Thought it’d be a good time to post a swatch of the Spoiled Ants In My Pants that I bought a couple of months back:
Base: Nails Inc London Nights
Glitter: Spoiled Ants In My Pants (red multi sized round glitter particles in a transparent grey jelly) one coat here
Top Coat: Seche Vite
Week 18: Patterns – Half Moons
Base colour: OPI All The Berry Best
Glitter: China Glaze Electrify
Top Coat: Seche Vite
Verdict: These are so easy to do with hole reinforcement rings! It turned out very Christmassy although in real life you can see more of the red glitter particles.
Week 17: Patterns – Glitter
Base colour: Revlon Moon Candy (deep purple)
Glitter: Revlon Moon Candy (lilac flake glitter)
Top Coat: Seche Vite
Verdict: I bought this in America and was disappointed by the flake glitter. It’s very chunky and needs a very thick top coat! I do like the effect though and I’ve just ordered China Glaze Luxe and Lush to see if that’s any better.
Week 16: Patterns – Tribal
Base colour: China Glaze Fast Track
First chevron: Nails Inc InStyle Teal
Second chevron: Nails Inc Old Bond Street
Top Coat: Seche Vite
Verdict: I used low tack masking tape from my craft stash which made this fairly easy to do. I will try this in some different colourways in the future.
Another mini photo tutorial for you. This time is a butterfly wing:
Base colour: Sinful Colors Neon Purple (dries matte)
Black detail: Hand-drawn using a fine permanent marker. I did try a brush but I just couldn’t get the lines fine enough. Perhaps I was using the wrong kind of brush?
Solid black detail: Nails Inc London Nights kind of spoldged on carefully.
White: Nails Inc Floral street applied with a dotting tool (still loving my dotting tool).
Top Coat: Special FX Top Coat – very important as all of my other top coats smudged the permanent pen!
Verdict: Very easy as most of the detail was drawn on. You have to wait until the base coat is completely dry though so it’s a bit of a pain. I’d love to try this over a ombre or sparkly nail polish next time.
Week 14: Patterns – Flowers (Part 2)
Well sorry for the delay folks but Photobucket keeps messing about with stuff so I decided to just leave it alone until they’d finished buggering about which unfortunately means I’m a bit behind on my challenges. Without further ado I’d like to introduce you to a mini photo tutorial of my first attempt at one-stroke painting nail art:
Base colour: OPI Uh-Oh Roll Down The Window
Red and brown: Anitas Acrylic craft paint. I practiced on a paper plate before doing the design on the nail but next time I think I’d go for some much thicker paints.
White: Nails Inc Floral street applied with a dotting tool.
Top Coat: Seche Vite
Verdict: Looks much better in real life – I think my camera has about had it! Very easy and I’m loving my new nail art brushes and dotting tool. I really think I could improve a lot on this technique though.
Week 14: Patterns – Flowers (Part 1)
Right on time this week at least and I decided to have a go at Cath Kidston style nail art:
Base: George Smarty Pants
Flowers: Creative Trophy (the dark pink flower shaped splodges, Creative Bed of Roses (the light pink ‘c’ shapes applied with a fine nail art brush), OPI Uh-Oh Roll Down The Window (the khaki coloured leaves)
Top Coat: Seche Vite
Verdict: Pretty easy actually. They look quite difficult but I’d happily do a full set of these and they didn’t take long at all. I’m very happy with the result.
Week 13: Patterns – Animal
A little late this week but better late than never huh?
Nails Inc nail wraps Leopard Print Gold Nail Wraps
Verdict: These are the type of nail wraps that are self adhesive but require heat to get the best finish. I did try to follow the instructions but found it best to cut roughly to size, apply to the nail, file off the overhang and then apply heat to smooth out any wrinkles. They give an okay finish (a little lumpy in places) and quick to do. They’re great for covering up any chipped polish or peeling nails if you want a quick fix for a party or night out.
I’ve seen a fair few of these velvet or flocked nail manicures around the blogsphere but I’m way too stingy to buy some flocking powder, let alone the proper Ciate Velvet Manicure http://www.ciate.co.uk/velvet-manicure.html/
I did come across a couple of blogs giving tips on making your own flocking powder using either a ribbon or some coloured card. As I happened to have a piece of red ribbon on my craft desk I decided to give that a go first:
I used a pair of scissors to finely chop the ribbon onto some scrap paper. I used about 3 inches of narrow ribbon and only managed to get enough for a couple of fingers! The result was good though I will admit:
I used two coats of Rococo Bright Young Things and pressed on a ‘patch’ of flock into the wet polish. After a couple of minutes I braved using a small brush to get rid of the excess. Warning! This is messy! You can see how much flock is still around my fingers here:
Verdict: Making your own flocking powder is a bit of a PIA but application is easy enough. I will be looking out for offers on the Ciate Velvet kit.
Week 12: Patterns – Stripes
I bought some striping tape a while back and wasn’t really inspired by it so it just sat there looking sparkly so far. I decided to give it another try but
a) the pink striping tape I used bled into the grey base coat I was using and
b) I ended up accidentally brushing the finished effort into some not quite dry purple nail polish doh.
Before the purple polish accident I was quite happy with the result (it looked rather like a mans tie as I had put the tape on diagonally) so I was spurred on to try another combination:
Base: Nails Inc Floral Street left to dry overnight
Tape: White striping tape from eBay – this one didn’t bleed at least and I used it as a mask so the ends were left suitably long for easy removal.
Middle: Nails Inc Spitalfields. I removed the tape whilst this was still wet.
Top: Urm, can’t quite remember which one I used as I have a few that give this pearl effect. I didn’t really like the deep groves this method left so this was an attempt to disguise that.
Verdict: You may have noticed I used a false nail again and that’s because the application of tape in dead straight lines was really difficult! It’s definitely something that needs a steady hand and lots of practice added to the fact the base coat must be completely dry or the tape will pull it off.
1008hollywalkpark 