Tuesday 3 June 2014

Summer Birthdays


The month of May seems to contain the birthdays of many of my closest friends. This year saw a big milestone with my friends Grace and Lucille's 30th! As well my housemate Kerala's birthday at the beginning of the month and my friend Dave's at the end of the month. To celebrate these I have painted a nail for each person on my left hand. A birthday cake for all of them, balloons for Dave, wine for Kerala and her wine and cheese party she threw, a disco ball and ice cream for Grace and Lucille.
For the last week of the month and for Dave's birthday celebrations we went on a trip to Bournemouth for some beachy fun. Unfortunately it happened to be the one cloudy week of the month but we were lucky to not get too much rain and still managed to make time for beach walks and coastal fun. So on my right hand I have a beach scene of sun and a beach ball, a person flying a kite, a parasol and beach towel, a sailboat and crab, and a sandcastle, bucket and spade.
Had a great month spending time with all of my friends, although I'm now looking forward to being able to save a bit of money in preparation for my birthday celebrations at the end of July!

Thursday 22 May 2014

"Game over man, game over!"


Last week saw the sad loss of an amazing artist, set designer and the man behind the creation of the xenomorph, H.R. Giger. To commemorate I decided to paint some detailed Alien and Aliens film nails as they are two of my all time favourite films and without Giger's designs they wouldn't be nearly as visually stunning. My left hand is Alien themed while my right is the sequel, Aliens.
On my left hand I have the 'Alien' title, a chestburster (unfortunately forgot to paint the blood on it), a xenomorph, an alien egg, and acid blood splatter. On my right hand I have the pattern from the power loader Ripley uses, multiple alien eggs, the queen xenomorph's head, an M41A pulse rifle and a facehugger.
Took a very long time to create the detail and shading for these nails but it paid off and I'm pleased with the outcome. Painting the shading involves a lot of stipple technique using a very thin brush and lots of layers of colour. I also stipple the excess paint onto a tissue before painting to get fine detail, as opposed to blotchy colours.
I love the Alien franchise and I'm so glad Giger's work will live on in such classic and beautiful films.

Tuesday 13 May 2014

Feliz Cinco de Mayo!


Last Monday was the annual Cinco de Mayo celebrations and as my best friend is part Mexican I decided this would be my nail art theme for the week.
On my left hand I have 'Feliz Cinco de Mayo', sugar skulls, a sombrero and a cactus. On my right hand I have a chilli, more sugar skulls, maracas and the dragon eggs from Game of Thrones. The eggs may seem a bit out of place but I wanted to include them because not only are they the same colours as the Mexican flag, the new episode of Game of Thrones aired on the same day as Cinco de Mayo.
To create these nails I used a white base coat on most of them because I wanted to make the bright colours pop. I then only wanted to include red, yellow and green in the colour scheme as they are the stereotypical colours which represent Mexico, plus they're bright and festive.
I hope everyone who celebrates this day across the pond had an amazing day!

Monday 5 May 2014

You go Glen Coco!


Last week saw the special 10th anniversary of the awesome film that is Mean Girls so of course I had to paint my nails for the occasion. Unfortunately due to a busy schedule over the last few days I haven't been able to complete this set so I just have the one hand as I'm moving on to a new set of nails today.
Here I have 'Mean Girls', pink leopard print (on Wednesday's we wear pink), the Burn Book, Karen's mouse ears from her Halloween costume and Regina's R necklace. On my other hand I was going to paint the prom tiara, Janis and Damian's prom suits, 'fetch', the sexy santa outfit and 'You go Glen Coco!'. Will create a whole new set of these when the occasion calls for it next and include all the ones I didn't have time for.

Yesterday was also the 30th anniversary of one of my favourite films of all time, Sixteen Candles! With all these anniversaries of awesome high school rom coms I think it's time to get the booze out, slippers on and girls round for a pyjama party...

Friday 2 May 2014

The Tale of Peter Rabbit


This was of my favourite books as a child and my mother used to read it to me a lot as she also grew up on Beatrix Potter's books. These were originally my Easter nail ideas but as I was a bit delayed I decided to paint them the following week for my mum's retirement. Now she can finally relax and maybe make some Beatrix Potter tales of her own.
I wanted to paint these in the order of the story but didn't quite think it through how they'd be displayed and got them a bit backwards, so I've flipped the images below to put them in the correct order:


From left to right I have a basket, a robin on a shovel, Peter wearing his nice new blue coat, carrots, a robin looking at Peter's lost shoe, a sparrow flying away from the fence, a watering can, Peter after he lost his coat, Peter's coat and shoes displayed like a scarecrow and a hot pot of camomile tea.

These nails took a long time to paint as I wanted to get the detail of Beatrix Potter's paintings just right. To do these I painted a white base on all my nails, then painted the detailed drawings first before adding a light stipple of colour to the background of some of the images to create a watercolour paint look. I also used dark browns instead of black to create the outline of some of the images so it looked more painted and less harsh and cartoon-like.

Coming next, "On Wednesday's we wear pink."....

Sunday 20 April 2014

Happy cutesy Easter!


Happy Easter! What better way celebrate the festivities than with some colourfully decorated Easter Eggs (and maybe a couple of cute bunnies thrown in there for good measure).
These are probably the most basic nails I've done in a very long time but I just wanted to do something quick with a variety of pastel colours for Easter. I also used my Claire's matte top coat over the patterned nails to give them an egg shell finish. It dried ok however the little finger on my left hand turned white as it dried.
To paint these I painted all my nails with a white base coat, I use two coats of Barry M, then used a thin brush to paint the stripes and zig zags and a dotting tool to add the polka dots. I painted a pink and yellow coat over the white for two of the nails for a bit of variety (both Rimmel). For the rabbits I actually painted the colour on over the white then added the black and pink detail (I think the rabbit on the left hand maybe looks a bit too psycho).
Hope everyone enjoys their day of chocolate and yummy foods and don't forget what Easter is really about - zombie Jesus!

Saturday 19 April 2014

Easter of Thrones


It's Easter! Which can only mean one thing... Game of Thrones is back for 10 short weeks of the year! This is by far my favourite show currently on TV, therefore I always look forward to this time of year, especially now that I've read enough of the books to know what's going to happen this season (don't worry I'm not one of those smug readers who gives away all the spoilers).
So to celebrate the return of this awesome show I've painted my nails with the accessories or clothing of nine different characters.

On my left hand I have 'GoT' in the Game of Thrones font, Melisandre's necklace, Jon Snow's wolf pommel, Tywin Lannister's Hand of the King broach and Arya Stark's sword, Needle. On my right hand I have Danaerys Stormborn's necklace, Littlefinger's mocking jay broach, Margaery Tyrell's embroidered dress and rose belt, Davos Seaworth's pouch which contains his fingers and Joffrey's crown.
With my GoT nail I wanted the replicate the style of the Season 3 DVD box so I painted it with a white base coat, then I used a soft brush to stipple a light grey colour, then more white over the grey until it had the right texture and colour (it's all about layering). I then painted the letters using black to start with before going over with my Barry M metallic silver to create a 3D look. Also you may notice the Tywin nail has a slight crimson look, I used a black base then painted over with a layer of OPI German-icure for a dark red tint to get a nice dark Lannister colour.

Only two episodes in to the new season so far and already it's proving to be the best season yet. If the books are anything to go by, they have a lot to fit into this season and I can't wait to see how it all plays out!

Saturday 5 April 2014

First Week of Spring


Painted these a couple of weeks ago on the first week of Spring, just as the weather was warming up and the flowers were blooming. Decided to go with a Spring flower theme as it's a very pretty and colourful time of year.
On my left hand I have pansies (also included a "Happy Mother's Day" for last Sunday), daisies, bluebells, cherry blossom and a bumble bee. On my right hand I have a violet, a blue butterfly, daffodils in a pink bow, dandelions (unfortunately the top coat took away some of the detail of this one), and a field of tulips.
Made my mum blueberry pancakes for Mother's Day and had a lovely week in the sunshine. Hope the weather stays this way now and look forward to Summer fun!

Coming up next week, GoT theme for the start of the new series...

Friday 28 March 2014

Black Milk Sharkie


As I am now a proud owner of over ten Black Milk pieces, I decided it was about time I painted my collection on my nails! There are actually five items missing from these nails - Gamer leggings, Woman In Red leggings, Artoo and Threepio leggings (which I already painted in a previous blog post), Adventure Time Bro Ball leggings and Adventure Time Friends GFT.
On my left hand I have Ginger Bread, Lace Spartans, Mechanicals, a shark (wouldn't be a proper sharkie if I didn't include a little shark in there), and Tapes (my very first Black Milk item). On my right hand I have Red Galaxies, Drogon Dragon Egg (haven't got these yet but they will be my next purchase), Red and Black, Leg Bones, and Splatter Skull.
I discovered this site a couple of years ago and they've been a dangerous addiction ever since, however they're worth every penny because they make my legs look super awesome!
Trying to save up for the Drogon Dragon Egg leggings at the moment, being a massive Game of Thrones fan. Got my eye on the new Wonder Woman Cape Suit for summer.
Can't wait to see what amazing designs they come up with next!

Sunday 16 March 2014

"Who are you wearing?!"


The most common question of the awards season.
The Academy Awards night is something I look forward to every year, not just for the nominees and winners but also for the fashion on the red carpet. There have been many classic beauties and blunders over the years so I decided to celebrate Oscar fashion by choosing eight Oscar winning actresses from various decades and painting their winning outfits on my nails.
On my left hand I have 'The Oscars', Diane Keaton (1978), Halle Berry (2002), Cher (1988) and Helen Hayes (1932). On my right hand I have my all time favourite Marion Cotillard (2008), an Oscar statuette, Cate Blanchett (2014), Audrey Hepburn (1954) and Olivia De Havilland (1947).
I completed my right hand the day after the awards ceremony so decided to include this years winner in there as her sequined nude dress was absolutely stunning.
I thoroughly enjoyed the ceremony this year and the winners all deserved their recognition as there were many amazing films involved. Look forward to more fashion beauties and faux pas next year.

Saturday 1 March 2014

RIP Trocadero

 
This week my friends and I went to say our final farewells to London's Trocadero. Although it hasn't been fully operating as a proper games arcade for a good few years now, it's still sad to see a part of our youth being taken over by another big posh hotel. Decided to paint some classic retro arcade games on my nails to commemorate.
On my left hand I have Pacman, Duck Hunt, a Streetfighter II "hadouken", Tetris and Asteroid. On my right hand I have Pong, Sonic the Hedgehog, Space Invaders, Dig Dug and Mortal Kombat.
Thanks to my geeky gamer friend Dave who helped me decide on which classic games to paint.

Here's a pic I took of Trocadero the day before it closed down for good:


May the gamers keep gaming and the memories live on...

Sunday 23 February 2014

Valentines Day of the Dead


Wanted to create something a little different for my Valentines nails this year so I decided to go with a zombie theme as Walking Dead has just returned to our screens. I am also entering these nails into a River Island nail art competition so I chose an original Valentines theme which might potentially stand out from the usual hearts and flowers.
On my left hand I have two zombie hands making a heart shape, a brain in the shape of a heart, a zombie teddy bear, a wilted rose and some lips dripping blood. On my right I have some mini hearts with blood drips, a bleeding cupid's arrow, a zombie mouth with 'I Chews You' inside, a bleeding heart and a zombie hand in front of a gravestone which reads 'Undying Love'.
I wanted to use a grey/green base coat for most of these to depict a rotting zombie colour. The one I chose is Rimmel 813 Round And Round The Garden.
To paint these nails I began with two coats of each base colour, then layered each colour on top using a very fine nail art brush adding smaller detail as I went, then finishing off with text and outline.
In the background are my awesome zombie slippers I found in the sale just after Christmas.
Whether it was eating chocolates or brains, I hope everyone enjoyed their Valentines day!

Saturday 22 February 2014

Use The Force!


Took advantage of the Black Milk cyber sale before Christmas and bought myself a pair of Star Wars leggings with C3P0 on one leg and R2D2 on the other. I wore these leggings on a night out a couple of weeks ago so decided to paint some Star Wars costume nails to match my outfit.
On my left hand I have R2D2, Luke Skywalker's X-Wing pilot costume, Darth Vader, Princess Leia in the gold bikini and Lando Calrissian. On my right hand I have Chewbacca, Queen Amidala, Boba Fett, Yoda and C3P0.
These were the first nails I've painted using my new set of nail art brushes and they really helped make the process a lot quicker with the variety of brush sizes. I also managed to get even finer detail using the smallest brush in the set. Look forward to seeing how far my artistic boundaries can be pushed with future nail art designs.
May the force be with me...

Friday 21 February 2014

Curiouser and Curiouser...


Alice In Wonderland is one of my favourite Disney animated films. I have been planning for a while now to get an Alice In Wonderland tattoo with a wide variety of little items and characters so these nails represent some of the things which I would like to include in my tattoo design.
On my left hand I have the Drink Me label, the White Rabbit's pocket watch, Alice's cat Dinah, a tea cup and the key which Alice leaves on the table. On my right hand I have an Eat Me cake, a Mome Rath, a bread and butterfly, a white rose painted red and club, heart, spade and diamond spears from the march of the cards.
Looking forward to the day when I can afford this tattoo as it is an important part of who I am and where I want to be - in Wonderland.

Wah Nails wheel



This is my first ever nail wheel which I created last month. I painted it for the purpose of applying for a job at Wah Nails, an amazing nail art salon based in London which has become increasingly popular over the last couple of years. All the designs painted on this wheel are specific Wah designs which I chose to show my ability to paint a wide variety of techniques.
Starting from the top going clockwise: Tartan, Ying Yang, Going Bananas, Daisies, Polka Hearts, Anchors, Stars and Stripes, Strawberry, Primary Optics, Rainbow Tribal, Pretty Eye, Pow, Flash, Tuxedo, Aztec Print, Houndstooth, Wah Leopard Print and Zebra.
Hope to hear back from them as it is a dream job of mine and I would love to paint more of my nail art on other people.

These are the brand new nail art brushes I bought recently and they work perfectly with the tiny details I use in my nail art designs:


Wednesday 19 February 2014

Oh My Glob!


I currently have an addiction to Adventure Time since discovering it last year. Most of my presents at Christmas were Adventure Time related, including a calendar, series 1 DVD, leggings, t-shirt and hat. These particular nails are based on a pair of leggings I received from www.welovefine.com, which have characters from Finn and Jake's world on one leg and characters from Fionna and Cake's world on the other leg.
On my left hand I have Lady Rainicorn, Jake, Finn, Marceline and Lumpy Space Princess. On my right hand I have Lumpy Space Prince, Marshall Lee, Fionna, Cake and Lord Monochromicorn.
Instead of going for the usual facial expressions on the Finn and Fionna nails I wanted to capture my favourite expressions of each character.
The colours I used here are a mixture of Barry M, 17 and Rimmel. I had to mix together a Barry M pale pink and Revlon Grey Suede nude colour in order to create Finn and Fionna's skin colour.
It's Adventure Time, c'mon grab your friends...!

Tuesday 18 February 2014

It's just a bunch of Hocus Pocus!


Painted these when American Horror Story: Coven returned to our screens in January after the Christmas break. I wanted to capture the essence of this particular season of American Horror Story with items and characters featured so far.
On my left hand I have 'American Horror Story', Madame LaLaurie's bloody make-up brush, Papa Legba's hat and eyes, a white snake and a blood star. On my right hand I have the shirt Zoe wears when she joins the Academy, the glasses, lips and hair colour of my favourite character Myrtle Snow, a minotaur horn, an umbrella which Fiona uses in the opening episode and 'Coven'.
I've used a black, white, red and nude colour scheme here as they are the main colours focussed on in the show (with the added bright orange for Myrtle Snow). The base for the minotaur horn is my new Barry M Matt in Vanilla. The colour comes out nicely and you can actually get away with only 1 or 2 coats as it has a nice even coverage.
Unfortunately this series has finished now but it was amazing while it lasted. Looking forward to finding out what the subject of the next series will be...

Monday 10 February 2014

Happy New Year!


Although these nails were painted for New Year's eve celebrations, they also celebrate the Chinese New Year which was last week. These are actually my first ever New Year nails as I painted Paris themed ones last year and I was too ill to paint anything the year before so I wanted to make them shiny, glittery and extra festive.
On my left hand I have gold, silver and red glitter fireworks, 'Happy New Year' on silver and gold sequin glitter bases and the Chinese symbol for the year of the horse. On my right hand I have '2014' on silver and gold glitter bases and a champagne glass and party horn with multi-coloured glitter varnish.
The glitters I use are all Barry M and I love their range. The sequin colours are the most fun as they really shimmer in the light, however the texture makes it difficult to paint over. I usually paint a smooth glitter base to start with, then paint the words or images and then add some of the textured sequins around them after.
Hope everyone saw in the New Year with awesome fun celebrations!

How The Grinch Stole The Nightmare Before Christmas


These were my first Christmas themed nails last year before I started my traditional advent calendar ones. The previous year I painted my nails with a Christmas film theme of Elf and Home Alone so I decided to carry on the tradition with two classics which I watch every year on Christmas Eve, The Nightmare Before Christmas and How The Grinch Stole Christmas.
On my left hand I have Zero the ghost dog, the shadow of Oogie Boogie on the moon, Jack Skellington as a snowman, the Christmas door and Santa's hat. On my right hand I have the Santa hat the Grinch makes, the Grinch stealing a Christmas star, the Grinch's heart growing three sizes, a Christmas wreath and the Grinch's dog Max.
Took a bit of searching to find the right colour for the Grinch green. I used Rimmel 401 Wedge of Lime which came out perfectly. Also I find that red doesn't show up well over green, it tends to make it a browny colour, so I always paint the shapes with white first then paint over that with a red so the colour shows up nicely.
Along with tradition I did watch both these films at Christmas last year, along with many others as I really enjoy getting into the festive spirit.

Here's my mini tree I always put up in my room every year:


Only 317 days left until next Christmas...

Monday 3 February 2014

Autumn


These were painted back in November when the Winter chills were closing in and the Autumn leaves were falling from the trees. It was also just coming up to Thanksgiving at the time.
On my left hand I have Autumn leaves on a red to yellow gradient, acorns, mittens, a scarf and a hat. On my right hand I have a knife and fork, a Thanksgiving turkey, a hedgehog, an umbrella and conkers.
I had already created something similar with the hat and scarf on some Winter nails I did last year, however this time I decided to paint them Autumn colours. The two gradient nails were painted by stippling the colour on with a small brush and layering each colour to blend them in using a red, two shades of orange and a yellow.

These nails were inspired by ones I painted on a lovely lady named Lorna (the flatmate of my friend Nina) a few days before, who gave me some ideas of the theme she wanted and so I painted these for her:


They are all red to yellow gradient with a leopard print painted over them, with the exception of the fourth finger to the left which is brown leaves on a green base and the second finger to the right which is a butterfly on a purple to pink gradient base.
Had a great time painting these and it made me realise I'd like to paint nail art for other people far more often.

For Thanksgiving last year it turned out my friend and her mum were unable to do the traditional Thanksgiving dinner so I found some recipes online and decided to make it all myself from scratch for the first time. Here's the sweet potato pie I made for dessert:


Very proud to say it tasted delicious!


Tuesday 28 January 2014

Riding Through This World...


Painted these in November whilst Season 6 was being aired on TV. Only just started watching this show last summer when I bought myself the box set but I was hooked straight away. It's now one of my favourite current series along with Game of Thrones and I know it will be a sad day when the final series comes to an end next year.
On my left hand I have 'Sons of Anarchy', a motorcycle helmet, the Sons of Anarchy reaper, a rose tattoo and the Anarchy logo. On my right hand I have a cigar, a gun, a SAMCRO patch, a knife with blood drips and a President patch.
These nails were mostly inspired by the opening credits of the show and how each character has specific items or traits which distinguish them from one another. The Reaper was the hardest to paint as it's a lot of detail for one nail.
The colours used are mostly Barry M black and white. I also used a 17 cream base for the cigar and my favourite nude base for the rose tattoo which is Revlon Grey Suede.

Saturday 25 January 2014

Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre


Painted these back in November when I took my driving theory test. As I was studying my signs for the test I decided it would be a good idea to paint them on my nails. Just so you know, I didn't cheat and paint them before my test, I painted them the following day.
On my left hand I have a speed camera sign, a give way sign, a T junction sign, a no through road sign, and a no entry sign. On my right hand I have an 'L' plate, a waiting restrictions apply sign, a stop sign, a national speed limit sign, and a sharp bend ahead sign.
Good to know I still remember them all.
I'm pleased to say I passed my theory test with full marks! Since then I have also taken and passed my practical test as well, so I can now be legally let loose on the roads of London. Look out everyone!