31DC: Pink and Aqua

Today the prompt was a colour prompt; pink and aqua. This left me with lots of options!

I decided on a freehand floral design. To work with the colours I didn't want it to look too 'serious', so I made the flowers kind of cartoonish/child like.

I used Ciaté Paper Doll for the base, then I painted the flowers using acrylic paint for the outlining and filling in with Sinful Colors Cream Pink, an unnamed Glow in the Dark Primark polish and Sinful Colors Savage. I finished with my usual Essence Quick Dry Topcoat.

Visit the other blogs taking part to see what they have done!

31DC: Water Spotting

Today's prompt is a new technique for me: waterspotting.
I have seen some beautiful outcomes from this technique, however I have also seen some serious fails! Hence why I have never attempted it before!

It took a long time and lots of trial and error but I eventually got a half reasonable result!

I used Ciaté Ferris Wheel as my base colour and Essence Let's Get Lost! for the waterspotting, as I know this polish works well for watermarbling.

In case you're interested, here's the story of my disaster:

I didn't have any spray alcohol gel, so after watching a few YouTube video's I started off trying to use hairspray. Massive mistake. The hairspray just seemed to instantly dry the polish and make it sink to the bottom. So I tried again. But there was hairspray residue left on my water, which the polish sat on top of. I took my toothpick and tried to remove the layer of hairspray, but it seemed to be never ending. Each time I took some out, more filled the gap!
I emptied the water out to get rid of the hairspray and started again. But somehow, there was still hairspray on the water! Several cups of water and many toothpicks later it appeared hairspray-free.
So, if hairspray doesn't work, how am I going to do this?
*Trawls Google for another hour*
Aha! Acetone.
I dropped my polish onto the water, it dried instantly and sunk to the bottom in a ball because my water was too cold having come straight from the tap. Doh.
After microwaving my water, I again dropped my polish onto the water, let it spread, dipped a brush in acetone, flicked it at the polish andd... nothing happened? The acetone seemed to evaporate in the second it took to move the brush from the bottle, to the polish. So I tried again. This time I held the acetone over the polish, so it dripped in as soon as I took the brush out. I ended up with a massive clear circle in the centre of a tiny ring of blue. Third time lucky? I dipped into the acetone, which was as close to the glass of water as I could possibly get and gently tapped the brush over the polish, creating little 'holes'. Success! At last!

Conclusion: Biggest hassle ever! Safe to say I never intend on water spotting again!!

31DC: Tape Mani

The prompt for day 2 is 'tape mani'.
I do love tape nail art, but very rarely have success doing them myself. However, I think today's was one of my more successful attempts and I really like how it turned out. :)

I used two Colour Couture polishes, which I got as part of a Christmas present: Girls Just Want to Have Fun and Are You Afraid of the Dark?.

I love the black polish, it has the perfect hint of gold shimmer.

12 Days of Christmas: Snowflakes

Hello!
This month I am planning on taking part in Challenge Your Nail Art's '12 days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge'. I have never managed to complete a challenge where I have to post more than once a week, so we'll see how it goes!!

The first prompt is 'Snowflakes':

I love how these turned out! The two different blues really make me think of day and night.

I used L'Oreal Million Sapphire on my index and middle fingers and Make Up Gallery Sky Blue on my ring finger, pinky and thumb. 

That L'Oreal glitter is so perfect! Full, even coverage of glittery goodness in just two coats. Bad side, it peeled off in the shower. As a whole piece. Strange!

I then used acrylic paint and a tiny paintbrush to paint the snowflakes and finished off with my usual Essence Quick Dry topcoat.

See the other entries for this challenge here:

An InLinkz Link-up

Llama Nails Movies/Books Challenge

So the Llama Nails Movies/Books challenge is finished. :(
This is the first challenge I have ever managed to take part in every single week and see right through to the end!
So I thought I would be a little 'round-up' post of all the mani's from the challenge to celebrate!

1. Comedy - 27 Dresses

2. Historical - Les Miserables

3. Thriller - Black Swan

4. B Movie - Snakes on a Plane

5. Romance - 50 First Dates

6. Cult - Rocky Horror

 7. Action - Kung Fu Panda

8. Crime - Kill Bill

9. Mystery - Harry Potter

10. Fantasy - Alice in Wonderland

11. Science Fiction - Avatar 

12. Anime - Dragonball 

13. Disney - Minnie Mouse & Ratatouille

14. Fairytale - The Swan Princess & Ella the Ladybird

15. Mythology - Hercules

16. Poetry - Winnie the Pooh 

17. Horror - Goosebumps

And that's it! I can't believe I have been doing this challenge for 17 weeks!

Which was your favourite mani from the challenge? I can't possibly choose a favourite, I love them all for different reasons (Exceptt Snakes on a Plane - that one was just bad!)!

Got to find something else to take part in now, any suggestions most welcome! :)

Poetry Nail Art: Winnie the Pooh

The Llama Nails challenge is nearly over, this is penultimate prompt! What am I going to paint on my nails when it ends!?

Anyway, this weeks prompt is Poetry.
The first poem which came to mind when I saw this was the 'Tiddely-Pom' poem from Winnie the Pooh! You can tell I spend too much time with children, haha! I have included the poem at the bottom, just in case anybody has no idea what I'm talking about!

I tried to represent the snow by doing a glitter gradient on my index and little fingers and using a flakie on all four nails. I painted Piglet and Pooh walking through the snow on the middle and ring fingers.

 I love this mani so much, piglet came out exactly how I planned. Pooh isn't bad either, although he is looking a little slim!!

I used all Ciaté polishes for this. Sweet Pea and Paper Doll from the Dolls House Collection, as well as Snow Globe and Confetti. Pooh and Piglet were painted with Black acrylic paint.

This is the image I based it on:

      The more it snows 
      (Tiddely pom), 
      The more it goes 
      (Tiddely pom), 
      The more it goes 
      (Tiddely pom) 
      On snowing. 
      And nobody knows 
      (Tiddely pom), 
      How cold my toes 
      (Tiddely pom), 
      How cold my toes 
      (Tiddely pom), 
      Are growing. 

Check out the other entries to the challenge:

An InLinkz Link-up

Mythology Nail Art

This weeks llama nails prompt is Mythology movies/films.

I have to admit, my mani this week is a bit lame. I've been feeling ill all week and haven't been bothered to paint my nails. Usually I paint them three times over the weekend, and I've done them once!

I loosely based this weeks mani on the film Hercules, painting Pegasus on my ring finger.

The nose went a little wrong, but I'm reasonably happy with how it turned out.

The base is Ciaté Poppet, with Pegasus painted in acrylic paint. I bought the Ciaté Dolls House collection earlier today for a bargain £6.99 in TkMaxx and I love it! The porcelain finish is beautiful. Watch out for swatches later in the week, when I'm hopefully feeling a bit better. 

An InLinkz Link-up

Fairytale: The Swan Princess

For the Fairytale theme of this weeks Llama Nails Challenge I already posted my Ella nails. However, I had forgotten that I painted these last weekend for this theme!

The Swan Princess was one of my favourite films as a child. In fact, I still have the VHS but am unable to play it!

I'm afraid this mani is a bit of a nail fail! I contemplated just ignoring the fact that this had ever existed as I don't really like it!

Although I am quite pleased with my sunrise, the swan looks more like a goose due to having too short a neck!

The other two nails I did in a super sparkly silver holo, which is not captured well on these photo's. This was supposed to represent this princess-ness, however I feel it just doesn't go with the other nails.

The holo polish is by Wonderful and Strange Nail Lacquer and is amazing! The background for the other nails was Jess Polish, Calypso. On my middle finger I created a gradient with this and an orange Missguided polish. I then painted the sun with Sally Hansen Sugar Coat in Sweetie.

The swan/goose was painted with Barry M Matte White.

Fairytale Nails: Ella

This weeks theme is Fairytale. Of course, I could have just continued down the Disney route, however I wanted to do something a little less obvious.

These nails are based on a book I read to my class at school called Ella. Ella is a ladybird, who lives in Paris. She has two evil wasp stepsisters and she attends a ball, where she loses her glasses. The handsome spider who is holding the ball invites bugs to try on the glasses in an attempt to find her.

Yea, basically its a modern version of the classic fairytale Cinderella, with bugs!

I used Barry M Matte White as a base colour on most fingers, with Rimmel Red, Steady, Go! on my index finger. I then used Barry M Black for the dots. The flowers were done using Rimmel Cupcake Pink, Rimmel Space Dust in Luna Love and an old Limited Edition Barry M Pink, which I don't know the name of! The Eiffel Tower was stamped with a Born Pretty Store stamping plate and a dark silver No.17 polish. All finished off with my favourite topcoat, Essence Quick Dry.

An InLinkz Link-up

Disney: Ratatouille Nail Art

And I've done another Disney!
Can you tell I love Disney?! Haha!

This time I went for a less common Disney film though... Ratatouille.

I really like the colours of this mani.

I used Revlon Blue Lagoon as a base colour. On my ring finger I did the Saran Wrap method with Blue Lagoon and Sinful Colors Cool Gray. This was followed by a coat of Grey Holo by Wonderful and Strange Polish, which I also used on my little finger (3 thick coats, no base).

I painted Remy the Rat using acrylic paints and the Eiffel Tower was stamped using a No17 unnamed dark metallic grey and a BornPretty stamping plate.

An InLinkz Link-up

Disney Nails: Minnie Mouse

This weeks Llama Nails theme is Disney.
Disney is my all time favourite film genre!! I know, I'm sad!

 I have chosen to paint Minnie Mouse on my nails today. Though I have to admit I have another  Disney mani coming tomorrow!
I know she doesn't feature in many Disney films nowadays, but in the past she has been in lots!

I used Essence Do You Speak Love? for the ring finger, thumb and the dots, Ciaté Amazing Gracie for the middle and pinky fingers and an unnamed nude Revlon for the index finger, with details painted using Barry M Black.

I really like these. Themed, without being too much for a change!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Dragonball Nails

This week for the Llama Nails challenge the theme is Anime/Cartoon nails.
I wanted to try anime, although again it is not my sort of film. So I asked my boyfriend to name a good anime film, found out a bit about it from him and googled some images!

This is how it turned out! I actually quite like this. 

The polishes I used were Rimmel Golden Hour on my index finger, an unnamed H&M blue polish on my middle finger, Ciaté Amazing Gracie on my ring finger and Sally Hansen Sugar Coat Cherry Drop on my little finger and thumb. The rest of the details are acrylic paint.

An InLinkz Link-up

Avatar Nail Art

Science Fiction is the prompt for this weeks Llama Nails Book/Movie Challenge.

I decided to go with Avatar:

I really love my index fingernail and kind of wish I had done the other half of her face on my middle finger, rather than the tree of souls.

I mostly used acrylic paint for this mani, because of the detail. However I used Maybelline Dark Denim as the base colour, Sinful Colors Nirvana for the tree and Revlon Aquamarine as a topcoat on my ring finger, as the white was too bright. I finished it all with a Jess Matte Topcoat.

Alice in Wonderland Nail Art

This week the Llama Nails Challenge prompt is Fantasy books/films.
I had lots of possibilities for this prompt and had difficulty deciding which to do, which makes a change for me!! But I decided to go with Alice in Wonderland... the older animated version.

I absolutely love my left hand! Although I defo need to work on painting faces! Paha, Alice does not look very happy!

My right hand is much simpler but I still really like it.

These nails took me over two hours to paint and used a huge number of polishes and paints! It will take too long to say which polishes were used where, but I will list the polishes below the picture.

Sally Hansen Green Tea Basecoat, Sinful Colours Savage, Barry M Silk Heather, Barry M Matte White, Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream, Jess Calypso, Sally Hansen Grape Race, Essence That's What I Mint!, Rimmel Red, Steady, Go!, MUA Frozen Yoghurt, Rimmel Purple Pulse, Rimmel Sunny Days and Essence Quick Dry Topcoat.

I am really looking forward to the next few weeks of this challenge as the prompts are much more me!

An InLinkz Link-up

Harry Potter Nail Art

This week the theme for the Llama Nails Movie/Book Challenge is Mystery.
Again, this was a difficult one for me to think of a film for, so I turned to IMDB's top 50 Mystery films.

Harry Potter is not a film I would consider a mystery, but at least 4 of the films were in the top 50 mystery films, so I just went with it!! My mani is based around the Deathly Hallows films.

I'm really pleased with how these turned out! Particularly the round gradient!

I started with a base of a Nude Unnamed Revlon polish, over which I sponged a circular gradient of the same nude polish and Sally Hansen Kiwi Bikini. I was trying to recreate that eerie green Voldemort glow!!

 I then used Barry M Black and a thin paintbrush to paint the symbol of the Deathly Hallows and the Dark Mark on my ring and index fingers. On my middle finger I painted Harry's lightening bolt scar using Rimmel Sunny Days and outlined in Barry M Black. I then used a Jess Matte Topcoat on all but the lightning bolt, to make it stand out.

I enjoyed using the box as a photo prop way too much with this mani!! I don't know how I never thought of it before, as I have many of the films I have based my mani's on for this challenge on DVD!

An InLinkz Link-up

Crime Nails: Kill Bill

This week on the Llama Nail Challenge the prompt is Crime Movie/Book.
Again, this was a difficult one for me, but after looking through the Crime section of IMDB I knew exactly which film I wanted to do!

If you can't tell, these nails take their inspiration from Kill Bill.

I love the way the texture of the 'blood' contrasts with the smooth shininess of the black strip on my ring finger!

I used only polishes for this nail art:

Rimmel Sunny Days for the background yellow.

Rimmel Red, Steady, Go! for the blood.

The black stripe and handle of the sword are Barry M Black.

The Silver for the sword is Ciaté Fit For A Queen.

Check out the other Crime Nails done for the challenge:

An InLinkz Link-up