Talonted

Hello! And happy Halloween weekend :)

Today’s theme is ‘Inspired by a film’ and I had so much fun thinking of potential films. However, when I found out this mani fell on the weekend of Halloween I was decided - the Nightmare Before Christmas nails had to be done!

I’ve seen lots of NBC manis so these will be nothing new to anyone, but I love them. Fiddly but fun!

My right hand (below) is my bad hand and I need so much practice with my paintbrush. I am still so shaky!

Hope these made you smile!

Lex :)

Today’s mani theme is ‘Inspired by a song’. I asked a few people for some ideas and my little sister’s first suggestion (with no hesitation) was ‘Diamonds are a girl’s best friend’. She. Is. A. Genius. Brilliant song, great sentiment and a perfect mani inspiration.

I did two coats of black polish (LA Colours ‘Circuits’) and did a layer of top coat. I then taped up my thumb so I had a basic diamond shape. I then used another of my DIY Nails competition prizes - Models Own ‘Juicy Jules’ which is an absolutely beautiful glitter polish. I did about 3 thick layers so you couldn’t see the black polish underneath. I then removed the tape. I used a spotting tool to dot the glitter polish on to my other nails in the shape on necklaces and a diamond ring. I used the gold/bronze polish from yesterday’s mani (17 - Fury) to do the ring band. I then did another layer of top coat. I then added the black acrylic detailing to the diamond with a paintbrush and did one last top coat.

The glitter polish is absolutely stunning but so difficult to capture in artificial light (Damn you GMT!). I know the picture below is out of focus but it’s the only one that showed the true colours of the glitter!

I adore this manicure. I am gutted that I have to take it straight off so I can get a head start on tomorrow’s (very exciting) film-themed mani.

“Square cut, or pear-shaped, these rocks won’t lose their shape - Diamonds are a girl’s best friend”

Lex :)

After the trauma of water marbling (I still wake up screaming), I decided to do a nice, simple, pretty manicure for today’s challenge. The theme was ‘Inspired by a colour’ which is lovely and vague! I received my lovely competition-winning post from DIY Nails and it included this beautiful polish from 17 and I was desperate to try it out so that was my inspiration!

It’s called Fury and it’s a gorgeous gold/bronze colour with gold glitter flecks that catch the light. It also applies perfectly and dries super-quickly.

The colour felt very autumnal when I applied it, so I decided to make it into a leaves-turning/seasonal mani.

I applied two coats of the polish and then did one layer of top coat. When that had dried, I applied a small patch of top coat and carefully arranged the brown/gold petal-shaped gems.

Another layer of top coat sealed the gems and made sure they didn’t pop off if I caught them on anything (which I did, every time I touched my hair/clothing/everything else I came into contact with).

Simple but effective. Lovely!

Lex :)

Water marbling is horrible. HORRIBLE. It is hard and fiddly and messy and the results (even by experts) are not worth it. Rant over.

The above picture is the result of 3 hours of marbling. One nail. One!! The rest were rubbish.

I’ll go through it:

You will need room temperature water in something small but deep enough to horizontally dip your fingers into - I used a ramekin. Line up your polishes (runny ones > gloopy ones as they spread across the water better). Now tape up your fingers. I have seen people using normal tape, but I used tit tape (or toupee tape depending on how crude you are) as it’s thinner and flattens to the skin better:

Cover as much skin as possible to avoid hideous clean up. I taped two to show the contrast…and because I’m a glutton for punishment apparently.

The below shows the polish I used and the little ramekin.

Now, open all your bottles and carefully let single drops of each fall into the water (not from too high or they’ll sink!). Then use an orange stick to draw the polish in to form pretty patterns on top of the water. Quickly lower your nail horizontally into the water, submerge it and hold underwater for about 60 seconds. Use the orange stick to swirl the excess polish away from your nail and out of the ramekin. Repeat ad infinitum.

Below is the complete mess caused by my first attempt. Note the neatness of the skin around the ring finger and thumb (taped!) compared to the others, amazing.

Just looking at this picture makes me feel a bit ill, which I did for the whole time I was doing this mani. It is so messy and the feeling of dried polish on skin is vile.

I thought I could do better than this attempt…so I tried again. The results only got worse. As I said at the beginning, the middle finger was the only decent one. I think as I had the polishes open for easy access whilst doing this, they went a bit gloopy as the mani went on. The pretty swirls dried on the water super-quickly and attached to my nails in huge gloops of goo. It was disgusting!

I doubt I’ll be doing this again, even though I know it’s all about practice. I just don’t think the results, even when perfected, are worth the stress this mani causes!

Hope you all have more luck doing this!

Lex :)

Hi everyone!

I am a day late with this manicure which is cheating slightly with the 31 day challenge, I know. But I’ve just started a new job and I’m exhausted! Plus, I really hate taking photos in artificial light, so I did this mani last night and then took the photos this morning before work.

The theme is galaxies and this is my second-ever attempt at these nails. I preferred my first ones (which you can find here along with a mini tutorial: http://talonted.tumblr.com/post/11100567962/galaxy-nails-step-by-step)

These are less eye-catching than the first attempt as I used less purple and more green/gold. I think they look really pretty but just not quite right.

I’m not doing well with my manicures this week…I hope I get my mani mojo back soon!

First attempt at water marbling tonight which I’m hoping will be okay. I’ve heard/seen a lot of horror stories!

Lex :)

I am absolutely shattered after my first day at my new job, which is why the mani is so late today. I just couldn’t get motivated which isn’t like me. Hopefully I’ll be back to my usual self tomorrow.

Today’s challenge theme is half-moons. I love doing this manicure: it is classic, clean and so easy to do.

I apologise for the dreadful photos. I hate artificial light for photos but it was pitch dark by the time I finished.

I painted my nails in two coats of French Nude by Rimmel and then applied fast drying top coat. I then applied ring reinforcements (yes, the ones you use on bits of paper in ring-binders!) at the bottom of the nails and painted two coats of Nails Inc. ‘Chester Square’. When the second coat was still wet, I carefully removed the reinforcements. A layer of top coat and it’s all done: a beautifully simple but elegant mani.

Tomorrow is Galaxy nails and the day after is Water Marbling (which I’m dreading). So I definitely need to get my motivation back soon!!

Lex :)

You are looking at the most difficult-to-find nail varnish I have ever owned. I went to 6 different Boots stores today trying to find any of the 17 range’s Magnetized polish. I went all over London and even braved Oxford/Regent/Bond Street on a Sunday afternoon. Nothing. As a last resort I tried the new Westfield at Stratford and they had 3 polishes left! VICTORY!!

The basic principle of this polish is that it contains tiny magnetic particles. Inside the bottle lid is a magnet which you use to create patterns in the polish. Such a clever idea and I’ve been wanting to try some for ages.

The range includes a gunmetal grey, a blue, a lilac and teal (which is the one I found). The polish itself is gorgeous: a beautiful colour, even before you use the magnet, and it applies beautifully.

The picture below shows the lid of the polish (which detaches from the brush so you’re not waving that around). The magnet is on top and there is a small curved rest at one end to help you keep your fingers steady.

After reading a few reviews online I picked up some tips. Apply the polish one nail at at time. While the nail is still wet, rest your finger on top of the rest at the end of the magnet and hold it over for 10 seconds. I found that I had to move my nail around to get the pattern to cover the whole nail, but this may just be as I have quite curved nails.

Obviously I used the other hand to hold the magnet over the nail, but for the purposes of the photos this is how close you hold it to the nail.

I absolutely adore this nail varnish and it was definitely worth traipsing all over London to find it.

In Boots, it is on an introductory offer at £4.99 but will go up to £5.99 after this ends. Bargain!

Total nail varnish crush.

Lex :)

Today’s nail challenge theme was glitter. I bought some loose glitter for nails months ago and it was in my ‘to try’ pile, so this was the perfect opportunity.

I started by doing a coat of black polish (LA colours - Circuits). I then laid down some paper (this mani is very messy!) and opened the glitter (GOSH Nail Glitter - 02 Gold).

I then painted my thumbnail with another coat of black and while it was still wet, dipped it into the pot. This gave a kind of reverse manicure effect. I did this on all nails (i.e. painted each nail individually, then dipped it into the glitter before moving onto the next nail).

Once the glitter had set into the dried polish, I used an old clear top coat (I didn’t want to ruin my best one by getting glitter in it!). I painted the clear polish over the tip of the nail and dipped it into the pot again. I then used another coat of clear polish to drag the glitter down the nail. This is a kind of messy gradient effect. You’re getting the thick covering of glitter at the tip of the nail and a thinner coat of glitter fading down the nail.

This picture shows the effect a bit better:

Glitter always makes me feel wintery and Christmassy and this mani is no exception. I love it! I really want to find some white glitter so that I can do snow-themed festive manicures.

I am doing another blog post tonight as I (finally) found some of the 17 ‘Magnetized’ polish today. I went to 6 different Boots stores, traipsing all over London, and it took me 3 hours, but I found one! Hooray!! That post should be up in about an hour.

Lex :)

Hola followers!

Tribal nails were huge this summer and, miraculously, I’ve never attempted them. They look cool but I’m not a huge fan of manicures that are so different on each nail. They just look a bit messy to me.

It was fun to try though. I did base coats in different colours and then did random stripes of contrasting colours over the top. I then used a paintbrush to free-hand the patterns.

My boyfriend also offered to do my right hand. He has never done any kind of nail art before and I am so impressed with the mani he did:

It’s so good, isn’t it?

Lex :)

I won the nail art competition! Hoorah!

This was my entry:

It was run by the lovely DIY Nails (http://diynails.tumblr.com/) and I won some very exciting stuff. Can’t wait to try it all out :)

Lex :)

WARNING: These nails have been tagged ‘fail’ as I am really disappointed with them. If they weren’t for the challenge, I would have taken them off and pretended they never happened!

The theme was delicate print and one of my friends on Twitter suggested a mehndi print. I adore mehndi patterns, they’re so intricate and beautiful so thought it would be a fun challenge. IT WAS NOT FUN. I have never been so full of rage whilst doing a manicure! It kept going wrong and the end product makes me sad! Massive nail fail today.

In case you’re insane and want to copy this mani: I did 2 coats of nude polish and a layer of top coat. I then used a paintbrush and Barry M ‘Mushroom’ to do the pattern.

I will no doubt have another go at this as I hate not being able to do something and I think if I do perfectly it that it could look absolutely beautiful.

Tomorrow is tribal print, which I’ve never tried before. I’m hoping that will go better than today!

Lex :)

Good afternoon!

Flowers was today’s theme. I’ve done roses on this blog already so I thought I would try something I’ve never done before. I love sunflowers anyway but looking at pictures of them on Google became almost hypnotic…go look for yourself and you’ll see what I mean!

I did 2 layers of nude polish (Rimmel’s French Ivory) and then used Barry M’s Mushroom polish to do circles in the corner of each nail. I then used a thin paintbrush and a bright yellow polish (Miss Sporty 301) to do the petals.

Then I used my spotting tool to paint the seeds on. I used the same mushroom polish but mixed in some black polish so the seeds were slightly darker.

I mixed the yellow polish with Nails Inc ‘InStyle Orange’ to do the detailing on the petals.

A layer of top coat and I am done! Really pleased with how these turned out, very summery and cheerful.

Tomorrow is delicate print and I can honestly say I have no idea what to do!! Should be interesting…

Lex :)

Hello!

I have been looking forward to today’s challenge for ages: animal print. I wanted to steer clear of leopard/zebra print as I wanted to do something a bit different. I had a browse on google and found this little guy, a Peruvian Poison Dart frog:

He’s so cute and the colours are incredible so my mind was made up!

I did a base coat of the light blue (I had to do a frankenpolish of my dark blue Miss Sporty polish mixed with white). I then taped off the sides of my nail and put on two coats of Nails Inc ‘InStyle Orange’. I then used a spotting tool and the dark blue polish to do the dots.

It looks so striking from far away, as well as up close. I’m really happy with it!

I normally do my manicures in the morning but have had a busy day so the above photos are inside lighting with flash and the below picture is inside without flash - just to give you an idea of the colours and finish.

Tomorrow is flowers…but I’m going to be sad to take this mani off!

Lex :)

Hello lovely people!

Today’s challenge them is stripes and as it’s so close to Halloween I thought I’d do some mummies!

I did 3 coats of white polish and applied top coat. I then used a small paintbrush to apply black acrylic paint in stripes. After that had dried, I painted on black spots of polish for the eyes, and added red polish on top of that. Two coats of top coat later and it’s all done!

My line painting needs a lot more practice, desperately, but compared to the messes I made when I first started I am really proud of these.

The above photo was taken before the top coat. Acrylic paint dries matte which is why it looks a bit funny.

Tonight I am going to see City and Colour, I have been waiting for this gig for MONTHS and I am so excited!

Lex :)

I reached 100 followers last night! What a lovely surprise to wake up to.

Thank you all so much for reading my blog, it means a lot. I hope you’re all enjoying it as much as I am.

Lex :)

Today’s challenge theme was ‘polka dots’. As I’d already done basic spots the other day for the rainbow theme, I wanted to do something a bit different.

I did a nude base coat (Rimmel French Ivory) and then used a spotting tool to do dots of various sizes over all nails, overlapping some spots as I went. There are too many colours to list but if you desperately want to know any, just let me know :)

This mani looks a lot better in natural light, but it was so cloudy here the pictures don’t really do it justice. I would love to do this again, but next time I’ll try keeping it to more pastel colours as I think it’d look more subtle. This kind of reminds me of party balloons for some reason!

I hope you liked today’s manicure. Tomorrow is stripes. And I have an idea…!

Lex :)

Hello everyone!

I thought I would post the nail challenge list again, as I have now finished the ‘Colours’ section and am moving on to the ‘Patterns’ section. All very exciting, I KNOW.

Coming up is my take on polka dots…

Lex :)

Hello lovely followers!

I have entered a nail competition (run by the lovely DIY Nails, whose Tumblr is genius. You must all follow her immediately) and I am currently in second place.

If you have Facebook and would like to help me out, please ‘like’ the bumblebee mani in the link below.

Thank you so much :)

http://www.facebook.com/messages/?action=read&tid=id.306714779345093#!/photo.php?fbid=211237755608050&set=a.211237275608098.49173.153021758096317&type=1&theater

I did a gradient nail yesterday without realising that today’s challenge theme was gradient! What a fool! Anyway, it all worked out for the best as I clearly needed the practice.

As I said yesterday, I really liked the effect of the dark polish with the accent gradient. So, I decided to do a black and fuschia gradient mani.

I started with two coats of the black (L.A.Colours ‘Circuits’). Then that had dried I painted a thin layer of the fuschia (Rimmels ‘Urban Purple’) a few millimetres onto the nail tips. Once this had dried, I did another layer on the tips but went another few millimetres down. This is to build up the dense colour at the ends of the nails.

I then poured some of the fuschia polish onto a piece of wax paper and used a cosmetic sponge to lightly dab over the line between the two polishes. Carry on dabbing polish on in very thin layers until you have the desired gradient effect.

I then applied top coat to smooth the matte, bobbly finish of the sponged polish.

This manicure is so eye-catching and would look brilliant with so many different colours. I went to the supermarket and two women asked me where I got my nails done - always the sign of a good manicure!

This is the last manicure in the ‘Colours’ section of the challenge. Tomorrow we start 10 days of ‘Pattern’…starting with polka dots. I’m going to have to find something different to do, after my twister nails yesterday!

Lex :)

A quick explanation. I did the manicure at the bottom of this post first but didn’t like how it came out (need more sponging practice I think!) so did another raimbow themed mani. I attached both as it’s all experience, right?

I will list the polishes used at the very bottom of the post.

For the spotty mani I was inspired by my friend Kayley who suggested a Twister mat. I used two coats of nude polish and waited for that to dry. I then used a spotting tool to apply the dots. Some dots needed two coats, but apart from that - c’est fini! Easy peasy!

I love that this mani looks just as good far away as it does close up, so pretty.

The following pictures are of the first mani I did. I took all the colours of the rainbow and decided to merge them on the nails using gradients.

I colour the bottom half of each nail in the rainbow colours and waited for them to dry. I then painted the top halves with the next colour along in the spectrum.

After the two halves had dried, I mixed the two polishes featuring on the nails together on wax paper and used a cosmetic sponge to lightly dab the connecting line. I fiddled about with the sponging until you could no longer see the join and the colours blended.

I then added top coat to smooth out the bobbly finish of the sponging.

I definitely need more sponging practice. Also, some of these colours just weren’t going to merge - the yellow & green finger looks terrible as the colours are too different. However, I do love the two nails with the dark blue, I think they look very effective.

Sorry for the huge post today! I’m not going to get into the habit of doing 2 manicures for every theme: far too time-consuming!

Lex :)

P.S. Polishes used in both manicures:

• Red - Maybelline Forever Strong ‘Deep Red’
• Orange - Nails Inc. ’Instyle Orange’
• Yellow - Miss Sporty ‘301’
• Green - Barry M ‘Spring Green’
• Blue - Miss Sporty ‘314’
• Purple - Rimmel ‘Black Cherries’
• Nude - Rimmel ‘French Ivory’

Today’s challenge is ‘metallic’. I’m not the biggest fan of metallics as I think they look a bit teenage-y so I knew that I wanted to do something that wasn’t a simple mani.

I put on two coats of a Miss Sporty gold (I think it’s just called 312…we’ve spoken before about my hatred of polishes with no names, I won’t go into it again!). It was looking very 80s and not in a good way, so I added the GOSH matte coat.

After this had dried, I simply added the black tips (using L.A. Colours ‘Circuits’).

I tried to take the photos in different lights to show the effect of this mani. I really love the contrast between the matte gold and the super-shiny black polish.

Tomorrow’s theme is ‘Rainbow’ which doesn’t leave many options for doing something different, but should at least be colourful!

Lex :)

I had a question on Twitter (from the lovely @MissRetroGlam - go follow! Go now!) about nail staining:

My nails have been destroyed in the last 6mth after using a treatment which didn’t agree with my nails. Since, they are dry, flaking and yellow. :( def not fungal infection, I’ve oiled them but cannot go without polish as I hate how they look. Is there a treatment to get rid of the yellow- which I’m guessing is damage. I always use base coat so it’s not staining.

Yellow nails become a problem for anyone who uses nail varnish a lot.

Firstly, a myth-buster: You can still get staining even if you use base coats. Especially if you usually keep your polish on for longer than a week or use dark colours regularly.

The good news is that there are some tricks you can try to shift the unsightly tints:

• A cotton pad soaked in white vinegar and rubbed over the nail could help remove the yellow staining, if it’s fairly recent damage
• Gently buffing the nail will get rid of yellow staining as the colour damage does not actually go that deep. Try not to do this too often though as it thins and weakens the nail.
• Oiling your nails regularly is very important, especially if your hands are used a lot during the day (paperwork, typing, gardening, washing up etc.). It keeps your nails healthy and strong and also keeps your cuticles in great condition. I use CND Solar Oil and love it, I apply it before bed so it sinks in overnight.
• The buffing I mentioned will also help with flaking. It’s better to lightly buff the flakey areas, rather than wait until they peel away or chip off as that creates more damage.
• Another tip to avoid flaking is to never, ever use nail clippers: always file your nails down. I know this is time-consuming and boring but it is a real nail saver.
• Also, when filing always work in one direction (not the band!), never see-saw backwards and forwards as that’s just asking for tears and flaking. File from the left corner towards the middle, and from the right corner towards the middle.

I hope some or all of this was helpful to you, if you have any other questions just let me know!

Lex :)

Today’s challenge theme was black and white and I knew that I wanted to do something a bit more nail-arty than a simple manicure. I decided that skulls and ribcages would be quite cool and also give me a chance to brush up on my detailing skills!

I did two coats of a jet black polish (‘Circuits’ by L.A. Colours) and then used a paintbrush to apply the white acrylic bones.

I then painted the basic skull shape onto my thumbnail with a Rimmel polish (the white out of the manicure set!). Once that had dried, I used black acrylic to paint on the eyes, nose and teeth.

I love this manicure and think it’s going to be on the shortlist for my Halloween nails!

I hope you’re enjoying the challenge so far,

Lex :)

Today’s challenge theme was ‘Violet’ and I immediately thought of this polish. It is Dusky Mauve by Barry M and is one of my favourites.

That name might mean something to the keener nail addicts out there as this polish is a perfect (and I mean PERFECT) dupe of the famous Chanel ‘Paradoxal’ nail varnish. I was so close to buying the Chanel version when it came out last year and had almost convinced myself that £20 for a polish is totally reasonable(!) when I heard internet rumblings about dupes. Models Own claimed their own ’Purple Grey’ was a dupe but when I had a look it was just a bit off. It didn’t have the same purpley shimmer which made the Chanel polish so beautiful.

Then I was pointed in the direction of Barry M where I found this beauty. It goes on really easily, dries super-quickly and at £3 is a hell of a lot cheaper than the Chanel version!

I tried to get more photos of the way it looks in different lights but failed miserably. It has an almost taupe/mushroom colour in low light, but the purple shimmer transforms it when the light catches it.

Can you tell how much I love it from the way I’m rambling about it?!

Tomorrow is black and white and I want to do something really exciting…going to go put my thinking cap on!

Lex :)

I missed a day! Which is quite poor seeing as it hasn’t even been a week yet. But! I have an excuse. I had a job interview yesterday and my wonderful boyfriend made a surprise trip to London so that he could meet me afterwards and take me for food and obscenely expensive cocktails. I also got the job! Whoop!

So, yes, apologies, but I have done two manicures today to make up for missing yesterday. I know, I know, I spoil you!! :|

The theme for day five of the challenge was blue. I only own one blue, as I’m not a huge fan of the colour in general. I used a Miss Sporty creme navy, which I love as it dries super quickly which was helpful with this mani. I did two coats of the blue polish and then added the GOSH matte top coat.

I then cut out triangles of tape, covered one side of the nail, and painted another layer of the same polish over the top.

I love the way this mani looks, it really catches the eye. Excuse the lack of clean-up, I was trying to take photos before it got dark so was rushed!

Lex :)

Today’s challenge theme was ‘Green’. I have two greens and wasn’t keen on having a block colour manicure in either. So I decided to do another nail art manicure, after the success of the bumblebees yesterday. I had seen kiwis done on this blog: http://nailpolishdistraction.tumblr.com/ and fell in love with them.

I made a frankenpolish out of the two greens I own (pictures below), did two coats of that and then did white ovals on top.

The frankenpolish is on the right. Not the loveliest colour I’ve ever seen, but perfect for this mani.

I used a tiny paintbrush and white acrylic paint to do stipes coming outwards from the centre. Once they were dried, I used a spotting tool to put black acrylic paint spots for the seeds.

Really pleased with this mani, although it has made me crave kiwis…!

Lex :)

For today’s challenge, I wanted to do something a bit more exciting. I was getting a bit bored of single-colour manicures!

After remembering (thanks to the anonymous question!) that I *did* own a yellow…I then couldn’t find it. I have no idea where it is! So I had to buy a new one anyway. Drat.

I got a cheapy one as I’m not a huge fan of yellow and wont be hopping up and down to wear it all the time. I got a Miss Sporty one (£1.99 from Superdrug, and on 3 for 2…marvellous). They’re not the best polishes in the world, but for the price they are brilliant. They go on well and dry so quickly. I could do the 2nd coat after about 2 minutes and that one dried within 5. Can’t argue with that!

I did two coats of the yellow, waited for it to dry and then used a spotting tool to do the black spots for the flight trail. I used the same tool to do 5 spots in a circle for the flowers.

For my thumbnails, I used basic sellotape. A few tips when using tape: make sure your nail varnish is totally dry otherwise it’ll lift with the tape. Also, before putting on your tape, touch it with your fingers so it’s not super sticky to avoid lifting. And finally, lift off your tape (very carefully) when the polish is still wet to get a really crisp line.

I then dabbed clear polish wherever I wanted the diamond studs and carefully pressed them on. I finished with two layers of top coat.

The below picture shows the Miss Sporty polishes I got today. I didn’t own silver or gold and knew that ‘Metallic’ was a theme later in this challenge so used the 3 for 2 offer well!

Lex :)

P.S. I forgot to mention that I got the inspiration for this from many different nail blogs, but the main one was http://bellaslacquerbox.blogspot.com. Go check her out, she’s brilliant.

Day 2 of the 31 day challenge and the theme was ‘Orange’. I adore this nail varnish: it is a glorious colour and it was also free! Double bonus. Nails Inc and the magazine InStyle did a set of three polishes and I trawled shops so I could get this one.

It’s a vivid, shiny orange creme polish that goes on really well and lasts for ages. It’s really summery which makes me a bit sad that I’ll be putting it away for a while now!

Tomorrow is ‘Yellow’. I don’t own one so I’m either going to try to make one myself, or (more likely) will have to buy one!!

Thanks for checking out my blog,

Lex :)

The first day of the nail challenge is ‘Red’. I only have one red nail varnish and I’m not very keen on it. It’s a Maybelline Forever Strong polish, called ‘Deep Red’. I love the colour but it’s consistency is very odd. Comes out of the bottle quite gloopy (even with thinner added) and dries really quickly on the nail so goes a bit streaky quickly. The photo below shows how strange the finish is:

(The above picture makes the red look a lot more orangey than it actually is - the flash has a lot to answer for! The other photos are a lot more representative of the darker red colour)

I couldn’t stand looking at the above nails for 24 hours so had to add one of my favourite ‘savers’ - matte top coat. If any manicure is looking a bit boring I always add this to make it a bit more edgy. I use the GOSH matte top coat, although there are lots of other brilliant ones around.

Sadly, it still doesn’t look great, but the top coat definitely helped!

So, a bit of a lacklustre (!) start to the nail challenge. Although, on the bright side, it does mean I should buy a new red polish so this one can go! Any excuse…

Tomorrow is ‘Orange’…LOVE!

Lex :)

I posted the above picture earlier after my first attempt at Galaxy nails. I had a few replies on Twitter asking for a tutorial of sorts so that they could see how I had done it. I’ve never done a tutorial before so bear with me. There are a lot of pictures so I apologise in advance!

The picture below shows all the polishes I used in this manicure:

I started with pure black nails and then used a cosmetic sponge to dab the blue onto my nails in various swirls and blobs. Dab the sponge very lightly onto your nails and build up slowly: it’s easier to add more varnish than to take excess off. Use your imagination but remember to leave enough black around the blobs, you want it to still resemble space!!

On top of the blue, I added purple. You can use whatever colours you like really. Typing ‘Galaxy nails’ into Google will show you how many versions there are!

My next stages were a sheer green to build depth and then pinky glitter to really ramp up the space effect:

I used a dotting tool to add small blobs of white polish for the stars; Finished off with a coat of ORLY Sec ‘N’ Dry topcoat; Tidied up the mess around the nails with an earbud and voila! Galaxy nails done!

Before I put on the top coat, I was a bit disappointed as the end effect was quite matte and dull. You couldn’t really differentiate between the colours I had spent ages layering…but the top coat is a miracle-worker and, as you can see below, it brightens everything up again. As well as giving it a smooth, glassy finish.

I hope you found this helpful, I actually really enjoyed documenting it as I went through. I will definitely be trying Galaxy nails again as I think it’s something that gets better with every attempt. Let me know if you try it!

Lex :)

As I said in my earlier post, I was given a free nail varnish today from a local beauty wholesale shop. I didn’t hold out much hope for the quality (I haven’t heard of the brand ‘Beauty Forever’, the polish is #20…is it just me who hates it when polishes don’t have names?!) but I’m always happy with a bargain!

As you can see from the above picture, it’s a sheer black/blue polish with silver glitter and holographic hex glitter. So pretty in the bottle!

With most of these types of varnish, they need a few coats to look any good and this one is no exception.

One coat:

Two coats:

Even with two coats, I still had a VNL (Visible Nail Line). So I took it all off and put on two coats of Models Own ‘Grey Day’ - one of my favourite creme polishes:

And whacked the hex glitter on top of that (one coat). It looks pretty, no?

All finished off with ORLY’s Sec ‘N’ Dry top coat, which is amazing stuff: dries within 2 minutes and is super shiny.

Safe to say, I am really pleased with my freebie!

Lex :)

I finally bought a new SD card for my camera today so I can take pretty pictures of my nails on something that isn’t my Blackberry!

Here is my second ever attempt at floral nails. I absolutely adore them.

(please ignore the dreadful state of my little finger, it is poorly!)

Hello!

I’m Lex and I live in London. I have always been into nail varnish and spend a lot of time making them look nice, but have been pretty unadventurous until recently. This blog will follow my new obsession with nail art in all its forms.

Please bear with me while I muddle my way through, any tips and inspiration are much appreciated.

It’s lovely to meet you :)