Hi Goddesses
As you know, as a blogger, I often receive products to review. What I choose to review is usually about a third of what I am offered, because all I am interested in (and all I assume YOU are interested in) is nail art and nail polish.
For that reason, I turn down cosmetics, hair products, sunglasses, fashion, ipad covers, sunglasses again, nail wraps (cos I suck at those), sunglasses AGAIN ..... but JORD, well, they broke me.
So why am I reviewing a wooden watch? Well along with my obsession for polish, stationery and handbags, I am obsessed with watches. Large chunky ones. I can chart the phases of my life by the watches I wore. But the one I remember the most, and have the most nostalgia for, is a Tissot wood watch I owned about 20 years ago. It was soooo unique - until the strap fell off and couldn't be replaced - and I have never seen anything like it. Until now.
So, because I desperately wanted a wood watch again, I caved, and when they said I could also give one away to my readers, I figured that soothed my soul a little :) However, I don't think for a second that I expected to receive such a quality product.
I chose the Sully watch in Natural Green. It has the feel of a hand-crafted product, and it's beautiful. Most of the watches are unisex, and as I have ENORMOUS paws, that means this watch fits me - yay!
I most love the bracelet - the crafting here blows me away - and free product or no free product, I love it, have worn it with love and pride, and everyone who has seen it has been blown away too.
I thought I'd do some nail art to go with it, to justify it being on a nail art blog lol, and went for some wooden nails. I started with a yellowy base to reflect the warmth of my watch's dial, and then splodged various taupes and browns on top to get a more varied look.
I then stamped using MoYou Pro 05. It wasn't until I got it on my nails that it occurred to me that this is maybe a peacock pattern, not wood, but I think it still works. Yes?
Aftewards, it looked a bit too neat, so I distressed it a little with some acetone and a cotton bud - a tiny detail that made a lot of difference - and finally some matte top coat.
I'm quite pleased with the overall result, and the matte top coat really made them look like wooden nail wraps.
So, now your chance to win! You can check out the full range of Jord watches HERE and take a look at the gallery below -
Finally, here's the Giveaway - it will run until Sunday the 20th July when I will announce the winner. It's open internationally - good luck!
Hi Goddesses
Today's journey back in time is to November, when I was swatching some of the OPI Mariah Carey Christmas reds.
The base is the beautiful All I Want For Christmas Is OPI, and the giraffe stamp is from a MoYou plate - Pro 05.
I quite like the simplicity of this - a great colour and a great pattern, it really doesn't have to be more complicated than that to look great on your paw.
I think this got vaulted because of NubbinGate on ring finger lol and the wonkiness of the thumb stamping - I think I'd just cleaned the stamping plate and not left it to dry enough. Doh!
Hi Goddesses
As with so much of this #33DC
a) today's post is late
b) it features Lilypad Lacquer - 3 of em, to be precise
and c) it features another MoYou London awesome stamping plate!
How much do I love Lilypad Lacquer? A lot. Not only has Nicole made me want to buy green, it's probably the only brand where I *could* make a green gradient!
I have 3 greens on show here, not that you'd notice. My Enchantmint is lovely and subtle, and Emerald City is like black Irish. In the middle, we have Global Greenie, which is gorgeous in its own right, but struggles to stand its ground against Emerald City.
They were then stamped with this great pattern from MoYou Pro Collection 05 - a beautifully detailed leafy pattern. I stamped using an unknown Konad I got in a kit which is a super dark olive, and just worked perfectly.
I love the wide open spaces in this pattern, and how they allow the polishes to shine through.
Don't forget to checkout all the other #33DC girlies xx
Hi Goddesses
Ah, today .... today I had such high hopes and instead I present you a pile of shit. I apologise. This mani is not what I want it to be, but I am hoping you'll learn loads from where I went wrong!
So, for aaaaaaages I have wanted to do stamping decals and this prompt was the chance to take the plunge. As you'll see, LOTS went less than perfectly with my attempt, and the reason I am sharing it is that NO ONE does a tutorial for the first time and nails it. NO ONE. If they say they did, they're lying, or they did corrective work.
Instead, I'm banking on the fact that one of my readers will ALSO want to try this technique, and I don't want you to feel it's YOU, when you try it for the first time and it's not perfect. I want to show you that we ALL have to practice - don't get disheartened, it's an essential part of the process.
So, I have all Mentality polishes on the go here - Allure, Enlighten, Allure and Charm. 2 are mattes, and 2 are holos.
First of all, I painted a top coat on my plastic bag, and did my stamping - I chose this awesome pattern from MoYou Pro Collection 05.
Then I started colouring in my pattern using a thin dotting tool. This was my first mistake - I think a thin brush would have been better. It's ok to go over the lines too, because you're going to flip the pattern before you put it on the nail (unless you're me, and you forget - can you spot which 2 nails I forgot to flip?)
I was going for a stained glass window effect so didn't colour all my panels in. After I had the colouring I wanted, I applied another coat of top coat and let it dry. Once it's super dry, you peel it off, and cut it to shape (yeh, I'm not very good at that bit, that's why I suck with nail wraps).
I applied white polish to my nails, then top coat. Whilst the TC was wet, I applied my decal on top, and then added another coat of TC as my "glue". I prodded it all down with an orange stick and ....
Ugh. Messy. Smudgy. Back to front. Less than perfect. Not coloured in perfectly. GAH!!!
But next time will be better :)
