Mish Mash Challenge Week 13-Rainbows

I always knew I would love this week because I'm a massive rainbow fan-they're so bright and colourful and never fail to make me smile-whether in the sky or on my nails! This design was inspired by a couple of things-firstly by my boyfriend's idea in 'tape week', because his gradients looked really awesome, and secondly by an awesome glitter that I bought in a blog sale a couple of weeks ago. To combine them together I used the glitter over black and then did rainbow accents.

Polishes used: W7-Black, Barry M-Passion Fruit, Mango, Spring Green, Blue Grape, Revlon-Electric, Sinful Colors-Amethyst, Seventeen-Monochrome Graffiti Effects and Krafty Gurl-It's A Fiesta.
Here's what I ended up with:

Can you believe that this is only one coat of that Krafty Gurl glitter? SO MUCH PRETTY. I love love LOVE this mani, it's awesome and amazing and I don't want to take it off ever ever ever. It's making me happy =D

Don't forget to check out all the other rainbow coloured brilliance in the inlinkz below!

~Nail Art Novice~

Mish Mash Challenge Week 10-Triangles

How is it OCTOBER already?? I honestly have no idea where this year is going.
Today I've got another Mish Mash challenge for you, and for the first time in weeks not only is this one going up on time but I'm actually scheduling it in advance! Not quite sure where my efficiency came from this week but I'm not complaining.
This week's theme is triangles and I've done a tape mani in a style I've wanted to try for a while because I think they look awesome. What I didn't anticipate was quite how long it would take to apply 9 pieces of tape to each nail, paint over them and remove them, but oh well, the results are worth it!

I started with a gradient (yes, another one, I love them!) of Revlon-Fire, Barry M-Satsuma and Mango and Revlon-Electric because I wanted to get away from the blues that I have been using a lot of recently for one reason or another. Can't get much further away from blue than bright red/orange, right? After I'd done the gradients (and totally forgotten to take a picture of them, much as I intended to) and they'd dried sufficiently, I applied the tape. Normally with tape manis I tape up the nails on one hand and then paint over them and remove, but as there were so many strips per nail with this one I had to do one at a time, which took AGES. I painted over the top with Barry M-Black Multi Glitter.

Here's what I ended up with:

I have to say I love it-it took me so long to do that I was actually fed up of it, but it was worth it in the end. Some of my triangles are slightly wibbly but I still love them. I like the firey colours vs the black overlay too-and not a hint of blue in sight!

Check out the other ladies' fabulous triangle manis in the inlinkz below, and I'll see you soon!

~Nail Art Novice~

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~

Four Petal Flowers

Hello loves! I am back from my weekend away camping and we had a really amazing time-the weather held off for us and it was a really good weekend. I didn't end up doing any camping-related nail art and for once I actually went with naked nails by choice-shocking! When I got back yesterday though, I wanted to do something a bit pretty to make up for the time I'd missed so I chose these little four-petal flowers. I think my nail art skills are getting a little rusty through under-use though-these are all a little wobbly and imperfect. Ah well!

Polishes used: Barry M-Lychee for the base/centres, and the flowers were done in Rimmel-Block Your Green, Revlon-Fire, Barry M-Cobalt Blue & Satsuma and Sinful Colors-Amethyst which is my new favourite purple cream.

The green seems to have bled through the Lychee a little and turned it a little yellow which is annoying but I can deal with it. As I was taking the pictures, I had a sudden urge to see what this would look like Matted so I added a top coat of Rimmel's Matte Finish and I think I actually prefer them this way!

As I said, they're a little wibbly but I still like them-I'm really enjoying the more subtler look rather than inyourfacecolourseverywhere like I normally do, haha.

That's all from me for now, I'm hoping to get back to blogging regularly again now summer is over and I shouldn't be jetting off all over the place as often so I'll see you soon!

~Nail Art Novice~

Mish Mash Challenge Week 8-Cold

Sooooo...I missed a week of the Mish Mash challenge and feel really bad about it. I keep going up to visit my boyface in Sheffield and then ending up staying longer than I anticipated and missing lots of posts-oops! So today's mani is the new Mish Mash challenge prompt which is cold (co-incidentally ended up very close to 'Hot' in the list!). I wanted something relatively simple so I picked out some 'cold' colours (Pale blue, white and silver) and went at it.
Polishes used: Revlon-Blue Lagoon, Rimmel-Serene and H&M-Silver Frost. I added some wintery tree decals from YRNails to contribute to the effect too.

I actually really like this, it's definitely 'cold' in colour but it's pretty and delicate too. Now I've got the hang of them I really like using these decals, they're such a simple way of sprucing up an other wise boring mani, I think.

I'm off camping this weekend with my fella (Lovely weather for it, ey!) so I might be a bit absent again, but will try and get some appropriately themed nails done before we leave!

See you soon, have a good weekend all!

~Nail Art Novice~

Don't forget to check out the other ladies fab efforts this week:

A Gorgeous Goddess

As I've been doing lots of travelling and haven't wanted to take all my nail art tools with me I've been using a lot of glittery indies to keep my nails interesting without having to take too many polishes. Most of them haven't ended up being photographed but this one I had to share with you because it's stunning, although it comes with a sad (for me) story. While I think that the rise in indie makers (particularly in the UK) is fabulous because it means they are much more available for us polish lovers it also means that some of the older sellers are unable to compete with the influx any more. One of my absolute favourite indie polish makers, who has been so right from the beginning of my nail art obsession, is closing her doors for good and this makes me SO sad. To use up her supplies she's offering one of a kind 'mystery' polishes on her Etsy shop until they're all gone and I had to bag myself one before she disappeared into the ether. And boy am I a lucky girl-it's beautiful.

This is Absolut Lacquer-Goddess Jenni (she even named it after me-how awesome is that?) and she's a clear glitter topper filled with golden dots and iridescent hexes, squares and shimmers. She's utterly gorgeous and a little camera shy, but I've done my best. I layered her over Revlon-Plum Night to try and bring out some of that hidden sparkle. This is 1-2 coats-for the most part I got a pretty decent amount of coverage with just 1 but sometimes I went back and added a second for extra glitz and glam. (Apologies for the slight tip wear in these)

You can see how many different colours she shimmers and shines, and I couldn't stop moving my fingers about to admire the colour changes and the sparkle-I'm a bit in love. I'm also torn, I want to wear her all the time because she's so pretty but at the same time I know this is the only bottle that is ever going to exist and I want to keep her forever and ever! 

If you want to get your own Absolut Lacquer one of a kind polish then you have to be quick, they're going fast! Visit her Etsy shop here. I, for one, will miss her when she's gone! Thanks for all the awesome polishes Tisha, best of luck in your new adventures!

~Nail Art Novice~

Rawr!

Hello lovelies! Rara here again, because Novice is off visiting another friend in Devon at the moment-nice for some ey?

Today I wanted to do something fun and settled on the idea of monsters! I wanted each one to have different expressions and personalities. Polishes used were: Revlon-Fire, Barry M-Blue Grape, Spring Green, Mango, Rimmel-Sunshine as well as the black and white Barry M nail art pens. 

I love the orange one with her eyelashes, the red one reminds me of a spider and the green one of a dragon. I'm well impressed with these! So happy!!!!

Novice will be back in time for the Mish Mash challenge next week,

Until next time!

~Rara~

Mish Mash Challenge Week 3-Metallic

I thought I'd keep it simple for this week's mish mash challenge and did a design loosely inspired by Kimber's awesome tape mani from last week. I started with a base of Revlon-Silver Screen (two coats) on all my nails and then applied some Seche Vite to help it dry. Once this was done I added some scotch tape to my nails leaving a triangle free in the middle-which I filled in with Barry M-Cosmic Glow which is a gorgeous magnetic green polish. It's full of multi coloured glittered flecks and I think it's really pretty. I used the diagonal line magnet with them too.

I really like these, simple and relatively easy to do. They look a bit like Christmas trees I think, so I might pull this one out again at Xmas time.

Don't forget to check out some of the other awesome Metallic manis in the inlinkz below!

~Nail Art Novice~

There's only 4 days left to enter my giveaway so make sure you've got your entries in here!

OMD! Challenge Day 28-Inspired by a TV Show

Now I know that technically I'm posting this a day early as today's only the 27th but I wanted to do this one more than jewellery. Sadly this will probably be my last OMD! Challenge Mani as I am off to visit a friend next week who doesn't have internet yet so I wanted to end on a good one.
This mani is inspired by my absolute favourite TV show of all time-Red Dwarf. It's probably not something that many people have heard of because even in the UK it's considered pretty cult but I think it's very funny.
I started with a base of Barry M-Black Multiglitter on all my fingers as a background to all my designs. Other polishes I used were: Barry M-Matt White, Navy and Blue Moon, Revlon-Fire, Electric and Blue Lagoon, Rimmel-Azure, Sally Hansen-Going Green and Grass Slipper, plus the Barry M nail art pens in White, Black and Silver.

If you've never seen the show then you probably won't recognise these nails, I'm afraid. I've got some galaxy nails because it takes places entirely in deepest, darkest space, the penguin on my index fingers is a minor character called Mr. Flibble, who is a very evil puppet with hex vision. On my left hand I've got the show's logo, as well as the word 'Smeg Head' which is used throughout the show to replace swearing and on my right I have a 'H' to represent Arnold Rimmer (who is a hologram with a 'H' on his forehead) and on my thumb I've attempted to recreate one of their spaceships-Starbug. Apologies if all of that means nothing to you!

On to the nails:

I really love these-even if they are a little nerdy, haha!
Kinda sad I'm going to miss the end of the OMD! Challenge but I've really enjoyed myself doing it! The new Mish Mash Mani challenge starts next week though (Yay!) so keep an eye out for that instead.

~Nail Art Novice~

OMD! Challenge Day 25-Inspired by a Movie

I actually did these nails right back at the start of July when me and the Mr. went to see Despicable Me 2 but they are inspired by the (awesome) first film. Of course I did some minions, but I didn't want to do a full hand of them, so I also did the 3 little kittens [Adorable GIF alert!] from the book featured in the film which everyone knows represent Agnes, Edith and Margo-Gru's adopted daughters.

Polishes used: Revlon-Electric, Barry M-Blue Denim, Matt White, Lychee, Nail Art Pens, L'Oreal-Valiant, Sally Hansen-Himalayan Blue, Fairy Teal, Rimmel-Rose Libertine, Marshmallow Heaven.

 After sitting and watching me do my nails for an hour or so, my boyfriend asked me if I would do some minions for him too, which was awesome because I was expecting him to hate how long it took! Of course I obliged and he loved having them on his thumbs for a few days! It also looked really adorable when we held hands ^_^

~Nail Art Novice~

OMD! Challenge Day 22-Animal Themed

Hello lovelies!
Today's theme is 'Animals' and as I did some half moon animals fairly recently, I decided to do something different for today. Would you believe this is my first leopard print mani? I know that they're well loved throughout the nail art world but I have a confession-I'm not really a leopard print kinda gal! I think I only own one thing that's leopard printy because it's not a pattern I'm drawn to usually. To make it a little more 'me' I did it in greens as opposed to actual leopard colours. Polishes used were: Revlon-Minted (3 coats as the base colour), Rimmel-Jaded Glamour (inner spots) and Camouflage (outer spots). I think this is one of those manis where practice makes perfect because I don't think I've got it quite right yet, although I do like my left thumb. I had to do my right hand twice because the first time just ended up as a blobby mess, oh dear!

I wouldn't say that I'm a complete leopard print convert but I do really like these. They're growing on me, so I'll probably do them again and hope they turn out better!

What's your opinion on leopard print?

~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~

OMD! Challenge Day 14-Flowers

Much as I was loving my stars I felt they were a bit too dark and didn't fit with the awesome weather we're having at the moment, so I decided to swap them for something a bit more summery. I took inspiration from my fabulous Rocket Dog shoes and wanted to recreate them on my nails.

Colours used were Revlon-Fire (two coats), Barry M-Matt White and Revlon-Electric (can you tell this is my favourite yellow atm??)

I don't think they look half bad really! I'm wearing the shoes today and just keep comparing my nails to them-they're both so fun and bright and make me happy. 

Hope you're enjoying your Sundays in the sun!

~Nail Art Novice~

OMD! Challenge Day 13-Stars

This is actually two challenges combined into one-the OMD! Challenge for the day and the #HePicksMyPolish challenge that was discussed in the Hobby Polish Bloggers Facebook group. Basically the idea is to get your other half to choose your polishes for you-and he's allowed free reign from your whole collection. I mentioned this in passing to my boyfriend and he was SUPER excited about it-it was really quite adorable. This is actually his second colour choice but the first one went on my toes and I know some people aren't keen on feet pictures so I didn't blog about them. They wouldn't necessarily be colours I would put together but I love them both on their own and think he could have done a lot worse!

Polishes used (picked by himself) were Avon-Midnight Green (one of the new ones Rara bought me for my birthday), Rimmel-Purple Addict and then to add a hint of starry sparkle I added Revlon-Stunning. On my accents I've done the star-sticker technique which worked surprisingly well, even with the dark colours. Two coats of all polishes.

I really do love this technique-it's so simple but it makes some really fun nail art. Loving those sparkles too!!

~Nail Art Novice~

OMD! Challenge Day 11-Stripes

Hello lovelies,
I'm back with another one of the OMD! Challenges today!

Today it's stripes so I busted out the striping tape for a simple horizontal-striped mani. I used one of my new birthday polishes from Rara-Avon's On Point Blue which is a gorgeous cornflower blue-this is three coats.

on top of that I added my tape and then Barry M-Gold Foil and Revlon-Silver Screen, alternating the colours on my fingers.

Simple, but effective I reckon! Love these colours together =)

~Nail Art Novice~

B-B-B-B-Birthday Nails!

~Pic Heavy Post~

Hello lovelies, I'm back to blogging again now after an awesome week of fun things! I apologise if I haven't replied to your comments from the past week or so, but I'm getting there eventually-thank you for them all!

As I mentioned it was my BIRTHDAY week last week and so I did some appropriate nail art. For my party evening I wanted to keep it relatively simple so I pulled out my new Dandy Nails-Bory Alice which I bought with a voucher I won in a giveaway. It's a super super pretty duochrome shimmer which changes from blue to purple with a hint of gold in there too. Of course it's nearly impossible to capture properly, but I tried! I also added a couple of birthday-themed accents with Barry M-Gold Foil and Revlon-Silver Screen.

You can kinda see how pretty it is, right? It looked really awesome when it caught the light but I couldn't really get it across well. 

Anyhow. For my actual birthday I went to see Hairspray the musical at my local theatre (Hurrah!) and wanted themed nails (of course!). I broke out some of my new YRNails decals on top of some Barry M-Mango and Matt White and Sally Hansen-Brisk Blue. My thumb nails I adorned with some theatre mask comedy/tragedy faces, done with Barry M nail pens over Rimmel-Red Carpet. 

These aren't the best as I did them in a bit of a rush so don't judge my sloppy techniques! I did chequerboards using my Barry M nail art pen to represent the shoes Tracy (the lead character wears) throughout the show. The bow is to represent the show's logo and the pointy glasses are worn by one of the characters and are very 60s so I thought they would be fitting.

I didn't get a picture of my 'tragedy' mask on my other thumb because it looked a little special, but I promise it was there! The show was really awesome and I had an amazing birthday!

Anyway, this post has gotten longer than I expected so I'll leave it there, but I'll be back to normal blogging soon!

Thanks for stopping by,

~Another-Year-Older Nail Art Novice~