NOTD : Polka Drips

Evening everyone ! This post has got to be really quick as I need to go and start cutting out some fabric before I go to bed ! I've been procrastinating all day and I've only done half the amount of stuff I should have for preparing the posts for while I'm away... there's still so much to do ! There was just so much else going on - my mum was busy making my birthday cake (which I'm getting a day early tomorrow, lucky me !), it's a chocolate chiffon cake with salted caramel buttercream and a chocolate ganache topping, and all the components taste soooooo good (if the raw mix is anything to go by, which is usually is) ! Anyway, I'm babbling, time for the nails !

These nails are inspired by a design I saw on Tumblr by Pinkie Grey, I just love the cartoon effect of the drips on each nail, and the contrast between the stark black and the pastel polka dots in the bachground - LOVE ! These techinically aren't a NOTD as I did them on Sunday (I think), but I'm still wearing the same design from when I did them on my right hand, so they still sort of are a NOTD ! Right ?!

I started with a base of American Apparel T-Shirt on all my nails, and then, from thumb to little finger, I used OPI Sparrow Me the Drama, P2 Hug Me, Essie Mint Candy Apple, Essie Lapiz of Luxury and OPI Planks A Lot for the dots. For the drips I of course used black acrylic paint, then just a dash of T-Shirt on each blob. This whole design was really easy to do, and even doing it with my non-dominant hand was fine, as sometimes I do struggle !

So that's it for today ! I'm going to go and sort out my fabric now, going to do some pressing me thinks ! Fun fun fun ! Wish me luck, I've still got loads and loads and LOADS of stuff to do before I leave for the UK on Tuesday ! Agggghhhhh !

Alphabet Nail Art Challenge : A for Aztec

Helloooo everyone ! So I'm back with a new post sooner than I had anticipated as I've found a great way for me to try to post more often this month ! I've been thinking of doing a nail art challenge for a while, and I found this "Alphabet Nail Art Challenge" image floating around the internet so I decided I'd give it a try ! From what I've gathered, this challenge was developed by atxlacquerista ! Here's the outline for the challenge :

So as today is the first day, let's start at the very beginning (a very good place to start ♫) ! "A is for Aztec", and it's been almost a whole year since I last had a go at aztec/tribal print ! I looked through a few google pictures to give me some inspiration for the design and then I just went ahead on did different designs on each nail !

For this design I started by doing a watercolour design for the base and then I painted the aztec print on top. I started with a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and I used OPI Planks a Lot, OPI Sparrow Me the Drama and Essie Mint Candy Apple for the watercolour, then I used my Models Own black nail art pen to draw the design. I ended up leaving my right hand with just the watercolour base as I couldn't be bothered to do such an intricate design (I tried on my thumb and it looked awful so I just stopped there) !

You may have also noticed that I chopped all my nails down... as much as I liked the mini-pointed-nails look, I didn't like the length and I just decided it was time forme to have short nails again. I much prefer the size now, and they're much easier to look after !

So that's all I've got for you today ! I'll be back again tomorrow with tomorrow's challenge : bows, although I'll be sad to see this aztec design go, I REALLY love the way it looks, definitely one to try again in the future !

Strawberries

Good evening everyone, it's getting late but I thought I had better post something before I go to bed ! I've been busy doing "stuff" here in Berlin, "stuff" generally meaning shopping etc which is always good fun ! The weather here has become really really seriously hot all of a sudden which, although nice, is a bit too much and doesn't really make me want to do anything in particular !

I did these nails before I came over to Berlin, around the same time as when I did my watermelon nails, I just got the urge to paint some more fruit, and I'm so glad I did ! You can see the design on my little finger looks a little bit odd, and that's because I initially wanted to use tiny micro bullion studs for the yellow seeds, but decided that I didn't like it and would instead do dots, but then I didn't like the colour I chose so I went over all the dots I had already painted in yet another colour... and then I couldn't be bothered to start from zero on that nail but oh well !

For the base on this design I used an un-named Color Club pink polish, then I used Essie Mint Candy Apple for the green bits, and for the leaf accents and yellow seeds I used my Models Own pastel nail art pens in green and yellow. I really like the way that the strawberries look with the light pink colour. I would have wanted to do them red, but I have an aversion to red polishes at the moment for base colours as they are such a pain when it comes to taking it off ! Do any of you get that problem ? Red polish cuticle stains are the worst !

Right, that's it everyone, I'm off to bed ! I'll probably sit and play Candy Crush Saga for a while, are any of you addicted to it as well ? Night night everyone !

NOTD : Stripes and Roses

Good evening everyone, I'm just about to go to bed but I suppose I'll manage to squeeze in a quick post for you all ! I'm really excited about this design as I've decided to try to reshape my nails as I was getting bored of the plain squoval nails, and decided to go for something for interesting ! They aren't the exact shape I'd like them to be at the moment, but I'm getting there slowly !

I did these nails on Saturday while I was supposed to be revising... surprise surprise ! I really love the way the colours work together, and I REALLY love the design on my index and middle fingers, probably something I will do again but on all of my nails !

For this design the nail varnishes I used were OPI Skyfall for the plain coloured nails and the roses, then I used OPI My Vampire is Buff, OPI My Very First Knockwurst, OPI Live and Let Die and my Models Own nail art pen in black for my accent nails. I just love this design, and I'm rediscovering my love for OPI Skyfall, it's such a pretty colour !

So anyway I'm off to bed now, let me know what you think of my new nail shape, I'll be working on perfecting it over the next few weeks I imagine but I'm already in love ! See you all again soon !

NOTD : Springtime Pastel Flowers

Hey there everyone ! I'm making the most of this rare free time (where I'm not actually procrastinating) by doing my nails as often as I can, so luckily for you, I've got yet another blog post ! Wow, two days in a row, it's been a while ! So some of you may have seen the new pastel nail art pens that Models Own released the other day, and as soon as I saw them I showed them to my mum who VERY kindly ordered them for me ! I received them yesterday, and naturally couldn't wait to use them !

So I wanted to do a design that incorporated all of the different colours of nail art pens that I received, and I'm really happy with what I came up with ! I think that the dark base really shows up the pastelness of of the nail art pens that I used, plus, there's nothing better for Spring than a good old combination of both a floral and pastel design !

For the base I used OPI Nein! Nein! Nein! OK Fine!, then I used all of my new Models Own nail art pens in pink, purple, yellow, blue and green, plus my Models Own nail art pen in black to do the little dots on some of the flowers. I really love the way the different colours come together in this design, and I can't wait to use these pens in other designs !

So that's all for today really, the only real comment I have to make about the pens is that they dribbled quite a bit, but that's nothing too drastic and it's still perfectly manageable ! Maybe soon they'll bring out a red nail art pen to complete my collection !

I'm off to bed now everyone, see you all again soon !

NOTD : Water Marble Floral

Good evening everyone ! So I've actually FINALLY done my nails since being back in France for the holidays ! I ended up not having much time at all so far, and so I didn't manage to do any special Easter nails (plus the fact that I didn't really bring the colours I wanted/needed for the design I had in mind), but I've got a great new design for you all today !

So today I decided to bite the bullet and attempt doing a water marble... I had tried doing water spotted again, but failed to find the right spray to do it. I've tried water marbling before and it didn't really turn out that great, but I'm seriously happy about how it turned out today, and I think I'll be doing a full water marble manicure soon !

For this design I started off with two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, then for the flowers and the water marble colours, I used Essie Splash of Grenadine, Essie Lapiz of Luxury and Essie Mint Candy Apple. I can't wait to try doing water marbling with brighter colours and loads of different combinations !

And that's it for today everyone, I'm going to go and watch Skyfall (probably not all of it, but a bit at least), and play some Mahjong on my phone, happy days !

Stay tuned for another possible water marble later this week, I'm so excited I can finally do it !

Inspired By : Kenzo Resort 2013

Good evening everyone ! I am SO tired for some reason, probably because it's almost time for me to go to bed (and I probably will do just that once I've finished this post), but seeing as it got too late for me to post anything last night, I thought I'd better not leave you without a post for yet another evening !

So I was just looking through the internet for nail inspiration the other day, when I came across this design by Kenzo for the Resort 2013 season. I knew it would translate well into a nail design, so off I went to start with the painting ! Unfortunately I didn't wear this design for very long as I dented my thumb pretty soon after taking the photos, so I went on to do something else !

For this design, the nail varnishes I used were OPI My Vampire is Buff for the base, and then I used Catrice Salmon and Garfunkel for the spots which I then outlined with my Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen in black. I really liked the way this looked, and it's a shame that I had to take it off so quickly, but there's an endless amount of colour combinations you can do with this design !

And that'll be all for today everybody ! I'm going to go to bed whilst watching some Harry Potter, always a great way to get to sleep ! See you all again soon everyone !

NOTD : Naked Dots

Hello again everybody ! So it got a bit too late to post my nails that I did last night after I finally finished painting them (got waaaay too sidetracked during the day to do them, whoops), so instead I'm posting them for you all this evening ! It's an idea I've had in my head for quite a while, and I'm really happy with the way it turned out !

I've been really enjoying seeing other people's nails leaving bare nail underneath designs, so I thought I'd give it a go, seeing as my nails were looking all pristine last night since I cut them down quite short the other day ! I don't think you can actually see very much bare nail, unless you look really close up, but I think the general effect of the colours is really Spring-appropriate !

For this design, I started off with a thin coat of Champneys Nude, just to tone my natural nail a little bit, then using different sized dotting tools, I put on random dots using OPI Suzi's Hungary Again!, OPI Can't Find My Czechbook, OPI My Very First Knockwurst and Essie Mint Candy Apple. I really love how all the colours come together on this design, and how it just looks like a pastel blur from a distance !

Even though you can't actually see the nail very well under the dots, I really like the fact that my nail isn't completely covered, and that you can still see a tiny bit of nail line ! What do you think ? Do you prefer to have you nails completely covered or would you try leaving some nail visible for a design ?

I'm going to watch a bit of TV before I go to bed now, so I'll try and blog tomorrow (got a busy day, hopefully I'll be able to post something), if not Sunday ! Have a great Friday everyone !

Union Jack Pastel

Hi there everybody ! Today I've got an old mani to show you all (running low on stuff to show you when I can't do my nails daily) because I really like yesterday's nails and I'm not ready to take them off yet (plus the fact it's pretty late and I can't be bothered to start nails now) ! I don't have very many decent photos of my nails from before I started blogging left (pretty much none now I've done this post), so I'm going to have to sort out what to do when I can't do my nails !

I did these nails back in May, around the Queen's Diamond Jubilee as I was feeling patriotic ! I can only imagine all the jubilee nails I could have done for you all had I been motivated by a daily blog ! I didn't want to go for the traditional red and blue colours, so instead opted for a pastel Union Jack look, which I think worked quite well !

The colours I used for these nails were OPI Alpine Snow, OPI Planks A Lot and OPI Sparrow Me the Drama. When I did this design, I did it the hard way by painting my nails with a white base colour, and then painting on all the triangles myself. I've realised that the easier way to do these nails is by starting off with the triangle colour as the base colour, then just striping on the white and selected middle stripe colours !

And I'm afraid I onl have 2 photos for you today ! I'll be back tomorrow with a new NOTD, hopefully something original as well, we'll see what I can come up with (or what inspiration my mother gives me) !

Have a great day everyone !

NOTD : Dolly Mixture

Hey everybody ! So I've got a quick post for you all today because I've got soooooo much stuff to do this evening, and it's already getting pretty late ! I've been really quite busy all day but found the time (of course) to do my nails ! My Mum came up with the idea for today's nails (yes, again), she's got so many amazing ideas that always end up looking really good when translated into nail art ! Such an inspiration !

So yes, in case you haven't read the title of this post, they're dolly mixture ! You know the sweet ? Basically what I consider to be any sane person's alternative to liquorice, sort of like the nice bits in the Bassett's Allsorts, in which case not very much ! I know that they're British sweets, so not sure whether they're available in the US, so here's a link to a picture so everyone can know what I'm talking about ! Hallelujiah !

Okay for this design, the polishes I used were American Apparel T-Shirt, OPI Planks A Lot, Barry M Lemon Ice Cream, an un-named pink Color Club polish, Collection 2000 Fruit Loop and OPI Berlin There Done That. I do have a green-themed dolly mixture nail on my right hand which you obviously can't see in this photo, for which I used Collection 2000 Mint Mojo.

I decided to stick to the plain coloured-and-white dolly mixture sweets for these nails, and skipped doing the sugar coated jellies. This is because I wasn't sure how I would go about getting the "sugared" look, but I suppose I'll have to brainstorm and keep that idea for another day when I have more time !

So I hope you all liked these nails, and I'll see you all back here around the same time tomorrow (earlier hopefully, but I won't promise anything) for some more nails ! I already have something planned for you guys ! Have a great evening everyone !

Also, don't forget to enter my giveaway, only 2 days left !

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 !