Christmas countdown: Nail look 2 - dark gems

Welcome to my second Christmas nail look! Again it is more universally winterish than full on Christmas cracker! ;)
You know that everyone loves a good old vampy polish (I haven't said that in months!) for the colder, darker months and I'm no exception. I even went to the little chemist under the accommodation and bought a little Revlon Lasting Finish in Black Cherries (for like £2!!) as I was feeling that my collection was lacking a good dark shiny shade.

Two coats and I had sexy blackened purple/red nails but they didn't remain that way for more than a day ha! I added a little bit of glittttah from the Hungry Asian - Vote for Purple and then topped that off with my favourite things in this whole world, gems!

Sorry (not sorry) in advance for the hipster shot ;)  

what can I say, I looooove Starbucks :P
That's how old these pictures are, no red cups! I might have to get another Caramel Mac in a red cup purely for blogging purposes of course ;)

Seasonally appropriate I think! Next week the nails are going to get a little bit more cray and fun ;)
Now it's back to the dissertation :( I've procrastinated enough, all I want to do is make some embroidery, it's my new favourite past time, it's so fun, easy and enjoyable! Oh and paint my nails of course ;)

Merry Thursday everyone!

Christmas countdown: Nail look 1 tartan nail art

I was going to post my next Japanese style nail art but as I was photographing them I realised that they actually looked more Christmassy than Japanese which made me think that I have a few nail looks which are inadvertently Christmassy! So I am going to do, as the title suggests, a kind of nail art countdown till actual crimbo ;).
If I'm being honest I'm not too fussed about Christmas this year but I am excited for the opportunity to go uber cray with my nails and no one can question it, not that it has ever stopped me before but.....ya know  what I mean!

I'm easing you in gently with these first nails - they aren't necessarily reserved for Christmas as they are on trend and all that, so don't worry if you aren't ready for roast turkey nails just yet...

These nails have had 2 lives. In their first they were just Barry M nude with a white grid for a few days, which I enjoyed but then I got bored. I picked up my little paint brush and a red polish and filled in some of the squares until I the correct pattern for tartan. Then I went over the gaps with a black striper, finished with a fox and deer charm off of HEX et voila!

You can see the shade difference with the green nail :P you can see that I was wearing these for a while, look at the growth from the cuticle! Ha!
It was like having wrapping paper on my nails...so that was enjoyable ;) although with the charms I was channelling an English heritage look just without the dead foxes thankfully!

I've got another two looks lined up so I shall schedule them as not to miss my own deadlines. I have got to write 5,000 words of my dissertation by next Friday :| lawd help me! So not a lot of time for fresh nail art but maybe a colour change :).
Can I just ask: where did November go?!

Seeyou soooooon!

Inspired by...Japanese nail art (part 1)

After a week and two days of naked nails (yeah I know right!) I have finally had the time to actually do my nails, without feeling like I should be doing uni work. Also I found great inspiration from all the talented Japanese nail artists on insta and tumblr, especially Avarice - they do awesome detail work. There's something about Japanese nail art that is so distinctive but also the clients are really creative too, which is something I admire!

So, I am splitting this post into 2 parts as these are my two favourite different styles of JNA (of course there are many more); super detail and embellished. Today I am showing you my embellished style! Y'all know I love me some embellishment...more is more, right? However I have toned it down to suit the more feminine, delicate style of JNA that I have been seeing around lately :)

I recently bought two bags of mixed coloured gems from ebay, both have 1000 gems, I got 3mm and 1mm  and they were delivered the next day...amaaaaazing!

I used 3 coats of Barry M Nude for the base colour, it's real sheer which is nice as if you only wear one coat it just looks like you have lovely healthy nails ;)

If you've been reading my blog for a while you will know of my love for Macaroons...I found some in Ipswich, they were in Patisserie Valerie all this time! So, yeah, they are featuring in the next photos just cos (I just finished eating them all...feel so sick, I'm such a glutton at times -.-')

Here are the aforementioned gems!

Honestly such good value, and such fun to sort them out into colours...I'm not even being sarcastic :| there are so many colours!

Fun! I used MUA's version of caviar beads for the gold, red, purple and green beads, they took an age to sort out though lol! That's why this took a while to do, I was just sorting through multi coloured gems and beads :P.
I love the polka dot nails (inspired by nails_by_jen) they're so cute!
I imagine I'll be keeping these for a few days at least :)

Hope you likeeeee!

Halloween nail art - severed fingers, organs and a nonchalant cat...

Hey!

Long story short: my life at the moment is trying to juggle my dissertation, degree project and seeing my boyfriend so as usual blogging is on the back burner but you don’t expect anything else from me right?! ;). I have done my nails three times since I last posted! I’m slacking but doing my nails is definitely becoming a way to unwind and forget about uni!

I thought I should make the effort as it’s Halloween tomorrow…I went to Alton Towers scarefest for my boyfriend’s birthday so I did my Halloween nails last week! I am still wearing the nail art now (I only took the photos this morning :O) so I apologise if it looks a bit rough round the ol’ edges but it is ha!

I drew inspiration from several places, I found a Japanese nail artist who did these awesome organ nails and I just loved them so much, she’s on insta, she’s a real artist combining super detail nailart with more sculptural works! Her website is www.hatsukifurutani.com and her insta is @hatsukifurutani I would definitely recommend looking through her work!

You know I normally stay away from doing mixed nail art as I can never get it to flow and I still don’t think I achieved it but they look ok together, hey it’s Halloween, they’re meant to look weird ;)

The claw is back for Halloween!

 

 

 

As usual I just used my little brush and a black nail art pen, these were actually pretty quick to do, I was worried that I wouldn’t be as handy with my left hand anymore but I completely forgot I was using that hand so it went smoothly :P

My favourites are definitely the heart and lungs! Nowhere near as good as Hatsuki’s but I’m happy with them :).

I hope everyone has a fun Halloween (if there’s anyone reading this that is…)

I’m not sure when I’ll be posting again but I will be for sure!

I'm all about that Nail Life...

Hey,

It's good to be back...online! As you may, or may not, know I moved back to uni two weeks ago, which normally isn't a problem, however my new laptop thang doesn't have an Ethernet port and the accommodation only uses broadband...so long story short I finally have a usb to Ethernet adapter that works! Two weeks without a laptop was hard...thank god for the iphone :P.

Anywho, these nails are something I've been thinking about doing for a while now, and I figured that whilst I was on a nude nail hype (and was lacking alternative ideas/inspo) I would utilise my spare time ha! I love using my nails as a way of expressing how I'm feeling or showing what I love, so I was thinking of a phrase to use to show my love of the nail art world, it was harder than it sounds to think of  two four letter words :P I was thinking "nail junkie" but that wouldn't have worked as one letter would have been on my thumb so it wouldn't have flowed. I'm sure I've heard the phrase "nail life" floating around on insta and I think it's pretty perfect, it's kinda funny and it confuses people who aren't part of the community...aka muggles, they're like "what does that mean?!?!" and my reply is always, if you don't know, you don't know ;).
There's something about finger tattoos that I really love however I would never get them done on myself so I compromised and used my nails...I love typography and just letters in general however I am not gifted in that area so I just copied an old favourite of mine; old English.
I practised the type a couple of times trying to get it as small as possible to fit onto my redonkulously slim nail beds and then I just went for it using a nail art pen (haven't used one in a while!).

Basically I loved these nails but like I said, no one else did ha! My sister couldn't read the letters....but that's my sister so she doesn't count ;)

Ok so I'm living in student halls, yep again, and there's this guy who lives next to me but in a different flat, he thinks he can sing...I've got no problem with people singing along to songs in the day time but he is singing at the top of his voice, at midnight to cringy old songs like "Stand by me"....REALLY DOE, why why why is all I think oh and shut the ffffff up...I don't think anyone can understand how embarrassing and irritating this is! He does vocal licks like he thinks he is on x factor...he's really trying but he sounds like he should be singing in a working mans club on a sunday afternoon. GAWD I hate students hahahahaha.
Sorry about that ;)

I'm going to go catch up on the blog posts that I've missed over the past two weeks! Wish me luck ;)

China Glaze - Blue Sparrow swatches

Hey, just a swatch for you today :)
I got this bottle from my favourite place to get discounted old china glaze, sally's salon services...you know I love blue and at £2.15 how could I resist?! Blue sparrow claims to be neon, however it doesn't look even remotely bright which is slightly confusing? It has lovely lighter blue glitter running through it which makes it look like velvet when it is left as a matte!

I found that I had to do three coats as it was very streaky and uneven, it didn't self-level at all :( however it is a gorgeous colour so I can forgive its misdemeanours :p


For some reason my nails look short here :O

 

 

So it's a very lovely colour but it's definitely not neon, I would try it over white but my bottle of Barry M white has turned into a gloopy mess despite being half full....I think it's time to invest in a more expensive white :(

 

Talking of expensive polish...have you seen YSL's plummy offering for a/w?! It's so beautiful, I think it may become my first YSL polish 😍 hehehe  

Grunge nail art, take two!

Hi!
I had the idea for this nail art one day when I was removing some neon polish, as I had a white layer under the neon and as I removed it you could see both layers and I thought it looked really cool....and then I forgot about it.
I remembered it though a few weeks later and quickly drew it into my new nail art folder/sketchbook thing (I'll show it you when I've got a few more ideas down!) which I got the idea for from @attitudenails on instagram :). I finally did the nail art after my birthday using one of the polishes my bestie got me :) - Rimmel Sun Downer which is a gorgeous red orange, two coats and it was glossy and smooth :O.

I did two coats of sun downer and then a coat of topcoat, then when that dried I did a quick layer of white and then a layer of SpaRituals  Dreamsicle...as you can imagine all those layers took a while to dry but this is the easiest nail art I've done recently so it was quite nice to just sit around and wait for my nails to dry as once they were dry it literally took 5 minutes to achieve the look on both hands haha!

I got a new catbird ring for my birthday :D

Creepy bubbles on my thumb :(

All I did was did a cotton bud (q-tip) into nail polish remover and then I just made like I was removing my polish but in a more precise way and voilà jagged, edgy nail art was born :p.
I chose not to topcoat as I thought it would make it look too, well, glossy :p when this look is about looking undone and grungy :).
I was influenced by my phone case too I think, I mean look at it!! £20 and it's just wearing away....but to be fair I do like how it looks haha

The weird thing is that my favourite blogger Lizzy recently posted a very similar look but she used a different method, great minds think alike eh ;) you can see her wonderful creation here :D

I'm moving back to uni this weekend woohooooo but don't fear I have a couple of posts written and scheduled :O I know I'm actually organised for once in my life :P!

I'd love to know where you get nailspiration from, the weirder the better ;)

Nude comparisons!

It's finally here, the promised nude comparison post :P

When I first started getting into polish (all those years ago ;)) I couldn't understand the fascination with nude polishes, I was like why would I want to paint my nails in a flesh colour when there's the entire rainbow and more to use!! But now I see the attraction (this must be growing up ;P) they are good as palette cleansers in between more cray manis, they make your fingers look longer and make you look more put together and polished (sorry!).

I only used 4 polishes in this comparison as these are the 4 most similar - in terms of opacity and finish, I have Illamasqua Monogamous  and Barry M Nude too but they are too different to the others.

Lets get into it then! 

In the bottles they don't look that similar however when they are on the nail they look completely different to how they do in the bottle...

OPI - My Vampire is Buff: Two coats, my favourite as it feels cleaner than the others. £11.50
Essie - Sand Tropez: Two coats, looks more like a cement grey than a flesh tone however when worn alone it looks a lot more neutral. £7.99
Gosh - Highschool Flirt: Two coats, very similar to MVIB but slightly warmer. £3.99
Maybelline Forever Strong - Rose Poudre: Two coats, pink toned beige. £4.09

Like I said my favourite by far is MVIB with Highschool Flirt as a close second, it definitely is the closest to my skintone and looks flattering on everyone that I've seen wearing it! The only downside is the price that we pay for OPI in the UK in shops, I got mine from Sally's Salon Services, obviously you can get them cheaper online but you know I like instant gratification ;).
 
There are still some Essie nudes that I'm interested in and L'Oreal are bringing out their new nude collection with lipsticks and polishes so I'll probably get those too ;) If I was in the US I'd definitely check out RGB x HIPP nail foundations and tints because they look awesome!!

Hope you enjoyed this post :)

My 21st birthday mani

Hi, so it was my birthday this time last week, I'm 21 now :O
It was hard to decide what to do on my nails, glitter? Cake? etc so I narrowed it down to my two favourite colours at the moment (Nails Inc Baker Street and Illamasqua Stance) and then I thought I'd bring out the stars, unicorn charm, gems and of course 21! I went for an old English font for the numbers as I think it looks cooool and tones down the girlyness of the other nails :P. I've just realised that last year I used illamasqua (see last years nails here - soooo short :O)
I've got to apologise for the photos though as a few are blurred and yes...I resorted to doing the claw!

I did my right hand in low light so I thought it looked ok until I took this photo hahaha

I have to say sorry for how messy they are! They looked ok in real life ;P

 



I got this bag as a present and noticed that my nails totally matched it! Ha (again sorry that the nails are out of focus...I swear I am a photography student :P)
I think the stars look ok, I had been trying to think of a good use for them up to now!

I know I have posted in a while, in fact my birthday was two weeks ago today! I've been all over the place as it's nearly time to go back to uni so I've been doing all those important things like sorting accommodation, student finance buying new stuff etc. And I went to Ipswich for the weekend after my birthday and had a really good time which just makes me want to go back to uni even more, I'm going a bit stir crazy being at home...and I think my nails are suffering, I feel like I've got nothing to inspire me at the moment which sucks but in good news I have just written two more posts up :O so I do have something to show you soon :p.

I really need to start reading and commenting on others' blogs more frequently!

Hope everyone's been well! See ya soon :)

Recent nail looks

Hey remember me? :P
Life is just getting in the way of my nails at the moment but it's my 21st birthday next week :O so I need to think of some fitting nails!

Anyway I have amassed a small collection of photos of random nails that I've done but aren't worthy of a whole post dedicated to them so I thought I'd show you them now :)

A while ago when I had Chanel Bel - Argus on my nails I did a dry marble look with Azure and took photos but never got round to posting it!

See it's easier to see the difference when compared to Bel Argus on its own :P I thought it looked really pretty! It was super easy to do just blob both colours on and mix with a pointy stick/brush/toothpick whatever! I added some pearls and HEX charms to complete the look...

Iphone photo sorry! On my thumb I went for the water reflecting light...I'm not sure if it worked but I put a turtle swimming across it hahah

I recently acquired OPI- My vampire is Buff in the continued search for my perfect nude...

still not perfect but a really nice nude anyway! It gives that polished look that I sometimes enjoy to rock inbetween my more in your face manis :P (nude comparison post coming up!)

And I've had this very simple nail art on on for over a week now!! I cut my nails down seriously this week too, they were well over an inch long :O I'm not sure that you'll be able to tell that they have been shortened though as they are still very long :P

So I am loving the whole negative space thing that's happening at the moment! I put the polish a little beneath my natural tip as I didn't want to go for a French mani look :P

I think I am going to have a solid colour for a couple of days whilst I plan my birthday nails!!
Hope everyone is well! And thank you to those loyal readers/commenters you make this worthwhile and I love you! Especially you Lizzy!!! :)

Under the Sea nail art with Barry M Blue Glitter

Hi! The title of this post is by request of my mother lol! So I wanted some glitter in my life as it has been a while...Barry M is my go to glitter producing brand, just because they are cheap and produce glitter that is full coverage! The unimaginatively named Blue Glitter is exactly that a nice sparkly medium blue glittah. Which sparkles like the sea...hence the nail art ;) good eh?

These nails came about as I was in my room and saw Stance from Illamasqua sitting there and I thought hmmm that might look nice against this blue as scales?? So I went with it and just carried on from there :P I was influenced by this gorgeous Australian opal bracelet that my dad got me for my birthday last year, I love the colours that it changes between, so pretty :). I couldn't just leave it with only polish so I grabbed my pearls and nail charms and chain! And went for it ;)



Yes, the chains are back with a vengeance

Yeah, I like these nails a lot ;) back on my crazy nail game, it's the only way I mean who wants boring nails! Nails should be fun (although I get it if your work makes you dull them down :( booo for boring work!). I haven't done my thumbs as they're kind of weird at the moment, I haven't filed them in a few days and so they are growing wonky lol so I need to sort them out before I do them :P.

Everyone's first question with these nails has been...don't they get caught on things?? So I thought I'd show you the only thing they have yet been caught on....

Baha! This has happened a few times but other than that the chains are fine, they aren't rusting which is what I was worried about :P

It was funny today, we had to go check on my mum's friends tortoise as she is on holiday and it lives in the garden...it likes to chase feet and then bite your toes! It was so cute! But I thought that I've actually got an appropriate prop for a change :P so I took a quick picture heheh

Tiny enjoying my nail art ;)

 :D hope you enjoyed!

Dior Riviera gradient and ice lolly nail art

Hellooo, hope everyone's well! It's been so hot and to be honest doing my nails has not been on my mind, I've just been out and about enjoying the weather, I went to Alton Towers yesterday and went on the new ride: The Smiler, it was really fun but seriously shakey like the same kind of pain that you experienced when riding the Corkscrew! But other than the headache it was so good! The queue wasn't even that long (well it didn't feel long :P) so I definitely recommend it!

I recently painted my mums nails with Dior Riviera and it looked so summery and juicy that I had to use it on mine the other day, the best thing about it is that I only used ONE coat to get this coverage annnnnd look at my barely there ridges after one coat! Gah that's why I love Dior ;)

A juicy red based orange...ok so my ridges look a lot worse in the photo than in real life...awkward ;)

It's really easy to be inspired by a colour like this, I wanted to do a gradient, so I used Illamasqua Stance and a pink Barry M as the middle mixer colour. I haven't done a gradient in so long, I don't know why they're so gorgeous and easy!

So once I'd got that I had the idea to do something seasonally appropriate; ice lollies!

I'm not sure that they look like ice lollies but I know that they're meant to be and they still kinda look cute? Hehe well I didn't like them enough to do them on my other hand though....
I added the bee charm from Hex for a little humour, I find it a bit funny anyway :P

I bought a new nude polish a couple of days ago which I'm hoping is a closer match to my skintone than my others, I have quite a few nudes now so I might do a little comparison this week if anyone is interested in that?

Enjoy the weekend! See you soon!

Neon camo print + my weekend!

Hey!
I've got a mix of "real" photos from my camera and some from my phone for you today as me and my nails have been out and about ;).

You know that I love neons so much, I had to use them again...I know, I need to give love to some other polishes but this weather is just so amazing! Hahaha. I also love camo print so it was a no brainer really ;).
Camo is good to do as it requires little effort for good payoff, saying that I did get a bit obsessive with it, I had to redo a couple as they weren't quite right pah.

I used China Glaze - Knockout Orange, Flying Dragon and I'm with the Lifeguard and Models Own - Luis lemon and my nail art brush and then added the chains. I ventured outside to take the pictures cos well why not! I love Knockout Orange so much, it's the brightest neon I own, it's amazing!

I wore these nails for about a week and I had no chips or signs of wear!! I only took them off last night cos I started to piggle the chains off and then one thing lead to another and I'd pealed half the polish off....naughty I know but it's addictive :P. So Seche Vite is in my good books again, I was hating on it the other day because I had reached the point where it gets gloopy, ie half way through...it's so much waste! :(.

Due to the weather we went to a BBQ at a family friends which was fun and then we went to the beach and missed the hottest day so far which I'm happy about :P I've also started reading for my dissertation, which I will be doing as I found out my grades for second year today, I got a 2.1- so I passed yay!


Nomming on homemade brownies...they're motivational ;)

Nomming on piri piri chicken at the BBQ, there's a theme here ;) thanks to my sis' boyfriend for the photo ;)

Enjoyed a few of these, nails still lookin' fly ;)

I hope you all have had good weekends too! With plenty of suncream involved, I'm on the factor 50 ;) heheh I've got a very colourful mani lined up for you next :)