Friday 31 January 2014

Resolutions Check-In

At the start of the year I made some blogging resolutions, which you can read in this post. I promised to post on how well I was keeping to them in a bid to shame me into actually sticking to them!

Resolution #1-Lemony Flutter
I did buy myself some Lemony Flutter at the start of the year and I have been using it...sporadically. I have to say I don't remember to do it 9 manis out of 10 so I don't think my cuticles have seen much improvement this month. However, I am trying to remember to put it on every night before I go to bed, and hopefully that will help them a little more.

Resolution #2-Spend no more than £20 on polish things a month and/or buy no more than 4 polishes a month
I had to be very harsh on myself with this one because it's very easy to just nip into poundland and pick up 10 new pretties and still have spent nowhere near £20, but I'm including all things nails (excluding remover but including delivery) so that I don't just splurge! January was meant to be a no-buy month for me and I did really well (for me!) but caved in towards the end of it. 

Items bought: 
-Lemony Flutter, £6.50
-2 SJ Polishes in her closing down sale (and only because she was closing down!) for £10 (including postage).

There's been lots of UK Indies closing their doors this month, which is really sad to see, and I had to stop myself ordering from them all! I did place a Pocket Money Polish order before she closed, but Charlie has very kindly allowed me to delay my payment until February, meaning they will count on next month's total. 

Total spent: £16.50
Under/Over budget: Under
Number of new polishes acquired: Two
Fewer/More than four? Fewer 

So I guess that's two thumbs up for this month. My boyfriend has challenged me to keep this up ALL YEAR but we'll have to see how that goes for me. I can't promise I'll be so good once I have regular income, haha!

To end I'll share some pics of this month's pretties:

It's only in uploading this picture that I've noticed
the spelling mistake...that's annoying.
Matte Party, Sprung
Matte Party (over Sinful Colours-Amethyst)
Sprung (over Sally Hansen-Himalayan Blue)

That's all for this month!

~Nail Art Novice ~


Thursday 30 January 2014

Mish Mash Challenge Week 27-Green

Greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen! =D

Ahem. Sorry about that. You might remember way back in this challenge for 'blue' week I did a colour block mani with some of my blue polishes, and made a comment about how awesome it'd look with all of them? Well this time around I did exactly that-a colour block using all 40 of my greens! (Not including holos or glitters as they live in a different drawer, haha!) I mean I could hardly pass up an opportunity like this to use every polish I own in my favourite colour, could I?

The bases are Barry M-Matt White and Revlon-Minted. I felt like a challenge so at the end of this post I have actually listed all the other colours I used, in case anyone is interested!

Please excuse my stubby left middle nail, I think all the appliances in this house are out to get it!




All of the green loveliness! I have to say I really like these, I love how each nail is different and there's so many different finishes going on, it's really fun and really green =D

Don't forget to check out the other gorgeous green manis!

~Nail Art Novice~


Polishes used: Rimmel-Peppermint, Camouflage, Pear Drop, Jaded Glamour, Mermaid Green, Camouflage Chic, Block Your Green, Barry M-Greenberry, Key Lime, Watermelon, Mint Ice Cream, SLE '13 B, Spring Green, Cosmic Glow, Revlon-Minted, Emerald City, Emerald, Chroma Chameleon Gold, Sally Hansen-Fairy Teal, Grass Slipper, Going Green, S-teal a Base, OPI-Don't Mess With OPI, Thanks A Windmillion, Cairuo-Greeen Tea 22, Blueberry 19, Stargazer-#101, Unknown, Tara's Talons-Dasher, Carollers, Sinful Colors-Mint Apple, Bad Apple Cosmetics-Russett, L.A Colors-Green Tea, Avon-Midnight Green, Essie-Mojito Madness, BK Polish-#5,L'Oreal Color Riche-Luxembourg Garden, George-Under The Sea, Collection-Hidden, Miners-Tra La La

Make sure you've entered my giveaway! It ends tomorrow!

Tuesday 28 January 2014

Space Dust And Stamping

I've got a sparkly sparkly mani for you today! Before Xmas I picked up one of the new Rimmel Space Dust polishes-Total Eclipse. It's a gorgeous black polish with duochromey flakes in-they shift from fuchsia to green in the bottle and it's just a lovely effect. The Space Dust polishes are technically textured ones, but I found that there wasn't really much texture to this one once it was applied. More than a creme, yes, but less than some of the other textured polishes I have tried.

This is three coats of Total Eclipse on it's own, isn't it pretty!


I decided that, pretty as it was, I was going to add some stamping to it. I used Color Club-Over The Moon and MoYou London-Back To The 80s 2 for a cool space age/time travelly sort of effect. My camera really didn't like this combo, it was a bit dazzled! I also added a layer of topcoat to smooth everything out.

Sorry this is a bit pic heavy, I was trying to get good ones:





As I said, my camera was pretty dazzled but I think you can still see how cool this looked...right? I've been playing with the holo sparkles in the light a lot =D

~Nail Art Novice~

Don't forget to enter my giveaway!! Closes in three days!

Saturday 25 January 2014

Twinsie Post-Checkerboard

I've joined another challenge group on Facebook and this one is a Twin Post one-where you get paired up with someone and do the same post together. I think I slightly misunderstood the rules to this-everyone else seems to have done exactly the same design whereas I've just done one in the same pattern-oops!

My Twin for this month was the wonderful Rambles of a Polish Addict and our pattern was checkerboard. You can see Katherine's post here.

My checkerboards were done with Barry M-Navy and Majesty. I did try to add in hearts to match my design a little better but they came out as blobs so I painted over them in the end.



I do really like these, even though they were a pain to clean up. The colours together look fab! I ended up topcating over Majesty as the texture was a bit too rough for me to handle-it was almost sharp!

So there you go, my first twin post! In the future I will make sure to read the rules more carefully and hopefully get a proper twinsy post next time.

Happy weekend!

~Nail Art Novice~

Thursday 23 January 2014

Mish Mash Challenge Week 26-Favourite Nail Art Technique

This is another one of the themes that I suggested originally, and when I did I had one thing on my mind-fishtails! I do love the way fishtails look when they're done but I don't love the amount of time and patience you have to have with them. Since the challenge has been ongoing, I've discovered a new favourite technique and that's gradients-I love getting the colours to blend nicely together and they're a fab way to have neutral nails but in more than one colour! I decided as a nod to my excited just-started-nail-blogging self I'd combine the two for this mani.

Polishes used: Barry M-Plum, Sinful Colors-Amethyst, Barry M-Prickly Pear, Revlon-Cloud, OPI-I Juggle...Men




They're not the best gradients in the world cos my polishes wouldn't play nice, but they were still quite pretty. I do still love fishtails but they are a pain in the butt to do! They look awesome when done though so can't complain.
There you go, pretty purple pretties.

Don't forget to check out all the other lovely nails in the inlinkz!

~Nail Art Novice~

My giveaway is running for another week! Make sure you're entered =)

Tuesday 21 January 2014

It's Behind You!

On Saturday my family and Rara's family went to see the last night of our local pantomime-something that's become a bit of a tradition in recent years. I know they're not for every one but I love a panto-they're just wonderfully silly and I think they have something in for everyone! This year's was 'Jack and the Beanstalk' so I did some appropriate nails.

Polishes used: Gradients- Rimmel-Mermaid Green, Camouflage and Jaded Glamour with a topping of China Glaze-White Cap for added shimmer. The beanstalks were done with the same polishes on a base of Revlon Chroma Chameleon-Gold. I have to say I'm a bit disappointed with these duochromey polishes-they look like they have so many colours in the bottles but I've not found they translate onto the nail at all! Boo!

Anyways, pics!



I loved these-they were SO GREEN =D Made me very happy, although they didn't last very well, and the panto was huge amounts of fun, oh yes it was!

~Nail Art Novice~

Don't forget to enter my giveaway if you haven't already!

Saturday 18 January 2014

And All That Jazz!

On Thursday I took my boyfriend to see Chicago at the theatre as part of his birthday present and decided that I needed appropriate nails to match-of course I went with red and black and sparklies!

Polishes used: Rimmel-Movie Star, Barry M-Red Glitter, Revlon-Silver Screen, Barry M-Fairy Lights, Revlon-Black Star

Pre-clean up shots to show off the sparklies:



 And here's what I ended up with:



The show was AMAZING-we had front row tickets and therefore had excellent views of many many sexy legs! Also the singing was fantastic and the whole evening was just wonderful! My boyfriend had a really good evening too, so it was all a success!

Happy weekend!
~Nail Art Novice~

Don't forget to enter my blog birthday giveaway!

Wednesday 15 January 2014

Mish Mash Challenge Week 25-Two Colours You Never Normally Pair Up

Hello lovelies! Happy Wednesday!
I was discussing this challenge with my BF whilst I was trying to decide what to do and he pointed out to me (quite rightly) that "you never pair pink up with anything!"-and I had to admit he had a point. In my TT advent calendar I got a pink polish that-shock horror-I didn't actually think was too bad so I decided to use it today. Also, I decided to make my design a geometric one, in keeping with the FingerFood's Theme Week Challenge which I will probably be intermittently joining in with-love a double challenge day!
Polishes used: Sally Hansen-Going Green (Side note-this is such a beautiful green, don't know why I don't use it more often!), Rimmel-Purple Addict and Tara's Talons-Deck The Halls. I painted my bases, added some striping tape to create the triangles and painted on the pink (over a layer of white)-Voila!



Actually *whispers* I kinda like them! I like the combination of different finishes and I think the colours look rather good together! You still won't be seeing all pink manis on this blog though, no siree!

Double inlinkz for double challenge! Check the first one for the other 'Two Colours' Mish Mash manis and the second for the other 'Geometric shapes' Finger Food's one.

~Nail Art Novice~

P. S Don't forget to enter my giveaway! (Slow computers edition)

Sunday 12 January 2014

Mish Mash Challenge Week 24-Inspired By A Decade

Finally, finally, I'm back with another Mish Mash mani-there's still a fair few to go before the end of the challenge! This one was one of my suggestions-inspired by a decade-and I've always known what I wanted to do for it! First I should perhaps show you my inspiration, my faaaaaaabulous 70s glam rock boots:


Haha, I love these babies! You can't help but strut when you wear them! I decided to combine some nail art based on them with some retro 70s style wallpaper, with a little help from this tutorial by Holy Grail Nails. I've had this bookmarked to do since I first got into blogging, can't believe it's taken so long!
Polishes used: Rimmel-Azure, London Girl-#46, Revlon-Silver Screen, Barry M-Navy, Barry M-Lady.



Love these! I think they work on two levels-while they are quite retro I also think the colours look a little "futuristic"-like what they thought the 2000s were going to look like in old 80s films and stuff.

Glad to be back with the Mish Mashers!

~Nail Art Novice~

Friday 10 January 2014

Raise Your Glass If You Are Wrong In All The Right Ways

Hello lovelies!
Happy Friday! Just a quick post today. I'm wearing W7-Black with Tara's Talons-Raise A Glass over the top and I am LOVING this combo. Raise A Glass is an awesome gold flaky, I've never seen one similar and I love it! I reckon it'll look awesome over a whole heap of colours and I love the irregularity of the shapes and the way it makes my nails flash in the light. This is only one coat too so you get loads of glitter per brush stroke-it's basically fabulous!

Please excuse my poor, sad nubs and my shoddy attempts at clean up-I am currently visiting friends so am not able to access my clean up stuff and so had to make do with cotton buds!



It's so pretty though! Sparkle sparkle =D

Enjoy the weekend!

~Nail Art Novice~

Thursday 9 January 2014

Guest Post by Lisa of Geordie Nails!

Hey lovelies! I've got a guest post for you this week, and I guess I should explain; this week I was supposed to be moving back to my beloved city of Sheffield, and so I had planned to take the entire week off blogging, hence the guest post. In actuality, the room I thought was mine got given to someone else (heart breakingly!) and so I'm not moving...yet! I'm still determined to get back there! The lovely Lisa sent me this post before I knew the room had fallen through, so I thought it would be rude not to use it since she's been so kind!

~

Hello! I'm Lisa from the blog Geordie Nails, and Jenni of Nail Art Novice has very kindly let me write a guest post while she's busy moving house. I decided to go with a well-wishing new home manicure!

 For the design I used two stamping plates: Cheeky's Home Sweet Home and Bundle Monster BM315. To start with I painted a base colour of Model's Own's Blueberry Muffin, a very pale (and pleasantly scented) blue-purple. On my thumbs and ring fingers I painted Nails Inc.'s Maida Vale glitter as accent nails. And then onto the stamping! The Cheeky plate has a lovely full-nail "home sweet home" image; I used a cotton bud to remove the parts of the design I didn't need from the stamper before putting the houses and lettering onto my nails. I finished the design with a silver bird flying to its new home. 

Here it is:




The best of wishes to Nail Art Novice for your move and I hope you're very happy in your new home! 
Hugs,
Lisa, Geordie Nails xx

~

How lovely is that? The colours/glitter look awesome together and the stamping is perfect! Thank you to Lisa for doing this, even if I'm not moving at the moment, the sentiment is still very much appreciated. Keep your fingers crossed for me that I get there soon folks!

~Nail Art Novice~

Tuesday 7 January 2014

I Hate Cleaning Up!

I really do, I reckon it's one of the worst bits about being a nail blogger and sometimes it takes twice as long as the mani itself-so annoying! I was having a discussion about this in a FB group once and lots of ladies seemed to agree with me so I decided to set up a bit of a silly collaborative post showing off our messiest nails without cleaning up first. Nail blogging doesn't always need to be serious, after all, and I thought it would be a bit of fun! Here's my effort, and it's gloriously messy!

Polishes used: Color Club Holo Hues-Kismet, Angel Kiss and Over The Moon. These were my last treat to myself of 2013 before my buying restrictions came in this year, and they're simply BEAUTIFUL. So much sparkle! I used the three together as a gradient and then stamped over the top with Sally Hansen-Purple Bolt and MoYou London-Pro 9. I still need a lot of practice placing my stamps but I love the colours together, and the way the holo smacks you in the face is pretty amazing.




And just in case you wanted to see it all cleaned up too...here's the finished product (I have recently discovered what a wonder PVA glue is for helping clean up and I will admit it makes it so much quicker! Still my least favourite job though!) :


Yay for messy manis!

~Nail Art Novice~

Sunday 5 January 2014

Sparkle And Shine

Hello lovelies! Hope you're all doing well and enjoying the year so far. I had a brilliant time at my New Year's gathering, but it really took it's toll on my poor nails, they're the shortest they've been for a very long time at the moment! I've got no free edge left on most of my nails, it's making me really rather sad =(
So much so that I was feeling really uninspired for what I should do on them once I took off my fabulous rainbows so I made my boyfriend choose something for me! (#LazyBloggerSyndrome lol). He decided he wanted something sparkly and so this is what I ended up with: Revlon-Silver Screen, Avon-Fabulous and Barry M-Majesty from their autumn textures. I decided to keep it simple and do a mixed size dotticure with the Barry M on top of the other colours.

Apologies for the tipwear in these, it wasn't apparent in real life!



This was so sparkly and pretty! I wish I was better at doing these kind of dotticures, I think it looks a bit of a mess personally, but I know they can look amazing because I always admire the ones Emma from Emma's Little Corner does (like this one!), but I just can't get them too look that good! Siiigh.

Anyway, that's my first mani of 2014 done, woo! Onwards!

~Nail Art Novice~

Saturday 4 January 2014

My Fifteen Favourites From 2013

2013 was the year I started my blog and I like to think I have improved my nail art over the 12 months it's now been running. I've tried lots of new techniques and had a lot of fun, with only a few minor disasters along the way.

Here's a round up of my favourite of my manis from this past year:

1-Feb '13-Star Spangled










6-Jul '13-OMD! Flowers




8-Jul '13-OMD! Red Dwarf Nails




10-Aug '13-Mish Mash Music


11-Oct '13-Mish Mash Rainbows


12-Nov '13-Mish Mash/TPC Grey


14-Dec '13-Festive Colours





I think I've had a pretty decent year one way or another! You can see the improvement across the months I think, and I hope to keep improving in the months to come! If I had to pick one favourite mani from them all, it would either have to be my Doc Martens nails or my fab rainbows-I love them both!

Hope you're looking forward to 2014 as much as I am!

~Nail Art Novice~

Wednesday 1 January 2014

My Blogging Resolutions!



~Happy New Year! I hope 2014 brings you happiness and awesome things, and of course, lots and lots of shiny polishes!~

I don't, as a rule, make resolutions, because I feel like they're just a way to make you feel bad about yourself if you break them-and life is too short for feeling guilty for breaking a pledge to yourself! However, this year I am dispensing with tradition and making a couple of blogging/nail related resolutions, which I am determined to stick to as best I can-and I will keep you updated on my progress throughout the year.

1. Buy some Lemony Flutter and start actually looking after my cuticles/hands properly.
I am a bit terrible at looking after my skin in general, if I'm honest, but as a nail blogger I feel like I should try and make an effort with my hands if I can. Also all this acetone is playing havoc with my cuticles, and the skin around them is a bit rough and raggedy. I want to try and improve the state of them if I can in 2014!

2.Drastically limit my polish spending, at least until I am employed and earning again.
This is the biggy for me. I have a terrible habit of spending money that I don't have on polishes I don't really need and I am amassing a collection that's growing in size too rapidly for me to deal with it. So this is a two part thing-I'm going to:
i) Limit myself to a maximum of 4 new polishes a month and try to use the ones I have more.
ii) Limit myself to a maximum spend of £20/month on polish and all polish related things including shipping, stamping plates, brushes, tools, etc etc. (I'm not including remover/cotton pads in this because I go through so much of them and also the amount I use changes depending on what manis I have been wearing.)
To help me to try and achieve this second resolution, I will post at the end of every month showing what I have acquired and detailing what I have spent-in a bid to shame myself if I've been bad/be proud if I've been good! I know, if nothing else, Rara will help keep me on the straight and narrow for this-she's always telling me off for buying new polishes!

The final thing for me to say is a great big THANKYOU to all of you who have started following me over the past year. The people I have met through this blog are really what makes it for me-I've made "friends" (virtually, at least!) with so many awesome people and I look forward to growing those friendships in 2014. There's also lots of exciting things on the way, so keep an eye out!

~Nail Art Novice~
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