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!! :)

Hello Panda!

Oh hey there guys!! I'm hoping you're doing good. I have some panda nail art as pandas are universally loved animals and I went to see some pandas in real life and they were just too cute.

Also inspired by the Hello Panda biscuits that I am currently craving (even when I try to stray away from food nail art, it's always there in some form). The koala equivalent biscuit is also delicious.
They are not my proudest pandas, all the features were so difficult to paint and I have no idea why. So much time was spent trying to make them look ok. And I think they look ok, not particularly cute like I like them. I like the bamboo though, that turned out better than I thought it would. They have more depth in real life.
Another note, after I painted the pink panda everything looked disconnected so I coloured it in black with my pen (such a good decision thankfully). The background was originally turquoise blue (specifically robin egg's blue) and though it doesn't show in the picture the white of the panda was yellow tinged. I don't know why this happened, ever happened to anyone else?

Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
White: Lovely Me:Ex - White and Barry M - Matt White
Pink: Nails Inc - Notting Hill Gate (an awesome neon pink that I can never capture properly)
Blue: The Face Shop - GR501
The bamboo started with Illamasqua - Nomad (aka my favourite green), and then I did random lines with China Glaze - I'm With The Lifeguard, Barry M - Greenberry and the horizontal lines were done with China Glaze - Re-Fresh Mint.

Well you win some you lose some (though you try not to lose some), I hope you enjoyed reading this post regardless and have a lovely day!!! :)

Candy Pizza Nail Art

Oh hey there guys!! Hope you are all doing well. Sorry for the big gap from the previous post to the one before that, I'm not going to be able to edit posts/pictures for the next week so I've been trying to prepare some posts. Today I have some nail art today, food nail art at that. This is a weird one though, I've had this idea brewing for a while but decided against it, then decided for it. So today I present candy pizza...

I have never had candy pizza before and I don't know if it's a thing. On another note if I saw candy pizza on the dessert menu I would order it up without a second thought. It's an interesting concept.
The only candy pizza I know of, is the mode in Club Penguin when I used to play. My cousin told me about the switch under the pizza machine that changed the pizza from regular to candy. I was a beast at that game, in regular mode I could complete it with the highest combo therefore getting the most money from it haha. The candy mode was much harder though, it was faster.
I like the little faces on the crust (i.e. my favourite part of a pizza, Pizza Hut crust is the best) and the piece of pizza on my thumb is my favourite (the neon glitter, nuff said). The design didn't really pan out (ah unintentional pun!!) the way I wanted it to, I don't know what it is. Design looks better in photos though and I'll take it.

Dark Pink: Color Club - Wing Fling
Blue/Green: Barry M - Greenberry
White: Barry M - Matt White and Lovely Me:Ex - White (for details)
Neon glitter: Lush Lacquer - Clowning Around
Still can't even (sorry for the abuse of this phrase), I love the mix of glitter on my nails. I fished for the big pink hex on my ring finger cause nothing is complete with a big pink hex. Does require a couple of coats of topcoat but I can deal with that as it is very much worth it.
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
Even though it doesn't look like it, the black hearts did help a lot. Gave a bit more togetherness.
Pink: Orly - Basket Case
Brown: Ciate - Cookies And Cream
I got this free in a magazine with some caviar beads (clearly the only reason why I bought the magazine). I'll have to try this out on it's own but currently Nails Inc Porchester Square is far superior.
Orange: Essie - Fear Or Desire
Blue: Barry M - Blueberry Ice Cream
Mint Green: Max Factor - Cool Jade
Purple: Illamasqua - Jo'Mina (over Essie - Lilacism, I changed my mind)
Sealed with the Color Club topcoat. With no smudging (and Lovely Me:Ex - White is a smudging beast), this is a miracle topcoat.

Is candy pizza a thing? If you know please tell me as it does sound really good. I might do another look with normal pizza cause I love pizza (tell me which sane person doesn't like pizza). Thank you for reading and I hope you have a fantastic day! :)

Guest Post At Brush Me Blush

Hello there you lovely ones!!! I'm delighted to say that I have a guest post at Brush Me Blush today. Ria does some seriously incredible nail art there which only adds to my excitement about the post.

I did some Yoshi nail art!! To see more pictures and details click here to read the post!! :D Good day everyone!!

Coral Nails: OPI Liquid Sand - Jinx

Hello lovelies!! How are you? I'm hoping well. I have another new polish today, I said the summer makes me crazy. But I've been good all year :/ This was a gift from my lovely aunt so many thanks to her. I am very excited about this post. This is my first experience with textured polish, this year's big trend. I've really only been interested in OPI's Liquid Sands, this one and another one (which you will see soon, it's sooooooooo sparkly). After this post I think it will be pretty clear where I stand with textured polish. Anyway to the pictures (I have a lot today)!!

 Jinx is from OPI's Bond Girl collection (it seems I'm a bit of an OPI fangirl), I find this polish has 2 "phases" more red or more orange. Jinx is a orangey red kind of coral with a strong golden shimmer polish. When the light is shining directly the polish is more shimmery and orange, in more shady areas the polish is more red-toned and less shimmery (but still shimmery).
I used 2 super easy coats, 1 coat was really opaque. The pro-wide brush made application even easier (but the shape of the brush meant I couldn't paint closer to my cuticles, rounder cuticles beware?). The texture happened pretty quickly and though it takes slightly longer to dry properly I find that the manicure lasts longer (5 days currently and only a tiny bit of tip wear)

The golden shimmer really is something, in every lighting it is very apparent. From the first brushstroke I knew this was the start of something beautiful. It was SO SPARKLY, like I couldn't even describe. My mouth was :O due to the sparkle. If there's one thing you get from this post JINX IS A SPARKLY BEAUTY PICTURES CANNOT CAPTURE THE SPARKLE OMG SPARKLE SPARKLE SPARKLE. The whole day I stare and move my hand around for sparkle. It was another "can't even" moment. My next pictures will give you an idea of the sparkle.

Sorry for slight blur, bathroom was the place for direct light apparently

These are clearly more orange-toned pictures but in real life it's still slightly more red. THE SPARKLE! Trust me it was even more sparkly and I'm in love. 
Also I'm really liking the texture, it's not very rough at all, think a rough glitter and that's really it. I'm one of those people who enjoys feeling the texture. So I'm liking the sparkly textures (if you couldn't tell), I don't think I'll buy any of the creme textures though. They kind of look like lumpy nail polish, I could like it but I won't be finding out anytime soon.
I've always been on board with textures, I'm use to not smooth manicures due to my topcoat abandonment (which is over now since I found the perfect topcoat). I haven't topcoated Jinx cause I want to enjoy the texture (which I am) but I will eventually. Now I'm even more on board with textures considering how amazing Jinx is. I also really like the colour and think it somewhat suits me nicely.

Blurry picture to try and show the sparkle, not even close to how sparkly it is

If you're on the pro side of texture but are still wary, I urge you to go. I expected to like texture, but after trying I'M IN LOVE. I guess it's only glittery textures but yes I love glittery textures!! I was wary cause I thought I wouldn't like them that much and regrets would come but there is no such thing as regret now. But if you don't like texture you won't like these, simple. I'm not sure how to texture would work for nail art but I will definitely be trying.
Thank you very much for reading this rambly post but boy I am so glad textures are a thing this year. Have a great day!! :D

P.S. I know I wrote sparkle/sparkly a lot

Tropical Flowers + Delicate Base

Why hello there you lovely one!! I have nail art today!! Yay!! I had planned pink and yellow flowers but it ended up a bit differently. Floral nail art is some of my favourite and I rather like this one.

The yellow kind of got covered up. But I still like this, the orange and pink are nice together. Originally when I'd finished the design I was not a fan which led me to be irritated. Thankfully after wearing it for a day I grew to really like it. I love flowers!! And when they're in bright colours, flowers can do no wrong.

Base: Barry M - Prickly Pear and OPI - Pirouette My Whistle
Pink: Barry M - Fuchsia
Orange: Essie - Fear Or Desire
Yellow: Barry M - Lemon Ice Cream
The gradient before I added the detail was really nice and I was thinking of not adding the detail. But then it wouldn't have been complete. I'm glad I added the detail but it's a shame that yellow got covered up.
Green: Illamasqua - Nomad
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
White: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
Darn macro for showing every flaw, I really didn't realize the white was stringing (if you get what I mean). In real life it's not there. I don't think it takes away too much though.

When I'd first finished the design the thing that I didn't like was how disconnected the bright flowers looked compared with the soft background. I thought I should've used a brighter colour. I did grow to like the delicate base as it makes the flowers stand out more but it shows how crucial base colour is.

Thank you very much for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day!!! :D

Purple Nails: Illamasqua - Jo'Mina

Hi there friends!! I have more purple nails today, I did say I've become a purple fiend. I've been searching for the perfect medium purple and Jo'Mina fits the bill. I knew a medium purple would be able to make me do a 180 on purples. Purple really doesn't suit me but I don't care at all especially with Jo'Mina.

Hmmmmmm so pretty. I know Illamasquas are expensive but as I've mentioned before I really think they are worth the splurge. The colours are gorgeous with lovely formulas, that said I will not be buying anymore Illamasquas unless they release something super amazing. Anyway Jo'Mina a medium purple.
I've decided my camera hates purple, I guess I never had that much purple to capture before but now with the abundance of purple my camera is having issues. Everything was blue, my camera would be like "BLUE! BLUE! BLUE!" and I'd be like "No, why are you being like this" -_- The one lighting spot where the pictures were actually purple (I was rejoicing) my hand looked super orange. So sorry about this. Jo'Mina also had some dusty qualities.

Illamasqua is the only brand I am willing to splurge on. I find other brands are either too expensive or I see nothing special about the polish. That might change on day but currently I'm certain about this. That doesn't mean I won't accept a nice gift from someone *hint hint nudge nudge push push* Haha only joking (but not really ;)).

I used 2 easy coats, I see there are some mild streaky patches in the pictures but they only show up in the sun and I have long nails. The Illamasqua formula cannot be flawed. Bit of a fangirl due to Nomad (one of my favourite polishes, I'm not even a green girl).

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