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 !

NOTD : Happy Birthday to Me !

Yaaaaaaaay ! It's my brithday !!!!!! My nails ended up being rather last minute as I ran out of time after doing designs to post while I'm away, but they're birthday nails nonetheless ! I've been wondering for ages now trying to think of a design I could do for today and seeing as I won't be getting my birthday nail varnishes for a couple of week,s I couldn't do anything with those !

I thought of maybe doing some candless... but then I didn't want to do that ! And then I was going to use some silver foil... but that didn't look right ! So I settled on using two of my favourite nail polishes with one that I've not used before and I'm pretty happy with how it looks !

I used OPI Tomorrow Never Dies and then OPI The Man With the Golden Gun on all except two nails. The little 2-0 was painted with OPI Moonraker which I haven't used before now, and it's actually really good for this sort of nail art, just not so much as a colour by itself !

I really love all that 18 karat goodness on top of my blurple shimmer polish.... soooo gooooood ! I'm going to go to bed now so I can get up and get stuff done tomorrow - I've still got absolutely loads of stuff to do before I leave on Tuesday and that means I've only got 3 full days left ! Scary ! See you again tomorrow hopefully !

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 !

NOTD : Helen Dardik Red Flowers

Hey there everyone ! I really ought to get to bed soon as I'm going to go the market in one of my local towns tomorrow morning so I have to get up early (8:30am, ugh, so early, poor little me). It's going to be really exciting as I'm going to be buying some fabric (yay !) for something I'm currently in the process of making so that means MAJOR nail inspiration ! Happy days ! I've got a design inspired by the illustrator Helen Dardik today, and I'm really happy with how it looks !

So I was looking through Pinterest for some floral inspiration earlier this afternoon when I came across this pin and I knew I had to do it ! I thought of maybe doing a mix of the different flowers on there, but then decided just to stick to one and I'm really glad I did !

I started with two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, then for the actual flowers I used P2 Hug Me, OPI You Don't Know Jacques, Essie Meet Me at Sunset, OPI Big Apple Red and OPI Don't Talk Bach to Me for the leaves. I wish I'd have painted the flower on my little finger more into a corner or something, I just don't think it looks right at the tip of my nail ! What do you think ?

Right, I'm going to go up to bed now, so I'll perhaps see you again tomorrow, maybe the day after (depending on what I'm doing about posting while I'm away) ! Hopefully it'll be tomorrow though, so I'll see you then everyone ! Byeeeeeee !

NOTD : Alice Nail Nails

Hey there everyone ! I've got a special post for you today, none of my own nail art as I've been busy prepared some posts for when I go on holiday/move back to the UK for uni in about 10 days so I didn't get a chance to do something for an actual post today ! Instead I asked my sister, Alice to do whatever she wanted on my nails... and so she did !

Alice hates having her nails painted, and I refuse to paint her nails if she does want them done as after 24 hours she'll have picked all of it off ! Such a waste ! She didn't mind doing my nails today though, but she didn't want to do anything that would take too long (she gets bored of nails FAST) and so she went for this look !

She chose not to use a base colour (I put on a coat of Nail Envy before she started though !), and just painted on the letters using American Apparel Hassid and a nail art brush ! I don't think it's bad for a first attempt, but then again most people find it easier to work on other people as opposed to their own nails, plus she's good at art so that may explain it as well !

Apparently the question mark she painted on my thumb is meant to be one of those Spanish inverted question marks...apparently !

So what do you think about Alice's design ? And how about those naked nails !!!! They're actually not too bad to be fair, not as yellow as they have been before ! Have any of you ever let someone else do your nails for you for a laugh ? I've really enjoyed it (although I'll be taking her design off again tomorrow) and it felt so weird having someone else do it all for me !

I'll see you all again tomorrow ! Byeeeeeee !

Alphabet Nail Art Challenge : Round Up

So here's the round up post for all the nail designs I've done throughout the Alphabet Nail Art Challenge, I'm having a short break from nail art whilst recovering from the last few weeks ! Each photo is linked to its post, so all you have to do is click on the image to see it !

I'd like to know which, if any, of these designs (or in fact any design I've posted on my blog) you would like tutorials for ? I've already got the "F for Floral" tutorial done, I just need to sort the photos for that, but I'd be happy to do tutorials for any other designs you like ! Just let me know in the comments ! 

http://trymyhand.blogspot.fr/2013/08/alphabet-nail-art-challenge-p-for.html

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 : Y for Yin Yang

Hey there everyone ! So I'm here with the penultimate post in the Alphabet Nail Art Challenge and today's theme is "Y for Yin Yang", and I really need to get a move on and write this before it's too late and not today anymore ! I really need to stop all this procrastination ! Anyway, here are the nails !

I had the idea of doing the yin yang symbol on all of my nails but got bored of that idea pretty quickly and decided to go with something else. I considered doing different black and white looks on each nail and I think that could have looked good, but I didn't want to distract from the main theme which is yin and yang and so ended up settling with some black and white glitter !

The yin yang nails were done using a base of American Apparel T-Shirt and then black acrylic paint, the shape was surprisingly easy to paint on once I'd decided what I wanted it to look like ! For the other nails I used OPI Can't Find my Czechbook (love this blue) and 17 Monochrome. I now have 3 black and white glitters that I have acquired since May, and this is the only one with bar glitter ! I really like how it looks, it's probably my favourite of the B&W glitters I have !

Right, I'm going to watch Dexter for a bit and then I'm off to bed ! I'll see you all tomorrow for the final theme in the challenge : zebra ! I'm actually quite looking forward to that theme so we'll see what I come up with ! Byeeeeee !

Alphabet Nail Art Challenge : X for XOXO

Good evening everyone ! Now I'm a bit disappointed with today's nail art as it's a bit boring, but I'm feeling uninspired since the frustration with my watermarbling yesterday, I'm quite looking forward to this challenge being over and done with soon and being able to have a break from nail art for a bit ! Perhaps I'll do some swatching after that as a sort of "palette cleaser" !

See what I mean ? I love the half hearts design and everything, but the colours I chose are just... bleh ! I wanted to write "xoxo" on a couple of my nails, but that didn't really work with the size of letters I wanted to do so I just went with the hearts. I should have really chosen a darker pink colour instead of the light one, or if I'd have paired the light pink with a dark pink that would have been fine, I don't know why I didn't just do that but hey ho, it's done now !

The pink I used was an unamed Color Club polish and the silver was Barry M Silver Foil. I don't know whether it's just me but my Gold Foil polish seems to be a lot more opaque than its silver counterpart, have any of you noticed this if you own these polishes ?

Right well that's all I have to say about this design really, it's nothing special, here's hoping I come up with something slightly better for tomorrow's ying yang theme ! I'm off to bed now as I'm really tired, perhaps a good night's sleep will help with my nail-art-uninspiration ! See you then !