31DC2013: Day 31 - Recreate a manicure you love

Hi there guys!! We are here, I am finished!! Only 10 days after everyone else!! Woo!! Recap post coming soon where I'll mention favourites and unexpected favourites and other thoughts. This is was a difficult prompt for me cause there are so many amazing nail art designs out there (especially right after this year's 31 day challenge!!) but I really wanted to do one I LOVE and not just really like. This is where Lucy's Stash's one stroke flower nails come in, I'm tried to do something inspired by this before, but this has a different colour scheme and it's just different in general (read: no where near as good but I still like it).

I even used the dark red base (with glitter of course to make it more pink) and very much enjoy it!! Maybe the seasonal trends are rubbing off on me (haha no, that's never the case). I just painted some pink flowers which hold no candle to the original but my version are like a more cartoony version. I've painted better flowers before but this has glimpses of something pretty. I really like the colour scheme (always love a good pink and red clash), it's just nice :)

It's weird that on my last challenge day last year I cut by nails at the same time. I just have things to do and long nails make things that bit harder. Normally I cut them and hate my nails short but for the first time I'm actually quite liking it. Though long nails are my favourite, I'm trying to find my perfect happy medium.

Red base: Nails Inc - Tate and OPI - Excuse Moi!
White: Lovely Me:Ex - White
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
Bright pink: Color Club - Wing Fling
Other pinks: Barry M - Boots Xmas LE 2012 B and Per Una - Pink (no name)

I just posting here will be back to regular posting with my little series that I do, my "full" thoughts on the challenge will be in my recap post. But yays that I finished this business!! Thank you for reading and I hope you have a fantastic day!! :)

31DC2013: Day 30 - Inspired by a tutorial

Hi there guys!! I'm almost there, I'm glad I'm taking the final stretch with ease it's so much more relaxing and I get to create (in my opinion) higher quality nail art. I've wanted to do this manicure for AGES, and it's Copy That Copy Cat's 3D cube nail art. She was one of my favourite bloggers (she's a bit MIA now), though I'm not sure what happened to her blog, hopefully she can resolve it soon (or maybe it's only my computer). But I have her youtube tutorial and I just think it's one of the edgiest designs around and she executed it to perfection.

My cubes are not exactly the same size but I really like them nonetheless!! This is what I mean by edgy, sometimes I need some edginess in my life and this is how I do it. The black sides really bring out the edge (hahahahaha literally!!).

I got my pen, drew the outlines and filled it in. It wasn't as time-consuming as you would think it would be but it did take a while.

White: Barry M - Matt White
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
Pink: Nails Inc - Notting Hill Gate
Yellow: Rimmel - Sunshine
Blue: Essie - Bikini So Teeny

Thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day. See you next time for my last challenge post (hopefully)!! :)

31DC2013: Day 29 - Inspired by the supernatural

Hi there guys!! Hope you're having a great weekend (I'm hoping to squeeze in a movie amongst the crazy amount of work I have). Supernatural should be a tough prompt for me as I don't like "supernatural" things like ghosts, spirits and all that whatever. But every year I am provided with the perfect inspiration. Last year was Boo, this year is Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon. The long awaited sequel to Luigi's Mansion. Also it's the Year of Luigi; therefore Luigi must be painted!!

I love Luigi being all terrified there, of all the characters to explore haunted mansions. They picked cowardly Luigi, that's perf. I'm really happy with how Luigi turned out, it does look like him being a cool dude. I painted various other ghosts in the game (thumb to pinky), Slammer, Poltergeist, Greenie, Hider and a Polterpup. I just love the overall look of this, I think I did Luigi's Mansion 2 justice :)

In the game you are Luigi and you de-ghosify various mansions and retrieve parts of the broken dark moon. Unfortunately I have not played this game but I think it looks great, I'm hoping a friend gets it so I can play ;) Neither did I play the first one which I know many complained of it being too short, yet awesome at the same time (though they didn't complain about that).

Black base con glitter: Rimmel - Black Pearl (one coater!) and OPI - Last Friday Night
I love this combo, I tested a couple of combos over black on a piece of paper and this was my favourite of the ones I tried.
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
White: Lovely Me:Ex - White
Red: Essie - E-Nuff Is E-Nuff
Orange: Models Own - Beach Party
Pink: Essie - Your Hut Or Mine?
Neon Green: China Glaze - I'm With The Lifeguard
Blue: Revlon - Dreamer
Silver: w7 - Silver Mirror
Purple-y Pink: Barry M - Fuchsia
Peach: w7 - Linen
Green: Illamasqua - Nomad
Brown: w7 - Brownie
Blue (for eyes): Barry M - Blueberry Ice Cream
Dark Blue (for eyes): Kiko - 265

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

31DC2013: Day 28 - Inspired by a flag

Hi there guys!! I know there are plenty of cool flags around but I decided to just do some Union Jacks to make up for the shambles that was my attempt last year. I somehow managed to mess them up, but I've definitely improved this time.

And I added some pastel accents for some extra interest, I think it's super cute. And yeah UK flags cause it's still my hometown, dawg. Sorry don't know where the dawg came from. One thing I'm annoyed with is that my lines are so chunky that you can't see the blue bases too well, if I had known that I wouldn't have used Baker Street, but let's say it's worth it cause it's a British brand. My favourite nail is my thumb cause you can see the blue and it's just cute in general.

Blue: Nails Inc - Baker Street
White: Barry M - Matt White
Red: Essie - E-Nuff Is E-Nuff
Light Blue: Revlon - Blue Lagoon
Pink: Barry M - Strawberry Ice Cream
Strawberry Ice Cream is a tricky mistress, I was thinking of using a different colour but it's my only light pink. So i would load up the brush then spread from there. It's really gloopy but I really like the look so yes worth it. And most of the polishes in this design are British brands :P

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

31DC2013: Day 27 - Inspired by artwork

Hi guys, I'm still battling through the challenge and I'm nearly there. So close!! Today's nail art is inspired by Coplu, specifically this painting. I really liked the heart balloons and the night sky so that it was. I have to say I don't know much about the artist but I'm looking forward to finding out more in the future!!

Clearly I didn't follow the colour scheme exactly (from the picture I was using I couldn't see the orange and I'm like aw man eyesight failure). But otherwise I really like it, those balloons are cool. I should find some in real life. Of course I love that holographic glitter and that cool conductor just casually conducting those balloons ;) I gave him a bit of depth and I really like that too. But this is once of those occasions that I think the design looks better in real life.

Blue base: Kiko - 265, w7 - Polar Bare, Nails Inc - Abbey Road and OPI - Get Your Number
Ok the base was a complicated process, I definitely wanted a dark blue but my Barry M one is extremely gloopy so I went for the Kiko polish. Which I forgot how dark it was (it's almost black) so I added a coat of Polar Bare thinking it would lighten it but it didn't really. Just made it frosty and more grey :/ I tried to do a glitter gradient with Abbey Road but in general it didn't look right. So I just jammed the Get Your Number on and oh my goodness Get Your Number looks AMAZING over a darker base. That's the way to make this polish amazing, the holographic glitter just comes out and add the topcoat, you know what happens ;) The part with Abbey Road under is slightly lighter, but slighter is the way to describe that. But the base outcome was worth it, I keep staring at that holographic glitter!! I'm glad I've found ways to incorporate textures into my nail art!!
Peach: w7 - Linen, w7 - Sheer Peach and Paris Collection - Brown Beaute (for the depth, but it's totally not brown)
White (also as a base for the balloons): Lovely Me:Ex - White
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
Brown: w7 - Brownie
Yellow: Rimmel - Sunshine
Red: Essie - E-Nuff Is E-Nuff
Green: OPI - Jade Is The New Black
Blue: Revlon - Dreamer 
Pink: The Face Shop - PK105

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

Purple Nails: Barry M - Berry Ice Cream

Hi there guys!! Happy October!! :) I think most people are finishing the challenge today and blah-di-blah I'm really busy blah blah blah, so I'm taking my time to get there but I have to say I'm really enjoying it and I really like what I've done for the challenge.
So some nice plain purple nails today, this was also my first ever pale purple polish (the pale purples have grown since then). I think I had a bad first experience with this polish so I thought it sucked -_- I'm wrong all the time, this was another instance where I was wrong but this was at the beginning of the nail obsession so I didn't know much. But beginning of this year I realised how amazing this polish is and now it's one of my favourites.

I deplenished half the bottle and I only really started using it this year. The thing that makes this lovely for me is the pink tone that Berry Ice Cream has. Oh yeah pale purple really doesn't suit me, washes me out like nobody's business but this is so wearable, and though it doesn't suit me completely it's such a pretty colour that I don't care.

I mentioned I got this polish a while ago, but really I mean it was quite the while and it's not gloopy. I love that cause I can't deal with gloopy polishes. I guess this was part of Barry M's Ice Cream collection consisting of pastels, I own a few as you may have seen on this blog. I now love pale purple polish due to this polish and Barry M - Prickly Pear.

2 easy coats and you're set, I used 3 for the odd nail when it was slightly streaky but 2 coats is really all that is required. I used to not like this polish cause 1. It was pale purple and 2. I thought it took forever to dry. It doesn't take forever to dry we've already established that the colour is gorgeous and I'm wrong.

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

31DC2013: Day 26 - Inspired by a pattern

Oh hello there!! Pattern, I was going to do your standard paisley but then I decided I wanted to do something cooler. So clearly this calls for stationery, stationery have the best patterns. I chose a robot notebook from Paperchase, as it's pretty funky/edgy.

Ok so I abused glitter, it happened again but I (as always) really wanted glitter. The base colours looked really great by themselves. I much prefer this design in photos and as always I'm taking it, but I don't think these are as nice in real life. Once again they got that edgy thing going on. Also my black pen decided to continually flow so I didn't have as much precision as I would've liked.

I really like the pairing of red and Minnie Style, I think it's great (though the robot covers it). These were not meant to be cute robots (even though cute is my favourite thing), they've got a rougher past haha. But once again going to reference to my last 31 day challenge robots, which I loved.

Cornflower blue: Essie - Bikini So Teeny and Barry M - Amethyst 
Blue: Nails Inc - Baker Street and Models Own - Freak Out!
Red: Essie - E-Nuff Is E-Nuff and OPI - Minnie Style
I don't know how I didn't realise this before but E-Nuff Is E-Nuff is a gorgeous colour!! Another thing I can't believe I didn't notice, 1 coat!! I couldn't believe that either, I did 2 coats out of habit but really 1 coat!! I thinking with time E-Nuff Is E-Nuff might take over OPI Dutch Tulips as my favourite red :O
Silver: w7 - Silver Mirror and Nails Inc - Abbey Road
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black

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