Pink Gradient Nails + Neon Glitter

Hi there guys!! Hope you're doing good, I'm enjoying this time off school I'm getting. Even though I'm gonna have a ton of work, this is my life :P I wanted neon glitter so I did neon glitter. I stated that I've been getting pink into all of designs from the 2nd half of this month, for breast cancer awareness month.
What I've got from this awareness month is to check frequently because this affects a lot of woman and the more you check the more chance one has of ridding it. As I stated (in a quite embarrassing fashion) last year, I do believe that one day that there'll be a cure for cancer. I might continue this pink thing for the 1st half of November though I am a pink lover so it shouldn't be hard for me. Oh yeah there's a major lack of Halloween designs this month, I don't really like Halloween all that much and I tried last year (see: October 2012 in my archives :P) but frankly I'd rather be doing my pink designs. Ok to the mani!!

This manicure looks awesome in real life, you know me and all things neon. Especially this neon glitter, I have raved many a time. The gradient was pretty rubbish but glitter does magic to gradients. My pale pink is gloopy and sparse so I could not get it to blend. I got the brush and dabbed but add glitter and the gradient appears. Neon glitter does not look particularly good over darker colours (the hot pink) but it was necessary for the gradient and hopefully I won't be doing that again. I'm glad I got the white in there cause the neon glitter looks best over white. Obviously there are bubbles, I can't avoid those things.

White: Barry M - Matt White
Light Pink: Barry M - Strawberry Ice Cream
Hot Pink: The Face Shop - PK105
Neon Glitter: Lush Lacquer - Clowning Around
Purple glitter is still bleeding and is very faded (you see a faint piece of glitter, that's the purple glitter), here's my original post to show the comparison of the purple glitter but the base actually isn't that pink from the bleeding. It would work for this look but honestly the base is still pretty clear. 2 coats used here.

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a happy halloween!! :)

The iPhone (Nail) Series: Sprin

Hello there guys! Welcome to another edition of the iPhone Nail Series, where I do nail art from your favourite apps and games. I'll come up with a better tagline for this series another time :/ Today's app is Sprin, it's one of those climbing high score games except this one is the ultimate cute one. Unfortunately I don't think many people played it and even more unfortunately I don't even think it's available on the app store anymore :( Hopefully my nail art can give you an idea of what it was like, and today I am mega proud of this one, lots of detail, lots of cute :3

I'm really happy with how those animals turned out, I spent ages putting in the little details for the animals (e.g. the sheriff star and lil' crown). Same goes for the background, so much so that I'm gonna do a separate post on it, normally I paint the characters first then the background around it, but I have to say put that extra effort into your background and it's worth it (though effort is effort). Overall I love the design, including the arrows used the control the animals. I think my favourite is the dog, he's just cute. And cute is my favourite. But legit I love the aspects of this design, everything, that's rare. It's very PlumeriaPainted no?
There are a vast range of animals to play in the game, but they are animals with inbuilt springs. That's how they jump through a forest, then the sky and beyond (but I didn't get that far cause the game was hard). They also didn't have arms but not in a creepy way. The weird thing was at the start of the game the game asked you to pick an animal and warned you that you couldn't change it after. I picked the frog. I'm trying to remember these details cause it's been a long while since I played and now you can't even play which is kind of sad cause this was a really good game.

The thing that spurred me on in this game was the fact that you could customise your character with accessories that you bought with apples collected during the game. Though you'd collect average 6 apples per game but some items would cost 300 apples :/ But it got you playing the game.

Ok starting with the dog. The brown was Ciate - Cookies & Cream and when I needed to correct I used Nails Inc - Porchester Square. The darker brown is Paris Collection - Mauve Melody and the red is Essie - E-Nuff Is E-Nuff. There's a stripe on the platform the little dog is standing on which is Topshop - Naked.
The light pink of the pig is Barry M - Strawberry Ice Cream, and the blue for his scarf is Nails Inc - Baker Street and the sheriff star is w7 - Sheer Lemon. There are hints of darker pink is Per Una - Pink (no name) and the red is also the Essie.
I used the same light pink, red, yellow, blue and brown for my chicken. For the arrow buttons it's yes the same yellow and the pink is Orly - Basket Case.
All black and white detailing is Lovely Me:Ex - Black and Lovely Me:Ex - White. Lovely Me:Ex - White is also the base for the other colours.
I'll mention the colours used for the forest background in another post, I'm sure none of you are itching to know :P

Thank you very much for reading and I hope you have a fantastic day!! :)

Combo: Get That Magic Sky

Hi there guys, I wasn't going to do a post on this but I was browsing through my pictures and I saw these pictures and remembered how awesome the combo was. I took pictures for a reason and it would be a waste not to share (also it helps when I want to get some posts up). I used this as a base for my inspired by artwork challenge prompt. I wanted to get a magical dark sky, and this fit the criteria.

I found out that Get Your Number looks amazing over a dark base, as I've mentioned before it wasn't really grabbing me by itself, in my own words it was "dull". But really if Get Your Number had more bright qualities I was easily love it as much as I love Jinx. The holographic glitter just really comes out and I always agree with that (holographic glitter is my favourite). But isn't the colour so nice?

 I did a big paragraph in my challenge post about this, but really it's one coat of Kiko - 265 (though any dark blue would've worked, 265 is particularly dark) and 2 coats of OPI - Get Your Number. w7 - Polar Bare and Nails Inc - Abbey Road were a bit pointless in this look but they are there. I top-coated this to bring out the holographic glitter/shimmer and yeah I preferred this polish not textured even though I am LOVING the texture trend.

Reason why I LOVE holographic glitter, I could stare at the glitter changing colour all day (and I have). And it's blue, I love blue. Though Get Your Number will never compare to Jinx for me, it's trying it's best and it does look pretty great here.

Nice and kind of short today, thanks for reading and I hope you have a great day!! :)

Pink Nails: Barry M - Superdrug Limited Edition Summer 2013 A

Hey there guys!! Hope you're all well and relaxing. Yeah I need to end my procrastination soon (but knowing me I won't :P). Hard when Happy Street releases an update where you can get beach, I've got the beach and it's fab (I spent a solid 2 days getting it) But the story that they've put through is really good, I NEED MORE QUESTS (cause more quests = more story). That's what makes Happy Street special, the cute little story they put through the game.
Anyway polish, I was suckered in by the packaging and the limited edition and I liked the colour. When I put it on I knew this was a special one, and after when I put it on again I simply LOVED it. It's another limited edition though (I love the Barry M limited edition polishes) so this bottle will be treasured like the other limited editions. The colour is just so me, and it's neon, and it's pink. Like there was no way I wasn't going to love this.

When I first bought this I didn't realise it was neon, but then I was in a darkish and it was "glowing". I LOVE that!! Obviously my camera had difficulties capturing the colour (neons are hard and I think my camera is not a fan of pink, convenient as it's one of my favourite colours), so some "colour correcting" was needed. It's a coral-ly light pink and it's so beautiful. I can't be the only one who LOVES the colour.

Look how cute the lid is!! Superdrug got 2 limited editions (the other one was green with an even cuter tribal lid) and Boots got 2, a fuchsia and a yellow. I haven't seen any posts on them, the Barry M limited editions should get more coverage so everyone (really just all the gals in the UK, sad that they aren't available everywhere :() can run out and get them. I'm eyeing up one of the current Superdrug limited editions, it's holographic glitter obviously I am. I also love how frequent the limited editions are, 2 years ago it was only Christmas limited editions. I still think Superdrug get the better ones.

I used 3 thin coats over white (2 coats Barry M - Matt White), 3 coats is definitely needed to remove all streaks, but soooooooooooooo worth it.
I do not care at all that the formula is not perfect cause this colour is so lovely. You can probably see the flaws in my swatch (though I think that was my sucky topcoat's fault, not my Color Club one, it wouldn't dare mess up a manicure). This is a jelly so bubbles form easier (especially with me and my lack of patience). It also dried kind of matte-ish (which I don't mind) but I topcoated it to remove the appearance of bubbles, only for my topcoat to form more but whatevs its not that bad. But honestly there were very little bubbles before topcoat, literally one cause I was smart for once and used thin coats.

So yeah I love this polish, time to buy more Barry M limited edition polishes methinks. Thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day!! :)

Pretty Painted Pinwheels

Hi there guys!! See what I did with the title? Pretty is debatable but I do like these. Chelsea Queen put up a video on her instagram on how to do pinwheel nails and I was there. By the way I love her nail art and I need to try her florals, I need to try everyone's floral. It's a shame I'm not very good at floral nail art :/ I would abuse that shizz.

I love the way pinwheels look, expect many more. Ok yes I messed up my segments cause I was doing this any old how then I realised when you use 3 colours you kind of need 3 segments of each colour. Total I had 8 instead of 9 -_- I made it work though!! You see how neatly Chelsea painted hers, well mine was not like that at the start. I neatened it bit by bit during the painting process. I definitely wanted glitter packed sections and Barry M Amethyst was so perfect. Glitter packed things are awesome.

Sorry about my cuticles, there's a reason why you haven't been seeing this hand. I healed 2 cuts but then I got another one -_- Go editing magic

The glitter was very rough though, 2 coats of topcoat and a coat of matte topcoat and you can still feel the glitter in some parts. I love matte manicures, but I think the Rimmel matte topcoat isn't completely matte, more satin matte. But it's cheap so it's ok. The section sizes was a bit trial and error but it came together in the end.

Purple: Barry M - Prickly Pear
Prickly Pear is such a gorgeous colour!! I just love it!! It's also so shiny (I'd hope so with a line called "hi-shine").
Pink: Barry M - Fuchsia and Color Club - Wing Fling
Glitter: Barry M - Amethyst

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a great day!! :)

Miffy In The Paint

Hi there guys!! I have some incredibly awesome highlighters from my great aunt (the tip of the pen is a bear. I just can't) that have Miffy on them so I decided to do some Miffy nails. It was meant to be inspired by those highlighters but in the end I just did a Miffy design ("Miffy in the paint" is one of the quotes from the highlighter, clearly it was made in Asia haha).

Miffy is SO cute!! This is my favourite kind of nail art (cute cartoons) and I can never do enough. My favourite is the Miffy on my thumb with the daisy dress (I decided to put that extra detail in). The paintbrushes fit the design and the yellow bear is also adorable (I have no idea what it's name is, I looked it up and got nothing). I like all the colours too, and the subtle floral background (which wasn't originally going to be a floral background). Frankly I love that it's so childish, it's got a cute elementary thing going on with it. Nothing at all wrong with childish ;)

I was a Miffy fan when I was very young, my mother commented asking if I was into this again. But I didn't remember being into Miffy but then memory attack!! I watched Miffy and Friends when I was about 5 and that was a great show. Miffy's author is Dick Bruna and I think his simplistic style was perfect for this.

White: Lovely Me:Ex - White
Yellow: Rimmel - Sunshine
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
Blue: Nails Inc - Baker Street
Orange: Essie - Fear Or Desire
Green: OPI - Jade Is The New Black
Red: Essie - E-Nuff Is E-Nuff
Pink: Barry M - Superdrug Limited Edition Summer 2013 A (over Barry M - Matt White)
Cornflower Blue: Essie - Bikini So Teeny
Mustard Yellow: Topshop - Naked

Thank you very much for reading and I hope you have a fantastic day!! :3

Pink Nails: Nails Inc - Notting Hill Gate (Reswatched)

Hi there guys!! Happy Sunday!! I'm reswatching this polish cause personally I am not happy with my previous "swatch", the lighting was weird and it's just not very good (though I have done worse). Also it's a neon pink, you know me and neons, we go well together.
Here's the original post on this polish, I'll probably write similar things as it's the same polish, but I wanted to do some kind of justice to this polish. Things were shaky in January, much better than previously. But I was still trying to find my feet photography-wise, but now my "swatching" is much better than before, in many ways.
By the way since it's Breast Cancer Awareness month I'm gonna try and incorporate pink into as many manicures as possible for the rest of the month. Not gonna be to bad as I love pink.

A nice orange-toned pink neon polish (actually I no longer what tone is what anymore). From when Nails Inc released those neons last summer-ish. Some of those polishes weren't properly neon, but this one is (over white). As you can imagine it's rather bright. As from last post I still want the full size but I'm resisting as I still have over half left in the 4ml bottle.

I just love the colour, now I have another pink neon which I love more (sorry Notting Hill Gate), I hope to do a post on that soon-ish or just use it again in general. But a reason why I won't buy this again is 1. I'm a controlled gal. 2. I don't use it all that often due to it needing a white base. 3.I know there are cheaper better alternatives (sorry Notting Hill Gate). Now I don't mind the white base thing but in nail art you'd rather use the polishes that don't need the white base no matter how much you love the colour.

2 coats over white (Barry M - Matt White), it dries semi-matte. The mini brush isn't the best thing ever but it's ok, easy to be messy though. It doesn't level out perfectly, as in the rims aren't as well covered and it's mildly streaky. Haha what do I care it's neon.

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day!! :)

Orange Nails: Models Own - Beach Party

Hi there guys!! "Swatch" post today, I went on a trip to Boots and TK Maxx a while ago to buy some birthday presents for friends, unfortunately I didn't find anything I was interested in for them in TK Maxx so I hopped over the Boots (by the way TK Maxx sell Deborah Lippmann now o.O).
Oh man Boots is a beautiful place, I got the presents for my friends but this little polish was calling my name. I've taken Beach Party off my wishlist before, and I now I don't know why, like really what was I thinking?? I'm too in love with the colour, it's so perfect. One day I wish I could just walk around Boots and buy a crap ton of polish, but the controlled girl in me won't let that happen (as much as I want to :P).
Also by the way Boots is now selling Butter LONDON, this has been happening for a while, but this opens more possibilities for me which could be seen as a good or bad thing.

It's neon, do I even need to say more? You know I will anyway but it's orange neon. I love a good orange polish, and neons? I LOVE me a neon. The colour in real life is a hint darker but you better believe it's that bright and more. I was in a dim room and it was practically glowing, clearly this secured this polish being beyond amazing. I guess I'd describe this as a light orange neon polish (sorry it's a lame description but it's all I got) which dries to a semi-matte finish. The natural finish is showed in the pictures.

This was from the Models Own Hed Kandi collection, trust me I have no idea what Hed Kandi is and I live in the UK. I think the collection was awesome, at different points I'd have certain polishes on my wishlist. Just shame on me for waiting so long to buy this. It has convinced me that I only need 1 neon orange polish (I was thinking of getting another one, cause they're neons).

Another one of the best things about this polish is the formula, you know neons requiring their white bases (which I'm up for cause it's always worth it for me). 2 coats and NO WHITE BASE for the popping colour, 2 coats, it was a dream come true. Once again I couldn't even, seems to happen a lot.

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a great day!! :)

The Liebster Award Take 2!!

Hi there you guys!! I was tagged by the very kind Gelic Nail Art and of course I'm so thankful to her and you should all go check out her blog!! I've done this before (the reason take 2 is in the title haha) but there's no reason not to do this again as it's a lot of fun and finding out more about different nail bloggers is always interesting. Here's take 1 of this award so you can get the lowdown on what happens here :)

1. The classical question; how many polishes do you have in you stash?

...103? Yeah that's a number. Not including topcoats and base coats (I have 6 kind of). Or the de-stash pile (22, aren't you proud of me? :P) that's going to be given away. And is it just me or do people having troubles counting when it comes to polish. I just lost the ability to count and kept confusing my numbers :/

2. Is there an amount of polishes that's enough or are you collecting until you're happy?

Ah this is connected to the last question. I don't have an amount so the collecting 'til I'm happy is probably the case. But for certain colours I have, the current number I have is the max. of that colour I'll ever own (unless something crazy happens). But I'm very selective when it comes to new polish, I always try to convince myself that I don't need it if I can. My wishlist is short the majority of the time (currently it's mostly indie glitters aka beautiful things) so I can't imagine my stash having a colossal amount of polish at any stage. 

3. What was your first polish bought or given?

Before my nail polish craze one of my friends bought me Barry M Lemon Ice Cream (my first Barry M!!) but the first polishes bought by me was (I think) a bunch of Barry M's, specifically Blue Moon, Mint Green, Strawberry Ice Cream and Blueberry Ice Cream.

4. What kind of nail art technique do you enjoy the most to see/do?

Freehand is my personal favourite and freehand work is probably my favourite to look at on other blogs too. 

5. When you buy nail polish do you prefer buying them from a physical shop or online?

For mainstream brands it's physical shops no contest. I hate waiting for polish and when you buy it from a physical shop it's there for you to use immediately. But I love online shops for indie polish (as that's the only place you can buy it). 

6. Which are your favourite physical/online shops?

Boots, TK Maxx, Superdrug, I would include some other kind of shop but I only buy nail polish nowadays.

Etsy, Harlow & Co (love browsing there, they've got their site layout perfect) and Amazon.

7. Is there any nail polish/nail art trend/nail length which you think stands out in your country?

I don't really know about nail art trends or nail lengths (it depends on the people) but Barry M. Every British girl owns a million Barry M's (and if they don't they should!! :P).

8. Do you paint your nails anywhere or do you have a special place? If so, where?

I can paint my nails anywhere but I do really only paint my nails in one place which is my study in front of my laptop (which trust me can be dangerous, I had a nail polish remover situation once but thankfully it ended with no damage).

9. If your blog wasn't nail related, what would it be about?

I thought about blogging about my life, but lol that would be boring and I would get tired of it quickly. I'd love to have some kind of awesome DIY arts and craft blog but I've not even ventured into that area so a blog about it would be silly. Or a music blog, I could do that. 

10. Do you ever colour co-ordinate your outfit to your nails or the other way round?

Never, I don't care about matching if anything I love to not match and instead clash. Maybe in a blue moon I'll match my nails to my outfit or something. 

11. Do you think there's a nail colour/nail art that doesn't suit long/short nails?

No, but I think some nail art designs require a certain nail long for it to work best. For example some of the character nail art I do, they definitely look best on longer nails.

Honestly I tag anyone who hasn't done this, so if you're reading and you haven't done this, go for it!! Actually even if you have done this and want another go like me, I linked my 1st time doing this tag above and I have questions there. 

Thank you for reading this little it about me and I hope you have a great day!! :)

Mr.Candiipants Vintage Flowers + Polka Dots

Hello there you lovely folks, 300th post!! I forgot to do something special for this haha. But I am in love with the mani I'm gonna show you. I stalk Instagrams and this time it was Mr. Candiipants and I loved her vintage flower and polka dot look and I had to recreate it right away. Her floral looks are so fabulous, expect to see more recreations of her floral looks here. I also just LOVE her personality, she's hilarious!! Also for once my nails have the same manicure, so on my other hand this manicure is inverted and together they look pretty cute.

I did my little changes and it's just such a pretty design. Yes it is very spring/summer-esque but I am permanently in that period. The colour scheme is great and I added glitter which makes me love this more. The flowers were so ridiculously easy to paint and they look great. And polka dots are always cute.

I brought Jinx back out again and top-coated it and it looks beautiful. The shimmer comes out even more and somewhat glows (if you get me) and it's gorgeous. Something that made me hesitate buying textured polish was I wasn't sure if/how I was going to use it. But I am using them all the time in different ways so clearly this calls for more textured polish to be bought!! Well that's how I see it :P

Orange-y Red: OPI - Jinx
White: Lovely Me:Ex - White
This smudged cause it's annoying but I got a toothpick to fix the smudges.
Off-white with rainbow glitter: w7 - Linen and The Face Shop - Vanilla Sugar Yogurt (LOVE)
Red: Essie - E-Nuff Is E-Nuff
Green: Max Factor - Cool Jade
Yellow: Barry M - Lemon Ice Cream
Pink: Per Una - Pink (no name)
Shimmery Teal: OPI - Sea You In Hollywood

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a lovely Sunday!! :)

31DC2013 Recap!!

Here we are at the recap, I had much fun during this challenge and got to stretch my imagination. And I'll probably do it again (will I be less busy? Only time will tell). There's been an incredible amount of improvement for me from the last time I did the challenge, not only in "skill" but in picture quality and cuticle care (yet sometimes my cuticles still choose to be temperamental) too. I honestly really enjoyed all the manicures I did for this challenge. Favourites? I'll put a little heart next to them ^_^

Red Nails: Mario Mushrooms

Orange Nails: Fox Phone Case

Yellow Nails: Spongebob Squarepants

Green Nails: Mosaic Hearts

Blue Nails: Eeyore

Purple Nails: Drips over textured blue

Black and White Nails: Snoopy with the piano

Metallic Nails: Cherry Cola Can

Rainbow Nails: Geometric Double Rainbows

Gradient Nails: Pink/Orange/Green Gradients (feat. neon and dull) <3

It's neon, I can't not. I could not stop staring. Also it's the best gradient I've ever done. 

Polka Dots: Pop Art 3D Dots <3

I love pop art and the 3D polka dots looks so awesome.  

Stripes: Black Bandages with colour

Animal Print: Fish Scales

Flower: Textured Kate Spade Floral

Delicate Print: Heart Lace/Doily (kind of)

Tribal: Neon pink with studs (inspired by funky matte glitter) <3

Neon pink, tribal, matte glitter. Looking good, add those studs and I'm done.

Glitter: JoJo's Circus <3

Ok favourite glitter, JoJo and Goliath look so cute. These reasons for favourites aren't in depth.

Half Moons: Dreamcatchers

Galaxy Nails: Galaxy Chocolate (yum)

Water Marble: Watermelon Marble

Inspired by a colour: Fruit Basket (cherry, plum and pear)

Inspired by a song: Something In The Water by Brooke Fraser

Inspired by a movie: Monsters University

Inspired by a book: Battle Hymn Of The Tiger Mother by Amy Chua <3

I'm proud of the tiger and the shimmery coral stripes looked awesome.

Inspired by fashion: H&M outfit

Inspired by a pattern: Paperchase Robots

Inspired by artwork: Coplu's heart balloons in a night sky (not official title, I don't know it)

Inspired by a flag: Union Jack

Inspired by the supernatural: Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon <3

It's Luigi. This is what I meant about shallow reasons.

Inspired by a tutorial: Cool 3D Cubes

Recreate a manicure you love: Lucy's Stash's One Stroke Flowers

Unexpected favourites are probably the polka dots, the mosaic design and my watermelon marble. Picking favourites is hard for me though cause I'm very proud of these designs. I'm sure all other challenge participants had a great time doing this challenge (minus the time constraint) and I hope you liked reading mine :) Are there any manicures from my challenge that you particularly liked? I'd be really grateful to know. Thank for so much for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day!! ^_^