Ice Cream Nails - Dessert - The Lazy 15

So here are today's Lazy Challenge nails, and on time for once!

I was between doing strawberry nails and these, but decided that ice cream is A far more fun dessert in my opinion. The look I've gone for is mint choc chip ice cream with chocolate sauce over the top!

I used Barry M 'Mint Green' for the base and No7 'Beanie' for the chocolate chips and sauce. I then dotted some bright acrylic paint colours over the top to look like hundreds and thousands. I used Seche Vite as a top coat.

This was my first attempt at doing drip nails and they aren't quite neat enough for me to be happy, I didn't have time to re-do them though and they were ok enough for me to post!

Here are the great nails from everyone else in the challenge:

Blue Floral Matte Nails - Feminine Nails - The Lazy 15

So, second post today in the name of catching up on the Lazy 15! Here are my feminine nails...

This is the 3rd or 4th time I've done this mani and every time I've not posted it as I've not been impressed with how the pictures have turned out but I LOVE the effect of these overall - I always get great complements on them...

The base coat is W7 (no name), and the flowers are from these nail foils. They are really easy to use - you just put on the adhesive and wait for around 6-8 minutes then rub the foils over the top. The adhesive can be bought from the same company, but I already have this one from Amazon which works great. 

Word to the wise - Seche Vite doesn't work here. The shrinkage problems mess up the foil underneath. I used a matte top coat from Rimmel for these.

Here are the other lovely people taking part in the challenge:

Pink Stripy Nails - Favourite Colour - Lazy 15

Ok, so I've been a very lazy challenger the last few days! I've missed Wednesday and Thursdays challenges so I've decided to post them both tonight, with the intention of carrying on as normal the next couple of days! It's really sinking in how hard it is to keep up with a challenge, when you have a lot going on. I've been particularly busy with work, and a few too many evenings out. I have a huge amount of respect for those who manage 30/31 days now!

So, here is day #6 - favourite colour. My favourite colour is pink, as anyone who knows me knows well! For my birthday this year the lovely people in my team at work actually threw me a pink party (I'll put you a picture in at the bottom of this post!)

The base colour is MUA 'Bright Plum' and I used a striping brush to add some stripes of Technic 'Magenta'. I then added some 'Glequins' from Born Pretty Store along the stripes. As always, this was topped off with Seche Vite.

Overall I'm happy with the effect - and it looked really good on camera which is a change!

Coming right up... Feminine nails but not before a picture of my pink party from earlier this year!

Autumn Leaf Nail Stamping Nail Art

Just a quick post today as I'm crazy busy... On Saturday I picked up another few Accessorize nail polishes (3 for 2 at Superdrug) so I was desperate to try them out, so most of the colours used in this mani are Accessorize...

The base colour is Ivory Lace and the leaves are a combination of 'Teal', 'Romance' 'Crystal' and Models Own 'Mushroom'. I used BM-313 for the stamping.

Galaxy Nails: The Lazy Challenge #4

So today's challenge is galaxy nails which is something I've never even attempted before.

I was seriously contemplating re-doing these from scratch and right up until I put top coat on them I really wasn't feeling it. However, after a couple of coats of Seche Vite I was feeling a lot more positive about it! I'm definitely going to try these again, but I think I'll practice getting the colours to look more galaxy-ish rather than blodges on the nail.

What I used:

I started off with Xtras Black polish and then used Models Own 'Thunder and Lightening' to give the starry glitter effect you can see (loving this polish) I then sponged on small amounts of Revlon 'Violet', Models Own   'Copper Pot', Sally Hansen 'Model Behaviour' and Sally Hansen 'French Tip White'.

Really keen to see how my fellow challengers have got on with this one!

Red and White Water Marble - The Lazy Challenge #4

Here is day #4 of the Lazy 15: Water Marble...

I've attempted a water marble before but found my results less than great so I've always abandoned it. This was no exception. I did this about 10 times (with lots of swearing involved) but in the end I had something I was semi-happy with. I used a base coat of Sally Hansen French White then marbled that combined with Technic 'Magenta'. The marble was finished off with a couple of coats of Seche Vite. I'm still not blown away with the result, at least compared to some that I've seen. However, I think this is the real beauty of doing a challenge - it definitely puts you out of your comfort zone!

I'm glad I persevered and I think the results looked much better in person than in the pictures - you should have seen some of my earlier results though ha ha!

Brown and Black Stamped Tips

I saw a similar example of this nail art on Pintrest a while ago, however I cannot for the life of me find it to show you... Anyway, I particularly liked this idea as I think brown is a great autumnal shade and the stamping looks very feminine...

I also tried to be a bit more creative with the top picture and I'm pretty impressed with how it turned out although it took me A LOT of pictures to get right. The brown I used is Rimmel 'At Ease' and as always I used MUA 'Black' for the stamping. I topped the look off with Seche Vite. The stamping plate I used was BM-214

Blue and Gold Dotty Nails - The Lazy Challenge #3

I love a good chunky ring and for challenge number 3 (dots) I couldn't resist taking some inspiration from this beauty I picked up at the weekend...

The base colour is No7 'Golden Pearl' and I actually used a pearl stone which I polished blue to match the other dots to give it a 3d effect. The blue dots are Collection 'Midnight' and the darker gold dots are Models Own 'Copper Pot'.  

The look is finished off with a top coat of Seche Vite. You can find the ring at New Look here... Overall, I think I'd do a better job of this if I tried again. I should have used black rather than blue, and I'd have done the base differently... 

Purple and Blue Matte Gradient - The Lazy 15 Challenge #2

Here is my post for day 2 of the Lazy 15 challenge, which is a gradient manicure.

I love the colour combination I've used and I think it goes together really well, but I'm not well enough practised at gradients as yet so you can see where there are a few bits of sponge stuck to the nail. I didn't get the best coverage either unfortunately. I finished it off with my Rimmel matte top coat...

I used Sally Hanson 'Model Behaviour' for the blue and Revlon 'Violet' for the purple gradient. So, just a short post today as I need to get my nails done for Wednesdays challenge as I'm out tomorrow night. I'm getting more organised but I'd definitely struggle with a 31 day challenge right now! :)

Vaseline 'Pink Bubbly' Inspired Pink and Black Manicure

A few weeks ago I picked up a tin of the limited edition 'Pink Bubbly' Vaseline and ever since I've been planning on doing a manicure to match - I love the classy combination of pink black and gold. Here is the result:

I'm really happy with the result! It was pretty easy to do and very cute... I used Revlon's 'Lilac Pastelle' as the base coat (it is slightly more lilac than pink, as the name suggests, but very close), then I used Xtras Shade 78 (black) for the tips. I then went over the bottom of the tips with my trusty striping tape...

Definitely one of my faves so far...

The Lazy 15: Tape Mani

Here is my first manicure for the Lazy 15, a great challenge set up by some of my fellow polishers across the pond! As it's my first challenge, I felt that this was perfect as it's not as intense as doing a mani every single day!

The first challenge is a tape mani. I've done several of these so I wanted to do something I've not done before. I have also been dying to use my purple glitter polish from Models Own, so this seemed to be an opportune time.

The colours used (from base to tip) are: Revlon 'Violet', Models Own 'Purple Haze' and MUA 'Shade 22'. The middle section was quite difficult to do as I had to tape off the top section which I'd done first, therefore I had to wait AGES for it to dry and even then I messed it up and had to start again. I ended up using my trust Seche Vite to speed things up... Also, as the glitter needed more than one layer to look good, and the fact that if I let it dry to apply other coats the tape removal would mess it up, I had to put it on REALLY thick. I was getting a bit concerned that I wouldn't be able to go to bed until 3 am and I would be sat waving my hands in the air... Luckily it didn't take as long as I thought.

Overall I'm really pleased with the results, the glitter is still a bit sparse but it looks good and I love the colour combination. I can't wait to see what my fellow challengers have done!! You can see everyone else who has joined below!

Bling Bling Sequin Manicure

Perusing Poundland this weekend (again!) I found a lovely set of glitters and sequins... I've been looking for some small round sequins for some time now, particularly since I heard of the upcoming launch of Ciate's sequin manicure, but most of what I see around are large sequins, the type with the hole in. These are more like tiny disks...

The pack came with 12 little bags of of 4 colours (pink, purple, orange and mixed) - 2 sequin bags of each colour and 1 'normal' glitter bag. I decided to try the mixed bag as it seems very similar to the 'Harlequin' Ciate version.

As you can see - the sequins are extremely similar to Ciate, as demonstrated on Kiss and Make Up. I don't think I've done the greatest job of it, as the sequins had a tendency to stick up, so the surface is VERY uneven. I used Technic 'Gardenia' as a base colour (2 coats) and then used Sally Hansen's 'Had as Wraps' and before it could dry, dipped the nail in the sequins. (as my bottle is quite old it's a bit goopy, so I thought that would be good for sticking the sequins to). I initially tried using a top coat but found that it made the nail look weird - almost like it had a slimy layer over the top, so I scrapped that idea.

Overall, I'm not hugely keen on this manicure from a distance it looks ok. but looking a bit closer makes it appear a bit 'messy' which I'm not keen on. I'm not sure what the glitter grip provided with the Ciate product is, so you may be able to get away with using this on top, but without being able to use my top coat, I don't think this will last too long. Ciate's promotional pictures are also a bit misleading - the sequins look much, much smaller, as you can see Grazia here.  This makes it look a lot neater...

I've also discovered that Nails Inc have launched 'Bling It On Rocks', as reviewed here on Sugar & Sparkle. I'm very keen to try this (or similar) as it looks more like chunky glitter than sequins, so the effect is classier (in my opinion). What do you think? Have you tried either product, or a similar version?

Halloween Nail Art Stamping

Happy Halloween everyone!!! Today I have a completely Halloween dedicated post for you...

I started off with a gradient, with the hope that it would look like a firey sunset (unfortunately it looks a bit summery but hey...) I then did some Halloween stamping over the top.

The colours used in the gradient are Collection 2000 'Big Hair', a boots 17 polish (orange) which I can't find a name on and a Miss Sporty yellow shade which I also can't find the name of (I'm not being very helpful today I'm afraid!) I used MUA black for the stamping.

Overall I like the look but unfortunately it's smudged a bit as you can probably see. Anyway, definitely very festive! Have you done any Halloween manicures?

Orange Glittery Nails

I wanted to do a couple of Halloween nails (well, I actually wanted to do a lot more, but I've really not had chance!) so here is the first. I love anything festive and Halloween is one of my favourites. Unfortunately I don't think my flatmates quite share my enthusiasm for decorations! So, this isn't strictly a Halloween design, but I the the orange is quite fitting....

I used this colour previously in my swatch of Accessorize's speckle nail polish, although you can't really see it under the speckle varnish. It's one of my bargain buys from Xtras and cost around £2. I'd been scouring the shops for a more browny orange colour but I really struggled as everything seems to be brighter at the moment, so I was very impressed with the find!

The glitter is also from Xtras and is Technic 'Bedazzled', you can buy it online here. I think the colours are really seasonal, and remind me of all the fallen leaves at the moment (while the glitter blings it up a little!) What do you think?

As a bonus, here is a picture of my fireplace at the moment - pretty scary!

Blue and Silver Matte Nails

I've left it a few days before posting these nails, my reason being that it' freakishly similar to this post on Chalkboard nails - I was planning on posting it on 25th (as did Chalkboard nails) but I thought I'd hold back a few days.

I achieved the look by painting on 2 coats of Barry M 'Blueberry', followed by using the 'cling film method' to apply some silver over the top. I then finished it off with a coat of Rimmel Pro 'Matte Finish' - I'm loving the effect, it's quite discreet and makes the colour look more of a powder blue.

I finished off with some rhinestones from Ebay which are a very appropriate colour, although I think I might have been better to apply some in a contrasting colour so they stand out more 

Shimmery Blue Swirls

Afternoon all! Today I've done some shimmery blue nails with black swirls....

The base colour I used was Models Own 'Indian Ocean' and I used MUA 'Black' for the stamping... I've got to say that the varnish looked a lot less blue with the stamps, and even less so on camera (look at the colour in the bottle compared the the nails), but it still shows off the shimmery-ness!


The stamping plate is BM-201 and it's topped off with some Sally Hanson 'Hard as Wraps', rather than my Seche Vite as, in all honesty, it's the weekend, I'm supposed to be doing some work for my Masters, therefore, I'll probably take it off and do something else soon (the queen of procrastination as I am).

Red Velvet: Flocking Powder Manicure

I've been meaning to try this for a while, DIY style (as you all probably know, there is a premium kit available, for the not insignificant price of £15.) So, I purchased some flocking powder from Goldleaf Craft Supplies on ebay and away I went...

Firstly, I have to say that I'm impressed with how easy this was to do! It really did take me about 10 minutes from start to finish, and I didn't allow/need much drying time at all.

I used  Revlon Matte Suede in 'Ruby Ribbon' for the base colour. (a Poundland bargain! as I've mentioned in previous posts - hard to apply without streaks, but the colour match was perfect and it didn't matter under the flock.) I applied one coat, let it dry and then applied another and applied the powder while it was still wet - I did one nail at a time to make sure that the polish didn't dry too quickly for the powder to stick.

The verdict: I applied this last night, and I've worn it all day today. After showering and washing my hands many times  it is much more subdued and there are a few bald patches, plus the brightness really faded after I showered, it's now more of a dark maroon shade (I think the flock has lost it's pigmentation). As I couldn't apply my trusty coat of Seche Vite, there is tiny bit of tip wear after just a day as well (but do bear in mind that I'm not careful in the slightest with how I use my hands!) However, most of it is still there and I'm impressed that so much remains! I would definitely wear this again - as long as I wasn't looking for it to last more than 24 hours. 

Accessorize Nail Speckle: Bumble Bee

Today I'm wearing a new polish of mine from Accessorize's new range of speckle polishes.

I always see a lot of speckle polishes on American blogs but there isn't really anything like this on the market in the UK so I was keen to pick one up! The colour is 'Bumble Bee' and it's a lovely autumnal orange colour with speckles of  black - great for Halloween as well!

In these pictures I'm actually wearing it over a base of a clay orange/browny colour from Xtras. (Another bargain shop I love but can only frequent when I visit my mum in North Yorkshire, as they don't have any stores in the south.) The base colour  is a little darker than the Accessorize orange shade, but very similar. I found that when I applied two coats of Bumble Bee it was speckle overload, but I wanted to do 2 coats to make sure it was opaque. To be honest, you could probably get away with one coat of the Accessorize shade.

I used a couple of coats of Seche Vite to finish it off. Overall - I'm impressed - it's quite an impressive effect but not too 'in your face'. I'm keen to try some of the others in the range!

Red and Silver Lace Stamping Nail Art

Sorry I've been away for a while! I've had a crazy week or so... Anyway, here is an update with the mani I wore this weekend... 

I loved this design and unfortunately the pictures really don't do it justice...

The base colour I used was Revlon Matte Suede in 'Ruby Ribbon'. I think this is a discontinued line as I picked it up at Poundland! They had a few nice Revlon colours last time I was in, but that was a couple of weeks ago. Although the colour is lovely and the matte effect is gorgeous the polish was very hard to apply and looked quite uneven, however after a couple of shiny top coats of Seche Vite it wasn't so apparent (although it wasn't matte any more). 

The stamping  plate I used was BM-315 and I used my striping tape from Amazon. Previously I've mentioned that I've found the tape doesn't last long and gets a bit worse for wear after a day, however I think I've cracked it! I used very thick layers of Seche Vite and made sure that it completely covered the tape. I wore these nails for 3 days and the tape was still as good as new.

Golden Butterfly Nail Art

Today I decided to use one of my new polishes - Models Own 'Copper Pot' as it's a lovely autumn colour. The leaves are really falling now and I love all the golden brown colours everywhere!

The base colour looks really good with the black stamping. Alone it wasn't perhaps as good as I thought it would be, in the bottle it looked like it had a lot more dimension to the colour - with darker tones in it (as you can see in the link above). On it's own it's a bit more of a brighter glittery gold. I did like it, but it wasn't quite what I was expecting.

I created the effect using the BM-307 plate and used MUA 'Black', topped off with a coat of Seche Vite (a pretty thick coat - which I'm finding mitigates the chance of the stamping smudging!)

Lilac with White Stamped Stripes

Today I’ve done some fairly simple stamping which looks quite effective!

The polish I’ve used is Nails Inc ‘Primrose Hill’ which is kind of a greyish lilac colour – very beautiful and shimmery! I’ve got the limited edition jewelled bottle thanks to the lovely girls at work. It was very appropriate birthday present, especially considering that Primrose Hill is one of my most favourite places in London!

Pretty Bottle!

The stamping is done with  Konad ‘White’ and plate BM-316 and it’s finished off with a couple of coats of Seche Vite. I think I needed another coat of the polish, but you can only tell in the pictures – it wasn’t at all apparent when you just looked at them. I actually got a lot of complements for these nails – I think because they are quite striking! 

Matte Teal Chevron Nail Art

I had a couple of hours to spare today so I decided to try something more time consuming.  Well, I say I had more time, but I was actually putting off doing work for my masters degree. I am officially the queen of procrastination!

I went for some pretty chevron nails, finished off with some striping tape to make the effect more striking..

The lovely teal colour I used is Rimmel ‘Sky High’ and I did the chevrons by taping off sections with sellotape and painting them with Models Own ‘Mushroom’. The striping tape is from Amazon. I used some Rimmel ‘Matte Finish’ top coat to finish it off.

What do you think?

Deep Pink Criss Cross Nail Stamping

I really like this mani – I think the results are effective but quite discreet. The colour looks a bit red when it’s on – but it’s a deep pink colour in the bottle. 

I’ve had this polish for a while, so the name has rubbed off the label but I think it’s called ‘Foxglove’. The stamping plate used is BM-310 and the polish I used for stamping is Mua ‘Black’.

I topped it off with a couple of coats of Seche Vite. 

Change of Platform and Apologies...

Just a quick update post to let you know that I've just transitioned my post from Wordpress to Blogger/blogspot. The reason behind this is that, as many of you may know, Google stopped all non (Google-owned) Blogger and Blogspot platforms from being able to use Google Friend Connect. They are suggesting that people now use a Google + button as an alternative.

My blogging platform of choice is Wordpress but after spending a lot of time looking at the nail blogging community, Google Friend Connect appears to be the following 'weapon of choice'. Therefore, not having this network on my blog is giving me a distinct disadvantage. My feelings towards Google aren't the warmest at the moment, and now I've had to spend a significant amount of time transferring everything across to a more restrictive platform, they are becoming increasingly cold. I can see their business sense in doing this, since their mission seems to be to have complete control of the web, but from a user point of view it's pretty bad.

So, here is my blog, powered by a different platform. I'm just so grateful that I don't have an established blog with thousands of lost followers due to Google's update.

Finally - apologies to anyone who commented on my previous blog, there is no way to easily transfer them across, so I've not deleted you - I really value every comment on my blog and I'm really sad to lose the comments I had.

MUA Nail Constellation Review

I was really excited to pick up a bottle of this as the colours they have are so lovely! I’m surprised that no other cosmetic companies have tried their own version of the famed ‘Fish Egg’ manicure.

Price wise it’s very reasonable at only £3 per bottle (particularly when you compare that with Ciate’s Caviar manicure at a whooping £18 per bottle). You don’t get the polish included as you do with Ciate but MUA do a range of small polishes at £1 per bottle so the total price is only £4. I’d imagine that each bottle will do quite a few sets. The base colour I used is MUA Plum Noir.

Nail Constellation comes in 5 different colours and I picked up ‘Leo’ but they are all very pretty – it was a difficult decision! Application was easy and you can see the MUA YouTube ‘how to’ video here… The video states that you can finish the nail with a top coat, however I tried initally with Sally Hansen ‘Hard as Wraps’ but it really ruined the colour and made it look a bit dull. I’d be interested to hear if anyone else has tried this with a different top coat and what success they had?

I’ve got some ‘fish-egg’ beads from ebay from Goldleaf craft supplies which were good quality and a similar price when you include postage. You get about twice the amount of beads as well. The one thing that I have preferred about MUA’s version is that the beads are much smaller – maybe even half the size, which makes the manicure look a lot ‘tidier’ in my opinion.

How does it wear? As I couldn't use top coat I found that the beads started coming loose pretty quickly. I only wore this for about half a day in the end and I’d lost quite a few. Again, if you can find a topcoat that will wear well with this product then you may have better luck!

Overall I’m happy with the result and I think it looks great, however I’d definitely recommend wearing it for a special occasion rather than expecting to get several days of wear out of it.