Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from January, 2014

Twice A Dragon

Hello Everyone!! Today's nail art is loosely based on a cool pattern that I found on Pinterest (a great place for inspiration!). I changed up the colours slightly and altered the pattern so that it would fit on my teeny weeny nails!! On my thumb, middle and ring finger nails I used China Glaze 'Flying Dragon' . It dries very matte which dulls and darkens the beautiful colour, so a topcoat is essential with this nail polish! On my accent nails (pointer/index and pinkie) I used Barry M 'Dragon Fruit' and then a couple of coats of Franken Frosting 'Who's That Girl?' . I don't think they do this particular nail polish anymore but they've got some amazing new stock for 2014!! Using a small flat brush and OPI 'I Have A Herring Problem' , I painted thick vertical wavy lines over 'Flying Dragon' . Doing it this way (with a flat brush) required a few coats but prevented it from becoming a lumpy mess (if I'd used a

Movie Night: Gladiator

Hello! When it comes to films I'm not really into romcoms or anything girly, I'm more about the action and science fiction!! The more loud bangs and suspense involved, the happier I am :) So, Gladiator is one of my absolute favourite films  ever and it was only a matter of time before it made it's way onto my nails... I used a variety of images for inspiration and eventually settled on a final manicure centred around Maximus and his role as a gladiator (duh). I started by painting all my nails in OPI 'My Vampire Is Buff' , the most perfec t nail polish for nail art! Using a small flat brush, I dabbed and sort of smooshed  OPI 'Glints Of Glinda' (diluted with nail polish remover), all over each nail to add some texture. On my middle, ring and thumb nails, I repeated this step with Orly 'Nite Owl' , although on my ring finger, I created more of a gradient. On my ring nail, over the gradient, I painted the well known Colosseum image

Owl By Night, Rose By Day

Evening All!! Today's post is another glitter gradient (I may be ever so slightly obsessed..) but this time it's a girly and uber sparkly manicure. As in: 'can I possibly fit any more glitter layers into this gradient?!' I think with more drying time, I may well be able to do that challenge justice :) Stay tuned.   My idea of 'girly' usually involves rose pink and light pink-based browns, so the nail polishes that I've used in this manicure definitely reflect that side of me!!   First, I painted a couple of coats of Orly 'Nite Owl' - the silver flecks in this polish soften the overall taupe shade, making it appear so delicate.     To begin the glitter gradient, I like to start with fine/small glitter toppers and work up to the bigger stuff. So I used one of my franken glitters 'Unicorn Dreams' to paint a very sparse coat over each nail. Over this, I painted a graduated layer of a rose pink Xplode glitter nail polish u

Royal Cascade

Heylo!! In today's post, I'm using one of my precious Butter London babies in some geometric nail art! I got 'All Hail The Queen' for Christmas (I may have squealed when I opened it, ahem) and I am totally in love with the colour!! It's an absolutely beautiful taupe with a very subtle rose pink shimmer and some scattered holo to it :) I swear Butter London 's secret ingredient is magic !   I painted all my nails with Butter London 'All Hail The Queen' to begin with. For my glitter accent nail, I painted a gradient with Barry M 'Sour Apple' . I've never been sure about bar glitter (don't ask me why!!) but I love it used in this way and it's so easy to do! Score .    I mixed La Femme 'Fairy Dust' and Revlon 'Zealous' to make a translucent shimmery yellow which I then used with a striping brush to paint delicate fine lines. I repeated this step with a mix of La Femme 'Fairy Dust' and Rimme

Lilium Tigrinum

Hello! For a while now, I've been wanting to try a more artistic/painterly style of nail art but wasn't at all sure where to begin!! After looking through some amazing tutorials and tips by super talented nail bloggers ( 'Precious Polish' , 'Will Paint Nails For Food' , etc.), I gained the courage to have a go :) Here's how my first attempt turned out; The original imagery that I used for inspiration was already in a watercolour style rather than an actual photo so the colours are different to a natural Tiger Lily. I started with OPI Liquid Sand 'What Wizadry Is This?' on all my nails except for my thumb and ring nails, where I used Essie 'Sand Tropez'. Using a small detail brush and a mix of Barry M 'Peach Melba' , Zoya 'Addison' and Essie 'Sand Tropez' , I sketched out the shape of each flower on my thumb and ring nails. I added nail polish remover to the nail polish mix so that it was easier to work

Zebra Undone

A Big Hello To You All!! As strange as it sounds, I think I've only ever done one animal print manicure in the entire time I've been doing nail art! Don't get me wrong, I love these prints on other people but somehow it's just not me... After much musing and thinking, I came up with the idea of doing a kind of deconstructed zebra print instead! Here's how it turned out;   I started by painting all my nails (except my accent nail) in OPI 'Wooden Shoe Like To Know?' . I adore this colour, the shimmer adds so much depth to an already lovely brown.   On my ring finger, I used Zoya Pixie Dust in 'Nyx' for a super sparkly accent nail!! It took 3 coats to get to full opacity but the pay-off is just so amazing that I don't mind!! I can't wait to see if Zoya brings out any new Pixie Dusts this year :) I used a striping brush to paint in the wavy zebra-like lines in different colours on the rest of my nails. The polishes I us

Crimson Winter

Evening All! I actually got the inspiration for today's manicure from a pair of my socks!! Ha ha! But not just any socks, these are snuggly winter socks in an awesome pattern; I started by painting all my nails with Zoya 'Rory' , before applying Essie 'Russian Roulette' to my ring finger only. I love how Rory shines through and adds shimmer to Russian Roulette , a beautiful effect!   To my ring nail, I also added a layer of Barry M 'Pink Sapphire' - I can't get enough of glitter accent nails at the moment!! I then painted all my nails with a coat of Champneys 'Base & Top Coat' for a nice smooth surface.   Once this was completely dry, I used striping tape and Essie 'Russian Roulette'  in random stripes on all my nails except my accent nail. Then I went back in with a striping brush and Zoya 'Rory' and filled in some of the stripes. I felt it was missing some pink! Using Essie 'Blanc'

Different Strokes

A Happy New Year To You All!! Today's nail art is a simple but totally gorgeous glitter gradient! I haven't done one of these in a looooong time so I felt the urge to fix that asap!! I went for a bit of a unusual colour scheme, especially for me as I don't usually wear this type of green; The olive green nail polish is Zoya 'Gemma' . I originally bought this polish as it has a beautiful blue shimmer to it but alas, it's not as noticeable on the nail which makes me sad. It does give the manicure a lovely blue sheen but I'd prefer a more pronounced effect! Once this way completely dry, I used the dry-brush technique and the lime green nail art pen from the NPW Nail Art 'Jewel' collection to paint a gradient from the base of each nail. I also used the shimmery dark blue from the same collection over the green, using the same technique. These are great for nail art as they can be used like a normal nail polish and as a micro-nib, cool hu