Winter Inspired Frosty Nails

I always try to be a courteous host whenever people come over to my house, but I recently found that some sugar I had purchased to go with tea had gone well past its sell-by date (I literally know nobody who has sugar with their tea!). But I didn't want to simply throw the sugar away, so I decided to use it for a bit of nail art. The end result was a very frosty look nail, which really suits this colder time of year.

What I did is very straight-forward. First up, I simply prepped my nails.

Then I painted on a further coat of clear top coat nail polish and whilst it was still wet, I dipped it in to the sugar. For the best results, you need a coarser sugar with bigger crystals. I used granulated sugar.

And here is how it turned out! Afterwards, I simply cleaned up around the edges. You could use a cotton bud dipped in nail polish remover, but I found I only had a few stray sugar crystals and I was simply able to brush them off. One thing that is important is to make sure the sugar crystals are firmly pressed on to your nails. I did attempt to cover the sugary nails with a further top coat to seal the sugar, but I found that if you used too much it started to dissolve the sugar and the final effect wasn't so effective. It does mean you risk brushing sugar crystals off when you do this art. If I were to do this for a meet, I would prep and colour my nails first and just do the sugar layer at the last minute. It is very quick to do, especially if you have a quick drying top coat and your sugar laid out on a small plate for quick application.

After trying the look with just the sugar, I decided to try it over coloured nails and it worked so much better. I just made sure that the coloured polish was completely dry before applying an extra layer of top coat and sugar. I definitely recommend experimenting with colours. I went for a cool lilac colour but I could see this working with deeper, warmer colours as well. 

So I think I may have found a cheap and effective way of doing nail art. The good news is I have plenty of sugar to practice with and hopefully improve the final effect. It doesn't look too impressive in my photos, but in person the sugar sparkles and catches the light. It really does look at though my nails are covered in frost. I think the key is to use thin layers of polish. And one final warning- which sort of goes without saying- no matter how tempting, do not lick your sugary fingers! I am pretty sure that nail polish doesn't taste so good...

Easter Egg Nails

Happy Easter for Sunday! I am hopefully seeing friends and off to my mum's house for a traditional Sunday roast dinner this weekend. Also, I am hoping for lots of chocolate! It looks like here in the UK we will still be freezing cold as the weather is still very bad here. Lately I have been curling up near the heater and not doing very much.

But I did take the time to do some Easter themed nails the other evening. They are inspired by Easter eggs.

They look a bit messy because my hands were very unsteady. I thought drawing ovals would be simple! I drew different patterns on each nail. I decided on a pink/lavender/white colour scheme, seeing as this is currently one of my favourite colour combinations.

Does it look like an Easter egg? I hope it does!

And this is my right hand. I prefer the left hand because it is easier to draw on that hand.

I have been thinking up some Spring inspired outfits but the UK hasn't even seen Spring yet! For now I will just have to settle for brightly coloured nails.

MUA Nail Constellation Nail Kit

So back in July I made a post about a Caviar Nail kit by Ciate- http://luna-rain.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/ciate-caviar-manicure-set.html

In the end, I never got around to buying the Ciate kit. Since then, there have been cheaper versions made. So I decided to buy one from MUA. If you live in the UK, you can find MUA in Superdrug. Since buying this kit, I have also discovered that Primark have released their own version. The colours don't look as varied in the Primark kit, but I will try and get one to see how it compares to the MUA one.

These kits cost £3 and you would probably get a couple of uses out of a bottle. MUA have 5 different colours as part of their Constellation collection. I decided to go for Libra, which is black with some green mixed in.

 I did a bit of a test run, painting just one of my thumbs. Whilst my nail polish was still wet, I poured the balls over. I managed to get a very decent coverage and you could only spot my lavender nail polish around the edges, where I missed. I will spend more time focusing on the edges next time. The instructions suggested to press the balls on the nails, so that it what I did. The finishing result was a nail that looked like it had been dipped in caviar! It gave a nice 3D effect but at the same time, the balls were not too bulky. This makes it quite easy to wear and it didn't catch my nail on anything as I went about my daily business. I did wonder just how secure the balls would be so I decided to see how well it would last after I had been to bed. The following morning I had only lost a few balls at the very tip of my nail. When I say a few, it really was only a few balls and the majority of my nail was not affected at all. I couldn't even find any bits that had fallen off lying about anywhere. My nail also survived the shower. So I would say that the kit is quite strong. You could probably get away with wearing it for a couple of days and you would only need to top up the edges.

My only complaint is the packaging. The plastic top was so stiff, that when I first opened it, I managed to spill beads all over me. I understand that this is so that the kit wont spill out while being stored, but it was very frustrating. The lid doubles up as a funnel to get the leftover beads back in to the pot once you are done. I found that the funnel didn't work that well because it had a thick rim that the beads kept getting caught on. Most of the beads ended up clinging to the funnel instead of going back in the pot. I found it quicker to put the beads back in by hand.

But despite some problems I had with the packaging, I think the kit is definitely worth £3. It is incredibly cheap compared to the Ciate kit. The Constellation Collection colours are also very interesting, with loads of different metallic coloured beads. I only got the Libra kit, but I was very tempted by the Gemini kit which is a  mix of pink, blue and silver. I would definitely recommend the MUA kit and would buy it again.

Ciate Caviar Manicure Set

I have been looking in to doing more interesting things with my nails at the moment. I have noticed that in the past, I have mainly been doing more decorative nails with sweet lolita, but not much with classic lolita. I don't know why, because there are lots of different things you could do for classic lolita too. I am always saving tutorials that look interesting, regardless of the style they suit!

A huge factor of how I do my nails is how difficult they are to do. And so, I like to research kits. A couple of weeks ago, I found out about Ciate "Caviar" manicure sets. I initially discovered the black set, but then I found out they come in 3 colours.

Basically, the kits include very tiny pearls, which has the texture of caviar, and a nail polish. This is the Mother of Pearl version. Although it is meant to look like caviar, I think they look a lot like very tiny pearls. I reckon this kit would be perfect for classic lolita! It has a nice finish to it.

I don't see why you would have to use the nail polish colour provided alongside the pearls, so it would be interesting to play around and see what combinations work and what effects you can create. I am thinking about using a more off-white, creamy colour so it looks the same colour as standard pearls. Another idea I thought of was going to Claire's Accessories to buy some really cheap pearl bracelets, breaking them, and then adding on individual pearls, so that the pearls are different sizes and adds a bit more depth.

Without seeing this kit for myself, I wont know how easy it is to use. But I am considering getting the kit, and if I do then I will review it here! The kits cost about £18. You can probably DIY these nails for a lot less than that, but the kit has the advantage of being quicker and hopefully, easier. Either way, I am very curious!

The Alice Day That Never Was :(

As you may have gathered, I was unable to attend this year's Alice Day meet. I was unwell and the last thing I felt like doing was walking about in the wet weather! So after declining the event, I decided to put my Alice Day outfit on anyway, just to wear around the house. Seeing as I had gone to the effort of making an outfit, I felt it would have been a shame not to wear it.

I was meant to be a Playing Card! I would have worn Starry Night Theatre, but I knew Louise was wearing it and Beau wore Wonder Cookie last year. So I didn't want it to look like I was just being lazy and copying somebody! I just want to say, that I am NOT happy with how my outfit turned out. To be honest, I didn't really put much effort in to it and I think it is really missing something. It is my own fault though, because I didn't leave myself much time to plan my outfit and I had already ruled out 2 potential dresses. Next year, I intend to plan things a bit more in advance and take my time. It has been a bit difficult lately because I am now self-employed and I have had more stuff to pack in. So yeah, the idea was that the 2 hearts on the blouse represented the playing card (it probably would have looked better if I had made it look more playing card-like). I had some playing cards attached to my skirt and perhaps I could have pinned a load on to make it look like a floating playing card print (only, in 3D!). 

I made 2 more playing card bows and attached them to my shoes. They could have been done a lot neater. I was wearing the same socks as last year. If you look up Alice Day, there are actually pictures of my socks everywhere! They were even used to advertise the event on Facebook. There was also a full picture of me used on a few websites as well.

The colour scheme was red, black and white and a few hints of gold with my jewellery and card bow (attached to my head bow).

I spent ages on these nails! Writing the 'A's was really difficult. I definitely need a bit more practise writing letters. In the end, I had to use a cocktail stick in addition to my nail art pen because the cocktail stick was thinner. The hearts are stickers. I decided to save time by making some my own nail art stickers. This gave me more time to concentrate on the trickier part. I am hoping to improve as time goes on.

So I was a little disappointed at not going to Alice Day but my outfit was not exactly spectacular! It was just a shame I didn't get to go and do some of the activities. There were some really fun sounding ones this year. I hope I am able to attend next year. Hopefully I wont be ill next time!

Ox Loli Meet April 2012!

It is time for another Oxfordshire Lolita meet post! We were meant to be having a picnic but sadly, the weather was not being nice to us. I had made these really nice cheesecake brownies and now my husband and I have a whole batch to ourselves! I even dyed the cheesecake bits pink! Have you ever eaten pink cheesecake before? It is definitely more fun. Sadly, the weather stopped a few people from coming, which is  a shame.

I wore my Bodyline strawberry cream skirt. As you can see, I was wearing the bow my friend kindly made for me. Sadly, because of the wind I was unable to do my hair in the way I wanted, so please be aware that I know the bow looks a little bit unbalanced! I also think that the colour is a bit unbalanced but I didn't leave enough time to go and change my bolero for my red cardigan. Aside from those 2 points, I do quite like this outfit. It is pretty much all Bodyline and off-brand.

I own so many bits of strawberry themed jewellery, that it was great to actually use some of them! My favourite is of course my Angelic Pretty Strawberry Chan bangle. It is one of my favourite pieces. The sparkly bow ring is Chocomint and I am also wearing my Lyrical Bunny gumdrop ring. The rest are off-brand. The Swablu bracelet was a little off-theme but I wanted some blue jewellery to match my skirt!

I was so happy to see Beau in lolita again. And of course, I had to get a piece of her bag! Nom!

Oxford is a beautiful city, but we struggle to find sheltered areas to take photos. Stupid weather! We ended up outside the Ashmolean Museum in this little pathway bit. It has these alcoves, so we were able to pose in them.

Considering the wind, I think it was pretty brave of us all to put our parasols up. There are actually some silly photos of me on Facebook attempting to put up my Baby parasol and failing miserably... Now, I forgot what some people were wearing so I can only do the people I remember for this. Here it goes...

In the middle- Raine in DoL Fantastic Dolly
Clockwork (starting from me)- Me (Bodyline), Sammi (AP Happy Garden), Nicola (handmade), Roxy, Amber (Bodyline Antique Clock), Beau (AP Polka Dot Chocolate), Olwen (Bodyline floral dress) and Louise.

I didn't get any good shots of my nails until the following day and they were looking a bit rough by then! I basically used my nail art pens to draw dripping cream on to my blue nails. Then to finish off, I drew a strawberry on both of my thumbs.

It was a real shame about the picnic being cancelled but hopefully, we will be able to have a picnic some other time. But it was really great to see everybody again. I didn't go to the March meet and the February meet feels like ages ago now. I did have a good day and hopefully, so did everybody else there.

Christmas haul and festive holly nails

Christmas has come and gone and we are about to enter 2012. My Christmas was awesome and I hope all of you had a good time too! Despite being in a post-Christmas daze, I should be back to normal posting next week. In the mean time, I thought I would update you all on all things Luna!

Well, I did say I was going to do some festive nails! I was going to do something very simple but then I had a sudden brainstorm and these are the resulting nails. In the end, I did a holly design with 3D berries. This photo was taken about a day after I did them so they don't look as nice here! Anyway, the nails came about because ages ago, when I was still using clay to make nail pieces, I decided I would make some cherry nails to match a skirt I had. However, I sold the skirt on and I was left with these red balls. So I used them for holly berries instead! I did the leaves and black background with nail pens and it took FOREVER to do. The berries were quite small so they didn't really get in the way like other 3D nails do. The berries were coated with clear polish to give it a more realistic berry look.

And now on to the lolita presents I got. I didn't get much lolita stuff this time because a lot of people gave me money to help pay off my Starry Night Theater dress (and I am now all paid up!) and usually only my husband is brave enough to buy me lolita! But I did get some very nice stuff...

My husband got me these Bodyline shoes. I didn't have any white coloured shoes so these should be very useful. I already own this style of shoe in red, so I knew straight away that I would like them. Even my mother-in-law recognised the design! Out of all my Bodyline shoes, this design is my favourite. They are simple, but with a cute bow. I find them very easy to wear. So I was very happy indeed!

The other thing I was given were these cute Bodyline socks. They have macarons on them! They are so pretty and socks are always a welcome addition to my wardrobe. They are pink and white.

I also got given some basic items such as some new black tights (always useful), make-up and nail polish. I am very grateful for all of the wonderful presents I received. I especially love how my friend Jo got me the best children's book ever-

It is the book we found when a group of us went to London in November! Now I can treasure this story forever.

But I think the stand out present has to be this one from my husband-

I got given a copy of my favourite painting by Edgar Degas! I got to see the real thing earlier this year, which was a huge deal for me because I have been a fan of Degas since I was little. Now I have a copy! I am absolutely ecstatic! It is so beautiful. Now I get to see it every single day.

I have not had many chances to dress in lolita recently because of Christmas (apart from the outfits which are viewable on my Lookbook) and also, because we finally got around to getting a wardrobe! It is from Ikea and it is so huge that we had to put it in the living room. It is the only place it would fit. So I have been busy sorting out my wardrobe and using the space as best I can. A few people have asked me to do a wardrobe post and there should be a post coming soon!

So I wish you all a Happy New Year for Sunday! Stay safe and have fun!

Devil nails for Halloween!

Happy Halloween everybody! I hope everybody is having a fun time today. I decided to have a little fun and painted a devil design on my nails in celebration.

I painted this design fairly quickly and it is very simple. The mouth was a zigzag with a semi-circle painted underneath, and then I filled the space in. The eyes were 2 diagonal lines which I fleshed out to look more eye shaped. It is pretty hard to mess these up because if it goes wonky, it just makes the face look more creepy!

I used red and black for a devil design. I think an orange and black pumpkin design could look cute too. Originally, I intended to do the red and black colours the other way around but it was only when I was half way through doing my first hand that I noticed my mistake! But it still worked out fairly well! My only concern was making sure I used the red nail polish first, just in case it didn't show up that well if I painted it on top of black.

So this was very easy. It probably would have looked a lot nicer if I had spent more time on it, but I just wanted something quick and fun to do.

July Ox Loli meet- Luna hosts a meet at Alice Day!

I would have updated earlier today but I have been very tired. It has been a long hectic weekend. I have hosted a lolita meet for the very first time! It took a lot of planning but thankfully, everything came together. Earlier this year, it was decided I would host the July Oxfordshire Lolita meet. Originally, I was going to hold a scavenger hunt but I realised that the day we were going was the same day as Alice Day. If you were reading my blog around this time last year, you may remember I attended Alice Day last year with my husband. I thought I should make the most of the date clash and so, the meet became an Alice Day meet!

We spent the day at Oxford Castle eating my picnic and getting in to all sorts of immature japes. We even made it in to the local paper! I will hopefully get a scan of the paper at some point. It was a very interesting day. People kept mistaking us for performers which was funny!

I took full advantage of the fact that I already had an Alice inspired outfit in my wardrobe. I have always loved the imagery from the book.

Skirt and cutsew and waist bow (worn on head)- Bodyline

Shoes- Unknown (from Minky Shop)

Socks- offbrand (stall in Camden)

Accessories- various off-brand

I had various playing cards stuck all over me. I had all 4 Aces on my leg and the Queen of Hearts was attached to my chest. My shoes are so OTT. I need to wear them more often. They remind me of Cardcaptor Sakura! The heels are made of foam which is very soft to walk on.

I cut up some playing cards to make some nail art. If they look rushed, it is because they were!

For the picnic I provided loads of food such as cupcakes, sandwiches, various salad bits, crisps, tarts and lots more. I got some plain blue cups and added Drink Me on one side and an Alice sticker on the other side.

The plates had Alice printed on them and I also had some Eat Me tags. Originally, the tags were meant for the cupcakes but that idea didn't work well so I tied them to lollipops instead.

There was a croquet set laid out on the garden. Nicola and Naomi (dressed as Alice and the Red Queen) decided to do their own version of croquet instead! Oxford Castle even remembered to include some lawn flamingos (bottom left!).

We got to hold some cute little bunnies. Some were really tiny. I was a little scared I was going to drop the one I held. We held our picnic very close to the bunnies so we got to see them whilst we ate.

There was also a giant chess board! We decided to make it look as though Nicola had just fallen down on to the chessboard, which is why she looks a little dead here. Sadly, I forgot where some people got their clothes from so I have just included information I remembered.

From left to right we have-

Raine (as the Mad Hatter in Meta's Romantica Train), Louise (awesome waistcoat! I think she was doing the Mad Hatter too but I am not sure!), Jenni (as the white rabbit in Moitie), Sammi (as the Cheshire Cat in another cute salopette), Me (as Alice/Card Sentry hybrid, see outfit rundown above), Beau (as Alice in Angelic Pretty's Wonder Cookie), Sophie (wearing Alice and the Pirate's Scent of Rapunzel), Olwen (in Bodyline).

And on the chess board we have Nicola as Alice (handmade items).

We were joined by 2 newbies- Sophie and Olwen. Both of you were absolutely lovely and I hope you attend more meets in the future! You both looked lovely!

I also made a game- Pin the tail on the Cheshire Cat! It took me a couple of hours to paint this by hand. Louise won some Colin the Caterpillar sweeties and a teacup necklace (to continue the Alice theme).

Despite feeling a little tired, I had a great day and the others have told me they enjoyed it too. I will definitely hold more meets in the future. Now I really want to attend Alice Day again next year. Next year it will be the 150th Anniversary of the day Lewis Caroll originally told the story of Alice in Wonderland to the real life Alice- Alice Lidell. I believe next year it will be held on the exact same day of the anniversary too. I can't wait!

Strawberry nails- 2nd attempt

I was intending to wear my new Bodyline skirt with the strawberry print over the weekend but sadly, the meet I was attending got cancelled. For part of my planned outfit I decided to paint my nails to look like strawberries.

I should point out that I am not doing any more 3D nails with the deco clay right now. The reason is, I was getting annoyed with the clay. I spent ages making stuff but I was not happy with the end results. So it seemed pointless wasting my time. I am focusing on painting, stickers and jewels now.

For these nails I used a nail art kit which I found brand new in a charity shop for £3. I was very pleased with myself when I found it! These kits can cost 10 times what I paid. It has all the colours of the rainbow and black and white too. The bottles have a thin brush and a nib for the more detailed parts.

These are the results-

Bear in mind this was my first attempt at using the kit! The green dried a bit darker than I was expecting and I think the green part is a little wide on a few of the nails.

To do the yellow polka dots I used the thin nib part. I did the dots in rows so they looked neater. I thought doing the yellow bits would be the hardest part but it was surprisingly simple!

This is how they looked yesterday-

I did the nail art last Thursday so they don't look as good as they did.

Solo nail shot! I think I needed to make the green lines sharper. I should have done it with the nib but I used the thin brush. At least I know that for next time. The top coat I used was very shiny so it took me ages to get these photographs!

These took me about an hour to do. I could have spent a bit longer and maybe they would have looked better. I will be doing my nails like this in the future too.

The trouble is... I can't bear to get rid of the strawberries now! I am going to a meet on Saturday and I wont be wearing my strawberry skirt. By Saturday my nails will probably look chipped. You can already see in the last 2 photos that my nail has started growing at the bottom.

These nails may be going soon but they will be back...

Outfit Post 18th December 2010

I finally got around to uploading some photos! I said I would post some images from my lolita meet on the 18th but sadly it got cancelled. I was really unprepared and the transport was bad so I ended up taking a few photos in the back garden before taking shelter.

As you can see my coat from Bodyline was keeping me very warm and toasty. I think this coat had just the right sort of thickness. I was warm but not boiling hot. And now for a picture of a snow soaked me sat in the kitchen!

I may be smiling but you can see I am not impressed. I almost decided not to post this photo because my hair looks so bad! I am wearing my favourite Bodyline skirt. I do have the matching bag (not shown) and the bow but I chose a different bow because it was incredibly hard to shape it. It sticks out at an odd angle. So I used a pink bow that came with a dress I got from GLP in Camden. Also, I am wearing a necklace which my friend Saija made for me!

I was also wearing the luna nails I made but I had to remove them because somehow I managed to trap a nerve under one of my real nails. So sadly, they have since been destroyed but I hope to make another set.

Hopefully 2011 will see me attending even more meets and I would love to keep improving this blog. Fingers crossed!

Strawberry Nails Forever...

They are finally finished! The strawberries alone took me 2 and a half hours. I felt like a zombie after completing these.

The strawberries are a little on the large side (I wanted them to stand out and get noticed!) and a few got a little dented because certain family members decided to pick them up before I cooked them (*cough* Ros and James) but I still like them! I felt the strawberries were enough of a statement so these nails don't have any mini gems on them but the pink nail polish had a slight hint of glitter.

The plan is to wear these with my Bodyline dress with the strawberries. I am not sure when I am next going to wear this dress but at least my nails are sorted.

The start of my deco nail adventure

I totally forgot to mention my nails!

A few weeks ago I purchased some Polymer clay. My original intention was to make some earrings from a tutorial I found but instead I have found myself making some deco nails!

As it stands, I have only finished one set of nails (a second set is almost complete). I have made these luna inspired nails for a lolita meet I am attending next Saturday.

As you can see they are a bit on the large side but I still love them! I am hoping that when it comes to taking them off I can try and save them so I can wear them again. I am feeling a little worried about how I am going to go about everyday tasks but since when have deco nails been practical? The outfit I am wearing has a lot of stars on it so I am making a bit of a running theme. It was originally meant to be horse themed but I found out that I don't have enough horsey items.

It is the second set of nails I am making which have caused a lot of problems. Polymer clay is so easy to use compared to acrylics but it can be incredibly tedious. I have not used moulds or anything and I have tried to make sure that the shapes are the same size. So the ones going on the thumbs have to be the same size etc. For this second pair of nails I have made some very plump strawberries. I was working with 3 different clay colours and just for that one set of nails I spent 2 and a half hours sculpting the clay. I could have made it a bit easier by leaving out the yellow seeds but I thought they looked cuter with seeds in. So I was working with these tiny bits of yellow clay so small I couldn't pick them up. I had to use a cocktail stick to push the yellow bits into the holes I had made. When I have finished these nails and post a picture it will probably make more sense why I got so stressed out.

Despite how long I have spent on 2 pairs of nails I will only wear a few times, I am very pleased with the results. Considering this is my first time decorating nails, I am really pleased with the results. The luna nails look a lot better in person and I can't wait to wear them. I am going to continue with the clay but I plan to buy a couple of ready made pieces like mini waffles and cookies to make things that little bit easier. www.etsy.com is the best place to buy deco bits. Eventually I want to move on to acrylics but this probably wont be for a while yet.

However, there is one problem. The harsh Winter weather has totally sapped the moisture out of my hands so they have gone all cracked and sore. England has suffered from a bad cold spell and even my gloves couldn't save my poor hands. I have one week to get my hands in a better state so I can show off my nails worn. Hopefully they will be less red by the meet!