NOTD : Autumn Stars and Stripes

Hey there everyone ! So I really need to get to bed so that I can read for a bit before I go to bed (yay uni work !), but I think I can just about manage to squeeze in a post for you all before I go ! I've been super productive today : I did 3 loads of washing, cleaned my room, did all my homework for uni for next week and still managed to fit in doing my nails after a whole hour of searching the internet for inspiration ! In the end it was my mum who came up with today's theme of stars and stripes, and I picked the bright-ish yet autumnal looking colour scheme for the nails !

I think these colours really work well together, especially as they're all from the OPI Euro Centrale collection, and despite the fact that these were released as Spring/Summer polishes, some of them still work quite well as Autumn shades ! I love having all mismatching nails but still keeping a theme that brings them all together, I think it makes for a really interesting design !

The three nail varnishes I used for today's design were OPI My Vampire is Buff, OPI Eurso Euro and OPI My Paprika is Hotter Than Yours. The latter polish shows up a lot redder in the photos than it actually is in real life - to me it looks far more orange which really adds to the autumnal look, it's a shame it hasn't shown up that way in the photos but oh well !

So I hope you liked today's design, it's really put me in the mood to do more looks to go with the current season - nothing beats autumn shades... except maybe pastels in Spring, let's just stick with Autumn at the moment though !

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

Tutorial : Triangles (Alphabet Nail Art Challenge)

Good afternoon everyone ! I'm writing this post early today as I'll have lots of packing to do later, so seeing as we're in the hotel room now (we went into town this morning, have been inside as it's been raining a lot this afternoon) I decided that I'd be better off posting this now ! I've got tutorials for you all the way through until Sunday, so I hope you enjoy them ! The three I'll be posting over the weekend are all for designs from the Alphabet Nail Art Challenge, and today's is from the "T for Triangles" prompt ! Here's a quick reminder of the original design :

You can choose whatever colour combinations you wish, just as long as you have 4 different colours, plus a white nail polish ! So here's what you've got to do to replicate this design :

1. Start by applying your base colour. I choose to use my lightest colour for the base as it makes painting the lines on top easier. I used two coats of OPI Steady as She Rose.
2. Use a nail art brush to paint on a random thick chunky line with your first colour across your nail. It can look however you want it to ! I used OPI Dim Sum Plum.
3. Do the same again with your second colour just over your first line. There's no need to be perfect here, it's fine to change the way your lines look ! I used OPI Can't Find my Czechbook.
4. Now do it again over the second line with your third colour. Leave a gap between your first line and then paint a new line underneath that in your same third colour. I used P2 Who Cares.
5. Carry on with the same sequence of colours until you have filled your nail.
6. Using white nail polish and a nail art brush, paint on the outline of a triangle which will be your chevron. I do this by looking at my nail and just making a little dot as a marker for where I want the point to be ! I used OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.
7. Fill it in !
8. Add some top coat, and you're all done !

If you want to do your nails like the accents on my thumb and ring fingers like in the original design, start by painting your white base, then paint on the chevron using what your base colour would have been for the other nails, in my case it was OPI Steady as She Rose. Continue by using your other colours to make your lines inside the chevron with the same sequence of colours as in the normal design. Don't worry if you go over the edges, as you can always go over the sides with your white polish to make it neat again !

So as you can see this isn't really so much a triangles design as it is a stripes and chevron design, but I've named it my "triangles tutorial" as that was what the original title was ! I really hope you've enjoyed this tutorial, and stay tuned for more over the next couple of days !

NOTD : Giant Polka Dots

Good evening everyone ! Juuuuuust managing to squeeze in a post before I go up to bed after a super-busy day ! I helped my mum clip and beautify 4 of our dogs (we have four wire haired fox terriers and a jack russel), then did my nails, then had dinner, than re-organised my whole stash and moved it all in to my helmer, then watched What Remains (sooooo good, did any of you follow it ?) and now I'm finally here to write my post but it's almost midnight so I'd better get a move on !!!

So I've been wanting to do a giant polka dots design on my nails for ages but I suppose it always just slipped my mind when it came to thinking up new ideas ! But I've managed to finally do it now so all is good ! I didn't just want to do it over a simple plain colour so I did funky rough stripes underneath to add a bit of extra colour !

I started with a base of OPI Planks A Lot, then did the stripes using American Apparel Office, P2 Hug Me and OPI Sparrow Me the Drama. I then did the mega dots using American Apparel Hassid which took rather longer than I expected, probably because I had to do it with a nail art brush instead of a dotting tool, but hey ho !

And hey would you look at that - it's past midnight ! In any case I'd better go and get ready for bed seeing as I've got a busy day tomorrow packing all my stuff up to take back to uni ! I've also got a load of posts to write up for you (the first of which won't be posted until Tuesday, so no nails until then), so don't miss those !

See you all then ! Byeeeeeee !

Alphabet Nail Art Challenge : Z for Zebra

Helloooooooo everyone ! So it's the final theme today for the last letter in the alphabet, and today it's "Z for Zebra". It doesn't feel like it's been a month (including the 4 day gap when I went on holiday to Brittany) since I started this challenge as it's gone really quickly ! I'm going out with a bang with today's design though, so here it is !

I've done zebra print once before but that was a long time ago, waaaay before I started blogging and sharing photos on here and to be honest it really didn't look that great and I found it quite difficult to paint ! I loved the zebra print stamp on the Konad M-57 plate but I've gone off stamping recently and so I decided that I really needed to try doing it freehand again and I'm so glad I did !

I started with a base of OPI Can't Find My Czechbook, which I left to dry completely before starting my gradient (to avoid getting annoying bits of make-up sponge on my nails) using OPI Planks A Lot and OPI Suzi's Hungary Again, and I used black acrylic paint to do the zebra stripes. The rough effect of the stripes were done by doing a "dabbing" effect with my nail art brush when painting on the acrylic, which I think really adds to the whole look !

I did think about maybe doing the stripes in white to make a bigger contrast with the gradient background, but I'm glad I stuck to the black because it really does look good in my opinion ! I even did both  hands, I'm glad I'll be able to keep my designs on for a bit longer than 24 hours for a while now as there were several days during this challenge when I would have loved to keep the design on !

Right, it's getting late now and I'm heading off to Ikea tomorrow so I'm going to go to bed to make sure I get plenty of sleep ! Goodnight everyone !

Alphabet Nail Art Challenge : V for Vintage

Good evening everyone ! We'll start here tonight by confirming that vintage is anything older than roughly 50 years old ? Okay ? So that makes 3 years of the 1960's vintage, right ? Perfect ! Glad we got that all out of the way, so now we can move on to the design ! I spent ages researching the differences between the words "antique", "vintage" and "retro" and after understanding the apparently much-debated subtleties, was able to decide on what I wanted to do on my nails !

I looked through a load of vintage patterns and wallpapers/backgrounds etc and didn't find much I liked other than a few floral designs, and I really wanted to do something other than flowers seeing as I already did the "F for Floral" theme in this challenge ! I then decided to google some 60's wallpaper patterns (we've already agreed that 3 years of that are vintage so I'm allowed !) and eventually found this design on Pinterest that I absolutely had to do !

I started with a base of OPI You Don't Know Jacques on my index, middle and little fingers, and P2 Hug Me on my thumb and ring fingers. For the circular design I used P2 Hug Me, OPI My Back Pocket, Essie Meet Me at Sunset and OPI You Don't Know Jacques. I did the stripes on the accent nails using those same colours, although I think it would have looked better with a different colour to the brown, there's just something about it !

So do you like this design as much as I do ? I love the circular gradient design, I really think it looks like real 60's kitchen wallpaper with the gross colours, there were loads of different wallpaper patterns I saw but this one really inspired me, and I'm so glad I steered clear of the floral designs for today's theme !

Tomorrow I've got to do watermarbling for the "W" theme of the challenge, and I remember saying in my post last time when I wrote about my first successful attempt at it that I was excited about trying it again, but I'm not so sure now ! I'm feeling nervous about it ! Wish me lots and lots of luck !

Alphabet Nail Art Challenge : T for Triangles

Hey there guys ! I've been busy trying to sort out my new blog layout all afternoon/evening today, and I think I'll be finishing it all up tonight hopefully, so keep an eye out for that ! I'll be sorting the major stuff out now and then doing the small tweaks in the next couple of days ! One of the major changes for the blog is that I'm contemplating changing the commenting system to Disqus, as I feel it'll be a big step towards being able to communicate properly with my followers in the comments, so let me know what you all think and your experiences with Disqus !

Anyway, I did manage to fit in some nail art today, of course, so here's today's installment in the alphabet nail art challenge !

The final result of today's design is completely different to what I had in mind last night ! I fancied doing something along the lines of this design by Very Emily, doing a pattern underneath and a geometrical triangle design on top in white. In the end I rather liked my thumb and ring finger accent nails with just a chevron so I just decided to add a white chevron on each of the other nails ! Do you think the geometric pattern on top would have looked better ?

For this design I used a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls on my thumb and ring finger, and OPI Steady as She Rose on the others. The squiggly stripes were done using OPI Dim Sum Plum, OPI Can't Find my Czechbook and P2 Who Cares, as well as Steady as She Rose. I feehanded all the chevrons as really didn't feel patient enough (I barely ever do) to use tape and while I really love the chevrons on my thumb, middle and ring fingers, I feel the ones on my index and little fingers could look better !

That's all for today, it's scary to think that this challenge is nearing to an end as it's gone so quickly ! Tomorrow is "U for Universe"...yay galaxy nails ! I'll see you all then, but in the meantime, apologies for any (if any) inconvenience the change of layouts may cause ! Hopefully it'll all going swimmingly !

Alphabet Nail Art Challenge : N for Nautical

It's time for another theme in the Alphabet Nail Art Challenge everyone, and today is (as per the title) "N for Nautical" ! I think that nautical designs such as anchors and navy stripes are pretty popular in the nail art world, as well as just in general with stuff such as jewellery and tattos often being inspired by nautical symbols, so I had a lot of idea for what to do on my nails today ! Here's what I came up with :

I didn't have a very good time trying to take photos of this design with my camera so I've had to resort to using my iPhone for taking today's pictures ! Who'd have thought a mobile phone would get better photos than a normal camera ? ..something's not right there ! Have any of you ever had this problem with certain nail designs ?

I started with a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls which I applied about 3.5 hours before I started doing my nails. I was doing crochet all day so I had the patience to wait for it to dry for a bit ! I dented my thumb though with the white polish so I took that off when I got back and applied China Glaze Man Hunt instead. For the stripes I used CG Man Hunt and OPI The Spy Who Loved Me, I used Barry M Silver Foil for the anchor on my thumb and then placed a stud on each striped nail.

So what do you think of my nautical nails ? I think they're quite minimalist but in a good way, and I really love the anchor on my thumb nail ! The decision to add studs to the striped nails was a last minute one as I just thought it was lacking something ! I suppose I could have done something more complex, but I'm quite happy with what I've done !

I'm off now, so I'll see you all again tomorrow !

Alphabet Nail Art Challenge : B for Bows

Hey everyone ! So unless you missed my post yesterday, you'll be aware that I've decided to do the Alphabet Nail Art Challenge ! I'm really excited about doing this challenge and doing my best to post all the designs all on consecutive days (although I'm going away for a couple of days in just over a week, don't know what I should do about that) ! So as today is the second day, the letter "b" naturally comes after "a", and today is "B for Bows" !

I haven't done bows on my nails since this last attempt, and let's just say that looking back (and even at the time actually) I don't think they turned out well. A year later though I am happy to say that I am truly pleased with my latest try at bows, and I really love the way this design turned out !

I started with a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls on all my nails, and then I painted the stripes on alternate in two different colours which were OPI OPI...Eurso Euro and OPI Can't Find my Czechbook. I used white acrylic paint to draw the shapes for each bow and then went over the top of that with either Can't Find my Czechbook or OPI...Eurso Euro, on top of which I drew tiny dots in the opposite colour. I did the little white folds on each bow using American Apparel T-Shirt. Phew.. that's a long paragraph !

I'm really happy with my new successful attempt at bows, what do you think ? Do you often paint bows (or any particular shape you may find difficult), or do you prefer to use stamps ?

So that's all for today, I need an early night (she says at 11:30pm) as I have to get up early tomorrow to do some tidying up ! I'll see you all again tomorrow with the letter "c", make sure you don't miss it ! See you then !

NOTD : Spots and Stripes

Helloooooo everyone ! So I've got a really quick post today to wish a Happy 4th of July to all the Americans out there ! I've had to improvise with the few nail varnishes I've bought whilst I've been here in Berlin, and I've managed to (sort of) paint the US flag ! I've gone for a bit of a distressed look, but even then the colours aren't as distressed as I'd have liked them to have been !

I used Essence What's my Name ? and P2 Up in the Air for the base colours, and then I painted the stripes and the spots using my Models Own white nail art pen (I never go anywhere without my nail art pens !). Also, apologies for the not-so-great lighting, I had to improvise seeing as I don't have a lightbox here, but I still think it looks okay, what do you reckon ?

That's all for today you guys, I've got a proper normal post coming up this weekend, so stay tuned for that !

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 : Coat Fabric

Hey there everyone ! So this is a just a quick break in between writing out Russian grammar tables and watching The Bourne Identity to write up a post for you all seeing as I haven't posted anything since Wednesday ! I've finished all my lectures for this year now so I'm in total revision period at the moment to prepare for my exams, yikes ! Anyway, I'm still managing to find a bit of time to do my nails (one of my many procrastination strategies), so here you go !

So I did these nails yesterday as a template for a design I've been asked to do to match an outfit that my Godmother is wearing to a wedding, inspired by her coat ! I went for a rough representation of the fabric, using the different colours that appear in it, and did a design which is similar to the method I used for my Gingham Nails. Unofrtunately I apparently don't own enough different blue nail varnishes, so the base colour I used is slightly brighter than the actual material, I still think it looks fine though !

For the base colour I used Models Own Blooboo, then for the different lines to create the effect of the material I used P2 Who Cares ?, OPI My Vampire is Buff, OPI Don't Pretzel my Buttons, and then I mixed OPI Berlin There Done That with OPI My Back Pocket for the darkest lines. I think it has turned out really well considering I was only aiming for a rough representation of the actual material and I'm really pleased !

So that's all for today everyone, I need to do and do some more revision before it's time to go to bed, hopefully I'll write something up soon for you all (no doubt I'll find some excuse to avoid revision) !

NOTD : Transparent Lines

Good evening everybody ! I've finally found some time to blog, as I only got back on Monday from my weekend away, and I didn't finish my nails until late last night after I'd finished doing all my work for uni (exams are coming up soon, eep) ! So today I just have a quick design to show you all, I just wanted something plain and simple (and quick) to do last night, and I ended up coming up with this ! (These photos are taking forever to upload for some reason so you'll only be getting 2 today, sorry !)

I didn't actually have any particular inspiration for this design or colour combination, I just picked out some random nail polishes which ended up going in a sort of purple and orange direction ! It's maybe a bit of an autumn-ish colour scheme but I'm happy with it !

So the colours I used were OPI Germanicure by OPI, P2 Electric, Essence Redvolution, OPI My Back Pocket, OPI Vant to Bite My Neck, Essie Splash of Grenadine, American Apparel T-Shirt and Barry M Gold Foil. Wow, that's a lot of different polishes !

Right well I'd best get off to bed, those photos took soooo much longer than I anticipated and I need an early night ! I hope you all liked today's design !

NOTD : Gliding Lines

Bonsoir everyone ! So here's a quick post for you all before I go off to bed, I managed to spend most of the afternoon trying to find inspiration for my nails (plus a way to use my new OPI nail varnish), and so this is quite a bit later than I would have liked ! Anywho, I'd better get a move on writing this (she says after spending a further 5 minutes trolling through Facebook), if I'm going to get an early night !

I'm not sure where the inspiration for this nail design came from, but I have to say, I'm in LOVE with it ! It's a shame I couldn't be bothered to do the same design on my right hand, but oh well ! The colour combination came pretty much out of nowhere as well, I just picked up a couple of random nail varnishes and they just happened to go quite well together !

So for this design, the colours I used were OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, which is the polish I received yesterday and I have to say I'm thrilled to bits with it ! It just looks so much less stark that full-on white, and I think it makes the colours in the design blend better together ! I also used OPI Skyfall and OPI My Very First Knockwurst for the other coloured lines.

Today's nail art didn't actually take as long to do as I had anticipated, it still took quite a while though (trying to get all the lines just right) but I think it was totally worth the time it took ! This is another design I'm definitely going to have to try again with other colour combinations, the possibilities are endless ! Hopefully next time I'll leave plenty of time to do my manicure, and then I'll actually be able to do both hands properly !

So that'll be all for today you guys, I'm off to bed, my lectures started again today so I'm tired after my first day working again after a rather long break ! Night night everyone !

NOTD : Gingham Style

Hey there everybody ! Woah, two days in a row ! Can you believe it ?! I've got soooo much spare time at the moment seeing as I don't start lectures again until Thursday, and I'm struggling to find stuff to do ! I even resorted to doing some ironing earlier on as I literally had nothing else to do, oh woe is me ! Anyway, I did my nails first thing this morning, which means I'm actually able to post them at a reasonable time today, woohoo !

My mum suggested that I ought to try doing some gingham nails (and she even came up with the tasteful title for today's post), and I really didn't anticipate how long this design would actually take me. I remembered looking at gingham tablecloths and napkins and stuff and always noticed that the "lighter" colour was actually just the block colour with alternating white stripes, and so I decided to do that for my nails today ! I also saw whilst browsing earlier that Katy from Nailed It did a tutorial on for a gingham design using tape (probably far quicker than my method today).

So for today's design, the nail varnishes I used were American Apparel T-Shirt, and then for the green I used OPI Jade is the New Black. I decided to go with green as it's a traditional colour theme for gingham (as is red, but I didn't fancy the tedious removal process that comes with it and its staining), and I didn't realise what a great Christmas green Jade is the New Black is, shame I didn't realise at Christmas really, I've been looking for one everywhere !

So what do you think of today's design ? I personally think it looks far better from a distance than it does close up, it's just a shame it took such a long time to paint ! I couldn't even be bothered to paint the design on my right hand and so I just went with plain simple stripes on that hand, oh well !

I'll see you all again tomorrow everyone, perhaps with a swatch, or maybe some more nail art, we'll soon see !

NOTD : Stars and Shiny Stripes

Hola everyone ! So I had my first exam today which went pretty well so I'm really happy, and so I decided to reward my good work with some baking and some nail art ! I made some reaaaaaally tasty macadamia nut caramel squares which are seriously tasty, and after that I just decided to chill and do my nails whilst watching ANTM (oh lord I have spent far too long watching it during this past week..) ! So without further ado, the nails !

This is an idea I've had in my head for quite a while, but I have never got around to executing it ! I'm really glad I did finally get to do this nail design though because I think it looks great ! I think I'm getting slightly over-the-top with the amount of nail art designs with these two accent nails recently, it seems to me that I've been doing rather a lot of them ! Never mind !

So the nail polishes I used for today's design are American Apparel T-Shirt, China Glaze Man Hunt and OPI Die Another Day, plus my Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen in white for the stars on my accent nails. I thought that Die Another Day would be a bit too orangey for the stripes for the USA flag, but as it turns out it really works quite well and the orange-ness isn't that noticeable ! I think a deeper red polish would have been too much maybe !

And that's that for today everyone ! I hope you all enjoyed today's design, now I'm off to watch a bit more ANTM before a friend comes over to watch Team America ! Happy times ! Hopefully it won't be too too long before my next post, my next and last exam is on Thursday (unless of course it gets cancelled because of this damn snow, ugh I hate snow so much right now), so hopefully I can post something after that as I'll be revising all day tomorrow !

Hope you all have a great evening !

NOTD : Melting Lines and Studs

Good evening everybody ! So I finally managed to finish my essay last night (it was due in today, maybe shouldn't have procrastinated so much) and today after handing it in I decided to give myself a lazy day before starting major revision for my exams next week ! So obviously, lazy day means nail painting, and I'm really super happy about the designs I've got to show you all today !

 So whilst trolling the internet for patterns and prints to put away in my nail inspiration folder, I came across a seriously funky illustration by Joe Van Wetering that I knew would look awesome translated into a nail design ! I only did two accent nails though seeing as it took aaaaaaages to do just those, and I can't imagine doing ALL my nails individually with all different colours, maybe when I decide I have more time !

I used LOADS of different colours for just the two accent nails, so I'll try and name as many as I can remember ! I started off with a base of OPI Don't Pretzel my Buttons on all my nails, and then for the accents I used Collection 2000 Spangles, OPI Funkey Dunkey, OPI Sparrow Me the Drama, OPI Berlin There Done That, Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream, Barry M Cyan Blue, China Glaze Man Hunt, P2 Hug Me, OPI Planks A Lot, Essie Mint Candy Apple, OPI Dim Sum Plum, OPI Skull and Glossbones, OPI Casino Royale and OPI Mermaids Tears. Okay that's a lot, I think that's pretty much all of them, don't think I've missed any !

And that's it ! I'm off for an early night so that I can get on with my revision tomorrow (ha, that was a pretty good joke, wasn't it ?), hopefully I won't procrastinate as much as I did for the essay, we'll soon find out ! Wish me luck !

Have a great weekend everyone !