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 :)

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!! :)

The totally doable I have a life challenge! - Rose french tip

Hi there!! Another episode of the challenge here. Today was french tip; I feel like french tips get a lot of hate nowadays. But I don't think they're too bad. Whilst it's rare that I do a french tip; before I started blogging (this was a while ago) I used to do quite funky french tips. I was even going to throw it back to when I would do glitter gradient french tips and they were pretty cool.
I think french tips are disliked cause they're boring, but I brought it upon myself to do a cool, visually simulating french tip (how ridiculous do I sound right now?) for the prompt.

Hey I tried, and I really like it. It's quite delicate which is something I like about this manicure. I very much like the look of the bundled roses. It's a tried and tested design, it gave it a good chance to succeed. I also thought through my colour combinations of the roses, I chose the more neutral background for them to stand out.

I suck at roses, it's something that's very hit or miss for me. I think I just about hit here, but close to falling off the target. I used the method of blobbing 2 colours beside each other and getting a bobby pin to dab in the middle of the colours and paint 'c' shapes. it didn't work out very well here cause there was no definiton cause the roses are quite small. So after I got another toothpick to make the rose shapes form. And I just painted the leaves with toothpicks.

Yellow: Topshop - Naked
Pink and orange rose: No.7 - Me! Me! Me!, OPI - Where Did Suzi's Man-go?, Barry M - Fuchsia and Per Una - Fuchsia (no name)
Red and beige rose: Barry M - Carousel, Nails Inc - Sao Paulo Streets and M&S - Poppy
Purple and blue rose: Illamasqua - Jo'Mina, Barry M - Berry Ice Cream, OPI - My Current Crush and Essie - Lots Of Lux
Green leaves: Illamasqua - Nomad and Barry M - Kiwi

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

Blue + Orange Rose Nail Art

Hi there guys, I hope you're doing well. I'm glad that I have posts but you don't even know how behind I am, stuff you're going to be seeing is from months ago :/ But once again at least I have stuff to post, and a lot of the time I'm not in that position. But I am extremely busy right now, I have some pretty serious exams (and they could be happening right now :/ yep this is how behind I am/writing in kind of advance, it's all very time travelling-esque, and mostly confusing for myself and you) and I can't wait 'til they're over, the world will be a beautiful place and I can partake in nail challenges, when was the last time that happened for me? Anyway, I have rose nail art, inspired by Nailed It, her manicure was sweet.

So I kind of liked this manicure at the beginning but slowly I liked it less and less. I feel like I was just less proud of my execution, and I wasn't that proud of it in the first place. So here we have some sub-standard roses on a pink base, and oh yeah wasn't so keen on my colour combo either. Overall I just don't think this was a very successful manicure, but here at PlumeriaPainted I document the successes, the failures and the manicures in between (that's actually not a bad tagline).

I first used the brushes of the polishes to blob the shapes of the flowers, got ma toothpicks and put bunches of lines in each flower and then the black outlining came in. Oh yeah and I did the same kind of thing for the leaves, the dark green outlining was one of the few good ideas I had for this manicure.

Base: Color Club - Wing Fling and OPI - I Lily Love You
(Ok things get dodgy around here, normally I remember every polish but this was really done a while ago so there'll be gaps, but really the only person that is bothered by that is me)
Blue: Nails Inc - Baker Street, Essie - Lots of Lux, OPI - Last Friday Night, Revlon - Dreamer and Barry M - Blueberry Ice Cream
Orange: Essie - Tart Deco, Rimmel - It's a Scorcher!, Essie - Fear or Desire and OPI - Jinx
Green: China Glaze - I'm With The Lifeguard over Lovely Me:Ex - White
Dark Green: OPI - Jade Is The New Black
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black

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

Contrasting Rose Nail Art

Hi there guys!! Here's another Valentine's design, that's late hahaha. I do like all these lovey dovey designs, they can encourage cute (i.e. my favourite thing ever) but not sure how I feel about the actual day, like is it actually a holiday? I really just ignore it, but the whole chocolate, flowers, cards thing seems very manufactured and marketed to me. I shall not conform!!! Haha I don't care, that's my stance on it :P

I have mad struggles with rose nail art (I am the only one who finds them impossible), but this is the first time I'm genuinely proud of a rose design and I love this!! Especially the green and blue roses, they are cool. I went a bit crazy with the backgrounds (the orange and blue one, that could've been rethought) but it's different, and interesting. I used the Copy That Copy Cat rose method, I think it's great. I'm actually happy with how the roses turned out.

For the weird backgrounds I grabbed the polish brushes and went crazy, as suggested before. I used bobby pins for the roses, they were good. And whatever other detail I had for this manicure I used toothpicks.

Purple/Pink base with glitter: Illamasqua - Jo'Mina, Orly - Basket Case and Rimmel - Disco Ball
Orange/Blue base with "shakies" :/ (you can only see them kind of in the above picture): Models Own - Beach Party, Essie - Bikini So Teeny and M&S - Light Mix (really should only be used over darker colours)
Red/White roses: Barry M - Raspberry (I tried using OPI Dutch Tulips first and that failed), Barry M - Matt White, OPI - Jinx and Barry M - Lady
Greens of leaves: Illamasqua - Nomad and Rimmel - Block Your Green!
Blue/Green roses: Barry M - Greenberry, Kiko - 265 and Barry M - Aqua Glitter
Blue/Purple leaves: The Face Shop - GR501, OPI - Get Your Number and OPI - Plum & Get It

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

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!! :)

Black V-Gap + Floral

Hey there guys!!! I had no school today :D Why? Cause of the snow, yes you read that right, the snow, in the middle of March, and trust me it's heavy. In all honestly I am kind of feeling like that nerd kid who wanted to go into school cause I was meant to have a big spanish assessment today and I actually learnt it and now I'll have to wait 2 weeks before I can do it. Whatever, it doesn't matter, oh well (get the song reference?), now I'm on holiday oh yeah. Unfortunately it will be filled with revision but whatever, it doesn't matter etc. ;) Though the weather is not feeling springy, my nails are. I don't tend to do floral patterns but I was inspired.

It looks better this way round. I have to say I've warmed to this design from when I originally finished the design. As you can probably tell I'm not very good at painting roses but the occasional one turned out ok. I'm surprised with how much I like the "V-gap", it's pretty cool. I used tape but then freehanded if the V wasn't right. I really like the colour combination too.
Mint Green: China Glaze - Re-Fresh Mint
Black: Rimmel - Black Pearl
Peach: w7 - Linen and w7 - Sheer Peach
Orange/Peach: Essie - Tart Deco
Dark Green: OPI - Jade Is The New Black
Black Pearl has a pretty shimmer to it, it's very opaque, I should use it more for nail art.

The design is unlike me but I quite like it, floral = appropriate for spring. I'm going to work on my flowers, I see everyone with their absolutely perfect floral nail art and there's mine that's messed up. Haha I don't mind :P Cute cartoons are more my thing.

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

Love-ly Nail Art Challenge - Roses

Hi there guys, we are half way through the challenge!! Valentine's day is fast approaching and I've not been excited. I just don't see Valentine's day the same way as I see Christmas or a birthday. You can tell someone you love them everyday :P

I used to really really like roses, but I think I've moved on from that (just tastes changing and stuff). I've already done this design so it's not the most original but I've done it in crazy colours already so I just wanted to use "traditional" colours. Pink is more pink and blue is more blue (worst description ever) in the pictures.

I think it's nicer in real life but in all honesty I'm a bit of a fail when it comes to roses, I try a different technique and I'm not sure if it worked or not. I'll pretend it did. I freehanded the stripes so they aren't the neatest but their not too bad. My picture's not colour accurate, my natural lighting was gone when I got home :/

Pale Blue: The Face Shop - BL601

Pale Peach: w7 - Linen

Pink: Barry M - Strawberry Ice Cream, The Face Shop - PK105, Per Una - Pink (no name), H&M - Check Me Out and Per Una - Fuchsia (no name)

Dark Blue: Kiko - 265

Green: Illamasqua - Nomad

The pale peach and pale blue went really well together, I was really surprised. Linen was 1 coat, I don't know why I didn't know this before. I thought of doing 2 coats but then realised that would be pointless. 

Thank you for reading, have a wonderful day and check out everyone else's manicures!!!! :)

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!!! :)

Autumn vintage floral nails

I probably could do these once a month since I love this design so much. But this time I think I've finally perfected the design. I used to use "season appropriate" colours (cause I've been doing a great job currently... ":/) this time. Also colours I don't tend to use that much even though their nice.

Is that autumn enough for ya? :P I prefer my right hand cause there are more roses. Also on my left hand I was dipping my bobby pin in the wrong place therefore showing more white. The colours are slightly off (e.g. pink is far more rosy) as my natural lighting place is probably going to be out of use for the next couple of months since it's getting darker earlier (but I love that, it's like the "autumn feeling". Or is that just me again?).
Green: OPI - Jade Is The New Black
White: Models Own - Snow White
Pink: Essie - Your Hut Or Mine?
Purple: Essie - Lilacism
I have a horrible cut on my right thumb so instead of badly editing it out I turned my thumb around. So clever I know, it's just I normally show the whole thumb design. But it wasn't anything that crazy. The shimmer from Your Hut Or Mine? showed up well in this design, it's truly lovely. I do really like Jade Is The New Black and Lilacism, it's just not my favourite colours or polishes so unfortunately don't get used as much as they should. I should change that.

I want to try different variations next time I do this (probably soon), like different ways of doing the roses and obviously different colours. I just love this!!!! :)

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