Alphabet Nail Art Challenge : H for Houndstooth

Hey there everyone ! So it's Monday again and I can't believe it's already been a week since I first started this alphabet nail art challenge ! So as I mentioned yesterday, today's theme is houndstooth. I haven't done a houndstooth design since last Christmas so I was really excited to be able to do it again and here's what I came up with :

So I ended up doing the saran wrap method again like yesterday, and the whole design has actually unintentionally turned out looking a bit like a tweed jacket ! I really like the way it looks though, even though it wasn't really planned !

I started off with two coats of Essie Mint Candy Apple and used the saran wrap method with OPI Jade is the new Black on top of that. I then used black acrylic paint to draw on the houndstooth print. It really didn't take long to do at all, especially thanks to the acrylic paint which just glides on to the nails, and it is quite a simple design to do once you break down all the shapes !

Right, I'm off to bed now as I'm super-tired ! I had to get up early today and I still haven't recuperated from my busy weekend (oh woe is me), so I really need to get to bed now ! I'll be back again tomorrow though, with an ikat design, ugh... I really don't like ikat, it never turns out how I want it to !

Strawberries

Good evening everyone, it's getting late but I thought I had better post something before I go to bed ! I've been busy doing "stuff" here in Berlin, "stuff" generally meaning shopping etc which is always good fun ! The weather here has become really really seriously hot all of a sudden which, although nice, is a bit too much and doesn't really make me want to do anything in particular !

I did these nails before I came over to Berlin, around the same time as when I did my watermelon nails, I just got the urge to paint some more fruit, and I'm so glad I did ! You can see the design on my little finger looks a little bit odd, and that's because I initially wanted to use tiny micro bullion studs for the yellow seeds, but decided that I didn't like it and would instead do dots, but then I didn't like the colour I chose so I went over all the dots I had already painted in yet another colour... and then I couldn't be bothered to start from zero on that nail but oh well !

For the base on this design I used an un-named Color Club pink polish, then I used Essie Mint Candy Apple for the green bits, and for the leaf accents and yellow seeds I used my Models Own pastel nail art pens in green and yellow. I really like the way that the strawberries look with the light pink colour. I would have wanted to do them red, but I have an aversion to red polishes at the moment for base colours as they are such a pain when it comes to taking it off ! Do any of you get that problem ? Red polish cuticle stains are the worst !

Right, that's it everyone, I'm off to bed ! I'll probably sit and play Candy Crush Saga for a while, are any of you addicted to it as well ? Night night everyone !

Review : Born Pretty Store - Black Rhinestones

Good evening everyone ! Today I have a very special post for you all, my first ever review ! I was contacted by Born Pretty Store a couple of months ago, and it's taken me a while to get round to finding enough time to do it properly (wouldn't want to do it half-heartedly would I ?), but I finally got the time after I finished the mountains of work I was catching up on from after the Easter holidays ! So behold, my review !

So today I'll be showing you the 1.5mm black resin rhinestones which I used to create an easy studded nail art design that I really really love ! The rhinestones come in a pack of 10,000, so there's plenty to last you ! The bag that they come in is plastified and very sturdy, although once it's open you have to seal it back up with selotape or if not then transfer the contents into a closable container, as there is no reclosable seal on the packet.

For this design, I just layered the rhinestones over two coats of Essie Mint Candy Apple, I wanted to do something simple to show them properly. I really love the size of them, they're not so big that they take up too much space on the nail, and it's nice that they look so small and dainty !

I think I'm going to get quite a lot of use out of these rhinestones, and I can't imagine I'll be running out of them any time soon thanks to the sheer amount that come in the packet ! The only real downside I can think of for these rhinestones is the fact that you can't re-seal the packet, although this is far from insurmountable, so not a real problem with the product !

If you are interested in purchasing these 1.5mm black resin rhinestones, then head on over to Born Pretty Store, they do loads of nail and beauty accessories for really good prices as well as free shipping worldwide. And as if that wasn't enough, if you use the coupon code MQL91, you can get an extra 10% off your order ! Happy days !

NOTD : Heart Skittles

Evening all ! So I didn't end up doing my nails yesterday as I had originally intended, I walked down the hill into town in the morning and then walked all the way back up it ! Needless to say, I was knackered, and just watched films for the rest of the day and cooked ! I've been far more productive today though, and so I've got a brand new NOTD for you all ! Enjoy !

Today's nail design came to me thanks to a couple of t-shirts I bought yesterday morning, one of them being a light minty green colour, then other being a bright plum purple. I lined up those two colours in the form of nail varnishes, then added in a couple of my new polishes from the OPI Euro Centrale collection I received on Friday, and then threw a light purple into the mix and voilà, I had my colour combination ! The hearts on top were just an idea to mix up the different colours and bring them all together !

For this design, the colours I used were OPI OPI... Eurso Euro, Essie Mint Candy Apple, OPI Casino Royale, OPI Planks A Lot and OPI Can't Find My Czechbook. I think these colours really work well together, my favourite combination is probably my thumb, the mint hearts just really stand out against the dark and bold background !

Another reason for me to love this manicure even more is the fact that I actually did both hands exactly the same today, so glad I actually had time for it because I love it when they're all the same ! How often do you end up leaving your dominant hand a plain colour or plain design when you do your nails ? I get bored of doing it quite often now, but I try to persevere because I love how it looks in the end when I put the effort into it !

So that'll be all for this evening folks ! I'm pretty tired now so I'm just going to watch something on TV and get an early night.. bliss ! Enjoy the rest of your Sunday everyone !

NOTD : I'm baaaaack !

Hey there guys ! So normal posting can resume for the next week, and I'll hopefully be doing a NOTD every day this week, up until the new series I'm planning starts up next Monday when I leave for England ! I bought literally loaaaads of nail polishes (I always find them so cheap in Germany, way cheaper than France at least, but that's not hard), over 20 I think, plus some bits and bobs to go in the prize for my upcoming celebratory giveaway (more info on that in a couple of weeks) ! Just a quick design today though, as I'm busy planning the next series !

So amongst all the new polishes I bought, I bought a few polishes from brands I haven't purchased from before, the one featured in today's mani being American Apparel. I found the formula to be great regarding the actual polish, but the brush (which I presume is designed to be able to get right to the bottom of the bottle ?) is really really long, and sometimes quite awkward to paint properly. Maybe it's just because I need to get used to the shape and length of the brush, who knows !

For this simple polka dot design, I used American Apparel Office for the base (great colour by the way, just what my collection has ben missing !), and then using a medium dotting tool I made the dot design using Manhattan Rodeo Drive. I was previously unimpressed with the beige Manhattan polish I bought last time I was in Germany, a mini bottle which dried up super fast, and didn't have great application in the first place, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that this new colour has a great consistency, and I would imagine is great as a base colour ! It's a sort of dusty olive green colour with a really subtle silver shimmer, but unfortunately you can't see the shimmer on the photos here !

I really love how these two colours go together, the Rodeo Drive polish dries a lot darker than in the bottle, both Office and Rodeo Drive looked super similar in the bottle (minus the shimmer, obviously) ! Both are really unique in my collection (yes, could you believe I'm lacking in the mint green department ?), and the American Apparel was totally worth the 9€ I payed for it !

Also here's a photo of the Cologne cathedral, taken from the Rhine river on a boat trip I went on ! It's seriously a great city, sight-wise and shopping-wise, and I would absolutely recommend it to anyone thinking of travelling to Germany !

Impressive right ? The cathedral is seriously pretty when you stand right underneath it.. you feel tiny in comparison !

Enjoy your day everyone !