Dexter Blood Splatter Nails

So Dexter has finished and I'm kind of sad :( plus I have seen quite a few blood splatter nails around and it is coming up to Halloween so I thought why not do them myself :)

First I applied my usual basecoat, I used Barry M basecoat, topcoat and nail hardener. Then I painted 2 coats of Barry M White. I really wanted the edge by my cuticle to be neat so I used a brush dipped in nail polish remover to neaten them up and I think I have done and ok job.

Now for the fun part :)

So to do the blood splatter I cut off a piece of straw and then I put some nail polish in a section of a plastic dish I have, the polish I have used is OPI Quarter of a Cent-Cherry (this colour is actually perfect for this mani). I then dipped the one end of the straw into the polish, you have to do this a few times until a film of polish covers the hole of the straw (should have taken a picture to show you what I mean but hopefully you get what I mean). Then you just try your best to aim for your nail and blow through the other end of the straw. You have to do quite a strong quick blow when doing this otherwise it won't work and the film of polish will just pop rather than fly out of the straw.

As you can see this does make a lot of mess as it is difficult to aim for your nail and this was after doing the first nail so you can imagine what it was like by the end lol.

Hopefully then you will end up with something like this :)

For each nail I blew some polish on a few times, but of course you can just do this once or more times depending on how much coverage you want on your nail.

I have seen some people wrap tape around their nail when they do this splatter technique, but I was too lazy and I actually found it easier to just clean up my skin afterwards, but it is up to you which way you do it.

I did this on both hands and then let it dry before applying my topcoat (which is the same as my basecoat).

As you can see you never get the same pattern on each nail which is why I like this mani. Also it was quite fun doing it :) so maybe you should give it a go for Halloween!

Thanks for visiting :) and as always if you have any questions or anything to say then please comment below!

Mermaid Scales

I have seen a lot of Mermaid scale designs and decided to do my own version so here it is :)

I applied my basecoat and then on my ring finger I applied 1 coat of Barry M White, then on the other nails I applied 2 coats of China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint.

On my ring finger I then used a small sponge to create this gradient effect. The colours from left to right (and from the bottom to the top of the nail) are China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint, China Glaze Electric Beat and China Glaze First Mate. I love gradient effects and they are quite easy to do once you get used to them and practice.

On my other nails that were painted with China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint I have done stamping. I used one of my recent purchases which is a plate from MoYou, it is the 4th plate from the sailor collection and as you can see it stamps very well. I have also done a gradient effect with the stamping. From left to right and from the top of the nail to the bottom I used KIKO 625 Emerald, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Emerald Express and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Teal-y Fast.

I then applied my topcoat and this is the finished mani. Quite pleased with the end result and I might put some glitter on top of the gradient but for now I like it like this :)

If you have any questions or anything to say please comment below!

Thanks for visiting :)

Geometric Sparkle

I wanted to do a black and white mani with some sort of bold pattern, and then I thought I would also add a bit of colour and sparkle so this is what I came up with :)

Firstly I applied my base coat to all my nails. Then on my thumb and my middle and ring finger I painted 2 coats of Barry M White. On my index and little finger I used one of my recent purchases OPI Liquid Sand Tiffany Case. Although I have spoken about this in my previous post with swatches I just can't help but say again how amazing this colour is and that you should buy it!!

On the nails painted white I then stamped this triangle pattern from Pueen plate Pueen20 using Konad black special polish. Love this pattern and it has stamped so well, as does all the other Pueen plates that I have, definitely worth buying.

And here is the finished mani with top coat :)

Black and white together never fails to work and the OPI colour is just so amazing so I love this design.

If you have any questions or anything to say please comment below!

Thank you for visiting :)

Birthday Nail Mail!

It was my birthday a couple of weeks ago so I ended up spending most of my birthday money on nail goodies... OOPS! These are the lovelies I have bought, in this post I am going to show images of the stamping plates and I am also going to do swatches of all the polishes.

This is the rectangle stamping plate. This is my first plate from MoYou so I haven't tested the stamping quality yet, but the quality of it certainly looks very good. I may use this plate for my next mani so will comment on the quality then :)

The images are very pretty and I think I will use this plate a lot!

I bought this plate from www.moyou.co.uk for £4.99.

These are the Pueen plates, this is the Love Elements collection. I already have the first collection of plates by Pueen, and this set is just as amazing! I have used one of the plates as I did a mani for my mom, and they stamp really well. Of course all the images are amazing the same as the first set, really love these!

When I bought the first set of these plates I couldn't order them anywhere from the UK, but now on Amazon UK they have both sets, which is where I got these from so I was very happy :)

(Set 25F Sumptuous Gallery Amazon, Set 24E Love Elements Amazon)

I bought these OPI sets from eBay, they were both just over £10 but of course prices change depending on the seller, these sets can also be found on Amazon for a similar price.

The top set is the Bond Girls mini liquid sand collection and the bottom set is the Euro Centrale mini collection.

So this is the full Bond Girls set, I ordered the larger to polishes seperate. I love how tiny the mini ones are, they look so cute next to the large ones!

From left to right they are, Honey Ryder, Tiffany Case, Jinx, Vesper, Pussy Galore and Solitaire.

The first three swatches from left to right are Honey Ryder, Tiffany Case and Jinx. These three are my favourite of the collection. Honey Ryder is a lovely golden sand colour, it has small bits of glitter in it, but when on this gives it a shimmer effect. Tiffany Case is just amazing, it is the prettiest blue colour and it has smaller and bigger bits of glitter in it. Jinx is a pretty orange/red colour, and this has bits of golden glitter in it which just looks so good against the base colour.

These next three from left to right are Vesper, Pussy Galore and Solitaire. I am not very keen on Vesper but the other two along with Jinx are definitely going to be polishes that I will be buying in the original size!

Vesper is a very dark purple, but once it is on it is very difficult to see the purple in it, it doesn't really have much of a shimmer to it or any glitter so I am not really sure if I will use this colour. Pussy Galore is a lovely pink colour with lots of shimmer to it and it just looks really pretty and feminine. Solitaire is a white shimmer similar to Pussy Galore but this also has small bits of silver glitter in it, I can see myself using this for a lot of winter manis.

These are the polishes from the Euro Centrale mini collection, from left to right they are Can't Find My Czechbook, Suzi's Hungary AGAIN!, You're Such A Budapest and OY-Another Polish Joke!

Again from left to right these are Can't Find My Czechbook, Suzi's Hungary AGAIN!, You're Such A Budapest and OY-Another Polish Joke!

Can't Find My Czechbook is a lovely blue, I will use this colour a lot. Suzi's Hungary AGAIN! is a very girly pink, it is not too bright but it has a nice pop to it. You're Such A Budapest is a very light lavender and really pretty. OY-Another Polish Joke! is a big reason why I bought this set, I will probably end up buying this in the normal size. This swatch is done with 2 thick coats, it has a great shine to it in the flash, but with one coat this will be a lovely top coat.

So that is my latest haul, I think I will need to have a break from buying anything for a while now lol!

If you have anything to say or any questions please comment below :)

Thanks for visiting my blog!

In your face Chevron

This is my latest mani using chevron's, I also used a polish that I have had for ages but haven't yet been brave enough to use yet. I am not entirely sure I like it but here it is anyway :)

I firstly applied my basecoat and then I applied 3 coats of China Glaze Sun Worshiper. I had to use 3 coats for this polish as it is quite see-through. Also as you can see from the picture, it dries a lot differently to any other China Glaze polish I have used. It is as if it dries between shiny and matte, I am not sure why this is but I still love the colour. Not sure if it really suits my skin tone though.

I then applied a coat of Barry M Pink Iridescent. I know this polish looks pink in the bottle, but this never comes out pink at all on the nail. Applying this on top has definitely made this shiny rather than matte :) I also think the glitter has made it look a little less harsh against my skin.

I then used striping tape to create chevrons. On my ring finger I did a few across the nail and on all the other nails I just created chevron tips. I am definitely not using striping tape again for a very long time, I get sooo annoyed when using it, and it takes me so long to do a mani, but eventually I got there :)

I then applied Barry M grey over the bits of the nail I wanted it on and removed the striping tape before it dried to create the sharp lines. Once this was dry I applied the top coat and it was all done!

I do like the colour, but I don't think it really suits my skin as I have very fair skin. But I am going to be brave and keep it on, and now the sun is starting to go away this can be my last bright mani for the summer.

I hope you like it :) if you have any questions or anything to say please comment below!