Artsy Wednesday - use a colour you usually hate

Here we are at Wednesday again, the weeks are whizzing away!  I can't believe it's May already.

The Artsy Wednesday challenge this time is to create nailart based on a colour you usually hate. 

Well, I don't hate any colour, but the colour I like least on me, and wear the least, is red.  I get lobster fingers extraordinaire.  I don't know who said it, but somebody wise once said "there's no such thing as the wrong colour, just the wrong shade", and I agree wholeheartedly with this.  If I am going to wear red, I'll usually stick with maroon reds rather than bright primary reds.

So, to stick with the theme, I've used the bright primary reds that I don't usually wear in this challenge.  It's two designs for the price of one this time.  I did one design, and although I liked it, it didn't seem very inspired so I did another one which I preferred.  But as I've done them now, I may as well show you both.

Backwardly, I'll start with the second design, as it's the one I prefer.  It's a take on the the Russian Doll design which I originally did (here) and I kept telling myself I'd return to.  Despite the fact that it's not perfect, I love the colour combo.  The red is Nails Inc St James, and the pink is Sinful Colours Innocent:

I have to admit, if I'd have remembered how long Innocent takes to dry, I'd have used a different pink, but am loving the raspberry ripple colour combination.

Here's a pic in the shade:

This design was really easy to do, and it doesn't need any nailart tools at all.  All you do is paint your nails red, use the pink to paint them again, but a bit further inside your nail leaving a border, then the red over the top of that, and keep going until you have a design you're happy with.  A top coat to smooth the layers (I used Seche Vite), and you're done.  In real life this was a super punchy design, and I'd like to try it in some other colour combinations. 

So, the original design I did was a stamping design.  I painted my nails with a different red, Rimmel Lasting Finish in Double Decker Red.  I tested a few polishes over it, and the one I liked the most was Nails Inc Old Park Lane.  You can see a swatch of Old Park Lane (here) if you want to see it full nail.  Here's how my design looked:

I used some studs (which I got from Amazon) on my ring finger, and I tried to mirror the stamping design.  The plate I used was Gals GA3, which kind of reminds me of either leaves, or the pattern you get in metal stairs on fire escapes.  Either way it goes nicely with the red I think.  Here it is in the shade:

My cleanup wasn't brilliant, but never mind.  I'm considering getting some neat acetone so cleanup is a bit more straightforward, but for some reason I couldn't find it in Superdrug or Boots, so it looks like I'll have to order it online.

As I said earlier in the post, I didn't feel that this stamping design was 'Artsy' enough, but actually looking at the pictures, it's starting to grow on me.

So what do you think, do you have a favourite? Is there a colour you usually keep away from like me with reds?

Don't forget to check out what all the other Artsy Wednesday girls came up with:

Michelle - Lab Muffin http://www.labmuffin.com/

Alanna - Pretty Purple Polish http://www.prettypurplepolish.com/

Maria - Maria's Nail Polish Blog http://mariasnailpolishblog.blogspot.co.uk/

Melanie - Nail & Polish http://nailandpolish.blogspot.co.uk/

Jessica - Beauty Gnome http://beautygnome.blogspot.co.uk/

Emily - An Accent Nail http://anaccentnail.blogspot.co.uk/

Ameerah - Valiantly Varnished http://www.valiantlyvarnished.com/

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

Pastel Cloud Nail Art with M&S Limited Collection Polishes

Hi everyone!

I know it's strange for me to post on a Tuesday, but I did my nails tonight, so I thought I would do a 'Nails Of The Day' post. 

I went shopping on Sunday, and I bought three polishes from the Marks and Spencers Limited Collection polishes. 

I love it when Spring is on the way, because all the pastels come out to play, and I LOVE pastels.

The three I picked were Pale Lavender, Pale Peach and Mint.  I was also missing a super-pale blue in my collection, so I went into Superdrug and picked up Rimmel Lasting Finish in Sweet as Sugar, and Barry M Blue Moon.  For this manicure I used the Rimmel, and will try the Barry M another day.

I wanted to test ALL the colours out, so I decided to do a pastel skittle.  To make a different colour on all 5 nails, I added Max Factor's Mellow Yellow, which was already in my stash.

I was undecided whether to do polka dots, stripes, or a cloud manicure.  In the end I went for the cloud, and here's what I ended up with:

Apologies for the slice across my cuticle on my middle finger.  I was reaching into the kitchen drawer for the tinfoil, and the serrated edge on the clingfilm box caught me, ouch!  I couldn't photograph my other hand because my index finger on my right hand has an even worse injury, deary me.

So, I actually planned this mani out.  I put the most 'normal' colours, i.e. the lavender and peach on the two largest nails.  Then, I wanted the two most similar colours, the green and the blue away from each other, and the same with the green and the yellow, so the positions just slotted in nicely.

For the clouds, I used the 'next door' colour.  I moved over one nail each time, so the peach is on the main part of the middle finger, but the end of the ring finger, and so on.  All in all I'm pleased with the way it turned out.  Here's another pic:

I was mightily impressed with the Marks & Spencer polishes.  First coat was slightly streaky, but you expect that with a pastel.  Two coats was enough for opaqueness and they dried nice and fast.  Not bad at all for £3.50.  If they did free shipping they'd be sold out in no time at all.

 

The Rimmel blue was a pain.  This is 3 coats and I still had VNL.  I hope the Barry M is better.  I already knew the Max Factor was a pain, it was gloopy when I got it, and I thinned it, and it's still not a very nice consistency.  It goes bald at the cuticle, and goes streaky no matter what I try.  But it was the right shade for this so I perservered.

 

Here's what the skittle looked like 'nude'  As you will see I did have a bit of chipping by the time I thought to take the pics, 24 hours on.  It didn't have a topcoat and I'm pretty tough on polish as I type all day so this really wasn't bad going:

Lastly, here's a line up of the polishes.  I've remembered to include the brush this time, I keep forgetting.  It was a flat style one, and quite stiff but not too bad.  I would have preferred it to have been slightly rounded at the tip, so it loses half a mark for that:

So there we have it, todays NOTD.  Which finger colour combo is your favourite?  I think mine is the ring finger, the blue and peach really work nicely, but I actually quite like them all.  Hopefully I can manage not to get bored of this one until the weekend!

 

Until next time...

 

MASPOOASE x x x

~Wendy~

Snooker Loopy! Nail Art

Hi everyone!

I hope you are well today.  Its been snowing here today, thankfully it's stopped now.  I love looking at the snow, but I HATE driving in it.  Last year it snowed, then froze, then snowed again on top of that, it was flippin deadly.  My car broke (again) on Thursday night, the bonnet  (hood) catch broke and it wouldn't close properly.  Thankfully I managed to get booked in to the garage on Saturday morning and they mended it, but that was when I was going to blog so didn't get the chance.  I did manage to squeeze in a little bit of polish shopping though, so will do some swatches later this week :)

It's been a frustrating weekend for me nailart-wise though.  It seems that I've had some brilliant ideas, but making them work on my nails has been a torment.  Sometimes they've looked ok and I've smudged them before I've photographed them, or they haven't looked anywhere near as good as they did in my mind.  There's a design based on a photo that I'm dying to do, but I really want to do it justice, and what I've produced so far is.... well, you'll see.  When I do finally get the design I like, I'll put the fail in there too to show you.  Also I've been doing my Valentines experiments.  Have come up with a few maybes, again, will include them once I get the design I like.

Anyway, on to what I have managed to produce today.  The snooker has started this weekend, and I LOVE it!  You get to know the players, and that makes the psychological element of the game even more fascinating to watch.  My favourite player is Ronnie O'Sullivan, he's the bad boy of snooker, gotta love that.

So, as I was watching the snooker I thought to myself, why not do some snooker nail art?  So I did exactly that.  Unfortunately by the time I'd finished it was dark outside, so please excuse the indoors photos.  Maybe one Sunday when I'm at a loose end, I'll do this again and put some daytime pictures in here too:

Pretty sure I got all the colours of ball in there!  These are the colours I used:

Here they are, lined up on my mantel piece.
White: OPI Alpine Snow
Black: unnamed from Simple Pleasures Halloween Scented collection, review HERE
Pink: OPI Mod About You
Blue: Barry M Cyan Blue
Yellow: Rimmel Sunshine
Green: Barry M Spring Green
Brown: Nails Inc Ganton Street
Red: Rimmel Double Decker Red
For the background 'baize' base, I used a Color Club green which I believe to be Twiggie from their Poptastic Collection, but have thrown the packaging away so can't be 100% sure.  I wish so much that Color Club put the names on the bottles.

Anyway, I'm rambling again, here's another pic:

As you can see, I was a tiiiny bit impatient with my topcoat and slightly smudged a few red balls, but in real life you don't see that.  Nowhere to hide with these close ups!

And finally, here's the BBC Snooker theme tune, the video to it is so clever and creative.  I always get excited when this comes on!

So, are you a snooker lover or a snooker hater?  I admit nail art and snooker aren't usually talked about in the same breath, but I love both!

 

Also, one final, final thing...  I noticed I've passed 50 followers, this is a really big deal for me.  I'd like to thank you, each and every one, from the bottom of my heart, for sticking with me while I work out this weird and wonderful world of blogging.  It really means alot, and I hope to keep you all entertained for as long as you'll have me!  Thank you again XXX

 

Until next time...

 

MASPOOASE x x x

~Wendy~

Nails - Rimmel Crackle First Try

Hi there again!  Hope you're all well today

I have to start this post off by saying that I've never been a fan of the look of crackle.  Have always thought that it looks a bit messy, and for some reason it reminds me of how zombies nails look in films (yes I'm a weirdo). 

I got this one as a Christmas present with some other colours, which was a lovely and thoughtful gift, but I never got inspired enough to pick up the crackle and try it.

However, this morning I was just sitting and watching TV, and for no real reason, the crackle polish popped into my head.  Well, I've never been one to ignore my 'vibes', so upstairs I went to my polish stash and got the crackle out.  I decided to paint it over bright red to give me the biggest contrast.  The red I decided to use was the brightest one I own, Pixi in No. 16.  I only have 2 Pixi polishes, but I love them both because the brush is so thin and precise.

Here's a pic of the bottles and brushes:

I was very surprised by the brush on the crackle, it's kind of like a pro-wide brush and for some reason I wasn't expecting that. 

So after applying my base coat of matte nail envy, I applied 2 coats of the Pixi, and this is how it looked:

As you can just about see, after 2 coats I still had very slight visible nail line, another coat would have sorted this out, but I didn't bother because I'd be applying the crackle over the top.  Its not self levelling, so I had to be quite slow and careful with my application.  It dried nice and quickly though!  I'd say I got both coats done and bone dry in less than 10 minutes.  Please forgive my cuticles being drier than the Sahara, I don't know what their problem is lately, it's an ongoing moisture war.

So onto the application of the crackle, have never done it before, but I have seen it done, so I knew not to just apply it like a normal polish, I did little light zig zags with not much polish on the brush, and this is what I got:

As you can see, its a kind of rubberised finish, very textured.  For me, this needs a top coat, so on with good ole Seche Vite:

Thats better!  Although it did still have some texture to it even after the top coat.  I did a slightly thicker application of crackle on the other hand, just to see how much difference it made, and here's how it came out:

Its quite handy to see these one on top of the other, as it shows that you can get some variation in the finish even when using exactly the same polishes.  I even used the same brush strokes.  I personally prefer the lighter look, but the heavier look gave more of the 'cracked' finish.

I actually like this more than I thought I would, of course the colours are a bit much for every day wear, but would be perfect to jazz up a LBD for going out dancing!  In some ways it reminds me of lava flow, and that makes me like it more.

Am now wondering (as you do) if I shouldn't have tried this before, I think a grey crackle over a lilac polish would be a nice look... hmmmm...

Anyway, would be interested to hear what you think, how do you feel about crackles?

- MASPOOASE X X X





Nails influenced by my garden

So for my first proper blog entry I thought I would show you a couple of nail pics.  I love nail varnish and have got quite a few bottles - but never enough!  A couple of different pink Konad stamping polishes came this week that I'm dying to try out, but I digress!

I personally feel that you're never too old to have fun with nail polish, and there's not such thing as an 'I wouldn't dare' colour.  If there's a colour you would never dare wear - just wear it!  Does anyone bat an eyelid?  No!  Same with nail art, if you like it, wear it.


So, as the suns been out this week it's made me want to spend a bit more time in our garden - which is tiny, the same as the house, but nonetheless its still lovely out there.  The bluebells are out at the moment, and it inspired my nail colour

The green is my one and only Dior colour, called 504 Waterlily, and the lilac is Max Factor Max Effect 08 Diva Violet.  The other hand had 3 green nails and 2 lilac ones, just to balance the look out.


The second flower inspired nails were inspired by the wallflowers at the bottom of our garden.  They're actually growing out of a wall!  They're so vibrant and they smell delicious, they cheer me up every time I walk past them, so I wanted to take that happy feeling around with me... I did that by painting my nails to match them!

The yellow is a color club polish that came in a set which I got from TK Maxx (TJ Maxx in the USA? They're brilliant for cut price brand name polish sets), the names were on the packaging which is long gone, so am sorry I can't tell you what it's called, and the orange tips were sponged on with a make up sponge and they are Rimmel Lasting Finish in 050 Tangerine Queen.  I actually took the polishes down the garden before I started to make sure I had a good match!


My last flower inspired nails were done in the spring, but they fit so well with this theme I had to include them. 

The green I used this time was Collection 2000 Hot Shots 38 Mint Mojo, the white was OPI Alpine Snow, and the yellow was Rimmel Lasting Finish 280 Sunshine.  The flowers were really easy to do, I just used a dotting tool which I got from Amazon, super cheaply, and dotted the polish onto my nail where I wanted it to go.  The good thing about this was that it looks much harder to do than it was, and I even got compliments from shop assistants when I was paying for my shopping.

All the above had a coat of Seche Vite top coat applied, which dries really fast but seems to stay dent-able for ages.

So thats it for my first proper blog entry, I've just noticed that next doors rhodedendrons are in flower, and they are bright fuchsia!  Ideas ideas.......

Feel free to comment, and I hope to see you again next week! x x x

MASPOOASE   x x x