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 !

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 : 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 !

NOTD : Transparent Lines

Good evening everybody ! I've finally found some time to blog, as I only got back on Monday from my weekend away, and I didn't finish my nails until late last night after I'd finished doing all my work for uni (exams are coming up soon, eep) ! So today I just have a quick design to show you all, I just wanted something plain and simple (and quick) to do last night, and I ended up coming up with this ! (These photos are taking forever to upload for some reason so you'll only be getting 2 today, sorry !)

I didn't actually have any particular inspiration for this design or colour combination, I just picked out some random nail polishes which ended up going in a sort of purple and orange direction ! It's maybe a bit of an autumn-ish colour scheme but I'm happy with it !

So the colours I used were OPI Germanicure by OPI, P2 Electric, Essence Redvolution, OPI My Back Pocket, OPI Vant to Bite My Neck, Essie Splash of Grenadine, American Apparel T-Shirt and Barry M Gold Foil. Wow, that's a lot of different polishes !

Right well I'd best get off to bed, those photos took soooo much longer than I anticipated and I need an early night ! I hope you all liked today's design !

NOTD : Vant to Bite my Golden Gun ?

Hey there everyone ! So it's reeeeeeally late and it's time for me to go to bed, but I thought I'd give you a quick update as to why I haven't posted for ages now, seeing as it has been quite a while ! I've had shed-loads of work to do this past week, as of tomorrow I'll be on a two-week holiday break for Easter so ALL the work has been piled up into this last week. I'm travelling back home to France tomorrow, so I'll be taking nail varnish and plenty of supplies for the next two weeks, but I won't be able to guarantee when I'll post anything, I do promise I will definitely post something though ! Anyway, I'll show you a quick photo of what's on my nails at the moment, before I go off to bed !

Today I've got a base of OPI Vant to Bite My Neck ? under two coats of OPI The Man with the Golden Gun. I really love the way it looks, although doing it just before bed didn't help as I got major shrinking somehow because of it... oh well !

Anyway, I'm going to go to bed now, it's too late for me ! I'll see you all again soon, now I've just got to make the incredibly hard decision as to which nail polishes to take back with me... so much to choose from !

Golden Dots

Hey there everyone ! I've got a lot of work I've got to get going on, so here's a quick post for this evening, just so I don't leave you another day without any posts ! I'm still wearing my floral design, and I'm still just as in love with it, so I'll have to figure what I'm going to do about doing my nails, as I still can't bare to think about what will happen to my baby floral ! Any suggestions ?

So for this design I was just trying out a new Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen that I got for Christmas in my stocking, plus I wasn't feeling very inspired to do any fancy nail art when I did these (I think I was really really tired or something), probably at the point where my nails were bare, but I couldn't not paint them !

For this design, the nail varnishes I used were OPI My Vampire is Buff and my Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen in gold for the little dots. I really like how opaque the gold pen is, and that it really shows up well, it'll definitely come in useful for plenty of nail art in the future I think (especially Christmas) !

And that's all for tonight folks ! I'm better get going as I seem to have caught a cold from when I sister was over here visiting (not at all happy about this) so I'd better go and olbas myself up so I can actually breathe during the night ! See you all soon !

Swatch : OPI - Live and Let Die

Evening everybody ! So I'm reeeeeeally sorry I didn't get to post last night, or the night before for that matter ! I've been busy socialising with my family while they've been over so I haven't had time to post anything really before having to go to bed ! I promise I will make a concerted effort though to post for the rest of the week for you all, as much as I can manage anyway !

So today I'm showing you OPI Live and Let Die, a goooorgeous deep forest green colour with loads of scattered gold and greenish shimmer running through it. This polish is from the OPI Skyfall collection for Christmas 2012, but I reckon it can be worn any time of the year ! It's such a pretty shade, and it really glows in the sun !

I used two coats for this swatch, although it was already really pretty opaque on the first, but the second coat really adds depth to the polish, and much better shimmer coverage ! The formula was great on this, really easy to apply, and I also used a coat of Seche Vite which really added to the glossiness of the nail varnish !

And that's all for today folks, I'm off to bed as I've got an early start (again) tomorrow morning ! Hopefully the weather is going to start brightening up a bit more now here, I've had enough of this cold weather ! Perhaps I'll do some floral nail art tomorrow, we'll see !

Swatch : OPI - GoldenEye

Hey there everybody ! Sorry for the lack of posts these past couple of days, I've been seriously tired and therefore catching up on lots of sleep since Saturday night (only got 4 hours sleep, ugh, long story), and so I've been feeling too lazy to do my nails and post ! Anyway, I got plenty of sleep last night and so I've been swatching again for you today, and here I am with another OPI !

So today I have OPI GoldenEye to show you all, another polish from the OPI Skyfall collection from Winter 2012, and it's soooooooooo pretty ! I had a hard time taking photos that actually showed the colour as opposed to just reflecting the light, but I still managed to find a couple that showed it up okay ! This polish is a yellowy/orangey gold glassfleck polish that's packed with glitter flecks, I love the colour !

For this swatch I used 3 coats to reach opacity, it looked very sheer(ish) at first and didn't cover much of the nail, but as soon as I did the second coat it built up really well, and the third coat was just to hide any nail line you could still see under the polish. The formula for this nail varnish was really good, as with all OPIs, although it didn't dry as quickly as I'm used to, so I've used Seche Vite just to fix it all up quickly !

And that's all I've got for tonight everyone, I hope you like this polish as much as I do ! Do you usually wear gold polishes ? Or do you tend to avoid them ? I only ever really wear gold polish for a special occasion or whatever, but after swatching this one I might have to start wearing it more often !

I'm off to watch some TV now and then I'm off to bed ! See you all tomorrow folks !

NOTD : Golden Royale

Good evening everybody ! So I'm back after my week away, and believe it or not, my galaxy nails from last Thursday's post actually survived the WHOLE week (only a bit of tipwear, nothing major), so today has been the first chance I've had this whole time to do my nails ! I've got a few more days off before my lectures start again, so I'm hoping that I'll be able to fit as much nail art as possible between now and Thursday, I don't have anything planned in particular, so we'll just have to see how things go !

I've been wanting to use some more of the OPI Skyfall collection polishes, and when I did my godmother's nails during the week using OPI Casino Royale, I suddenly got the idea for today's design ! I foolishly didn't take my makeup sponge for doing gradients with me (or my gold flake top coat either) so I couldn't do this design for my godmother, but I knew I'd be doing it for myself as soon as I could do my nails again !

For this design I used a base of OPI Casino Royale, then I used OPI GoldenEye on my index and middle fingers for the gradient, and on all the other nails I used OPI The Man With the Golden Gun (words can't express how much I love this nail varnish). GoldenEye is such a great nail varnish for doing gradients with, it's really easy to build up on the nail, and the gradient effect is really easy to obtain !

So that's all for today everybody, hopefully I'll be back again tomorrow with a new NOTD or a swatch, we'll see what happens ! I'm also super excited because I've just pre-ordered some of the new polishes from the OPI Euro Centrale collection, plus OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, so I'm already planning nail art I can start doing with those, not to mention planning bright Spring nail designs (not that my nails ever really reflect the seasons, I wear anything whatever the weather on my nails), it's just an excuse to do loads of floral designs, happy days !

I'll see you all soon guys ! Have a great day !

Advent Calendar : Gold Stars

Good afternoon everybody and I hope you're all having a great Boxing Day ! So first of all I hope you've all had a wonderful Christmas, and that you've all enjoyed spending time with your family and friends ! I also reaaaaaally need to give you all a huge apology for not having posted for two weeks now ! Truth be told I've been super busy over the last two weeks and have barely had enough time to sit down and relax, let alone paint my nails ! I even kept my Christmas Houndstooth nails on for over 10 days, can you believe it ?! Anyway, I've had a sitting down on the sofa day today, and decided it would be the perfect time to do some blogging ! The nails I'll be showing you today are a design I did last Saturday, but that I didn't have a chance to post until now !

As I'm travelling back to Bath by myself as a foot passenger on the ferry in January, I was only able to bring over a select amount of nail varnishes with me for my one month holiday over here in France for Christmas ! It was a tough decision but it had to be done, so I only have a small handful of nail varnishes (although now I have rather a lot after opening presents yesterday) !

For this design I used OPI Danke-Shiny Red and then for the stars I used Barry M Gold Foil and painted them on with a nail art brush. I'm really pleased with how the stars turned out, as last time I painted stars they looked pretty bad !

And here's the manicure I've got on right now (I changed my nails yesterday in between opening presents and eating Christmas lunch, I was just too excited about my new nail varnishes) ! I received the whole of the OPI Skyfall collection for Christmas, and I had to do the manicure I've been dreaming of since I saw the swatches online ! This is two coats of OPI Casino Royale with one coat of OPI The Man With the Golden Gun :

Gorgeous, right ?! I can't wait to try out all the different colours, they're all so amazing ! Lots of different manicures with the collection coming up on the blog I think, so stay tuned for that ! Also, here are some bonus photos of my doggies relaxing on Christmas Day ! For your enjoyment !

 So Merry (belated) Christmas everyone ! I hope you enjoyed this post, and I'll try and post again very soon you guys !

Advent Calendar : Bauble Pattern

Good evening everybody ! I've got another Christmas design for you all that I'm really really pleased with ! It turned out a lot better than I expected it to, which is great ! I fancied something that would be relatively easy to remove when the time came, because I had a huge session earlier this afternoon when trying to take off my glitter from my last swatch, I stupidly forgot to put on the peel-off basecoat ! Damn ! Anyway, on to today's nails !

So these nails are inspired by baubles, after all, they all come in so many different colours and designs, I fancied something christmassy that wasn't completely obviously festive with the colours ! I think this design could actually be worn all year round, and did I mention I really like it ?

For this design, the different colours I used were Essie Splash of Grenadine, OPI Meep-Meep-Meep, and Barry M Gold Foil. I kept the detailing quite simple with the gold, and I'm glad I did because I was able to paint my right hand preactically just as well as my left hand, something I always love ! I contemplated doing more with the gold at both the tip and base of the nails, but decided against it because I didn't want it to look too over-the-top (and I'm tired) !

Like I already mentioned before, I really really like how this design turned out ! I think the colours go really well together, I think a darker more blue-toned purple would look really nice as a base colour as well (I love the combination of red and purple) !

So I'm off to get ready for bed now, I'm super-tired ! See you all soon everyone ! Night night !

NOTD : Chevron Studs

Helloooooo eevrybody ! So I'm back after a hectic weekend of major working, and decided to have a relatively peaceful evening today seeing as I've been working non-stop since Friday night ! I've still got quite a bit to do but nothing that's due for this current week, so I've got a little bit of time to chillax and just watch TV, do my nails and blog !

So  today's design is pretty simple, but I really like it ! I think I'm actually really getting in to the whole stud trend that's going around, I just love the way they look on the nail ! For today's design, I didn't use the glue I normally use to stick the studs down, I just placed them on the relatively tacky base colour and then went over them all with some Seche Vite as I do with every manicure ! Hopefully they'll be far easier to get off than last time, and won't rip off the top layer of my nail !

The one single nail varnish I used in this design is OPI Nein! Nein! Nein! OK Fine! and I really do love it ! Some of you may recall that I used it in the last design I did with studs, but it seems that it's my go-to colour for these types of manis ! To be honest though, it's a really great colour : deep grey but still leaning towards a very dark green when you see it in certain lights, a great Autumn colour !

And that's all for today everyone ! I hope you all like this simple stud manicure, I'll have to think up some more different ways to wear studs in my designs, they're just such a great addition to any colour if I happen to do a swatch of a plain colour or whatever ! Also, what are your methods for sticking stuff onto your nails like studs, rhinestones, fimo, pearls etc ? Do you prefer to use glue or just top coat ?

I'll see you all again soon guys ! Have a great day tomorrow !

NOTD : Gradient Studs

Hello there again everyone ! So I'm back from my weekend away, and I have part of a recycled mani to show you all for today's NOTD ! I don't really wear gradient manicures a lot, so when I got this design stuck in my head it was kind of surprising considering I hardly ever do gradient nails, however I decided to go with the flow and I really like how this design has turned out !

So I decided to recycle the studs I used in my last NOTD from Thursday, first of all because I really really really like them, but also because the nail glue I used on them is so industrial it'll take forever to take them off, so I thought I'd make their usage worthwhile !

For this design (please excuse that highly over-exposed photo, it's too late for me to go and find another one now), the polishes I used were OPI Nein! Nein! Nein! OK Fine! and then Barry M Gold Foil for the gradient, and the two accent stud nails are the same as the other day, just the OPI base colour with square studs stuck on top. For the gradient I just painted the two colours onto a makeup sponge and then dabbed it on each nail, super simple !

And that's it for today ! I'm off to go and finish some Russian work for tomorrow, I have to say it's been great having some time off from the intensive studying that's required for my course ! Now there's only a few weeks left before Christmas, time really is flying !

See you all tomorrow guys, maybe even with the same studs, who knows ! Have a great day !

NOTD : Leopard and Studs

Well hello there guys ! I've got a super-cool NOTD for you all today which I'm so proud of for some reason, even though they're pretty simple ! As you may know, I mentioned yesterday that I broke a nail whilst swimming (on my right hand, thank god), and so I've chopped down all my nails really quite short (not short short, but shorter than I'm used to). So here goes with my short nails !

So having to deal with the fact that I've now got rather short nails, I went with some trustworthy leopard print, which, in my experience, never fails to look good on tiny nails ! I also decided I haven't used studs in a rather long time, and fancied trying out some square studs for the very first time ! Verdict ? I love them ! I'm thinking I may have to do nails with just studs on in strips on all 10 nails !

For this design I used (once again) polishes from the OPI Germany collection : OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons, OPI Berlin There Done That, OPI Nein! Nein! Nein! OK Fine!, and for the detailing on the leopard print I used my Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen in black. I decided to do the detailing slightly thicker this time, just to see what it would look like, and I really like how it turned out !

And that's it from me for tonight everyone ! I've got a couple of swatch posts for you for tomorrow and Saturday, as I'm going to visit my Grandma this weekend and obviously won't have time to do my nails, let alone blog !

Tune in tomorrow guys, and I'll see you again on Sunday evening !

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 : 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 !

El Salonsito Spray Paint

Heya everyone ! So once again I've had a super jam-packed day, and I've been busy writing all the posts for next week ! It's amazing how time-consuming writing posts is, but I'm not complaining, don't worry ! I've had loads of fun sorting out this new series, and I hope you're going to enjoy it (I won't reveal the theme for it until tomorrow) ! And due to all this busy-ness, I haven't had time to do my nails today, I will however give you the outcome of my Essence peel-off base coat tomorrow, so you can all see how it worked out for me ! Anyway, on to the nails !

So these nails (as you may have seen in the title) are inspired by El Salonsito ! I did these nails a while ago, back near around the hommage month in May, but didn't decide to include this design in my "As Seen On.." series seeing as I haven't been reading El Salonsito as long as I have the others. This is however one of my favourite designs I've done on my nails, and I'm pretty sure it was the first time I tried out the index and middle fingers as accent nails !

So for this design I used OPI Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh ? for the base, then I used Accessorize Gold Dust, OPI Alpine Snow, Barry M Black and my Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen in black to do the spray paints on the accents nails. I really need to try doing this design again, with different colours, maybe big bright colours, because I seriously love this look !

And that's it for today guys ! I've got two more posts to write for next week and then I'll be done ! And tomorrow's post will be the nails I'll be going to England with, so make sure you stay tuned for that !

Enjoy the rest of your day everyone ! And please excuse the late post !