Doodles on a chalkboard (Ciaté chalkboard manicure)

Hey there!! I said in a previous post that I would be showing the Ciaté chalkboard manicure and yeah I'm gonna go ahead and do that now haha. Not gonna lie I like it.

So I got the pens and just did some doodles which I suppose is the idea like a chalkboard. Got some stars, polka dots, rain, chevrons and an anchor. I took some of the ideas from the booklet, not gonna pretend I knew what I was going. I really like the polka dots, the more colours the better. But drawing it was fun and generally it was super fun to wear :)

So you get these pens and you just draw really, the nibs were pretty thick but that wasn't too much of a problem. Getting the pens starting to flow was the hard part, especially the pink one (which was not a hot pink as the pen suggested) seriously sat there violently stabbing the nib onto a pice of paper for quite a long amount of time, I gave up and did all the other colours before going back to the pink. I got it to work!!
After you're done you matte topcoat it (super legit matte topcoat, I've been using it a bunch), unfortunately the white smudged but that could've been my fault as I should've waited longer.

So all the stuff comes in the kit and it has instructions and ideas of what to paint. the idea is that water can rub out mistakes before you topcoat, Don't know how legit this is but I would just paint over the errors with the black.
See I like to do so many different things that I don't know think I'd do this again but I think I can find ways to incorporate the set into my nail art. But drawing it was so easy, literally like you're just drawing on something um easier than nails haha.

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

Purple roses + cream polka dot nails

Hello there fine fellows. With me flower nail art is very hit and miss, we know this from the floral flourishes and fails (I tried really hard with that alliteration) but today I have a flourish and I adore this look. Nothing groundbreaking but when it's done well, it's soooooooooooooooooooo nice.

For me its the colour scheme, I realise I'm in love with the combination of brown and purple, I never realised pairing these polishes would work so well. Again recently I've been obsessed with polka dots cause they're so easy and cute. Roses always seem to go wrong with me but not today. I don't really know what I did differently but it worked and I was so happy!! Maybe I kept it lumpy? Really good advice I know. Also I like the "dimension" with the leaves.

I got a bobby pin to do the polka dots which were almost completely evenly spaced which doesn't really happen for me. I spaced the roses in a kind of not ordered way (which I really liked) and started with a blob of pale purple then got toothpicks and darker purples and did 'c' shapes on top. Sometimes if it got too overwhelmed with one purple I'd go back with a lighter purple to make the rose shape clearer. I finished with my leaves with toothpicks as always and added the little bit of light green.

Brown: M&S - Golden Sands
Cream: Nails Inc - Sao Paulo Streets
Light purple: Essie - Lilacism
Medium purple: Illamasqua - Jo'Mina
Dark purple: OPI - Plum & Get It
Purple glitter: Barry M - Fashion Icon
Green: China Glaze - I'm With The Lifeguard
Dark green: OPI - Jade Is The New Black

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

Green polka dots + gunmetal grey base nails

Hello there people!! Sometimes simplicity is the best. I was pushed for time and was tired (i was going to do a snazzier design) so I quickly blasted through this design, but I loved wearing it. It's also nice to do something different, I'm also now obsessed with polka dots and I want them in every design and this design triggered that.

You know me, you know cuticles issues :P

I like to think it as a mysterious grey base with some green polka dots. So simple, but so great. I don't know what made me want to combine those colours but I'm so glad I did. The combo is so weird, but so great again. I love weird things!!

I got my sponge and went to town, I wanted mystery with the silver but that led to glitter and flakes and I love it. The polka dots I painted with a toothpick so they're not exactly the same but that doesn't matter to me. I'm proud with how evenly spaced they are, that's very easy to mess up and I know this from experience.

Grey: Barry M - Chai

Sponged mystery: w7 - Silver Mirror, Topshop - Gypsy Night and OPI - Metallic 4 Life 

Green: Barry M - Kiwi

Thank you for reading this snappy post and I hope you have a fantastic day!! :)

Retro Gladiolus Flower Nail Art

Hi there you!! I wanted to redeem myself for the awful gladiolus flowers I painted a little bit back. They're bad, very bad and I wanted to prove that I can paint flowers cause it seems the opposite the majority of the time. So here's my rendition, it's a bit wacky but I really like it.

The flowers aren't perfect but I really liked them ya'know. The little bonus colours really made all the difference, like the bonus bit of Sugar Apple really heightened the design. I tried to stray from the black outline too. The polka dots were definitely bonus thoughts by the end but I really like them too. This is where the retro comes from.

You know me and my toothpicks. I started with the basic shape of the petals and then did "artsy strokes" from then on. Lots of dabbing and such. The polka dots at the end were moulded around the design with a toothpick.

Base: The Face Shop - GL112
Polka Dots: w7 - Brownie
Yellows: Rimmel - Sunshine, Barry M - Lemon Ice Cream and American Apparel - Neon Yellow
Oranges: Etude House - No. 60, Essie - Fear Or Desire, Rimmel - It's a Scorcher! and Body Collection - Orange Pink (no name)
Greens: Barry M - Kiwi, Illamasqua - Nomad, Max Factor - Cool Jade, Barry M - Sugar Apple, Rimmel - Block Your Green! and Barry M - Guava

Thanks so much for reading and I hope you have a fab day!! :)

Rabbit (from Winnie the Pooh) Nails

Hello there fine folks on this lovely day (hopefully). This is my 5th Winnie the Pooh nail art design and I'm really liking them, here's my Eeyore one which links to the Tigger, Piglet and Winnie designs. This was my Easter manicure (now you have an idea of how behind I am) cause of Rabbit, and that's Easter appropriate. I got no chocolate eggs but I'm really ok with that, I get more than enough chocolate anyway. My Rabbit design is different from my other ones cause this one follows more closely with how Rabbit actually looks, oo being more artsy!! But not really.

So here I have Rabbit amongst a bunch of carrots and polka dots, I am really proud of how Rabbit turned out, it's nice when things work out right and I think it looks nice. The carrots were dodgier but I don't think they detract at all, and of course polka dots are always cute. I'm onboard with all cute things so I like this a lot.

I started with the polka dots with a bobby pin and I began to tackle Rabbit. I started with a general white base and added the black outline first(!), and then kind of coloured it in. Man proportioning will always be an issue for me but I got there eventually. I finally used my toothpicks for the carrots, I tried making them artsy but in the end I always fall back on cartoony.

Base: w7 - Sheer Lemon and Essie - Shine of the Times
Red: Essie - E-Nuff Is E-Nuff
Yellow: Barry M - Lemon Ice Cream
Pink: Per Una - Pink (no name)
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
White: Lovely Me:Ex - White and Barry M - Matt White
Orange: Essie - Fear or Desire
Light Orange (that you can't see at all :/): Rimmel - It's a Scorcher!
Green: OPI - Jade Is The New Black

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

Mr.Candiipants Vintage Flowers + Polka Dots

Hello there you lovely folks, 300th post!! I forgot to do something special for this haha. But I am in love with the mani I'm gonna show you. I stalk Instagrams and this time it was Mr. Candiipants and I loved her vintage flower and polka dot look and I had to recreate it right away. Her floral looks are so fabulous, expect to see more recreations of her floral looks here. I also just LOVE her personality, she's hilarious!! Also for once my nails have the same manicure, so on my other hand this manicure is inverted and together they look pretty cute.

I did my little changes and it's just such a pretty design. Yes it is very spring/summer-esque but I am permanently in that period. The colour scheme is great and I added glitter which makes me love this more. The flowers were so ridiculously easy to paint and they look great. And polka dots are always cute.

I brought Jinx back out again and top-coated it and it looks beautiful. The shimmer comes out even more and somewhat glows (if you get me) and it's gorgeous. Something that made me hesitate buying textured polish was I wasn't sure if/how I was going to use it. But I am using them all the time in different ways so clearly this calls for more textured polish to be bought!! Well that's how I see it :P

Orange-y Red: OPI - Jinx
White: Lovely Me:Ex - White
This smudged cause it's annoying but I got a toothpick to fix the smudges.
Off-white with rainbow glitter: w7 - Linen and The Face Shop - Vanilla Sugar Yogurt (LOVE)
Red: Essie - E-Nuff Is E-Nuff
Green: Max Factor - Cool Jade
Yellow: Barry M - Lemon Ice Cream
Pink: Per Una - Pink (no name)
Shimmery Teal: OPI - Sea You In Hollywood

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a lovely Sunday!! :)

31DC2013: Day 11 - Polka Dot Nails

Hello there guys!! We're onto polka dots today, I wanted to do some 3D polka dots which I saw at Chelsea Queen's instagram. I thought it looked awesome but lacking that bit of substance I like, I had a mildly crazy idea and I decided to roll with it.

I call them pop art polka dots, I adore the pop art style SO MUCH and I'm slightly sad that it's been not used to full potential here. That changed today. I simply painted some explosions then did the polka dots over them. I didn't purposely do the pop art theme, but I'm happy it turned out that way. 3D polka dots look so cool and they are so easy to do!
So yes I am very much enjoying this manicure, I didn't think I could come up with something substantial for polka dots but one constant with polka dots is that they are cute. I am onboard with that and if they look this cool, I now have more respect for polka dots.

The neon is still happening at PlumeriaPainted (who cares about being season appropriate, obviously not me), I had to try Beach Party by itself and I just love it. I love all the neons and clearly I need all the neons. I'll be writing a full post on Beach Party soon, expect glowing things about it.
I toothpicked the explosions and used bobby pins for the dots. I'm also glad I managed to space the dots out right, I have made the dots not spaced out right before many a time.

Orange: Models Own - Beach Party
White: Barry M - Matt White
Black: Rimmel - Black Pearl
Red: Essie - E-Nuff Is E-Nuff
Green: Max Factor - Cool Jade
Purple: Illamasqua - Jo'Mina

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

Whimsical Summer Scene (Flowers and Birds)

Oh hey there you wonderful person!! Hope this Monday has treated you well :) I've been meaning to get this post up earlier, but revision and the piano have been getting in the way. Speaking of the piano, I have been rocking the "shorties" as of late, and it's not because I want to (I love my long nails) but because I have to sacrifice my nails to the piano (as I have a piano exam), not literally, it's not like my piano eats my nails or anything :P Today I have some fun floral nails, I was inspired by this picture of cute flowers and birds. It really is a fun picture.

Oh man, the little birds are my favourite, they're so cute!! The little dots also add a lot too. This design was really enjoyable to paint as I started with the outline and it was kind of like colouring in a picture. What can I say I'm a child at heart (probably also literally)!

I started the outline in Lovely Me:Ex - Black (surprise surprise), my base was The Face Shop - GR501 and coloured in!!
Pink: Barry M - Fuchsia
Blue: Color Club - Sky High
Purple: OPI - Plum And Get It
Peach: w7 - Linen
White: Lovely Me:Ex - White
I did the dots with a bobby pin, and I freehanded everything else (freehanding's literally all I can do). I finished with the Color Club topcoat to smooth everything out.

This design really is my depiction of fun (which I am all about), oo I really like the speckles on the birds too. I can imagine frolicking around fields of flowers with birds twittering around me... Kind of. I should have a nice post up on Thursday after some exams, should be good. Thank you very much for reading and I hope you have an absolutely fantanbulous day!!! :)

Rilakkuma (Relax Bear) Nail Art

Oh hey there!!! How are you? I'm feeling ok-ish, I was meant to post yesterday but I got out of hand revising (I am one party). But really I started writing notes at 5pm and by 11pm I still hadn't finished. My maximum break could've been 2 hours so that was some intense writing. Unfortunately the test was today and I'm not so sure if I did great.
Whatever moving forward, I wanted bear nails and automatically an image of a bear appeared in my head. I could not for the life of me figure what bear it was, and that annoyed me. Of course I proceeded to ask the internet (the internet knows everything), where I typed in "cartoon bear" which did not work. Then I typed in "korean bear" which also was not so helpful but there was an image with the bear I was looking for. Turns out the bear is Japanese and called Rilakkuma (translated to relax bear). I am positive I've seen this bear before but I can't remember where (it's going to annoy me), but he is ADORABLE.

Ok forever I love him and I need him more in my life. I didn't copy the cartoon exactly I added some elements that I tend to do with everything I paint. I was put off animal nail art for a bit (I. Do. Not. Know. Why), but I am definitely back on cause ANIMALS ARE ADORABLE.
Yes I am a fan of this design cause bears are adorable, I think I love bears now. Obviously not the grizzly scary kind but the cute bear cubs etc. I melt (in a good way). The chick on my pinky is another character in the show. Oh man, SO CUTE.
Base: Revlon - Blue Lagoon, Models Own - Indian Ocean and OPI - Last Friday Night
White: Lovely Me:Ex - White (for details) and Models Own - Snow White (for base)
Brown: Nails Inc - Porchester Square
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
Yellow: Rimmel - Sunshine
Orange: Essie - Fear Or Desire
Porchester Square is beast for nail art cause it's so opaque, and in general it's a nice colour (just not my thing). I want to like Sunshine more, but once I had it on my nail (singular I don't know what I was doing, probably some kind of nail art thing) and it stained. I was not happy about this. Otherwise it's still a decent yellow, but you know yellows, they have many coat formulas.

Picture spam!!! Cause it's cute ^_^

I now want a ton of Rilakkuma paraphernalia, just because that bear is so stinking cute and he can just chill with me :P

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

Spring polka dots and roses

Hey there guys!!! Enjoying your weekend? I hope so :) I decided to have a relaxing day today (I always tell myself in the morning I'm going to work but it never happens :P). Sometimes I feel really unproductive during these days but when you tell yourself what's gonna happen you feel way better :P I called these "Spring" polka dots and roses just to differentiate from all the other polka dot and rose designs I've done.

More floral and I'm quite happy with the roses, better than the usual. I tried to use more shimmery colours due to the orange. I like the placement of the roses. I'm not a big fan of the colour combination, I think it could've been better. But floral nails are pretty and it's good to have a change.
Blue: The Face Shop - GR501
Orange: Chili Pepper - Orange (no name) and Barry M - Pink Iridescent
Pink: Essie - Your Hut Or Mine? 
Darker Pink: Per Una - Fuchsia (no name)
Green: OPI - Jade Is The New Black
White: Lovely Me:Ex - White
I've had that orange polish for over a year and I've never used it properly which is why I had to try it. I used 3 coats, it's nice, but not for this design.

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

"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!! :)

Pastel Polka Dots And Roses

Hello there. I am disappointed in myself :( In a moment of insanity I told myself I was in a pastel mood. I was not in a pastel mood, I was in a Christmas mood. Therefore I regret these nails, somewhat as I really like them but I would like them more if it wasn't December. I've learnt my lesson, no non-Christmas related nails in December. Seriously, the moment I finished I was unhappy because they weren't Christmasy.

I liked them better on my right hand, which I found surprising as I thought the flowers weren't too good. But once I'd finished I thought it was better than expected. I really wanted to use Nomad so I guess I fulfilled that. Cause Nomad is amazing.
Purple: Essie - Lilacism and OPI - Last Friday Night
Pale Green: Illasmasqua - Nomad
Dark Pink: Per Una - Fuchsia (no name)
Light Pink: Orly - Basket Case
White: Models Own - Snow White
Dark Green: OPI - Jade Is The New Black

I guess it's quite pretty, but no more non-Christmas related manicures for me!!

Have a great Saturday!!! :)

Entry to Polish Art Addiction's contest

I call it Candy Flowers and Treats (cause I have to name everything I do ;))

I loved the theme to this contest (monochrome) and wanted to do a kind of twist on the traditional polka dots and roses (which is one of my favourite nail art things to do). So I did it in pink.

Since I'm on holiday I didn't have a pale pink with me and that was quite crucial in this design. Of course me being a genius (sarcasm, please don't take me seriously) I came up with a plan. I got No7 - Snowflake and layered OPI - I Lily Love You over it (and cause I love it :)). Hopefully that's ok, 4 coats was too much though, in real life it was hard to differentiate the roses and the background (thankfully only in some lighting).

Another issue was I had limited pinks so I borrowed one from my aunt. Topshop - Domestic Goddess, which in the bottle looked like a dusty rose. Once I put it on my nail I thought "It's brown", which really annoyed me. Slowly though throughout the day I kept looking at it and it became it's true dusty rose colour. This photo looks dusty rose thankfully, I found a really good lighting spot ^_^ I used that for the polka dots and the roses. I wasn't sure if it would go with The Face Shop - PK105 but I thought the combination was great.

One of my favourite things about this are the pink leaves, that was the reason I wanted to do this in pink, for pink leaves. It was also the background colour for the polka dots. It's OPI - Charged Up Cherry, I've only shown it with nail art on top currently. But again it's lovely.

Right hand picture, the only difference is that I used Charged Up Cherry to do lines on the roses, which did nothing, but I was experimenting.

Nice close up of my thumb, where I really like it basically, but sometimes the roses look really in depth, I noticed that when looking at it. Only sometimes though... :P