Star-Crossed Nails

Hello!! I've have some downtime recently so I've been trying to get some nail art and general nail stuff done before everything goes insane again. I might have to do mock exams and so much urgh. See my clever title, cause it's literally stars and crosses, I needed something simple to last and this fitted that criteria.

I always like star patterns and the cross pattern is pretty cool. It's very simple but sometimes that's the most effective. I like this colour scheme too, blue and green are 2 of my favourite colours too. The glitter really adds too, it was missing a little je ne sais quoi and the glitter got it.

I freehanded the design with some toothpicks, I'd draw the outlines of the stars and then fill them in. I tried my best to keep the lines straight and while they're a bit wobbly I'm happy with it. For my left hand I did the pattern "inverted" cause I can never truly match.

Red: Barry M - Starlet
Blue: Barry M - Malibu
Green: Barry M - Greenberry
Dark blue: Nails Inc - Baker Street
Olive green: Illamasqua - Melange
Glitter: Barry M - Superdrug Xmas LE 2012 B

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

Colourful triangle pattern nails

Hey there!! You're probably busy right now just cause everything always seems to be busy. But while it's busy I hope that it's also worthwhile. One of the reasons I've been posting less is cause I have my Grade 8 piano coming up in less than a month and a girl has to practice and keep her nails short. But short nails can still have sweet designs.

Triangles are my favourite shape, they're just edgier than circles and squares. I think about shapes more than most cause I do A level maths. It's hard, I'm sure you guys who've done it know that. Anyway getting away from maths I love the bright colours and just how cool the triangle pattern looks. It's just mega fun.

I used toothpicks to freehand this as usual, as you can tell the triangles are not all the same size but that doesn't bother me. It's just so uniform and I like that sometimes.

Yellow: Rimmel - Sunshine
Red: OPI - Jinx
Orange: Essie - Fear Or Desire
Green: Barry M - Kiwi
Blue: Barry M - Malibu

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

Red Nails: Barry M - Starlet

Hello there guys!! I hope you're having a sweet day, also Happy Chinese New Year to those celebrating!! I know I'm pretty late and my chinese new year design probably won't be up for a while cause turnaround is slow here haha. So today I have a Barry M Glitterati polish cause they're pretty fab. This is the other polish I bought with Malibu cause when things are on offer I think I literally can't say no :P

Starlet is a pinky red glitter with I reckon opalescent glitter and then some holographic glitter sprinkled in like the other polishes in the collection. Depending on the lighting it was lean very pink or like orangey red. I'm reluctant to call this coral though, the shade of colour is a big deal. It's a nice polish, I think it'd be fun for a party or something (not like I have time to go to parties haha) and I think the opalescent glitter adds good depth.

I was intrigued by the colour, and considering how great the other Glitterati polishes are I wanted to try this one out, and like all the colours lol. You know Barry never disappoints, I excited to try the new Gelly polishes and like everything, I'll probably initially write it off then way after everyone else I try it and am amazed.

This was a definite 3 coater, but it built really well. It was pretty sheer on the 1st coat (like the others) but it was completely opaque in 3 coats. The formula is pretty thick but not difficult to apply. You just have to make sure it's applied evenly and it looks pretty sweet.

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

Blue Nails: Barry M - Malibu

Hello nail polish lovers!! This is a new purchase, my friend's dad wanted to go to the shops after school and I went to Boots with my friend and when I go to Boots nail polish tends to be bought. It was on offer? I was debating for ages about which polish to get but I thought I'd give the matte polishes a whirl. They didn't really get my attention from swatches but remember, this is Barry.

Is this not the most gorgeous shade of blue you've ever seen? Seriously it's so eye-catching and striking, and loads of people were saying what a nice colour Malibu is.
I'd say Malibu is a satin matte cerulean blue polish, it's not fully matte as you can see. Matte polishes tend to show imperfections but it really doesn't bother me at all when the blue is this fabulous and the imperfections aren't obvious.

I think the name Malibu is so cute too. I suppose when I saw swatches last September, I thought the finish was off (maybe it was just those swatches) and the colours weren't all that special but I never seem to learn to never underestimate Barry. Though I do love these extremely pleasant surprises, so yes I now need the rest of the collection like I say with every Barry M collection.

The formula is incredible, again I shouldn't expect anything less of Barry but sometimes I don't know what to expect. You could seriously do 1 coat cause it's SO opaque. I used 2 cause strangely I had long nails but it's actually so opaque (need to emphasise this) and goes on so smoothy and easily. Perfect formula, I love when polish is like this.

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

Gradient hearts + blue tribal nail art

Hey there!! I realise now this actually would've been a valentine's appropriate design but I did this is January. Gurl don't have time for valentine's designs. I was looking for something funky to wear for the week and I love some glitter gradients and tribal.

My gradients are very hit and miss and this one missed but I feel like that component didn't really matter cause of everything else going on. I love cute little heart patterns and I've always thought tribal patterns were great. It's somewhat contrasting, but not too much, like most nail patterns work together anyway. I had a slightly different pattern going on, on my left hand.

I think my gradient wasn't so good cause I just used the brush of the nail polish. Otherwise everything was with a toothpick and went wild with that.

Purple: The Body Shop - A Grape Affair
Teal: Essie - Naughty Nautical
Glitter: Hare Polish - The Teen Queen
Dark pink: Madame Milly - Pink (no name)
Pink: No. 7 - Me! Me! Me!
Pink glitter: Barry M - Socialite
Blue: Essie - Lots of Lux
Light blue: Barry M - Sugar Apple

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

Hot Geometric Rainbow Nails

Hello there guys!! It's been a while, but as you can assume I've been busy so I haven't been painting let alone blogging. Hmmm what's happened in like the last 2 weeks? I passed my driving theory woohoo!! Oh yeah I hope you had a nice Valentine's day, I legitimately forgot that was a real thing, like I don't think it has any weight as a significant holiday. The piano was my valentine, I love the piano haha. I have a nice little design here, I really like the geometric rainbow pattern.

I liked the idea of a warm toned rainbow thing, and then different shades of the colours fading.  really like the look it's fun and I think it's sunny and funky. I wanted the colours of the rainbow to stand out and it was random but I like it way it looked. I should've used my good topcoat cause the matte topcoat didn't do well on top of that.

I freehanded the whole thing as usual starting with the outlines of the rainbows and then I used my toothpicks to fill the stripes of the rainbow in.

Red outline: Barry M - Carousel
Reds: M&S - Poppy and Essie - Leading Lady
Orange outline: Essie - Fear Or Desire
Oranges: Rimmel - It's A Scorcher! and Paris Collection - Copper Topper
Light orange outline: Models Own - Beach Party
Peaches: Paris Collection - Brown Beaute and w7 - Linen
Gold outline: w7 - Golden Sands
Yellows: Ciate - Loop the Loop and American Apparel - Neon Yellow
Base: M&S - Maize

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

Yellow Nails: M&S - Maize

Hi there!! It's swatch day and yellow polish, not my favourite colour but sometimes it's fun. This is my second last Marks and Spencers polish so we are working our way through. Not that I know if I'll finish swatching my collection anytime soon cause my life goes everywhere really haha.

Maize is an orange toned yellow with a subtle yellow shimmer and it's nice but you know not my thing. It also really doesn't suit me and I had to paint something over it cause that yellow and my skin tone were not working together.

You know M&S does nail polish? I do go up and check but their colours aren't blowing my mind so I'm leaving them be cause I have so much self-control (this is sarcasm cause I got new polish and the colours aren't exactly the most inspired haha) but I think it's very solid. I always like looking at nail polish no matter what kind, and when I don't have time.

Maize is definitely a layering polish, I used 4-5 coats for this swatch. It built decently and it wasn't thick at the end but you know yellow polishes generally tend to be more sheer. This is why I got bubbles though cause I wanted to the build it fast, the formula was good, it went on easily and there wasn't any streakiness or anything.

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

Teddy bear + biscuit nails

Hello, I hope you're well!! Man it's been a while, I've been scheduling stuff cause if I thought December was crazy that was nothing compared to January (in a different way). I don't know how I get myself into this much stuff, I'm never saying that a month'll be less busy because I really don't know anymore.
There's been my school play which I was playing the keyboard which was so fun but I was wrecked after, and I sang at an acoustic night (amazing) and there were curry nights and all kinds of crazy stuff. So much fun but simultaneously so much work and it's a lot to handle haha.
As usual the blog has been taking the backseat and I don't see that changing any time soon. I did these teddy nails when I had a couple of minutes to breathe and they're pretty cute!! :)

I love bears, which is why I paint them so much but they have the cutest ears!! The cookies originally looked quite normal but then weird topcoat experiments happened and everything started to look weird. Still like dem biscuits for what they are. I added the pastel glitter cause it's so cute and childish and works really well for the feeling of this look. It's all v cute.

I freehanded everything as that's really all I can do. I used toothpicks and pens cause my white polish is running out quickly. I dabbed and placed the glitter on but that didn't stop the mani from being thick and yes I'm still on my matte kick.

Blue: Models Own - Asscher Blue
Glitter: Etude House - WH901
Yellow: Topshop - Naked
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
White: Lovely Me:Ex - White and No.7 - Snowflake
Pale brown: Nails Inc - Sao Paulo Streets
Brown: Nails Inc - Porchester Square
Copper: The Face Shop - GL112

Thank you for coming and reading this post, I hope you have a lovely day!! :)