Manis for MJ

You may or may not be aware that this past Thursday would have been Michael Jackson's 55th Birthday, and to mark the occasion a member of the Instagram nail community (@tiffstastefultalons) thought up the hashtag #manisformj.

The idea was to create a nail design inspired by the King of Pop to be shared on Instagram on his birthday, and every mani had to have a silver glitter bomb on 1 nail.

My Hubs rarely has any input with my nails but we're both huge Michael Jackson fans so I told him about this idea and asked him what he though was MJ's most iconic look as I wanted to do a nail design based on it. He said for him it was the black and white outfit with the sparkly white glove. I thought it was a great idea and we came up with this design together.

For this mani I used Sinful Colors Black on Black, Barry M Matte White and Collection in Razzle Dazzle. I added a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust and top coat.

I enjoyed the collab with my hubby on this one and it was super fun to wear.

Sky Blues Inspired - Dark & Geometric

The new football season started again a few weeks ago here in the UK and I'm a season ticket holder and avid supporter of Coventry City Football Club, also known as the Sky Blues.

We'll be going to lots of games so I thought it would be fun to do a series of match day nails that somehow feature the colour Sky Blue. And here is the first...

I started off with a base of Maybelline Color Show in Shocking Seas on my pointer and ring fingers and then added a coat of Sinful Colors in Hottie. I then created a triangle on the pointer and a "V" on the ring finger using striping tape. I then added 2 coats of Barry M Navy to all fingers and removed the tape. I added some small black rhinestones (purchased from Born Pretty Store) to the accent nails and topped with a coat of Essie Good to Go.

Shocking Seas leans to the chalky side but is fairly easy to work with. Hottie is a gorgeous light blue jelly with small hex pink and blue glitters and fine sparkles. It's so lovely. Barry M Navy is my go-to deep blue. Super easy to work with and such a stunning shade.

I loved this mani, it was so fun to do and I got so many compliments on it.

I'm really looking forward to coming up with ideas for this series, although I won't be posting any for a few weeks as we're off on holiday soon (woohoo!!!!).

Two-tone Textured

Hi all,

Apologies for the lack of posts, we've had so much going on recently but I'll be doing a couple of posts today to catch up.

So, as you all know I loved the Barry M textured mint mani I did a few weeks ago so I bought the pink one from the range too. In all honesty, I didn't love the the pink as much as the mint and I knew as soon as I'd painted my first nail. So I decided to introduce the mint and made the mani two-tone.

For the accent nails I did a diagonal stripe of silver glitter, topped with Essie Good to Go to smooth it out, taped over it and then painted the pink and mint on either side, then removed the tape.

Here's a closer look at an accent nail.

I didn't love this mani but it was cute for a couple of days.

Super Sparkles

Hola!

This weekends mani was something super quick and simple because we left early Saturday morning for our trip to Carlisle for an away game to watch our beloved Sky Blues (Coventry City Football Club).

 This is Barry M Pink Sapphire Glitter over 2 coats of Sinful Colors Black on Black

Black on Black is a super glossy black jelly. As black's go this was fairly easy to apply, a little on the runny side, which is unusual as I usually find blacks to be gloopy.

Pink Sapphire is a clear base with fuchsia pink and silver medium sized hex glitter and silver bar glitter. It also has some really fine fuchsia glitter. This polish is SO pretty and sparkly. When the light catches the silver glitters they shine all sorts of fiery neon colours, which typically were super hard to catch on camera. I managed to snap the lime colour on my ring finger in the pic below!

As the football season has started here again in the UK I decided it would be fun to do Sky Blue themed nails each weekend so keep your eyes peeled for these in the coming weeks.

Hope everyone's having a great weekend, thanks for reading!

Seeing Stripes

Morning Everyone!

I'm so excited to share today's mani. I've been obsessing over this design after seeing it on the awe-inspiring @chorubim on Instagram. Her work is flawless and she is a huge source of inspiration to me, so go check her out.

So this is my recreation of her mani! I can't put my finger on why I love it so much but I do. I find it so chic and different and I can't stop staring at it lol.

So, I used Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine in Lychee for the base and the 2 nude nails. I then sponged on a gradient using Essie Turquoise & Caicos, Lychee and Watermelon from the same range. After letting that dry completely I applied striping tape on top of the gradient, increasing the space between each of the pieces of tape. I then painted 1 coat of OPI Matched Luggage over the tape. Matched Luggage is a gorgeous, off white jelly with the barest hint of pink to it. Then I removed the tape and applied top coat.

I hope you guys like this as much as I do!

Muted and Chic

Hi,

So after my last few colourful/in-your-face manis I was in the mood for something a little more muted. Maybe I'm gearing up for the arrival of Autumn or something.

Anyway, this is 2 coats of Barry M Nail Paint in Cappuccino, with a L'Oreal Confettis gradient feature nail. super shiny!!!!

My New Obsession - Textured Nails

Hi Everyone,

I guess I'm more than a little late to the textured nail polish craze, but better late than never I suppose.

Ridley Road is an eye-catching bright minty coloured polish. The formula was surprisingly smooth and easy to apply, although you do have to be a little careful when applying the 2nd coat because it tries to bleed around the textured edges of the first coat, but it's nothing that can't be corrected with a steady hand or a little clean up. The texture developed as the polish dried.

I have to say, whilst I was doing this mani I had the overwhelming urge to whip out the top coat and smooth this baby out lol. But once I got over my OCD of perfectly smooth polish and embraced all of this concretey wonderment I fell head over heels in love! So much so I've purchased the pinky/peach colour from the same range. I got so many comments and compliments on this mani!

I couldn't really capture the texture of this polish but this is 2 coats and a couple of embellishments to funk it up a bit. Enjoy ...