#31dc2014 Day 22: Inspired by a song

......Like a black widow, baby. Iggy you so hawt right now! It was a toss up between Fancy and Black Window but it was always going to be an homage to Iggy day. 

Polish:

• OPI - Angel with a lead foot
• OPI - Over and over a-Gwen
• China Glaze - Liquid Leather

I created a gradient then lined each nail using a black striping polish. I wanted today's design to represent Iggy's hair and also both outfits. Check out the vid to see Iggy kicking some butt with her badass balayage.

And so the challenge continues xx

#31dc2014 Day 10 - Gradient

A super short post today to share the pics and attempt to keep up. I'm going to have a double mani day today to make up for missing yesterday. Whoopsie! 

Polish:

• China Glaze - Liquid Leather
• OPI - Angel with a lead foot
• China Glaze - Flip flop fantasy

To create this design paint a line of black on the end of your sponge, leave a small gap then paint another line of black. Fill in the space with white and apply the sponge to your nail. Use a small brush to add in your feature colour.

How is everyone else coming along with the challenge this year?

An InLinkz Link-up

Dance Legend WOW Prisms

Argh! WOW! My love affair with Dance Legend begins. My first polishes from DL have blown me away with their sparkle and fab bottles. I love looking at them all lined up on my polish rack....Fancy!  This is 3 of the holo polishes from the WOW Prism collection. The collection is a 2 parter, 18 colours in the first release and then another 6 in the Spring Collection.

For this design I used the polishes on their own with no base colour. However the silver really did need a base so next time its undies first. I sponged the gradient on as normal then also painted another layer of colour on the tips to darken the colours. There is a little bit too much spectra-flair glitter in these polishes which makes them hard to gradient with, the colour sinks into the sponge leaving the flair to sit on top making the gradient too subtle. But I guess that's a trade off to having mountains of amazing sparkle!

Pink: Dance Legend - Hysteria 21 

Silver: Dance Legend - Steel Panther 13

Teal: Danced Legend - Holy Diver 36 

It was overcast all day so the best picture I could get was indoors but you can still get a hint of the amazing sparkle. The glass crystals are from the multi coloured pack which is available  HERE. 

Rainbow Gradient Nails

Oh my...I made a rainbow and now I never want to take these nails off! And it sparkles...winning! Finally a new collection where I love every colour and they worked together to create a rainbow, what's not to like about that! China Glaze - Offshore collection - Available now from Drama Queen Nails. 

To create this mani I started with a white base using Morgan Taylor - white. I waited for it to dry completely then I used a make up sponge to apply the gradient. Check out the sponge...more rainbow! If you are getting chunks when you do gradients that's an indication that the polish on the sponge is too dry and is sticking to your nail. Prime up your sponge with more polish and wait for the first coat to dry to stop this from happening.

All the polishes I used to create the rainbow are from the new China Glaze - Off Shore collection. This is a GREAT collection, bright crellies that went on perfectly in two coats. The green - Be More Pacific - was a tiny bit streaky and needed 2 coats when I used it on its own, but mixed into the gradient it was fine. I topped off the rainbow with a layer of  holo sparkles: Out the Door - Northern Lights - available here. 

I highly recommend this collection, even with my *ahem* large polish collection I found that the tones were unique and I had nothing like them. My fav of the bunch is the purple - XTA Sea - and the teal - Wait n' Sea. There isn't one colour that I wouldn't use and for a long time there hasn't be a collection that I have NEEDED every colour. Well done China Glaze, well done! Available now from Drama Queen Nails. 

Feather Nails

My most favourite nails that I have done in ages. Figured they deserved a blog post of their own. Deceptively simple, so pretty.

This design was done using a 3 colour gradient. A made a tutorial for how I do 3 colour gradients a long time ago - here is the link. I tend to use a different method when doing 2 colour gradients as its harder to get that nice fade with only two colours. This is how I do 2 colour gradients. 

Two polishes I used are from the China Glaze - City Flourish collection which is available here.

CG - In a lily bit (lilac)

CG - Lotus Begin ( purple)

Zoya - Dot

The feathers are water decals. Im sorry I cant remember where I got them, I think they were a freebee from our polish supplier. You can find them on ebay, Born Pretty etc. I apply water decals by cutting around them really closely, lying on top of my nails then wetting them from behind with a cotton tip. Isn't Zoya - Dot just the nicest soft pink? xx

Guest post for More Nail Polish

Just in case you missed out on my guest post for More Nail Polish this week here is the link. Being invited to post for MNP was a huge honour as I have followed her blog right from way back at the start of my polish addiction. So head on over and check out MNP if you aren't already following her. This is the mani  I did for the post. All the details plus extra pics can be found here.

Liquid Sand Gradient

So is it possible to use OPIs new Liquid Sand textured polish to create gradients? I think its safe to say, definitely! I love how this mani turned out, the sand polish was a dream to work with and dare I say, easier to use for gradients than normal creme polish. Its textured finish is far more forgiving of those little lumps and bumps you end up with sometimes when you're sponging. Read on for a guide on how to recreate this mani using polishes from the OPI 2013 Bond Girls Collection.

To create this design is actually very easy. Paint one thick coat of your base colour. Allow it to dry (the dry time on these liquid sand polishes is excellent, I waited about 3 minutes). Paint your accent colour onto the tip of your sponge then slowly dab it on the tip of your nail, working your way from nail tip towards the cuticle  Steady as she goes, dab excess polish from the sponge onto paper first before applying to nail to avoid building up colour too quickly. That's it, it's really that simple.

This stunning gold sand is OPI - Honey Rider. The blue is OPI - Tiffany Case. As with most sand textured polish you do not apply top coat as it dulls the sparkly finish. Without topcoat the wear of these polishes is good. You will get 2-3 days without chips if you apply a good base coat. They are easier to remove than glitter polish, but harder than a creme or jelly finish polish.

And well you know me, I love a good accent, albeit a little random I love how my ring finger turned out. I used light and dark blue square studs to create this design. You can get the studs here.

Aussie Nails Monday - Inspired by clothing

Just a quick post today, my nails for Aussie Nails monday. This week the theme was inspired by clothing. 

I was inspired by the gradient on this top I bought last year, if only my top was as bright as my nails! Click here for a tutorial for the gradient technique, for this mani I did step 1 to Step 3. 

The colours I used for this mani:

Chin Glaze - Im with the lifeguard (green)

China Glaze - Sunkissed (yellow)

China Glaze - Orange you Hot? (orange)

Barry M - White, as a base colour underneath the gradient.

*All these colours are available and in stock now if you like the look of them.

I used my Sugar Bubbles 005 plate to stamp the lines using Konad Special polish in white. This is one of those images that I would put into the experienced stampers only box. It was incredibly hard to get straight, but the image picked up perfectly and applied like a dream, mostly diagonally but that was user error!

Reverse Gradient for #bestietwinnails

So I decided to jump on the #bestietwinnails bandwagon. This tag is currently doing the rounds on Instagram and I think its a fab idea. Get together with your bestie and have matching manis. I'm lucky enough to run DQN with my bestie and she is always kind enough to let me experiment and try out new techniques on her....the reverse gradient.

Read on for a tutorial for how to do this design.

Julsie's pink reverse gradient.

My St Paddy's Day version.

Now on to the tutorial. Here is what you will need to complete this design.

• Base and Top coat
• white nail polish - Barry M White
• 3 colours from the same hue family. I chose OPI - Skull and Glossbones, Zoya - Bevan and Barry M Gelly - Watermelon
• Striping tape and scissors
• A makeup sponge, or other sponge but I find this kind of sponge is easy to hold and the perfect size and shape for using on nails.

Step 1: Prep your nails with one coat of white polish. This helps to make the colours vibrant and if you are using a sheer polish is vital for ensuring your mani isn't see through. It doesn't need to be perfect, its about to be covered in 4 layers of polish. 

HANDY HINT: Leave a bigger than normal gap between your polish and cuticle. When you are cleaning up you will need to use a small brush to wipe away polish near your cuticle. You don't want the white polish to start showing through, leaving a big gap makes this a lot easier to achieve.

Step 2: Paint 3 layers of your chosen colours onto the sponge. Make the first few strokes really heavy on with the polish to get the sponge primed. Overlap each layer to the colour above and below it to blend the colours. You could use this technique also for a much cleaner blend but it will take a really long time to get through this design. Because there is so many layers to this mani, painting it onto the sponge may give you a "liney" look, but when it's finished there is so much going on that you cant really notice it.

Step 3: Dab the sponge onto paper to remove excess polish before applying to the nail. Apply to the nail dabbing in one direction, from the tip towards the cuticle.

Step 4: Messy! You could apply sticky tape on your skin around the nail to avoid this mess and make clean up easier but I feel awkward with tape on me and its hard to handle the striping tape in the next step. Make sure you cannot see any of the white base you applied, get the sponge down into the nooks and crannies. IMPORTANT: Add a layer of quick dry topcoat now. If you don't do this the striping tape will mess up your design. Wait a good 10 minutes before moving on.

Step 5: Cut up your striping tape. You will need 17 pieces for each hand. Manipulate your striping tape with tweezers, it makes it so much easier than trying to use your fingers.

Step 6: Apply 3 pieces of tape to each nail, spaced evenly apart. Use 5 pieces for your thumb.

Step 7: Repeat step 2 except reverse the order of the colours on your sponge. Repeat step 3. HANDY HINT: After sponging the polish onto the nail remove the striping tape before moving on to the next finger. Removing tape whilst the polish is still wet will give you cleaner lines. I didn't do it here because I wanted to show you what this step looks like in full.

Step 8: Remove all the striping tape and get ready to clean up. I started clean up with cotton buds to remove the bulk of the polish on my skin. Then I moved to using my clean up brush. Apply topcoat again and you are done.

Monochrome Madness meets Dashica stamping

Black, white and grey, a classic combo that never goes out of style. And with Valentines Day just around the corner, I suppose it's time to start hiding a few hearts here and there. Got to LOVE the kitchen sink mani, solves the problem of never being able to decide what to do. Do everything! 

The grey is China Glaze Recycle with China Glaze White on White. The black is OPI Black, I have no idea what its called the sticker fell off ages ago. I stamped with Barry M Silver Foil and used plate Dash8 from the Dashica 20 piece stamping collection. The glitter is an indie polish from All That Glitters called Space Rock.

Here is the set in its entirety and it comes in this amazing little storage purse...cute! You can get the set from here.

The plates are super high quality and stamp exceptionally well and when you think of the cost of individual Konad stamping plates they are great value.