Braided Nails

This is probably the longest polish process I've done. Waiting for each stripe to dry before moving onto the next layer.

Braided nails. 

My first attempt turned out quite well, with the combination of my favourite technique, gradients. I also combined this with matte, shiney and glitter, so there's a bit of everything. 

I felt a little rushed on this attempt, possibly because I didn't have much to do between each stripe but wait. The addition of Max Factor's Fantasy Fire in between the braids livened this one up. 

I had a theme in mind for this, but like a lot of mani's, they don't always turn out the way you imagine. 

Challenge Accepted - Nail Polish Queens

Being part of the G+ community - +Nail Polish Queens is like having a world of nail gurus in one place. One of the highlights of the group is the weekly challenge set by +Sarah Short. Always fun and always a challenge.

This week the challenge was Viva Las Vegas. After all other ideas I had were posted, only one thing stuck in my mind. Elvis! I think I managed to pull it off as I tested my 11 year old daughters' recognition of my accent nail. 

All you need is red, white, black and gold. A detailing brush and a dotting tool. The studs and feather glitter was an extra bit of Vegas glam. I look forward to the challenge every week. Bring on the next one! 

Mmmmm Guava

After so many colour combos I started to think that doing my nails just one colour was boring. But then I found matte top coat. 

This is Barry M Gelly Gauva - one if my favourite colours! There's something magical about it that I just can't resist. Half coated with Rimmel Pro matte finish and finished with a matching teal glitter. The accent nail is the hi-shine guava with dots of matte top coat. I was super pleased with the result. But I think anything would look great with that colour! 

Polka Dot Party

One of the best tools I got my hands on was a dotting tool. Gone are the days of using a DIY pin in pencil tool. Hey, it worked fine, but I couldn't really see where I was placing my dots.

This was the first mani with my new tools. It's also the first using these colours. 

It's not often I use 3D elements on my nails, but I thought the use of half pearls changed it up a bit. (I also quite like the feel of the tiny bumps - call me weird if you will.) 

I used the very fabulous Barry M Gelly - Blackberry & Blueberry to create this fun dotty French tip style. 

Revisiting some old mani's

I thought I'd start posting some old mani's so I know where they are. Just in case the worst should happen and I lose my photos offline.

One of my all time favourite techniques is a sponged gradient. Not only is it reminiscent of my school days with potato stamping, but I usually find the huge clean up quite therapeutic as you unveil the end result. 

I must admit, I do prefer the high contrast gradients to the subtle ones. Nothing like an eye catcher! For this one I used 2 Rimmel London polishes, Pink Punch & Azure. I then reversed the colours for the little leopard print on the accent nails. I really enjoyed this one and was sad to see it go.