NOTD: StarGazer 'Shake & Bling Challenge'

Hi again my Beauties. I am very excited about today's post as it was fun to do and I am very pleased with the results. I was contacted by StarGazer's PR to do the 'Shake & Bling Challenge'. The idea is that I had to pick a pack of Nail Diamonds, along with a Polish, a Glitter Shaker and a Nail Art Pen of my choice from StarGazer.

These were the products that I chose. Left to right: Opal Nail Polish in 241, the Nail Art Pen in Silver and the Glitter Shaker in White. The Nail Adhesive is shown here, but the Nail Diamonds are not as they were so small I don't think you would be able to see them. Here is a link to them on the website Link :)

Opal Nail Polish 241 ~ £2.00

Nail Art Pen Silver ~ £3.00

Glitter Shaker White ~ £3.00

Nail Diamonds Clear ~ £2.50

I did not pay for these products. They were sent to me in order to take part in this challenge, but all opinions in this post are my own.

I was allowed to use any base coat and top coat that I have of my own so I used my Rimmel base coat and my Seche Vite Top Coat. Now I had to create my own nail art design with all of these products, explain how I did it in a blog post and tweet about it. So here is what I came up with.

Step 1: I applied my Rimmel Base Coat.

Step 2: I applied 3 coats of the Opal Nail Polish 241. I usually only apply 2 coats of any nail polish, but this has a slightly translucent finish and my yellow stained nails were showing through. The third coat solved this easily and as it dries so quickly this wasn't a problem, I love that this polish has multi tones to it. I would describe it as a soft pink with a holographic twist.

Step 3: When I applied my 3rd coat of polish to each nail I sprinkled the Glitter Shaker in White all over each nail so that it would stick to the polish. Make sure when doing this that you have something underneath your hand for the excess glitter to fall onto. This is a really pretty glitter as it has other colours reflecting within it. I think it matches really well with this polish. This glitter can be used on nails, hair and the body.

The Nail Art Pen can be used with the pen part if you wish for dotting etc, but I did not use this part.

There is a pin attached to the bottom of the Nail Art Pen which I believe is for unclogging the nib of the pen part when the polish dries up in that area.

Step 4: I used the striper brush part of the Nail Art Pen in Silver to apply a french tip to my pinkie and middle fingers and my thumb only. I found this much easier to do a french tip than using a regular nail polish brush as it did not overlap onto my skin at the edges of my nail so there was no mess for me to clean up. A great discovery.

Step 5: I then applied one square/diamond Nail Diamond to each hand and the smaller Nail Diamonds in various ways to the nails as in the photos shown. I found it very difficult to use the nail adhesive that came with the nail gems as it kept on sticking the diamonds to my tweezers so I just applied a little of my Seche Vite Top Coat to where I wanted the nail diamond to go and they stuck nicely.

Step 6: I finished off with a coat of the Seche Vite Top Coat all over each nail and voila my design was done.  

I am heading off to Olympia Beauty tomorrow and will definitely be seeing what I can find at the StarGazer stand. Will any of you Beauties be there? Did you take part in this challenge? If so what design did you come up with? Did you like the products? Have you got any StarGazer nail or other product favourites? Tell me what you think of my design.

Love to you all