they look quite impressive.

You get bonus pictures of my left hand! Woot!

I used a heck of a lot of polishes for this one! Let's see, W7 Black, OPI Alpine Snow, The 'It' Colour, Koala-Bear-y, and Austintatious Turquoise, Barry M Key Lime, Blue Grape and Spring Green, 2 unnamed Beauty UK Purples, a creme and a shimmer, Revlon Varnished and Butter London Frilly Knickers. Phew!

Next week's theme is watermarbling. Hopefully I can pull it off!

In the meantime, check out some more galaxy nails!

Layla Coffee Love - Plus Random Ramblings

Greetings All!

So, it's July now?! How the heck did that happen?! I'm doing a 'no buy for July', meaning I am trying my very best to not buy any new polishes this month. I'm letting you know, so that it's all official lol. Hopefully this will help me, as I won't want to face you all if I break it! 2 days in and I'm OK so far - I'm waiting on nail mail ordered in June, so hopefully that'll tide me over!

I also dropped off the face of the planet for a couple of days - our brilliant next door neighbour cut through our phone line. So we've had no internet or phone since Sunday lunchtime! First World problems I know, but it's been like the Dark Ages here! Thankfully it got fixed today - it's easy to forget just how much modern life relies on the internet (my life at least!).

I would also just like to blow my own trumpet a little bit - June was a pretty good month here on the blog. I passed 20,000 page views, 5,000 page views in June, 500 Facebook likes, and 100 followers on Bloglovin'! So thank you everyone! It's nice to know I'm not just talking to myself lol.



Anyway, onto the polish already! I bought several Layla holos from Sally Magpies in their sale - Less than £4 a bottle? Beyond bargainous! Coffee Love is a brown linear holo, although the actual brown shade is a little hard to distinguish because of all the rainbow!

I know some people aren't overjoyed with the application of these - they can drag quite a bit! I find that by doing 3 medium coats, and using 2 strokes instead of the normal three, they apply pretty well. Maybe it's more hassle than it should be, but personally I think it's worth it for the effect!

This is 3 coats, with a normal base coat, and Seche Vite topcoat (they recommend no base or topcoat, but I'm a maverick!)

The only way you can tell it's brown lol

See, this is why we need more sunny days! I only really wear holos on sunny days - it seems like a waste otherwise! These polishes are also obscenely holographic in artificial light, but my camera refuses to acknowledge the rainbow.

I don't think I really need to say anything else - the ;pictures say it all really! Superb holographic glory.