No Animals Were Harmed in the Making of This Post

This amazing snakeskin look is Kari's brainchild. When she posted it a few months back it quickly spread all over the blogsphere and I fully intended to do it myself but never got round to it.

I was looking through my stamping plates, trying to decide on a design for today's manicure and I decided that I wanted to use a plate I hadn't used before. I still have a few of the 25pc Bundle Monster plates that still have the blue plastic covering on so it had to be one of those. I spotted this plate in the pile with it's shiny blue protective layer still attached and Kari's snakeskin idea came flooding back to me!

Plate: Bundle Monster BM215
Base Colour: Barry M - Berry Ice Cream
Stamp Colour: BYS - Glittering Purple and La Femme - Grey Cream
Top Coat of NYC

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Pink Wednesday: I Missed You, Half Moons

I was scrolling through my archives a few days ago and remembered how much I like half moon manicures. It's been ages since I did one so I'm rocking the look today for Pink Wednesday.

I used BYS Flirty Sparkle as a base, Collection 2000 Moonlight Shine applied with a brush for the moons and some bullion from Born Pretty Store. All topped off with a coat of NYC Top Coat.

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My Kind of Cool Aid

My Cult Nails order arrived last week and I had to go and pick it up from the sorting office because there was a £13 customs charge to be paid. If you're in the UK and are thinking of purchasing polish from a country outside the EU, consider yourself warned about these charges. I was hesitant to buy these polishes in the first place because it's quite unusual (actually, unheard of) for me to spend so much on polish and in the end they worked out at £9.50 each which makes me cringe every time I think about it!

Wow, way to start on a bum-note but don't get me wrong, I am really, really happy that I decided to bite the bullet and buy these. I went for My Kind of Cool Aid and Iconic from the 'Inaugural' Collection and Let Me Fly and Cruisin' Nude from the 'A Day At The Races' Collection. Every single polish applies like a dream and is perfect in two coats.

Konad Plate: Born Pretty M76

Base Colour: Cult Nails - My Kind of Cool Aid

Konad Colour: BYS - Glittering Purple

Top Coat of NYC

Purple or Purple?

I'm going to see Jimmy Eat World tonight! It's very exciting, I just wish I knew more of their songs, haha! I was going to sell my ticket but since Blink 182 have postponed their tour I decided to go to this show because otherwise, I won't have been to a single one this year :(

Plate: Bundle Monster BM201

Base Colour: BYS La Di Da

Stamp Colour: BYS Glittering Purple

Top Coat of NYC

Cat Got Creamed

Does anyone remember the bottle of Manhattan 610k polish that's on a tour of the world? It visited me here in the UK last October (post here) and is currently at its 9th stop in Illinois, US with Melanie.
If you are interested in playing host to this polish and being part of the adventure, visit Melanie's post here to put your name down. You do need a blog where you can post your mani but that's the the only requirement.

Todays nails were heavily, okay wholly, inspired by Marta's recent post over at Chit Chat Nails which you can see here.

Plate: Bundle Monster BM221

Base Colour: E.L.F. Desert Haze

Stamp Colour: L'Oreal LaquiResist Black Bean

BYS Astro Gold for the spots

Top Coat of NYC

I Might Miss My Day At The Races

Things are pretty hectic with my exams at the moment but I'll be squeezing in a post when I have time! My last one is on Monday and it can't come fast enough.

I've seen loads of swatches of the new Cult Nails collection - A Day At The Races - and I fell in love with a few of the colours. However, they're a bit out of my normal 'price comfort zone' for polishes but after some coaxing from a few ladies on Twitter and Maria herself (the owner of Cult Nails) informing me that they were running an offer that ends today, I ordered 4 bottles. The shades I chose are Let Me Fly and Cruisin' Nude from the 'Races' collection (swatches here and here), and My Kind of Cool Aid and Iconic from an older collection.

BUT, I saw a blog post from Cult Nails (here) this morning explaining that they're having some problems with international shipping regulations after one customer's order was destroyed before she received it because the contents broke some rules. So all international orders are on hold for the time being. It's kind of annoying that I may not get my order, but better that than Maria risks posting it and something horrid happening to the package.

Plate:  Bundle Monster BM221

Base Colour: BYS Blue Night Star

Stamp Colour: Collection 2000 - Moonlight Shine

Top Coat of NYC

Lol at the missing handle, I think the bottle got trodden on once a long time ago and the lid cracked to pieces.

My First Pink Wednesday

Pink Wednesdays is a great little scheme thought up by the ladies from Colour Coated, Glitta Gloves and Life and Polish. The premise is really simple. On Wednesdays, you wear pink polish and post it on your blog. If you want to join in, just click here to see more details.

Today is my first pink Wednesday! 

I don't post (or even wear) many pink manicures, but when I was deciding which pink to use, I saw that I have way more than I thought and I hardly ever use them so this will be a great way for me to get more use out of my pink polishes.

Plate: BM207

Base Colour: BYS Pink Radiance

Stamp Colour: BYS Glittering Purple

Top Coat of NYC

Sitting, Waiting, Swishing

I want to thank everyone for the amazing response I had to my recent EOTD post. You all seemed to like it so I'm looking forward to doing more in the future. You also reminded me that it's my blog so I should basically post what I want which is something I sometimes forget and I then start worrying about the fact that I'm not a nail art machine when there's no reason to get all stressed out about it!

I don't really have much of an opinion on these nails and I wasn't even going to post this because I really can't make up my mind about them. I don't dislike the mani but I'm not in love with it either! I think it's kind of 'pretty' but just not something I'm used to seeing on my nails, it's a strange feeling!

Base Colour: Glo Baby Glo from Primark - Fondant

Stripe Colours: BYS in Glittering Purple and Rimmel I ♥ Lasting Finish in Azure

I used a striping brush to paint on the 'swishes'

Have you voted for me in the Bundle Monster competition today? I hate shamelessly nagging and pestering you all but it would be really lovely if you could click over to the competition and give me a thumbs up! Just click here or here. Thanks!!

Scotch Tape Take Two

Try and say that ten times fast?!

I just want to say thank you for all the lovely birthday messages. I truly loved them, thank you so much. It's so good to hear that plenty of you are still acting young for your years and getting away with it!

I've gone for a patchwork look this time with the scotch tape. The base is BYS Metallic Fuschia, then I painted on the purple sections with Barbara Daly Velour and the last layer is Rimmel Lycra Wear Black Satin. I used a thick top coat of NYC in an attempt to flatten out the lines.

Then I added some little sequins which I think is a nice touch but I preferred it without.

20 Candles

I turned twenty today. It's kind of momentus but disappointing at the same time. I'm no longer a teenager, I am a fully qualified 'adult' which I suppose is okay, but I sure am gonna miss being a teenager and getting away with all the things you can before you reach this age. Only five years ago, I was looking up at twenty-somethings and thinking, 'Woooooooow, look how old and responsible they are' but now it's me and I still feel like a 13 year old inside, but I suppose it'll always be that way.

So the nails are a cake and candles!

Thumb:

George @ Asda - Natural White

Collection 2000 Hot Looks - Dynasty

BYS - Astro Gold

Nails Inc - Victoria

Fingers:

Rimell Lycra Wear - Black Satin

Stargazer - White

Sally Hansen Chrome - Amber

I used nail art brushes to freehand the candles and a dotting tool for the flames.

Simpleton

So far I've been keeping up with my blogging schedule. For those of you that didn't catch my post a little while back, I mentioned that instead of putting pressure on myself to post every day as I used to, I'm setting myself a goal of 3 posts per week. I've finalized the plan and the schedule is to post on Monday, Wednesday and either Saturday or Sunday. Whenever there is a special occasion, like St. Patrick's Day for example, I might throw in a quick, freebie nail art post.

Last night was my first attempt at a 'Scotch Tape Mani' made famous, I believe, by the fabulous Erika at Chloe's Nails*. It basically involves placing strips of scotch tape on your nails which act as a stencil to give you crisp lines between multiple coats of colour. Depending how you use the tape, you can get all kinds of great results and it's so easy to do. Make sure you check out Erika's blog to see what amazing effects you can achieve.

My first few attempts were a bit disastrous to say the least. I'm very impatient and wanted to get to bed so I kept putting the scotch tape on too quickly and it would rip off the base colour so after a few failures I decided to leave my base coat to dry over night before subjecting it to any tape torture.

I used Jay Jays Thrillseeker as the base colour and applied a top coat of NYC last night. I got to the fun bit in the morning when I applied the tape diagonally across my finger and used BYS Fools Paradise for the second segment. I then applied Barry M Blue Glitter with a striping brush for the dividing line and topped it off with another top coat of NYC.

* If I have this wrong and you know of someone else who was using the technique before Erika, please let me know as I like to give credit where credit's due.

St Patty's Day Mani

I know these aren't really shamrocks because they have four leaves but hopefully no one will call me up on it today!

Plate: Bundle Monster BM03

Base Colour: Collection 2000 Hot Looks - Spangles

Stamp Colour: BYS - Fern

Top Coat of NYC

BYS Fools Paradise

Tonight I went to see Rango with some friends - it's now in my top 3 animated films ever. Every frame looks so perfect and the humour is just up my alley. I was more in the mood to see Battle: LA but I'm so glad we saw Rango instead.

It seems like when I watch films, I concentrate more on the aesthetic than what's actually happening in the story. I think this is why I love films like Tron: Legacy, The Cell, and Legend of the Guardians which I know plenty of people don't for one reason or another. I just love watching them for the sake of watching them. They don't have to please my brain when I can just drink them up with my eyes.

Konad Plate: M57

Base Colour: BYS - Fools Paradise

Konad Colour: China Glaze - Adore

Top Coat of NYC

♪♫ Love Is The Coal That Makes This Train Roll

I know you're probably getting sick of my unexplained, extended absences and I'm really sorry! So far, this year has been one crazy whirlwind of events and I'm finding it impossible to make time for blogging. I'm trying to get some structure back in the blog so I think instead of attempting a new mani every day, I'm gonna aim for three a week on set days (I'm thinking Monday, Wednesday and Saturday) so you'll know what you can expect.

The internet connection in my house has been down since Sunday and no-one's called up to fix it since it's an 08 number and we only have cell phones so it will cost upwards of 35p per minute to call the ISP (I know it doesn't sound much, but we're all really stingy).

  I'm blogging from home home today (my parents' house) since I had to come back to get one of my wisdom teeth pulled. I've been complaining about it for months so I'm glad it's finally gone. It wasn't half as bad as I was expecting and I barely even felt the injections. It was actually the nicest procedure I've ever had done in a dentist's office, if anything that takes place there can be called nice!

For the mani I used:

Carla Di Roma - Grape Wine

A coat of BYS Tinkerbell

Barry M Blue Glitter sponged from the corners downwards

GOSH Metallic Blue freehanded for the lines using a striper brush (eBay)

I've made a few additions to my list of regular polishes that work well for stamping. This GOSH Metallic Blue is on there! Head over to the Stamping Polishes page if you want to see all of the polishes I use for stamping.

Born Pretty Store and my First Freehand Nail Art

I received a few items from Born Pretty Store a few weeks ago to review. You've already seen some of the Bullion put to use and I'll cracking out the rest of the amazing nail art supplies in good time. Here are the goodies that I got....

I've wanted some of these tiny brushes for ages. I did buy a pack of nail art brushes on eBay but there are very few that are suitably teeny for painting designs like this on your nails and I'm actually using one of them to apply my eyeliner!!

This pack of 4 brushes is perfect for drawing anything you can imagine on your nails. They're small but easy to grip and each one is a different size so you can use the smallest ones for lining and the larger ones for filling in colours.

I decided to try my hand at roses, which are heavily inspired by (read: copied from) Marina at Forever The Ugly Duckling who does some really cute and imaginative, yet simple, freehand nail art which is what actually inspired me to have a go myself.

I started out drawing the outlines of the flowers then filling them in with the blue. Then I went over the outlines again to emphasise them since the blue kind of covered them over. Then I decided to add the leaves by doing the  same thing - outline, colour, outline again!

I'm really pleased with how it turned out and I'll definitely be doing more freehand nail art in the future if I can come up with any ideas! If that's something you guys would like to see?

I used:

Brushes from Born Pretty Store

Barry M Berry Ice Cream as a the base colour

Rimmel Black Satin to outline the flowers

Beauty UK Neon Blue to fill the flowers

BYS Fern for the leaves

Top coat of NYC

Disclaimer: The nail art brushes were sent to me by Born Pretty Store for review. Everything you read here is my honest opinion.

Nebula Nails

Here is my attempt at creating some of those 'Galaxy Nails' that have been floating around a lot recently. I first saw one of these designs months and months ago but I thought it would be too hard so I didn't even attempt to create it myself. Boy, was I wrong! Considering how pretty this look is, it's some of the easiest nail art I've ever done and I think it's absolutely fool proof. I was worried it wouldn't turn out very well, but I don't think this look could turn out badly even if you tried to mess it up! That's the beauty of it.

All you need is a selection of cosmic colours and some textured paper tissue (i.e. kitchen roll) and I'd recommend using at least one holographic polish in the mix. Paint on your base colour and just start dabbing the colours on in patchy, thin layers. 

Asami has a great video tutorial of the method.

This was the colour inspiration for my version.

The polishes I used (in this order) are:

NYC Glossies - 243B

E.L.F - Party Purple

BYS - Glittering Purple

GOSH - Holographic

E.L.F - Twinkle

Collection 2000 Maxiflex - Moonlight Shine (dotted on for the stars)

And of course, a Top Coat of NYC (not pictured)

Has anyone done their own galaxy nails? Please leave a link to your mani in the comments, I love looking at them!

Barry M Mint Green

I had my last exam today. I'm so so so happy to have them over, even though I think I failed 3 out of the 4.

After the exam some friends and I went out for a pub lunch and just chatted for nearly 2 hours which was so much fun as I've been stuck inside for nearly 3 weeks. I was planning on going out with my friends tonight but decided to stay in eating, sleeping and watching movies since I haven't really had a chance just to chill for the so long, but I'm looking forward to going out tomorrow - it should be a crazy night!

Konad Plate: M35

Base Colour: Barry M - Mint Green

Konad Colour: BYS - Fools Paradise

No7 Betty Blues for the dots done with a dotting tool

Top Coat of NYC

Absentee

Hey guys. Sorry I've been out of action for a few days. I could excuse myself by moaning about my exams and moving all my stuff back to uni but the truth is I've just been lazy this week. Super lazy. Soz.

I'm not sure about this base colour. It's a light purple shimmer and I normally don't go for light shimmers but this one was purple and in the sale so I had to get it! I don't think I would ever wear it on its own but it's nice for under a pattern like this.

Konad Plate: M60

Base Colour: Glo Baby Glo from Primark - Fondant

Konad Colour: BYS - Glittering Purple

Top Coat of NYC

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all have fun tonight, whatever you're doing, and I wish you all the best for 2011!!!

Plate: Bundle Monster - BM05

Base Colour: BYS - Fools Paradise with Barry M Blue Glitter on ring finger and thumb

Konad Colour: W7 - Black

Top Coat of NYC

Happy Christmas to All and to All a Good Night...

It's CHRISTMAS!! Well nearly anyway :)

I spent my Christmas eve shopping with my mum and then at the cinema with my dad so I'm super tired and hopefully won't wake up too early out of excitement. Yes, I'm almost two decades old and I still can't sleep through the night on Christmas Eve! 

Today's nails are kind of Christmassy. I think this pattern would make awesome wrapping paper in festive colours.

Plate: Bundle Monster - BM21

Base Colour: BYS - Fern

Stamp Colour: Sally Hansen Chrome - Amber

Top Coat of NYC

Merry Christmas everyone and I hope St. Nick brings you everything you wished for!