The Fault in our Stars nails!

About a month ago I read "The Fault in our Stars" by John Green, after my friends recommending it for ages and ages. I've read another book by John Green, "Looking for Alaska" and loved that one so I figured that TFioS should be just as awesome. I was right. TFioS is probably the saddest book I've ever read, I was crying all through the second half. But it's SO good! I finished it in two days because I couldn't put it down. :P I seriously recommend you all go and read it (but don't blame me for any emotional damage it may cause).

I based my nails on the book cover and a quote from the book. The inspiration for this design came from a poster design on tumblr, but I don't know who originally came up with it (sorry!).

 

This is also my first Franken polish (I think that's what they're called). I didn't have a blue that was the right shade for the base, so I mixed some Max Factor "Candy Blue", Rimmel "Aqua Cool", Barry M "White" and some clear polish into an empty polish bottle. I didn't really measure how much of each colour I was putting in, I just added them until I got a shade that I liked. I'm actually really happy with how it came out, even if it is a little sheer. This is two coats of my polish. Then, I added details in with Barry M's "Black" and "White" using a thin paintbrush.

Have any of you read The Fault in our Stars? Are you planning to? Tell me what you think!

Flocked nails!

The Nailasaurus is probably my biggest inspiration in the nail blogging world. Ever since I stumbled across her posts I've been hooked, so when I saw she tried velvet nails I thought, "Why not?".

Mine didn't turn out half as elegant as Sammy's, they kinda look like fluffy red tennis balls. I added a line of gold glitter to the ring finger to jazz things up a bit. I used a base of Barry M's "Bright Red" then applied clear polish one nail at a time. Whilst wet, I picked up some flock with a pair of tweezers and dropped chucks onto the nail. Then, I pressed down the flock and knocked off the excess with a fan brush.

Even if I'm not too happy with how these look, they're still fun to wear. At the minute, my friends all love stroking my nails because they're so fuzzy! But having people stroke your nails is the weirdest feeling...

Children in Need nails!

These are technically a day late, because Children in Need was yesterday, but oh well. :P

If you don't know, Children in Need are a charity from the UK who hold a television event once a year to raise money for children and young people who are less fortunate. With this money, they aim to provide every child in the UK with a life which is safe, happy and secure whilst giving them opportunity to reach their goals.

The charity's mascot is Pudsey Bear, a giant yellow bear with a spotty eye patch. He's who my nails are inspired by.

 He's so adorable! To do these, I started with a base of Barry M's "White" then added details in with a small paint brush and Barry M's "Yellow", "Black", "Spring Green" and "Bright Red", Rimmel's "Aqua Blue", and finally Nails Inc's "Atomic".

Rainbow nails!

It's been ages since my last post... again. Sorry! :( I would say that I have reasons, but honestly I'm just kinda lazy. And when I have to choose between doing homework and writing a blog post, I'm not sure my teachers would appreciate if I chose to do the blog post instead. :P

Recently, I've been lacking in inspiration for designs. I think it's mostly because I just want to do Christmas designs but it's still slightly too early for them. Anyway, whenever I'm stuck for ideas I tend to just throw a bunch of colours around and go kinda crazy. And so, these rainbow nails were born!

 

They aren't the neatest lines, but I think that makes it look even more fun. The colours I used were; Barry M's "Bright Red, Nail Inc's "Atomic", Barry M's "Yellow", Barry M's "Spring Green", Max Factor's "Candy Blue", Barry M's "Indigo" and finally Rimmel's "Ultra Violet". All of these were over a base of Barry M's "White".

Hopefully I can get into a habit of blogging more regularly but it all depends on school work... sorry guys. :( Also, on a side note, are there any qualified nail technicians out there? I've been looking into doing some proper nail courses and it would be great to get some advice. :)

There weren't any pumpkins left. :(

Happy Halloween everyone!

Yes, I carved a watermelon instead of a pumpkin. I think it's kinda cute. :P

I'll probably post some nail art later, stay safe if you're going out tonight!

Halloween skyline

Today's post is a little later in the week than usual, but I have reason! This week is half term for me and over half term my school runs a program to encourage children to spend the week doing arts and crafts. I decided it might be fun to help out on a few of the days, and to link it back to my Arts Award I'm helping the children to learn how to do nail art. How exciting is that?! Let me know in the comments if you want to hear more about it and I'll do another post. :)

Halloween is a week away now and most of the other bloggers started with Halloween nail art ages ago, so I figure now would be a good time to join in.

I didn't want to do anything too obvious for my Halloween nails (candy corn, pumpkins, etc), so I thought of doing some nighttime nail art. I started with a base of a purple by Stargazer (number 157) then sponged on a gradient with A-England's "Lady of the Lake" at the cuticles. Then, I used a small paint brush and Barry M's "Black" to paint on different sized rectangles for the cityscape. I used Barry M's "Yellow" to dot in some windows and Barry M's "White" for the stars. Finally, I used white and the end of a thick handled paint brush to make a big circle for the moon and added the silhouettes of some bats with black.

Where's Wally nails!

It feels strange to be posting normal nail art whilst everyone else has started posting for Halloween. Then again, Halloween isn't really celebrated as much in the UK so it's not something we build up on for the whole month (except shops trying to sell sweets). Halloween nails will be coming next week though!

A couple of weeks ago I brought a white and red striped jumper, like what Wally (Waldo for the Americans) wears. When my friends saw it, they demanded I do Where's Wally nails to match, as well as a list of other nails I should do. So here they are at last, I found Wally!

I started with a base of Barry M's "Bright Red", then painted the white stripes in with white acrylic paint. This was surprisingly difficult, I'm still not happy with the lines. I wish they were straighter... I guess striping tape will have to be added to my list of nail art wants. Then, I used a small paint brush to paint Wally's skin tone with a mix of acrylic paints and added the hair in with some brown paints. Then I added the hat, jumper and face details in with Barry M's "Bright Red" and "White" and W7's "Black". Unfortunately, I didn't wait long enough before adding a topcoat so his face is a little smudged but it's not too noticeable hopefully.

I'm happy with how these have turned out, I think by doing designs like this it really shows how far I've come ability-wise. Considering I can't draw with paper and pencil to save my life, being able to paint tiny little pictures on my nails is awesome.

Avengers nails!

I don't have a particular reason for doing Avengers nails, other than the fact that I liked the film. I saw it when it was in the cinema and really enjoyed it. But then again, who doesn't love seeing 6 good-looking guys and Scarlett Johansson on screen for 2 and a half hours?

 

Iron Man is my favourite Avenger, mostly because of Robert Downey Jr., so he was the main part of these nails. I started with a base of A-England's "Perceval" and then sponged a gradient with Barry M's "Gold Foil". Then, I painted the Avengers logo with a small paintbrush and Barry M's "Silver Foil" and "Black". Originally I was going to do Iron Man's chest piece but I couldn't get it right. It's so hard to try and paint something as though it's lighting up! I could have tried doing it with jewels or glitter but I didn't have any, oh well.

Oreo nails!

Okay, I'm back. Finally! I think the whole light situation is sorted now (fingers crossed). I brought a light tent and some lamps from Ebay, as well as a super bright bulb which should mean I'll be able to get some half decent pictures now.

Anyway, today's nails kind of have a story behind them. At college I do a subject called Communication and Culture, which we shorten to C&C. One of my friends pointed out that C&C can also stand for Cookies and Cream (aka, Oreos) which we all thought was awesome. So now, instead of saying I have a C&C lesson next, it's officially called Oreos between me and my friends. I suppose it makes school work just a little more fun. Here they are:

 

Sorry for the awkwardness of these pictures, I was too busy concentrating on getting a picture to notice what my hands were doing!

For these, I started with a base of Maybelline My Varnish's "Gemey Paris". Honestly, I've never used that brand before (I stole it from my sister, shh) but I was impressed, it went on amazingly. Especially since it's been lying sideways on a desk for god knows how long. After that, I sponged some of Rimmel's "Aqua Cool" in the middle of the nail. To finish, I added some milk splats to the tips of my nails with the end of a paintbrush and Barry M's "White" then painted in the details with a small brush and Barry M's "Black" and "White", a dark brown by Miss Sporty which doesn't have a name, and Rimmel's "Aqua Cool" mixed with a little of Max Factor's "Candy Blue".

I'm really happy with how these came out, I didn't think I'd be able to paint the logo as neatly as I'd managed to. I think it's definitely helped that I brought some nail art brushes, the long thin ones are so amazing for painting little tiny details!

British weather...

I'm so sorry guys! There's no post today purely because I can't get any good pictures. The lighting is disgustingly bad, it's like the sun has completely disappeared. I think as the days get shorter and darker I'll have to get a light box and some lamps or something. Then I'll be able to get consistent lighting in pictures, hopefully! I'll post as soon as I can. :)

Doctor Who nails!

Sorry that there wasn't a new post last week, I had the last bits of summer work that needed to be done and it took up my whole weekend. I barely had time to paint my nails, never mind blog about them! Oh well, I'm back now and hopefully will be posting every week again.

Doctor Who is a TV show that I have been watching for AGES now, yet I've never done nail art about it. Honestly, I have no idea how it's taken me so long to get around to doing these nails.

 

If you aren't familiar with the show, these nails are based on the outfit which the main character (The Doctor) wears. From index to ring finger I have done a fez, a sonic screwdriver and his bow tie/suit. I'm REALLY happy with how these came out. It could have been one of those designs which looks perfect in your head but you can't get right on your nails, but thankfully it wasn't!

To start, I did a base of a dark brown by Miss Sporty (no name, but there is a number 31 on the bottom of the bottle), then I used a striping brush to do pinstripes with Barry M's "Mushroom". Then, I added details with Barry M's "Bright Red", "White", "Black", "Gold Foil" and "Silver Foil". I also used China Glaze's "I'm with the Lifeguard" and Maybelline New York's "Cloudy Grey" (mixed with white to make the buttons on the shirt).

What do you think? Do any of you watch Doctor Who? :)

Red and Black flower stamping

I bought the 2012 Bundle Monster stamping plates when they first came out a few months ago, but I haven't used them very much so far. This is a pretty flower design, which I think is a tulip, from plate BM-306.

I started with 2 coats of W7's "Black" for all of the nails except the ring finger, then 2 coats of A-England's "Perceval" for the ring finger. Then, I stamped all of the black nails with Perceval and the red nail with the black. I like how this turned out, it kind of reminds me of Alice in Wonderland but I'm not sure why... I don't even like Alice in Wonderland. Sorry for the short post today, I still have lots of coursework to be doing. It'll all be done soon, hopefully!

Galaxy Nails!

As you can see, this isn't a Summer Challenge Catchup post. I have decided to stop with those now, because honestly I'm getting bored of them. I'm sorry if they were something you enjoyed, but it became more of a chore for me to get them finished. I'd rather be doing nail art that I wanted to be doing, rather than finishing the challenges. Hope you don't mind! <3 br="br">

 

This is a design that I've been wanting to try for a while now, but somehow I've never gotten around to doing it. It's one of those things that look really complicated when you first see it but once you know how it's done then it's easy. I still have tonnes of school work that needs to be done, but I'm just far too good (bad?) at procrastinating. At this rate, I'll be doing it all on the day before the deadline. Nevertheless, here's the nails.

 

I'm really happy with how these turned out, I wasn't expecting much from them. They're the kind of design which doesn't look amazing until the very end. Honestly, if you want to try galaxy nails just go for it. It's more or less impossible to mess them up in my opinion.

To do this, I used a base of W7's "Black", then sponged on Barry M's "White" for the shape of the nebula.  After that, I sponged Barry M's "Lemon Ice Cream" towards the middle of the white, followed by Barry M's "Peach Melba". Then, I sponged Max Factor's "Candy Blue" around the outside, and went back and sponged more black where I used to much. Finally, I dotted in some stars and added both a glitter top coat and a normal topcoat. The glitter topcoat I used was Rimmel's Rock Your Colour "Disco Gold".

 

I have a Facebook fanpage!

Although I've been too busy to get any actual blog posts done, I have had the time to set up a Facebook fan page! I still haven't decided what I'm going to do with it, but for now it has all of the pictures from my blog on it. Is there anything you guys want to see from me? Either on my Facebook or on the blog? Leave me a comment. :)

www.facebook.com/TheNailArtHobby

As for more blog posts, all of my coursework is due back at school by September 10th, so in theory it should all be finished by then. After that, I'm hoping to start posting every weekend at least. Thanks for your patience everyone, I'll be back soon! <3 br="br">

So... still no new posts

I'm sorry guys, I promised I'd post something over the weekend. Unfortunately I just don't have time to get any nail art done, let alone have the time to take pictures, edit, and post them. After the summer I'll be going into sixth form which means I have a lot of summer coursework to get done. Of course, school work has to be my main focus. Next week I'm doing some volunteer work during the day so that means that I'm going to have even less time to get nails done. Depending how busy school gets, I'm hoping to be able to start posting once a week (maybe twice) from September, but in the meantime I hope you all don't mind my lack-of-posts.

Summer Challenge Catchup, Day 10: Tropical Drinks

I'll be honest, I wasn't looking forward to this theme at all. I had absolutely no ideas. After all, I've never had a tropical drink before in my life to take inspiration from. Oh well. I did a quick Google search for tropical drinks and more or less copied the first image.

 

I think these could have turned out loads better than they actually did. But, I had a severe lack of inspiration today. I used a lot of colours for this design, so here we go. I used a base of Rimmel's "Aqua Cool". Then I used a small paintbrush to paint the different sized glasses with Barry M's "White". Then, for the index finger I used Nails Inc's "Atomic", Barry M's "Bright Red" and Sinful Color's "UFO". I did the flower with acrylic paint. For the middle finger used Barry M's "Strawberry Ice Cream" and I think Barry M's "Bright Red" for the flower. On the ring finger, I mixed Barbara Daly's "Kiwi" with Barry M's "Black" and "White" until I got the right shade of green. I used acrylic paint again for the flower. Finally, for the pinky finger I used Max Factor's "Candy Blue" and added more white to it as it faded up the glass. Then, I used Barry M's "Lemon Ice Cream" for the pineapple on the side of the glass.

On Monday, I'm going away for another 5 days. So that means if you don't get a post from me over the weekend, I'll post again either next Saturday or Sunday. I'll get all of the challenge themes done soon. Hopefully before the summer's over!

The Liebster Award (My first award!)

I've been tagged for my first award, which for someone still relatively new to blogging is pretty exciting! It's the best feeling in the world to feel that you're finally becoming recognised. Thank you Globe & Nail for tagging me. :)

For this tag, you need to do the following:

1. Each person tagged must post 11 things about themselves.
2. They must also answer the 11 questions the 'tagger' has set for them.
3. They must create 11 more questions to ask bloggers they have decided to tag.

4. They must then choose 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers and tag them in their post.

5. These lucky bloggers must then be told.
6. There's no tag backs.

 

11 things about myself

1. I have a brother two years younger than me, and a sister who is one year older than me.

2. I spend a large majority of my time on the Internet either on YouTube or talking to friends. A few of my favourite YouTubers are CTFxC, SHAYTARDS, nerimon, charlieissocoollike, danisnotonfire and AmazingPhil. Although these tend to change a lot. I think my all-time favourite would be CTFxC, I own one of their hoodies.

3. I can lick both of my elbows, but not at the same time.

4. My friends hate me for saying it, but I'm not a huge fan of Harry Potter or LOTR. I just never got into either of them. I read the Harry Potter books and enjoyed them, I just never became obsessed. Then LOTR is far to long for me to be able to watch all of the films or read the books.

5. I have a birthmark in my eye. My eyes are mostly hazel/green except for one portion of the iris in the left eye (I think) which is brown. Most people tend to freak out when they see it and ask if it hurts, which of course it doesn't.

6. After the summer holidays I'll be starting my A-Levels, which scares me to death. For my A-Levels I'm going to be doing Psychology, English Literature, French and Communication & Culture.

7. Other than doing my nails, I have no talent in art whatsoever. I can't draw to save my life, as all of my artsy friends will tell you.

8. I'm more of a dog person than a cat person, however if it's cute and fluffy I'll probably love it.

9. My favourite animal is a sloth because I think they're a lot like me. They're lazy and have long claws. Sums me up pretty perfectly I'd say.

10. I have zero interest in sports. The Olympics are boring for me, and so I have seen barely anything. I think it's great for people who actually enjoy the sports but I'd rather not have the Olympics thrown at me everywhere I go.

11. It took an insanely long time to think of all of these facts, because I'm such a boring person.

Questions set by the tagger

1. Why did you decide to start blogging, and how long ago did you start?

 I first really got into reading blogs when I saw The Nailasaurus's meme nails posted on Memebase. I saw her watermark on the picture so searched for her blog and read a few of her posts. I think from then I was hooked and brought stamping plates a few days later. I also checked her Best of British page and found a few other blogs to start following. After a while, I kinda figured that blogging might be a bit of fun so I decided to give it a go. I already had a Blogger account which I'd made in July of last year, so in April of this year I started using it.
2. Favourite polish finish? (Creme, glitter, holo, shimmer, ect.?)

Tough one... I think the colours in cremes can be gorgeous, but after seeing swatches of Gosh Holographic I can see that holos can be amazing too. One finish that I don't really like is frosted, something about it just makes me think it looks a little cheap. That's just my opinion though.
3. Ever had an embarrassing manicure failure?

Sometimes designs don't turn out quite how I imagined them in my head, but that happens to everyone sometimes. I can't think of anything in particular that was embarrassing. One time someone broke one of my nails by high-5ing me... does that count?
4. What is your nail art/nail care pet peeve?

When people don't clean up their nails, that annoys me. Sometimes the design they've done is really nice or the colour is pretty but they have nail polish all around their cuticles. I guess that ruins the overall look for me.
5. Biggest polish lemming?

Probably Gosh Holographic or OPI DS Original. They're both so pretty. Thankfully Gosh is re-releasing their Holographic polish soon, so it will be mine someday!
6. What brand of polish do you own the most of?

Barry M, definitely. It's super cheap and has some really nice colours. Probably one of my favourite brands too.
7. What is your favourite movie?

I like most Disney/Pixar movies, they never disappoint. I think if I had to pick a favourite one of those it would be between The Lion King, Monster's Inc and Toy Story. I can never think of a movie that isn't Disney to choose as my favourite though... this question is hard for me. I think any film that I watched a lot as a kid and brings back lots of memories is fine for me.
8. Favourite book? 

Most recently I've read The Hunger Games trilogy, and I liked those a lot. I also read Looking for Alaska by John Green a few weeks ago. That was an awesome book, even if I did cry a lot.
9. Any hobbies besides nail art and blogging?

Not really... I don't do much other than surf the Internet and paint my nails.
10. Three material possessions you couldn't live a day without?

My laptop (Internet connection included?), Clothes (who wants to go out into public naked? Unless you're into that...) and my bed (so that I can get lots of sleep).
11. Do you ever leave the house with naked nails?

Never, when my nails are naked I feel like they're prone to breaking and getting damaged. They're never without polish for too long, only however long it takes between removing the last manicure and creating a new one.

My questions for the tagged

1. What/Who got you started with nail art and how long have you been doing it?

2. How long have you been blogging for?

3. What is your favourite colour to wear on your nails?

4. Favourite nail art technique? (Water marbling, stamping, gradient, etc)

5. How many different polishes do you own?

6. Do you have a favourite polish that you keep buying when you run out?

7. Any tips/tricks you've learnt whilst doing your nails?

8. Most you've ever spent on nail polish?

9. How often do you paint your nails?

10. Where do you get your inspiration for nail art?

11.  Favourite design you've blogged?

And finally, I tag:

1. Cuti-CLUE-les

2. Hen's Nest

3. Patchwork Polish

4. Polish Etc.

5. Robin Sparkles

6. The (mis)Adventures of a Wanna Be Martha

7. Thejewellsparkle

8. WellNailed x

9.

10.

11.

Notice there are three empty spaces for tags? That's because the people I've tagged are the only people that I follow with under 200 followers and haven't (to my knowledge) done this tag. If you have a blog with less than 200 followers and want to be tagged, just comment and I'll add you onto it! :)

Thanks for reading all of this, I had a lot of fun writing it!

Summer Challenge Catchup, Day 5: Fruits

For this challenge, I'd considered finding a really obscure fruit to try and make my nail design more original. But then I thought if I did that, then no one would understand the nails. So, I decided to do a common fruit but in a way that was different to usual. Just for the fun of it. My friend suggested bananas so instead of just painting my nails yellow, I did this:

It's the Bananas in Pyjamas! I used to watch that program all the time when I was little, although the only part I remember is the theme tune. I'm pretty happy with how these came out. I started with a base of Barry M's "White", then used Max Factor's "Candy Blue" and a thin paintbrush to paint the stripes on all of my nails except the ring finger. Then, I did the details of the Banana using Barry M's "Yellow", Max Factor's "Candy Blue", Barry M's "Mushroom", and Barry M's "Black". After that, I went back to all of my other nails and added 2 small bananas just to make them look less boring.

I'm especially happy with how the Banana turned out, I can never usually get outline lines to be that thin with the brush I have. Thankfully, I ordered some new brushes from Ebay this morning so in the future small details should be much easier. Yay!

Summer Challenge Catchup, Day 4: Palm Trees

I think for this theme, most people did something along the same lines. That being, a gradient of either a sunset or a sunrise with the black silhouette of palm trees. Which is exactly what I've done. I did have other ideas in mind too, but I couldn't quite figure out how I would put them onto my nails, so I just stuck with the obvious.

 

The colours I used for this design were Barry M's "Strawberry Ice Cream", Rimmel's "Ultra Violet" and Rimmel's "Aqua Cool". Then, I used Barry M's "Black" and a thin paintbrush to add the silhouette details. I think the details could have been done more neatly but my brush is losing it's original shape so isn't as thin as it was originally. Looks like I'll have to get a new one, or maybe try some actual nail art brushes. What do you guys think?

Summer Challenge Catchup, Day 3: Favourite Summer Song

 When I saw this theme, I wasn't sure at all what I wanted to do my nails as. I don't really have a favourite summer song, I just listen to whatever is playing on the radio most of the time. So, I asked one of my best friends who is a huge music fan. A particular favourite is a woman who she describes as being one of the most perfect people alive. That is, Cheryl Cole. So, she suggested I take the design from the trousers Cheryl wears in her Call My Name music video and put it onto my nails. She's a genius. Here are said trousers:

 

And here are my nails.

 Yes, the Cheryl logo on my ring finger is upside down... I was too lazy to redo it and put it the right way round.

The logo was supposed to be like on the album cover, I think it turned out pretty good. Even if it did take about 5 attempts to get it all to fit on my nail! The colours I used for this design were, Barry M's "Bright Red", "Lemon Ice Cream", "Mint Green", "Black" and "White", Nails Inc's "Atomic", Max Factor's "Candy Blue" and Rimmel's "Ultra Violet". I also used some pink acrylic paint to write Cheryl before going over it with white polish. Using acrylic paint meant that I could erase it with water as many times as I liked. For the animal print, I used image plate BM221 and Barry M's "Black".

I'm happy with how these nails turned out overall, I think they're pretty cool. What do you think? :)

Summer Challenge, Day 16: Recreate your favourite manicure!

Today is the last day of the Summer Challenge (except for the challenges that I've missed)! So, to round it all off the last theme was to recreate a design someone else has done during the challenge. When I was scrolling through the pictures from throughout the challenge, one design that stood out to me was this whale design by Creative Nail Design. It's just so adorable and simple! I love it. :)

For the colours, I used 3 coats Barry M's "Blue Moon" for the base on all the nails. Then, I used Rimmel's "Aqua Cool" on the pinky and half of the ring finger. Over that, I put W7's "Cosmic Blue". For the whale, I used Max Factor's "Candy Blue", Barry M's "White" and Barry M's "Black". For the water that the whale is squirting, I used the same colours as the sea on the pinky finger.

I really like this design, it's just so adorable and easy to recreate. Hopefully everyone doing the challenge had fun and got more of the themes done than I did! Also, sorry about not posting the haul yet. I completely forgot! It's coming soon... promise.

Summer Challenge, Day 15: Ocean/Sea

So the Summer Challenge is drawing to a close, with only one more day left to go. That is, for everyone who  has kept up to date with all of the challenges. Me, however? I still have to go back and do 8 challenges that I've missed. These will come every other day after the last challenge, in the order that they should have been created originally.

Anyway, I'm back from an amazing holiday in Great Yarmouth and ready to go again. I bought 10 new polishes over the past week, so a haul post will be up tomorrow. Today is the second to last challenge in the list, Ocean/Sea. For this I figured some water marbling was most appropriate. Even though it is a pain to do. Here's how it turned out:

I wasn't aiming to do anything in particular with this design, I just kind of threw the colours in and used a toothpick to drag lines through the rings. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out though, even if they don't really look like an ocean. Usually my water marbling turns out horribly. The colours I used for this were Barry M's "Denim", Barry M's "Blue Moon", Max Factor's "Candy Blue" and Rimmel's "Aqua Cool", over a base of Barry M's "White".

Just a quick post today.

I won't be doing today's challenge because I'm going on holiday tomorrow and need time to pack. So, I'll be back next Friday and I'll continue doing the challenges from there, and catch up with all of the ones I've missed at the end. :)

Summer Challenge, Day 9: Favourite Summer Memory

I think everyone will agree, this was a hard challenge. Everyone has some memories from the summer that really stand out but it's hard to transfer those into some nail art. Then again, with a theme like this then it more than likely guarantees everyone will do something different.

Outside my house when I was growing up, there was a HUGE tree where I would play and hang out with my friends. It was a good meeting place, and so I have a lot of memories attached to that tree. So, that's what I based my nail art on.

I did a gradient as a background to make a sunset, to show those days where we would play outside all day until it got dark and our parents called us in. Then, on my ring finger painted the tree. In hindsight, perhaps I should have done some stick people on the other nails and under the tree. Oh well, I still like how it turned out. The colours I used for the background were Barry M's "Bright Red", Nails Inc "Atomic", Barry M's "Yellow" over a base of Barry M's "Lemon Ice Cream". Then, I used a small paintbrush and Barry M's "Black" to make the trunk and branches of the tree. After that dried, I used the brush again to stipple leaves over the branches using Barbara Daly's "Kiwi".

Summer Challenge, Day 8: Beach

We are halfway through the Summer Challenge! I say we, but I have missed almost half of the themes so far... Oh well, I'll do them at the end, promise! Today's theme was Beach, so the most obvious thing to do was paint a beach on my nails. So that's what I did. Here it is:

Yaaaaaaay, more freehand! And a lot of different polishes. To start, I used a base of Barbara Daly's "Lustre" for the sand. Then, I used a small paintbrush and Barry M's "Denim" to make the sea. I then swirled in some of Barry M's "Matt White" to make it look more like the sea. Then, I sponged Rimmel's "Aqua Cool" to make the sky and used the small paintbrush and white again to make clouds. I added details in with the paintbrush. From pinky to index finger we have; a beachball, a red parasol, the sun in the sky, and a palm tree. For those I used Barry M's "Bright Red", an unnamed Miss Sporty nail polish in brown, Barry M's "Yellow" and Barbara Daly's "Kiwi".

Summer Challenge, Day 7: Ice Cream

Happy Friday 13th! Or not... depending on if anything bad happens/has already happened. Fingers crossed it doesn't! Today's challenge theme was Ice Cream. Pretty self explanatory. I didn't do anything overly complex for this challenge, but here it is.

For this, I used a base of Barry M's "Mint Green". Then, I used Barry M's "Mushroom" and mixed it with a bit of Barry M white to create the right shade for the ice cream cone. I also used "Mushroom" to hash along the cone to give it more texture. Then, I used the end of a paintbrush to dot Barry M's "Strawberry Ice Cream" above the cone and dripping down the rest of the nails. The cherry on top of the ice cream cone was done with Barry M's "Bright Red" and a toothpick.

I think it's obvious what my favourite brand of nail polish is... IT'S JUST SO CHEAP I CAN'T RESIST.

Summer Challenge, Day 6: Favourite Summer Colour

Well, this challenge is going well for me. I had to miss the last 3 challenge days because I caught a cold and really couldn't be bothered to paint my nails over this past week. Sorry about that! I'll catch up with any themes I miss at the end of the challenge, so they'll be posted eventually. Anyway, on with today's challenge. It's simple enough, just choose your favourite summer colour. I didn't want to pick a favourite, so I just watched a polish I hadn't tried yet. This is Barry M's Magnetic polish in "Burgundy". I've seen this swatched a few times, and thought it was gorgeous. So when one of my friends brought it for me for my birthday I was super excited!

It's a really gorgeous colour that I would happily wear on it's own, but the magnetic effect really makes it stand out. The only problem I have is that I always manage to knock the magnet on the polish, but hopefully I'll get better at not doing that with practise.

Summer Challenge, Day 2: Picnic

Today is day two of the Summer Challenge is today, with the theme of Picnic. I had no idea what to do for this challenge to make it more unique, so I stuck to the obvious. Sorry about that! Here come my ants on a picnic blanket.

I know it's not amazing, but the ring finger was supposed to be a wicker picnic basket. LOL. And, the black dots are ants invading the picnic blanket. I'm pretty sure lots of other girls in the challenge have gotten similar things today, so lets hope tomorrow is more creative. :)

The base is Barry M's "Bright Red", and the ants were done with Barry M's "Black" and a toothpick. All of the other details were added with acrylic paint and a small paint brush.

Here are the other girls doing the challenge:

Summer Challenge, Day 1: Bees

Hello everyone! July 1st marks the first day of the Summer Challenge created by Kaki and Theodora. 

This is the first nail art challenge that I have taken part in, so posting every other day is going to be a huge challenge for me. I'll be honest, I was shocked that it was July 1st already. I thought I had at least a few more days! Thankfully, my set of Bundle Monster's new image plates arrived the other day so they helped me to get a design ready in time.

Onto today's design, with the theme: Bees.

The plates I used were BM-301 for the bees, and BM-305 for the zigzag pattern in the background. I already had the black and gold background on my nails, so when I realised I had a challenge to do I thought it would make a good base because it kind-of looks like a bee. So, I stamped little bees all over it. :P

The nail polishes that I used were Barry M's "Black", Barry M's "Gold Foil" and Barry M's "Silver Foil".

Here are the other girls doing the challenge: