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. 

 

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.

In My Veins ( and arteries!)

I was inspired by a song I recently discovered by an artist called Andrew Belle called "In My Veins". I randomly came across this wonderful song on Youtube and I knew straight away that I loved it. I took my guitar out of its case in the corner for the first time in two months (I have been very busy!) and attempted to learn the chords for the song. 

Unfortunately, when you have a nail blog and you abandon your guitar for long periods of time, your fingernails grow long. It was so hard trying to play the chords that I went and filed all of my nails down. I figured I was probably making a huge mistake at the time, but it feels quite refreshing to have short nails. Maybe they will stay this length!

The song is called "In My Veins" but I thought my nails would look a bit dull with just veins so I added in arteries. Obviously this nail art is not biologically correct because the human heart isn't that shape at all but it was all in the name of creativity!

The nail art was also partly inspired by this post on Chalkboard Nails.

For the base I used three coats of Essence Absolutely Blue. It went on smoothly and dried quickly enough. I find it's much easier to do a few thin coats than one or two thick coats as the drying time is much shorter.

For the veins I painted on Essence Groovy with a long striping brush. For the arteries and heart I used No. 7 Devil's Delight and for the light shading on the heart I used 17 Ruby Gem.

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.

Lavender Stamping

Every time I look at this manicure I think "Lavender". I don't know why, maybe it's the colour or the fact that the stamping is with flowers but it just reminds me of lavender!

I used a polish from a brand called "Prime Collection". I received about twenty of their polishes as a present a few years ago.  It only seems to be sold on Ebay.  Unfortunately all the polishes I received were sheers. This one, a lilac shimmer, took four coats and is still not fully opaque!

I then stamped on 17 Royal Indigo with Bundle Monster 221 and finished it with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

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.

Valentines Hearts - No sparkles allowed!

Let me just start by saying this: I despise Valentine's Day. I don't use this word lightly, but if there is anything in the world that I truly hate, it is Valentine's Day. Of all the corny and cheesy things in the world, it is the corniest and the cheesiest. I think I wouldn't mind it so much if it hadn't been overdone so much, but it has. 

With this in mind, I decided that amidst all of the pink, the red and the sparkles that will be on fellow bloggers' nails today, I would do something that had some Valentine's Day spirit, but without the cheese. I vowed to myself that I would create a design that had nice bright colours, but no reds, pinks or sparkles.

 I did my nails and proudly displayed them to members of my family, who looked at me, puzzled, and said "I thought you didn't want to use any red colours", to which I patiently explained that I did not use any red colours, but instead used an orange. They looked again and said "Still looks like red to me".

 So that is the story of how these nails came to be.

After I photographed the nails I realised that the light made them look even more red than before, but trust me, they're orange. I used China Glaze For Audrey for the blue, this is one of my favourite colours at the moment as it is really bright and cheery although I didn't really capture it well on camera. In reality it is brighter and has some green tones. 

I painted the hearts on using a small striping brush. I used Barry M Yellow for the yellow, Leighton Denny Perfect to Party for the orange and NYC Waterstreet Blue for the blue. I used Seche Vite for the topcoat.

Tuxedo Nails!

It's amazing how stylish black and white designs can be. This simple colour combination is elegant and chic.  No matter how many new trends come and go, black and white are always staple colours in the fashion world. I have been wanting to do a simple black and white design for a while now but  and was finally inspired by the tuxedo nails that Zooey Deschanel wore at the Golden Globes last year.

I used Barry M White and Barry M Black for this design. Unfortunately both of these polishes are quite old, having being purchased together last summer and used often since then so the formulas in both are very thick and I found them hard to apply. I really like Barry M polishes as they do great cremes but I have noticed that after a few months of use the formula thickens considerably with some lumps and air bubbles. That said, I will continue buying Barry M polishes because of the great colours!

The top coat is of course Seche Vite. I love the way this polish feels silky smooth when it dries and the drying time - your nails are practically hard in under ten minutes - but I do find that it doesn't ever completely harden. Sometimes hours after I paint my nails if I hit them on something it leaves a mark, which is very annoying as I really love all the other aspects of this polish.

These nails are a little messy but I still like them because the design is quite striking! What do you think?

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!

Under the Sea

Today's nails are underwater themed! I love the sea and anything to do with it and when trying to come up with something to do for today's post, I saw Models Own Peacock Green and immediately knew what I was going to do.

 

I used two coats of Models Own Peacock Green for the base colour. I adore this colour as every time I see it I think of the sea! The formula was very smooth and easy to apply and dried quickly. I also love Model's Own as I think they are great for glitter and duochrome polishes. I especially love their Beetlejuice collection.  

I then stamped using Barry M Gold Foil on Bundle Monster plate 209. There is only one word for this stamping: messy! But don't worry, it's meant to be like that. I tried to imagine fishing nets underwater and I thought if it looked perfect it wouldn't be as realistic, so I stamped at different angles and didn't cover the full nail. I think it worked out in a haphazard way!

I then painted on a glitter polish that my friend brought back to me from France, so I'm not sure of the brand. It consists of small blue circular glitters and silver and green stars. The little blue glitters remind me of bubbles.  It reminds me of an underwater scene, although I'm not sure why the stars remind me of the sea.

I finished with a coat of Seche Vite, my go-to top coat!

 I love these nails as there is a lot going on in them and I think of fish and mermaids and the deep green-blue sea every time I look at them!

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!

Green and Gold Gradient with Stamping!

These nails are from a few weeks ago but I couldn't resist showing you my first stamp manicure! Now when I say my first stamp manicure, I mean my first successful stamp manicure. In reality this is about my tenth!

 

 For the polishes I used a sponge to create a gradient effect with Catrice Genius In A Bottle and Models Own Peacock Green.  I found both of the polishes quite easy to apply and Genius In A Bottle was opaque in one coat.

I then stamped on Bundle Monster Plate 204 using Barry M White. As you can see its not very opaque. I haven't found any great stamping polishes yet, but I'm sure there are some polishes out there that are cheaper then the Konad versions. I finished it off with a topcoat of Seche Vite.