3rd Blogaversary!! Top 10 Nail Art!!

Hey there guys!! Time for my 3rd Blogaversary post, late (it was the 6th June) cause I was mid-exam. Though realistically I was probably procrastinating lol. Like I went to McDonalds the day before my exam (the strawberry milkshake was heaven ^_^).
3 years is a long time, but I don't know it doesn't feel that long cause the blog has been something fun I've had on the side. Been much less frequent posting this year but hey a girl gets busy we all know this. And I do this for fun I've had no reason to stress myself out over this. I did my AS Levels which are a pretty big deal and not gonna lie they were really hard which I why I've had to just take things out of my life. I'm so glad they're over and I can think about something else for once. Did all my music exams this week too, and I got a merit in my Grade 8 piano (another reason the blog took the backseat) which is kind of my magnum opus right now.
Another nail art-wise I'm actually super super proud of the nail art I've done this year, while obviously the volume is lower I think the quality is much much much higher and I've done looks that are so so me. All about the colour and the fun and the cuteness and cartoons. I love cartoons haha. Got my 10 favourites which were fun to order and hope you like them too!! :)

My yearly college!! :D

10. Plants vs. Zombies - I just like how accurate the characters are. And they're cute!! I'm still proud of that zombie. I think the whole look works overall, green background like the grass (great observation me :/).

9. Purple roses + cream polka dots + bronze background - This is a very simple look but the combination of the purple and the bronze is gorgeous. Also you just can't go wrong with polka dots, they are too cute. Also for once my roses were on point.

8. Pink glittery base + triangles - I just love triangles. Always been my favourite shape, defo the edgiest shape. The pattern is so uniform and was on such a placed glitter kick, placing glitter is fun. Glittery pink is also super great. It was all just a great combination ;)

7. Kawaii clouds - Look how cute those clouds are. I obsessed with the neon rainbow. And unrelated but I love that blue of the sky.

6. Dolce & Gabbana cherry blossoms - I think I've really got into red this year. This was just the beginning cause those cherry blossoms looked great on top of the red. Some of the best flowers I've ever painted, just so delicate. Cherry blossom designs tend to be really nice too. Love the peaking out glitter too.

5. Stylish bee + pinwheels - While I posted this late I did paint this before my blogaversary. Just v v funky, love the colour scheme and that bee just chillin' in the middle of it. Pinwheels are so style.

4. Marill in the night sky - Became obsessed with Pokémon nails this year. Marill was the beginning, look at how cute it is!! Glitter gradients can only add to my love.

3. Parrot nails - Parrots have been some of my favourite birds for a while (my favourite top ever that I got last year has parrot print) cause they are so colourful and cool. So obviously parrot print nails are gonna speak to me. I love that I actually managed to capture the detail of the parrot and the colours are so fun. The bar glitter works very well here too.

2. Tribal splatter - This is the pinnacle of funkiness and edge. A complete accident as well, but it ended up being one of my favourite designs I've ever done. The contrast of the monochrome and neon can't be beaten and the splats just look good!! Seriously adored this design.

1. Mudkip + dripping chevrons - I just fell in love with this design. Mudkip is such an adorable Pokémon and look how cool dripping chevrons are!! I like how thin they are in this design and drips, I don't know why I think they're so cool but I just do. This design shows how important colour schemes are cause they're the basis to everything, the colour scheme here is just killing it :D

So what do you think of my favourites? I think I've always made it clear I love the bright ;) I had 6 dominant hand favourites and 4 non-dominant favourites. My non-dominant hand isn't doing a bad job!! One of them made number 2!! I'm on track to becoming ambidextrous :P
I think it's been a very good year in nail art. Thank you so very much for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day!! I like to think the nail art can only get better :)

Pink and green flowers + glittery pink accent nails

Hello nail people!! Have a nice simple flower design today, it was inspired by a top I got from Oasis after my piano exam (love that top). Rocked it during my maths exams (when I say rocked I mean panicked cause I got panicked lol).

It's just a simple floral design but I think it's really pretty. I think it's more intricate than what I usually do. Florals are hit and miss for me but I really like this design. Also the glittery accent is so fun, I layered Socialite this time and now I'm obsessed with the colour and obviously I love how glittery it is.

I adore Lots of Lux with topcoat, but legit needed 4 layers of topcoat and it still wasn't completely smooth :/ For the flowers I started with a white base with a toothpick and tried to be "rougher", then I layered on the pinks and the green it again the "rougher" way, just kind of going a bit cray. I'm a toothpick person as you could probably tell as I use toothpicks for every design I do.

Blue: Essie - Lots Of Lux
Pink: Barry M - Superdrug LE Summer 2013 A
Dark Pink: OPI - Charged Up Cherry
Green: Illamasqua - Radium
White: Barry M - Cotton
Mint Green: Barry M - Mint Green
Dark Green: Barry M - Kiwi
Glittery Pink: Barry M - Fuchsia and Barry M - Socialite

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

The most stylish bee (nail art) you'll ever see

Hey there fine folks!! Like the title? I tried ok. I did this at Easter time and it's one of my favourite nail designs and it came from not knowing what I was doing. That's a key theme in my life but sometimes it works!! For nail art, and when designs end up being quite cool I'm ok with that.

Well I love neon yellow so that was going to grab me but those pinwheels are so cool!! I started with a white base and went from there. The pinwheels came first and the black stripe segments are funky. For some reason I decided to paint the bee with the sweet blue trail and added some honeycomb. One of my favourite designs, the colours were so simple but tied everything together. It just looks stylish ok ;)

I freehanded the pinwheels so I started with drawing the outlines making sure there were 3 segments of each colour then painting the colours and patterns in turn. There's a bit of orange in the yellow cause I used my orange toothpick and it got transferred but I like it. Being neat with the black was hard, frequently I'd have to repaint the other segments to cover up the messiness. Yeah then got my toothpicks and pens to freehand everything else. Gotta love some tessellation.

Yellow: American Apparel - Neon Yellow
Blue: Barry M - Malibu
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
White: Barry M - Cotton

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

The iPhone (Nail) Series: Snail Mail

Hey there guys!! I think this will be my last installment of the iPhone Nail series, I don't have play enough games so I don't know any others I want to do. Well sure this could come back in the future but I think this will be my final one for now (not like this is the most regular series). This was one of my favourite games like 7 years ago, so fun.

I feel like this is a lesser known game but you play as Turbo (the snail) and you collect packages and try to get to the post office. Which sounds easy but then there are enemies and salt and holes in the road, and it's in space so when you fall into a hole you fall into the galaxy. I don't think I ever completed this, maybe I did but I definitely made it to the final 50th level which was super fast and required you to get all the power ups to get past the enemies. It was really hard.
So for the design I did Turbo and one of the pink enemies (I've totally forgotten what they were, and Turbo said them in his annoying voice) also a crazy galaxy which I actually love the look of. Pirouette My Whistle isn't a glitter I normally use for galaxies but it's perfect and looks great here. I think this look captures the game really well and I really like it!!

As usual I freehanded, I added that weird dark purple bit on the snail for shading cause it looked a bit flat and while it's weird I still thought it kind of worked. I liked it enough to not paint over it. For the galaxies I just dabbed with sponges and then added glitter, this is why I love galaxies, they look so cool and are so easy to do.

Red-y Purple: Illamasqua - Seance
Purple: Illamasqua - Jo'Mina
Dark Purple: OPI - Plum & Get It
White: Barry M - Cotton
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
Orange: OPI - Where Did Suzi's Man-go?
Silver: w7 - Silver Mirror
Pink: OPI - Charged Up Cherry
Grey: Barry M - Chai
Green: Etude House - No. 86
Glitter: OPI - Pirouette My Whistle
Yellow: Ciate - Loop the Loop
Teal: OPI - Sea You In Hollywood

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

Purple Nails: Illamasqua - Seance

Hello there guys!! Ahh my first post-exam post, it feels good. I have a bundle of nail art to go up (all done during exams haha, sometimes I got a little bit of free time) then my blogaversary post which I missed this year cause exams and business and stuff. But that will go up in due course too and hopefully won't take too long cause I actually have time. I definitely want it posted in June even though my blogaversary was the 6th. 3 years of blogging. That's quite long.
So I have another TK Maxx Illamasqua steal today, in Seance, the name sounds snazzy even if it means something weird.

Seance is a red-y plummy purple polish with lots of silver shimmer within. It's pretty but the problem is I hate the colour plum, there's a dirtiness to the colour that I really don't like. Except this colour kind of borders in between that I just about like it. I'm very particular about my shades. I'm looking for like the perfect red-y purple that isn't plum, it isn't the easiest task.

We know Illamasqua is my favourite high end brand, the only one I think is worth the money, especially when you get it for less than a 3rd of the price. I think this was in the same collection as Omen (don't quote me on that), it has the same silver shimmer which is really pretty. As long as Illamasqua keeps making amazing unique polishes I will buy them.

Illamasqua formula tends to be perfect and this is part of that lineage. Very opaque and easy to apply, I'm pretty sure this is 2 coats and maybe 3 if you wanted but it's not really needed. Not much else to say on that front. 

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

Pink Nails: Barry M - Miami

Hey there!! After Barry M Malibu I needed to get my hands on another matte nail paint. The colours are pretty sweet but I love pink, pink and blue are like my colours so I went and got Miami and obviously Barry doesn't disappoint.

Miami is a pale coral pink polish (more coral than the pictures suggest) and it's so pretty. I think the matte finish is great too, I love the matte finish. This is going to be great for nail art and it's just such a nice colour.

I wonder if Barry M are going to release more of these, I know they have darker shades (not my thing) but I mean like more summery ones or they've forgotten about this line for now. I'm not aching for them cause I think the colours they have are nice but nothing I need to run out and get more of (I already did that). But I'd be interested to see more.

The formula was really good, I think 2-3 coats is appropriate depending on nail size and the thickness of each coat. It's very opaque and easy to apply, what more can you want?

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a great day!! :)

Kiwi nail art

Hey there!! I hope you're doing well, I'M DONE WITH MY EXAMS WOO. But I'll go more into that when I actually have time to write up posts and paint my nails!! This is a fun, simple nail art look I did. Ok it looks pretty rubbish in pictures but then at a distance it looked so fresh.

The proportions are totally off and it's so messy but I still really like the look of this. I definitely want to do kiwi nails again to improve on this and they were so fun and easy. The white weirdly turned green over the green though, don't know why that happened.

I did a white blob shape in the middle of the nail with the brush of the polish then I did little white lines coming out of it then put the black seeds in between. Went a bit wild with the black seeds, I think I should've let more green show through cause it's very imbalanced haha.

Green: Illamasqua - Radium
White: Barry M - Cotton
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black

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

Green Nails: Illamasqua - Radium

Hello there!! This is another Illamasqua polish I got from TK Maxx (less than £4 when a full price is around £13) and another green, love a green Illamasqua. This is another really nice unnatural one haha.

Radium is a nice bright light yellow-y green, chartreuse(!) polish with green shimmer. Really nice, and right up my alley.

Radium came out in the Toxic Nature collection in Spring 2011, so probably around the time I was really getting into polish. Though Illamasqua would've been totally unknown to me. But now it's one of my favourite brands, actually was so happy when I saw these in TK Maxx and when I saw the price I had to get them.

The formula was good, easy to apply I probably used 2 coats but I think 3 would've been better. It's a tad streaky, and the formula is more on the runny side but that doesn't bother me.

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

Clashing tribal nails

Hello nail enthusiasts!! I tried, and that sounds weird but whatever. I wanted something easy to paint but still look cool, so tribal it was, I don't think you can go wrong with some tribal. I love me some bright clashing colours too.

I always say how bad I am at coming up with tribal patterns (read: lazy) so I amalgamated a bundle I saw. See it's so easy and almost always looks cool, I didn't bother with the thin black lines and rocked the chunky look. The glitter tied things together, I just love glitter.

I really did want something quick and easy so I used really opaque polishes and just used the brush of the polishes to paint straight lines of colour over the green then drew the black outline and slammed on some glitter. Relatively quick and easy. 

Green: Illamasqua - Omen

Pink: Barry M - Miami

Blue: Barry M - Sugar Apple

Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black

Glitter: Rimmel - Disco Ball

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

White Nails: Barry M - Cotton

Hello there!! This is a new polish I got (relatively...), my old white polish Barry M Matt White was very much on it's last legs, you know the stringy white polish stage (it's a bad time) so this was new at the time so I thought it was time to get the Gelly white polish cause the Gelly polishes are incredible.

Cotton is a white creme polish, um there's not much else to say. I suppose it's not a completely stark white but it's not that off white either. I like it for what it is but you know plain white nails aren't really my thing cause it's not bright, I love me some colour.

Gelly polishes are so good, I would get all the colours if I didn't have colours that are similar. There are only 1 new Gelly release and don't know if I'll get it or not. I think they're putting a focus on the Speedy quick dry range which I'm not at all opposed to, I have um quite a long list of the ones I'm gonna pick up cause they're very legit. We all know Barry can do no wrong.

The formula was obviously wonderful, like so opaque and easy to apply, this was a solid 2 coats and it wasn't streaky at all!! It's a standard Barry M polish.

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

Falling purple blossoms + striped nails

Hey there guys!! This manicure was inspired by the Manicurator, I thought this look was really pretty and I did my take on it (hers was better haha) except with purple and brown. I love the combination of purple and brown now.

I was trying to make the other flowers more artsy and had a bit of a fail, it's just too messy. But I love the stripes and the falling flowers, really nice. I know the stripes aren't perfect, but for freehanding it I don't think it's too bad. The flowers over the stripes were my fave, it's a classy look?

I mentioned I freehanded the stripes, and everything else I used toothpicks and the brush of the polishes. Like I used the brush of the polish for the stripes and tidied up with toothpicks if needed be. For the brown parts of the flower I tried to be more loose and free and go a bit wild. But I think it was too wild, the loose and free has worked for me a lot but not for this design.

White: Barry M - Cotton
Purple: Illamasqua - Jo'Mina
Pinky purple: Illamasqua - Seance
Light purple: Barry M - Prickly Pear
Dark purple: OPI - Plum & Get It
Brown: w7 - Brownie

Thank you very much for reading and I hope you have a really nice day!! :)