Taste The Rainbow.....

....with my rainbow skittles!  Thanks to Dressed Up Digits for the inspiration.

For this manicure, I used the following polishes and stamps:

• OPI "Need Sunglasses?"
• Essie "Size Matters"
• Zoya "Arizona"
• OPI "Jade is the new Black"
• China Glaze "First Mate"
• China Glaze "Grape Pop"
• Bundle Monster 301

xoxo

My Manicures: January 2012

New year, new job and new blog!  Almost up to date with the present!


On new year's day my mother-in-law came over to watch some NFL with my husband (at least being an NFL widow is only on Sundays as my husband isn't a huge fan of real football) and I painted her nails as I am often prone to doing to test out ideas, this time it was a Missoni inspired design in Zoya "Neeka".....

I started my new job with my new year black and gold dotty manicure and my handiwork had not passed without comment (the attention seeker in me was happy at that haha) but two days in and it was time for a change so I took out my Zoya "Kelly" and created a check manicure with some black, white and silver stripers:

Feeding my new addiction, I have bought many polishes (more on my collection some other time) and needless to say that without changing my manicure every day, I have not worn most of them (yet!) so I decided I should stop using that old black Color Club in all my nail art and dig out an untried.  It was the turn of Zoya "Jem" which I was less likely to wear as it isn't my favourite creme finish.  I spiced up my Jem with some dots in Orly "Luxe", a foil finish gold, here it is with and without flash:

Without flash is a truer colour.


Nautical nails are more often seen in the summer but I'm not one for being normal (how boring would that be?!?!) so I took out my China Glaze "First Mate" which is the perfect nautical navy and teamed it with some Zoya "Sooki" for a french manicure with a twist or two; double stripe french, striped accent and Louboutin style "sole" painting:

Next up on my design hit list were some chevrons.  I tried some out using tape a la nailside style and tip but some I did freehand.  These were in Orly "Luxe" and OPI "Russian Navy Matte" over which I put seche vite as the OPI was a bit lumpy and then I mattified the whole manicure with Essie "Matte About You":

I liked the matte look but in the end after a few days I splashed on some seche and tried out my Butter London "Tart With a Heart":

To close out January, it was time for some more little girl manicures at my best friend's when I wallpapered her daughter's new bedroom, her bedroom is lilac and pink but her nails where done in Orly "Sweet Peacock" and Zoya "Avery":

She's always the perfect customer, must have been the fact I started her young!

That's me wrapped up with my round ups! Henceforth I shall post when I paint mine or someone else's nails so much less often.


xxx

My Manicures: September 2011

# Do you remember? Dancing in September! #

Ah yes, September, I remember you well: starting my birthday countdown, having a polishing good time, some babysitting, some cuppitycake with my cousin.... Earth, Wind and Fire not so much haha.  


I got myself some more Zoya, this time treating my fingers to some Lola love.  In honest truth, I get Lola love quite often as my new cat Lola arrived around the time of the royal wedding and gives me lots of love (when she feels like it!) and I think I love her back even though she is a bit annoying with this insistence of making one of my other cat's life a misery and peeing everywhere but her little half Siamese face and teeny body is cuteness itself so I shall forgive her.

The polish version of Lola also deserves more than one picture as flash showed the brightness to her real potential:

I was attempting to recreate a konad design I'd seen but before long I decided to buy some konad and bundle monster plates and try my hand....let's just say I wanted to love stamping but it has never really worked for me for some reason.  I have read blogs and followed tips from konad queens but my stamper won't pick up the polish.  It managed to work once in September and once in October but I have not been successful since and those plates are now gathering dust in my polish parlour.


Here is my September effort; OPI opi yoga-ta get this blue with some Zoya Trixie konad:

My cousin came to visit in September around the time of her birthday, see if you can guess her name from this song:

Although this is not traditionally the song we sing with her name, it is normally this one:

Here is Mona with her manicure on her munched on nails wearing Zoya Jana and a Chanel gold:

The next night I tried on some new China Glaze with First Mate and Zoya Sooki for some nautical nails:

I had heard on the grapevine that grey was good these days so I bought some Zoya Kelly and gave myself a french manicure with Nars pink.  As lilies are my favourite flower and as these days, I can't have lilies in the house for fear of killing my cats with a painful death, my nails would have to do! This lily didn't look like much as I painted it but it came together quite well in the end: 

I had also heard that mattes were marvellous so I got some Essie matte about you to try mattifying my polishes and Zoya Posh which lasted quite well on me given I had no top coat on:

My final manicure of the month was China Glaze Emerald Sparkle that I couldn't resist embellishing a few days after I had her on:

I also babysat my best friend's daughter who is as old as my marriage and she is always promised a manicure by her mother as a bribe for good behaviour (the things you have to do eh?!) I seem to recall having my fingers pointed at quite a few times in desperate attempts for me to hurry up and get my polishes out.  This is what I came up with on the almost three year old in all China Glaze:

Time for bed, gym in the morning at 6am :O


xxx