Alphabet Nail Art Challenge : P for Paisley

Good evening everyone ! So it's the 15th day of the alphabet nail art challenge and I have yet another design I've never tried before to show you all today ! The theme today is "P for Paisley" and I'm sure you've seen loads of different paisley nail art designs before, pretty much everywhere on the internet in fact, so I hope you all like my interpretation !

I was inspired by Chelsea from Get Nailed for the actual paisley droplet things (doest anyone know what they're called ?), and the rest I just sort of doodled to add details to the empty spaces ! It took quite a while to paint it all, I found it quite fiddly but I'm really pleased about how it looks !

I used OPI I Vant to Bite Your Neck for the base, although I think a brighter colour may have been slightly better for the look, maybe red for a bandana sort of look, but then the deep purple really shows up the white ! I used white acrylic paint for the paisley print, although I think I'm going to need to get a different white as the one I've got is "mixing white" as opposed to proper white acrylic paint so it's not as opaque as I would like it to be !

So that's it for today ! What are your experiences with white acrylic paint ? Is a normal white quite opaque or is it still temperamental  like mine ? I'd love to know ! Now it's time to me to go and brainstorm for a while about what I'm going to do on my nails tomorrow.. the theme is "quilt" and I don't have any idea what I'm going to do !

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 !

First Attempt at Needle Dragging and 200th Blog Post !

Hello there everyone ! So I got back from Prague after an amazing 2.5 days holiday there and will be travelling back home to France tomorrow, it will have been a busy few days by the time I get back ! But anyway, I said in my last post that I would be able to post something on Sunday, so here it is before I go to bed (early morning again tomorrow !) !

I did this design a few days before I left for Berlin, and although it was my first ever attempt at needle dragging, I'm really pleased with the outcome ! Basically what you do is you apply your first coat of polish as normal and let it dry, and then you do a really thick coat and immediately blob on another coloured nail varnish on top and then using a needle, just drag the second colour out into the first... does that make sense ? All I did was look up a couple of tutorials online and I went from there, it's pretty simple to do !

For this needle dragging design, I started with a base of OPI My Vampire is Buff, and for the dark purple I used OPI I Vant to Bite Your Neck. I love these two polishes together, especially I Vant to Bite Your Neck, will definitely have to use it in my designs more often !

Also, almost forgot to mention... THIS IS MY 200th BLOG POST !!!!!! Wooohooooooo hip hip hooray for big milestones ! There have been plenty of milestones this month actually, first my first year blogaversary and now my 200th post, lots to celebrate !

Right, I'm off to bed now, got to get ready for another long day of travelling ahead of me, sigh.. but I'm really looking forward to being home again and seeing my family, oh, and of course, being able to sleep in my own bed : there's no better feeling after a long time away from home !

And don't forget to tune in here tomorrow evening at 7pm sharp (6pm GMT), I've got a post scheduled for you all that you won't want to miss ! See you all then !

NOTD : Nude Floral

Hello there everyone ! So I know it's been a week since I last posted anything, we've had friends over from England visiting us here this week and so I haven't had much of a chance until now to write anything for you ! I did however get an opportunity to do my nails on Wednesday evening, and I'm really happy with how they turned out !

I got the idea for these nails from Kelly over at Base Coat Top Coat and using this tutorial, I had originally planned to do the nails exactly the same, but I ran out of time before we had to eat so I just stopped at step 10 ! As much as I'd have liked to have finished the whole design properly, I really like the way it looks without the dark background.

For this design, the nail varnishes I used were Champneys Nude, OPI Funkey Dunkey, OPI My Very First Knockwurst, OPI Planks A Lot, Butter London Royal Navy and my Models Own pastel yellow nail art pen. I've never done flowers like this before and I love how simple they are to do, and the details on them really gives the design a lot of depth !

So that's all for tonight everyone, I'm planning on doing my nails again tomorrow or on Monday, so it shouldn't be too long before I post something again ! I need to start writing some posts before I go to Berlin for a month, but don't worry, I'll still be able to post when I'm over there !

NOTD : Oh Splat !

Hey there everyone ! So I've had an absolutely manic week which explains why I haven't been able to post anything since Monday ! I went to visit some friends in Oxford earlier in the week, and then when I got back I had an essay due for the next day so I ended up having to pull an all-nighter (not something I would recommend, it was my first time and I suffered the next day) ! Everything was okay in the end though, and I got everything handed in in time ! And obviously last night was Eurovision so I was otherwise occupied there, and now I'm revising for a Russian exam I have tomorrow, happy days right ?! So anyway, I still somehow managed to fit in doing my nails at some point in the week, on Friday I think, so here you go !

I'm not sure where the inspiration for these nails came from, but I really like the way they've turned out, it was more time-consuming than the traditional splatter mani, but I still enjoyed doing it and making it look as though paint had just been thrown at my nails !

For this design I used OPI My Vampire is Buff for the base, then I used American Apparel Hassid and my nail art brush to paint on random blobs and dots here and there ! It was really quite simple, and doesn't require any real skill, I suppose you could even do it with just the brush from your bottle of nail varnish ! Simple !

So that's all I've got to show you today, I've got another busy week ahead of me (well, until Friday) but I'll try and fit something in all the same so that I can post at some point, here's hoping 

Inspired By : Kenzo Resort 2013

Good evening everyone ! I am SO tired for some reason, probably because it's almost time for me to go to bed (and I probably will do just that once I've finished this post), but seeing as it got too late for me to post anything last night, I thought I'd better not leave you without a post for yet another evening !

So I was just looking through the internet for nail inspiration the other day, when I came across this design by Kenzo for the Resort 2013 season. I knew it would translate well into a nail design, so off I went to start with the painting ! Unfortunately I didn't wear this design for very long as I dented my thumb pretty soon after taking the photos, so I went on to do something else !

For this design, the nail varnishes I used were OPI My Vampire is Buff for the base, and then I used Catrice Salmon and Garfunkel for the spots which I then outlined with my Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen in black. I really liked the way this looked, and it's a shame that I had to take it off so quickly, but there's an endless amount of colour combinations you can do with this design !

And that'll be all for today everybody ! I'm going to go to bed whilst watching some Harry Potter, always a great way to get to sleep ! See you all again soon everyone !

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 !

NOTD : Naked Dots

Hello again everybody ! So it got a bit too late to post my nails that I did last night after I finally finished painting them (got waaaay too sidetracked during the day to do them, whoops), so instead I'm posting them for you all this evening ! It's an idea I've had in my head for quite a while, and I'm really happy with the way it turned out !

I've been really enjoying seeing other people's nails leaving bare nail underneath designs, so I thought I'd give it a go, seeing as my nails were looking all pristine last night since I cut them down quite short the other day ! I don't think you can actually see very much bare nail, unless you look really close up, but I think the general effect of the colours is really Spring-appropriate !

For this design, I started off with a thin coat of Champneys Nude, just to tone my natural nail a little bit, then using different sized dotting tools, I put on random dots using OPI Suzi's Hungary Again!, OPI Can't Find My Czechbook, OPI My Very First Knockwurst and Essie Mint Candy Apple. I really love how all the colours come together on this design, and how it just looks like a pastel blur from a distance !

Even though you can't actually see the nail very well under the dots, I really like the fact that my nail isn't completely covered, and that you can still see a tiny bit of nail line ! What do you think ? Do you prefer to have you nails completely covered or would you try leaving some nail visible for a design ?

I'm going to watch a bit of TV before I go to bed now, so I'll try and blog tomorrow (got a busy day, hopefully I'll be able to post something), if not Sunday ! Have a great Friday everyone !

NOTD : Melting Lines and Studs

Good evening everybody ! So I finally managed to finish my essay last night (it was due in today, maybe shouldn't have procrastinated so much) and today after handing it in I decided to give myself a lazy day before starting major revision for my exams next week ! So obviously, lazy day means nail painting, and I'm really super happy about the designs I've got to show you all today !

 So whilst trolling the internet for patterns and prints to put away in my nail inspiration folder, I came across a seriously funky illustration by Joe Van Wetering that I knew would look awesome translated into a nail design ! I only did two accent nails though seeing as it took aaaaaaages to do just those, and I can't imagine doing ALL my nails individually with all different colours, maybe when I decide I have more time !

I used LOADS of different colours for just the two accent nails, so I'll try and name as many as I can remember ! I started off with a base of OPI Don't Pretzel my Buttons on all my nails, and then for the accents I used Collection 2000 Spangles, OPI Funkey Dunkey, OPI Sparrow Me the Drama, OPI Berlin There Done That, Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream, Barry M Cyan Blue, China Glaze Man Hunt, P2 Hug Me, OPI Planks A Lot, Essie Mint Candy Apple, OPI Dim Sum Plum, OPI Skull and Glossbones, OPI Casino Royale and OPI Mermaids Tears. Okay that's a lot, I think that's pretty much all of them, don't think I've missed any !

And that's it ! I'm off for an early night so that I can get on with my revision tomorrow (ha, that was a pretty good joke, wasn't it ?), hopefully I won't procrastinate as much as I did for the essay, we'll soon find out ! Wish me luck !

Have a great weekend everyone !

NOTD : Funky Skittles

Good evening everyone ! So I've got a quick post for you all tonight as I needed a break from working (even though theoretically it's not really that much of a break as I'm still sat staring at my laptop) ! I've been sat here all day and haven't got half as much done as I would have liked to, but isn't that always the way ? I'm planning on getting up early tomorrow so that I can actually get plenty done, there's no way everything's going to be ready on time otherwise !

So this design is pretty much an amalgamation of every idea I had for my nails today, and being the procrastinator that I am when it comes to taking a break and then struggling to start working again, I, of course, had to do all of them ! Oh well, I really like them, and then at least that way if I don't have time to do my nails tomorrow at some point then I'll be quite content to keep these on for another day !

The nails varnishes I used for this design were P2 Elegant, OPI Every Month is Oktoberfest, American Apparel T Shirt, OPI Don't Pretzel my Buttons, OPI You Don't Know Jacques, Essie Lapiz of Luxury, Essie Splash of Grenadine, Essence Circus Confetti, as well as my Models Own Wah Nails nail art pens in black and blue. I was originally going to do a paisley nail, but once I'd started drawing it I thought it looked awful so I switched design ! Never mind !

Right now I'm going to have to get back to work ! I've almost finished making the Powerpoint presentation for one of two presentations I'm doing next week, plus I'd better get a start on my Italian coursework.. and let's not even mention the 3 essays I've got to write up before the end of the semester ! Ugh.. so much work !

I'll see you all again soon guys, wish me luck with all this work I've got to finish !

Halloween Nails : Ripped Flesh

Hey there everybody ! So today I have some nails that I did a couple of days ago in preparation for today's post, as I knew I wouldn't have time to do them this evening (busy day of lectures, and then the compulsory pub quiz comittment) ! Unfortunately I can't be credited for this amazing design, but it is so unique and perfect for Halloween, I had to recreate it !

So I did these nails using the tutorial by Melissa over at The Daily Nail ! She is seriously such an inspiration to me, as her blog was really the first nail blog I discovered when I started to get in to nail art, and she still does such amazing designs ! This was the first design in her "HalloWEDNESDAY" series, all of which I've really enjoyed looking at !

For this design I used OPI Big Apple Red, OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons, American Apparel Hassid and P2 Elegant. Basically all you do is paint a base coat of red, go over the top with your skin colour polish, cover with top coat (I use Seche Vite), wait for it to dry slightly and then pull it towards the tip of your nail. I think the overall look is really effective, and looks seriously gory !

So I'm kind of gutted that I didn't get to keep this design on for longer, but I'm really quite happy about the fact that I get to keep yesterday's pumpkin nails on for slightly longer ! Only one more day of Halloween nails before Movember starts, damn right I'm going to be sporting moustache nails, not just for the cause, but also because moustaches are so fly !

See you all tomorrow guys !

Halloween Nails : Blood Drips

Helloooooo everybody ! So I'm posting at a relatively reasonable time today, for once ! I did my nails earlier on this afternoon so I've had plenty of time to do everything I needed to, happy times ! But this early post is needed as I'm going to have to get up early tomorrow morning for my lectures, good news is I have reading week soon, a whole week full of procrastination (oh god I hope not) !

So I've decided that I'm going to be doing Halloween-themed nails all the way through until actual Halloween Night on Wednesday ! I got in the mood for it last night whilst doing my Halloween Skittles nails, and figured I may as well go for a full five days of spooky nails ! I suppose Halloween can be a pretty creative season for when it comes to nail art, so hopefully I can try to do something more original than the traditional Halloween themes !

For this design I only used two different polishes : P2 Elegant for the nude base colour and then OPI Big Apple Red for the blood. For the actual design, all I did was use a dotting tool to place where each drip was going to be on my nails, and then I used a small nail art brush to join them all together for the full drip effect.

Okay, so not to sound disgusting or anything, I really love these nails ! I'm totally in to the drip effect nails at the moment (maybe some drippy framed nails... hmm ideas ideas) so I hope to do plenty more ! I already have a vague idea of what I'm going to do tomorrow for my nails, so we'll just have to wait and see how that one pans out !

See you all tomorrow everyone ! Have a great 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 : Dior Gradient

Hello there again everyone ! So I'm back from my weekend away in Oxford, and I hope you enjoyed the two posts I prepared for you all to keep you busy whilst I was gone ! BUT, I'm back, and this is my 100th POST ! Can you believe it ?! I can't believe it's already been 100 days since I first started posting on here, and 100 consecutive posts of my nails ! So to celebrate, I've got a great mani for you all, which is very special as it's doen using some of my brand new Dior nail polishes !

As soon as I saw these three polishes together I knew exactly what I was going to do with them, and a gradient was necessary ! All three have shimmer going through them, like most of the Dior nail varnishes, but these were larger than the usualy superfine shimmer you get in the cremes. I'm tempted to say that these polishes had quite a jelly finish, almost a creme/jelly hybrid !

For this gradient design the three polishes I used were Dior Pink Porcelain (189), Dior Flapper Pink (453) and Dior Indie Orange (447, also known as Mandarin Orange). I think these three colours all go really well together, and make for a nice gradient. The brush in the bottles is amazing as well, once you work out how much nail varnish to actually hae on the brush it all works perfectly !

And that's it today for my 100th post ! Here's to another 100 ! My god, that will be at the end of January next year, not long now at all, and that'll be roughly the 6-month mark for this blog as well ! Exciting stuff !

See you all tomorrow for another nail art post (probably Dior again !), have a great day everyone !

NOTD : Inky Drips

Hey there everybody ! I'm super happy to be going back to regular NOTD nail art posts, I really missed having funky designs on my nails for such a long time ! Five days ! Can you even believe it ?!  So I've been wanting to do a similar design to the drips I did during the 15 Day Nail Challenge for the film-inspired day, and it seems really weird that it's been almost 2 months since I did that challenge ! Time goes fast !

So I went to Sally's Beauty Supplies in Bath yesterday, mainly to buy some acetone because I'm running out after all those swatches, but I also ended picking up (as you always do when nail varnish is involved) some cuticle oil and a couple of China Glazes I've been after for a while now !

I'm actually happier with how the design turned out on my right hand (non-dominant) than with how it did on my left hand, I think that with the practise I got doing my left hand first, I worked out what I actually wanted it to look like, so I was able to obtain the effect I wanted when it came to doing my second hand. Here's an iPhone photo (because I can't hold my big camera with my left hand properly to get a relatively acceptable picture) I took of my right hand :

For this design the polishes I used were OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons for the base colour and then for the drips I used China Glaze Man Hunt. Don't Pretzel My Buttons is such a great colour and I'd been after it for ages (as soon as the collection was released as a matter of fact), my incredibly kind and generous mother purchased it for me for my birthday though (along with all the rest of the Germany collection, lucky lucky me) ! I love it so much, it's the perfect beige/nude colour, so versatile !

There's a photo so you can compare both hands, see what I mean about prefering my right hand ? It looks a lot more "drippy" than the left hand ! Oh well, at least I'll know for next time ! I'm thinking this'll make for a great Halloween manicure by switching the blue polish for a great blood red colour !

And that's all for today you guys, I'll have to get thinking about what nail art I'll be doing for you tomorrow ! Enjoy the rest of your evening !

Swatch : Models Own - Disco Inferno

Hey guys ! So toda, and for the next few days, I'm swatching the brand new Models Own Mirrorball collection ! This collection has only been released on the Models Own website and in the Bottleshop in Westfield London, and are currently sold out on the website ! So here we go for today's featured polish : Disco Inferno !

Disco Inferno is, like the whole collection, a glitter topcoat with lots of glitter suspended in a semi-matte (I think ?) clear polish. There's a mix of gold shredded glitter, square holographic glitter, and then hexes : medium copper, small forest green, and super fine copper colours ! Plus there's a rogue red medium hex on my little finger, see it ?

The nude colour I used underneath Disco Inferno is OPI Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh ?, I really like this colour combination, nude just looks good with pretty much anything ! I bet Disco Inferno would look really good over a red polish, or pretty much any polish to be honest !

So in case you haven't already seen, I'm giving away this exact Models Own polish ! Don't worry, the one I've got for the giveaway is brand new and unopened, I purchased the whole collection for myself and then decided to get another one to give away ! So if you haven't entered, head on over here to be in with your chance to win this (and a bunch of other polishes too), you've got nothing to lose !

Have a great day everyone !