Alphabet Nail Art Challenge : H for Houndstooth

Hey there everyone ! So it's Monday again and I can't believe it's already been a week since I first started this alphabet nail art challenge ! So as I mentioned yesterday, today's theme is houndstooth. I haven't done a houndstooth design since last Christmas so I was really excited to be able to do it again and here's what I came up with :

So I ended up doing the saran wrap method again like yesterday, and the whole design has actually unintentionally turned out looking a bit like a tweed jacket ! I really like the way it looks though, even though it wasn't really planned !

I started off with two coats of Essie Mint Candy Apple and used the saran wrap method with OPI Jade is the new Black on top of that. I then used black acrylic paint to draw on the houndstooth print. It really didn't take long to do at all, especially thanks to the acrylic paint which just glides on to the nails, and it is quite a simple design to do once you break down all the shapes !

Right, I'm off to bed now as I'm super-tired ! I had to get up early today and I still haven't recuperated from my busy weekend (oh woe is me), so I really need to get to bed now ! I'll be back again tomorrow though, with an ikat design, ugh... I really don't like ikat, it never turns out how I want it to !

Alphabet Nail Art Challenge : G for Graffiti

Good evening everyone ! It seems yesterday's floral design was particularly popular, and I received a request for a tutorial so that will be up and coming some time this week I should expect ! Other than that I'm moving on again with the Alphabet Nail Art Challenge and today is "G for Graffiti" !

I've never really been in to graffiti as it's never really appealed to me, so I really struggled to come up with something for this challenge. I didn't want to do graffiti lettering or anything and although I did consider replicating a Banksy design, I came up with the idea to do a brick wall in the background and just do a spray paint pattern on top !

I started with two coats of OPI Skyfall and after that had dried a bit I used the saran wrap method the dabble on some OPI Die Another Day and OPI My Vampire is Buff to draw the lines to make the bricks. I then painted on spray paint shapes using OPI Jade is the New Black, OPI Planks A Lot and OPI Dim Sum Plum. The colour choices were completely random for the spray paint, I just grabbed a couple of nail varnishes that were near me, still there from when I did my floral nails !

Right, it's bed-time now, going out two nights in a row is really tiring ! I'll be back again tomorrow though so don't you worry, tomorrow's theme is houndstooth, very exciting !

Alphabet Nail Art Challenge : F for Floral

Another day, another nail challenge ! Today's "F for Floral", and although florals are one of my favourite designs to do on my nails, I still had a really hard time choosing what to do ! I did these nails on Thursday when I did my "mega-nail-athon" when I did three designs in one afternoon, and I have to be honest and say that I'm glad I did this floral design last as I'm happy to have been able to keep it on my nails for a couple of days !

I got the urge to do something relatively realistic and not cartoony/caricature flowers, so it was then that I got the idea to incorporate roses into the nail art design. I always find that you can add so much depth to roses by using different shades of one colour, and it's a quick and easy type of floral as you don't have to be particularly precise, just blob on some colour !

So I started with a base if OPI My Vampire is Buff, and then contemplated maybe doing either some white stripes or dots, but in the end I decided against it. The roses are made up of OPI Strawberry Margerita, OPI Dim Sum Plum, OPI My Very First Knockwurst and OPI Sparrow Me the Drama. Finally, for the leaves I used OPI Don't Talk Bach to Me, OPI Jade is the New Black and OPI Live and Let Die.

I did exactly the same design, just mirrored, on my right hand and I think it looks really great ! I think because this designs just requires mainly blobbing with the colours it's quite easy to replicate it with your non-dominant hand ! What do you think ? Do you always try to do the same thing on both hands, or do you try and simplify it for your non-dominant hand ?

Right, I'm off out again this evening, so I'll see you all again tomorrow with a new post ! Tomorrow's theme is Graffiti, so we'll see where that leads me ! See ya !

Alphabet Nail Art Challenge : E for Elegant

Now I've not got long before I need to get ready to go out again this evening, so I've got to be quick writing this post ! Day five of the Alphabet nail art challenge means it's the letter "E for Elegant", and I literally had no idea WHATSOEVER what to do on my nails ! I decided on something in the end, so this is what I came up with :

When I think of elegant nails I think of all the sorts of typical salon nail designs, with all the swirly lines and stuff like that, but I knew from the beginning that I didn't want to do that ! I don't think I've done a ruffian design before, so at least I'm trying something new and I also think that the minimalistic approach to the elegant theme really works quite well !

For today's design I started with a thickish coat of Accessorize Gold Dust, and then I went over (very accordingly to the theme) with two coats of P2 Elegant. I only just remembered the name of the nude polish, and I can't believe what a coincidence it is that I used it for today's challenge !

Okay so I need to go and get ready now, so I'll see you all again tomorrow with a new theme.. don't miss it ! It's going to be floral, and as you may know, it's one of my favourite things to paint on my nails ! Woohoo ! See you all then !

Alphabet Nail Art Challenge : D for Dogs

Good evening everyone ! I've been busy doing my nails three times (!!!) this afternoon, as I'm not going to have time to do my nails tomorrow or on Saturday as my days are fully booked, so I'll only have time to write the posts ! I'm really happy with what I've come up with for these next couple of days, but you'll have to wait for them all ! It's a shame I can't do my nails every day like I had planned, but then again, I can't just spend every day doing nails ! There's money to be earned and errands to be done, nails come in second unfortunately ! Anyway, onto today's masterpiece !

So as it's day four of the Alphabet Nail Art Challenge, it's "D for Dogs" ! Now I came to a complete stand-still when I had to think up something to do for this dogs theme, I've always avoided doing any sort of dog pattern as I find that they're really hard to draw, even as a caricature ! I was thinking of doing bones and paw prints and stuff like that, but then I remembered my David and Goliath "You so pugly" pyjamas and decided that I needed to do a pug instead !

For the pug nail, I started with a base of OPI My Vampire is Buff, I drew the outlines and shapes with black acrylic paint, and then did the coloured details using OPI You Don't Know Jacques, OPI Strawberry Margerita, OPI Sparrow Me the Drama and American Apparel T-Shirt. For the polka-dot nails I used OPI My Very First Knockwurst, OPI Strawberry Margerita and OPI Sparrow Me the Drama. You may have noticed that the idea for the polka-dot nails came from the pug's bow tie, as I couldn't face drawing more than one pug !

So what do you all think of my little pug ? I was very sad to have to see him go, as I think he turned out really great, albeit a bit "pugly" ! I think his eyes going in different directions really sets off the look ! This is one of the things I'm really enjoying about doing this nail art challenge : having to step out of what would be my "nail art comfort zone" and trying new things and designs I wouldn't have done otherwise ! Definitely something I'll be doing again in the very near future !

And that'll be all tonight everyone, I won't be scheduling a post so I'll write it up tomorrow, it'll be a late afternoon/early evening post, so don't miss it ! See you all then !

Alphabet Nail Art Challenge : C for Camo

Good evening everybody ! This is going to be a really quick post because I have some friends coming over in 10 minutes and so I really need to write this quickly ! I did these nails last night just before writing the post for "B for Bows", and so the lighting conditions weren't great (I prefer having the natural light as well as a lamp to light my lightbox) but the photos still look alright to me ! So, here are the nails !

I didn't think I had done camo nails before, but then I seemed to remember doing them some time last year, and it turns out I had indeed already done camouflage ! Looking back on it now, I much prefer my latest attempt at camo ! I think the different colours show up far better (you couldn't see the beige in last year's one) and the general look of the blobs is nicer ! What do you think ?

So for this design, I started off with OPI Stranger Tides, after umm-ing and ahh-ing for ages trying to decide when to do a darker mossy green sort of colour I finally decided that Stranger Tides would be fine ! I then blobbed on OPI You Don't Know Jacques, OPI My Vampire is Buff and OPI Nein! Nein! Nein! OK Fine! in that order on top of eachother.

I had contemplated putting some gold studs on top of each nail but ended up abandoning that idea as I was already quite pleased with the camo and didn't want to risk ruining it ! Perhaps I'll try adding studs if I do camo again, perhaps some square ones down the centre of a nail as an accent would look nice !

So that's it for today, I'm off to go greet people and enjoy my evening, so I hope you enjoy yours too !

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 !

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 !

NOTD : Pink, Purple and Blue Splatter

Hey there everybody ! I've got a new design for you all today, I meant to write this post earlier in the week but time just ended up escaping me and it somehow got delayed until today ! I hope you enjoyed my piCture pOlish blog fest post on Monday, as I really enjoyed taking part ! Anyway, I'm thankfully back at home again now with all my nail varnishes and a light box, so normal nail art can resume again !

I did this design the other day, but when it came to sitting down to do my nails, I didn't know what I wanted to do (as usual) so I asked my genius mother and she said splats. I figured I hadn't done a splatter mani for a while so it was about time I tried it again ! It's still just as annoying to do, the nail polish gets everywhere and you have to make sure you have a decent amount of nail varnish actually inside the straw before you blow, but I got there in the end !

I started with a base of American Apparel T-Shirt, and then using a straw, I "splatted" the design using American Apparel Hassid, P2 Break the Rules, OPI Can't Find My Czechbook and OPI Suzi's Hungary Again. I really like the combination of these colours together, they're bright but not in your face at the same time, a plus in my book !

 So that's it for tonight (it's getting a bit late, time for bed !), I'll be back with a post again soon as I've got plenty of backlog to post ! See you again soon everyone !

Voting Now Open !

Voting for the piCture pOlish 2013 blog fest is now open on their website, but not for long ! You can fill out the form at the following link, and simply write the name of your favourite blogger's design in the comments section ! Simples ! You will also be entered in with the chance to win 6 polishes, now if that's not a good incentive to vote then I don't know what is ! Follow the link here :

BLOG FEST VOTING FORM

Here's the link again to my blog fest post from yesterday, just in case you missed it !

PS : Any vote for me is hugely appreciated, I'd just LOVE to be able to collaborate with piCture pOlish to create a new shade of nail varnish, what an opportunity !