Combo: Midnight Sparkles

Hello there. I have a simple little post for you. I just wanted to use I Lily Love You over a darker colour that isn't black and this is the outcome.

It's one coat of Kiko - 265 and 4 or so coats of OPI - I Lily Love You (I wanted a sufficient amount of glitter), it looks great over a darker colour, the iridescent glitter goes different colours than it normally would or just emphasises it. Not as sparkly as I would like though. It's a dark blue and it sparkles :) And I am not enjoying short nails.

Jack 'O Lantern

Hello there. This is the manicure I wore on my other hand with the Frankenstein design. As you can tell I've gone for a pretty drastic nail cut. I thought it would be be a good change as I don't like having to cut my nails so frequently. But I am not liking short nails. At all. I cannot wait til they grow back. Anyway pumpkins are cute :/

I genuinely like this halloween design, same kind of idea as the other one. I love the missing tooth on the pumpkins, I have to do that more often!!!! :)
Orange: Chilli Pepper - Orange (no name) with a little bit of Bourjois - Tangerine Fatal
Black: Topshop - Gypsy Night and Lovely Me:Ex - Black for details
Green: OPI - Jade Is The New Black
White: Models Own - Snow White as a base for orange.
Short and sweet post, what a rare occurrence!!! :P

Little Frankenstein

Hello there. I've got some halloween nail art, oh yeah, oh yeah :P Reiterating my point about CUTE halloween nail art, cause there's too much scary nail art (and scariness in general) out there. Joking aside, I do have this nail art and on my other hand I had a contrasting design, which will be put up soon. Oh and I should've taken better pictures, my camera battery was dying and I got twitchy and tried to take my pictures quickly and carefully that obviously didn't work. Well they're still alright :)

It wasn't originally meant to be Frankenstein, but it just kind of happened. Inspiration struck when I was sitting beside a girl who drew a little face on her book and I thought it was adorable and decided to incorporate it into a design. So kudos to her (I don't have a clue what kudos is, or are). I made slight alterations to her design and voila, my little bit of halloween nail art. My gradient was slightly too crazy, but I wanted something simple on the other nails and obviously that means "PILE ON THE GLITTER".
Green: Rimmel - Misty Jade
Dark Green: OPI - Jade Is The New Black
Sparkly Black: Topshop - Gypsy Night 
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black (no name)
White: Models Own - Snow White
Glitter: Barry M - Silver Glitter and China Glaze - Luxe and Lush (which you can't really see)
I have now truly seen how awesome Gypsy Night is, it's really the holographic glitter within that I love.

Dunking Apples

Hello there. This was the nail art I wanted to put on top of the crazy galaxy like background. I decided to do it, and I guess it's ok. It's similar to rebeccalikesnails's, unintentionally. Her's was super cute. I thought of dunking apples cause I guess that's what happens at Halloween and autumn parties (I've not been to many). I'm terrible at it, I just end up feeling slightly unwell after trying to attack an apple. But at my friend's parties, they go all in, and it's actually pretty impressive.

See what I mean about murky waters? No, you don't cause it's not there :/ I tried. The stark contrast between the deep background and the cutesy apples work together in a strange, strange way. Well you may not think that :P
Red: OPI - Dutch Tulips
Green: Rimmel - Misty Jade
White: Models Own - Snow White (which is starting to get stringy :()
Brown: w7 - Brownie
Blue: Kiko - 265
Pink/Purple: OPI - Japanese Rose Garden/Rimmel - Purple Pulse
Shimmer: Models Own - Indian Ocean
Glitter: Revlon - Radiant (blue glitter) and China Glaze - Luxe and Lush (flakie)
I'm not too big of a fan of this design, I just don't like it, but I do :/ I don't know :(

I really wanted to show all these different lightings cause they all show different aspects of the design :)

Combo: Galaxy Like

Hello there. I'm not really sure if this is a combination, but I thought I might as well put it under this category. This was originally meant to be the base of some Halloween nail art (since I still haven't done them :/) but it turned much different to what I was expecting. I still might use it as a base, but it definitely deserved some photos on it's own.

The word I would use to describe this is mental. I was trying to create murky waters or something like that, but I thought it turned out Galaxy-esque, and I love galaxy nails so it's good in my books. It's like a really easy way for galaxy nails.

I started with one coat (ONE COAT!!! :)) of Kiko - 265. The one my best friend got me, honestly I thought it was a bit too dark for my liking when I first used it. But obviously I was using it wrong or something because when I used it again it was nice. The blue shimmer in it is gorgeous, and one coat. I'm not one to be fussed about formula but one coaters are nice.

So craziness begins, I was planning on using a makeup sponge to sponge on the colours but I gave up on that and just used the brushes of the nail polish to do random shapes on different areas of my nails.
I used...
Purple: Rimmel - Purple Pulse
Pink: OPI - Japanese Rose Garden
Blue Glitter: Revlon - Radient
Purple/Blue Shimmer: Models Own - Indian Ocean
But I think the glitter that brought it all together was China Glaze - Luxe and Lush at first I used a little bit then got a little crazy with it. Piled it on, but I think it looks so cool. Definitely different from what I imagined but you have try new things to see if they work :)

Gradient Leopard Print

Hello there!!! I've been super busy this week, so no painting or blogging the past couple of days, but hopefully as the week is winding down I'll have a bit more time on my hands. I've kind of been going gradient crazy, it just ever since I perfected my gradient technique (it's still not very good :P) I've been doing lots. I've also apparently gone leopard print crazy too. But really, I want to do leopard prints all the time. It's amazing, to think there was a time I didn't like leopard print :O

This is potentially one of my favourite manicures I have ever done, as shown I combined leopard print and a gradient. I love it so much, I went into it without a clue with what I was doing. But sometimes it's better that way (most of the time, no). I started with a gradient.

Ok I had better lighting when I took that picture and it looked better once I added I Lily Love You, but it shows the bare bones of the gradient.
Light Pink: Barry M - Strawberry Ice Cream
Middle Pink: Per Una - Pink (no name) (this really tied the gradient together)
Hot Pink: OPI - Charged Up Cherry 
Glitter: Barry M - Pink Iridescent and OPI - I Lily Love You
Light Blue: The Face Shop - BL601
Blue: Revlon - Dreamer
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
I loved the colours :)

Right hand picture, my photography skills were failing me as the lighting wasn't great and I was really shaky for some reason. I added the light blue spots. But I thought it didn't look right, and I always thought Charged Up Cherry and Dreamer would look really nice together so I went over the bottom spots with Dreamer, and voila. This happened. As mentioned before, I love it, I definitely love it more than I thought it would. I was also surprised that it worked, cause normally when I don't have a clue what I'm doing it never turns out right. But not this time, the gradient combined with leopard print fills my heart with joy with it's beauty ;P

Pink Nails: OPI - Charged Up Cherry

Hello there. Today I have one of my favourite pinks. I am forever doing nail art with this as the base, so I decided to just do a plain swatch. My pictures always make it look too orange, but that's with artificial lighting. And some more awkward right hand pictures (I'm working on less awkward right hand pictures) cause there was an incident with my left hand. Nothing major just a hair just stuck (long and black, probably from my top coat) and it annoyed me to no end, so therefore resulted in right hand pictures :)

The formula was lovely, standard OPI. 2 coats and it was so smooth and shiny even without topcoat, my pictures have no top coat (but with topcoat, it's SOOOOOO smooth and shiny). Nothing that original, but it's a very pretty hot pink. It is pretty orangey so I can see why it would turn out like that in pictures. I'm pretty sure it's in the permanent collection, the Brights or whatever. It's definitely a good pink to have in one's collection :)

Combo: Beetroots

Hello there. Writing an update on my no-buy, and if I haven't written about buying nail polish, I haven't bought nail polish :D I got one from my best friend at the end of August and ok I went out shopping for my friend's birthday present and I bought her nail polish. But right now Superdrug's giving a free limited edition web effects or croc effects. I wanted the web one (cause it's limited edition) but there was none left, but I got the croc one. I was going to get black, but my mum told me she really didn't like black so I listened to her and got the burgundy one, it also looked quite interesting. I don't count this as buying nail polish cause it came free.

      (Artificial lighting picture in there to show what it looks like, I think it looks the best there)

Though you can't see it I used Rimmel - Purple Pulse as the base. There was me giving purple a chance. And I didn't like it, I'm pretty sure it's just that purple but I give it a chance and it doesn't impress me. I got that polish last year Christmas time and the first time I use as a base it is in October. It's just not a very nice purple.

And over I have the Barry M - Burgundy Croc I thought it looked interesting, but it's simply not my thing. I'm sure there's lots of people who would appreciate the effect and the colour. Just not me. It much more dark in some lighting and I really didn't like it like that. The effect is pretty interesting, it worked better for my right hand as I failed to read in instructions and did a thick coat instead of a thin one. It still worked it just took a long time to work. I saw other pictures of this that worked much better, again it's the thin coat thing. I might try it again with a different base and a thin coat. But it's likely I will give it to someone who likes the colour better.

I called it beetroots cause it looks like roots of a plant, and it's the colour of a beetroot.

Cookie Monster

Hello there!!!! This is a little mani that I've wanted to do for a while. I don't really remember Sesame Street that well, but the characters are ultra cute, therefore this mani came to submission (not sure if that made sense :P).

Hehe I think it's cute. I wasn't sure if I wanted to do another Cookie Monster on my thumb but I thought "Are there more cookies or Cookie Monsters?". Problem solved. Wasn't too sure of the "bites"out of the cookies but I guess it makes it slightly more interesting.
Brown: The Face Shop - GL112
Dark Brown: w7 - Brownie
Blue: Nails Inc. - Baker Street
White: Models Own - Snow White
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black

Here is an extremely tilted right hand picture, but Cookie Monster is still being awesome :P Omnomnomnomnom.

Cherry Blossoms

Hello there. I based this manicure off the cherry blossom design I used for my "Hello Kitty Gone Wild" manicure. I got a lot of compliments for that specific design so I thought I'd do a full manicure with it.

I had difficulties with how to position the branches but otherwise it was fine as the design is so sweet. It was very easy to do and doesn't require a lot of polishes, my friends also commented how they liked how the green faded to white (they are too cute :3) so a somewhat successful gradient :)
Green: China Glaze - Re-Fresh Mint
White: Models Own - Snow White
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
Pink: OPI - Charged Up Cherry
Re-Fresh Mint was almost one coat, it's very pigmented but lighter than what you would expect. Love the colour combination, the pale green and the hot pink just go really well together.

Pink Thursday (Breast Cancer Awareness Month)

Hello there. Since October is Breast Cancer Awareness month I've got a simple little mani to raise awareness. It truly is very simple but I love pink so it's perfect. Breast cancer is really horrible, I can't say I know a lot about it because I don't. But I know millions of woman are fighting it and they are so brave and strong. One day there will be a cure for cancer!!!! :)

Since it's autumn it's been getting dark pretty early so bye bye natural lighting :( But I got to use my favourite pink polishes. The logo turned out better on my right hand in my opinion, but I was trying to hide a cut on my thumb (I didn't feel like editing it badly), of course when the cut on one side of my thumb goes away another cut comes on the other side -_- But oh well, it's going away now so it's all good :)
Bright Pink: The Face Shop - PK105 with OPI - I Lily Love You
Glittery Pink: OPI - Excuse Moi!
Pale Pink: Barry M - Strawberry Ice Cream with Chilli Pepper - Pink (no name)
Hot Pink: OPI - Charged Up Cherry
Really love those colours, come on pink is great. So hopefully you enjoyed this little post and wear your pink!! Raise awareness!!! :)

Itsy Bitsy Spider Nail Art

Hello there. Well as everyone knows Halloween is coming up. I'll tell you the truth, I don't like Halloween, it's just not my thing. Last year I did no Halloween nail art. But I decided to change it up a bit this year and do some but with the main emphasis on CUTE Halloween designs. This is my first one today. I won't be doing too many but they will be cute. I will make sure of that.

"The Itsy Bitsy spider went up the water spout

Down came the rain and washed the spider out

Out came the sun and dried up all the rain

And the Itsy Bitsy spider went up the spout again"

It's the Itsy Bitsy spider (or whatever you want to call it, my friends were telling me it's Incy Wincy and when I looked it up there was tons of variations so I don't know). I thought of spider nails at the start of the month, but spiders are scary. So I thought of the rhyme and did a design inspired by it. I did not do a water spout though, I just didn't want to.
Purple: Barry M - Berry Ice Cream and Models Own - Indian Ocean
Blue: Barry M - Blueberry Ice Cream
Silver Glitter: Barry M - Silver Glitter
Blue Glitter: Revlon - Radient
Dark Blue: Kiko - 265 (a gift from my best friend at the end of August)
White: Models Own - Snow White
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
I really like the glitter gradients, I did it reversed for the thumb and ring finger, I was happy with how well it worked. Actually I was happy how well the whole thing worked in general. Some of the rain drops weren't that great but otherwise I still think it's cute and makes spiders less terrifying (I'm scared of all bugs equally, except ants, they're truly are terrifying).

Purple Nails: Barry M - Berry Ice Cream + Models Own - Indian Ocean

I was thinking about putting this in a combo post, but I thought a "_______ Nails" post would suit it better. I still don't really like purple nails though I'm warming up to it. But I was stuck and last week I felt like purple, I'm not sure if I felt like purple. But I saw my chemistry teacher's nails and I was pretty certain it was a Barry M pale purple (cause they're so easy to access here), but thinking about it I just wanted to paint my nails purple. My chemistry teacher isn't even my favourite teacher or anything, I just like her nails. It suited her much better but her's were chipped pretty badly (tut tut tut :P).

But of course as the purple story goes I think "Maybe it'll suit me this time". It never suit me this time. It seriously just looked wrong on my skin tone. I thought cause the Barry M one was more pink-toned than Essie - Lilacism so it would suit me, but no.

I have experimented before (on my sister) and I knew the combo of the Barry M one and Models Own - Indian Ocean worked really well. So I had to add that on.

I'll tell you the truth. I think it's SO pretty. Indian Ocean makes it more blue toned and basically it's really pretty, that's all I can say. The shimmer is very purple but it wouldn't show up for me, my natural lighting spot is pretty much gone cause it gets dark pretty early. I had to improvise but that didn't go too great. I did manage to get it to show in the different lighting but some aren't too colour accurate. It's quite pink-toned. A time where I genuinely like purple nails, it's pretty special :)

I love sushi nails yes I do

Hi there. By the way the title was a reference to gunnarolla's song "I Love Sushi (Let's Get Fish-Faced)". It's a mixture between cute and really really weird. Anyway I did some sushi nails, I was feeling uninspired so I looked up some examples when I stumbled upon a tutorial by Reinerainyday (it was just SO cute :3), so I did my rendition of it :)

I do love sushi though, unfortunately sushi in the UK isn't that good, but that's means I can savour the times when I have good sushi (^_^). That aside sushi nails are so cute!!! If that point hadn't been made already :P I just loved having this on my nails
White: Models Own - Snow White
Black: Topshop - Gypsy Night and Lovely Me:Ex - Black
Pink: Per Una - Pink (no name)
Pale pink: Barry M - Strawberry Ice Cream 
Hot pink: Per Una - Fuchsia (no name)
Coral pink: H&M - Check Me Out
Green: Barry M - Mint Green with OPI - Jade Is The New Black (which I painted over)
Yellow: Rimmel - Sunshine
Orange: Essie - Tart Deco
It's quite different to the original, but that was the point. This is the way I do it :P


I took a picture of the little line up of sushi (slightly out of focus), it's so cute!!! I could add a face to any food design and automatically just love it :)

Match Made In Heaven: Starry Night

Hello there. Today I will be showing my absolute favourite layering combination. In my eyes it is perfect, I do this combo so much. I will probably never get tired of it. So I want to do a nice little post on it so here goes. I've done it so much that I have used up most of the bottles for these 3 polishes that I used for this combo. I really love it.

I have a lot of pictures. Be ready.

I have a selection of different lighting to choose from :P Cause colours change depending on the light. But isn't it pretty? (If you don't think so, keep it to yourself :P). I honestly think it's reminiscent of a starry night, the first time I looked at it I named it that, and that was last year. It also has holographic glitter which adds to it's perfectness. I didn't do a holographic goodness picture cause my camera wasn't handling it too well. If only I could take more accurate photos.

More pictures, I have to.
Blue: Barry M - Indigo
Silver Glitter: Barry M - Silver Glitter
Holographic Glitter: Barry M - Hologram Hexograms
Indigo is far darker than what it looks like in the bottle, I've said before it's great for layering. I think it's a great polish, there's 2 coats here. The formula is good but since I have not that much left it wasn't very smooth but the silver glitter covered over that.

It started when my friend told me Indigo and the Silver Glitter would look really nice together (she had got me both for Christmas). So I did that and...it was alright, I just thought something was missing. One fateful day (I make it sound so dramatic :P) I decided to add the Hologram Hexograms. It was a glorious moment.

Haha there's a story behind the silver glitter too (not the most interesting one). I was in Boots with my best friend and I saw the silver glitter (it's limited edition by the way;)). I told myself "I don't need it, I don't need it, tell me I don't need it". My friend of course said "You need it". I didn't buy it. But another day pretty soon after I did :/ And my other friend gives me another bottle so I have 2. Oh well I really like it. It's a very dense glitter, I have 1 coat on. It really will cover the whole nail.

I look at my nails and say (out loud), "It's so pretty" and the glitters work perfectly together. I get a lot of compliments every time I have this on, and that has to be a good thing :P I don't think the pictures will ever do it justice cause it's so beautiful :)