Spring Fever!

How is it March tomorrow?! This year is zooming by & still haven't been given a job.

I will be the first to admit this is one of my crappier designs. I found some 3D Butterflies I got from the Poundshop a while back & wanted to have a quick play before doing my nails tonight.

I'm not the biggest fan of 3D art, but I'll try anything once. The reason I'm doing a Blog Post for this rather shoddy Nail Art, is purely because I'm in love!

Not bad for a Quid, eh?

Please forgive me, like I said, it was a REALLY quick play about. The Butterflies are so cute though. I prefer the middle finger just because of the size of the butterfly, I think they look better smaller.

So just a quick little post. I'm planning on something else tonight, so keep your eyes peeled.

One last thing, Thankyou to YOU for viewing my little blog. This is just a little hobby of mine, & to see so much traffic starting to come through is a huge ego boost. So whether you are a follower, or just passing through. You've made me smile.

Challenge 9 - Delicate Nails.

NOT. A. FAN!

Sorry this is so late. For one, I dislike this challenge a lot. Who's idea was this? Secondly, I got viciously attacked with the Flu Jab on Monday Morning! It was only meant to be an asthma review. Since then, I've suffered, so I haven't felt like doing my nails.

I finally picked a design that I wanted to do, & I'm quite proud of it. I saw a Youtube Tutorial & also, a friend of mine (Hi Nicoya) Did this design. Rather creepy really, as ten minutes after I found the tutorial, I saw hers on Facebook. Great minds, & all.

I will apologise now for the lack of the clean up. I was so exhausted & didn't know where my phone battery would last long enough to take them. They're also only taken with the living room light. No flash & no lightbox. Again, because I was exhausted.Bad Kay.

In other news, New kittens will be arriving on the kitten cam soon. Thankfully I've finally got round to sorting out the flat, so I can watch in the evening whilst doing my nails completely guilt free.

Poundland doesn't always get it right.

Hi Girls!

This was supposed to be my next challenge Mani, delicate print. I have no plates which you could call delicate print, & not too confident in free hand yet. Poundland had some Nail Wraps which a delicate print on, so I went for it.

I've had good experience with their products so I was quite excited to try these out. I wasn't really a fan of the colours, but for a quid, You can't expect to much.
As with all wraps I did my base coat, Then applied them.

First of all, whilst there is no-where that states these are for kids, the sizes are TINY! I have ridiculously small finger nails. Honestly, I know a 12 year old whos nails are larger than mine. I used the huge thumb one for my accent finger, & that only just fit.

Secondly, These are no wraps, they are huge glorified stickers that don't actual stick. They are so thick, That my normal file wouldn't touch them. I dug out the one with extra back bone, & that barely worked. As you can see, I gave up. They're not filed down nicely, & they don't stick down. I put a top coat on, hoping that will help, but  nope. I now have to come up with a free hand delicate print design pronto.

Bad, bad Poundland. Do not waste a quid on these. Buy yourself a lovely Sally Hansen polish instead.

Whilst I'm on a bit of a moaning post, as you can tell from the photos, my hands are DRY! I never usually have this problem, not to this level anyway. Yes it's been cold, but it has only become a problem since I changed hand & cuticle moisturiser.

I don't actually know this brand, but I saw it in Sainsburys on deal after Christmas, so thought I'd give it a go. It smells gorgeous, & I thought it did wonders for the first few days, but look at my poor skin!
Will definitely be trying something else.

That ceases my moaning. It's the last day of Ripleys Kittens on the kitten cam, which makes me sad,so I'm going to be watching whilst figuring out what the hell to do for this weeks Challenge!

Challenge 8 - Green Nails.

Hi, Girls!

Better late than never, I haven't been in the mood to sit down & do my nails, hence the late post, Thank God it's a week between challenges.

This week is GREEN! I will be the first to admit I have a pretty immature sense of humour. The first thing I said to the boyfriend was "Green? DRUGS!" I meant it as a joke, but he told me to give it a go.

I was quite excited, but as it turns out, impossible for me to do free hand & make pretty. It looked pretty dull just having a green marijuana leaf, so I wanted to put glitter on it. Made a mess, looked awful. Eventually, I gave up & went for the rhinestone effect on the accent nail.

I promised you before that I would still post manis that go wrong, & this one is definitely included in that. Whilst it looks nothing like a marijuana leaf, it's still green. I am quite impressed with myself regarding the taping on the other nails. I have a love hate relationship with tape, I never get smooth lines, but this time it hasn't gone bad at all.

I really wish I had a polish that was the same colour as the rhinestones, so it didn't look even more odd. Still, you live & learn, & I've had enough of green now.

Just a final note...Don't do drugs, kids.

Laid Back Nails.

Hi Girls.

I hope you all had a lovely Valentines Day.

Today, I wanted something simple & I wanted to use some of my polishes I'd gotten from Alans sisters.

I decided to go for the gradient design again, something laid back, so I went for some quite neutral this time.

Neither of the polishes have a written colour on them, & the middle one is completely unbranded. 

I'm quite proud of this attempt,the photos don't do it justice. It's not as perfect as I'd like, but I'm improving on the smoothness of the finish.

I decided that I wanted to go over with my Matte top coat, just to give it that extra laid back feel. My phone then decided it had enough battery to use the flash, so you can see the colours more clearly. I wish I wasn't so impatient & waited so I could have taken the glossy photos with a flash too.

(Ignore the remain of water marble under my thumb that I missed... oops)

I love these even more with a matte finish. Sometimes a girl just needs something that isn't in your face.

I have to say, I'm quite excited for this weeks challenge. If it goes right, it should be freaking amazing! So keep your eyes peeled for that this weekend.

On a final note, big hello to all my new followers. My blog is still a baby, but my followers have doubled in the last few days, & that's always lovely to see.

Happy Valentines Day!

It's here!!! One of my most favourite days of the year. Now, I must confess, we don't actually celebrate Valentines Day as such. I get all excited, but the Mr, not so much. However this year, he's cooking me dinner! I know it doesn't sound like much, but due to his disability, he can't stand for long periods of time, & he can easily fall if his hip locks, but he's said this year he's attempting it. For most people it will be the norm, but when you have a disabled partner, these small things actually mean the most. That isn't to say I wont have my phone at the ready to call for an ambulance if he manages to set the place alight!

Onto my nails! We got all our things back from Alans sister, & I had FIFTY nail polishes, all of which seem to be in a good condition. Happy Kay! I broke a couple of nails sorting things out, but because I worked so hard, I decided to treat myself & sort out my extensions. Took me bloody ages. Where it's not something you need to do very often, it's hard to practice. Still pretty nails again, although I've gone shorter than usual.

I've been undecided about what mani to have for the big 14/02. In the end, I decided to Water Marble again. It's fun, & the results are pretty. Plus the more you do it, the better you become.

Super bad clean up job, but I considering how time consuming this technique is, & how late it is, there was no way I was taking a chance of ruining the design & starting again. Luckily, you can't tell in real life, it's only in the extra large imaging it show.

I'm still having trouble with the air bubbles on a couple of nails. Any girls have any advice? The water I used was freezing, considering it's been snowing outside & we have no heating, that was only to be expected. It hasn't gone too bad.

I used the Sally Hansen Lavender as my base colour, then used all three SHs in the water marbling. I then went over with the Miss Sporty Pink glitter, finishing with the Top Coat. Easy Peasy!

I hope all you girls have an amazing Valentines Day. & because it is the day of love, let me be mushy & add a pic of me & the Mr.

Zebra foils.

When I got my Rio UV extension kit I was quite excited that I got FREE foils with it. I love freebies! I'd already tried a cheapy version from Sainsburys in my Polka Dot Challenge so was quite interested to compare the quality between the two.

You get three designs for free, a polka dot, rainbow gradient & Zebra. Considering it is the week of the animal print in our challenge, I went for Zebra, borrowing a friends nails to do so. (I spent bloody ages on my fish tail, I wasn't getting it off for foils!)

As I've said before, I do think foils are cheating a little bit, you don't get the same satisfaction of completely a project. These foils were unfortunately quite difficult to apply. They're a lot thicker than the Sainsburys ones, so putting them on took about as much effort as painting them on free hand!

As you can see, I had trouble getting the excess off. I think I nearly tore away my friends cuticles trying to get it shaped, the problem was, it was very easy to end up tearing what was supposedly stuck fast to the nail.

Don't get me wrong, I love Rio. They're affordable (says the girl whos Rio products were all bought for her) & a great way to get you introduced to the world of Nail Art, but I can see why these foils were freebies. I've seen good reviews of their actual kit you can buy, so these have not put me off the brand just yet. Pity I have to wait 'til June for my Birthday!

On a separate note, We made a lightbox! Sadly I'm still using my phone for the photos, so the quality of the photos are still pretty shoddy, & I can get close-ups to focus, but I can see the difference in the lighting. My boyfriend has an awesome camera, but, ironically, despite my previous electronics employment, I'm a jinx when it comes to technology. It all breaks on me, so I'm banned from the pretty camera. Might give my Mother a little hint & see if she has any hand-me-downs I can 'borrow' I love hand me downs.

We're getting all our stuff back from the old flat today, I'm dreading it. On the plus side, I know I have a lot of make-up & Nail Varnish to come back. Wish me luck that it's still usable, & I don't lose my temper with boxes!

Catch you Laterss
x

Under The Seaaaaa

One of the things I love most about my guy, is that he will not let me give up. As I said in my previous post, I could not manage to do the fishtail design. I've had one of those nights where I have my thinking head on, & start worrying about things. Doing my nails will usually calm me down. I attempted fishtail again, & whilst it stressed me out, it did take my mind off real life for a while!

I used only Sally Hansen colours, as they really are my favourites right now. I was worried the brush might be a little big, but it's all trial & error.

Granted, it's a bit of a drunken fishtail, but not bad for a finished first attempt. I'm not even going to admit how long that one nail took. I definitely could have been sorting out the flat in that time, or taken a sleeping pill & actually slept. Still, considering I shall be functioning on two hours sleep later, at least I shall have pretty nails to look at, and let's be honest, that can change your whole outlook.

Feeling Navy

Hi, Girls!

I have not had a good Nail day. Everything I tried went tits up. I really want to do the Fishtail Braids, but it would not work. I tried Geometric & it wouldn't go my way, so instead I jut tried out my new Navy Baby by Sally Hansen. I have used it before, but not a a main colour.

I'm feeling very tired & down, so I just wanted to do something really simple so I wouldn't go to bed with naked nails. Really hope I'm not coming down with something!

Along with Navy Baby, I used Barry Ms Peach Melba,Rimmel Matte top coat & finished off with a stamping.

I don't know why, but all Sally Hansens stain my skin. No amount of acetone or warm soapy water will clean it up. I will admit I did a bit of a half arsed job of the clean up. I really must invest in a lamp so I can actually see what I'm doing. The light my living room gives off, my skin actually looks completely clean with no staining at all. It wasn't until I uploaded the photos I saw it, so please forgive me & blame my flat for poor lighting.

Tomorrow I have to move everything in the flat about. We moved here nearly two years ago from a bigger place, & most of our stuff has been at the boyfriends Sisters. We're getting it all back Tuesday! It's making me want to cry. On one hand, I can't wait to get our goodies back, on the other, I have no room!!!

So I'm not sure if I'll get to do a post tomorrow. Depends if I end up in tears & need to take a break from finding non existent space!

Wish me luck!

x

Sunday Morning Laziness.

When I say Sunday morning, I mean ridiculously early Sunday morning. It's chilly, so I came out to the living room, Boyfriend put on Doctor Who & I played with my nails.

As I've said before, I really want to perfect the Gradient technique, so what better time than the very early hours of the morning.

I'm very bad at choosing colours which work well together. I've looked at other blogs & so many colour seem to work, but when I try it, it never goes to plan. Still, My Mother taught me never to give up, so on I plod.

This time I went with an unbranded Pink, Rimmels Grey Matter, & an unbranded Black. I didn't know if they would work, but I don't think it went too bad considering.

I was given the advice to make my photos bigger, which I think looks amazing, sadly it shows even more I need to work on my cleaning up. I'm also looking at making a lightbox after another suggestion given to me.You guys have honestly been amazing. 

I still need a lot of work, but I'm quite proud of these. I don't think the colours look too bad. Where I used a White base colour, it almost looks like I used four colours.  My actually technique is a bit crap. I dislike how you can see the sponge-y marks still, but I'm guessing over time I will figure it out, (Unless some lovely people can give me some tips?)

I definitely need to sort out my extensions. They need infilling, plus the ones that have lasted the longest are the ones I did first. You can tell this in the photo above where I still hadn't figured it all out, & the extension is actually too big for that specific nail. Oops!

Of course, I was on a roll, so I thought What the Hell, Let's play with my stamper too. I've only used it a couple of times, as to be honest, I'm not great at it. I can't get the placement right, which is quite annoying, especially seeing other girls using it with amazing results.Again, practice, practice, practice:

I think I may have ruined he manicure doing this, but it was still fun to play. I'm in a total nail playing mood, which is bad for 0400hrs. Must go to bed, not clean off & star more playing! Naughty Kay!

Catch you laters,

X

Challenge 7 - Animal Print

Hi Girls!

So it's the SEVENTH week of the challenge! How are we seven weeks in already?! This weeks theme is animal print. I did have ideas of doing a white tiger face on my accent nail, with stripes on top of a gradient on the remaining fingers. However, when I first got into Nail Art, the first design that made me think "Hang on, I really like this!" Was leopard print. This was my attempt last summer:

It's very basic, but I was so pleased with myself back then.

I had to use the same idea for this challenge. Can you feel Nostalgic only six months later?

Anyway, I want to play around with half moons. Sadly, I don't how any of those hole punch reinforcers so I had to go freehand.

I'd like to think I've definitely improved with my technique. I used a non branded Black from the 99P shop as my base. I then painted on Barry M Gold foil. I used Barry M Mushroom for the spots, using a dotting tool. I finished with using a cocktail stick to go round the spots & a Barry M topcoat to finish. 

Six months ago, there was no way I would have even tried something like this, so yay me. I would have used different colours, but I wanted them similar so I could compare. 

I have so many ideas for what I want to do throughout the week. Too many, as I can't decide what I want to do first. I've discovered some new amazing Blogs, & they're all so talented. 

I really love the Blogging world!

Catch you Laters,

X