19th April, 2013
Only last week I shared my swatches of the China Glaze Texture polishes, and today I am back with another texture finish polish. This time one of the Barry M Textured polishes, available at online store Licila.si. I was eager to see how they compare with the China Glaze texture polishes as they are similar in terms of finish. Let’s take a look!
Above is three thin coats of Barry M Atlantic Road. As you can see it’s a lovely baby blue creme shade with a matte finish. This picture was taken about 15-20 minutes after application and it’s still slightly glossy. The next day after applying you can really appreciate the full effect of this polish. It definitely takes a while for the texture particles to settle in. Once they do, the effect is really stunning!
Here’s a close-up! I wish I waited a bit longer to photograph this polish so you could see the final soft matte effect. I have to say application was a lot more even compared to the China Glaze texture nail polishes. I felt like the narrower Barry M brush works better for the textured finish. I also had a suspicion the particles that make up the textured finish were slightly finer with Barry M?! I’m not 100% sure, though. The overall effect of Barry M Textured is very similar to the China Glaze Texture and they are definitely comparable.
Isn’t the colour stunning? I really loved wearing this polish! It lasted a good three days before it started chipping so that’s pretty great. You can find this Barry M Atlantic Road polish for €6.55 at Licila.si, as well as the other three lovely shades of this collection. If you’re not from Slovenia (like me!) you can easily navigate the site if you use Google Translate. Make sure to take a look!
What’s your take on the texture finish? Do you prefer this soft matte effect or the glossy and glittery textures? Or are you skipping texture altogether? Let me know in the comments!
13th March, 2013
A few days ago three friends and I decided to try the new waterspotted technique! This technique is similar to water marble, but rather than adding different colours and creating a design with a toothpick, you simply spray liquid that contains alcohol denat (e.g. hairspray, hand sanitizer, etc) on top of your polish! Pretty amazing right?!
I was inspired by Lex’s Turquoise Stone nails for this design. When I saw her nails I instantly knew I had to try this technique! As I mentioned, a few friends and myself decided to try waterspotted for an Instagram tag, #bestietwinnails. You can find my friends at @gorjessnails, @razonmeg and @leyamonster on Instagram and check out their design. 
I started by applying a base colour, then adding random dots on top. Then I did the waterspotted effect using black and for the finishing touch I added some gold spots on top. These are the polishes I used:
- China Glaze Sunday Funday
- piCture pOlish Sky
- piCture pOlish Jade
- NYC City Blackout
- Barry M Gold Foil Effects
- HITS Amélie
On my accent nail I also added a large stud which you can find at Born Pretty Store.
I really enjoyed trying the waterspotted technique but I would say it’s trickier than I thought it would be. The height from which you spray your hairspray (in my case) makes a huge difference. It pays off in the end though, I think the effect looks absolutely amazing!
Let me know in the comments what you think about the waterspotted technique and if you’ve tried it yet.
19th January, 2013
I promised you I would be doing more nail art in the future, and I meant it! I already have some more nail art to show you today, though you will have to head over to my dear friend Alice’s blog to see it! Her blog is called One Nail To Rule Them All, which is undoubtedly one of the best names ever for a polish blog. 
Make sure to take a look at my guest post to find out more about these nails! Simply click on the picture above to be taken to her blog. Thanks for looking!
17th September, 2012
Naming these nails gave me a headache! I had no idea what to call them! In the end I chose Turquoise Gem nails since the rhinestones and glitters really pull this look together.
For the watercolour nails I used a sponging technique similar to this tutorial. I love using that sponging technique, as it works with pretty much any colours. After sponging I brushed over these nails several times with my topcoat, basically smearing the design on purpose. This really blends the colours more together and created a really dreamy finish.
The glitter framed nails were inspired by the amazing Sammy from the blog The Nailasaurus!
This is what I used to create this design:
I really love how this look turned out. Hope you like it too!
26th November, 2011
Sorry for being absent for so long! It’s been super busy this month and then I had issues with my pictures for this blogpost so it had to be delayed for another day. Anyway! I’ve been meaning to do nebula nails again for ages. I’ve done them a long time ago and since they were so successful last time I felt like an update was needed!
I have both a natural light image which shows the true colours and a flashed image with some colour editing though do note nothing on the nails themselves is Photoshopped! This goes for all my manicures by the way. I edit the colours and crop where needed but I will never Photoshop the design on the actual nails.
The base I am wearing is a stunning duochrome called Galaxy Girl by Orly. The other polishes I used were:
- China Glaze: Hey Sailor, 108 Degrees, Papaya Punch, Spontaneous, Senorita Bonita, Re-Freshmint, Frostbite, Snow
- Sinful Colours Rise And Shine
- Barry M Pure Turquoise
- A coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust over all the nails!
- China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat and Essence Nail Art Sealing Top Coat.
Nebula nails aren’t half as hard as they look. They are actually very easy! You just need a make-up sponge or any sponge you have lying around. Start by dabbing on white so the colours you put over them will show up on a dark base. Just open a bunch of nebula pictures on your browser to get inspired! I also added a few stars to bring it to life which you can easily do with a dotting tool or toothpicks.
I wasn’t 100% pleased with this image but I had to share it because I just loved how the purple nail looked here. So stunning! The purple and the red thumb are my favourites.
11th September, 2011
One of my favourite nail artists is Nagi/Disco Nail, a Tokyo based artist. I found out about her work through tumblr, I unfortunately know very little about her since her blog is in Japanese. All I know is that she is a true visionary with intriguing and most of all truly original nail art. Definitely take a look at her work, it’s very inspirational!
This is my recreation of some of her work, a tribute as it were!
Left Hand
Right Hand
What I used: Catrice Snow Motion, Barry M Turquoise, New Look Black, China Glaze Hey Sailor, Models Own Peach Puff, Essence Studio Nails Top Sealer and Born Pretty Store Half Pearls.
It’s honestly one of my most favourite manicures I have ever worn! I loved it so much, I kept staring at the eye – which kept staring back at me! I did feel a bit strange wearing a religious cross on my nails since I’m not religious myself but it does look really amazing.
Owl ring from Primark
22nd July, 2011
Just a quick nail art manicure today! These are Aztec nails and I believe they were made big by nail salon WAH Nails. They’ve done them so many times in all the possible colour combinations you can imagine. Apologies for the somewhat awkward hand position, my non-dominant right hand came out better but photographing it was less than ideal!
For my Aztec nails I used:
- Barry M Mint Green
- Barry M Berry Ice Cream
- New Look Bambi
- H&M Being On The A-List
- Black nail polish and a thin nail art brush
I cut my nails short recently since they took such a beating from all the 3D acrylic. I was looking around for ideas and stumbled across these. For some reason Aztec nails never really stood out to me but lately I’ve been really in love with them. They are also perfect for short nails! I wore these to a dinner party and since my outfit was very sober I decided these would be perfect for a pop of colour.
19th June, 2011
My sincere apologies for not posting anything for a week but I’ve been super busy! I’m redecorating my room and helped my mum redecorate her study/hobby room. We’ve been non-stop painting, moving and redecorating for 6 days now. I’m really tired but it’s coming together quite nicely. My room is getting a fresh lick of white paint to brighten everything up (instead of a dark grey which it was before). My desk is moving to a different corner and my clothes are moving to another closet. I’m also buying an IKEA Expedit to house all my books and things. The main issue was lack of space in my room, it was jam packed full of stuff from floor to ceiling. I’m sure this new cupboard will give my room more space and air.
I do have to say that all this change takes a while getting used to. I’m not usually so taken aback when I move things around in my room but these changes are pretty radical and take getting used to. I’m sure it will be a lot better though! If anyone’s interested I will post before and after pictures once everything is finished.
Since I’m so busy I haven’t had time to do my nails, in fact they have taken a serious beating with all this labour. One of them broke off entirely while putting IKEA boxes together but I was able to fix it with Essence SOS Nail Glue. I seriously love that stuff. It’s very tough and my nail is as strong -if not stronger- than before. So since all of the above I’m afraid an old manicure will have to do!
I did this random manicure a few weeks ago, I wanted to do a different design on each nail and got inspired by WAH Nails and Sophy Robson.
- Thumb: Barry M Effect Nails over gold nail art pen
- Index finger: China Glaze Snow, Barry M Mushroom and black nail art pen
- Middle finger: China Glaze Sunset Sail and black nail art pen
- Ring finger: Barry M Mushroom and gold nail art pen
- Pinky: China Glaze Snow, China Glaze Sunset Sail and black nail art pen
…and Seche Vite to seal everything in. This manicure lasted almost a full week on me. I usually change my nails very quickly (after a day or two maximum) but this one only went off once it started to chip. Which is a feat in itself!
10th June, 2011
So since so many brands are jumping on the hot wagon that is crackle I’m sure it’s starting to get boring to a lot of us. To me at least! That’s why I decided to come up with a few ways to make the crackle manicures fresh again. First up are a few different ways of applying crackle. For all of these I used the black crackle by Essence.
Base colour is a metallic silver, China Glaze Cheers To You.
- pressing down and patting instead of pulling
- sideways stroke
- regular upwards stroke
- horizontal stroke
- random strokes in all directions
French crackle, a fun twist to a regular French manicure but still classic. If you use a horizontal stroke, thinly layered, it looks very similar to a zebra print which is a fun effect. (I forgot to do so, so mine are with a regular upwards stroke)
A few different ways to incorporate crackle into a pattern design. I used American Apparel Army Jacket and Barry M Bright Purple. My middle finger was inspired by the tape crackles by Flouncyskirts.
And lastly, crackle over a pattern! For this one I topped crackle over a union jack which creates a sort of punk feel. Random colours or rainbows would also make for a nice effect.
It’s really all about preference! Which is yours?
If all of these still aren’t enough for your tastes you can always try new crackle colours! Apart from black you can try white or even these:
The new metallic crackles by China Glaze! These look so much fun. From left to right you see:
- Tarnished Gold: Warm, honeyed hue
- Cracked Medallion: Bold bronze
- Haute Metal: Pale pink
- Latticed Lilac: Soft lavender
- Platinum Pieces: Shimmering silver
- Oxidized Aqua: Deep aquamarine blue
p.s. If you are wondering what the curved edges in my pictures are, I shot them THROUGH my new lamp.
30th May, 2011
It all started with the first manicure. I colour coordinated my manicure to the floral print dress I was wearing. My mum was so excited by this that she requested an outfit coordinated manicure for her birthday which turned into the second manicure. And lastly when my auntie was at our house for the birthday party she requested one too. I really love doing manicures inspired by prints or clothing. Matchy-matchy can sometimes be too much of a good thing but this is really fun I think.
You can view the non-black and white version on my facebookpage here.
As you can see, these are my hands. This manicure was inspired by mkmyday.co.ar. Definitely check them out because they do some amazing work. I used:
- China Glaze Snow
- Black Nail Art Pens
- Gosh Wild Lilac
- Essence Fruit Punch
- New Look Blossom
These are my mum’s hands. Inspired by the dress she was wearing. I used:
- Barry M Mint Green
- China Glaze Spontaneous
And finally my aunties fingertips! She was wearing a cute shirt and wanted her nails done in a colour that goes with, I decided to just completely recreate the print like I did with my mum’s nails! They were just about to leave so I had to make it a super quick manicure, I think it took me about 15 minutes. Record time! I used:
- Barry M Spring Green
- White Nail Art Pens
- Essence You Belong To me
- H&M Being On The A-List
- Acrylic Paints for the flamingo
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