Military Might

xoxo

Painting the Blues...the Indian Ocean Blues!

Today I'm painting the blues because it's June and our days are interspersed with so much rain instead of sunshine!  My blues are not blue at all of course, with these hues they are making me look forward to my holiday to Mauritius for my cousin's wedding.   Indian ocean here we come!!


The blues are China Glaze "Aquadelic" and Nubar "Blueberry" with embellishment in Barry M "Gold", Orly "Luxe" and Color Club "Gingerbread":

My photos include another rare shot of my right hand! Not because my right hand doesn't always look good because I have a steady hand and more often than not, my right hand is surprisingly nice (if I do say so myself!) but because I decided I didn't like that so much of my blue diamonds were covered by the stamp on my left hand so I did something different on my right hand.  I even tried to add a blue border on my left hand but it wasn't what I really wanted.

xoxo

What a Wonderful World.....

It was my favourite cousin's wedding on Sunday.  Don't weddings make you come over all happy? Especially when it's someone you love. Best wishes to the happy couple!  I'm singing a bit of Louis although her wedding song was Etta James' "At Last" but both are below for your viewing pleasure :)

So it's been a busy weekend with helping my cousin make her special day wonderful.  One of my jobs was to do some manicures and the weekend before last we tested out some peacock nail art as that is the theme of her two weddings and her hen weekend.  Yes, you heard me: two weddings!  Yesterday was the first of two, one for a religious ceremony for her parents and the second will be in Mauritius in June (I can't wait!).  However on the day, she had to get some gel nails as her own had broken and not grown back yet and she decided once she had her glitter tattoo on her hand and arm, that it was best to keep her nails a simple french.

Thus I was despatched to other tasks and to manicure the other ladies.  I did her sister-in-law, her sister and my sister all by 230am on Saturday night.  No beauty sleep for me for the wedding! And my own was left until the next day in a rush at 12pm, not my best work :(

All glitter tattoos you will see in the photos below were done by a girl called Nadia.  Mine is still stuck hard and fast to my hand through a few showers!

My cousin's swirls in Orly "Luxe" topped with Color Club "Gingerbread" 

and swirls in OPI "Cuckoo For This Color"

Her sister-in-law's swirls in OPI "Cuckoo For This Color" 

with Zoya "Trixie" french and Orly Artist striper in "White":

My sister's in Orly "Liquid Vinyl" with an Orly "Luxe" french topped with

Milani "Gold FX" glitter and Color Club "Gingerbread" holographic glitter:

***Photo to be updated***

My own manicure in Orly "Luxe" and China Glaze "Little Drummer Boy" v gaps:

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