Satan's Hollow Nails

 So these are some old nails that I did when I was going to a club called Satan's Hollow. It wasn't as scary as it sounds! I thought it would be fun to do some fiery nails for the night and here is the result.

The ring finger gradient nails go from black to red to orange and are done my mixing the colours while they are wet on the nail. 

My thumbs each had little flames on them with a gradient background. I made the fire shape my blobbing nail polish on the nail in the rough shape I wanted and dragging out the shape with a sharpish object. I think I used a pencil for these. 

Gold Stripe Nails Updated

So I did add some zig-zags to the gold stripe. It looks a bit tribal-y now which is cool. It looks so lumpy in this photo, probably because I naughtily didn't but on a top coat!

This picture shows the side view. I keep looking at them like this because I love the teal colour.

Gold Stripe Nails

So I've had to cut my nails! :( I don't mind them short but I was quite enjoying having a little more length on them. Though the claw-like thumb nails had started inflicting some damage on me.

I decided to paint my newly short nails with a gold stripe and then lined it either side with black.
Simple and shiny :)

I think I might add something more to this. Maybe zig-zags down the stripe. I do feel like I've seen that somewhere though... Oh well! 

Ikat Nails

I absolutely loved this design on my nails and I'm not too sure why. I think it had a lot to do with the gorgeous blue/green base colour. It looks so much better in real life. Sort of like a beetle...

My inspiration was Get Nailed once again, I am slightly in love with her nail art. 

Dot Gradient Nails

I have always really like these two colours together so I thought I'd try out a dot gradient with them. I really like how they turned out; I think these nails look subtle but funky. :)

I couldn't really get them to photograph very well so here are two photos in different lights to help you see the effect properly.

Dotty Tutorial

These dotty nails take patience and a steady hand but are not too difficult to create. I found it hard to keep the dots even in size and neat looking at first but that comes quickly with practice.

You will need white nail polish and a few different coloured nail polishes, I used four for this design which helped to keep it balanced but you could do it with any number of polishes you like. You also need a piece of paper, a bobby pin and something to clean it with. I used a cotton pad. You could also use a separate bobby pin for each colour to avoid any contamination.

1. Paint your entire nail normally with the white polish.

2. Dab a bit of your first colour onto a piece of paper and dip the tip of the bobby pin in it.

3. Use the bobby pin to make a line of dots vertically up the centre of the nail. Be sure to leave a large enough gap between each one for another dot. 

 4. On either side of the first line, with enough space left for another line of dots, make another line with the first colour. Repeat until the nail is full. 

 5. Dab some of your next colour polish onto some paper and dip in the bobby pin. Use this to fill in the gaps between the dots all over the nail. 

6. Do the same with the other two colours in the vertical gaps. 

7. Using a small brush or cotton bud dipped in nail polish remover clean up any nail polish on the finger. 

7. Seal in the design with a top coat and you're done!

You will need to keep re-dipping the bobby pin in the polish after every few dots. You may find that straight after dipping the dots are much larger than after a few dots have been made. I try to press lightly for the first few dots each time so make the sizes more even. You will also need to keep re-applying polish to the paper as it will dry out. As the polish dries it can become tacky and harder to work with. I would advise that instead of struggling with unworkable semi-dry polish, you just add some more to the paper.

It doesn't matter too much if the lines are not perfectly straight as the design just looks random when you're not up close anyway. Mine certainly were not perfect but they did the job.

Happy dotting!! :)

Dotty Nails

Dotty nail are so much fun! :)

Vintage Rose Tutorial

 These vintage rose nails are so cute and I think they look a lot harder than they are so they're perfect for impressing with!

You'll need a two contrasting polishes, one for the background and one for the flowers (I used lilac and mint green). You will also need a slightly darker version of the flower colour and white and green striper polishes.

1. Paint your entire nail normally with the lilac polish.

2. Using the white striper polish, paint thick stripes vertically down the nail. 

3. Using the mint polish, with its original brush, make rough circular blobs on the nail. 

4. With the green striper make small triangles around the blobs to look like small leaves. Two or three leaves per flower usually looks good. 

5. Next, I used the pen part of my striper pens but you could use a striper polish, small brush or toothpick. Using the darker colour, make small arcs within the flower blobs. These add definition to the flowers and are meant to look like the petal shapes in a rose. 

6. Add further arcs with the white to highlight the shapes. 

7. Using a small brush or cotton bud dipped in nail polish remover clean up any nail polish on the finger. 

8. Seal in the design with a top coat and you're done!

Vintage Rose Nails

I think these vintage rose nails are so cute. I wish I could have done the flowers better, this doesn't really do justice to the design. Definitely one I'll be trying again once I've improved. 

I used a white striper for the stripes and zig-zags. I'll post a tutorial on how I did the flowers soon. 

I copied this design from Chelsea at Get Nailed, go and have a look at her photo to see what I was trying to emulate. 

Union Jack Tutorial

With the Jubilee and the Olympics it's clear that the Union Jack is going to be a big design this summer. Here is my tutorial on how to get the flag on to your nails. 

You'll need a dark blue polish, a white polish or striper and a red striper. You could also use a normal polish with a thin brush. I sometimes use thin, cheap art brushes but I've also seen make-up brushes used for this sort of thing. 

1. Paint your entire nail normally with the blue polish.

2. Using the white polish, paint two thick lines. One vertically down the centre of the nail and one horizontally across the middle. When painting horizontal lines it can help to rotate your finger.

3. Using the white again, paint diagonal lines through the centre of the nail.

4. With a red striper brush paint two thin lines in the middle of the white cross. 

5. Paint four small diagonal lines with the red striper. These should not touch the red cross in the middle.

6. Using a small brush or cotton bud dipped in nail polish remover clean up any nail polish on the finger. 

7. Seal in the design with a top coat and you're done!

When I did this design I found it hard to make the lines look solid at the ends without getting polish all over my fingers but it is easy to remove so don't worry if you make a mess. :) Also don't expect to do the lines in one go. I had to go over each one a few times to get it solid and clean. 

English Nails

I've been sporting English themed nails recently in support of the England team at the Euros. I'm quite pleased with the design because it's one of the few that I've come up with myself (mostly I get inspiration from nail artists online). 

The England flags were done with a white base coat and a red striper polish. If you don't have a striper polish you could use a thin brush or even a normal nail polish brush if it doesn't splay out too much. 

The Union Jack flags were done in two different ways, I will post a tutorial for the way I found easiest soon. 

The lion was done with a blue striper polish. I started by making an upside down triangle and then I rounded each of the sides slightly. I then added the ears and fluffy bits with smaller strokes. I was planning on adding the detail to the face with a white striper but it was too small and fiddly so I used a toothpick dipped in white polish. When using a tooth pick to do designs you have to sort of dot it on rather than draw but it does give you more control than a brush. I did the red tongue in the same way. 

For the rose I made 5 blobs in a circle using the normal brush from a red polish. Once they were dry I made a white blob in the middle of them. I then made a yellow dot in the middle using a bobby pin dipped in yellow polish. For the leaves I used a green striper polish. 

In case you don't recognise the designs on the thumbs, they are both from the crest on the England football shirt pictured below. 

(Photo from http://shopaholic.become.co.uk/)

And so it begins...

Hi everyone! I feel a bit weird writing this as if people will actually read it. Oh well, it's probably less weird than just talking to myself.

So I'm back in London for two weeks before I head up north again to work for two months. Two whole months all alone in my house, I hope I don't go mad. That's the main reason I've started this blog really. I'm hoping writing this and painting nails will keep me busy and happy. :)

I'm currently trying to work out the best way to go about this. I'm experimenting with different things at the moment, I've even made amoving gif! Fancy right? What I've done so far isn't great but I'll probably post it soon anyway, even if it's just to practice this whole blogging thing.

Well, I guess that's the end of my first blog post. How exciting!! :D