Weather Nails

Hey there everyone ! So by now I'll probably be eating out with my Mum at a restaurant in Bath (probably Gourmet Burger Kitchen, there's no arguing with 40% student discount), having travelled all the way over from France on the ferry (and catching the early morning ferry so having to get up at 5:30am, ugh) and moved all my stuff into my new home for the academic year ! Today I have some nails I came up with a couple of weeks ago... guess what it was inspired by !

So the weather has been really changeable both here in France and in the UK over the past two weeks or so, suggesting the start of Autumn and what better way to honour the beginning of the new season than to do some changeable weather nails ?!

For the sunshine nails I started with a base of OPI Can't Find My Czechbook and filed in the sun with P2 Hug Me, for the rainy nails I used a base of OPI I Don't Give a Rotterdam, P2 GLory and Essie Lapiz of Luxury, as well as a small dash of American Apparel T-Shirt. I used black acrylic paint for all the outlining and the little birds (the ones on my middle finger didn't turn out great, the acrylic paint was starting to dry up and started going lumpy).

My favourite nails are definitely the rainy ones, I love the way the shimmery grey/blue works as a background ! I'd definitely wear those rainy nails as one whole design ! Currently (as of Monday night), the weather looks like its going to be AWFUL and windy and pretty gross throughout most of the week so lucky me !

Tune in tomorrow for the first of my tutorials I have planned for you over the coming days ! See ya then ! Byeeeee !

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 : S for Sharks

Evening all ! So I'm writing this post positively early in comparison to the past few days of posts, but I won't complain ! The Great British Bake Off is on now so I'd better get a move on writing this so I'm not torn between the TV and my laptop !

Here's another theme that I wasn't particularly excited about...sharks... There's not really all that much room for creativity but hey, I did what I could ! I looked through google at posters for Jaws and just plain shark images, and I came across this stock image which I decided would be best for what I wanted to do !

I started with two coats of Essie Lapiz of Luxury on all my nails, for the shark I used black acrylic paint to get a good outline, and for the various details I used P2 Flirt With Me, OPI Skulls and Glossbones and P2 Glory. For the water splashes I used China Glaze Man Hunt, P2 Up in the Air, Models Own Blooboo and OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. My favourite part about this design is probably the splashes, I think it'd look great just by itself as a mani !

So what do you all think ? What would you have done for the shark theme ? It's a shame I only started this challenge when I did as I might have been able to tie the shark theme in with Shark Week, but hey ho, they're only a couple of weeks late !

I'll see you all tomorrow with the "T for Triangles" theme, I've already got an idea of what I'm going to do !

Alphabet Nail Art Challenge : Q for Quilt

Hey there everybody ! So I have to admit, I was feeling completely unenthusiastic about today's theme both last night and this morning, even when I'd decided what I wanted to do on my nails and sat down to do them I ended up procrastinating for another hour or so and totally delayed having to do them ! I got them done in the end though so that's all that matters, and I'm actually rather pleased with them !

I looked up "quilts" on wikipedia which came up with all sorts of different types, even "crazy quilts" which I considered, but decided that was too complicated ! In the end I searched for quilts on Pinterest and found this one which inspired me ! I didn't use the colours that were in the pinterest quilt image, and instead I chose to pick some random colours from my collection !

I used OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls for the base colour, and the coloured triangles were done using OPI Funky Dunkey, OPI Planks A Lot, OPI Sparrow Me the Drama, OPI My Very First Knockwurst, OPI Can't Find my Czechbook, OPI Big Apple Red, OPI My Back Pocket, China Glaze Man Hunt and Essie Meet Me at Sunset. Wow.. that's a lot of nail varnish !

This design took ages for me to do, far longer than I had expected ! As you can see I started with a lot of detail and small triangles on the thumb but then as soon as I'd finished that nail, I knew the others had to have a larger pattern on them ! Just imagine the time it would have taken me otherwise !!!

I'm going to watch some more TV now before I go to bed, so I'll see you tomorrow !

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 : I for Ikat

Good evening everyone ! I'm only going to write a quick post tonight as there are bits I need to get done before I go to bed ! I mentioned yesterday that I was dreading doing ikat nails today as I've had disasters every time I've attempted it, but I'm glad to say that that has now been remedied !

I looked up a load of photos of ikat prints on google because I knew that I really didn't want to do the typical ikat nail designs that you see everywhere online ! I saw a few zigzag ikat patterns and decided that that would be best for me !

I started with two coats of OPI My Vampire is Buff, and then did the stripey zigzags with OPI Can't Find my Czechbook and China Glaze Man Hunt. I've been using My Vampire is Buff in loads of designs during this challenge, it's just such a great neutral base colour and is so much more subtle than plain white (or even off-white for that matter) !

So all in all I'm really pleased with this design and I think it'd look great in loads of different colour combinations ! What are your experiences with ikat designs on your nails ? Have you struggled as much as I have ?

Also, I'm going away to Brittany tomorrow and I'll be there until Friday ! I haven't had any time to prepare posts for while I'm away so I won't be able to post until Saturday at the earliest I wouldn't say, which is a shame ! I'll hopefully get that floral tutorial finished so I can post that this weekend, Saturday maybe, and then I can resume normal posting for this alphabet nail art challenge ! So I'll see you all again soon !

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 : 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 !

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 : Tie Dye

Hey there everyone ! It's really late and I've had loads of stuff on my hands recently with revision and all that (I have my first exam on Monday, not long now), but obviously I still managed to make time to do my nails, I just haven't got round to writing the post until now ! It won't be long as I'm really tired, but I felt I couldn't leave you without anything for another day !

So I did this design yesterday morning, when I was supposed to be revising... I've been wanting to tie dye a shirt for a few weeks now and I figured I'd paint some tie dye on my nails while I wait for the actual thing ! I looked up some images on google and it came up with this photo :

I really like that it's more purpley than the usual tie dye you see around, in my opinion anyway !

For this design, the colours I used were OPI My Vampire is Buff for the base, then I used OPI Dim Sum Plum, Essie Meet Me at Sunset, P2 Hug Me, Collection 2000 Ninja and Models Own Blooboo. I almost left out the yellow accents when I was painting these, but I'm glad I didn't as I think it really brings all the colours together !

So that's all for today, I've got to go and get ready for bed as I need a good night's sleep before MORE revision tomorrow, oh happy days ! Night night everyone ! See you all soon !

NOTD : Bright Harlequin

Hey there everyone ! So today's post is super early to make a change, that doesn't happen very often ! I'm going away today for a week and so I won't be around to post anything, but I'm scheduling a couple of posts that I've prepared (instead of revising, obviously) to tide you over until I get back !

So I did these nails yesterday, and it's a design I've been wanting to do for ages, but I've been trying to think up a good colour combination for it ! In the end I just grabbed a few bright colours and they seemed to go relatively well together so I just started painting ! The design took me a couple of hours to do, I started off with my left hand just in case I didn't like it so I didn't waste nail varnish on my right hand, but as I ended up really liking the design I did it on both of my hands !

For this design, the colours I used were P2 Crazy About Green for the base (this colour would have been absolutely awesome if it wasn't a shimmer), then I used OPI Dim Sum Plum, OPI My Back Pocket and Models Own Blooboo for the different triangles. I freehanded everything as I seem to have problems with the tape method (mainly because I'm too impatient to wait for everything to dry), and I think the lines still turned out pretty crisp ! Result !

Right so that's all for today folks, I've got a couple more posts to write for you all and then I've got to finish getting ready ! See ya next week !

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 : Springtime Pastel Flowers

Hey there everyone ! I'm making the most of this rare free time (where I'm not actually procrastinating) by doing my nails as often as I can, so luckily for you, I've got yet another blog post ! Wow, two days in a row, it's been a while ! So some of you may have seen the new pastel nail art pens that Models Own released the other day, and as soon as I saw them I showed them to my mum who VERY kindly ordered them for me ! I received them yesterday, and naturally couldn't wait to use them !

So I wanted to do a design that incorporated all of the different colours of nail art pens that I received, and I'm really happy with what I came up with ! I think that the dark base really shows up the pastelness of of the nail art pens that I used, plus, there's nothing better for Spring than a good old combination of both a floral and pastel design !

For the base I used OPI Nein! Nein! Nein! OK Fine!, then I used all of my new Models Own nail art pens in pink, purple, yellow, blue and green, plus my Models Own nail art pen in black to do the little dots on some of the flowers. I really love the way the different colours come together in this design, and I can't wait to use these pens in other designs !

So that's all for today really, the only real comment I have to make about the pens is that they dribbled quite a bit, but that's nothing too drastic and it's still perfectly manageable ! Maybe soon they'll bring out a red nail art pen to complete my collection !

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

NOTD : Water Marble Floral

Good evening everyone ! So I've actually FINALLY done my nails since being back in France for the holidays ! I ended up not having much time at all so far, and so I didn't manage to do any special Easter nails (plus the fact that I didn't really bring the colours I wanted/needed for the design I had in mind), but I've got a great new design for you all today !

So today I decided to bite the bullet and attempt doing a water marble... I had tried doing water spotted again, but failed to find the right spray to do it. I've tried water marbling before and it didn't really turn out that great, but I'm seriously happy about how it turned out today, and I think I'll be doing a full water marble manicure soon !

For this design I started off with two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, then for the flowers and the water marble colours, I used Essie Splash of Grenadine, Essie Lapiz of Luxury and Essie Mint Candy Apple. I can't wait to try doing water marbling with brighter colours and loads of different combinations !

And that's it for today everyone, I'm going to go and watch Skyfall (probably not all of it, but a bit at least), and play some Mahjong on my phone, happy days !

Stay tuned for another possible water marble later this week, I'm so excited I can finally do it !

NOTD : Geometric Diamonds

Happy Sunday everybody ! So on Friday I eventually got round to doing my nails (finally) after my floral design from last Sunday, but I never seemed to be happy with the design I did until about midnight last night, which is why is didn't end up posting anything until now ! I am however super-pleased with this design (even though it's gone now due to important swatches that needed to be done), but I think I need some really really really nice weather to come along and inspire me now !

Basically I've been working on a diamond sort cubey tessellation drawing thing while I've been watching TV for the last week, and seriously felt to the need to do it on my nails, but I really couldn't be bothered because I knew it'd take forever to paint ! And I was right, it took about 2 hours to do, and I only did one hand (there was no way I was going to stay up any longer just to struggle recreating on my right hand as well). I am really really pleased with how it looks though, maybe next time I'll do the pattern slightly bigger so I don't have to do as much small detailing !

For this design, I started off with a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, then with a LOT of patience, I used American Apparel Hassid and OPI Can't Find My Czechbook for the diamond shapes that make up the pattern. I really like how cool it looks, and from a distance it really does look like it's a nail wrap or something, which is always good !

So that's all for today ! I now have plenty of designs for posts this week, I've got lots of work at the moment so not so much time for nails, so it's just as well that I couldn't decide on anything these past couple of day ! What do you think of tessellation designs like this ? Would you paint it despite the amount of time it takes to do ?

I'll see you all tomorrow hopefully if I get time to write a post, but until then, have a great day !