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

Tri Polish Tuesdays - April's Glitter Bomb!

Hello everyone! Today is the last day using April's Tri Polish Challenge colours of yellow, pink and blue. I've already done a couple of manis including all three colours so I settled for two today.

I decided that a ton of glitter with some negative space was the way forward (obviously!), so I freehanded sections of Orly Pink Waterfall and OPI Can't Find My Czechbook (you can probably tell fro my choice of polish that glitter wasn't originally in the plan - I wouldn't normally use Orly or OPI as base colours for glitter!). I outlined the sections in black and sat back thinking it just needed a little bit of something extra. I decided that was a coat of L-A Glitter Nails Peacock over the OPI. The I sat back again and decided that it needed some L-A Glitter Nails Grape over the Orly. Once I'd done that I was happy (mostly because there was nowhere else for me to add glitter!), and finished with Seche Vite.

Here's a quick pic before I added the Grape glitter:

So that wraps up the April installment of the Tri Polish Challenge. The colours for May are red, green and purple, so there's a whole new palette to play with kicking off next Tuesday!

Sam xx

An InLinkz Link-up

L-A Glitter Nails - New Glitter Mixes! (swatches and review)

Hello everyone! Today I have some swatches of new glitter mixes available from the ever awesome L-A Glitter Nails. I already have pretty much the full collection of fine glitters and am now starting to work my way through this new collection! Named after Fleetwood Mac songs, they were always going to be a hit with me, and I picked three to start my new obsession!

First up is Gypsy (shown here over Barry M Gelly Sugar Apple), which has turquoise blue, spring green and yellow matte shapes. Its got a real mermaid-y feel to it and went on smoothly and easily. It was also easy to get plenty of glitter on the brush at each pass (sooooo important with glitter!). The first two photos show one coat, the second two show two coats :)

Next up is Sara and it is shown here over white. The base has a pink tinge which I like as its made the white look like candy floss and is full of bright pink and black matte shapes. Coverage was good and the formula was again easy to work with. Again, the first two photos are one coat, and the second two show two coats.

Finally, we have Little Lies (shown here over OPI My Vampire Is Buff). The base is clear and it has orange, yellow, white and black matte shapes sprinkled through it. The formula was great, but I did have to do a little fishing about in the bottle to get as much glitter with this one. Once it was on though, its super cute. Perfect candy corn colours if you're thinking ahead to Halloween already (No? Just me then...) Same rule applies - first two pics are one coat, second two show two coats :)

Overall I'm really impressed with these mixes! The colour combos are great and they were really easy to work with (I have Gypsy over Barry M Gelly Prickly Pear on my toenails for the weekend!) and they are an absolute steal at £1 each or a set of three for £2.50 in Lyka-Ann's Etsy shop. You can also keep up to date with her new projects and collections on Facebook. I'm off to order some more... :)

Sam xx

FingerFood's Theme Buffet - Fishtail ;)

Hello everyone! This week's theme in the Theme Buffet is Fishtail. I'm not going to lie to you, I've tried that technique two or three times over the last year and never once have I got more than halfway through a single nail before getting so bored and frustrated that I wiped it off and started again with something else. Its just one of those things that aren't meant to be.

Anyhoo, I had to think of a way around the theme that still fitted the prompt (also feeling glad at this point that I suggested people stretch the themes as far as they wanted!), so I painted fishtails, but more like the ones attached to my parents' Koi. 

I started with a base of Barry M Gelly Blueberry and LA Colors Flurry, and then painted in the white base for the tails in French White. Once dry I covered the white with Color Club Sparkle and Soar and painted in the details with Barry M Gelly Satsuma, Tangerine and a little more white. I added a little LA Colors Metallic Silver to the edges and a coat of Seche Vite to finish.

I'm actually pretty happy with the way that these turned out - flamey, abstract-y, fishy nails. The cremes, shimmers and glitters all worked pretty well together...

Next week is far more up my alley! I'll be back with something a little bit Goth for you - I have so many ideas for this that I don't know where to start! We might even end up with a Goth week if I can't rein it in lol!

Check out all the other fabulous fishtail manis from the ladies with far more patience than me! ;)

Sam xx

An InLinkz Link-up

Glitter Lambs review - prepare for picture-heavy sparkle!

Hello everyone! I have had such a busy, but super fun day in London. I live less than 10 miles away from Central London now (having lived in and around it for most of my life) but don't venture in much these days as I hate going on the tube and there are so many tourists (claustrophobia and anxiety made so much worse by both of those!). 
Anyway, my cousin (more like a brother as we grew up together and are both only children) has a most awesome flat near Old Street and we took Scarlett up to visit. My feet are killing me but we went around Old Spitalfields Market and all along Brick Lane, plus we filled up in GBK and had a great time. 

Obviously that meant no time to paint any nail art today, but I won three polishes from Glitter Lambs in Manis and Makeovers' recent giveaway and I have been waiting for a chance to show them off! I have swatched each one over a colour that I think compliments the glitters and then added a swatch on both a black and a white nail.

I'm starting with Unicorn Party (on the left of the above photo). It is full of "black stars, white stars, neon pink stars, light pink stars, silver slices, white holographic pink glitter nad tiny white hex glitter". This is just one coat over Nails Inc Baker Street and it really is like a party on your nails. The bottle is packed with glitter and it is one of the best glitter formulas that I have ever had the pleasure to use (this is true for all three by the way!)

And here it is over black and white:

Next up, we have Candy Land. From seeing the bottle I knew I was going to love this one, but as with all of these, I was worried about how it would apply. Again, I didn't need to worry and this is one coat over LA Colors Mint, packed full of  "holographic diamonds, neon yellow hexagons, red, blue, pink, purple hex in different sizes, and white holographic glitter".

And over black and white:

Last but not least , we have I Love You. This one didn't grab me as immediately when I first saw it, but the full on glitter bomb effect once it came out of the bottle won me over straight away! I layered it over black to show it off the most. It contains "red and white hex glitters in different sizes with a few scattered white hearts".

The black and white shot is a little redundant here, but seeing as I'd done it...

I've been a fan of Glitter Lambs on Etsy for a while now but have always been put off by international shipping costs. Its a lot to add on to an order for a brand I haven't tried before, but I can honestly say that having won these in a giveaway and tried them out I would have no problems paying for shipping in future and there are already a few in my Etsy basket begging to be bought! Go and visit their shop, it is a feast for your eyes as well as your nails!

Sam xx

A galaxy in purple (Born Pretty Store review)

Hello everyone! Hope you are all enjoying the weekend so far! Today I have the third of four Born Pretty Store reviews for you from the fab package they sent me. This time is features some glittery purple star stickers which I have used to jazz up a galaxy mani and add a little twist to the way I would usually do them.

I started with a dry black base and sponged white sections with different opacity. I then sponged outwards from the centre using Barry M Papaya, Fuchsia and Cyan Blue and sponged a little black along the edges to blend properly. 

I added a coat of Seche Vite before carefully applying the stickers once dry. I didn't want to lose any of the glitter texture effect by top coating over the stars - it didn't seem to affect the longevity as I had no issue with peeling for the two days I had them on, but if you want a long term look I would suggest that you make sure that they are firmly affixed and that you top coat over them.

I love that this changed up the traditional galaxy look and it was so simple to do. The stickers are easy to apply and not too "floppy", but they adhered well to the nail and looked great!

You can find all of the new nail art products at Born Pretty Store here, and don't forget that if you use the code UKX31 you will get 10% off your order.

I have some stunning swatches coming up for you later, so stay tuned for multiple glitter bombs!!!

Sam xx

NAILS Mag 31DC Day 18 - Fade (more glitter!)

Hello everyone! Today I have yet another glitter bomb for you! The prompt for the 31DC today is Fade and I decided to take that as a gradient/colour fade. I had some glitters I'd been dying to mix up and was not disappointed with the finished result :)

I started with a simple, single coat green to blue sponged base to give the glitters a fair start and then layered and blended L-A Glitter Nails Apple, Aqua, Peacock and Sapphire and finished with Seche Vite.

These are so sparkly that they have made me super happy! It felt like the easiest glitter gradient ever - so much glitter packed into each bottle that there wasn't the problem with coverage that is sometimes a problem with glitter gradients. I have almost a full spectrum of these so I think that there may be a few more fade/gradients like this one!

Tomorrow's prompt is "Outline" and I have something a little less glittery lined up for you. There is still some bling involved, but its a far more understated, classy look (I know! From me! Who knew? Lol)  

I will also be road testing a new product called Flexiglaze before I offer it to my clients and will be writing about it and giving progress updates on here. I'm hoping it'll help my poor nails that have refused to grow out nicely since I've been ill (they've become stubborn little buggers!), so there's plenty coming up :)

Sam xx

NAILS Mag 31DC March Day 12 - Rainbow (A new glitter bomb!)

Hello everyone! You may notice that I skipped a day of the 31DC yesterday! Well, the prompt was purple and I have combined that one with the GOT polish purple prompt for tomorrow. It will also cover my "Dots and Stripes" for FingerFood's Theme Buffet prompt this week. I am operating at the highest possible efficiency lol :)

First though we have rainbows! I jumped at the chance to create another glitter bomb with my L-A Glitter Nails polishes, so starting with a white base, I painted in the rainbow using Lemon, Carrot, Grape, Sapphire, Peacock and Apple. For a little extra detail, I dotted Nail Essentials Silver Shimmer along each colour divide.

Nothing like an understated mani, eh? ;) I'm loving the super bright designs at the moment in case you hadn't noticed - they're really cheering me up! I've designated the rest of today a drawing/painting and Xbox day to complete the package. I'm on antibiotics which are making me feel horrible so I'm having a "feeling sorry for myself so its all about me" day :)

I'll be back with another guest post for you later today and the three prompt mani tomorrow! 

Sam xx