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.

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!

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: 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: 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!

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

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.

Fairytale Nails: Ella

This weeks theme is Fairytale. Of course, I could have just continued down the Disney route, however I wanted to do something a little less obvious.

These nails are based on a book I read to my class at school called Ella. Ella is a ladybird, who lives in Paris. She has two evil wasp stepsisters and she attends a ball, where she loses her glasses. The handsome spider who is holding the ball invites bugs to try on the glasses in an attempt to find her.

Yea, basically its a modern version of the classic fairytale Cinderella, with bugs!

I used Barry M Matte White as a base colour on most fingers, with Rimmel Red, Steady, Go! on my index finger. I then used Barry M Black for the dots. The flowers were done using Rimmel Cupcake Pink, Rimmel Space Dust in Luna Love and an old Limited Edition Barry M Pink, which I don't know the name of! The Eiffel Tower was stamped with a Born Pretty Store stamping plate and a dark silver No.17 polish. All finished off with my favourite topcoat, Essence Quick Dry.

An InLinkz Link-up

Disney Nails: Minnie Mouse

This weeks Llama Nails theme is Disney.
Disney is my all time favourite film genre!! I know, I'm sad!

 I have chosen to paint Minnie Mouse on my nails today. Though I have to admit I have another  Disney mani coming tomorrow!
I know she doesn't feature in many Disney films nowadays, but in the past she has been in lots!

I used Essence Do You Speak Love? for the ring finger, thumb and the dots, Ciaté Amazing Gracie for the middle and pinky fingers and an unnamed nude Revlon for the index finger, with details painted using Barry M Black.

I really like these. Themed, without being too much for a change!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Regal Roses

Today I have a mani I have been meaning to post for some time!
This is in fact the mani which was my most popular on Instagram last month, however I never got round to posting it on here, oops!

I used two coats of Essence Do You Speak Love? for the base colour. I then used Barry M Matte White and Ciaté Pillow Fight to paint the Roses before finishing off with the Essence Quick Dry Topcoat.

This is such an amazing topcoat. I have quite a few of the budget brand topcoats and this is by far my favourite. Doesn't smell too bad, goes on nice and smooth, dries quickly and it is super dooper shiny! 

Simples: Splodging

I've been a bit quiet on the blogging front for the past few weeks, as I have been busy working a second job. But now I'm back. So, I've got a bit of catching up to do!

First is the SIMPLES challenge. Two weeks ago the theme for this was splodging mani's.
Splodging is something I have never tried before and didn't really expect to like, but I am actually quite pleased with how it turned out.

I used quite neutral colours for this mani. 1. Because I am quite big on colour co-ordination and hate using too contrasting colours together and 2. Because I plan on doing some nail art over this and don't want the background to be too distracting!

The polishes are all Ciaté: Amazing Gracie, Pillow Fight and Ivory Queen.

This was super easy to do and can create some quite nice effects.

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

Kitsch Floral Nail Art

Tonight I have painted my mums nails rather than my own.
She wanted Cath Kidston style roses and dots, so that's what she got!

I very rarely paint anyone else's nails and it felt very strange, but we were both very happy with how they turned out. :)

The polishes I used were Ciate Ferris Wheel as the base colour. Sally Hansen Fuchsia Flare and Sally Hansen Wine Not for the pink roses. Sally Hansen Grape Race and Sally Hansen Plum Luck for the purple roses. I then added dots with Barry M Matte White and we finished with a clear UV gel polish to make it last as long as possible!

This is very similar to one of the first pieces of nail art I did, which you can see here and I have definitely improved!

Yorkshire Rose's

Happy Yorkshire Day!
Being from Yorkshire (although not currently living there), I wanted to do some nails to celebrate the occasion!

Of course, it had to be the Yorkshire Rose!

I used acrylic paint to create the white roses and dots on top of H&M's Peachy Girl which I swatched yesterday (Review coming up!).

Excuse the mess on my hands, I had a bit of a fight with the white acrylic!!

The Yorkshire rose's are far from perfect, but I am fairly happy with them, as I have included most of the detail.

Black Swan

This weeks Llama Nails Challenge prompt is Thriller Movies/Books.

 I found this prompt really really hard! Thriller's are not my thing, at all!! After trawling through IMDB's top 100 Thriller's I finally found a film I had actually seen at number 80!! Black Swan.

Although it took a while to get there, I actually really like this mani. I tried to show the progression of the transformation from white to black swan. Not sure how well I did that, but I still really like it!

I used quite a few polishes in this mani so I'm just going to list them below:

• Sinful Colors Cool Gray
• Barry M Matt White
• Barry M Black
• Rimmel Cupcake Pink
• Rimmel Golden Hour
• Rimmel Red, Steady, Go.

The feathers on my middle finger are water decals from the Born Pretty Store.

I'm really enjoying this challenge, it always makes me think carefully about what to do and I actually spend a lot of time on the mani's for it, rather than just rushing something!

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

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!!

Neon Dotticure

Today I have another super summery look!
This weeks Simples challenge is a dotticure using different sized dots together. So this is what I came up with:

I really like this. It reminds me of glow-sticks! I think a splatter mani in these colours would be amazing!

I used Barry M Matt White as a base colour.
Then I did the dots with dotting tools, using Sinful Colours Cream Pink, La Femme Beauty Ultra Green and W7 Fluorescent Yellow which I placed randomly around the nails.

Tropical Leaves

Last week I discovered this lovely website, Print and Pattern. I saved it straight away, knowing it would be great for Nail art inspiration. So today, when I needed help thinking of something to paint I headed here for ideas!

 This is what I came up with! I found the pretty pattern below, which is by Holly Maguire Illustration and loved it so this was my inspiration! Simple to paint without much difficulty, but pretty and summery at the same time!

Here is a close up of the flower:

I painted this completely using polish.

 The white base colour is Barry M Matt White. 

The pink and green are both OPI; Kiss Me I'm Brazilian and AmazON, AmazOFF.

The Yellow is a Sally Hansen Sugar Coat polish in Sweetie.

I really like this! And it's not very often I have so much Green on my nails so it's a nice change!