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: