Neon Ikat Diamonds

Hello there wonderful people!! The long week is thankfully over. I'd love to say things are winding down but they are seriously not. This time last year all my exams were over and I was fighting with myself whether to start a blog or not. Now my exams aren't over and my blogaversary is less than a week away :O It completely crept up on me, I thought "Oh it's AGES away". That is no longer the case and May has whizzed past (as the year in general has). I cannot wait til my exams are over, I will be walking with a skip in my step and spontaneously dancing in random bursts at unpredictable moments (and I'm a great dancer :/).
I have been really liking the ikat pattern, and what could be better than combining it with neon. Nothing, cause neon is the best thing ever.

I normally do the triangle ikat shape but I wanted to switch things up and I much prefer the diamonds. They're great! I busted out my 2 neon polishes and of course added accents. Everything I do requires accents but also you don't want to over-neon or the effect won't be as prominent (or something).

My camera was struggling with how bright the neon is, an example of the brightness, is sometimes in school I'd be sitting in class and I'd say "NEON ATTACK!!" and put my nails in someone's face cause that's normal. I edited to make things BRIGHT as they are.
I also want to apologize for my cuticles, I don't know what's been happening as I've been moisturising a lot and they're still messed. Maybe it's stress, but I'm not stressed so I really don't know, also stress doesn't affect the cuticles (at least I don't think so). I genuinely don't know.

I start with the neons. I needed a white base for China Glaze - I'm With The Lifeguard (neon green) as I seem to be the only one with formula issues with this polish. So Models Own - Snow White (such a struggle as we have gone into mega gloopy town with this polish) and Professional Nail Care - French Manicure White Tip (which I don't like as it's just a poor white manicure white with no pigmentation). There were bubbles as nothing would dry but the ikats covered it up so all was ok.
But Snow White was good for the whites of the ikats as it was naturally rougher due to the gloopiness. And the neon pink is Nails Inc - Notting Hill Gate (LOVE), it's neon pink, love is implied.
For the accents the pink is Color Club - Wing Fling and the aqua is Topshop - Green Room. The black is Lovely Me:Ex - Black and occasionally I would fix things with Lovely Me:Ex - White.
The Color Club topcoat smoothed everything out and was generally brilliant.

I love the roughness of the ikat pattern, once again I have been really enjoying it. I like things with a bit of "edge". This has "edge". I hope you all have a lovely weekend and thank you for reading!!! :)

What A Tweety Pie!

Hello wonderful human beings!!! How are you? Fine? Terrible? Sweet? Have a covered all the boxes (probably not)? Speaking of being sweet (I'm working on my segues :P), I have some debatably sweet nail art of a sweet little character. As the title suggests, Tweety Bird!! I've had this on my todo list for the longest time, I was meant to paint him with Sylvester but I decided that would be too hard. I'm not one to back down from a challenge but I thought Tweety would be enough.

I have to say, I love painting cartoons. My flow is with the cartoons. I have to tell you when I originally finished Tweety I was not happy at all, I seriously thought I'd painted an unmitigated disaster due to proportions being incorrect (also due to random strings of polish not wanting to go away :/). I over-reacted as now I'm pretty happy with how he turned out. He's cute and that is the most important thing as cuteness is the best thing in the world.
I decided to do 2 accents to compliment Tweety, no particular reason. It just happened. Some floral and black and white glitter gradient. Before I added the glitter I had done a really pretty gradient, basically the blending actually worked. It was a proud moment. But we all know black and white glitter enhances a gradient and if you didn't know that you were graced with a useful piece of information (I found this out through other bloggers, I could never work something like that out myself lol).

I started the gradient with Max Factor - Cool Jade, *new polish alert!* I didn't buy this one myself, my friend was talking about going away on a trip and I joked "Lol get me nail polish while you're there" (yes I say lol as a word). But I didn't expect her actually get me nail polish!! I was so touched that I was near tears, that's why she's my babe. It also made me realise I have quite a lot of colours that shade (not sure how that happened, might do a comparison one of these days), but this one is by far my favourite. It's darker than the rest and requires 2 easy coats. The brush handle is super small but that doesn't bother me, I think it's cute.
Then I sponged on Essie - Lilacism and Revlon - Dreamer, it took me a while to get everything right but once I did I was so pleased. One coat of L'Oreal Color Riche - Confetti proceeded.
The pink base is Barry M - Fuchsia, and I did little flowers with the same colours for the gradient with some bobby pins.

For Tweety I began with an outline (done with Lovely Me:Ex - White) and I continued with Barry M - Lemon Ice Cream (yellow) and added different details with Lovely Me:Ex - Black, Barry M - Blueberry Ice Cream (blue), Essie - Fear Or Desire (orange) and OPI - Dutch Tulips (red) over the top.
I have previously mentioned my topcoat trials and tribulations (want to know more? My pop art nail art has a pretty good explanation). Recently I began to use the Color Club topcoat on top on my designs at snail pace. I also figured out the key to no smudging, don't touch the design with the brush -_- Doh! I really should've figured that out sooner. But with this technique, I get no smudging (well a tiny bit) and super smooth nail art. It's the bomb (in a good way, I know no one says "the bomb" anymore). The coat has to be thick but as it dries it's like the thick coat dethickens (I can't think of another way to put it). But I am really liking the Color Club topcoat!! Oh yeah, and no shrinking!!

Thank you SO much for reading and I hope you have a lovely day!! :D

Pick 'N Mix: Animal Print

Hi there lovely people!!! I hope you are doing well and are having a great start to your week. Pick 'N Mix is the series I started for when I do skittles, and yes today I have some. It was originally meant to something completely different, but I got the colour scheme wrong so I scrapped that used the colour scheme for something else. Hopefully you'll see that design another time in another Pick 'N Mix post. I was kind of stuck after messing up, but of course what do I fall back on? Leopard print, but this time let's mix a bunch of animal prints.

Ok it's mostly leopard and tiger, but they are all different. I wasn't willing to branch out too far this time, I would but I wasn't in the mood. Except ring finger kind of just turned into a zigzag, but it's variety.

The pink on my thumb is Orly - Basket Case (love it) with spots of Essie - Tart Deco (peachy orange) and Barry M - Berry Ice Cream (pale purple).
My index finger has Essie - Fear Or Desire, I have to say I love a good orange polish. I tried doing a gradient spot thing but it didn't really work, the base should have gradiented too. It starts with The Face Shop - BL501 and goes darker into Barry M - Blueberry Ice Cream (super opaque but mine is really gloopy).
For my middle finger I sandwiched OPI - Rainbow Connection (I like to sandwich this polish) with Barry M - Mint Green and Essie - Turquoise and Caicos.
I used a black base of Rimmel - Black Pearl under OPI - Metallic 4 Life for my ring finger.
My pinky has quite a few polishes. I started with Rimmel - Purple Pulse, but then I realised I hated the colour. It's one of those red toned purples I can't stand (I'm considering giving it away), so I had to cover it up with Butter LONDON - Shambolic which looks awesome on top. I was meant to do the spots with Barry M - Amethyst but it ended up not working and I just put a coat on top. Amethyst looks so awesome as the mix of glitter is great, but it is SO DIFFICULT to remove, it's one of those glitters that embeds itself on your nail. But it looks cool so it's up to you whether it's worth the battle. So I did the spots in OPI - Charged Up Cherry.
Finally I did the details in Lovely Me:Ex - Black and White.

I can't say this is my favourite animal print design, but I am enjoying it, it's interesting. Thank you for reading and I hope you have a lovely day!!! :)

Combo: Blue Superhero

Hello there dearest nail people (almost called you polish :P)!!! The long week is over!! Oh yeah buddy, it has been a long week. Exams were thick and fast, but the worst is over and exams are almost over (until they start again :/). Anyway to polish!!! I wanted nails that wouldn't distract me, last year I had some multicoloured leopard print (surprised?) which I'll probably do again (it definitely wasn't bad, I just want more multicoloured leopard print :)). So I picked one of my favourites, if not my favourite polish, Nails Inc - Baker Street (2 coats) and topped it with some glitter. The result was pretty great.

I called this blue superhero cause in my head, superhero = red, yellow and blue (a.k.a my favourite colour combination). There's no yellow here but that's why it's a blue superhero.
I added one of my favourite glitter polishes on top, Barry M - Superdrug Xmas LE 2012 (2 coats). The mixture of red, blue, silver and holographic glitter (which makes this special) is really something.
Unfortunately the blue glitter wasn't showing up so great, apparently too similar in colour to the base.
I do have another post showing off the whole beauty of this glitter.
Aw man I love this combo, when you combine 2 awesome polishes, double awesome all the way across the sky is likely to happen.
Unfortunately for me that meant distraction, and a lot of it. I thought "Oh it's just glitter over blue, I'll be fine", the amount of times I would stop and stare and literally say "Ooooo sparkly" was more than I'd like to admit (accompanied by O.o face). Wasn't too disruptive so overall it was ok. But it's a super sweet combo, I loved having it on.

Trying to a show a bit of that great holographic sparkle

I hope you have a lovely weekend and thank you for reading!!! :)

Delicate Floral + Funky Gradient

Oh hey there guys!!! I hope you're enjoying this fine Sunday evening, I'm sure not :P Things might be getting more quiet around these parts cause I have to learn things (EXAMS *PANICS*). Wish me luck (or whatever I don't mind either way)? Since I've been delving into floral nails, I thought I'd go for something more intricate. These flowers look like the type I draw, I'm glad I've finally been able to translate them. Also the gradient might be the nicest I've ever done (not like that would be hard considering my gradients aren't that great). I'm super happy with this design, I'm excited to share it!! :D

I was also inspired by Very Emily's gorgeous floral design, it's just beautiful. Not gonna lie, I'm so proud of my flowers!! They actually turned out right!! And (not to sound bad) I think they're pretty :3 Floral nails normally end in fail for me but not this time. I really like the delicate aspect of these:)

For my thumb, middle and ring fingers (calling this the "rock on" accent, hopefully for obviously reasons ;)) I started with Essie - Bikini So Teeny (cause I love that polish), following with Lovely Me:Ex for a white base for the flowers. The thumb flower uses Nails Inc - Baker Street and Essie - Turquoise and Caicos. I liked putting the darker colour in the middle then use the lighter colour to kind of gradient it.
Middle finger uses OPI - Plum And Get It and Barry M - Prickly Pear for the flowers. And my ring finger has Color Club - Wing Fling and Barry M - Strawberry Ice Cream.
For the leaves I used Illamasqua - Nomad and China Glaze - Re-Fresh Mint for contrast. Then I dabbed on Topshop - Razzmatazz for more sparkle.
Finally I used Lovely Me:Ex - Black for all the details. Sometimes thing went wrong and I'd have to do some fancy correction (not really fancy) but thankfully I didn't have to do that too often. I really liked the little dots, they added that little bit of interest.

For the gradient I started with Color Club - Sky High, sponged on some OPI - Plum And Get It. Sealed the gradient with one coat of OPI - Last Friday Night and one coat of Models Own - Freak Out!. Oh man, it actually worked and I was ecstatic. Go floral nail art (oh yeah I changed up my watermark, just for banter but I like the way it looks)!!! :)

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you all have a wonderful week!!!! :)

Pink Summer Fishtails

Oh hey there guys!!! I hope you are all feeling fine, it's been a while. It's all revision for me right now, I hate the feeling that NOTHING IS GOING IN -_- But today's nails are nice and happy, unlike revision. I did fishtails (or chevrons) once before and liked it way more than I thought I would. My segments were a bit wonky last time, so I made it my aim this time to fix that. I was so excited to do these nails (since I have to spend less time on nail business) that I told a ton of people I was going to and no one knew what the fishtail manicure was (nail people issues). It got to the point that I drew a diagram (that's how cool I am).

I found a technique to do the tails, first I drew a "v" then went from the side into the middle. I think it worked, and it's quite cute and funky. I did a triple accent, I love accents they add interest to a manicure. I think the colours look nicer in real life, my camera has some issues with pink.
I love pink and I especially love the pinks I chose. For my thumb I used Barry M - Fuchsia (virtually 1 coat) as a base and continued with Illamasqua - Nomad then China Glaze - Re-Fresh Mint.
Index and middle fingers the base is Color Club - Wing Fling, the blue is OPI - Sea You In Hollywood (in hindsight I should have used a brighter blue) and the pink at the tips is Barry M - Pink Foil (Xmas LE 2012 B).
And pinky and ring fingers have Orly - Basket Case, followed by the pretty purple Barry M - Berry Ice Cream and The Face Shop - GR501.

My lighting was too bright for the first time and wasn't helping me

I have rekindled my love for Basket Case, there's me saying I'd like a polish that shade of pink then I realise I have Basket Case (and 3 other pretty much identical pinks). A bright bubblegum pink? It's great, 2 coats and sorted. I had major issues with thick layers of polish not drying (:/) and therefore having to push it off and do it again -_- It all worked out in the end, and I sealed it off with a matte topcoat (because matte is the way forward).

Thank you for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day (without revision)!!! :)

Gimme Glitter: Topshop - Razzmatazz

Oh hey there guys!!! The long week is over!! The not being able to paint my nails very often is bumming me out a bit. But I hope that my brain intake has increased (that does not make sense at all :/). Today I have some purple nails for show, including a nice purple creme and one of my favourite polishes. (edit: this post will now be a Gimme Glitter for fun)

I wasn't able to capture the true amazingness of the holographic glitter, but I have a good one in my other Razzmatazz post. It gives the "how is such beauty possible??" feeling. Like a holographic polish when you move your hand in the light, the glitter reflects different colours, reminiscent of a rainbow. And this is the very reason I LOVE HOLOGRAPHIC GLITTER.

I would've taken proper holographic goodness pictures in my artificial lighting but by the time I got round to it I had lots of pen marks on my nails from intense note writing (not really, apparently I write rather flamboyantly) which wouldn't come off, but you can still see some subtle rainbows.

Topshop - Razzmatazz is chocked full of holographic glitter (reasons why I love it), lots of small pieces and some big pieces all in a blue-y/lilac-y base. Looks awesome over purple and blue, and probably darker colours.

Essie - Lilacism is a pale purple, 2 easy coats (but I think I used 3 this time). There's not much else to say. Out of all of my pale purples it's my least favourite one (that doesn't mean I don't like it, I do! I do!). But for someone who doesn't suit pale purple, I have a lot of pale purples (3 by the way). Not sure how that happened. But my other pale purples suit me much better and are just prettier colours (I'm all about specific shades).

I was planning to do some nail art, but 1. I didn't have enough time. 2. I couldn't think of what to do, but mostly 3. I really enjoyed this by itself and I will always be in awe of the wondrous holographic glitter. It's the best, mucho love from me.

Thank you for reading and I hope you have a lovely weekend!!! :D

Geometric Rainbow Cupcakes

Oh hey there guys!!! Hope you're having a great start to your week. I have been revising (whoop whoop), I have properly started after who knows how long of procrastination. On that note my posts will be reducing significantly for the next while. I have to spend less time blogging, which bums me out, cause I love it!! But hopefully late June I will be back with "regular" posting, but I won't be disappearing completely (hopefully anyway). I'll also be back with a snazzier blog (I'm hoping if I write it I'll actually do it, computer stuff scares me)!! :)
Since I'm painting less I wanted a nail design that I'd want to keep on for a long time, so of course I go back to geometric patterns and FOOD (I love food ^_^)!!

This might look a tash familiar, as quite recently I did similar design. But I loved that one, so another one can't hurt. Also I think it's rather different.
The geometric design is inspired by the inside cover of Esc (might do a full design inspired by it as it's awesome) by Clara C. I adore her music, I don't know why it took me so freaking long to get her new album. And it's amazing; I have to say the second half of the album is better than the first. My picks from the album are "You've Got It All", "Eventually", "By The Blue" and "Fish", but they are all great.
So I went with that colour scheme, and I wanted to paint another kind of dessert, but I really couldn't think of one, so cupcake had to do (good thing cupcakes are SO cute :3).
I especially like my index finger, to me it kind of looks like a robot. Which I think is funky.
Purple: Barry M - Prickly Pear
Red-y Pink: OPI - Charged Up Cherry
Orange: Essie - Tart Deco
Blue: Barry M - Blueberry Ice Cream
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
White: Lovely Me:Ex - White
Pink: Orly - Basket Case
I have been adoring Prickly Pear, it's gorgeous man. I used 3 coats, but you could probably do with 2. I wanted to use opaque colours as that makes everything so much easier, Charged Up Cherry, Tart Deco, Blueberry Ice Cream and Basket Case all fit the bill.

I have to mention the Color Club topcoat. It came with the set I got from TK Maxx. For one I wasn't sure if it was topcoat or basecoat cause it didn't say!! But I reckoned it was topcoat (still not really sure, but pretty certain).
Topcoats are scary for me as all they do is smudge for me, but the smudging was near non-existent this time (:O). I applied at snail's pace, I'm being serious, I applied it SOOOOO slowly, which probably helped. The topcoat is also really shiny, it has an almost gel-like consistency. Don't accidentally get some in your cuticles as it comes off weirdly and makes your fingers look dry. It's very thick as well, I couldn't get a thin coat.
But the thing that really surprised me was that my manicure was super smooth after. I know that's what topcoat is meant to do, but I find a lot of the time it's still lumpy after, less lumpy than before but lumpy nonetheless. So smooth this was, could've been due to the thick coats but it didn't dry thick. I was just surprised at the shininess and smoothness, topcoats aren't normally that nice to me.

Thank you very much for reading and I hope you have a lovely week!! :)

Red Nails: Nails Inc - Tate + w7 - Burnt Amber

Hey there guys!! I'm hoping you're all well and not dwelling like a bottom dweller(?). Ok I don't know what I'm saying anymore. Today was a bit crazy but I made it through didn't I. Plain red nails are a rare thing for me (I need nail art and red is rather fancy for me), but I performed in my devised play today (it was fine :)) and I wanted my nails to match my character (a scientist).

The play was set in England in around the 70's, I looked up the nail trends for then and it said "bare nails" (which I was like "Lol no"), "deep brick red, browns and burgundies".
I had Nails Inc - Tate (a deep red) sitting there so it seemed like a good idea. It's a one coater, but I did 2. It dried and I hated it, it's not the polish, it's me. It's not my colour, it looked way too brown (it is brick red). What can I say I love brights.
So with my logic I thought some kind of glitter would make it better, but I don't own a red glitter (:O), shimmer had to do. One coat of w7 - Burnt Amber stepped in... And I still hated it but it was slightly better. Burnt Amber is an opaque polish, but it was an afterthought.

The pictures you see here are in natural light which I think the colour is lovely and sophisticated, but when I was painting the lighting I was in made it look brown (and horrible). I don't enjoy brown. But let's enjoy the nice colour in the pictures and don't see this one in a yellow tinged lighting setup. I really should've stuck to my go-to red, OPI Dutch Tulips (what a babe of a polish).

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