Wednesday 30 January 2013

Combo: Sweet Freak

Hey there, how are you? :) I have a test tomorrow and I spent ages revising and I really hope it wasn't all in vain cause it kind of feels that way. I have a nice combination today, I just piled on the glitters and it worked (I love when that happens). I once again forgot that pale purple doesn't suit me (remembered after putting one coat on a nail) but glitter helps.

I used 2 coats of Essie - Lilacism, which is lovely but seriously doesn't suit me. In real life it's more purple, I feel like I've taken better pictures of it before. I am being swayed by purple polish, once I find my perfect one (I have a couple of ideas...) I know I'll be hooked. I went on to use 1 coat of Barry M - Silver Glitter and Revlon - Belle (which didn't really do anything but it was nice to use it). I liked it like that, but I wanted to add Models Own - Freak Out!. It has shards but they're not too bad here, I really like the mix of glitter, especially the dark blue hexagons. But I don't think I'll be buying more of these Mirrorball polishes simply because they stank (to be read in a sassy way) and the brush is unbelievably wonky. I used 2 coats with some dabbing. I also never really know when to use this glitter in nail art (I will find a way) but for now Freak Out! is more than enough for me (but I do like it!!!). Finally I added a matte topcoat cause I had to, cause I love matte nails.

So thank you for reading and have a lovely day!!! :)

Tuesday 29 January 2013

Glittery Drips

Hey there guys. I hope you had a lovely Tuesday. Today's nail art came from being stuck, I'm still lacking a bit of inspiration but I decided to do some "drip" nails. I used to not be a fan of the look but after trying it out in my doughnut design I think it looks awesome. All this time I've been looking for my perfect peach (I love me a good peach nail polish) and this whole time there's one sitting in my collection. I think it takes the correct colour combination for the drips though, I didn't get it exactly right...

Just saying that when showing my nails in this direction I never know how to pose :/ It's not my perfect peach, but it's a good'un. This grew on me, I didn't intend on going glitter insane but it kind of happens. The blue drip is my favourite, Go Deeper works well here. I shouldn't have put glitter over red though, it ruined it.
Peach: w7 - Sheer Peach
Red: OPI - Dutch Tulips with OPI - Excuse Moi!
Blue: Barry M - Blueberry Ice Cream with Orly - Go Deeper
White: Lovely Me:Ex - White with Nails Inc - Sweets Way
Purple: Barry M - Berry Ice Cream with Butter LONDON - Shambolic
Green: Illamasqua - Nomad with Barry M - Aqua Glitter
I don't actually possess a red or green glitter (quite surprising) but pink and teal did the trick. It feels good to use Dutch Tulips, I've been using other reds but they don't compare :P

Thank you very much for reading and have a lovely day!!!!

P.S. Plumeria19 has hit 19 followers and this excites me SO MUCH!!!! :D

Sunday 27 January 2013

Geometric meets floral

Hello there guys. I hope you are all well, I have homework to attend to but I have time to write this first ;) This is my entry to Kelsie's Nail Files nail art competition. I loved the pictures on her Pinterest board and I think it's a great theme for the competition. The shorts on her board immediately drew my attention but I didn't know what to do with it. 2 other pictures also grabbed my attention and I kept coming back to them, so I decided to use those pictures as inspiration for this design. This is the result.

I'm very very happy with the result, it's definitely become a new favourite nail art that I've ever done (I hope that makes sense :/). I love geometric patterns, I must do more and the floral pattern is SO simple but it looks really pretty. Again I have to do more. For the triangles I used the picture at the beginning but I began to improvise the design and randomly fill in the triangles. I like how spiky the triangles are at the cuticles of my middle finger.
Geometric pattern polishes:
Mushroom: Nails Inc - Porchester Square
White: Lovely Me:Ex - White 
Pink: Essie - Your Hut Or Mine?
Silver: w7 - Silver Mirror
Peach: w7 - Linen
Yellow: Rimmel - Sunshine
Gold: w7 - Golden Sands
Blue: Kiko - 265
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
Floral pattern polishes:
Pink: Orly - Basket Case
Red: Essie -  E-Nuff Is E-Nuff
Mustard: Topshop - Naked
This was the first time I used Porchester Square as something other than a nail art colour, it's like the opposite of a me colour but I like it and the formula is great, I used 2 coats but you could definitely get away with one. Still not turning to neutrals anytime soon though. It was heart breaking to sponge over my geometric design (I painted it carefully) but I'm glad it led to something better.

                                 Another picture just because I can ;) and inspiration pictures below


I know many talented nail artists will participate but hey, I'll hope for the best :) I hope you enjoyed this post, thank you for reading and have a lovely day!!! :)

Saturday 26 January 2013

Combo: Ugly Metallic Rainbow

Hey there guys, hope you're enjoying this wonderful Saturday. Everything can't go well, that's just life. Ugly isn't necessarily a bad thing, but this doesn't look good. I had good intentions, I wanted glitter, but it ended badly. At first I thought it looked alright, I was wrong. But I have to document nail fails too (unless they're really really bad ;).

Yeah... It ain't pretty. I've failed worse before but I'm not annoyed like I normally would be, I feel like I've learnt something from this. I started with Barry M - Pink Foil, which I really like, I used 1 coat which just explains the formula right there. Following was 1 coat of OPI - Rainbow Connection, I think it's ok. I liked it more before I discovered the vast world of nail polish. 1 coat of China Glaze - Luxe and Lush did not help, I do not like this polish. I used to, I'm glad I own it as it tells me that I don't like the way it looks (I figured this out a while ago). I'm kind of put off flakies because of it (NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!) and also the opalescent effect. I like order in glitter, this is how I realised I don't like shards either (why am I like this!!???). I don't like iridescent glitter either... (to be whispered) Ok I like some but in a lot of cases I don't like it. I don't understand how I've become such a fussy glitter person, the only good I can get from this is that there'll be less polish bought, but I'll probably buy more of something different so it's a lose-lose situation either way. Moral of the story, do not combine these 3 polishes. Hopefully in the future I'll return to like flakies, shards, opalescent and iridescent glitter but now the future is unclear (;)). 

Thank you for reading my glitter problems and have a wonderful day :)

Friday 25 January 2013

Gimme Glitter: Random Glitter Skittles

Hi there, hallelujah the long week is over!! Today I have some random glitter skittles, I felt like glitter (but why lie, I always feel like glitter) so I did glitter. I don't do skittles a lot as I'm not the fondest of that look but I quite like it here.

I used 2 coats of each glitter on top of Nails Inc - Motcomb Street, that is one dark polish so I felt it needed some glitter on top. Glitter from left to right. Barry M - Aqua Glitter, OPI - Last Friday Night, Butter LONDON - Shambolic, Revlon - Radiant and thumb is OPI - Metallic 4 Life. I've already done Gimme Glitter posts on 3 of these polishes, Barry M - Aqua GlitterOPI - Metallic 4 Life and Butter LONDON - Shambolic. I actually quite like the look of this. 

Thank you for reading and have a nice day!!! :)

Thursday 24 January 2013

Early V-Day Love Owls

Hey there, hope you all are doing well. I actually am, go being in a good mood!!! I didn't know what to do, so I pulled out some polishes I wanted to use, saw a picture of an owl hat on facebook and started to paint. I don't enjoy being spontaneous with my nails, I'm all about the planning but hey it's not half bad.

Also not intended to be valentine-esque either but I roll with the punches. I've done owl nails that I've preferred to these, but if better executed I think this could look way cuter.
Red: Nails Inc - Tate with OPI - I Lily Love You
Pink: Barry M - Pink Foil
White: Models Own - Snow White, Nails Inc - Sweets Way and details with Lovely Me:Ex - White
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
Brown (just a hint): Nails Inc - Richmond Terrace
I really like the Barry M pink, the formula is fantastic too. I put Sweets Way over white so I would use less coats but it looks nicer without something under.

I have more valentine's designs for February but this one was unintentional, thank you for reading and have a lovely day!!! :)

Wednesday 23 January 2013

Chunky Tiger Print

Hey there, are you glad you're Wednesday for this week is over? I am, I was not in the mood for school today, I had a maths test (though I do love maths) and I'm in general not feeling my brightest. But I'm still feeling pretty bright!!! :) I'm kind of disorganised right now but with everything I hope I can find a solution. I was inspired by some artwork which I hope to be inspired by more in the future. I was also in a Tart Deco mood (it's a good mood to be in).

I haven't done proper tiger print before (unless you count my Tigger design) but I wanted to do it a bit differently. I'm liking this "middle gradient" look, it's quite interesting. I wasn't planning on glitter, but I love glitter and I couldn't help myself.
Orange/Peach: Essie - Tart Deco
Yellow: w7 - Sheer Lemon
Gold Glitter: Nails Inc - Glamour Glitter
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
I'm liking the aesthetic of the manicure, I'm surprised how much I stared at my nails with this design.

Thank you for reading and have a lovely day!!! :)

Tuesday 22 January 2013

Pink + Glitter Half Moons

Hey there. Hope you are feeling fine this Tuesday evening. Unfortunately for me school was not cancelled and I had to go in when there were too little people in class to do any work :/ I can't complain I guess. I wanted a simple mani and I like half moons but I'm not enamoured by this design.


I really like both colours though. I went a bit too crazy with the glitter on my thumb but otherwise I like the half moons. The manicure in general, don't like it too much.
Pink: Orly - Basket Case
Glitter: Barry M - Amethyst 
Amethyst is an absolute nightmare to take off, it looks lovely but it's like it glues itself onto your nails -_- You have to battle through these things. Basket Case also chips easily but I love it, the formula is really good so that could make up for it.

Thank you for reading and have a great day!!! :)

Monday 21 January 2013

Mr Men and Little Miss Nail Art

Hey there guys. I have to say the snow has become very intense here. On Friday it was somewhat comedic how my friend, my mother and myself were trekking up the snowy hill, but the snow is SO deep now (I'm kind of hoping school will get cancelled because of it, me = bad student :/). I have to say it looks absolutely beautiful and makes me really happy (even though the snow was attacking me on Friday). I've had the Mr Men and Little Miss nail art on my list for a long time, and in a moment of insanity I decided to do them.

Let me tell you, this wasn't easy. But I think it was worth it, I'm happy with how it turned out. It was just my black pen kept distributing way too much so I had to keep correcting everything. But once I got to Mr Jelly I got into the swing of things. 
I began to put some black polish on the sheet and I would just use my toothpick. I had a huge selection of Mr Men and Little Miss's I wasn't sure where to start. I wanted the colours to work together too. 
I started with Little Miss Sunshine on my thumb . Mr Bump on my index, and I think Mr Bump is the cutest Mr Men by far, love that little dude. Mr Jelly on my middle finger because I like jelly and the whole "You jelly?" thing. I hadn't heard of Mr Slow but his name makes me laugh, it's the whole "You're a bit slow" cause I totally am then I realised Roger Hargreaves probably meant walking pace slow kind of slow but I liked his moustache too. Finally Little Miss Tiny on my pinky simply because she is tiny. 
White: Models Own - Snow White and Lovely Me:Ex - White
Yellow: Rimmel - Sunshine (appropriate, but I don't like this yellow, it stains :/)
Blue: Barry M - Blueberry Ice Cream 
Dark Pink: Per Una - Fuchsia (no name)
Mustard Yellow: Topshop - Naked
Green: OPI - Jade Is The New Black
Light Pink: Barry M - Strawberry Ice Cream 
Red (which you can't see in these pictures, but it's for Little Miss Sunshine's bow): Essie - E-Nuff Is E-Nuff
I have some of the Mr Men and Little Miss books, I also enjoyed the TV show when I was younger. I love how they're so colourful and fun. 


Thank you so so much for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful day!!! :)

Sunday 20 January 2013

Gimme Glitter: Orly - Go Deeper

Hey there, I hope you're all great this Sunday evening. I'm not sure how I'm feeling, I'd like to be able to pinpoint it but I can't. I am the queen of procrastination and I really need to do something. Like writing this post is also procrastinating, it never ends!! Anyway this is a polish that I've lemmed (I feel weird about using this phrase) since last August when I saw it on The PolishAholic (let's not even lie I want everything I see on The PolishAholic), I think it entire Flash Glam collection is so awesome and it makes me wish that Boots would carry more Orly polishes.

When the light hits the glitter within it's SO GORGEOUS. My camera made it too blue but editing fixes these things (kind of). It's a teal base with small green and blue glitter, larger pieces of green and holographic glitter. The holographic glitter makes it amazing, and Go Deeper is the perfect name for this polish, they nailed it (hehe unintentional pun :P). 

I put this over Revlon - Dreamer, which made no difference whatsoever as the teal is pretty opaque. I used 3 coats, 2 thick and 1 thin. It was very shiny by itself, it probably takes a while to dry because of the jellyness of the polish. After it dried (with topcoat) I thought it could dent easily, but it doesn't. I got my finger jammed in my locker (we'll not talk about this) and no dents, maybe I was lucky. When I first put it on I was a bit disappointed (I don't know what I was expecting) but after a couple of moments I really liked it. It looks amazing in the bottle by the way. 

Thanks for reading and have a great day!! :)

Saturday 19 January 2013

Metallic Over Bright Gradient Leopard Print

Hey there, I hate when things goes wrong and then you have a mess on your hands. I really don't know how I'm going to cope with the next couple of days but I'm gonna pray for a miracle. I did another gradient leopard print, I'm banning myself from leopard for the rest of January. I need to do different things!!! :P

I used a completely random colour combination, but sometimes random works. I actually think this did work this time.
Yellow: w7 - Sheer Lemon
Pink: OPI - Charged Up Cherry
Purple: OPI - Plum And Get It
Copper: Random Nail Polish - Copper (no name)
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
Glitter: China Glaze - Luxe And Lush
I'm tired and unsure of what to do (not nail-wise), I'm hoping for the best anything :/

Thank you for reading and I hope you're having a great day. :)

Thursday 17 January 2013

"White Rabbit" with some tribal elements

Hey there guys, I should have a cup of inspiration as I am definitely lacking recently. I didn't have the best of days, you know negative people and stuff. But I feel way better than before now. White Rabbit is (I think) a chinese sweet with a layer of edible paper around it. It tastes SO GOOD, recently I got a hold of them and have been treasuring each one. I ate the final White Rabbit sweet after I finished the design :( No more left. I used the packaging as inspiration, I've just realised this is another food inspired post.

I used pale yellow as that's the colour of the sweet. I was originally really unhappy with how the bunny came out as I didn't put it straight and regretted the decision to do that. But now I like it. I made the tribal designs myself, which could be which they look a bit weird, but I'm proud of my attempt, weirdness is a start.
Pale Yellow: w7 - Sheer Lemon
Red: Essie - E-Nuff Is E-Nuff
Blue: Nails Inc - Baker Street
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
White: Lovely Me:Ex - White
Pink: Barry M - Strawberry Ice Cream
Sheer Lemon's formula wasn't too great, 3 coats was still a bit streaky so I did 4, but it's a nice colour. And I didn't use Dutch Tulips for once ;)


Thank you very much for reading and have a lovely day!! :)

Wednesday 16 January 2013

Doughnuts... NOMNOMNOM

Hey there, I think this might be the first time I have spelt doughnut right, it's a strange feeling :P I've been in a foodie mood (I LOVE FOOD), food nail art makes me happy. So it was only logical to do some.

Food with faces make me happy, maybe to some it's creepy, maybe this makes me creepy. But I don't care cause I think it's cute :P I really wanted to try drippy nails, and I really like it, I will be trying to do more. All the bright colours make me happy too, and holographic glitter is always a good thing.

The green is China Glaze - I'm With The Lifeguard, I normally use this polish without anything underneath. But when drying I whacked my nail against a cardboard box (standard me) and I decided to put it over white. It's SOOOOOO much brighter and requires much less coats (such bad grammer :/). For the other nails I used Nails Inc - Abbey Road, it's definitely a full coverage holographic glitter, 3 coats did the trick.

For the actual doughnut dough I used Nails Inc - Porchester Square, and the doughnut icing was:
Pink: Nails Inc - Notting Hill Gate
Purple: Barry M - Berry Ice Cream
Yellow: Barry M - Lemon Ice Cream
The sprinkles were Essie - Tart Deco, Barry M - Blueberry Ice Cream, OPI - Charged Up Cherry, Barry M - Indigo and The Face Shop - BL601.
Orange drip: Essie - Tart Deco and OPI - Rainbow Connection
Bluey drip: Essie - Bikini So Teeny and Nails Inc - Sweets Way
That was a polish naming explosion.

I'm tired, I hope I was coherent during the post and you're not feeling too hungry for doughnuts (but when aren't you hungry for doughnuts :P). Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day. :)

Monday 14 January 2013

Pink Nails: Nails Inc - Notting Hill Gate

Hey there guys, I had a nail fail and I was so annoyed that I took it off without taking pictures. I'm am bummed, but anyway I have this absolutely adorable polish to show today. It was a gift from my secret Santa, I love pink, I now love neon pink too. My lighting and camera were being annoying (every pink polish my camera turns orange -_-) but go editing skillz (which are virtually non-existant and how I got this somewhat colour accurate is a fluke)!!!!

It's WAY brighter in real life, and I couldn't stop staring. And people kept commenting on how bright it was (which is always a good thing). I layered it over white (Models Own - Snow White) as I tested it in my cookies and carrots design, and I had a feeling that it wouldn't go far by itself. It was a bit streaky and random pieces of fluff and stuff got on my nails (and annoyed me -_-) but thankfully the picture doesn't show it too much. I used 2 coats over white, this was part of Nails Inc summer collection last year. I think there was a point where I considered getting this but didn't due to the amount of similar pinks in my collection (which by the way, are not that similar) but I'm really glad I have it now, it's super bright ^_^ The problem is I have a mini and I might be tempted to buy the full size, we'll have to wait and see ;) I will be rocking this in summer (and winter, let's be honest every season).

Sunday 13 January 2013

Top 10 Nail Polishes Of 2012: Part 3

Hey there, I have my final part of my favourite nail polishes. We're getting into serious business (:P), my lighting has been really difficult lately but I'm somewhat happy with the pictures I managed to take. To be honest my top 3 are pretty much all joint number 1, and I only just about managed to place them in order due to slight preferences but I love them all ;) So here we go again :)

3. The Face Shop - GR501. The only problem with this polish is the not at all cute name, or lack of name really. Otherwise this is the perfect robin's egg blue that I was searching high and low for. Robin's egg blue is my absolute favourite colour and this polish also has a lovely formula, wear time is pretty good but topcoat will make it even better. This is one my camera had severe difficulties with, GR501 is a bit greeny and my camera wanting to make every green polish turn blue. Pictures weren't coming out right. I'm proud of my editing cause it's actually colour accurate as opposed to a total fail (which is what usually happens).


2. Topshop - Razzmatazz. I have previously mentioned my love for holographic glitter (:O I LOVE HOLOGRAPHIC GLITTER), Razzmatazz has a lilac/blue base packed with small pieces of holographic glitter and some larger pieces too. I have been really impressed by the Topshop nail polishes (I want to buy more ;)), the packaging is SO cute too. 2 coats shown over Revlon Dreamer.



1. Nails Inc - Baker Street. Yes, Baker Street the polish at absolutely everyone has been raving about (and I was happy to join the rave train) and the moment I saw it on The Sneakerette I needed it. It's a bright cobalt blue and it's beautiful, 'nuff said :P


And there you have it, my top 10 polishes of last year, I'm surprised with my lack of pinks but that can easier change ;) May this year be filled with beautiful polishes too!!! :)

Saturday 12 January 2013

Top 10 Nail Polishes Of 2012: Part 2

Hey there, hope you're well this fine day. I didn't have school yesterday so I was a happy bunny, I didn't use that time productively, but I can't be productive all the time (not like I am though :/). I have part 2 of my favourite polishes today, and they're a good bunch :)

6. Illamasqua - Nomad. Nomad is a beautiful pastel jade, so many swatches and I felt in love with the colour. I was literally stroking the screen (oh my I am weird) when I saw this polish, I built my hopes high for this polish and I felt slightly let down as it doesn't look as nice in darker lighting, but this polish is still so beautiful.  2 coats here.


5. Nails Inc - Sweets Way. I don't know why I waited so long to buy Sweets Way it's SO pretty. My favourite thing about Sweets Way is how delicate it looks. I didn't mention this in my original post on it but it's a nightmare to take off, I used the tin foil method but the small pieces of glitter get absolutely everywhere :/ But for how pretty the polish is it's worth it. I used 3 coats.


4. Essie - Tart Deco. I found my love of orange nail polish because of Tart Deco, well I guess Tart Deco is rather peachy, but I found my love of peach nail polish too (I need to find a good peach nail polish :P). Got it in celebration of my summer exams being over (it's something I do :)), I just think the colour is fantastic, a orangy/peachy/corally kind of thing (worst description ever -_-). I have 2 coats here.


I hope you enjoyed this part of my favourite polishes, the next part will be up soon. Thank you for reading!!! :)

Friday 11 January 2013

Top 10 Nail Polishes Of 2012: Part 1

Hello there wonderful people. I have my top 10 polishes of last year, I am very excitement. I'm a bit later than everyone else but not too late!! :P I love lists (that makes me sound like a freak :P) and favourites so this is perfect for me. These aren't all polishes that came out in 2012, but I know a lot of them did. These are all polishes that I love, and find myself using them over and over. I'm going to do this in 3 parts, from 10 to 1, which is a bit random but I want to give some love to these nail polishes :)

10. Barry M - Hologram Hexograms. A clear base with lots of hexagonal pieces of holographic glitter. I adored holographic glitter, I really do. I find this polish enhances manicures, whatever the design, polka dots, flowers, galaxies etc. It makes it better. Since it would be pretty redundant to do a swatch of this, I have some pictures of this polish in action :P

31 Day Challenge - Half Moons
Hello Kitty Gone Wild

9. Barry M - Indigo. A dark blue/indigo creme (kind of). It's one of my favourite layering polishes. I used 2 coats, my bottle is well-loved so there's little left so it wasn't completely smooth for me. Sorry for the crappy picture, I got 1 picture on my camera (which was SO colour inaccurate) and then my camera died. My phone ended up being the saviour but it's not very good quality but colour accurate (I'll probably re-swatch this another time). 

I used Indigo in my favourite layering combo

8. Barry M - Blue Moon. Yeah bit of a Barry M party. Blue Moon is a pale blue with blue shimmer. I love that blue shimmer which I find really difficult to photograph. It was my first favourite polish, then I found another ton of polishes but it still has my heart :P


7. Essie - Bikini So Teeny. A relatively new addition to my collection but I love this colour. A cornflower blue with silver/blue/purple-ish shimmer. I felt bad about adding this in as I feel I'm betraying Revlon - Dreamer, but this is such a pretty colour, it has a more purple tone compared to Dreamer. I don't know if my bottle is different to other people's but everyone's swatches look lighter to mine, but oh well. The colour is still lovely. I used 2 coats here.


Well that was rambly, and consisted of a lot of blues. I hope you enjoyed this post (despite the ramblings). I shall be posting part 2 and 3 soon (full of polishes I love even more than these :)) and I'm very excited. Hope you all are having a lovely day :)

Wednesday 9 January 2013

"I Love Milk" Pop Art

Hi there, I hope you are all doing well. I must've caught some kind of pop art bug as it's all I want to do. I mentioned in my new year's eve post (it's a rambly post that really incapsulates my makeshift ways ;)) that whilst rummaging I found a comb that says "I love milk" and it was SO cute that I had to do nail art of it.

:O It's SO cute!!! I'm an absolute sucker for anything cute so this speaks to me. But people who've seen these nails think I'm obsessed with milk or something but I just laughed it off. I'm not exactly sure it's pop art, it was intended to be but didn't really turn out the way I wanted it to. It was those dots, they needed more space :/ Oh and I made this manicure matte.
Base: Models Own - Snow White, No7 - Snowflake and OPI - Last Friday Night (2 thin, 1 thick coat)
White: Lovely Me:Ex - White 
Blue: Nails Inc - Baker Street
Pink: Orly - Basket Case
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
I was meant to have a paler base and Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream for the dots, but unfortunately I went overkill with the glitter and the base got too dark. I think Blueberry Ice Cream would've looked nicer (I painted over it by the way, I also tried The Face Shop BL601 which was too light) but Baker Street is obviously a suitable replacement. I love the combination of pink, white and blue, just saying.

The comb that inspired this manicure, I've never going to actually use it as a comb but it's a nice thing to find in your cupboard.

Thank you very much for reading and have a lovely day!!! :)

Tuesday 8 January 2013

Pop Art Nails

Hey there, I've been a bit stuck with my nails lately, I have a long list of ideas but I never seem to be in the mood for any of them. I'll just have to wait until I am :/ But I wanted to paint something "edgy", I was so stuck I looked around other blogs for inspiration, I settled with a pop art design from Kayla Shevonne. She used a tutorial from Professionaldq whom I'd never heard of but she has some really cute pop art nails and I will definitely be using her tutorials in the future (or maybe just the pictures :)).

I wanted to do this nail art design for the colour scheme alone. I love it. And after this manicure I absolutely adore the look of pop art, especially the dots. I've done a pop art design before and I really liked it, but I haven't gone back til now. I just love the way it looks, I think it's fantastic (pop art, no narcissism intended) and I need more pop art in my life.
Red: OPI - Dutch Tulips
Yellow: Barry M - Lemon Ice Cream
Blue: Barry M - Blueberry Ice Cream
White: Models Own - Snow White and No7 - Snowflake (as base) and Lovely Me:Ex - White
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
And I made it matte which made me love it more. I'll confess, I haven't used topcoat properly for 6 months. Yep you read that right, 6 months. I used to be the girl who needed topcoat for everything, but then I grew to hate topcoat (it was a bad time). Simply because it always smudged and smeared my nail art (I would wait days before putting on topcoat and it still smeared :/), my previous pop nail design is a prime example. So to stop my nail art from getting messed I stopped using topcoat. The reason I'm coming back to topcoat though (not only because of matte nails) is because at Christmas my friends got me some rapid dry. I was a bit wary and decided the proof would be if after using the rapid dry the design wouldn't smudge after topcoat. And result... SUCCESS!!!! As also proven by the picture, obviously I will be doing more testing and dipping toes back into topcoat territory, but I think it's looking good. Um topcoat ramble?

I wanted to used a different colour scheme on my right hand, which I think is ok. But could use some revising. I'm growing to like Basket Case a lot.
Pink: Orly - Basket Case
Light Blue: Revlon - Blue Lagoon
Dark Blue: Kiko - 265
Peachy/Orange: Essie - Tart Deco
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
White: Lovely Me:Ex - White

Thank you very much for reading and have a wonderful day!!!

Sunday 6 January 2013

Orange Nails: Essie - Fear Or Desire

Hi there. This has been sitting untried since November and I'm not one to not try polishes. I used it for a bit of nail art, but not properly yet. And I love me a good orange polish :)

From Essie's summer collection last year. I used 2 coats and 3 for the odd streaky nail. I realised today that this orange is the same as a Cadbury Fudge bar orange. It's very smooth and applies easily. I've mentioned before that I prefer the old Essie brush but actually the new diffusion brush is really good for my nail shape too. I got this from TK Maxx, I've already professed my love for TK Maxx before, so all that spiel again (I've never used the word spiel before). I thought this might be similar to Essie Orange, It's Obvious but after looking at some swatches they're pretty different and I personally think Fear Or Desire is nicer.

Thanks for reading!!! :)

Saturday 5 January 2013

Cute Giraffes

Hello there. Ever since my Christmas design that somehow reminded me of a giraffe (it's only me who's reminded of a giraffe, I don't think anyone else would see the giraffe :/), I've been itching to do some giraffe nail art.

I'm happy with how this turned out, I think it's pretty cute. I've been loving the Barry M purple, for a year I pretty much never used it and now I've been reaching for it a lot. The brown leopard print on top of the purple looks surprisingly nice. The purple giraffe could be mistaken for a cow but you can kind of see the giraffe resemblance. The purple giraffe is also a Victorious reference of Cat's purple giraffe (I love that show and there's a new episode tonight!!! :D).
Yellow: Barry M - Lemon Ice Cream
Pale Purple: Barry M - Berry Ice Cream
Dark Purple: OPI - Plum And Get It
Dark Brown: w7 - Brownie
Light Brown: Nails Inc - Porchester Square
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
White (as base for nail art): Lovely Me:Ex - White
The formula of Lemon Ice Cream wasn't too great, 4 coats and still a tash streaky, but it's still my favourite yellow (also due to my lack of yellow nail polish and how I'm not the biggest fan of yellow). And yes, more leopard print, but I think it definitely adds to the design ;)

Thank you very much for reading and have a wonderful day!!!

Friday 4 January 2013

Galaxy Nails

Hello there. I have some galaxy nails, there isn't much else to say :)

I think I could've executed this better, it's just a bit messy. You can get the galaxy theme but it's not that good. It's alright, I think galaxy nails looks really cool. I didn't really like them til the 31 day challenge galaxies as they look pretty cool.
Base: Barry M - Indigo
White: Models Own - Snow White and Lovely Me:Ex - White
Purple: Barry M - Berry Ice Cream and OPI - Plum And Get It
Blue: Essie - Bikini So Teeny
Silver Glitter: Barry M - Silver Glitter, Revlon - BelleNails Inc - Abbey Road and Barry M - Hologram Hexograms
Hologram Hexograms ties it all together as it always does :)

Thank you for reading and have a nice day :)

Thursday 3 January 2013

Pastel Gradient Leopard Print

Hi there guys, and happy new year!! Here's to a good one!! I haven't really thought about a new year's resolution (I pretty much never do them) but I think this year I want to be more productive. If I set myself a monster challenge it's never going to happen so I just want to waste less time and do something that's going to benefit something. Anyway, first mani of this year is leopard print. I honestly can't see a better way to start the year. I love leopard print, I've been totally abusing it but I can't help it :)


This might sound bad, but I absolutely love it. It's just the colours and the leopard and the gradient. It's perfect. The purple didn't show up very well in pictures but it's much more prominent in real life. For once I did a nice gradient, I find every time I do a nice gradient I'm inclined to take pictures then not do the nail art. It's just because I'm so happy that the gradient worked, as opposed to the normal failure. It's like the other one I did I loved that one too (not meaning to sound narcissistic :/), it's so simple but it looks so nice. I hate all this narcissism :/ I just really like the design.
Blue: Essie - Bikini So Teeny
Green: Illamasqua - Nomad
Purple: Barry M - Berry Ice Cream
Pink: Orly - Basket Case
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
I tell you I really really love the colours, the Barry M purple is growing on me, it's pink-toned and I really like that. But these are all polishes I absolutely adore. I cut my nails and I have to say they are feeling very short (well no), but they'll grow back.

Thank you very much for reading and have a wonderful day!!! :)