The Never Ending Challenge: Glitter

Well, hello. What am I doing posting on a Monday? I decided to join The GLITTAH Pirates Facebook group which is hosting The Neverending Pile Challenge. The purpose is to encourage us all to move polishes from the untried polish to the normal pile. I know I won't be participating in the ALL challenge, especially because it runs all the way down to July but I'll give it a go when I can fill one the prompts. 

To start off the challenge, no better prompt could have been than glitter. Glitter is awesome, period. I brought out Hyacinth Sparkle by Nubar, a dense lavender glitter with a beautiful buttery, long lasting formula. I've had this since Nov 2012 as part of a 3-pack and I left it on the untried pile because it looked sheer and I'm not the biggest fan of glitter generally. I only need two easy coats to get full coverage and the simple sparkle of the polish made me fall in love with it. 

I have included some swatches below but I didn't just want it leave it at that so I looked some nail art ideas from lack of imagination and settled for the design from this post by Hey, Nice Nails!. I used a black stripper to create the lines on the index finger and added some black square rhinestones on the rest of the fingers to tie it all up. Topped it all off with one coat of HK Girl.

Now for the swatches without topcoat.

I'm really looking forward to the rest of the challenge, especially to some of the later prompts. 

Till next time, 

Laura

GOT Polish Challenge: Yellow/ Peach

As much as I love the colour yellow, most of us would know how hard it is to work with the formula of this hue of polish; there's always streakiness, bold patches, multiple coats to get the colour even, bad formulas, you name it. I'm glad the GOT challenge included the prompt yellow because it's bright and I have a Golden Oldie one but I hadn't brought out because of some issues mentioned above. It was even better when peach was also included because I had the perfect colour to go with my yellow. 

Not knowing where I was gonna go with this design, I started with three coats of Nubar's Lemon, a ...er, lemon coloured polish that I got in Nov 2012. I love the colour and the formula is quite buttery but it gets a lot of bald spots and it takes foreeeeever to dry. I didn't use any quick drying top coat because I'm not a fan of super thick nail art so I just let it air dry. The tackiness of the polish made me think of the way some people apply foils without glue so I figured it would be a good plan to bring them. I've had most of my foils since I started posting on this blog so if that doesn't fit the theme, I'm not sure what would.

I attempted to apply a Marble foil onto the polish but it seemed the tackiness wasn't the right type to get the foils tuck but it would catch any piece of fluff. Hmm... I free handed a nail foil glue chevron, let it get tacky and stuck the foils. It turned out a lot better than I expected but it wasn't perfect. I feel I need to mention, the wrinkles on the foils came from me rubbing the glue with the brush once dry to put another layer on but it created ridges. part of the charm, right?

Then I remembered I wanted to use Sinful Colors' Hazard as my peach polish. I got it sometime in Dec 2012 and it has been one of those polishes I reach out for when I need something quick, it's almost a one coater and the formula is OK.  Then again, I free handed the chevrons and let them dry. 

The edges of the foils seemed a little too rugged in comparison to the peach lines so I brought out my Topshop Nail Art Pen in White and tidied the edges. It wasn't perfect but it looked better. Once I was happy with the design, I applied two coats of Picture Polish's Revolution to seal the design and the foils.  

Now this design reminds me of two things. The first one being old school pencils, you know the yellow ones with pink rubbers on top; I'm glad I didn't draw the foil edges black or there would have been a lot more resemblance. The second one would this post of mine where I swore to recreate the mani and show it when it came out better. So here it is, unintentionally and not entirely the same, but done. 

I'm quite happy with the result and the fact that I pretty much winged it. Most of the time, when I wing it it turns out baaaad. Anyway, there are some other awesome designs below, so check them out. 

Until next time, 

Laura

Leather, Tats and Studs

I've had this post lined up for about a week because I knew I would get itchy fingers to post but have no time to paint my nails. It's the last week of semester after all...

I present to you yet another version of this technique with a little extra. I used Nubar Toasted Marshmallows from their early 2012 Jellybean collection as a base for all fingers. I then  applied Rimmel Matte topcoat to my middle and ring fingers and pressed my trustworthy, it-came-from-scrap-foam sponge to give it the leather effect. 

On my ring finger, I stuck some black 3 mm studs from Dollar Nail Art and applied the gold 2 mm from Born Pretty Store on each side of the row with matte topcoat so the textured effect wouldn't change too much.

The fakes tattoos  I used on my index and pinky came from a pack of Ed Hardy tattoos I got from the $2 shop last September, of which I only used a couple and was left with a heap. I chose the below design first without nail polish on because well, it didn't look that pretty and I didn't mind ruining it.  Turns out I really like the way those curls and forehead looked so I decided to use it again on nail polish.

Chinese Dragon. Source

I cut the tattoo to fit my nail bed and applied along the length of the nail without trying to bend the paper to stick it to the sides. Instead, I wet my foam sponge that I used above and pressed it against the tattoo so it would soften and mold to the nail slowly.  Even though the fake tattoo didn't apply wrinkle-free, the softness of the finish of Rimmel Matte topcoat improved the look greatly.

Oh goodness... Don't look at those dry cuticles. They're awful.

I really liked the overall look and it was really fun to wear. 

The position of the black studs was slightly off and they managed to snag on a couple of things as they didn't sit completely flat on my nail. Oh well, lesson learnt. 

One other thing I was really proud of was the fact that I've managed to not only create a dupe method for Nails Inc. Noho Leather Effects, but also have created a very similar dupe for Soho Mews with a polish I'd managed to write off because of the funny colour. Then again, I don't own Soho Mews but there are plenty of swatches out there like here or here.

Toasted Marshmallow by itself. It's growing on me... Slowly.

I just have Shoreditch Lane, the burgundy colour, and Old Compton Street, the grey blue one, to recreate and I could say I saved myself about $75, which I could totally use for a polish haul. Completely justified.

What do you guys reckon? Are you a fan of the textured polishes? Do you own any that you love?

Till next time, 

Laura