HALLOWEEN SPIDER WEB NAIL VINYLS

Hi guys, more halloween nail art today! 

These nails were really simple and easy to do, all I did was paint on two coats of OPI Push and Shove and once that was dry I used the spiderweb nail vinyls from She Sells Seashells and painted over the top using Angelica black nail polish* and peeled off the vinyl and ta da! I love spiderweb design but very rarely do them because they're time consuming and fiddly but these vinyls make it so easy and quick! 

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WHICH BASECOAT TO USE WITH OPI PUSH & SHOVE?

Hi everyone, how are you all today? Looking forward to tomorrow? Yeah didn't think so, hehe !

So earlier this week I picked up OPI Push and Shove, this was pretty much the only polish I wanted from the Gwen Stefani collection. 

When I got it I was curious to find out the best basecoat to use with this and so I decided to do a little experiment and share it with you guys as well. 

The polish comes with a special base coat called Lay Down That Base which is the recommended base coat for this polish. 

I used 3 different base coats.

On my pinky I used Essie Ridge Filler Base Coat

On my ring finger I used OPI Lay Down That Base

On my middle finger I used the Nfu Oh Aqua Base equivalent by Jessica

On my pointer I didn't use any base coat. 

Chrome polishes such as this one tend to highlight every single imperfection on the nail and their worst enemy is ridges, so it's recommended that you buff your nails prior to using this to get a lovely even finish. 

I didn't buff any of my nails and I've included a picture of my naked nails to try and show my natural ridges (please excuse the staining) 

My accent nail has the worst ridges and my pinky also has some noticeable ridges but my middle and pointer nail are pretty smooth and don't really have any ridges. 

Ok, so here is one coat of Push and Shove on all the nails. 

As you can see on my pinky the polish does not work with regular base coat. 

It does have the potential to be a one coater but the application is a bit tricky so I prefer to use a second coat to smooth it out. 

This is two coats of Push and Shove, I waited 10 minutes after applying the first coat before painting on the second coat.

As you can see a second coat has made all the nails look better, the pinky looks a bit lumpy.

The middle finger is the brightest of them all and also the smoothest looking, Aqua Base does tend to brighten holographic and chrome polishes though so that's not too surprising. 

You can still see some ridges on the ring finger but I do think Lay Down That Base has smoothed out the ridges a tiny bit.

You can see every imperfection on the pointy finger so base coat is a must unless you are blessed with perfect ridge free nails!

So in conclusion, don't use a regular base coat but do definitely use one and make it either the Lay Down That Base or Nfu Oh Aqua Base or one it's several dupes.

 I personally think the Aqua Base is the best base because it also brightens the nail polish on the nail for an even more of a mirror like finish. 

As a bonus I've included a little wear time test too. The following pictures are after 24 hours of wear in which I washed a few dishes and tapped at the keyboard for a few hours. 

You can start to see the tip wear now, it's worse on the pointer finger where I haven't used a base coat. There is also quite a bit of wear on the middle finger and minimal tip wear on the other two fingers, so whilst Lay Down That Base doesn't brighten the polish or smooth the ridges it does increase the longevity of the polish. 

I'm still wearing this as I'm typing this and more tip wear has shown and it's worse on the right hand compared to the left. 

Ok so here are some regular swatches :)

This was really long wordy post, hope you made it to the end! I hope you found this useful :)

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DESPICABLE ME MINION NAIL ART TUTORIAL

Hey guys, sorry this wasn't posted yesterday but honestly this weekend has been crazy! 

Anywho let's get straight into it shall we. 

What you will need

Base Coat

Yellow polish for the minions (I'm using Butter London Jasper)

Black & White acrylic paint/nail polish

Silver nail polish/acrylic paint

Brown nail polish/acrylic paint (not pictured)

Fine nail art brush

Top Coat

STEP 1 - After base coat apply your yellow polish 

STEP 2 - Paint on 2 small black lines at the edge of your nail 

STEP 3 - Using your silver colour paint on a circle between the 2 coat black lines. 

STEP 4 - Paint on 2 very small vertical lines where the silver circle meets the 2 black lines 

STEP 5 - Paint on a semi circle using the white in the centre of the silver circle 

STEP 6 - Using your brown, draw on a smaller semicircle in the centre of the white semi circle you've drawn.

STEP 7 - Draw a small black dot in the brown semi circle 

STEP 8 - Next draw on a thin black line for the mouth or alternatively you can draw on a different smile like I've done  

STEP 9 - Finally top coat the design to seal it all in.  

Okey dokey, that's that then, simple ! Do give it a try and share with me if you do ! 

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ASSEMBLE THE MINIONS !

Hey everyone! So today Despicable Me 2 comes out here and I had planned to watch it tomorrow but something has come up this weekend and I can't now :(

  Anyway these nails were highly requested by my littlest brother, lol ! He loves the minions and has been asking me to paint them on my nails for ages, and it's been on my to do list and with the release of the second movie this weekend I thought it was the perfect time, so here are some Despicable Me nails for you !

I used 3 coats of Butter London Jasper and then painted on the rest of the details with acrylic paint and Barry M Silver Foil. I've also created a tutorial for you guys so you can recreate this design, but I think I'll post that tomorrow for you ! 

I didn't have room to paint on the overalls or the hair on them all, but apart from that I think they're pretty cute ! What do you guys think? Are you going to watch the movie this weekend?

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LITTLE DRUMMER BOY STAMPING

Hi guys, how's your weekend been? I have spent the weekend painting my nails and editing photos :D 

So here are some nails I did before my exams, very easy stamping!

For this I used China Glaze Little Drummer Boy and Barry M Silver Foil (both are great for stamping) and Cheeky plate CH-13 

On all the nails except the accent nail I used Little Drummer Boy as a base and stamped over it with Silver Foil. On the accent nail I just reversed the colours ! Unfortunately when I topcoated this it smudged. 

Ok, so that was super quick and I will be back soon with some Valentine's looks for you.

 Take care guys :) 

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BUTTERFLY STAMPING NAILS

I got home about 10 mins ago from a work Christmas dinner, and I'm really tired (it's been a long day). 
 I had to post because I have so much to show you before Christmas so I can't miss a day ! 
Anways these nails I did a while ago for a stamping contest, that was when my internet was messing up and after brainstorming and doing the design for 3 hours the internet died and didn't come back on until the next day by which it was too late ! 
Anyway for the background I did a swirly tye die effect with black and blue, then I stamped on the butterfly image from BM-205 plate, but instead of using one solid colour I painted on Barry M Gold foil, a mini metallic pink Revlon and Barry M Silver foil in vertical stripes across the image and then stamped ! The gold kind of missed the nail in some places but hey, I'm still learning ; )

Sorry for the blurry pic but it shows the stamping better 

Then I topped it all off with 1 coat of Essence Waking up in Vegas 

Ok, guys I'm really tired so I'll leave it here and speak to you guys tomorrow : )

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RED ROSE STAMPING

So you may remember I mentioned a while ago I'd bought the new bundle monster plates, well I accidently ordered the 2011 ones so when I got them I was really annoyed until I saw it was my own mistake; anyway so the same day I ordered the 2012 ones hoping they'd come in time for me to take on holiday and they didn't. My first order took a week to get here and then the 2nd order took nearly 2 weeks so when I got back they still weren't here ! 

Anywho I finally got them and couldn't wait to start using them so this is the first mani with the 2012 plates and I am rather pleased with my stamping here (I'm sure you guys remember some of the previous failures I shared with you!) 

So for this I did 2 coats of Ciate Mistress (which I didn't buy, I got it free a really long time ago, just saying because I refuse to buy anything from Ciate) which is a nice red jelly/creme because my nails were nubs you couldn't really see any vnl. Then I used Barry M Silver Foil to stamp on the gorgeous roses from the BM-323 plate !

Yes I know all the images don't line up and aren't in the same position but whatever I like it ; ) 
I have some more stamping mani's to share with you, expect to see many more, hehe, anyway's thankyou for reading guys and have a lovely weekend :D

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MY SPIDEY SENSE IS TINGLING ! (SPIDERMAN NAILS)

Hi guys, sorry it's been a few days since my last post ! Anywho we went to watch The Amazing Spiderman today and I just had to do these nails when I got home, now I did this mani (inspired by the awesome Sammy) very quickly because I was short on time and so it's not very good  : / 

 I painted one coat of an old red Maybelline and then I sponged on Pure Ice French Kiss and then I used Barry M Silver foil to draw on the rubbish webs and then I painted on the spider ! 

As a bonus I thought I'd show you my new coat which I looooovvvvveeeee !

Have you guys seen The Amazing spiderman? did you like it or this mani?

Anyways I'll talk to you guys soon so take care,  toodles  : )

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