Greg Wallace Would Say Cor!

Today I will be mostly wearing Orly Halleys Comet, which is a delightful shade of green / blue / turquoise / teal / thereabouts. If Greg Wallace were to describe this colour, he would probably say it was "cor!" then realise that this nail polish isn't a pudding and shut up.

What's better. Pudding or Polish?

Lovely, it is. The gold duochrome doesn''t really show up all that much, but that may be due to the miserable, rainy day we're having.

Got a bit fidgety a bit later on and Konaderised it with some silver flowers, using Konad plate m36 and MUA Shade 11.

Say it with flowers

Blingtastic Purple

I was out gathering nicotene patches yesterday and I found this stonker for the princely sum of £2.29:

Three coats of bloomin' 'eck

This is a swatch of Laura Paige 43 Limited Edition Voodoo Violet and it isn't what I expected to find in the cheapo nail polish section of the local chemist. It is fab, a purple base with purple microglitter and larger bits of holographic glitter. ISTR there being a silver version of this as well but I was quite captivated by the purple (and I only had a couple of quid spare). It also came with a free black eyeliner, which was rather \o/

It lasts well too, we had a pretty hardcore sesh of Rock  Band 3 last night, resulting in one small break and no chips. Good work!

Oooh

I layered some on over Avon Matte Black (the stuff that chips like a potato) and it looked pretty cool; the purple microglitter shows up beautifully though I'm not sure what happened to the holo glitter. This one will be staying on for a few days, it's bloody fantastic.

Something A Bit Girlie

Here's a swatch of the Laura Paige 34 Limited Edition wot I found in the chemists last week ...

Two coats.

It's a nice foily metallic pink,  and it's £2.29 in your local neighbourhood chemist or from Makeup.UK.com. Not my usual obnoxious colour, but it is one that I like and would wear again. But for now, let's ruin it with some silver tips.

Bloody spongers, coming here, taking our nail polish.

I quickly sponged the tips over with some Saffron of London Colour 13 and it was OK, but it was missing something. It was missing some bling.

They are not hexograms, they're squares.

There we go. Today's bling is Barry M 239 Lavender Hexograms and I have no idea why they are called Lavender Hexograms because they are square with four sides. A small technicality, I know, but it is annoying me for some reason.

Dragonflies Are Nice

Over the years, our garden manages to attract a few dragonfiles that like to hang out around our pond. As dragonflies are nice, I had a go at popping some on my nails. Not real dragonflies, mind, it's too cold. Something dragonflyish.

Started off with a base of Constance Carroll 339 Empire which is a most incredible green and about £1 from eBay or one of those quaint chemists that still stocks shower caps from 1982.

Please bear in mind that I was messing about with paint and harsh substances which is why it looks like I've got terrifying old woman hands. I've not. Yet. The future is scary, really scary :O

Fiddling with stuff made my lovely green nail tips all sadface.

I tidied up the tips and stamped over the nail using Konad plate m65 with a stonking purple - 2True Shade 16 (available at Superdrug). The purple wasn't as vibrant as I'd hoped, maybe Nubar Peacock Feathers would be better. Whatever, it didn't seem right ...

Green and Purple Curly Wurly. Fingers don't look wrinkly in this one, result!

Something was missing and I didn't know what. Dragonflies have veiny wings, how about chucking some veins on there? Out came Konad plate m70 and Urban Decay Cult (green/gold duochrome).

Hands like a handbag.

Just can't get my little phone-cam to pick up how awesome it looks, the veins look crisp and three-dimensional in real life. This is absolutely typical, today the light is fantastic but the good light is actually drowning out my subtle dragonfly veins. Sod's Law sucks. Cuh.

Dragonfly nails attempt number 2 will be coming soon, no doubt, with less old woman hands.

Denim Nails Gone Wrong

Better version here

This post contains some of the worst pictures I have taken. They were only checked on the camera screen as I didn't get a chance to check them on the computer as it decided to lose a hard drive, so the git wouldn't boot. Reseated the cables, drive came back then Windows wouldn't boot. Then my server crashes for the first time ever after several years of being happy and shiny, oh FFS.

Maybe some blue would be soothing ...

Here's me base of Constance Carroll 332 Blue Candy, a silvery pearly blue. It's alright, actually, I'd wear it on it's own. However I was craving ciggies and needed to do things to it. Looking at blue things could only be calming, right?

Quite a nice blue, this is.

The base got lightly sponged over with some Konad Special White Polish, then sponged over with some Constance Carroll Midnight Blue, followed up with another sponging of Constance Carroll Blue Candy. I chucked a coat of Mavala Matt Top Coat on there and it was good for a while, my nails looked like 80s stonewashed jeans. Yeah, nice nails, shame about the photo.

Horrible blurry picture. It all went Pete Tong :(

At some point I gouged bits out reseating hard drive cables so Konaderized it all with silver roses, using Konad plate m65 and Saffron Colour 13. And got another dreadful picture.

When in doubt, stamp over with silver roses. Oh god, this is just awful :'(

Sometimes technology utterly, utterly hates me.

Space Nails III - Attack of the Lunar Eclipse

Didn't intend for this to turn out as another lot of space nails, but it just happened.

Started of with a base of cheap and cheerful Constance Carroll Diamond Gloss in 346 Midnight Blue and could not get a decent photo of it, I later found out that there was something smeary on the lens, probably from the dog, which made everything go fuzzy.

There was also something on the lens :(

The bottle has a nice blue shimmer to it which sadly hardly shows up on the nails at all. It was quite gloopy and drippy to apply as well, and it smelt of the olden days. I put some glitter on it.

Glitter will sort that out for you, mate.

This is Saffron of London Colour 05, a purple, blue and silver glitter mix (available from UK chemists, eBay and Blush Cosmetics.) It has a bit of a holo effect to it when the light hits it right, tis wicked. I was enjoying it until I got bored and thought that I'd add some nebulous tips on top of the glitter.

In order of appearance (left to right): Constance Carroll 346 Midnight Blue, Saffron Colour 05, Orly Lunar Eclipse, Laura Paige Limited Edition 34, Gosh 549 and Saffron Colour 07.

I sponged some Orly Lunar Eclipse over portions of the nail, starting at the tips and concentrating on one side or the middle. Next came a sponging of a metallic foily pink - Laura Paige Limited Edition Number 34 (available in UK chemists and at Makeup.UK.com),  I sponged this in very small patches at the tips and random spots where I had already sponged Lunar Eclipse. Next up was a sponging of Gosh 549 Holographic just by the areas I'd done with the pink, then another quick sponging of Lunar Eclipse on the bits I'd messed up.

Once I was happy with my little nebulae I applied some Saffron Colour 07 (big and little bits of silver glitter) to the clouds, with the big chunky bits going over the Gosh 549 and smaller silver bits over the Lunar Eclipse. Then it was dark and I had to get picture with artificial light :(

Under artificial lights.

In natural light. No sunlight, this is England.

Kat Salter's Dressing Gown

For some strange reason, I felt like replicating Kat Slater's dressing gown on my nails ...

I put on a base of Maybelline Water Shine White Ice, it is the only white polish I have and it really wasn't all that; it was very sheer and I had to put on five coats to fully get rid of the streakiness.

Five coats of Maybelline Water Shine White Ice

Wasn't too happy with the base but it would do. I had some MUA Shade 14 about  and thought that a Konading with plate m63 and a bold colour would sort that out ...

Kat Slater's Faded Dressing Gown

Maybe not. This did not come out as I had hoped, it was a bit faded and meh but I still quite liked it despite it being well girlie.

I still wanted Kat Slater's dressing gown on my nails, though, and soldiered on, this time using MUA Shade 14 as a base. This was also a bit sheer and I needed four good coats for full coverage.

MUA Shade 14 in dingy daylight. Ignore the dents, I was in a rush.

Stamped over it with m63 and the white Konad Special Polish (smells a bit like Tippex) and managed to mess up the ring finger three times. I couldn't be bothered to do it again.

Kat Slater's Dressing Gown

And there we have it. Kat Slater's Dressing Gown nails, just what everyone needs on a miserable, rainy day like this.

Out Of This World

Gone for some Orly Out of this World today because of the purple shimmery fabulousness.

My favouritist purple in the whole wide world.

I wasn't paying attention and mattified and Konadified my left hand before I took a picture, so the shaky-cam picture above is of my right hand, but you get the general idea of the colour. The yellow duochrome you see on the bottle doesn't really show up when on the nails which is a bit of a bummer. It still looks bloody nice, though.

Mattified and Konadified.

Here it is mattified with Mavala Matt Top Coat (a 99p Fleabay bidding bargain, it's nearly a tenner elsewhere) and, yet again, the picture does not do the colour justice, it has a lovely velvety texture that makes me go mmmmm.  It did look a bit boring after a while, and I was fidgety, so I stamped over it with MUA Shade 11 using Konad plate m36  and then it was all good.

That's A Bit Girlie

I loved the Not Like The Movies that I had on yesterday, but it gave me a weird zombie flesh tone and I didn't want hands that looked reanimated. Thought it would make a good base for Gosh 549 so slapped some of that over it. then took an awful picture of it.

Simply can not work effectively in these conditions.

Gosh 549! Now with Flash!

Then I got some new ink done (lillies) by the lovely Jim at Triple Ace Tattoos, Bedford, which made me so :) that I did my nails with flowery things. Using the Gosh 549 as a colourful base I stamped over it twice with some MUA Shade 2 using Konad plate m36. Then I put some Saffron Colour 04 glitter over the butterflies and some Nubar Opulent Pearl over the flowers.. Unfortunately, couldn't put any top coat over it as it killed the holo effect, so it all resulted in a bit of a splodgy mess.

Horrible splodgy mess.

It would have looked better if I'd taken the photo just after I had done them but the light was bad then I trashed them a bit by playing Rock Band 3 and now they're :(

Earworm Nail Polish

I'm liking this OPI Not Like the Movies from the Katy Perry Collection a lot, but there is one thing that really annoys me about it. Everytime I see the bottle I get Katy Perry songs in my head, normally 'Teenage Dream', and they stay there for hours. As I'm a bit of a fan of angry angry music, I don't like Katy Perry music all that much but her nail polish collection and husband are pretty fit.

Hand like a zombie, wtf?

Not Like the Movies is definitely the fittest of all, the colours range from silver to pink to olivey-green and it's got some fabby glassy shimmer things going on. It's quite girlie, yet totally suitable for someone who isn't very girlie at all, like me. Shall attempt to keep this one on for a while.

I Like It, I Don't Like It, I Don't Know

I really couldn't be arsed to remove the Orly Space Cadet, but fancied a bit of a change so I painted directly over it with a coat of Urban Decay Metropolitan.

Urban Decay Metropolitan and friendly pashmina

This isn't really my colour at all. I like it muchly, it's a good shade of reddy purple with some stonking pink shimmer and it is dirt-cheap on eBay at the mo, but it reminds me of my mother for some reason.

Wrapping paper! Sadly, my nails do not contain gifts :(

I gave the Metropolitan a going over with some Konad magic, using MUA Shade 11 and Konad plate m65 and it ended up looking like something from under a Christmas tree. It also looks a bit mess in the photo, probably because of the Space Cadet lurking around underneath, but looks pretty groovy IRL as I am quite short-sighted and can't see the flaws. Win :)

Guitar Hero Metallica Killed My Nails

It was those HOPOs on Demon Cleaner's expert bass part that finished them off, it snapped the corner bits so they flapped about. I could hear them click away and everything, but it was ignored as I had me groove on. Bunghole :(

Orly Space Cadet from the Cosmic FX collection. Bloomin' gorgeous.

A quick filing and very dodgy repair job involving teabags and nail hardener made them a bit happier, albeit a bit lumpy, and a spot of the luverly Orly Space Cadet almost made them pee their pants with joy. It has some rather sexy duochrome going on there, flashing purpley-red into gold and maybe bits of green, it's got a little pink shimmer, and it isn't my usual sort of colour but I loves it. It really is rather fab.

Space Nails

This nail bling continues on from yesterday's Avon Matte disaster and subsequent glitter repair-job. The glitter did look like a nice starfield, and I'd not long seen a right groovy tutorial on Space Nails at Nails by Asami, so I thought I'd give them a whirl.

It all seemed easy enough, matte black base, holo and duochromes and glitter; I was halfway there already. Using a sponge that started life as one of those washing up sponges with a scouring pad on, I sponged away with me polishes and worked out that I had managed to apply 11 coats so far:

Base coat, two coats of Avon Matte Black as Night, spot of Konading, two coats of Sally Hansen top coat, two coats of the Saffron Colour 06 (black with silver glitter), a sponging of Gosh 549 (holographic and so very  shiny), a sponging of Nubar - Peacock Feathers (purple and green duochrome) and one coat of NYC Starry Silver Glitter (chunky blue, silver and lavender glitter). Blimey.

It's a bit spacey, I suppose.

I was going for a nice opulent cloud look there which was actually working quite nicely, until I put some chunky glitter on. It went a bit clunky after that and spoilt the opulence really, so I opted to add even more polish to that lot.

Space Nails II - Peacock Feather's Revenge

That's more sponged-on Gosh 549 and Nubar Peacock Feathers and some of the Saffron Colour 06 glitter. Oh, and a quick layer of some random top coat I found in a drawer that was a gift in the 1990s. The excessive glitter still ruins it, unfortunately, and the picture came out a bit clunky because my camera is a phone-cam and because I have 15 coats of nail polish on, but they look nice and shiny in real life. Yay!

Glitter Makes Everything Alright

I tried some Avon Matte Black as Night out today and we really didn't get on. It went on OK, dried quickly and looked pretty damn fine but it was very fragile and chippy. It chipped so quickly that I couldn't even get a photo of it :( I decided to go for a quick repair-job instead of taking it off and putting something shiny on, and a spot of Konad seemed the way to go.

No, it's still a bit Pete Tong

I stamped over it using Konad plate m63 with Maybelline Forever Strong - Lilac Pearl, which is a damn good stamping polish and it's 99p on eBay. But it just wasn't right. The photo is awful, the Avon Matte kept chipping so I had to repair the stamped bits by hand using an old liquid eyeliner applicator and I just wasn't sure about it. Nor was the Avon Matte, as it kept chipping away until I got the right hump with it and went over it all with two coats of Saffron Colour 06 (black with silver glitter, about a quid for a bottle).

Saffron Colour 06 Saves The Day

You can still see the Konading beneath the glittery layer because of the flash and because I missed bits out on the sides, but it looks fine in normal light, like a shiny shiny starfield. Nice.