The Digit-al Dozen DOES Rainbows - Literally

Hi Goddesses

This is my final mani of DD week. I did have a full week of ideas, but heading back to work early put severe stresses on my time.

For this mani, I wanted to use a fan brush to swipe a rainbow across my nails.  It's a technique I've used before and love because all the polishes moosh together, and if you use a holo in there, it creates magical things.

As you know, all week I wanted to use the same polishes, so this mani was done using just cremes and .... I couldn't get it quite right.  I LOVE the thumb, love love love, but couldn't get it to replicate on the other nails.  

The main reason for this is that after a while (2 nails) your fan brush becomes overloaded.  But when you wipe it, it separates, and goes from being a fan brush to a 9 clawed animal, and so you can't get the spread and the moosh you're after.

Luckily, I had a spare, which is the only reason I managed to get the different colours you see on the index nail.  Yep, I actually redid nails for this mani.

I tried it matte, but felt this made it look more like parrot feathers, and eventually settled on matte with glossy raindrops.  What I should have done was chop my other fingers off so that all you could see was the thumb lol .... 

See you soon xx

An InLinkz Link-up

Digit-al Dozen DOES Rainbows - Rainbow Ribbons

Hi Goddesses

Welcome to Digit-al Dozen Week !!  We're on RAINBOWS this month, which is just such a gorgeous theme to play with.  You don't have to go wild to be effective, and all of this week's designs are oh so simple.

For this week, this is my rainbow, all by Barry M.

I had been wearing some shiny gold nail wraps which seemed festive to me, and I had an urge to paint streamers over them.

I used a fairly small nail brush and did short shaggy strokes.  Overall I really like the effect, but wish I'd planned out my colour combos better!

Don't forget to check out what my fellow lovelies are up to.

An InLinkz Link-up

Digit-al Dozen DOES Nail Heroes - Chalkboard Nails and Barry M

Hi Goddesses

Today marks the start of a wonderful week on the Digit-al Dozen - Nail Heroes.  It's a chance to honour the people who have inspired us, influenced us, and who we just wouldn't be the same without.

I'm starting my week with one of the bloggers who influenced me the most, Sarah of Chalkboard Nails.  Sarah started her blog at a similar time to mine, and I watched, green with envy as she shot into the stratosphere with a skill and simplicity I just couldn't match.

What I loved most about Sarah's blog has how every now and then she'd create a facepalm moment.  A nail design of such epic simplicity that I'd scream "why didn't I think of that!".   And The Ruffle was just such a moment.

The Ruffle uses a dotting tool to create rows of dots which then overlap.  When Sarah first did this, she did it in crazy colours and called it The Carmen Miranda because it looked like a great big chintzy skirt.  I've done this method sooooo many times.  It's simple, quick, and ALWAYS looks great, whatever the colour combo.

For my polishes, I used Barry M.  Barry is the biggest and best High Street brand in the UK, and reasonably priced, and for 2 years I was supremely proud to be one of their official bloggers.  The way they dumped me still stings a little, so I don't quite have the fervent devotion I used to have, but the fact remains, if you're looking to build a collection of good colours at a reasonable price, you won't go wrong with Barry M.

Don't forget to check out everyone else's link.

An InLinkz Link-up

The Barry M Autumn Collections - Questions and Answers

Hi Goddesses

Today's post is a little mish mash of everything - random questions I have been asked about the polishes, and things I thought you would like to know.

Q1 - How do the matte polishes look glossy?

Answer - lovely!  Above, you can see Mocha.  These look great glossied up (I used Poshe).

Q2 - How do the textures look glossy?

Answer - again, lovely, but some colours work better than others.  My favourite was how Countess looked like fireworks.

Q3 - Do the mattes stamp?

Answer - yes they do!   Here, I stamped over Lady with Espresso.  Easy to use, clear image, good consistency.  

On the middle finger, you can see how it compares with Konad Black (which is the king of them all).  I would say the mattes stamp as well as any non-stamping polish brand.

Q4 - Do the textures come off easily?

Answer - hhhmmmm.   Well, these are glittery textures.   They don't come off as easily as a "just texture" polish, but they are also not as hard to remove as a glitter.  I found that leaving the cotton pad on for a minute was enough for easy removal.

Above you can see how Countess looks as she starts to come off.

Q5 - Can you paint over the textures?

Answer - yes you can!  Ok, excuse the bad photos here, but I was just playing around.  What I wanted to see was whether sponging another polish on top would retain the texture, and it did.   Here I used Berry Cosmo and Princess. Yup, gonna be trying that properly soon.

Q6 - Can you top coat the Mattes?

You've seen above that a normal top coat makes the mattes nice and glossy.  I was intrigued to see what would happen if I used a wax top coat and a matte top coat.  Wax went on the index finger, matte on the ring.

I have to say, neither made a MASSIVE amount of difference.  The middle finger looks darker, so rather than affect the finish, it's more like they affected the colour.

If you think using one of the these top coats will extend the wear time for you, go for it - I honestly don't think you'll be able to tell the difference.

Q7 - How did they wear?

I only tested the wear time on this tape mani I did.  I had this on for 3 days with no chipping.  Usually, I find matte polishes chip super quickly because you don't / can't protect them with a top coat, so I was super impressed with these.

Q8 - Can you stamp over the textures?

Answer - yes you can!  Again, not my best work, but I just wanted to show you how clean the image drop was.

Q9 - Can you mix and match them?

Answer - yes.  Here is Duchess, sponged over Caramel.  The textures are great for glitter gradients.

Phew!  Did that cover everything ?  These polishes were all sent to me for review - enjoy! xx