Rockstar nails

After searching high and low for the holy grail of glitter nail polishes ( full coverage, mega sparkle, affordable) i gave up and decided to give rockstar nails a try. Wearing flip flops for 8 months of the year means perfect feet and perfect toenails at all times so spending time on my feet is a must, and who doesn't want pretty fingernails to match....

Rockstar nails are real loose glitter adhered to a base of either gel or shellac and then coated with a gel topcoat to seal in the glitter and give a smooth feel, it also ensures that there is no chipping or colour fade, surprisingly none of the sparkle is lost and you can use whichever colour glitter your heart desires or even use a few different colours for a gradient effect similar to what i did here .

  I used the same technique, base coat of gel and cured, another thicker coat of gel and cured then sprinkled the glitter into the sticky dispersion layer, pressed into place then applied gel topcoat and cured then repeated with the topcoat and cured again. The only disadvantage with using gel is that it has to be filed off, unlike shellac which can be soaked off.

Fingers

And toes....

 unfortunately glitter is really hard to photograph with an iphone camera, which is all i have at the moment, in real life this is beyond sparkly.

This lasted a good 3 weeks on my fingers before i started to get bored of the colour, there was only one small chip missing from one finger so this would be ideal if you were going on holiday for a few weeks and didn't want to risk your mani/pedi chipping. Although i don't think many people would go this hardcore on glitter for everyday wear on their fingers it is probably a lot more acceptable on toes, I've had the purple glitter on my toes for 3 and a half weeks now and so far I've only lost a tiny chunk of the corner of my big toe from when i walked into something, it isn't even noticeable enough to bother repairing yet so i will wait until it starts to grow out before i change the colour.


Have you tried rockstar nails? or have you been lucky enough to find the holy grail of glitter nailpolish???

Excuses, excuses & 5 good things

So.... long time no blog.

I never wanted this blog to be negative, i wanted to be able to look back and remember the good things, and forget the bad things ever happened and its easier to forget them if they are not documented. I have really been struggling in the last few months to find anything good to say and i was always told " if you cant say anything nice, then don't say anything at all", which hopefully explains my lack of recent posts. And while i could sit here and blabber on about nail varnish every day, who actually wants to read that? nobody, not even me!

I really cant think of 5 good things every Friday any more, in fact i´m lucky if i can think of 5 good things per month at the moment, so i seem to have failed the challenge that i set myself but surely something is better than nothing so here are this months 5 good things.....

1. After getting over the initial shock that my brother who is 2 years younger than me is getting married before me, in February next year. I am more than happy that they have asked me to be a bridesmaid and.... i get to pick my own dress... yay  as long as it is dark red and long i can pick whatever i want so hopefully i can lose a bit more weight before then and find a nice dress here otherwise it will be a last minute order anything half decent from John Lewis, BHS and Debenhams and get it delivered to England so i can pick whichever fits best when i get there and send the rest back.

2. Bargains, the sales started properly here on 1st July so me and my mum hit all of the shopping centres in the first few days to snap up the things we had been wanting and hoping they had been reduced, which most of them were. I got a few things i had been wanting for a while; a few Guess bags & Shoes, but i didn't go mad with clothes, i really don't need anymore. In fact i was sorting out my wardrobes the other day and wondered how many dresses i had, so i counted them and was horrified to find that i had more than 100 dresses!!! Two things i did pick up in the sales though were items that i had been trying to find for almost 2 years, first a pair of nude slingback peeptoe heels, i actually ended up getting 2 pairs, a pale pair to match my skintone in winter and a darker pair for summer with a clear heel, it has been so frustrating trying to find the right colour, they are always to yellow or brown or pink. The other thing was a black blazer, the right cut, length. colour and price, so my wardrobe is now complete.

3. Fennel tea..  I love fennel and fennel seeds so when i saw fennel tea in the supermarket a few weeks ago i had to try it and it is divine, i love it, apart from water its all I've drank in the last 3 weeks, i went through a whole box in a few days and had to go back to stock up, definitely something to try if you like herbal tea.  It is also good for digestion and water retention and apparently helps suppress the appetite.

4. Skin weft hair extensions. If you don't know what these are, basically they are small wefts of hair sewn into a clear band approx 1 1/2 inches wide with double sided tape attached, you section you hair and stick one weft underneath a section and then another on top, sandwiching your own hair in between, if you take good care of them they can last for up to 10 weeks then can be removed, re-taped and put back in, they can last for up to 3 years if looked after properly.  My hair grows really slowly and i desperately wanted hair extensions so i did a bit or research, i had heard about these years ago so did a bit more digging now i want to grow my hair, there was no way i could afford to have normal hair extensions and i was wary of the damage they can cause to your own hair so these seemed like the perfect option, they are affordable, you can do them yourself ( or with the help of a friend) and they can be re-used. so i had a look on ebay and bought some last week, they arrived a few days ago and seem to be a good colour match but i will probably get them highlighted to match my hair exactly anyway. I am waiting until the end of the summer to put them in because i think its a bit pointless at the moment while I'm swimming so much, i don't want to ruin them with the chlorine and washing my hair so often. I will blog about my experience with them when i do put them in though because i think its always good to read other peoples experiences of these types of things.

5. Revlon lip butters.. i know everybody in the blogosphere has been going on about how amazing these are since they came out at the beginning of the year so i knew i had to try them, but with Spain being so slow on the bandwagon i had to wait until they were available here, i was so excited when i finally found them, even happier because there was 25% off all cosmetics in that particular shop. I ended up buying 4 and i can honestly say they are totally worth the hype i love, love, love them. They are so moisturising but they also last quite a long time, i love the packaging and they leave such a lovely sheen on the lips, i will probably review them, if anybody is still interested.

so what have you been loving lately?

Twinkle toes

I´ve been getting lots of inspiration online recently for different ideas to try and toenails, at first i was keen on the idea of a swarovski crystal pedicure but because i swim most days in the summer i didn't think they would last too long, plus i heard it takes about 2 hours to apply all of the crystals and it would use up loads.

so i went for second best... Glitter!
in fact i went one better and used holographic glitter in 3 different shades.

lilac blending into pale pink blending into hot pink

i applied one layer of gel and cured then another and cured again, then i applied the loose glitter with a brush for more careful placement to the tacky layer of cured gel, i finished with a gel top coat, cured and applied another so that the glitter is smooth and wont come off

and here is the finished result... i love them

 They do look much better from further away, apologies for the feet pictures, i know a lot of people don't like feet but i don't think mine are particularly awful

next time I'm going to use a finer milled glitter with the gel, i tried a really fine purple glitter on a practise nail and it looked amazing.

nail of the day

I was starting to get bored of the chrome effect nail polish so decided to update it a little bit with the help of Kiko rock top nail laquer in lilac , i love the way the silver underneath shines through and the cool tone of the colours makes my hands look more tanned.

Any suggestions of other colour combinations to try???

Friday 5 good things

I know its been a while since i wrote a 5 good things post but i have been so busy lately and it was easier to think of 5 bad things than 5 good things, and as the saying goes... if you cant say something nice then you're better not saying anything at all.

1. Its heating up here, it was 32º c here yesterday and its going to be even hotter over the weekend, which means...

2. The pool is warm enough to swim in again, so today i got to have my first swim of the year and it was wonderful, now i have no excuse not to get some exercise.

3. the other week one of my friends that i haven't seen since college came over to Spain with her mum to stay with family for a week, so we met up in Benidorm which was about half way from both of us, it was lovely to see her and her mum and we walked about 5 miles round the old town and the full length of the promenade and back.

4.The business opportunity i mentioned a few posts back is going well, i am still working full time at my current job and having to fit in this project in- between which means i have practically no spare time but if it helps us secure a future for ourselves then it will all be worth it.

5. Chrome effect nail polish, this was a bargain from mercadona supermarkets own Deliplus line, they have a new nail effects range out and this was one of the base coats for the crackle range and was only about 2€, i also bought it in gold.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend,
what are your 5 good things this week?

Glittery butterfly nails

I felt like getting a bit creative the other day when I was infilling my gel nails, so I raided my nail art kit. I found a stamp machine similar to a Konad stamp, I've had it for so long that it actually came with an instructional video (VHS)!!!

I liked the butterfly design best which was a 2 part stamp ( a solid background and a detail outline) but i wanted my French manicure to show through so only used the detail outline stamp to press butterfly's randomly across my nails,

I then applied gel top coat and dipped the tips in iridescent white glitter then used a small brush to sprinkle more into the gaps between the butterfly's then cured for 1 minute, I applied a second coat of gel top coat to seal the glitter and cured again... Voila sparkly butterfly nails

They would look great for a wedding or if you used a different design or colours would look great for Christmas as the glitter looks a little like sparkly snow. You can buy Konad ( or similar stamps) from
Beauty supply shops and eBay