12 Days of Christmas: Blue and White

The promp for today was 'Icy Blue and White'.
I felt a bit lost for what to do with this prompt, I much prefer the more structured prompts!

I went for a simple sponged white to blue gradient using George Natural White, Revlon Blue Lagoon and Make Up Gallery Sky Blue.

On my index finger I used a blue Barry M crackle polish followed by MUA Luna, the pretty glitter.

Finally, I added a little bow stud from Born Pretty Store on my ring finger. I think it finishes off the look nicely.

Overall, I'm not too sure about this. I didn't really have a direction when I started, I just made it up as I went and I think you can tell that.

Check out the other entries:

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: Do You Wanna Build A Snowman?

Today's prompt for the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge is Snowmen.
Of course, being a primary school teacher I had to paint everyone's favourite snowman of the moment... Olaf!!

I used a Primark Blue Glow in the Dark Polish for this. It doesn't actually glow, but the colour is just beautiful. Although the polish is blue, it has a very subtle gold shimmer which appears in certain lights. I also added a coat of Sally Hansen Sugar Coat in Royal Icing on my index finger. Olaf is painted using acrylics.

The snowflakes were sent to me to review by Born Pretty Store. 

They arrived in a little plastic pot which was actually a lot bigger than I had expected.

They are very cute and sparkly. Because they bend easily they sat quite flat on the nail, meaning they stayed on around a day... which is longer than I manage to keep most 3D type things on my nails! I would say they are definitely worth the £2.33 they are on the website for!

Get 10% off these here or other items at the Born Pretty Store with voucher code: EHG10.

Check out the other entries to the challenge here:

An InLinkz Link-up

12 Days of Christmas: Christmas Trees

Today's prompt for the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge is Christmas Trees.

I started out intended on a really simple mani for this one. Then I kept adding to it, though I'm not sure if I was improving it or making it worse! I took photo's at each stage anyway, so you can decide for yourself! I think my favourite is the second one.

I started with a base coat of OPI AmazON... AmazOFF on most fingers and a PS by Primark unnamed Gold polish on my ring finger and thumb. I used striping tape to create the shape of the tree on my ring finger and added a small star stud from Poundland. 

Then I decided it needed more glitter, so I added one coat of Ciaté Party Shoes and one coat of Barry M Starlight, both on my Index finger.

Next I felt the actual tree was missing some glitter/decoration. I remembered I had some caviar beads I had never used before aptly named 'Christmas Tree Caviar' by Ciaté, so went about creating a string of beads on the christmas tree. This is where I ruined it I think. It's just a bit too much!

Which is your favourite stage of this mani?


Check out the other entries to this challenge below:

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! :)