From The Vault #5: Cinco de Mayo + May Polish Days!

¡Hola amigos! Today, we'll be pausing the challenge, because it's Cinco de Mayo, and because the May Polish Days event is approaching! I'm posting it a bit early, and I think you can see why when you look at this month's theme...

 The number 5!

It might sound obscure, but there are so many possibilities with the number 5!

• We have 5 nails on our swatching hand (the thumb could make a rare appearance for those of us who swatch 4 fingers)
• Chanel No. 5, of course. 
• Adelle was born on the 5th of May
• As was Chris Brown but you'll seriously lose significant brownie points with me if you celebrate that fact
• Cinco de Mayo!
• High-five
• Hi-five the Australian kids entertainers
• Hi-five the RnB group
• The 5 basic tastes are sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami.
• A pentagram has 5 points.
• The swoon-worthy Bruce Willis was in Fifth Element, released in May of 1997.

I could go on, and on but I think you get the idea! You could even just prove that you can count to five on your nails. I will even allow a detour from the number 5 to celebrate Sesame Street.

The number 5? Well, that's just perfect! Today is the 5th of May, this is my fifth "From the Vault" post, and I will even show you all 5 fingers in this manicure. I painted these last Cinco de Mayo, but I hope you can still appreciate them this year!

Corona nails and a Mexican flag (well, kinda)! It's 5 o'clock somewhere? Ohhhhh yes she did fit another 5 in there!

Because you can't have a Corona without a lime.

(please pardon the poor image quality today. These were taken with my old phone.)

The beer nails were painted with China Glaze Champagne Bubbles, a great soft yellow-gold with small silver glitters! The perfect shade to represent a frosty, fizzy Corona. The foam was done with a random white polish and then OPI Don't Touch My Tutu to give the edges that translucent look.

I don't remember the polishes I used to paint the flag... but I know I painted the nail white first, then freehanded the red and green sections on, and finally used a toothpick to dot in a hint of the design in the centre. And then, of course, half a fimo lime for each of the thumbs :D

Hope you enjoyed this post, and if you're out partying today, have a fun and safe Cinco de Mayo!

I'll be back next time continuing the Alphabet Challenge. Before you go, don't forget to check out the other Polish Days entries below! xoxo

April Polish Days: Posh White Luxurious Nails!

Well hello, my loyal subjects ;) Time for this month's Polish Days event! The theme is the Seven Deadly Sins. In the words of "Polly Polish":

Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, Pride. Unless you’re a saint there’s a chance you’re guilty of at least one. I’m leaving this one up to your imagination though, so however you chose to interpret the theme, it’s up to you! Afterall, who am I to judge your sins ;)

I, at first, wanted to do some sexy fishnet sort of nails to illustrate Lust... but then I remembered that 1) a lot of people will probably do that and I want to be different, and 2) I've done several fishnet designs before! I also really wanted to try this design I saw Robin Moses call Snow White Bling on YouTube (yes, "inspired by Robin Moses!") ...AND I've also had the idea to do something inspired by a new perfume I got, that comes in this lush bottle. So without further ado...

Posing with the bottle! I super love this shot! (Click for fullview) :)

How does this fit into the "seven deadly sins"? Well, I suppose it's not direct, but I am really proud of it and it is kind of showy, so it could fit into Pride, right? (Or perhaps lust or envy... because let's face it, you know you want these. Rawr.)

Base for this mani is two coats of Ulta Snow White. Atop that is a coat of Nubar 2010, a great flakie polish that gives it a subtle yet multichromatic shimmer that is a different colour with every lighting and angle situation! (It is similar to Essie Shine of the Times or Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure.)

I then dabbed on a diagonal stripe with Essie Set in Stones, the best silver glitter polish evaaaar. While that was wet, I added a bunch of small 1.5mm silver and 2mm iridescent rhinestones. Fancy! Sealed in with a careful topcoat of Seche Vite for protection and mega-shine.

I feel so posh wearing these. Darling, where is my limo?

Oh and aren't you folks lucky? I actually bothered to clean up my cuticles properly before taking photos. I can be a classy bird now and then...

The iridescence of those larger rhinestones really shows up in sunlight. :)

Hope you enjoyed this post, and that I didn't come off too Pride-ful! Just enough for it to count for the challenge ;) Make sure to check out the other participants' designs below! xoxo

March Polish Days: Vintage!

Hullo there! Time for another episode of Polish Days! This month's theme is Vintage:

Maybe you’re one of those annoyingly lucky people who own some heavenly vintage polishes that you want to crack open (not literally) and make the rest of us jealous, or maybe you too have a soft spot for doilies. Perhaps you’re inspired by a particular decade or trend. As long as there’s some connection to the past it’ll fit right in with this months theme!

As soon as I saw this prompt, I knew just what I wanted to do...

ah, how romantic.

I know this idea isn't entirely original, but it came to mind as soon as I saw the text image on the latest set of Bundle Monster plates. I was disappointed (though not surprised) to see a few girls do nearly identical designs with it earlier in the year, and never made it myself. But I decided that, with apologies to them, it was just perfect for this theme and I was dying to wear this look! So after lots of mental debating, I went for it, and am really happy I did. :)

The base polish is everyone's favourite off-white polish, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. I then used yellow and brown polishes, some acetone, and a small brush to make a muddy, thin wash, which I dabbed around the edges to give it that old-paper look. Next, I stamped the love-text image from the aforementioned Bundle Monster plate BM-311 with Wet N' Wild Black Creme. I intentionally made this a bit messy and not-fully-transferred in some places, again to give the aged and weathered look. Then, I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri #220 Flashy Fuchsia (fuchsia, duh) and Revlon #571 Posh (green) to stamp the rose from Mash plate #36 onto the thumbs and ring fingers, and sealed it in with Seche Vite to protect the stamping. Finally, a coat of Hard Candy Matte-ly In Love topcoat to further enhance the "paper" look.

Here's a photo before the last step, so you can see it shiny. Not much different, but...

Still nice, I think. It feels so classy.

I hope you enjoyed my take on the "vintage" theme. Keep reading below the jump to see the other ladies' (and maybe even a gentleman or two's) entries!

February Polish Days: Mountains & Gradient Sunset Nails

Hiya everyone! Today is the next edition of Polish Days! The theme for February is "inspired by nature"--full prompt is as follows:

I don’t know about you, but with the snow we’re having in Norwich at the moment, I feel a little like mother nature is making all the rules. I love snow, but I’m not too keen when it stands a good chance of stopping me getting to a conference I’ve wanted to go to for three years running. So, whether you’re sweating your bollocks off in the Southern Hemisphere, getting snowed in or just willing spring to return, get inspired by nature for Februarys Polish Days.

One thing I am quite fond of, be it on nails or on canvas, is a gradient-sky look with a stark silhouetted shape in front of it. I've done paintings of this sort before, but not too many manicures. So, partially taking inspiration from this image for the colours, I created this:

Sunset, mountains, and birds. Ahhh... relaxing.

The gradient background was done with three colours: Orly Snowcone (cool sky blue), Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow (the yellow, obviously, and also the base colour I sponged this over), and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed (orange).

I did the mountains and birds with a small brush and some black acrylic paint, then topped it off with two coats of Cult Nails Wicked Fast. (I didn't notice it until I took these photos, but the topcoat smeared the black a bit on my middle and small nails.) :(

Smeary or not, I still really like this one! A few times today I gazed at it and could almost smell fresh mountain air... imagined sitting on a soft blanket atop freshly-mowed grass as the sun goes down, listening to the birds and drinking a nice cold one.

One more pic, because, sunset nails in the sunset light. Oooh, soooo meta.

Thanks for stopping by! Check out the rest of the Polish Days nature-inspired manis below! xoxo

New Year, new mani techniques for Polish Days! Splatter + Border

Hi everyone. Man, I was gone a whole week. I'm sorry! I have had the flu since last Wednesday, and then today some personal things came up that have knocked me off the track again. Might be a while until I'm full-strength again, I hope you all can bear with me. :)

Luckily, doing my nails is a little reprieve from the storms that far too often rock our lives' precious little boats. Plus, it's time for another edition of Polish Days, and I had to put in my contribution as I've had it in mind for so long. The prompt is as follows:

January is all about new starts, resolutions and starting over for most people. Personally I’ve never made a resolution for the new year – I won’t stick to it so why bother!
When it comes to polish though I’m always keen to try something new, so the theme for January is to try something you’ve never done before, pull out an untried polish you just haven’t gotten around to trying, or a technique you’ve been too scared to give a go. It’s not about having the most perfect finish (but props to you if you nail it first time!) maybe it’s just a technique you’ve never blogged about but have been perfecting in secret. Whatever you chose, challenge yourself a little or even try something out of your comfort zone (for me this would be nudes!).

I took this prompt to heart and did things in several new ways--two new polishes *and* two new (to me) techniques!

splatter and border in the same mani? oh no she didn't. (yes, the small finger smeared a little when I topcoated. shhh. you saw nothing.)

The base colour is one of the new polishes--it's Orly Blue Collar, and it's a nice creamy, slightly dusty blue that leans a bit aqua-ish. If I had to compare it to a Crayola crayon, it'd be cerulean.

I thought orange and yellow would be fun contrasting colours on top of that, so I chose OPI A Roll In The Hague (perfect creamy pumpkiny orange, and the second new polish I hadn't tried yet! Another from the gorgeous Holland collection) and Sinful Colors Neon Melon (the neon yellow... for those with no process-of-elimination powers, hehe).

I had not tried these techniques before. The splatter... I love the look, but just didn't want to bother with the mess. Border nails I tend to find terribly ugly. However, the dot-border reminds me of old-fashioned marquee signs or makeup-mirrors, and the splatter wasn't as bad to clean up as I expected, so this was a pleasant surprise all around!

no flash, and kind of awkward pose. But I like the sharp definition of the splatters on this shot. So 80's-esque.

Posing with the bottle, because erm, that's what all the cool bloggers do?

And last, a shot with my phone, because I like how closely it matches the case :D Makes me want to splatter-decorate it... hmmm...

Thanks again to "Polly", the mastermind behind Polish Days, for putting these things together. Always so fun, and I really like how this made me do something new and different. Click the link for the jump below to see the other awesome entries! xoxo

Frosty, Glittery Snowflakes!

Aloha!

Jumping right into today's post. I promised wintery snowflakey designs, and I am a lady of my word. Wasn't hard to do anyway--I LOVE snowflakes! Plus, I've joined the Polish Days massive nail-blog-collaboration that spans the interwebs, and the first event I get to participate in is Bling! I think this fits the theme:

SO PRETTY! And heyyyyy, they kinda match the blog. Winning!

These have done more for getting me into the winter/Christmas spirit than anything else: the decorations everywhere, the Christmas music, even my Christmas-fanatic of a best friend. Snowflakes are just so pretty and delicate! I have snowflake necklaces, earrings, and all sorts of ornaments and decorations. So as soon as I saw plate BM-323 from the newest Bundle Monster plate set, and the snowflake full-nail image, I COULD HARDLY WAIT to use it.

For their grand backdrop, I applied two coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear #37 Blue It. I then used two Essie LuxEffects glitter polishes, Stroke of Brilliance (a dusty light blue) and Set in Stones (bright silver) to create a gradient glittery tip. This was really pretty alone--I think it looks frosty!--and I wore it this way for a day first:

Mmm, rich and shiny.

Outside in sun/natural light. You can see the sort of hidden glow of Blue It as well as the difference in the glitter colours--this showed up way better in natural light. Isn't this just amazingly beautiful?

I then stamped the snowflakes from the aforementioned plate BM-323 and Konad white stamping polish, then topped them off with a nice layer of Seche Vite to protect them, and make it all nice and shiny:

Holy funky skin tone, Batman O_O ignoring my jaundicy fingers, the polish looked this way in lower/indirect lighting.

Annnnd once more with flash, for extra shiny.

I think these capture the 'icy cold winter night' feeling so well. Do you love snowflakes as much as I do? Any other wintery/Christmas designs you'd like to see? Let me know in the comments! xoxo

(Also, click below to see the other collaborators' entries!)