Artsy Wednesday - Polka Dots with Barry M Nail Art Pen Review

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 - White Nailart

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~

Artsy Wednesday - Inspired by Animation

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 - 2 colours

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~

Nails Inc Candy Shop Collection swatches and review

Hi All,

A Bank Holiday again hoorah!  What with two bank holiday weekends and a weeks annual leave, the month of May has been very kind to me.  I wish every month could be like this.  And here I am, sitting in the garden blogging, living the dream haha.  I almost didn't bring my laptop outside because I thought dodgy geezers might walk past, see I've got a laptop, and come back in the night to take it.  Then I realised, who am I kidding, they're probably all standing outside the pubs by now, smoking, with no tops on.  And that's just the girls haha

So anyway, I digress as usual.  If you've been following me on Twitter for more than a couple of weeks, you'll know I was in Torquay on holiday not long ago.  I'm wondering whether I should do a post on it, but I never read other peoples holiday posts, so I probably shouldn't.  So, while I was on holiday, I took a day trip to Plymouth.  I didn't like Plymouth much, but it does have a TK Maxx and surprisingly I "accidentally" wandered in and "just happened" to make my way over to the polishes.

What I saw made me happy:

I'd almost bought this at full price on the Nails Inc website, but had decided not to, and I'm glad I waited!  As you can see from the price sticker (over one of the polishes as usual), this collection has been priced, as the Nails Inc collections in there usually are, at £14.99.  As Nails Inc's can go for £11 each, £14.99 for 4 is a good deal!  So I snapped it up.  I was super excited too.  Other half said to me "If I'd known you'd get this excited over some polishes, I'd have bought you some of those instead of taking you on holiday", ha!

So this weekend is the first real chance I've had to swatch them properly, so here I am sharing them with you.  The first one I tried was the one I was most excited about in the shop, Wimbledon, in the shade:

And here it is in the sun, (with a hair that I didn't notice in real life, how does that even happen?):

Now I don't often say this about Nails Inc cremes, but I was a bit disappointed with the formula.  It was pretty watery, and it bubbled a bit too.  It felt.... over thinned.  Maybe as it gets a bit older it may improve.  I wonder if they've tried to make it extra fast drying, and this is the formula they came up with.  It did dry really fast, but when you need more coats, it's hardly worth it.  I had to do 3 coats to get a non-patchy finish, and I was surprised by that, not in a good way.  But still, it is a pretty green-yellow-green colour, and unique in my stash, so I have a feeling that I'll still be reaching for it again, despite its shortcomings.

Then when I was taking Wimbledon off, I managed to break off the corner of the nail on my middle finger, which had been peeling, and had to file my nails down a bit.  That's ok though, they were getting a bit deformed looking anyway, they always curl over on the edges when they get too long.

The next I tried was Oxford, a pretty baby blue.  Here it is in the shade:

This had a similar formulation to Wimbledon, but perhaps a tad more forgiving, as I only needed two coats.  I do like it, but I already own some very similar Nails Inc light blues, so even though I quite like it I'm not blown away.   Here it is in the sun.  As you can see, it dries darker on the nail than it shows in the bottle:

The next one I tried was the final pastel in the set.  Cambridge, which is a delicate lilac.  Oh, just writing this I clicked, Oxford and Cambridge, doh!
Here it is in the shade:

Maybe a little bit too much shade there haha.  Here it is in the sun:

It was the same, slightly disappointing over thinned formula.  Three coats required to eliminate patchiness. 

Now don't get me wrong, it's not an awful formula, it's just that I know that Nails Inc can do cremes better than ANYONE when they choose to, so I always expect great things from them.  Most of my one coater cremes are Nails Inc.  If this had been my first ever Nails Inc purchase, I'd have been wondering what all the fuss was about.  Oh well.

The final polish in the set, doesn't really fit with the theme at all, it's not a pastel, and now I've noticed the name thing, it doesn't seem to match with that either.  I give you Richmond:

Again, it would seem I've slightly misjudged actually how shady it was in that corner, so here's the sunshine version:

Although I'm not the biggest fan of shimmers, this peach with blush colour shimmer would probably be a pretty nice combo if the peach polish wasn't so sheer.  This is 4 coats, and still you see the evil VNL.

In order to make up for that, I'll review a different peach instead, which COULD have fitted nicely into this collection.  It's called You're a Peach, and it came free with Instyle Magazine.  I love freebies, me:

That's more like it!  Two coats for peachy loveliness. 

And just to prove this was a better one for the set, I used the other pastels from the collection for a dotticure over it:

It's a little bit bumpy, could probably do with another coat of Seche, but you get the idea, right?  Somehow it reminds me of pyjama bottoms.

And there we have it, one collection swatched and reviewed, so what do you think?  What's your favourite brand in terms of formula, are there any others that do great cremes?

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

Artsy Wednesday - Inspired By My First Blog Post

Hi there everyone,

Here we have my first ever Artsy Wednesday post!  I was amazed and delighted when Catrine at Unnaked Nails invited me to join the Artsy Wednesday gang.  I've always enjoyed her posts but never dreamed that I might be joining in!

Funnily enough, the first challenge takes  me right back to the beginning of my blog.  It's quite appropriate really, as I'm nearly at my blogs first anniversary.  My first nail art post, which was my second ever overall post, was Nails Inspired By My Garden (link)

There were three nail art looks there.  One was just a skittle, one was a gradient, and the third was actual nail art.  Here's the picture from the original post:

Well, I remember quite enjoying wearing this one, so this was the one I picked to recreate.

 

In the picture above I used Collection 2000 Mint Mojo as the green, but elsewhere in the post I had also used Dior's Waterlily which is a very similar colour.  Well, I've been wanting to do a review on the Dior polish for a while, so I thought I would paint my nails in that, review it in a blog post, and then use it for the base for the manicure for this post.  Multitasking!

 

So here's how it came out:



As you can see, the main difference is that I've got a better camera now.  I only bought a better camera because I was frustrated at how my blog pics were coming out.  It's still just a point and shoot, but a bit better quality than the previous one.  I actually don't think the manicure looks any different one year on!  At least I'm consistent.

Here's another pic:

This white/yellow colour combination always reminds me of fried eggs, ha!  I'd forgotten how much I like this green, I hardly ever wear it, what a waste.  The white is OPI Alpine Snow, and the yellow is Rimmel Sunshine.  The dotting tool was a Cheeky one, you can get the whole set super-cheap from Amazon UK (here)

And just to show I did both hands for a change, here's my 'Cinderella' hand.  It's not used to modelling:

And there we have it!  My first Artsy Wednesday post, I hope I can live up to the high standards of everyone else!  I kind of wish my first blog post had been a bit more demanding haha. 

It also means I have to be disciplined and make sure that my posts are ready to be scheduled on time, which is a challenge all of its own.  I'm excited and a bit daunted to have joined such a talented group of girls, but who knows, it might make me raise my game!  Have already got some excellent ideas for the next Artsy Wednesday posts, so watch this space.  And I am going to try scheduling this post to publish automatically, which I've never done before, so it will be interesting to see if it works.

I hope you've enjoyed this, I certainly have enjoyed recreating and reminiscing!

Check out all of the other super-talented girls recreations:

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~

Nail Art Gradient Inspired By Actual Art

Hey there again!

I'm back again, with a post I'm really excited about.  Now it's no secret that I despise sponging, it's just so messy.  But every now and then a flash of inspiration hits me and I can't resist. 

I have a friend on Twitter, Adam McLevey, who's an artist.  He's currently mid-way through a series called The Persona Project (link here) where he paints his character Steve in a variety of disguises. 

I love seeing the different canvasses come along each day, and of course, me being me, sometimes I think, ooh I could do that on my nails!  He recently painted a Persona canvas based on the film Hellboy, and the background of it 'pinged' at me. 

So here's what I came up with, and I kinda love it:

Now, it has to be said, this is loads zingier colour-wise in real life.  I've tried to correct it, but I just couldn't get it to look exact with my camera.

I've taken a picture on my phone, which is a bit closer to the real colours (but blurrier):

My cuticle clean up isn't brilliant, but I'm not too bothered about that, it will wash off eventually.

And here's a slice of the picture that started it.  I wasn't too sure about how much I could show, either for copyright, or without offending the artist, so I played it safe (hopefully) and just used a bit which shows the gradient I'm going on about, from a screenshot of his webpage:

As you see, the 'warm' side is much more orangey than my nailart - if I did this again I would use a different colour, but I'm pleased with how the green and the yellow came out.

Here's the polishes I used:

Collection 2000 Hot Looks in 64 Hidden
Collection 2000 Hot Looks in 45 Lemon Soda
Boots Natural Collection in Antique Coral
OPI Red Lights Ahead... Where?
Elf mini polish in Black (not pictured)

Oh, OK, one last pic of my masterpiece haha:

I think this came out really well, and I'm dying to publish this so you can all see it!

Incidentally, the Persona canvases would make a brilliant gift for the guy (or girl) who's got everything, and most of the Persona's include worldwide shipping, so bear it in mind next time you've got a present to buy for that difficult one.  Alot of these canvasses are only £20 - bargain!

He also paints commissions if you've got any art you'd like to have done.  Incidentally, I'm not being paid in any way, money or goods for this post, I just think his art is fab.  You can visit his Persona shop (here)

So what do you think?  Are you a fan of gradients, or do you usually avoid them like me?

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

Gradient Dots Nailart

Morning All!

How you doing today?  I've got a hangover haha!  Too much gin last night by far.  Have had some toast and LOTS of tea and am starting to feel vaguely human again.  One of the good things to come out of last night is that I ordered the Models Own Fruit Pastel collection, and then forgot, so when I woke up this morning and checked my emails, it was a nice surprise!  Lucky that's all I bought really.  I once bought all my sisters birthday presents while under the influence and had them shipped directly to her, she got some strange things!  Mind you I bought her a 'grow your own unusual vegetables' kit this year, and wasn't even drunk, I'm definitely a random gift buyer.

Also I was shocked to see that there were some of you lovely people that I'm not following!  Hopefully I've rectified that now.  If I've missed you, just give me a shout!

Another good thing to come out of last night was todays mani.  The checkerboard mani I wanted to do came out all wrong, so after going online and buying some stamping plates so I can do that mani properly, I decided to go with dots instead.  I feel like some of my nailart on here recently has been a bit lacklustre, and so I didn't want to post something that I wasn't totally happy with.

I wanted to make them a little bit different, so instead of redipping my dotter each time to keep my dots uniform, I loaded a decent amount of polish on the dotter and dotted straight down my nail without reloading it.  Here's what I came up with:

The base for this mani is Nails Inc The Southbank, a perfect light grey to use as a base for nailart.  As you can see, I've smudged my little finger at some point during the night, and my middle finger dots went a bit Siamese twinly, but never mind, that's life.  My awful middle finger cuticle is starting to heal now, but am still painting it out so you don't have to witness it's ugliness.  I believe I used two coats of The Southbank, but it could have been one because the formula is brilliant, and (due to gin) I can't remember haha.

This lovely fuschia is Nails Inc Devonshire Row.  It's one of my favourite polishes, and I use it alot.  You can see more nailart using Devonshire Row on my posts (here) and (here) if you like.  It also made my All Time Top Ten Polishes post (link)

The yellow is Color Club Almost Famous from their Poptastic Collection:

Such a punchy bright yellow!  I don't think I've been disappointed with any Color Club polishes I've bought yet.  I think in celebration of Easter I may do a comparison of the yellow polishes I own, will see how the weekend goes. 

And finally, here's the two polishes together, the sun's out at last, hooray!

So jolly!  Just looking at this combination makes me smile, and now thanks to the wonder of nail art, if I feel a bit down, all I have to do is look down at my nails and cheer myself up again.

How about you, what's your favourite colour combo?

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~