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!