Saturday 3 August 2013

Girly Flowers + Pastel Gradient

Oh hey there guys!! I hope your well this lovely Sunday. Happy international nail art day!!! I would've created something special for this but I'm currently away. But I still have nail art for you (this is primarily a nail art blog after all). Today I have a fun floral with some pastel glitter (aka a new purchase :/ whoops). The floral is inspired by Mr. Candiipants and she has a tutorial for it which is super simple. I didn't actually use the tutorial but it's a brilliant idea that I used for this look.

I have to say I love the design, it's so simple and it looks so upbeat. The best part is you can be as messy as you want and you can claim you were being "artsy". It's perfect. All using the burshes of the nail polishes. Also the pink and purple flowers are so sweet. My index finger was a bit of a trial and error flower but it still fits in. I decided to dab the holographic glitter in the middle for fun (though most lighting it's silver). So yes I like them flowers.
Ok the gradient, trust me it actually is a gradient, the base colours were originally pale turquoise, blue and green-y blue but the glitter base changed them all to green hues. In real life the glitter gradient looked decent especially with the flowers.

White: Barry M - Matt White (Lovely Me:Ex - White for a correction)
Darkest Pink: Color Club - Wing Fling
Pink: Nails Inc - Notting Hill Gate
Light Pink: Barry M - Superdrug Summer LE 2013 A
Pale Purple: Barry M - Prickly Pear
Purple: OPI - Plum And Get It
Holographic glitter: Nails Inc - Abbey Road
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
Gradient (Lightest to Darkest): The Face Shop - GR501, Barry M - Blueberry Ice Cream and Barry M - Greenberry
Pastel Glitter: Etude House - WH901
My first Etude House polish!! I am so in love with the mix of glitter, though I have many thoughts about the formula (written below). Etude House have such a great range of polish that I was staring for a while. I hope to get more glitter polishes from there as they're so indie-esque and interesting.

The glitter was extremely thick, I've been looking for a pastel glitter for a while (I was planning on making an indie purchase) and the mix of glitter is so perfect here, the satin pastel glitter, the shapes, the white glitter, the sprinkle of holographic glitter = so perfect.
But as many glitters go too much base and not enough glitter. The base being really thick too. Placing and fishing were definitely required. It wouldn't dry so what I did is do 2 coats of glitter, topcoat, then 2 coats of glitter, then topcoat.
Not a very smart idea but I'd failed with time management and I had to go out and the base was not drying. Actually I'd pushed the polish accidentally leaving a patch of not painted nail therefore I had to paint over with Greenberry again (which didn't look nice as you can see in the pictures). But there was no where near enough glitter in a base that wouldn't dry equaling more glitter and topcoat.
Some of the glitter wouldn't lay completely flat on my pretty curved nails, which didn't bother me too much except that green heart on my ring finger, I had to rip that off. 
There are also bubbles everywhere, let's pretend they're glitter but the bubbles are just horrendous, especially the amount.  
Another rave to the Color Club topcoat, if I'd used a sub-standard topcoat there was no way the glitter would've dried but the Color Club topcoat being amazing dried it solid in 5 minutes. It's amazing.
I'm probably gonna do a Gimme Glitter post on WH901 but it's gonna be placing to the max, it's a difficult formula but the mix of glitter is so perfect and I'm not one to give up. I don't really know how to strain the base, if I find a way it will definitely happen because there is way too much thick base here.
With how thick the glitter base was and the 2 coats of topcoat it was no walk in the park to remove. Maybe to some they wouldn't be willing to deal with it but considering how thick it was I wasn't too bothered by removal.

Even though the glitter was difficult I really like the flowers and the gradient together for an altogether cute look. Thank you so much for reading and I hope you have a lovely day!! :)

2 comments:

  1. Ooh, love the whole look! Those flowers are sure a splendid idea from the very talented Candice! :D Love her nail art ideas!

    As much as I love unique mixes and glitters, I probably don't fancy big glitters. Due to well, very curved nails. So.. they tend to stick out too much. Medium - small glitters are best for me. Hehe.

    The issues I find with Etude House, is that usually their glitters are way too sparse. It can get difficult trying to obtain decent coverage. Sadly huh. Otherwise, they have really nice mixes too, considering how much they're catching up with the indie trends. :)

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    1. Thank you!! :) Candice is so talented, her looks are adorable!!
      I think the larger shapes are super cute and fun (eg massive hexes, yes please). But I still had to rip one out cause of the curve of my nails. Overall I think I prefer small/medium sized glitter too.
      That's the very issue I had with this polish, but their polishes are so cute. They are definitely keeping up with indie trends, I saw circle glitter!! :)

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