Sunday 30 September 2012

Blue Strawberry Nails

I was lacking inspiration and just wanting to do my nails so I got a design that I really don't like. That's why you don't rush kids :/ As if I hadn't learnt from my recent clown episode (Stripes, Spots and Bows) I go and do it again :/ Don't put dark pink spots on top of blue, it just won't work. The design looked far better in my head, as it always does.

Probably would of looked better if I used strawberry colours, but I've done so many strawberry nails I wanted to try something different. They are kind of like alien strawberries. I liked my colour combination before I did it, after no so much. It was easy, that's the only good thing I can say.
Blue: Barry M - Blueberry Ice Cream
Purple: Rimmel - Purple Pulse
Light Purple: Essie - Lilacism
Pink: Per Una - Fuchsia (no name) 
I liked Purple Pulse, I avoided it cause I thought I wouldn't like it. I've actually been liking purple nail polishes recently (:O) hopefully this isn't something I made up in my head cause that means new colour possibilities. It's just pale purples don't suit me and I don't like dark purples, but when I find the happy medium (a phrase that needs to be used more) it will be a joyous celebration :P

Saturday 29 September 2012

Leopard/Bow nails inspired by Vivianne Westwood shoes

Hello there :) I've been wanting to do this mani ever since I realised I hadn't lost these shoes in the summer. They were a gift from my aunt when we went to Thailand. They are a collaboration between Vivianne Westwood and the brand Melissa. They are super pretty, unfortunately not shoes to walk in. They kill feet but otherwise they look really cute.


See they're pretty :) Now to the nails!!!

I also just wanted an excuse to use Baker Street, it is simply stunning. The bow didn't turn out how I wanted it to. Burnt Amber helped improve it but mimicking the bow on my shoes was hard. Also the leopard print (meant to be cheetah print) was difficult to scale down and it turned out really messy. Cause I overloaded the blue blobs :/ But that makes me love it, I love how that leopard print looks, and just the red and blue together. Yum :P I wish I'd slanted the blue part of my index finger the other direction, but you learn from these things :)

I prefer the bow on my left hand, overall still messy. My thumb is still recovering from the cut, but it was seriously bad. Now it's much better ^_^ And I slanted the blue on my index finger the right way. Woop.
Blue: Nails Inc. - Baker Street
Red: OPI - Dutch Tulips
White: Models Own - Snow White
Dark Blue: Barry M - Indigo
Dark Red: w7 - Burnt Amber
Baker Street was amazing as always. It was probably too light but I think it really works. I really like the design cause it's so fun and bright and definitely bears resemblance to my shoes. I love the colours.

Friday 28 September 2012

Roses in a midnight sky

That makes it sound fancier than it really is. This kind of goes hand in hand with my last post (or hand in foot :/) with the roses. Except I did it on my toenails too. Sorry if toenail posts aren't your thing. I don't normally do nail art on my toes (mostly cause I can't see my toenails most of the time) but I accidentally poured out too much polish on my sheet and I'm not one to waste polish. I like my toenails (as weird as that sounds), they can get freakishly long though. In the pictures my toenails are short compared to how long they can get.

I started with Barry M - Indigo with Models Own - Indian Ocean on top. I felt like purple toenails. I didn't really like it too much, I like that combo but I didn't feel like that. So I added Revlon - Belle and I already liked it much better.

By the way, toenail pictures are so difficult!!! You can't control your toes like you can control your fingers. I literally had to position and hold my toes. I already wrote the polishes I used in my last post but I'm gonna write it again cause I like too :)
Pink: Essie - Your Hut Or Mine?
White: Models Own - Snow White
Green: OPI - Jade Is The New Black
I thought it looked really cool, just seeing my toenails with a nice design is really awesome. 

Tuesday 25 September 2012

Autumn vintage floral nails

I probably could do these once a month since I love this design so much. But this time I think I've finally perfected the design. I used to use "season appropriate" colours (cause I've been doing a great job currently... ":/) this time. Also colours I don't tend to use that much even though their nice.


Is that autumn enough for ya? :P I prefer my right hand cause there are more roses. Also on my left hand I was dipping my bobby pin in the wrong place therefore showing more white. The colours are slightly off (e.g. pink is far more rosy) as my natural lighting place is probably going to be out of use for the next couple of months since it's getting darker earlier (but I love that, it's like the "autumn feeling". Or is that just me again?).
Green: OPI - Jade Is The New Black
White: Models Own - Snow White
Pink: Essie - Your Hut Or Mine?
Purple: Essie - Lilacism
I have a horrible cut on my right thumb so instead of badly editing it out I turned my thumb around. So clever I know, it's just I normally show the whole thumb design. But it wasn't anything that crazy. The shimmer from Your Hut Or Mine? showed up well in this design, it's truly lovely. I do really like Jade Is The New Black and Lilacism, it's just not my favourite colours or polishes so unfortunately don't get used as much as they should. I should change that.

I want to try different variations next time I do this (probably soon), like different ways of doing the roses and obviously different colours. I just love this!!!! :)

Sunday 23 September 2012

Hello Kitty Gone Wild

Hello there!!!! I hope you're enjoying your Sunday (or what's left of it in my case). For a while I have been wanting to do a Hello Kitty mani. Obviously I've done one before (who hasn't?) but I wanted to do another one. I had an idea of a Hello Kitty accent nail and all the other nails with basic patterns. It turned out much different than that. So much better than that. 


Some left hand photos. As you can see it went a little basic pattern gone wild. I adore this though. I decided to use some kind of colour scheme so I used my favourite colours and polishes (duh). 

Like the leopard print and the cherry blossoms I would do as full manicures. Which I totally might do. I was trying something slightly different for the leopard print. I tried doing heart shapes, which got killed by the black lines, but I really like it. The weird blob shapes make it interesting. 
Robin Egg's Blue (cause I'm that obsessive): The Face Shop - GR501
Turquoise: Essie - Turquoise and Caicos
Pink: OPI - Charged Up Cherry
Mint: China Glaze - Re-Fresh Mint
Glitter: Barry M - Pink Iridescent and Barry M - Hologram Hexograms
White: Models Own - Snow White
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black (no name)
I've been kind of disappointed with Turquoise and Caicos but using it for this mani I want to use it loads more. Everyone's pictures makes it look so nice, hopefully one day it will be that nice in my eyes. 

I did a mild gradient on my middle finger, very subtle. It turned out ok, that was the last design I did in this mani. I loved it already but there was one more thing to add to make it perfect. HOLOGRAPHIC GLITTER!!!! Then it was perfect. 

It does have some elements of Hello Kitty e.g. the Hello Kitty type bow on my thumb. And that's about it. 

Some right hand pictures which I'm very proud of. I think Hello Kitty turned out better on this hand. I can never get good right hand pictures, my hand always slants and my lighting is never right.

I loved this mani, it has my favourite designs and favourite colours all in one manicure. When that can happen, it's a beautiful thing :') :P

Thursday 20 September 2012

Stripes, Spots and Bows

Hi there. I wanted to use Blue Moon as a base to some nail art, so that's what I did. I didn't really know where I was going, stripes, spots and bows I guess was my main thought. Didn't turn out how I would of liked it to though.


I think it looks clownish, the pink polka dots on blue doesn't look nice. I'm proud of my freehand stripes though, I don't have patience for tape and it never impresses me either. I like the bow on my left thumb but that's it. After finishing with the basic colours I went a bit crazy with the glitter, I wanted glitter. That's all I can say.
Blue: Barry M - Blue Moon with Models Own - Indian Ocean (which is super pretty!!!)
Pink: No7 - Me! Me! Me! with Barry M - Pink Iridescent 
Purple: Essie - Lilacism with China Glaze - Luxe and Lush
It's ok. I'm probably just too fussing though :P

Tuesday 18 September 2012

Blue Nails: Barry M - Blue Moon

Hello there. Today I'll be showing one of my favourite polishes, it's been my favourite for a while. Well until I got really obsessed with nail polish and found a ton of new favourites. But hey I still really like this one :)


        (By the way I didn't realise how messed up the cuticles of my index finger was)

It's a pretty pale blue, every time I have it on someone comments on how nice the colour is. In real life the colour is slightly darker than the pictures. Ok you're probably thinking "It's nice, but nothing special". Oh but it is. The thing I love the most about this polish is the micro shimmer (well that's what I would call it), it's hard to see in some lighting but when you can see the darkish blue micro shimmer. It's gorgeous. I couldn't get it to show up though :/

I'm not one to complain about formula, but the formula of this ain't too great. Mostly my fault though, I have so little left in the bottle that 3 coats was a challenge, and 4 coats probably would of been better. When you have this polish for over a year and use it a ton it will drag. The 1st coat is rubbish, but it definitely builds well. Anyway I don't really care about formula issues. Again it doesn't bother me.

It just looks nice, the shade of blue is really important and Blue Moon looks good. The name is also super cute :)

Sunday 16 September 2012

Domo Kun Nails

Hello there. I've been trying to get back into my simple but cute nail art again. It truly is my favourite. So I did some Domo nails, I can't say I'm a massive fan of Domo or anything. But he's cute, and that's the most important thing :)

It was so simple, of course I had to make sure everything was proportioned etc. but otherwise still simple.
Brown: Paris Collection - Mauve Melody with The Face Shop - GL112 underneath
Red: Essie - E-Nuff Is E-Nuff
Black: Lovely MeEx - Black (no name)
White: Models Own - Snow White
I originally started with The Face Shop - GL112, but realised it was way too light. It might be the only brown nail polish I like. Someone gave it to me a while ago, and I thought I'd never wear it, but I thought the same about green nail polish. It's very pretty, I realised it's pretty metallic when putting it on. The main downside is that it's a nightmare to remove but super easy to apply. I thought I might as well mention it.

Mauve Melody is probably the closest brown I have, it has a weird blue/brown shimmer. I'm not a fan but it's alright. I do like my little Domo design, cuteness for the win :)

Saturday 15 September 2012

floral nails inspired by my top

Hi guys, I was really stuck with what to do with my nails but I looked down at my top and decided to do the design from that. I got it from Forever 21 a while ago, I used to not it that much but recently I've been wearing quite a lot cause it has these awesome mesh straps. Mesh = love. I don't actually like the format of the top, but I love wearing jumpers etc. over it.


                                             (Close up of the pattern)

To the nails!!!!

Obviously the design on my nails ended up quite different from the actual design. But I still like it. It's sophisticated (a word not normally associated with me). The colours I used were also a lot less subtle.
Blue: Revlon - Dreamer
Pink: Essie - Your Hut Or Mine?
Orange Coral: Essie - Tart Deco
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black (no name)
But I still think it's a cool design and I'm definitely happy with it, I love all things floral too so that probably helped ;)

Thursday 13 September 2012

Combo: Phoenix Egg (Rainbow Jelly Sandwich)

Hello there. I've wanted to do this for a while but I kept getting distracted. Also my first successful jelly sandwich, last one didn't go too well. Failed something that's near impossible to fail. Go me.


I wasn't sure what to call it, but I thought Phoenix Egg worked. White nails are weird, it's not that I don't like it, it's just weird. I'm not used to it. Jelly sandwiches are really cool, I have limited jelly polishes but once I can more interesting glitters (I'm looking at you Models Own - Freak Out!) and more jelly polishes. I will probably go jelly sandwich crazy.
Opaque White: Models Own - Snow White
Jelly White: No7 - Snowflake
Rainbow Glitter: OPI - Rainbow Connection
I've had Rainbow Connection for almost a year and it's starting to get thick. Anyway I did one coat of Snow White, one coat of Rainbow Connection and one coat of Snowflake.

                   (A picture with crappy lighting to hopefully show the glitter better)

Monday 10 September 2012

Hoot Hoot (Owl Nails)

Hello. I was in a "I don't know what to do with my nails" mood, but owls came to mind. I want to go back to doing super cute nail cute and not really difficult nail art (cause I'm never pleased with the results).

These nails were inspired by Supa Nails design. I originally had the thumb design different but I did something that messed it up so I changed my design. Anyway here are the nails.

Yay I really like them and they're cute!!!! ^_^ This is me trying to be season appropriate. I changed the design a bit with the little hearts and the little triangles and the happy eyes ^_^. Which I quite like, but only because of the different colours. If it was one colour I wouldn't like it.
Pink: OPI - Charged Up Cherry
Blue: The Face Shop - GR501
Orange: Essie - Tart Deco
I used 3 of my favourite polishes for this hand. I wasn't sure what to do for my index finger, but I decided I liked it plain and I kept it that way.  Charged Up Cherry always turns up really orangey for me. I don't know why. The first picture isn't very colour accurate and honestly I'm too tired to do anything about it :/ The second picture is far better :)

I switched up the colours for my left hand, I normally don't like mismatchy hands but if it's the same design with different colours = I love.
Red: OPI - Dutch Tulips
Blue: Barry M - Indigo
Purple: Essie - Lilacism
I really like Lilacism even though the whole purple thing, it's a nice colour and a nice formula. I love the clash of red and purple, during the first day of the 31 day challenge with red nails. I had painted my toenails in Lilacism and adored the clash. It's slightly more season appropriate.

Saturday 8 September 2012

Luxe and Lush/I Lily Love You Comparison

Probably the easiest thing about this comparison is that the 2 polishes, China Glaze - Luxe and Lush and OPI - I Lily Love You aren't too similar. But they are definitely in the same nail polish boat, both having flakies within.

China Glaze - Luxe and Lush has a clear base with blue/yellow toned (depending on the light) flakies. I personally think it looks best on a blue manicure. I don't know how to describe the flakies as in it's type (eg iridescent, holographic etc.), I'm positive someone else will have described it far better.

OPI - I Lily Love You has a sheer pink base with iridescent glitter of different shapes (squares, triangles) and flakies. I feel like this can also enhance different colour with the sheer pink base.

I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Wow look at that amazing editing (sarcasm by the way, just in case). I used different lighting for both pictures cause Luxe and Lush just wouldn't photograph in the same lighting as I Lily Love You. But hopefully you get the idea. I layered over what I think are their respective colours. The pale blue is The Face Shop - BK601 and the pink is Essie - Your Hut Or Mine?.

I much prefer I Lily Love You, it's the iridescent glitter and the pink base, it's so pretty. I like Luxe and Lush but I used to like it more. Both hands have 2 coats of the respective glitter.

Friday 7 September 2012

Orange Nails: Bourjois - Tangerine Fatal

Hello there!!! I was unsure of what to paint my nails with, but today in my chemistry class my teacher had painted her nails orange. I really liked it, finally a teacher who chooses a nice colour and nails aren't chipped like there's no tomorrow. Is it strange that when I look at teachers I look at their nails? Probably not ;P

I used to not be a fan of orange nail polish, but the moment I saw Essie - Haute As Hello that changed. Haute As Hello is a more pinky peach (bad description) but still sparked my love for orange nail polish. Essie wasn't available in the UK at that time, but when I first got the chance, I got Tart Deco. And yeah if you didn't know, I LOVE IT. Since Haute As Hello and Tart Deco are similar I'm not sure if I'll get it (99% chance I won't), but every time I see someone using Haute As Hello on their blog I feel a pang of jealously :/

So I saw my friend with this polish on and I loved it. It's this year's "in" colour or whatever. One particular physics lesson I borrowed it from her and obviously I decided I needed it, as always (does this make me a bad student? :/).

                                                   (Artificial Lighting)


                                                  (Natural Lighting)

The natural lighting photos show the true colour better. It's super pretty. This is 3 coats, 2 there was still visible nail lines. I hate visible nail lines but it wasn't too bad. I have also mentioned before that I think the Bourjois brushes are perfect. I should get some more cause the formula is nice too. It makes me remember how much I like this polish.

It's quite summery, but I wear Spring and Summer colours all year round. If someone says I'm on trend, that's a coincidence. I like bright colours and if they are only "in" for 2 seasons of the year so be it. I'm going to keep wearing bright colours no matter the season. Who decided what's "in" anyway? But that said I do think I'll try and paint my nails slightly more according to season, but that's no promise :P

Tuesday 4 September 2012

Sweet As Cherry Nails

I have mentioned before that one of my weaknesses are cherry nails. I am envious of people with their perfect cherry nails. I don't know why mine always turn out so bad. I'm just not neat enough :P I took inspiration from Emily's Nail Files with her cherry nails. Hers were way cooler but I did a simplified version. I liked the idea of bigger cherries with less order (so exciting I know ;)).

Version 3.0

I really like it, it's the first time I've looked at my cherry nails and actually liked them. It's totally crazy. So much better than my other attempts. I like the pink base, it mixes it up :P Cause it's actually cute!!! :)
Pink: Per Una - Pink (no name)
Red: OPI - Dutch Tulips
Darker Red: w7 - Burnt Amber
Green: OPI - Jade Is The New Black
White: Models Own - Snow White

Version 2.0

My cherry nails from the 31 day challenge. Just a big mess, darker green stems probably would've helped. The whites dots were also not looking right.

Version 1.0

My first attempt at cherry nails almost a year ago quite soon after I first got into nail art. I used the cutepolish tutorial for this. Her were far nicer. Yeah didn't improve much from the second time to the first time. Haha and awkward bottle hold, I'm not really one to hold the bottle now. Just not that great overall, but I was still learning. I was using lots of random polishes I had, my white polish was ridiculously sheer and the other white polish I used was probably the Natural Collection one. The green is Barry M - Mint Green. You can see how my cherry nails have evolved :)

Monday 3 September 2012

Match Made In Heaven: Razzmatazz Dreams

Hello everyone. This is my new "series" for my favourite layering combos. I was meant to start this a while ago but I wasn't happy with my pictures. Actually the pictures I've recently taken have not impressed me either but I decided to do the post anyway. The length of my nails varies a lot in the pictures (I didn't even realise how long my nails were).


As simple as it looks I think it's perfect. It's Topshop - Razzmatazz and Revlon - Dreamer (I didn't come up with a very original name). Dreamer being one of my favourite layering polishes, I still don't like the colour by itself, but with Razzmatazz on top :) It's magic ;)

I first did this combo because I didn't want to put on Razzmatazz by itself. I don't see how anybody could wear it by itself, someone said it was 3 coats for full coverage, I did an expriment and it was 6 coats for no bald patches (I am a bit over the top sometimes). It looked amazing in the sun, but otherwise it was a weird shade and a complete nightmare to take off.

By the way Razzmatazz is probably my favourite nail polish, it's for one simple reason that I will mention later. I looked at Dreamer and thought it would be nice underneath. And by golly I was right. It's like Razzmatazz enhances the colour of Dreamer. I couldn't stop staring at my nails, so pretty.

As much as I like my blues and pinks and oranges. I LOVE HOLOGRAPHIC GLITTER!!!!! SO MUCH. I'm not sure about holographic nail polish, I've seen pictures and have not been too impressed, I'll probably have to try one out in real life. But I just think, HOLOGRAPHIC GLITTER IS AMAZING. If a polish has lots of holographic glitter, I'll automatically love it.

Dreamer is kind of a cornflower blue or a powder blue, Razzmatazz has a lilacy-bluey base with tons of small pieces of holographic glitter and some bigger pieces.

                                       (Picture of the holographic goodness)


                                           (Some other random shots)

My pictures suck (are ok) and just didn't do it justice but it's truly gorgeous (I know I'm biased cause of the holographic glitter), I would and do wear this combo all the time :)