Polish Party - Spring

This is a very busy end of the month for me - a blog post pretty much every day, and so much to do at home as well! For this month's Polish Party theme I decided to recreate a manicure by Fia that I saw on G+.

Polishes used: Color Club Lady Holiday, Barry M Key Lime Gelly and Nails Inc Burton Mews

I was unsure about the background colour at first, and was leaning towards a pale nude pink, but in the end the foggy weather we've had here for the past three days made me go with a grey colour that matches the sky and the stones.

Outlined leaves on a foggy sky.

I started with two coats of Color Club Lady Holiday, and once they were dry, I used my detail brush to draw on the leaf bobs with Key Lime Gelly. It was fairly thick, so while it provided good coverage, it was also a bit fiddly to apply - it may be in need of a few drops of polish thinner. Once the leaves were dry, I added the outlines and stems with the dark green Burton Mews.

Leafy tips

This was much trickier than I thought - getting the stems and veins right with my detailing brush required precision I'm still not in full possession of, and my end result is nowhere near as tidy as my inspiration. But it was a fun manicure to do, and the messiness of my lines was not visible in normal wear. I even got a few compliments for this manicure!

Polishes I used:

• Color Club Lady Holiday - a warm-leaning pale grey crème, opaque in two easy coats. An excellent staple for nail art.
• Barry M Key Lime Gelly - a saturated warm green crème, fairly thick in consistency and opaque in two coats. Because of its thickness, it can get a bit draggy when it starts to dry. But it's such a beautiful bright green, I cannot hold a grudge against it.
• Nails Inc Burton Mews - a dark green crème, opaque in two coats and perfect for nail art.

Thanks for looking, and check out other Polish Party manicures below.

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FingerFood's Theme Weeks - Monochrome Mother's Day!

This week we have a bumper crop of themes! Due to an overlap between an old and a new set of prompts, I could combine two ideas - one for Mothers' Day and a Monochrome one. Challenge accepted!

Polishes used: Revlon Guest List, Color Club Nouveau Vintage and Sugar Ray, Ciate Cookies & Cream, Nails Inc Langham Place and OPI You Don't Know Jacques

When I was still planning for the single theme of Mothers Day, I decided I wanted to finally try my hand at freehanded vintage roses. I've always loved how they look, and the instructions were simple enough - and so many amazing bloggers posted excellent tutorials! For this manicure, I followed the advice of the incredible Nailasaurus. The addiction of the monochrome prompt forced me to consider a few colour options, and after some deliberation (and a whole lot of polish dots on paper) I chose sepia as my main colour scheme.

Vintage sepia roses and dots.

I started by painting my index and ring fingers with two coats of Color Club Nouveau Vintage - a brown polish with a strong gold and green shimmer. The thumb, middle and pinky were covered with two coats of Color Club Sugar Ray - a pale nude with a fine pink shimmer.

The dots were added with a medium dotting tool. The centre row is Noveau Vintage, the next one outwards is Nails Inc Langham Place, and the out-most row is OPI You Don't Know Jacques. For the roses, I blobbed the Langham Place as the base with the dotting tool, and then added the shadows and highlights with a fine detailing brush from Born Pretty Store using You Don't Know Jacques and Ciate Cookies and Cream. The leaves are the only departure from the sepia tone, but I wanted to add a bit of contrast to the whole design. These were made with the detail brush and Revlon Guest List. After everything was properly dry, I added one coat of Seche Vite.

Vintage roses and dots.

This manicure was surprisingly easy to do. I had practised the drawing technique a few times on a bit of paper, and then recreated it on my nails. Getting the dots even was probably the hardest part of this manicure! I am completely in love with it right now - it looks gorgeous, and I will definitely be adding roses to my nail art arsenal.

Polishes I used: 

• Revlon Guest List - a muted khaki green crème. A bit runny in application, but it's opaque in two coats.
• Color Club Nouveau Vintage - a gorgeous multidimensional gold and olive shimmer in a brown base. Opaque in two coats, easy to apply and did I mention it's beautiful?
• Color Club Sugar Ray - a pale nude with a fine pink shimmer throughout. Opaque in two easy coats, but it dries a bit frosty - not noticeable under nail art, but it would bother me on its own.
• Ciate Cookies & Cream - a pink-leaning nude crème, transparent and opaque at the same time. A wonderful polish for nail art base, or details.
• Nails Inc Langham Place - a warm darkish nude crème, nicely opaque and easy to apply.
• OPI You Don't Know Jacques - the legendary taupe crème, perfect for nail art. On its own opaque in two easy coats, super easy to apply and incredibly versatile.

Thanks for looking, and check out other theme manicures below!

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Pahlish The Oldest Question - swatch & review

It seems that Saturdays are now a traditional swatch day here - anything that's been done three times is a tradition, right? This week I want to show you the second Doctor Who inspired polish I ordered from Rainbow Connection UK - The Oldest Question.

Pahlish The Oldest Question - two coats with one coat of Seche Vite and in natural daylight.

The Oldest Question is a medium grey crelly with a beautiful glitter mix - there are numerous small and large copper hexes and a smattering of gold circle pieces. There is also a bit of a copper shimmer throughout the polish. The base is fairly opaque - this is two medium coats - but the glitter is nonetheless nicely visible. The glitter is also very well distributed, there's no fishing or dabbing needed to achieve a great look. It dries a bit uneven, so a generous layer of top coat is needed for a glossy, smooth manicure.

Two coats of The Oldest Question by Pahlish - probably the most colour accurate photo.

This is a gorgeous polish that's super easy to apply and would probably suit most skin tones. If you love grey crellies and glitter, you should definitely go for it.

"The first question — the oldest question in the universe hidden in plain sight. Would you like to know what it is?"
Doctor Who?
Doctor Who?
Doctor.... Who?

Thanks for looking!

Check out what the British Bloggers have been up to this week!

An InLinkz Link-up

Golden Oldies Thursday - Yellow & Peach

I always seem to be stumped when it comes to GOT prompts. I found two eligible polishes for this week's yellow/peach theme, but then I couldn't think of anything interesting with them. There's only so many dotticures I can do without getting bored.

Barry M Lemon Ice Cream and Seventeen Glisten.

In the end I decided to bring out my striping brush and try something new - a lattice and star-burst pattern. I started with three thick coats of Barry M Lemon Ice Cream - a streaky pastel yellow nightmare. I am so happy I now have a Nails Inc dupe for it... Once that was dry, I freehanded the patterns with a striping brush and Seventeen Glisten. I wish I had used the lattice pattern on all the nails, it looks like a delicious lemon pie!

Polishes I used:

• Barry M Lemon Ice Cream - a pastel yellow crème and a complete nightmare to apply. It takes between 3-4 careful coats to be opaque, is streaky and uneven. The drying time is reasonable, which is a good thing considering the number of coats needed.
• Seventeen Glisten - a gorgeous peach base with a strong gold shimmer. On its own opaque in 2-3 coats and very easy to apply. I've been very happy with all Seventeen polishes I own - it's a great budget brand!

Thanks for looking, and check out other GOT manicures below!

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Tri-Polish Tuesdays - March round four!

This week we are saying goodbye to the March colours of green, blue and purple. I will be sad to see them go - but nothing is stopping me from using them in all the other manicures, right? To give them a good send off, I decided on a jelly sandwich dotticure (dotwich?).

Polishes used: Sally Hansen Loyal Lavender, Tiger 62, Barry M SLE2013 Green and OPI Don't Touch My Tutu.

I started with a single coat of OPI Don't Touch My Tutu, and proceeded to dot on the three bright polishes with a large dotting tool. I didn't really go for symmetry or even dots - just full coverage. This part took quite a while, but I usually listen to interesting podcasts while I work on my nails, so I was busy and entertained throughout.

Dotticure sandwich in natural daylight.

Once the dots were all nice and dry I added two thin coats of the sheer white jelly to achieve this faded, milky look. I was considering adding some more dots on top of it, but in the end I decided I like the washed out foggy effect as it is. The whole thing was topped of with a coat of Seche Vite.

Milky and sweet.

The actual colours are a bit more vivid on my nails, and it's really fun to compare the bright, nearly neon bottle colours of my chosen three polishes with the final effect.

Polishes I used:

• Sally Hansen Loyal Lavender - a subtle lavender shimmer. On its own opaque in three coats, and very pretty on the nail.
• Tiger 62 - a bright blue crème, slow to dry and fairly opaque. Not bad for £1.
• Barry M SLE2013 Green - a neon green jelly that was a Superdrug LE colour last year. Very sheer (four coats alone) and streaky alone, but good for nail art.
• OPI Don't Touch My Tutu - a sheer white jelly, excellent for sandwiches. It would take 3-4 coats to be opaque alone, and it looks like fluffy clouds and marshmallows on the nail.

Thanks for looking, and check out other Tri-Polish manicures below!

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FingerFood's Theme Weeks - Freestyle

This week's theme gave us a lot of freedom, so I used it as an excuse to try out a manicure I've been planning for quite a while. I am quite a geek, and recently I've been considering how to make different superhero themed manicures - the colours, layouts and so on. One of the first ones that popped to my mind was a look inspired by Rorschach from Watchmen, the broken, sociopathic vigilante with delusions of righteousness and no qualms about his methods.

Polishes used: OPI Off With Her Red, Nails Inc Hampstead Gardens, Leighton Denny On The Rocks and Hint of Mint, OPI You Don't Know Jacques

I started of with a base of Nails Inc Hampstead Gardens on my pointer, thumb and ring finger, and Leighton Denny Hint of Mint on middle and pinky. The weird mustard shade mirrors the dirty trench-coat Rorschach wears, while the off-white base works great as the background for the mask pattern. I then sponged on some 'dirt' stains with OPI You Don't Know Jacques and Leighton Denny On The Rocks.

Rorschach inspired manicure

 
The black ink spot pattern was done with Misa I Will Survive and a dotting tool - it got a bit messy, and I feel it looks a bit too much like a face, but I guess that's the feature of the Rorschach blots - we see things in them :) The blood spatter was dotted on with OPI Off With Her Red, but next time I might give the proper splatter technique a go. The whole manicure was finished with Orly Matt Top.

I really like how the dirt stains look here.

This manicure was super fun to do and surprisingly easy too! All it required was random sponging and some dotting in a vaguely symmetrical manner.



Polishes I used: 

• Nails Inc Hampstead Gardens - an amazing weird mustard yellow/brown colour polish, with a crème finish. It's very easy to apply, opaque in two coats and dries slightly darker than the bottle shade. I got in in a Nails Inc lucky dip, and was super happy to see it!
• Leighton Denny Hint of Mint - off-white crème, leaning towards the greenish-yellow end of white. Opaque in two medium coats, but a bit patchy and uneven. If I were to wear it alone, I would probably give it three coats to be safe. Great shade as a base for nail art. 
• Leighton Denny On The Rocks - light brown base with subtle shimmer, on its own opaque in two coats.
• OPI You Don't Know Jacques - beautiful taupe crème, glossy and light. On its own opaque in two coats.
• OPI Off With Her Red - tomato red crème, nicely opaque (full coverage in two coats) and good for nail art.
• Misa I Will Survive - super opaque black crème, perfect for nail art or as undies.

Thanks for looking, and check out other freestyle manicures below!

An InLinkz Link-up