Neon Dotticure

This week I have a bright summery mani to distract from this miserable weather we're having at the moment!

I have had this grey/neon yellow pattern pinned on my pinterest inspiration board for ages, but never got round to doing anything with it until now.

I used Ciaté 'Chinchilla' for the base, then used Barry M 'Black' and Illamasqua 'Rare' for the the dots. 

I really like how this mani turned out. It's just a shame my nails or so short and ugly at the moment! I think I'll be trying this design again with different colours once I get my nails back as I like them! 

Rosey Stripes

Hey!
Unfortunately I'm having to rely on false nails this week. I went climbing with my dad yesterday and so I had to cut all my nails short, otherwise they would have been broken anyway.

I really really love how these turned out though and I hope they last and don't all pop off tomorrow!!

I used some striped falsies from Primark to start and a plain white false nail on my index fingers. Then I painted the index fingers pink using George 'Raspberry Forest'. I dug out some old Born Pretty decals I had which matched the pink polish and added a few of these to jazz up the mani a bit! 

Bedazzled

Hey!

Way back in November I bought a 2-pack of Rimmel glitter polishes. Up until now I still haven't got around to trying them out, so this week I decided that whatever I did with my nails I had to use one of them! So that's what I did!

I'm really pleased with how these turned out actually. :)

I used Barry M Black as a base on my index and middle fingers, followed by two coats of Rimmel 'Bedazzle'. I really like the colours in this glitter! I tried to match the other polish as closely as I could to the pink glitter, so I ended up using a really old unnamed pink polish by the sports brand 'Animal'.

Cheerful and Childish

Today's nails are, as the title says, very childish and cutesy. They make me feel cheerful and think of happy times!

I started painting my nails with very little direction or plan. I knew I wanted a gradient, so I picked two polishes at random to start with. I ended up with two Sally Hansen polishes: 'Pinch of Punch' and 'Coastin' By'.

The gradient I ended up with was cute, but felt it needed something else so I opted for some stamping. I used a plate from Born Pretty Store - MLS301, with a cute sweetie design and stamped using Barry M Silver Foil Effect polish.

I like how these turned out. They are very cutesy, remind me of unicorns and magic!! If only I hadn't had to cut all my nails short they would have looked even cuter!

NYE Nails

Hi!

Over Christmas I received a few random nail polishes as gifts. Usually I get much more than this, but lots of people told me they didn't know what I already had to get me any! 

I got 2 Cien polishes in 'Raspberry Glitter' and 'Metallic Rose', from Lidl. I tried these out and was surprised how good they were, especially for stamping with.

I also got Barry M 'Silver Foil Effects', George Gel Pro in 'Nude Pink' and an unnamed pink polish by High Brow, which I think came from B&M.

So, for my New Year nails, of course I had to use some of the new polishes:

They are not very New Year themed, but I like how they turned out. They are pretty, girly and glittery whilst still being simple and subtle.

I used George 'Nude Pink' as the base colour and Cien 'Raspberry Glitter' on my ring finger and to stamp on my index and middle fingers.

Hope you like these! xx

It's Christmassss!!

Hello!
So I know I said I would only be posting one photo per post, but as I am just restarting I wanted to show you some of the Christmas mani's I have painted this year! So this post will have several different mani's and several pictures!

I hand-painted these Christmas trees today, and these are the nails I will have for Christmas day.

I used Barry M 'Matte White' as a base colour, Revlon 'Rainforest' and Sinful Colours 'Kissy' for the Christmas trees and Ciaté 'Chinchilla' to add a bit of shading in the snow around the trees. I also sponged on some unnamed grey holo from Wonderful and Strange Nails, to add a bit of sparkle.

Next I have these adorable little penguins! I love these little guys, they are so cute!

I used Barry M 'Black Multiglitter' for the background, Barry M 'Matte White' for the tummies and eyes and NCLA 'I Only Fly Private' for the feet and beak.

I also painted some Christmas lights on my nails. These were very popular with my colleagues and my mum loved them too, although I wasn't too happy with the black lines.

I used W7 Gel polishes for the white background and the black line. Once these were set I then used Illamasqua 'Aorta' (Red) and 'Rare' (Yellow), Sally Hansen 'Pacific Blue' and 'Kiwi Bikini' (Green), and a small nail art brush to paint on the light bulbs.

Earlier in the month I had another Christmas tree mani. This is much more abstract, a dotticure tree!

I used Revlon 'Rainforest' as the green, Color Club 'Barely There' for the nude and Barry M 'Starlight' for the stars and glitter.

This was my first mani of December, so not too Christmassy! I went with more of a wintery, sweater look. I have no idea what polishes I used for this, it's too long ago to remember, sorry! I do know that the stickers were from last years Ciaté advent calendar.

Finally, I have this Rudolf mani, which I painted for my mum (Hence the awkward hand pose and misshapen nails!!). I used all gel polishes to do this. We mostly have W7 gels, but I know the Red is by OPI.

I'm Back!

Hello!

I have decided that I have missed blogging over the past 10 months, so I am back! Yayy!

I have still been posting on Instagram, but I have missed having the opportunity to explain my processes and the inspirations behind certain designs.

But there will be a few changes to my blog/posting habits:

•  I am no longer going to be blogging all over whenever I feel like it!

I have got into a better routine with doing my nails. I no longer have the time to do my nails most days, so instead I am doing them only once a week, making a much better job of every mani and using a gel topcoat to make them last. I tend to do this on a Sunday afternoon, so I intend to post each Monday. This gives me time to edit photos and write the blog posts.

• I will only be posting 1 picture of each mani.

Editing and adding watermarks takes time. Too much of it! 1 picture per post is manageable. Very occasionally you may get more. For example, if I want to show you a particular detail of the mani, or if I have more than one mani per post. This may happen more with the first few posts as I have a huge backlog of nail art from the past months!

I'll be back later today with my first blog post, then will get into the swing of things on a Monday! xx

Valentines Roses

Earlier today I was thinking I wanted to paint my nails for Valentines day. I knew I wanted roses, but haven't been happy with lots of my roses recently. So I went on Youtube and watched millions of different rose painting tutorials before I began painting, not following any particular tutorial, just using the info I learnt.

I absolutely love how these turned out. 

By far my best roses yet. So happy with them!

I used Barry M Rosehip as the base colour, then painted the roses freehand using acrylic paints and detail brushes from Born Pretty Store.

I literally never want to take these off! Haha!

Valentines Hearts

I painted these a few days ago, in the run up to Valentines day.
They are very cutesy and girly, not really my usual style of nails but I quite like them!

I used all Ciaté polishes for this skittlette design. 

The base colour is Strawberry Milkshake, which is one of my favourite pink polishes. I then used Serendipity to create a glitter accent nail and I stamped the heart pattern with Kiss Chase and MoYou London Mother Nature plate 01.

They are definitely girly-girl nails, which I am, but I very rarely show this side of me on my nails! 

Lilac Chevrons

Sorry I haven't been around much since completing the 31 Day Challenge. After all that I needed a bit of a break! Plus I seem to have been really busy.
I have still been painting my nails regularly (though not every day!), just not blogging, so now I have a few posts to catch up on.

The first is this simple stamped chevron design.

I used Barry M Matte White as my base colour and stamped the chevrons with MUA Frozen Yoghurt and Born Pretty Store plate QA91.

Remember, you can get 10% of anything from Born Pretty Store using discount code: EHG10.

I was pleased with how clean the lines were from the stamping, as I was uncertain whether vinyls would have been a better purchase. Vinyls would have been much more fiddly so I am glad this plate stamps well!

Blue Spikes

Today's nail art is very simple. Definite lazy day nails!

I started with a base of my favourite blue, Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream. Then I used striping tape to create the triangular shapes and filled them in with an unnamed shimmering blue Animal polish.

Although these are super simple I really like them! Also, they make my nails look even longer!

An InLinkz Link-up

31DC: Recreate your own mani

I struggled to find something I actually wanted to recreate for this!
A lot of my earlier mani's are horrendous designs, which would look no better for improved skills. They were just bad ideas!

Eventually, I found a lace design, which was my first mani posted on Instagram. I liked them at the time and I still like them now, so why not recreate them!

The first pic is the recreation and the second pic is the original.

I can definitely see huge improvements in my painting, clean-up and photography! Don't get me started on that watermark, so glad I downsized a little!!

I do miss that nail shape in the original photo, but working with kids it is just not practical! I don't want to accidentally stab anyone with my nails!

For the recreation I used Barry M Silk Poppy and white acrylic paint.

An InLinkz Link-up

31DC: Fishtail Braid

I have only ever painted a fishtail design once before and I wasn't too pleased with the outcome so I wasn't looking forward to this prompt.

However, I was surprisingly pleased with my mani!

I used Maybelline Berry Sweet, Maybelline Vibrant Fuchsia and Ciaté Silhouette.

Here are some of the other amazing mani's for this prompt:

An InLinkz Link-up

31DC: Complement and Contrast

Day 25's prompt was complement and contrast.
I opted to use complementary colours from the colour wheel. Pink and purple paired with yellow and orange in a colour blocked design.

Sorry about the Instagram photo. I painted and photographed these before I killed my laptop, so the 'proper' photos are still on my old laptop, where I cannot access them. :(

I started with a base of Ciaté Amazing Gracie, then used Sinful Colours Cream Pink, Maybelline Fuchsia Fever , Missguided Missmatch and Ciaté Big Yellow Taxi with striping tape to create the squared pattern.

I really love these!

Check out the other ladies work:

An InLinkz Link-up

31DC: Art

For 'Art' I decided to paint Van Gogh's Starry Night.

I very nearly changed my mind after noticing that Tara from Loki's Lacquer also did this painting. I was a little scared about mine being awful in comparison, but I decided to be brave and go for it anyway!

I actually really like how it turned out, although the blue is a little bit brighter than I had intended!

Mine is a little different stylistically to Tara's, which is good as it makes direct comparisons more difficult!

I used an unnamed blue polish from H&M as a base colour, then painted all the details with acrylic paint.

Go check out the other girls' artwork:

31DC: Green Base

Tonight, when I looked at this prompt, was one of the rare times I actually know what I want to do with my nails before I start painting them!

I have these Panda water decals from the Born Pretty Store. I have probably had them a good 6 months and have been looking for an excuse to wear them! Here it is!

Aren't they so cute!! 

I used Models Own Diamond Luxe Emerald Green as the base for this mani and simply applied the Panda and Bamboo decals on top. :)

Super quick, super easy and super cute!

You can get 10% off these decals and any other items on Born Pretty Store with the code EHG10.

31DC: Inspired by Pinterest

Today I chose this image to recreate from Pinterest, by blogger Alina Pinuccia.

I love the happiness of it! It's summery and pretty without being too much!

I used Essence That's What I Mint!, Ciaté Celestial, George Natural White and Colour Couture Yellow, I'm not sure what the name is!

31DC: Film

Films are one of my favourite sources of inspiration, especially since doing the Movie/Book Challenge last year. However, because I did so many as part of that challenge it was difficult coming up with something new to do.

But then I remembered... Despicable Me!!
I know Minion nails have been done to death, hence why I have avoided them until now! But I love the film so wanted to do them anyway!

I was really pleased with how they turned out. And of course I had to take a picture of my minion nails with my minion toy!!

I used Ciaté Big Yellow Taxi and Sally Hansen Co-Bolt Blue. The details of the minion were all done with acrylic paints.

See which films the other girls based their nails on:

31DC: Glitter Base

Today I have done a glitter base with even more glitter on top!
I absolutely love how it turned out, shame the pictures don't really do it justice.

I used three polishes from my Ciaté Mini Mani Manor to do this: Silhouette, the dark burgundy base, Candy Cane, the pink glitter and Celestial, the silver glitter. 

I sponged the glitters on to create the gradient effect.

I literally can't stop looking at them and moving them around to see how they sparkle!

Check out everyone else's glittery goodness:

31DC: Red Base

For today's red base mani, I didn''t really have any ideas. I hadn't pre-prepared anything and I didn't have much time, so it needed to be something simple.

I decided to do a leopard print mani as I have only done leopard print once before.

I don't mind how these turned out. They're certainly nothing special, but they're OK!

To begin with I used two colours for the 'spots'. A nude colour in the centre and a dark brown around the outside, but I didn't like how they looked. So I painted over them again in the red, creating a sort of leopard-print-sandwich! Much better!

The polishes I used were Essence Do You Speak Love?, Maybelline Mudslide Tote and Revlon Tradewinds (For the spots underneath which can't really be seen!

Why  not look at the other entries to the challenge: