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!

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?

Oriental Nails

 

These nails are from a few weeks ago actually, but I really liked them so I decided to show them to you.  I used No. 7 Devil's Delight,  which was opaque in two coats. I really like this polish as I love bright colours and this is a very bright red and it wasn't too hard to apply.

 

I then drew on what looks like Chinese characters, although I have no knowledge of Chinese characters and just tried to draw the easiest looking ones I found on the interenet.  I used a small black nail art brush and pen from Claires to do so.

I really liked it on it's own but I thought it needed something else so I just dotted bits of No. 7 Minty Fresh, Claires nail polish in gold, Essence Sweet as Candy and Barry M Yellow over the designs, which brightened it up a bit.

I enjoyed doing these nails and was quite pleased with the overall result.  What do you think? Hit or miss?

 

Blue and Gold with Studs!

 I started off these nails with three coats of No. 7 Minty Fresh.  I found it a bit hard to apply and unfortunately not very opaque. I then sponged on bits of gold polish from Claires Accesories, making sure not to cover the full nail. I used a topcoat of NYC In A New York Minute.

 

 I used round studs that I got in the two euro shop on my middle finger. I quite like how it looks!

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.

 

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!

Blue and Pink Chevron

 These nails are a bit messy but I just love this colour pairing so much! It was supposed to be a chevron manicure but the triangles turned out a bit dome shaped. I actually quite like it!

I used Essence Sweet as Candy for the pink base and 17 Midnight Sapphire for the blue. I know that Essence Sweet as Candy is probably meant to be a sheer but I just loved the colour so much that I kept layering it until it was opaque ( this is probably 4 layers).