The New 31 Day Nail Challenge - Day 6 - Favourite Colour Family

Day 6 of the challenge is 'Your Favourite Colour Family'.

I wasn't sure what to do for this one colour wise. As you know Pink is my favourite colour, we have already had a Pink Day, and later on in the challenge one of the challenges is 'Inspired By Your Favourite Colour'. I briefly toyed with the idea of using a different colour today so as not to over load you with Pink, but then I wouldn't be using my favourite colour family.

So Pink it is!

The appalling light we have had lately has led to these photos coming out a little Red toned but I assure you, in person it's definitely Pink!

The polishes used were, two coats of Barry M Matt White as a base, then a coat of Barry M Strawberry Ice Cream. I then free handed the stripes using Barry M Raspberry, Barry M Shocking Pink, Barry M Gelly Grapefruit, and Models Own Magenta Divine Glitter.

Up next is Ombre or Skittle.

Don't forget to take a look at all the other very talented challengers!

♥ A ♥

The New 31 Day Nail Challenge - Day 5 - Purple

Day 5 of The New 31 Day Nail Challenge is the colour Purple, another favourite of mine.

These didn't turn out quite as neat as I would have liked but I got up late and the light was fading inside and out so I was in a bit of a rush. I still like the overall effect of them though.

I started with two coats of Barry M Matt White, then used Sally Hansen Bewitched, Barry M Bright Purple and Barry M Berry Ice Cream for the zigzag stripes.

Tomorrows challenge is Your Favourite Colour Family.

Don't forget to take a peek at what the other lovely ladies have been coming up with!

♥ A ♥

The New 31 Day Nail Challenge - Day 4 - Pink

Day 4 of The New 31 Day Nail Challenge is Pink!

If you have been reading my blog for a while you will know that I love pink, it is my favourite colour so I have quite a few pink polishes so the biggest challenge was picking one!

I decided to go with one I haven't used yet.

This is where I start to look bad.

My untried pink is No 7 Stay Perfect in Sugar, from the Spring 2011 collection.

I've had it almost two years and it was still untried.

Whoops.

Anyway, I used three coats of Sugar on all but my ring finger, which I used Barry M Matt White.

Then I framed all the nails with Barry M's Boots Xmas Limited Edition 2012 Gold polish, which, as the name might suggest, is one of two limited edition polishes they released for Xmas 2012 in Boots, the other was a Pink which I still haven't been able to find anywhere :-(. Barry M also released two LE polishes in Superdrug at the same time.

To finish off I added the little roses on the ring finger using Sugar and Barry M Shocking Pink, then a mix of Barry M Spring Green and Lime Green for the leaves.

Day 5 of the challenge is Purple!

What to do?

♥ A ♥

The New 31 Day Nail Challenge - Day 3 - Gold

Gold is one of my favourite colours to use in nail art, particularly with black. And I have wanted to do Baroque/Damask style nail art for a while now so when I saw todays challenge was gold I decided I'd cross both off my to-do list at the same time!

I used two coats of Barry M Black as a base then free handed the pattern using Barry M Gold Foil.

Instead of attempting an all over pattern I decided to take different parts of different patterns I found online by searching 'Baroque' or 'Damask' prints.

 The Thumb shows the top part of one pattern, the Pinky and Index both show edges of another pattern and the Ring and Middle both have random center parts.

I really wish I had some black flocking powder, then I'd have done a gold background with a black flocked pattern, but I'll just save that one for another day!

Tomorrows challenge is my favourite colour, Pink!

♥ A ♥

The New 31 Day Nail Challenge - Day 2 - Silver

Today is Day 2 of The New 31 Day Nail Challenge and the theme is silver!

I wasn't a fan of today's theme, I don't really use silver as an all over colour because I don't really enjoy wearing metallics, so I tried to think of a way to do a mani where silver is definitely the feature, but without it being just silver.

I think I managed it, and I have to say I love it!

The base colour for the Pinky, Middle and Thumb is two coats of Models Own Sterling Silver, which is such a gorgeous silver colour, not too dull, not too bright and perfectly shiny!

The Index and Ring fingers have the trusty Barry M Black as a base.

I added some flat back Swarovski Crystals to the Pinky, which I bought in a pack of 200 for £8.95 from ebeautytraining on eBay. Some silver striping tape, also purchsed from eBay (I don't recommend the seller so I won't include a link) on the Ring finger. Some Ultra Fine Art Glitter, which I found in my old craft stash in the loft but can probably be bought in most craft stores, to the Middle finger. Some Born Pretty Store silver 'Glequins' (Review coming soon!) to the Index finger and then left the Thumb plain to show off the Models Own Sterling Silver.

I really wish I had done this for New Years! But I expect I will be repeating this one for many occasions as I love it so much!

Tomorrows challenge is Gold!

Don't forget to check out what the other ladies taking part have come up with.

♥ A ♥

The New 31 Day Nail Challenge - Day 1 - Black and White

New year, new challenge!

I hope you all had a fun and safe New Years, mine was spent at home with MrGT, the MiniTips and my best friend, watching DVD's and eating sweets, I couldn't have asked for a better one!

I found out about this challenge a few days ago over on The Crumpet Blog but only decided this morning I was definitely going to do it. It looked like too much fun to turn down!

Day One is Black and White, so I sat down with my chosen nail polish and this is what I came up with.

I used Barry M Black and Matt White and free handed the stars and stripes as I was far too sleepy to deal with tape! I think I prefer it a little bit wobbly anyway so I'm not too worried about it.

I hope you like it and make sure you take a look at what the other lovelies participating in the challenge have come up with!

♥ A ♥

My Top 12 of 2012

Hello!

I hope everyone has had a lovely few weeks? I'm very apologetic for not being around much throughout December. It is a month jam packed with shopping, birthdays, school events, and all the usual festivities for the time of year. We have been a very busy household indeed!

I have still been doing my nails and taking photos so I have plenty of posts to be writing however I really wanted to do at least one post this month that was relevant to the time of year. 

I have been loving all the 'Top 10/12/15/20/200 of the year' type posts that have been popping up recently so I decided to go back through some of my older posts and pick my Top 10 nail art posts.

But I couldn't.

So I went with 12!

And here they are in chronological order.

Minion Nails.

I think this might be my most popular blog post! I loved these nails so much, and it was my first freehand attempt at anything other than polka dots or zebra stripes.

I was very proud.

Rainbow Nails.

These were my Day 9 post for the 31 Day Nail Challenge which I have still yet to complete!

I just loved how cute and cheerful they were and the best part...

I did Mum/Daughter matching nails!

Galaxy Nails.

These were my first ever galaxy nails and I did them for the Makeup Savvy 15 Day Nail Challenge which I loved every moment of!

Rose French Tip Nails.

These were another Makeup Savvy Challenge entry.

I really loved how delicate these turned out, the black and gold leaf pattern was added last minute as I thought it needed something extra.

Pastel Rainbow Gradient.

Another Makeup Savvy challenge entry!

This is another of my most popular posts, I love how gorgeous the colours are together and how soft it looks. I added the glitter topcoat to cover a teeny tiny bit of dust that got stuck on one of my nails, it wasn't visible in person but the camera picked it up in my first batch of photos so out came the glitter and  luckily I loved it even more!

Disney Tangled Nails.

These had to be in here somewhere!

These were picked as one of Fee from Makeup Savvy's three favourites of the 15 Day Challenge.

These took me hours! I'd never attempted anything like this before but after seeing Robin Moses' Tangled Nails I really wanted to recreate them. I used nail polish as I don't own any acrylic paints and just kept going and adding bits here and there until I was happy with them. My neck ached so much the next day from being sat tensed up with concentration for such a long time! But the outcome was worth it and I was so thrilled they were picked as a favourite.

Skull Nails.

These were my personal favourite nails of the 15 Day Challenge and possibly even my favourite nail art I've done to date. They were inspired by Ed Hardy tattoo style designs and my love for anything with skulls on it, especially jewellery.

Cat Nails.

I don't think I really need to explain why these are a favourite of mine!

My gorgeous cats on my nails, what more could I want?

I think I might have to do some Pug nails soon though!

Back to school nails.

These were just so simple and cute they had to be in my favourites, plus they were for a very special week which included my daughters first day at a new school in year 1 and my sons first day at school!

Bohemian Water Marble.

These were a Lazy 15 Challenge post and my first successful water marble using normal nail polish.

I couldn't have been happier with the result it gave, the China Glaze Bohemian Collection is just gorgeous!

Feminine Nails.

These were not to everyones taste but I loved them.

They were inspired by the inside of a storage box that my Mum has. I really enjoyed using the different techniques to achieve the final look, it was time consuming but very satisfying.

Mermaid Nails.

Last but not least, mermaid nails.

When I asked my daughter which were her favourite nails she immediately said the mermaid ones! I really thought she would have picked one of the Disney Princesses but these were her favourites and they were one of mine too, so here they are!

And there you have my Top 12 of 2012.

I hope everyone has a very happy new year!

♥ A ♥

Rimmel London - 'Precious Stones' Collection Review & Swatches

Last week I showed you Rimmels new 'Metal Rush' collection and today I have two of their new 'Precious Stones' glitter polishes.

Precious Stones consists of two high coverage glitter nail polishes named Ruby Crush and Diamond Dust.

001 Diamond Dust.

High coverage is no joke! This is two coats with no 'underwear' other than a base coat!

Diamond Dust is a gunmetal grey with plenty of holo glitter for sparkle. It applied evenly without a hitch and dried to a slightly matte affect, which looked amazing for those who like their glitters slightly more muted but I like my glitters to really twinkle, so the photos show it with a coat of Seche Vite.

I wore this for a night out and I'm sad to say it did not last the night, I looked down at one point to find one nail on each hand had come off in one big chunk and several other nails were chipped. It's not like my nights out are of the wild variety either, a few drinks, a bit of chatter, then maybe some dancing towards the end of the night, so I saw no reason for whole nails to chip off.

For me however, this is not too much of a disaster as I very rarely wear a polish longer than a day anyway. But if you like yours to last at least the week or possibly more, you may want to consider wearing a polish underneath as 'underwear' and be prepared to touch up the tips.

At least that's one of the perks of a glitter polish, easy touch ups!

I still love this polish and will get a lot of wear out of it simply because I adore the coverage, colour and the sparkle! It's an eye catcher for sure!

002 Ruby Crush.

Ruby Crush is a mix of fine red glitter and larger silver glitter particles.

Maybe it's just the time of year, but this polish feels really, very festive to me!

I applied two coats over a coat of Barry M Bright Red and then added a coat of Seche Vite in an attempt to avoid the chipping I had with Diamond Dust. Obviously, with it being a different polish, having not tried Diamond Dust with 'underwear' or Ruby Crush without, and the fact that I didn't wear Ruby Crush on a night out, I can't say for certain that this has solved the massive chipping I had with Diamond Dust but it has lasted longer. So far it has lasted a whole day, which has consisted of housework, playing with puppy, decorating a Christmas tree, showering, cooking and the kids swimming lessons. I've touched up some tip wear but that's it.

Again it applied evenly, if not maybe slightly sparser than Diamond Dust (but maybe that's just me) and dried to a Matte finish, though with a coat of topcoat it is a mass of sparkly festive goodness!

Both are available to buy online or in store at Boots and Superdrug for £3.99.

Has anyone else tried these out? If so did you have the same issues as I did with the chipping?

♥ A ♥