GOT Polish? Silver accent!

Hi!

This is actually last week's Golden Oldie offering, I'm a bad bad blogger! But hopefully I'll get this week's up a little later so you get two for your money! Last weeks theme was silver accent, and I went for a mini ombre with a dotty silver accent, inspired by Of Life and Lacquer (go follow her!). The pinks were OPI Pink Friday and Elephantastic Pink, and Models Own Raspberry Crush, and the dots were done over Barry M Silver Foil.

Now, fingers crossed I get this weeks Golden Oldie up in time...

Hx

An InLinkz Link-up

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Merry Owlmas!

Hello!

If you've been a reader for a while, you will know I have a thing for birds and feathers, especially owls and peacocks. So when the mood struck for matte flakies and silver stamping I rolled with it and came up with some festive owls! Sticking with the bird theme I used Orly Fowl Play as my base, then amped up the flakie level with a coat of Finger Paints Motley. I stamped the cute owl from Pueen 40 in Barry M Silver Foil and once it was dry (with the aid of Poshe - does anyone find flakies take forever and a day to dry?) I mattefied the whole thing. The accent finger was Maybelline Foil Flash (from the Colour Show Brocades collection). As well as taking ages to dry, I find flakies have a tendency to shrink - there's a teeny bit of shrinkage here unfortunately. Still loved it though. I know it's not strictly a Christmas image, but I do think the colour combo looked quite festive.

Pic spam!

Twit twoo!

Hx

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33 Day Challenge Day 1 - Dots!

Well here we are, day 1 of the 33 day challenge! What am I getting myself in for...?

Day 1 calls for dots, so I recreated this design, but in more autumnal colours. I used 2True Crystal shade 9 as the base and then layered up my dots in China Glaze Bend Over Backwards, Models Own Nude Beige and Barry M Indigo.

Such an effective design, but so simple and virtually impossible to mess up! Perfect when you're a plonker like me!

Check out the rest of the lovelies taking part!

Hx

PS Don't forget my giveaway!

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Purple Pointers and an untried mountain...

Evening all :)

Today I have a simple manicure to show you, and it comes as a result of being completely overwhelmed! I'm in the process of tidying up all my nail supplies - nail art bits and bobs, stamping plates, and polishes. So, I decided it would be a good idea to gather up all my untried polishes from where they were scattered about the house and put them all in one place. Yeah. Stupid idea. I remember when ALL of my polishes and associated diatribe fitted in this drawer (ok, so it's a distant memory but still.) There are so many beautiful polishes in this drawer, hard to find indies, much loved presents from friends, and polishes I lusted after for ages. And it doesn't include the untried OPI minis I have in sets that I've collected. The shame!

Anyway, I pulled out this drawer last night, thinking I'd find something I NEEDED to wear immediately. You'd think that would be the case, but no. Nothing grabbed me by the collar and shook any sense into me whatsoever. I must be broken. I eventually came up with this combination, that actually went together perfectly. Phew! This is Vivid Lacquer Theoretical Blogger (I sometimes feel that way...) with an accent nail of Models Own Amethyst from their brand new Velvet Goth collection (can't stop stroking the lids!) Theoretical Blogger took 3 coats and Amethyst took 2, although you might get away with one if you were careful. Just a word about this collection; Models Own are marketing them as textured polishes but to my mind they're not. They're matte glitters and to me they need topcoat to bring out the sparkle in the polish. A little disappointing, but still prettyful.

They go together quite nicely, I think. Purple is my favourite colour - if you follow me on Instagram you'll see something else that I've coloured purple, and there might be a post about it next week...

Anything in my untried stash catch your eye?

Hx

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It all started with a Big Bang!

Hi loves!

I'm a big Big Bang Theory fan, so when Dollish Polish release a BBT themed collection I oohed and ahed over them, my favourite being Penny...Penny...Penny... I'm just a sucker for a milky base! I was lucky enough to grab one in a blog sale and I was not disappointed. Penny...Penny...Penny... is a pale, milky warm nude base with copper shimmer and copper square and hex glitters. The formula was awesome, no fishing for glitters, no streaks or dragging - just two coats of amazeballs. I paired it here with Sally Hansen Shiny Penny and loved it so hard I didn't want to take it off.

Now I'm having a bad day today, so I'm going to sit in the corner and sing "Soft Kitty" to myself, and I'll leave you with this cuteness from my then 2 year old.

Hx

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Lychee and Lace

Hi! What a good blogger I've been this week! Makes a change...

Anyway, good ole Barry M has been a busy bee bringing us lots of lovely goodies for summer, and along with the nail art pens the other day I also picked up one of the new gelly shades, Lychee. It's a lovely, creamy nude that's perfect for my skintone - I sometimes find nudes make me look either dead or lobster but this is just warm enough without bringing out the red in my skin. Two coats of creamy perfection. But of course I couldn't leave it plain and added some simple lace using the nail art pen, and black rhinestones. Simples.

I'm off for a bath after a hard days shopping, and then I'm going to work on tomorrow's adventures in stamping mani, so see you then!

Hx

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Welcome to HoloWeek!

Yes, that's right, it's holo week here at The Nail Newbie! I'm going to post every day with various holo polishes and designs, and hopefully it will get me out of my funk...that's the plan anyway!

We're starting the week with a fairly simple design using two of my favourite holo polishes. I started with 2 coats of charcoal holo Color Club Revvvolution, and then freehanded a tribal accent nail on ring finger and thumb using the new GOSH Holo Hero and my new nail art brushes. The dots were added with a dotting tool, but if I'd had big enough loose glitter I might have used those instead.

I need more practice with the brushes, but I liked using them. Compared to my old nail art brushes they're 100 times better! And thank goodness for a sunny day :)

Coming up this week - stamping with and on holos, a GOSH Holographic Hero wear test and tomorrow, Adventures in Stamping goes holo! Wish me luck!

Hx

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Teal Tuesday - Teal for Ovarian Cancer Awareness

Hello!

Did you know this Friday is National Wear Teal day, in support of Ovarian Cancer Awareness? Well now you do! There are a group of bloggers who do a teal mani every Tuesday, which I've watched with interest but never could commit to, so when I saw Gnarly Gnails post about it on Facebook I wanted to join in for this special Teal Tuesday. We are teaming up with Teal Toes in support of Ovarian Cancer Awareness to coincide with National Wear Teal Day. Now don't worry, I'm not gonna subject you to my feet. Summer has not been kind to my tootsies and I have horrendous tan lines. Seriously, I could go out barefoot and people would still think I was wearing flip flops. But I did brave some teal on my fingers :)

I used 2 coats of China Glaze Exotic Encounters, a slighly dusty dark teal, over two coats of basecoat (these sort of colours hate me and stain me blue for weeks). On the accent nail I used 2 coats of Nubar Gem (pretty taupe holo sparkles). Then over the teal nails, I tried the cling film/saran wrap technique. But what is this crazyness? I hear you cry. Well, basically, you wait until the base colour is completely dry, paint a layer of a contrasting colour over the top (I used a Miss Sporty shimmerly gold) and then immediately pat it off using a scrunched up bit o' cling film and you are left with a pretty, marbled effect.

I didn't realise how awful my cuticles were until I was editing the pictures. I took them on the go (at a farm with my kids actually) and didn't have my usual cuticle pen or any lemony flutter with me. Apologies.

Check out the other awesome bloggers taking part :)

Hx

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NOTD - Wet and Wild Grey's Anatomy

Evening all!

I've been rather bombarding myself with loads of loud nail art and glitter bombs recently, and felt like a change. I've had this beauty sat in my untrieds for a while so pulled it out and I feel a need to apologise. To a polish. It is beautiful! Soft, pretty grey with pinky green duochrome yums. I layered it over a pale grey creme and added a couple of coats of OPI Servin' Up Sparkle as an accent and admired my pretty nails alllllll day.

I layered this over grey because I wanted the bottle colour on my nails. I think grey make an elegant mani. But since it is super sheer I intent to try layering it over other colours too and seeing what it does to them.

I feel like I missed the duochrome bandwagon a little bit, I was never really super interested in them until recently. I think it's time to add more to my collection, what would you recommend?

hx

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NOTD – Sinful Colors Cinderella + Zoya Maisie

Howdy!

Continuing with the soft and pretty theme (I don't know what is wrong with me...I'll be back to elephant-clumsy soon I'm sure) I used super pretty Sinful Colors Cinderella for this manicure. I got this polish from one of my birthday club girls, but I think the new Models Own Indian Ocean is close for us UK-ites.I applied three coats, as it's pretty sheer, then two coats of Zoya maise (blue flakies, yum!) over the ring finger and thumb. Subtle and pretty. Two words I don't use very much in association with my nails!

Bit blurry to see the flakies better *drool*

If you were getting married, I think this would be a lovely polish to have as your something blue. What do you think? Would you have blue nails for your wedding day?

Hx

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Untried Month - getting my fish egg on!

Hi loves!

Today I'm wearing Accessorize Stardom - a yummy metallic grey, not too brushstrokey in two medium coats. Then I decided to try my new caviar beads - that have been setting blogdom on fire lately, and not for all the right reasons. My lovely friend Tracy got me these from Chez Delaney and I applied them as an accent nail just by sticking them into wet top coat. I didn't top coat over them because I wanted the texture.

 They lasted approximately half an hour before this happened-

Mr NN literally just touched them and they all fell off. It was like the top coat was too brittle? Maybe I'll try gluing them on next time...

Hx

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Purple Crumpet Sprig Challenge - Day 22, Large Flowers

Since we did a large flowers design in the stamping group this week, I decided to freehand this one. I used 2 coats of Sally Hansen Model Behaviour (on a bit of a blue kick lately it seems) and 2 coats of Sally Hansen Eel Skin on the accent nails. Then using Models Own Pink Blush I drew 3 petals just using the bottle brush, and outlined them using a pink striper. The centre of the flowers were done with Miss Sporty Taxi and a yellow striper.

The next challenge is subtle Spring Glitterbomb and I am planning something special!

Hx

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