The Moment Is Coming...

It's been what feels like a lifetime since I last posted on here... University and life in general took over :(
What a theme to come back into the blogging world with though! This manicure has the theme of Doctor Who - the longest running British sci-fi drama and quite frankly, my absolute favourite. On 23rd November 2013, Doctor Who experienced it's 50th birthday - you can almost imagine my intense excitement when my boyfriend and I won tickets to the official Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Celebration!

To commemorate this wonderfully nerdy day, I decided to come back to the nail world and attend the event with these...

Dalek, Doctor's suit, TARDIS, Cyberman

Nail varnishes used:
Gold Foil - Barry M
Silver Foil - Barry M
Cyan Blue - Barry M
Matt White - Barry M
Blackberry - Barry M
Clear Base/Top Coat - Barry M
Black Taxi - Rimmel
Burgundy - Natural Collection
Particuliére - Chanel
Metallic Saturn - w7

(There was an Adipose - for those of you who know Doctor Who, on my thumb but it got ruined in the rush to get to the event sadly)

I must admit, photographs are not going to be great for now... I don't have photoshop on my new laptop and I no longer have my snazzy camera, but these will do in the mean time.

Although this manicure took a hell of a long time and lots of layers of nail varnish, I thoroughly enjoyed taking the time to do my nails again, especially with such as theme as Doctor Who. The event itself held many pinnacle moments to look back on fondly, including being able to watch the 50th anniversary episode at the there. The likes of the 11th Doctor (Matt Smith) was there alongside his companion Clara and show-runner Steven Moffat. Not to mention some of the old Doctors: Sylvester McCoy, Collin Baker, Peter Davidson and Tom Baker (for those of you who love Doctor Who also, you will understand how epic it felt to be in the same room as them and hear what they had to say). The BBC did a brilliant job of keeping 'Whovians' very entertained in between talks and shows by setting out stalls where you could learn how prosthetics are applied in the show (a personal favourite of mine) along with how stunts are done and tonnes of costumes that were actually used in the show.

BEST DAY EVER.

The Liebster Award!

I was greeted with a pleasant surprise this morning of being noominated for the Liebster Award by Lyndsay at Pie's Eyes & Other Sparkly Stories :) As far as I'm aware, these are the rules to follow:

• The recipient must post 11 fun facts about themselves.
• The recipient must also answer 11 questions created by the award giver.
• The recipient must give the award to 11 new bloggers with less than 200 followers and post 11 questions for them to answer.
• These 11 bloggers must be told they have been given the award.
• They will in turn pass the award on to 11 new bloggers of their choice (no tagging back the award giver)

I'm not going to lie, I had to read this several times... All I could see and hear in my head was the number 11. So here is my post in response to the award :)

1. My name is actually Aroosa, but I have a billion and one nicknames ranging from Rooasaurus, to Roobarb, to Rookie Monster (People do actually call me these :D)
2. I'm 18 and heading off to the Univerisity of Greenwich in just over  2 weeks to study Law - the most fun part of this fact is that I have a toga party to attend during 'Freshers Fortnight' ;)
3. I'm one of those people who EATS EVERYTHING IN SIGHT, but haven't really gained any weight...
4. I'm a bit weird - I like crunchy grapes. You know, like the ones that makes a sound when you bite into them.
5. I have strange feelings towards onions... They freak me out.
6. I used to sing/drum in a band for a good 4 years!
7. I hate odd numbers and try to do everything evenly. So I'm currently not happy that I have to do everything according to 11 :(
8. My favourite band at the moment are Foo Fighters, I have an indescribable love for Dave Grohl <3
9. These facts are suppose to be fun... I'm fun sized if that counts?! I've been 4ft 9/5ft for a good couple of years, I never had a growth spurt :(
10. On 14th July 2011, I packed my camping bag (which was bigger than me) and took off on a month long expedition with a group of friends to Ecuador & The Galápagos Islands. We could only take a couple of trousers/shorts and a few tops, underwear, socks, but it was the BEST experience of my life so far. I snorkelled in the ocean, trekked The Andes and saw 100 year old tortoises :)
11. Lions are my favourite animals.

Here are my answers to Lyndsay's questions:

How do you store your polish?
I usually just keep them in a storeage box that I have dedicated to my nail varnish and nail care products which sits in my room, on my desk in normal room temperature. I've heard that some people put them in the fridge and whatnot, but that's not really how I roll.

How many bottles do you think you have?
Woah, I actually haven't counted as of yet... Too many to handle but not enough! Over 100 at least!

What's your favourite finish in a polish? Glitter, foil, cream, something else?
I do like using cream based nail varnishes, although I don't own many specifically cream based ones. I like the way they leave a smooth touch to your nails. I also love matte nail varnishes like my Rimmel 'Emerald City' - they just look so different.

What's your favourite type of nail art to do?
I can't pick one favourite type, but it's usually the ones that are inspired by something random or by a big event, eg. London Olympics. I know my friend's big favourites are my animal prints, they're pretty quick to whip out!

What's your biggest lemming? The one polish you are desperate to own?
Mhmm... I am desperate to own OPI's Nail Envy base coat, my nails are in dire need of therapy or at least a good base coat :(

Where and when do you usually paint your nails?
I usually paint my nails after I've had a shower etc (not before) as I find the hot water can sometimes help the nail varnish to weaken/chip. Also I take my time doing it, so mainly when I'm chillin' and watching a bit of telly.

What do your friends and family think of your hobby?
Well, I know my mum and friends sometimes ask me to do their nails, so it's pretty decent for them lol? Get your nails done.. for free! xD

What's the best tip you've ever received / read?
In terms of nails and nail care, the simple things - eg. Pushing your cuticles back massively is bad for your nails, they look sore! I keep mine pretty natural and if I'm going to get rid of them, it will only be a little bit, using a certain cream to help.

What's your best manicure ever?
I know it's simple and some nail bloggers might consider it as easy, but I actually have now perfected my leopard print nails :)

And your worst?
My worst would be an attempt at barcode nails... I was tired, it was the early hours of the morning, I had been out all day, I had to get in my first day of a challenge and it's bad but I couldn't be bothered... And they looked dreadful. I pretty much did them with my eyes closed lol.

Why did you start writing a blog?
Well, I was regularly painting my nails and creating nail art on them every other day at the beginning! My orthodontist was lovely and kept complimenting me on them :) I always took photos of my nails, to show my friends and just to keep it for future references. One day, my ortho suggested I create a blog because she loved them so much :) and recommended that I take a look at one of her friend's beauty blogs and I instantly was excited to make one! And here we are now :)

 Here are the people who I am awarding:
(Sorry if you have over 200 followers! I can't see how many you have on some of the blogs)

http://enigmatic-rambles.blogspot.co.uk/
http://justtalknails.blogspot.co.uk/
http://nailpron.blogspot.co.uk/
http://nearlynaturalnails.blogspot.co.uk/
http://polishedart.blogspot.co.uk/
http://prettykittyclaws.blogspot.co.uk/
http://thecolourandthesparkle.blogspot.co.uk/
http://nevermindsuzi.blogspot.co.uk/
http://wendysdelights.blogspot.co.uk/
http://volatilevarnish.blogspot.co.uk/

My questions:

1. What inspired you to blog originally?
2. How many times a week do you paint your nails?
3. What's your favourite manicure?
4. What's your least favourite?
5. Where do you store your nail varnish?
6. What is the nail product that you desire the most & is on your wishlist?
7. What's your favourite brand of nail varnish?
8. Which Base/Top coat do you find the most effective?
9. What inspired nail art is on the horizon for you?
10. Do you like to use any other types of material on your nails? Eg. studs, glitter, lace?
11. What do your friends and family think of your hobby?

Looking forward to reading all of the responses! :)

Brown Skittle Manicure

Good evening my lovely blog readers :)

Today I have a mani for you that did take quite a bit of time and many layers of nail varnish. It also involves my favourite nail varnish at the moment which I have mentioned many times before! That's right, folks, it's my Particuliére shade by Chanel! This baby was expensive, but so worth the money.

I do believe that a 'skittle' manicure consists of a different pattern/design on each nail (apart from nail art being spired by the sweets - Skittles... That's for another day :P) So here is my take on 'skittle' nails, the nail varnishes and the brushes which I used for this design...

 

Lefty

Righty

So parts of this mani involved 3 main brushes that I tend to use and the rest of it I used my stamps and stamping kit - especially on my right hand... Wasn't the easiest free handing it, to be honest.

 

The thin brown brush at the top was used for
thin-ish lines (Cross), the middle square brush
was used for the black glitter/gold line & the
thin white brush was used for the legendary
moustache!

 

I must say, these plates have come in pretty handy - great thing to invest in!

Here are the nail varnishes I used:

 

Left to Right:
Particuliére - Chanel, Base/Top Coat - Barry M, Black - Beauty UK,
Metallic Saturn - w7, Cosmic Black - w7

I know I actually use these colours quite a lot but they're pretty basic and make really good base coats due to their versatility! I think this mani was pretty self-explanatory (hence the lack of writing..) It wasn't really inspired by anything, just random patterns and designs I felt like clumping together :)

 

 

Give it a go and let me know what you think! x

 



Surprise Swatch!

Now here's something I really didn't expect to be doing...

So I went to my very good friend's BBQ yesterday and had a lovely time catching up with everyone as well as screaming at the TV during Olympic finals, despite feeling hugely self-conscious of my natural but very stained looking nails. How could I forget to paint my nails? - I know, right. To be honest I can be pretty forgetful and clumsy a lot of the time and it just slipped my mind whilst getting ready.

Its totally true when a nail blogger says: Nail varnish has stained my nails I never want to wear it again... Wait, I need to cover up these horrible stains! :(

Eventually, I gave in and asked my friend, Emmi, for some nail varnish and she presented  me with some beauties :D Immediately, I took ... Sorry, I mean borrowed her 'Cuckoo For This Color' by OPI! I know it's a massively known brand and it's pretty damn expensive so I actually hadn't tried any of them out yet, until this very night! Now I realise why it's so loved and why it requires lots of pennies...

(Sorry for the lack of quality photos and the lack of photos themselves, I was painting them whilst watching Tom Daley dive on the absolute edge of my seat and then screamed when it was a good dive - multi-tasking to the max)

As I said, I don't enjoy reading swatch posts very much and so I keep them to a minimum in case others feel the same, but when I saw this amazing deep green/dark teal coloured nail varnish from OPI's Fall 2010 Swiss Collection, I thought it was a must blog. I really do like the versatility of this polish as it pretty much compliments whatever you're wearing.

 The thing I really liked about this polish is that the brush is a good thickness to prevent it going all horrible and clogged up when you apply it, also with one coat the colour was pretty sharp and deep alone, but I always prefer to do two coats for a neat finish and you could see a little bit of my nail.

I've come to the conclusion that I need to invest in some OPI nail varnishes!
Thank you to my good friend Emmi for this surprise swatch :)
xx

Day 8 *Black & White Challenge* - Peter Pan Collar

After a while of having a 'nail block' in terms of the Black & White Challenge, I finally came up with a bit of nail art that I thought was good enough to be in here. Although it's taken a while, I have a design for day 8 of the challenge which was to be 'inspired by fashion' and a recent fashion that has caught my eye is the 'Peter Pan Collar'. I see it everywhere and I love the look it adds to an outfit! You can look smart but quirky :) I don't have many items of clothing with this kind of collar, but I know I'll be investing in some very soon!

So here is my take on the Peter Pan Collar :)

To do this design, I used half moon stickers to create the crescent shape near my cuticles.
Nail varnishes: Base/Top Coat - Barry M, Black - Beauty UK, White - Barry M
Also a thin brush for details and to neaten up the collars.

This mani was pretty parallel in terms of style with my previous 'Tuxedo' post which you can find here.

And there you have it - essentially Peter Pan nails!
Thank you for reading :) x

Day 1:White Base With Black

Day2: Black Base With White

Day3: White/Black Inspired By A Band

Day 4: Black With Glitter

Day 5: Coloured Base With Black/White

Day 6: Gradient Base With Black
Day 7: Black/White Half Moon Manicure
Day 8: Black/White Inspired By Fashion

London 2012 Olympic Nails!

Hey guys!

So recently I've done my bit to support TEAM GB in the London Olympics 2012 and did my own design on my very own nails :D

Sadly, I don't have tickets to the event, though watching it on tv is exciting as it is. I genuinely didn't think I would be anywhere near this supportive or into the Olympics, as the prolonged build up to it was getting tedious. Though I'm fully involved and I must say I have had quite a few compliments on my nail efforts towards the Olympics :P

This is the extent that I went to... My orthodontist insisted
on team GB colours (minus the white - it turns a weird
colour when you eat) except she only did it on certain
teeth due to the straightness?!

The olympic circles did get a bit messy because I did them SO many times... But I kinda just
stuck with this attempt.

For this design, lots of various nail varnishes were used:

Sunshine - Rimmel, Jungle Fever - LA COLORS

Metallic Saturn - W7, Navy - Barry M

White - Barry M, Black - Beauty UK

Heart On Fire - Rimmel, Base/Top Coat - Barry M & studs

Was really looking forward to doing another manicure with something different on each nail and LOVE studs so had to include them on the gold pinky finger for team gb :)

I used my thin brush for the details and a dotting tool to help me apply the studs as I usually do with my studded blog posts. This one did take a while to be honest, accuracy and patience was needed! Though luckily I had a day free to just sit, paint and watch the Olympiads on my telly :)

I'm pretty impressed with Team GB and their successes, at the moment they're 4th in the table of medals!

So lets all hope that Team GB get far in the London 2012 Olympics! :)

Shattered Dreams

So my 18th birthday was on July 3rd and I got some new 'full nail' stamps! Was immensely excited to use them and I finally have a chance to do a post on them now :)

They're not the originals, but they work just as well and you can get them off of Amazon in a bundle for a good price ;) Really had trouble with picking one design to do today and I can't wait to use the rest :)

Here is my final design...

Apologies for the messyness!
I actually made my very own light box with a few techniques I learnt in my
Photography AS in terms of lighting and it's made a brilliant difference to
my photos :) Also they're very easy to make! Search on google and plenty of people
have tutorials?

Stamping plate I used

LOVE the shattered effect - hence 'Shattered Dreams' ?

Thought this post was pretty self explanatory? :P