Something to brighten your day

What better way to spend my Christmas break from work then to catch up with the blog and get this improvement post up!

Looking through my photos this was the first ever gradient I did. Now it's not the worst I've seen or done for that matter, but I've learnt quite a bit since this original one. For example I now wet the sponge before using it so I don't get chunks of sponge stuck on my nails, as I did with my early gradients and I also put a white base down to enhance the paler colours and really make them pop.

There's quite a lot of room for improvement here but as I say for a first attempt it is quite good. The main issue is again I'm still using false nails that I've stuck on myself and they make for this really ugly border of nail polish where I've tried to blend he false nail in to the real one and ended up with polish all over my cuticles. Plus realistically the birds are just V's....

Now I'll be the first to say I'm not that keen on this recreation. Yes the gradient is good and the clean up is fine but personally I think the birds are a little big. They were created by painting white polish on a sandwich bag, leaving it a few days to dry and then using a hole punch in the shape of a bird to cut it out. The method I'm in love with because they look perfect but in this instance they are a little too large.

Overall I'd say I'm fairly happy with it but there are still things that can be altered to put it more in the direction of what I envisaged. Let's be honest though I'm such a perfectionist when it comes to nails that it may never happen!

For this manicure I used Essie 'Grow Stronger', Barry M 'Lemon Ice Cream' and 'Matte White', Rimmel 'Hot & Spicy', Sally Hansen 'Back to the Fucshia' and Sally Hansen 'Insta-Dri'.

Christmas jumper day!

Now I know this should have been an improvement post but I was off work yesterday and it was Christmas jumper day which I kept seeing everywhere so rather than do my improvement blog I thought I'd give Christmas jumper nails a go! 

I absolutely adore these nails, which I know is a bit braggy to say, but I'm usually my own worst critic so throwing a compliment out there every once in a while is fine in my book.

Rather annoyingly the photo went a little bit out of focus when I added my watermark but aside from that they are exactly what I wanted. I've seen countless jumper designs that are red and white, blue and white or a combination of those 3 colours, but then yesterday I stumbled across some turquoise and pink ones on Pinterest which looked so different but yet still Christmassy that I need to find my own variation in this.

These were done almost entirely using the O.P.I Nordic Collection. I hadn't used them at all before this but I kept staring at the gorgeous colours every time I went to paint my nails so had to settle on them for this really. 

As much as I love the green base (My Dogsled is a Hybrid) it didn't go on very easily. It's difficult to explain, it wasn't thick but it wasn't thin or watery either. It took three coats and was very streaky on all three coats until I smoothed it over with my topcoat. It dried quickly and looks great, but it's not something you're going to want to use in a hurry! I've read other bloggers reviews and their experiences are so different, it may have easily just been my bottle or the fact it was a mini!

Overall though I would definitely use this collection again. I only have 4 bottles but after reading the review by Polish Insomniac I really want the rest of them.

For this manicure I used Essie "Grow Stronger", Maybelline "Watery Waste", O.P.I "My Dogsled is a Hybrid", "Do You Have This Colour in Stock-Holm" and "My Voice is a Little Norse". This time I changed up my top coat to "Insta-Dri" by Sally Hansen

Holidays are coming!

I know this type of Christmas tree manicure has been done time and time again but I still love it. It looks so pretty and there is something so clean and nice about black nails, even if it is at Christmas!

In person these looked so good but because the polishes I used on the black were quite dark they don't show up brilliantly, but I have a light box ordered and on its way so hopefully that should make designs like this easier to capture

I'd been thinking about this for a few days but I had so many pretty glitters I knew I'd never be able to choose so my poor boyfriend got them lumped on his lap one evening and told to pick 5 he liked! I have so many go-to favourites that I use time and time again, so it's nice to leave that decision up to someone else every so often. Whilst they'll perhaps know colours you use regularly odds are they will have no clue which brand it is let alone which specific bottle.

For this design I used Essie "Grow Stronger", Barry M "Black", O.P.I "The Impossible", "Get Your Number" and "Can't Let Go", Ciaté "Party Shoes" and "Locket" and "H K Girl" by Glisten and Glow. The Stars were from Amazon