Musical Mates

Mmmm don't you just love Saturdays? There's the teeniest bit of blue sky peeking through the clouds today, and it's feeling so very Winter-y - I love it! I braved the not-so-chilly chill (12°C, about 53°F) to snap some outdoor photos in natural light. Today's mani uses my brand new China Glaze polish First Mate, a nice deep grey-tinted navy blue. Loving this polish! It's another perfect formula, easily a one coater but I do two out of habit. I could get very addicted to China Glaze... 

Isn't that just the yummiest deep navy blue? In reality it's got a bit more of a muted grey-ness to it that my camera refused to capture, but it's not too far off. On my accent nails I started with two coats of BYS French White and stamped it with plate m73 in First Mate. I got the plate just for this one stamp and have been itching to try it since it arrived. I ended up using another stamp on the plate first! This one just seemed too gorgeous to pass up. But now that I've got the delicate little notes on my nails, I'm content =).  

Mmkay so this isn't my best stamping work, but the effect is there and I'm happy with it so shush! I can tell you it was particularly popular at a recent Hairspray rehearsal! Show opens 1st of August, and I'm so excited... Eee!

On my non-accented nails (plain nails? Normal nails? Other nails? I dunno...) I used my largest dotting tool to dot a line of four down the centre of my nails in French White. By starting at the tip and not re-dipping my dotting tool in the polish, I got this cool receding effect that I rather like. All topped off with a coat of Seche Vite. More music!

Thought I'd try a new angle, whaddaya reckon? This post is a tiny bit heavier on the pics - I'm so in love with this mani, I had to keep snapping shots! I think you've got the idea by now though ;-). Aren't the tiny little notes so cute?! I've tried to figure out what they are so I could actually 'play my nails' but they're just too teeny tiny for my eyes. And I think they slipped some false ledger lines in to give it more detail. It's still clearer than some of the hand-written sheet music I've had to play in the past! I'd be interested to find out whether this is actually a piece of music, or just pretty note-style designs. May have to investigate that one... 


What are your thoughts on blue nail polish? Do you rock the bright neon blues or are you more comfortable with muted tones? Have you got a favourite nail design that you don't wear enough? Feed me your thoughts, darlings, I'd love to hear them! Enjoy your weekend, see you again soon =D.


- Ally xx

Fail Friday: Pink Wednesday

Happy Friday, everyone!! Today I have a very pink Fail Friday for you. This was my attempt at a design for Pink Wednesday this week, but it went so horribly wrong that it became a Fail instead. This is the last time you'll see OPI Strawberry Margarita featured for a while, I promise!! 

I started with two coats of Strawberry Margarita, then stamped over it with plate m60 in BYS Reign Supreme. I've made a discovery about my plates - do you remember I said something about not knowing what brand they were but how they seemed to match up to the Konad designs and numbering? Well through my interwebs exploration, it looks like they're plates from the Born Pretty Store that I've scored second hand. I've recently set up a PayPal account and therefore am terrified of how much I could potentially spend at that amazing website. Mystery somewhat demystified. More pics!!

This, sadly, was my best stamp. I think maybe I didn't clean my stamp thoroughly enough before I used it, or my scraping was off, or the polish was the wrong consistency, or I rushed it, or a combination of all of that. Whatever it was, it all went wrong, so as gorgeous as this mani could've been, it wasn't!

Smudging and poor transfer and just all kinds of fail, ugh! It didn't help that this was about 2am and I was battling a very heavy cold! That's why my posts have been a little more spread out this week - sorry! But I haven't been very well at all. My lovely generous mother caught a heavy cold / 'flu last week and just had to share it with me, so we've been miserable together. It's still lingering - we're both coughing and sniffing all over the place, so very attractive - but hopefully it will subside soon as we're blasting it with every medicine we can find, with hot cups of lemon, honey and ginger for good measure. Enough of that!

Do you find you have a preferred time of the day to do your nails? Or are you like me and squeeze it in when you find time? Are you relieved that Strawberry Margarita will be taking a hiatus? Gimme your feedback, lovely people, I always love to hear from you =D (Especially you, Charli!! ;-) ) Stop by again soon, lovelies! Happy Weekend!


- Ally xx

Pink Wednesday: Stripes

Hello hello! It's Wednesday, and On Wednesdays We Wear Pink, so I have yet another post featuring OPI Strawberry Margarita. Sorry for my obsessive use of this colour - I swear I'll use a different pink one day! But at the moment I'm still madly in love with it, so bear with me =). It's truly miserable and rainy and cold here today, so I haven't taken any outside photos. This means the bright pink is no where near as vibrant as its counterpart in real life, but if you look here you get an idea of the overwhelming BRIGHT PINKness of this shade. It's striking enough to stand out even after being plastered in BYS Black Satin. Pics!

I started with two coats of Strawberry Margarita and waited for it to dry. Took a while! I smudged a couple of nails which I haven't done in a while - maybe the temperature or humidity or something was different last night? Or I applied more polish than I usually do... Anywho, once it was dry I applied strips of nail tape in the stripes you see, and painted over the whole nail with Black Satin. While the black was still wet, I peeled the tape off and voila! Neon pink rave-tastic nails! All topped off with my trusty Seche Vite.

Apparently you can wait 'til the top colour is dry to take the tape off, but with my (rather cheap) BYS polish, I found that it peeled off with the tape! So removing it while the polish was wet, while messy, was necessary. 

I'll promise here and now that next week's Pink Wednesday post will NOT involve Strawberry Margarita! I've been stuck far too deep in my colour comfort zone - just using the same colours in different ways - and it seems ridiculous because I really do have more polishes than I've shown you guys! Therefore, apart from Friday's post which will be a fail involving SM, you won't see it here again for a while! (It's also running a little low, but that's beside the point ;-) ). I'm eyeing up a couple of China Glaze polishes that I haven't got, too, so they might pop up soon... 

Have you guys got a favourite colour / colours that you find yourself going back to all the time? Let me know I'm not alone in my colour fixation! Happy Wednesday, and thank you for stopping by! =D

- Ally xx

Brit Bits

Hello lovely people, and a happy Monday to you! Here in NZ, the first weekend of June is Queen's Birthday Weekend so we get a day off work / school to celebrate, and this year it coincides with our Queen's Diamond Jubilee - she was crowned on the 2nd of June, 1952. This is only the second Diamond Jubilee in British history! So I've got a bit of Brit on my nails for the occasion. But first, I wanted to show you the cupcakes I baked for my friend Beth's birthday on Saturday (when I was running crazy late...). I consider myself a decent baker, and cupcakes are definitely one of my specialties. Aren't they pretty?

Now, onto the nails! I saw this post on Sunday afternoon and knew there was absolutely no way mine would possibly compare as Sammy is such an incredible nail artist! So I thought I'd keep mine sweet and simple with just enough British flavour for the day. In the Friday Fail post I said I'd decided to use BYS Reign Supreme as my non-accented nail colour. Well, I lied. I went with BYS Glamourpuss instead, mostly because I'm obsessed with it, but also because the deep cherry red somehow seemed more British than the purple. I started with two coast of Glamourpuss on my index, middle and pinky fingers, and two coats of BYS Drop In The Ocean on my thumbs and ring fingers. The blue is the background for my Union Flags.

Public Notice: On my nails I have a Union FLAG. It is only called a Union JACK if it is flown at sea!!! 

Sorry to get all bold and stuff, but it's a pet peeve of mine that sooooo many people call it a 'Union Jack' at all times. No! Just, NO! </rant> =)

Over the lovely clear blue I taped off the central cross pattern and painted it in Revlon Red Hot. That was the easy part. My goodness, I should have spent more time thinking about the easiest way to do this. Over the red cross I used a dotting tool to outline it in BYS French White. Then with my dotting tool I added in the smaller 'background' lines in red, and outlined them too. They ended up a lot messier than I'd hoped, but from a distance it's very effective, and I'm happy with it. I thought doing my left hand was hard... Then I did my right hand... Never again!!!

I suppose they're not as bad as they could've been, and I did spend a loooong time 'touching it up' to get it to this stage, but they are obviously far from perfect. Again, from a distance, not too shabby... Like the flash pic coming out of the dark? Rawr!

Close up of my left hand in direct sunlight. Red Hot is usually a lot lighter and brighter and more orange-based than Glamourpuss, but because it's over Drop In The Ocean, it actually came out looking quite a similar shade which is what I was hoping for! I had my morning cup of tea outside in the sunshine today and had to snap a couple of shots with my new tea cup. Apart from being a really pretty cup, tea + British nails? Had to be done!

Everything topped off with Seche Vite - two coats over the Union Flags. I hope Her Majesty had a lovely Jubilee on Saturday, and that all you lovely people had a wonderful weekend, whether it's still going or not! Thanks for popping in =)

- Ally xx

Beth's Birthday Nails

Happy Saturday!! Extra extra quick post today - I'm running so late. I have a close friend's 21st party tonight, I thought it was at 7 but it's at 5 (in 3 hours) and I haven't got anything except my nails sorted!! Typical ;-) Here they are...

This is two coats of BYS Reign Supreme on index, middle and little finger with a design from plate m73 in China Glaze Icicle stamped over top. Got a new stamping silver, and it's perfect, yay! Thumbs and ring fingers are 2 coats of Icicle with flowers from plate m60 stamped in Reign Supreme with rhinestone accents. Topped off as always with Seche Vite. Click the pics to see them up close!

 

This is just something a little bit special to celebrate my wonderful friend Bethany's birthday.

That's all for now. Enjoy your weekend, babes!


- Ally xx

A Flowery Fail Friday

It's the end of the week, wa-hay! And it's a long weekend here in NZ as we celebrate the Queen's Birthday. This weekend is no where near Her Majesty's actual birthday, but that's beside the point. I plan to have a holiday-themed mani on Monday, but today I thought I'd share a nail-fail with you. This was the first mani I did after filing my nails down to nubbins and I was going to put it up instead of yesterday's plain mani but I thought 'Fail Friday' sounded cool, so you get it today! There is a good chance 'Fail Friday' may become a regular thing on this blog, because I have plenty of nail-fails to share! Onwards!

Don't get excited, this isn't the fail-y bit, though the photography's a bit shoddy. I mentioned yesterday that I got new BYS polishes, yeah? The dark purple (that looks like a blue... yep, fail...) is the second of the two that I bought. It's called Reign Supreme and IRL is the deepest purple-y purple creme ever. I completely forgot about the holiday this weekend while purchasing this so the name is a complete coincidence. While thinking about my holi-mani for Monday, I decided what my accent nails would be, but then couldn't think of what colour to do my other nails... Duh! Royal purple, anyone? I'm the slowest of the slow, sometimes... The accent nail is ORLY You're Blushing.

This is almost the colour that it really is, but still too blue. I took and edited these photos before I decided that it would be to showcase a fail, so I tried to make 'em look all non-fail-y. This, sadly, is the best nail I did. Still far from perfect. Underneath the white flower you can just make out another one - I tried to stamp in You're Blushing but it didn't really contrast enough with Reign Supreme to be noticeable, so I went over it with BYS French White. This stamp is from one of my new plates, m60. My plates are not Konad, but seem to have the same designs on the same numbered plates. I can't afford Konad plates (they are available online here for minimum NZ$11 per plate, plus postage!!), so I go for whatever I can find.

Ahhh, here we have the complete fail in all its glory. Failed stamps, smudges, ill-aligned stamping, peeling, and colour that is no where near true to life. I managed to clean this pic up a bit, but the flowers on my middle finger were severely top-coat-dragged. The stamp on my ring finger (plate m69) came off the stamp like that. Sadly, this wasn't my first time stamping, though you're forgiven for thinking so. This is just all kinds of... well, you can see. This mani was removed after being poorly photographed. Maybe that's why I left yesterday's red plain? I may have lost faith in my stamping ability. Sigh. What a perfect excuse to practice!!

What was your worst nail-fail? Have you ever nail-failed so badly it completely put you off trying that mani again? I'd love to hear your horror stories =D Thanks for checking in, lovely people! Happy weekend!

- Ally xx