Gemstone Polish

Hello Everyone!! Today's nail art is loosely based on a cool pattern that I found on Pinterest (a great place for inspiration!). I changed up the colours slightly and altered the pattern so that it would fit on my teeny weeny nails!! On my thumb, middle and ring finger nails I used China Glaze 'Flying Dragon' . It dries very matte which dulls and darkens the beautiful colour, so a topcoat is essential with this nail polish! On my accent nails (pointer/index and pinkie) I used Barry M 'Dragon Fruit' and then a couple of coats of Franken Frosting 'Who's That Girl?' . I don't think they do this particular nail polish anymore but they've got some amazing new stock for 2014!! Using a small flat brush and OPI 'I Have A Herring Problem' , I painted thick vertical wavy lines over 'Flying Dragon' . Doing it this way (with a flat brush) required a few coats but prevented it from becoming a lumpy mess (if I'd used a

Hello! When it comes to films I'm not really into romcoms or anything girly, I'm more about the action and science fiction!! The more loud bangs and suspense involved, the happier I am :) So, Gladiator is one of my absolute favourite films  ever and it was only a matter of time before it made it's way onto my nails... I used a variety of images for inspiration and eventually settled on a final manicure centred around Maximus and his role as a gladiator (duh). I started by painting all my nails in OPI 'My Vampire Is Buff' , the most perfec t nail polish for nail art! Using a small flat brush, I dabbed and sort of smooshed  OPI 'Glints Of Glinda' (diluted with nail polish remover), all over each nail to add some texture. On my middle, ring and thumb nails, I repeated this step with Orly 'Nite Owl' , although on my ring finger, I created more of a gradient. On my ring nail, over the gradient, I painted the well known Colosseum image

Evening All!! Today's post is another glitter gradient (I may be ever so slightly obsessed..) but this time it's a girly and uber sparkly manicure. As in: 'can I possibly fit any more glitter layers into this gradient?!' I think with more drying time, I may well be able to do that challenge justice :) Stay tuned.   My idea of 'girly' usually involves rose pink and light pink-based browns, so the nail polishes that I've used in this manicure definitely reflect that side of me!!   First, I painted a couple of coats of Orly 'Nite Owl' - the silver flecks in this polish soften the overall taupe shade, making it appear so delicate.     To begin the glitter gradient, I like to start with fine/small glitter toppers and work up to the bigger stuff. So I used one of my franken glitters 'Unicorn Dreams' to paint a very sparse coat over each nail. Over this, I painted a graduated layer of a rose pink Xplode glitter nail polish u

Heylo!! In today's post, I'm using one of my precious Butter London babies in some geometric nail art! I got 'All Hail The Queen' for Christmas (I may have squealed when I opened it, ahem) and I am totally in love with the colour!! It's an absolutely beautiful taupe with a very subtle rose pink shimmer and some scattered holo to it :) I swear Butter London 's secret ingredient is magic !   I painted all my nails with Butter London 'All Hail The Queen' to begin with. For my glitter accent nail, I painted a gradient with Barry M 'Sour Apple' . I've never been sure about bar glitter (don't ask me why!!) but I love it used in this way and it's so easy to do! Score .    I mixed La Femme 'Fairy Dust' and Revlon 'Zealous' to make a translucent shimmery yellow which I then used with a striping brush to paint delicate fine lines. I repeated this step with a mix of La Femme 'Fairy Dust' and Rimme

Hello! For a while now, I've been wanting to try a more artistic/painterly style of nail art but wasn't at all sure where to begin!! After looking through some amazing tutorials and tips by super talented nail bloggers ( 'Precious Polish' , 'Will Paint Nails For Food' , etc.), I gained the courage to have a go :) Here's how my first attempt turned out; The original imagery that I used for inspiration was already in a watercolour style rather than an actual photo so the colours are different to a natural Tiger Lily. I started with OPI Liquid Sand 'What Wizadry Is This?' on all my nails except for my thumb and ring nails, where I used Essie 'Sand Tropez'. Using a small detail brush and a mix of Barry M 'Peach Melba' , Zoya 'Addison' and Essie 'Sand Tropez' , I sketched out the shape of each flower on my thumb and ring nails. I added nail polish remover to the nail polish mix so that it was easier to work

A Big Hello To You All!! As strange as it sounds, I think I've only ever done one animal print manicure in the entire time I've been doing nail art! Don't get me wrong, I love these prints on other people but somehow it's just not me... After much musing and thinking, I came up with the idea of doing a kind of deconstructed zebra print instead! Here's how it turned out;   I started by painting all my nails (except my accent nail) in OPI 'Wooden Shoe Like To Know?' . I adore this colour, the shimmer adds so much depth to an already lovely brown.   On my ring finger, I used Zoya Pixie Dust in 'Nyx' for a super sparkly accent nail!! It took 3 coats to get to full opacity but the pay-off is just so amazing that I don't mind!! I can't wait to see if Zoya brings out any new Pixie Dusts this year :) I used a striping brush to paint in the wavy zebra-like lines in different colours on the rest of my nails. The polishes I us

Evening All! I actually got the inspiration for today's manicure from a pair of my socks!! Ha ha! But not just any socks, these are snuggly winter socks in an awesome pattern; I started by painting all my nails with Zoya 'Rory' , before applying Essie 'Russian Roulette' to my ring finger only. I love how Rory shines through and adds shimmer to Russian Roulette , a beautiful effect!   To my ring nail, I also added a layer of Barry M 'Pink Sapphire' - I can't get enough of glitter accent nails at the moment!! I then painted all my nails with a coat of Champneys 'Base & Top Coat' for a nice smooth surface.   Once this was completely dry, I used striping tape and Essie 'Russian Roulette'  in random stripes on all my nails except my accent nail. Then I went back in with a striping brush and Zoya 'Rory' and filled in some of the stripes. I felt it was missing some pink! Using Essie 'Blanc'

A Happy New Year To You All!! Today's nail art is a simple but totally gorgeous glitter gradient! I haven't done one of these in a looooong time so I felt the urge to fix that asap!! I went for a bit of a unusual colour scheme, especially for me as I don't usually wear this type of green; The olive green nail polish is Zoya 'Gemma' . I originally bought this polish as it has a beautiful blue shimmer to it but alas, it's not as noticeable on the nail which makes me sad. It does give the manicure a lovely blue sheen but I'd prefer a more pronounced effect! Once this way completely dry, I used the dry-brush technique and the lime green nail art pen from the NPW Nail Art 'Jewel' collection to paint a gradient from the base of each nail. I also used the shimmery dark blue from the same collection over the green, using the same technique. These are great for nail art as they can be used like a normal nail polish and as a micro-nib, cool hu