Filed under Essie …

30 April 2013
6 Comments
Challenges, Essie, Nail Art

April Challenge – Day 30 – Recreate

I’m really sad that this challenge is over! It’s been so much fun, and I’ve been very glad to discover some great new blogs :)

Today’s is ‘recreate’. Well, I don’t want to recreate one of my own manis, so I’ve copied Craftynail’s Ruffian mani. Click on the image below to check it out!

ruffian_mani

First of all I tried using the same method as she did. I painted my nails black. Hours later, when it was dry, I added some mani stickers and then painted over with my neutral polish. And when I took the stickers off, it took off half the black… Great ! So I fixed that up and waited for it to dry. The neutral I used, Nice is Nice by Essie, then started to bubble! So with a lot of swearing, I took it all off again !

Then I started again, and put Nice is Nice on first. Then that dried, and I freehanded the flattish half-moons. Then I kept going, and went a bit overboard…

DSC03896

Still, no bubbles this time, hah !

DSC03899

… Check out the other entries by clicking on the image below !

Short and Sweet in Texas 30 Day April Challenge

Tagged , , , , , , , ,
27 April 2013
8 Comments
Challenges, Essie, Giveaways, Nail Art

April Challenge – Day 27 – Tutorial –

If you join in the challenge, you can get an extra entry to my 100 followers giveaway on the rafflecopter link. It’s one entry per day though, so if you’ve missed any, please email me at brijit.elouise@gmail.com with your ‘missing links’ and I can add them for you. The giveaway ends in 3 days, so please be quick !

———————————————————————————————————-

I have to admit something. I have a real problem with people telling me what to do, so although I like looking at tutorials to pick up different techniques, this is the first time I have ever followed a nail art tutorial ! This is the original, click on the picture to see the post : 

Bourjois and Essie Spring Nail art

Pshiiit does some amazing nail art, and the tutorial was very simple, but no less effective :)

The only slight changes I made were to the size of the flowers, and to use Maximillian Strasse Her instead of the pale blue that Pshiiit used; like her though, I used Beyond Cosy for the silver :)

DSC03835 DSC03840

… Check out the other entries by clicking on the image below !

Short and Sweet in Texas 30 Day April Challenge

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,
26 April 2013
14 Comments
Challenges, Essie, Giveaways, Nail Art

April Challenge – Day 26 – Gradient

If you join in the challenge, you can get an extra entry to my 100 followers giveaway on the rafflecopter link. It’s one entry per day though, so if you’ve missed any, please email me at brijit.elouise@gmail.com with your ‘missing links’ and I can add them for you. The giveaway ends in 4 days, so please be quick !

———————————————————————————————————-

Today is gradient day ! I love a good gradient, so I had fun with this one ! Since spring is coming round, I went for corals – both Essie – Tart Deco is the paler of the two, Meet Me At Sunset is the deeper orangey coral. I also tried a cool new technique (okay, it went up 2 years ago, but it’s new to me !) that I discovered through Tartofraises – I used a fan brush to gradient, instead of a sponge – it’s so much neater ! Tartofraise’s video is here. She uses acrylic paint, but I used nail polish and that worked fine :)

DSC03776 (2)

 

As sad as I’ll be when this challenge is over, I think my ‘to swatch’ box could do with being looked after  !

DSC03782

 

 

… Check out the other entries by clicking on the image below !

Short and Sweet in Texas 30 Day April Challenge

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,
19 April 2013
17 Comments
Barry M, Challenges, Essie, Giveaways, Nail Art, Water Marbling

April Challenge – Day 19 – Glitter

I have to say, since I discovered nail care base coats, I haven’t been silk wrapping my nails; so I have been a bit more careful about only using three-free polishes. Now I happen to know that Models Own is not three-free (except the pro range), and I had stopped using Barry M too. Call it prejudiced, but because there are no ingredients on the bottle and they are pretty cheap good value for money, I just assumed… Well, good news, because Barry M is not only three-free, it’s vegan too !

So I was so pleased to use my favourite glitter mix for this challenge day ! I was inspired by the guest post that Iriel did for me and went for the gradient look over Essie’s No More Film.

DSC03672

Don’t forget, you can bump up your number of entries in my 100 followers giveaway by joining in !

… Or just check out the other entries by clicking on the image below !

Short and Sweet in Texas 30 Day April Challenge

Tagged , , , , , , , ,
17 April 2013
18 Comments
Challenges, Essie, Giveaways, Nail Art, Water Marbling

April Challenge – Day 17 – 3D

So, how did you like Nidia’s guest post for me? I can see my stats have exploded since I published it, so either she has a hard core fan-base  or you guys love her artwork as much as I do !

For 3D, I got my very first fimo canes! I saw some darling little butterfly wings and decided this would be a good excuse to try them out! I truly expected to hate this mani; it is much girlier than I am, since I used Essie’s Need a Vacation for the French tips. But actually, I really loved it! Here are the best of my photos…

DSC03736

Yeah, my squiggles went a bit awry, but that’s okay, I still love the over-the-top -ness of this mani…

Isn’t it a shame that I can’t wear this mani to the office? I think that, when I decide to move on, I’ll have to re-do it for my last day !

DSC03738

And I used to play with fimo as a kid (my mumma is an artist), and I had totally forgotten that it isn’t totally rigid when it dries. So I was really pleased that these ‘wings’ curved perfectly around my nails, I have a pretty pronounced C-curve, so that was good news!

I used one hell of a lot of the fimo cane trying to get the slices just right with my favourite kitchen knife. Has anyone tried nail art cane cutters? Are they any good?

DSC03741

Don’t forget, you can bump up your number of entries in my 100 followers giveaway by joining in !

… Or just check out the other entries by clicking on the image below !

Short and Sweet in Texas 30 Day April Challenge

Tagged , , , , , , , ,
13 April 2013
3 Comments
Challenges, Essie, Giveaways, Nail Art, Nails Inc.

April Challenge – Day 13 – Ruffian Mani (Nails Inc Leather Effect)

Good morning !

I’m determined to make up for my sporadic posts this week by spamming you this weekend !

As well as a post a day for the April Challenge hosted by Short and Sweet in Texas, I have a Northern Star collection to show you today, and a guest post for tomorrow.

But today, I’m showing off my Nails Inc Leather Effect in black. This is 2 coats in a ruffian over Essie’s Snap Happy from last Winter’s Leading Lady collection, a bright coral red :

DSC03431

I really love how this one turned out, there’s something almost gory about it :)

The leather effect was just as great as I expected, it was, however, odd that it looked so leathery, and was yet totally hard to the touch. But I’ll definitely wear it again !

Don’t forget, you can bump up your number of entries in my 100 followers giveaway by joining in !

… Or just check out the other entries by clicking on the image below !

Short and Sweet in Texas 30 Day April Challenge

Tagged , , , , , , , ,
← Older posts
fashion debauchery

bsugarcoated

a nail polish & nail art aficionado blog

Seize The Nail

Nagelblogg - Nail art blog

For Vanity's Sake

BABBLEPIE

Babbling about life. Because life is great! Pies also!

fivezero

a tiny bit obsessed with nail polish

The Dalai Lama's Nails

Just another nail art site

nütie

design and clothes by nütie

The Daily Varnish

The daily musings of two nail polish addicts.

Nailside

The fingertips of a nail polish-aholic - swatches, nail art and rambling !

Upclose & Polished

av Marthe Cecilie

ninjablossomnails

another nail polish addiction blog - because there are so many beautiful polishes to share

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 364 other followers

%d bloggers like this: