Indian Ocean

I had been wanting this polish for so long despite me not being a fan of anything sheer or shimmery but I had seen so many good things being done with this colour that I wanted it but it was always out of stock whenever I went to buy it, clearly it's a popular colour. Anyway, I finally got it and I am please with how it looks although I don't think I quite captured its properties in the photos. 

I did two coats for these photos but I'm pretty sure you would never be able to get this opaque which I'm fine with as I'd rather have something that you just need to layer or add for effect rather than needing to build it up until it looked good. Indian Ocean looks in the bottle like it fits the name as it looks blue with a pink/purple golden shimmer to it. On the nails however, I don't think you can really see the blue and only the shimmer colours. 

This photo kind of shows what the polish looks like without the shimmer picking up. It definitely gives my nails a tint making them look an unnatural colour but it doesn't show off a too blue. I don't really know if I can say this polish has a shimmer as most shimmer polishes show the shimmer colour but not the particles but I guess because it's such a sheer polish, you can see the particles which makes it look more like an extremely fine glitter. 

This photo shows the shimmer off a bit more as you can see on the index and middle finger, the pink shimmer is picking up more. They are definitely more shimmery in person but I'd say that even then, the bottle shows up much more but once again, that shows the polish at full density so I'd assume the more layers you do, the better it shows up but I can never be bothered to do more than two layers.

Overall, I'm pleased I have this polish and I think that it gives off a really nice look but you really have to be up close and personal to see it.

Colourful Acid Wash Tutorial

Here's my tutorial for my colourful acid wash nails I posted yesterday inspired by Just Tis Ems tutorial!

I hope you like the video and let me know if you have any suggestions on what tutorials I should do next

Colourful Acid Wash

This week's theme in the Seven Deadly Sins challenge is Wrath with the prompt of trying that technique that you know is going to be a fail. I had a few options in mind for this and then I remembered the Acid Wash Grunge tutorial from Justtisems. I have tried this technique countless times and have never been successful so I thought it would be the perfect thing to do.

I am going to be the first to say how utterly shocked I am at how these came out. I didn't want to go in blindly and ruin everything so I did a test to prepare myself for the failure. This is what my test looked like.

As you can see it is completely different from my final nails, once I saw this test I decided to change how I applied the polish to the nail. Emmie's tutorial shows to randomly sweep polish thinly across parts of the nail, I changed it so I was putting on full coats of the polish onto my nails and it came out looking completely differently. The colours I used for these nails are Barry M Matt White, American Apparel Neon Yellow, Models Own Tangerine Queen, Gosh Spot On! Pink and Barry M Greenberry.

Because of how well I think these have gone, I'm doing a tutorial so you can see how I did this technique as it's different from how Emmie's is done and the look isn't as random and acid wash as others I've seen.

Check out what everyone else has created this week

Art by http://dahlig.deviantart.com

Real Housewives

My second nails for the Sloth theme this week are inspired by the Real Housewives franchise. The prompt was to create something that was inspired by your laziness and something I do on my down time is watch a lot of TV. Recently I've been watching a lot of Real Housewives so I thought I'd do that on my nails.

If you know nothing about the Real Housewives then I'll just explain that in the title sequence, they have the wives holding an object that represents their city. I chose to do one from all cities I've seen so far. The thumb is inspired by The Real Housewives of Orange County hence the oranges. I used Barry M Matt White for the base colour on all my nails. The orange is a mixture of Models Own Tangerine Queen and Barry M Yellow with pure Barry M Yellow at the edge and Matt White in the centre. My index finger is based on The Real Housewives of Atlanta who have a peach as their symbol. I used a combination of Rimmel Tangy Tangerine and W7 Sheer Peach and a mixture of both of those and Barry M Bright Red for the outlining. The stalk is done in Barry M Mushroom, the leaf in Barry M Spring Green with Matt White as highlights. The Real Housewives of New York inspired my middle finger with the apple being done in Barry M Bright Red with the same stalk, leaf and highlighting colours as the peach. My ring finger is a diamond for The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. For this I used Barry M Instant Nail Effects Foil Silver, Models Own Indian Ocean and Barry M Blue Moon and Black for some outlining. Finally, my little finger has the maple leaf for The Real Housewives of Vancouver. For this I used Barry M Bright Red and Mushroom.

I' aware that it's quite a random thing to base nail art around but I think it just shows how lazy I am if I watch that many TV shows...and more.

Have a look at what everyone else has done this week

Art by http://dahlig.deviantart.com

Sheer Blue

Sheer Blue was another one of the W7 polishes that I got in a set for £1.50 per bottle. I didn't set out looking for a colour like this but I did like the shade when I saw it in the pack and I was hoping that it would be similar to Barry M Blue Moon but more opaque. I know the name is Sheer Blue so it wouldn't make much sense in being opaque but I didn't know the name at the time.

The good thing is, it is more opaque than Blue Moon. As you can see from the photos I took of Blue Moon, Sheer Blue is slightly darker in shade and is more of a baby blue which I very much like. Although it's called a sheer polish, it's definitely not too thin as you can't see any visible nail line through two coats which is always something I like. 

The W7 polish bottles and brushes are basically a dupe for the O.P.I ones which I don't care about as the actual polish isn't trying to be O.P.I. I like that it's the same as it means that application is really easy as the wide brush covers my nail well. 

I don't know how much this polish is on it's own but I know W7 is known for being a cheap brand so even if you can't get the same set I got, if you're looking for a light baby blue sheer I'd give this one a go. In my books it's definitely better than Blue Moon but I'm sure a lot of other brands have colours similar to them both.

Gradient and Tutorial

So these nails are for the Sloth theme of the Seven Deadly Sins challenge. The prompt was to create something really easy and to do a tutorial for it as well. I wanted to do a tutorial for my gradient nails anyway so I thought this would be perfect as it's really easy to do and I really wanted to use this colour for a gradient as I thought it would look good.

I only used a base coat for these nails as I didn't have to even out the colour of my nails as the gradient was going to cover up any yellowing. The colour I used is Barry M Papaya and I just used a Barry M clear polish that I use for random things. I won't explain how I did this gradient as it is all in the tutorial below. 

Hopefully you like seeing this tutorial as last time I did this graident I got a lot of questions about how to create it. Make sure you check out what everyone else has done for the Sloth theme this week below.

Art by http://dahlig.deviantart.com

Studs Galore

So these are the second nails for the Greed theme and I have been planning these for weeks and I am so in love with them. The prompt for these were more is more and if you know me and my nails, you know I love studs and as you can tell by the title, these nails are just studs galore.

I used a base colour of W7 Sheer Pink just to even out the colour of my nails and then applied the studs  with a clear polish. The studs I used on the thumb are 2mm square gold studs, 2mm round gold studs on the index finger. The middle finger studs are 2mm silver square studs and the little finger studs are the same 2mm gold ones that I used on my index finger but I removed the gold to make them silver with acetone simply because I don't have silver studs in this size but Born Pretty Store do sell them. I then did a mixture of all four styles on my ring finger. 

I LOVE LOVE LOVE these nails but I'm obsessed with any nail studs. Also if you're interested in getting any of these studs you can use my discount code GZL91 for 10% off at Born Pretty Store. 

Make sure you check out all the other Greed nails everyone else has created

Art by http://dahlig.deviantart.com