NOTD : Germany Ruffles

Hey there guys ! So believe it or not, I'm actually posting before 9 o'clock this evening ! Major miracle ! And I've got a pretty awesome nail design today for you all as well ! I've been wanting to do loads of different manicures using the polishes from the OPI Germany collection for this Autumn, as they're all such amazing colours ! So here it is, my Germany collection exclusively shimmer manicure !

I've been wanting to do a "ruffle manicure" for a while now, and used this tutorial post by Sarah at Chalkboard Nails to do the design. I wonder whether I should have used a larger dotting tool to do the dots so as to make them more pronounced, because the size I used means you have to look really close up to see that they're all little dots, and from an arm's length they look like straight lines !

So as I said before, for this design I used all the shimmer polishes from the OPI Germany collection, those being Deutsche You Want Me Baby, Danke Shiny Red, Unfor-greta-bly Blue, Suzi and the 7 Düsseldorfs, Every Month is Oktoberfest and Germanicure by OPI. I seriously love ALL these polishes so so sooooo so much, they're all such pretty colours ! I almost didn't want to do a design once I put the base colour of Deutsche You Want Me Baby on, it was almost too gorgeous !

And again, that's all for today everyone ! I hope you all like it ! I think it's really so appropriate for Autumn now that the weather is officially getting even colder than it was during the Summer ! God knows what Winter will be like at this rate !

See you all tomorrow guys ! Have a great day !

Swatch : MaxFactor Fantasy Fire + GIVEAWAY RESULTS !

Hi there guys ! So before we get started with the swatch I have lined up for you guys today, I'd like to announce that the winner of my giveaway is...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 Ta da ! Congratulations Laura, I'll be contacting you soon for details !
EDIT : New winner chosen as the previous winner failed to respond to my email !

Now, onto the nails ! Today's swatch features a polish that was one of the prizes in my giveaway, as you may have seen in the title, MaxFactor Fantasy Fire. Now this is a relatively sought after polish as it only seems to be readily available in the UK at the moment, and lots of people reaaaaally want it because it's similar to lots of discontinued polishes such as Clarins 230, to name the most famous !

And there it is, in all it's glory ! I seriously can't stop staring at this polish, the duochrome effect in it is seriously amazing ! It's a shame I couldn't get a good phoograph of the orange to green transition, but The Swatchaholic has loads of great photos of the different transitions in her swatch post for this polish !

For this swatch post, I layered two coats of the MaxFactor Fantasy Fire polish over two coats of China Glaze Man Hunt, a polish I picked up a couple of weeks ago on my first visit to Sally's, hopefully there'll be plenty more China Glaze on my blog and in my collection now that it's relatively available to me now.. is that a good thing or a bad thing ?

And that's it for this swatch ! I hope you guys liked it, I love watching the transitions of the duochrome effect, it's seriously mesmorising ! I totally understand why this is such a lemming for loads of polish-enthusiasts, it really is dreamy !

See you all same time (hopefully earlier, will I ever get something posted before 10 o'clock again ?) tomorrow everyone !

NOTD : Houndstooth

Well hello there everybody ! So today I've got an AMAZING design on my nails which I'm super proud of ! What with all the houndstooth fashion craze and all the houndstooth nail designs going round at the moment, I decided I ought to give it a go for myself, and I have to say, I'm really really really pleased with the results !

So I've wanted to do houndstooth for ages now, and when Katy from Nailed It announced a couple of days ago that she was doing a nail art contest which only allowed you to use two bottles of polish, I started racking my brain trying to decide what design to do, when I realised that houndstooth would be the perfect pattern for using two different bottles of polish !

For this design the only two polishes I used (excluding base and top coat) were OPI Suzi and the 7 Düsseldorfs for the base colour and then for the black pattern I used Americal Apparel Hassid. May I add that I did this all freehand, including just painting plain squares instead of doing all the striping business, it seemed too much like hard work going over everything twice with my base colour and since I trimmed my nail art brush a bit it's a lot easier just to paint the squares !

And that's it for today everyone ! So it turned out this post hasn't been posted much earlier than the one yesterday, but oh well, these nails took forever to do and for a good cause as well (my satisfaction and the nail art contest, of course) ! Maybe tomorrow I'll post slightly earlier if I can, we'll see !

See you all then guys !

And also, there's only a few hours left in my giveaway ! Get in there while you can !

NOTD : Printed Dogs

Hey there everybody ! Oh damn, it's late again ! Seriously, where does the time even go ? I suppose I got used to the Summer when I first started my blog and having the opportunity practically every day at some point to do my nails, usually around midday so I could get a post up in the afternoon, but recently it seems I'm lucky if I get one up before 10 o'clock ! But then it's just something I'll have to get used to, I've coped so far so we'll see how things go ! Anyway, I have a really cute mani today which I hope you'll all like !

So this pattern/print is inspired by a top I got from Primark earlier this Summer. It's got wire haired fox terriers on it which is absolutely amazing because I have four wire fox terriers (and one jack russell) at home, and I'm really missing them now I'm at university ! Seriously looking forward to seeing them all again (and my family of course !) when I go back to France for the Christmas holidays !

For this design, the polishes I used were OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons for the base, then for the little dogs I used OPI Alpine Snow, OPI Berlin There Done That and then I used my Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen in black for the little eyes and nose on each dog ! It was getting late when I did these nails (as you can probably tell from the time at which I'm posting them), so I ended up just doing some polka dots with Berlin There Done That on my right hand, I wasn't prepared to sit and do all the dogs with my non-dominant hand for age, both designs do go well together though ! I love the colours !

So that's it for tonight, I'm off to bed as soon as this is posted, I need my beauty sleep before I have to go to lectures tomorrow, thank god it's the weekend though ! I may have loads less hours than my timetable from last year, but these university lectures and seminars are so much more tiring ! Hopefully I'll be able to do my nails at some point tomorrow afternoon as opposed to the evening seeing as I finish somewhat early ! We'll have to see how it goes !

Oh, and I almost forgot ! Here's a photo of the top that inspired these nails !

See you all tomorrow everyone, have a great day tomorrow !

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 !

NOTD : M&M's

Hey guys ! So I've got a super-awesome mani today that I'm super-proud of ! Turns out I got bored pretty quickly today of yesterday's nails, even though I really liked them, my Mum reminded me of a nail design I did literally aaaaaaaaages ago earlier, and I had to do it again, not just for nostalgia, but to see how far I've actually come in terms of my nail art skills !

Yeah ! M&M's, just in case you hadn't read the title ! I love these nails so much (as I say that just after having split a nail after opening a tub of instant hot chocolate, it's on my right hand, so not too drastic, but a disaster nonetheless), the design is so simple yet it really does get loads of compliments ! I guess it may be the pop culture side of things, having a recognisable design as opposed to just a plain pattern, I love it either way !

So for this design the different colours I used were P2 Hug Me, China Glaze Man Hunt, 17 Baked Cherry, OPI You Don't Know Jacques, and then Collection 2000 Ninja. The only real dilemma I had was the fact that there are six different M&M colours, so I ended up having to ditch one of the colours on my right hand so I could include an orange nail, just to make up all the proper colours ! For the orange (even though you can't see it), I used OPI My Back Pocket. Oh, and I used my Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen in white for the little "m"s on each nail.

And that's it again for today everyone ! I hope you like this design, and have you ever recreated a design you've already done to see how you've improved ? The last time I did this design I had to do the "m"s with a dotting tool because I didn't own any nail art pens, I'm so glad I do now though because I love how precise my work can turn out with them ! The "m"s look much more delicate in today's design than in the ones I did (just checked the date, it was in January 2011, officially ages ago) all that time ago !

Have a great day tomorrow guys, and enjoy the rest of your evening !

Oh and also, don't forget to enter my giveaway ! There's only 3 days left, so don't miss out on your chance to win some super amazing polishes !

EDIT : Here's a photo of what my first attempt looked like... just for fun, after Alice from One Nail to Rule Them All suggested I post it !

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 !

NOTD : Cupcakes !

Hey everybody ! So I had to take off my floral nails from a couple of days ago this evening because one of my nails has broken so I've had to cut my nails down short to limit breakages ! I don't mind having short nails, in fact I actually really quite like them, I can just never be bothered to sit down each day and file them, and they grow long and then I get annoyed because I can't write anymore, so I cut them all down, and then they grow back... it's a vicious circle really.

So here are my short new nails ! My Mum gave me the idea to do cupcakes when I asked her this morning because I was lacking inspiration ! She always has the best ideas ! I didn't want to do a full set of cupcake nails, so I settled for two accent cupcakes, cute right ? I was hoping the stripes on all the other nails would stand out more than they do, maybe I should have just done pink and brown stripes instead...

For this design the colours I used were OPI My Very First Knockwurst, an un-named pink Color Club polish, OPI Berlin There Done That and then OPI You Don't Know Jacques for the darker brown dots on each cupcake. I'm really happy with how these nails turned out, and I really like only having a couple of cupcakes on each hand ! Plus the little red rhinestones I used for cherries look so sweet, I love it !

And that's it once again for today everyone ! I hope you like these little cupcakes, I actually think they look slightly realistic in that the colour are actually plausible cupcake colours ! What do you think ?

Have a great evening guys !

NOTD : Pokénails

Hey there everyone ! So today I have an old design for you all because I'm not quite ready to take off yesterday's nails ! These nails are from way way waaaaaaay back in March I think (or about that time), and I had just cut my nails down really short because of a breakage on my little finger nail (I think), so I had to do a design that would fit in well with my relatively tiny nails !

So I had seen a couple of different pokémon nails before I did these, I didn't actually do any proper research looking for all the different pokéball nails that had already been done, and still haven't as a matter of fact, but I'm sure there are plenty of them around !

For this design I started with a coat of OPI Alpine Snow, then I selotaped off half of my nail and filled in one half of each nail with Barry M Red (I think, it's been a long time) ! For the black bits I used my Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen in black and then did another dot with Alpine Snow. Looking at the design now, in hindsight I really should have started with the red as a base, because the clean up made the white base colour show up under the red, but oh well !

So I've only got a couple of photos of this design seeing as I did it such a long time ago, so hopefully just two will suit you all ! I thought this design turned out quite well, mainly due to the fact that my nails were so short and therefore gave more of a rounded "ball" look if that's possible !

So now I'm off to go partay in the Students Union, how fun ! I'll also have to start pondering about what I'm going to do on my nails tomorrow... another Germany collection based mani, maybe ? We'll see in any case !

Enjoy your evening everyone !

NOTD : Germany Floral

Whooooooops I've left this a little later than I should have done, but don't you worry, I have a post and brand new nails ready for you all tonight ! I contemplated doing chocolate roulade nails today, to match up with what I baked this afternoon for my flatmates, but decided it had been too long since I had done a floral mani ! So here you go, my go-to floral pattern !

So like I mentioned in yesterday's post (I think), my very generous mother bought me all 12 polishes from the OPI Germany collection that was released for Autumn 2012, and I have to say, I ADORE all the colours in this collection ! So many colours I never realised I actually needed in my rather excessive nail polish collection until now, and I especially love all these brown/taupe/nude colours that came out in this collection.

So for this design I used polishes only from the Germany collection, which were OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons, OPI Schnapps Out of It !, OPI Berlin There Done That and then OPI Nein ! Nein ! Nein ! OK Fine ! for all the little flowers. I also used my Models Own Wah Nails nail art pens in black and white for the accents on each flower to make them all stand out a bit more !

Overall I'm really pleased with how this design turned out, considering I just grabbed a few random polishes out of my drawers that just so happened to go together quite well ! It looks really autumn-y and actually quite muted, even though the colours aren't necessarily the dullest of all polish colours !

So anyway, I hope you liked this design as much as I do, I really do need to try doing some different kinds of floral manis, as opposed to what I now consider to be my "signature floral" designs !