So! FashioNAILble

Today's nail art comes straight from the catwalk at New York Fashion Week. I've decided to recreate a few of my favourite nail looks from NYFW Spring 2012 this week.

Even though I'm sure this design didn't originate at fashion week, CND's Wanda Ruiz used this checkerboard pattern to decorate the models' digits for the Nicole Miller show using a Raspberry Pink and Navy Blue.

I used No7 Lucky Lilac as a base. With a liner brush, I drew a cross on my nails and then used a small nail art brush to fill in two of the four sections with Primark's Yes Cyan!.

I don't know if you can see in the pictures but my top coat has bubbled a little. This could be because I used 3 coats of the stuff, or because I tried to thin it out with Nail Polish Thinner. The consistency definitely improved with the use of the thinner but it has now gone cloudy and apparently bubbly so I'll just move on to a new bottle. Not to self: don't use thinner in your top coat!

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Sitting, Waiting, Swishing

I want to thank everyone for the amazing response I had to my recent EOTD post. You all seemed to like it so I'm looking forward to doing more in the future. You also reminded me that it's my blog so I should basically post what I want which is something I sometimes forget and I then start worrying about the fact that I'm not a nail art machine when there's no reason to get all stressed out about it!

I don't really have much of an opinion on these nails and I wasn't even going to post this because I really can't make up my mind about them. I don't dislike the mani but I'm not in love with it either! I think it's kind of 'pretty' but just not something I'm used to seeing on my nails, it's a strange feeling!

Base Colour: Glo Baby Glo from Primark - Fondant

Stripe Colours: BYS in Glittering Purple and Rimmel I ♥ Lasting Finish in Azure

I used a striping brush to paint on the 'swishes'

Have you voted for me in the Bundle Monster competition today? I hate shamelessly nagging and pestering you all but it would be really lovely if you could click over to the competition and give me a thumbs up! Just click here or here. Thanks!!

At Least It Will Keep Growing

I have some exciting news that I've been meaning to mention for ages but keep forgetting for one reason or another. I hope I don't sound too big headed for telling you, but one of my pictures that I posted on Tumblr has nearly 150 notes! It's still astounding to me that people find my simple little manicures attractive, or even inspiring.

In other news, I bleached my hair today. I felt like a change from the dark brown that I've been sporting for a few years and decided to go for light brown, think caramel. So I bleached it out today but even after 50 minutes of bleach, it's still quite dark and there's still plenty of red in it. I would describe the colour as auburn. The bulk of it is a very nice shade and I'd be happy to leave it but it's really patchy in some places and my roots are blonde due to the heat from my scalp speeding up the bleaching  process.

So yep - I have blonde roots and ginger hair. I'm just going to put my caramel brown dye over the top in the morning and pray for the best.

Konad Plate: M60

Base Colour: Glo Baby Glo from Primark - Yes Cyan!

Konad Colour: Avon Mirror Shine - Blue Steel

Top Coat of NYC

Absentee

Hey guys. Sorry I've been out of action for a few days. I could excuse myself by moaning about my exams and moving all my stuff back to uni but the truth is I've just been lazy this week. Super lazy. Soz.

I'm not sure about this base colour. It's a light purple shimmer and I normally don't go for light shimmers but this one was purple and in the sale so I had to get it! I don't think I would ever wear it on its own but it's nice for under a pattern like this.

Konad Plate: M60

Base Colour: Glo Baby Glo from Primark - Fondant

Konad Colour: BYS - Glittering Purple

Top Coat of NYC

Purple Paisley

I have finally published the page I promised a little while back with a list of the regular polishes I use for stamping

You can click on the link above (just under the banner) to see it, or just click here. As I mention, I think a lot of the polishes are discontinued, but you may have some luck in finding them if you search really hard like I did for my Sally Hansen Chromes!

Konad Plate: M64
Base Colour: Glo Baby Glo from Primark - Yes Cyan!
Konad Colour: BYS Glittering Purple
Top Coat of NYC

Polka Dot Blues

Plate: Bundle Monster BM19
Base Colour: Glo Baby Glo from Primark - Electric Blue
Stamp Colour: China Glaze - Adore
Top Coat of GOSH

Pinkness

I'm not a great fan of pink nail polish but I really felt like wearing some this week.

Plate: Bundle Monster - BM16
Base Colour: Primark Glo Baby Glo - Pinky n Flirty
Stamp Colour: Collection 2000 - Monlight Shine
Top Coat of NYC

A Matte I Don't Like (and new BYS's ♥)

What do you think of this colour mattified? I'm not a fan myself, even though this is my absolute favourite colour!

Plate: Bundle Monster - BM11
Base Colour: Glo Baby Glo from Primark - Yes Cyan!
Stamp Colour: Sally Hansen Chrome - Amber
Top Coat of Essie Matte About You

My New BYS's

In case you didn't know, BYS is my favourite brand for Nail Polish. It's Australian, but a store called QS (I think the name's changing to Store Twenty One) stocks the range here in the UK.

I got these two today along with a bottle of Astro Gold for my Mum. Unfortunately, they didn't have any Tinkerbell, which I really wanted to add to my next giveaway, but I did get a polish to join the giveaway goodies I'm stashing.

La Di Da is more purple than it looks in the photo, kind of a dusty purple on the nail.

Fools Paradise is exactly the Turquoise I've been looking for. Slightly more green than blue.

Daydreamer

I went to see Inception the other day. Has anyone seen it yet? 

And for those who have seen it, trying not to spoil it for the rest, do you think the totem was going to fall? There's so much speculation all over the internet, I don't really know what to think!

Plate: Bundle Monster - BM11
Base Colour: Glo Baby Glo @ Primark - Yes Cyan!
Plus: One coat of BYS Tinkerbell
Stamp Colour: NYC Glossies - 243B
Top Coat of NYC

Leaf Me Alone

Plate: Bundle Monster - BM04
Base Colour: Glo Baby Glo @ Primark - Yes Cyan!
Stamp Colour: No7 Stay Perfect - Totally Teal
Top Coat of NYC

Tahitian

This manicure reminds me of a collection I used to always skip past in the Avon book - I think it was called Tahitian Holiday?

Konad Plate: M60
Base Colour: Glo Baby Glo from Primark - Yes Cyan!
Konad Colour: Sally Hansen Chrome - Amber
Top Coat of NYC

Pink and Swirly

This is one from aaages ago. I just found it as a draft that I obviously forgot to publish.

Plate: BM20
Base Colour: Glo Baby Glo from Primark - The Purple One
Konad Colour: Sally Hansen Chrome - 04 Garnet
Top Coat of Beauty UK (Reluctantly)

Polka Dot Playtime

I know this design isn't as neat as normal but I love this combination. I used the Bundle Monster polka dot plate so I had to double stamp on most fingers which was quite tricky to line up. So I tried to neaten it up with some black on a brush after.

Plate: BM19

Base Colour: Glo Baby Glo from Primark - Yes Cyan! 
Stamp Colour: W7 - Black
Top Coat of NYC

Ruffian

I decided to do another Ruffian manicure, this time with some Konads too.

At first, I made a bit of a mess by painting on the accent after the main colour so clean up was pretty tricky!

Konad Plate: M35

Base Colour: Glo Baby Glo - Yes Cyan!, from Primark

Accent and Konad Colour: W7 - Black

Top Coat of NYC

Some kind of moon manicure?

I've seen these manicures around but I can't remember the name. I think it's something to do with a moon, does anybody know?

I was going to add a Konad but I thought it might end up looking a bit o.t.t and I didn't want to risk my feelings towards this manicure turning from love to dislike cuz it took aaaages.

Pink Colour: Glo Baby Glo - Pinky 'n' Flirty, From Primark
Purple Colour: Nails Inc - Victoria
TWO top coats of NYC  - as you can see this one's extra shiny.
I used two coats to speed up the drying - by the time I was finished I had about 5 coats of polish on :)

Toofer

Apologies for the lack of a post yesterday. So today you get two Konadicures for one. Hence, the title - for any 30 Rock fans :D

Plate: Fauxnad M55

Base Colour: Glo Baby Glo - Electric Blue, from Primark

Fauxnad Colour: Stargazer 118 - White

Top Coat of NYC

Konad Plate: M54

Base Colour: W7 - Purple

Konad Colour: Stargazer 118 - White

Top Coat of NYC

Cordial

Tonight was very fun. I went to see La Roux at the students union which was hellafun. Supporting were I Blame Coco who I had actually heard of before tonight, I always feel musically superior when I know who the supporting bands are!... Coco is Sting's daughter and she looks just like him. And Jamie Woon who was amaaazing.

Now I have to decide whether to watch 9, The Informant or The Tooth Fairy before I go to bed...

Plate: Fauxnad M08

Base Colour: : Glo Baby Glo - Yes Cyan! from Primark

Fauxnad Colour: Stargazer 118 - White

Top Coat of NYC

My New Favourite Colour

I have wanted a torquoise/tealy colour for aaages. It's my favourite colour but I have never found one. So, as I was in Primark yesterday, I thought I would check the cosmetics as I have a few polishes from there already and THERE IT WAS. I was so excited, and it was only £2!!

It took 3 coats to get rid of all streaks but it's very fast drying. And with a top coat, it's wearing very well.

Konad Plate: M71
Base Colour: Glo Baby Glo - Yes Cyan! from Primark
Konad Colour: NYC Nail Glossies - 243B
Top Coat of NYC

Blues

Konad Plate: M64

Base Colour: Glo Baby Glo - Electric Blue, from Primark

Konad Colour: George@ Asda - 35 Frost Bite

Top Coat of NYC

Blossom

Konad Plate: M71
Base Colour: Glo Baby Glo - Ultra Violet, from Primark
Konad Colour: Stargazer 118
Top coat of NYC