15 Day Nail Challenge (Day 13) : Film Inspired

Yeah ! Day 13 of Makeup Savvy's nail challenge, and today's theme (as you've seen in the title) is "film inspired". Now, throughout the whole challenge I have had no idea whatsoever as to what I was going to do for today's challenge, and it wasn't until after writing yesterday's post that I had some sort of an "ah-hah" moment and I automatically knew what I was going to do !

So just in case you can't tell which film I've chosen to represent here (the thumb is a bit of a give-away !), it's the CAT IN THE HAT ! Yeah ! I've watched this film approximately 100 times, and never got bored of it. In fact, I watched it so many times that the DVD ended up completely scratched and wouldn't play the sludgey bit when they open up the forbidden box, but that doesn't matter !

So I'll give you a quick description of what each nail represents from the film, along with the different polishes I used !
Thumb (the red and white stripes from the Cat's hat) : OPI Alpine Snow, OPI Big Apple Red.
Index (the cupcake gloop after they explode) : OPI Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh, OPI Funky Dunkey.
Middle (Conrad's T-shirt) : OPI My Back Pocket, P2 Hug Me !.
Ring (Sally's dress... kinda) : Collection 2000 Ninja, OPI Alpine Snow, OPI Planks A Lot.
Little (the Cat's bow) : OPI Alpine Snow, OPI Big Apple Red.

So there we are ! I actually haven't seen any Cat in the Hat nail art so far, maybe I haven't looked hard enough, but still, I think they're pretty original ! So yeah, that's it once again, I hope you liked it !

15 Day Nail Challenge (Day 12) : Stripes

Hiya everyone ! I have yet another challenge from Makeup Savvy's nail challenge for you today, today's theme being stripes ! Now, me being me, I had to step out the box for this one yet again, and instead of just doing huge stripes across or down my nails, I decided I'd do tiny little stripes strategically positioned to make what we call "zigzags". Clever, right ?

Yeah ! Strategically placed stripes ! I think this design is okay, but the freehand zigzags aren't well painted enough for my liking, but then again I only did this manicure for the photos for this post (am currently sorting out scheduled posts for when I'm on holiday the first week of September) !

The base colour I used for this design was OPI Steady as She Rose, which is just such a versatile polish, and the colour seems to shift from pinkish to quite lilac-y purple depending on what it's paired with ! I used OPI Funkey Dunkey for the freehand zigzags, for which I used a medium nail art brush (I really need to get a smaller one for more precise designs).

So yeah.. cool ! I think I'll wait until I have a small nail art brush before I try doing these zigzags again, but these will do for now !

Enjoy your Sunday !

15 Day Nail Challenge (Day 11) : Metallic

Hey guys ! So once again I'm joining in for another day of Makeup Savvy's 15 day nail challenge, and the theme today is metallic nails. Now, I'm not really a fan of metallic nail polishes, mainly because they show up all the imperfections on my nails (you can probably see the tissue reparations I've done on my index and ring fingers), but nonetheless, I'm still joining in !

So I decided today I'd attempt a selotape manicure for the chevrons, but promptly gave up after completely messing up my index finger ! So instead I freehanded them, which all in all looks okay but is far less precise than selotape. The final result is okay, but I don't really like it enough to keep it for a whole day, so I'll think I'll actually change them after I've written this post !

So in this manicure I used a magnetic polish (seeing as I own very few metallic colours) which was 17 Magnetic Grey, and then for the chevrons I used Barry M Silver Foil. I was originally going to do some stamping for this manicure, but then realised that my nails are far too long at the moment for stamping (I really need to file them down) !

And that's a wrap ! I hope you liked this manicure more than I did, I'm off to change them now. Happy Saturday !

15 Day Nail Challenge (Day 10) : Gradient

Oh my god we're already two thirds of the way through the Makeup Savvy nail challenge, it seems to have gone really quickly ! Today's challenge is gradient nails, however I've already a sort of gradient for the nude nails on day 5 of the challenge, and I've already posted a typical gradient design here, so I decided I'd go outside the box for today's gradient !

I got this striped gradient idea from Candice at MrCandiipants' tutorial she posted not too long ago, and I love the way it looks ! I was a bit wary at first about how time consuming it looked, but it actually turned out relatively quick to do and just required a little bit of patience getting the colours right (I mixed instead of using all different polishes).

The photos I took didn't come out as well as I wanted, but they'll do for now ! They don't do the real-life design any justice whatsoever, they look just as awesome close up as they do from a distance, and I love that about this design !

The polishes I used for this design were OPI Steady as She Rose, OPI Sparrow Me the Drama and OPI Dim Sum Plum. I had a bit of trouble mixing for the darker colours when I used Dim Sum Plum in the mix, as it's sooooo pigmented,  it darkened the colour I was aiming for really quickly ! I did get the hang of it in the end, I just ended up using quite a bit of the lighter colours to get the colour I wanted.

So that's it for today's design ! I hope you liked my "slightly different" gradient nails, and you must ABSOLUTELY go and check out Candice's blog, her nail art never fails to impress !

Enjoy your day ! Ahh oh I totally forgot it's Friday... have a great weekend !

15 Day Nail Challenge (Day 9) : Red Nails

So here we go once again for Makeup Savvy's 15 day nail challenge and today we've got red nails ! I've never really been in to plain red nails, or red nails full stop, I never could understand all these girls who would jsut wear plain red because it looked "sophisticated". I usually only use red for nail art, but nonetheless, I've included two whole red nails in today's manicure !

I saw this colour combination in a manicure by Hey Nice Nails and instantly fell in love (it's been saved on my iPad in my inspiration folder for months now) ! I fancied something quick and not too time consuming for today's red nails and so dots was the way to go ! I really like how this design turned out, and I love the accent nails, simple and subtle but they still stand out.

For this design I used OPI Big Apple Red and OPI Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh ? and then just a dotting tool for the dots ! I love how versatile dotting tools can be, not just for making dots and spots on your design, but I also used my pack of 5 dotting tools instead of a nail art brush for ages !

So there we are for today's post ! The theme for tomorrow is "gradient" and I know exactly what I'm going to be doing ! Stay tuned and come back tomorrow for more nail art ! 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 !

15 Day Nail Challenge (Day 7) : Neon Nails

So here we go for day 7 of Makeup Savvy's 15 day nail challenge, and today's theme is neon. Now, I haven't really been into the neon craze that's going on at the moment, don't know why but it may be because ALL neon polishes seem to completely wash me out, and it just makes me look ill ! But nonetheless, I still participated in today's challenge, and bust out the only neon "polish" I own, which just happens to be my pink Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen !

I had  a really awful time trying to photograph this manicure, and I cannot for the life of me get the colours to show up as they actually look, but try and picture to most fluorescent pink highlighter you own, and then times that by 10 ! I tried changing the ISO on my camera and everything, but even then it still wouldn't show up properly, it was slightly better though.The colour in the picture of the neon zigzags is much to pink/purple in comparison to the actual real-life colour, I'm so annoyed that I couldn't get the colour to turn out right !

The polishes I used for this manicure were Barry M Strawberry Ice Cream and, as previously mentioned, my Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen in pink. I've used this colour combination before in my Dotty Gradient manicure, and you can actually distinguish the colours better in those photos, the neon pink looks really bright !

So I mentioned yesterday that I didn't realise that it was the glitter challenge yesterday and I thought it was neon, so these nails lasted all of about 30 minutes in between finishing up with topcoat and writing the first paragraph of this post. Maybe it was for the best though, the zigzags I did were waaay too shaky for my liking, and I would have got thoroughly irritated with it and taken it off anyway !

And that's it for today's post ! I can't wait until tomorrow's challenge (leopard print), it's turning out to be great fun !

Plus, does anyone have any tips for getting good photos of neon manicures ? I hate not being able to be colour precise !

15 Day Nail Challenge (Day 6) : Glitter Nails

Hey guys ! So as you have all possibly seen the past 2 days, I've been participating in Makeup Savvy's 15 day nail challenge, and today's challenge is glitter ! I am actually SO thankful for this challenge as I actually haven't posted any proper glitter manis yet (not counting yesterday's mani !), so here you go !

Now, I know it's not a full glitter manicure, but I really wanted to use my new Models Own glitter, and I'm pretty sure it wouldn't work for a full glitter mani, so instead I decided to go with a glitter sandwich ! I've only done one glitter sandwich before (because I didn't have any proper jelly polishes), which I did by mixing a Barry M polish with some topcoat. It worked quite well, but constant mixing for more coats was rather annoying and long-winded !

The polishes I used for this manicure were Champneys Nude and Models Own Ibiza Mix. I was seriously lusting over Ibiza Mix for months until I was able to go to England and get some, so worth the wait though ! I love the mix of pastel glitters in it, it's really unique in my opinion as I haven't seen anything like it around !

So once again, that's it for today ! I hope you enjoyed the glitter sandwich, I'm certainly looking forward to keeping it on my nails for the next 48 hours (long story, I thought today's challenge was neon nails as opposed to glitter, and didn't realise until I started writing the post) !

See ya tomorrow for my neon nails !

15 Day Nail Challenge (Day 5) : Nude Nails

So as you saw from my Galaxy Nails post yesterday, I've decided to participate in Makeup Savvy's 15 day nail challenge, and today's theme is "nude nails". Now, I know the whole idea of this challenge is to do a new design every day, but I just can't bear to take off these galaxy nails from yesterday ! So, instead, I've decided to post a design from the vault which just so happens to fit in with today's theme !

Now I did this design quite a while ago, and I suffered with major tip wear, as seems to happen every time I do glitter gradients ! Seriously annoying, I think it may be because it needs to dry more before I put my Seche Vite top coat on, which causes shrinkage and therefore bad tipwear ! Any ideas ?

So the polishes I used for this manicure were P2 Elegant and Nails Inc Finsbury Park (mini). P2 Elegant was a cheapie polish I bought in Berlin, I mean it cost about 2€ or so, but oh my god, it's practically a perfect match for my skin colour ! Who'd have thought ?! It has also got a slight silvery/pinkish shimmer in it, which is barely noticeable indoors, but you can just see it when you're in the sun !

So how about you? Have you ever picked up any sort of really cheap polish just to complete your collection, without realising it would become one of your go-to polishes ?

So that's it for today ! Hope y'all enjoyed it !

15 Day Nail Challenge (Day 4) : Galaxy Nails

So I can't believe I only found out today, but Fee over at Makeup Savvy is hosting a nail art challenge over the next 2 weeks ! It started on the 1st August, but people are free to join as they wish and pick and choose which challenges they take part in !

Lucky for me, I found out about the challenge just in time for day 4, which is Galaxy Nails ! Now, I know I did a galaxy nail in my skittles from the other day, but that was my first time doing it, and I have to admit, it wasn't my favourite of the bunch ! Today however, I decided that this Nail Challenge would be an excellent opportunity to try them out again and attempt to get a better result !

Now, overall I am ecstatic with how this design turned out ! I find they blend together more and look more realistic than the last time. Plus I'm really happy about the fact that my makeup sponge I used didn't fall apart and leave bits all over my nail whilst sponging like it usually does !

So the polishes I used to create this design were Barry M Black for the base colour, then I used Kiko China Blue, Nicole by OPI Gone Wishin', OPI Alpine White, P2 Who Cares ?, Kiko Electric Blue, Barry M Berry Ice Cream, Essence Hello Holo ! and finally I drew on some white dots to represent closer stars with my Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen in white.

So I wouldn't say galaxy nail art is the easiest design ever, but it's not difficult by any stretch of the imagination ! The only thing I would say about it is that it's rather time consuming, and doesn't make for a quick design for anyone who's in a rush !

So what do you think ? Have you tried galaxy nails before ? Did they disappoint or were they out of this world (oh my god that's so bad !) ?