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: 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: 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!!

Catch-Up: Other Nail Art

Here is my final catch-up post, showing the last of the never-quite-made-it designs!
Most of these are not too bad, I just didn't have time to post every single one.

I am just going to post pictures for this. If I tell you all the polishes used in every one of these, this post will end up ridiculously long! However, if you want to know a specific polish or have a question feel free to post in the comments. :)

Catch-Up: Christmas / New Year Nails

The second post in my catch-up series will show you a few extra Christmas nails I painted, plus some which were not originally intended for New Year, but would work well.

First up, the Christmas nails:

This nail art is based on the film Polar Express, My index finger shows the bell from the movie, my middle finger represents the present Santa leaves for the little boy. My ring finger is supposed to show the train ticket, which has the word 'Believe' punched into it by the conductor.

I used Sinful Colors Blue by You, Sinful Colors Cool Gray, Sinful Colours Nirvana, the gold is an unnamed PS by Primark polish, Rimmel Red, Steady, Go!, La Femme Ultra Green and Barry M Black.

This picture was posted on my Instagram, however I never took any camera pics to add it to my blog, hence why it never made it here. I didn't think it was particularly good, however it ended up being one of my most liked Instagram photos ever! 

I used Sally Hansen Cosmic blue as the background, George Natural White for the moon and painted the details in Black acrylic paint.

Another Instagram pic. These were my Christmas day nails. I didn't have much time for blogging over Christmas, however I did still paint my nails and Instagram is much quicker to use!

I used a red Models Own polish and a Red Models Own Glitter for this, which I don't know the names of as they belonged to my mum! I also used Ciaté Fit for a Queen for my ring finger and I created a stamping decal for the flower.

Now for the New Year Nail inspiration!

I wore this for Christmas eve. I really love it, however that glitter placement took such a long time, And it is pretty messy compared to others I have seen! The black is Ciaté Unrestricted glam and the glitter pieces are from Born Pretty Store.

I painted these ages ago and at the time loved them. I'm not really sure why they were never posted. I used Barry M Black and Rimmel Space Dust in Aurora,

These I painted on my sisters nails. She saw my nails in the above picture and wanted something similar using the Rimmel Space Dust. This is what we came up with! Sorry, I'm not sure what other polishes were used, these are from July so I don't remember! Again, excuse the poor quality phone picture. 

Catch-Up: Swatches

Over the past year there have been many times I have done my nails, photographed them, edited pictures then for whatever reason, not put them up here on this blog.
I want a fresh start in the new year, not to be uploading old pictures! So today I have a series of 3 posts where I am going to show you some of the nail art that never quite made it, for various reasons!

This first post is going to show you four swatches that never quite made it:

I love this picture and the polish (Make up Gallery, Scarlett Sparkle) is one of my favourites. It is a beautiful raspberry coloured gelly with tiny pieces of glitter. I would recommend anybody to go buy this! I love it so much!

This was never posted simply due to lack of time! Such a shame as it is so gorgeous!

This second swatch is H&M Blue Bliss, which is a glitter topcoat in a very pale blue gelly. I swatched this over lilac, blue, grey and black, though I don't remember what the polishes were! This picture was taken back in August, hence the pointed nails and I honestly don't think I have used the polish since, it didn't make a good first impression!

This third picture shows you Ciaté Baby Doll, which is actually a pastel pink, not orange as the poor photography appears, hence why this was never posted. Oh and no, I don't have green fingers either! Also, all my nails are different lengths and shapes. What was I thinking?!

The polish has a lovely matte 'porcelain' finish, however it chipped off within hours.

Finally, another that I love. This is an unnamed PS by Primark polish. It is a beautiful dark pink and gold textured holo polish. It is truly beautiful and the colours change completely in different lights.

This was also not posted due to poor photography, however I managed to find this one awkward looking, but salvageable picture.

12 Days of Christmas: Decorations

Yay, a prompt that is not colour based!! Today it is decorations.
On my tree I have lots of delicate, cut-out decorations, so I chose to base my mani on a particular one of these.

I'm really pleased with how these candles turned out, though the ribbon leaves a little to be desired!

I used a tiny detail brush and a whole load of Ciaté polishes: Strawberry Milkshake, Silhouette, Fit for a Queen, Velvet Tuxedo, Encore! and Big Yellow Taxi. I also used OPI AmazON... AmazOFF for the leaves.

You can see the other entries to this challenge here:

An InLinkz Link-up

12 Days of Christmas: Red and Green

I am a little late with this post, it was supposed to be yesterday but I found it really difficult to think of a design for the prompt 'Red and Green'.

This prompt is probably one of my worst nightmares!
1. I hate colour prompts. They are just so vague!
2. I don't like contrasting colours. I am all about matchy colours!

But this is what I came up with:

I know, its kind of cheating using each colour on different fingers, rather than integrating them, but by this point I was fed up! I already tried using the colours together, creating designs with red on top of the green watermarble, but they turned out horrendous! This was my 3rd attempt and I wasn't going to try again!!

For the red fingers I used Essence, Do You Speak Love?, Rimmel, Red Steady, Go! and Nails Inc. Hanover Square.

For the green nails I used Essence, Thats What I Mint!, Essence, Lets Get Lost! and Sinful Colours, Kissy.

I'm really happy with how the green turned out... not so much the red!

Check everyone else's (much better) mani's for this prompt:

An InLinkz Link-up

12 Days of Christmas: The Song

Today the prompt for the 12 days of Christmas challenge was the '12 Days of Christmas' song.

I have kept it quite simple and chosen the line '2 Turtle Doves'.

I started with two coats of Ciaté Mineral Clarity, which is such a gorgeous deep blue glittery texture polish. I then stamped the doves using George Natural White and this cute stamping plate from Born Pretty Store.

The doves don't stand out quite as much as I might have liked. The George white polish is not the best for stamping, but my favourite Barry M Matte White has thickened too much to use. I desperately need some polish thinner!

An InLinkz Link-up

12 Days of Christmas: Santa, Baby

Today the prompt was Santa and/or Elves.

I also just recieved my Ciaté Mini Mani Month Calendar, yay! So I wanted to incorporate some of the polishes from that.
BTW, I won't be posting swatches from the calendar on here each day but I will be posting them on Instagram @nailsmustbepainted so make sure you're following me if you want the updates! :)

The grey is Ciaté Sharp Tailoring (Day 2), the red is Ciaté Runway Ribbon and is a gorgeous loose glitter and the white is George Natural White. The Santa is a sticker I got from Poundland a few months ago! I am feeling poorly at the moment so didn't feel like concentrating long enough to do my usual freehand art.

Take a better look at that red glitter! I have never used a loose glitter before but wow this is gorgeous! The picture doesn't really do it justice. It is sooo sparkly and beautiful! 

I discovered just how difficult loose glitter is to clean up though!

Check out the other amazing entries:

An InLinkz Link-up

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

Autumn Days

Today I have an autumnal mani to show you.
 I have been planning this one a while but was awaiting the arrival of the leaves from the Born Pretty Store which took two months to arrive. Hence, this is not really seasonal anymore!

The above photo was taken in natural light and is a lot more colour accurate. The below photo was taken under my new LED lamp, which is a lot better than photographing under my 'normal' lights, but still not great. I am contemplating making another light box.

Anyway, I was going for a 'leaves blowing in the wind' look for this. I quite like how it came out, though it's not quite as I envisioned it would be! My pinky was supposed to be the pile of leaves, then the other fingers showing them blowing away, with the swirly lines representing the wind.

I used Jess polish in Innocence for the background. The swirls were Sinful Colors Nirvana and an unnamed gold PS by Primark polish. The gold leaves were from the Born Pretty Store.

You can get 10% off these leaves and anything else on the Born Pretty Store with my discount code: EHG10.

Fringed Nail Art

Today I have some very... different nail art!
I heard about the Quiz Dress Your Nails competition and wanted to take part. I was looking through their dresses to find the one I wanted to use when I came across this fringed dress.

Straight away I knew what I wanted to do, I just had to figure out how I could possibly make it work!

A quick Google search found a grand total of 0 other fringed nail designs, so I had to figure it out for myself!!

.

This is how it turned out. Not quite what I had in mind, but not too bad!!

I had a nightmare trying to figure out how I was going to do this! I ended up using white cotton thread. I used a piece of kitchen towel, which I painted in Barry M Black. Once dry I began gluing pieces of cotton onto the kitchen towel. I then splodged the ends of the cotton with black acrylic paint and a small amount of gold Primark nail polish to get the colour.

Once I had two pieces of kitchen roll complete with 'dyed' cotton thread I painted the nail black. I then used clear topcoat to attach the kitchen roll pieces onto the nail, overlapping them slightly as is the case with the dress.

These didn't turn out quite as I had imagined, but it took an awful lot of experimenting and I am quite proud that I eventually found a way to make this idea work, even if they aren't the most attractive nail art! At least they are original! :)

Glow in the Dark by Primark

A few weeks ago I bought two glow in the dark polishes in Primark. One looked yellow in the bottle but was a clear topcoat, the other was blue.
I didn't expect much from these. The blue barely glowed at all, as I expected.
But the clear topcoat was pretty impressive!

Here are my nails in 'normal' light:

I started with a base colour of Rimmel New Romantic. This was followed by a coat of the Glow in the Dark polish. Once all was dry I stamped on top using MoYou London Princess plate 08 and Rimmel Right Royal Red and topcoated with my usual Essence Quick Dry Topcoat.

Now you'll have to excuse the picture quality, photographing glow in the dark nails is so difficult!! I took around 100 pictures and this was the best I got.

But wow, I was amazed when I saw this in the dark! I did not expect it to be so bright! If you want a glow in the dark topcoat on a budget I definitely recommend this! Bargain!

Plaid Scarf

I have been struggling to keep up to date with posting my nails on here recently so I will be playing catch-up over the next few weeks. If you follow me on Instagram, sorry you may be seeing some mani's you already saw on there!  If you don't follow me on Instagram, please start now!! @nailsmustbepainted. I update much more regularly than I do here!

Now for the nails...
I painted these a few weeks ago for The Nail Art Guild's Fall Fashion prompt, based on my favourite Tartan/ plaid scarf.

I painted these right before going to bed and didn't take photos until morning. Somehow through the night  my nice straight lines became distorted! I promise they were straight... the picture below is from Instagram and is the only photo I took straight after painting!

For these I used Maybelline Leather Effect in Mudslide Tote as the base colour. I then painted the red stripes using Maybelline Berry Sweet and the white lines using Ciaté Amazing Gracie.

I was really pleased with how these turned out, except for the smudged lines!

Remembrance Poppies

Here in the UK it is Remembrance Day today. We all buy and wear poppies to remember those who have served and those who have fallen for our country, allowing us to be where we are today. This also raises money for the Royal British Legion who support past servicemen and women.

This year I have painted two mani's for Remembrance Day.

The first is a watercolour mani which I love! Particularly my middle finger (macro above), which I am really proud of!

I used a George polish in Natural White as the base colour then created the watercolour using Rimmel Ready, Steady, GO! and Missguided Missmatch before painting the details of the flowers with acrylic paint.

Here is my second mani. It is very different and creates a darker mood. The 'poppies' are dried flowersfrom the Born Pretty Store and the cross is hand painted using acrylic. The base colour is Nails Inc Glamour Hanover Square which is a lovely colour.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.