33 Day Challenge: 3 Colour Gradient and Pattern

I'm back on the challenge which means I have a lot more free time to play with polishes :). I was a bit conflicted with the three colour gradient and a pattern prompt for day 22 of the challenge because my gradient attempts can be a bit of a hit and miss and I had just done an awesome one a couple of weeks ago. I created a three colour gradient last night but it turned out to be a miss and I couldn't recycle the last one because it didn't have a pattern plus that's not really the point of a challenge, is it?

I stuck to what I knew would work for me and chose three Topshop polishes for the gradient and striping tape. I started with a two-coat base of Queen of Green (QoG), which you may have guessed is the green closest to the cuticle. I then sponged on, from cuticle to tip, QoG, Wisdom and Zodiac and smoothed out the gradient with a coat of Seche Vite. I  wanted to put a little extra effort on the pattern side of the prompt so I tried to create some triangles with striping tape but as I was putting on the tape on my ring finger, I knew the triangles (some just polygons) weren't gonna be regular shapes. I applied one coat of Ulta3 in Black Satin over the tape and sealed it with one last coat of Seche Vite.

I wish I had done the green strip a little bigger so the difference between Zodiac and QoG would a little clearer. QoG is a silver based pastel green shimmer and Zodiac is greenish gunmetal grey shimmer with gold bits in it and they are both beautiful but I couldn't quite capture the beauty of them.

Or did I?

I really like the way this mani looks but it was a pain in the ass to clean up. Have you ever tried to clean shimmer polishes? The shimmer goes everywhere and it sticks to the skin like nothing else. I used PVA around my cuticles to avoid some of the mess but the cuticle lines weren't as clean as I'd like them so I took out the acetone. Bad move. After I managed to get as much of the shimmer of my fingers as I could with clean up brushes and cotton rounds, I still had silver bits all over my fingers. I had to use a nail brush to scrub up my fingers and use some cuticle remover to get rid of the stray shimmer. Lesson learnt: If I'm playing with shimmer polishes, I need to be ready to do a lot of clean up.

I just realised tomorrow's prompt is geometric but hopefully I can come up with something good and get my nail mojo back. Till then, check out the other timely participants of the challenge.

Till next time, 

Laura

Born Pretty Store Rhinestone Bows Review

I've been absent for about a week due to a heap of stuff and missed two 33 Day Challenge prompts. I know a lot of bloggers apologise for absences and explain what's happened but mine is so mostly due to uni (read life) so I don't think it's overly necessary. This blog is supposed to be fun and pressuring myself to post when I just don't have time or inspiration, takes that fun away and it just becomes a burden. Last night, I tried to catch up with the challenge but I just couldn't come up with anything worth posting. I decided to call it a night and thought I would be better off doing this week's prompts next week when I will have a lot more time.

However, I still wanted to post an idea I've had in my head for a while which meant the brainstorming part was done and I just had to get my hands moving... quickly. I received these rhinestone bows in #1 from Born Pretty Store a couple of weeks ago and goodness, they are pretty. Over a centimetre big but pretty.

I used two coats of Mimco's Jade as a base, applied one coat of Seche Vite to cut drying time, taped all my nails but the ring finger once the SV had dried to create the straight corners with two coats of OPI's Goldeneye. I applied another coat of Seche Vite on all my fingers to even out the polishes (and I got bubbles, arrrrgh!!!). I finally attached the beautiful filigree alloy bow with a drop of Seche Vite and voila! This mani was created.

These bows are big and heavier than your average nail art supply so I should have used some nail glue to attach it but I don't have any on my hands right now. I've ordered some online in anticipation of this mani but it's taken a little longer to arrive than expected. Make do with this one.

Attachment issues aside, I'm loving this mani. I sometimes can be timid when it comes to my manis and tend to keep them  on the conservative side of things. The packet of bows came with 10 units, enough to put one every finger but I figured that would be too much bling for one mani. I was about to keep it simple by just using one bow on plain teal nails but then realised it was too boring. I figured the gold would bring it all together and make the mani a little bolder. That's what I think anyway and let's face it, if I can't say what I think in my blog, where can I?

Back to nails, I brought the nails out to the sun to see how shiny they would show up but the sun was too low to get some amazing pictures, I just got good pics. ;)

I would use this mani for a special occasion and instead of a ring. I have a lot of very big rings that I use on my ring or index fingers so it'd still look similar but closer to my fingertips o_0 . It was still a bit strange having such a big piece of nail jewelry on my fingers and I kept bumping it against random things. I think that's another reason why the bow only lasted about 10 minutes on my fingers. 

*EDIT* I forgot these bows are slightly curved, which means they have more surface to attach to the nail and a more comfortable wear. *EDIT*

These bows retail for $5.99 for a pack of 10 and there are 8 different designs available. You can use the code LUCKYG10 to get an extra 10% off your purchase from Born Pretty Store.

I'm gonna sit by my letterbox and wait for my nail glue to arrive so I can wear this for longer than 10 minutes. Hold on, I have an exam tomorrow. I better get on to that first...

Till next time, 

Laura

Disclosure: 

Affilliate Link. 
Bow studs were sent by Born Pretty Store for honest review. 
All other products featured were purchased by me.

33 Day Challenge: A Mani Using Two Patterns

Day 18 for the challenge. A few things pop into my mind when I think about that number:

1. I didn't know I had enough creativity to get through to this day 
2. I don't know how I'm gonna come up with my own ideas when the challenge is over
3. I'm posting this the day it is supposed to go up
4. My right hand is an awkward poser or it needs to find its own poses

I didn't want to take off my last mani (if you're in a desktop/laptop and have a keyboard, press the right arrow key to get to it and the left one to get back to this one, you know you want to try it...), so I brought out my right hand to play. Yeah, that means I have different designs on each hand. :)

I started with two coats of the super-buttery, non-streaky metallic polish called Crazy Fancy Love by Essence. It's actually a greenish rose gold multichrome but all the stamping doesn't really let its greatness shine through. Once I let this beauty dry, I stamped a what-I-think-may-be reeds pattern from the plate BM-406 with Ulta3's Frog Prince. I didn't know this could stamp as well as it did but I wanted a green and that was the opaquest one I had so I gave it a go. I stamped the roses with Konad Special Red Polish and the plate BM-323. I sealed it all off with a coat of Seche Vite before cleaning up.

I usually clean up before top coating a mani but I figured if my left hand strayed, the brush would remove the topcoat and not the stamping. Looks like that was the case but the cuticle edge was messy. Better than a half stamped hand?

I think the above photo is a right hand pose, if I tried it with my left my fingers would be super crooked.

Check out what the other talented ladies have come up with for this prompt.

Till next time, which I know I will be late for.

Laura

33 Day Challenge: Artwork With Favourite Brand

Like most lacqueristas, I cannot pick a favourite brand. They all have their qualities and that's why we have them in our stash, right? However, when I quantified the qualities of some of my polishes, I decided Topshop came out a winner. Their polishes last forever on my digits, they hardly chip, they are reasonable priced for Australia and they tend to keep up with polish trends, sometimes even invent their own to-drool-for colours. I think the main reason why I chose this brand is because Topshop polishes mean a holiday for me. There is no Topshop in my city so every time I get a bottle is because I'm somewhere away from home; as I have gotten them in small batches, each one has a special time an d memory attached to it. 

 

I am aware I'm a day late for today's challenge but c'mon, I prioritised my uni work over nails for once. I had to come up with something quick and settled to loosely base my mani on this dress from Topshop, just to keep going with the theme. I figured dressmaking and designing is art, right? So I'm still responding to the prompt for the challenge.

Source

I used High Voltage (pink creme) as a base, then put Plume (glass flecked purple) and Blitz (gold shimmery pink) on a sponge to create the gradient and slowly tapped it on my finger. I repeated the sponge on process three times on each finger. Sealed the gradient with one coat of Seche Vite.

As soon I was ready to take the photos, the sun hid behind some clouds. This gradient is ssssparkly so I waited about 15 minutes in my backyard waving my arms around telling the clouds to go away. I wish this was a joke but I actually did it *Laura looks away slightly embarrassed*. The sun came out for about two minutes so I had to take photos quickly. 

I was concentrating on getting the sparkle to show and not so much on the colour accuracy. The next photo is not flattering but it shoes a much better representation of the  light spectrum reflected from my nails.

I actually did the gradient on my thumb first to see how many coats Plume would need as it can take four coats of the polish on the nails to look opaque. I was quite happy with the way it turned out because generally my gradients turn out super thick and uneven; I guess using the sheerer polishes helped me out.

I really like this mani and I wanna keep it for a long time, it's so pretty and sparkly. I know I didn't show it very well on the photos but take my word for it. It also reminds me of the half moon/french tip trend that was happening at the beginning of the year and it was completely unintentional.

Random photo that I took when I was waiting for the sun to come out. Anyone know what flower this is?

Check out the other 33DC participants' manis. 

Till next time,

Laura

33 Day Challenge: South America

I think this will be the shortest written post I've ever done. I'm exhausted and have no words left in me.  I actually planned ahead and did this mani on Friday because I knew I wouldn't have time to do a creative mani today.

Today's prompt for the 33 Day Challenge is South America and I went with a theme that is appropriate for every country on that part of the world. Soccer. I painted the uniforms from Brazilian player Pele and Argentinian Maradona, whom never played against each other as Pele had his peak a decade or so before Maradona. It's general consensus that they both have been the best soccer players to come out of their respective countries, if not in the world. There's obviously fans out there that will disagree but that's what I grew up so I'm sticking with it :). 

From what I've read Pele invented the position he played which was numbered 10, Maradona ended up playing the same position and that's why I have 10's all over my fingers.

Polishes used:

• Ulta3 in Honolulu
• Essence in Grumpy
• Ulta3 in Soft Hydrangea
• Models Prefer in Hickory Dickory
• Daiso green striper
• Topshop black and white striper
• Seche Vite for quick drying 
• Rimmel Pro Matte Finish as topcoat 

This is the shiny version but I wanted to imitate the semi-shiny fabric of the soccer jerseys, hence the matte topcoat.  

I was really happy with my idea and I think it's been executed OK (just look at how straight that striper-drawn 1 is on my ring finger!) but checking out the other ladies' manicures makes me think this is a bit rough. Hopefully, I can come up with something amazing with my favourite brand... Hold on, I don't have a favourite brand and neither do I want to choose one!!! They're all great!