Showing posts with label stripes. Show all posts

Sunday Spotlight: W7 - Gold Mirror & Blue Mirror

Hi guys, I'm back already with this weeks Sunday Spotlight, and the brand today is W7.  I have 2 polishes from the mirror collection to show you, with some blingy nail art to boot!
This will be a picture heavy post.

The first polish is Blue Mirror, shown here at 2 coats with topcoat. You may want to opt for 3 if you want total perfection, but as I was planning on using it as a base I didn't feel the need.  It does look very patchy on the first coat, but I found that with a gentle hand it seemed to spread a lot more evenly.  I adore this polish as a base in winter themed nail art, it's so pale and frosty.  You can get this, and gold mirror for £2.85 + free shipping on ebay here.
Then I did a tape mani, that was inspired by this mani by Misha from Enigmatic Rambles. I used a Barry M glitter that I got for free in Boots for spending £6 or more on Barry M on Boxing Day.  I quickly painted 2 coats of the glitter over the tape, and when I peeled up the tape, I liked the texture of the mani, so I skipped the top coat. 
Even without top coat, this mani was extremely sparkly, so much more than you can see in the picture.  Please forgive the awful clean-up on this, it didn't look that bad in real life, I swear :)

The other shade I have to show you is Gold Mirror, and this polish has actually been featured in 2 very recent designs - the textured gradient tape mani I posted yesterday, and as undies in my sparkly leopard print mani, posted earlier today.  I guess it's safe to say it has become my go-to light gold base :)
This is also shown at 2 coats, with top coat.  Again, a 3rd may be preferable for some people, but I didn't feel the need myself.

I have heard that some W7's are a bit stinky, but I'm pleased to report that these smell like any other polish to me :)  What do you guys think of these 2 polishes?  Are you a fan of W7?

pekal

Textured Gradient Tape Mani

 Hi guys today I have some nail art for you - this mani combines 3 of my favourite things at the moment, gradients, texture and tape.  And, I liberated a few things from my untried rack while I was at it. :)



 The gold base in this mani is W7 - Gold Mirror, and I will be posting swatches of that very soon.  The gradient was done with Seventeen Rock Hard Couture - Celestial Pearl and Cameo Crush.  FYI, I didn't tape around my fingers before sponging on the gradient, as I wasn't sure if it would get in the way of my striping tape.  This was a mistake!  Clean-up took forever, and as you can see, I still have little specks of shimmer all over my fingers.  Next time, I will find a way to use both types of tape :D
 Difficult clean-up aside, I was really pleased with how this turned out.  I love when a design turns out just how I imagined it in my head, and this was one of those mani's.  I love how wintery it feels too, the 2 textures just play so nicely together!
Before I took this off, I coloured in all the lines with my new Barry M Nail Art Pen, just for the fun of it.  Thought I may as well snap a quick picture for you guys too:
Definately looks better with the gold lines in my opinion.  First impressions of the pen are good, I have used it in the next part of my review for Winterberry Nail Art, so I'll tell you more about it then.

Anyway, as always, I would love to know what you guys think of this mani?

pekal

Merry Christmas

 Merry Christmas everyone!  Just wanted to do a quick post to show you guys the nails I had on yesterday for Christmas Eve.  This is Sally Hansen CSM - Gilded Lily, stamped with A-England - Perceval and MoYou Festive 03.  The glitter accent nail is Dragonglass Nails - Animal which has been sitting in my untried box.  I will be swatching this polish soon, I really like it!
Tomorrow, I will be going out for a meal with extended family, but I should have one last Christmas mani for you later in the day.  Christmas is always spread across 3 days in my family, so I still count tomorrow as Christmas :)
Hope you all had a fab day,and I'll see you guys tomorrow :)

pekal

Candy Canes and Holly Berries - Holiday Christmas Nail Art

Hello lovelies! Can you believe it's already less than a week until Christmas?? I feel like it was just last week that it was months and months from Christmas. Still, the Christmas spirit seems to have hit me hard ... well, hit me with nail art ideas because my house still isn't decorated and I have done less than no Christmas shopping.

And speaking of nail art ideas ... I think I'm a little obsessed with candy cane stripes. I seriously just want to keep these on until after Christmas; I love them so much!


These are actually really simple to do but there's a lot of waiting involved because the stripes are done with tape and the white polish has to be completely dry before you can start. If you don't wait for it to dry it will dent if you're lucky or ruin all your work at worst.



I think I'm also developing an obsession with OPI The Spy Who Loved Me. It is such a lovely shade of shimmery red and has such wonderful coverage. It also makes perfect candy cane stripes ... and holly berries!

Well, I think that's just about it. I hope you enjoyed yet another of my Christmas manis. :)

Until next time,
- Ashley

*A huge congratulations to Ariel of Lacquer: The Best Medicine for winning my Season of Giving Giveaway!! Her prize is already in the mail. :)

Looking for more holiday manis? Take a look at these!!

pekal

#33DC - Day 28 - Lines

Hi guys, sorry today's post is a little bit late, but I'm back with Day 28 of the #33DC and the prompt for today is lines.  This is another mani I have had planned out in my head for ages, but when it came time to actually sit down and do it, I had a different idea that I liked more. 



For the thumb, pointer and pinky nails, I applied 2 coats of Nails Inc - New York Noir, then 1 thick coat of Pocket Money Polishes - I Want Candy, concentrating mostly on just 1 side of the nail.  Once that had some drying time, I used some black acrylic paint to create straight edges on either side of the glitter and top coated.
For the middle and ring finger, I painted a white base, and picked out polishes from my stash to match the colours in the glitter.  These were: BYS - Pink Panic, Barry M - Yellow Green, Rimmel I ♥ Lasting Finish - Sunshine, Rimmel I ♥ Lasting Finish - Double Decker Red, and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Brisk Blue.  Using a striping brush, I filled in the whole nail with random stripes in these colours, top coated, and waited for them to dry.  When they were dry, I applied striping tape in random places across the nail, and painted 1 thick coat of New York Noir over the top.  I kind of messed up on the ring finger and forgot what order I put the tape down in, but never mind : )
 
I loved this mani, and I'm really glad I decided to change my mind at the last minute as I like this more than my original idea.  It did bug me a bit that I forgot to go in and wrap my tips with black after pulling the tape up though. 

pekal

#33DC - Day 27 - a mani with 3 patterns

Hi guys, I'm back today with Day 27 of the #33DC, and the prompt for today is a mani with 3 patterns.  I think this was a hard prompt to be honest.  You want some continuity between each nail, but you don't want it to look too busy at the same time.  I actually did this mani in totally different colours at first, but I wasn't very keen on it, so I decided to try again last night with a simpler colour scheme.   I'm glad I did, as I much prefer this version, but I do have photos of both in this post : )



So, my 3 patterns are stripes, hearts and leopard print. The stripes and leopard were both freehanded with silver acrylic paint, and the hearts are loose silver glitter shapes that I lovingly picked out of a glitter mix I bought on ebay.  The black, as you can see, is Nails Inc - New York Noir that is free in Decembers Glamour magazine. 
I really liked this mani, especially the thumb, index and ring fingers.  It's a shame I've just had to take it off to do some swatches for tomorrow : )

And here is the original version that I did.

This mani was painted with Laval - Ultra Violet, Revlon - Cupid and very yellow-toned gold acrylic paint that I mixed with silver to make it more champagne toned.  The little pink purple holographic stars are from a random bundle of glitter shapes I bought from ebay a long time ago.
I did kind of like this mani, but I think it was just a bit too busy.  It's like the colours and patterns are all screaming to get your attention first.  On the plus side, I think this demonstrates just how much colour choices can change the overall look of a mani!

Anyway, I'd love to know which version you guys prefer.  As always, don't forget to check out the other gorgeous mani's that have been created for this prompt down at the bottom.

pekal

Indy's Indies - Crushed Candy Cane.

 Hi guys, today I have another gorgeous polish from Indy's Indies Christmas collection to show you.  This is Crushed Candy Cane, and I was lucky enough to win a mini bottle of this in Danielle's recent giveaway : D  I am in love with this polish, it does seem very Christmassy, but at the same time I think you could wear this all year round. 



I decided to layer this over a black base so you can see all the shapes and colours properly, but I imagine this would look fab over gold as part of a Christmas mani too.  The accent nail I just quickly freehanded with Rimmel Lycra Pro - Heart on Fire and Sally Hansen CSM - Lavender Cloud.  This was actually my first time doing diagonal stripes freehand, and I had to go over again with the white a little, but it could of been worse.


I also decided to mattify this mani too, and I really love the result:



I definitely prefer the matte version, but I'd love to know which one you guys prefer. 

You can buy Indy's Indies at Danielle's Etsy shop here, and you can like her on Facebook here to keep up to date with news/new collections/re-stocks etc.


pekal

#33DC - Day 24 - mani with the colour you own the most of.

 
 Hi guys, I'm back for Day 24 of the #33DC challenge, and the prompt for today is to do a mani with the colour I own the most of.  I thought this would mean a purple mani, but after a quick look on my polish spreadsheet, I have 41 purples, and 49 pinks.  I think this is largely because at the beginning of my polish obsession, I bought a few massive bundles of polish from ebay which included a lot of pinks.




I didn't really have a plan for this mani, I just knew that I wanted to test Revlon - Cupid for stamping, but I wanted to do some freehand too.  I started with a base of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure - Lavender Cloud, then added the stripes with Cupid and P.I.A - Shade 12.  Then I stamped the rose design from MoYou Mother Nature 05 and the same 2 polishes.  This is the second time I've used this image, sorry guys!  I will use the other plates too, I promise, it just seemed to fit so well with this mani : )
 The day I did this mani, I had received some really cool studs I bought from ebay, including some gorgeous holographic hearts, so I had to add a few of them into this mani.  I will do a little post showing you these studs and the other ones I bought sometime in the next few days. I think these were the perfect touch, that was my favourite nail by far.  They are a lot more holo in real life, but it was hard to capture on camera.
The next prompt is a new technique for you.  I haven't done the mani yet, but will be trying some things over the weekend.  Wish me luck!

pekal

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)