piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013

Celebrating the Year of the Blogger!

HIYA POLISHED PALS!  Can you tell I'm excited?!  I'M EXCITED.  I was utterly over the moon when I received the email inviting me to take part in piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013, not least because I had never had the opportunity to try their polishes before.  For those unfamiliar with Blog Fest, it is an annual event run by PP and involving bloggers from all around the world and this year, Blog Fest is celebrating amazing nail art.  Three lucky participants will also be chosen to create a PP collaboration shade each, for release in 2014.  The voting will take place on PP's special Blog Fest 2013 Pinterest board - if you'd like to see the other entries and take part in the voting, you can find that here: http://pinterest.com/picturepolish/

I was sent these three shades to play with:

Ocean - 'An octopus garden in the shade...'

Ruby Blou - 'Dazzling red, sparkling blue'

Atomic - ' WARNING...totally explosive!'

As you can see, Ocean and Atomic were created by Kelly's Kolors and Samarium's Swatches respectively - I hope I've done their beautiful creations justice!  So without further ado, here is my contribution to Blog Fest 2013!

Ta daaah!  Being so used to working with cremes, I was initially unsure how best to show off these three shades, but I am pleased with how they turned out.   If you'd like to recreate the look, you're in luck, because here is my FIRST EVER TUTORIAL!

1: After applying base coat, paint your base colour - this is three thin coats of Atomic.

2: Using a nail art brush - or the bottle brush, if you're so inclined - paint the shapes of your flowers.*

3: Outline your flowers in black, using a nail art brush or pen, then frame the rest of your nail (which I forgot to take a picture of, oops).  Don't frame the parts where the flowers are!

4: Glitter placement - plop some Ruby Blou on a bit of paper/tin foil and use a toothpick/dotting tool/weapon of choice to pick up individual pieces of glitter and arrange them roughly to form the centres of your flowers.

5: Add top coat & clean up if necessary, and you're done!

*When I used Ruby Blou as a base, I painted the flowers in black and added Atomic over the top afterwards.

The polishes themselves are really beautiful.  Ocean is super sparkly with holo-ish flakes in a turquoise jelly base.  It is quite sheer but the formula is lovely, so it truly isn't a hassle to layer it up.  Ruby Blou is a delightful mix of large and small hex (I think) glitters in red, blue and silver, suspended in a clear base.  Atomic isn't something I would necessarily have thought of as a 'me' colour, but it really is incredibly gorgeous and so complex.  The base is a silvery white shimmery affair, but there are loads of little flakes in there too - I see pink and green and gold reflections and sparkles.  I've included some bottle photos especially to try to capture some of the more complex elements of Ocean and Atomic.

Pretty special, right?  

What do you think?  Are you a piCture pOlish fan?  I'm certainly impressed!  You can find PP's polishes on their website or at one of their worldwide distributors.  If you're in the UK (& perhaps Europe?) you can find piCture pOlish at the wonderful Sally Magpies.  

HAPPY BLOG FEST 2013 EVERYONE!  I can't wait to check out all the other bloggers!

 pOlish On-line Store     Facebook     Twitter     Pinterest     Instagram


EDIT: Now you can check out some of the other BlogFesters' posts below and add your own, if you haven't already!

Neon Skittle Nail Art feat. Illamasqua Collide & Gamma

Remember last time I talked about how difficult Nubar Violet Sparkle was to capture on camera?  Neons are even more elusive!  I need to stop doing this to myself, haha.  Enter Illamasqua Collide (pink) & Gamma (orange).

They do look relatively glowy here but the colours aren't perfectly accurate - Collide is hotter in person and Gamma possibly looks a little softer or peachier?  I think the orange overpowers the pink a little in these pictures.  Here is a really attractive 'phone photo:

Collide looks more like this most of the time - the 'true' colours (shining throoough) are probably somewhere in the middle and probably more neon.  Also, you can see the effect on my middle finger much more clearly here.

SO.  I had originally painted my nails white with the intention of trying out the 'watercolour' technique but it wasn't exactly working for me so I've shelved that for the time being.  I didn't want the effort of painting my nails white to go to waste, though, so neon seemed like the natural choice!

Awkward thumb, hello to you!

This was more or less a 'make it up as I go along' affair.  Index to pinkie we have: neon clouds; saran wrap technique (I think I first learned this from Chelsea's tutorial but there are others out there, too); some funky lines; and a psychedelic swirly thing which makes me think of lollipops.  Some excellent naming there.  My thumb echoes my ring finger but runs horizontally rather than vertically.  I painted everything (except my middle finger) using little brushes.  The outlines are Barry M Gold Foil, which is a go-to nail art polish for me; and the studs are from this set by BornPretty, stuck on with a blob of top coat and sealed with layer of the same.

I really love this combo - it's so fun and happy!  I just wish (again) that it was easier to photograph.

What do you think?  Will you be sporting some feisty neons this summer?

Monochrome Circles + Rhinestones x Nubar Violet Sparkle

I'm back!  I've been suffering from a combo of busyness and bad weather, yeuch.  On to the nails!

I can't think of a remotely catchy name for these?!  What would you call that circular pattern?  Before I talk about how I created this design, I have to tell you how frustrating I found trying to capture Nubar Violet Sparkle on camera.  I've tweaked these photos a little  in an attempt to make them more colour accurate because no matter which settings I used, it appeared far too blue.  Eventually, though, I just had to accept that it would never look as amazing in my photos as it does in person: it is just far more intense and the sparkle is simply mesmerising, often with quite a strong magenta tone, even in relatively low light.  Sorry for gushing, but Violet Sparkle is such a true beauty and I wish you could all see it like I can!

SPARKLES!

For the patterned nails, I started with a base of black (Orly Liquid Vinyl).  Then, using my largest dotting tool, I added dots of white (Essie Blanc).  Getting them all a regular size (and shape, haha) and aligning them all properly was more difficult than I thought it would be - I started on my pinkie and almost abandoned the idea before I'd really begun, haha - but it did get a little easier as I settled into a rhythm.  I went in with the small end of the same dotting tool to add a black dot in the centre of each white dot.  My nails are not exactly the right size/shape to fit on a whole number of dots, but since I wanted the pattern to go right to the edges, I make the very wise decision just to plop the dots right over the the sides of my nails/cuticles and all over my fingers.  Good one.  Cleaning that up was great fun.

Shade picture for the sake of completeness...

While the black dots were still wet, I finished up by placing the purple rhinestones from the 1.5mm version of this wheel from BornPrettyStore.com using the pointy end of an orange stick, moistened by my tongue (creepy).  They look really purple while they're just chilling in the box, but they seemed quite pinky next to Violet Sparkle - which actually complemented the magenta-ness I mentioned earlier and pulled the whole design together rather nicely.  I let them settle briefly then sealed everything with top coat.

I'm really pleased I didn't abandon this idea!  Although the dots were not immaculate the effect I was going for was definitely there and I loved rocking some sparrrkle!  Also, I've just noticed that this matches my blog colours quite neatly, haha.  

What do you think?   Do you like a bit of bling?

Feelin' Hot Hot Hot | Chilli Pepper Nail Art

...So we can rum boom boom boom!  

Hiya!  Getting all spicy with this hot little chilli (or 'chili' for my American friends) number!  

I honestly have no explanation for how this happened.  I had intended to do something entirely different but it just didn't work out quite exactly as I wanted and then this idea just popped into my head.  I'm really glad it did.  These nails are pretty different (I think) from most of things I've done before, but I think they're rather cute & fun.  I like them!

[An aside: do you get yellow chillis?  If not, those ones are just ordinary peppers...] 

I started with a white base (always a joy...) then painted the pepper-y shapes in Kikos 236 & 239 (lighter & darker reds, respectively), Barielle 'Lemondrops' and Sinful Colors 'Exotic Green'.  I added the stalks with Sinful Colors 'Last Chance' and then outlined & detailed with a skinny brush using a black Orly (Liquid Leather?).

Overall, I'm really happy with these.  I wanted them kind of 'arty' looking and they might be a bit too 'sketchy' in places and insufficiently so in others but I think it's a relatively forgiving design in that regard.  I also wonder if it might have been better with the chillis 'peppered' about (BOOM) a little more sparsely; if you try it, make sure you take into account the stalks & outlining when spacing your chillis!

If you've been following my nails for a little while, you may have noticed that I've changed my nail shape; I fancied a wee change & I'd broken corners off a couple of nails on my other hand, so the time seemed ripe.  I quite like them when they're painted but they do look a bit odd to me when they're not!  What do you think?  Does it suit me?  Is there another shape I should experiment with?  I'll almost definitely end up back with my trusty squares sooner or later...

Final thought: I think a print similar to this could be really cute for summer skirts/shorts/dresses...then you'd be looking HOT (and again!) all the time!  What do you think?  Could peppers be the new bananas?  Chilli jokes appreciated.

Hope you've had a top notch weekend.  I leave you with this:

Zig Zags/Floral Tribal Mish Mash

Hello!  I'm back!  We had a very busy (in a good way!) Easter weekend last weekend but I have now had a chance to paint my nails & take photos etc. soooo yay!  Nails!  

I think this looks kind of like an Easter manicure (cute colours + zig zags = Easter?) but that really wasn't my intention!  Guess I still have Easter on my subconscious brain.  I started out with base colours of China Glaze 'Re-Fresh Mint' & Color Club 'Sweet Pea'.  I hadn't really decided in advance what I would do next, but zig zags just seemed an appropriate choice!  For the other nails, I was going for a tribal-esque vibe, but with little flowers instead of dots (am I still making sense?!).

I picked out Essie 'Blanc', Barry M 'Blackberry' Gelly (the purple one) & Barry M 'Gold Foil' (which I use a LOT for nail art) and added the details with some striper brushes and my second smallest dotting tool.  It was starting to get dark when I painted these so I rushed them a little, but thankfully I don't mind the 'hand painted' look, haha.

I was pretty disappointed with these at first - I absolutely love Re-Fresh Mint & Sweet Pea together and I think I felt that the busyness of the design kind of detracted from that.  They have definitely grown on me, though.  What do you think?

Got some bonus Easter photos for you, too!

Heilan' Coo

The top photo is of some nails I did for the delightful Maddy while she and my sister, Alison, were up staying with us over Easter.  I think nail art looks super cute on wee nails.

The bottom photo is of a heilan' coo (highland cow) at Pollock Country Park because HIGHLAND COWS ARE AWESOME.  Seriously, so cute, I love them.  This one is a 'baby' - look at its little teeny tiny horns just starting to poke out!

Hope you enjoyed these little extras & that you all had as splendid an Easter as I did!  As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Illamasqua Jo'Mina Debut | Stripy Geometric Mix

Hiya!  I'd fancied picking up Illamasqua's Jo'Mina for a good while, having seen/read so many complimentary things about it on various blogs.  Finally I caved and nabbed it from eBay (for slightly cheaper than normal) last week, thanks in part to the absolutely lovely Kayla Shevonne who was kind enough to send me a bottle-shot comparison to help me decide whether I 'needed' it (haha).

I was really keen to use it but didn't have a clear idea of what I wanted to do, so in the end I just picked out a couple of colours I thought would complement it and got to painting!  Here is the result:

I'm generally a wee bit apprehensive about beginning a design without knowing what I'm going to do (it doesn't always end amicably!) but I'm pretty pleased with how these turned out.  I think the skinniest stripes, which I included on each nail, pulled the different designs together quite neatly, along with the framing.  I still find lines a bit tricky at times and I know a few of them are a bit wonky, but not too badly (I don't think?!).  I totally dig bold, geometric-esque mix & match designs, although it's not something I do often.  

Illamasqua Jo'Mina is a fantastic purple.  It's more intense (and possibly a touch pinker, I'm not sure) in person.  Here I've matched it up with Barry M Shocking Pink and 17 (by Boots) Smokey Marble.  (It's spelt 'Smokey' with an 'e' on the bottle, though I don't know why!)  I really wanted to use something other than my go-to black or gold as the offset/outline colour and I think Smokey Marble was a good choice here.  It's a bit darker than it looks in the bottle - I think I'd call it 'gunmetal' - and the shimmer is pretty subtle, but I think it makes a nice change!

For my index and pinkie fingers, I found it easiest to paint the pink and purple first, then add the darker, thinner lines at the end.  After having to redo my ring finger, I decided it was best to outline the patterns on the remaining nails, fill them in, then tidy up the lines where necessary.  I mostly used striping brushes (in a variety of lengths, so I didn't have to clean them constantly!) for this design, including my super cut-down brush for the skinny lines.

What do you think?  Are you a fan of mixing-and-matching?  Do you have a favourite finger?  (I realise that last question sounds kind of creepy.)

Jan Weiss 'Yellow Petals' Inspired Nail Art

Hello!  Rocking some 'art-inspired' nail art right now:

I'm hardly what you'd call an art buff - although I wish I was more knowledgeable in the subject - but I found myself browsing art.com for inspiration, where I came across this Jan Weiss print, 'Yellow Petals 4':

I absolutely loved it - it was just begging to be made into a manicure!  I'm always trying to convince myself that floral designs are 'too girlie' for me, but every time I do something flowery I end up really liking it.   What I dig about this series of Jan Weiss prints, I think, is that they're a bit 'edgier' (seriously judging myself for using that word) than my idea of a more classic floral, and not very cutesy at all!  I love the freshness of the colours, too.

I began this design by painting my nails white.  Whilst I love nail art on a white base, I do NOT enjoy the act of painting it.  White polish just seems to be consistently annoying, so if you have one you love, let me know!  

I used Barry M 'Acid Yellow' for the outer colour of the petals, which I just painted using the brush in the bottle.  Then I added the accent colours with a little brush, in Barielle 'Lemondrops' and Illamasqua 'Blow'.  After that, I went in with my smallest dotting tool to try to replicate the 'dotty' look of the petals round the outside at and the borders between the different colours, but that's really not apparent in the finished look unless you go eyeball-to-nail, so I probably wouldn't bother if I did it again!

Next, I added dots on the petals using Sinful Colors 'Exotic Green', and more in the centre with Barielle 'Sweet Addiction' and Sinful 'Last Chance'.  Up until this point I thought my flowers looked a bit daft and I really didn't think they were going to work!  However, the addition of the black lines (with a cut down striper) finally pulled the look together.

I did have a couple of ideas for the rest of my fingers, but I felt anything I put on them might detract from the impact of the flowers.  At first I thought they looked a bit stark or incomplete but actually,  I really like the clean aesthetic of the white next to the bolder, fresh-coloured flowers.  Despite the fact that it has been snowing here for about a week, I do love how springy these feel!

What do you think?  Are florals your thing?  And if you have any white polish recommendations, do let me know!