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 Magazine 31DC March Day 8 - Feather

Hello everyone! So far I'm keeping up with the 31DC and today's prompt is Feather. I see that one as being open to several interpretations, but about a year ago I did a "test nail" of a peacock feather and have always been looking for an opportunity to paint a hand full!

I started with a base of Maybelline Lilac Charm which takes three coats for opacity. I then painted on the "eye", the central spine of the feather and a few structural guidelines using LA Colors Black Velvet.
I filled in the eye using a combination of Barry M Teal, Color Club Fly With Me and finished them with a dot of Barry M Navy in the centre. 

Next I used a fine detail brush to add in the soft side feathers using Color Club Sky High and Fly With Me, Barry M Teal and LA Colors Morning Glory. Finally I went over the black lines to clean the design up and finished with Seche Vite.

I love these! I got to use so many of my favourite colours and they turned out exactly how I wanted them too, and how often can you say that about nail art? ;)

Tomorrow's theme is "Good Luck Charm". I've been using some fabulous nail art templates that AJ from Nail Lacquer UK has made available here, which have made me more ambitious design-wise (not sure if that's a good thing or not yet - watch this space!). They are great for working out design placement and three nail shapes are available. They helped me work out my nail art for tomorrow, so thanks AJ!

Sam xx

The NCC presents "Inspired by a Tutorial" #4 - Kayla Shevonne's peacock feathers

Hello everyone! Today I have for you my final NCC mani for January and this one was inspired by Kayla Shevonne. I've always done peacock feathers in a very different way but loved this version so thought that this would be a good opportunity to have a go.

I followed the tutorial fairly closely, only really changing the polish selection, so I started with a base of Collection 2000 Hot Looks Shimmy Shake and added the black detail with LA Colors Black Velvet. For the colour detail, I used Color Club Sky High and Fly With Me, LA Colors Morning Glory and Barry M Teal.

So that's it for "Inspired by a Tutorial" month, and February welcomes "Inspired by Summer"! I'm very much looking forward to the opportunity to welcome summer several months early and bring in some bright and bold colours! In the meantime, check out all the other fab tutorial-inspired manis linked below!

Sam xx