Galaxy Nails (ish)

I love, love Galaxy nails but for some weird reason (something to do with my poor colour choices), I can only do them in pastel colours.

I have never been able to post about my galaxy nails - I usually do them and run out of time to take a photo of them.  I usually use a tutorial I found on The Nailasaurus and obviously tailor it a little.

This time I decided to use Pocket Money Polish's Starry Night instead of freehanding the stars (I usually really muck these up).  I quite like the effect it has over the galaxy nails.

The colours I used are Barry M Limited Edition Yellow, Model's Own Grape Juice and Apple Pie, OPI Can't Find My Checkbook and 17 Pink Grapefruit.  I also dabbed on a bit of Avon's Silver to make it more cosmic-y.

Starry Night was a christmas gift off the lovely Saz! I can't wait to use it properly!

Sorry about the poor quality of the photos.  I did them really late last night and didn't check my lighting.

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Golden Oldies Thursday: Stripes

So this week's Golden Oldies Thursday challenge is Stripes.  I was determined to join in this week after failing at the Tri-Polish challenge.  I went to watch Priscilla, Queen of the Desert Tuesday so I think I can be forgiven!

If you're not clued up on the Golden Oldies Thursday challenge - a reminder of the rules can be found here.

I had a dig through my stash and found a couple of Avon polishes.

These are called Sea Breeze and Lemon Sugar.  They're lovely colours but I bought them ages ago and don't use them very often because they're very thin and need quite a few coats to make them work.

So here is my stripe manicure.  I painted my nails Sea Breeze with an accent of Lemon Sugar then striped the accent and middle finger with alternate colours.  I freehanded these stripes.

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Challenge Week 41: Galaxies

Yet again, I've been completely lax with this challenge!  I also can't believe we're up to week 41!  It's crazy.

This week is Galaxies nails and something I've always wanted to try but never got around to do it.  I used a fantastic tutorial by the Nailasaurus to help me.

This took me two attempts but I was really happy with the final results.  They didn't keep well though, only because I wore them to Thorpe Park yesterday and they got all battered and chipped! :-(

The polishes I used were:

Models Own - Apple Pie
Barry M - Limited Edition Neon Yellow & Prickly Pear
Opi - I Can't Find My Czech Book
Seventeen - Coral
Sally Hansen - Dorian Grey
Avon - Silver (for the shimmer)

These colours all look really good together and I think tonight I'm going to create a splatter manicure with them.

Here are the results:

An InLinkz Link-up

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Challenge Week 24 - Metallic Nails

So I was really stuck for this week's challenge and I may have copped out a little.  I used Barry M's Dragon Fruit then outlined the nail with a fantastic Avon silver pain and a small nail art paint.  I wasn't paying enough attention and the silver was hard to tidy up.

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Challenge Week 8 - Green Nails

Green nails are hard.  Also, I'm on a varnish buying hiatus (apart from the new Barry M Gelly Shades which I have to wait until March to buy now anyway).  I'm allowed to buy essentials (top coat, base coat) but aside from that - nothing.

So I was limited with the very rubbish green shades that I have.  A light green from Avon, Spring Green by Barry M (which turns my nails yellow even if I use a base coat) and then Barry M Gelly Watermelon which stains everything.

But I'm actually quite impressed with my attempt.  Stuck with a design but with a whole afternoon of nail painting ahead of me, I thought I'd get a little more gradient practice in.

I love gradient nails, they look so effective and professional and they're so easy to do:

1. I take a cheap make-up sponge and cut the tip off to make the edge a little wider.
2. I paint 3 stripes of nail varnish, going from lightest to darkest and overlapping each stripe a little and press it quickly against my nail.  
3. Once it's dry, I do it again and again until I get the colour to my desired opaque, moving the sponge up and down a little to "mix" the colour edges.
4. I match the paint with a glitter coat to hide any rubbish bits.
5. Then finish off with two layers of top coat.

I used Lac Attack's Felix Felics which is a beautiful gold glitter that comes with a lovely gold sheen then two layers of Sally Hansen insta-dry.

It took me a while to clean up the mess but I love the final result and people have been commenting about my nails all day in work, which makes me extra happy!

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Chllenge Week 3 - Polka Dot Nails

The challenge this week was to create some polka dot nails. I googled a few ideas and came up with these (and a few other ideas). I wanted to do them on white base but I forgot my white had run out over Christmas (pesky Christmas nails).

However, I'm really happy with these. The white would just help the colours show up a bit more. The polka dots are neat (for once).

To create these nails I used:

*Seche Vite base coat
*Barry M nude
*Avon Sea Breeze
*Barry M Gelly Blueberry
*Barry M Gelly Prickly Pear
*Barry M Boots Limited Edition (213)
*Barry M Peach Melba
*2 coats of Seche vite fast dry top coat

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