31 Day Challenge ~ A New Technique To You

Hello!

Today's challenge is to try a technique you've never done before, and I decided to be brave and go for a water marble! I've always thought my fellow polishers' marbles were absolutely stunning but the technique seemed intimidating and so I never tried it myself... until today :-)

With some kind advice from the Polishaholics Anonymous group and an extremely clear and helpful tutorial by Colette at My Simple Little Pleasures, I got a bowl of water and some polishes and gave it a try. I used 3 polishes from Barry M's Gelly collection - Pomegranate, Blueberry and Grapefruit - because they're thick and colour rich, and here is the result:

It is SO COOL!!! The colours are super-bright and give a stunning effect. As you can see, it's not a complete success story - I have some messy bits and imperfections. However, I had already been told that you need practise with this technique and so I was delighted that I got the marble effect, even though it's flawed. Although the manicure required some preparation, such as painting my nails a base white and taping around my nails for easier cleanup, it was not nearly as drawn-out or difficult as I feared it would be. I will definitely be trying again!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Pinspiration ~ Rose & Sparkle

Hello!

I am still feeling poorly but am slowly getting better, so before tomorrow's challenge attempt I have a mani to show you! On my Pinterest I have a board called Nail Inspiration where I repin amazing-yet-attemptable manicures, and today I was inspired by this pin that I added a while back: a gorgeous, blushing rose colour with sparkly accent nails. I've traced the original manicure to pshiiit, an amazing French blogger whose nails I've admired many times before!

For my own nails I picked out Rimmel London's Rose Libertine and Nails Inc's Noel Street, and here is the result:

I am so happy with this and am thankful to pshiiit for the pinspiration (merci beaucoup, j'ai tant d'admiration pour tes belles manucures!). I love the warm rose on my nails and the Nails Inc glitter looks like Easter egg foil, perfect for this weekend even if I don't celebrate it anymore!

Wish me luck for tomorrow's 31 Day challenge... the brief is to try a technique you've never used before and I may be attempting a water marble for the first ever time, eek!!!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Notification of Poorliness

Hello!

I was supposed to publish a 31 Day Challenge post yesterday featuring Colour Opposites, but unfortunately I am a Poorly LisLis. I am miserable and headachey and sniffly and I just could not come up with a lovely mani to show everyone. So, whilst I am in bed feeling sorry for myself, I will show you all the beautiful colour opposite manicures done by my fellow challengers and encourage you to click away!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

31 Day Challenge ~ Watercolour

Hello!

Today's challenge is to do a watercolour manicure, a technique I'd never tried before. What you do is apply your base colour, seal it well with top coat, then add dots of different colours and swirl them around with a brush dipped in polish remover until you get a lovely watercolour effect! I'll admit that I usually fail miserably with these sorts of artistic manis, but I'm actually quite happy with how this one turned out!

It actually looked pretty nice in the flesh and I'd love to try it again, experimenting with colours and swirling! Here are more watercolour manicures by the other lovely polishers doing this challenge:



Hugs,

Lisa xx

31 Day Challenge ~ Stamping

Hello!

Today's challenge is to do a stamping mani, which suits me as it's my favourite kind of nail art! And this time I had some odd inspiration in the shape of a box of Thornton's chocolates...

...the height of luxury, I know ;-)

I had just received OPI's My Vampire Is Buff in the post, which I am ecstatic about - a gorgeous new cream shade! - and it just so happened to perfectly match my box of choccies. So I used it as a base and stamped black swirls across my nails, with accents of writing and a pink ribbon. Here they are!

I am really, really quite pleased with this! The only concern is that I haven't top-coated it yet, and I have yet to master a smudge-free finish with Konad's black stamping polish. I am planning to try "setting" my nails in cold water first.

Hugs,

Lisa xx

31 Day Challenge ~ Your Cheer-Yourself-Up Mani

Hello!

Today's challenge isn't really a challenge at all, as it is to show a mani that cheers you up! All nail polish cheers me up so it was very hard, but in the end it had to be a holo. I adore having a beautiful colour on my nails with a strong rainbow shimmer that moves up and down as I wiggle my fingers ^_^

The colour I chose is new to my collection, Layla's Emerald Divine:

Purdy purdy purdy. It was much sparklier in brighter light too.

Hugs,

Lisa xx

31 Day Challenge ~ Tape Mani

Hello!

Today's challenge is to do a tape mani - and this is right up my street, as a while ago I bought a bunch of striping tapes from eBay and never really got around to using them! I have been inspired by people using tape in a simple-but-sophisticated French style (like this one), so I chose my sparkling fuchsia tape and placed it over glossy black.

This was a really simple mani to do, and feels so elegant!

There are lots of ways to use striping tape for nail art, so I am very excited to see what my fellow challengers have chosen to do below ^_^



Hugs,

Lisa xx

31 Day Challenge ~ Splatter

Hello!

Today's challenge involved a technique I had never tried before ~ splatter! And unfortunately it ended up being fun but a complete Nail Fail. I used this YouTube tutorial as a guide and chose a range of purples to splatter with, and this is what I ended up with...

Ohhhh dear >.< And it looks much messier in real life! The polish wasn't splattering well so I ended up with big dabs on my nails.

That said, it was fun to try out a completely new idea, and I am holding out a lot more faith for the attempts of my fellow challengers below!



Hugs,

Lisa

YRNails ~ Love Tree Decals

~ Extremely happy news! As I've been photographing her beautiful decals, Lynz from YRNails has released a promo code for my readers to use for 30% off any order - just enter " GEORDIENAILS " when ordering on yrnails.com ~

Hello!

Today I am wearing my Love Tree water decals from YRNails over a new buy, TopShop's holographic polish Wistful. I was going to do a post about the polish first but, no matter what I tried, I could not get an accurate photo of the colour! Suffice to say for now that it is a lovely, truly holo, lilac-tinted pink. With the addition of the love trees it looks like such a romantic scene ^_^

So so romantic ^_^

Hugs,

Lisa xx

31 Day Challenge ~ Geometric

Hello!

Today's challenge is a bit different for me because I usually go for more feminine manis rather than a harsh geometric design - but I did have a Bundle Monster design that I wanted to try out, and today seemed like the perfect opportunity!

The design comes from plate BM320 and is comprised of a cascade of linked squares - very cool! For my base I used Sally Hansen's Ion, a light grey with a hint of beige, and I stamped over it with Konad Black. Here it is!

It is nice to sometimes veer off from my usual style and to try something new - I am definitely a fan of this stamping design and am excited to see my fellow challengers' geometric manis which are linked below!



Hugs,

Lisa xx

31 Day Challenge ~ Saran Wrap

Hello!

Well, this is embarrassing - I misremembered the challenge dates and thought the Saran Wrap challenge was due tomorrow, not yesterday! I am still rocking my YRNails checked decals but not long ago at all I tried out the saran wrap method and absolutely loved the results.

You just paint your nails a base colour, then when it's fully dried you paint over it with another colour then dab it with clingfilm to get this effect! It's so easy and gives such a cool result.

Here are the other lovely bloggers who did this challenge:



Hugs,

Lisa xx

YR Nails Decals ~ Cheesecloth Red Check

~ Extremely happy news! As I've been photographing her beautiful decals, Lynz from YRNails has released a promo code for my readers to use for 30% off any order - just enter " GEORDIENAILS " when ordering on yrnails.com ~

Hello!

As promised, after removing my questionable nail stickers yesterday I delved into my collection of water decals from YRNails for a brand new full nail design. I chose the Cheesecloth Red Check pattern that I've been wanting to try for ages, and here it is:

So, so happy! It's such a cosy, country design and it complements my skin tone really well. These decals apply much better than the thick stickers because they become pliable when you soak them in water. I applied them while watching Star Trek ^_^

I'll let you know how work is going - I seem to be enjoying it so far and the fact I can wear what I want on my nails is just a bonus :-)

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Outdoor Girl Nail Art Wraps

Hello!

Today I have on some nail art wraps by Outdoor Girl in a design called Plain Rose Choco. I saw them in Poundland and, even though I knew they weren't "proper" wraps, I loved the design so decided to give them a go.

There are a variety of sizes in the pack and the instructions are simple - stick the wraps onto your nails, smooth them down and file the excess off the edges with the nail file provided. As I mentioned, they're not true nail wraps, more like thick full-nail stickers with a good adhesive. Because of their thickness it was very hard to get them completely smooth on my nails, and so I have a lot of creases around the edges which annoys a perfectionist like myself! In addition to this, after I filed off the excess I was left with some tip wear and slightly ragged edges on some nails - the nail file was very coarse so that may have been the issue. After I applied them I added top coat and wrapped my tips. This wasn't mentioned in the instructions, but had I not done so I think the stickers would have started to lift up as I used my hands and nails throughout the day.

All that being said, I am still very much in love with the design. Here are my nails:

All in all the Outdoor Girl nail wraps are a cheap option that I couldn't resist trying out for the pattern. In future though I'll probably stick to my YRNails full water decals - in fact, I will gladly be peeling these stickers off tonight and replacing them with the YRNails!

In other Lisa-related news, I have a new job - yay! As usual I'm worried about my health and how it'll affect my ability to work, but I do like the job so far and am happy ^_^ It's a casual workplace so happily I can wear my nails as I like! Here is a quick pic of what I wore to my training day and first shift, Layla's Red Taboo holo:

Indoors at my workstation the rainbow holo really shone through and I kept looking down at my nails in between calls ^_^

Hugs,

Lisa xx