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: Something You Never Tried Before

This was another difficult one for me. Most techniques I like the look of I try!

Eventually I came up with Sugar Spun nail art. I haven't tried it previously and thought I might be able to make it look ok!

I found it quite tricky to create as the polish strings went really  thin, but I think it looks ok.

I used all Barry M polishes for this; Rosehip, Papaya and an old LE pink polish without a name on (#NPP1).

An InLinkz Link-up

31DC: Blue Base

Just last week I received an order from Born Pretty Store which included plate BP-33.
The plate is nautical themed, so this prompt seemed like the perfect opportunity to try it out.

I love it! I like that it is nautical, but more traditionally nautical rather than the red, white and blue patterns you see more often.

I used Make Up Gallery Sky Blue as the base colour and stamped using Rimmel Punk Rock. All the images stamped are from BP plate 33.

Use discount code EHG10 at Born Pretty Store to get 10% off.

Check out more 'blue' nail art:

An InLinkz Link-up

31DC: Non-Glitter Topper

This was another prompt where I knew exactly which polish I wanted to use.

I have a blue Barry M crackle polish which I bought on a whim about a year ago. I have no idea why as I was never a fan of the crackle look. This was the perfect opportunity to give it a try!

I used Rimmel Punk Rock as my base colour and the Barry M blue crackle over the top, no topcoat.

I actually really like this. It has a very grungy feel to it and was so, so simple.

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: Decals

Yay, I'm back!
I spilt a glass of wine on my laptop last week and killed it. But, today I finally have a new laptop and lots of 31DC posts to catch up on! My ancient version of Photoshop won't work on my new laptop, so please excuse any dodgy photos whilst I try to find a decent editing app.

The first of the prompts I missed is decals.
I just want to say, I did keep up with the challenge, I was just unable to blog about it!

On my middle and ring fingers I used full nail decals from the Born Pretty Store. 

Remember, you can get 10% off these and other items using code EHG10.

On my index and pinky fingers I used Barry M Black.

I'm not a huge lover of these full decals but they are quick and easy so ideal if you don't have much time/ struggle with nail art!

An InLinkz Link-up

31DC: White Base

Last weekend I finally invested in some nail polish thinner. I have a growing collection of old colours which I love but are now too thick to use. It arrived yesterday. Yay!

So this prompt was the perfect opportunity to test the thinner out by reviving my favourite ever white polish which I haven't been able to use in around a year!

I'm so happy the thinner worked! :D

Two days ago I also received some exciting new nail mail from Born Pretty Store. Included was this stamping plate (QA96). Of course, I had to try out something new! I love it! I have been looking for a similar pattern for a lonnng time and I finally found it. :)

I used Barry M Matte White as the base for this and stamped with Nails Inc. Hanover Square.
Just wish the stamping on my middle finger was straighter!

Remember, you can get 10% off this stamping plate or any other Born Pretty Store items with the code: EHG10.

31DC: Blobbicure

Before today I didn't know what a blobbicure was!
But I spent a few minutes on Google and soon realised I really didn't like them! Haha!

I needed to find a way to make a blobbicure I actually liked. At least vaguely!

So I made a Girafficure!! :P

I love how my ring and little fingers turned out, but not so much my middle and index fingers! The blobs on those are too far apart.

I used Revlon Buttercup and Revlon Tradewinds.

Check out the other blobbicures:

31DC:Green/Yellow

Today's prompt was three shades of green/yellow.

I sort of made these up as I went. I don't love how they turned out, but they're ok!

I used two shades of green to create a saran wrap background: Ciaté headliner, and Essence That's What I Mint! I then added a green and blue glitter 'Mosaic Nail Varnish' by Pretty and stamped leaves over the top with Revlon Buttercup and Born Pretty Store stamping plate BP-19.

Remember, you can get 10% of this stamping plate and many more with the code: EHG10.

Check out the other girls designs':

31DC: Rainbow

Unfortunately, due to work I was unable to paint my nails yesterday so, sorry, this is a day late!

I have known for ages exactly what I wanted to do for this prompt!
I have a stamping plate (MLS301) from Born Pretty Store with a rainbow on which I have been meaning to use for a while.

I created the background by sponging on Ciaté Doll Face, Baby Doll and Poppet in random places on my nails. I then created a stamping decal of a rainbow using the Born Pretty plate and more polishes: Ciaté Unrestricted Glam , Colour Couture Pink and Lilac and Essence Let's Get Lost! Finally, I used the same plate to stamp lots of stars onto the design.

I'm really pleased with how this turned out! My stamping isn't perfect but I love the overall look!
The only thing I would want to change about this would be to add some glitter!!

The other girls did some amazing rainbows:

31DC: Fire

I wasn't very inspired by today's prompt of fire, so I apologise for my uninteresting nails today!!

I simply painted my nails in Ciaté Big Yellow Taxi, added a big blob of Colour Couture Red polish and used a dotting tool to smoosh them around a bit! Very technical!

I don't mind how they turned out, but I can't say I have strong feelings either way for them!

Look at the other ladies more interesting attempts at fire nails:

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: Recreate a Favourite Blogger

I can honestly say I don't have one single favourite blogger. There are a handful of favourites. So I spent some time looking through them all to find a mani that I felt like recreating!

In the end I decided on this vintage rose mani by Gianna @NailStorming.

I was really pleased with how this turned out. It is the sort of style that I always wore when I first got into nail art just over a year ago, though it's not a look I wear very often anymore! In fact, on 20/1/14 I created a very similar mani using two of the same polishes which later became my first blog post. If you are interested you can find that here, though I'll warn you now, the photography is horrendous!

I used Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream as the base colour. The spots and stripes were painted with a white Nail Art Pen from Migi Nail Art. For the roses I used several pinks: Sally Hansen Pinch of Punch, Sally Hansen Fuschia Flare, Ciaté Strawberry Milkshake and white acrylic paint as well as Models Own Emerald Green for the leaves.

Why not have a look at some of the others amazing recreation's below:

31DC: Tranquility

Initially I was a bit stuck for this prompt. I asked my boyfriend and he immediately thought of Buddha, so that's what I went with!

I painted a lotus flower on my middle finger and attempted a Buddha on my ring finger, though he  ended up looking rather like a monkey!!

I used Revlon Trade Winds as my base colour (This is rapidly becoming one of my most used polishes!) and created a Saran Wrap mani with Essence Thats What I Mint!. I thought these were very natural colours which created a calm, tranquil feel. I then painted the details with brown acrylic paint.

Apart from Buddha looking like a monkey, I quite like the overall look of these. 

Check out the other entries:

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.

Day 14: Holo

I don't own many holo polishes. I think this may even be the only one, and I kind of think of it as more of a topcoat than a polish. Hence, this prompt was tricky for me.
Plus with meetings at work this evening, I have been short on time so I apologize for this post being rather boring!

Although simple, I do quite like this. I used a few coats of Ciaté Unrestricted Glam, then painted over it in this grey holo indie topcoat by Wonderful and Strange Nails. On my ring finger I stamped at few simple stars using Ciaté Sand Dune and Plate MLS301 from Born Pretty Store.

Remember, you can get a 10% discount at Born Pretty Store using the code: EHG10.

I took this blurred picture in an attempt to show the real-life sparkly-ness and all the beautiful colours in there!

Everybody else's photos are much more interesting than mine today, so go check them out!

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: Reversed Polarities

As soon as I saw this prompt an idea popped to mind.
I have since found out that this was not what the prompt actually meant, but I did it anyway! :)

I'm not crazy on how it turned out. It's kinda messy, and the colours make me think of mud! (I suppose the polish is called Mudslide Tote for a reason!!). It's probably my least favourite mani of this challenge so far. 

I used Maybelline Mudslide Tote and Revlon Trade Winds to create this reverse gradient.

Have a look at the other, much better entries below!

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:

31DC: Monochrome

Monochrome nails today!
I have had a grey 'spotty' polish with black matte glitter pieces in for a while. It is from Primark and I havn't even tried it since I bought it around 6 months ago, so I was determined I would use that polish. Other than that I had no plan for this mani when I started out. I just started painting and thought, 'I'll see what I come up with!'.

I then stamped the diamond pattern and the roses using MoYou London Gothic plate 03 and Barry M Black Multiglitter.

The 3D rose, which can be found here was sent to me in a set by Born Pretty Store. They are the perfect size for my nails. Big enough to stand out but small enough that they don't take over my whole nail! You can see the size compared to a hair grip in the picture below. They also sit nice and flat on my nail, reducing the chance of them being pulled off each time I run my hand through my hair!

Remember you can get 10% these using the discount code EHG10.

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: Half and Half

Half and half is the prompt today.

I kept it pretty simple, opting for two similar colours with contrasting finishes: porcelain and glitter!

These are both Ciaté; Sweet Pea from the Dolls House Collection and Gleam Dream, a green and silver loose glitter. 

This mani really reminds me of the sea. The colour is a very sea-green colour and the glitter creates a reflective water-like effect.

I can't stop looking at it shimmering!!

31DC: Dotting Tools

Can't believe I have made it to day 5 without falling behind yet!
Back to work after the Christmas break today though, so it'll only get harder to keep up.

Dotting tools is the prompt for today. I love my dotting tools, but I didn't want to do a plain old boring dotticure for this, so I went with a design I haven't tried before, swirls!

I'm not sure about these. Last night, when I did them, I wasn't a big fan. The more I look at them the more they are growing on me!

I used three polishes from the Ciaté Dolls House collection: Poppet, Paper Doll and Dollface. I think Dollface is a little too subtle, it is almost invisible against the lilac.

What do you think?

31DC: Happiness

Today's prompt is happiness.
However cheesy it is, spending time with my Mr. makes me happy, so I wanted to do a romance inspired mani.

I recycled the base from yesterdays water-spotting mani, stamping flowers over the top (from MoYou Mother Nature plate 01) in Sally Hansen Atomic Alloy, to create a tree-like backdrop. I then used another image from the same plate to stamp the figures with a Black Born Pretty Store stamping polish and freehand painted the word 'love' onto my index finger. 

I love how this mani turned out. Definitely my favourite of 2015 so far!!

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.

31DC: Follow a Tutorial

I have made a last minute decision to attempt the Crumpets Nail Tarts 31 Day Challenge. I have never before managed to complete a challenge where I have to post everyday, hence why I wasn't planning on participating, but I just changed my mind.

Day 1 was 'Follow a Tutorial'. Yes, this was technically meant to be posted yesterday but nevermind!

I followed an Instagram tutorial by @Nailstorming for a dotty gradient. 

The above photo is inside under my lamp, the below photo is in natural light.

I used 5 polishes for this: Colour Couture Beauty in Bloom, Sinful Colors Cream Pink, Sally Hansen Fuchsia Flare, Rimmel New Romantic and Jess Polish Innocence.

I really like how it turned out, and the staining on my natural nails creates a gradient-like effect!!

See everybody else's mani for this prompt:

Happy New Year

Just a very quick post today to say Happy New Year to all my followers! :)
And thankyou all for your support and kind words in 2014! Best Wishes for 2015.

Oh, and here is a quick shot of my New Year nails. :)

I used Colour Couture Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Barry M Starlight and Ciaté Sand Dune.