Hi there!
Hope you're having a great start to your weekend. Today should have been my first lie in for 12 days, so typically I woke up at 6.20am and couldn't get back to sleep! I lay there with my eyes open for about half an hour, and eventually gave up and decided to get up. And of course I've spent those extra hours productively, by painting my nails.
Ever since I did the L'Oreal Masquintense review (link here) I haven't been able to get the orange and white packaging out of my head. So I've known what colours todays manicure was going to be all week. I wasn't sure whether to do dots, stripes, or stamping though. As my last couple of nail art posts have been stripes, and I wasn't really feeling dots today, I decided to go with stamping. I picked a swirly image from Cheeky plate B, which I bought from Amazon, here's the link if you want to buy it, it's priced at £6.99. The images stamp well, and it's good that there are 42 images on the plate, but I'm not sure I'd use all of them. However I'm using one today!
For my white base, I wasn't sure whether to use OPI's Alpine Snow, or OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls. I did a comparison on the two here but in the end I decided to go for My Boyfriend Scales Walls due to its better formula. This means that I'll probably end up never using Alpine Snow as a base coat again, but it does come in handy for dotting etc.
Then I got out my oranges to see which ones stamped best. In the end it was a toss up between two. Essies Orange It's Obvious, which you can see here and Color Clubs Wham Pow. The Color Club is more neon though, so it won.
And here's what I ended up with:
It's not perfect, but I like it! It's actually more neon than it shows in this pic, but still wearable. Nice and jolly, which is always a good thing.
Here's another pic, closer up this time:
As you can see, I smudged the middle finger, and took a chunk out of my base coat at the cuticle on the same finger. I also missed a spot on my little finger, but, hey, you get the idea! I'll stop picking holes in my manicure now haha.
And here's how it looks to the outside world, seeing as I obviously don't go around holding a bottle of polish in my hand all the time (actually, I'm not sure that's really true...):
I like it because to me it looks like water marbling, without any of the mess. I love how marbling looks, but I just can't bring myself to dunk my whole finger in a sheet of suspended polish and then spend time cleaning it back off again.
I like this stamping design more than I thought I would. I have a feeling you'll be seeing it a few times this summer, in different colours, and maybe gradients too. Hopefully a bit more tidily done than this one!
Until next time...
MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~
You probably all know by now how much I love a nice cheapie (hee hee). When I was doing the rounds at Poundland last weekend, I spotted a whole rack of a new polish range called Jess so I thought I'd give it a go.
For anyone not living in the UK, I should explain that Poundland is (I'm imagining) our version of the Dollar Store, although at the moment a dollar is worth about 61 pence, so I wish it really was the equivalent. Let's make the "61p Store" a thing people!
They had a pretty good range of colours actually, but because I didn't know anything about the brand, I thought I'd just try one. My bottle of Alpine Snow is getting a bit gloopy, so I thought I'd go for the white. White is always a good test of formulation and brush. I've had quite a few disappointments, most notably a Calvin Klein white polish which had an awful brush, although the polish itself was okay.
So anyway, without further ado, let's get on with it. Apologies in advance, I know my nails and cuticles aren't top notch right now. I had to use my leftie for this because the cuticles on my right hand were cracked and bleeding, yuck. I did take photos, but they were just too gory to use.
Wait a minute, didn't I say without further ado? Here's the bottle and brush shot:
The brush was actually pretty good, no different from a regular high street polish, think Rimmel or Barry M. A slim flattish oval, I could do one finger in three or four strokes. Reasonably flexible but not floppy, the polish had a pretty good flow from it. I did notice a tiny amount of bubbling during application, but they weren't left on my nails at the end.
Here's the first swatch, natural light, but indoors at the window because it was raining:
Here we have two coats. As you can see, the line at my cuticle is quite neat, this is with no clean up. The first coat was quite patchy, and I did find the formulation slightly gloopy, but actually no different to OPI Alpine Snow. It didn't remove any first coat when I applied the second coat, as can sometimes happen.
Here's another swatch, this time under artificial light:
I wish I'd done another coat on my ring finger, it is heavily ridged, and they show through on the finish. All these pictures are taken without top coat, and still it had a pretty decent shine to it, which can be tricky for a white polish.
Originally I only put this on to swatch it, but I liked it that much that I actually kept it on for work the next day, and I did have a few favourable comments. I did have some chipping at the end of day two, but I am pretty hard on polish, so I wasn't surprised. Next time I wear it I'll topcoat it, just for longevity.
Talking of the white stuff, we've had some snow here in Cumbria last week! This is near to where I work, luckily the roads around the base of the mountain didn't get any:
Snow just the way I like it. Beautiful, but quite far away, haha. The lines through the middle of the photo are power cables.
Thankfully my blog mojo is starting to return. I have a few comparison posts to do, and some pretties on the way from Mei Mei's Signatures and Born Pretty Store which I can't wait to show you.
I haven't done any nail art at all since Christmas, which is unheard of for me, to be honest I think I burned out a bit, having to post regularly got on top of me. I was always just used to posting as the inspiration took me, and have come to realise that scheduled posts just aren't for me. I like to create, then let it fly baby, yeah!
So, have you tried any of the Jess nail polishes? Any colours that you'd recommend, or any I should steer clear of? Would be interested to hear! If you've reviewed any, pop a link in the comments.
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 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~
Happy Friday!
Today I discovered something about myself. I'm not very good at diagonal stripes.
I thought todays challenge would be quite easy, but instead it's taken me 3 different manicures to get to one I'm even remotely happy with. I was going to try again, and decided against it, this challenge could never end if I carry on like this!
I didn't take any photos of my first two attempts. The first was just a scraggy mess as I didn't wait long enough for my base coat to dry and my striper smudged it. My second attempt actually came out pretty good, but I smudged it with my topcoat, so disappointed by that, BAH
So, this is my third attempt, the diagonals took me so long on time 2 that I decided to go with normal stripes on this one. This is what I did:
I used an unnamed Essie white to draw high french tips, then used a red striping polish to draw on the stripes. Then I used a glitter striper to tidy up the top. Here's another pic:
And one last pic:
One of these days I'll do a Christmas manicure I'm completely happy with, although it has to be said I've had this one on an hour now and it is kind of growing on me, I'm enjoying the bare tops, and at least it wouldn't grow out!
Once again here's a reminder of what's to come:
Am looking forward to see what everyone else has done! Check out their links below
Until next time...
MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~
Happy Weekend to you!
Typically, as winter is pretty much here now, and everyone is rocking their cool dark mani's, I've been digging pastels and neons! Yes, it may just be the contrariness in me, but what the hey. I've also been having a bit of a stripe frenzy. These two things came together and demanded that I buy a pastel yellow striping polish. Could I find one on the whole of the internet? NO!
I do own some striping brushes, and some pastel yellow polish, but for some reason I really can't enjoy striping like that. It's alot of messing about, cleaning brushes with polish remover while wearing the polish and trying not to smudge anything.... too much hassle for me! So striping polishes are ideal, all packaged up nicely, and when you're finished, just pop the lid back on and you're away!
So anyway, I couldn't find a pale yellow one. Lots of pastels in green, blue, pink, but no yellow. I decided what I would do is buy a white one and add some yellow polish to it, voila! A pale yellow one. Now as this is obviously a bit experimental, I don't want to buy an expensive striper, but likewise, I don't want a rubbish one either, as some of the stripers I've bought in the past have been a bit pants. So I found this cheap one on Amazon, only £2.39 plus £1.55 P&P, there weren't any reviews for it, and I couldn't find any on blogs anywhere (hence this review), but I took the plunge anyway. HERE'S the link
I thought I would show a comparison against my trusty Color Club white striper, which I love, to give you an idea of the quality, and actually I quite like how it came out, which surprised me, as I'm not a great fan of red nails on me.
Without further ado, lets get on with the pics. I used the Millennium Nails striper on my index and middle finger, and the Color Club striper on my ring finger and little (pinky) finger:
As you see, there is a TINY amount of difference. The Color Club is slightly more opaque, and where the lines begin at my cuticle is a bit neater. This is because the Millennium Nails brush wasn't completely even at the tip, am wondering if I can maybe give the brush a bit of a trim with my nail scissors to improve it.
But, actually, for the price, not bad. Here's another pic:
The bottle is glass, and not the same one shown in the Amazon pic. It made me giggle, because the writing on it says "YCC Stripping Pen". Not a pen, and certainly not a stripper!
Anyhow, for anyone who's interested in seeing the undies for this mani, it's Maybelline Express Finish in Cherry, which is a nice bright red, a bit darker than it's showing in my pics, a bit of VNL in one coat (which is all I used), but for the purposes of this mani that didn't bother me:
And finally, here's a pic of the actual brushes, I couldn't find a pic like this anywhere before I bought the striper, so hopefully someone stumbles across this if they're looking to buy. Apologies for the slightly scruffy background, it was the only black piece of card I could find:
As you can see, the Millennium Nails one is slightly longer, but both brushes have a nice firm spring to them, and both were nice to hold and use. Maybe I should have cleaned off the neck of my Color Club one before taking the photo haha. Amazon says the Millennium has 8ml in it, whereas the Color Club has 7ml.
So, in summary:
If the Millennium Nails stripers came with free P&P, they would be a total bargain. As it is, with the shipping they pretty much come alongside the better quality Color Club ones, which have free shipping. So if you're looking at both, I would say get the Color Club one. I haven't done my yellow experiment yet, but will let you know how it goes!
Until next time....
MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~
