I Love Purple!

Morning! How's everyone feeling today? My christmas spirit is sadly slowly fading :( I don't mind too much though as it's being replaced by BIRTHDAY feeling! On the 11th January it's my 21st and I am SO excited! I'm going to Harry Potter World with my family then partying in Manchester the day after to celebrate such a milestone! A few weeks later I'm going to London for my brother's graduation and whilst there I'm hoping to visit to the WAH salon in Dalston…I literally can not explain how excited I am! WAAAAH!

So….after more obsessing about Wah (did I mention I love WAH?), here's my mani inspired by the Christmas gift from my sister!

Trying to disguise my broken nail :(

As well as getting my phone stolen, I broke my middle finger nail on Christmas Eve (worst xmas eve ever?!) so I tried out taking pictures of my right hand, massive fail! It did not want to move for me, haha. Anyway, I did this mani two days ago and I think it's held up pretty well, right? The base colour I used was Lime Crime - Lavindary and for the lines I used Collection - Parma Violets. 

I don't know if I'll get chance to post before the new year so, if I don't end up doing, HAPPY NEW YEAR! Hope you all have a really brilliant time celebrating the start of 2013 and an even better year!

Lots of love,

Ariana xo

Update!

Hey everyone! Hope you're all well!
Quick update before work for you all if anyone's been wondering why I've been AWOL! Yep, you guessed it, Christmas was upon us and I've been mad busy! And also, on Christmas Eve, I had my phone stolen. My beautiful, beautiful phone :( so until I get a new one (which fingers crossed is fairly soon, as my sister is upgrading hers and giving me her old iPhone) I shan't be able to Instagram.

One of my presents this year was The WAH Nails Book of Nail Art and I LOVE it!! So last night whilst crying into my gin and tonic regarding my lack of iPhone I recreated these bad boys!

Yes, it's a well terrible picture. Yes, it was taken on photobooth. And yes, this is my life. HA! I'll upload a better pic after work!

Hope everyone had a fab christmas! Despite the phone, mine was brill :)
Thanks for stopping by! 
Ariana xo

Nail Art Dec, Day 13: Candy Canes

Hey! Hope you've all had a fab weekend! I worked, as usual, ha.
Yesterday I did the manicure that was meant for the 13th. Which was...CANDY CANES! I really liked this prompt. God, I just love the whole challenge! So, my Candy Cane manicure ended up like this...

I used O.P.I - My Boyfriend Scales Walls and Essie - Fishnet Stockings. My Seche Vite is getting a bit thick and gloopy now no matter how much thinner I put in it, which is REALLY annoying, so there was loads of shrinkage by the time I got around to taking my pictures. For this reason, pay day can't come fast enough!! 

Even with the shrinkage, I really liked this manicure. I got loads of comments all day at work about it :D I even got featured on @nailartwow's IG! How exciting!! This is the first time I've ever been featured like that, I felt slightly starstruck when I checked my phone and saw the notification! It was so nice of Dylan to feature me and I really appreciate everyone who liked and commented on the picture! Yay! 

Check out the other people participating in the challenge by searching #NailArtDec on Instagram and @Californails who was the brains behind it all!

Thanks for reading everyone :) sleep tight!
Ariana xo

Favourite EVER!

Hey everyone! Hope you're all well! I've had such a lazy day today, literally all I have done is my nails, make up and watched tv, it's been great fun!! 

Last night before bed I did a manicure which I totally fell in love with. I'm still kicking myself for taking it off! Here it is.

The pictures are all pretty much the same, but I loved this manicure so much I just had to put them on! The bronze colour is China Glaze - Harvest Moon with O.P.I - Call Me Gwen-Ever. I know I say 'this is one of my favourite polishes EVER!' like all the time BUT, I think Call Me Gwen-Ever is actually one of my favourite polishes ever, ha. The formula is so amazing! I think it could actually be a one coater. But two coats and perfection! It's smooth, shiny, glossy, just everything you'd want in a polish. Plus, I love burnt orange and coral shades and this is just like a mix of the two! It's just too nice, my brain is in overload.

Also, it was so beautiful outside when I was taking my pictures I just had to capture what I could see and share it. Oh, winter in Lancashire! 

Thanks for reading :) hope you all enjoyed my post! And share my love for Call Me Gwen-Ever! Swooooooon!

Ariana xo

Nail Art Dec, Day 10: Lights

Good evening! Carrying on with Californails' December Nail Art Challenge, here is Day 10's manicure. The prompt was LIGHTS! I loved this prompt and was really excited to see what I could do! So, without further ado, here is my Day 10: LIGHTS mani! 

Base: Collection 2000 - Wow, Lights: Barry M - Black & Bright Red, China Glaze - Papaya Punch, Lime Crime - Once in a Blue Mousse & Pastelchio,

This wasn't one of the most technically challenging pieces of nail art, but I really liked the simplicity of it. Also it's got me super excited for Christmas and putting my tree up, so I loved it even more!

Check out #NailArtDec for everyone else doing the challenge, there's some really amazing manicures!

Ariana xo 

Nail Art Dec, Day 7: Sparkles

Hey all, just a quickie today! As usual I'm being rubbish and late, so here's Day 7: Sparkles from Friday. I just couldn't come up with anything good for this manicure, I did two designs and whilst I liked them both they just weren't special enough. Nothing that screamed SPARKLES! Which is something I definitely thought was vital with a prompt like sparkles. My pictures suck due to me feeling so deflated with these manicures, so for that I apologise haha. 

Ignore my chalky acetone white cuticles... Haha.

Day 10 tomorrow, lights! I have a good feeling about that :) 

Night everyone!

Ariana xo 

Nail Art Dec, Day 4: Plaid!

Hey! 

So here's a quick look at Day 4 of Californails' December Nail Art Challenge!

I did this really quickly a couple of days ago before work and have only just got chance to post it now! Hope you like it, the prompt was Plaid. 

The only picture I got of this mani was this one and it was taken on my iPhone! Sorry it's not the best! And cuticles are all gross...ew!

Have a nice Thursday everyone :) thanks for reading!

Ariana xo

Nail Art Dec!

Good morning all! 

Two days ago I started Californails December Nail Art Challenge! 

It was supposed to be started on the first of December but in typical Ariana style I started it on the third. I love things like challenges and competitions, they're so fun!! Day 3 1 and the prompt is Snow! Now this isn't some of my best nail art, but I just really wanted to get started!

I used Barry M - Pink Silver Glitter and good old O.P.I - My Boyfriend Scales Walls. The Barry M polish was a nicer shade in the shop…it fell a bit flat for me once I got it home. It has a very slight holo and the glitter, yeah, is nice, but I'm not really sure what colour it's actually supposed to be and not in a good way. Pink? Peach? Silver? White?! Ugh all I know is that when my grandma comes to stay over Christmas, she'll tell me she just LOVES it and would be so grateful if she could borrow it one day! Thanks Granny, you can have it.

Anyway, try this challenge gals! It's SO fun! And if you're all like "whoa, I can't start it now, I'm way too late", DO AN ARIANA, and start late! Woohoo! If you're on instagram check out @californails and #nailartdec (yes, I found my hashtag!). 

Love,

Ariana xo

Being busy is rubbish!

Hi everyone! Ugh, I have been soooo busy this week and not has time to post :( work + christmas + work christmas party + life = blog takes a backseat!

Tonight I'm going to post about a couple of little presents my postman dropped off the other day :) they were China Glaze - Creative Fantasy and China Glaze - It's A Trap-Eze! These are from the Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away collection and I am in love with them both!! Creative Fantasy is just amazing, it's jumped straight to the top of my all time favourites list. The manicure I ended up doing left me feeling pretty uninspired though. The pictures I took sucked too. But I've not posted in a while, so I'll let you see! 

Like I said, Creative Fantasy is beautiful. I've got a top coat on in the pictures but it actually dries slightly matte, which I do quite like! And It's a Trap-Eze is so cool! Multicoloured glitter with a sheer white base and opaque in two coats, what more could you ask for?

Sorry for being MIA guys, hope you enjoyed my return post! 

Ariana xo

Liquorice All Sorts

Goood morning everyone! It's totally horrible at the moment here in rainy Manchester! It's REALLY windy, rainy, cold and just generally not nice! Everywhere else in the country seems to be flooding, I hope it doesn't get that bad here!! 

Last night I got home from work and got straight to work on my nails! I'd had Saturday's mani on for way too long, well 48 hours... This is what I came up with!

I like my accent nail best, it's like a liquorice all sort! 

The purple I used was O.P.I - Suzi and the 7 Dusseldorfs and the blue was O.P.I - Unfor-greta-bly Blue, both from my Germinis set. I seriously love this set, I never want it to run out! The mustard yellow was China Glaze - Kalahari Kiss. Whilst this isn't the neatest line work, it really shows how much I've improved since I first started doing my nails. I must say, I'm actually pretty proud of myself.

Also, Mr Postman has just brought me a few little gifts this morning. I can't wait to play! YAY!! 

Have a fab day guys :) 

Ariana xo 

Jingle All the Way!

Hiya everyone!

Today I've been doing a little bit of glitter placement with my new Jingle All the Way holiday set by China Glaze.

   Pizzazz                                              Merry Berry

This set is so great! I've wanted Merry Berry for a few weeks after seeing it swatched and it's just as beautiful in person! It's like a big warm mug of mulled wine on my fingertips, mmmm.

And then there's Pizzazz! What can I say?! I absolutely love this glitter! It's like the confetti explosion that happens when someone wins Who Wants to be a Millionaire! I've said I love it and I actually do. Like, really really love love love it! It's made up of two sizes of glitter; a small one and slightly bigger small-medium one. And it's got so many colours in! After close inspection, I found gold, silver, fuchsia, teal, burnt orange and green. I feel like I'm wearing some multicoloured tinsel on my nails, all that's missing is it's plasticy smell! 

Close up of Pizzazz <3

Also this evening, I've been reading some really interesting stuff about Monsanto. They're literally trying to take over the world.

Have a nice evening everyone!

Ariana xo

Fantasy Fire Amazing-ness

Good afternoon!

So whilst writing my last post, I was waiting for these babies to dry.

You've probably heard of Fantasy Fire before and seen many beautiful swatches. Nevertheless, I could not resist posting them. Two coats of O.P.I - Unfor-Greta-Bly Blue followed by two coats of Max- Factor - Fantasy Fire, and viola, THIS HAPPENED!

This polish is sooo hard to photograph, for example right now, my nails have an amazing green-blue sheen to them which I just could not capture. Oh well, Fantasy Fire is beautiful, enough said. GET IT! 

Hope you enjoyed my swatches of FF and thanks for reading :) 

Ariana xo

Christmas is coming!

HEY! Just a quick one for the moment whilst waiting for my current manicure to dry! 

Yesterday, I did my first Christmas mani of the year! Yes, I know it's still November. No, I don't care. IT'S NEVER TOO EARLY FOR CHRISTMAS!!!! In my mind anyway…

Apologies for the fluff on my middle finger and crappy picture!

I used Essie - Sugar Daddy and China Glaze - Fairy Dust for the base. For the dots I used Essie - Fishnet Stockings, O.P.I - My Boyfriend Scales Walls and Barry M - np320, followed by a coat of horribly thick, gloopy Seche Vite. Sugar Daddy, Fairy Dust and MBSW are three of my all time favourite polishes and I looove dots, so even if this manicure was crap, I'd still love it!!

And if you weren't satisfied with this post, you will be now! Here's a picture of my cat eating peanut butter off my dad's spoon. Mmmmm

I blurred out my dad's face, he was picking his teeth. It was funny, but he'd be annoyed if I put it on here un-blurred.

Thanks for reading!

Ariana xo

Storm and Stars Contest!

Hi guys! Hope you've all had a great weekend! I've been sooo busy with work, so glad to be off today!

Today I entered Storm and Stars' IG contest with the theme being storms and stars :) I entered the beginner category. I've not really done much freehand nail art before like this, so this pretty much was a first for me and I really enjoyed it!

Outside, no flash or sunlight. I wish this November weather would stop sucking!

Outside with flash

Inside with flash

I used a base of A England - Tristam and once that had dried I sponged on Maybelline - 669, followed by O.P.I - Unfor-greta-bly Blue, then O.P.I - Suzi & the 7 Düsseldorfs. For the lightening bolts I used O.P.I - My Boyfriend Scales Walls and painted them on using a very fine bursh, I'm kind of wishing now that I had used a white acrylic paint and maybe added a bit of gold/silver? Still, I love the manicure anyway!!

I think I'm going to start entering more contests, even if I don't win or do a great job, it's still super fun and I really enjoyed participating! If you want to check out more entries on instagram, search the hashtag stormandstarscontest (either I'm being really thick or my laptop doesn't have a hash key) and also @stormandstars, her nails are always amazing!

Ariana xo

Bubbles!

Good evening nail lovers!

Last night whilst doing a bit of late night instagramming, I came across a lovely manicure by Lucy's Stash. After searching her blog for a while, I finally found the post from October about these nails! Check them out here, she's amazing! So anyway, I really liked the idea and thought I'd give it a go. 

 

I'm totally digging this manicure, the dots remind me of air bubbles and port holes and just general underwater-ness! I might even keep it on longer than 24 hours ;) maybe... 

I used Lime Crime - Milky Ways and A England - Saint George. I adore both of these colours but unfortunately my Milky Ways has gone a bit thick and really difficult to work with, boooo. I was quite disappointed about this to be honest, I've only had the polish a couple of months and I've not used it that much :( oh well! It's a really unique off-white creme with a hint of peach. I was going to use this with Lime Crime - Once In A Blue Mousse for the bubbles but I ended up going for Saint George, the most perfect emerald green. I can't wait for payday so I can splash out on more A England polishes, I'm sooo in love with them! 

Thanks for reading everyone :) seeee you next time!

Ariana xo

Snow globe stars

Hey guys. Today I've been playing around with a glitter I've had for a while but have never actually gotten round to using. It's Kleancolor - Silver Star, which has two different sizes of holographic glitter and chunky stars suspended in a clear base. It's pretty freakin' cool! Like most glitter polishes which have larger flecks in, the bigger pieces did take a bit of effort to get out of the bottle. The stars being heavier had sunk to the bottom and stuck to the sides, but that was nothing a little bottle shake couldn't fix!

Argh it's like a snow globe, how beautiful?!

The colours I used for the gradient were Collection 2000 - Wow and A England - Tristam. Collection 2000 has recently been rebranded Collection, so I'm not too sure if this particular colour has been discontinued or what, but it's a pretty generic metallic silver that's everywhere. And Tristam is just the most amazing polish in the world. The colour, the holo, the consistency, everything about it is just wow! I then layered a coat of Silver Star over the gradient, fished out a few stars for each nail and finished it all off with a layer of topcoat. 

I looove this manicure so much, it's like a frosty night sky! Unfortunately, my photography skills are yet to be perfected, so I apologise for the poor photos. Haha. I hope to bring you better pictures sometime soon!

Ariana xo

Why I love days off!

Hiiii everybody and happy Monday!! Today, I tried out about five different designs on my nails, all watching none other than DEXTER!! Seriously, what could be better than a day of nails and a Dexter marathon?!

Nothing would go right today, it was really frustrating! But I'll show you a couple of the designs I did anyway. This was the first time I have done a fishtail manicure, I though it would be a lot harder to do and I loved it! The colours I used were China Glaze - Kalahari Kiss, China Glaze - Harvest Moon and O.P.I - Call Me Gwen-Ever.

I didn't really want to do it on my right hand, soo I started again… I recently bought A England - Holy Grail (the old version) before it was discontinued and I honestly have never seen a gold like it before. It's a really beautiful yellowy antiqued gold with a shimmer and I don't think I'll find a polish shade anytime soon. The new holy grail which has taken its place, whilst still absolutely stunning, is a shade which I imagine has many dupes. So, I used this as a base for my second mani of the day, then dotted curved lines from the tip downwards using Barry M - Raspberry and Barry M - Black. 

This would be something really nice for christmas time using a forrest green and deep red. I'm definitely saving my Holy Grail for this years festivities!

Anyway, after much more trial and error, I decided I really actually loved my fishtail mani and ended up doing it again using the same colours! Only this time, I only did my accent and thumb nails full fishtail and for the rest of my nails just the tips. It was really nice!

With flash

In sunlight (bare in mind it's been a very dull day in Manchester)

Hope you all had as much of a fun Monday as I did, and if you haven't started watching Dexter yet - WATCH IT!! 

Thanks for reading guys!

Ariana xo