Freehand Baroque

My local Penney’s store recently restocked their Essence stand with lots of new polishes, and I find it increasingly more difficult to walk past it without buying something, so I've bought a few of their new colours over the last few days. It’s a really good thing that they are so cheap!

Today, I wanted to use a lovely deep, forest green called Deep Sea, Baby. The opacity of this is really good, I’ve painted just one coat as the base here. Could be down to my shorties though! I decided to try my hand at some freehand baroque patterns, I’ve seen some lovely freehand baroque manis and wanted to try it out. The pattern is painted with A-England Saint George. I thought having it in the same colour family, and with a bit of holo goodness would be a bit different. The next time though, I’ll paint the design under direct light, so I’ll be able to see what I'm doing, lol!

The actual design isn't great, I could have benefited from being able to see what I was doing, but I like the flashes of the holo green against the dark base, even if you can't see what it is :p

Lacquer Legion: Adoration – Tatooine Sunset

A few of my favourite bloggers, Chalkboard Nails, The Nailasaurus, Rebecca Likes Nails, and Work Play Polish have created a new monthly nail art challenge called the Lacquer Legion, and this month I decided to join in! This month’s prompt is Adoration, so I decided to try and combine a nail art technique that I love with one of my favourite nerdy fandoms – gradients and Star Wars!

Star Wars was my very first proper nerdy obsession, but I admit, I have been neglecting it for some of my other fandoms of late, so I felt it was time to give it some love again. I have done some Star Wars art before, in the shape of different helmets, but the idea of painting the famous Tatooine Twin Sunset came to me a few weeks ago, and I thought this nail art challenge would be the perfect excuse to try it out.

Solo thumb shot (Please excuse the cut!)

I started with a base of China Glaze Life Is Rosy, and sponged a gradient of Life Is Rosy with China Glaze Fade Into Hue once that was dry. After about 4 to 5 layers of sponging, I put one coat of Glisten & Glow HK Girl for a quick dry and to help blend the gradient together. The sandy tips are a mixture of Rimmel Beige Style, Beige Babe, and OPI My Vampire Is Buff. The suns were done using the end of a striper brush, with OPI MVIB again (middle finger), and Essence Free Hugs (ring finger). The dome of the Beru household was done using the sandy mixture again, and MVIB for the detail.

In hindsight, I should have painted the thumb design sideways on my thumb, as trying to take a photo of all of my nails together was awkward, and resulted in some creepy hand poses!

I enjoyed painting this for the challenge, even though I think my gradient could have been much better. Nice for the practice though! I can’t wait to see all of the other manicures from this challenge, I think there are going to be some great ones!

Nerdy Nails: Exploding TARDIS

My other passion in life, aside from nail art, is the many fandoms in which I currently partake. I love bringing my two passions together, and celebrating my fandoms in my nail art, so I am very happy to bring my Nerdy Nails back to the blog! I was really in the mood for a good nail art session this week, and after seeing this amazing rendition of the Exploding TARDIS on Adventures in Acetone a few months back, I knew I wanted to try to recreate it myself. Figured now was as good a time as any!

For some background, the Exploding TARDIS came about in series 5 of Doctor Who, as a painting done by Vincent Van Gogh in the episode The Pandorica Opens. One of my favourite episodes, with my favourite Doctor, so I was keen to try and do this as best as I could!

I started off with a base of Bobbing For Baubles from Essie (2 coats). The blue I used in the TARDIS pieces is OPI Keeping Suzi At Bay, and I mixed this blue with some white (NYC Pinstripe White) for some highlighting. The white detail for the windows and note on my index finger is OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls (I really need to get a new bottle of this – I use it a lot for nail art, but it’s half gone now, and gone all Super-Gloop, and getting harder to use!). For the flame sections and spirals on my pinky and all of my right hand, I used Essence Little Miss Sunrise and OPI My Vampire Is Buff on their own, as well as mixing them for a paler yellow to add to the mix. The burnt orangey-red mix is a mixture of a bunch of colours just to add a bit of contrast (Essence Little Miss Sunrise, OPI My Vampire Is Buff, Barry M Mango, Rimmel Jungle Princess, NYC Fine Red Wine, Rimmel Celebrity Bash).

There was no way I was going to be able to paint a TARDIS with my non-dominant hand, so I took a leaf out of Jacki's book and just replicated some of the swirly flame aspects of the painting to bring both hands together. Everything’s topped off with two coats of Glisten & Glow HK Girl Topcoat.

This type of nail art always looks much better in my head than it does when I actually get to paint it on my nails, but I’m quite happy with how this turned out. And, as always, practice makes perfect, so I know all of these hours will pay off in the long run!

Texture Stripes with Essence

One of the big polish trends from last year was the textured polishes, and the brands like OPI and Zoya have come out with some great ones (I have yet to get my hands on a PixieDust polish, but hopefully this year I’ll manage to get one!). Unfortunately for me, these ones can be quite expensive over here, so thankfully, some of the more affordable brands are also coming out with their own textured polishes.

Today, I have done a simple striping tape mani, using two Essence polishes. The base here is Essence Boho Chic, a lovely soft coral with gold flakies. I applied two coats of this, topped with one coat of No 7 Stay Perfect topcoat for a quick dry. Then I applied 2-3 strips pf striping tape on my nails, and then painted over with 1 coat of Me & My Lover, one of Essence’s Sparkle Sand Effect polishes and quickly removed the tape. Me & My Lover is a lovely red with red and gold glitter, and dries to a textured finish. I left this with no topcoat, to leave this with its textured finish.

I like the contrast between the texture and the smooth stripes with this mani. Overall, I like the textured trend, and I'll definitely be expanding my textured polish collection!

Grungy Tribal

I love checking out other nail art blogs, and seeing all the new techniques and ideas that the amazing bloggers are coming out with. I can struggle a lot with thinking up with unique ideas myself, so I find reading other blogs great for sparking inspiration and ideas. With today's mani, I decided to try out the Distressed Nail Art technique from one of my favourite blogs, the amazing Chalkboard Nails. I thought that this technique, done with some bright colours, would be a great base for a dark tribal design.

I started out with a white base of NYC Pinstripe White. Then, I followed Sarah's tutorial for her Distressed Nail Art, and painted the almost-dry polish brushes in stripes over the white (the tutorial explains this a lot better!), using Essence colours Wanna Be Your Sunshine (yellow), Upper Green Side (green) and Free Hugs (pink), Barry M's Gelly Nail Paint in Mango (orange), OPI You're Such A Budapest (purple) and NYC Blue.L.ita (blue) (also, what a strange name!). I then topped all of this with a coat of No 7 Stay Perfect Topcoat to quickly dry everything and to smooth it out a bit. I then stamped a great tribal design from MoYou London’s Explorer collection plate 11, using Essence's matte black stamping polish. A final coat of No7 Stay Perfect topped everything off and sealed it in.

In hindsight, I think I used too many colours when doing the distressed technique, I probably could have done with only using two or three colours at most (as Sarah also advises in the tutorial). A couple of my nails looked a bit muddy when I put the orange over the green, but once I put the stamp on and finished it up, I actually really liked the result. I'll definitely try this technique again with some other colours, and I'll remember to take a picture of that part before putting anything else over it the next time!

Maybelline Street Artist Topcoats Swatches

Nail polish-wise, I'm a complete sucker for glitters, and unique ones at that. Most of the fun, unique glitter polishes I see online are from indie brands, and unfortunately they can sometimes be hard for me to pick up (not having the money, and needing them shipped from another country, etc, etc). So, when I see a commercial brand branching away from the usual, and releasing something different, I'm usually all over that and spending more than I really should! 

I couldn’t help myself when I found the Maybelline Street Artist glitter topcoats in my local Boots, I couldn’t choose between the four they had, so I bought them all!

These are all clear based, glitter topcoats, consisting of different sized hexagons, as well as bar shaped glitters. Each had a good glitter payoff. I didn't have any trouble getting any of the larger glitters on my nails, apart from the white bars in White Splatter; the white bars in this one were a little longer than the bars in the other glitters, so I didn't get a lot of them in my swatch. Other than that, I didn’t have any trouble with these, and I’ll definitely wear them again.

 My swatches below are all 1 coat over their respective bases, and all topped off with 2 coats No7 Stay Perfect topcoat.

Alley Attitude – 1 coat over Essence Wanna Be Your Sunshine

Alley Attitude has small, medium, large black hexagons, small & medium blue hexagons, and blue bars in a clear base.

Urban Vibe – 1 coat  over Essence The Boy Next Door

Urban Vibe consists of small, medium, large black hexagons, small & medium orange hexagons, and orange bars in a clear base.

Boom Box Black – 1 coat over Essence Break Through

Boom Box Black has small, medium, large black hexagons, small & medium green hexagons, and green bars in a clear base. (Please excuse the mess on my index finger - I accidentally glooped the glitter polish on that one - oops! :) )

White Splatter – 1 coat over Zoya Kristen

White Splatter contains a slightly different glitter mix than the other three. There are small, medium, large white hexagons & white bars, small & medium purple hexagons, and medium blue/green hexagons.

Overall, I really like these glitters. They add a bit of fun to a plain creme if I don't have the time to be going all out with some nail art. I think my favourite combo here is Alley Attitude over Wanna Be Your Sunshine. I think the bright yellow base really makes the blue glitter stand out! I'll definitely wear these together again.

Girly Argyle

Howdy peeps! Today I've got a girly take on a jumper design – the Argyle sweater! I've been wanting to try this design out for a while, but just never got around to it until now. Also, I made a light box during my time-out, so this was my first time trying it out!

The base is Essence Free Hugs, and I used some squares of sticky tape and then painted on OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips to create the diamond effect. I used Barry M Silver Foil to finish off the silver stripes. Everything's topped off with a coat of Seche Vite. Nice design for some tape and striping practice!

I remember that I used to have a string top when I was about 17 with this design and colour scheme, and I loved it, and thought I looked the bee's knees when I wore it out! I think I’ll stick with wearing this on my nails from now on!

Ciao for now! x

Nerdy Nails Issue 7: Legend Of Zelda

It’s the weekend! Which means more Nerdy Nails! I have to say, I always look forward to the end of the week and getting stuck into my geeky nail art. It doesn’t always turn out how I imagine, but I love getting the proper art practice in, and I love figuring out the best/easiest way to draw a particular idea.

This week, I've picked one of my favourite video game franchises, Legend of Zelda! This Nintendo classic has been around donkeys years, but I only started to fall in love when The Windwaker came out on the Nintendo GameCube. A great fantasy take on the classic average boy on a quest to save the world from the bad guy, and saving the girl in the process. As always, I've listed each design and colours used to save word space.

Nerdy Nails Issue 6: Avatar: The Last Airbender

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Howdy peeps! Time for another issue of Nerdy Nails! After the unexpected hiatus last week, I decided I would come back with an idea I've had and have been wanting to paint for ages. These are in tribute to one of my favourite animated shows, Avatar: The Last Airbender!

Easter nails with (mostly) OPI and Essence!

Howdy peeps!

I hope everyone is having a good long weekend, and enjoying the end of Lent and eating loads of chocolate!

In celebration, I’ve decided to decorate my nails with some Easter egg and chick and bunny art! I was thrilled to get stuck into these ones – the bright colours really cheered me up after the miserable week of snow and coldness we’ve had.

Nerdy Nails Issue 4: Star Wars

I'm really happy with how my Nerdy Nails turned out this week; after my mediocre Avengers attempt last week, I wasn't feeling too confident but I managed to pull these out of the bag. Star Wars holds a special place in my heart - it's the first thing I ever went totally nuts for, and the first fandom I fell into. I really wanted to pay a decent tribute to my first love, and I think I did a pretty good job. I'll try to keep it short, so I'll just list the character on each nail and the colours used.

Nerdy Nails Issue 3: The Avengers!

I've come to the conclusion that drawing circle free-hand on my nails has become the bane of my nail art existence. Maybe I just wasn't in a good mind set for elaborate nail art this week, but my Nerdy Nails didn't turn out too good.

Nerdy Nails Issue 2: Pac-Man!

As well as being a sci-fi nerd, I’m also a big lover of video games. There’s little I love more than sitting down and spending hours being immersed in a completely new world and forget about real life for a while. 

I have quite a few ideas inspired by my favourite video games that I want to try out on my nails, but I thought I’d start out with something relatively simple, so I decided on Pac-Man! Everyone loves this little circle “wakka wakka”-ing his way around the screen collecting his pellets while being chased around by the colourful monsters, Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde. It’s a classic, but one that always frustrates me! I’m ashamed to say, I don’t think I’ve ever actually been able to get passed one level on this without losing all my lives! Clearly, I just need more practice! :p

So, for my nail art, I decided to dedicate each nail to the five main characters of the game.

Thumb – Pac-Man: I was dreading doing my thumb, as I knew I had to draw a circle free-hand. It didn’t turn out too bad, but this was my second attempt, the first was awful. Colours used were: OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls (base), NYC Lexington Yellow (yellow), China Glaze Liquid Leather (black)

Index – Blinky: These guys were easy enough to do – I just painted my full nail the colour for the monster, then filled in the eyes and the black bits with a dotting tool and a brush. The main colour for Blinky was China Glaze Red Satin, and his eyes were OPI MBSW again, and Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream for the blue. The black is Liquid Leather.

Middle – Pinky: Next is Pinky. I followed the same method as Blinky above, the base pink is Show Off from Rimmel’s Lycra Pro range, and eyes and black bits are the same as above.

Ring – Inky after power pellet: uh-oh! Poor Inky isn’t looking too good! This is what happens to the monster when Pac-Man eats one of the power pellets, so he can eat these guys and give himself a break from the chase. Here, I used Essence The Boy Next Door for the main blue, and his eyes and mouth were done with Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream. Black is LL again.

Pinky – Clyde: I love that he has a normal name that doesn’t have any resemblance to the other guys. I’m also easily amused :p This little guys was painted with Coral from Barry M, with eyes and black bits the same as the rest of the guys above.

 

Here's a close up of ol' Pac-Man himself (I didn't notice the two random yellow spots until after I had taken the photos, I must have dented the polish doing something)

I could have done these guys a little better, but I’m happy with them for now. Pac-Man was the hardest, as I’m still getting used to free-handing art, but hopefully with more practice I’ll get there in the end.

Hope you enjoyed this issue of my Nerdy Nails. I have a great idea to assemble for next week’s edition, I just hope I can pull it off!

Thanks for reading!

Ciao for now x