'Ard As Nails - Blaze

I recently discovered Ard As Nails on Google+, so I started looking around for reviews and selected a couple of nail polishes that I wanted to try. Ard As Nails is an Indie (Handmade) Nail Varnish range created by the makers of Soap-Dodger. Their nail polishes are all 5 free, cruelty free and Vegan friendly.

I started chatting to Kat the woman behind it all, and I instantly fell in love with her. Her passion shines through her work, and customer service. So when I finally got my order placed I was very excited to try them out.

Today I have for you Ard As Nails - Blaze, a polish in The Medal Collection.
At the time of writing it is currently not available in the shop.

'Ard As Nails - The Medal Collection - Blaze

'Ard As Nails - The Medal Collection - Blaze

Shown on the pictures are three coats of polish, you could get away with two coats, but I am terrible afraid of VNL (Visible Nail Lines), so I added a third coat to be safe. The first picture shows the polish in natural light, there is a subtle holographic shine to it. When placing my hand in the lightbox with artificial light you can see the holoness a lot better, direct sunlight does that same.

I really like this bronze shade, and love the added holoness to it, I think it makes it stand out from other polishes and makes it unique. Exactly what I was looking for. Uniqueness.

My collection of nail polish is just passing the 500 mark, and the last thing I want is to clip on another swatching stick of a polish looking the same as the others I have.

I wanted to do some nail art with this, and ended up placing some tape on my nails and sponge over using Cirque - Josephine. Cirque - Josephine is a gorgeous dark green holographic polish and I just love how those two look paired together.
Makes me wish I had tried to stamp or sponge a gradient with Cirque - Josephine instead.

'Ard As Nails - The Medal Collection - Blaze with Cirque - Josephine

I tried to change up how the crosses looks on my nails, almost like tiny presents waiting to be opened.

If you want to find out more about 'Ard As Nails, you can head over to Ard As Nails Facebook Page, or their shop Soap Dodger .


Feeling ready for Christmas just yet? I am almost done with all the presents, and the city is already filled with Christmas lights.

Inspired by Fashion - Rag & Bone

I have been wanting to do some nail art inspired by Fashion for a while, but I wasn't quite sure what it should be of. When I saw the new collection from Rag & Bone, I knew what I wanted to do.

Marcus Tondo / Indigitalimages.com

First, I would never wear this myself, but I like the artistic expression in this outfit. The black crop top to the slightly pinkish boyfriend blazer with crop jeans in white. There is something about the cropped look of it all. 

For this look I used Bundlemonster plate - BM303 as an accent, stamping with Ciate - Speed Dial, Sinful Color - Snow Me White, Wet & Wild - Black, and NYX - Matte - Baby Pink.

It's been aaaages since last time I used Bundlemonster plates. I have been so caught up in my Cheeky plates lately. I suppose that's how it is, when we buy new plates all the time. 

Hey ho, that's life. Bundlemonster, you are not forgotten.

I know the pink is not quite right, I first tried mixing a soft pink with acrylics, but it didn't turn out very well. So I had to go with the polish for the finished look.

What do you think, want to see more "inspired by Fashion"-manicures?

Tri-polish colour blocking

Let's rock

some

colour-block!

For this manicure I used three polishes: Essie - Navigate Her, Essie - Mojito Madness (this was my go-to polish last summer), and China Glaze - Exotic Encounters. For the accent I used both a green and a black striper, rest of them only has the black striper. The original has a matte surface, but I decided to stay bright and happy with this.

I was inspired to do this after seeing a picture of a manicure featured in Teen Vogue, made by Madeline Poole from mpnails.com. See original post here. 

Back to my creation.

First I applied Essie - Navigate Her, to cover completely it took two coats.

Essie - Navigate Her

I then added tape on the lower half of the nail and used China Glaze - Exotic Encounter on the top part. 

The weather has not been the best for taking pictures, but I did my best with these. 

For the third step I took a large dotting tool, and added Essie - Mojito Madness on one side. Lastly I made an accent on the ring finger using an emerald green striping polish, and "framed" Essie - Mojito Madness, and then "framed" that again using a black striper. For the rest of the nails I only "framed" using the black striper.

Taken the day after. 

Mint Manis For Talia Joy

I found the most minty polish I had in my stash, which is For Audrey by China Glaze. For this look I also added a matching ring that I made using CG - For Audrey and A England - Morgan La Fey, and some striping tape.

The beauty community lost one of it's most treasured members on Tuesday morning.
NailPolishWar on Facebook 

Words become poor when we are talking about loss of a human being, and Talia was such a huge inspiration for so many people. First time I heard about her was on Ellens Show, she was so full of life, and energetic. My grandmother call those kind of people for angels:

Angels shine on us with their light and bless us with their presence for a while, until they have to go back to heaven.

Thanks to NailPolishWar for coordinating all of this, what a great way of coming together and show our support and respect to her family.

"You can't change yesterday, you can't predict tomorrow. Live now and don't take it for granted!"
Talia Joy on Twitter

Hashtags on FB:

‪#‎MintManisForTaliaJoy 

 ‬‪#‎taliaslegacy‬

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

I'm a bit late with posting this one, 3 hours according to UK-times. Sorry for that, but here it is.
It's the Cheeky Girls Challenge with Lacquer or Leave Her!

I have been in the philosophical corner lately. Ended up, at random, debating Descartes with a man I hardly know, whilst on my travels in Edinburgh , Scotland, previously this week. Hench the title of the post.
What do you think about the classical philosophical question? Give me your thoughts in the comments below.

It's time for CH50!!
I wanted to play this image up a little. Do something special.

How about doing a nail art using just one color family? That sounds like fun, right?
I pondered on this, long and hard. My big box o greens was pulled out, and I looked them over. Trying to figure which to match, how many, what shades to use...
Ended up with Essie - Mojito Madness, Essie - Navigate Her, and L.A. Color - Current.
After debating order, we all agreed on using L.A Color - Current as a base color.

I also did an accent using Essie - Mojito Madness over L.A. Color - Current, while I used Essie - Navigate Her, on the other nails. Stamped with the opposite color.

It needed 2-3 coats to be this even.

Adding some striping tape, to Jazz it up.

Going eco friendly. 

Want to see what out lovely Mishka over at Lacquer or Leave Her! has done with this image? Head over, and follow this link!

IsaDora - Silk Road

There's been a lot of green and sparkly nail polishes lately, and this one is no exception.
I present to you, Silk Road from IsaDora.
Silk Road  is a part of the autumn collection; Jewel of the Orient. Last week I showed you Oasis, from the same collection. I also bought Polar Nights.


I wore it alone for a day, then I added striper tape, but mid day the ends had lifted just a little bit, so I added some silver between the tape, and pulled them away.
So it will be 2 nail arts in one post!!

I Love Polish

As if that was a surprise.

Back in town, and back into blogging.
I start this year with a Challenge me and Mishka started last year. The Cheeky Girl Challenge.
Here we take 1 plate, 1 image, each Friday, and make a manicure out of it.
Giving you ideas on what to use all the plates for, and to challenge us to actually try something new, and  not just use a few of the images in a set, but to use them ALL.

This Friday is CH *stops mid typing looking around for her plates*
CH40, we choose the tiny image to the bottom right with "I <3 polish".

I choose something suitable girly for this and used three pinks.

1 coat of Candy Girl - Misa

Added some striping tape and Orly - Preamp over.
Removed the tape and stamped using Barry M - Fuschia.

To see what Mishka did with the image, head over here. 

MSMD - Gradient sponging over nail striping tape mani II

As you might remember I did a Gradient sponging over nail striping tape mani on last monday for the MSMD (Monkey see Monkey do). I loved it so much and wanted to try it out with another set of colors.

Huge thanks to Lacquer or Leave Her for introducing this mani, on her MSMD, a few weeks ago.
If it wasn't for you, I would never have stumbled over this design.
(I wanted to post this mani as soon as she got up, but I haven't seen her yet, so I am just going to do it now. I don't like scheduling posts..)

I finished this mani just around midnight, so I didnt get a chance to take a picture right away, so there will be some wear on it.

MSMD - Gradient sponging over nail striping tape mani

So this MSMD is actually the fourth in the chain! How cool is that (!?).
I was inspired by Michelle from Laquer or Leave Her!   last monday she did this mani, featuring Misa Fountain Of Youth and Barielle Positive Zen-ergy. Her mani was inspired by Polish Crazed, and her MSMD, on the manicure made by nailXchange, and her Gradient sponging over nail striping tape mani. 
Phuu that`s a lot of polish!

Chocolate Candies - manicure

This manicure I created last night. 

Hubby called these nails for Chocolate Candy. And so, that was what the post, and mani was going to be called. I didn't have an idea when I started, I just wanted to try some striping tape. 

I choose a striping tape that was metallic, with shimmer in it. After a days wear the metallic finish is gone, but it still has some golden shimmer in it left, and it had the look of sun-faded-red. Kinda lifeless. Urgh. Going to try another topcoat next time, Out The Door, didn't do the job. 

I started out with two coats of Clogs from FNUG. 

Clogs is a plum shade leaning towards dark brown. In some lightsettings it looks more plum, than others. I will try to do a swatch of it, to see if I can capture it.

I`m glad I`m planning on redoing my nails today anyway. 

Summer Challenge/MSMD Pink n Purple

Oh Its a Summer Challenge, no, its a MSMD!. WoW, its BOTH!

Todays MSMD is taken from Lucy`s Stash.  She did a striping tape nail art manicure with SpaRitual Imaginarium and Illume. Today is also Summer Challenge - Pink and purple, very fitting.

Lucy`s Stash - Striping tape nail art manicure with SpaRitual Imaginarium and Illume.

 I dont have any of those colours, so I had to be creative. I decided to use my new Tropicalia from WnW, and Lilac Lace from Max Factor.

My first time using striping tape like this, so its a bit muddied at the tips. But I had fun doing it.

Summer Challenge - Jungle mani

So today we are doing jungle mani`s, and I wasn't sure what to do, but I received a  package today with some striping tape and I knew I had to use that.
When I think of jungles, I think of lush green colors, this is what I came up with.
For this mani I used black striping tape, Loreal - 612 Green Couture (tips), and Sinful Colors - Irish Green.

Can I call it a jungle mani?



Check out the other girls nail art for today.

Debbie @ The Crumpet - http://thecrumpet.blogspot.co.uk/

Neivys - http://maquiclubgirl.blogspot.com/

Jo @ Northern Nails - http://therockchicksrambles.blogspot.co.uk/

arlene @ http://euzefelus27-nailart.blogspot.com/

Helena - http://nailwish.blogspot.com.es/

Cuti-CLUE-les - http://cuti-clue-les.blogspot.com/

Katee - http://www.agirlandherpolish.com 

Alyssa at Fancy Phalanges - http://fancyphalanges.blogspot.com/

Sarah - http://www.ynails.blogspot.co.uk/

bec - http://lacquerdreams.blogspot.com.au/

Misha - www.enigmatic-rambles.blogspot.com

Sharon - http://whatcolorismycoat.blogspot.com/

Melissa - http://www.misadventuresofawannabemartha.com/

Laurie http://dressedupdigits.blogspot.com/

Lucie @ Lucy's Stash www.lucysstash.com

Emma @  http://manicurity.blogspot.com/

Caitlin - www.caitlinscreativecorner.blogspot.com

Jane- http://absolutevarnish.blogspot.com/

Amber www.nevernakednails.blogspot.com

Vic @ Glowstars http://glowstars.net 

Jackie- http://memasmanis-jackie.blogspot.com/

Rychelle @ Colorsplash Nails- http://colorsplashnails.blogspot.com/

Stella - http://mywetnails.blogspot.com/

Missy @ http://missysmanis.blogspot.co.uk/

Kim @ http://apolishedaddiction.blogspot.com/

Christine @ http://lost-in-my-reverie.blogspot.com

Angie @ http://ourpaintedworld.wordpress.com

Bazzia @  http://polishmymind.blogspot.se/

Missy the Manicured Maniac @ http://melissahenderson95.blogspot.com/

Michelle @ http://lacquerorleaveher.blogspot.com/

Nikki @ http://www.lilgreenheart.blogspot.com/

Elizabeth @ http://nailpolishismycrack.blogspot.com/

Ana Cris @ http://www.estacerradaladrogueria.blogspot.com.es/

Shayleen @ http://simplyhandyallyear.blogspot.com/ 

Dina @ http://secretarysnailart.blogspot.no/

Nayade @ Toxic Vanity http://www.toxicvanity.com 

Karen @ http://nailsbykaybel.blogspot.com