This is another remnant of my vault cleanout!  I think ultimately after I had this one on my computer I just didn't think it was clean enough or that it photographed well enough to make it on the blog.  That being said I really loved this mani too and I wore it for a considerable period of time. I started out with just wanting to do the stripes and then I decided later to jazz it up a bit with some glitter. I hope you enjoy it!! :)

It's day four of the texture challenge with The Digital Dozen!  I rarely ever do anything textured on my nails-- outside of some sandy polish that is-- so I'm really loving how this week has pushed me to try new things.  When I first decided to do these denim nails I wasn't super sure how I was going to go about it.  I have this Barry M polish called "Denim" and thought it was very fitting, but even though it's gorgeous and matte and very "denim-y" as promised...it's not exactly textured. I found a super cool tutorial over at Meisie's Nails but it requires various colors and fabric and blah blah blah.  SO....I sort of went in a similar but different direction.  I used the Barry M for my base and then I dotted some diluted white on with some cling wrap. THEN I waited til it was sort of tacky but definitely mostly dry and pressed it into the underside of a pair of jeans.  The gold was sort of an afterthought.  I didn't love it after it was on but no way was I starting over!!  I do think it helped finish off the jean effect though. All in all it came out as a win for me! And it was SUPER easy. :) Don't forget to check out the other girls mani's below!

Is anyone else ridiculously excited about the birth of a new Royal baby in the UK?  Unfortunately, I had to work yesterday and the new little prince was born at 4:24PM but I managed to throw something together anyway after I was home! This little guy will be the first Prince of Cambridge in 194 years! I can't wait to see what they'll name him and if he will look more like his mother or father (or neither as it sometimes happens!).  Well anyway here are my tribute nails to the little guy! I used all Barry M colors to complete this look. I hope you enjoy them and congrats to the Duke and Duchess and all of the UK! :)

Today's manicure for tape mani week with the Digit-al Dozen was inspired by a dress I have.  I'm really not patient enough to get extra fancy with the tape thing nad I think it kind of showed with this one because I spent forever touching up lines and I'm still not in love with them. It helps if you place the tape straight in the first place!  But I digress. I was still happy with the final result. I really love how the crisp white pops next to the green, which by the way is sort of a jelly so it looks super squishy and bright on the white! Don't forget to check out what the other girls came up with for today! And stay tuned all week for more tape mani's!

Colors Used: 

Zoya Purity 

Barry M Spring Green 

Ciate 3am Girl

It's day three of the Digital Dozen Book Week challenge.  I'm trying to get through all my most favorite books for this challenge but let's face it, there are way more than five of those!! For this one I went a little further back into my childhood years.  I believe I was eight the first time I read this book and even today it's still one of my favorites.  If you haven't recognized it yet, it's The Phantom Tollbooth.  One of the things I love about this book is that it's very logical while at the same time seeming very illogical!  It tells the story of a boy named Milo and his journey though strange lands with a dog called Tock.  I used my ring finger to represent the map of the Kingdom of Wisdom.  There were so many lands to choose from but I only have so many fingers!! So I went with just two and then added a clock for Tock on my middle finger.  For the index I have the top half numbers and the bottom half words to represent Dictionopolis, one of the capitols of the Kingdom and where Milo learns of the princesses, Rhyme and Reason and learns that they've been banished for their belief that numbers and letters are of equal importance.  Then on the pinky finger I have some numbers to represent Digitopolis, where Milo eats subtraction soup which makes him even hungrier!  I hope you enjoy the nails and don't forget to journey over to my fellow ladies pages to see what they've come up with for todays challenge!!

Colors Used:

OPI Fly

Barry M Silver Foil

Zoya Purity

Revlon Black Lingerie

...han mathon ne nen. Han mathon ne chae. A han noston ned 'wilith. 

Today you all get a bonus mani!! I had way too many designs for Geek Week with the Digital Dozen so in an effort to fully round out my geek-ism I decided to keep this one in and just have one extra.  :)  These are obviously from The Lord of the Rings.  I read these books, saw the films and well...rinse and repeat.  I even read the entire book catalogue beginning with The Silmarillion, which incidentally, was my favorite since it's mostly about Elves!  My geekism of The Lord of the Rings goes so far as that I know all ten different dialects of Elvish (including sub dialects within the major accepted ones) and can write in Quenya and Tengwar.  Yeah. That bad.  I think the Elves are my favorite part of the movie and it's fitting in a way that I've chosen to do The One Ring for that reason.  The writing on the ring is known as Black Speech and it is the only pure example of Black Speech there is.  While it was intended as the official speech of Mordor it never actually caught on and the Orcs and men of Mordor used Westron to communicate (although a very mutilated form of it) as did men that came to Mordor later. The Nazgûl, the Olog-hai, and several of Sauron's major lieutenants and officers did learn and use the Black Speec, however.  At any rate...putting my heavily useless knowledge to the side! I hope you enjoy these nails!  There is one more day of Geek Week left and don't forget to check out what the other ladies came up with!

 

Colors Used: 

OPI Goldeneye

Barry M Gold Foil

Models Own Black Nail Art Pen

Seche Vite 

This is a swatch I've had in my cache since July!! Crazy that it never ended up seeing the light of day!  This is the glorious Barry M Jewel Britannia and it was absolutely perfect for such a patriotic holiday.  Well, besides the fact that it's a British brand and July 4th celebrates independence from the Brits! Oops!  Anyway I used it here over butter LONDON's Diamond Geezer.  I think it looks a lot like confetti fluttering down.  :)

Do you have this polish? Do you love it?

Colors Used:

butter LONDON Diamond Geezer

Barry M Jewel Britannia

Seche Vite

For today's Love and Heartbreak mani I decided to go a little outside my box!! I got a canister of flocking powder from a wonderful friend in the UK and I literally couldn't wait to try it out! I've used flocking powder before from the craft store but I had heard that nail flocking is finer.  I can say with a fair amount of confidence that this is the truth.  The nail flocking made a much softer finish on my nail and it seemed to last longer.  It was just a happy coincidence (or the result of having over a thousand polishes!) that I had a polish color which very nearly exactly matched the powder she sent me!  I polished on two coats on all nails and then dipped my accent in the powder and pressed it around.  This lasted on my nail for about three days before I took it off to try something new.  One warning: if you have pets, this nail will be FULL of pet fur!! My kitty left so much fuzz on my fuzzy nail when I petted her!  Anyway I jazzed up my other nails with a simple patchwork stamp. I tried t make it kind of random but it didn't really turn out.  Oh well. You can't win them all!!

Don't you just want to touch it? :P

For today's Christmas art I went simple.  I'm running low on time to do them and yet they keep getting chipped at work --TRUST me-- it's a miracle this time of year if they last 24 hours. So rather than sport a chipped mani I've been trying to squeeze in some mini looks.  Things that are easy and don't require loads of dry time in between designing!  This one was wicked easy and only took me 15 minutes start to finish!  I used A-England Dragon for the base. It's a gorgeous holo grassy green color.  Then I used China Glaze Champagne Bubbles to add a gradient on all nails but the ring and then I used a stamp and some Barry M Gold Foil to add a gingerbread man! Easy but gorgeous! These managed three days before I chipped the thumb. :(  Oh well...onto the next!!

 Hope everyone is having a happy holiday season! Aoife helped me build a gingerbread village this year (or rather...she rearranged all the candy for me!)

OK so the title might be a little misleading for this one! I know this isn't really Christmas art. BUT...I got this amazing Barry M AROUND Christmas time and it seems kind of festive so I'm running with it!  This is Barry M Blue Plum from their Gelly line.  I have to say this is my first one and I'm impressed. Thoroughly.  It says one coat and incredible shine and it doesn't disappoint.  I only used one coat and it DID dry super duper shiny.  But after about a day I got bored with the solid color so...I fancied it up a bit.  First I added a coat of Max Factor Fantasy Fire which gave it this amazing duo chrome sparkle.  Then I added a swirly design using Barry M Gold Foil.  These got pretty good feedback from a lot of people! I really dig the Fantasy Fire over the deep blue.  I hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season!

Everyone has noticed lately that celebs are getting into the nail art trend.  Rihanna, Katy Perry, and even less daring celebs like Zooey Deschanel are getting in on the fun.  In fact Adrienne Bailon even chronicled her nail polish line debut on her television show, Empire Girls. So with everyone getting in on it, there are more and more fun polishes coming out (Barry M Chameleons, Ciate Velvet Nails, etc) and art supplies are getting easier and easier to find. Minx has even released their infamous nail strips to the public recently.  So with all that going on and all these awesome designs showing up on celebs Twitter accounts and television shows and even on the red carpet...I decided to have a little fun with it myself!  I'm starting a blog series called, Who Are You Wearing?  In each WAYW post I will be copying the nail art of a famous person for you to see.  Even though these celebs are getting their digits professionally dressed up, most of the art they're getting is totally accessible to even  beginner artists!  I'm going to show you the celebrity nails, tell you what you need to have and do to achieve them (in extreme cases I'll be telling you how you can wear the trend at home) and then show you the recreation of the nails.  So here we go with the very first in the series!!

This gorgeous nail art was sported by Busy Phillips recently and posted on Instagram. Other than the colors, which are fab, I love that this mani is both unexpected and random but also classy and wearable at the same time.  The pattern is simple, the lines are easy to achieve and the overall effect is eye catching without being flashy.  You could easily wear these to work without drawing too much attention to yourself.  So what do you need to get the look? First you'll need two contrasting colors of polish.  I'm copying this look to the T so I used A-England Galahad for the teal tone and Barry M Navy for the deeper blue.  You'll also need some thin gold striping tape and some gold half studs.  If you can't find these or don't want to order online you can substitute a gold striping polish and use a dotting tool to replicate the studs.  Here are the nails I did to match Busy's:

Since she isn't showing her thumbs, I did this hand with a solid teal thumb and the other I did a half and half with the gold tape.  I started by polishing my index and middle finger with A-England Galahad and the other two fingers with Barry M Navy. Both are basically one coat polishes so I didn't need a second coat but if your colors do be sure to get to full coverage before going to the next step.  For the stripes you have two options.  I'm pretty steady with my hands so I free handed the teal and blue stripes but if you're not then use some tape to tape off the area you don't want polish on (make sure the bottom layers are TOTALLY dry) and then add the blue stripes on the first two fingers and the teal stripe on the ring finger.  Last I used my striping tape to section off the striped areas and then added the gold studs.  Follow with two coats of top coat (I used Seche Vite) and voila!! Celeb worthy nail art. 

Thanks for following!

At the time I did this mani I considered it a big fail!  It was an attempt to use my brand new butterLONDON polish Lovely Jubbly but once I had the accent nail on I couldn't figure out what to do with the rest of it.  So then I decided (why, I have no idea) to try out some snake print.  I'm thinking that it might have been a good idea to add a second layer of snake print in a darker color over the top of the original...but slightly askew. I used Barry M Silver Foil to make the print and it was just standing out WAY too much on the base of Essence Gabriella.  So...I first tried putting some glitter over it to dull it a bit but without taking too much away from the accent.  You can still see it on my pinkie nail.  I used one swipe of Barry M Pink Iridescence.  But it wasn't giving me the muted effect I wanted.  Then I was going to scrap the whole thing and start over but...LIGHT BULB MOMENT!  I decided to use my new glossy Zoya's! So I swiped a quick coat of Katherine over the silver parts and...voila!! It's a muted purple color and it seems much less disjointed than the flat silver. I also went ahead and added a coat over the Lovely Jubbly.  It muted all the silver and made it a purple/blue/red glitter.  Pretty. :)  I'm still not in love with this but I think it came out really nice and I'm LOVING that the glosses are giving me endless options with my mani's.  One or two coats of any of them can really change up your look.  Even Zoya themselves is getting in on the layer craze by showing you how to turn your summer colors into fall colors with just a few coats of jelly!  I love jellies anyway but I'm telling you guys, you NEED this gloss set.  So in honor of that...and the fact that I completely missed the 500 followers mark!! I'm giving one away!! Watch for it later today and thanks again for following!

Today is a special day for the nail blogging world!! That's because today is one of my very best polish buddies, Debbie of The Crumpet's birthday!  To celebrate her birthday with her, I've done up some very Crumpety purple nails!  If you follow Debbie, you probably already know that in honor of her special day, it's purple week on her blog! So what better way to celebrate with her than with this gorgeous holo purple from A-England.  I know what you're thinking...holo?  Yeah...well it seems the weather decided to celebrate England style 'cause there's not a drop of sunny sunshine to be found.  This is Lady Of the Lake though, and if you Google some swatches of her, be prepared to drop about £9 on a bottle.  You won't be able to resist!!  I used a Lilac Plate stamp to add some little candies and ice cream cones to the accent nail.  It felt a shame not to add some fun birthday flare, but it's also a crying shame to cover the beautiful Lady!  All my colors used are English as well. 'Cause anything worth doing, is worth doing right!!  Seriously though, if you haven't checked out her blog yet, please do.  It's very worth the look and you can leave her some birthday wishes!! 

Colors used: A-England Lady of the Lake, Barry M Silver Foil, Lilac Plate A01, Seche Vite topcoat.

It's time for another Project Runway design!! This week was a group challenge and from the moment the challenge was announced there was tension among designers.  I realized again this week why I really HATE Elena.  She tried to control every aspect of EVERYTHING and was a real hindrance to her team.  I felt like Nathan's design was one of the worst and yet, his team chose to throw Gunnar under the bus for his dress rather than stating the obvious; Nathan's pants were a HOT mess.  Also, this is the first time I've even noticed Nathan and really, that's not a good thing!!  I hated the whole silk charmeuse idea and I thought the pattern was kind of lame.  While Raul's top was kind of a mess I disagreed that it was office inappropriate.  I'd have been much more comfortable in the office all day in a ruffled top with a nice pencil skirt than a pair of ridiculous dress/pants which make my crotch look like it's hiding a BIG secret and a silky resort wear top.  Although I did see the point that an older woman might be more comfortable in Nathan's ensemble than a younger one.  I chose to do my design based on the winning gown by Melissa. 

I watched this episode two days before I did the art and for some reason I was thinking the blue was much brighter so you can see that the color is all wrong.  BUT I still like the way they turned out.  The back of the dress had a zipper running up it in a kind of wavy pattern which I could not find a picture of for the life of me.  While I loved this dress I also felt that it wasn't really work appropriate.  It's just a bit too much for most offices!  I hope you're all enjoying the series!

Don't forget to check out Emma and Jewli's blogs to see what they came up with this week!

I'm so so in love with peaches this summer.  I have no idea why because for a long time I avoided them like the plague.  They seem to scream "old woman!" to me...but ever since someone sent me a gorgeous coral-y Leighton Denny called Hepburn, I can't get enough.  I also love that peach tones look great with my skin tone and they're soft and girly but not pink or red!  I was itching to use my other new Tokidoki polish this week so I decided to sponge it over another color in the hopes that glittery tips would hold up at work (which they actually did!).  The Tokidoki polish, Savana, is gold and pink microglitter but I was really hesitant to use pink for the base so I decided instead on this peachy color from Barry M.  It came out looking absolutely magical.  I love it!  The pink micro glitter is just soft enough that it doesn't clash with the peach and the effect was super soft and just a little bit flashy!  It also has a bit of a vintage vibe to me, which you know I love!  I hope you all enjoy and thanks for following!!

Colors used:
Tokidoki Savana

Barry M Peach Melba

These are going up a BIT late but what can I say, I had a busy holiday!!  For those of you who don't live in the US, yesterday was the Fourth of July. The day we all get drunk, cook out, and light off fireworks.  Great combination, no?  It's a celebration of our nations independence and this year, for the first time in eleven years, I was off work.  I had SO much fun celebrating with my family despite the fact that it was close to 100 degrees outside. Redic. I wanted to do some red, white and blue nails for the occasion but then I spotted  some glitters and my original plan went out the window.  Ironically, these are all British polishes by BarryM.  But hey, it looked great anyway!!  I used BarryM Silver Foil as my base and then used a sponge to add Silver, Red and Blue Glitter.  They sparkled SO much.  And my niece loved them so much she asked for me to put them on her nails too!!  Matching BarryManicures. :)

I hope all my US followers had a wonderful holiday!!

Well today was my very first official day of work!! It was a long day! But I learned A TON and I have so many more nail care posts planned for you guys. I can't wait and I'm loving all the feedback I'm getting from you all. :)  One thing I learned about recently is nail shape.  Did you all know that we have a shape that's perfect for our nails?  There's a quick and easy way to tell what shape is right for you. I'll be posting on this hopefully on Saturday along with showing you how to tell what basic type of nail you have so that you're better equipped to care for them.  Knowing your nail type will not only help you choose the right products to use but will also help you prevent hangnails and other pesky problems.  My natural nail shape is meant to be oval.  Which is ironic because I had just ovaled out my nails the other day on a whim and today when I trained it ended up just being the right shape for me.  I still think I like them square!! But I'm normally a risk taker with these types of things and it's easy to go back to square!! What do you all think of the new shape?

Today's design was inspired by my new iPhone case.  Cute, no?  Hope you all enjoyed and thanks for following!!