Leopard print fun

I promise I haven't disappeared or given up on nail blogging - I've just been reaaaaallllyyy busy recently. I also unfortunately have an exam in a few weeks, so any manis I manage to blog about until that has passed are likely to be quick 'n' easy - although that's surely never a bad thing??!! Nail art still provides a welcome distraction though - there are only so many times I can read about earned value formulae and stakeholder management theories (zzzzzzzzzzz).

I decided to continue with the animal theme this week and try out a leopard print mani - plus I knew it would be quick to do which was a definite plus :)

with flash inside

 One big downside of the colder weather and shorter days coming in is the lack of natural sunlight to take nail pics in - I may have to think about investing in a lightbox for pictures (what I really mean is I might need to bribe my husband to make one ;) ).

without flash

 I do love the cool weather though - I sleep with the window open so the crisp night air always clears my head (although the mornings can be a bit nippy and that means a dash to the warmth of the bathroom)!

flash again

For this mani I started with two coats of 'A Butterfly Moment' from the OPI Mariah Carey collection, then used 'You Don't Know Jacques' for the brown blobs. Finally I finished by using my Barry M nail art pen in black to make the outlines and adding a coat of Seche Vite top coat.

side view

 I quite like it and will likely give the neon or pastel variants a go too at some point, especially when my nails get long again!

What do you think, are you enjoying the cooler weather? Have you ever tried a leopard print mani?

Fx

Spotty dotty manicure

My dotting tools finally arrived last week - yaaaay! So I (of course) had to give them a go with a spotty, dotty mani. I've seen quite a few variations of this so it's by no means a unique or complex design, but I really like it - it's fun :)

in sunlight

I started off with 3 coats of OPI 'Did you 'ear about Van Gogh' from the 2012 spring Holland collection. This is a lovely light beige creme and will be really useful to have as a neutral base for manis in the future!

I then dotted on Sally Hansen 'Grass Slipper' (the green dots) with two big dots and 3 small dots on each nail, followed by the same of OPI 'Anti Bleak' (purple dots).

with flash

  Once those had tried I dotted Barry M 'Shocking Pink'on top of the green dots and 3 smaller dots arond, then Barry M 'Peach Melba' on top of the purple dots and around. I then finished with a topcoat of Seche Vite (of course).

indirect sunlight

I really like this effect and plan to repeat in the future with different colour combinations, and to perhaps spice up with some stripes. What do you think, do you like the colours? Have you tried this before?

Fx

OPI 'Anti Bleak' and 'Significant Other Colour' petrol mani

I apologise in advance - I did this mani a few days ago and after some heavy housework (do not dispute this husband!), my finish has seen better days. Please ignore the chips!

In natural daylight, no flash

Nonetheless I quite like the effect of this mani and plan to do this again in the future, both with this combo and other base colours.

I started with 2 coats of OPI 'Anti Bleak' from the Mariah Carey collection. This is a deep purple creme with a nice red hue to it - it works really nicely with the glitter 'Pink Yet Lavendar' from the same collection (I'll do another mani with this later).

In natural daylight, with flash

I then added one coat of OPI 'Significant Other Colour' which is a sheer pearl lavendar and yellow/green duochrome. Now I confess I'm not a huge fan of this polish on it's own - but when added on top of another colour - wow! I love how the polish looks completely different depending on how the light hits it.

Inside - with flash

I then finished off with one coat of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat - my go to top coat.

I's quite hard to capture the different dimensions of this polish, but hopefully you can see what I mean.

The polishes used in this mani

What do you think - do you like the effect? I call it a petrol mani after the beautiful colours diesel/petrol make :)

fx