New York State of Mind

Went on an awesome trip to New York in September with my friends Lucille and Nina. I didn't actually give myself enough time to paint my nails before we left so I took a few colours with me and painted most of them when we arrived.
On my left hand I have the American flag, an apple on a glittery background, the Wooster Street Tattoo shop logo (went to NY Ink while we there and Lucille got a tattoo done by the lovely Luke Wessman), a New York taxi and a pretzel. On my left hand I have the New York skyline on a sunset gradient base (including the Statue of Liberty on my little finger) and I heart NY on my thumb.
Also in the background of these pics is my awesome new 'Paper Plane Weekend Bag' by Disaster Designs I bought specially for the trip.
Was an amazing holiday filled with adventures and although it was my second time in New York, we got to see so much more and I can't wait to go back again one day!

Here's a couple of pics from our trip:

 The three of us at Times Square and the awesome view from our hotel room.

I also have an Instagram account which I frequently update my nail art pics. If you're interested follow me: juliawizardofnails

Juicy Fruit

Created these just after a pretty bad flu bug I had back in September. I was overdosing on vitamin C and fresh fruit for the entire week so this gave me inspiration for my next nail art.
On my left hand I have a melon, an orange, blackberries, a pear and strawberries. On my right hand I have cherries, grapes, an apple, a peach and bananas.
I decided to add an extra bit of pattern to the background of these nails as they seemed quite plain with just the fruit, so I painted various colours of polka dots onto the base colours before painting the fruit over them.
Fingers crossed I won't be painting fruit nails again for a while...

Blood and Bones

Not quite Halloween nails at the time but as we're now in the month of Halloween it's appropriate to add these to the blog. I created these in September when I had just received my latest pair of Black Milk leggings, the Splatter Skulls, which are in the background of these images. As they are now the 10th pair that I own from them I thought I'd celebrate by matching my nails to my legs.
I was originally going to paint skulls instead of skeleton parts to match them up with the leggings but I decided instead to add other areas of the skeleton (plus I was running a little short on time and bones are easier to paint than skulls). My left hand has the pelvis, the ribs and a leg bone. My right hand has the spine, a hand and a foot.
I am happy with how these turned out, especially the shading on the pelvis, which I painted by adding a little bit of dark grey and lightly stippling onto the white pelvic bone area. I painted the blood splatter by painting the detail in white to begin with, as red doesn't show up straight onto black, then I went over with a bright red - my favourite at the moment is the Barry M Gelly in 'Blood Orange'.
Looking forward to saving up for my next pair of Black Milks, got my eye on the Haunted House 2.0 ones from the Halloween collection at the moment...

Carnival!

It seems I'm a bit behind with my updates at the moment. It's been two months since my last blog but I've still been doing the nail art so I have many updates to post on here.
I painted these for Notting Hill Carnival at the end of August. Decided I wanted to do something bright and colourful so I looked into what the carnival represents and previous images of costumes to get some ideas. It was also FrightFest during the same weekend and I always make an effort to see at least one film there every year. I painted FrightFest nails last year however so I wanted to do something different this year.
On my left hand I have the 'FrightFest 2013' logo, a Jamaican flag, red yellow and green gradient with a palm tree, a pineapple and a cannabis leaf. On my right hand I have red green and yellow leopard print, a corn on the cob, a pink glittery butterfly wing, a Trinidad and Tobago flag and multi-colour gradient zebra print.
I wanted to experiment a lot with gradients when painting these nails. Most people use a sponge when creating gradients which is an easier way to do it, however I prefer to use a brush and stipple on the colour because it gives me control and the colour tends to come out stronger. This technique does take much longer though as the colours need to be layered a lot.
Had a great time watching the parade at the carnival, luckily the weather was beautiful as well. The horror film I went to see at FrightFest was 'Painless', a very good Spanish horror set in Civil War times. It also included some amazing prosthetic effects.

This Morning

This week I began work experience with the make-up department on This Morning so I knew I had to create some themed nails for the occasion. In order to decide what to paint I went onto the website and chose the various segments which they have on the show, then designed how to draw them onto my nails. On my left hand I have the show title, The Hub in a speech bubble, Style & Beauty with lipstick, Home with a cup of tea and Life on a hand print. On my right hand I have Health with a pink ribbon for breast cancer awareness, Garden over some blue flowers, Showbiz over glitter and a gold star, Food on a strawberry and the ITV logo.
The nail colours I use are mostly cheaper brands such as Barry M, Rimmel and 17. They all go on easily but need at least two coats so it can take a while to wait for them to dry before painting the detail. With the Barry M pastel colours I usually paint one or two coats of white first, then go over with the colour as I find it shows up better with a white base.
I'm more than half way through the week now and so far it's been a fantastic experience getting to know the team, learning how live shows work on set and applying touch ups to guests and presenters before they go on camera. Looking forward to my last couple of days and I can't wait to see where this experience will take me next.

Adventure Time!

Discovered the awesomeness of Adventure Time recently so for my first Adventure Time nail art I decided to create some cutesy romantic ones with Jake the dog and Lady Rainicorn.

I've stretched them out to have one character per hand as I wanted to create some quick and easy nail art. Then added 'Jake' and 'Lady Rainicorn' in hearts on the thumbs.

To create these I painted a white base coat, then used a mixture of nail colours and nail art pens before using a thin brush (usually an eyeliner brush) to paint the black outline. Then two coats of Seche Vite - the best top coat I've come across so far.

In other news I have changed the title of my blog to Wizard of Nails as I'd like to begin a new, more professional blog. Until that gets up and running I'll be changing this one slightly. Also these are my first nail art images to have the watermark of my blog name added.

Japanese birthday

For my birthday meal I went to my favourite Japanese sushi restaurant in Cambridge called Teriaki. Therefore I decided I should paint my nails for the occasion. I didn't want to paint them all sushi nails so I chose to paint one hand in the theme of 'My Neighbour Totoro', my favourite Studio Ghibli film.
On my left hand I have Cat Bus with a balloon attached to his tail (had to add the birthday theme in there somehow), Chu Totoro and Chibi Totoro, Totoro, the little dust mite creatures called Susa-ataris and an umbrella with heavy rain.
My sushi nails include edamame beans, salmon roe sushi - my favourite (also added a candle in there like a birthday cake), cucumber, salmon and pickle maki, salmon sushi and a plate of california rolls with soy sauce, wasabi paste and chopsticks.
I had an amazing birthday week with lots of yummy food and fun thrills at Alton Towers.

Night of the Living Dead Graduation

Had a very eventful week this week. To begin with I got my new zombie pin-up tattoo at Kings Cross Tattoo Parlour. She's a beaut. Then last weekend I went to a ten year school reunion which turned out to be a lot of drunken fun catching up with everyone. Then Tuesday was my graduation, which now means I have to look for a real job and career...
In the mean time I painted these! Partly in preparation for my graduation day and partly inspired by my new zombie tattoo, which in turn was inspired by my final project in my Foundation degree.
On the zombie hand I have the door from The Walking Dead TV series which reads 'don't open, dead inside', the face of the girl in Night of the Living Dead, the zombie cover of Dawn of the Dead, the hands coming through the wall from Day of the Dead and the zombie hand on the fence from Land of the Dead. These are the films which inspired me to study this course at university after meeting George Romero and Tom Savini a few years ago. The Walking Dead is a show I aspire to work on with the talented Greg Nicotero.
The graduation hand is similar to last years with the University of the Arts logo, 'Class of 2013' in our graduation colours and a silhouette of people throwing their hats on a glittery background.
Have had an awesome time this week and I'm now looking forward to beginning the next step in my career...

This is my awesome new zombie pin-up tattoo done by the very talented Ken Carlos:

Stars of LFCC

Braved the extremely hot weather to attend the London Film and Comic Convention this weekend. With many film and TV stars going I decided I should choose nine of them to paint homage to on my nails.
To begin with I have LFCC (abbreviation for the convention). The rest of this hand is dedicated to Game of Thrones actors attending. Khal Drogo played by Jason Momoa, a Tyrion Lannister quote "God of tits and wine" played by Peter Dinklage, Cersai Lannister's armoured corset played by Lena Headey and Hodor played by Kristian Nairn.
On my other hand I have Daryl Dixon's crossbow from The Walking Dead for Norman Reedus. E.T.'s hand as there were a few of the E.T. cast in attendance, including the actress who played his hands. The front cover of the first Dark Tower graphic novel 'The Gunslinger' for Robin Furth, one of the illustrators. The face of Darth Maul from Phantom Menace for Ray Park. Last but not least, David Hasselhoff's Baywatch shorts and hairy chest.
The convention was great fun and we got to see many familiar faces from film and TV shows, however we were a little disappointed about the main stars, Norman Reedus, Peter Dinklage and David Hasselhoff being behind screens so we couldn't actually see them unless we paid them for it.
Looking forward to the next one in October. Hopefully the entire Game of Thrones cast will be there this time!

Here's a pic I took of Ecto-1, the Ghostbusters car:

Character vs Beauty

Went to IMATS (International Make-up Artist Trade Show) this weekend. Learned so much from all the panel talks and stands, more so that the previous years I have been. On the first day I still had my leftover Download nails which were chipping and looking nasty, however they still got attention so I decided I had to paint some for the trade show by the time I went back on Sunday.
The convention is a mixture of beauty and character make-up stalls and artists so I decided to mix the two on my nails. On my left hand I have the logo of the show, a bullet wound, stitched wounds, scratch wounds and dripping blood. On my right hand I have pink and red marbling, a butterfly wing, pink, blue and yellow leopard print, red, blue and yellow pop art and floral pattern.
Learned a lot about social networking this time therefore I have decided to create a new, more professional looking blog using WordPress. Will add a link once it's ready. Watch this space...

Rooccckkkk...

Went to Download festival last weekend so of course I had to paint my nails for the occasion.
Decided to paint the band names or logos of the bands we were planning on seeing.
On my left hand I have the festival logo, Down, Iron Maiden, Korn and Slipknot. On my right hand are Queens of the Stone Age, Lit, Alice in Chains, Rammstein and the dog logo of the festival.
Had an awesome time, even though we didn't get to see everyone we wanted to.
Rammstein were my highlight as they were pretty much the reason I went in the first place:

The Rains of Castamere

Created these on the week of the 'Red Wedding' episode of Game of Thrones. As traumatic as it was I decided I wanted to commemorate it on my nails using the sigils of the houses involved on my left hand. Then on the other hand I decided to add the houses which have played prominent parts in the latest series that I haven't painted yet.
So from left to right I have the direwolf of House Stark, the flayed man of House Bolton, the silver fish of house Tully, the twin towers of House Frey, the Lannister lion, the lighting and stars of House Dondarrion, the lizard-lion of House Reed, the flaming heart and stag of Stannis Baratheon, the golden rose of House Tyrell and the moons and suns of House Tarth.
Only another year to wait for the next series...

We're all mad here...

These nails were actually painted about a month ago, however due to an extremely busy uni schedule this is my first opportunity to upload them.
As you may be able to tell, the theme is Alice in Wonderland costumes. On my left hand I have the Cheshire Cat holding his ears with his tail, the caterpillar's belly, the Mad Hatter's hat, the White Rabbit's costume during the croquet match and Tweedle Dee. On my right I have Tweedle Dum, the back of Alice's dress, the March Hare's ears, the King's costume, moustache and wand and the Queen's dress.
These were the last nails I painted before getting caught up in all my final term uni work. Now I'm finished with uni - forever!!! - I'm working on my next nail art theme.
After this week's epic and much talked about episode of Game of Thrones I may possibly use this as a theme. Will just have to wait and see...

Time to nut up or shut up!

Went to the Zom-Com All Nighter at the Prince Charles Cinema on Saturday night so I decided to paint my nails just for the occasion.
They all have either the title or a significant part of the films on them. I seem to be writing on my nails a lot more lately so I wanted to practice painting fonts on these nails. I'm pleased with most of them, however there are one or two where I couldn't quite fit the entire word on my nail so it looks a bit messy (Zombieland for example).
On my left hand I have 'Zom-Com All Nighter' in the same colours and font which were written on the Prince Charles Cinema website to advertise it, Ash's boomstick from Army of Darkness, the Army of Darkness title, the Shaun of the Dead title with the hand on the 'A', Shaun's shirt with tie, badge, pocket and red ink.
On my right hand I have the Braindead title (realised afterwards that I've painted it upside down for the photo), the lawnmower from Braindead over the coloured stripes of the zombie baby's onesie, the Return of the Living Dead title, a twinkie, the Zombieland title.
Had an awesome night at the cinema and especially enjoyed seeing Return of the Living Dead for the first time! It may even rank close to the top of my favourite zombie movies.

Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce

With the new series starting last week I decided I should create some nail art for one of my favourite shows on TV, Mad Men.
I haven't dedicated them to any one series in particular, just logos and items which people would associate with the series as a whole.
On my left hand I have the final shot of the title sequence, a whiskey glass, a typewriter, the Lucky Strike logo and a pin stripe suit with silver tie.
On my right hand I have Joan's chest, green dress and gold pen which she wears round her neck, the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce logo, the falling man from the title sequence, Don's hat and the advertising slogan for Belle Jolie lipstick in series 1; 'Mark Your Man'.
Am loving the new series so far and I can't wait to see where they take it, let alone what amazing costumes, hair and make-up they come up with...

An Unexpected Journey

Finally the release of The Hobbit: An Unepected Journey has arrived on DVD! Since it came out at the cinema I've been looking for the right time to paint Hobbit nails so the DVD release seemed perfect as I can use my nails to promote it at work.
Earlier this year I bought a pair of Lord of the Rings map leggings from Black Milk so I decided to model the colours of the map nails on these as I also wore these to work on Sunday.
On my left hand I have The Hobbit title, the one ring, Bilbo's door with the mark Gandalf made on it, Bilbo's sword 'Sting' and Thorin's key to Erebor.
On my right is locations from the map; Hobbiton, Rivendell, the Misty Mountains and Erebor. Then 'Middle Earth' in red.
Got this taken at work after we put all the DVD's on the shelves ready for Monday's release:

Looking forward to the next installment now!

Easter pyjama party

Happy Easter!
Was originally planning to just do Pyjama Party nails this week, however I couldn't spend Easter weekend without any Easter themed nail art on my nails so I decided to do a mixture of both.
Had an amazing time at the Prince Charles Cinema Pyjama Party last night. We played pass the parcel and watched some awesome nostalgic girly films, including Can't Hardly Wait, Clueless, Get Over It, Cruel Intentions, Easy A and She's All That. My left hand is dedicated to the films of the Pyjama Party. First I have 'Pyjama Party' in Easter colours, then the word "twat" spelled with peas on a dinner plate from Easy A (made the A red as she embroiders this on her clothes in the film), a pizza with red pubes on it from She's All That, a pink fluffy pen, cell phone and pink lipstick from Clueless and the cross necklace Kathryn wears in Cruel Intentions.
My right hand is Easter themed with a gold cross, daffodil and tulips, the three dragon eggs from Game of Thrones (had to include that in my Easter theme as the new series starts on Easter Monday), a basket of eggs and 'Happy Easter' in pastel colours.
Hope everyone's enjoying their Easter holiday and feasting on tasty treats!

Chocolate Easter

With Easter coming up the shops are overloaded with confectionary and as that's the only way I know how to celebrate the holiday, I decided my Easter nail art theme this year is Easter Eggs.
On my left hand I have a Lindt bunny with a bell (not an egg but can't have an Easter without one of these), a Smarties egg (in the old font as this is one of my favourites I received as a child), a Cadbury Creme Egg (would like to have written 'Cadbury' on it as well but it proved to be too much small detail and I couldn't fit it in), Green & Black's egg (the posh one of the bunch) and a Lindt egg (again I tried to write 'Lindt' in the font on the red label but it was too much detail and wouldn't fit on my tiny nail).
On my right hand I have a Wispa egg, a Malteser egg, a Kinder Surpise, a Roses egg and a nest with three Mini Eggs inside.
Happy Easter everyone and I hope you enjoy feasting on lots of yummy chocolate like me!

When you wish upon a nail...

Took a while for me to decide on a theme for this week as it's not quite Easter yet and I did St. Patrick's Day nails last year. Then I looked down at my phone case and decided it would be a perfect inspiration. This is my latest case:

Disney princess cupcakes!
Some of them I decided to copy as close as possible because the designs are perfect for nail art. Some of them are a bit too detailed and complicated or I just wanted to put my own spin on them. So 5 of my nails are straight from the case and 5 are my own cupcake designs.
On my left hand I have a 'Disney' cupcake in the Disney font (I wanted to draw this on the last Disney nails I did but I never actually completed that nail), Snow White, Pocahontas (not technically a princess but she was one of my favourites as a child), Cinderella and Princess and the Frog. Then on my right I have The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Tangled and Sleeping Beauty (my all time favourite).
Missed out on the Mulan nail as I never grew up with that film and I actually still haven't seen it, as shocking as that is!
Actually watching a Disney marathon right now as I'm ill at the moment and I always used to get the Disney out when I was sick as a child. Nothing like some Disney magic to cure a cold!

Look out for my Easter nails coming soon...

Cold winds are rising...

This week the second series of Game of Thrones was released so to celebrate I decided that would be the theme for my nails.
I also completed and handed in my dissertation this week which was a big achievement for me as I thought I'd give up long before that happened. I treated myself with the DVD of GoT season 2 once I completed it, gave me something to work towards.
On my left hand I have painted different parts of the beginning credit sequence which shows the map of Westeros. I have the 'Game of Thrones' title on the sigils, Quarth (as I'm painting season 2 nails I wanted to include a location from this season), King's Landing, the white tree of Winterfell (if you look closely I've included a tiny red leaf on the right of the nail) and the Wall.
On my right hand I have a red dragon wing, the Night's Watch sigil (I know in the book they don't have a sigil but I wanted to paint something to represent them that wasn't just a plain black nail), the Hand of the King pin, Davos Seaworth's sigil (one of my favourite season 2 characters) and 'Valar Morghulis'.
Have already watched half of my new season 2 DVD this week and I'm so excited about season 3 coming soon!

Home Alone with Elf

'Elf' and 'Home Alone' nails!
These are two of my favourite Christmas movies which I watch every year at Christmas time. I was actually watching Elf whilst painting these.
So for my left hand I have the Elf title and Buddy the elf spread along the rest of my nails. Then on my right hand I have the Home Alone title on the thumb and some of the traps which Kevin lays out; these are a tarantula, paint cans, broken Christmas tree decorations and the burning hot door handle with the letter 'M' on it.
Looking forward to watching these again next Christmas along with some of my other favourites like National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Scrooged, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (original cartoon version) and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Maybe I'll choose a couple of these to paint on my nails next time...

Festive jumpers

By the time I painted these it was around early December so a perfect time to start on the festive designs. At the time I was searching for fun festive jumpers to add to my collection so I decided to draw some designs I wanted on my nails.
I have a reindeer, a Christmas tree pattern, a gingerbread man, a blue white and red fairisle pattern and a glittery snowflake on my left hand. Then a 'Ho ho ho' in glitter, candy cane stripes, a snowman, red and cream patterns and a penguin in a scarf and hat on my right hand.
Although I didn't actually find a jumper I wanted in the end, I still had an awesome Christmas season wrapped up warm. Hopefully I'll find exactly what I'm looking for next Christmas...