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:

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! :)

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.

Nails of the Month: September

I cannot believe it's that time of the month again for my favourites! This month has flown by!

My favourite nails on my blog this month were posted way back on the 1st September, my Kill Bill nails.

I think the simplicity of these makes them so effective, compared to some of my more detailed designs. Although, you liked the detail too! 

These Avatar nails were my most popular on Instagram:

And my Harry Potter nails were a favourite on Facebook.

Looks like everyone is loving the films this month!!

My personal favourite this month is yet another film mani. Alice in Wonderland!

These took such a long time and apart from the dodgy detail on Alice's face turned out exactly how I had planned - this doesn't happen very often! :)

What was your favourite this month?

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

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

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

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

Snakes on a Plane: Nail Fail

This week's prompt for the Llama Nails Challenge was B Movie.
The only B Movie I could think of was Snakes On A Plane! I know, I know, it's a horrendous film! But I couldn't think of any other B Movies!

This mani was as much of a fail as the film is!

My attempt at freehanding snakeskin didn't go too well! It looks more like fish scales!

For the base I used a combination of an unnamed Revlon Nude colour which I think is called Stormy, an unnamed Bronze No.17 polish and Barry M Dusky Mauve. I sponged the three colours on randomly creating a blotchy base. I used Barry M Black for the Accent Nail and Sinful Colors Cool Gray for the plane. I then used Black acrylic paint to paint the detail of the scales.

An InLinkz Link-up

Les Miserables

Hello! I haven't been able to post for a while as I have just moved and don't have internet until next Thursday! I'm using BT WI-FI at the moment and it is soooo slow and keeps disconnecting. There is only one picture in this post as it literally took an hour to upload!!

So this week the theme for the Llama Nails Challenge was Historical films/books. I decided to base this mani on the film Les Miserables. I'm trying to stick with films I would actually watch to base my mani's on so it was a choice of Les Mis or Titanic! I'm saving Titanic for later in the year, as I will be teaching it at school!

I also found out after doing this mani that it was Bastille Day on Monday, so it was quite an apt time to have this on my nails really!

The polishes I used were:

• Barry M Matt White
• Rimmel Red, Steady, Go!
• Rimmel Golden Hour
• Rimmel Sunny Days 
• H&M Unnamed Blue

An InLinkz Link-up

Llama Nails: Comedy

Today the new Llama Nails Challenge starts. This time round it is based on Movies and Books, with a different genre each week. The Facebook group for this challenge is HERE, if anyone wants to join!

This first week the genre is Comedy, so I have based my mani on one of my favourite RomCom's - 27 Dresses! I have created a skittle where each nail is based on a different dress from the film!
I am well aware that my idea for this mani is much better than its implementation, but I don't care, I still love it!! Here are shots of my Right and Left hands:

Now I'm going to show you each nail individually, with the dress alongside it, so you can see where the inspiration came from! I will also list the polishes with each picture.

Sally Hansen Sugar Coat in Sweetie and Sally Hansen Fucshia Flare.

Sally Hansen Sugar Coat in Sweetie, Missguided Missmatch and Rimmel Golden Hour.

Barry M Silk Heather, Barry M White, Sally Hansen Grape Race and Missguided Missmatch.

Sally Hansen Fucshia Flare and Missguided Missmatch with Gold Sequins from Barry M Sequin Effects Black.

Sinful Colours Cool Gray, Sally Hansen Red Hot and Rimmel Urban Purple.

Barry M Matt White, Barry M Black and Sinful Colours Cool Gray.

Barry M Matt White, H&M Blue, Barry M Black and Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream.

This is my least favourite of the lot! Rimmel Golden Hour, Barry M Papaya, Rimmel Coralicious.

Barry M Matt White, Sally Hansen Fuschia Flare, Barry M Black.

Sally Hansen Grape Race, H&M Blue, No.17 Mettalic Grey and Barry M Black.

An InLinkz Link-up