80s disco ball

Very quick post tonight as I'm mid gift wrapping and general Christmas business!

I absolutely love this glitter polish - and the W7 brand in general... they have such a wide and usual variety of shades and, although on the budget end of the market, they're great quality. Nail Polish Direct have a good selection.

The glitter polish is two coats of W7 in Moondust (I even love the name!). Then, as the glitter reminded my of a disco glitter ball, I added an 80s inspired zig zag line. First, a single line using a Models Own nail art pen in black. Then, a line either side of the black using Andrea Fulerton Nail Boutique dot & flick pen in pink.

Here's my right hand...

All finished off with a coat of W7 top coat.

Happy painting... the nailist xxx

Polish Days - Get your bling on!

It's Polish Day time again and it's all about bling! Even though I love sparkles I really struggled to come up with something really inspired for this one. So I decided to just use the sparkliest polish in my collection and add some more bling, courtesy of some recently purchased nail glitter off of Ebay.

It's really hard to take a photo of sparkly nails - this was about my 56th attempt and it still doesn't really do them justice but at least it's not just lots of camera flash!

The base colour is two coats of Nicole by OPI 'Kardashian Kolor' in Follow me on glitter. I love this polish as it's hard to find a glitter polish which actually delivers what it looks like in the bottle...this one does - it's really dense and sparkly!

I then added an angled tip of glitter in a mixture of silver, dark pink and light pink just with top coat and a cuticle stick. Finished off with about 4 coats of Seche Vite quick dry top coat. Here's a close up...

It's definitely put me in the mood for more sparkly festive nails!

Happy painting... the nailist xxx

Crazy nail polish lady!

Yes this is what I need to be called... despite a recent collection count totaling over the 350 mark, I've been unable to resist the urge to buy more polish! And this time I've gone way over the top  - 15 new ones found their way home with me.. oops! So in order to give my purchase a purpose, more than my obvious craziness and glitter nails being on trend, I thought I'd show a sample of each one for your viewing pleasure... very rough painted, so all over the place and some of the glitters/metallics have been victim to flash glare but it gives you an idea.

Little finger - Bourjois So Laque Ultra Shine in Lime Catwalk (2 coats)
Ring finger - Barry M Nail Paint in Silvery Lilac (2 coats)
Middle finger - Miss Sporty Metallic Flip (2 coats) this actually looks the colour above from one angle then a metallic olive green from another - very cool!
Index finger - Barry M Nail Paint in Pink Sliver Glitter (2 coats)
Thumb - Barry M Nail Paint in Black Multi Glitter (1 coat!) - this looks a million times better in the flesh, the glitter is really multicoloured.

Little finger - 17 Fast Finish in Potion (2 coats)
Ring finger - Barry M Nail Paint in Silver Multi Glitter (3 coats)
Middle finger - Rimmel Precious Stones in 001 Diamond Dust (2 coats) - this looks like really uncrusted diamonds in the flesh
Index finger - 17 Fast Finish in Fury (2 coats)
Thumb - Bourjois 1 Second Texture Gel in 20 Perle Illusion (2 coat)

Little finger - Bourjois So Laque Ultra Shine in Bleu Asphalte (2 coats)
Ring finger -Revlon Nail Polish in 261 Sparkling (4 coats!)
Middle finger - Bourjois 1 Second Texture Gel in 16 Bleu Moonlight (1 coat!)
Index finger - 17 Holo Nail Polish in Silver (2 coats)
Thumb - Models Own Nail Polish in Fuzzy Peach (2 coat)

Happy Painting (and shopping!)... the nailist xxx

Viva Las Vegas!

Today is a second stab at a Vegas design for Chelsea. Trying to capture the glitz and glam of Vegas with some nail art detail. There's three different type of nails which can be worn as is or used on every single nail. I've tred to mix it up a bit as my last attempt was OTT nail art detail. Hope you like it!...

So step by step.. here goes

Start with the base colour on all nails. The glittered nails have a black base, I used Max Factor Nailfinity in Onyx. The cream is No7 Anniversary Colour in 60's Mini Skirt and the index finger has a deep green to match poker table felt.. I used Ruby & Millie Nail Colour in Green 720C .

Step 1

Once dry, add a glitter polish to the black nails. I've chosen one with lots of different colours, Nail Polish by H&M in Confetti, but you could use a single colour... anything glitzy basically!

Step 2

Now to both index fingers, using a white nail art pen, add a semi circular tip guide line.

Step 3

Then fill the circle in with a white polish such as Barry M in Matt White.

Step 4

While that's drying, use the dotter on a black nail art pen to create the dice pattern on the middle fingers. You can pick whichever numbers you'd like but I think 5 and 6 look more obviously like dice.

Step 5

Once the white semi circles have dried you can add the poker chip detail... this is the most difficult part.

Step 6 left

Draw a smaller semi circle using a primary colour, leaving a small white border - it helps to use a nail art pen or small brush for accuracy. Then add detail to the white border creating a broken line of two long dashes and one shorter dash in the middle.

Step 6 right

Then finally add the top have of the chip value numbers. Pick whatever numbers you find easiest to draw.

Step 7

If needs be, add a second coat of glitter to the black nails, then finish off with a a quick dry top coat to all nails. Viva Las Vegas!

Happy painting... the nailist xxx

Muted bling!

I love Autumn! My favourite season is finally on the horizon (although the weather seems to think it's summer - finally!) -  I love crisp sunny days and amazing sunsets, layering clothes and scarves and the knowledge that I'll soon be able to put my boots back on, instead of showing willing and wearing sandals but inevitably getting wet feet due to our unpredictable British weather.

One of the main things I look forward to is the autumnal warm muted colour palettes, in both fashion and nail polishes. Some of my favourite polishes are beiges, heathers and smokey grey, however, I do still like a bit of bling. This is what's inspired today's design...

I used two coats of Nails Inc in Caramel as the base colour. Followed by a central stripe of on each nail of Models Own Pro in Swan Lake just using the width of the brush. I had to apply a million coats to get the effect, as this is one of those polishes which looks amazingly dense in the bottle but in fact the glitter covering is frustratingly thin. I should have used a denser glitter (I have enough!) but I really love the tone of this polish - it's basically a champagne/beige glitter rather than gold or silver, so really complements the base colour.

I was going to leave it at that but last minute added definition with a black nail art pen... I fear this was a mistake as the design went from subtly sophisticated to looking a bit clumsy  - note for next time!

Happy painting... the nailist xxx