NOTW: Accessorize Those Scales!

Hello my lovelies! How are you? :-)

I have something short and sweet for you today; another play around with my Barry M nail art pens! Let's take a look:

This is my dragon scales/chainmail nail art! I really just had an image in my head of this looking like an abstract pattern, but close up I guess it kinda looks like weird flowers, or like I let a child scribble on my nails! I did actually really like it though; from a distance (head to hand) it looked pretty cool, and the black over multichrome polish was a fun look I hadn't tried before! :-)

I promised you a short post, and I wasn't joking. It's already time to show you the beautiful base colour for this mani - Accessorize Bronze!

This gorgeous multichrome is an oldie but SUCH a goodie; just check out that shift! Yellow gold, bronze, copper and dusty pink-brown tones make this the perfect autumnal polish for those who want a subtle polish with a bit of punch. Oxymoronic? Perhaps. A problem? Absolutely not. This polish has so many different facets that it was really difficult to photograph, but the photo up there is a good attempt at revealing its personality. In some lights it looks a deep, dusky pink-brown and in others you get the full shift. This polish is a real stunner and I'm never disappointed when I wear it. The formula and brush are also fantastic.

I actually adore multichromes, but own very few of them. I think I can count three at the most in my collection. That said, I have already taken steps to rectify this; I pre-ordered the entire ILVP Ultra Chrome collection :D I've never pre-ordered anything before, but I'm really glad I did. Not only have I added to my multichrome stash, I also didn't have to be involved in the mad run on the store on the official release date! I wish more of my favourite brands would do this. Needless to say, I'll be swatching those AS SOON AS THEY ARRIVE. I'll then possibly not post for several weeks while I just stare at my fingers in awe ;-)


What are your favourite duochromes and multichromes? Do you have any swatches you'd like to share? Share a link in the comments so we can all check them out!

'Til next time, curlettes :-)

- Skye x

NOTW: Classy polkadots

Hello lovelies! How are you doing today? 

Today I have something a bit new for you - a full polkadot mani, achieved using my brand new Barry M Nail Art Pens (totally jumped on the bandwagon here)!!! First off, lemme show you the goods:

Spotty champagne...

... or polka-rose gold?

I love intricate nail art but have always failed at it because I don't have very steady hands. In fact, I own two Models Own nail art pens, but I've always found them very hard to use and they've ended up languishing in my polish drawer. Now, armed with my new Barry M wares, I can take over the freehand universe *evil cackle*! 

I was absolutely chuffed to bits that I did the polkadots all by myself, and basically spent the week staring at my hands in awe and amazement haha. They are fun but they also look super classy, and I could totally see me wearing this mani again at a black-tie event (should such an event ever occur in my life!) :-) :-) 

Just for fun I also have a photo of my right hand :P Check it:

Blurry leftiness :D

This hand rarely makes it onto my blog, mainly because I struggle taking photos with my left hand, but I thought that it would amuse you to see how un-dottish my RH dots look - check out my thumb and pointer in particular :D

Finally, as always, let me show you the base colour that I used for this mani - one of my favourite polishes, and one you may have already seen in this post here. Behold Kiko 221 (Light Satin Beige):

Not as golden as I thought...

Back in December I described this polish as "a sheer champagne glass fleck/shimmer polish" which took four coats to reach opacity. However, my impression of it has changed significantly now that I've seen it in the summer sunshine. More than champagne, this polish is rose gold, with a warm rosey shimmer running through it in the right (sun)light. These are also two-coater swatches, mainly because I felt lazy about doing four... but there's virtually no VNL, so I'm not sure what went wrong in December. Finally, I'm not even sure of the finish anymore! Is it glass fleck? Foil? I think it's foil, now... All I know is that it most definitely is NOT shimmer! So apparently my descriptive skills suck when it comes to polish :D but at least you've got multiple swatches of the polish to look at now :-)

One more thing before I go: in the last post featuring this polish, I said that it had a really subtle silver/purple/green shimmer that I couldn't capture on film on the nail. Turns out all I needed was some summer sunshine :-)

Microglitters flashing... click here for a larger photo!

Pretty, huh? :-)


Sooooooo what do you think of my super-classy polkadots?! I adore dots and just loved this mani. Definitely earmarked for recreation at some stage!

I hope you enjoyed this post and look forward to seeing you back here soon!

'Til next time, curlettes :-)

- Skye x

NOTW: A little sunshine in your life

Hello lovelies! How are you today? Welcome to the blog ^^

Yet again, today, I have quite a short post for you, because I've been swamped with work... so let's get to it! First off, I'd like to show you the final mani, which is a nice, simple one; I revisited accent nails! Lookie lookie:

Squeeeeeeeeeeeee amazingness (oops poor jumper)!!!

Shiny, shiny holo shiny glitter goodness!

As you can see, I was in a sunny kind of mood when I did this mani  (what a contrast with last week's mani weather!)! I felt like doing something bold and bright, and so I dug out some (Rimmel) Sunshine for my nails :-) The accent nails are one coat of KBShimmer We Three Blings, which is one of my favourite topcoats of ALL TIME *cue Kanye impersonation* - it really needs no introduction :-)

Finally, let me show you some swatches of the base colour, one of my oldest ever untrieds, Rimmel Sunshine:

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine...

... you make me haaaaaaaappy, when skies are grey!

This polish had been sat in my drawer for a loooooong time before I finally used it! You have seen it used in art once or twice before (here and here), but this is the first time I've used it for a full mani. I have to say, despite my initial misgivings about yellow nails (smokers' fingers?), I actually loved this. It's bright and fun, and really does look like bottled sunshine, complete with a crazy subtle-shimmer that I couldn't capture in any photos!

However, the application was a PITA; this polish is what you'd classify as a jelly, and I tend to avoid buying these simply because they are hard work to apply smoothly (unless you're a super-duper professional manicurist!) and take a gazillion coats to build to opacity (yes, three is a gazillion). All this being said, the painful application was totally worth it in the end! I've been told that Barry M Lemon Ice Cream is a pretty good dupe for Rimmel Sunshine, but I can't confirm or deny this since I don't own it. Apparently it's also a creme, so I'm tempted to find it sometime and give it a whirl - I definitely see yellow nails in my future!


What do you think of my sunshine mani? Do you like wearing yellows or do you also avoid them like I used to? Holla back!

'Til next time, curlettes! :-)

- Skye x

NOTW: Funky yet delicate stamping

Hello my lovelies :-)

WOW and welcome to all my new followers!!!! I was lucky enough to serendipitously be given not one but TWO shout-outs over FB this past week, meaning that I've gained a whole ton of new readers. Welcome, welcome, welcome :-) :-)

Warning: picture-heavy nail-p*rn post!

Today I'd like to show you a mani I'm really proud of - my second ever successful stamping mani! Yet again, a big shout out to Tracy Ball-Eriksson for sending me a stamper that works :-)

First off, let's see the mani:

In the shade :-)

Squeeeeeeeeeeee awesome stamping
with TURQUOISE and PURPLE!

This mani contains all my favourite colours, so I just couldn't stop staring! Turquoise AND purple together?! Heaven!


Here are the polishes I used:

• Rimmel How Do You Lilac It (base)
• Maybelline Turquoise Lagoon (gradient)
• Barry M Gold Foil Effect (stamping)

I love a good sponging(!) and so I just had to show you the half-way point in this mani: my awesome turquoise to lilac gradient! Check it out:

Check out the gradient in the sunlight!

Don't mind the random brown spot - my sponge
had some purple left on it!

Pretty nifty, huh? :-) Finally, I'd like to share a couple swatches of the base colour with you (Lively Lilac):

Artificial light

Natural light (shade)

This is one of those Rimmel polishes that apply like a dream, just like Grey Matter. Having ascertained that my camera is a bit off when it comes to colours, I can tell you that this is a warm-toned pastel lilac creme that leans either purple or pink depending on the light (as I think you can see). This versatility is actually really fun because the tone of the purple changes throughout the day.

Pretty sunshine bonus pic :-D

Here you can really see the stamped image ^^

So what do you think of this, my second ever successful stamping attempt!? I'm really proud of this mani - I couldn't stop staring at my hands when I wore it and I was really sad to remove it :-)


What other funky colour combinations would you like to see combined with stamping? I have an entire set of plates to play with now - and I wanna use them!

'Til next time, curlettes :-)

Keep smiling!

- Skye x

NOTW: Funky frog tape mani

Hello guys and girls! I have to say, I'm amazed by the number of followers I picked up lately! Welcome and thank you :-) I hope you enjoy my meagre bloggy offerings :-)

As some of you may know, I'm recovering from what has been a really painful break up, and like everyone who goes through this, I have good days and bad days. This week I had quite a few bad days... and I therefore resorted to some retail therapy to boost my spirits. Fortunately, I'm easily pleased(!) and so when I walked into Superdrug I immediately knew what I was looking for: GOSH Galaxy. Let's have a look at a swatch (this is two coats without a top coat):

Glossy ^^

My photo truly doesn't do this polish justice, and I'm really sorry I couldn't get anything good enough. Blame the awful weather we're having, blame my phone camera, blame my less-than-perfect swatch pose, but I just couldn't capture the amazingness! Take a look at these pictures instead (brace yourselves!): http://nail-loopy.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/gosh-galaxy.html and http://www.britnails.co.uk/2012/08/gosh-galaxy-swatches-and-review.html. 

I'll just let you take those in... YES, that's right! This is a MULTICHROME!!! Perhaps I played up those pics too much (it's hard to photograph), but it is most certainly there! This polish has a brown/brass/black base and is filled with tiny particles that shift through gold, brass, black, green, blue (the force is strong with this one) and pink. I've seen all of these colours on my nails albeit for a fraction of a second. The polish is quite sheer and there's still a slight VNL here, but I'd say two coats is enough. Three would definitely be plenty. If you like the look of this polish, I would urge you to go hunting NOW - it is limited edition and was released in the Winter collection, so I was lucky to still find it!

As I haven't shown you anything interesting for some time, I decided to try some tape art on top (sorry for the photo quality - GOSH Galaxy is so sparkly with a topcoat that it didn't photograph very well):

Pretty *.* So proud of my ring finger!

Check out the perfection that is my thumb!
Also: turn your head and there are frogs' eyes on my nails!

As you can see, this was almost a very successful attempt! I recently got some craft scissors from Hobbycraft (Michaels in the US?) which are based on animals. I have crocodile zigzags, snakey waves and froggy eyes. For this art I used the last one. The scissors don't cut perfectly, so if you look close enough you'll see each curve is different, but overall I'm very pleased. The best fingers are my ring finger, thumb and pinkie - I rushed on the others and so didn't get the tape dead centre. To do the dots, I used an old orange wood cuticle stick that I use for clean up :-) The black I used was Collection 2000 Ebony #87.

What do you think? I almost didn't add the black dots but I think they really pull the art together :-)

EDIT: Omigosh! You won't believe this. Look at this blog post here from Tina. This is my blog twin! We independently came up with stripe manis this week that look almost identical - I did a double take when she posted her mani in the FB group Crumpet's Nail Tarts! I think the creepiest part is that I did the mani on a whim - I had no idea that the group were doing tape manis that day. Tina and I started blogging around the same time and we'll now be watching each other to see if we manage this weird nail telepathy again anytime soon! :-P

Now I have the tools for it I've decided to try experimenting more with tape, because it's something I can do in relatively little time. I also have a few stamped designs in my head that I'd like to try make happen! We'll see how that goes :-P

'Til next time, curlettes (wonder if that will stick...) :-D

- Skye x

Merry Christmas 2012!

Hello my lovelies! Welcome to my blog :-)

This is going to be a short post because our family is settling in for Christmas this evening (having now recovered from our 8th shock survival of the end of the world since 2000!!!). 

I would just like to show you what will be on my nails this Christmas Day:

Left hand (those aren't bad cuticles; it's bad
glue clean-up - sorry!)

Right hand :-)

This is three-four coats of KBShimmer's Wrapper's Delight with one coat of top coat (though it needs a couple more coats for smoothness), and as you can see, the glitter payoff was incredible. I love that this polish contains an equal amount of each colour of glitter - although it looks more red/gold in some lights, my nails just look like pure tinsel!

What's more, this is a VERY special polish indeed; not only is it GORGEOUS, it is also a charity polish from which some the profits went towards buying toys for Toys for Tots earlier this December. I think this was a really lovely gesture from Christie and I'm proud to wear my polish knowing that my money gave a child a toy this Christmas. I hope that she'll do the same again next year :-)

I'm not going to be around for the holidays now, so I'd like to wish all of you a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Happy Kwanzaa and Happy Holidays, as well as a happy and healthy New Year 2013! Most of all, I wish you peace and contentment - because that's all we can really hope for in life :-)

As this is getting a little hippy right now, I'll close with a picture of our Christmas tree this year:

Beautiful tree, crappy picture!

Our family have a tradition of decorating the tree with Disney ornaments. We don't have them all (because my ma stopped getting new ones when we got big), but we have A LOT of Disney on this tree. If you blow the pic up big you'll spot a lot of old favs (no new Disney rubbish like Lilo and Stitch here!). 

Merry Christmas and I'll see you around New Year :-)

Stay happy!

- Skye x

Keeping it Simple: Festive Accent Nails

Hello lovelies! Welcome back to my blog. 

Today I have a very short post for you :-) This is Kiko 221 (Light Satin Beige) with a KBShimmer No Whine Left accent nail:

Keeping it simple!

I'm a bit sad because the picture doesn't capture the beauty of either polish, really; I'm sure that this mani would have looked more impressive in the sunshine, but all we have right now is rain *le sigh*. 

For the record, the Kiko polish is a sheer champagne glass fleck/shimmer polish, and this is about four coats. The polish is actually a favourite of mine, though it suits my summer fingers better. In the bottle it looks quite silvery, and even has subtle purple and green specks in it (you'll have to take my word for it!), but in artificial light it looks quite golden. 

No Whine Left is shown here in about three coats plus several layers of shiny top coat. I did think about putting KBShimmer We Three Blings over the Kiko to make this mani more Xmassy, but I was too frightened of the removal to attempt it and ruin my nails just before Xmas.

Speaking of removal...

Victory!

...I mastered the glue base coat! 

This time, the glue dried in about 5-10 mins and then I could get on with my life (yessssss!). I think the trick was not to apply lots of thick heavy coats, but to apply the one thick-ish coat, wait a few minutes for the water in the pva to evaporate, and then repaint only those areas around the edges of the nail that already had a super-thin layer of dried glue. I also didn't use my base coat over the glue like last time. 

The wear time was probably about 3 days (probably because I like hot showers) and the glitter popped right off my nail in one big sheet - I didn't even need my orange stick! My nails actually look really moisturised too. This is definitely a keeper :D I love that I'll now be able to use a main mani colour and then change my accent nail according to my mood ^^ 

Have you tried the glue method yet? And what do you think about these champagne shades? Yea or nay?

'Til next time and stay happy :-)

- Skye x

My first colour block mani

Hello lovelies - and welcome to my new followers! I hope you enjoy my blog :-)

Firstly, I'd like to draw your attention to the layout of my blog - some of you may have noticed that it has now changed! I now have a 'Pages' bar underneath the blog title, and the bar contains a *mystery* page which I'm planning to update over the coming weeks. Ohhh, the excitement! ;-)

Onto the mani :-)

Today, I'd like to show you possibly the biggest fail of a mani I've ever done, logistically. This was my first attempt at colour blocking, and also my debut with a PVA glue base coat, and it was plagued with disaster from the word go.

The polishes used were:

• Rimmel At Ease (brown)
• Collection 2000 Buried Treasure #25 (gold base)
• Kiko 238 (red base)
• KBShimmer We Three Blings (gold topper)
• KBShimmer Berry Christmas (red topper)
• Model's Own black nail art pen (striper)

First, here's some pics (sorry for the quality - I took them very late at night with my phone and so they're a bit blurry):

 

Please ignore my fail-striping...

A different angle so you can see the holo glitter...

The entire mani was a logistic fail and I'm almost embarrassed to tell you that this was my good hand... if you want to know why this mani caused me so much grief, just read my rant in italics below!

<rant> Firstly, after spending all weekend clearing out old polish bottles to fill with PVA, I discovered that PVA doesn't like to be decanted into tiny polish bottles, so I gave up once I half-filled one. Such a waste of time! I then found that it took well over half an hour for the PVA to dry on my nails before  I could begin colour blocking (which also took forever, of course). I did O.K. with my freehand diagonals (freehand because tape would lift the PVA - grrr why didn't I think of that BEFORE starting) but then got my black striper out and found that despite usually being able to make elegant, thin lines, I only managed thick ugly ones, which sorta ruined what I'd achieved so far. 

Since it took so long just to get the base layers down, I ended up staying up stupidly late (pushing 4/5am my time, only to discover that I'd truly planned everything wrong; I wore some of my new skinny jeans that day - the ones with the stiff top button - and, naturally, I totally ruined two nails just trying to get the things off. I tried saving the mani with some extra top coat but when I woke up in the morning I'd somehow ruined another two nails in my sleep and ended up removing the mani almost immediately - meaning it lasted a whole nine(!) hours altogether, eight of which I spent sleeping! 

Finally, I found that despite trying to make sure my glue base was fairly thick, I damaged some of my nails (mostly around the edges) when peeling off the glue, which is sorta the reason I don't like the foil method. Since I stayed up so late trying to do something arty and fun, I felt very frustrated and a little disappointed about all of this. I'm also annoyed that I have ten glitter polishes in my collection that I was hoping to be able to wear whenever I want, but it now seems I still can't do this without damaging my nails in some way. GRRR. </end rant>

Now, given that this post is a ball of negativity right now, and in the spirit of positive thinking, what silver lining was there to all of this? I got to try out two of my Xmas KBShimmers (Berry Christmas and We Three Blings), which were both absolutely gorgeous (I will definitely brave swatching them alone sometime), and I discovered that Berry Christmas is a perfect match for a new and adventurous lipstick I bought recently! The lipstick in question was Clinique's Mighty Maraschino Chubby Stick and is a little out of my comfort zone, but I've been trying to revamp my image lately and so I decided to take a risk. I think I actually really like it (even though my ma hates it...). I think I'll wear it at Christmas with my KBShimmer Wrappers Delight. What y'all think of the lipstick?

(NB: I'm really tired, so please forgive me the picture quality!)

Nice pic

Silly pic (nice pics are hard...)

You know, from a distance the mani actually looked OK - too bad I didn't have time for it to grow on me :-( Better luck next time, I guess!

Thanks for stopping by and hopefully I can show you something better next time!

- Skye x

Autumnal sponging

Hello to my nine new followers and whomever else got sucked in to read this post!


Today I have a lovely autumnal sponge mani to show you. The colours I chose evoke autumn leaves, bonfires and cosy nights in, and this is the reason I chose this combo... at least it would have been, except that the real reason is that I chickened out of doing a tribal mani. I just bought some nail art pens and was excited to try them out, but I soon realised I needed a lot more practice for a good one. Here is just one half-attempted nail to illustrate my point:

Hmmm... yes. Having realised that I was way out of my comfort zone, I caved and sponged instead (I've been meaning to do a sponge mani for ages anyway). Watch this space for a real tribal mani one day!

So, onto today's nails! The nice thing about sponge manis is that you don't require any nail art skills at all :-)

For the sponging I used Kiko 238 (red creme), Rimmel Lasting Finish 'Pop' (orange creme) and Rimmel Lasting Finish 'Sunshine' (yellow creme), as well as a pretty Accessorize duochrome 'Bronze' which has a red/pink/bronze/copper/gold shimmer. Here's a pic that has better angles (claw of doom) for you to see the Accessorize polish. It's actually well worth enlarging these pics because my photos don't really do the mani justice:

The undies was one of my FAVOURITE polishes EVER: Kiko 374. I don't have a good swatch of this but you can see one using the link below which really captures the beautiful copper shimmer in this coffee-coloured lacquer:

http://lacktastisch.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/dsc03658rc.jpg?w=640&h=468

All in all, I was a bit disappointed that the colours (the yellow) didn't *pop* but it's still a really pretty mani and one I'd definitely do again. I'd like to mix it up with different colours in the future, too. Hope you like it :-)

- Skye x