Blue Distressed Grid Nails

Hi there everyone, if anyone is still here cause I know I've been away for quite a while. Can't say I'll be back much either though. To explain my absence basically I just stopped doing nail art cause I got super into knitting. They don't contradict each other so to speak, like I can have nice nails and knit but I've just kind of invested all my time into knitting (and been loving it). I still like nail art but I've moved on, you know the natural progression from nail art to knitting hahaha.
It's bad that I didn't say I moved away from the blog because of A levels haha. But yeah I got my results and I did pretty well, 3 A's and I've got into uni so this is why I think I will be retiring this blog. I do have one more nail art look before I go but I think it's time to say goodbye. I've had such a good time writing this blog, the point was always to document the creativity cause I've always loved art and while I've felt behind so frequently on this blog it's always been a good time. And while it's been small the feedback I received from anybody always made my day and I've met such lovely people in the nail community so thank you for even reading a few words or taking some time to look at my nail art.
I don't think I'll start a knitting blog, I think I've had my share of blogging but I might start an instagram cause I love pretty things really. I might put up the odd bit of nail art there. I've knitted like a maniac since Christmas and I moved away from the blog, I have a real affinity for hats, I love knitting hats, I don't even know why cause I look terrible in hats but that's where I'm at now. Anyway after that huge explanation I'll get into the nail art, which I obviously did a while ago. I have been doing nail art but it's mostly geometric and I haven't been bothering to photograph (and my cuticles have been a mess haha).

It's been so long since I've done this, I can't remember how to do this anymore. I saw this on someone's instagram but honestly I cannot remember. But they did it in warm colours. I think it's pretty rad, love a bit of distressed and geometric is always so clean. The glitter makes it more clean too.

Trying to keep the same format as before, even though it's not gonna be for long. You know the distressed nails procedure, wipe most the polish of the brush and swipe. Got my toothpick and drew the grid on top.

This is hilarious cause I cannot remember at all what was used so I'm gonna guess.
Blues and purples: Barry M - Sugar Apple, Rimmel - Disco Ball, M&S - Light Mix, OPI - Plum & Get It and I don't think I can guess anymore haha
Black: Rimmel - Black Pearl

I hope you've all been doing well these few months and you've been keeping well, I hope you guys have a great day and until my next and last post!! :')

Geometric Metallic Stripe Nails

Hello there guys!! I hope you're January is going sweet. I'm desperately trying to motivate myself to do work. We'll get there. So today I have a nail art look, I'm not the happiest with this, I think with a different colour scheme it would've been way better. I should've just enjoyed the glitter nails I was rocking with.

So there's a super glittery base and some metallic stripes. I really like the stripes but I think the whole thing looks very dull because of the colours. It had potential.

This is a simple one, where I just painted lines and hoped that they weren't too lopsided. That's really the extent of it.

Base: M&S - Peacock, Barry M - Aqua Glitter, OPI - Polka.com and Revlon - Belle
Silver: w7 - Silver Mirror
Pink: Barry M - Boots Xmas LE 2012 B

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

Pink Nails: Orly - Miss Conduct

Hey there guys, this polish is actually very very special. I've wanted this polish since 2012 no joke, The Polishaholic triggered it when she showed it in the Orly holiday collection and I knew I needed it. But the thing is Orly's never been a brand that's been easy to access here and I'm not a fan of ordering mainstream polishes online (seems a waste) so when I found Orly in TK Maxx a couple of years ago I've been holding out that maybe, just maybe I would find Miss Conduct. Well I think this post has confirmed that the quest is over ;) I actually found 3 bottles which was a bit overkill, and I wanted to get them all but restraint haha.
Now the polishes for my favourite polishes of last year are complete, so that'll be coming up in due course, I love seeing everyone else's favourite polishes around this time of the year, more things to get :P

The subtle holographic shimmer in Miss Conduct warms my heart. Miss Conduct is a raspberry subtle holographic polish and it's beautiful. I should just buy a proper holographic polish to bite the bullet but this is definitely satisfying, I think the subtly actually makes it more compelling.

I've loved Orly for a long time but it's seriously annoying that they're still not sold in major shops here. They used to do minis in Boots but not any more and the selection was poor. Now I have to rummage through TK Maxx and see what random selection I'll get. Not that that's a bad thing, I love TK Maxx surprises. And TK Maxx in general.
I don't know why I love Orly, I just think their colours are more fun (their neons tho) and I like the bottles (lol) and their nice colours are pure beaut. Miss Conduct is a really cute name too.

The formula was so good, it was opaque in 1 coat and I just did 2 for banter. It was so so easy to apply and was perfect.

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

Reindeer Fair Isle Nails

Hiya!! This is um a leftover Christmas design, but I still think it's winter appropriate so we're still all good. Fair Isle designs are so nice, I have a jumper with a fair isle design. Hey it's more nail art!! What this blog is about!!

So you can definitely see a Christmas colour scheme, well you can't have enough Christmas. The main shapes of this design are just dots and asterisks and hearts. So it was really easy to paint but still looks pretty complex. The reindeer were definitely the best part of this design, but yeah overall I really like this design, repeating patterns is fun.
Oh yeah and matteing everything, but I had issues with my matte topcoat. Don't know why but it leaves white chunks on my nail art which is pretty terrible when you've spent ages on a design. Thankfully I was able to remove a lot of them but it really jeopardises a design cause the white bits get stuck in the topcoat then everything can get wrecked. You have to tread carefully.

Again this one was very simple, got my peach base then I got my toothpicks and painted the various designs. I worked from top to bottom (cause that makes sense) and did dots and all the other stuff. i'm so good at describing.

Base: M&S - Sun Glow
Green: Barry M - Kiwi
Red: Seventeen - Dark Heart (or something like it, all reds are the same)
Light Green: Illamasqua - Nomad
Blue: The Face Shop - GR501
Light Red: OPI - Jinx

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

Pink Glitter Cherry Blossom Nail Art

Hey guys, Happy New Year!! I'm sure we're confused where 2015 went but 2016 is here and I think it's a good thing for a metaphorical new start :) Please tell me we're all watching the Sherlock new year special today.
I actually did look this ages ago, before any of the Christmas nail art but I think me being behind is a given now. Just really enjoying this holiday while I can and before my life gets mental again. I think we've all been busy bees (lol at this phrase that I've never used before). My plan was to post a load during December and that didn't even happen haha. I forgot to mention that during December I had a load of choir things and one of them was broadcast on TV (where I looked like the boredest person alive lol) and I did a reading on the radio (now that wasn't too bad :P). Anyway, cherry blossom.

I think cherry blossom designs are always nice, I think the all pink thing was a mistake on my part but I think the look still pulls through. I'm still on a total matte kick and thankfully my matte topcoat hadn't turned on me (but it's early days yet, I'll tell you what I mean in a future post). The glitter totally helped this look out, it adds magic and that and a windswept effect. 

I started with the black branches and kind of just dragged the toothpick and hoped for an arty effect. My branches could've been done better but we go with it. Then I added the flowers and did a dot and dragged the black to the centre. I was trying to do gradient flowers but it didn't really work, it works better once I point it out but you wouldn't notice it otherwise. 

Base: Seventeen - Pink Lemonade

Black: Rimmel - Black Pearl

Light Purple: Seventeen - Parma Violet

Purple: Orly - Frolic

Glitter: Barry M - Fairy Lights and Maybelline - Bouquet

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

Red Nails; Seventeen - Dark Heart

Hi there you lot, I have a swatch today. As I say, there are only so many red polishes you need i.e. one. But My mind has been slowly swaying, like I love light orangey tone reds. But today's polish is your run-of-the-mill red, but everyone should have one. It's a nail art staple and sometimes you want to be classy. The shade is slightly different from my other reds but when it comes to red I think it makes no difference. I hope you guys have a good safe New Year's Eve, I'll probably be staying at home and despairing at how soon school is coming, trust me I'm despairing. Why are holidays never long enough???

To be honest it does look nice, I think red suits me much better than other colours but Dark Heart is still just a red creme polish. Do you agree? Do you think when you have one red you have them all?

I think Dark Heart is an interesting name for a polish that isn't a dark red, that's what I'd expect at least. But I still think Seventeen are doing a very good job with all their polishes.

The formula was very good, 2 coats and I'm pretty sure it was completely opaque and it was easy to apply. That's a better formula than some of my other reds so kudos. Lol I don't know what kudos means.

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

Robin Red Breast Nail Art

Hey there guys!! I hope you had an amazing Christmas if you celebrated :) I got the loveliest gifts from people and I appreciate it so much. So I have some Christmassy nail art but it's more winter, it's why I felt ok holding these looks back (also been knitting up a storm, everything has been deprioritised, not a word but you know what I mean). Robins are so sweet, I'm surprised I've never done Robin nail art before but I'm glad I can still paint new things after all these years.

I'm still on a complete matte kick. For these robins I wanted to do a different style for every nail and I just about did it. So different colours and patterns for the belly and different beaks. It was fun. I love the little Santa hat on my pinky. I feel like the soft glitter in the back is perfect for falling snow, gotta give all your polish love. 

For these birds I tended to start with the belly then the brown/white and then add all the details with of course toothpicks. Generally proportions were ok, except on my index finger where the head was way too small for the body but managed to fix that by bringing the legs higher weirdly enough. 

Base: Barry M - Blue Moon and OPI - Pirouette My Whistle

Brown: Paris Collection - Mauve Melody

Dark Brown: w7 - Brownie

Black: Rimmel - Black Pearl

White: Barry M - Cotton

Red: M&S - Poppy

Light Red: Barry M - Carousel

Copper: Paris Collection - Copper Topper

Light Brown: Paris Collection - Brown Beaute

Pink: Barry M - Miami

Light Pink: Barry M - Dragon Fruit

Dark Pink: OPI - Charged Up Cherry

Purple: Orly - Frolic and Barry M - Socialite

Silver: w7 - Silver Mirror

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

Peach Nails: Seventeen - Pink Lemonade

Hiya, I have a swatch today continuing the Seventeen polishes thing. You know what less waffle and more getting on with it.

Usual sorry about my cuticles and a fun chip I got on my index finger -_-

Pink Lemonade is a really nice pale medium jelly pink and I love this kind of mellowness. Also side note I really like Pink Lemonade cause Lemonade is one of my favourite drinks (tbh it's much better than pink lemonade).

Clearly the Seventeen shade range is pretty diverse, the jellies are really nice colours so good job to them. But the glitters are also unique to me so I think they're doing a good job.

For a jelly polish the formula is actually really good, I won't be reaching for this loads as a base but it only took 4 coats. Compared to Lime Em Up (the green jelly), the formula was far more opaque and generally built better. But a good thing about jellies is that they're easy to apply and you try to balance the bad and the good (I think the bad outweighs for me but that doesn't mean I don't like jellies).

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

Red Glam Snowflake Nails

Hey there guys, oops about the posts. It's 2 days before Christmas and we're getting our first Christmas nail art look :/ I've been busy, this is my standard thing now. I'm in charge of the Christmas ballot meaning I have to wrap nearly 50 presents and um I haven't done that yet. Also I've really taken to knitting, I've knitted 2 scarves in 4 days, I've basically binge knitted like 8 hours a day. I'm not good with balance, I've been knitting so much I haven't been playing Pokemon and trust me that's saying something . Anyway I always do snowflake nail art every year so this is what we're getting. Though I do think this is my best one yet.

So I think a red base is classy. I've also been obsessed with matte again but I'll talk about the demerits of that even though I do think matte is totally worth it. So they're just snowflakes but they're neater than ever before and ALL THE GLITTER. I think I should've done one less coat of the base glitter to let the red come through but these are minor things.
I loved wearing this look, oh yeah with matte the manicure chips a million times more easily and my index chipped clean off and I had to redo it creating the tons of bubbles cause I didn't give it enough time to dry -_- I also accidentally used a different red from the other nails, but it proves all reds are the same haha.

So after my glitter base I got my toothpick and did an uneven X then did a line through it. Add the small lines and you have snowflakes, I'm glad I did one per nail basically cause it's so much less crowded. Then I did blobs for snow then I added all the big chunky glitter for glam and glitter, you can't have enough glitter.

Red: Seventeen - Dark Heart (and M&S - Poppy for my index haha)
Gold Glitter: Seventeen - Winter Coat
White: Barry M - Cotton
Chunky Glitter: Illamasqua - Blizzard, Barry M - Hologram Hexograms and Barry M - Starlight

Thank you very much for reading and I hope you have a great time prepping for Christmas!!

Green Nails: Seventeen - Lime Em Up

Hey there guys, I'm finally off school meaning hopefully I can get a bunch of posts up as I haven't been doing a great job lol. Continuing with the Seventeen polishes I have a fun green, a jelly too and yeah this colour is great.

I think a darker lime green is a decent description. It's pretty bright and it's a jelly. I love green and this is a vibrant one so it's cool with me.

Lime Em Up is a pretty sweet name, the edges weren't great not helped by the fact that my cuticles are not good in this season, but I'll write more about formula in the next bit.

This took a lot of coats, you know what jellies are like. I did 5 coats but it wasn't thick at all and it did build well, just took a lot of coats. It applied easily but I don't know if I'll be using it as a base any time soon but I do want to find uses for it cause the colour's so great.

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

Purple Nails: Seventeen - Parma Violet

Hey there!! I have a pale purple today and I have to say nail blogging has made me a lover of pale purple polishes and seriously I think this is one of the nicest I've ever seen. Surely we all love pale purple at this stage.

Parma Violet is a super pink toned pale purple, and this is just gorgeous. I love it!! The pink tone makes it look fabulous.

Parma Violet is actually the perfect name, yes I've commented on the names a lot but that's because they're on point. I love Parma Violets, I don't think if they're just a British thing but I think they're so good. The colour of this isn't the same colour of parma violets at all but who cares when it's this nice.

The formula was amazing, 2 coats and it was so opaque and easy to apply. So I'm impressed, gone are the days of super sheer pastel polishes (hopefully at least).

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

Pastel Jelly Checkered Nails

Hey there guise, I have some nail art today, unfortunately while I have done Christmas nail art it might take a while before it gets here as I'm behind. This is an expected thing now. I'm happy with the Christmas nail art I've currently done so I'm excited to show you. But today's nail art is still fun, I got 2 jelly polishes and made me want to do a checkered design as jellies show through really well.

Pink and green are really cute together, and I like it all together. Checkered patterns are so easy and they look so cute, it's after I did my Kanga and Roo design I want to do more checked designs, they're a great base.

So after the base you try your best to space the lines evenly and in a straight line. I'm pleased with my attempt, sure there are some lines that aren't perfectly straight or equal, but that's the charm of it. Otherwise I think it's pretty good, this is freehand remember with the nail polish brushes so I don't think it's half bad. 

Cremes

Pink: Barry M - Dragon Fruit

Green: Etude House - No. 86

White: Barry M - Cotton

Mint Green: Barry M - Pole Position

Jellies

Pink: Seventeen - Pink Lemonade

Dark Pink: Etude House - No. 60

Green: Seventeen - Lime 'Em Up

Dark Green: China Glaze - I'm With The Lifeguard

Blue: Topshop - Green Room

White: No. 7 - Snowflake

Glitter: M&S - Light Mix

I love how all my jellies are becoming useful now, it's time for jelly sandwiches to come back!!

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

Gimme Glitter: Seventeen - Sparkler

Hello!! I have more glitter today cause tbh you can't have enough glitter. Ever. I have a lot of choir things coming up but I think I can deal. My exams are over and I did alright and I didn't stress myself out and uni things are going pretty good. Now just have to sort like presents and stuff. And life and stuff but it'll be sweet :)

Sparkler (another cute name) is a tinted base with little blue and purple glitter and it's quite nice. Maybe it'll look over a different base, it's not bad over dark blue (Seventeen - Midnight Sapphire) but there's probably more potential.

With this Seventeen swatch marathon I don't have much else to say. But if you can get Seventeen nail polish I think it's definitely worth it if you see a nice colour. Pricing is so reasonable and that's what you want.

Sorry picture's a lil blurry

The coverage was pretty good, I wanted a lot of glitter and so I used 3 coats, but if you don't want as much lesser coats would definitely be enough.

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

Gimme Glitter: Seventeen - Winter Coat

Hey there guys!! Christmas is coming!! I know it's a bit late for a first post in December, I haven't even been that busy but I guess I've been doing other things. It'll be swatches for the next bit but I've been very nail art focused as of late so I think it's time. This is really pretty too.

Winter Coat is a glitter topper with small gold glitter and slightly lager pieces of gold and iridescent glitter and it's so pretty!! I love how this looks over pink (Seventeen - Summer Lovin') and I already know it'll look great over loads of things.

Winter Coat is such a cute name I love it. So yes been trying all these Seventeen polishes and I think they're great. The colours have been so solid and so have the formulas.

The glitter coverage was super good, I have 2 coats here and even in 1 coat there was a ton of glitter and it was very easy to apply.

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

Blue Nails: Seventeen - Midnight Sapphire

Hello fine people!! I have another swatch today, I think this polish is very similar to Kiko 265 just as a side note. Another side note, The Hunger Games was on TV the other day and man it was amazing. It just reminded me of when it first came out and how hype that was and it reminded me of how into the book I was and how great reading too deeply into the movie is. I know the new movie is coming out (has come out? I don't know :/) but I missed the 1st part so maybe seeing the 2nd part isn't the greatest idea. Though now I want to watch them all again, Josh Hutcherson has always been my bae :P

I like this lighting as it shows the really pretty blue shimmer. The name of this was very appropriate, Midnight Sapphire is a very dark blue with blue shimmer. Like it's bordering on black, but I still like it and will use it. I think one hope I'll actually get a proper navy.

I still really liking Seventeen, it's a brand you always see in Boots and stuff but the quality is really good. Like the set I was given was gorgeous in terms of colours chosen and the presentation was really nice too. So it's a thumbs up from me.

Sorry that it's so blurry

The formula was really good, 2 coats and I was sorted. I'm glad that you don't need a high end brand for great formula, no use spending that money (unless it's an Illamasqua ;)).

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

Coral Nails: Seventeen - Summer Lovin

Hey there guys!! I hope you're doing sweet, I have exams this week but um haven't really been sweating it :/ There's still time and stuff but these exams don't count for anything and I'd rather a week off. I'm terrible, I know. One of my dearest friends got me an amazing nail polish set so that's what I'll be showing today and for the next couple of posts. It's been a while since we've had a swatch marathon here so it's time.

Sorry we're in that time of year where my lighting is a disaster, as well as my cuticles (well it's not too bad here). You would not be able to tell if this was coral at all. It's way more orange toned and lighter but it is a lovely colour. I love coral and this is just a really nice creme. 

Also Summer Lovin is a great name, who cares if it's not? I've never used Seventeen polish before but I'm impressed, already I think their shade range is great. 

Also I only have 2 pictures today cause my 3rd picture was so beyond. I know these pictures aren't colour accurate but that other one was so far gone. Seriously my lighting was just non-existent making me use another light source that did not work.
Anyway I have 4 coats here, not necessary but I wanted to remove all streakiness. Otherwise it applied very easily and was very easy to control.

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

Who's that Pokémon? Slowpoke!

Hiya guys!! I hope you're having a good life, I am, I've had this personality adjustment where I don't care about stupid things that don't matter and life becomes amazing!! My university applications have been sent off too so that's a waiting game.
So this manicure was my birthday manicure, I've become a pokémon lover (at the tender age of 17 lol) and I'm currently trying to complete the Pokedex and it's quite the challenge. Also I'm trying to do it with Wondertrade which if you've wondertraded you know it's a mixed bag. Though I've nearly got a full bow of shiny pokemon from it so I say it's worth it. Also I picked Slowpoke for this mani cause Slowpoke is so cute and I have a Slowbro now and I love it. Also side note: sorry about my cuticles!!

So I have a wee Slowpoke with a blue gradient with the big bombastic glitter. It looks better in real life trust me. My lighting is going down and my cuticles are dying lol. I'm happy with that Slowpoke but thankfully it's a pretty easy one to paint. I thought my gradient was done well too cause I did the layers and stuff and I love subtle magical glitter. And then big as glitter (leaving bubbles but you can't win everything haha).

I did the gradient with a sponge and yeah I did it layer by layer, I had the patience. Then slapped the glitter on. For Slowpoke, I started with the pink base and then the yellow mouth with some toothpicks and did the details one by one including the black outline. It was a good shape to paint, it's nice when it can look cool but still be simple to paint.

Pink: Barry M - Miami (I became unsure about this pink cause it was quite dark but it was only in certain lighting)

Yellow: Ciate - Loop the Loop

White: Barry M - Cotton

Black: Rimmel - Black Pearl

Red: Seventeen - Dark Heart

Blue: Barry M - Malibu

Light Blue: Nails Inc - The Tide is High

Subtle Glitter: OPI - Last Friday Night

Chunky Glitter: Etude House - No. 346

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