NOTD : Leopard Print Hearts

Hey there everyone ! I actually finally managed to do my nails again, and am doing a rather late post tonight as I don't know when I'll even have time to sit down and blog ! I really ought to start doing some revision as I have exams at the end of January, but so far I've been spending my time with family and just enjoying their company (plus my dogs, really enjoying having them around) !

So today's design is based on a jumper I got for Christmas, and I'm obsessed with the pattern ! It isn't exactly as I've done on my nails, but I'll maybe have to try doing it properly on my nails some time soon ! I've never painted large hearts on my nails in a design before, and when I've tried they always turned out wonky in some way, so I'm really glad with the way these ones turned out !

The polishes I used for this design were my standard go-to leopard print colours : OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons, OPI You Don't Know Jacques and then my Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen in black... great combination ! I think the brown polish I use is a little too dark for the heart design I did on my two accent nails, but oh well ! I think there'll be some heart designs coming along in future posts on this blog, perhaps even with some polishes from the Skyfall collection (which I somehow managed to avoid using in today's design ?!) !

I also have some more bonus pictures for you all this evening, all still very leopard print related, so they absolutely deserve a place on this post, just you wait and see !

Here are my mum's nails which I did with her favourite design - leopard print, of course ! She's got acrylics on at the moment which is the perfect excuse for me to do her nails ! She wanted to use one of the Skyfall collection polishes, so I used OPI The World is Not Enough as well as the usual Don't Pretzel My Buttons and my nail art pen !

And here's my top model puppy dog called Puppy, who today got a dog-icure ! I was surprised she actually stayed still long enough for me to do her nails, and I love the leopard print one on the left ! Needless to say they're covered in mud now and chipping away like crazy, but it was a great photo opportunity ! Do you ever paint your pets' nails ?

So that'll be all for today you guys ! I'm going to bed now as it's waaaaaay past my bed time and I'm really quite tired ! I hope you all like my nails today, I definitely do, and I'm loving the hearts ! I'll see you all again soon everyone, and I'll try and get something up for New Year (even though I'm not doing anything apart from a nice meal at home for it) !

NOTD : Funky Skittles

Good evening everyone ! So I've got a quick post for you all tonight as I needed a break from working (even though theoretically it's not really that much of a break as I'm still sat staring at my laptop) ! I've been sat here all day and haven't got half as much done as I would have liked to, but isn't that always the way ? I'm planning on getting up early tomorrow so that I can actually get plenty done, there's no way everything's going to be ready on time otherwise !

So this design is pretty much an amalgamation of every idea I had for my nails today, and being the procrastinator that I am when it comes to taking a break and then struggling to start working again, I, of course, had to do all of them ! Oh well, I really like them, and then at least that way if I don't have time to do my nails tomorrow at some point then I'll be quite content to keep these on for another day !

The nails varnishes I used for this design were P2 Elegant, OPI Every Month is Oktoberfest, American Apparel T Shirt, OPI Don't Pretzel my Buttons, OPI You Don't Know Jacques, Essie Lapiz of Luxury, Essie Splash of Grenadine, Essence Circus Confetti, as well as my Models Own Wah Nails nail art pens in black and blue. I was originally going to do a paisley nail, but once I'd started drawing it I thought it looked awful so I switched design ! Never mind !

Right now I'm going to have to get back to work ! I've almost finished making the Powerpoint presentation for one of two presentations I'm doing next week, plus I'd better get a start on my Italian coursework.. and let's not even mention the 3 essays I've got to write up before the end of the semester ! Ugh.. so much work !

I'll see you all again soon guys, wish me luck with all this work I've got to finish !

NOTD : Leopard and Studs

Well hello there guys ! I've got a super-cool NOTD for you all today which I'm so proud of for some reason, even though they're pretty simple ! As you may know, I mentioned yesterday that I broke a nail whilst swimming (on my right hand, thank god), and so I've chopped down all my nails really quite short (not short short, but shorter than I'm used to). So here goes with my short nails !

So having to deal with the fact that I've now got rather short nails, I went with some trustworthy leopard print, which, in my experience, never fails to look good on tiny nails ! I also decided I haven't used studs in a rather long time, and fancied trying out some square studs for the very first time ! Verdict ? I love them ! I'm thinking I may have to do nails with just studs on in strips on all 10 nails !

For this design I used (once again) polishes from the OPI Germany collection : OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons, OPI Berlin There Done That, OPI Nein! Nein! Nein! OK Fine!, and for the detailing on the leopard print I used my Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen in black. I decided to do the detailing slightly thicker this time, just to see what it would look like, and I really like how it turned out !

And that's it from me for tonight everyone ! I've got a couple of swatch posts for you for tomorrow and Saturday, as I'm going to visit my Grandma this weekend and obviously won't have time to do my nails, let alone blog !

Tune in tomorrow guys, and I'll see you again on Sunday evening !

NOTD : Gradient Leopard Print

Well hello there everybody ! I've got a brand new NOTD for you all today, and I promise you, it won't disappoint... well that's if you like it as much as I do ! I've had the idea for this design stuck in my head for a while now, and only yesterday after my cupcake manicure did I realise that I had the absolutely perfect basecolour for the design.

So this isn't your average gradient leopard print you see going around the nail blogosphere, in fact I don't think I've actually seen this design anywhere before, unless anyone can point me to someone who did it so I can give credit ?

I really love how this turned out, I was a bit dubious at first but the end result looks way better than I had expected ! I may even have to keep this design on for more than just 24 hours.. who knows !

So for this design I used, like yesterday, OPI My Very First Knockwurst, a gorgeous light dusty pastel pink shade from the OPI Germany collection, and then my Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen in black for the leopard details. I can't wait for Models Own to release more colours in these nail art pens, I saw that they have gold and silver ones coming up soon from their Facebook giveaways, but a red one would be amazing ! Might have to pop in to Sally's and get myself one I've seen there !

And that's it everyone ! I hope you like this design, and I hope you like my short nails ! They're really growing on me.. maybe I'll have to start being less lazy about filing them regularly so I can keep them at about this length ! ... So much hard work !

I'll see you all tomorrow, hope you enjoy your evening !

TMH Fashion Week : Betsey Johnson

So hello and welcome to this week's new series : Try My Hand Fashion Week ! I have a full seven days, from Monday to Sunday (whilst I'm preparing my move to uni in the UK), of nail art inspired by fashion designers either fresh from the runway at New York fashion week, or way back from Spring 2012 ! So prepare yourselves for a week of funky prints and bright patterns, it's TMH Fashion Week !

Hey there everyone ! I've got a great design for you all today, as you've probably seen in the title, inspired by Betsey Johnson ! Now although I don't own anything by Betsey, I have been a fan of her designs for quite a while now, they're so bright and fun, and super cute when you recreate them on your nails !

Awesome, right ? This design is from Betsey Johnson's Fall 2012 range, which was full of bright (well, for fall awyway) and bold prints, and I had a hard time choosing which design I was going to recreate in nail art, seeing as I knew from the beginning that I was going to do a Betsey design ! I thought this look was good because I was able to keep it simple on each nail, and not just do the same (plus it had some leopard print in it, always choose the leopard print) !

So to recreate this Betsey design, the polishes I used were American Apparel Hassid for the black, 17 Baked Cherry for the red on my middle finger, P2 Elegant for the nude colour on my thumb and little finger, then I (obviously) used my Models Own Wah Nails nail art pens in black and white for the detail on each nail. I tried a new style of leopard print on the middle finger to represent the shoes, and I was expecting it to turn out slightly bigger than it did, but I think it looks fine how it does, if a little bit small !

I hope you like this Betsey design, I have a feeling I'll be doing more nail art inspired by her designs in the future, I now have a stock in my "inspiration folder" from when I was trying to decide which outfit I would recreate for this series !

Have a great day everybody !

As Seen On : Very Emily

So at this current moment I am on holiday in Cologne (and will be for the next few days), so I've got a whole 6 days of scheduled posts for you, as part of an "As Seen On..." series. So from Monday to Saturday, I'll be featuring some of the very first nail blogs I started reading, bloggers who inspired me to start my very own nail art blog, and re-creating one of their manicures for each day of this series !

Hey there guys ! I can't believe it's the last day of this "As Seen On.." series, and I do really really hope you've enjoyed all these scheduled posts ! It was so hectic to do all the nails and write all the posts, but I've had so much fun doing it ! Today I'll be featuring Emily's blog Very Emily, a blog I've been reading almost since the beginning of when I first got in to nail art ! I really wanted to do one of her manicures using square studs, but I hadn't received my Born Pretty Store order until after I'd already done this design, but nonetheless, I still love this one !

So this nail art design is inspired by this teal and gold nail art over on Emily's blog, I didn't have any actual gold rhinestones, so I substituted them for yellow-y ones, which I think from a distance (and maybe with your eyes crossed) gives pretty much the same look ! I didn't do Emily's technique of leopard print, as I wanted to do my own spin on the design (plus the fact I've never done leopard print with a nail art brush) !

For this nail art design I used Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream, Accessorize Gold Dust and my Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen in black for the leopard details. I think Barry M Cyan Blue may have been a better match for A England Galahad which is what Emily used, but the colour I did use looks pretty similar ! I wish I had all the different rhinestones and everything that Emily uses for her designs, the amount of different sizes, shapes and colours that Emily owns in the way of rhinestones really is unbelievable !

And can you believe that that's it ? But as I said yesterday, I've got another series with a different theme lined up for the week beginning the 17th September for when I go to England, so not long to wait ! Enjoy your day !

As Seen On : Chalkboard Nails

So at this current moment I am on holiday in Cologne (and will be for the next few days), so I've got a whole 6 days of scheduled posts for you, as part of an "As Seen On..." series. So from Monday to Saturday, I'll be featuring some of the very first nail blogs I started reading, bloggers who inspired me to start my very own nail art blog, and re-creating one of their manicures for each day of this series !

And yes, you've guessed right ! Today the blog I will be featuring and re-creating on my nails is Chalkboard Nails. Now anyone who's anyone should know who Sarah at Chalkboard Nails is, as over the past year or so she has become pretty much the most famous nails on the internet ! Her poses are unmistakable and characteristic to her blog, and the swatches and nail art she does is always flawless !

So I based these nails on Sarah's recent nail art swatches of the China Glaze On Safari collection, where she chose to use several polishes from the collection to create a "blinged out" glitter leopard print pattern. I don't actually own any of the On Safari collection, so I improvised for this design with polishes I do own and aimed for the same effect !

For this design I didn't use any China Glaze polishes, however I did use Accessorize Gold Dust, Barry M Mushroom and my Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen in black. I did contemplate mixing the Barry M colour with some orange to make a colour that was more similar to the one used in the original design, but then decided against it because the colour I mixed up looked like vomit !

Sarah did a tutorial for how she does leopard print ! Do have a look, she's amazing at it ! I prefer to use my nail art pens for leopard print, but I'll have to try using a dotting tool to see how it looks when I try it (stick to what you know and all that) !

And there it is ! Once again, another day, another post ! I hope you enjoyed this design, and don't forget to go and check out all of Sarah's tutorials, nail art and swatches ! They'll make you drool !

As Seen On : Rebecca Likes Nails

So at this current moment I am on holiday in Cologne (and will be for the next few days), so I've got a whole 6 days of scheduled posts for you, as part of an "As Seen On..." series. So from Monday to Saturday, I'll be featuring some of the very first nail blogs I started reading, bloggers who inspired me to start my very own nail art blog, and re-creating one of their manicures for each day of this series !

Hey there everybody ! So here we go for the first day of my "As Seen On..." series, and I'm kicking it off with the lady who inspired me to set up these scheduled posts : Rebecca from Rebecca Likes Nails ! Rebecca's blog was one of the first ones that I discovered when I first started searching for nail art on the internet, and I have now been a loyal reader and follower for over a year now. She does an "As Seen On..." series every time she goes on holiday, and I figured it'd be a great way to keep in contact with my followers whilst I'm on holiday ! So, on to what you all came here for : the nails !

The first design I chose to feature this week is Rebecca's pastel watercolour leopard nails. I loved this design as soon as she posted it, and I can't believe I never got round to re-creating it before now ! I used her watercolour tutorial with similar colours to the original ones she used to create the base, and then just stamped over the top once the base design was dry.

So the polishes I used were unfortunately all different to Rebecca's original design, but I think the end look turned out pretty similar ! I used OPI Alpine Snow for the white base, then for the watercolour base I used OPI Strawberry Margarita, Barry M Yellow, Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream and Barry M Bright Purple. I then used the leopard stamp from my Konad M57 plate to stamp on top of the watercolour base using Konad Special Black.

I seriously loved this design during the small amount of time it was actually on my nails, that being said, I really couldn't resist not trying out some of my nail mail that arrived from the Born Pretty Store when I had this design on !

And that's it for today's post guys ! I hope you enjoyed today's kick-off for this week's series ! Also, don't hesitate to go and check out Rebecca's blog if you haven't already done so ! Her work is amazing, and good news : she's starting to post more nail art on a regular basis ! This makes me happy !

Enjoy the rest of your day !

Turquoise Leopard-Turtle

Okay, so I think it's time for a bit of detox after the 2 week long challenge (even though I missed the first 3 days), so I've got a mani from the vault for you all ! I'm currently sorting out scheduling posts for when I go away during the first week of September, and it's actually really difficult whilst trying to post daily on here ! Please excuse me in advance if ever I do have to skip a day of posting, I am trying my best not to !

So I did this mani not too long ago, and despite the fact that it was supposed to be a teal-ish leopard print design, it reminded more of a turtle shell ! I guess that after staring at it and having it constantly on my hands I got used to it and it turned into a sort of blur, so it may be from the "blur" that the turtle theory sprouted !

For this design I used (and this is a rough guess) either the combination of P2 Jetset and P2 Who Cares ?, or it could have been OPI Mermaid's Tears and OPI Jade is the New Black. Please forgive me for forgetting the polishes I used, I do try my best to remember what I used and I usually can remember, but then again, I'm only human !

So there we are ! I'm now off to go and sort out future scheduled posts for when I'm away, which I can confirm is going to be pretty awesome ! I'm gove some awesome designs lined up for you all, I swear !

Enjoy your day !

15 Day Nail Challenge (Day 8) : Leopard Print + BONUS Photos

Hey guys ! So today for Makeup Savvy's nail challenge the theme is leopard print, which just so happens to be one of my favourite designs EVER, so I'm really super excited to be sharing this manicure with you today.

Ta da ! Traditional leopard print ! I did contemplate doing a different colour scheme for this design, but I ended up going for the traditional colours because they're my favourite ! Maybe some day soon I'll do some nice different coloured leopard print, but for now I'm happy sticking to this.

So the polishes I used for this leopard print design were OPI Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh ?, OPI You Don't Know Jacques and my Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen in black. I love how the nail art pen manages to just bring all the design together, it's been ages since I wore a full blown leopard print design and I love it !

And that's it for the leopard print today. But before I go, as you saw in the post title I have some bonus photos of some friends' nails I did today for a wedding they're going to next week, so here they are ! On the left is Sheelagh who had a teal/turquoise watercolour design to match her dress, and on the right is Thalia who had purple skittles to go with her purple dress she'll be wearing.

And that's it for today ! Hope you liked the leopard print as much as I do !

NOTD : These Are a Few of My Favourite Things

Hey guys ! This post needs to be reaaaaally really quick today as we're having a BBQ with over 15 guests and some of them have actually already arrived ! AHHHH ! I'm so unsociable !

So I didn't actually plan on spending over 2 hours on my nails, but I guess I got kind of carried away. I did a kitty on my sister's thumb earlier this morning and it's been bugging me all day, but I really didn't want to do just kitties, but never mind. It is how it is !

I've been wanting to do galaxy nails for absolutely aaaaages but have never got round to it, and I've been feeling all patriotic today watching the Olympics so I just had to include a Union Jack flag, and I guess the rest just sort of appeared on my nails in my flood of inspiration for this design !

Right so I'm going to do a list for each nail for the list of polishes I used because I used waaaay too many for one paragraph !

Thumb : OPI Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh ?, OPI You Don't Know Jacques, Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen in black.
Index : OPI Steady as She Rose, OPI Dim Sum Plum, OPI Funkey Dunkey, Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen in black and white.
Middle : Barry M Black, Barry M Lemon Ice Cream, Barry M Strawberry Ice Cream, Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen in black.
Ring : Barry M black, Kiko Electric Blue, P2 Who Cares ?, Barry M Berry Ice Cream, Essence Hello Holo, OPI Alpine White.
Little : Kiko Electric Blue, OPI Big Apple Red, Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen in white.

And there's a quick recap of each nail for you ! I guess the post wasn't actually that quick but rest assured it was written relatively quickly (please excuse any typos, I'm not checking for them !).

Hope you enjoyed the unplanned madness ! Now it's time to partay !

Wah Leopard Print + BONUS Union Jacks

Helloooo everybody ! Just a quick post today as I've been supe busy and actually still haven't haven't my Olympic nails yet ! Oh the blasphemy !

So I did this design a while ago, and the colour scheme sort of reminded me of the classic Wah Nails leopard print colours, except obviously I used stamping for this mani ! Can you believe this is the first time I've posted stamping on this blog ?

The colours I used to create this design were OPI Strawberry Margarita for the base colour, then when that was dry I taped off half of the nail and painted on a coat of OPI My Back Pocket ! For the stamping I used the leopard print stamp from Konad M57 with Konad Special Black polish.

So that's it for that manicure, but as you have seen in the title, I have bonus Union Jacks for you ! We had some friends from England over for dinner, one of whom was my lovely friend Kate, and it has become a bit of a tradition for me to her nails every time we see eachother ! And for this time's design, she wanted Union Jacks (after seeing my awesome Union Jack nail from my Olympic Nails) !

The colours I used for Kate's design are the same as what I used for my own Union Jack, that being Kiko Electric Blue, OPI Big Apple Red and my Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen in white.

And there we are ! Not such a short post I guess, but tomorrow I promise I'll be posting a NOTD ! I swear !

More leopard print

Hey guys ! So here goes today's post with another mani from the vault ! I did this design waaaay back in April and I absolutely loved how it turned out ! Simple yet sophisticated, in my opinion anyway !

I guess you have already worked out that I have a love for using accent nails on my index and middle finger, and this is actually the first design I did using that combination of accent nails.

I've seen the combination of red and leopard used together quite a lot recently, this post from The Daily Nail first, then again on this post by Kayla Shevonne for quick examples I can think of. I really love the two of these designs together, as I find that they make for a really awesome duo !

Personally I generally always love how animal print, especially leopard, turns out in nail art ! It's so hard to mess up on as it's really just random blobs of colour !

The colours I used for this design were OPI Big Apple Red for the two red accent nails, and for the leopard print I used Manhatten 95E (this polish was so cheap and it's sooo gloopy now, OPI Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh is my new go-to base colour for leopard print), OPi You Don't Know Jacques and then my beloved Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen in black for the detailing.

And there we are ! Another leopard print manicure, just for you ! Now I'm off to go make burgers for dinner, yum !

Leopard dress inspired nails

I guess I've started a bit of a streak here with leopard print, but I swear this one's different to yesterday's design ! I did this design a couple of months back and it was inspired by a dress that I saw on Urban Outfitters (just checked, not available anymore) and saved on my iPad for future reference !

So without further ado, here's the nails !

I seem to remember being pretty irritated when doing this design : my ring finger nail had just snapped off and I had to cut down all my nails to make it look presentable. I think I re-did my nails 2 or 3 times until I finally settled on this one. I really liked this design though, and I kept it for a few days (anything kept for more than 48 hours has to be special) !

I seem to be really picky when looking through clothes websites for nail art inspiration for some reason. I end up looking for ages and not actually finding very much that I like and that I think would look good on my nails ! Oh well, perhaps I'm just fussy !

The colours I used for this design were OPI Steady As She Rose, OPI Strawberry Margarita, Barry M Lemon Ice Cream, and of course, my Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen for the black details !

Here's the picture that I saved of this design, it's a shame it's been taken down from the website !

So once again, that's it for today ! Do you often use clothes for inspiration for nail art ?

NOTD : Every nail blog needs some leopard print !

Okay guys, so I've decided it's about time to get some leopard print up on this blog ! Here I was this morning wondering for the life of me what I ought to do for today's nails ! My original thought was to do florals, but then I decided that I already had enough floral manis on here, and it was time for something new !

So I was trolling through some clothes websites the other day looking for nail inspiration, and I came across a top with this leopard colour scheme and I thought it went really well together, and wasn't necessarily colours I would have straight away put together for leopard print !

Personally, I LOVE leopard print ! I love how versatile it can be (especially as nail art) and it looks flattering on even the shortest on nails. I can't even believe that this wasn't the first thing I thought of when trying to decide on what sort of design to do !

The colours I used for this were 17 Baked Cherry, Barry M Cyan Blue, and then for all the outlining I used my trusty Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen in black (don't worry, I'm not going to preach about it again today, I think I've made my point on how awesome this thing is) ! I'm currently on the lookout for a similar red colour to the one I've used for this design, the colour is great and everything, but application isn't so much, and last time I wore this colour it chipped really quickly ! Any suggestions ?

So that's it again for today, hope you liked it (although come on, who doesn't like leopard print ?!) !
Ta ta for now !