Mish Mash Challenge Week 9-Blue

Hello again!
Time for another Mish Mash challenge and I was rather looking forward to this one as I have a LOT of blue polishes-almost 30! I was originally going to try and use them all in today's mani but decided that would take forever so I randomly chose 10 instead. (By randomly I mean I stuck my hand in the box and pulled them out without looking, haha).
Polishes used: Barry M-Matt White, Guava, Denim, Rimmel-Midnight Blue, Aqua Cool, Royal Blue (Metal Rush), Maybelline-Dark Denim, China Glaze-For Audrey, Avon-On Point Blue, Sally Hansen-Himalayan Blue and Revlon-Royal.

 I decided to do a mosaic/colour blocked mani to show them off to their best potential so started with a white base and some striping tape, then added each colour semi-randomly to my nails.

(Kindly ignore my higgeldy-piggeldy nail lengths and shapes!)
I really like this, it's very me and really quite simple to do-the longest part was getting all the tape on, man that took forever! Some of the colours have bleached slightly in these photos, they look even better in real life with the contrasts between the colours. One day when I have time to spare I'm going to do one of these using ALL my blues, I reckon it'd look amazing!

Don't forget to check out the other fantastic 'blue' entries in the inlinkz below, and I hope you're having a marvellous Thursday!

~Nail Art Novice~

OMD! Challenge Day 21-Stamping

Hello lovelies! I'm back with today's OMD! Challenge Mani and we're into the final third of the challenge already-how time flies! Today's prompt is 'stamping' which I have done over a rainbow gradient because I missed gradient day and I love doing them. Also rainbows are awesome so why not? I used LOADS of polishes for it too, here goes *takes big breath*: (This is going red-purple or little finger-thumb on my left hand) Rimmel-Red Obsession, Barry M-Satsuma, Mango, Rimmel-Sunshine, Revlon-Sunshine Sparkle, Barry M-Key Lime, OPI-Don't Mess With OPI, Sally Hansen-Himalayan Blue, Maybelline-Dark Denim, Barry M-Prickly Pear, Plum. I stamped with Revlon-Silver Screen and a random flower stamp from my starter kit from Ebay (the plates are un-named!).

I'm always amazed how little time it can take to do a full stamped mani-I might look into getting some more plates so I can do it more often now I think I've got the hang of it-mostly! I think my best one this time is my right thumb-I love the double stamp on it and they've both turned out pretty well! I'm really loving the bright colours and summery themes in this mani-perfect for the weather-ey?

~Nail Art Novice~

Monsters University Nail Art

The other day my boyfriend and I went to see the (AWESOME) new Monsters University film and I had promised him these nails for it. He also asked for his very own Mike and Sully nails too, and of course, I obliged!
Polishes used: Barry M-Key Lime (Mike), Guava (Sully) and Cobalt Blue (University colours). Also starring Matt White  for the eyes, and a smidgeon of black mixed with Guava to make Sully's nose. Sully's purple blotches are Maybelline-Mellow Mauve and his eye colour is Avon-On Point Blue. Details were, of course, done with the Barry M nail art pens.

 And now for the first time on my blog, but probably not the last, I introduce my boyfriend's thumbs-he even painted the base colours himself!

He was so happy with these, it was kind of adorable. Actually, so was I, they've been making me really happy over the last couple of days. Sadly though, time to bid them farewell as they're all chipped now but they've been awesome while they lasted, and the film was FAB.

~Nail Art Novice~

ABC Challenge: R is for Rainbows!

A few days after I received my first ever holo polish (and immediately fell in love) I got my second one in the post after purchasing it from the Nail Newbie's blog sale. (I ordered it in April before my polish ban, just so you know!) It was GOSH-Holographic Hero which is a limited edition silver holo polish. It shines with all the colours of the rainbow, so it was my immediate thought when it came to doing rainbows this week:

3 Coats-could have used two but smudged it!

But that was much too boring so I decided to add some nail art on top. On my fingers I've got a dotted rainbow ombre/gradient and then stripes on my thumbs because I loved them so much last time. I didn't want to cover up too much of the lovely holo, so I used striping tape between the colours. This way I've got rainbows on top of rainbows =)

Polishes used: Red-No 7-Siren, Orange-Barry M-Satsuma, Yellow-Rimmel I Heart Lasting Finish-Sunshine (I finally caved a few weeks ago and bought a decent yellow polish because the London Girl one was an amazing colour with an AWFUL formula!), Light Green-Cairuo-Green Tea 22, Dark Green-Rimmel I Heart Lasting Finish-Block Your Green, Light Blue-Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure-Himalayan Blue, Dark Blue-Maybelline Forever Strong Pro-Dark Denim, Purple-Maybelline Forever Strong Pro-Mellow Mauve. And Holographic Hero of course! The bottle says it's only good for 24 hours of wear, but I have topcoated the life out of it in the hope to prove them wrong-we'll see!

This is another mani I love, it's so colourful and cheerful and when the holo particles (if that's the right word!) catch the light it's amazingly sparkly too! I'm really hoping it at least lasts the weekend. Fingers crossed ey?

~Nail Art Novice~

Don't forget to check out the other ladies' 'R' entries:

ABC Challenge: N is for Nautical

Ahoy Sailor is the alternative title for this post ;)

In case you didn't spot my mini announcement at the end of my last post, I've joined a nail art challenge group and am participating in an ABC challenge hosted by the lovely Kimberly at Kimber's Lacquer Korner. The idea is to post a mani that features a polish/brand/technique/nail art design etc in each letter of the alphabet and this week is N (because I joined half way through! But I intend to start at 'A' after completing 'Z' if all goes well.)
I didn't really have any good polishes for 'N' so I thought I'd go with a nail art design in Nautical style.

Polishes used were: Colour Me-Colour Me White, Maybelline-Dark Denim, No 7-Siren and Colour Me-Pure Gold. I used striping tape over a white base to create the stripy sailor-eqsue look and then freehanded the details using a dotting tool.

I really like this mani, it's cheerful and fun without being overwhelming and was really easy to do-bonus! I'm loving how vibrant that red looks over a white base too.

(Ladies who are visiting me for the first time from the link up [Hello!], please let me apologise for my less than perfect pictures. I hate cleaning up and I'm also really bad at it-no matter how long I seem to spend scrubbing away at my cuticles I never seem to get crisp neat edges like so many other people and I've yet to fathom how to do this apart from learning to paint neater. I've tried really hard before to clean up and just ended up removing the sides of my manicure instead, so now I tend to leave it looking a bit rough and ready-hope this isn't too offensive on the eye!)

Right, I'm off to swash some buckles and swab some decks (check me, I have the lingo and everything...), but do check out the other awesome ladies taking part in this challenge in the link-up below.

~Nail Art Novice~

Star Spangled

I think I'm in love again, this mani is really really awesome. I knew as soon as I saw this post from The Daily Nail that I wanted to do it because I think the effect is really rather stunning, plus it's so simple to do. I was looking at my polishes the other day trying to decide what to use, and randomly picked out a blue and a gold and decided they'd look really cool as stars in the sky-then I knew I had to do this idea.

Polishes used were: London Girl Shade 31, a shiny goldy yellow colour, London Girl Shade 79 which is a clear polish crammed with tiny gold glitters and Maybelline Forever Strong Pro Dark Denim, a lovely midnight blue sort of colour.
I started with three coats of 31, followed by one of 79, and a top coat of Seche Vite.

It's really surprisingly sparkly for a cheap polish

Then I added the stickers and painted over with a thick coat of Dark Denim and peeled them off with tweezers (very fiddly if I stuck the whole sticker to my nail!) and ended up with this:

which I have to say I think is really rather pretty! I like the fact that they're not all the same based on where i put the sticker each time, although my ring finger is definitely my favourite.
I love them! And the best part is you could do this with any combination of colours and it would still look really amazing, but it's so simple. Win-win!


~Nail Art Novice~