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Sunday 11 October 2015

Awesome Autumn! [Part 3/3]

Hello again, and welcome to the last part of my Autumn-themed posts!

Now, you might be thinking 'What has the galaxy got to do with Autumn?' and I wouldn't blame you!

The reason I'm doing this now is because for me, Autumn onward is the time of the year when I find myself stargazing more -- the sky just seems to be a little bit clearer, and perhaps the fact that the days get shorter means that I am more likely to be out when it's dark. So, in that sense, I connect this to Autumn in my head!

If it wasn't obvious from the picture, this is the first time I've ever tried galaxy nails. Honestly, I've seen this many times online and I've never felt brave enough to try it (in my head I thought 'This is going to look really awful' thanks to my love/hate relationship with makeup sponges, but I actually found it to be not as bad as I expected). I think the trick is knowing what sorts of colours to use, and not overloading the sponge but instead layering up bit by bit. With that in mind, I mainly used colours that had a slight shimmer to them so that it catches the light more, and here I've written a list of the colours I used, in case you were wondering.

Base colour:
Barry M - Navy
Galaxy colours applied with a sponge:
Rimmel - Luna Love
Rimmel - Hawaiian Punch
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Turquoise
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Deep Blue Sea
Barry M - SLE 2012 247
Maxfactor - Fantasy Fire
& finally Barry M - Matt White, which I also used to make stars with a dotting tool.

Phew!

Well, thanks again for reading and I hope you liked these posts! :)

Saturday 10 October 2015

Awesome Autumn! [Part 2/3]

Today's Autumn-themed post is a very simple one, but I thought I'd share it here anyway. I've had this Barry M polish since they came out (which I think was last Autumn) but I never really used them as a main colour so I thought I'd give it a go this time. Honestly, 'Mustard' as this polish is called (and the shade in general) is not really a favourite colour of mine, and the colour looked even weirder a few days ago when I realized my nails were the same colour as the macaroni cheese I was eating. Heh.

Anyway, I tried to jazz it up a little bit so I used OPI 'The Living Daylights' on my thumb and ring finger, painting more on the tips to create a slight gradient effect. I don't think using a makeup sponge would work with this polish. I felt like the colours of the glitter really complemented the base polish nicely - and kind of reminded me of pumpkins. To be honest, if I do this again, I would maybe put the gradient on all of the nails rather that just two.

No, wait - scratch that. With the glitter particles being big, getting it off was an absolute nightmare, even with the soaking method, so I might steer clear of glitter for a bit!

That's all for today, see you tomorrow!

Friday 9 October 2015

Awesome Autumn! [Part 1/3]

Hello, Autumn! I'm really glad to be able to post today! It's been quite a hectic couple of months for me but I am here today to celebrate one of my favourite times of the year - the leaf crunching joy that is Autumn (or Fall, for our American friends!).

I love it so much that I have been doing a few Autumn designs lately and decided to share them on here this weekend! Apologies for the slight messiness here - I hadn't originally planned to upload this design but I do like it so here it is.

To make this design, I first painted my nails with Barry M 'Matt White' and then painted a brown tree on my ring finger with Nails Inc - Prince's Gate. Then I used different sized dotting tools to create random dots on all the nails using these Barry M colours: Chilli, Paprika, Mustard & Gold Foil. I then decided I didn't like the way the Gold Foil colour looked so I went over those dots with a brighter shade of gold: Jessica - 804 Bling! which I felt looked a bit better. Topped with Seche Vite and done!

I like this mainly because it's a fairly easy way to get the Autumn colours into some nail art -- and dotting tools are a lot of fun!

If you're interested in all things Autumn, then I think you will love this Tumblr that belongs to a friend of mine, which can be found here! It really gets me into the cozy, fuzzy Autumn spirit!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for the rest of the Autumn theme this weekend!

Thank you!

Sunday 16 August 2015

[SPECIAL] Three Year Blogiversary!

 Yay! Today marks 3 years since I started this blog, and in keeping with the posts I made for the previous two blogiversaries of 2013 and 2014, this post contains nails but also cake!

Ooh cake, let's start with that! Just marvel at my (limited) baking skills! Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry would be incredibly impressed I'm sure - especially when they realize I used cut up revision flashcards as a cake collar!

Yes, really.

In terms of the taste, 'twas lovely and chocolatey - I'm just glad I didn't burn it! Ohh okay, I'm probably being a bit hard on myself, I'm actually not too bad at baking - certainly nothing I bake is burnt because I'm one of those people that keeps opening the oven door to check on it every 5 minutes if I can't see the cake clearly through the oven window (I know I shouldn't, but I'm just too impatient when I smell food baking!).

Anyway, on to the nails! I've kept it somewhat simple this time, going with a nude base and using various sized dotting tools with orange, blue, pink, purple and silver. I'm not sure if it's as clear as in real life but I dotted a 3 onto my ring finger nail too!

I'm going to leave it there and say that I would have loved to have posted more in the past year but I had a lot of things to do for uni, but I am proud of myself for not forgetting this blog. The truth is, I still love to do my nails all the time, and the main purpose of this blog for me is to share just some of those designs when I am able, so if I don't post for a while, it doesn't mean I've lost interest in all things nail art!

Thank you for reading! :)


Saturday 25 July 2015

Colourful Herringbone Inspired Nails

Lately, I have really been loving anything with chevron or herringbone patterns (as you can see from the tealight holder in the background, haha) so I decided to make some chevron nails last week. Well, that didn't go too well and just looked so wrong and I took them off immediately.

A couple of days ago, however, I was scrolling through chevron wallpapers (and I mean actual sticks-to-your-wall wallpaper) on Pinterest and felt inspired to try again on my nails, but I figured out this is easier to do (just painted stripes down the nail and then painted the diagonal lines). Before I could draw the white lines though, I made a colourful base by painting lots of different dots (not with a dotting tool, just their own brushes). Here are the steps and colours I used:

1) Painted nude-coloured base coat (Sally Hansen - Bandage)
2) Painted dots using: Fearne Cotton - Lime Green, Revlon Top Speed - Electric, Sally Hansen Insta-dri - Man-go Team!, Maybelline Color Show - Electric Pink, Technic - Bora Bora Beach, Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine - Blueberry.
3) Then applied glittery topcoat (Seventeen Nail Xtras - Glitter Top-Coat)
4) Painted all lines on with The New Black Striper Brush - White.
5) Applied Seche Vite Top-Coat to seal in design, and DONE!

I really like this (more than I thought I would, actually) and I think if you have a white nail art pen or thin nail art brush, this isn't too difficult once you start. The lines are not all perfect but I don't see why they have to be!

Thanks for reading!

Friday 3 July 2015

Hello, Summer!

  Before I start talking about the nails here, I would like to say that I am so glad to be posting today! It is indeed my first post of 2015 - only took about 7 months (oops!). I'd also like to say that even though I haven't been posting, I have been doing nail art as I find it therapeutic at times. I simply just didn't have the time to post anything due to my studies, and I had to spend so much time on computers writing essays and my dissertation that any free time was spent offline as I was getting frequent migraines (horrendous, might I add!).

The photo here was taken about a month ago, so you know... better late than never! Due to this, I cannot be certain what nail polishes I used but I believe the main colour is Barry M's Green Berry painted over Barry M's Matte White (which I use all the time to enhance bright colours). I like this kind of fairly simple nail art - all you need is a dotting tool (which I used on the thumb and pinky) and a little nail art brush for the petals (which I feel make it easier to paint). I also used the dotting tool to apply some yellow and orange for the disc of the daisy. Apply glossy topcoat and done!

I hope to post a few more of the designs I have done soon!