Spring nails

Springtime! I was out in the garden planting tomatos today, now that all risk of frost has passed and I've finally got my act together. Very satisfying.

I've got a seasonal mani to match - literally, because it's themed around Spring. I got a plate from Bundle Monster with "spring" written on it, and I couldn't resist! Still, since it is already November, I knew I had to get my skates on.

I painted my nails white with Face of Australia's Miss Congeniality, then stamping using some Mu do de Unas stamping polishes. I used Bundle Monster BM-710 for the Spring logo, and Born Pretty plates BPL-024 and BP-L001 for the flowers and leaves.

31 Day Challenge - flowers

Just a quick one tonight because I burnt my finger yesterday - it's a lot less painful today, but I'm a bit
tired because I couldn't sleep until late last night.

I painted my nails with Sally Hansen's Brisk Blue then stamped Born Pretty plate BP-28. I really like their plates - they're generally quite well etched, have nice designs, and are pretty well priced.

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31 Day Challenge - violet

I've been making an effort to use items from my stash, so today I used two untrieds.

I painted my nails with a gorgeous purple from Essie called The Lace Is On. I decided to stamp it with a lace pattern, as a bit of a nod to the name, so I broke out Born Pretty stamping plate BP-02. (I really love peeling the blue film off stamping plates! So full of anticipation.)

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31 Day Challenge - blue

I had planned to do all-blue nails but the weather was so nice I couldn't resist adding some colour to the mix.

I painted my nails with Kleancolor's Sensual Lagoon (what a name!), a nice matte blue, then stamped the orange seahorses on with Born Pretty's BPL-025. I finished with a matte topcoat from OPI. I really like this look! Unfortunately I smudged one finger getting my camera out. Too impatient. :(

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Halloween nail art using Born Pretty Store decals and Lilypad Lacquer's polish from the Holo-ween What's In-die Box

More nail art using polishes from the 2014 October What's In-die Box? holo-ween box. I also used some Halloween nail decals from Born Pretty Store, which were sent to me for review.

(I put them back in the package back-to-front and only realised when I looked at my photos later - oops!)

I love the decals - they're super cute while also having a little Halloween spookiness. You can't see very well in this picture, but the decals are actually multiple colours: black, orange, white, grey and yellow. They really pop on your nails. They're very easy to use (just soak in water until they come away from the backing paper, and then apply to your nails), and they're nice and durable.

You get 20 images, enough for two manicures, which is great! The only downside is that the designs are printed twice - one as a mirror of the other- and for this design, which has some text, you wind up with some mirror text. However if that bothers you, the decals on Born Pretty Store are cheap enough that only doing one manicure with them would be fine, and you could use the remaining decals for accent nails, or combine them with some stamping or other techniques. I just put the mirror image on my thumb and no-one noticed. :D

Reversed writing! Plus my beaten-up tweezers and clean-up brush make a guest appearance.

The only other downside with these decals is that I can't find them on the site at all - I think they may be sold out? So I'm afraid you can't actually buy them! On the other hand, the shipping times from Born Pretty Store mean that you probably wouldn't get them in time for Halloween anyway, unless you paid for express shipping. But there are many other decals which you can get from Born Pretty.

You can also use my coupon code if you place an order (although I believe coupons have been disabled at the moment, due to their big 4th Anniversary Sale) and get 10% off.

Okay, now for the manicure behind the cut!

Peita's Polish from What's In-Die Box October 2014 - Holo-ween

Holo-ween! I love puns, and I love holos, so I knew I had to buy the all-holo What's In-Die Box for October. And what a set of polishes! <3 Because the box only just came out, I've put all pictures of the actual polish under a jump cut.

But first! I recently also received some free products from Born Pretty Store in return for a review, and will be doing a series of manicures using these products and the polishes from the Holo-ween What's In-Die Box. I'm pretty excited for what I have planned! As part of my review, I also got a discount code to share - use code SNBQ10 for 10% off.

For this manicure I used some black and clear/silver rhinestones, which came as part of a two-pack - one box of black and clear/silver rhinestones, and one box of multicoloured rhinestones. They're a great size for nail art, you get a good amount of rhinestones, and I quite like the box - easier to use than a nail wheel, since the compartments snap down and there's no danger of mis-aligning the opening.

The other thing I love is that the box comes with a wax pencil for applying the rhinestones with. IT IS AMAZING. It was such a snap to apply the rhinestones using the wax pencil! A couple of minutes was all it took to do each hand. I got mine bundled with the rhinestones, but you can also buy two wax pencils on their own, (It's called the "Easily Picking Up Rhinestone Picker Wax Pen" on the site, which seems a fair summary of what it's for.)

And now, the manicure! Under a cut to avoid spoilers.

31 Day Challenge, Day 31 - Honour Nails You Love

For today's challenge, I decided to recreate some nails from More Nail Polish. More Nail Polish is one of my favourite nail blogs - amazing manicures (did you see the version of Nolan's Ned Kelly art for the challenge this year? Stunning!), handy swatches and reviews, and she uses a variety of techniques. She's also Australian, which is nice - I enjoy it when bloggers talk about popping down to Bunnings for some acetone rather than, say, Wal-Mart, a store that doesn't exist in Australia. But not only that! She's a fellow Canberran. Even her references to the weather are comfortably familiar.

Back in January, she posted some a manicure titled "Bright yellow reverse stamped flowers", which I loved. Coloured in stamping? It looked great!

From More Nail Polish - http://www.morenailpolish.com/2014/01/bright-yellow-reverse-stamped-flowers.html

To recreate this look, I used the same yellow polish, OPI's I Just Can't Cope-acabana. The white is OPI's Alpine Snow, and I used Bundle Monster's plate BM03 for the flower pattern. The nail studs are from Born Pretty.

So that's the challenge! I missed the first few days though, because I didn't know it was on, so I'll be doing days 1-3 over the next three days. I got my new Mundo de Unas polishes in the mail today (!!) and I'll definitely be using them for the Yellow day - a manicure that has also been inspired by a song. Stay tuned! ;)

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Talk to me, Harry Winston, tell me all about it! 31 Day Challenge, Day 22 - Inspired By A Song, Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend

I really liked this prompt! I've been listening to music during some of my other manicures and waiting for inspiration, and I chose to do a manicure based on the song Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend. Here are some of the lyrics:

A kiss on the hand may be quite continental,

But diamonds are a girl's best friend.

A kiss may be grand: but it won't pay the rental on your humble flat 

or help you at the automat.

Men grow cold, as girls grow old,

and we all lose our charms in the end.

But square cut or pear shape, these rocks don't lose their shape:

 Diamonds are a girl's best friend.

Tiffany's! Cartier!

 Black star! Frost Gorham! Talk to me Harry Winston, tell me all about it!

I rummaged through my blue polish drawer and unearthed an unnamed pale Tiffany's blue by Portmans. Four coats later and I stamped some diamonds on the accent nail using Bundle Monster BM09, and stuck some little heart studs on the other nails. The silver stamping doesn't really have enough contrast but it's getting late so there you go.

As a bonus, here's Marilyn Monroe performing the song in the movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes:

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend from Ars Memorandi on Vimeo.

And here's an audio-only version of the cover/adaptation by Nicole Kidman from the movie Moulin Rouge:

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I'm pretty fascinated by the way that, so far, everyone has chosen to do blue nails. Maybe music is blue coloured? :)

31 Day Challenge, Day 18 - Half moon studs

For my more "standard" half moon manicure, I decided to take on the recent trend for exposing part of your nude nail bed. After applying my base coat, I stuck on some hole reinforcements and painted my nails with two coats of OPI's Every Month Is Oktoberfest, a nice shimmery vampy red. I then peeled off the reinforcements and used some acetone and a brush to clean up the half moons, and then a nail art brush to draw in any points that weren't sharp enough.

It looked nice, but I thought it could use a little something else, so I stuck on some studs which I got from Born Pretty Store.

I really like the finished look!

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31 Day Challenge, Day 17 - Glitter

GLITTER! I have such a love/hate relationship with glitter - it's so sparkly, but so time-consuming, whether you're putting it on or taking it off. Accordingly I only did glitter on my accent nail, because I didn't want to spend hours on a mani I'm going to take off tomorrow.

I painted my nails with Ulta3's Wild Berry, a dark grey polish - bit of an odd name! I can't think of any grey berries? Anyway, it's a nice colour but it was a bit runny and had a tendency to flood my cuticles to the extent that I can't get it off.

I then used some orange and yellow hexagonal glitter which I got from Born Pretty Store a while back, in a pack of 12 different colours. The glitters were pretty cheap and you get a lot of them in each little jar, which is great. I used a toothpick and some clear nail polish to stick them on, and sealed it with topcoat. You need to keep an eye on which hexagon you're picking up, because occasionally they can be a little smaller than usual or a bit unsymmetrical, but it's not a problem if you're paying attention.

With hexagonal glitter, I find that you get the best results if you don't tap the glitters too deeply into the polish - just gently place them on. I got impatient towards the end and tapped one of the hexes near the tip too hard, and it's embedded slightly - d'oh! Patience is the key, and giving yourself plenty of time.

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A-England's Ascalon with hexagon nail studs armour

A while back, I bought a packet of silver hexagonal nail studs from Born Pretty Store with the intention of doing a full-nail armour look.

I painted my nails with A-England's Ascalon, a silver nail polish with a muted scattered holo effect and a distinct pink-green undertone which makes it quite warm toned. Formula was excellent, as I have found for all A-England polishes.

I then stuck the studs on the ring finger of each hand. I found that the best effect comes from starting at the side and working in a bit of a diagonal, making sure to always press each stud up hard against the edges of the other studs. Coverage was pretty good, with only a few awkward gaps - I did find that you can cut the studs to size for the gaps, but it's hard to get them to stay on the tips because it's such a high-impact area. It was fine on the side, though.

The studs are shiny, attention-grabbing, and the texture is lovely. I'd definitely recommend them!