Voting Now Open !

Voting for the piCture pOlish 2013 blog fest is now open on their website, but not for long ! You can fill out the form at the following link, and simply write the name of your favourite blogger's design in the comments section ! Simples ! You will also be entered in with the chance to win 6 polishes, now if that's not a good incentive to vote then I don't know what is ! Follow the link here :

BLOG FEST VOTING FORM

Here's the link again to my blog fest post from yesterday, just in case you missed it !

PS : Any vote for me is hugely appreciated, I'd just LOVE to be able to collaborate with piCture pOlish to create a new shade of nail varnish, what an opportunity !

piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013 !

Good evening everyone, I have something very very VERY special for you all in today's post.. my contribution to the piCture pOlish 2013 Blog Fest ! I am so honoured to have been chosen to participate this year, as I have loved reading all the different posts that everyone else who has taken part has posted over the past couple of years ! Basically, loads of different bloggers from all around the world are chosen to participate and create some nail art with different piCture pOlish shades, all posting their creations on the same day !

Our challenge for this year's blog fest was to come up with a nail art design using the three piCture pOlish shades we were sent and provide a step-by-step tutorial for said design, to be in with the chance of being one of three bloggers to be chosen through the Blog Fest Awards, to collaborate with piCture pOlish and create a custom nail polish... that's a pretty amazing prize, right ?!

So I'll start off with swatches of all three shades that I was sent, and then we'll move on to the nail art and the tutorial.. enjoy !

Above sample photos courtesy of piCture pOlish

First up is Ocean, a collaboration shade with Kelly's Kolors, inspired by, you guessed it, the ocean ! This nail varnish is really just AMAZING, possibly one of my favourite polishes ever ! It's a beautiful teal/turquoise jelly filled with loads of scattered shredded silver holographic particles with deep blue reflections. I used three coats with no top coat for this swatch, and the formula was absolutely amazing as well, no clean up required at all !

Next up is Focus, the collaboration shade with Pointless Cafe, which is inspired by the colour of wine cups, a flower that grows in southern Texas. This nail varnish is a deep reddish-purple-pink shade, very difficult to describe, with a combination of red and magenta micro flakes and a touch of purple and pink shimmer throughout, super complex ! This swatch shows two coats of Focus without top coat, I found the formula to be slightly on the thick side but it was still very workable !

And last but not least, Atomic, Samarium's Swatches collaboration shade, inspired by the eponymous element samarium which has an incredible silver-white metallic colour and reflection. This polish has a definitely white-silver colour and a not-so-noticeable champagne pink tone to it in some lights, with tiny scattered silver holographic particles and silver shimmer running through it. I used three thin coats for this swatch, although you can easily get away two coats and no top coat. The finish of this polish isn't glossy like the other two piCture pOlish shades I've swatched, and the formula on this was great !

So that's it for all the swatches... now it's time for the nail art ! It took me a while to work out what I wanted to do for my nail art design, all sorts of ideas went through my mind but I was never happy with the end result. I tried needle dragging but that ended up looking too messy, then I tried painting the Australian flag as I had all the right colours for it, but it just didn't look right and the beauty of each shade was getting lost in the design ! In the end I settled with my favourite cartoon flowers, and I'm so glad I did as I really love the design !

So what do you all think of the design ? I loved the way that the flowers pop against the silvery background in the photos, but in real life the holographic particles are so much more visible than I was able to capture in my photos and the whole design is just sparklier in general ! You just have to believe me on this one !

Now, here's the tutorial, my first ever may I add ! I hope you all like it ! Don't forget to click on the photo to make it bigger so you can read the instructions !

So that's it for my post for this piCture pOlish blog fest, I hope you've all enjoyed this rather long post, but I've had great fun getting everything together for today !

All the different blogger's Blog Fest nail art will be posted on the piCture pOlish pinterest board and is open to public voting, so don't forget to go and look (and maybe even vote for me, if you deem me worthy) !

You can find piCture pOlish and their huge range of shades, as well as Ozotic polishes at their website, and the great news is that they ship worldwide ! Happy days ! You can also find them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube, so you can keep up to date with new releases and perhaps the odd giveaway !

First Attempt at Needle Dragging and 200th Blog Post !

Hello there everyone ! So I got back from Prague after an amazing 2.5 days holiday there and will be travelling back home to France tomorrow, it will have been a busy few days by the time I get back ! But anyway, I said in my last post that I would be able to post something on Sunday, so here it is before I go to bed (early morning again tomorrow !) !

I did this design a few days before I left for Berlin, and although it was my first ever attempt at needle dragging, I'm really pleased with the outcome ! Basically what you do is you apply your first coat of polish as normal and let it dry, and then you do a really thick coat and immediately blob on another coloured nail varnish on top and then using a needle, just drag the second colour out into the first... does that make sense ? All I did was look up a couple of tutorials online and I went from there, it's pretty simple to do !

For this needle dragging design, I started with a base of OPI My Vampire is Buff, and for the dark purple I used OPI I Vant to Bite Your Neck. I love these two polishes together, especially I Vant to Bite Your Neck, will definitely have to use it in my designs more often !

Also, almost forgot to mention... THIS IS MY 200th BLOG POST !!!!!! Wooohooooooo hip hip hooray for big milestones ! There have been plenty of milestones this month actually, first my first year blogaversary and now my 200th post, lots to celebrate !

Right, I'm off to bed now, got to get ready for another long day of travelling ahead of me, sigh.. but I'm really looking forward to being home again and seeing my family, oh, and of course, being able to sleep in my own bed : there's no better feeling after a long time away from home !

And don't forget to tune in here tomorrow evening at 7pm sharp (6pm GMT), I've got a post scheduled for you all that you won't want to miss ! See you all then !

I'm off to Prague !

Hey you guys ! So I'm sorry but I haven't got a nail post for you today as it's late and I haven't prepped any photos for you ! Instead I'm just going to show you a few photos I've taken whilst I've been in Berlin ! I'm heading to Prague tomorrow until Saturday, so I'm afraid there won't be a nail post until Sunday at the earliest I don't think ! But anyway, here are some photos for you !

Potsdamer Platz, one of my favourite places in Berlin

Yeah, that's a 23,000€ bottle of whiskey...

Brandenburg Gate, naturally

Yeah that's normal... did you see Darth Vader in the background ?

A full bucket of cherries from the garden, they were seriously yummy !

Mmmmm my favourite chocolate !

Berlin Fernsehturm

You can't go to Berlin and not watch karaoke on a Sunday

Day trip to Leipzig, can you believe this is a university building ?!

Ampelmen are the best

Yes, I did eat that whole pizza all by myself

Uh huh... horse sausages...

A mural in Leipzig I thought looked good !

The Siegesäule from below

Bradenburg Gate and the Fernsehturm from half-way up the Siegesäule

And the same view from the very top of the Siegesäule !

A (half-eaten) currywurst, of course

The Pergamon Altar in the Pergamon Museum

The Ishtar Gate in the Pergamon Museum

Isn't that just so cute ? ... it was HUGE as well !

The Siegesäule seen from the Brandenburg Gate at sunset

Yep, you can do a tour of Berlin whilst laying in bed : best of both worlds !

This is such a massive bear, notice the rip in the hoodie

We went on a bike ride to see the sunset from a hill

An here is said sunset !

So there you go ! I need to go and dry my hair and get things sorted before tomorrow, I have a REALLY early start and I'm not going to get much sleep as it is, so I'd better not eat into my precious sleepy time any more ! Night night everyone !

Geometric Gradient and my Belated Blogaversary !

Helloooooooo everyone ! So I was meant to write a post yesterday as it was my official first blogaversary, but I ended up getting completely sidetracked and totally forgot until I'd turned my computer off and was laying in bed, but by that time it was gone midnight anyway and no longer my blogaversary.. oh well, I'm here today ! But anyway, I've got a great design that I'm in love with to share with you today !

So these nails were inspired by a design I saw by Chelsea at Get Nailed, which just happened to pop up on my Tumblr feed when I sat down to do my nails on the day before I left home to come to Berlin. I loved the colour combination and just the way it was so simple and minimalistic, yet really eye-catching at the same time !

For this design, the nail varnishes I used were OPI Funkey Dunkey, OPI Planks A Lot and OPI Steady as She Rose, and topped off each nail with a plain silver stud. I think I prefer the lighter purple base, as on my thumb, ring and little fingers to the darker purple, but I also love the way the colours and reversed designs all fit together ! I'll definitely be trying this with different colours soon !

So that's all for today everyone, I still can't believe it's already been a year since I first started posting here, and I'm so glad that I've been able to entertain you all and share my designs with the world for a whole year now ! Here's to another year everyone !

Strawberries

Good evening everyone, it's getting late but I thought I had better post something before I go to bed ! I've been busy doing "stuff" here in Berlin, "stuff" generally meaning shopping etc which is always good fun ! The weather here has become really really seriously hot all of a sudden which, although nice, is a bit too much and doesn't really make me want to do anything in particular !

I did these nails before I came over to Berlin, around the same time as when I did my watermelon nails, I just got the urge to paint some more fruit, and I'm so glad I did ! You can see the design on my little finger looks a little bit odd, and that's because I initially wanted to use tiny micro bullion studs for the yellow seeds, but decided that I didn't like it and would instead do dots, but then I didn't like the colour I chose so I went over all the dots I had already painted in yet another colour... and then I couldn't be bothered to start from zero on that nail but oh well !

For the base on this design I used an un-named Color Club pink polish, then I used Essie Mint Candy Apple for the green bits, and for the leaf accents and yellow seeds I used my Models Own pastel nail art pens in green and yellow. I really like the way that the strawberries look with the light pink colour. I would have wanted to do them red, but I have an aversion to red polishes at the moment for base colours as they are such a pain when it comes to taking it off ! Do any of you get that problem ? Red polish cuticle stains are the worst !

Right, that's it everyone, I'm off to bed ! I'll probably sit and play Candy Crush Saga for a while, are any of you addicted to it as well ? Night night everyone !

NOTD : Spots and Stripes

Helloooooo everyone ! So I've got a really quick post today to wish a Happy 4th of July to all the Americans out there ! I've had to improvise with the few nail varnishes I've bought whilst I've been here in Berlin, and I've managed to (sort of) paint the US flag ! I've gone for a bit of a distressed look, but even then the colours aren't as distressed as I'd have liked them to have been !

I used Essence What's my Name ? and P2 Up in the Air for the base colours, and then I painted the stripes and the spots using my Models Own white nail art pen (I never go anywhere without my nail art pens !). Also, apologies for the not-so-great lighting, I had to improvise seeing as I don't have a lightbox here, but I still think it looks okay, what do you reckon ?

That's all for today you guys, I've got a proper normal post coming up this weekend, so stay tuned for that !