31 Day Challenge - Day 22 inspired by a song

The song I chose was Set Fire to the Rain by Adele. I kinda wish I went with my other song choice now, but maybe I'll save it for another day!  I ysed one coat of Essence Multi Dimension Must Have (I was curious about Essence polish so picked this up on Ebay and it's great! Will search out more) on all fingers except my ring and thumb. Then I used my silver holo polish, M & S Rainbow to paint on raindrops. On the ring finger and thumb I painted a base of Barry M Gold Foil before sponging Maybelline Orange Couture, a Beauty Uk red from a box set and Nails Inc Tate to make flames. I topped that with Nubar 2010 and then stamped with the Barry M Gold Foil (brilliant for stamping :) ) the feathery pattern I used for my peacock nails, because I thought they could pass for flames too ;)

Oooh oh oh ooh oh, your rain is on fire....oh wrong song...

Holo raindrops :D

Before I ruined it with the stamping lol

I can't wait to sho you my inspired by a movie nails :)

Hx

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31 Day Challenge - Day 21 Inspired by a colour

Earworm alert!

Since I had a few gold polishes that I hadn't tried yet (namely the Nails Inc Metallic) I decided to be inspired by gold for this challenge, and do a skittles mani of different gold polishes. On my little finger I used I coat of Barry M Gold Foil Effects (yes I caved and got it, not tried it for stamping yet but I may do tonight for the inspired by a song challenge so will keep you updated!) THe on my ring finger is 2 coats of Collection 2000 Hot Looks Parma Violet topped with 2 or 3 coats of ELF Golden Goddess. Middle Finger is Nails Inc Magnetic in Big Ben. Index is Parma Violets again with Beauty UK Disco Nights (gold shatter) and thumb is Barry M Gold Foil with 3 coats of W7 Gold Dazzle.

I really like this, it was easy to do and is quite eye catching. Although more often than not when people notice my nails they don't say anything - so not sure if that's a good thing!

Just wanted to say a few things about the Barry M gold foil. I wasn't sure on getting this as I've seen pics of it on other blogs where it looks streaky and uneven and just plain awful. Now I know my nails aren't the best, far from it in fact, but I found it easy to apply, not streaky or brushstrokey and it does look foil-y. This was one careful coat. Admittedly on my thumbs where I have a little bit of splitting it didn't look quite as perfect, but still pretty decent. So if like me you've been put off by bad swatches then don't let it deter you too much. And if you spend £6 on Barry M in Superdrug at the moment you get the new Lilac Foil Effects polish for free. I didn't spot the croc effects polish yet though...

What do you think of my Goldfingers? Another earworm? Oh, go on then...

Hx

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Day 20 - the one where Helly doesn't fail at watermarbling...

Whoop I didn't fail! I actually LOVE these nails and I'm actually gutted I have to take them off :( But now I know how to do it I can always do it again. I used 3 china glaze polishes, Peace on Earth, Jolly Holly and Ruby Pumps and I think it looks really festive. I might recreate this for Christmas day, although Christmas eve I'll be staying in a hotel room so it might have to be earlier. Sorry about the messy cuticles, I couldn't find my clean up brush anywhere, and I stupidly dipped the first two fingers without taping them up. I was just too excited! Haha.

Things I learned:

1. Use tape. Seriously.
2. Find clean up brush BEFORE you start
3. Don't accidentally drink the water you used...I'm not kidding...
4. Take better pictures

So, it's a mess but I love it! This was the last of the "patterns" section of the challenge, so tonight I start on the "inspired by" part with inspired by a colour. What to chose!

Hx

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31 Day Challenge Day 19 - Galaxies

I wasn't looking forward to today's challenge. I've seen galaxy nails on lots of blogs and it's never really tickled my pickle, and that's the way I feel about it on my nails. I loosely followed this tutorial. For the base I used 1 coat of Beauty Uk Black, and one coat of Accessorize Aztec (Orly Space Cadet dupe, so I thought it was fitting!) THen for the colours I used a pale green and blue from the Beauty Uk Urban Girl set, Rimmel I <3 Lasting Finish Purple Pulse and Lemon Drop, and a Beauty Uk white for the sponging. Then added some dots in white for stars and sponged Collection 2000 Sparkle Top Coat randomly on top. Seche to smooth it out. Including base and top coat that's 10 polishes! I don't think they look much like galaxies, but take a look:

The lesser spotted right hand...

What do you think? Galactical enough? It's watermarble day tomorrow, and you know what that means? FAIL TIME!

Hx

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The Versatile Blogger Award :)

Thank you NeeLai and ScarsLikeLace who both nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award!

So, now I have to pass the award onto 15 other bloggers, and tell you 7 facts about me (random numbers!) I'm sure I've done something similar so I'll try and think of new things!

1. I have been with my partner Andrew for almost 10 years. I only have one thing to say about this, 10 years is a long bloody time!

2. There are not many foods I don't like, but melon, avocados and fried eggs top the list.

3. I have been overweight pretty much my whole life, but I am finally doing something about it. Since joining Weight Watchers at the end of June I've lost 34 pounds, and I lost 7lbs before that so am down 41lbs in total. I still need to lose something like 57 lbs to get within the healthy BMI range for my height. I will do it! I also have a Weightloss Blog if you fancy following my journey! [/shameless plug]

4. Another 10 year aniversary - I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 10 years ago this December and havedone daily insulin injections since.

5. I've not been out with naked finger or toe nails since March - it's slightly scary to think about it now!

6. My polish stash has grown to between 150-200 polishes now :/ I will count them at some point over the weekend...maybe...

7. I have a slightly worrying addiction to QVC and the shopping channels. Although I've never bought anything, QVC has an amazing OPI Today's Special Value today...

So that's it! I nominate every body! Mwahahahahah!

Hx

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31 Day Challenge - Day soemthingorother - half moons

Ok, so I've lost count of the days now - 18? 19? I'll sort my head out in a bit and check...anywhoooo!

Here are my half moons. I've worn half moons once before and loved them then, but I think I love this one more. I stared with two coats of a very sheer french manicure polish, Primrose by Maybelline. Once that was dry (which took aaaaages) I used french tip guides and OPI Meep Meep Meep to creater what I think is a really elegant manicure.

The first picture shows Meep Meep Meep too light, and the last one is too dark. The middle two picutres are most colour accurate as it's really somewhere in between, and very prettyful.

Tomorrow is galaxy nails, or something...I will check first, promise ;)

Hx

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31 Day Challenge - Day 17 Glitter

Glittah! I have lots of glitter polishes, and I was going to use Wet N Wild Correction tape which I won in a giveaway until I spotted this little beauty. It's just a simple black cream (and a good one-coater for a cheapie polish) but it has a little pot of silver holo glitter in the lid, with a shaker. I just painted each nail, shook the glitter over the wet polish and then top coated it and tada! Glittah herpes!

Blurry holo!

Easy and effective mani that got lots of compliments and matched the top I was wearing today, win! Word to the wise - put newspaper down and don't use your favourite topcoat unless you don't mind getting the odd bit of loose glitter in it!

Half moons tomorrow.

Hx

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31 Day Challenge - Day 16 Tribal Print

Well, I don't know what kind of tribe this comes from, but it looks kinda tribal to me. I didn't want to do Aztec, but this to me looks more Egyptian :/ Oh well, I like it anyway! The colours I used were OPI Designer...De Better, Nails Inc Copacabana (Orange) and Essence Nail Art Striper in Ocean Breeze, orange and turquoise rhinestones and Seche. In these pics I hadn't put any topcoat over the rhinestones, but I did later to make sure they lasted until I took them off.

Tribal enough? Not sure!

Tomorrow (or maybe the next day...) GLITTAH!

Hx

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31 Day Challenge - Day 15, Delicate Print

So delicate, you can barely see it...fail? I started with two coats of OPI Warm and Fozzie from the Muppets holiday collection (I bought a mini set *bad Helly*, but they're called Muppettes, how could I resist?) It's a lovely bronze foil with silver microglitter, and actually is unique in my collection, so I can justify it... Anyway, then I stamped with a sort of skeleton-leaf image from my HB21 plate that I won :) and Miss Sporty Electric Beige. First off I couldn't get this to stamp. I tried using my scraper, an old gift card, two different polishes that are usually good stampers and even my special silver stamping polish even though I really wanted more of a gold colour, then I noticed that I hadn't taken the plastic off the plate. DUH. Idiota. Anyway, this is how it turned out. It is really subtle, but pretty nonetheless. Would have looked better with gold rather than my bronzey gold stamping polish, but it's still nice.

I struggled to get good pictures so here's a pic of the plate so you can see the pattern how it's meant to be.

The pattern is quite wide and slim, but it fitted my nubs just about. I only had to double stamp a tiny bit a couple of times.

And here's Warm and Fozzie by its gorgeous, sparkly self.

What do you think? Can you even see the pattern? Ha! I can, but no-one else noticed! Warm and Fozzie is pretty enough anyway :)

Tomorrow - tribal print. Been dreading this a little but I think I've worked out how I'm gonna do it ;)

Hx

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31 Day Challenge - Day 14, Flowers

Hi everyone

Since it's November and it was Rememberance day the weekend, I went for a super simple flower manicure and did poppies. I used Mavala The Elle grey as the base and did the poppies with a dotting tool and the red from the Beauty UK Wild Child Set. The black centres were done with the black from the Beauty UK Midnight Minx set, and it was all topped with Seche. They turned out a little more "blobby" than I expected, but that's ok. My 4 year old knew they were meant to be poppies so I hope everyone else can too!

Lest we forget.

Tomorrow is delicate print so I'm off to look through the stamping plates!

Hx

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31 Day Challenge - Day 13, Animal print

Day 13 of the challenge is Animal Print, but I've done leopard and zebra before, both freehand and with stamping. So I chose an awesome pattern from a Bundle Monster plate - snakeskin! I used MUA Shade 23 for the base - an army green. I usually really like MUA polish - for just £1 you can't beat it but I had issues with this one. The formula was great but the brush I had was scratchy and uneven. This meant that when I applied the second coat, no matter how dry the first coat was it scratched a big groove down the whole nail. Annoying! A coat of Seche sorted it thankfully, and then I was onto the stamping.

I used Miss Sporty New Black, a pretty shimmery grey (which I need a back-up of...) and a silver metallic stamping polish which I won from Sarah Louise at Spellbinding Nails' giveaway (are you sick of hearing about it yet?). What a difference a specific stamping polish makes! Honestly, this was the best polish I have ever used for stamping, and it's making me want to invest in some Konad special polishes, or at least black and white. This one is from Fab Ur Nails shop, I also got a metallic purple and blue and they have a huge range of colours at really great prices. They also have holo and magnetic polish, and stamping plates too so check them out. I used the Miss Sporty first, and then the silver on top. You can't see the grey behind the silver very much, but it did give it more texture and depth.

If I do this again I might use the grey on top of the silver instead. Or I might use gold. I just need to find me a good gold stamping polish...this could get expensive...

Flowers tomorrow - this didn't survive cleaning the bathroom this morning...

Hx

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31 Day Challenge day 12 - Stripes

When I won Sarah Louise's awesome giveaway, I couldn't wait to try everything these Essence stripers. I've never used specific striping polishes or Essence polish before and I can say, colour me impressed. Easiest. Nailart. Evah. I used two coats of a deep racing green by Miss Sporty (number 470, if anyone's interested). Another good polish from Miss Sporty, I've never been let down by these polishes. Took 2 coats and was a little thin, but dried nice and shiny and handled well. Then I used the purple, gold and teal stripers (I also got a pink) in alternate stripes and topped with Seche.

Loved this mani, what do you think?

Tomorrow - animal print. Rawr.

Hx

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31 Day Challenge day 11 - Polka Dots!

Evening!

I'm getting used to my nubs now, so have resisted the call of the fakies so far...we'll see if it lasts!

For my polka dot mani I decided to go a bit random. Whenever I've done polka dots before (here, here and here) I've done them equally or in straight lines. So for this manicure I used a base of Biscuit by Next Oh So Nails (free with a mag a few months back, but only something like £2.50 from Next stores) and dotted with Miss Sporty 322 (Dark Pink), Beauty UK Street Rose (dusty mid-pink) and the pale lilac from the Beauty UK Urban girl mini set. I was planning to add another smaller dot of Biscuit in the centre of each dot to turn them into rings, but I like how this turned out so I left it. I'll do rings another time!

I liked it :) It reminded me of the Tombliboos trousers from In The Night Garden. Yes I have kids and no I don't get out much...

Stripy nails tomorrow! In LOVE with them!

Hx

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Glossy Box Nail Art Contest

Quick begging post! I entered a nail art contest with my peacock nails, and the prize is to win the OPI Muppets collection :) I don't have a hope in hell's chance of winning, but I've gotta try, right?! Please please take a second to vote for me, all you have to do is 'like' my photo here.

Thank you loves!

Hx

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31 Day Challenge day 10 - gradient...and a sob story

Morning.

Today I have my gradient to show you, and I usually love doing gradients. But Saturday I suffered a tragedy and broke a nail right down. It was my left ring finger and while those nails generally grow pretty fast it was too far down and I chopped the rest off to match :( Can I just say I HATE thse nubbins. I know my nails aren't exactly talons but they look horrid and it depressed me all weekend. AND then I had what we shall refer to as a hair dye "incident" yesterday and ended up dying my hair day-glo-orange. This resulted in a 6am trip to tesco this morning, under cover of darkness and avec hat to restore it to brown. So this morning I am thanking the goddess Garnier and praying to the god of nail-growth...

Anyway, onto my gradient., gradient nails on nubbins are not very exciting. This was pretty, but it would have looked so much nicer if my nails were a little longer. I used a prettyful red from Beauty UK Midnight Minx set that I won from Sarah Louise's giveaway (thank you!) as the base. Just one coat and it was perfect. I heart Beauty UK. Then I sponged China Glaze Ruby Pumps 2/3 of the way down and did the tips in Barry M Red Glitter. I might do this again closer to Chrimbo, and do some xmas inspired stamping (with the new plates I also won!)

Sad little nubbins

So, now I have a dilemma. Attempt the patterns section of the challenge on stubby nails or pop some falsies on? I've not worn falsies for a long long time. They wouldn't be acrylics, just glue-on ones that would give me a bit of length to play with. There are positives and negatives to this option - I will get some length, and it will protect my nails underneath, but the glue also damages my natural nails and get in the way of real life a bit. I have everything I need - tips, glue, non-acetone remover etc, but do I take the plunge? Advice please!

What do you do when you get a bad break?

Hx

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31 day Challenge day 9 - Rainbow

Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain!

I used:

Violet - Singul Colors Amethyst
Indigo - Barry M Indigo
Blue - Barry M Cyan
Green - Barry M Spring Green
Yellow - Barry M Yellow
Orange - Nails Inc Candy Orange
Red - Barry M Bright Red
Collection 2000 Sparkle Top Coat, Seche Vite and a sponge!

Sorry the clean up is appalling! As you can imagine it was a leetle messy!

Hope you like my rainbow nails, I really do!

Hx

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31 Day Challenge day 8 - metallic

Metallic nail polish seems to be the big thing this season, with Barry M releasing it's foil effect polishes, the magnetic polishes being metallic and metallic duochromes from the Models Own Beetlejuice collection. I was quite surprised then, when I walked into my local Tesco pharmacy to see three limited editiong metallics from their make-up range Barbara Daly. And as luck would have it, they were on a three-for-two a few weeks ago. For today's mani I used two of these polishes, Amethyst and Starlight. Amethyst is a smokey metallic purple and Starlight a beautiful champagne gold foil. I used two coats of Starlight, a coat of Seche and let it dry completely, then used masking tape, pinking scissors and Amethyst to make the zig zag.

I really love these colours. I've had Amethyst on my toes for about 3 weeks and it's only just now showing any sign of wear. Well done Tesco and Barbara Daly for being so on trend!

Can't wait to show you my rainbow nails tomorrow!

Hx

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