Alphabet Nail Art Challenge : Q for Quilt

Hey there everybody ! So I have to admit, I was feeling completely unenthusiastic about today's theme both last night and this morning, even when I'd decided what I wanted to do on my nails and sat down to do them I ended up procrastinating for another hour or so and totally delayed having to do them ! I got them done in the end though so that's all that matters, and I'm actually rather pleased with them !

I looked up "quilts" on wikipedia which came up with all sorts of different types, even "crazy quilts" which I considered, but decided that was too complicated ! In the end I searched for quilts on Pinterest and found this one which inspired me ! I didn't use the colours that were in the pinterest quilt image, and instead I chose to pick some random colours from my collection !

I used OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls for the base colour, and the coloured triangles were done using OPI Funky Dunkey, OPI Planks A Lot, OPI Sparrow Me the Drama, OPI My Very First Knockwurst, OPI Can't Find my Czechbook, OPI Big Apple Red, OPI My Back Pocket, China Glaze Man Hunt and Essie Meet Me at Sunset. Wow.. that's a lot of nail varnish !

This design took ages for me to do, far longer than I had expected ! As you can see I started with a lot of detail and small triangles on the thumb but then as soon as I'd finished that nail, I knew the others had to have a larger pattern on them ! Just imagine the time it would have taken me otherwise !!!

I'm going to watch some more TV now before I go to bed, so I'll see you tomorrow !

Bärlin

Hey there everybody ! So today's post is coming straight from Berlin, and I know I said I was going to post on Tuesday (today's post is in fact what was supposed to be posted on Tuesday) but I honestly got sooooo sidetracked with packing (which I didn't start until about 11pm, considering my train to Paris was at 6:15am Wednesday morning) and doing bits and pieces before I left I just didn't have any time to write the post ! And anyway, I've been really enjoying my time here in Berlin, I'm still here for a while but don't worry, I've got plenty to post, it'll just be a matter of finding the time to write it all ! So... on to the nails !

I saw this nail design a while ago in a post by Supa Nails who is actually based in Berlin, and I just loved the colour combination and the whole idea of the design, it was just a matter of waiting for the right moment to paint my nails and post these nails !

I didn't use the same nail polishes as in the original post, so instead I used P2 Jetset, Essie Splash of Grenadine and OPI My Back Pocket, for the details I used white acrylic paint. You may remember the tone gradient design I did a couple of weeks ago, well that was inspired by this colour combination, I just liked it too much !

So that's it for today guys, I should be back again soon to write another post hopefully, it just depends when I have time ! Hopefully I'll also be able to post some photos of my trip here in the next post, I just need to sync them to my computer first !

NOTD : Tone Gradient

Hey there everybody ! I told you it wouldn't be too long before I posted again so here I am ! I've been doing loads of nail designs these past couple of days in preparation for me going away for a month, so I'll still be able to post when I'm away, even though I'll still be doing my nails, I don't know what my lighting etc will be like so we'll just have to wait and see !

Today's design is really simple, going off a colour combination from a design that I will post when I go away to Berlin. I don't know where the idea came from, I was tired though and wanted something quick and easy to do, so a gradient it was !

The colours I used for this design were P2 Jetset, Essie Mint Candy Apple, Essie Splash of Grenadine, OPI My Very First Knockwurst, OPI My Back Pocket and Essie Meet Me at Sunset. I like the fact that they're just small gradients, as opposed to the usual half-nails I tend to do for my gradients.

Right so that'll be all for tonight, I really need to go to bed now, I've been writing this post for the last 2 hours ! See you all again soon everyone !

NOTD : Tie Dye

Hey there everyone ! It's really late and I've had loads of stuff on my hands recently with revision and all that (I have my first exam on Monday, not long now), but obviously I still managed to make time to do my nails, I just haven't got round to writing the post until now ! It won't be long as I'm really tired, but I felt I couldn't leave you without anything for another day !

So I did this design yesterday morning, when I was supposed to be revising... I've been wanting to tie dye a shirt for a few weeks now and I figured I'd paint some tie dye on my nails while I wait for the actual thing ! I looked up some images on google and it came up with this photo :

I really like that it's more purpley than the usual tie dye you see around, in my opinion anyway !

For this design, the colours I used were OPI My Vampire is Buff for the base, then I used OPI Dim Sum Plum, Essie Meet Me at Sunset, P2 Hug Me, Collection 2000 Ninja and Models Own Blooboo. I almost left out the yellow accents when I was painting these, but I'm glad I didn't as I think it really brings all the colours together !

So that's all for today, I've got to go and get ready for bed as I need a good night's sleep before MORE revision tomorrow, oh happy days ! Night night everyone ! See you all soon !

NOTD : Bright Harlequin

Hey there everyone ! So today's post is super early to make a change, that doesn't happen very often ! I'm going away today for a week and so I won't be around to post anything, but I'm scheduling a couple of posts that I've prepared (instead of revising, obviously) to tide you over until I get back !

So I did these nails yesterday, and it's a design I've been wanting to do for ages, but I've been trying to think up a good colour combination for it ! In the end I just grabbed a few bright colours and they seemed to go relatively well together so I just started painting ! The design took me a couple of hours to do, I started off with my left hand just in case I didn't like it so I didn't waste nail varnish on my right hand, but as I ended up really liking the design I did it on both of my hands !

For this design, the colours I used were P2 Crazy About Green for the base (this colour would have been absolutely awesome if it wasn't a shimmer), then I used OPI Dim Sum Plum, OPI My Back Pocket and Models Own Blooboo for the different triangles. I freehanded everything as I seem to have problems with the tape method (mainly because I'm too impatient to wait for everything to dry), and I think the lines still turned out pretty crisp ! Result !

Right so that's all for today folks, I've got a couple more posts to write for you all and then I've got to finish getting ready ! See ya next week !

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 !

Swatch : Models Own - Pinky Brown

Good evening everyone ! I'm doing some manic writing up at the moment as I'm starting to prepare for my first exam next month and I've got a book on short loan which has to be back Monday morning, so I've not got very long to get as much information as possible from it ! Luckily I did this swatch earlier this week, so the photos are all ready and all I have to do it write the post for it !

So this is Models Own Pinky Brown from their 2011Beetlejuice collection. I was expecting the finish to be quite similar to Accessorize Pink Spice which I swatched for you the other day, but it was actually quite different ! Pinky Brown has a glass fleck finish of pink and orangey duochrome, accompanied by a sheer dark brownish/black base.

For this swatch I used 3 coats and a layer of Seche Vite on top. The formula was fine for me so no compaints there ! I was disappointed that the duochrominess of it wasn't as strong as I had anticipated, I found it quite hard to get a photo of the transition and it was really very obvious in person either ! Still, lovely colour though !

If you look hard enough you can see a bit of browny-oranginess towards the base of my nails, but nothing too obvious ! I still this that this nail varnish is really nice, although it is a shame that the duochrome effect isn't totally visible !

I'm going to go and get some more work done before I go to bed, I hope you enjoyed the swatch !

Swatch : Accessorize - Pink Spice

Hello again everybody ! So I must apologise for my lack of posting this week, I completely forgot to post anything on Thursday evening (I ended up in bed watching Harry Potter again by 9 o'clock), and yesterday I was away visiting my Grandma so I couldn't post anything ! But, I'm back again today, this time with a swatch of an absolutely amazing nail varnish ! You won't be disappointed !

So this is Pink Spice by Accessorize, a polish I picked up quite a while ago but never got round to swatching until now ! This nail varnish is made up of a deep pink jelly base, with duochrome shimmer and micro-glitter that shines bright pink, and at certain angles a really bright coppery orange colour... super pretty !

For this swatch I used two coats of Pink Spice, and then a coat of Seche Vite. I've been wearing this colour for a whole week now and there's no sign of any chips or peeling, just a bit of tip wear at the end of my nails - result ! I could maybe have done with doing a third coat of this nail polish, but I felt that the coverage was even enough at 2 coats so I just left it there !

Sorry for the overly pale skin on this photo, but it shows off the duochrome-iness of this colour really well ! The shimmer really does look great in the sunlight, but it still glows even in the shade ! The consistency of this nail varnish was really good as well, I didn't have any trouble with application !

So that'll be all for today everyone, I'm off to bed because I'm tired from the travelling I've been doing ! I'll see you again tomorrow, hopefully with a Saint Patrick's Day manicure !

NOTD : Rainbow Half Hearts

Evening all ! So, as I was moaning about it in yesterday's post, I managed to do my nails this afternoon today and I'm following through with it by posting relatively early as well in comparison to a lot of my posts as of late ! Anyway, on to the nails !

So this nail art design is the idea that suddenly came to me last night while I was writing up the Valentine's Day post, and yeah I have to say I kinda like it, but I'm not as in love with it as I have been with a lot of my previous designs ! I think it looked better in my head, and I would really like a better green nail varnish for my collection seeing as I'm lacking ! I feel the ring finger with the green and blue could have stood out more if I had a better green ! Oh well !

For this design, the nail varnishes I used were (in rainbow order, of course) OPI Big Apple Red, OPI My Back Pocket, P2 Hug Me, Kiko Acid Green, OPI Can't Find My Czechbook and OPI Funkey Dunkey. I'm definitely going to keep my eye out for some good green creme nail polishes, any suggestions from you guys as to what I should get ?

These nails seem to look more rainbow-y from a distance than they do close up, the thumbnails are looking far more impressive right now than what they look like on the nails ! You notice the gradient effect I was going for when you look at the photos from afar ! I really love the overall design though, as you may have seen before in my Half Hearts post that was inspired by Whitney at Dressed Up Nails !

Right, I'm going to watch a film before going to bed, might even put my pyjamas on now and watch it in bed because I'm sick of sitting on this office chair ! Have a lovely evening everybody !

NOTD : A Load of Balls

Hey there everyone ! I have a brand new NOTD for you all today, although not featuring the studs that have been in my two previous NOTDs ! They took forever to take off, the glue I stick them down with is seriously heavy-duty for some reason, and I spent a good 15 minutes on those four accent nails trying to remove the studs ! I suppose the time served me well though, seeing as it was whilst I was taking off my previous manicure that I came up today's design !

So, now you may have guessed what I meant by the title of this post : a load of balls ! Not sure where this idea popped up from, perhaps it stemmed from my recent obsession with Draw Something on my iPhone.. seriously, hours of fun ! That's where the baseball idea came from, and then I suppose the rest of them just went with the theme !

For this design the polishes I used were OPI Unfor-greta-bly Blue, American Apparel Hassid, American Apparel T-Shirt, OPI Big Apple Red, OPI My Back Pocket, OPI Schnapps Out of It! and OPI Don't Talk Bach to Me. In case any of you were wondering and couldn't work out what each nail represents, from left to right they're a bowling ball, a baseball, a basketball, a football and a tennis ball.

I really like this design, and my favourite nail is probably the basketball one ! I wish football patterns were easier to draw, as the pattern never seems to work out for me when I draw/paint it ! What's your favourite nail on this design, or sport for that matter (I hate sport so there's no point me telling you mine, although it'd probably be skiing !)?

Have a great day tomorrow everyone, see you all then !

Swatch : OPI - Deutsch You Want Me Baby ?

Hey there everybody ! So like I mentioned yesterday, I've got a couple of swatches for you all today and tomorrow, seeing as I'm away and won't be able to do my nails again until Sunday ! Both of the swatches were done yesterday before I'd cut my nails down, so there's still plenty of canvas in the photos for these amazing colours I'm going to be showing you !

Today's polish is part of the OPI Fall/Winter Germany collection, and as I've already mentioned tonnes of times before, this collection is seriously amazing in my books ! All the colours go so well together, and you mzy have noticed, I've been able to do quite a lot of nail art with just the polishes from the collection, it's just so versatile (and the colours are perfect for the season, obviously) !

OPI Deutsch You Want Me Baby is the perfect Autumn shade : a burned-rusty orange colour with a gorgeous shimmer and slightly red-leaning in certain lights. It can become quite yellow in bright lights, but I couldn't capture that shade in a decent photo to show you !

Now if I'm perfectly honest with you, I usually hate orange colours on my nails, but I was so surprised by this colour, and how it actually suits me ! Total amazement ! Oh, and I almost forgot to say, this swatch is two coats without any top coat (but believe me when I say that top coat enhances the already superb shimmer).

And that's it for today, tune in tomorrow for another gorgeous polish from the Germany collection !

Halloween Nails : Pumpkins

Hellooooooo everyone ! So as another installment in my "Halloween Series" (shall we say ?) I have yet more Halloween-themed nails for you all ! I have to admit, these weren't my original plan for today's nails, as I was going to do Happy Tree Friends nails, seeing as they're all disgusting (yet cute) and kill everything and everyone all the time, but gave up on that idea as I'm rather tired and wasn't ready for any skittles nails today ! They take far too long to do !

So yes, today I went for the oh-so-traditional pumpkin nails. I honestly love pumpkins (I'd rather eat squash, but that's another matter), and pumpkin soup is sooooo tasty ! Unfortunately pumpkins are too big for me to eat by myself, and I have way too much soup I've made in my freezer at the moment, so I'm afraid the pumpkins will have to wait ! For some reason I didn't fancy doing proper Halloween jack-o-lanterns, so I just went for the plain old pumpkin !

For this design, the polishes I used were OPI Don't Talk Bach to Me for the base, then for the pumpkin and detailing I used OPI My Back Pocket, OPI Stranger Tides, OPI Berlin There Done That, Collection 2000 Ninja, and my Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen in black for the outlining.

I seriously love how these nails turned out ! I was a bit dubious at first and I was wondering whether it'd actually look any good, but I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome ! I love the way it spreads out onto each nail andhow it all joins up to make one big illustration !

Okay so that was a pretty quick post ! AND it's not even 9pm yet ! Woah, I'm seriously on a roll here, hopefully I can keep this up for the rest of the week, and I might even get stuff done ! Woohoo ! See you all tomorrow everyone !

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 : 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 : 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 !

NOTD : Stained Glass Nails

Oh god oh god it's really late isn't it ? I'm sorry ! I've had soooo much to do, and still have got loads to do for the rest of this week, but I'm still posting ! I've set a good pace by posting every day since I first started this blog, and I'm going to aim to keep that record going as long as I can ! So today's nail art is inspired by something (I'll tell you after the first photo) I saw whilst I was on holiday in Cologne !

So these nails are inspired by the big stained glass window (just realised I probably gave the nail design away in the title.. oh well !) in the Cologne cathedral, designed by Gerhard Richter. The new window was put in in 2007, and it looks like loads of multicoloured-rainbow pixels, really stunning !

These nails are actually the kind that look really great and impressive from a distance, but that when you take photos it shows up all the imperfections. It's a shame really that you can't see how great they look in the photos I took, my camera picks up all the transparency from where I painted the squares on the white base colour I used.

I used LOADS of polishes for this design, and I'll do my best to name all of them ! They're all still out on the table so it shouldn't be too hard ! For the white base I used American Apparel T-Shirt, then for the different colours I used Essence Redvolution, 17 Baked Cherry, OPI My Back Pocket, P2 Hug Me, P2 Crazy About Green, Collection 2000 Ninja, Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream, Kiko Electric Blue, P2 Poetic, P2 Break the Rules and P2 Flirt With Me. See what I mean ? Loads of polishes !

So that's it ! I'll also include a photo of the stained glass at the end of the post so that you can see the inspiration behind the nails ! This design also reaaaaly reminds me of Elmer the Patchwork Elephant, man, I used to love that book !

Have a great day !