Getting Fruity at the End of Nailstorming Week

So, this week, in addition to the various challenges that I take part in via Facebook and Instagram, I decided to create my very own personal challenge. 

Since creating my Fingertiptastic blog, Facebook page and Instagram account at the beginning of February 2015, I have been following various nail artists on different social media sites. One of my favourites is a lady called Gianna whose Ig account is @nailstorming. Gianna not only posts pics of her manis but also video tutorials of how she's created them. 

I'm clearly not alone in loving her work - she has 879k followers (I dream of having 1k and am not even half way, so I can't imagine what it must be like to have such a huge following!!!) 

So, my personal challenge this week has been to recreate a "nailstorming" mani every day for a week. 

Day One - pink dotticure with only clear basecoat underneath. This mani was soooo quick and easy to create and it was the first pic that I've ever posted on Instagram that got more than 100 likes - I was thrilled!!! (Gianna got over 20000!!! for her version!!!)

Day 2 - floral mani using my gorgeous Nailsinc by Victoria Beckham polishes - Judo Red and Bamboo White. Not quite as popular as the dotticure (86 likes) but by the end of Day 2 my followers had hit 200 - wow!!!

Day 3 - another floral mani - Nailstorming's inspiration for this mani came from the Marc Jacobs Daisy Perfume bottle - how cute is this mani?? 145 of my followers like it - making it my most liked mani EVER!!!

Day 4 - more flower but this time poppies - I love poppies and I love glitter so this mani definitely ticked the boxes for me.

Day 5 - I moved away from flowers and back to dots - love this colour combo, it's really spring like and fresh. 77 likes for this mani but more impressive than that my followers hit 300 - that's 100 new followers in just 3 days - amazing!!!

Day 6 - back in the late 90's I was quite partial to a bit of Burberry check (before it became chavvy of course!!!) I had bags, scarves , umbrellas and even a scrunchie (which shows you how long ago it was - do scrunchies even exist anymore????) but I never thought of having the Burberry plaid design on my nails. I created it freehand and if you look closely, the lines are a bit jaggedy, but at arms length (and being a bit short sighted!!!) they looked ok!!! 

There are soooo many fantastic manis to choose from on Gianna's Ig account @nailstorming that I created an extra one for Day 6

I love a bit of leopard print and with the video tutorial showing you how to create this mani - I couldn't resist!!! I've created leopard print manis before but not in this colour combo and as grey features quite heavily in my wardrobe, I have a feeling that this look will be making regular appearances!!! 

Day 7 - sadly for me,the last day of my challenge. Back to flowers, but this time roses (at least that's what they are supposed to be - hope you realised!!!)

Having reached the end of the challenge I realised I'd chosen all flowers and dots - so I had a quick look through some of Gianna's earlier designs - before I started following her. She has some amazing seasonal manis (I can't wait until Halloween and Christmas to recreate some!!!) but 3 manis from about a year ago caught my eye, as there wasn't a flower or dot in sight, so I decided to recreate them too - great excuse ehh!!!

Watermelons, Strawberries and Oranges(in case you hadn't realised!!) all created freehand with help from Gianna's tutorials!!!

Getting Fruity at the end of Nailstorming week!!!

Xoxo

Red Carpet - Blue Mani

So, last night we were invited by our good friend Laura Hamilton, presenter of A Place in the Sun, to the Well Child Helping Hands Charity Dinner, which was being held at The Sheraton Park Lane. Laura is an ambassador for the charity and kindly invited us along as her guests.

Laura, who is nearly 8 months pregnant, looked stunning in her Tiffany Rose coral lace dress. She didn't have a coat with her - which I thought a bit strange on such a chilly, wet night - but it all became clear when we stepped out of the car and faced a wall of flash lights as Laura was "papped"!!! Strangely, they didn't seem to want a picture of me - all wrapped up warm in my winter coat - can't think why!!!

Once inside, having removed my coat, we were ushered into the drinks reception - gin & tonic or elderflower water - no prizes for guessing which one I chose !!! 

We knew we were on table 19 but what we didn't know was who else was on our table - so imagine my surprise to find that these two were sitting opposite me!!!

This is the official photo and next up is my shameless, grainy iPhone pic that I took whilst trying not to appear starstruck!!!

The meal was fantastic, you may have spotted my dessert plate that I almost licked clean it was so delicious!!!

I wore an electric blue dress - that sadly didn't get papped!!!- and so created a blue mani to go with it. I knew I wouldn't have a lot of time to create anything too fancy as I was at work during the day and only had a 2 hour window to get ready!!! 

So I settled on this mani - I'd recreated a pink version of this on Monday, having been inspired by a fantastic Instagram nail artist @nailstorming - I posted the pink mani and got nearly 100 likes - my best ever!!! Because the mani is a basic dotticure over a clear basecoat, I didn't have to wait ages for it to dry properly and there was minimal risk of smudging. It also gave me the ideal opportunity to try out one of my new Christian Louboutin polishes "Wherever" - I'll be posting this on Ig later and it will be interesting to see if it gets as many likes as the pink one!!!

The evening was fantastic, and raised an amazing amount of money for the Well Child Charity and was finished off with Beverley Night singing on stage (you'll have to take my word for it as the zoom and focus on my iPhone doesn't do Beverley justice!!!)  

A perfect end to a perfect night, where I got to walk on the red carpet and show off my blue mani!!!

Xoxo

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait!!!

So, last Sunday was Mother's Day and in true Mother's Day style, my two sons Tom and Josh (and Matt, my husband) spoilt me for the day.

The day started with a beautiful bunch of roses being presented to me, along with a lovely card and a CD of Now That's What I Call Music 89 (the CD that both boys have wanted for the last few weeks!!!!) I can't believe there have been 89 of these released - I still remember the first one which makes me somewhat of an antique!!! - good job I didn't decide to collect them all!!!

The boys all then disappeared to football, leaving me with some quality quiet time to - guess what? - paint my nails!!!

I did a couple of challenge manis and then settled on an understated Mothers Day Mani - a French manicure with a twist (or should that say bow??)

Nail stuff packed away, I set about getting the dinner ready, only to be shooed out of the kitchen - the boys were cooking dinner!!!

This event rarely happens in my house, so I took a picture for posterity (and because I thought I might need it for a blog at some point!!)

We had roast chicken, roast potatoes, pigs in blankets, stuffing, bread sauce, 4 types of veg and Yorkshire puddings ( the boys insist we have yorkshires with every roast not just beef!!!) It was delicious - food always tastes so good when you haven't had to prepare it yourself - and the meal was finished off with homemade Banoffee Pie that Josh (who is nine) made all by himself!!!

A perfect Mother's Day with my perfect family!!! Thanks boys (all 3 of you!!!) you did me proud xxx

So, when I was told there was a bit more to my present, that I would need to choose myself, I was intrigued. They had decided what to get but I needed to make the final selection - I had no idea what they were talking about but it has now become crystal clear - Christian Louboutin Crystal clear!!!

I was in nail polish heaven - I had wanted one of these beauties since the first day I saw them (who wouldn't??) and now I was going to have 2 of my very own. The boys were undecided on the colour I would want, so that was what the final selection was all about - I chose 2 colours from the Pops collection Miss Loubi (on the left) and Wherever (on the right).

I've been so excited all week in anticipation of owning these polishes and  when I got them today I was equally excited - like a kid in a candy shop!!! I couldn't wait to get home to try them out.

I decided to try Miss Loubi first - and true to the sales girl's word, I only needed one coat and no top coat. This polish is so heavily pigmented and glossy, it's worth every penny (especially as it comes in such a divine bottle!!!)

I didn't want to detract too much from the beauty of the polish, so I just added a few black nail studs to finish the mani - the very first thing I have ever owned by Christian Louboutin and I LOVE it!!!

 

I can't bring myself to remove this yet, so "Wherever" will have to wait for another day and another blog, after all, good things come to those who wait!!!

Xoxo

The Inspiration Station

So, most of my manis to date have been inspired by someone else's mani and I'm pretty sure that nothing that I've created has inspired anyone else - but it seems that things may have changed this week!!!

I'll start with this weeks A-Z challenge - S is for Silver. Now, you would think that this is a relatively simple challenge, so much so that I had a complete mind blank. I did my usual google search but nothing inspired me, until I had lunch with my sister Tracey, last weekend. 

Despite not being on Facebook or Instagram, my Sis is one of my biggest fans and every mani I do, I send to her via Whatsapp and she's always very complimentary. She's even endured me practicing gradients on her (though I think she was a bit surprised when I was almost sitting on her lap to get the right angle for the gradient - I'm sure that doesn't happen in a salon!!!)

  

This was my very first attempt at a mani on someone else!!! (Not something I plan to do very often if I can help it!!!)

When I told Tracey that I was struggling with S is for Silver her response was - well that's simple, why not create a mani for a weekend in Florence to celebrate a Silver Wedding Anniversary (coincidentally, that is exactly what she will be doing at the beginning of June - though she said I need to mention at this point that she was a child bride!!!!) 

This was food for thought and as soon as I got home from our lunch I started looking through my stash, to find something that would suit Tracey and fit the challenge. 

I decided to use Opi Push and Shove, a super shiny mirror-like silver that needs a special base coat - Lay Down That Base - and no top coat. I applied this to my ring finger as an accent nail and then selected a base colour for the other nails. 

Not knowing what clothes she'll be taking away with her, I opted for a neutral shade Rimmel London Soul Session 

The lighting in the photo doesn't do the silver justice (it looks gold!!!) but it is in fact super shiny and smooth (just like having a mirror on your finger!!!) 

Next I added a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust, which has been making an appearance in a lot of my manis lately - I've yet to find a mani that it doesn't enhance!!!

 

I finished the mani off with Ciate Celestial on the free edge. I took photos at each stage, as I wasn't sure how "blingy" she would want to go, but I'm pleased to report that I will be recreating the full mani at the beginning of June, in readiness for the trip to Florence.

So, for the first time, my inspiration for this weeks A-Z challenge came from a person, rather than a photo. 

Whenever I use someone else's mani as inspiration, I give them credit in the post - in my opinion it's the ultimate compliment  if someone else likes your mani so much that they want to recreate it. Sadly, I had never experienced this, that is until this week. 

My first mani to inspire another nail artist was this converse mani, which was recreated by my 9 year old niece Hannah

She used a nail art kit that she got for her birthday - pretty impressive eh!!! Again, Tracey was the "willing" model.

 

This super glossy red mani was also the inspiration for another budding new nail artist - though I'm not sure his style will catch on - introducing Finlay Alderton ....

 

Clearly this pic is pre-cleanup - nothing that a bit of acetone and a cleanup brush couldn't fix!!! Butter wouldn't melt!!! 

So this week I was inspired by my sister and I inspired 2 potential nail artists of the future - think I'll have to rename my work station "The Inspiration Station!!!"

Xoxo

The Green Mani

So, I've only been doing my nails for just over 2 months, and haven't done enough manis to really determine my preference for colours. However , having recently bought a helmer and spent hours sorting my stash into colour order, it became very apparent that I lean very much towards blue and purple (and every shade in between!!!) and lean away from Green (it's not a colour that can be found in my wardrobe either!!)

So, I made a conscious effort this week to try and weave green into some of my manis. Fortunately for me, some of my challenges lent themselves to this theme very nicely!!

Inspire Me Nails Facebook Group do 2 challenges a month - and the challenge for the second half of March is "Green" - perfect!!!

I started this mani with 2 coats of Morgan Taylor Party at the Palace from the new Cinderella Collection. I decided to go with a spring theme , inspired by all the blossom beginning to bloom, so added some freehand nailart

I used 2 more colours from the Morgan Taylor Cinderella Collection for the blossom, Watch your Step,Sister and Ella of a Girl and  I used Opi Love is Hot and Coal for the branches. I was really pleased with this mani - especially as I managed to create it whilst sitting in Costa waiting for my son to finish football training!!! Green Mani - tick!!!

I'm also part of an Instagram based challenge for March organised by @clairestelle8 and Day 17's theme was St Patrick's Day 

I used Sinful Pro Shine Wildchild as the main colour for this mani with Ciate Sand Dune for the accent finger and again was really happy with how my freehand nailart turned out - Green Mani - tick!!

Another Facebook group I belong to is Crumpets Nail Tarts 52 week Pick n Mix challenge - we always get 2 prompts per week and you can do either one of them  or combine the two. This week the prompts were Mermaid and or lilac/green - perfect!!!

I'm not going to say too much about this mani, as I have been asked by Rachel Star to do a guest post on her blog, NailParade, whilst she is away in Africa - so I'll post the link to this mani once she's posted on her blog - what I will say is ....Green Mani - tick!! 

My final Green Mani this week was one I did purely for myself - not a challenge in sight!! 

I started with China Glaze For Audrey and the mani just evolved as I went - I  got loads of lovely comments from friends and family that actually got to see it before it was removed to make way for the next mani !!! Green Mani (this may be stretching the theme just a touch as Tiffany boxes are blue - aren't they??) - half tick!!!

So, with a bit of artistic licence and a stretch of the imagination, this week was definitely the week of "The Green Mani"

Xoxo

Patience is a Virtue - or is it???

So, for Day 14 of @clairestelle8 March Challenge ,the prompt was Neon. I'd already decided that I was going to use Opi Life Gave Me Lemons but wasn't sure how I wanted the mani to look. 

As is usually the case when I'm doing challenges, I consulted my trusted friend, Google Images, to try and get some inspiration. There were lots of brightly coloured neon manis to choose from, but none of them really caught my eye or inspired me. So I decided to be really brave and try and create something myself !!!

I started with my "go to" base coat Glisten and Glow Stuck on Blu and then applied 2 coats of Opi Life Gave Me Lemons. That was the easy part - now for the creative bit!!!

I started with my pinkie and used one of my long thin brushes to create a freehand, half nail, geometric pattern using my favourite black polish - China Glaze Liquid Leather. Relatively happy with the result (don't look too closely at the zoomed in close up!!!) I moved onto my ring finger. 

This was where disaster struck (or so I thought!!) I had decided to use a star from one of my nail vinyls from @teismom and the plan was to place the star in the middle of my nail, apply my black Liquid Leather over the whole nail and then remove the star to reveal a gorgeous neon star!!! 

I used tweezers to remove the star from the backing paper and was just about to position it on my nail, when the tweezers slipped (actually I let go of them too early!!) The star positioned itself right up by the free edge of my nail - aaaggghhh!!! It wasn't firmly in place so I gingerly used the tweezers to try and reposition it, but as is usually the case when I'm doing manis, I hadn't waited long enough for the polish to dry. Instead of coming away easily (as nail vinyls usually do) the star took the polish with it, leaving a rough star shape of bare nail!!! 

I was just about to reach for the cotton wool and acetone (swearing under my breath!!!) when I remembered reading something about negative space manis, where bare nail is part of the design.

I used some acetone, on my clean up brush, to tidy the edges of the star and then edged the star in black. Although I liked the effect I'd created, it didn't look quite right, because the star was so close to the free edge of my nail. So I grabbed a silver star shaped, nail stud, painted it black and stuck it in place - Ta dah - 2nd nail completed!!!

My middle finger was going to be something different, but it too went wrong, so I ended up having to paint a rather large area of the nail black. It needed more neon colour so I reached for my trusty dotting tools and created a line of decreasing (or increasing depending which way you look at it!!!) dots.

Next up was my index finger, and again, following the theme of this mani, my original plan went wrong!!! I was attempting to create a triangle of black nail studs from my cuticle. I placed the first 3 studs,  for the base of the triangle, by my cuticle. So far, so good!!! All I had to do next was place 2 more studs on my nail to form the next layer of the triangle - Easy right??? Wrong - because the studs were quite large, I'd inadvertently placed the first row in a curve, so the second row of studs didn't fit properly!! As I tried to reposition them - guess what - the polish wasn't quite dry and it came away with the stud - double aaaaaaggghhh!!! You'd think I'd learn!!! 

Never one to be beaten, I continued applying the studs, reached for the acetone and my clean up brush ( it's never had to work so hard!!) and created a negative space flower!!! Who said I wasn't creative????

Last, but not least, came my thumb. Having spent a lot longer than originally planned on this mani ( dinner wasn't going to cook itself!!) I needed to get a move on, so played it safe with a relatively simple dotticure.

A quick coat of Glisten and Glow HK Girl and my mani was finished

Really pleased with the result and it just goes to show - Patience is a Virtue - or is it???

Xoxo

A-Z challenge - R is for Redo, Recycle, Reboot (Recreate)

So, Thursday has come around again, which this week means 2 things - firstly it's time to post this weeks A-Z manicure and secondly, as a Partner in the John Lewis Partnership, today is Bonus announcement day!!! 11% this year - yippee - wonder how many bottles of polish that equates to ???

I wasnt really sure what this weeks challenge meant at first, but decided that I would interpret it as re-doing a previous manicure. 

As I've only been doing my nails for a couple of months I didn't have a huge selection of manis to choose from so I chose one that I really loved wearing.

 

This was the original mani that I did about 3 weeks ago and ....

.....this is how I recreated it - giving it a totally different look , but I was equally pleased with it.

R is for Redo, Recycle, Reboot (Recreate)

Xoxo

Polishes used in manis

Ciate Silhouette

Ciate Sand Dune

Urban Decay Chaos

W7 Silver

SPARITUAL Unveil Peel-Off Basecoat - It's all about the base (coat!!!)

So, if you've been reading my blog over the last month, you will know that my new found love of all things nails is a fairly recent thing!!! What you might not realise, is that I'm not allowed to wear nail polish to work and so I'm constantly creating a mani, and then promptly removing it (usually within 24hours!!)

You will also know (if you've been reading my blog!!) that I went to the Professional Beauty Show at Excel at the end of February. It was my first show of this kind and I was really excited at the prospect of spending 4-5 hours surrounded by everything a girl could possibly want or need to do with nails!!! 

The night before the show, I was catching up on the blogs I follow on my Feedly app and came across a review of Sparitual Unveil Peel-Off Basecoat by Lucy's Stash. I had no idea such a thing existed but it seemed to be a perfect solution for quick, easy and mess free polish removal, especially for those hard to remove glitter polishes that look soooo pretty but are a devil to remove!!! I put the Sparitual stand on my "must visit" list!!!

I went to the show with my friend Claire Kerr, who is an established nail blogger and regularly reviews Sparitual polishes on her blog www.kerruticles.com . She introduced me to Rachel Scaife , Account Manager at Sparitual and NSInails and I asked her about the Unveil Peel-Off Basecoat. Despite being a new blogger - with only a small number of readers at the moment - Rachel asked me if I'd like to review the basecoat on my blog :-)

True to her word, Rachel sent me the Unveil Peel-Off Basecoat and a gorgeous Glitter Laquer called Clarity - getting nail mail is always exciting, but this was extra exciting, as I was about to do my first product review!!!

There was no time like the present to get started. Having first read the instructions, I applied the base coat as a thin layer. It looked a bit like Pva glue as I was applying it and had a faint smell of glue, that reminded me of school!!! It was white and opaque as it came out of the bottle but as it dried (which it did quite quickly - in about a minute) it became clear with a matte finish. I have quite small nail beds, but the brush was a perfect size and there was no clean up around the cuticles needed.

 

Once dry, I applied 2 coats of the gorgeous Clarity Glitter Laquer that Rachel had sent me. Again the brush was perfect for the size of my nails and no clean up was needed. 

I couldn't resist adding a bit of nailart to really put the Unveil Peel-Off Base coat to the test!!

Next came the hard bit - waiting to peel!!! I was really tempted to start peeling straight away but I wanted to leave it on for at least 24 hours to make sure that the polish didn't lift of it's own accord!!! I've read a couple of articles recently where nails can "ping off" (at inappropriate times!!!) when using a peelable base and I've often found in the past that gel polishes lift around my cuticles after a couple of days wear. 

So I resisted temptation and left the mani in place for just over 24 hours (a near record for me!!!) and there wasn't even a hint of the polish lifting , to the point that I began to doubt whether it was going to work at all!!! I started to pick at the polish, just around the cuticle, and was delighted to find that the polish lifted of easily and quickly, in one piece!!! There was something strangely therapeutic about actually being allowed to pick at something - again it reminded me of my school days when I often had scabby knees and was tempted to pick at the edges - but that's a whole other story!!!!

I was amazed at how easily the Glitter Laquer lifted away, without having to soak with acetone, and my nails were clear of polish and totally undamaged - ready for another base coat of Unveil and my next mani!!!

This basecoat is going to be a real favourite and will definitely be my "go to" basecoat when there is any kind of glitter involved in my manis (which is more often than not!!). 

Sparitual Unveil Peel -Off Basecoat - it's all about the base(coat)!!!

Xoxo

Both products can be purchased at www.sparitual.co.uk

Unveil Peel-Off Base Coat RRP £10.50

Glitter Laquer RRP £9.75