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~

My All Time 10 Best Nail Polishes

Hi everyone!

Back to normal blog posts again at last.  I really enjoyed the nail art challenge, and have met some lovely new people because of it.  A big thanks to the organisers Pink and Polished and Overpolished for organising it and doing such a great job.

This is a post I've been wanting to do for a while, I have probably about 250 polishes, which is a puny amount to some people, and alot to others, for me its not enough as I'm still missing some colours, and I don't have many of the 'famous' ones.  I've finally managed to get the Layla flash black holo polish that I've been craving, and I can't wait for it to come.  Nail mail is possibly my most favourite thing in the whole world!  I've also ordered some nail art supplies, and a few experimental purchases, which I'll share with you if they're any good.

Quite a few of these polishes, being my favourites, will have their own post, and where they do, I'll link to them so that you can see more photos and probably nail art involving them.  It was soooo hard to wheedle my favourites down to 10, and then put them in order.  Unless stated, none have a top coat, and all have a base coat of Sally Hansen Continuous Treatment Growth base coat, just because it's the one I'm currently using up.  It's taken me two days to do these swatches, how the big bloggers keep up I've no idea, there must be a knack to it.

So, I'm rambling again, without further ado, lets get on with it (imagine the Top of the Pops music here):

Aaaattttt 10:

NAILS INC WARWICK STREET
This is two coats.  It used to only need one, but I thinned it out a bit too much.  Very fast drying, and manages to be work appropriate with a twist.  I imagine the finish to be how the new 'cement' line will look.  You can see from the bottle that it's really cute red glitter in there.  THIS is the link to the post where I first swatched it.  Needless to say, a fab formula, which glides onto my nails, which is part of the reason I love it

Aaaaatttt 9:
JESSICA HOLOGRAM CHIC DISCO DIVA
This one nearly didn't make it into the top 10 because it's winter, therefore no sun to make it look good.  I debated to and fro for a while.  But it is one of my favourites, so deserves to be there, and holo is always a good thing.  It comes with its own base coat, which I used.  A full post including nail art on this polish can be found HERE and also on my dalek nails HERE

Aaaaattt 8:
COLLECTION 2000 HOT LOOKS MINT MOJO
This is one of only a few polishes that I've ever bought a back up of.  The formula is lovely, but because I've had it a while I had to thin it, and got carried away.  Therefore I had to do three coats instead of the normal two.  Of course it will thicken up again eventually and it's so fast drying it wasn't really a pain to do.  It's everything that I wanted Essies Navigate Her to be, without the yukky formula.  Not a dupe though as this is paler and milkier.  Superbly shiny as you can see.

 Aaaatt 7:
NAILS INC DEVONSHIRE ROW
I love the formula and finish to this.  You could easily get away with one coat if you have smooth nails.  Mine are quite ridged so I did two to get a nice finish.  Crazy reflections!  I used it as a base for THIS nailart

 
Aaaatttt 6:
OPI MOD ABOUT YOU
For me, this is the perfect light pink creme polish.  First coat is a bit streaky, the second coat is opaque perfection.  Dry time is medium to fast.  I used it as a base for THIS nailart.

And now we go into the top 5!

Aaaaatttt 5:
COLLECTION 2000 HOT LOOKS ALL THAT JAZZ
A lovely graphite grey shimmer, the formula to this is flawless.  It virtually applies itself, again you could get away with one coat of this if your nails are smooth.  This is two coats.  I did a full review post HERE and I used it for my halloween nails, which were one of my favourites HERE

Aaattt 4:
NAILS INC ALBERT PLACE
Another one coater for smooth nailed people.  I did two coats to get a nice finish.  It's kind of the blue version to Devonshire Row, similar colour tones.  It's the perfect sky blue, and I used it as the base for my skyscraper nail art tutorial HERE

 
Aaaattt 3:
NYC IN A NEW YORK MINUTE CANAL STREET
This was a super lovely online surprise buy.  I did a full review HERE it's fast drying and lovely to apply

Aaaattt 2:
OPI MY BOYFRIEND SCALES WALLS
If you've been following me for a while, this choice will be no surprise to you.  It's just off-white enough to be wearable, and for a white the formula is lovely.  Similar to Mod About You, coat one can be a bit streaky, but coat two sorts that out nicely.  I've used this one lots, and I did a comparison post to Alpine Snow HERE

And now we get to the numero uno spot.... I picked... drum roll.....

Number 1:
NAILS INC ELECTRIC LANE
Typically I picked a polish that's difficult to photograph!  It's a holographic glitter topcoat.  I can't imagine my polish life without this little magical beauty.  I do own a backup of this, and I will need to use it soon as I'm nearly at the bottom of this one, which is unheard of for me.  I've taken two pictures, as it's number one it's allowed, over Devonshire Row and Albert Place.  You will see that it does change the colour of the polish slightly, but it also gives it a super duper glitter holo finish which I love.  Removal isn't too bad for a glitter, but it still does take a little bit more elbow grease than a creme (of course).  It glides on, but it does dry slightly matt.  If you put a top coat on it really makes it pop.  These pictures are taken without though.  It dries in a flash too

You can see the holo awesomeness on my little finger - just love it!

Here's a lineup of all the polishes I've used in this monumental post, boy oh boy it's going to have alot of labels haha

These are my desert island polishes,the ones I would recommend to anyone starting out.  They all have great formulas, and I haven't needed to do clean up on any of these swatches.  If you see any of them for sale, snap them up!

I hope you've enjoyed this post as much as I've enjoyed making it.  Do you have a top ten post?  I'd love to see it!

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

Christmas Nail Art Challenge - Day 7 - Snowflakes

Hi again,

I finally got all my Christmas shopping finished today, yayyy! I just have my cards to make and the wrapping to do, and I'm all done.  AND I managed to go into TK Maxx twice without buying any polish, so my self control was laudable. 

Although I did manage to pick up other halfs present to me, he didn't know until I got home haha, he bought me a sewing machine that was in the sale at BHS, I already have one but it doesn't work very well, which puts me off getting it out.  This one's only small, and pink, and hopefully it works ok, if not I'll take it back after Christmas.  It was reduced from £50 to £35. 

Speaking of pink, lets get on with the nails.  Todays challenge is snowflakes, and I decided to go pretty much straightforward, aside from the colour scheme:

I love light pink and black together, I think the black stops the pink from looking too twee.  The pink is my favourite light pink, OPI Mod About You, this is two coats.  I then painted the snowflakes on in black acrylic paint, and topped it off with an unknown Claire's Accessories multicoloured pastel glitter, which looks so much prettier in real life.  Here's another pic:

As you can see the cuticle on my ring finger is playing up, I have no idea why, I must have caught my finger at some point and not noticed, never mind!

I did a similar mani last year:

I can't remember the red I used, but the glitter topcoat is Nails Inc Electric Lane, and the snowflakes were drawn with a Claires Accessories white striping polish.  I think I actually prefer it!

Well I hope your Christmas shopping is nearly done too, just over a week to go!

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~