The NCC presents "Skittles" 4 - A Pastel Skittlette

Hello everyone! Today I have my final May NCC mani for you. Its a bit of a win/fail for me as I loved the selection of Barry M Gelly colours I used, but the techniques don't really show up as different in the photos because the colours are so soft. Still its a lesson learned and it looks pretty so... :)

I painted all five nails with a base of Huckleberry before topping the index finger with a couple of coats of silver glitter. I then sponged Greenberry, Guava and Dragon Fruit on to my middle and ring fingers and used the same colours on my thumb and little finger to create the distressed look. I topped them all with Seche Vite to finish.

As I said before, I love the colours but not such a big fan of the fact that you can't see a whole lot of difference between the distressed nails and the sponge nails. The linear nature of the distressed pattern is a lot more obvious in real life, but these thing happen...

There'll be another post up soon explaining what's happening with the blog for June :)

Sam xx

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The NCC presents "Skittles" 3 - Color Club Dot-skittle-icure

Hello everyone! Today I have my third NCC mani for May (with the fourth and final one following tomorrow). I picked a simple selection of Color Club polishes to create this look.

I started with a base of Silver Lake on all five nails before adding different dotted patterns on each nail using Daisy Does It, Sparkle and Soar and Wing Fling using two different sized dotting tools.

So there you have it! Super simple but I got to use some of my favourite polishes (still in love with the whole Take Wing collection) and I think the soft grey underneath really makes the other colours stand out.

One more Skittles mani for tomorrow before we move on to June's theme :)

Sam xx

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The Nail Challenge Collaborative presents "Skittles" 2 - Colour blocking

Hello everyone! Today I have a quick post with my second NCC mani for May. The theme for this month is skittles and I'm loving this month! 

I got my striping tape out for today and went for geometric colour block skittles. I started witha  white base and then taped off different shapes on each nail, before filling in the individual sections with either Cuccio Cheeky in Helsinki or Barry M Gelly Blueberry, Greenberry or Papaya, before finishing with Seche Vite.

I am so pleased with these, the lines stayed so crisp :) The colour combination isn't one I'd normally go for either, but I wanted to play with my new Cuccio and I think it works.

Sam xx

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The Digit-al Dozen does Decades Day 5 - The 60s (but the 1660s!)

Hello everyone! Today brings the Digit-al Dozen Decades week to an end and I have loved every minute of it! Everyone's art has been so creative and the diverse interpretations have been awesome! I'm finishing with a curveball, born out of a school project that Scarlett did a while ago. I've had this idea on the back burner since then (fire pun - yay!), and seeing as the Great Fire of London happened in 1666, I bring you the 1660s!

I started with a base of Models Own Lemon Meringue, before sponging on OPI Yellopalooza, Barry M Gelly Mango, OPI The Drummer Is Hot and Dream Black to create the burning skyline effect. I then painted in the burning building silhouettes with Color Club Rebel Spirit, watered down with a little acetone in places, before finishing with Seche Vite.

So I'll admit this isn't the cheeriest topic to end the week on, but I am in love with how this came out (even if I did have to do it twice after I painted it upside down the first time - grrr!). Decade week has been a blast, and if you haven't checked out everyone else's manis for the week you are missing a treat! Follow the Inlinkz below to check out all the other ladies' work :)

Sam xx

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Happy Birthday to my beautiful girl! FingerFood's Theme Buffet - For Scarlett

Hello everyone! Today's post comes with a "Beware - sappy, proud mummy" warning. My beautiful Scarlett is 8 today!

All the lovely ladies who take part in the Theme Buffet have been posting manis for Scarlett all week and she has been beyond excited to look through them all and read all the posts. To get fully involved Scarlett chose the pattern and polishes for the nails I painted and then asked if she could also paint mine, so this is a blog post with two authors - one 30-something, the other 8 (proudly displaying her own watermark!) :)

 

Starting with mine (age before beauty and all that!). Scarlett adores all my glitters from L-A Glitter Nails so she picked out five (yes five!) of her favourites and asked for a wavy, stripy creation, so I freehanded sections of Apple, Peacock, Sapphire, Grape and Eggplant which I then separated with fine lines of black acrylic paint (black polish would've looked too "lumpy" over the glitter) and finished with two coats of Seche Vite for a smooth and shiny finish.

Next up is the birthday girl (in her own words):

Hello everyone! I am Scarlett, I am going to tell step by step how I did my mum's  

nails the other day.

First I painted a bright yellow Models Own (called lemon meringue), then I waited for it to dry.

Next I painted some thick dots in barryM purple (called blackberry).

Next I did the same thing in green, but with a thinner dotter.

Last of all I surprisingly found out that I wanted to get the thin dotter and use another barryM but this time it was a pink one called grapefuit.

That is the end of my talk and thank you everyone for my fabulous birthday nails I love them all lots and lots! Now I will hand you back over to my mum.

I hope you like Scarlett's birthday nails from both of us! The buffet theme for next week is Galaxies, which is another one of my favourites. In the meantime, I just have to get through this weekend and an overly ambitious party theme (because hiring a choreographer and taking advantage of the fact that your husband is a music video director and shooting a pop video with a bunch of 8 year olds seems like a really good idea at first!). She is also insisting that I recreate my glitter bomb on my own nails for her party just to add to the totally unstressful few days that I have ahead! :D

Sam (and Scarlett xx) xx 

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The Digit-al Dozen does Decades Day 2 - 1960s Emilio Pucci

Hello everyone! The second day of our trip through the decades with the Digit-al Dozen and I'm bringing you a little bit of the 1960s! As most of you will know I love my fluid, abstract designs along with bright (and occasionally strange) colour combinations, so it goes without saying that Emilio Pucci and his prints are a constant source of inspiration for me!

I started with a white base and freehanded sections of Color Club Pucci-licious (how could I not use that one?!), Revlon Sassy and Barry M Gelly Dragon Fruit and Lychee, before carefully outlining each section with Color Club Rebel Spirit and finished with a coat of Seche Vite.

There's a Taschen book which is full of Pucci prints - some of the covers are shown in the photo below in case you're not familiar with his style. I'm off to trawl the internet for more of his bags for my collection and will be back with another DD mani for you tomorrow. Don't forget to check out the other ladies work via the links below! :)

Sam xx

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The Digit-al Dozen does Decades - 70s Paisley

Hello everyone! Today sees the start of another Digit-al Dozen week and our theme for this month is Decades. I'm a lot happier with this theme as there is a lot of scope to stretch it! I'm starting with pretty much my favourite print of all time, mostly famous (and infamous!) for being omnipresent in the 1970s, but luckily for me it had a minor resurgence in the 90s that I was able to take advantage of and wear it to death for about a year. Fortunately, I'm not a teenager any more and don't care what anyone thinks, so now I wear it whenever the hell I like :D

I started with two coats of Jessica Ruffled Bottoms, before painting in the paisley shapes with LA Colors French White. I added the inner details using Barry M Gellys in Lychee and Key Lime, Models Own Lilac Dream and a little more Ruffled Bottoms before finishing with Seche Vite (still haven't chosen that new top coat!)

I'm loving this, but then again I would - its paisley! I know its not everyone's cup of tea, but it floats my boat every time!

Same time tomorrow! In the meantime, check out everyone else's Day 1 Decades :)

Sam xx

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FingerFood's Theme Buffet - Oriental

Hello everyone! HAving sat out last week, I'm back for the Oriental week of the Theme Buffet. This was suggested by Dawn from SassyLittleNails. I was really excited by this theme and was determined to step out of my Cherry Blossom comfort zone, so instead I bring you some Ming vase inspired nail art :)

Starting with a base of LA Colors French White, I painted on the outlines of the flowers, buds, leaves and other detail using Revlon Royal. I diluted it with a little acetone to get the "wash" effect. I filled in the flowers etc with OPI I Can Teal You Like Me from the Sheer Tints range and then, once dry, I added in the royal blue criss cross patterns with an ultra fine Sharpie. I gave the Sharpie a long time to fully dry before top coating with Seche Vite.

I must admit that I am in love with how these turned out! And using the Sharpie for the detail made life sooooo much easier!

Our theme for next week is something a little different. My daughter Scarlett is going to be 8 on the 15th May so our theme is "For Scarlett". She is already the biggest nail art fan girl so having a theme named after her is the highlight of her year so far! Whether its birthday related, inspired by something she likes (or that little girls like in general), or even just a scarlet mani, she is going to be beyond excited and I am so happy that the ladies in our challenge group are willing to get involved. Thanks gals! :)

Sam xx

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Tri Polish Tuesdays May - Patch Pockets

Hello everyone! Today sees the start of a new colour scheme for the May Tri Polish Challenge! At first I thought my choice of red, purple and green was super clever. Then I thought about it some more and started to doubt myself. Then I slept on it one more time and was relieved to have come up with an idea. Well, kinda someone else's, but you'll see what I mean ;)

I've been a big fan of Brethil's manis over at Druid Nails for a while, and I've been dying to have a go at her stitch effect nails ever since I first saw them on her blog a couple of months back (check out this post). I don't know why I thought they'd look good in these colours, but I pulled out some Barry M Gellys and got to work!

I started with a base of Key Lime and then painted in random (but regular) shapes using Passion Fruit. Once dry, I used Blackberry to add little stitches before finishing with SV.

My stitches aren't as neat as I would've liked them, but I like the quirky, fun look and will be looking at other ways of playing with this technique :)

In other news, I'm looking for a new top coat. I've been getting headaches on days where I do a lot of polishing and after a lot of research, it could (please note the "could") have somehting to do with my choice of top coat. It also might not, but I'm on the look out for a new quick drying top coat that won't drag my designs and stamping - can't hurt to try eh? I'm thinking Poshe, and I know a lot of people swear by HK Girl, but are there any I'm missing that I should consider???

Also, don't forget to enter my giveaway for a personalised blog planner - all the details are in this post here :)

Sam xx

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The Nail Challenge Collaborative presents "Skittles" - A Neon Skittlette

Hello everyone! Following on from my oh so serious post earlier today, normal service is somewhat resumed now with the first of my NCC manis for May. I was thrilled when I found out that this month's theme was Skittles (so much so that I have three of the four done already, which is unheard of!). I'm starting with a skittlette and a bit of LA Colors neon :)

The middle and ring fingers were painted with a base of LA Colors French White, with the leopard print dotted on using Absolute, Spat!, Mint, Flicker and Black Velvet. I freehanded the stripes on to my index finger with Black Velvet, French White and Absolute and used more of the black and white to complete the dotted design on the thumb and little finger. 

So there you have number one! And on the 2nd of the month - go me!!!

As I explained in my previous post, I won't be posting on the blog over weekends from now on,

there may be a few bits and pieces on the "quickfire" sites, but I will be back next week hopefully feeling all renewed and full of sunshine, joy, kittens and candy floss (if that turns out to be true then you won't recognize me lol!). I also have a giveaway coming up very soon that I know you'll want to check out :)

Have a fabulicious weekend!

Sam xx

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