Yves Saint Laurent Floral Nails

Hey there everyone ! Really quick post tonight as it's really late already and I need to get some sleep before the morning ! Just to let you know that I won't be able to post anything from now until Monday evening as I'm going to visit some friends (recent change of plans) and I haven't got any scheduled posts for you all ! So I thought I'd just leave you with a little something to last until I'm able to do my nails and post again on Monday !

So I did this design about a couple of months ago, and it was inspired by a nail art design I found at Moveslightly.com which was inspired by fashion from the Yves Saint Laurent 2012 Resort collection. I really liked the way that the design looked, but I don't really think I've done it justice, I much prefer the original !

For this design the colours I used were OPI Skull and Glossbones, then for the flowers I used OPI Big Apple Red and Barry M Lemon Ice Cream, as well as my Models Own black nail art pen.

And that'll be it for tonight ! I'm going to go and get ready for bed as I'm SUPER tired now, been working all evening, poor little me ! Night night guys !

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 : Converse Floral

Hey there everybody ! I've put a special effort in to doing my nails today (even if this post isn't as early as yesterday's was), so much so that my Russian homework seems to have gone out the window so far today, but that's going to be rectified soon enough ! I don't know what it was, I just seemed to be super inspired today to do some florals on my nails, perhaps because it might actually start warming up here this week, so at least I'll be prepared !

So I went to Bristol with my Mum and sister on Wednesday and when we were in Schuh I was doing some browsing I tried out some really nice floral converses, which really inspired me to do some similar nails, seeing as Spring is coming up and all ! It's a pretty rough interpretation, as once I got going with the roses I stopped using the photo of the shoes to help with the design, but there are still some similarities !

For this design, the colours I used were OPI Nein! Nein! Nein! OK Fine! for the base, as it was the closest polish I had to the colour of the canvas on the converses, I like it though ! For the roses I used American Apparel T-Shirt, OPI Dim Sum Plum, OPI My Very First Knockwurst, OPI Mermaid's Tears and OPI Jade is the New Black. As you can see, I even put in the extra effort of doing my right hand as well as my left, which I think makes me love this manicure even more ! Yay for matching nails !

Sorry for the shed-loads of photos today, six photos was the smallest amount I could narrow it down to, I just love this design so much ! Needless to say, I think I'll be wearing this design for days now, I can't even bare to think about having to take this off yet, I'm loving it too much !

I'm going to go and get ready for bed now, although I might do a little bit of work first, don't want to have to rush it tomorrow ! Goodnight everyone ! Hope you liked the nails !

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 : Airplane

Well hello there everybody ! Today's nails are slightly different than what I usually do in the way of nail art, but I think they're pretty cool nonetheless ! I'm pretty happy with how they turned out (considering I'm usually awful at drawing planes), so let me tell you the story behind them !

Airplane nails ! So these nails were set as a challenge for me by a family friend who works with buying parts for airplanes, so he naturally wanted me to do special airplane nails for him ! The challenge was set for me as a comment on my Facebook page on yesterday's cherry nails that I posted, and of  course, I accepted ! I hate drawing airplanes, so I just went with a simple silhouette with just a plain colour, and then I did the flypast colours like you get at ceremonial events and all that (I honestly know nothing about planes, can you tell ?) !

So for this design the colours I used were Models Own Blooboo for the base and American Apparel T-Shirt for the clouds. For the aircraft I used OPI Nein! Nein! Nein! OK Fine!, and then the coloured stuff that's coming out the back of the plane (that's the technical term, I believe) I did using 17 Baked Cherry, OPI Skull and Glossbones and China Glaze Manhunt. I actually really like the way the clouds look, I did them using just a cotton bud Q-tip ! I got a bit of fluff from it but I just picked it off with tweezers !

And that's it for today ! I'll have to sort out a scheduled post for tomorrow as I've got a very busy day ahead of me ! I may just do a quick cute pattern in the morning when I have a bit of time, we'll see how it goes !

See you all tomorrow everyone ! Have an awesome day !

Halloween Nails : Halloween Skittles

Okay, WOAH ! When did it get to be almost midnight ? There I was, sitting here at my desk doing my nails whilst watching the Hunger Games, and then suddenly it's gone 11 o'clock ! Seriously, I just don't know what happens when I do my nails, time just flies by without me even noticing ! Plus side is the clocks go back tonight, so I can get extra sleep even though I'll still be going to bed at a relatively normal time ! Hooray for daylight saving time ! But in other news, I've got some rather topical nail art for you today, brace yourselves !

I felt I really needed to do some Halloween nails, seeing as it's next week and everyone in the nail art world (and the real-life outside world, wait, does anything exist outside nail art ?) is getting rather hyped up about it and have been doing Halloween nail designs since the beginning of October, some even started in September, now that's just a bit early... and let's not even start to think about Christmas nail art, oh god, there's going to be weeks of it, and I'd better get my thinking cap on trying to think up some designs !

Right, so I used quite a few different nail polishes for this design, so get ready ! They were P2 Elegant, OPi Big Apple Red, OPI Skull and Glossbones, American Apparel Hassid, American Apparel T-Shirt, China Glaze Man Hunt, OPI Don't Talk Bach to Me, OPI My Back Pocket, and my Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen in black. I love skittles, but they really are just so time consuming ! I always have to plan everything out in advance for skittles, and I always write down what's going to be on each nail... it just takes forever to do everything !

My favourite nails on this design are probably first of all the blood drips on my thumb (I feel a whole blood drip mani coming on), and then the dracula vampire on my index finger, I just maybe wish he had a bit more colour, maybe I could have painted on some blood around his teeth ? They're all pretty traditional Halloween designs, and I've never really done my nails for Halloween, so there's a first time for everything and I'm particularly happy with how my first set turned out ! How about you, what are your favourite designs for Halloween ?

And that's it for today guys ! Perhaps I'll be back tomorrow with another Halloween design, we'll have to see, but I will in case have a design for you all ! Have a great day tomorrow !

NOTD : Germany Floral

Whooooooops I've left this a little later than I should have done, but don't you worry, I have a post and brand new nails ready for you all tonight ! I contemplated doing chocolate roulade nails today, to match up with what I baked this afternoon for my flatmates, but decided it had been too long since I had done a floral mani ! So here you go, my go-to floral pattern !

So like I mentioned in yesterday's post (I think), my very generous mother bought me all 12 polishes from the OPI Germany collection that was released for Autumn 2012, and I have to say, I ADORE all the colours in this collection ! So many colours I never realised I actually needed in my rather excessive nail polish collection until now, and I especially love all these brown/taupe/nude colours that came out in this collection.

So for this design I used polishes only from the Germany collection, which were OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons, OPI Schnapps Out of It !, OPI Berlin There Done That and then OPI Nein ! Nein ! Nein ! OK Fine ! for all the little flowers. I also used my Models Own Wah Nails nail art pens in black and white for the accents on each flower to make them all stand out a bit more !

Overall I'm really pleased with how this design turned out, considering I just grabbed a few random polishes out of my drawers that just so happened to go together quite well ! It looks really autumn-y and actually quite muted, even though the colours aren't necessarily the dullest of all polish colours !

So anyway, I hope you liked this design as much as I do, I really do need to try doing some different kinds of floral manis, as opposed to what I now consider to be my "signature floral" designs !

TMH Fashion Week : Comme des Garçons

So hello and welcome to this week's new series : Try My Hand Fashion Week ! I have a full seven days, from Monday to Sunday (whilst I'm preparing my move to uni in the UK), of nail art inspired by fashion designers either fresh from the runway at New York fashion week, or way back from Spring 2012 ! So prepare yourselves for a week of funky prints and bright patterns, it's TMH Fashion Week !

Okay so we're nearing the end of this fashion series, but I still have a couple more posts for you all, so not to worry ! Today's featured design is Comme des Garçons, a Japanese label which is showcased at Paris fashion week ! The designs I've seen by them are pretty outlandish, with loads of great designs that are totally redo-able in nail art, which is always something I love !

I think the end result is pretty similar ! As you can see, this is from the Fall 2012 release, and I think the design is really easy to transfer to nails ! I didn't bother going into detail on the edges of the flowers, but I like how it turned out so that's fine in my book ! I could maybe have done with using a slightly brighter pink that the one I used, but oh well !

So the polishes I used in today's design were P2 Glory, a great dark grey creme I've been looking for for a while now, for the base colour, then I made a grid with my Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen in white before filling in the squares in a checkered pattern with Konad Special Polish in White. I then used a dotting tool and dotting on five dots to form a flower/circle shape with OPI Sparrow Me the Drama. I really need to work on my "check" skills, drawing the grid was a good idea originally, but the grey blocks turned out far smaller than the white ones because of the lines, my OCD self cannot cope !

And once again, that's all for today ! Only two more days left, but I promise they'll be good ! Also, I hope you enjoy your day !

NOTD : 5(0) Shades of Pink

Hey there everyone ! I'm sorry but it's another late post from me today as I've been out all day and have only just got back to do my nails. But today's design is pretty awesome if I do say so myself, and yes, there are five different shades of pink in this manicure (plus a grey base for those who are interested) !

My mother was once again my source of inspiration for today's design, as I asked her what I should do on my nails and she told me to do dots. And then, the design was born ! I grabbed all my OPI pink colours I own and decided I would do several different shades of dots to make a funky pattern. I didn't anticipate the amount of time that it would take to do this manicure, but even though it took quite a while (a lot longer than plain polka dot nails) I am really pleased with the result !

So the polishes I used for this design are OPI Skull and Glossbones for the grey base, and then for the different dots I used OPI Big Apple Red, OPI Sparrow Me the Drama, OPI Strawberry Margarita, OPI Dim Sum Plum and OPI Steady as She Rose. I did each nail individually which I think is what made it take so long to finish, but the fact that I wasn't even doing one colour at a time added to that !

So yeah ! I hope you liked this design as much as I do ! Plus, I was thinking of maybe doing some picture tutorials (or maybe even video) of designs I've posted on here, so if there are any designs on this blog you'd like to see tutorials for, just say so !

Enjoy the rest of your day !

Red Poppies

Hey there guys ! So I've got an old manicure I did waaay back in February (I think), so absolutely ages ago ! I do plan on going and doing my nails straight after I finish writing this post so that I'll have something new to post for you tomorrow. I have an idea of what I'm going to do, so we'll see how it turns out !

I did this design using The Sugar Cube's (home of Nostalgic Nail Lacquer) tutorial, using roughly the same colour theme as was in the original design. I did the design literally as soon as I'd finished reading the tutorial ! I actually think this is one of my first ever floral nails, and I found it so easy because I did most of it with a dotting tool !

For this design I didn't use any of the same polishes as were used in the original tutorial. Instead, I used OPI Skull and Glossbones for the base, then I used OPI Big Apple Red and 17 Tiger's Eye for the flowers (you couldn't really see the difference between the two reds though), P2 Hug Me ! and then my Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen in black. I'm beginning to realise I actually use the nail art pens for most of my manicures, I'll have to tally up the different posts I've done so far and calculate how often I use them !

And there we go ! I really did like this manicure, and I think I actually kept it on for several days (this was back when I could bare to keep a design on for more than 48 hours) ! Don't forget to tune in tomorrow for a new NOTD !

Oh and also, don't forget to vote for your favourite finalist (I'm one of them !) in Makeup Savvy's nail challenge ! All you have to do is comment what your favourite design is (my nails are entry A, hint hint !) ! Voting is only open for a few more days because the winner will be announced on Wednesday so don't leave it too late !

15 Day Nail Challenge (Day 11) : Metallic

Hey guys ! So once again I'm joining in for another day of Makeup Savvy's 15 day nail challenge, and the theme today is metallic nails. Now, I'm not really a fan of metallic nail polishes, mainly because they show up all the imperfections on my nails (you can probably see the tissue reparations I've done on my index and ring fingers), but nonetheless, I'm still joining in !

So I decided today I'd attempt a selotape manicure for the chevrons, but promptly gave up after completely messing up my index finger ! So instead I freehanded them, which all in all looks okay but is far less precise than selotape. The final result is okay, but I don't really like it enough to keep it for a whole day, so I'll think I'll actually change them after I've written this post !

So in this manicure I used a magnetic polish (seeing as I own very few metallic colours) which was 17 Magnetic Grey, and then for the chevrons I used Barry M Silver Foil. I was originally going to do some stamping for this manicure, but then realised that my nails are far too long at the moment for stamping (I really need to file them down) !

And that's a wrap ! I hope you liked this manicure more than I did, I'm off to change them now. Happy Saturday !

Pink Floral

So I've got a mani from the vault for you today ! I am planning on changing my nails today, but I'm not sure when I'll be doing them so I prefer to post something now rather than later !

So this was a pretty basic floral design I did a few months ago, which I was overall really pleased with ! I wanted to do a pink colour scheme, and used three different pink polishes, only the lightest one I used didn't really show up that well against the base, which is a shame !

The polishes I used for this manicure were OPI Skull and Glossbones for the base, then for the different flowers I used OPI Dim Sum Plum, OPI Sparrow Me the Drama and OPI Steady as she Rose, and I also used Kiko Acid Green mixed with Collection 2000 Ninja for the leaves.

And that's it ! Yet another floral mani ! I seriously can't seem to get enough of florals at the moment, it must be all this nice weather we've been getting over here ! Now to decide how I'm going to do my nails later on !