Hi Goddesses
Wow this week's passing fast! I hope you're enjoying all the DD posts this week AND that you've checked out our new members.
Today is needle drag, a technique that I adore. It's a technique that looks so simple and effortless when I see other people do it (Sveta Sanders, I'm looking at you), but comes out looking like it was done by a challenged chimp when I try. I used a beautiful Indigo Bananas combo - Sequins of Events (the rose gold holo) and Break The Wheel.
I don't know if I'm too heavy handed or what, but I wanted to try again after I saw Cathy - that's new to DD Cathy - do this fab needle drag for the 40 Great Nail Art Ideas challenge. She even did a little video to persuade me it was easy. Nah.
So again .... semi fail. I feel I've learnt to do the stripe of polish down the middle better, but I still can't get the flow that these other bloggers get. If you look closely, yup, still got groove marks on this one.
Ok, I'm off to our DD cave to ask Cathy for advice :)
Hi Goddesses
Today I am going to back to a "messy" style of nail art - waterspotting. I love messy patterns because there is no right or wrong, so you can never be too critical of them!
I tried waterspotting a couple of times last year, and for the most part failed miserably because I didn't have "enough" alcohol - the only thing I could get to disperse the polish was a tester bottle of Jo Malone perfume - a TAD expensive, plus I smelt like a tart all week from the amount I had to use!
Sooooo .... 70% alcohol is no good, you need the 99.9% version and thank you Amazon, that's now what I have, in a lovely squirty bottle.
That said, this isn't a total success. The polish I wanted to use wouldn't disperse (it had too much glitter in it, even though they were super fine particles), and when I eventually used Essie No Place Like Chrome, it was a bit hit and miss how it spread in the water. Stick to cremes I think.
The glorious base here is Veronika, by Literary Lacquers, which I was sent for review.
Hi Goddesses
Today I have a totally new technique for me, but one I have seen other bloggers use quite successfully.
For over a year, there's been fanfare over what you can do nail art-wise with a Sharpie pen. I have to say, I've struggled though. I've found the pen has either grooved through my polish, or refused to make a permanent line over my shiny polish.
Another technique I'd seen was using Sharpies on a sponge, squirting them with alcohol and then applying the sponge to the nail, to create a gradient. I mainly saw this on Beaching Nails, and she managed to get some awesome blends.
Mine is not so awesome lol, but it DOES look different to a nail polish gradient, and has a glassy quality I really loved. I found I had to press the sponge REALLY hard though to transfer the colours. Can you guess what happened with the thumb? Yep, base polish not quite dry enough (I did this over an off-white base).
Do I like it enough to try again? Definitely, but I think I'm going to need to head back to YouTube to get this one mastered.
Hi Goddesses
And welcome to the first Digit-al Dozen challenge of 2016. As befits the New Year, we thought we'd go with a challenge that saw us trying NEW techniques, or IMPROVING on techniques we'd tried in the past. Oh, and you must check out the links at the bottom of the post as we have 5 NEW MEMBERS - purely to fit the theme lol. Not.
Today I have a tape mani. I admit, I'm lazy with my nail art. Left to my own devices, I circle back to the same things time and time again - dots, splodging, gradients, stamping. Tape manis, whilst I love them, tend to fall off my list because they take longer, and I'm an impatient little Crumpet.
My mani was inspired by a DD mani that Shelly did a couple of months ago. Beautiful layered zig zags. 5 rows / colours. I lack logic, and the "how to" of this escaped me, but Shelly also did a brilliant tutorial, so I decided to give it a go.
Polishes used -
* Essie - No Place Like Chrome
* Lilypad Lacquer - A Balt Out of the Blue
* Darling Diva - Nightbird
* Sation - Oh My Oceania
* Sally Hansen - Gray By Gray
See you tomorrow!
Hi Goddesses
I hope you've had an amazing festive period and New Year. We're back, in the Crumpet's Nail Tarts with the 40 Great Nail Art Ideas challenge, and the pattern half of the challenge is back!
This week's theme is pale blue base - and for my base I chose the gorgeous Elderberry by Barry M. It's not just a beautiful pale blue, it's dusty and creamy, not white-based, and I adore it.
I then sprinkled some magic over it - Earth, Wind and Fire by Indigo Bananas. This is a crazy amazing flakie of pastel deliciousness - and it looked even more awesome in real life than it does in these photos. Seriously, if you haven't got this yet, I recommend you grab it - it's totally unlike any other flakie I've got - AND it has holo dust in it.
My pattern prompt was circles and I got stampy. I also saw it as a perfect excuse to use my new a-England Spirit of the Moors, a stunning cobalt holo. Usually, a-Englands stamp brilliantly, but this didn't turn out as stellar as I hoped. I think it's because the pattern is thinly etched. I just wanted this to be BOLDER.
But seriously, that flakie .....
