My first water marble AKA Birthday Nails

So last month it was my 23rd birthday. I decided to do something different on my nails that I'd never tried before and had wanted to do for a while. Water marbling! I've read that a lot of bloggers found it hard to get it to work for them at first but I got lucky with the colours I'd chosen and it worked first time. (Subsequent attempts have been failures haha)

The colours I used were all from China Glaze - I'd read that they tend to work well for water marbling. They were For Audrey, Electric Beat and Blue Year's Eve.It took me two hours to finish but it was worth it :) Only two nails weren't as nice because I smudged them when pulling them out of the water.

If you want to see some brilliant tutorials for different designs, please look at Colette's blog My Simple Little Pleasures and check out her YouTube page. She is so talented at marbling and you will learn so much from her. She also deserves more followers and subscribers.

Jennifer xx

Happy Halloween!

Hope you are all having a great Halloween if you celebrate it. Here are the nails I did for the occasion.

Colours used:
China Glaze Liquid Leather
Barry M White
Barry M Red
Essie Orange It Obvious?

Jennifer xx

Pahlish - Fire in the Taco Bell

First off, the name of this polish is so funny! In case you don't know, it is a reference to the song Danger High Voltage by Electric Six (video link at the end). I always find the song funny.

Anyway, this polish by Pahlish on Etsy and Llarowe is a gorgeous jelly glitter. It has a tangerine orange jelly base filled with fuchsia squares, fuchsia holographic hex, pink/gold shimmer, fine pink microglitter and sheer purple iridescent hex glitters.

As it is a jelly, it is sheer so you can either apply 2-3 coats (I used 3 in these swatches) or apply over another polish such as a creme to make it more opaque. It is supposed to look squishy and give the glitter depth through the layers of colour. It is such a pretty colour and the glitter just glows. I love all the different colours. It is easy to apply but do leave it to dry a bit between coats so not to drag any glitter or move the base.

Pahlish is a really lovely brand too. Shannon's shipping was fast and it was packed really well. Obviously there was a little wait as Pahlish is a US based company and I live in the UK but some indie companies I have ordered from have taken a while to actually send my parcel, making it take ages to arrive. I also like that the Pahlish Etsy store is often well stocked so you don't need to wait long between restocks and you can quite easily get what you are after rather than it be a race to get in first with only 2 bottles of the same colour available.

Pahlish colours are $9 each (£5.73 approx at time of writing) and available from Etsy and Llarowe

Jennifer xx

Leighton Denny Shipwrecked and Drama on the Dancefloor

The base colour here is Leighton Denny Shipwrecked - a beautiful pistachio green creme finish from Leighton's S/S 2012 Castaway collection. It is a lovely colour with the same fantastic formula as the rest of Leighton's nail colours. Over the top I added Leighton Denny Drama on the Dancefloor (QVC exclusive) which is a chunky gold hex glitter with gold micro glitter thrown in. I used one easy coat and as you can see, it is easy to get even glitter distribution.

Please excuse the state of my nails in these photos, they were taken a few weeks ago when my nails were very dry. I also managed to knock my middle finger while the polish was drying so it has a mark near the free edge.

Jennifer xx

Leighton Denny - The Heiress

 This is what I have on my nails at the moment. I wanted to use creme colours as I'd worn a lot of glitter recently but still wanted it to be fun. I haven't done any stripes for a while either and last time I did them my hand wasn't as steady as it is now painting nails. I picked out one of my favourite Leighton Denny colours, The Heiress which is a beautiful purply-lilac with some dusky blue in it. On the Leighton Denny website, it is described as 'a blue-belle purple' which I think is very fitting. For the stripes, I didn't have anything in mind other than using black and white so I just made it up as I went along.

The lines aren't perfect but I am pleased how it turned out and it is probably one of the best manicures I've done for myself :)

These photos are more colour accurate with some editing (purples are so hard to get colour accurate with digital photography).

 

 

 

What I used:

Leighton Denny Under Cover Base Coat

Leighton Denny The Heiress - 2 coats

Rio Nail Pens (black and white)

Seche Vite Fast Dry Topcoat.

Jennifer xx

Pretty and Polished - Sand Art

Here is another polish from the indie brand Pretty and Polished. It is called Sand Art and is made up of blue, green, pink and purple matte glitters (they don't sparkle like regular glitters and only shine when topcoat is added). I've used two coats over white, it might get to full coverage with a third coat. It was really easy to apply, the base is quite thick and holds the glitter well. This was a bit of a 'Marmite' polish with my colleagues - some liked it, some hated it. I liked it but think I would prefer it over blue as the white was quite stark but it did make the glitter colours easier to see. From a distance, it looks like you have splattered paint all over your nails. I think it is a really fun colour and looks totally unique.

Sand Art is available from Pretty and Polished at $4.75USD for a mini bottled (which is what I have).

Chelsea is not currently shipping outside of the USA or Canada due to some problems she has had with unreliable shipping. However, Llarowe will be stocking Pretty and Polished soon and they do ship worldwide and also stock a few other indie brands and various brands from around the world.
Jennifer xx

Candy Lacquer - Sea Nymph

Today I have a polish from Candy Lacquer, an indie brand which you can purchase from her Etsy store here. It called Sea Nymph and is made from fine sea green glitter and a touch of gold fine glitter and some holographic teal hexagonal glitter added. It is a full coverage glitter in two coats and is super easy to apply. You will need to apply a couple of layers of thick topcoat to it as it is very gritty. I used a layer of Gelous and a layer of Seche Vite. It is so sparkly and will get a lot of attention. I also like that is a unique combination of glitter, I've not seen light green glitters like this before. I really like the heart shaped labels that Sandra uses, they are really cute and the design and typefaces used are fitting for her brand.

I only wore it for a day because I find all full coverage glitters chip very easily on me, I have a feeling it is the Seche Vite causing it. I might try layering them over a creme finish polish to see if they stick better. If anyone has any tips on getting any full coverage glitter to stay put for longer, please let me know.

Sea Nymph costs $8.00USD and is available at Candy Lacquer.

Jennifer xx

Franken Polish - 'Robotic' and Ciate Purple Sherbet

This is another franken that I made using silver, holographic silver and gunmetal coloured glitters. I really like how it turned out. It is really simple but I think it is quite effective and will look good over a lot of colours. I think it works really nicely over pastel shades such as Ciate Purple Sherbet as the holographic glitter sparkles in pastel colours. I've named it Robotic because I think the large chunks look like pieces of metal or nuts and bolts and the holographic looks futuristic/sci fi.

Ciate Purple Sherbet was a freebie that I got with Marie Claire magazine. There are two other colours available to choose from too - Lollypop (bright pink with blue shimmer) and Bon Bon (lilac toned neutral nude). I used three coats of Purple Sherbet as my base colour as it was slightly streaky.

Jennifer xx

Pink and Blue Leopard Print Nails

I saw these pink and dark blue Barry M polishes in Superdrug and really wanted to use them together in some nail art. I was going to do stripes but then decided to add the other blue in and do some leopard print. I've never freehanded leopard print before and this isn't great - it looks more abstract than leopard print. I liked it all the same though, I really love the colours together. It is so bright and fun. I didn't want to take it off but had to because I cracked my thumb nail and needed to fix it :(

Colours used:
Barry M Flamingo (pink)
Barry M Turquoise (light blue)
Barry M Indigo (dark blue)

Jennifer xx

Franken - Peacock Feathers

I have another franken to show you today. It is made up of blue, gold, greeny gold, and green glitters of varying sizes and also some strand glitters all in a clear base. I'm really happy with it. I was actually trying to make an opaque glitter but I think this is nice how it is and can be built up a bit although it would take a lot to get it opaque. I mixed the glitter into some fine blue glitter polish and added a fine gold glitter polish to it (these are the smallest glitter pieces) then put clear polish in to 'water' it down a bit. I'm calling it Peacock Feathers because the colours are peacock colours and the strands remind me of the long feathers.

For this manicure, I layered Peacock Feathers over OPI Jade is the New Black. I've also changed the shape of my nails recently, I had a couple of tears and some peeling and decided to get rid of it and chopped them down. Normally I go for an oval shape but I decided to make them more squared - squovalish. I didn't like it at first but it is growing on me, they are definitely more practical!

Jennifer xx

Happy Jubilee Weekend Nails!

Happy Jubilee weekend to all my fellow Brits and all the other countries in the Commonwealth! I hope you are enjoying the festivities to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee year. I think it is a great achievement, 60 years as our monarch is a bloody long time and only Queen Victoria has got there before.

Here are my Jubilee nails to mark the occasion :)

My messy right hand

What I used:

White: Leighton Denny Pure White

Glitter: Nails Inc Jubilee 3D Glitter

Navy (pinkie) Barry M Navy

Gold for diamond: Barry M Gold Foil

red and blue Rio nail pen stripers for Union Jack flags

Jennifer xx

Green-Blue Gradient Nails

Gradient nails have been on my to do list for a good while now and I've finally got around to trying it. I really like the way it came out. To do it I applied the lightest colour and then dipped a makeup sponge into the next darkest colour and sponged it onto my nails. I repeated with each colour until the darkest colour making sure that they blended together. It's not perfect but I think it looks good for a first attempt.

The colours I used were (in this order):
OPI Gargantuan Green Grape for the base colour
OPI Mermaid's Tears
OPI Fly
OPI Ogre The Top Blue

Jennifer xx

Fixation Polish - Blood of the Dragon

Today I have another nail polish from an indie brand, this time it is Fixation Polish. There are four colours available from Fixation Polish at the moment and they are all gorgeous and filled with beautiful glitters. I'm looking forward to new colours in the future as I will definitely be purchasing from the brand again.

This one is called Blood of the Dragon. It is a lovely deep mossy green jelly filled with a ton of glitter. There are gold, bronze, copper, brown and red glitters in various sizes. It applies really easily and the glitter doesn't sink to the bottom of the bottle - no crazy bottle shaking or fishing out the glitter needed. It is a really pretty and unique shade.

Jennifer xx