31 Day Blog Challenge: Week 17 - Glitter

Hurray for glitter! Everything looks so much prettier with a sprinkling of shiny =3 My nails are no exception!

This is two coats of Star Gazer 118 (white) topped off with Deborah Lippmann's Stairway to Heaven.

I've been meaning to try this glitter for ages and so this post was the perfect opportunity! It's soooo pretty!  In the bottle it looks like there are two colours; orange and green but when you layer it over white the glitter looks totally different. It brings out pastel hues, yellows, blues and pinks. I love it. It's one of those semi-transparent glittery types that just glows. I love the squares mixed with the hexes! It's also a total pain to capture in a photograph >.<

I bought this in a sale on Beauty Bay a couple of months ago because I'd been eyeing it up for ages and couldn't get it out of my head lol. I paid £12.24 which was a total STEAL considering the RRP is £16. I wish I'd bought more colours! I think it's worth the price tag though; the glitter applies smoothly and evenly with no placement required, the base is super dense so the glitter is well suspended and doesn't sink to the bottom of the bottle. Also this polish is really versatile because different base colours will bring out different colours in the glitter. You'll get a lot of different looks with this one! And of course, no one does glitter like Deborah Lippmann. Yes they're pricey, but they're worth it. You need at least one in your stash.

Gemx's nails are super glittery this week!

"Filthy Gorgeous in Twilight and topped with two coats of Technic Mermaid, a lovely blue and green hex glitter. Thanks to the lovely Leisha who got me it for Christmas! I really love it, such a pretty glitter especially over black! :)"

I love this polish! I wore it in exactly the same way for a couple of Christmas parties and had tons of compliments. It's a lot more holo than it looks in photos and it's gooorgeous! So I bought more to give to my friends as presents =) I'm so glad Gem likes it but I knew she would because it really is beautiful. Holo greeny blue <3

I hope you all have a lovely New Years

-Lei

EDIT: I added Gem's picture and comment =)

31 Day Nail Challenge: Week 16 - Tribal Print

Sorry for the delay of this weeks post, I've been so busy I haven't stopped! I hope you'll let me off what with it being Christmas and all!

I can't say I was looking forward to the Tribal Print challenge. I don't think I have once looked at a tribal design and decided to recreate it on my nails. Still, here we are. For this challenge I decided to look at Aboriginal art. I remember doing a project on it at school and after a look on google images I refamiliarised myself with the style. The art is comprised of hundreds of tiny dots that make up a larger picture, sometimes of an animal or creature and sometimes as symbols and swirls. This type of art is found on rocks and cave walls mostly in western Australia and often told stories.

 

 For my recreation I used a base of Filthy Gorgeous's red, which was one coat. Red in Aboriginal art symbolises the sand of the desert. I used my black Rio nail art pen to draw the designs and used my white Rio nail art pen to dot over the top. My favourite is the turtle.

This picture shows what some of the symbols mean. (Source: Aboriginal Art Online)

Gemx did some tribal nails too! Here they are:

She says:

"Finally I have painted my nails for the first time in 3 weeks! My apologises for missing a few weeks. I had to go and see my family and there is no internet or mobile connection there. I'm surprised I didn't have withdrawal! So this week was tribal nail art. I've never had a go at this before, it looked too complex and in need of a steady hand for me, but I gave it a go. I used Sinful Colors Tapping Nails which is a gorgeous orange with gold shimmer (given to me by the lovely Leisha, thank you! :D) and a swipe of Mac Soiree which is my favourite rose gold and finally my trusty Topshop black liner pen for the doodling."

Overall this nail art didn't take very long and was fun to do but I don't think I will be doing it again, it was nice to do for the challenge though and it has reawakend my interest in ancient art forms. I might use the dotting technique for something else =)

I hope you enjoyed this weeks nails! Not long until Monday and I promise my next post will be on time! Glitter is next! Woo!

-Lei

The Versatile Blogger Award

Heather from The Glam-bulance has very kindly awarded me with the Versatile Blogger Award! YAY! I love these little things haha they make me feel happy inside =) ty Heather!

Here are the rules for the award:

Thank the Blogger which awarded you

Share 7 random facts about yourself

Nominate 7 fellow bloggers

Let the nominated bloggers know that they have been awarded

Add the Versatile Blogger badge to your blog

Without further ado then! I made sure these facts were different to the previous ones I posted haha!

*I am left handed

*I over-think everything. I mean EVERYTHING.

*I'm too scared to get a tattoo but if I did get one then it would be of two swimming otters

*I have a weakness for shiny things

*I don't like fresh tomatoes

*I play the ukulele

*I don't listen to music very often but I always have a tune in my head

I nominate:

Alli - Little Supernova

Evelyn - We Were Raised By Wolves

Lousie - MakeUp Etc

Karen - Frazzle and Aniploish

Sophie - Sophie Rose Hearts

Carol - Lacquerised

Natasha - Clouds and Cuticle Oil

Thanks again Heather!

-Lei

31 Day Nail Challenge: Week 15 - Delicate Print

Just me again this week as Gemx is having a pretty busy time at the moment! Understandable with Christmas approaching so quickly; I can't believe how fast time is flying.

As it is mid December now and I'm starting to feel a bit festive and cards are arriving from my friends etc, I decided to do some wintry nail art. The theme is delicate and you can't get much more delicate than snow flakes. I love snowflakes. They're so stunning and each one is unique but they all have 6 stems. They are a marvel of nature. Here are some snowflake pictures!

Source 

Source 

For my nails this week I used Beth's Blue by Models Own which is a gorgeous cornflower blue <3 I used 2 coats for an even finish (some nails would have been fine with 1 but others had a few patches so I went over them all). For the snowflakes I used my white Rio nail art pen and once it had dried I added a coat of Nubar White Polka Dot over the entire nail. I love how pretty this is, it certainly makes me feel a lot more Christmassy! Also, I need to use White Polka Dot more! 

That's it for this weeks challenge, please pop over to Alli's blog though to check out her nails!

-Lei

31 Day Nail Challenge: Week 14 - Flowers

I enjoyed this weeks challenge! There are so many variations you can do for flowery nails, so many flowers and colours to pick from. My nails are based off a tea set that I am totally in love with from Whittard of Chelsea (pretty much my favourite shop ever).

 I've been eyeing up this gorgeous floral tea set for a long time.. maybe one day I'll own it but not any time soon I don't think as I don't have the funds for anything like this.. also I don't drink tea. LOL

My peculiarities aside, this manicure took me a full play through of Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto album to produce, so approximately 45 minutes. Mind you that was after I had already done one coat of white... so we'll call it an hour.

Sorry about my hands looking dry, I've been a bit hard on them lately and I smothered them in hand cream after these pictures were taken.. I tried to take more but then they looked so shiny haha oh well.

For the base colour I used two coats Star Gazer 118 which is an opaque white. For the flowers I dotted some Natural Collection (Boots own brand) in Pink Manicure where I wanted the roses to be, then I used a small paint brush to paint the roses in Essie (urgh) Splash of Grenadine and finally China Glaze Traffic Jam. The leaves were painted using Models Own Jade Stone.

I wish I had more pinks, I think I would like some warmed toned pinks as mine all seem to be blue based. Also I think the leaves are a bit cool toned as well. But never mind! I love this design and I'm so pleased with the way it's come out. I'll definitely be doing this again. <3

There aren't any nails from Gemx this week unfortunately but she'll be back next week for more!

That's it for now, I hope you've enjoyed the nail art challenge this week! Make sure you pop over to see Alli's super cute flower nails!

-Lei

31 Day Nail Challenge: Week 13 - Animal Print

I have a confession to make... I don't like animal print. I just don't like it. I love animals, but not animal print. I guess it's because to me it makes me think of animal skins.. as in.. dead animals. Actually it really makes me sad.

I went for leopard print because I love leopards and I thought if I used bright colours so it didn't look too much like a leopard skin then I wouldn't feel so bad about it.. but I dunno. I don't hate it, but I don't like it much either. I makes me think of poachers =(

I like the colour combination, it's nice =) I used Models Own Champagne for the background, No7 Stand Back for the blue dots and China Glaze Traffic Jam for the pink dots. The black was done with my Rio nail art pen. Sorry about the colouration of the photos, my lamp makes everything yellow and there is no daylight left.

Here are some sleepy leopards to make everything better!

There. That's more like it. Here are Gemx's nails =)

"I haven't had a lot of time this week so I've had to go for a really basic look. I have also been taking part in an experiment that requires me to have my hands scanned and I've not been allowed to wear nail polish for this! Very irritating! :/ This is just a base coat (Sally Hansen Hard As Nails) and my Topshop black pen liner. I prefer using an eyeliner to nail art pens and brushes for something like this. I can't seem to manage one of those thin nail art brushes without making a mess with it :) I will try harder next week when my experiments are all done! :)"

Gem's nails look in such good condition! I like the mix of stripes and spots.. and these look kinda polka dotty, not so much fur trade.. which is a good thing. I like putting designs over French manis and these look great on the bare nail. The design is nice.. it still makes me think of the poor animals though. I just don't deal with animal print very well. My brother said that I should have done paw prints so now I'm kicking myself that I didn't think of that myself. D'oh. Never mind.

I'm going to head over and look at Alli's animal print nails if you would care to join me =)

-Lei.