Saturday 31 January 2015

A2Z Series - L Is For Lines

Greetings All!

This weeks prompt is Lines and so of course I had to use striping tape. I never seem to use it frequently enough to perfect my technique. That alone makes me want to use it more, but it's such a fiddly, faffy, time consuming technique that I do get put off a little bit. Combine that with how they never come out perfectly and that explains why I use it so infrequently! I am going to put it on the To Do list though - I do like my Beetlejuice nails.

Anyway here are my Line nails.





I used OPI Alpine Snow, W7 Black and some striping tape to create a simple reciprocal gradient. I can't help but feel it would have looked so much better if I were just a bit handier with striping tape. As they are...I can live with them.


You can catch up with all the manicures from this series here





Wednesday 28 January 2015

Red And Gold Houndstooth

Greetings All!

I'm doing my best to get back into posting regularly. Let's see how it goes!

Today I have some simple stamping. I'm currently trying to use/use up my Miss Sporty polishes, as the majority of them are from four or five years ago and they often get overlooked for...well, better polishes. Sorry Miss Sporty, don't get me wrong you're great, but you aren't OPI and that's just how it is.

It looks like I've always had decent taste in colours though. At least, this red is rather nice.




So this is Miss Sporty 160, possibly called Deep Wine. I did a little bit of research then gave up! It has just a hint of golden shimmer which is quite nice. I stamped with Barry M Gold Foil and MoYou Pro 07. Oh, and matte topcoat. Can't forget the matte topcoat.

Tuesday 27 January 2015

Girly Bits Refresh! Refresh! Refresh!

Greetings All!

This year I am making the effort to buy less polish and use more of the polishes I already own. Having said that I did absolutely need some of the new Girly Bits flakies. Because flakies. That is all the justification I needed. And I stand by that!

This is 2 coats of Refresh! Refresh! Refresh! over Color Club Artsy Crafty with matte topcoat. I always wear flakies with a matte finish because it lets you see more of the magic at once. It also makes taking pictures easier!






I might just wear flakies forever.


Monday 26 January 2015

A2Z Series - K Is For Kitsch

Greetings All!

Late with this week's post again, of course. This week the prompt is Kitsch and thankfully I have what is really quite a large amount of nail art bits and pieces to prepare such a manicure. In fact it was a brilliant excuse to use some of them!

So here are my Kitsch nails.





When I think of kitsch I think of bright blue and pink, lime green, polka dots, bow, flowers, those little hula dolls...so this is my own little version! The polishes are Collection Hoola Hoop and Blue Hawaii, and the bits and pieces are from all over. As I said, I have quite a lot of them!


You can catch up on all the A2Z manicures here



Saturday 24 January 2015

UK Indies - Freckles Polish New Collections Swatches (Plus Matte Topcoat!)

*These products were provided for review*

Greetings All!

Today I'm very excited to bring you swatches from the two latest collections from Freckles Polish. The Coven Collection is a collection of holographic polishes based on the third season of American Horror Story. The Love Me, Love Me Not Collection is a limited edition Valentines collection. I'm also very excited to show you the brand new Freckles matte topcoat. I do love a matte finish, that is no secret, and I'm always happy to find a new one!

I'll start with the holos. I haven't actually watched American Horror Story. I may start. People tell me I would like it, but then I recently watched Breaking Bad and I didn't like that *ducks* so I don't know! Anyway I'm going to take a leap and assume that The Coven Collection has witchy connotations

First up is Descendants Of Salem. As with all the Freckles holos this is two easy coats with topcoat.






This is a lovely moody Winter colour, matching really well with these cold grey days! I did try to get some pictures in sunlight, but Winter was having none of it! Still this has a lovely amount of holo while still being a nice deep dark colour.


Next up is Burnt At The Stake, again two coats.





The holo isn't quite as strong with this one, but the red-orange family are notorious holo killers. This is still very pretty with a scattered holo effect, and I really love the colour. It's just hovering in between orange and brown and it's just a really nice shade. I'm not a huge orange fan outside halloween but this one is very wearable.



Next up is The Valentines Collection. It feels like we've only just had Christmas, and now Valentines. Soon we'll have the Easter polishes! Time. It just keeps going. I just know that in no time at all at will be Summer and I'll be referring back to this time like it was last week.


First up is Love At First Sight. This is two coats with topcoat.




Love at first sight indeed! Perfect cherry red squishy jelly loaded with holographic glitters. Lovely application and just my kind of polish. I always kind of want to eat jellies like these though. I know they wouldn't taste good, but they look like they would...

Next is Fractured Heart. This is just one coat over grey.




I was very impressed with the coverage of this polish. This is one coat, no touchups or evening out. The hearts also came out easily without any fishing. And of course I love the combination of black and red, with grey holo. I believe they call it gunmetal. Neither of these Valentines polishes are overly 'seasonal' and they can be worn all year round, which I also like.


Finally, You Make Me So Matte, the new matte topcoat. As a big matte fan I can be a little fussy over my finishes so I was a little worried trying this one in case it didn't come up to my standards haha. I've worn it over Freckles Polish Anne Teak because a) it's the same brand haha, b) it looks great matte and c) it's one of my favourites so any excuse to wear it really!





I am impressed. It has a very matte finish, still just a hint of sheen but it looks good and definitely matte. It dries quickly, but not too quickly. One of the problems with a matte finish is that sometimes you have to polish with lightning speed to get it on before it dries. This gives you a chance to get a nice even coat on. It gets a big matte thumbs up from me!


These collections are both being released on the 30th of January, along with the matte topcoat. You can buy Freckles Polish here.

Friday 16 January 2015

A2Z Series - J Is For Jewel

Greetings All!

Another quiet week on the blog, my apologies. I have now got all my nails back to a bloggable length so things will pick up I promise!

This week for the A2Z series the prompt is Jewel. I had lots of ideas for this but time got away from me a little bit so in the end I went with something easy.





I've been wanting to do rhinestone laden thumbs for a while, but I did want to pair them with nude, or matte black or some sort of plain fingers. Instead I chose Glitzology Rhinestone Jumpsuit and went for the full on jewel encrusted look! The gold is Barry M BLE2012 A.

You can catch up with all the manicures from the series here




Friday 9 January 2015

A2Z Series - I Is For Inspired

Greetings All!

It has been a while! I'm currently nursing a couple of broken nails and I'm just now getting back to that point where they're all nearly even so I haven't had much to post. I'll have stuff very soon though.

Fortunately I had this prompt prepped before I broke a crucial nail so I can continue with the challenge! The prompt this week is Inspiration, which is nice and broad. What is currently inspiring me is the vast amount of polish I currently own. My goal this year is to try and whittle my collection down a bit by trying to use up some non-essential polishes.

One I've already managed to use up is a bottle of Asda Lavender Fantasy. The Asda polishes are only 7ml and this one had a bit of usage already. I managed to use it for about half a dozen manicures over the last few weeks and now it's all gone! So that's one less in the collection.

So here are four of those manicures all using Lavender Fantasy as a base.




So this one is my first ever attempt at, well, not really gradient stamping, but stamping with more than one colour. Konad Black and White and MoYou Pro XL 10 with matte topcoat. I'm reasonably happy with it, for a first attempt!





A bit of classic leopard print. The first nail art I ever attempted and still one of my favourites. The brown is another Asda polish I forget the name of, but it has also now been used up!





Glitter! This one is TarasTalons Magic Lamp.





And finally some purple on purple stamping with Barry M Gelly in Plum and Pueen SE03A.


I also wore this polish plain with matte topcoat, and with a holo topcoat. By that point it was nearly impossible to get enough on the brush to cover a nail. I thought I should try to pick a favourite out of these, but I'm having trouble!



Either the glitter or the leopard I think.

You can catch up with all the manicures in the series here





Thursday 1 January 2015

SpecialGirl Nails Is Two Today!

Greetings All!

Happy New Year to you all, and Happy Birthday to my little blog, which has been going for two years! Over 600 posts, and nearly 100,000 page views. Thank you to everyone who has popped over to have a look at my nails.

It's strange - it doesn't feel like two whole years since I started blogging, but at the same time I feel like I've been doing it forever!

Here's to a great 2015 filled with gorgeous nails!

I do have some nails to post. I felt like I needed to! To celebrate, I've used a few of my favourite things in this manicure. BUT it's not red and black!







My base is Butter London Slapper. I went absolutely mental for Butter London in 2014. It all started with Billy No Mates, a warm soft pale grey. I just loved the colour, and it did apply like, well, butter! So I spent a good chunk of last year trawling the net for cheap BLs. I don't like them enough to pay £12 a bottle! My collection has exploded, and satisfyingly they do get quite a bit of use. This year I'm going to try and buy a lot less polish (I would actually like to end 2015 with less polish that I own now but that seems like a ridiculous goal...) so I'm sure I'll be getting plenty of use out of these this year!

I stamped with Sally Hansen Shiny Penny, which isn't a perfect stamping polish, but stamps well enough to get away with (I'm definitely going to use it for a WAMM soon). The rose stamp is from PUEEN SE03A. I got this set a little while ago and of course I had to use the roses first! I like that is has an outline and an inline of the same image - it means you can do roses in any colour combination!

Butter London, Sally Hansen, and roses. Three of my favourite nail things!