Another Wednesday, another nailart! This weeks theme is geometric, and I'm keeping it simple. I shopped like a BOSS last weekend and got all my Christmas shopping done, how cool is that? Now I have to wrap it all and get it sent off, which is probably more effort than buying it. I'm not complaining though, I'll pour myself a G&T and put some music on, and it'll be soon done and dusted.
I feel like I don't have five minutes to myself recently, so I just rustled these up in a jiffy. The base is Maybelline Express Finish in Silver Speed, which is my go-to silver. This is two coats and it really is nice and fast drying.
I had better show you a picture! Here you go:
I created black triangles at my cuticles with my new Barry M Nailart Pen, which for some reason seemed to be in the mood to turn itself into a crackle effect polish. Not liking that. I don't know if it's because I hadn't waited for the base coat to fully dry, but it's something I'll have to watch to see if it does it alot.
Here's a pic in more natural light (that lifelong winter lighting problem):
Then I used my Color Club Artclub red striper to draw a line under the black block. I have to say that the quality of the Color Club stripers are fab, I got mine in a set from TK Maxx (of course) but I've seen them on Amazon for around a fiver including delivery (link)
I was going to do more to it, but I actually like the simplicity of this. It was fast and easy, and it reminds me of the 80's styles, which is all the more reason for me to like it.
I have a split on the edge of the nail on my ring finger (bah) which means I'll have to go back down to shorties soon, but I've had a super-long run without any breakages at all so I can't complain. Actually it's my own fault, as I had a week off the perfect formula strengthener, and now the split. I got a bit too lax, oh well.
One more pic. This one under the kitchen light. It really shows that crackling I was telling you about earlier:
I've actually done my first Christmas nailart design of the year too, I'll pop the photos up for you soon to have a gander at.
But until then, why not take a look at the geometric designs that the other lovely Artsy Wednesday ladies have come up with?
Catrine at Unnaked Nails (link)
Michelle at Labmuffin (link)
Maria at Maria's Nail Polish Blog (link)
Melanie at Nail and Polish (link)
Ameerah at Valiantly Varnished (link)
Anna & Haylee at Makeup and Masala (link)
Rosemarie at Every Little Polish (link)
Anna at Makeup N More (link)
Thanks for reading, and I hope you liked it!
Until next time...
MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~
Really? Last minute rush again, me? I'm so glad this weeks challenge is polka dots, as they're quick and easy. Also I've been itching to give my new Barry M nailart pens a go, and let you know what I think. I looked up the definition of polka dot on Google, and it said 'a regular pattern of round dots, usually on fabric'. Which actually changed my idea of what to do, as my orginal pattern wasn't going to be at all regular. Good old Google.
I got these nailart pens last weekend when I was *supposed* to be Christmas shopping. I ended up bringing more home for myself than I did for friends and family, oops! Happily my TK Maxx are getting their polish stocks back up for the festivities, but nothing really shouted 'buy me' this time. I'm happy to see that they're starting to sell individual polishes in there too, because all too often I'll have to buy a set of three just to get one colour I want. There were L'Oreal polishes in Poundland though, and I picked a couple of those up.
I did make a start though. One person has a present haha.
So, back to the nails. I started with a base of Nails Inc's Bruton Street. I like this colour, it's a pretty neutral dusky pink that's most definitely safe for work, while managing to be at least a bit interesting.
Also flattering to my skintone and with great opacity, I've only used one coat here. It's an all round winner for me. I did somehow manage to apply it a bit unevenly on the end of my ring finger, but that's my fault for rushing, not the polish formulation.
So here's a picture of what I did:
I was really impressed with the Barry M Nail Art Pens. The polish flowed neatly out of them, and they were incredibly precise. As you can see, I managed to do teeny weeny dots, and it took no time at all.
Here's a pic of the nibs, they're not like traditional felt tips, they're sort of a hard plastic, but lovely and smooth to use:
The one thing I did notice is that when I tried to do stripes with them, my initial line went slightly thinner as it dried, and sometimes I had to do over it twice to get the thickness I wanted. That didn't bother me too much though, and as you can see it worked brilliantly for dots.
Here's what the full pens look like:
The nailart pens also came in pink and silver, but I didn't buy those. They were £4.99 each in Superdrug, and at the moment they are having a 3-for-2 offer, so you could pick up 3 at a good price if you're quick.
One last picture of the nails:
So, there we go, I was really pleased with the quality of the Barry M Nailart Pens, and would definitely recommend them. They're quick, easy, and mess free.
Don't forget to check out what the rest of this weeks dotty ladies have to offer:
Catrine at Unnaked Nails (link)
Michelle at Labmuffin (link)
Maria at Maria's Nail Polish Blog (link)
Melanie at Nail and Polish (link)
Ameerah at Valiantly Varnished (link)
Anna & Haylee at Makeup and Masala (link)
Rosemarie at Every Little Polish (link)
Anna at Makeup N More (link)
So, have you tried the Barry M pens? Did you like them as much as me? Are you a fan of dotty nails?
Until next time...
MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~
Artsy Wednesday once more! These days whizz around I can tell you. This weeks offering is the product of one of those happy occasions where you just throw something together out of neccessity and it actually comes out okay. Nice one!
As quite often happens with me, it was after 9pm on Tuesday night when I started thinking about doing these nails. As I work all day through the week, I have to prepare my posts beforehand, so this really is the last chance saloon. I have of course been trying to think up designs for a couple of days, but it turns out that white is quite difficult to think of designs for.
I went through all the thoughts of glitter accent nails, or crystals/glequins, but nothing really made me think, ooh yes I'd like to try that. So I just went upstairs to my polishes, grabbed the obvious white, OPI's Alpine Snow, and thought, what colour do I really like with white? And as it happens only one colour came to mind, and that's orange. Now, I have done an orange and white manicure on the blog before, (here's the link) but that was stamping, and that means waiting for the base to dry, and no time for that today, not even with Seche!
So here's what I came up with:
One of the brightest oranges I own is Essie's Orange It's Obvious, which I swatched and reviewed in full (here) so I thought I'd go with that. A good nailart technique to use if you're in a rush is dotting, because you don't have to wait for the base colour to dry fully before you get on with the art. I decided to make random flowers instead of plain dots, just because I wouldn't have to take so much care (and therefore time) over it, and actually, I like the results!
Here's another pic with the bottle getting a look-in:
As you can see, the Essie dries a shade or so darker on the nail than it shows in the bottle. I used one quite thin coat, and then one thickish one because I was in a rush (as I think I've mentioned haha).
And I might as well put in the last picture, seeing as I took the time to edit it:
Back to indoor photos now, as there's no light left in the sky when I get home from work. But to be honest, I didn't really take that much advantage of it even when there was. So many more fun things to do when the sun's out, like sunbathing and reading a book in the garden. I actually enjoy my polishes more in the winter, when I'm indoors and sitting still long enough to let them dry properly.
Why not take a look at what whiteys the rest of the Artsy Wednesday crew have come up with:
Catrine at Unnaked Nails (link)
Michelle at Labmuffin (link)
Maria at Maria's Nail Polish Blog (link)
Melanie at Nail and Polish (link)
Emily at An Accent Nail (link)
Ameerah at Valiantly Varnished (link)
Anna & Haylee at Makeup and Masala (link)
Rosemarie at Every Little Polish (link)
Anna at Makeup N More (link)
All in all, I like this, and I think I'll definitely have a go at it in some other colours. What's your go-to "in a rush" nailart technique?
Until next time...
MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~
Hi All!
Here I am again with this weeks Artsy Wednesday. The last Artsy Wednesday was Disney, and I had quite a good idea for it, but every way I tried to do it, it just came out in a mess. Eventually I got that stressed out with it that I decided not to put anything at all up. I think sometimes you have to know when you're beat haha.
This week is quite a straightforward theme of crystals. I am a total magpie, so I have plenty of pretty shiny things to put on my nails. The challenge for me was to try to come up with something a little bit original, and hopefully I've managed that.
Here's what I came up with:
The base polish is the lovely A-England Tristam. Here it looks like it has a silver sparkle in it, but in real life that's a very subtle holo. This is one coat, and it had enough coverage. If I intended this mani to last I would still do two coats though, just for the extra wear.
I then stuck some crystal stars straight onto the wet polish. I got these ones from ebay, in a wheel with different sizes and shapes in it.
Here's another picture:
My nails are far too long at the moment. I keep waiting for one to break so I've got a reason to cut them down, but they seem to want to stay long right now! I will have to cut them soon though, because once they get to a certain length typing gets uncomfortable.
I'm sure now that the weather's turned cold they'll start to dry out a bit. I love this autumny weather, my woolly jumpers are already out, and I've broken out the hot chocolate too, yum! Hopefully I'll get a lovely crisp day soon to take a walk and get some lovely photos to share with you.
I hope you like my blingy offering! Don't forget to check out what the other lovelies came up with:
Catrine at Unnaked Nails (link)
Michelle at Labmuffin (link)
Maria at Maria's Nail Polish Blog (link)
Melanie at Nail and Polish (link)
Emily at An Accent Nail (link)
Ameerah at Valiantly Varnished (link)
Anna & Haylee at Makeup and Masala (link)
Rosemarie at Every Little Polish (link)
Anna at Makeup N More (link)
Until next time...
MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~
Disorganised, me? Well, ok yes this time I admit it, I was not at all ready for this weeks AW. Hence, it's half ten on Tuesday night, and all I have is some hurriedly taken photos. Lots on my mind at the mo, and life seems to be escaping me a bit. I'm sure it'll all come together in the end, these things usually do! My cuticles are misbehaving again too, despite getting more care and attention than the queen, ungrateful devils!
The idea for todays mani, I'm calling a blobicure. I didn't want to do dots or stripes again, and I did try, and fail, at some stamping at the weekend. So I thought I'd keep this one easy. I painted my nails with Nails Inc's Wimbledon, reviewed in full (here) and then just used my spotter nailart brush reviewed (here) to blob on various green polishes. Here's how it came out:
I quite like the abstract look of this. It reminds me a bit of the wreath nailart I did at Christmas, which I loved, (link) and I'd definitely like to try this same design in different colours using acrylic paints, I really think it has potential. Plus it's easy to do, which is always a bonus!
Here's the greens I used:
L-R: Barry M Gelly Key Lime, Gosh in Forest Floor, Nails Inc Wimbledon, and Barry M Spring Green
Here's one last pic:
I hope you like it! Thanks for reading, and check out what the other girls have to offer:
Catrine at Unnaked Nails (link)
Michelle at Labmuffin (link)
Maria at Maria's Nail Polish Blog (link)
Melanie at Nail and Polish (link)
Jessica at Beauty Gnome (link)
Emily at An Accent Nail (link)
Ameerah at Valiantly Varnished (link)
Anna & Haylee at Makeup and Masala (link)
Rosemarie at Every Little Polish (link)
Anna at Makeup N More (link)
Until next time (probably in two weeks haha)
MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~
These Wednesdays come around quick! This weeks theme is three colours. I've had these pics ready for a few days, then nearly forgot to write my post, silly me!
I won't bend your ears too much this week, a cold is hovering about, and it's doing it's best to get me. Early night and cosy jim jams for me tonight. Oh, the high life...
Without further ado, here's the nails:
I'm quite pleased with how these turned out, considering they didn't take me very long to do. I started off with a base of Nails Inc's You're a Peach, which came free with Glamour Magazine quite a while back. Then I drew a stripe down the middle of my nails with Layla's holo polish Coffee Love. I'm not in love with the full nail application of the Layla holographic polishes, they're too prone to bald spots, but for this purpose it worked just fine.
I then made a border down the sides of that with my Precis brown striper polish, and there we have it! A coat of Seche topped it off.
No sun today, but of course I can still find a place to show you that full holo goodness:
There we go, much better! I enjoyed wearing this very much, it felt just right for this late summer/early autumn time.
Here's one last pic, close up:
Don't forget to check out what the other talented ladies have to offer. It's always amazing how different our designs are with the same brief!
Catrine at Unnaked Nails (link)
Michelle at Labmuffin (link)
Maria at Maria's Nail Polish Blog (link)
Melanie at Nail and Polish (link)
Jessica at Beauty Gnome (link)
Emily at An Accent Nail (link)
Ameerah at Valiantly Varnished (link)
Anna & Haylee at Makeup and Masala (link)
Rosemarie at Every Little Polish (link)
Anna at Makeup N More (link)
Until next time...
MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~
Just a really quick one from me this week, I couldn't think of anything at all to match with this weeks theme, as I don't really watch many animated programmes at all. However, I didn't want to let the side down, so I came up with a mani anyway.
I used two new polishes that I bought at the weekend, both from Superdrug, from a section called 'B'.
They were on 1/3rd off, and I think I paid less than £3 for each. They are both from the B. Quick range. A cream peach called damsel, and a pretty foil peach called precious.
Here's how it looks:
I changed the look around for the other hand:
I only used one coat with each, which is always a winner. The brush was the wide type and a little bit too stiff for my liking, but not desperately bad.
And, because we're talking about peach, obviously my choice of animation has to be James and the Giant Peach!
I'm sure the other girls will have been more inspired, why not take a look:
Catrine at Unnaked Nails (link)
Michelle at Labmuffin (link)
Maria at Maria's Nail Polish Blog (link)
Melanie at Nail and Polish (link)
Jessica at Beauty Gnome (link)
Emily at An Accent Nail (link)
Ameerah at Valiantly Varnished (link)
Anna & Haylee at Makeup and Masala (link)
Rosemarie at Every Little Polish (link)
Anna at Makeup N More (link)
Until next time...
MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~
Artsy Wednesday again already! This weeks theme is the colour blue. I decided to go for something super easy which needs no special tools whatsoever. As I mentioned last time, matte topcoat is my new favourite thing, so I decided to incorporate that too.
I started with Model's Own True Blue. It was a nice formula, opaque in two coats, but I did find the brush quite awkward to paint neatly at my cuticles with. Here it is by itself:
Darker or vibrant colours don't usually do my skintone any favours, but I think I can almost get away with this one.
And then I decided I'd like to see it mattified, so I added a coat of Rimmel Matte Topcoat:
This topcoat doesn't give a completely matte finish, more of an eggshell finish, but I like it. It does make the colour appear paler.
So, onto the nail art! I've never done a matte/shiny look before, so that's what I decided to do:
All I did was use Seche Vite, with the brush straight from the bottle, and made random blobs over the mattified nails. It makes them look like they're splashed with water, even though they're completely dry. I really like it.
Here's another pic, this time outside:
Someone told me the colour reminded them of the TARDIS from Doctor Who, and now I like it even more!
What do you think? Have you tried matte/shiny yet?
Lots more blue looks to see from the rest of the gang:
Catrine at Unnaked Nails (link)
Michelle at Labmuffin (link)
Maria at Maria's Nail Polish Blog (link)
Melanie at Nail and Polish (link)
Jessica at Beauty Gnome (link)
Emily at An Accent Nail (link)
Ameerah at Valiantly Varnished (link)
Anna & Haylee at Makeup and Masala (link)
Rosemarie at Every Little Polish (link)
Until next time...
MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~
I hope you're doing great today? I'm so excited to bring you todays nails.
The weather's finally broken, and after 3 weeks of non stop dry and sunny weather, we've had storms for the last few days. I don't mind that though, I think that one of the good things about living in the UK is that the weather seldom stays stable long enough to get bored of it. What on earth would we make small talk about otherwise?
This weeks Artsy Wednesday theme is "designer inspired". Of course it's not that long since I did my Louis Vuitton nails (link) so if I was really lazy, I could always repost them! But I'm not really lazy (most of the time), so I came up with something else.
Rather than going down the fashion designer route, I took my inspiration from other quarters. As well as nail art design, I also love interior design, particularly anything that's beautiful to look at as well as functional. Form and function together really floats my boat :-)
There is a dutch design house started by a man called Joris Laarman who are really creating some inspirational and innovative designs. One of my favourite creations is their furniture range called "Bone".
Here's the nail design I did based around one of their chairs:
I'm really happy with this design. It came out even better than I planned. The base polish is OPI Skull and Glossbones, and then I mixed up black and white acrylic paints until I came up with a grey I was happy with. In real life Skull and Glossbones is a taupe/grey and that really makes a difference.
Then I used my new BFF bargain nailart brush, the Daler Rowney spotter 10/0 brush from my blog post at the weekend (link) to paint on the design.
Here's a screenshot from the Joris Laarman website (link) to show you what I'm talking about:
How beautiful is this? It's so elegant whilst managing to be Art Nouveaux yet modern. I love it.
I picked small sections of the picture of the chair, and painted those on my nails. Here's another pic:
I like that this design is abstract. It's attracted alot of positive comments, and people have seen many different things in it, from trees to veins haha.
I even managed to do my other hand, although not quite so nicely of course:
I've definitely found this an addictive design. I can't stop looking at it! I love that it reminds me of that beautiful, beautiful, chair, without actually being a chair on my nails.
I'll be so sad when it chips and I have to take it off, but I suppose that just makes room for more designs :-)
The other girls in the Artsy Wednesday group will have done their nails too! Here's their links:
Catrine at Unnaked Nails (link)
Michelle at Labmuffin (link)
Maria at Maria's Nail Polish Blog (link)
Melanie at Nail and Polish (link)
Jessica at Beauty Gnome (link)
Emily at An Accent Nail (link)
Ameerah at Valiantly Varnished (link)
Anna & Haylee at Makeup and Masala (link)
Rosemarie at Every Little Polish (link)
What do you think? Do you like abstract designs?
Until next time...
MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~
Hi there guys and girls,
Here I am, back with another installment of Artsy Wednesday. This weeks theme means that we can only use 2 colours. I was pretty excited about that, because while it's quite restricting, it's also very liberating, as they can of course be ANY two colours!
At first I wanted to do black and white, as it's supposed to be uber-trendy this season. Then I had a bit of a think. OK, so the magazines are telling me it's trendy, but apart from a few aztec leggings, I haven't really seen many people actually wearing it. So is it just a trend they tried to make that didn't catch on? Or maybe I'm not mixing in fashionable enough circles, which is always a possibility haha.
So then I toned it down a bit, and did yellow and navy. And while it wasn't a total disasticure, it wasn't really neat enough, so I dismissed that one too. I'll post a pic at the end of the post to show you.
So then I tried copper and blue. Which was nice, but I wanted to stamp with it, and the copper wasn't opaque enough. So FINALLY that brought me round to what I finally came up with. Pink and grey. Why didn't I think of that straight off the bat? It's one of my favourite colour combos. *hits self on head*
I'm still having to use my weaker hand to paint with at the mo, as the left hand little fingernail that I was patching up finally grew out past my nail line, so I ripped it off. I'm no good at getting my patches smooth, so it was making any polish job look a bit poor. And since I don't want to subject you to the odd length nails I'm sporting on that hand at the moment, it's a weak hand mani or nothing!
Therefore I knew it couldn't be anything too complicated, so I brought out my tools. This is what I came up with:
These are both Nails Inc polishes. The pink is Marble Arch, and the grey is The Southbank. The formula on both of these polishes is excellent, and they could both be one coaters if your nails aren't too ridgey.
I painted my nails with alternating colours, and then applied a coat of Seche Vite. This is a tip I picked up from Sammy at the Nailasaurus (link to post) in her tutorial. Then once that was dry I stuck a paper filing hole reinforcer to the top of my nail and then some striping tape stretching between the reinforcer and the free edge of my nail. Then I painted over the top with the opposite colour, then peeled off the reinforcer and striping tape immediately after.
Once I had done this with all my nails, I then did my dots with a smallish dotting tool.
These are the tools I used:
The striping tape is actually gridding tape from Ryman the Stationers (link) I have both the 1.5mm and the 3mm versions, but on this occasion I used the 3mm, which is a bit wider than regular striping tape, and I like it because I don't find it curls as badly as usual striping tape. The reinforcers were just cheap ones from Wilkinson. The dotting tool is a Cheeky one I got from a set from Amazon (link) £1.63 for 5 with free shipping, how do they do those prices? So nothing too expensive there (apart from the polishes of course) if you want to create this look on a budget.
I'm on a low-buy myself at the moment, because my cars tax, MOT (two new tyres, could have been worse) and insurance have all come along at once, sigh...
Here's a pic of the nailart in the sunshine:
I really like how this came out. Marble Arch is a softer version of Devonshire Row, one of my favourite Nails Inc polishes. It's got a colour block look to it without being too plain. Here's the gratuitous bottle shot:
It manages to be quite striking without being too in your face. Unlike my original attempt, which I mentioned at the start of the post:
I painted my nails light yellow, and then used a Sally Hansen nailart pen to draw the design. The idea isn't too bad, but my lines are the little bit too wobbly for my liking. It maybe would have been easier with a striper.
Once again I'm grateful to Artsy Wednesday for making me get off my bum and do some blogging. I haven't had any inspiration for a week or so, and this has woken my brain up again.
Don't forget to check out what the other lovely Artsy Wednesday girls have to offer this week, it's always fascinating so see how different our designs come out even when the theme is the same:
Catrine at Unnaked Nails (link)
Michelle at Labmuffin (link)
Maria at Maria's Nail Polish Blog (link)
Melanie at Nail and Polish (link)
Jessica at Beauty Gnome (link)
Emily at An Accent Nail (link)
Ameerah at Valiantly Varnished (link)
And a big welcome to our newest additions *waves*
Anna & Haylee at Makeup and Masala (link)
Rosemarie at Every Little Polish (link)
Do you have a favourite two colour look? I'd love to see it!
Until next time...
MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~
