Red Matte Glitter Checkers Over Purple

Not done with my new glitter yet.  The bright red square matte glitter caught my eye the other night so I chose a nice purple to contrast and got to work.  It's hard to say much more as an intro, it's the same glitter I've been playing with recently, from Borough Babe Supply. Cos glitter is awesome.   

To start, I applied three coats of Urban Outfitters Bandeau, a bright imperial purple creme.  I've used this colour tons but who cares, it's pretty.  The three coats are important when you're working with the larger pieces of glitter - you want to give the pieces something to sink into so they don't catch on everything.  I used my usual technique here but instead of the usual single column down the middle, I had to do a zig-zag, aligning the corners, to make sure my pieces were evenly spaced.  It was then just a matter of filling out each side.  I had the time to do all my nails but it's a pretty loud pattern and I liked the accent nail.  

The Verdict:  I love how this came out.  I had three different people ask if the checkered pattern was a sticker which I always count as a win.  It's nice when it comes out crisp and even.  Despite me wanging my middle finger between applying top coat and taking these photos, which is about two minutes :/ Go glitter for being versatile!

I Can Be Subtle Sometimes

If you've been here more than five seconds, or can even see the lovely background my friend Erica made for me, you can see I like sparkly, neon, bright, sparkly nails.  Makes my bank account sad because I buy so many things just because they're sparkly, but it makes me happy.  Very occasionally though, I like to go subtle.  So subtle you can't tell I spent a couple hours placing glitter on my nails.  Perversely, this also makes me happy because no one can tell from a distance how long this took.  They just look white.  YESSS.

To start, I applied two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls then sponged on a gradient with the same white and Orly Pure Porcelain.  This came out in just the very minorly noticeable gradient I wanted.  I then went to work with my white square(ish) glitter.  I swear, if anyone knows of a place I can get larger square glitter that is cut evenly, please tell me because everytime I try the pieces all have bits making them not square.  And this makes me sad.  Anyway, I went to work with my usual process, stripe of top coat and a zig-zag column of glitter down the middle, then building out either side.  Then lots of top coat.  Please ignore how weird my skin looks, I didn't clean off the white from the sponging properly and thought it would be easier to photoshop out the white bits than just take the photos again.  SURPRISE that's a bad idea too bad.

The Verdict:  I really love how this came out, especially how it feels like a secret.  This could so easily have just been stickers, or stamps, or whatever, but only I (and now you know) that NOPE it took forever with glitter.  This makes me happy.  Yay subtlety!

New Years Eve Nails with Sparkly Silver Holo Squares!

Finally, a holiday made for me!  New Years Eve has been designated the sparkly night and that's actually a lot of pressure for me.  What, you mean I have to choose just ONE sparkly?  But I'm sparkly all year round!  I decided that since I usually dress up in all black, why not go simple with black and silver nails.  I'm glad I did because OMG the sparklies. 

I'm not going to talk so much about how I did this mani - you'd be just as well off having a look at either my tutorial or at another mani I've done recently with square glitter.  This is was done using two coats of Essie Licorice with square silver holo glitter on top.  I will recommend one thing though - if you're using glitter this small, stick to two coats of base colour.  Any more and by the time you get a few layers of your adhesive top coat on your glitter can get a bit uneven.  Let's just look at the pictures, shall we?  After all,  I finally got the rainbows to show up properly, thanks to the awesome flash my bf got.  There's two videos too!

The Verdict:  I don't even really have words for how happy I am with how this came out.  I was expecting it to be sparkly but the fact it gets almost linear holographic rainbows is just..... :D. So sparkly, and :D.  Happy New Year!

Silver Checkerboard Sparkly Nails!

Ohhh yeah everybody, IT'S ACTUALLY NEW CONTENT.  I'm finding it really hard to go to work, sleep, do my nails AND take the pictures.  I'm actually also working on a super secret new project too that you might be interested in so there's that too.  So I do what I can.  What I can do right now is checkerboard nails! Yeah! Wooooo!

Nothing too fancy this time.  I even timed it, it only takes five minutes a nail!  You have five minutes for sparklies, right?? Yeah so I started with the usual, two coats of OPI Road House Blues then liberally applied my cheap top coat.  Starting in a zig-zag down the middle of my nail, I built out my checkerboard.  Use little scissors to cut the corner pieces to fit.  Bam, easy sparklies - if you can be careful with your placement. 

The Verdict: I'm actually trying to make an Instagram video tutorial to go with this.  You should follow me @polishallthenails .  It's a lot easier for me to take silly photos on there and repost my older content than, you know, make new stuff :D.  But sparklies!