Polish All the Nails

Do you understand the pressure for someone like me to have a challenge prompt like "rainbow"?? It's a lot of pressure.  I love rainbows and do rainbows a lot so having to do rainbow on command is hard.  So I have these triangle studs I haven't used yet.  Two problems, why not make a solution?  TRIANGLE RAINBOW STUD NEON THINGS YES.

Oh hi!  I hope you're ready for this: I'm doing the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge!  The wonderful Sarah at Chalkboard Nails totes talked me into joining in and of course I have to.  I'm hoping it'll get me going more into blogging and not just being lazy and posting to instagram.  Day 1 is red, so of course it's a case of redding all the reds!  Onward!

How has it taken me this long to realise that triangle glitter existed and that I should be all over it?? I'm silly.  Anyway, it's a thing and it's amazing and I love it and it's so nice to have a change from hex glitter.  It's so even and beautiful and matte and sparkly, there just aren't enough adjectives.  Yeah so this is what it looks like when you mix 15 colours together on your nails.  WONDERFUL THINGS.  You might even be able to get this glitter too - it's going up on The Sparkly Shop  this afternoon at 3pm.  I swear though I just want to share the sparklies.  Sorry for the self-promoting.  Anyway, focus, glitter time!

I made this post a month ago, showcasing my entire polish collection.  Turns out, time flies and those photos were nearly six months old.  In that six months I managed to buy 50% more polishes.... that is a bit of a problem.  At least it's a rainbow problem this time!

For almost two years and five hundred posts, I've been working to be the most sparkly I can be.  I love glitter and nothing makes me happy quite like having sparkly nails.  I was delighted to see OPI I Snow You Love Me as not only did it have circle glitter but it has that dazzle finish that's so very sparkly.  I'm not the biggest fan of fishing glitter out of a polish so I went one better - I found similar dazzle glitter on eBay.  Let me therefore present to you what might be the most sparkly mani I've ever done.  

Fire nails! I felt like doing 'em, so here we are!  I did at least try something different with the base - this is Play Koi, one of the new Triple Shine polishes.  I mean, we all need another shaped Sally Hansen polish bottle like we need holes in the head but eh, it's an excuse to buy polish.  Cos, you know, I don't have any other them!  Let's take a look, shall we?

Hi, not dead, just busy with Halloween party that was totally awesome, and then my computer making burning smells.  Still not sure what's doing that.... Anyway, I have something unprecedented to show you today - a third version of the same mani!  This one is particularly special to me as it was my first post to really take off and is still my second highest viewed post of all time.  I'm talking about my Electric Mermaid Nails , and Electric Mermaid Nails 2: The Mermaidening .  Let's take a look at the Electric Mermaid Strikes Back, shall we? 

When I get paid, I find it extraordinarily hard not to just blow money on toys.  Preferably nail toys.  Because that way I can justify it as being for my blog!  Anyway, I've been looking at the Sally Hansen Gel Nail Strips for a while now and when there were on sale at Shoppers the other day, I couldn't resist.  Full disclosure: I tried these around Christmas just gone and they didn't even last a full day.  I had a feeling I did it wrong - I was in a hotel room without all my supplies - so I thought I'd give it another chance, with some fancier nail polish strips, this time in Perfect Poison.  I'm actually going to do this: there's a twist to these pictures...

I love glitter, blah, blah, I think you get the picture by now.  HOWEVER, you haven't seen me to do a checkered pattern with matte square glitter now have you? HUH??? Yeah, that's what I thought.  It's that kind of day.  Not even a sparkle or rainbow in sight, too!  Cos that's a good segue.

So, things have been a bit quiet around these here parts, it's ok, I've just been going through the process of getting a new contracting job, incorporating myself and all the endless paperwork that that entails.  Given I had a three week lead time before starting, I decided to peace out and go to Cuba for a week!  It's so beautiful there I can't even words.  I mean, this is where I was all week.  This was the walkway leading down to the beach:   That's not a stock photo, I just held my phone up and that's what happened.  So I've been warm for a whole week.   But you aren't here for the Cuba photos, you're here for the nails!  I wanted something bright and colourful before I left and since I haven't done ruffle nails in a while, I think it's time!

Ever since I did this mani recently I've been wanting to do a better version.  The colours seemed like they would work together but it just didn't turn out how I wanted.  I wanted to try again and decided to learn from my original mistakes.  For example, make sure you use a super opaque creme polish on your top layer, don't bother with horizontal stripes and using thicker lines looks cool too.

I've been super into Tumblr lately and I've been seeing some people do fabulous things with a glittery base and solid patterns atop it.  I just had to try it out myself after seeing what Whitney at Dressed Up Nails and Stephanie at Sincerely Stephanie have done recently.  By the way, I kinda hate you Whitney, you're just too good and it makes me incredibly jealous!  I loved the idea of using Color Club glitter polishes from Christmas last year so I started off with two coats of Sugarplum Fairy and then just painted half my nail with Beyond the Mistletoe.  Both are completely awesome and sparkly micro holo glitter, the former slightly purple-toned, the latter slightly green.  I wish I could do the glitter justice, it just doesn't come off in photos! Once dry, I dotted on Wet'n'Wild On A Trip, Sally Hansen Pacific Blue, Nina Ultra Pro Blu Blaze and Nicole by OPI "Baby" Blue.  So many polishes!  But look, sparkly!

Oh, it's fun to bribe your artist friends with french toast so they'll do art on your nails that you can then blog about!  I have a wonderful friend Erica who comes round to our place most Wednesdays and I just had to get her to paint me a teenie-tiny rocket with a space cat.  I have a cat called Rocket and if I ever get around to making my own line of glitter polishes, for sure it'll be called Rocket Polish.  With a cat in a rocket for a logo.  So that had to be the nail art I requested!  She's an excellent artist, you should go look at her work :D I needed a nice spacey deep blue so I started off with two coats of Sally Hansen Navy Baby.  Erica then painted the rocket ship, rocket cat and other spacey things with acrylic paints.  I managed to top it off with a coat of Seche Vite without smudging the design, so I'm happy.  Look, space!

So I know every lady and her nails have reviewed the Liquid Sand OPI polishes but who would I be if I didn't jump on that bandwagon too?  There's no way I could pass up a matte sandy glitter!  It's just too out there.  Anway, let's take a look at the blue polish in the collection, Get Your Number. Get Your Number is totally unique in my collection.  I don't say that lightly, I have a ton of nail polish.  It may not look like anything earth-shattering in the bottle - a medium blue thin jelly with holo and iridescent glitter - but it really does dry like sand.  It's a little too sheer for me to be comfortable wearing it on its own so I layered two coats of Sally Hansen Navy Baby on there first.  I then added the one coat of Get Your Number and look how interesting it looks!  I added a coat of Seche Vite to my ring finger to contrast the finish differences.  I have to say that I'm not the most fond of the rough finish but it's ok, I'll deal.  

One of my more popular posts were the rainbow glitter zig-zag nails  I did a few months ago.  It's good, but every time I look at it, all I can see is how uneven some of the glitter is.  It was annoying me so I decided to recreate it, BUT THIS TIME BETTER. Although it doesn't make much of a different, I started this manicure with two coats of Sally Hansen Navy Baby instead of my usual black.  Gotta mix it up sometimes, you know? Then, starting with my thumb, I added the glitter using my usual process .  Unlike my original version, I did four pieces of glitter before changing directions, made it a lot neater.  After my thumb and ring finger I was starting to go a little cross-eyed so I spaced the glitter out a bit for my remaining fingers.  I like it though, makes the two accent nails stand out more.  It's fun to see the different patterns contrast against each other.  Anyway, if you're wanting to do this, make sure you have the glitter rotated so there's a poin

While travelling in New York over Christmas, I kept an eye for...something.  Something unique, something you don't see often, something that stood out.  While wandering around Brooklyn, I found the thing that I was looking for.  It may not be practical but oh man, is it sparkly.  Covered in a perfect gold-red-fuchsia-pale pink gradient of flat sequins, this bag had to be mine.  When I got it home, I of course had to honour it with a glitter gradient of my own. I wanted to bring in the silver reverse side to all the sequins so I started this mani with two coats of Sally Hansen Celeb City.  I'm not really sure why now as I've tried to put glitter on this before and it never quite looks right.  Anyway, on I went with my usual technique , using Sally Hansen Invisible in very thin layers to stick the glitter on.  Again, I've had luck lately in first laying a strip of glitter down the centre of my nail then building out either side.  Once done, I added two coats of Seche

When you do your nails as often as I do, you get pretty good at spotting other lacqueristas.  A girl in the same building as me at work and I always compare nails whenever we see each other and she always has great nails.  Anyway, she got a bunch of nail art supplies in the mail, had extra and was kind enough to give me wheel full of little metal butterflies.  They're so pretty, I had to use them.   Let me preface this with saying that this isn't even the tiniest bit practical.  I kept this on for about an hour because they were catching on everything.  However, if it were my birthday or a special occasion, I'd totes keep these on for longer.  I wanted a nice, girly base for the butterflies so I started with two coats of Orly Porcelain, still my favourite nude.  Then, using a tiny square piece of makeup sponge, I lightly applied a dusting of Sally Hansen Celeb City and Revlon Gold Coin.  After a coat of Seche Vite was completely dry, I used nail glue to apply the butte

I've been following the Reddit weekly challenge over at /r/redditlaqueristas and the theme this week is Winter.  I pretty much only do the challenges when I feel like it.  I like the winter challenge so I put my thinking cap on.  I knew I wanted it to be sparkly and to use stamps.  I've done a mani with blue and silver sparkly foils before so this time I decided to go for snow at night.  I love walking the now at night, so quiet and peaceful.   I started this mani off with two coats of Nicole by OPI Razzle Dazzle.  Next, I put a blob of Sally Hansen Celeb City on a piece of paper and daub it with a makeup sponge.  I wanted just the tiniest speckling of silver to look like gusts of snow so I did a few swipes on the paper with the sponge to get most of the polish off.  Then it was lightly dabbing my nails.  Next, I used my Bundle Monster plates with Konad White Special Polish to add the snow flakes.  Top with a top coat and you're done.

For as long as they've been available, I've been completely addicted to Sally Hansen Salon Effort nail strips. Despite having the longest name, they actually work and actually have interesting patterns.  In fact, it was me wondering whether I could reproduce some of the patterns myself that got me into nail art in the first place.  Therefore when new patterns come out, I have to buy them. Checkin' it Twice is a black and silver checker pattern, with the silver being a slightly sparkly metallic.  I like these as they aren't the pattern-printed-on-white that some of the strips are.  While they might have the prettiest patterns, they just don't last as long.  Application was as easy as ever, following my usual steps for applying the strips.  Not a whole lot more else to say, other than I wish I could paint this pattern myself? 

If I see someone doing something cool with their nails on the internet, Imma wanna jump on that bangwagon.  Yesterday, it was water marbling over glitter polish to make poinsettia nails - like this . Given it combines my new obsession of water marbling and glitter, I'm on it!   To start, I applied two coats of Sally Hansen Celeb City - my favourite silver foil - followed by two coats of China Glaze Pizazz, a lovely rainbow glitter mix.  I have a bunch of other glitters like this like Sephora by OPI Spark-tacular, OPI Rainbow Collection and Nicole by OPI Rainbow in the Sky-lie but seriously, I cannot get enough of them.  The Sephora polish was one of the ones that started this obsession for me so of course I'm going to buy more.  Anyway, once that was done it was on to the water marble.  This was a little tricky as it was not easy trying to find a clear polish that would spread properly in the water.  I tried multiple base- and top-coats with no luck.  In the end I went wit