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~

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~

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~

Valentines Nail Art - Ideas for short nails

Hi there,

Here I am again, have had a day off work today for a dentists appointment, so managed to get some cheeky mid-week nailart in.  I can't wait until summer when I get enough light at night to let me post more than just at the weekends!

My index nail finally gave up the ghost, it got a big dent in the weak bit, so I've had to file all the other nails down to match.  In a way it's a relief, because I was fed up of babying it along, and now it can grow back nice and strong again.

Also, it's given me a chance to show you that nail art isn't only for long nails! 

I specifically haven't included any stamping here, because I think there'll probably be alot of that around at the moment.  I actually saw some stamping sets in Claires Accessories today, so if you don't want to buy from the internet, then you can pop to Claire's to pick one up.  There was only a choice of 3 plates, but knowing Claire's, they'll improve that if they sell enough kits.  I think they were £9.00 (or maybe £12).  I don't see them on their website yet.

I've tried to do a few different designs, to hopefully get your creative juices going, I know what it's like when you just have a bleugh day, you look at your polishes and no mojo... 

I start with a semi-fail.  I found a new shop in carlisle called Fun-2-Do, which has all craft stuff in it.  They do have a website, HERE but not every item in the shop is on the site.  So anyway, I was in there, and I saw some table confetti, it was little red hearts and they looked like they'd be good for nail art.  I've also think I've seen them on Amazon HERE but I can't be definite they're exactly the same ones.

So I used them in my nail art and....
Oh no! They bleeeeedddd.... This is not good, I have a BIG bag of these!  So I had to come up with something.  The red I used is China Glaze Ruby Pumps, how pretty is it?!  Two coats here.  It reminds me so much of juicy strawberry jam.  The pink is OPI Mod About You.  You're going to see alot of that pink in this post, as it's my number one light pink.  On my thumb I taped off to do the lines, but on the rest of the fingers I decided that was too much hassle, and just freehanded.  A top coat of seche which was intended to make it look prettier haha.

I did do another look, that I decided not to go with, but I managed to topcoat it without bleeding it:

For that look I used Color Club polishes Antiquated and Hot Like Lava from their Foiled Metallics collection.

What I decided to do was to try to take the colour off them with polish remover.  Initially I put some in a freezer bag with some polish remover.  The idea was to swish them about a bit, rinse them off, et voila!  Nice clean non-bleedy hearts.  It didn't quite work out, the bag leaked, I lost a load while I was rinsing them, and all in all it was more hassle than it was worth. 

It was much easier to give them a rub with a cotton pad dipped in polish remover one by one.  Yes it seems like it might take longer, but actually it's not too bad.

So now I have silver hearts instead of red.  So I have to come up with a new colour scheme.  This is what I went with:

I messed up a bit, as I made the index finger stripe too thin, but hey, we're just experimenting here!  The polishes I used were OPI Mod About You (I told you that you'd see it alot) for the light pink, and the darker pink is Nails Inc's Bruton Street.  Both have lovely formulas and are topped off with Seche.  I could have done with another coat of Seche really, because by the end of the day I'd lost a few hearts.

So these looks I actually did last weekend, and today I did another one.  Well, it's two into one really, because there's step one, which is one look, and step two which is different....  I'll just get on with it shall I...

So, because I didn't get my tooth mended at the dentist (had to make another appointment, as it was apparently just a check up appointment that time, sigh), I thought I would go shopping to cheer myself up.  And SOMEHOW found my way into Fun-2-Do again.  I found some more hearts, and thought I would take a chance.  These were the ones I got, they cost me £1.50:

Now, I couldn't find these on their website, or anywhere else for that matter, but as soon as I got home I tested them, and HOORAY they don't bleed!  Typically of me though, I decided not to use the red ones today haha.  I went for the gold ones, and a Butter London polish called Fiddlesticks that I bought before Christmas and havent used yet.

I thought I'd keep it clean and simple:

This does have a coat of Seche over it, as it dries to a matt-ish sheen.  It's got a very similar glitter feel to ruby pumps, only much more magenta.  Think raspberry jam instead of strawberry.  Also here you can see how short my index nail is now.

Here's another pic as I loved this look so much:

This look worked really well in low light, as the hearts picked up any bit of light and flashed brightly every time I moved my hands.

Then of course, I got bored of being understated and stylish.

So I made another look with it:

To do this, all I did was used a ring reinforcer to mask off the top of my nail, I got mine from Amazon link HERE but you can buy them from lots of places.  I then used my Color Club pink striper, also from Amazon, to draw some stripes on the ends of my fingers.  I started with the middle stripe and worked my way out to try to get them even.  I messed up one stripe on my little finger, but I think this look turned out be pretty, and perfectly demonstrates that short nails don't have to be boring.

And I STILL wasn't finished!  I had one more idea.  I got my trusty Mod About You out, and Nails Inc's Devonshire Row.  The two went so well together, but what to do?  Then I realised I hadn't done any dotty looks yet, so I got out my dotter and away I went.

This is what I ended up with:

Now the heart on my middle finger didn't come out exactly how I wanted, but you can still tell what it is, so that's ok.   I topped it off with a coat of Seche.  As you can probably tell I was starting to lose the light by this time.  Probably a better represtentation of the colours is in this picture:

So there you see, on short nails and still pretty.  I actually really like these two colours together, and they are going on my 'do this again' list.

And that's it!  Which is your favourite?  I think mine is the Butter London stripy one, but the dots come a close second. 

Have you got any nailart planned for Valentines?  Hopefully if you've been stuck for ideas I've given you a bit of inspiration.  Please feel free to recreate any of these looks if you like them, and if you do, please give me a shout, I'd love to see!

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~

Lace Dots Pink Nail Art

Hi everyone!
 
Naileys you can look again now :)
 
Today I've got some nail art for you that was inspired in no small part by a Youtube tutorial from nailart guru and all round lovely lady, Plasmaspeedo.  I'm a massive fangirl of her videos.  If you want to see her tutorial, HERES the link.  I asked her if it was ok for me to do some nailart based her her design and she said no problem, so here it is!

I wanted a nailart look that I could wear to work, and that means no crazy colours, so I selected Nails Inc Marble Arch, which is a nice light cerise, or punchy pink, whichever way you like to look at it.

I did divert slightly from her tutorial, here's how it ended up, and then I'll get on to how I did it:

Apologies in advance for the quality of the step-by-step pictures, my camera was on the wrong setting and I didn't notice until after, doh!

So firstly, after my basecoat, I applied one coat of Marble Arch just on the bottom two thirds of my nail.  I didn't use tape, just freehanded because I'd be covering up the line anyway:


As you can see, it's by no means perfect, but that was just as good as I needed it to be.

Then, using Konad White stamping polish, and Bundle Monster plate BM-324, I covered the line across the top.  I believe the plate is from the 2012 collection:

Again, not perfect, I haven't done much stamping lately, and am way out of practice! Also I was a bit impatient and smudged the polish on some of the nails, but c'est la vie.

Once I'd finished stamping, I made my dots, using quite a small dotting tool, and OPI Alpine Snow:

And there we have it, all it needed now was a top coat (I used Seche Vite), and a clean up and you're good to go!  Here's a final pic:

I'm really liking this! It's girly and fun without being too cutesy, and it wasn't too hard to do.  If you haven't seen any of Plasmaspeedo's nailart tutorials yet, check them out, I'm sure you'll love them as much as I do.

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~