Polish Party: Glitter and Gems - Purple Galaxy Nail Art... and Giveaway

Hi all,

August seems to have flown by, so once again it's Polish Party time.  This month the vote was for glitter and/or gems.  If you follow me or have visited here before you'll know I love a bit of sparkle.

Now, I know I'm late to join in with the galaxy nails craze, but I've recently been enjoying spotting the ISS on it's orbits that have passed over the UK, and also seeing the super moon (although there was no cape in site!).  I was also inspired to give them a go when I saw the pastel galaxy nails that sophiedoesnails posted on Instagram a couple of days ago.

I used quite a few different polishes for this design and it took a while to do because of all the layers, but I am really pleased with how they turned out.

I started with a base of Laka in number 25.  I went to Westfield and they have a express manicure stand on the ground floor with lots of pretty colours to choose from, so thought I needed to try it out.  I used two coats, as the first was a little streaky, but it goes on really smoothly.  The brush is very small in comparison to others that I am used to using, but this does mean that you can paint it on very carefully preventing cuticles from being flooded with polish.  It's a beautiful deep purple with a shimmer finish.  The photo shows all the purples a little more blue than in person, but it's so tricky to get purples right.

After that I used NYC Lights-Camera-Glitter for my first layer of stars.  To create the milky way glow in the middle of my nails I used a make up sponge to carefully add layers of Models Own Snow White, Sinful Colours Fig, and Laka 25 until I was happy with the shape and colour.  To top this off and make it extra sparkly I added a few coats of Jessica Starlet, just to the milky way area on each nail.  The main stars in the foreground were added using my Barry M nail art pen in white.

Just to show you the true sparkle and colours I took a quick picture on my phone outside and a quick video so you get the full effect...

I hope you like my purple galaxy for this months theme.  Make sure you take a look at what the others girls do by following the links below.  Don't forget to check out my giveaway at the bottom of this post

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x

Don't miss the giveaway

Today was a very exciting day... I hit 600 followers on Twitter.  So in light of that I thought I would be fun to host a giveaway!!

To enter all you will need to do is

• Follow me on Twitter
• Retweet the giveaway tweet that will be pinned to the top of my profile
• Use the hashtag #pinkglows600

The winner will receive the following

• 1x Models Own - Gumballs (See it here)
• 1x Barry M Matte- Rhossili
• 1x Essence - It's Raining Men (See it used here and here)
• 1x Essence - Party Never Ends
• 1x Barry M - Nail Art Pen in Black
• 1x Models Own Artstix Nail Beads in Gold Fizz
• 1x Nail Embellishment Wheel
• 1x Pack of Nail Polish Remover Pads
• 1x Pink Gem Glass Nail File
• 1x Pack of 20 Manicure Sticks

The giveaway will be open to UK residents only due to posting.  Giveaway closes on 04 September 2014 at 7pm (GMT).

Good luck x

Graffiti Nails: Jet, Tuscany, and Pistachio with flower nail art

Hi all,

I've got a really quick post today, but I wanted to share a cute manicure that I did for a party over the weekend.  A while ago I got these three colours from Graffiti Nails, and have used Pistachio and Tuscany already and they have both been gorgeous on.  I thought it was about time that I used Jet as well.

Jet is such a stunning black, it goes on beautifully and in one coat.  I am so impressed because every other black I've tried has been streaky on the first coat.  I still can't quite believe that's all I needed.

After a coat of Jet I added on these simple daisy style flowers.  I added a dot of Tuscany on each nail and then some petals in Pistachio around each dot.  Sometimes something simple is all you need and I love how these colours all work together so nicely.

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x

Triplet Nails: Water Spotted Nail Art

Hello all,

As you may remember, back in June I did triplet nails with Lauren from The Naily Mail and Madison from Fundamentally Flawless.  We decided that because we enjoyed the challenge so much that we would choose another nail art technique to have a go at.  This time round we have gone for water spotted nails.


I had all sorts of plans for these nails, and was going to try and be fancy by marbling three colours together then water spotting them, but I had issues with my colours spreading and being able to work quickly enough, so I went for something a little more simple in the end with white and blue. See my top tip at the end of the post for saving time on clean up if you fancy trying these nails yourself.

Manicure Swap with The Imperfect 10: Pink Butterfly Wings Nail Artwith Tutorial

Hello all,

I had such fun recreating my own design last week for the monthly Polish Party theme, that when Rachel from The Imperfect 10 asked if I'd like to do either twin nails with her, or a manicure swap I went for it.

After a bit of discussion we decided to go for a swap, so I picked a design from her blog and she picked one from mine.  Then all that was left was to paint.

So here is my take on Rachel's pink butterfly wings

I hadn't ever done butterfly wing nails before, so this was the perfect opportunity.  I have seen them about quite a bit on Pinterest and in the blogging world, so they seem to be a bit of a nail art staple, so really, it was about time!

I really liked that Rachel hadn't done the wings on all nails as I think the black details could quite easily overpower the nails otherwise.  Here are the designs side by side

My recreation on the left, Rachel's original on the right

As you can see Rachel went for a bright pink from Models Own, but I didn't have the same colour, so I chose to go for a pink gradient with two Barry M colours - Strawberry Ice Cream and Pink Flamingo.  I built up the colours in quite a few layers as I wasn't getting the coverage I wanted at first.  This meant that clean up was a nightmare though as the polish had dried on to my fingers in between.  Five cotton buds and a little nail brush later I was ready to add the details.

I used my black and white Barry M Nail Art Pens for the details as they are just so easy to work with.  For the non wing nails I added single dots of black and white down the edges as my double dots with black and white looked too messy.  Then it was on to the wings themselves.  I have put together this mini tutorial on how to create butterfly wings in 5 easy steps.  I hope you find it easy to work from - sorry it's shown on a nail wheel rather than my own nails.

1. Start with a curved line near the cuticles
2. Then add thee long lines down the nail towards the tip
3. Add tiny curved lines in between the long lines you just created
4. Fill in the tip of the nail with black
5. Once dry add tiny white dots to finish off the look

Don't forget to take a look at Rachel's recreation of my design as well, she went for my pastel rainbow ombré manicure.

Rachel's recreation on the left and my original on the right

How do you think we both did?

Thanks for stopping by
Aimée x