Orange dots!

Zoya Jacqueline with orange dots

I'm getting more and more fond of dots! For this bright, jolly mani I used a base of Zoya Jacqueline and added big dots using an old Dior Addict polish, Orange Artifice. I love the finished effect! Not much more to say about this - here are a few pictures from various angles......

Zoya Jacqueline with orange dots

After a couple of days I decided to add a bit of black. I was going to add zebra stripes, but when I started freehanding stripes on my thumb I thought that much  black overpowered the dots, and, because the mani had plenty of topcoat on, I was able to remove the bit of black polish I'd applied before it dried properly without too much damage. So I added black glitter instead - I chose Nail Laquer UK Dog Days which is a variety of black hexes, squares and microglitter in a clear base with a sprinkling of multicoloured glitter in various sizes, shapes and finishes (matte, holo, metallic) to give it a bit of extra interest.

Zoya Jacqueline with orange dots with Nail Lacquer UK Dog Days

I love this glitter - I'm a great fan of all black glitter but I think the touch of bright colours really adds an extra lift. I used two coats of Nail Laquer UK Dog Days for this mani, smoothed out with a coat of Gelous and a final coat of Seche Vite quick drying top coat.

Zoya Jacqueline with orange dots with Nail Lacquer UK Dog Days

I purchased Nail Lacquer UK Dog Days from AJ's Etsy Shop. I've had the orange Dior about ten years and Zoya Jacqueline was a gift from a friend this Spring.

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Freehand flowers..............

Nelly Polish Night Sky with floral nail art

These flowers were inspired by some hand-made pottery I have, and an old jumper - both have a dark blue background with bold white flowers with yellow centres. The pottery has a lot of black line work too.

Since it's UK Indie Month, I used Nelly Polish Night Sky for the base; this is a super deep blue shimmer. I painted the petals freehand win Zoya Jacqueline, added the centres with Bourjois Sunny Sunday. When the flowers were fully dry (quite a long time, since I'd painted thickly), I added the line details with a Barry M Nail Art Pen in Black.

I love the way this turned out! I've been wearing it for a few days now, but sadly it's starting to look battered at the tips and grown out around the cuticles, so I'll have to change it :(

A few macros of the individual nails.............  I really like the contrast between the holo shimmer of the base and the opaque flowers.

And my thumb!

Nelly Polish Night Sky with floral nail art

For others:

Blue water marble with glitter (Pocket Money Polishes Keep The Faith)

Here's a manicure that evolved over a several days! I started out with plain, light blue nails - a sort of palate cleanser from all the glitter and nail art, lol! This is Zoya Blu - a really pretty light blue cream from Zoya's spring pastels collection earlier this year. I choose my colours by mood more than *season* as defined by the manufacturer!

Zoya Blu

Next day I added a water marble. I'm a relative beginner at water marbling, but I love the effect, so I've decided to try to a water marble every week to get more practice! In my last water marble I used just a single colour and clear polish to make a marbled pattern over a gradient, but this time I wanted to marble with several colours. I used Zoya Blu, Zoya Jacqueline, American Apparel Passport Blue and Rescue Beauty Lounge Cuprum.

It's not perfect of course, but I do like the way the patterns came out. RBL Cuprum worked in an interesting way, it spread really quickly and thinly over the water, and on the nail it looks a bit like a water colour wash.

My favourite nail was my middle finger on my left hand - here's a macro of that one. You can also see the coppery flecks in RBL Cuprum on the edge of my middle finger nail rather well in the macro. Although I like the fact that every nail turns out different in water marbling, I wish every nail came out as good as this. Obviously more practice is needed!

GLITTER, however, is great for covering imperfections! And because you can add it selectively, you can use it just to accent some areas of a nail art design:

The glitter I used is Pocket Money Polishes Keep The Faith; this is a mix of slightly teal-ish blue glitters in hexes of various sizes, some tiny blue bar glitters and bigger pale gold holographic hexes. 

Pocket Money Polishes Keep The Faith 

I chose this glitter because the tone of blue matches up nicely with the blue shades in my water marble, and the pale gold hexes set off the warm cream of Zoya Jacqueline really well.

Water marble with Pocket Money Polishes Keep The Faith 

Zoya Blu and Jacqueline were part of a gift from a lovely polish friend, as was American Apparel Passport Blue. RBL Cuprum is a favourite from my stash - I got my bottle in a swap a while ago but the colour is still available to buy from the Rescue Beauty Lounge Website.

Charlie, the maker of Pocket Money Polishes, very kindly sent me Keep The Faith as a sample when I last ordered polish from her. Keep The Faith is one of the new Pocket Money Polishes colours for September, and goes on sale on 1st September at the Pockcet Money Polishes website, which includes a blog with information on new colours and release dates. You can also keep up with Charlie and her polishes on her facebook page

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