The Digit-al Dozen does Metal Day 1

Hello everyone! I am very much enjoying my blogging break and hope that you are all enjoying a sunny June wherever you are. I'm back for this week to bring you five manis with all the other ladies in the Digit-al Dozen and this month our theme is metal. 

Once I saw this I was so annoyed that I hadn't saved my sheet metal mani from two months ago! It was my most popular mani to date and would've been perfect! Still, to kick off this week I decided to go with one of my fluid designs. 

I started with a base of Nail Essentials SIlver Shimmer and freehanded some sections of Color Club Pearl District. I then added sections of All About Nails Bronze, leaving a fine line of silver showing between the gold and the bronze. To finish, I went over the silver using Color Club Sex Symbol with a striping brush, and finished with Seche Vite.

I wish that the bronze was a little "bronzer", but I like the style and overall molten metal feel of this. They're not my usual sort of colours either, but I resisted to cover the whole thing in glitter and tried to make the sparkle an accent to the design instead. 

For those of you that missed this one, here's the mani that I wish I'd saved for this week :)

See you tomorrow!

Sam xx

An InLinkz Link-up

The NCC Presents Movies/Music/TV #2 - A Twin Peaks Skittlette

Hello everyone! And Happy Easter to those of you that celebrate! As I mentioned, I'm not really doing any Easter manis, but I do have some swatches of my Easter present polishes coming up later today and some of those colours are a little bit Easter-ish, so that'll have to do.

This post has my second April mani for the Nail Challenge Collabrative and I've painted a skittlette inspired by one of my favourite TV series of all time - Twin Peaks. I remember watching it when it was first on TV with my Dad when my Mum was out at an evening class. I was definitely too young to watch it and my Mum would never have let me, so its also tied in with a lot of nostalgia and some fond memories of time with my Dad. Its also not his usual kind of TV at all, but he loved it and we're planning to make time to watch the DVDs through again sometime soon.

I wanted to recreate the style of the Red Room in the Black Lodge/White Lodge, so I started by painting my ring and middle nails with white and allowed them to dry. I then applied some vinyl nail decals (which I bought on Ebay after reading this post on Glowstars.net), painted over the spaces in All About Nails Liqorice and removed the decals (I totally arsed this up so the chevrons are more than a little bit wonky, but I was tight for time so couldn't redo). I painted my thumb and little finger with Dream Cheeky Cherry and while still wet, dragged through lines of Barry M Passion Fruit, MAC Vintage Vamp and a little white with a striping brush. For the index finger I did a simple glitter gradient using Color Club Art of Seduction over black. All finished with a coat of Seche Vite.

An InLinkz Link-up

Tri Polish Tuesdays April #3 - A quick neon dotticure

Hello everyone! I have been so preoccupied with The Digit-al Dozen week that I almost forgot about Tri Polish Tuesdays! I figure that if I can get through this first week and stay on top of all my challenges along with having Scarlett home and working, then I'm probably doing okay :)

Having said that, I realized at 7pm that I needed to do something quick so settled for a dotticure with some bright neons. I started with a black base of All About Nails Liqorice and then added dots in white so that the neons would pop. I covered over most of the white with LA Colors Flicker and Absolute, and Color Club Otherworldly before finishing with Seche Vite.

Despite the fact that I literally threw this together at the last minute, I love the colours and its been ages since I did a dotticure! 

Tomorrow will bring another DD mani and I already have my GOT ready for Thursday so I can continue to pretend that I'm on top of things :)

Sam xx

An InLinkz Link-up

Born Pretty Store Fluorescent Rhinestones Review - 80s Disco Flowers :)

Hello everyone! I was recently contacted by Born Pretty Store and asked to review some of their products - I received a lovely selection last week and today I have the first mani which features their leaf shaped fluorescent/candy coloured rhinestones. This also ties in nicely with the last March prompt of the NAILS Mag March Challenge as the prompt is "Embellished".

I started with a simple black base using All About Nails Liqorice and then added a generous layer of top coat to one nail at a time to allow me time to place the rhinestones into flower shapes.

I love the colours and despite initially wondering what I was going to do with the leaf shapes I think that they worked really well to create the flower design. This mani actually reminds me of a rara skirt I had when I was little so let's say that these are my tribute 80s disco flowers :) 

You can see all of their new arrivals here, and if you use the code UKX31 you'll get 10% off too!

Sam xx

(These products were provided for review)

Get Lucky Nail Art Challenge - Ireland Inspired

Hello everyone! A quick second post for you today with my second prompt for the Get Luck Nail Art Challenge. This one is Ireland inspired, and although my Welsh husband tells me that the original recipe is from Wales and that Arthur Guinness asked for the recipe when he drank it in Fishguard so that he could make it back home in Ireland, for all intents and purposes, let's go with the globally accepted fact (mostly!) that Guinness is Irish.

I started with a black base (All About Nails Liqorice) and added a coat of All About Nails Cocoa. Once dry I added the white textured foam tip with Sally Hansen Sugar Coat. I then added the Guinness harp with a fine detail brush using LA Colors French White and LA Colors Solar Gold.

Tomorrow's prompt is quite broad - Shamrock, Pot of Gold, Rainbows or Leprechauns. I'm winging this challenge as I go along, but I have a few ideas in mind for this! It will also tie in with the Theme Buffet St Patrick's Day prompt so I may be able to double up :)

Be sure to check out all teh other Ireland Inspired manis by following the links below!

Sam xx

An InLinkz Link-up