Illamasqua - Speckle

Today I'm having to reach into the archives to find a polish I haven't posted yet. I did a gorgeous mani but the ever so cute puppy is teething and scraped most of the polish off on one finger. Good thing I love him. This is Speckle by Illamasqua and the colour is gorgeous. I've tried some Hard Candy speckle type polishes and they are ver pretty too but this one was just that little bit easier to apply as you'd expect from a higher class brand. I know people are divided over the new speckle look but I quite like it, it's something a little different and every now and then you need a polish that is a more subtle glitter bomb.

These photos make me miss my longer nails, but they'll grow again. I also really miss nail art but I'm lucky at the moment to get polish on and not bitten that I just don't have time for nail art. Like my nails though the puppy will grow too - thank god lol.

Well I can say TGIF, I need a weekend! Hope you all enjoy your day x

Hard Candy - Gummy Green

I really like this new speckle trend, it's something different which is always good to see. In my hunt for the perfect speckled polish I came across this US brand Hard Candy and had to try it, of course the green one. I wasn't sure when the bottle arrived but now it's on I like it. It applied beautifully and there was an abundance of glitter. I don't think I like it as much as my DIY speckled nails but I do like it. 

It's different to anything else I own. I'm waiting on the arrival of my Illamasqua Speckled, so it will be good to compare when that arrives,

Yay it's Friday!!! Hope today goes quickly for everyone :)

DIY Speckled Nails

I can't find anywhere to buy Illamasqua Speckled polishes so thought I would try the amazing tutorial by Lucy's Stash on how to make your own. I used pastels from the butter London sweetie shop and Zoya Blu. A lesson I learnt is polish choice does matter. I don't have the Models Own pastels that were used in the tutorial and thought butter London were sheer enough but they weren't, Zoya Blu was even worse and far too opaque.

I followed the tutorial right up to adding a thin coat over the first coat of Nubar black polka dots. The thin coat completely covered the dots :(. So then I started dabbing at the wet coat with the polish brush and it removed enough to be able to see the dots. I had to repeat the process in the next step of adding the last polish where you do only place the polish in some areas. In the end I am happy with how they came out but do want to warn that not all polishes are equal and it may take a little more work to get the desired look. It wasn't really possible with Zoya Blu as it was to opaque and started to dig holes in the polish so I swapped to Essie Borrowed and Blue which worked much better than Zoya.

Colours Used

Pink (which worked the best) butter London - Fruit Machine - Index finger

Purple butter London - Molly Coddled - middle finger

Green butter London - Fiver - ring finger

orange butter London - Kerfuffle - pinkie

blue - Zoya Blu and Essie borrowed and Blue - pinkie

Dots - Nubar Black Polka Dots.

It's pretty with an Easter feel to it and it was worth the extra work :) Thanks Lucy's Stash for a great tutorial!

How to dab at polish to remove enough so that's it's slightly transparent.