Experiments with nail art - part 2 plus bonus hair bling!

Hello!!!

It's like coming back to a familiar place after being away from it for a while. November has been an extremely busy month and I hope to tell you all about it when I get the chance to catch my breath! It's been an amazing month and one of the most packed of the year.

But for now may I present you with my latest attempts at nail art (my latest favourite hobby), and I've put some bonus bling at the end of the post because it's just too sparkly to not blog about! Mmmmm sparkles.....

I think I called this one Star Crossed Night or something. It's really easy to do. Just paint your back ground colour. When the base layer is dry, put on randomly placed nail striping tape, and paint over with your glitter nail polish!

I think this is one of my favourites! This is from a couple of months ago when my nails were actually growing for the first time in year (due to a stay in hospital). They are a lovely length. I've used my favourite colour (OPI Big Apple Red), added some bling and painted just one nail with glorious glitter!

Leopard print. Red. Sparkles. Bling. YES! :D 

My Lovely Mum gave me these beautiful glass hearts which I will treasure forever. They also happened to match my nails perfectly. I should be a nail/finger/glass heart model! 

Halloweeeeeen!!

Blood tipped nails..... C'mon, they are scary right?

This was my first attempt at gradient nails, if you can't tell.

I refer to you to the fab Nuthin' But A Nail Thing blog for an awesome tutorial. Though I would say I don't think wetting the sponge worked for me. It kinda flaked and got stuck to my nails. Which was ok on this occasion for Halloween nails because a bit of texture added to the look. I'm sure the ghosts appreciated the effort I made when I went on my ghost hunting walk!

When you apply the polish with a sponge be prepared and allow time to clean up your nails afterwards!

This is my second attempt at gradient nails. I used a dry sponge this time. Plus I used more than one sponge - maybe about 4. As soon as one sponge got too 'clunky' with polish, I just used a fresh one. I also cut my sponges into smaller pieces, just to make them go a bit further, and so I'm not quite so wasteful. 

TIP: I paint my nails on Sunday night. It's a nice little chill out routine before the week ahead. Anyway, after my nails are dry (and I run my nails under cold water to make them set quicker), I rub hand cream (Nivea) around my nails and off I go to bed. The next morning when I have my shower, I gently use a nail scrub and the excess nail polish peels away. 

Of course you can just go around the nail with a cotton wool bud dipped in nail polish remover too! I guess my method is a bit lower maintenance. 

I got a bit carried away with my nail dotters for this one! 

I bought some bottles of glitter and decided to go for red/silver/blue combination. I did my base coat (as always), then whilst the red coat was wet I sprinkled over  the glitter. It looks better in real life than in the photograph; it's more eye catching in the light.

 And finally...... gold and red gradient. Before and after!

I promised you some hair bling. I see a theme here; sparkles, leopard print and red! I'm a bit annoyed with myself at the moment as I seem to have lost the red hair band already. 

Red blingy butterfly. I haven't worn this yet.  

This one is so sweet! I got it from a lovely vintage shop in Nottingham called Hopkins. I could have spent hours in there!

I think I was attracted to this hair decoration as I have a real-sized hat just like this! 

And my BFF surprised me when this gorgeous ring arrived in the post this week. I LOVE IT! Thank you Best Friend Forever In The Whole Wide World! 

Was that enough sparkles for one blog post? I hope so! 

Anyway, it hasn't been all work all the time this month. I'm about to dash out for a cocktail evening at a new venue in the city centre. If it's any good, I'll let you know! :) 

Say hello on twitter: @karenstrunks

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My experiments with nail art

I've been going a little mad for nail art in the last couple of months.

This is how I usually wear my nails. Plain, glossy red. OPI's Big Apple Red if you must know. It's my favourite ever! OPI would be my first choice when it comes to polish with amazing colour plus staying power. I love it. If I was pushed for my second choice, I'd stay Nails Inc. And whilst we are on the subject, I always wear OPI base coat and a top coat which enhances the longevity of the polish. I've just noticed that OPI have an iPhone app. You can set the shade of your skin and see what their colours look like.

My first play around with bling...

Of course I had to tweet it out. My mum had to air her opinion! lol.

All jewelled up! Nail bling :) twitpic.com/ah1e5k

— karenstrunks (@karenstrunks) August 8, 2012

@karenstrunks Your nails looks like traffic lights a bit busy.Ha Ha !

— margaret (@createdineire) August 8, 2012

@createdineire ha ha! No they don't, they look beautiful!

— karenstrunks (@karenstrunks) August 8, 2012

@karenstrunks Hi you need to go to SpecksaversHa Ha!

— margaret (@createdineire) August 8, 2012

@createdineire leave me alone! Everyone will compliment them tomorrow, wait & see! x

— karenstrunks (@karenstrunks) August 8, 2012

These photos aren't in any particular order.

THIS was my first effort in leopard print nails. It went a bit wrong! I just kept adding glitter on top to make it look better. It's hard to control the black lines, you need such a steady hand. They kind of looked better in real life - when I moved my fingers quickly and they were a blur.

I took this photo the other week. This is the longest my nails have EVER been. For some reason they just grew whilst I was in hospital for a week. I loved them, BUT now only my left hand has long nails and my right hand nails are shorter. Harumph.

I got some black lacey nail stickers that I thought might look quite elegant. I planned out how I would do each nail design and cut them to the right size first.

Ta da! I just called this Black Nude Lace, but my best friends said it reminded her of 1920s Parisian Chic. That's even better!

So easy to do. Black with a little silver glitter along the cuticles. 

I got carried away with the bling a bit! Every one of these sparkles stayed on for over a week. It was the week I was in hospital. They were quite a talking point with the nurses ha.

I was inspired the day I thought of this one! Wonder Woman nails! 

The blue and stars from Wonder Woman's shorts and the red (with added glitter) from her top! 

I saw this type of design somewhere; stained glass window. I gave it a try, but it didn't work out. I think it needs brighter colours and thinner black lines.

Just red with a little bling. 

This only stayed on for a few hours. I was just playing around with nude, red and sparkles. 

Another play. My first attempt at a heart, polka dots, flowers, and a cute ladybird. 

I don't know why I haven't bothered having more fun with my nails before. Time and inclination I guess, but I find it really relaxing. 

Here's a few places I like to look for nail art inspiration. 

Coloures De Carole I just stumbled across this one the other day. You could be there all day looking at all her wonderful creations!

Nuthin' But A Nail Thing This lady seems to paint her nails with a new design every day! She's got tons of links to other nail blogs on her side bar if you fancy even more inspiration. 

Pinterest This is a mix of nails, hair and make up and seeing as I love make up even more than nails this is a great place for me to hang out. If you want to keep up with some of my favourite finds you can follow my beauty board.  

There we go! 

It's Sunday afternoon and I'm going to chill out for the rest of the day and do all my beauty things. It's GREAT being a girl! :)

Say hello on twitter @karenstrunks

A little blog make-over on a Saturday

Hello! I hope you are having a happy Saturday!

Mine is going very well thank you, if a little too quickly.

I got up with the larks to restock my fridge with fruit and vegetables at the city centre market which is about 3 miles away and a really quick drive early in the morning. I've got loads of independent fruit and veg shops near me, but if I get the chance I do like going to the Bullring market. I like the hustle and bustle and the shouts of the traders. Plus there is an amazing array of colourful produce from about 60+ traders, and you can't leave there without a bargain.

Last Saturday - a happy fridge

This morning - a very sad fridge

All stocked up again! £7.60 in total. I love fresh sweetcorn right now

I'm really getting into nail art at the moment, and I'm going to post all my successes and failures in a blog post soon. I *think* I'm getting a bit better. Two things you definitely need is time and patience, so I make it a Sunday night activity. I've been saving up some of my favourite nail art inspiration (and make-up and other favourite bits) over on Pinterest if you fancy a look. 

Whilst I was out today I picked up some more polish but I only like the Barry M sparkly one. It's true what they say; buy cheap, buy twice. The other sparkly polishes look nice, but they were cheap and they are only good for the bin, or holding up to the light and admiring - I do love sparkles! I'll probably use the white polish for nail arty stuff, but on it's own it just looks like Tippex! Anyway, I'm a bit down on all nail polish brands apart of OPI which is my favourite in the whole wide world ever. It does what I want it to - stays on. My second favourite is Nails Inc. I popped into Debenhams  where Nails Inc have a little corner in the store, but I was really disappointed with the state of it. It wasn't staffed (it was about 10am), the stock was really poorly displayed, it looked like some of the shelves needed a good clean and the polishes weren't organised very well. I'm wondering if they are closing down their corner. It looked abandoned an neglected. It put me off.

I don't know what happened when I was in hospital, but I've noticed that my nails have never been stronger or longer! Maybe it's because my hands got a complete rest whilst I was ill. I didn't lift a finger for a week. And even when I got home I did very little. I can't remember when my nails were ever this long. I hope they stay this way from now on!

Anyway! I got distracted. The reason I started this blog post was to 'unveil' my new blog header! I completely didn't do the work I was meant to do to this afternoon because I found inspiration in an unusual place - a magazine. Well, maybe not that unusual a place but it is rare that an advert will catch my eye. It's probably because it had the word 'more' and my favourite colour red.

I've wanted to update this blog's header for ages now so I struck whilst the inspiration iron was hot and went from this....

Farewell old blog header!

To this!

I think it's a bit brighter and more me. And I even used other colours apart from red. That's a rare thing! Ha.

I'm going to dash now. I really fancy a cocktail tonight. I haven't had a drink since the night I was rushed to hospital (I did mention I was ill and went to hospital didn't I?! hehe) and I've temporarily had a little break from alcohol. I'm practically living the life of a saint at the moment. I must remedy that soon!

Say Hello on twitter: @karenstrunks