NOTD: A Damn Good Seeing-To

Got the Model's Own Beetlejuice polishes aaaaaaages ago and left them in a drawer, all alone and unloved. Thought that it was time to give them a damn good seeing-to, what with being on a duochrome thing at the mo. 

Grabbed the Pinky Brown at random, looked at it, pulled a bit of a face and layered it on over a plain black polish. Fingle waggling commenced -- hmmm, yes, this is acceptable :)

Looks a lot like Orly Space Cadet actually, swatched here (phone-cam pic, OMG you can see my thumb). It's not a dead on dupe as it's more reddy than purpley, but pretty close with that resplendent gold duochrome.

Stamped over the beautifuly, shimmering colour with some black bendy lines from Bundlemonster plate BM201, then went over that with some gold stars off a fauxnad plate.

Plugs of the Day were these test-subject Supernova Remnants that matched up with this nail job quite nicely, outfit of the day was black, as it is every day.

Keeping this Pinky Brown for further damn good seeing-tos, it's quite nice, innit.

NOTD: Fresian Cows With Spots

Now that this blog has a few more followers (hello), I'm going to again try and find out the name of this BYS mystery polish. Also taking this opportunity to mess around with me new daylight lightbulb.

Bit off-colour here.

Not sure why the colour has a bit of a magenta tinge to it there -- it certainly didn't in this photo taken earlier this year. Ho hum. Anyway, I like this polish, it applies well despite the horrible awkwardness of the lid, coverage is pretty sound after three coats. Can't moan about this polish really, tis a shame I don't know the name and can't purchase any more (they stock none in the shops round these parts).

Glitter is smelly, yet effective.

I got these cute skull cherry nail decals and wanted to give them a go. The BYS Mystery White Polish got a coat of some eBay red glitter (the stuff that comes in those funny faux Nfu.Oh bottles) and I hoped it would last.

A Fresian Cow with Spots

It didn't. Here is my standard 'lets make this ruined polish-job last a bit longer cos it's only going to get spoilt again when it gets redone' repair job. Yeah, crackle. Covers up a multitude of sins though. Should probably add that there was further ruination and there should have been a picture of the tips covered with some black polish but I've killed another memory card.

Easy-Peasey-Teasey Does It Marbling

Wanted to snuggle up and luxuriate in some shade of red. Luckily, OPI Tease-y Does It wanted to snuggle up with me, and I couldn't resist it's wanton charms.

OPI Tease-y Does It. Three coats.

Tease-y Does It is a deep burgundy with a red shimmer that shifts to gold and green in the bottle, but not so much on the nails - you can just about make out the colour-shift in the photo. Application was no problem and it took three coats to get a good shiny finish. Not my usual sort of colour at all, but the red shimmer completely won me over and I, errr, like it.

I can't water-marble, it gives me the right hump, but I wanted to try out some marbled nails with the Tease-y Does It, Urban Decay Twisted (gold) and China Glaze Ruby Pumps (red). The following method came about whilst practising for yet another water-marbling disaster, and I found it to be much easier and less messier than the water-marbling. Not only that but the polishes take a while to dry as well, giving you more time to work. Result! On the downside, it's very slow process as you have to let thick layers of polish dry, this is awful if you're an impatient soul like me.

You will need some polishes, one of those floppy plastic CD containers, a marbling tool/toothpick/watchmaker's screwdriver/small pointy implement and a sharp scrapey thing, such as a razor, knife or Konad scraper.

You will need these things.

1. Draw a large circle with a fairly thick layer of your base colour polish. Try to size it so it fully covers your nail.

It's my rarely seen thumb!

2. Drop a drop of your next polish in the centre of the still-wet polish. It spreads a bit further if you drop it from a bit of a height, and you can spread it a bit further by gently pushing it with the brush/marbling tool. Add another drop if it doesn't spread very far.

3. Same as above with your third polish. You see where I'm going with this, don't you.

Drip the polish, make pattern.

4. Starting from the top, lightly drag your chosen marbling tool through the wet polishes. Looks like a <3, ahhh.

Future Valentine's Day Manicure spotted.

5. Do some more straight lines. Or squiggles, whatever, this marbling is much more fun to experiment with.

Did some more straight lines

6. Now it's time for the hardest part -- letting it dry. It takes ages. Leave it overnight if possible.

7. A few hours or so later, peel a bit using a razor-blade or a Konad scraper-me-do. It should peel off easily, if not leave to dry for a bit longer.

Picking at it, finding it not dry, trying to leave it alone. This is hard.

8. Grab your peeled bit and gently peel it off the plastic with your fingers. Again, if it seems a bit tacky or sticks to the plastic, leave it for a bit longer.

9. Put on a thin layer of top-coat/base colour. Apply the marbled polish on your nail, position it in a way that you like, and trim any excess off with some little scissors. Don't worry if you can't get all of it, that can be sorted with a brush and some nail polish remover.

Oh, that looks so attractive.

10. Apply some top-coat. If you have any peely bits put some top-coat underneath and stick 'em down.

11. Remove the excess, admire your work. I've only done the ring finger on each hand as I am doing things later that will more than likely ruin it all :(

Only did one finger

Removal can be a PITA, depending on the polishes, but the glitter removal trick works well here.

And there we go, easy but slow marbling, and not a spot of Konad abuse in sight. Feels weird.

Stamping Polish Test-me-do

In the past, I've used a few polishes that made me think, "oooh, this'll be good for stamping", and then quickly forgotten about testing them out. However, today is different as Jennius reminded me about it :)

Testing out yesterday's Stargazer 315 over China Glaze The Ten Man (left), Collection 2000 Wham* (centre) and Superdrug MUA Shade 2 (right). Didn't come out too bad actually, I've seen a lot worse. The polish is £2.50 from Stargazer which is downright bargainous for such a fabby fab fab colour.

And this one is Accessorize Idol over the same polishes as above. Good effort here, the stamped pattern came out as a mostly opaque dark grey with a bit of shimmer to it as well. It's currently sold-out on Accessorize and Superdrug's websites at the mo, but you might be able to find it for £2 at your local Superdrug.

*This polish keeps putting Wham's 'Wham Rap' in my head.

A Good Red

Induldging in some red today, some lovely deep, shimmery red that came in a bottle with Stargazer 315 written on it. Mmmmm.

Stargazer 315. A good red.

I do like this red and I'm not really a red polishy person. But the colour on this is divine and very well pigmented, needing two coats for full opacity but you might get away with one. This may make a good stamping polish as well, shall put that to the test. The finish looks a bit metallic but has a shimmery shimmer to as well, and was it mentioned that I do like this red?

Again, I'm trying out some stuff suitable for occasion where I have to wear a dress (OWIHTWAD for short). Not bought the dress yet, BTW, I'll probably end up getting a dress that matches me nails at this rate. Plus I don't know what colour to have my hair ... anyway, there was a stamping idea for the OWIHTWAD.

Bit like floral French Horns

These swirly-whirly flowery designs are off the HB-52 plate and the stamping polish is Stargazer Chrome 232 (silver). A bit of topcoat went over the top and bish-bosh, job done. I quite like this one which means it will quickly be ruined.

Red Tribal Nails. Again!?

Fancy some red this weekend, so I'm going to grab me some Boots 17 Fast Finish Knockout Red and paint my nails with it.

Boots Fast Finish Knockout Red Swatch. Looks /very/ bright in that pic.

I'm not the greatest fan of these Boots 17 Fast Finishes -- don't get me wrong, the colours are fantastic, it's just the application. They seem to go a bit streaky, but that may be due to my general nail n00bness.

Some top-coat and Konad will iron out all those naily problems.

Yes, red tribal nails again. I can't help it, I love tribal patterns, they go so well with red.

This particular tribal pattern comes from Chez-Delaney plate T31. First I stamped the pattern with some Konad Special Silver polish (which ain't all that, TBH, but it works with this plate) and lightly brushed over it with a bit of random silver glitter polish. I stamped over all that with the same tribal pattern, this time with Konad Special Black polish, and it didn't look completely awful. Hurray!

I'm going to get a grip and be really brave next time I dig out the tribals and do it over a colour that isn't red.

Deep Red and Shimmery, Honest

Needed something red and shimmery to match my red, glittery plugs — Boots 17 Fast Finish Dazzling Ruby fit the bill quite nicely. It’s a deep, red shimmer and it’s very nice, actually. I went for three coats then took pix.
I couldn’t get a good photo of this one and had to adjust the colours in Photoshop to get it to look less orange, which is why the picture looks a bit odd. That, and my lack of photographing skill. You can’t see the shimmer all that well either, but it is there in real life, and it is fab.

Boots 17 Fast Finish Ruby Dazzle Swatch

I Konaded the tips using a tribal pattern on Bundlemonster BM07 and some Superdrug MUA Shade 2 (it has nearly run out!). I dotted the centre of the pattern with some more black and went over it with a rosy coloured glitter. It looks silver. Couldn’t get rid of the orange tint in this picture at all, so imagine it a bit pinker.

Tribal Tips and Glitter.

Gorgeous polish, it’s just a damn shame that I can’t get pictures that do it any justice :(

Kevin Spacey's Midlife Crisis Thing

Couldn't decide what colour to wear so asked the blokey. He suggested red and black and, since he puts up with my polish habits, I went along with it. I had made this frankenpolish ages ago out of some old 90s red polish and half a vial of red Hobbycraft glitter, and was frankly too scared to use it because of all the glitter.

Today, for my lovely blokey, I shall wear it.

Kevin Spacey's Midlife Crisis Thing Frankenpolish. Oh dear.

I put three coats on and it wasn't too bad -- it reminded me of a bath full of rose petals for some reason, which reminded me of Kevin Spacey's midlife crisis thing in American Beauty. And from this, a ridiculous name for the frankenpolish was born -- Kevin Spacey's Midlife Crisis Thing, hereafter known as KSMCT.

KSMCT itself was quite clunky and lumpy and a bit oogly but I liked the way the different layers of glitter interacted with each other. Sadly, I wasn't too happy with the overall look (it looks fab on my toes, mind) and stamped over it all with Superdrug MUA Shade 2 (black) and Konad plate m64. And then it started to look really badass :)

Kevin Spacey's Midlife Crisis Thing & Konad m64

Yeah, I like this, I feel like I have Darth Maul's face on my fingers. Thanks blokey, you're ace!

*Edit: this frankenpolish was a bit of a pain to remove because of the sheer amount of glitter in there, but it also seriously stained my nails. I mean proper stained, I used base coat and everything, and the franken just kicked it right in the arse.

Tribal Nails

Fancied a bit of red to match my socks, so today, for your viewing pleasure is Superdrug's MUA Shade 8.

Oh, hello there Red. Tea?

Got a couple of Chez Delaney plates this morning, and they're really rather lovely. Most of the stuff on that site is, it's like a shiny money drain :) Anyway, there is an incredible selection of tribal design plates, and being a fan of tribal tattoos I had to get a couple -- and after much mmmming and ahhhhing I went for plates T31 and B101. Today I used the T31 plate -- it  is a tad challenging to get a good stamp out of, it didn't like my cheap Superdrug black polish but it was fine with the Konad Special polish. Cleaning the plate and stamper after every stamp was also helpful, as was using an old HMV gift card instead of the metal scraper, and after a few messy attempts I got the hang of it. Yay.

Tribal nails own considerably.

I got a bit bored as usual and dotted on some dots using a pin and some Eyeko Vampira, a black polish with fabby red shimmer. It probably ruined it but I don't care, tribal nails own. In fact, they own so much that I'm ignoring the Nfu.Oh 52 that appeared through my letterbox this morning.

Mattified it the next day with some Rimmel Ultra Pro Matte Finish, and the design stands out beautifully, albeit a bit smudgy and messy.

Tribal Nails mattified. Matte is like the new glitter, or something.

Bad Bad Fauxmance

Made me some Frankenpolish today, using that awful Avon Matte Black stuff and some other eBay glitter polish that came from China, and managed to produce some bad Bad Fauxmance, a take on Deborah Lippmann's Bad Romance.

Using the Chinese nail varnish for the picture as there wasn't quite enough glitter in my Frankenpolish.

Cheap, cheerful and you can get high off the chemicals. Nails are dented as I trashed the top coat :(

The glitter in this is well nice, it appears bright pink but goes to purple and red, depending on the light. It also lasts pretty well, considering I've wearing it with the oh-so fragile Avon Matte; I've cleaned the bathroom and done all sorts wearing this and it hasn't chipped, which leaves me wondering, "how on Earth am I going to remove this stuff*".

I also have to say that the Chinese eBay nail polish (DICI is it? DIIC? Don't Inhale It's Caaaah ... ) absolutely stinks to high heaven, it's like a smelly cross between lots of Superglue and paint thinner. Seriously, if you get this you may want to apply in it a well-ventilated area. I didn't and I actually quite enjoyed it %o)

*Removed it with nail polish remover and it came off pretty easily. Win.

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.