Glitter Gradient Stars (for New Year's Eve)

Hi guys, happy new year's eve! This year has just blasted by, I'm definitely not the only one to think that. I had a really good year this year and I can't wait for next year. I have so many nail art ideas I can't wait :) I haven't really thought about a new year's design cause I've been absorbed in Christmas (and I was happily absorbed). I've thought about this design and thought it would be appropriate for new year's. But let me tell you, it wasn't easy...

After all the effort though, I'm a fan. I haven't gone into my love of stars before but I think they're fascinating and beautiful. I matted this design with the Rimmel Matte Finish topcoat. I haven't done a star design before surprisingly, I thought of this and was reminded of Chalkboard Nails's beautiful star design, her's is amazing. I knew mine would not be of that calibre but I could do a half baked attempt. She made a lovely tutorial too but I couldn't do it. I didn't have the essential equipment for the design so I searched around the house for things that could be used.
You find some crazy stuff when searching around the house, I hoping for some star stickers to make my job easier but no cigar (I've never understood that expression :/). I found quite a lot stickers (and a comb that says "I love milk" which was SO cute) and actually I found 1 tiny star sticker that wasn't going to work. But 2 days ago I was cleaning out my desk and I found star confetti, how convenient!!! My thumb has the prototype attempt, I stuck some tape to the back of the star and painted, but the star was flat and my nail is rounded so it failed a bit and I just freehanded the stars on that nail. Below is how I got the stars on my other nails.

How to achieve stenciled stars the difficult way (no pictures, maybe in the future but probably not as this design was so tedious with my method)
1. Paint your base
2. Get some sellotape and stick the confetti stars on (the more stars packed on the piece of tape the easier to cut out)
3. Cut around the star and peel the star shaped sellotape off (be careful as the tape could rip and rage ensues)
4. Stick the star piece of tape on your nail (don't press it on too hard or it will take the base off) and repeat step 3 for however many stars you want on your nails
5. Using an opaque polish (I used Rimmel - Black Pearl) paint over the nail and the tape
6. Let the polish dry a tiny bit and start peeling the tape off
7. Fix imperfections with your chosen tool
8. Have a pretty funky star design on your nails

Step 4 with pressing the tape too hard and having the base come off happened to me. I just re-patched it up late though. I think my middle finger came out best. Sorry for not cleaning up properly. I was fed up. Just use Chalkboard Nails's tutorial, it's simpler, prettier and less tedious. Peeling the tape off the confetti stars was hard -_-

This is the glitter gradient I did before the stars, I took pictures in case the stars failed so I would still have some pictures. I really like it, glitter gradients are easy.
Pink nail: Barry M - Pink Foil (base), Barry M - Amethyst, Butter LONDON - Shambolic and Barry M - Hologram Hexograms
Blue nail: Essie - Bikini So Teeny (base), Barry M - Silver Glitter, OPI - I Lily Love You and Models Own - Freak Out!
Purple: Barry M - Berry Ice Cream (base), OPI - Last Friday Night, Barry M - Aqua Glitter, Revlon - Radiant and China Glaze - Luxe and Lush
I was busting out those Barry M's, but I love those polishes. The brush for Freak Out! is so wonky, I have also realised my strong dislike for shards, the more I look at them, the more I don't like them. They don't look nice. For the stars I thought I could've done in the outlining in silver or something, but it's too late for these things now. But I think the design is very appropriate for new year's due to the glitter and the stars. I don't know what's new year's eve appropriate in all honesty, I thought a normal new year's eve is sitting at home watching tv or something. Apparently not. I didn't even realise what NYE stood for til yesterday (-_- as you can tell I'm slow).

I haven't done one of these rambly posts for a while. It's refreshing, I love to ramble. Well done if you actually read something from this post (but y'know I think you should, it's a pretty good read :P). Thank you so much for reading, I hope you have a lovely new year's eve and see you in 2013!!!! :D

Black Snowflakes

Hello there, enjoying new year's eve's eve? I probably used really bad grammar there :/ Since it's still the winter I think snowflakes are still appropriate so making them black must be appropriate too.

Yes I know they look weird. I severely disliked this design after I finished. If I wrote this post yesterday I would've stated that I severely dislike it. But it's somewhat grown on me and I don't think it's that bad, looks interesting I guess. I actually did quite a nice gradient, they're getting better (but still bad), it's much easier to do gradients with glitter.
Base: The Face Shop - PK105, OPI - Excuse Moi! and Barry M - Amethyst 
Black snowflakes: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
Black snow: Rimmel - Black Pearl (gift from a friend for Christmas :)) and Topshop - Gypsy Night
Holographic glitter: Barry M - Hologram Hexogram
I have to say Hologram Hexogram made this design look much better, it ties things together. The Face Shop pink is really pretty, it's actually really bright but these pictures do not show that. Amethyst has little black particles of glitter and I really like that :)

Thank you for looking and have a lovely day!!!

Gimme Glitter: Nails Inc - Sweets Way

Hello there, hope you're all well :) I have here a polish I've been lemming for a long time, the thing is I kept convincing myself not to buy it (WHY SO CRAZY!?). But after months of indecision (I really hope that makes sense :/) I finally went and got it. And boy am I glad I did.

I love this polish, it's just so pretty. It looks so delicate and adorable too. I love how it looks so complex and the little glitter pieces are perfect. It's a milky base, with small blue, peach and silver glitter. I never realised the silver glitter was there until I put it on, and I have seen SO many swatches and I didn't even realise. It's from Nails Inc Sprinkles collection, I've seen many swatches of this collection but this was the only one that really spoke to me (I'm weird I know). I used 3 coats, but 2 thicker coats would've probably done the same job. The formula was very good, lots of glitter from every stroke, but I think thick coats are recommended. It had a kind of textured finish, top coat will easily smooth that out, it's not gritty at all. Basically it looks awesome and the colour combination is amazing. The thing I told myself not to buy it was, "It would be better if the peach glitters were more pink". D'oh!

Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day!!! :)

Pink + White Leopard Print

Hello there, hope you're enjoying boxing day eating your leftover food. I have been enjoying those roast potatoes (NOMNOMNOM). This manicure basically answers the question. "Does white rimming work for leopard print?", the answer = No. But you learn from these things :P

My camera loves to make every pink polish orange. It's just it's thing. I am not very fond of this and I can't write many plus points, it just looks weird with the white.
Pink base: Essie - Your Hut Or Mine?, Barry M - Pink Iridescent and Nails Inc - Glamour Glitter
Pink spots: Barry M - Pink Foil (BLE 2012 B)
White: Lovely Me:Ex - White
I don't like that iridescent glitter very much (I like it on few polishes) and it's so difficult to take off. I feel it's not worth it. By the way, my top 10 polishes of 2012 are coming soon (I am the only one excited by this) but I actually need to compile my list (I'm so darn indecisive :P).

Have a wonderful day and thank you for reading!!! :)

You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!!!

Hello there and... MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Seasons greetings to all you out there. I have around 10 minutes before my Christmas festivities begin so I'll have enough time to write this post :) Christmas is always the best for me, it pretty much is the highlight of my year. I gather with my family and my friends and it's wonderful. I am that kid who goes around school (or not school) singing/saying "IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR". I didn't do that enough this year :P This is my final Christmas manicure (it's sad beans) and I had high hopes for this, but I'll into that later in the post ;)

Lil' gingerbread. I had planned to have this as my Christmas manicure, unfortunately after I had painted the gingerbread I was severely disappointed with my efforts. I expect better from myself. But those borders are magical, seriously after I added those borders I really really liked this design. It's a Christmas miracle!!!! But not really :P I am now very happy with this manicure and I think it's super cute!!!
Pale Brown: Nails Inc - Porchester Square
White: Lovely Me:Ex - White
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
Red: OPI - Dutch Tulips
Green: OPI - Jade Is The New Black
Blue: The Face Shop - GR501
Darker Red: Nails Inc - Tate
Rainbow Jelly: Models Own - Snow White, OPI - Rainbow Connection and No7 - Snowflake
Dark Brown: w7 - Brownie
I'm impressed with the formula of Nails Inc Tate, I wasn't expecting much and boom, one coater. I even did quite a thin coat thinking I'd have to do another coat.

Aw yee, it was pretty successful on my left hand too. Gingerbread men are so cute (and I love all things cute ^_^). I'm going to be making this manicure matte and I'm set.

Thank you so so much for reading!!!! And MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! :D

Combo: Oh Christmas Tree

Hello there!!! Merry Christmas eve one and all!!! I had this on Christmas Day last year. OPI - Rainbow Connection was the first OPI I'd ever got. It came in the mail on Christmas Eve and I was excited. I only bought it for the name, but also because it's rainbow glitter (and you can't go wrong with that).

This isn't a picture of my nails last year, I didn't have enough insight to do that at the time. I started with 2 coats of Barry M - Mint Green and 2 coats of OPI - Rainbow Connection. It's somewhat reminiscent, I loved it last year. I think I was also excited cause it was my first OPI. Unfortunately I didn't get the greatest pictures, but I hope you can kind of get the gist of it :P

There's lots of rainbow glitters out there. But Rainbow Connection is an absolutely beautiful song, therefore justifying the purchase further :P I've been using Rainbow Connection quite a lot during this festive season, it just makes me want to bust out the rainbow glitter.

Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection, the lovers, the dreamers and me. :) Have a wonderful Christmas eve!!

Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (and friends)

Hello there. Christmas is so unbelievably close, it's exciting. I'm pushing these Christmas designs for all their worth, but I love Christmas designs. I didn't even get to do them all :/ Well there's always next year, and I still have one more Christmas design to go (which hopefully will be pretty :)).

I'm happy with how these turned out, I thought they'd be difficult, but they weren't. I thought the background would be more prominent. It wasn't, I've been itching for pink, and this kind of satisfies the need. But not enough, I need to use a bright pink soon!!!
Light Brown: Nails Inc - Porchester Square
Dark Brown: w7 - Brownie
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
White: Lovely Me:Ex - White
Red: OPI - Dutch Tulips
Pink: Essie - Your Hut Or Mine?, Barry M - Pink Iridescent and Nails Inc - Glamour Glitter 
I put too much enough into the base for it to be covered up, but you learn from these things. I'm liking Porchester Square even though it's totally not my colour at all.

                                                  I like them, they're cute :)

Thank you very much for reading and have a lovely day!!! :)