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 Lacquer Legion - Adoration

Hello everyone! I have a new nail art group to tell you about today run by Sarah from Chalkboard Nails, The Nailasaurus, Rebecca from Rebecca Likes Nails and Leslie from work/play/polish. This is actually their second month (and second prompt), but I couldn't find a way to fit in the first. There is one prompt per month and a date set for when we post our nails along with a hashtag to post with the mani. All the details can be found in the FB group here.

This month's prompt is adoration and you can choose to interpret that in as literal or abstract a way as you choose! I only really adore one thing in the work and that's my daughter, so I thought I'd ask her for ideas. First off, she wanted to do them for me, which I did let her do but decided not to go with for the challenge ;) (there is a pic of her work at the bottom of the post though - pretty awesome for 7!). Her next idea was "Diamonds! Big ones!", so I started from there. 

Three coats of LA Colors Sand Storm and a coat of Seche Vite. I then carefully glued the "diamonds" in place and added the gold bands using 2mm gold tone round studs.

I think its pretty simple, but effective! Scarlett thinks it looks like I have a jewellery shop on my nails and took photos of "her" great idea in to school for show and tell, so I managed to please the one I adore :D Hope you all like them too! Here's a quick pic of the mani she did for me:

Sam xx

Week of Love Challenge - Hearts

Hello! So here I am with my second post for today! I havebeen a bad girl when it comes to this challenge - I have had to let a few things slide this week on the nail front and I'm sad to say that this challenge has been one of them. I have only officially missed one prompt which was yesterday's "Roses". I will try and do a roses mani in the near future, but I don;t think its going to be this week!

So, today's prompt is "Hearts". As I mentioned before, I'm kind of Valentined out already, so I wanted to have a go at a different interpretation. I settled on jewellery, and as I had done a heart mani that included chains a week or so back (my mind wanders around some strange places after dark lol), I went for a more traditional jewellery chain feel.

I started with a base of Color Club Williamsburg which is a beautiful deep navy with a very dark shimmer. I then added hearts with a detail brush using LA Colors Solar Gold and then dotted on the chain effect. Once dry, I went back in over the gold dots with more of the navy to create the chain effect and added some gold glitter over the heart charms for a little added sparkle. I finished with Seche Vite.

Tomorrow's final prompt is Freestyle/Recreate. I have already done this one so it should be in on time and I can't wait to share it with you!

Take a look at all the other interpretations this theme by following the links below - its so great to see what looks like endless creativity from all the ladies involved :)

Sam xx

An InLinkz Link-up

FingerFood's Theme Buffet Birthdays/Celebrations - Strictly One Night Only nails!

Hello everyone! Another Sunday has rolled around and the theme for the buffet this week is Birthdays and/or Celebrations! I chose this as its my birthday on Tuesday and thought it would give me a chance to have a go at something "over the top"! Also, (luckily!) an unexpected trip to TK Maxx found me buying the Color Club Girl About Town collection, which provided me with two polishes perfect for what I had in mind!

I started with a base of Color Club Pearl District, a gold with a warm Tigers Eye feel to it. Three coats for a beautiful finish and it was tempting to leave it there as I adore this colour (and I'm not a massive fan of gold polishes)! I then painted on randomish sections of deep purple to create a base for the simply stunning The Uptown, which has a purple jelly base crammed full of red, gold and other flakie delights. I thought the formula would be a problem but it went on beautifully. Once that was dry, I added the amber colour rhinestones on to a generous coat of Seche Vite.

Now you can see why I said that these were "one night only" nails! I'm in love with them though and I'm so glad that I chose this collection over the metallics that were also there (although in all honesty I'll probably be going back for those later this week!).

I think these are suitable for a celebration, and when I fall asleep on my hand at the end of the night I'll get to wake up with a myriad of pretty rhinestone patterns on my face too ;)

Next week our theme is Hearts - yes its predictable, but I want to see where I can go with it. Take a look at the links below to see all the other fabulous celebratory nails, and if you;d like to join us, we'd love to have you on board! Head over to the FB group, and join in as often as you want :)

Sam xx