Camouflage

Today's nails are my interpretation of camouflage nails and are very simple to do! If you did this design using other colours it would look great as well!

To start off I painted on one coat of Essence Must Have, a dark grey shimmer which you can't see here, but any dark colour is fine to use. I painted on a dark green nail polish from Claire's (pictured below) with the brush provided with the bottle. I then painted on OPI A-Taupe The Space Needle and OPI On Stranger Tides in the same way. I didn't use a topcoat because I liked the texture of the nails as they were.

I really like this design as even though it isn't complicated nail art it looks like it is! It took me about five minutes to do (with about fifteen minutes drying time) and I think it is quite an easy look to master!

Sailor Stripes

For this manicure I painted on uneven stripes using the brushes the polishes came with. It probably wasn't a good idea to use Models Own Aqua Violet for the tips as it isn't very opaque, but otherwise I am quite partial to these nails. I think they look kind of nautical even though I didn't use any red.

I painted on two coats of OPI French Quarter For Your Thoughts to start off. Then I painted on uneven stripes of (in order of descent) No. 7 Minty Fresh, Catrice Hip Queens Wear Blue Jeans, Barry M White and Models Own Aqua Violet. I finished with a top coat of Seche Vite.

Silver Scribbles

I really like today's nails! They are very simple but somehow very me!

I think they look like scribbles but in a good way! 

I used OPI Sea You In Hollywood for the base then waited until it was completely dry.  I then used an Elite Model's Fashion nail pen in silver to draw random lines back and forth horizontally on my nails. It took about five seconds for each nail! I finished with a top coat of Seche Vite. 

 

St. Patrick's Day Nails!

 Hi everyone! As today is St. Patrick's Day and I am Irish ... well, what nails could be more appropriate than these? They were kind of spur of the moment as I was heading out to watch the local parade at the time but they didn't turn out too bad.

I used Leighton Denny Persian for the dark green base and Barry M White for the little shamrocks on my ring finger. I used OPI Y'all Come Back Ya Hear for the orange and Barry M Gold Foil for the gold. On my index finger I used Models Peacock Green below the gold stripe. The wiggly line on my middle finger is supposed to represent a snake as St. Patrick allegedly banished the snakes from Ireland but it didn't work out so well!

I hope you are having a great St. Patrick's Day, wherever in the world you are!

Pi Day Nails!

Happy Pi Day everyone! Today is the 14/3, which are the first three digits in the number pi (3.14). Today is also coincidentally Albert Einstein's birthday! For all the maths nerds all over the world, today is a very special day!

I had never heard of Pi Day until last week, when my maths teacher informed us that we would be having a party for it, as she loves pi! I thought that the occasion called for some special nails.

The purple is OPI Planks A Lot. The yellow is Models Own Lemon Meringue, the gold pi sign is Models Own Champagne, the blue is China Glaze For Audrey. 

On the pie on my thumb the light colour is Essence Toffee to Go and the darker colour is 17 Mink. I topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite.

Concert Nails

Last week I went to see The Script in the O2 in Dublin and these were the nails I had for the concert. 

 If you haven't heard of The Script before, look them up right now! They are an Irish band with many brilliant songs and they are amazing live! My favourite song of theirs is probably "For The First Time"

I only had a few minutes to do my nails before heading off to the concert, so I opted for an understated chevron look, using the brushes that came with the colours I used. I used Catrice Genius In A Bottle for the gold. The blue was China Glaze For Audrey, the brown OPI A-Taupe The Space Needle and the glitter at the tip OPI Spark de Triomphe. The topcoat is Seche Vite.

Two Tone Nails

I was feeling uninspired so I decided to try a classic two tone look. I was originally going for equal halves but I like the way it ended up. 

To get a straight line I painted the blue polish on horizontally, being careful not to get polish on my cuticles. 

The colours I used were OPI Planks A Lot and NYC Waterstreet Blue. I used Seche Vite for the topcoat.

Delicate Flowers

These nails took quite some time and a bit of effort! These are probably the most complicated nails I have done so far.They are obviouly not perfect but I am really proud of them!

 

For the base I used three coats of Essence Cotton Candy. For the pink flowers I used Rimmel Strawberry Fizz, Leighton Denny Perfect to Party and OPI A-Taupe The Space Needle. For the blue ones I used China Glaze For Audrey and Leighton Denny Perfect to Party . For the swirls and little dots I used OPI A-Taupe The Space Needle. I used Seche Vite for the topcoat.

Silhouettes

I was in the car yesterday and it was at that time when the sun is going down and the sky is a mixture of different colours. I looked out the window and saw these bare trees silhouetted against the sun. It looked so beautiful that I thought I would try and recreate the scene on my nails. 

I did try.

Unfortunately I see no resemblence. I think that is partly due to my colour scheme. The sky at the time was dark purple/black and red, but the colours I chose were .... light blue and pink. I also tried to do elegant, majestic trees, but they ended up looking like, well, a pile of sticks.  Let's just say better luck next time!

I used No. 7 Minty Fresh for the blue and sponged on OPI Steady As She Rose. The trees were done using a long striping brush and Barry M Black. The topcoat is Seche Vite.

Mountains

I just love simple colours with complicated designs and although these nails are a bit messy I'm still proud of them.

The design is partly inspired by the cover of Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures album, even though it looks nothing like it!

I used OPI Steady As She Rose as the base and used Barry M Black and a long striping brush to do the designs. I then covered it with Seche Vite. I love the way it dries so fast, but unfortunately it always shrinks my nail polish at the tips by the next day.

 

They don't look too bad from a distance, but close up you can see the imperfections. That said, I'm pretty happy with them!

Winter Scene

For today's nails I used two coats of OPI French Quarter For Your Thoughts. I really like this colour although it is not too bright. It reminds me of hot chocolate! I then painted on Barry M White using a long striper brush. I finished it with a top coat of NYC In A New York Minute.

 I painted a tree on both my middle and baby finger, and clouds on my thumb and my index and ring fingers. The squiggly line on my thumb is supposed to be a kite but it didn't turn out very well! On my little finger I painted a little person and on my index finger a rather large dog which could probably pass for a cow! The V shaped lines on my ring finger are birds, flying into the distance.

 

It's not apparent what season it is but I was thinking of winter when I painted them, probably because of the hot chocolate colour as hot chocolate always makes me think of winter! I know for the fashion world it is already spring, but here in Ireland it seems that the weather is even colder than before! We haven't quite let winter go yet unfortunately!

 

Dark Green and Pink Nail Art

Today's nails turned out to be very different from what I had intended! I had originally decided to something quite like this design from Chalkboard Nails but it didn't really work out exactly as I'd planned. That said, I still like the colour combination!

I use two coats of OPI Steady As She Rose for the base colour and one coat of Leighton Denny Persian for the design, which I painted on with a medium length striper brush. I finished it with a coat of Seche Vite.

I'm not too sure about the design, but I will definitely be using this colour combination again. I absolutely love the dark green against the subtle pink and perhaps next time a bit of gold wouldn't do any harm. What do you think?

Purple stamping with studs

For todays nails I used OPI Planks A Lot. This is two coats of it.  I stamped with Barry M Plum using Bundle Monster plate 223.  I used a top coat of Seche Vite.

The triangular studs are from the two euro shop. I got them a few years ago but haven't used them untill now. I like the way the two studs look like a little bow on the middle finger.

 I never thought that purple and orange would go well together but I think this kind of works!

OPI Sea You In Hollywood and OPI Silver Shatter

I received OPI Sea You In Hollywood over the Christmas and really wanted to try it out but I couldn't find any polishes to go with it until I spotted OPI Silver Shatter at the bottom of my nail polish basket ( yes I did say basket) and thought "Why not?".

I painted a French mani tip on the thumb with the Silver Shatter and painted a line of the polish down my middle finger. On my index and ring fingers I covered the whole nail with the Silver Shatter and I painted a half moon on my little finger.

 I've never been a big fan of shatter polishes, but I was actually surprised with how this turned out. I especially liked the french tip!