Sweet Summer Swap

I participated in the Sweet Summer Swap organised by Luchessa and Polish Alcoholic. It was my first time to take part in one of these kinds of events so I had no idea what I was doing!  I was partnered with the very glamourous Nia of Cherry Fashion Blog who is obviously much more experienced at this kind f thing as she sent me a totally amazing package which put mine to shame!  I’m sorry Nia – I hope you like the things I chose for you and I know that my parcel was nowhere near in your league!

Nia’s parcel arrived in a pretty box which I’ll have to think of a good use for once I’ve emptied it of its goodies!

I don’t know how she managed to find so many lovely things for just $20 – she is either the bargain hunting queen of beauty or Latvia is dramatically cheaper for beauty products than Spain!

Firstly there were the nail goodies – a Flormar polish, some cuticle oil and some nail art stickers. I’ve seen Flormar shops in Spain but never investigated them, so thanks for giving me the chance to try some of their polish! Strangely I’ve also never tried nail stickers – they’re definitely a good idea for days when I just don’t have time for freehand nail art.

Next, the scented things! The box smelt amazing when I opened it up and I think that’s all due to the cranberry-scented, heart-shaped soap – very cute! She also included a couple of facemasks – coconut, which sounds very summery, and one I can’t read – but I guess “problematiskai” means problem skin, so I’ll save that for a break-out day.

The make-up: two mini pots of loose glitter, which I’ll have to decide whether to use on my nails or on my eyes, a lip balm and a nice neutral lipstick.

Nia was also kind enough to include a fridge magnet from Riga for my boyfriend as I had told her that he collects them from all over the world, as well as a postcard from Riga and some delicious chocolates to really fill the box up!

Nia, thank you so much! I hope you and everyone else who participated in the swap have a fantastic summer!

April 30 Day Challenge Day 20: Border Mani

I’ve never been a huge fan of the border mani so I wasn’t sure what I’d do for this day of the challenge. At first I thought it was just the colour combination that would make it work for me, but while looking at other people’s attempts at border nails I came across this gorgeous mani by Kayla Shevonne and knew I wanted to give it a try.

I’ve never really got the hang of stamping – there are a thousand other techniques I prefer but I was so inspired by Kayla’s mani that I thought it was time to have another go at it. It still came out a bit messier than I’d hoped but I did end up with a border mani that I quite liked!

I used: Floral Street – Nails Inc, Baker Street – Nails Inc.

April 30 Day Challenge: Day 11 – Animal Print

This is my first time trying animal print nails. I know it’s a popular one to do but I’ve never really been an animal print person. When I saw it was on the April challengeI thought I’d give it a go as challenges are all about trying new techniques and things you might not usually do yourself.

After my disappointing result for Ancient Greece in the Time Periods Challenge yesterday, I felt pretty pleased with these. For a first attempt I think they look good and were easy and not too time consuming to do. I got my inspiration from Beautopia Nails’ version of Rihanna’s tiger print mani.

I used: Top of the Ice-Stream – Essence, Kalahari Kiss – China Glaze, Cadogan Square – Nails Inc, Brazilian Bikini – Sephora, Black – Decorative Nail.

April 30 Day Challenge Day 7: Rainbow

I love rainbow nails and I love sponging gradients so I knew what I wanted to do for this day of the challenge. I chose some pastel shades so that my rainbow was a bit softer looking and not too in your face! (The result looks very My Little Pony-esque to me – not sure if that’s a good thing or not!!)

I ‘m always in two minds when I do a gradient whether to show pictures of it before applying a top coat when it has that interesting sponged texture or once it’s been all smoothed out and looks more ‘finished’. I like both looks so I decided to put two pics up today. One of the pre-top coat and glitter that I added on a whim, and one of the raw sponged gradient.

I used: Warwick Avenue – Nails Inc, Secret of Love – Anny, Mellow Yellow – Sally Hansen, Keep Calm Paint On – China Glaze, Dreamer – Revlon, Do You Lilac It? -OPI, Hello Holo – Essence

Time Periods Challenge: 4 – Ancient Mayan

I was excited about this day of Llama Nails’ time periods challenge but found it really tricky. I lived in Mexico for two years and visited a lot of ruins while I lived there. Palenque is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever been to and left a lasting impression on me. I wanted to incorporate some ideas from Palenque but everything I came up with was way too detailed and difficult to do on such tiny little canvases (and they’re even tinier than they used to be – a week of sunshine, camping and scuba diving was not kind to my nails and they are in a horrific state!)

In the end I looked for border patterns used to decorate the edges of fabrics, stone etc and thought that they would work well on nails. I also borrowed the design idea from a tribal design on Lucy’s Stash. I used the colours red, yellow, white and black as these are representative of the ordinal directions in Mayan culture.

So here it is! (Excuse the short, not so pretty looking nails!)

I used: My Boyfriend Scales Walls – OPI, Mellow Yellow – Sally Hansen, St James – Nails Inc, Black Passion – GOSH.

Follow me on Bloglovin

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Just claiming my blog on Bloglovin!

Also, I’m off on a camping trip for the Easter break, so I won’t be posting over the next week and will be back with short nails (the length they are right now is totally impractical for camping…) after semana santa.

I reached 50 followers today which is a huge milestone for me, and I can go off on my holiday in the sun with a smile on my face! Thanks for following!

Day 6 Pre-Spring Challenge: Sun

I was half looking forward, half apprehensive about this theme as I felt it would either be really great or a bit of a mess. I wanted to use lots of gold and something which would really shine under the sunlight.  I think it ended up closer to the messy end of the scale than a triumph, but it was quite fun to do.

 

I used: Bluesky Blonde – Urban Decay, A Piece of Forever – Essence, Blitz – Urban Decay

Introducing myself…

Hi!

I’m starting this blog to document my adventures in the world of nail art.  I’m a beginner to nail art and hope to watch my skills improve, discover interesting nail art sites, blogs and videos, start coming up with some of my own ideas and designs, review products and generally explore what I can do to my nails!

I’ve always had artistic hobbies, but haven’t done anything creative for a while.  I love the ideas of creating temporary art that is beautiful for a short time, documented in photos and then wiped away leaving a blank canvas for new ideas and designs.

I’m hoping to start out simple (but still beautiful) taking inspiration from all the great tutorials and guides out there and progress on to more technical and artistic designs once I get the hang of this art form.