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!!

Chinese Lilac Flower

A few days ago I did a mani for a challenge post, which has yet to be posted...
When I was taking it off, I loved my middle finger so much that I couldn't bring myself to get rid of it, so instead I incorporated it into a new mani, which is this one:

When I first painted this nail my boyfriend didn't believe I had painted it myself! He was convinced it was a decal and refused to believe me for ages!!

For my middle finger I used a base colour of Barry M Silk in Heather. I then painted the flowers using Barry M Matt White, Sally Hansen Grape Race, Missguided Missmatch and Sally Hansen Kiwi Bikini for the leaves.

On the rest of the fingers I sponged a purple-white gradient using Sally Hansen Grape Race, Barry M Silk Heather and Barry M Matt White.

I really really liked this mani and would quite happily have kept it on much longer than I did!!

Fingerfood's Buffet: Oriental

This week's theme for the Fingerfood buffet challenge was oriental.

My boyfriend is a bit of a China enthusiast, so it had to be related as soon as I saw it! In fact, he helped me by painting the symbol on my right hand, which apparently means Cherry Blossom, hence why this is accompanied by some pink flowers on another finger.

On the other hand I had a slightly more adventurous idea... a dragon!

I'm not sure about this. My brush wasn't thin enough to get the lines as accurate or to get as much detail in as I would have liked. I still like the idea of it, and generally like how it turned out, I just wish I'd had a thinner brush. I feel this might be a mani I recreate sometime once I do have a thinner brush!

I used an unnamed Revlon polish as the base colour. In the bottle this looks like a nude colour, but on the nails it is a sort of soft gold. I used Rimmel Right Royal Red for the dragon and finished with a matte topcoat from Primark.

For the other hand I used the same base, the Chinese was done in acrylic paint and the flowers are stick on ones from Poundland.