Nail Art: Ombre Stripes

Long time no see! Again! :p

Today I tried something pretty complicated for me since I haven't done any nail art that's needed so much work...and even then, I still made some mistakes :p

I've been liking Ombres these days, so I did a blue and purple ombre using models own Hypergel polishes and a slight layer of gold glitter polish from the ciate Christmas advent calander. I then laid some striping tape in diagonals and then quickly put on some Barry m black polish. 

I liked using the black as it quietens down the brightness of the ombre but still has an element of interest to it. 

Nail Art: Halloween Blood Drip & Pumpkins

This is so late I don't even know if it's worth posting. But I was looking through my blog posts and only notice today that this didn't publish properly when I posted it in the lead up to Halloween -_-

The colourings totally off in both of the photos (was a late night nail art session and I also only have Instagram versions of the photos left on my phone) but I used Barry m Gelly keylime green an maybelline extreme blackcurrant to do some blood drip nails and models own/hed kandi for the pumpkins

Swatched! Barry M Gelly: Prickly Pear

I've been wanting to pick up Prickly Pear for a long time since lilac nails are my one true love, but given that fact, it also means I have a fair few lilacs already. But after a lot of um-ing and ah-ing, I gave in and picked it up. 

I think I put about four coats of this on my nails. The first coat is scarily sheer, however it does build up and I put a fourth coat on as, to be honest, I'd lost count and three coats is my mandatory number so I layered another one on to make sure my OCD was satisfied! 

This is quite a different lilac to say, Essie's lilacism. It has a almost pale blue tinge to it that you can see in certain lights. 

Swatched! Maybelline: Surreal & Berry Stain

I know I've been a bad blogger recently. Well, worse than usual. Think I'm just enjoying the laziness of summer before the chaos that will be my final year in university (AAAHH!). Maybe I do more nail art stuff during term time to procrastinate from uni work? Who knows.

But I think I'll take a look through my WAH nails book and have a go at each design or take a look at some 31 Day Nail Challenge lists to get some inspiration. So hopefully things will get better soon! 

I also have some Boots hauls to do. Most of it has been skin care as I've broken out really badly as of late so I've been waiting a while to see if the stuff I bought actually works (here's hoping!) 

Today I have the other two maybelline polishes that I bought in a 3 for 2 deal. 

Surreal is a lovely blurple that you don't often see done by polish brands. It leans quite blue in the photo but is a bit more purple in real life. If you're a hoarder/collector like myself, this is one to look out for as I haven't seen many colours quite like it. This is three coats with Seche Vite. 

Berry stain is a nice summer evening shade that could also transition into autumn. Unlike Surreal you coil probably get a dupe of this elsewhere but is good for an autumn polish that isn't as campy as a deep berry shade for example. And unlike the name suggests, this didn't actually stain my nails! This is three coats with Seche Vite. 

Matte Polka Dot

Hello folks! I've still been rather uninspired plus I've managed to misplace my nail art brushes so today's pot is ever simple in all honesty. 

For some reason I'd always done Polk dots in black or white on top of a coloured base, but I'd never thought to do the dots in a darker version of the base. Silly me! Then I thought it'd look nice with a slick of matte topcoat on top. 

For this post I used Essie Lilacism  and Sinful Colours Amethyst. 

I've noticed that the photos I've been posting are ridiculously blurry even though they look decent quality when on my phone. I'm not sure if it's because I used an app to add a watermark and the app messes with the quality or it it's the blogger app I'm using :/ is anyone else having this problem?! It looks normal quality when I'm writing the post though D: 

The Day I Sucked At Tribal...

Hello nail friends!

Finally have a semi complicated design to post today!I spent the weekend catching up on notes and only had a 9-10 lecture today, which meant I had time to do my nails properly :) And do the washing and tidy and cook dinner for Mr Laquerised and his flatmate (homemade burgers with wedges to be exact!)

So, after stressing about getting all that done (I got back late after surprisingly), I sat down and done a 3 colour ombre, with 3 polishes from Julie G's first collection for Jessie's Girl ( not sure hwat her 2nd collection is called!). If you're not familiar with Julie G, she's a lovely beauty youtuber who's also quite good with nail designs too, so go check her out when you have a chance :) The 3 colours I used from the collection where Girls Night Out (lovely mid toned creme blue), Fashion Friday (blue-ish toned creme mid-purple) and Cupcake Frosting (a bright creme barbie-ish pink). I used these colours, to sponge an ombre/gradient on top of a base of white. The polishes where sheer at first but 3 coatings later, and it was all good :)

I then attempted a tribal design. Which was NOT good. Despite being a fan of the aztec trend, my mind drew a complete blank on as to what to draw...hence why they're in no way good XD Plus I managed to sponge off a few patches of white (impatient Carol is impatient) so the sponging didn't get as opaque as it should've :( And then I got to my left hand...I let out a deep sigh and knew that I had to face the inevitable end of it being an utter vomit inducing mess thanks to not being ambidextrous :p

I kind of wished I just left it at the ombre, but I like the idea of having a black print over an ombre...maybe a 2nd go is needed after this :/

Japanese Dotty Design

During a quick...if 3 hours is called quick hehe...break from studying, I felt the need to change my nails (I'd had Barry M gold foil with OPI Super Bass Shatter after the text nails, but forgot to take photos)

Although I have tonnes of gems, pearls, sequins etc, I haven't actually used them much so thought I'd do some Japanese-esque nails. However, I realised that a) they're rather impractical and b) I don't have the balls to wear such loud and in your face nails, so thought I'd do some gem/pearl/bullion designs on my accent nails to tone it down a bit :p

Sorry for the poopy photo and the poopy post lacking details and probablt decent grammar, but got to get back to the books >_<

Change of blog name, Matte Crackle Clash & Rainbow Connection Ring

Happy 2012 folks, hope you've all settled after plenty of food and drink over Christmas and New Year! And hopefully you will have has a less windy time than the UK, blowy times have had public transport cancelled and motorways have even been shut off :( I recently changed my blog name from Fizzy Vimto Nails to Laquerised. Think I was worried in case Vimto would've been on my case for copyright :p Not sure if there's anyone else out there with Laquerised as their name as well, so please let me know if you find someone, don't want to get into trouble!

Anyhoos, I haven't got much of an interesting manicure today, just some Barry M purple crackle over W7 teal and mattified with some gosh. I didn't realise till afterwards that the colours were a bit too dark to see the contrast :/ I also need to work on my hand position a bit better, I've finally got into the habit of taking photos of my nails against a white background so there's nothing too distracting and the colours pop a bit better...Hopefully learn some techniques from other bloogers out there, if you have any suggestions, then feel free :)

Teal: W7, Teal

Crackle: Barry M, Purple Rain

Matte Topcaoat: GOSH, Matt Effect

This is my first W7 polish, in fact I'd never even heard of the brand before, but it was on sale in New Look for £1.50, and I saw it when I was exchanging some clothes, so thought I'd pick it up since I don't own a teal polish and it was a bargain for a standard sized bottle. The Barry M crackle was one I'd been wanting for a while and a lovely friend of mine's gave it to me for Christmas! It's a lovely dark purple with a slight hint of shimmer to it. Not sure if it's limited edition or not, but it's one to pick up and have in your collection! I also think it cracks better than the black one, don't know if Barry M have changed their formula since they've released more colours, but it's a definite improvement :)

Another present that I particularly loved was a nail polish ring from Etsy made from OPI's Rainbow Connection form The Muppet Collection.

Nail polish jewellery is still new concept to me, but it's just various form of jewellery with nail polish embedded in the stone somehow. I think it's a great idea, especially if it's a polish you can't get your hands on because of it not being sold in your country, or if it's a polish that's sold out (like Rainbow Connection!) I 

Please excuse my chipped mattified Facets of Fuchia -_-

I'm not sure how much this cost as Mr Laquerised got me this, but a quick look at other nail polish jewellery on Etsy shows they're only a few dollars per piece depending where you buy from and postage isn't much more either. Who'd have known I'd have been able to join my love fro jewellery and polish together!

So that's pretty much it really, I have a few nail ideas jotted down in my notebook, so hopefully I'll get started on some more interesting manicures! :)

Keep Safe!

Autumn tree flower things...

I love a bit of Barry M. They're affordable, and come in a tonne of colours and glitters. Although their names don't tend to be properly descriptive of the colour in the bottle, they're great nonetheless. the majority of Barry M's I own have a great formula, with only one or 2 being annoyingly too sheer.

So, my friend had text me a 20% off discount code for their website and I took full advantage to say the least. Once they arrive, I wanted to do a new nail design incorporating a few of them (I got a wide range, from citrus colours, to glitters and autumn colours so I couldn't really use them all for the one design lol).

I had seen a youtube tutorial for cheery blossom trees so decided to try my hand at the same design. however I went a bit crazy on the dotting, so they weren't quite as bare and empty as cherry blossoms usully are, but it was still a nice design in the end :)

Out of rubbish comes a gem!

I remember doing my nails quite late one night and I had a 9am start the next day. It had been a rather poopy day, and already had a headache before the nail polish/acetone fumes even reached me so I wasn't in the best of moods to do my nails. But my previous nails had been chipping, and I have a habit of peeling my nail polish once it chips...it's already destroyed, so I see no harm in making it worse :p And I've gotten to the point where I cannot stand my bare nails. And they're now pretty stained ¬_¬

So looking at my stash of gems and polish I ended up doing this...flower?...ish thing. I hadn't had a previous idea of what to do, so I was basically winging this idea. And I did not like it. I liked the base colour (Collecion 2000, Parma Violets, if I believe so) Dunno, it didn't seem interesting enough...a bit plain. Maybe I've been brainwashed by my previous designs...but I wasn't in any particular mood for a plain and simple design, ironic considering my mood :P

So i was sitting pondering what design looks rather fancy yet simple, and the infamous drips came into mind, and form there came layering and matte effect! I grabbed a light and dark colour and a white and began my design, and here's what came out of it...

Once I finished I realised there wasn't an accent nail, so I grabbed a blue and silver glitter polish and attacked my ring finger. I love a bit of matte polish, and I ended up really liking these nails :)

When polish block hits....

I apologise profusely for these nails...I hated them once I finished them :( I was in Edinbrugh at my Mr's mum and dad's so I had a limited collection of polish with me, and I also had a bit of polish block.

This did not turn out the way I wanted it to...AT ALL. I wanted to make a nice, swirly design, but the brush I used was too thick, so it's jus ended up a bit blocky and clumsy, rather than delicate and floral-esque :(

Pick 'n' Mix

I often get in moods where I can't choose what design to do, my mind just seems to randomly get filled with all these crazy ideas, but I feel like I don't have enough time (or nail polish remover) to do them all (which reminds me, I need to get a little notebook to jot down my ideas and not use my uni notebook...)

So, I decided to do each and every finger a different design. Why not? there's no rules as to say that you have to do both hands\each finger the same...some rules are meant to be broken ;)

Right Hand

Thumb: cloudy sky with birdies

Forefinger: hexagonal glitter (kiiiiind of tried to make it look like fish scaled. But failed :p Also, the purple ink ran off as soon as I put top coat on D: )

Middle finger: pastel strawberry

Ring finger: iconic smiley face

Pinky: cow print

Left Hand

Thumb: lilac with purple crackle

Forefinger: polka dots with fruit fimos (the nail polish is called Fruit Salad!)

Middle: midnight blue with blue glitter

Ring finger: rhinestone mentalness! :D

Pinky: Minnie Mouse inspired with rhinestone bow

I had quite a bit of fun with this "manicure" (i dont feel right calling it a proper manicure, as I've yet to get into the habit of doing my cuticles and such hehe). It was a bit hectic as I hadn't planned beforehand what to do, so i was to-ing and fro-ing from my bed to my nail polish box.

But I did get a lot of ooohs and aaahs from my friends :3

Metallic Faded-ness

I'd seen a tutorial on youtube on how to do tie dye/acid wash denim effect nails, and I really liked the idea of them. However, I was at my boyfriend's house at the time I needed to do my nails, and I was stuck with this metallic colour and a shimmery purple. 

I wasn't sure if the colours would've complemented each other but the final effect turned out quite well :)

What you do i apply 2 coats of a base colour, and then 2 coats of another colour on top. Once all the layer have dried, take a cotton bud dipped in nail varnish remover, and gently rub onto your nails to take off patches of your top colour. Continue rubbing until you see your desired effect :)

Polish block

I must admit, once in a while I get polish block and I can't think of anything interesting to do...hence how this design was born. I felt like doing something with rhinestones but wasn't sure what to do :/ i was also torn between using a dark midnight blue or a purple (my favourite colour). So....I ended up with this...I decided to alternate between the colours of stones to try and make it a bit different.

P.s I apologise profusely for the complete lack of clean up...

Purple Swirl

This was my 2nd attempt at non-water marbling, but this time I used a fan brush I got with my nail brush set. I never really understood what it was for, so I thought I'd put it to good use :P

I used the same mehod as before, used a base, and blobbed on the colours, and then swirled them together with a brush. The final effect was a bit more defined than when I did it with a dotting tool. 

I thought I'd define some of the swirls with some rhinestones, but I don't think it looked quite right in the end.