It's Tuesday and I'm back in blogger mode! Things are getting back to normal with work (whatever normal is, maybe I mean 'usual'!) and I feel like I have some time to myself for the first time in forever!
And this is the first blog I'm writing on my new laptop, so I am extra excited about that :) I can tell you that it's a HP and it's blue, other than that I can't help you! But I love it so far....
Anyway, onto today's mani.
I have been feeling the setting in of Autumn recently. Probably because it's pissed down with rain all day today. The famous UK Summer!! However, it got me thinking that maybe it's time to try some transitional nails to take me through to Autumn, whilst still clinging on to the shreds of Summer that are slowly fading away!!
I had to feature my favourite Summer collection, the Color Club Poptastic Pastel Neons, somewhere. I finally decided to use 'Under the Blacklight', the highlighter yellow shade, in a gradient with Barry M Gelly Nail Paint in Coconut. To take it darker and more Autumn appropriate, I added some striping tape in diagonal lines and added Essie's Bobbing for Baubles to the sides.
I'm pleased with how the mani came out, and it actually looks how it was meant to, or how I saw it in my brain anyway. So that's always nice (and rare)!
I hope you're all having a fabulous week, I'm still counting down to my hols... 4 weeks today!!
Thank you for reading :)
WN x
Hello polished people! I hope you're all having a great weekend :)
Today's mani is actually a submission I created for Nail It Magazine. You can check out their Instagram post about it HERE. They are after some more red and black designs for their Nov / Dec issue (online and print) so they have extended submissions until the 4th of August. And entries are open internationally :)
So as I was due to blog and I have the mother of all creative block recently, I thought why not have a go!
I then thought I'd have a look through the awesome book 'Nail It!' by the superbly talented Sophie Harris-Greenslade of The Illustrated Nail. I've had the book for a while but have yet to attempt any of the deigns so this was the perfect opportunity to dive in :)
The design I settled on is Houndstooth, as I thought it would work well with the colour combo.
The book is totally stunning and I will definitely be writing a review soon :)
For the mani, I used Chanel Phenix and Barry M Black with the Detail Brush from Sparkly Nails.
I am happy with how the design came out, and I am well impressed that you can tell what it's meant to be!! I think it would look loads better on longer nails though, as you would be able to see the full effect of the pattern.
I will let you know if I get featured in the magazine too :)
I hope you all enjoy today's post and thank you for reading!
WN x
There will always be a special place in my heart for Barry M. They were they first nail polishes that I remember buying, and where my love of the manicure was first realised! I have to say that I do have a pretty impressive Barry collection, but I just can't keep up at the moment with all the new formulas that are being released...
Along with their nail paints, Barry M now offer Matte's; Gelly Hi-Shine's; Glitters; the Aquarium collection; Speedy Quick Dry; Sunset Daylight Curing gel style polish; Silks AND Nail Art Pens!!
Phew!
When I visited Boots last week, Barry M were on offer so I thought why not try something new, so I picked up a Silk polish in Forest. The Silk Nail Paints dry to a satin-like finish, that's not quite matte but doesn't have the glossy finish of a regular nail polish.
In the swatches I am wearing two coats of Forest. Firstly without a top coat -
And with TC -
I much prefer the finish of this polish without the top coat, but it just feels so unnatural to me to not top coat my mani! It is beautiful either way though, definitely my kind of colour. I wish that the purple shift was more noticeable though, unfortunately it gets lost when the polish is applied to the nail.
Barry M Silk Nail Paints are £3.99 each available at Barrym.com.
Have a great week everyone!
WN x
Happy Sunday everyone!
I have been in two minds whether to post this mani, but I decided that I like it so I will!
For these nails I used all four of my Color Club Pastel Neons to create this mani, along with Barry M's White and the Spike Vinyls from Sparkly-nails.co.uk.
To create the look, first start with your base colour (the white in this case) and wait for it to dry completely. (I'm too impatient for this so use my Seche Vite to hurry along the process!) Next add your vinyl. When adding the colours, make sure you have almost zero polish on the brush to create that 'dry brush' look. Remove the vinyl, add your chosen TC and then you're good to go :)
There are a couple of things I'd change if I were to do this look again. I would stick the vinyl so that the point is at the tip of the nail, and I might use a different base colour that might show off the pastel shades a bit better.
But overall, I loved the effect and I think the Color Club polishes are perfect to create that dry brush look with. I have done a couple of others (here and here)
if you are interested in seeing them!
Thank you for reading, and I hope you're all having the best weekend!
WN x
Happy Friday everyone! I hope you've all had a good week and have some exciting weekend plans :)
Unfortunately (!) I had to go to Ikea this week, and conveniently there is a Boots in the same retail park so it would have definitely been rude not to go. As fabulous as online shopping is, I do like to go and actually see things I'm buying in real life occasionally. And I did need some cotton rounds.... Any excuse, I know!
While I was perusing the beauty section, I came across this sparkly silver holo on the Boots 17 stand. I've never noticed that they made a holographic polish before, but I'm not sure how new / old it actually is. If only it came in more colours. Hint, hint Boots!
In the swatch I am wearing two coats of polish with a top coat.
With flash -
I am very impressed with this polish! For a drug store own brand nail polish, I think it's great value for money and the formula is fantastic. Perfectly opaque and even in two easy coats. The glitter particles are very fine which will help make the application smooth too.
Now, I may be slightly biased, because I frigging love a holo, and a bargain too for that matter, but I would absolutely recommend this polish to anyone!
Boots 17 Silver Holo nail polish is £3.99, available at Boots.com
Thank you for reading and have an amazing day!
WN x
Happy Tuesday polish people! I hope you're all having a lovely week so far :)
Thankfully, today's mani is slightly more creative than the title of this post! I wanted to do a gradient, as I haven't done one for a while and I do love the effect. the colour combo came to me because I was thinking about being on holiday and drinking Tequila Sunrise! Funny where we find inspiration...
I did want to add a little something extra though, so I went for the negative heart in the end.
Colours I used for the gradient are Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine in Papaya (orange); Barry M Pink Flamingo (coral); Nicole by OPI All Kendall-ed Up (hot pink). The black is Barry M too.
I am pleased with how this mani turned out. And I am so in love with the combination of colours in the gradient!
To create the gradient effect, I just use the standard sponging method. And please don't worry if your mani is textured or look a bit gross whilst you're creating the gradient. Once you add your top coat, everything will be fine! To add the heart, I first drew the outline using the Barry M black nail art pen and then simply filled in the outside of the shape with nail polish and a little nail art brush.
Just FYI, I am now (finally) an Instagram!! I know!! You can follow me HERE if you'd like to :-)
Thank you all for reading and I hope you have a fabulous week!
WN x
