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!

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!

These nails got a mind of their own...

Hey,
Two weeks since my last post??! I don't even know what I've been doing....I only just did my nails, I've been going naked for a couple of days :O. I've been in a rut I guess, too much inspiration but I can't decide what I want to do on my nails so I end up doing nothing. I'm turning into the worst blogger ever but I just like to wear my nailart out and about :P. I have big respect for other bloggers who can post everyday!
I'm surprised I haven't lost any followers yet so thank you for sticking with me :).

On to todays nails, I tried some saran wrap nails but I didn't have any saran wrap...don't even know what that is...and I didn't have any clingfilm either so I used a plastic bag that you put your veg in at the supermarket...I used Essie Navigate her then a purple Kiko and then Models Own Lilac Dream but all you can see is a purple colour :P.
I wanted to use these silver gems that shine different colours(?) but I always thought that a topcoat would dull them but I was brave and used them and top-coated and they weren't dulled yay! So then I just kind of went from there and went a little bit cray...okay a lot cray. I knew I wanted a hanging chain but it had to be practical, as practical as it could be ;) so I got some other studs and pearls out and got sticking.

 

 

 

 

Err so there you go ;). People just keep asking me how do I wash my hair etc...I say same as usual lol! The chain doesn't get in the way that much and I like it, it's a little bit trashy but a lot fun like a holographic bag.....which I really want! Hahahahah but yeah I'm not sure how long I'll keep these as seche vite is doing that thing again where it turns white at the edges and asks me to piggle it off. It's really addictive when you get to peel chains off too heheh.

 

I feel my nails are gonna get even more impractical as time goes on ;).

 

I bought Chanel Frenzy yesterday so I imagine I'll wear that next, a sophisticated break from all chains and studs. Talking of Chanel I cannot wait for their summer polishes to be released...have you seen that blue?? Love!

 

Hope to see you soon!

 

 

Gosh - Highschool Flirt with all gold errythang

Hey :) I'm in a good mood today, good feedback for my last project and these nails are really photogenic ha!!

I wanted to treat myself for doing good ;) so I wanted to pick up Chanel Frenzy and possibly another but whaddya know my local debenhams don't got no Frenzy :( so I'm going to order it online....although I prefer instant gratification ;). Anyway I was also going to try Essie Barefoot and Topless and Barry M Lychee to continue my search for the perfect nude but my boots don't got no B&T and they sold out of Lychee! So I went to Superdrug and again no Lychee but I picked up this Gosh polish which I thought was half price but no it was full price, only like £4.99 or something but still...
I liked the look of it and I really like the lids of the special editions :D there were a few there that I didn't recognise and they still had a couple of Holographic Hero left so if you're in Ipswich and want to pick one up go to Superdrug man! Okay I'm going on a few tangents today hahaha anyway when I got home I looked for swatches and found out that it's from their spring/summer collection that was only released a couple of days ago so this is a bit on the ball for me ;).

I finally remembered whilst I was in town to grab some cheap necklaces so I could use the chains as embellishments so I added them to the base of my nails in the style of My Nails are Dope (I follow her on instagram, awesome nail artist just search for mynailsaredope) and my nails indeed look dope ;)

I got two of the same picture just because I liked both of them and couldn't choose between them :)

I really like the colour, it's a near match! A lot better than Sand Tropez on me anyway, I love love love nude nails especially when they get embellished with gold. The chain was super easy to cut with scissors and I just stuck it down with the polish then topped off with Seche Vite and I imagine they'll stay put until I want to get rid :). I thought I'd show you one of the necklaces I got, it's from H&M and it came in a pack of three and cost a measley £6.99 and the chain will last ages as they're fairly long and you get three!

If anyone was wondering the shirt is from Primark! I couldn't believe it when I saw it on somewhere, probably instagram...I spend waaaaay too much time on there ;) I'm thinking of doing some nails inspired by it as it's so good!! C'mon Koi karps, funny looking birds, flowers and plant life I'm yours ;).

How'd you like the colour/embellishment??

Nude embellished claws!

Hello my lovelies!
Thanks for sticking with me despite my flakey posting! I'm going to try to post on mondays and thursdays every week for definate and then if I change my nails before the posting dates then I'll do a post, it's pretty much what I used to do but with a bit more structure haha.

Anyways onto tonights nails, these came about as I wanted (and still do) to do baroque nails using a lot of embellishment over nail art but I don't have the correct colours with me at the moment so I did these instead. I wanted a nude base as I didn't want them to be too over the top ;). I started with Illamasqua Monogamous which you've all seen before on my blog, if not click here :). Then I added a topcoat, which I thought wasn't fast drying but apparenty it is.....and then I simply placed the gold leaf (imitation gold ;)) and pushed and pulled the leaf until it looked right. After that had dried I did another layer of topcoat then added the studs.
Then finished with a third layer of topcoat, phew.

I love the way the gold leaf looks! It's so easy and so cool, it looks really shiny and fun hehe. I like these nails too much, they are quite subtle but they still make an impression. What annoys me about having nice nails is the fact that muggles assume that I do no housework because my nails are always neat and long, they just have never discovered a good topcoat! It's a good topcoat that will make these embellishments stick around ;) they nearly got caught in my hair in the shower this morning though hahahaa.

All the little studs were from ebay for about a pound and the pearls and gold leaf were from a local craft shop for a couple of quid!

I'm not sure if you've noticed but I now have my instagram feed on the right hand side, so if any of you are on instagram my username is the same as my blog name: abbienail  :)