I is for ...

I scoured the internet looking for something, anything, unique that I could do for the letter I in the ABC Challenge. I was going to do Rorschach ink blots, but I didn't have the correct tools to accomplish them the way I wanted. I attempted them anyway and ended up with an absolute disaster. I decided to start over and try something else. So ...

I is for ... Iguana. Not very unique, but I tried. :)

nails nailart nail art polish mani manicure Spellbound ABC Challenge I is for iguana animal scales green blue stamp stamped stamping plate Born Pretty Store eye reptile

I used Revlon Garden as my base color. I lightened it and darkened it with white and black for the texture. I also added a few dabs of Color Club's neon yellow Yell-Oh! Looking through pictures of iguanas I found a beautiful green iguana that had light blue patches on its skin so I also added some dabs of Wet n Wild I Need a Refresh-Mint over the texturing.

nails nailart nail art polish mani manicure Spellbound ABC Challenge I is for iguana animal scales green blue stamp stamped stamping plate Born Pretty Store eye reptile

Here is a closer look at the texture. I had a moment of panic upon realizing I had no scale stamps on any of my stamping plates. The one stamp that looked anything like scales was absolutely tiny! So, I settled for Born Pretty Store's m61 stamping plate. I used China Glaze Holly-Day and actually consciously slowed my movements so I wouldn't get the full stamp.  A first for me, but I wanted it to look uneven like scales and I also wanted some of the texturing to show through in places.

nails nailart nail art polish mani manicure Spellbound ABC Challenge I is for iguana animal scales green blue stamp stamped stamping plate Born Pretty Store eye reptile

I wasn't completely happy with the texturing and scales so I added an iguana eye to my index nail hoping to give this mani some life. In this picture, before I removed the design, I decided to see what it looked like with a top coat. The nails lost nearly all the rough texturing I worked so hard to create, but I really like how the eye took on a more realistic quality. Look into it and tell me it doesn't stare back at you!

Askruk46

Saran Wrap + One Stroke

Hey everyone! So today I have a couple of techniques bundled into one. I love 'saran wraps', even though I've only ever done one before, and I've wanted to try the 'one stroke' nail art technique that I've seen a number of bloggers use. I actually watched a number of tutorials for this and none were what I was looking for in my design so I just googled a few pictures and worked with that but I'd say the most helpful was this one.

For my saran wrap I used a base of China Glaze - Refresh Mint and then put Barry M - Cyan Blue and Berry on top. I know there's a few techniques out there for this but I just dab the wet nail varnish with a bundled up piece of cling film. I've included a picture of the saran wrap on it's own too :)

Then I used white and blue acrylic paint for the flowers, added a coat of Seche Vite and then stuck the rhinestones on with extra top coat


Also, some time this week I'm going to be starting a new 'challenge', which isn't really a challenge, just more of a project. I have 22 old images of nail art I did when I first started my blog, then got annoyed and deleted because they're such bad quality photos, so I shall be starting a 'then and now' project, to see how, not only my photography has improved, but my skills too. I shall hopefully be posting them once a week for next 22 weeks but we'll see how that goes! What do you think?



Hope you like them!
Alice

Askruk46

Birthday Haul

Welcome to my birthday haul post. This post is filled with things bought for me and gifts I bought myself. :)


First up is the gift my sister-in-law got me. Two Revlon polishes (Facets of Fuchsia & Carbonite) with a Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat, two L.A Colors Art Deco glitter stripers, an Ulta glitter (Pinata-Yada-Yada) , and an Icing holo glitter (Epic Winning).



These are some of the things I picked up here and there for myself for my birthday. My light box just wasn't enough to contain them all. Five Pure Ice polishes, two L.A. Colors glitter polishes (one with flakies). There's a Sinful Colors bar glitter from their new holiday collection, and from the makers of my favorite Halloween pumpkin bottled polishes ... a snowman bottled polish with red and green glitter. I also picked up some square gems in various sizes and some loose black glitter. I've been dying for a black glitter polish but since I can't find any I'll settle for loose glitter. Last, but not least, down front you'll see four tiny bottles. I picked these up in sets of eight. This means I have eight various colored bottles of sequin style glitters, eight beads, eight bar glitters, and eight flakey glitters. You've already seen some of the bar glitters in use with my Happy Birthday mani. It's what made the cupcake frosting so shiny!!



Not all my presents were polish related. After hearing my whining about how I was almost out of my favorite Bath & Body Works Candy Corn Anti-bacterial my mom got me these. I'd be happy to do a review post on these if anyone is interested. Not sure how far you guys want me to stray from nail polish and nail related posts.



Yes, that is a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup ... and yes, it really is that big! My bonus-dad picked these babies up. There are two in a pack and they are each a half-pound. That's one pound of peanut butter cup in a pack. So far, I've only managed to eat a small scoop with a spoon.



This is me and my bonus-gram. We don't call them step in our family because we consider them bonuses to our families. Her birthday was yesterday, only a day between our birthdays, so we decided early on that we would share our small birthday get togethers. The lacy red cami and the black suit-style jacket I'm wearing was a present I bought for myself. The jacket actually came from a consignment shop, and I only paid $7 for it!!


                       
 

My mom took me shopping and I picked up these awesome boots and coat, both on sale. The boots, Mossimo, came from Target and were less than $10.50. The coat, Dollhouse, is from Boscov's and was $20. The boots will take some adjustment since I'm not used to wearing a heel quite that tall. My previous boots were about 3.5" while these new boots are about 4.5". An inch didn't seem like much added height until I put them on. Also, these boots are made really small. I had to go up a whole size, from a 7 to an 8, to be able to wear these comfortably. I've never had to go up a whole size, a half size sure, but never a whole size. I'm really glad I didn't try to order these online!



With Christmas and my niece's January wedding coming up I'm planning on purchasing a dress. While shopping I tried on this beauty and fell totally and hopelessly in love. Sadly, it was a $60 dress and was not on sale. I'm a thrifty buyer. To own so much nail polish I have to be. So I couldn't possibly talk myself into paying that much for a dress I'll wear two or three times ... if I'm lucky. However, Swagbucks was nice enough to offer me a $25 Amazon gift card for a recent post. Lucky for me, Amazon is selling this dress too, in my size even. It will take some luck since Amazon has only two dresses my size in stock and my gift card is still in processing (it could take up to 14 days to register in my account), but if the card comes through in time - with it and the money part of my birthday haul I should be able to purchase this dress without having to dip into my nail polish money.

Well, there you have it, my birthday haul. And what a haul it is!!! Be on the lookout for posts of the polish I received as I'll be working on getting swatches for them while doing my usual posts.

Askruk46

H is for ...

Hello again! I'm back. I feel much better for taking a few days off. Sadly, the cold weather is wreaking havoc with my nails. I've had more than a few breaks. Thankfully, only one of them is on my picture taking hand, and I'm happy to say it wasn't a bad break.

Today's post is another in the ABC Challenge. I'm really late posting but after I missed H is for Halloween on Wednesday ... well, I decided to hold off a few more days and do H is for ... Happy Birthday.

nails nailart nail art polish mani manicure Spellbound H is for Happy Birthday ABC Challenge balloons cutepolish candles cupcake pink Sinful Colors Snow Me White Beautiful Girl girly

Saturday, the 3rd, was my 27th birthday and these are my birthday nails. I used two coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White as my base color. On my index and pinkie I did birthday balloons via CutePolish. The middle got candles and the ring has a sparkly frosting loaded cupcake. I did it all in pink (Sinful Colors Beautiful Girl) because I'm ultra girly that way. I love pink. ♥

I'll post tomorrow with some pictures of my birthday haul. :)

Askruk46

Paisley Print

Hey everyone! I'm enjoying (in my opinion) a well deserved break at the moment, so I should hopefully get a few nail designs done!

Today's post is a bit weird, in fact I'll let you see them first...


 ... it looks like I have lots of skill (kind of), but really I just did them with a gel pen, that's right: a pen! I was super bored in my lecture, and I had plain nails from my glow in the dark nails post, and of course I hate plain nails. I normally doodle tonnes on my notes, but for some reason decided it would be a good idea to draw on my nails instead. 

When I was done I took a picture and uploaded it to my Instagram (@onenailtorulethemall) and Twitter (@onenailtorule) because I was convinced they were going to smudge before I got back to my flat (this was in the morning) and before I could get a better picture, BUT THEY DIDN'T. I can't believe it, all the previous times I've done this in lessons I've wiped it off straight away, because I didn't think it lasted. There's a slight amount of tipwear but nothing major, and I even managed to top coat it! Now I have a wonderful new technique for thin and intricate designs, and I can't wait to use it in more posts! (It's not cheating is it?)




I hope you liked this post!
Let me know what you think in the comments, is it cheating?
Alice

Askruk46

Halloween Ruffian


Tässä on minun tämän vuoden Halloween manini. Ei ollut oikein inspiraatiota jostain syystä, mutta sitten muistin nämä siirtokuvat, jotka veljeni oli joskus minulle antanut :D Nämä eivät olekaan ihan mitä tahansa kynsitatuointeja, vaan itseasiassa nämä pääkallot kuuluisivat oikeasti Warhammer sotastrategiapelin miniatyyripelihahmoille, haha :D Veljeni ei kuitenkaan halunnut käyttää näitä omiin Chaos space marines sotureihinsa ja antoi minulle arkin siirtokuvia kynsikoristeluun. Ajattelin silloin, että kai näitä voisi joskus Halloweenina käyttää ja onneksi nyt muistin ne.


Lakkauksen pohjalla on ruskean oranssia China Glaze Desert Sun lakkaa syksyn On Safari kokoelmasta. Tämä likaisen oranssi lakka oli minusta niin mielenkiintoisen värinen, että pakko oli hankkia ja en kyllä pettynyt :p Väri kyllä jakaa varmaan mielipiteitä, mutta minusta tämä on ainakin hyvä pohja koristeluille, jos ei yksinään olisikaan niin ihana. Lakan koostumus on myös hyvä. En tarvinnut näihin kuin vain yhden kerroksen. Tumman vihreä shimmerlakka taas on Zoya Edyta, joka on toinen messuilta ostamistani Zoyan lakoista. Näiden kahden lakan yhdistelmä on minusta erittäin Halloweenmäinen. Mitä pidätte lakkauksesta? Nuo siirtokuvat siis toimivat ihan samalla tavalla, kuin ne kynsillekin tarkoitetut. Liotin niitä siis vedessä hetken, jolloin ne irtosivat pahvista ja siirsin sormella kynsiin.


 Zoya Edyta ja China Glaze Desert Sun

Warhammer-pelin siirtokuvia

Monet eivät varmaan tiedä mistä ihmeen miniatyyrihahmoista puhun, niin tässä vielä kännykuva osasta veljeni kokoamista ja maalamista Kaaoksen sotureista :) Harmi kun ei ole parempaa kuvaa, mutta varmaan jonkinlaisen käsityksen saatte. Hahmot siis ostetaan osissa ja maalamattomina ja kootaan ja maalataan sitten itse kotona. Todella pikkutarkkaa työtä tuo on ja muistuttaa myös jotenkin kummasti kynsien kanssa väkertelyä ;p

Askruk46

Review: Born Pretty Store glow in the dark polish

Hi everyone! Today I have a review for you from Born Pretty Store on their glow in the dark polish number #06. I've also compared it to China Glaze's 'Ghoulish Glow', hope you like it! Each time I used 2 coats of either Ghoulish Glow or #06 and there's no top coat


So firstly we have a comparison of Ghoulish Glow and #06 in daylight. The yellow polish is #06 and the white is Ghoulish Glow. It's great that Ghoulish Glow doesn't leave a colour but it's not a big deal for #06 because it's what you expect from a glow in the dark polish. After all OPI's 'Zombody To Love' (which you can see here) is a very obvious green. More pictures after the jump!




Now here is them in the dark. I felt it necessary to show you the difference between the first and the second photo because although it's not that noticeable in the photos Ghoulish Glow lasted barely a minute with a strong enough glow to notice, whereas #06 is very clear and very bright in both pictures. I also love #06 glows blue, it's so bright!


This is #06 on its own and these kept their glow for a lot longer than I've ever seen Zombody To Love or Ghoulish Glow manage!

I decided to create some nail art with them too, because of course this is after all a nail art blog and I couldn't resist, so glow in the dark drips it was!

This is the only photo with top coat because I kept these on a bit longer.


I love the effect of these, even if I did put too many drips on them.

Overall, I was incredibly impressed with #06, it dried fast, as did Ghoulish Glow, and although it was yellow the incredible glow it produced made it worth it. I will definitely be buying more colours from this range, even if halloween is over!

#06 retails at $4.99 on bornprettystore.com and if you use my coupon of KHL91 you can get 10% off!

Hope you liked this review,
Alice

This product was provided for me to review by Born Pretty Store, my views and opinions are entirely my own and I was not influenced in any way for this post

Askruk46

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