Bloody Nails

Hello kiddies! It seems like ages ago now but I have some Halloween nails for you. 

I was a zombie so I wanted some blood covered nails to match the outfit. I wanted it to look like I'd just ripped someone open or something! Gruesome :)

So here they are. I was pretty pleased with my little blood drips. Sadly they are quite chipped in these pictures because I forgot to document them sooner, but what zombie is going to have perfect nails really?

I used a red striper polish to do the blood. It was a lot thicker than any of my normal red polishes which help the blood look more opaque. It would be such a pain to have to do multiple layers!

Here is a little picture of my outfit. I had a huge open wound on my face, complete with peeling skin! I kept getting a shock when I saw myself in a mirror. 

Hope you all enjoyed your Halloween celebrations too! :)

Gradient stripe Nails

I'm feeling pretty happy today because finally, after days and days of endless rain, the clouds have parted and the sun is out! (A rare occurrence in Manchester.) 

As a celebration I thought I'd share these blue stripy nails with you all. I made such a mess of my fingers doing these but once I'd cleaned it all up I was quite pleased with the result. 

For these nails I used 6 different polishes and mixed two together to make one of the colours. I first painted all my nails white and then added each colour on top with a thin brush. 

The design was meant to be a gradient but when I finished I realised I had put two of the colours the wrong way round! Ooops. That meant there was quite a jump between the light blues and the dark blues which someone told me made it look like mountains coming out of the sea or something which I quite liked the sound of. :) 

I think my little finger looks like it's having issues in this photo :-/

The idea for this was planted in my head ages ago by Mr. Candiipants. She's pretty awesome!!  She also has put up a tutorial for this so go and give it a look. 

Henna Nails

This Summer my best friend turned 21 (HAPPY BIRTHDAY AGAIN AMI!!!) and invited our friends to her family birthday. Ami and her cousins were all going to be wearing saris so we all wore saris too. Buying and wearing my first sari really was an exciting experience (thank Ami and Zash for helping me - and Zash's mum for putting it on me!)

I decided to paint my nails to match my sari so used a similar turquoise blue colour but then, inspiration struck! I wanted to add little henna inspired designs as an accent on the thumb and ring finger. 

This is one design where I much prefer how the design done with my wrong hand came out because my left (above) was all bubbly/lumpy. :( Why does that happen sometimes?! 

The design on the thumb is a part of a flower. I added the dots later to tie the two designs together more. I used a black striper polish for the designs. 

And here is me in my sari! It's the most blingy outfit I've worn...probably ever, I'm not really a sequins kinda girl. I still loved wearing it though and everyone looked amazing in theirs. I know it doesn't look quite right in the pictures but he sari colour matched my nails surprisingly well really. I desperately wanted to cut my face out of this by the way, I don't know it you'll be thankful or sad that I didn't. 

Leopard Nails

These are my current nails. They were meant to be leopard print...I don't think they worked too well but I quite like them anyway. I can just pretend they're abstract! :)

I was going to add a different colour inside the print but couldn't decide which to use and then forgot. What colour would you use? I've done a similar print on a pinky base with gold spots which worked quite well. 

The base coat looks a lot more like the colour in the second photo. It's called "caramel cupcake". I just think the name is so cute. I love things with a good name!

Furry Friends Nails

I finally have painted nails again! I went on a mad shopping spree in superdrug and one of the things I bought was a new coral nail polish. I just had that on today but then I fancied adding something. This is what I came up with. How do you like my little friends? :)

Marbled Nails

So seeing as my nails are currently boring and bare I thought I'd post some I did a while ago.

These are done with a pinky/red/coraly colour and a purple. Can you guess how they're done? 

It is a surprisingly simple technique. :)

The ring fingers have gradients because I was a tad obsessed with ring finger gradients at the time. I wish I hadn't done them though, I think it would have looked better all the same. 

Ooh fuzzy fuzzy picture. And what's that I spy, a chipped nail?! Uncool!

Stripy Red Nails

The other day my best friend was wearing a lovely red top (shown below) and immediately I told her I wanted to copy it on my nails. I promised I'd dedicate the post to her so Ami, this is for you! :)

These just have a red base with the black pattern added on top with a striper brush. 

The top is a lot more red that it has come out in this photo. I really need to start taking these photos with my camera rather than my phone! 

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 Nails

Dotty nail are so much fun! :)

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. 

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/)