Snowcapped Black Forest

This is my first mani with my nails being 'stompies'. I had a chat with Michelle about a week ago, about her doing a mani with Sinful Colours Charmed, as I was considering doing something similar, I loved what she did. Now, since I'm still waiting on my BPS stamping plates, I decided to use decals.

I started with 2 coats of Tip Top Black Forest on all my nails except my ring fingers, for that I did 5 (yes 5) coats of Tip Top Snowcapped. I'm looking to get Sinful Colours Charmed, as I think Michelle only did 2 coats. So obviously 2 beats 5! The decals I got here from BPS.

Even with my nails being this short, I still managed to get a break somehow. I mean how sad is that?

I've been following Rebecca at Lane's Lacquers for some time, but I've never really gone into her blog, as for some reason our browser at work is outdated and the images never show. So I always thought what's the point of reading if I can't see what she's talking about!? I have also been following her on FaceBook, so I'm not totally clueless. I have decided to go and have a look though, and she's got this awesome page called Blogging 101. Oh I wish I had seen this sooner! She also uses Blogger and all her tips is Blogger based, which is awesome. And since I'm going crazy and changing the way things look, I love it. So there might be some more changes coming soon.

Stay tuned!

Jazzberry Blue is the Cat's Whiskers

As I'm sure you've noticed, I've changed the look of my blog a bit (more like a lot). So please let me know what you think. Drop me a comment, email or find me on FaceBook.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I cut my nails. So for the moment I have little stumps, but I did this mani last weekend and was actually wearing it when I made that horrible decision to cut.

My colleague bought me an early Christmas present. When we had discussed what we each wanted I was heavily hinting at a new purse, as my current one is growing to be a little tatty. So she surprised me early!!

And it's soooo pretty, don't you think?

Obviously I wanted to try and do a mani that looks similar... And this is what I ended up with. I started off with two coats of Tip Top Cat's Whiskers on all my nails except my ring finger. I taped my ring finger using striping tape. I painted the middle piece using Tip Top Jazzberry Blue and the remaining with Cat's Whiskers. Got some negative space going there ;)

Both these polishes have a beautiful shimmer to it. I loved wearing it even if it was only for 2 days.

What do you think? Is Jazzberry Blue really the Cat's Whiskers?

Stormy Marble

Don't you just hate it when your fabulous ideas don't work out? I wanted to do this awesome water marble mani and it didn't come out quite the way I imagined. Definitely need to practice more. People make it look so easy! I love the way it came out though.

On my pinky, ring finger and thumb I painted Tip Top Stormy Sky. And oh my does this colour not look gorgeous in the sunlight.

For the marble I used Tip Top Armourplate, Moonshine and Stormy Sky. I had such a hard time cleaning up afterwards as all these polishes has a shimmer to them, so I had shimmer all over my fingers. I didn't take my pictures immediately after, I actually waited for some of the shimmer to wash away.


In natural light

 

With flash

Normally only the left hand is used for pictures, but I'm posting both as the marble on my right hand is diffirent from my left hand.

In natural light

  

With flash

So what do you guys think? More practice right? I have chatted to somebody about water marbling, who has given me some tips. So maybe next time it will be awesome.

Dedicated to you

It feels like I've been having a very hard couple of months. Work has been a huge pain in the ass, people has become more and more impatient and rude. I mean I have had people walk away from me while I was talking to them. Like WTF?! People has thrown stuff at me. So I'm at the end of my tether.

And I'm having a bad nail week too. I had to cut all my nails as my index fingers wouldn't grow. They were peeling quite badly, so I made the difficult decision to cut them. And start over. Double up on my folic acid and MSM. Hopefully that will help.

I've also in this time realised what some people has done for me.
There's Sam, who is the amazing admin of My Manicure Madness. Sam has been such a rock. She's kept me going when I was ready to give up. And she always has a compliment ready for any kind of art I do.
Antoinette, who is the admin of Do My Nails. She's also been an inspiration and quick to compliment.
Then there's Michelle, aka Ordinary Misfit. She's been awesome.  Every time I have a question, I mail her. If I need to see what something will look like before I attempt it, I mail her. She's been an absolute star.

And the greatest of all is, that I've never met any of these ladies. We've had a strictly online relationship. So while I'm feeling pretty crap about my nails and the way people have been treating me, I feel that these ladies will always in a way brighten my day and for that I'm very grateful. Even if I do not always show it.

Thanks ladies you the best.

Blue meets Green and Armourplate

I was attempting to catch up on my blog reading the other day and I got to this post by V over at For the Love of Nailart(hope I got that right). I loved the panda, so cute, and since I'm a curious person by nature I always read the comments section. The subject of the one comment thread was teal.... So naturally I thought of Tip Top's Blue Meets Green. This is one of my favourite colours. And naturally I had to do a mani with it.

I previously did a mani with this colour for a competition Tip Top Nails South Africa was hosting. It had a bling theme... Something along the lines of what you would wear Saturday night for a party.

I wanted to recreate it, as I think I'm better at nail art than what I used to be... So this is what I came up with. Also here you can see the colour of Blue meets Green much better than in my previous art.

 

I used striping tape and Tip Top Armourplate for the line. For the stamping I also used Armourplate and BPS m79 stamping plate. The rhinestones are ones I got a while ago, so where eludes me.

I think my stamping is improving! Yay! You would think this is the only stamping plate I have, but it's not. I have 2 essence ones, but I don't like them that much. It feels like the image is too shallow, so I can't pick it up properly on the stamper, but I think I'll give it another go, just to test it. And I'm waiting (still) for more stamping plates that I ordered from BPS. Who knows when I'll get that.

Let me know what you think or if you have any ideas for me. Always willing to try something new.

And as usual here is my BPS banner again if you want to order anyhting from them.

Neon something something

Man, what a week, but it's not like the weekend is gonna be any better. I'm working this weekend and I'm 10 hours into my 12 hour shift... So I'm feeling rather fried already. Luckily I have a girls night that I'm joining on Saturday and my manager said I can leave earlier if it's not too busy. Bonus! Hopefully I won't be too sore Sunday.

Anyway, I saw this mani of Heather at Acidicice, naturally I loved it. So I knew I had to do something similar and neon.

I painted my base coat and 2 coats of Tip Top's Salsa Pop on all my fingers except my ring finger. On my ring finger I painted 3 coats of Walking on Sunshine, whoho... Yea kinda makes you wanna break out in song, doesn't it? I then stamped on my ring finger with Salsa Pop and Born Pretty's m76 stamping plate.

I added a stud to my index and ring finger. I got these studs from AliExpress, I also see now they are cheaper than what I paid for them, but I'm very happy with the purchase. I waited what felt like forever, but at least I finally have it. As you can see my stamping isn't quite there yet, but as with everything else, I need to practise. Like rolling from side to side and not from tip to cuticle. But as BF said, it looks like coral, so win!

I've actually gotten quite a few compliments for this, which is always awesome. People also ask me if I do my own nails and if it's my own nails. And I'm super chuffed to say yes to both.

As usual I'd love to hear from you guys, drop a comment or a mail.

And here's my Born Pretty Store banner again if you guys want to order any thing from them.