MNDA Ice Bucket Nail Art

I'm sure everybody has seen an Ice Bucket Challenge, if you have not participated yourself!
This is to raise awareness of ALS, or MND, as it is known here in the UK.

A few days ago I was nominated to take part!
So, alongside doing my ice bucket challenge and donating, I also painted my nails for the occasion with the MND Association logo!

I thought you might like a laugh, so here are a few pictures from my challenge too!

Kung Fu Panda Nail Art

This week's Llama Nails Challenge prompt is Action Movies/Books.
Again, this is a genre which I don't watch very often! I asked my boyfriend to name any action films I might have seen and this was about the only one we could come up with!!

Please tell me you can recognise at least some of those characters!! It's Kung Fu Panda!

The top photo is Po, Master Shifu, Master Oogway and Po's Dad. The bottom photo is the Furious Five (Tigress, Monkey, Mantis, Viper and Crane!).

These are two of my favourites which can't  be seen very clearly in the above photo!

I may have been a little bit too ambitious with these nails, some certainly don't look much like the characters they are supposed to be! 

I used a base of Ciaté Ivory Queen, and painted the rest in Acrylic paints. Except Tigress' eyes, for which I used Rimmel Golden Hour, so they have a mettalic hint to them!

An InLinkz Link-up

Simples: Splodging

I've been a bit quiet on the blogging front for the past few weeks, as I have been busy working a second job. But now I'm back. So, I've got a bit of catching up to do!

First is the SIMPLES challenge. Two weeks ago the theme for this was splodging mani's.
Splodging is something I have never tried before and didn't really expect to like, but I am actually quite pleased with how it turned out.

I used quite neutral colours for this mani. 1. Because I am quite big on colour co-ordination and hate using too contrasting colours together and 2. Because I plan on doing some nail art over this and don't want the background to be too distracting!

The polishes are all Ciaté: Amazing Gracie, Pillow Fight and Ivory Queen.

This was super easy to do and can create some quite nice effects.

Rocky Horror Nail Art

It's time for the Llama Nails challenge again! This week the promp is Cult movies/books.

I have based this mani on a film which is amazing, but the show is even better!!

It's The Rocky Horror Picture Show!! I hope you can tell from the nails!

These are defo not as good for real as they were in my head! I just could not get the corner of the lips right, or the teeth, although I am pleased with my use of striping tape.

I used Ciaté Boudoir and Barry M Matte White. The black is acrylic paint, as I am visiting my parents for a few weeks and couldn't bring my entire collection! I also topped two nails with L'Oreal Confetti in Amour and used striping tape to create a fishnet look on the index finger. I finished with a few dabs of Rimmel Space Dust in Aurora on the ring finger.

Check out the other amazing entries in the challenge:

An InLinkz Link-up

Kitsch Floral Nail Art

Tonight I have painted my mums nails rather than my own.
She wanted Cath Kidston style roses and dots, so that's what she got!

I very rarely paint anyone else's nails and it felt very strange, but we were both very happy with how they turned out. :)

The polishes I used were Ciate Ferris Wheel as the base colour. Sally Hansen Fuchsia Flare and Sally Hansen Wine Not for the pink roses. Sally Hansen Grape Race and Sally Hansen Plum Luck for the purple roses. I then added dots with Barry M Matte White and we finished with a clear UV gel polish to make it last as long as possible!

This is very similar to one of the first pieces of nail art I did, which you can see here and I have definitely improved!

50 First Dates

Hello! This week the Llama Nails Prompt is Romance Movies/Books.
I have based my mani on the film 50 First Dates and created a skittle, with each nail representing a different part of the film. This was one of my favourite films for a while!

I will explain the meaning behind each nail!

Thumb: Represents the sea, as the film is set on the island of Hawaii.

Index: This is the flower which is on the side of Lucy's car in the film.

Middle: Pineapples, as Lucy and her father pick a Pineapple every year on his birthday.

Ring: Newspaper, to represent the paper the family have reprinted each day for Lucy.

Pinky: Pink, the colour of the T-Shirt Lucy wears each day and her father has to wash each day!

Now for the polishes used:

• Sinful Colors Kissy (Thumb)
• Rimmel Sunny Days (Pineapples)
• Sally Hansen Fuchsia Flare (Pinky)
• Unbranded French White Polish (Middle and Ring base)
  
  The rest of the details were painted with Acrylics

I really like this mani. Although it is a skittle, the colours and themes seem to fit together really well.

Check out everybody elses mani's from the challenge:

An InLinkz Link-up

H&M Peachy Girl Swatches

Today I have got a review of the H&M polish, Peachy Girl.
I picked this up in their sale last week for £1, along with another H&M polish, Blue Bliss.

Here it is! 

This went on really easy and smooth, no problems. As I was applying it I thought it seemed a bit streaky, but once on the nail it seemed to smooth itself out as it dried. 

Drying time was quite fast, faster than I expected for a cheap polish, probably faster than most of the polishes I own. But not too fast that it was difficult to apply!

I did find the brush a little bit awkward to hold, as the lid of the bottle is rectangular, but the brush itself was good.

This polish lasted really well too. I wore it by itself for a day. I then painted my Yorkshire Rose nail art on top of it and kept this on for two days. When I took it off at the end of the three days there were still no chips, and hardly any wear on the tips either.

These pictures are taken with two coats, no topcoat, in natural light. It is definitely not a one coater, but two coats is perfect. You can see it is super shiny and smooth. The colour is gorgeous too, I don't own any other similar polishes either which is always good!!

Below is a picture with the two closest polishes I could find in my collection, just for comparison. On the left is OPI Where did Suzi's Man-Go, in the middle is Barry M Papaya and on the right is H&M Peachy Girl.

Overall, I really like this polish. It will definitely be well used and it is making me very tempted to buy more H&M polishes!

Yorkshire Rose's

Happy Yorkshire Day!
Being from Yorkshire (although not currently living there), I wanted to do some nails to celebrate the occasion!

Of course, it had to be the Yorkshire Rose!

I used acrylic paint to create the white roses and dots on top of H&M's Peachy Girl which I swatched yesterday (Review coming up!).

Excuse the mess on my hands, I had a bit of a fight with the white acrylic!!

The Yorkshire rose's are far from perfect, but I am fairly happy with them, as I have included most of the detail.

Nails of the Month: July

I seem to have done loads of mani's this month, although mostly in the first two weeks, as I have been extremely busy the past two weeks with moving and setting up my classroom.

This month's most popular mani was the same across the blog, my facebook page and my Instagram (@nailsmustbepainted).
The Black Swan Nail Art:

I can see why this was a particularly popular post. I love it too!!

Although, I am going to pick another favourite of the month, otherwise it would be a bit boring! 

In fact, there are two which I am struggling to choose between: Cappuccino Roses and the Chinese Lilac Flowers.

I love both of these for different reasons. The Cappuccino Flowers is so simple and easy, yet pretty at the same time, whereas the Chinese Floral is the opposite - a complex freehand painted flower on a gradient. 

I think I have to prefer the Chinese floral, just because of the time and effort that went into it!!