Magical Monday's

Hermione Granger.

Welcome back everyone! I am back today to talk to you about the latest in the Magical Monday's collection, and this time Alicia from FixintoFaff and I have decided to showcase Hermione. This one I took a lot longer to finish the complete look because I honestly had no idea how to portray this character over five nails.

I began with my base coats. On the thumb, pointer and pinky I painted two coats of Barry M Grey, on the middle I painted one coat of Manhattan 69R and on the ring finger I did two coats of Barry M Matte Black. I chose to use the grey because it was a reminder to the walls of Hogwarts, which were a stone grey. I then used the brown for the middle so I had a dark base I could pull through on her hair, and the black was just to tie everything together with another shade.

Now lets talk about the art on the nails. I used another two brown shades on the middle finger, to try and recreate Hermione's Hair, these colours were Laval Mud and p2 Well Dressed. To do this design I didn't really let any of my layers dry, and using a detailing brush I painted on squiggly lines with Mud and then I painted Well dressed in between and pressed harder to mix them on the nails, after this was complete I used Out the Door topcoat to mix it all together a little more. My pointer finger I used Barry M Gold Foil to hand paint my G, this was supposed to symbolise Hermione being in the house Gryffindor. The ring finger is supposed to be a time turner from when she had to use one throughout Prisoner of Azkaban, and I deliberately smeared this design so it looked almost like it was in motion, although I am unconvinced it looked good enough.

My pinky was painted with Manhattan 69R and Barry M Gold Foil with a detailing brush to create Hermione's Wand. And lastly is the thumb, on this one I used Manhattan 69R and Barry M Gold Foil to create her wand as well as write the word Mudblood, which she is regularly referred to within the films and the books, which is all to do with her blood status within the wizarding community.

PHEW! That was a long description! So yeah, if you liked this one then you can jump over to Ali's post about Hermione here. If you like this collab then we will return with another segment next month!



Shatter polish - big NO NO.

Get the look.



Welcome back! So for a while I was doing research into what people like and what they don't. So the most unliked fad was Crackle/Shatter Polish. It seems a lot of you liked the idea behind it, but hated the polish itself. I myself was one of these people that when I first found this type of polish I was so excited, but then I got highly disappointed with the polish. In my opinion it was either thick and gloopy and was just a horrible mess, or it was too thin and barely shattered at all.

So what would you say if I told you that you could achieve the same look with normal polishes and minimal effort? Well, you can. I looked into it some, thinking of how I could do it without having to use the horrible polish, I thought about dragging tools across my nails but then quickly rethought this idea.

Eventually I came up with this. I know you can achieve the same sort of thing with inks which react to alcohol, and you can use that in a spray bottle, but I wanted something a little more simple which used normal nail polish. And then I found it, when I wasn't even thinking about this look anymore, I found it in my stamping plates! It was there all along in my Pueen Love Elements stamping set! Awesome right?

I painted my nails with two coats of Essie The Lace is On, and then using my Pueen plate 45 and Sally Hansen Platinum Star I managed to create this look. I remembered to use my Seche Vite for a lovely thick top coat, and that was it complete! I absolutely love how this design looks like shatter/crackle polish without it actually having to come from those polishes, and it also kind of reminds me of foil manicures now I think about it! Not to mention the amazing stamping coverage by Platinum Star! I cant fault that at all, especially considering it is a very thin silver polish. I have absolutely no other dupes like it in my collection. The closest polish to it I have I would think has to be Barry M Silver Foil, but it is thicker than this one is.

What do you think about this look? Were you a fan of those crackle polishes? Is this a look you would wear? Also if you have any thoughts on what I should try and recreate then leave your idea's/link's in the comment section and I will attempt to find an easy way to Get The Look! - Oh, and did you think we were leaving without a thumb shot? No!

Okay, so that is really all there is to it, I know I haven't posted all that much, but this is due to my daughter having a hectic week last week! I am thinking I should be able to post on a Tuesday, Thursday and A weekend (Not including the weeks where I have Magical Mondays and Collabs with Pretty Quirky on Wednesdays). Oh, and I still cant wrap my head around the fact that I turn 22 tomorrow. Sigh, but I hope you're having a fantastic day - see you next time!



Watermarble.

There's art in dropping polish.

Design One.

Welcome back everyone! Ok, so I know I said I might be up a couple times a week and then I am a no show for a few days, but there is reasoning for this! I have been preparing the next FOUR - yes, I said Four designs. Two of which you will get in this one post! Are you excited?! I love it. Before you can see it I am letting you know how I love it. So, other than designing four of my newest designs, I have been spending time with Sophie and taking her to the park and for play dates etc, and I have also been learning to drive.

I had my test booked for March 12th and my instructor seems to think I could pass it then, so fingers crossed right?! (OMG - I totally just crossed my fingers for the first time in around 10 years or so, and it feels weird..)

Alright, so lets begin with the first design which I did on my left hand. This one was done with Sally Hansen Platinum Star (silver) and Fushia Bling Bling (pink) on top of a base of Barry M Matte White. Although you can't really see that it is silver instead of a pearlescent white, it was evident as I was on my driving lesson. I think the best thing about water marble nails is that whilst they all hold the same colours and theme throughout the manicure they are all individual at the same time.

I did these designs on glue on false nails, which I have fallen in love with, they are a lot more hard wearing than normal nails and don't seem to do the same damage to my natural nail either. I absolutely LOVE this thumb nail, I think it was definitely one of my favourite throughout both of the designs. It is harder to see than I thought but there is very intricate lines throughout this nail, and if I had thought about it I should have done a macro! That reminds me! Now that I have my new macro lens for my Iphone I will be able to take these shots for you too so you can really inspect my art, would that be something you want? Lemme know.

Design Two.

Alright, so here is design number two. I did this design the same way as the first, but instead of the pink polish I swapped it out for China Glaze Cranberry Splash. I think I liked the colouring better on this design, but it was a close match of my feelings for both of the looks - perhaps this was down to me thinking that the red was more my kind of style rather than the very feminine look of the pink.

I also did one of the thumb shots on this design as well - which I have to say was a very awkward angle to take the photos with my left hand of this look on my righties. And you can see that I damaged my thumb nail a little on this hand during the top coating. I don't know what it is about these kind of shots, but I just love it, having the thumb nail in focus and having everything behind blurred and out of focus - love it. I think this might be one of my new poses for when I have art on my thumb!

Ok, so looking down you can find a picture of both the designs I did, and I would really appreciate you telling me which one is your favourite! My favourite answer will receive a FREE shoutout on my IG ACCOUNT which will be cross posted throughout my Facebook Page, Twitter and Tumblr accounts! I will pick my favourite answer in the next day or two!

So what do you think, which would be your favourite, and WHY?!





In collaboration with..

Pretty Quirky

Valentine's Day.

Welcome back! Today I am coming back for my first collaboration post with Pretty Quirky of this year. And this time we have decided to do Valentine's Day, this being because the holiday is fast approaching! And guess what!? Sophie decided she wanted her nails like mummies too.. so I had to paint hers as well whilst I was painting this design! Little madam! You can see her modelling her nails on the photo to the right hand side! Also, I will warn you now, I took a lot of photo's on this design, and so it will be a pic heavy post. And it is the first design I am back with my natural nails, so I will also warn you now they are short and snapped, the cuticles are dry and under deep moisturising therapy over the next few weeks - but I thought I would be a strong soldier and show off my nubbins.

Firstly I would like to say how amazing Morven's design was, but to see this you will have to follow this link here. I absolutely loved the way it looked! And now I will get onto my design. I didn't use any hard method's in order to create this design, just my base coat, three polishes and a topcoat - I painted my designs with one of my nail art brushes. I didn't plan this manicure at all, I knew I was going to be doing valentine's day and so I went to my nail supplies and picked out three colours. These are as follows, Sally Hansen Fushia Bling Bling(Pink), China Glaze White on White(White) and Gel Pro Poppy Red (Red). I topped everything with a nice coat of Seche Vite.

Let us begin with my thumb nail. I didn't really have any kind of inspiration for this, I knew I wanted to do some lettering within my design and it kind of just fit considering my thumb was the largest surface I had. Now that it is complete it reminds me of the 'Love Hearts' sweets - who remembers these from being a kid? I know that especially in this photo you will see that my skin surrounding my thumb nail is in special need of tender loving care. It is because of this that I am using my Body Shop Hemp Hand Oil around 6 times a day. I am hoping you will be able to see a massive difference in the weeks to come. I have also been filming my nail care routine and I will be filming 6 weeks of nail regrowth videos - which will be posted here and on Youtube in time. I am going to be filming it all and then posting at a later date I feel.

Throughout the other nails I stuck to the love heart design for most of it, which I know is typical for Valentine's Day. I did small hearts on my pointer finger because I have always loved the way this looks. I did toy with dry marbling it in there, but I thought against it, because it was so fiddly with my tiny little nail - perhaps we can keep this idea on standby for a later date?! Moving onto my middle nail, now I look at it I am not exactly over the moon with how it came out, but it was meant to appear like hearts were in a vertical line, although I am unsure if I did this in the right way. I am now thinking it would have looked better with smaller hearts.

My ring finger was a reverse idea from my thumb, which was white with red accenting, and so I thought an empty heart was fitting because I liked that area of my thumb nail the best. And lastly was my Pinkie. I wanted something which wasn't heart related but at the same time still wanted it to stick within the cute aspect of Valentine's Day, and so I opted for some simple vertical lines.

So after that there isn't really much else to say on this design. I am hoping you are all well and having a good week. Let me know what you thought of this look by popping by into the comments and I will see you all soon!



Magical Monday

Ron and the Flying Car

Hey there everyone! Okay, so I know I have taken an obscene amount of time off from my blog, but I now feel refreshed and ready to get back into it.

There are going to be some changes, I am not setting a goal to get a post out each and every day since I feel that I compromised the quality of my work in order to get one out each day. I am aiming to put a post out to you guys maybe twice a week, and if I do more then that will be an added bonus - but how about we aim for Monday & Friday for now. Recently I have been using Instagram instead of blogging, and by following this link here, you can get straight to my IG account and follow me on there. There may be things appearing on there which don't make it to the blog like small tutorials and nail designs etc.

So how about we talk about the reason for this post other than just me?! Sounds good. So on the right you can see that I have been painting nails to do with Ronald Weasley and his dad's Flying Car. I am doing these nails in collaboration with Alicia over at FixinToFaff and you can find her post about her Ron&Car nails Here. And she has also launched a Giveaway which you can find here, because she has reached a certain amount of followers on Facebook and IG. Congrats Ali!

Right, back on point. How did I do these nails?! Well, lemme tell you - they took some time! I painted all of my nails with 2 coats of Baby Blue by Claire's Accessories, for being one of those cheap polishes, I actually really like this one! I used this polish because I wanted to have a running theme between all of my nails to do with the car, considering I tried painting a car.. and well.. it was horrendous. Couldn't do it, so I thought I would try and make something work without having to paint one of those Ford Anglia's (got to be the hardest thing I have tried since blogging!).

So with these nails I did a running theme of things that happen to Ron throughout the whole movie, he really doesn't have great luck in this movie - poor guy. On my pointer I have painted the moment where his wand snaps during the attack of the Whomping Willow on their rush to attempt to make it to the school on time, to paint this design I used Acrylic paint before top coating. After this nail I then moved on to the middle nail - and this is where things began to go wrong. I attempted to paint Harry and Ron inside the Car, but let's just say that it didn't work. Big Blobs of orange and Blue everywhere. Not. Pretty. So I went with the idea that I would paint the bonnet and the headlights instead. For this I used Barry M Silver Foil and Orly Melodious Utopia. Moving on to my ring finger is where I painted Ron. I tried to get his comical scared look - but again, my mind was better than my painting skills, and so I painted the top of his head and surprisingly he reminds me of something out of South Park. I used Acrylic Paint and Barry M Satsuma to get his hair on there. And lastly was the pinky finger, which was relatively simple. I used CICI&SISI Plate 01 to stamp on my spider web in Barry M Matte Black, because of Ron's intense fear of spiders, which also features the Car as it saves him and Harry from the incoming horde of spiders which fully intend on eating them.

I top coated all of these nails with a nice coat of Seche Vite and hey presto - finito. I will say that these were painted on False nails and then attached for the photo's. This is because my nails are in the process of re growing, and also I find it a lot easier to paint designs like this where I am able to take breaks and come back to it, especially with having a toddler running around.

I really hope you have enjoyed this post, and if you have please feel free to share it around and let people know about it, recreate it and tag me in your photos and subscribe and come back for more in the future!

I am thinking that I will be back very shortly, but until then, I hope you are having a lovely day and see you soon!