Girl Meets Desert

whatshouldwecallme:

whatshouldwecallme:

whatshouldwecallme:

Konad Stamping Tutorial

This is an excellent tutorial showing how the Konad stamping system can be used.

Thanks Meliney!

Today I fancied something a little more elegant (plus I wanted to try out my new Konad stamping plates) so I thought i would mix and match a few design ideas.  I kind of love the finished effect!  What do you think?

I started with a base coat of my all-time favourite nude colour, 

then added turquoise details using manicure guides (my hand isn’t all that steady yet!)

After peeling off the guides (very carefully so as not to take my base coat with them!) I used metallic silver polish on my Konad stamp for a subtle, pretty finish.

Not a great photo, but you can just about see the silver detailing.  I finished my ring finger nails with a small, bow-shaped crystal for a bit of sparkle.

The stamp I used was on Konad plate BM01.

The Nude polish is Ciaté in My Fair Lady.

The Turquoise polish is Essie in Mint Candy Apple.

The Silver polish is Barry M 319 Foil Effects.

Still getting the hang of the whole ‘nail stamping’ thing, I’m going to have a look for a good tutorial and will reblog it here.

A new take on Red, White and Blue for Team GB - not sure in hindsight it looks particularly British though!

I’ve painted my index finger Gold to celebrate the amazing gold medals being won by our athletes in Team GB! 

For the patterned nails, I started with two coats of white and used manicure strip guides to get a perfect crescent.  I used a thin brush for the contrasting lines and finished each nail off with a gem.

This week the famille & I were really lucky to get tickets for Day 6 of the Olympic Rowing at Eton Dorney!  I had my first attempt at GB Union Jack flag nailart (thanks to my baby sis for lending me her nails!) - not brilliant but from a distance they look pretty cool.

We had a great day, melting our patriotic face-paint in the (patchy) British sunshine and screaming the Team GB rowers to Silver in the Lightweight Men’s Four!  Congratulations to  Chris Bartley, Rob Williams, and Richard & Peter Chambers for a fantastic row against dubious conditions… and of course to all the other fantastic GB rowers who gave their all.

After the last final, we hit the ‘Get Involved’ tent where we tried out rowing and canoeing (much harder than they look!)

I managed to row only 5m off the Women’s Leader Board for the day!

Heading to the buses back to civilisation, we bumped into the newly-crowned medallists -  look at the cracking close-ups we managed to get!

It was a really great day - and credit where credit is due, the entire event was extremely well-organised.  We didn’t have to queue for anything except breakfast, transport was regular and not too crowded, and we were staggered upon leaving the venue to prevent crowding on the way out.  Very sensible, London 2012.

Very excited about the next event we’ll be viewing in person - the Men’s 10m Diving Semi-Final on Monday!

My aunt asked me to create something with a little bit of colour, around the idea of a French Manicure.

This is what I came up with:

Just getting the hang of ‘dotting’ - only have one tool so far but the rest are on their way.  I did a traditional French mani, then painted a gold stripe underneath followed by green detailing and cute green crystals on both ring fingers.

The varnish I’ve used for this mani is all Barry M:

66 Matt White
299 Racing Green
320 Foil Effect Gold 

Check out my version of these cute Peter Pan collar nails!  

A big thank-you to my cousin for being a nail model!  This was my first attempt so things aren’t quite as neat as I’d like.  I used standard manicure-guide strips to keep things uniform, and replaced the black dots with black crystal buttons on the thumbs for a bit of added bling!  

As we go along I will start including tutorials for each of the Nail Art posts, but thought I would give you a little taster of what’s to come!

Thank-you to http://blog.flauntme.com for the inspiration.

Welcome to Girl meets Desert, where you will find nail art tutorials, recipes, book reviews, fashion articles, and a bunch of other stuff that you might find interesting!

This is me, Hello!

(Recreating the Titanic scene with Olympic mascot Mandeville, in case you were wondering!)

I’ve just left my job working for a Luxury Fashion brand in London, UK - and at the beginning of September I’m moving to Dubai, UAE.  

So prepare for some fun in the sun, people!

Love, Jen x