Alphabet Nail Art Challenge : O for Owls

Evening all ! I've just spent the last 30 mins deleting a load of photos from my phone as I have no storage space left ! Oh dear ! Mind you.. 7GB of photos is rather a lot to be fair ! So anyway, I seem to be procrastinating and not getting very much of this post written, so here are the nails !

 So today was the first day during this challenge that I've had to stop what I was doing and get rid of everything on my nails ! I wanted to try using o-rings to create half moon designs on each nail to form the ears of the owls, but it just didn't look right after I'd applied the base colour and so just took everything off ! I'm glad I did though because I'm really happy with the end design now !

My base colour in this design is OPI You Don't Know Jacques and for the details on the owls I used Barry M Gold Foil, OPI My Back Pocket, American Apparel T-Shirt and American Apparel Hassid. I put a little white dash in each eye on the owls, I think it really brings the whole look together !

I've been busy sorting out a new layout for my blog today, so I'm going to go and do some more of that before I go to bed ! That and deleting photos ! I'm working all day tomorrow but I should hopefully have enough time before the sun sets to paint my nails and take some reasonable photos, so I'll see you then !

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 : 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 !

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) !

Swatch : OPI - The World is Not Enough

Hey there everyone ! So I'm super tired today, suffering the effects of the drowsy medicine I had to take yesterday and I've been walking most of the day today seeing as my family is over, lots of shopping ! But anyway, I'm doing a quick post for you before I head off to bed, seeing as I said I would yesterday and all !

Today I'll be showing you OPI The World is Not Enough, from the OPI Skyfall collection for Christmas 2012. This nail polish is a light-ish brown silvery shimmer colour, with great rosey pink undertones (which actually show up really well in the above photo for some reason), super super pretty !

The formula for this nail varnish was quite thin an sheer, so I used 3 coats for this swatch, plus Seche Vite, but the consistency of the polish was really great so I didn't have any problems with the application ! The colour of this nail varnish was really hard to capture properly for some reason, but I reckon the first photo is probably the most acurate, but then again, it's one of those polishes that looks different from every angle and every light !

The shimmeriness of this nail varnish really is impressive, and all the different ways you can see its colour is truly amazing !

So yeah, that's all for today really ! I'm super tired now and I've got an early start in the morning with lectures so I'd better go off and get ready for bedtime ! Night night everyone, I'll try and post again tomorrow !

NOTD : Leopard Print Hearts

Hey there everyone ! I actually finally managed to do my nails again, and am doing a rather late post tonight as I don't know when I'll even have time to sit down and blog ! I really ought to start doing some revision as I have exams at the end of January, but so far I've been spending my time with family and just enjoying their company (plus my dogs, really enjoying having them around) !

So today's design is based on a jumper I got for Christmas, and I'm obsessed with the pattern ! It isn't exactly as I've done on my nails, but I'll maybe have to try doing it properly on my nails some time soon ! I've never painted large hearts on my nails in a design before, and when I've tried they always turned out wonky in some way, so I'm really glad with the way these ones turned out !

The polishes I used for this design were my standard go-to leopard print colours : OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons, OPI You Don't Know Jacques and then my Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen in black... great combination ! I think the brown polish I use is a little too dark for the heart design I did on my two accent nails, but oh well ! I think there'll be some heart designs coming along in future posts on this blog, perhaps even with some polishes from the Skyfall collection (which I somehow managed to avoid using in today's design ?!) !

I also have some more bonus pictures for you all this evening, all still very leopard print related, so they absolutely deserve a place on this post, just you wait and see !

Here are my mum's nails which I did with her favourite design - leopard print, of course ! She's got acrylics on at the moment which is the perfect excuse for me to do her nails ! She wanted to use one of the Skyfall collection polishes, so I used OPI The World is Not Enough as well as the usual Don't Pretzel My Buttons and my nail art pen !

And here's my top model puppy dog called Puppy, who today got a dog-icure ! I was surprised she actually stayed still long enough for me to do her nails, and I love the leopard print one on the left ! Needless to say they're covered in mud now and chipping away like crazy, but it was a great photo opportunity ! Do you ever paint your pets' nails ?

So that'll be all for today you guys ! I'm going to bed now as it's waaaaaay past my bed time and I'm really quite tired ! I hope you all like my nails today, I definitely do, and I'm loving the hearts ! I'll see you all again soon everyone, and I'll try and get something up for New Year (even though I'm not doing anything apart from a nice meal at home for it) !

Advent Calendar : Christmas Puddings

Hello everybody ! So I managed to write a whole essay about communism today, I'm so proud of myself ! That's one down and two more to go before all my work load is relieved, not long now I hope ! As you may have noticed, today is the first day of December, which therefore means that Christmas nails are totally do-able, and it's no way too far away from Christmas ! Happy times !

I've wanted to do Christmas pudding nails for absolutely ages, but for some reason I never have done ! I'm pretty sure that last year all I did was snowflake stamps, but I really can't remember and I don't seem to have taken any photos of them at all ! Anyway, the first day of the month is the perfect excuse for Christmas pudding nails, and these ones are quite different from any of the Christmas pudding nails I've seen around before !

So for this design, I started off with a base of OPI Meep-Meep-Meep (which as a matter of fact I got around this time last year, such a great Christmas colour), then for the puddings I used OPI You Don't Know Jacques, OPI Berlin There Done That, American Apparel T-Shirt for the brandy sauce, and then the holly was done using Collection 2000 Ninja and OPI Big Apple Red. I'm really pleased with how they turned out, especially seeing as they're the right way up !

Despite my complete and utter hatred for Christmas pudding, I think these nails are really cute ! Christmas pudding may taste revolting, but they make for a pretty cool manicure ! Now I'm off to brainstorm more Christmas designs, and I'll be back tomorrow with a new one for sure !

See you all tomorrow everyone, have a great night !

NOTD : Camouflage

Hey there everyone ! So there's no hope in hell of me getting any work done for my actual university degree this evening as a tonne of innebriated students are currently "living it up" in the kitchen of my flat (which I unfortunately have to share with party-lovers seeing as the choice was completely random for my first year in halls). Instead, I'm blogging, which I'd be doing anyway, but I'd hoped that I'd actually have got some work done by now ! Anyway, enough ranting, on to the nails !

So these nails are, as you've probably guessed, camouflage print ! The base is a light khaki colour and there's also some beige I painted on top, but the darker polishes on top have washed away the lighter ones so it makes it hard to differenciate ! Perhaps I should have chosen a darker green base colour so that everything could have shown up... oh well !

For the camouflage design, the colours I used were OPI Stranger Tides for the base, then for the pattern on top I used OPI Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh, OPI You Don't Know Jacques and American Apparel Hassid. I just randomly painted on the strips of colour, no real method to it at all !

Right and that's it for today ! The drunks are still here but nevertheless I'm going to have to work at some point, I'll try my best ! I already know what I'm going to do for tomorrow's nails, so there'll be no need for me to concentrate on that, phew !

Wish me luck everyone ! And have a nice day tomorrow !

NOTD : Movember

Hellooooo there everyone ! Need to do just a quick post tonight as I still have lots of things left to sort before I go to bed, and I'm rather behind track on everything I need to get done ! Hectic times ahead ! So, obviously needing to gain time on everything I'm doing this evening, I just had to do a quick and simple nail design, nothing fancy, so here it is !

So I already told you yesterday (and the day before as a matter of fact) that I was going to do nails in honour of Movember, and I know that guys are supposed to start with blank canvases, but alas, I'm a girl and the only alternative I have is to paint moustaches on my nails ! What a pity ! I probably could have done something way more intricate than this, but as I said, I really don't have much time to spare this evening !

For this design I only used two different polishes : OPI Berlin There Done That and American Apparel Hassid. I figured I ought to do a mutual base colour (as opposed to the pastel rainbow base colours I was planning out) because it's somewhat more manly for moustache nails ! The moustaches were very simple to do : two big black dots next to eachother on each nail and then just paint a quick flick out to the side !

So that's it for tonight guys ! I'll see you tomorrow with a rather nice surprise for you all ! Aren't you lucky (I just hope it lives up to expectations) ! Are any of you planning on doing special "Movember" nails ? This was my first time doing moustache nails and I'm really quite happy with how they turned out ! None of them are exactly the same either which is cool !

See you all tomorrow everyone ! Have a great day tomorrow, and I'll see you then !

NOTD : Dior Hearts

Helloooooo everybody ! Just a quick post from me today as I've got some work to do before tomorrow and I've got an early wake-up for lectures in the morning so I can't be too late to bed ! I've done another quick manicure today using another of my Dior polishes I got at the weekend.. I have to say, they really are all such stunning colours, and the application is divine !

So I needed a quick and simple design to do on my nails this evening, and my Mum (who always has the best ideas) told me to do hearts ! I originally pictured just one plain heart on each nail to make for a very uniform design, but ended up going with the three smaller hearts on three nails, and just sticking to a large heart accent nail. This was mainly because I didn't trust myself to paint on four plain simple and exactly the same size hearts.. oh well !

This design was done using Dior Red Ebony (813) and Barry M Gold Foil. The Dior polish dries A LOT darker than the bottle colour, which I wasn't expecting at all ! In the bottle it looks a very bright maroon-y colour, nothing ebony about it, but as soon as you get a couple of coats on your nails you really can see where the "ebony" name comes from. It's an almost-black red polish, just waiting to find out if it stains !

Aaaaaaaand that's it for today everyone ! I'm off to go and do some Russian before I go to bed, hopefully won't be too long ! I hope you enjoyed this manicure, despite the short post about it ! I'll make up for it tomorrow, I swear !

See you all then guys, have an awesome day !

NOTD : Spotty Gradient

Hellooooo everybody ! So just a quick post from me this evening as it's already quite late, and I've got loads to do still ! I'm going away up to Oxfordshire this weekend to visit some family friends (super excited !) and so I've organised some scheduled posts for you all ! But I've still got plenty of packing to do before I go to bed tonight, there's not enough time in the day !

So I was originally going to just to a plain and simple gradient for my manicure today, but of course it had to be something I would be happy to keep on my nails until Sunday as I'm not planning on doing my nails again until then ! I contemplated doing a floral design, then it was going to be a gradient, but I just didn't feel happy with something as boring as just a plain gradient. In the end I remembered a tutorial for a "dot gradient" that Sarah from Chalkboard Nails posted the other day, and I knew exactly what colours I wanted to use !

The polishes I used for this design were OPI Schnapps Out of It for the base, a really lovely terracotta colour that just looks amazing on, like all of the polishes from the Germany collection as a matter of fact, as I've said ever since I got them ! The spots were done with OPI Don't Pretzel my Buttons and then OPI German-icure by OPI.

All in all I'm really happy to have this design on my nails for the next couple of days, a relatively long time in my book, considering I usually change my nails every day, at the moment anyway ! Another reason for me to look forward to this weekend is because I'm going to be acquiring some Dior nail polish, exciting stuff ! I'm sure I'll be showing them to all of you at some point next week, so you've all got that to look forward to ! Happy times !

So I'm going to wish you all a great weekend, and I'll see you all on Sunday ! Stay tuned for the scheduled posts tomorrow and Saturday, I have a super amazing swatch and a nail art design for you !

NOTD : Leafy Drops

Good evening everyone ! So this is a pretty late post tonight seeing as I only had enough time to do my nails and eat between coming out of my last lecture and going to the SU pub quiz (which I didn't win, sad times) ! Lucky for me, I don't have an early start tomorrow so I can afford to give you all a late post on this occasion ! I was going to do a full manicure today, but I didn't have much time so I had to stick with just an accent nail, but I think it still turned out quite well !

So this design was another idea of my mother's, well she suggested I do leaves and I thought that was a great autumnal idea, but as I was painting my nail I felt I didn't need to add anything to the sort of "teary shapes" that I'd painted to look like leaves, so I left it as it was ! I'm loving all these autumnal designs I'm doing at the moment, they're all so seasonal, which isn't at all like me ! I'm not usually the kind of person who will paint their nails accordingly to the season, but since aquiring the OPI Germany collection, it's all I seem to be doing !

For this design, the polishes I used were Barry M Gold Foil, Accessorize Gold Dust (for extra glitz), then for the "leafy drops" I used OPI Deutsch You Want Me Baby, OPI Danke Shiny Red and OPI German-icure by OPI. I love the way all the colours in the Germany collection go so well together, and make such great autumnal colour themes ! So perfect !

So that's it for tonight everyone ! Contemplating whether to watch more Dexter or The Great British Bake Off (please, don't tell me who wins, it needs to stay a secret), seeing as I can allow myself a lie-in tomorrow morning ! Hallelujiah !

So I'll see you all tomorrow guys ! Have an amazing day !

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 !

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 !