Christmas Nail Art: Snowflakes

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!! 

Well, no. England is crap and we still haven't had any of the fluffy (sludgy) white (actually kind of brown) stuff. But, i'm not letting that quash my ridiculously hyped up Christmas spirit this year.

This week, my good friend Rachel (haiiii gurl) offered up her nails for me to practice a Christmas design on, so I went for a classic symbol of winter, snowflakes! I LOVE how these nails turned out...

The polishes I used:

M.U.A Nail Varnish in shade 8 - Red

Saffron London Nail Polish in shade 12 - White

I painted Rachel's nails with one thick coat of the red polish. She'd already put on a base coat which saved me about ten minutes, what a babe.

I waited for that to dry and then, using a tiny brush from my set, I painted a full snowflake on her ring finger and half(ish) of one on her index finger in white. This took a fair amount of patience, but you can play around with the snowflake designs, just Google it mate.

I then used a medium, small and teeny tiny dotting tool to create random dots (snow) on all of her nails.

As always, I finished off with Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails top coat, and there you have it, festive snowflake nails!

Happy polishing <3

Christmas Nail Art: Christmas Puddings

Christmas pudding in my experience, just like marmite, is a bit of a love or hate food. An acquired taste some would say. 

I happen to love the sticky, fruity, alcoholy, alcoholy, alcoholy goodness that is a Christmas pud...mmmmm brandy.

One of my favourite things about Christmas day comes after I've stuffed myself silly on smoked salmon, 15 pigs in blankets and enough potatoes to feed all of Ireland...when the lights are dimmed and my dad sets that gorgeous pud on fire. The blue flames on that baby just get me going, and somehow I always find myself eating 2 bowls of the stuff and several mince pies.

Is it obvious yet that I kind of like my food?

Anyway, I digress. These nails will serve to please both the lovers and haters of the famous Christmas pudding.

The polishes I used:

Barry M Nail Paint in 317 - Blue Moon

Barry M Nail paint in 310 - Mushroom

Barry M Nail paint in NP47 - Black

M.U.A Nail Varnish in shade 8 - Red

Nails Supreme Paint in Forest Green

Saffron London Nail Polish in  11 - White

I started with a base coat and then applied 3 coats of pale blue nail polish. You can use any base colour you like. 

Next I used a thin nail brush dipped in black polish to create the pudding shape at the end of each nail. I filled in each pudding with the mushroom colour (brown) mixed with a drop of black to make it slightly darker and used a cocktail stick dipped in black to make tiny dots on the brown (raisins!).

I used a medium dotting tool dipped in red to create the berries (you can use a bobby pin/hair grip if you don't own dotting tools) and then used a tiny brush to paint on the holly.

I finished by using a small angled brush dipped in white (be sparing) to create the icing sugar.

Finish with a top coat and voila! Easy Christmas pudding nails which look good enough to eat!

Happy polishing <3

Nail Art: Interlocking Dots

When I showed my mum these nails she said they looked like something by Escher...

When I showed my boyfriend these nails he said they were a "mind-fuck"...'scuse his French.

I took both explanations as compliments and I loved this design so much that I did it twice in one week. It's safe to say that my nail polishes are starting to look a little on the empty side. Santa?

Here are my interlocking dot nails...

These are so much easier than they look and the finished product is so effective and mind boggling.

The polishes I used:

Missguided Nail Splash in MissCellaneous (nude)

M.U.A Nail Polish in 8 - Red

I also did a version using black and white. To start I used my trusty base coat, which I allowed to dry before adding a thick coat of nude polish.

 I can't stress this next bit enough....LET THE NUDE DRY PEOPLE!! 

Once dry, use masking tape diagonally across each nail, leaving half uncovered. I alternated the side I did this on for each nail. Use the red polish to paint over the uncovered nail and let this dry well.

Slowly remove the masking tape and you should have half-and-half nails. 

Next take a large dotting tool if you have one, or the round end of a bobby pin and use your first colour. The key here is that red polish is only dotted onto the nude background and nude is only dotted onto the red.

So with the red make evenly spaced dots right along the central line going into the nude base. Leave gaps big enough to fit another dot. Add another red dot or two (depending on dot/nail size) above each of those on the line. Use the same process for the nude, but when dotting along the line onto the red base, do the dots in the space between the red dots on the other half of the nail.

This is a bit confusing I apologise, but if you look carefully at the picture it should be clear what I mean! You can even see a little raised central line on each of my nails. (If you have any questions leave me a comment and i'll try and explain)

Finish with a top coat and voila...easy "mind-fuck" nails!

Happy polishing <3

Nail Art: Chessboard

Chess has never been my strong point. All that talk of pawns confuses me, and it probably doesn't help that I used to make up my own rules during the game, so now nobody will play with me. I'm not surprised, I can be very annoying.

Chess irritates me, but these nails definitely don't!

I apologise for the quality of these photos, I couldn't find my parents awesome camera so I had to use my crappy one from 1994.

The polishes I used:

Barry M nail paint in NP47 (black)

Saffron nail polish in shade 12  - White

I started with a base coat and two coats of white polish which I left to dry. Next I took one of the long striping brushes included in my nail-art brush set. I dipped the brush into black and created a 3x4 grid on each of my nails. I used the small angled brush from my brush set to fill in alternating squares with black polish.

As always I finished with Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails base/top coat.

Checkmate! You're done! Easy chessboard nails. No pawns allowed.

For more information on the brushes I used:

http://gracethorne.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/tools-nail-art-brushes.html

Happy Polishing <3

Christmas Nail Art: Gradient Glitter Tips

IT'S CHRIIISSSSTTTTMAASSSSSS!!

There are only a few weeks left until the big day and i'm really feeling the pressure with presents this year. Why are men so bloody difficult to buy for?! 

So instead of thinking about what to give people, I've been sat here drawing out loads of Christmassy nail designs. My loved ones will probably end up with shitty gifts, but at least my nails will look pretty.

I'm easing myself in slowly with the Christmas looks, as it's practically still November, with a nice easy glitter gradient. It reminds me of tinsel, but this design could be worn at any time of the year with a variety of different base colours. 

I used my new favourite nail varnish by Tecnic in the colour Carnival. It isn't really a colour, but the most amazing multi-coloured glitter EVER...

£3 from eBay.

The polishes I used:

Barry M nail paint in NP47 (black)

Technic nail varnish in Carnival

I started with a coat of black nail polish which i left to dry and then followed with one coat of the glitter over the whole nail. Once this was dry, I added another coat of glitter on the top half of the nail, then the top quarter and finally the very tip. I finished off with Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails base/top coat.

This look could easily be reversed, with the gradient going the opposite direction (more glitter towards the cuticles). You can use any colour/glitter combo you fancy!

Happy polishing <3