Little Night Flower

I would like to say thank you to Polish Junkie ( http://polishjunkie8.blogspot.co.uk/ ) for nominating me for this award. I did a bit of research about this and it is a way of letting someone know that you like their blog and promoting it to a wider audience.  I'm new to blogging so it is nice to know that someone likes what I've done so far. In the spirit of spreading the good will and supporting other bloggers there are rules that go with this award and I will go into more detail after the jump.

Saturday night and nowhere to go.  At least my nails are ready for a night on the tiles. I used a base of Barry M Matt White and added the detail with Claire's Two Way Nail Art Pen and Brush in black and white.  For a bit of extra sparkle I added Claire's glitter top coat over the black jacket and bow tie and China Glaze Nova over the white jacket and bow tie.

Day 4 of the tri-polish challenge and time to try out a new technique. This required a few days planning as I decided to use a dry marbling technique.  I used the chosen polishes (Rimmel Sky High, 17 Tropical Island and NYC Faithful Fuchsia) along with China Glaze Liquid Leather and Barry M Matt White.   I started by painting a base of Liquid Leather onto a sheet cut from a freezer food bag.  Onto this base I dripped a line of Matt White and various drops of the other polishes.  I swirled the colours together using a cocktail stick then left the polish to dry for a couple of days. Once dry I peeled the polish off the plastic and cut to a size that would fit on each nail.  I painted a base of Liquid Leather on each nail and carefully placed a piece of the marbled polish onto each nail using a cocktail stick to get the dry polish piece to stick to the wet polish.  After a couple of minutes I covered each nail with a layer of China Glaze Fast F...

In between coughing and spluttering this week I've had a go at a basic tape mani.  The polishes I've chosen for the challenge are Rimmel Sky High, NYC Faithful Fuchsia and 17 Tropical Island.  For this look I've added China Glaze Liquid Leather for the black top coat. I originally had the idea for this using blue, yellow and pink.  However, given the polishes I had chosen for the tri-polish challenge were quite bright I thought they would work well for this idea too. I cut thin strips of masking tape as I wanted lines thicker than the standard striping tape.  I had all kinds of fun trying to mask off just the small colour blocks in the middle of the nails and avoid getting black polish all over my fingers while painting over the tape.. Always room for improvement but not bad for a newbie! I look forward to seeing what everyone else has chosen to do for today.

As Saturday 20 April is International Independent Record Store Day I thought I would do something on this theme for the challenge.  Music is a lifelong obsession for me and while I'm a sucker for cheap online deals and easy to store downloads, there is something nice about still being able to go into a shop and browse the racks of CDs and discover new music.  Some major artists have even created special releases just to be sold in independent stores for this event and more information can be found here:  https://www.facebook.com/RecordStoreDay?fref=ts   I have only used Rimmel Sky High and NYC Faithful Fuchsia for this look.  I stamped with Barry M Silver Foil and Konad black polish.  The stamp on my thumb is from Cheeky plate CH51 and the discs on my index and ring fingers are from Cheeky plate CH48 with a little bit of black polish added with a dotting tool to may them look more like CDs.  The black bars on my middle and little fingers are fr...

If at first you don't succeed...moan and complain about it then pick yourself up and have another go! The colours for the tri-polish challenge this month are turquoise (Rimmel Sky High), pink (NYC Faithful Fuchsia) and orange (17 Tropical Island). Something simple but effective to start off with but I have something more elaborate planned for the other 3 looks. This is a base of Barry M Matt White with a single colour dotted over each nail.

You know those days when nothing seems to go right?  Well I'm having one of those days.  I've picked up the cold that has been doing the rounds and I've been so busy that I totally forgot about theatre tickets I had bought in December so missed out on an evening with the stars from Strictly Come Dancing.  We had gales and dust storms too so a last minute mad dash through to the theatre was out of the question. To cheer myself up I decided to have a go at the tri polish challenge this month.  I came up with a very simple idea for today's mani with dots in the chosen colours. I managed to seriously smudge the first attempt so had to take it all off and start again.  After more smudging and retouching it was all finished for the second time, I  took a couple of pictures and brought up the page to get the link to enter the challenge.  This is when I discovered the colours for this month are turquoise, orange and pink and I had used turquoise, orange an...

While having a look around at nail art challenges I noticed there was one which included a sand/textured polish on one of the days.  I didn't own any textured polish but it got me thinking about what I would do if I did.  While I'm not a huge fan of textured polish I do like the colours available in the latest range of Barry M's sand textured polish and I thought the yellow Station Road could be used in a beach scene. However, Superdrug had a 3 for 2 offer on Barry M nail products and I was struck by inspiration while shopping.  The shimmer from the Barry M Emerald Green polish made me want to do a Wizard of Oz inspired mani so along with Station Road I also bought Red Glitter and Blueberry Ice Cream. This is the result: I used a base of NYC Lexington Yellow on the the thumb and little finger.  I cut thin strips of masking tape and placed these to create the brick pattern and painted Barry M Station Road over the top.  This worked really well, but I spoi...

I thought it was time for something a little more spring like so I'm having a go at entering a competition with a floral theme.  Crumpet's Amateur Nail Art Contest I started with a base of Barry M Blue Moon and added Barry M Spring Green for the grass, with a bit of Barry M Emerald Green and Mint Green sponged over the top.  The clouds were stamped with Konad white stamping polish and Gals image plate GA26, using only half the image on each nail to add a bit of diversity to the pattern.  The flowers were added using a dotting tool and Vivo Tall Order for the petals and NYC Lexington Yellow for the centre.  Finally topped with a generous coat of China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat to stop me smudging it all before I can take a picture.

I really like the look of sponged gradients and wanted to have a go at something a bit different.  As the weather is still a bit wintery I have gone for dark colours.  I'll break out the lighter brighter colours once we get a bit of sunshine. I started with a base of Beauty UK Voodoo over each nail.  I really like this one as it has a lovely golden shimmer which adds an extra dimension to the colour.  Next I used a small piece cut from a make up sponge to apply China Glaze Adventure Red-y about halfway up the nail then sponged China Glaze Liquid Leather on the tip. I let the polish dry for about 20 minutes then used Barry M Gold Foil Effect to stamp a small image from Gals image plate GA44 across each nail.  This was finished with a coat of China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat to smooth out the colours and add shine. This was the finished effect:

April is Autism Awareness month and 2 April was International Autism Awareness Day.  In honour of this I painted blue jigsaw puzzle pieces on my nails with the help of some thin strips of masking tape and a dotting tool.  This was the end result: I used Barry M Cyan Blue and Barry M Cobalt Blue for the puzzle pieces and topped it off with a coat of China Glaze Fast Forward to smooth everything out and add a nice shine.

Inspired by this  Easter Egg Nails  tutorial on the 10 Blank Canvases blog I thought I would have a go at doing mini egg nails for Easter.  This is the end result: I skipped the white acrylic paint stage over the top of the colour as I was away from home for the weekend and didn't have all my kit, but I'm quite pleased with the result. From left to right I used Collection Candy Floss, Barry M Blue Moon, Barry M Lemon Ice Cream, Barry M Berry Ice Cream and Barry M Mint Green.  The speckles were painted on using a fine nail art brush and a chocolate Brown Miss Sporty polish 2300 (I think).  This was all topped off with a coat of Essie Matte About You.