Floral ruffian

I have been looking at some fashion pieces to get ideas for my nail art and this dress by Albert Ferretti inspired these off centre ruffian floral nails:

I used Nails Inc Porchester Place for the orange base then painted on the ruffian (tutorial) with Barry M Lychee, sitting it slightly off centre so I had a sweep of colour down the side of the nail. I then used a small nail art brush and Barry M Passionfruit and Key Lime, NYC Blue Sky and Nails Inc Phoenix Place to draw on the flowers. The accent nail is NYC Blue Sky with Digital Nails Ultimate Ginger. 

I love this! I'm making a really effort to come up with some unusual colour combinations and nail art choices and I just love how this came out. The off centre ruffian is very fresh and cool, and incredibly easy to do if you have steady hands. 

For my right hand instead of using a brush to draw the flowers I used my dotting tool to put on splotches of the same colours- it looks exactly the same from a normal distance but you can see the difference here:

If you are not confident using a brush I would just go in with a dotting tool- it's still very effective.  For such a simple design it looks amazing! 

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My favourite colour scheme watercolour

When I was looking at my nude nails after my interview and deciding what to paint on top of them I reverted back to one of my favourite colour combinations; grey, blue and yellow. I used the watercolour technique that I learnt from Mr. Candipants (which I used with a different colour combination here.)

 The colours I used here are Barry M Blue Grape, Mavala Berlin and NYC Lexington Yellow, I diluted them with acetone before applying them to my nail then used a brush with some more acetone on it to smudge the edges a little bit more.

This is one of those designs that looks better at arms length rather than the close ups you see on my blog. Still easy instant wow factor if you choose a striking colour scheme and do bold sections of colour.

I am currently deciding what (if any) nail art I want to do over this but trust me it doesn't need it.

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Purple Holographic Waterfall

I recently picked up Barry M Blueberry and Prickly Pear as they are the perfect creamy ice cream colours for my spring palette (unfortunately minty green doesn't suit my skin tone so you won't be seeing much of that). I first decided to gradient them but should have put a coat of white then gradiented over that, as over the blue the purple came too close and the gradient did not show up on camera so I did a waterfall mani instead:

This mani did not want to photograph either! I have several very blurry shots and a few not quite so blurry photos.

I only used holo polishes for the waterfall in shade of grey, blue and purple I got this photo on my iPhone showing the effect this has.

I experienced terrible tip wear with this, overnight all of the tips were showing and I'll have to change it today. This may be because there were a few layers to this and because I forgot to wrap my tips although I would still expect better than one day wear without wrapped tips.

Waterfall is a really cool technique that was first thought up by Sammy over at The Nailasaurus and she has a tutorial on how to achieve it. It is pretty easy and looks great :)

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Barry M Lady

A few months ago Barry M brought out a new textured collection and Lady was one of them.

It's a glorious textured polish white with hints of gold glitter in it that I just about captured in these photos.

It is perfect for nail art where you want to mimic the look of fresh snow- or just as an eye catching manicure in its own right.

The only problem I have with this polish is that even at the three coats shown here it is still a little sheer and textured nail polishes are notoriously slow drying so the more coats you have to apply the longer you have to wait to do anything. Other than that I love it.

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Textured Dots

Yesterday I was in London again interviewing and had a couple of hours to spare so I went and had dinner with a friend at the Southbank. We wandered through the Christmas market there and had a sneaky cup of mulled wine, it was great :). When I got home I wanted to play with finish and texture so I came up with these matte textured dotty nails:

The base here is two coats of Barry M Espresso which has a gorgeous satin finish- not quite as flat as some matte polishes I have seen. It applies quite easily you just have to be careful not to take too long putting it on a single nail as it starts to dry quickly.

I then added dots of Barry M Lady and OPI Alcatraz Rocks. Lady is a new acquisition and I really like it. I bought it to mimic the look of fresh snow and it definitely does that :). Alcatraz Rocks seems to have picked up the black base of Espresso but I quite like it- it makes this mani more monochrome.

I really like this :) I'm not sure how long it'll last because there's absolutely no top coat involved but I'm enjoying it immensely while it does. I thought I'd share my best picture from London just to finish off this post:

Have a great weekend!

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33DC Black Matte Contrast Nails

The challenge for today is to choose a manicure from your pinterest board and recreate it. I choose this one from Copy That Copy Cat nails. But because my nails are shorter my shiny details are less complex.

I used my Barry M matte polish in Espresso for the base coat and then used NYC Grand Central Station to create the patterns. I much prefer this way of using the contrast between matte and shiny than just doing a french manicure, it gives it a subtle elegance. I'm not sure how long this will last because there's no top coat involved and matte nail polishes are notorious for chipping quickly. Here is Espresso alone at 2 coats:

My computer has done something really weird to the next photo but it made me giggle quite a lot so I thought I'd share it with you.

Remember to check out everyone else's pinterest inspired manis through the inkslinks below :)

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Autumn spotty nails

I really enjoyed making these nails :) my boyfriend suggested I do some nail art using autumnal colours and I decided to go a little abstract and just do dots in the colours on a nude base.

The colours used here are Barry M Lychee, OPI Every Month is Oktoberfest, OPI A Woman's Prague-ative and NYC Money Never Sleeps. I used two sizes of dotting tool- just pressing a little more lightly if I wanted a smaller dot. I started by adding the large dots to the nail then filling in the spaces around them, ensuring that none of the dots touched each other. 

33DC Art with your most used colour

The challenge today is to use the colour you have the most of to create some nail art. I have so many blue polishes- I know I have too many but I just cannot stop myself from buying them, I'm addicted! I used three different blue polishes for this; Barry M Blue Grape, My Ten Friends Space Sauce and NYC Aqua Mystic.

There are so many layers to this art but they're not really visible, I started with a base of Blue Grape topped with Space Sauce then stamped over the top with Aqua Mystic and Moyou Suki Collection Plate 09. I just chose some bits off the plate to do each nail but I like the basket weave image on this plate. I'm also super excited to use the koi image.

I then used a medium length striping brush to add in the stripes with Blue Grape. This looked so good in person, Space Sauce gave it a really nice holographic effect and it looked really complex (my boyfriend couldn't immediately work out how I had done it).

I love the complexity and simplicity of this mani :). Tomorrow I have a skittle mani to show you.

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33DC Pixellated Gradient

Pixellated nail art is something I first did back in July. I have been seeing it around a lot more recently and thought it would be a great way to incorporate the prompts of three colour gradient with a pattern. I love the colour scheme of blue, grey and yellow that I used for this, they just go together so well. I used a single polish for each and then used white polish to change the saturation but keep it the same hue.

The polishes I used were A England Dorian Gray, Barry M Blue Grape and NYC Lexington Yellow. The yellow was the hardest to get different shade of at the right thickness, hence why there is so much less of it.

I did these nails by using the base I already had on (Nails Inc Covent Garden Ballet), putting OPI Matte Top Coat on and drawing a simple grid using my white Barry M nail art pen (these pens work so much better over a matte base. I then used a small brush to fill in the small squares, mixing a colour and putting it in across all my nails, then mixing the next colour. It took a surprisingly short amount of time to do- in the range of half an hour but I didn't have to paint my base colour on as well.

I love how this looks, it's so simple but really effective. If you're going to use the same effect as me with the lighter squares it's easier to pick a dark colour and lighten it in stages with white polish than it is to try and darken a colour without greying it. Tomorrow will be a small update about some new polishes available in the (UK) shops with a few swatches.

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33DC Manicure with 2 Patterns

The challenge for today was to do a manicure with two patterns, I could have cheated a little and done a different pattern different nails to produce a skittle mani. I decided instead to test my stamping skills and stamp two patterns onto each nail, one half each.

I used two patterns from my Moyou Sailor plate 4 but they're a little unbalanced as the image on the left is so much busier than the one on the right.

I'm not sure that this is something I would wear again- it definitely doesn't show that I had to stamp twice.

Oops almost forgot to tell you what amazing base colour this is- it's Whimsy by piCture pOlish- the perfect blue.

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Hidden Eye Nail Art with Crows Toes One Trick Pony

Everyone and his dog has done this nail art but I really like it and thought it would work very well on the base of Crows Toes One Trick Pony.

One Trick Pony is a purple-teal colour changing holo. Battling the english weather I managed to get a little of the holo to show in the above photo but under artificial light this one really sparkles. It applied very easily and this is three coats although two would probably have been sufficient if you're not taking macro photos.

I drew on the black spaces with my Barry M nail art pen. These dry really fast so I didn't have to wait long before I could draw on the eyes with my white nail art pen. I made them all look in different directions and I do think my hidden monsters in the dark look a little afraid themselves.

I loved this, I wore it for three days with no tip wear and I didn't stop liking it, I was very sad to eventually have to take it off. Happy Halloween!

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33DC South America Aztec Temple

Today's post is late because I took off my first manicure for this prompt without taking any photos. I didn't want to do the same things again so I give you the aztec temple in silhouette:

The base here is a Nelly Polish sample which she was selling off and I did the step detail in Barry M Espresso.

It's another one that looks great when your hand is in exactly the right position and weird the rest of the time...

Tomorrow I'll be sharing some exciting news so be sure to check in :).

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Textured bats

I am finally getting into the swing of things for halloween- it's not such a big deal here as it is in the States but I am still going to a party dressed as a sugar skull. Anyway I got a sudden desire to paint bats on my nails and I did it with one of my textured polishes- Barry M Countess.

The base for this is a matte ruffian of Barry M Mango and Vivid Purple.

I just painted on the bats with a small nail art brush and I'm really pleased with how they came out :)

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Up! Nail Art with Indy's Indies

A new UK indie polish maker has popped up :). Indy's Indies first collection was inspired by disney films and a couple of autumn themed polishes. The one which caught my eye was the totally unique glitter topper Balloon House, inspired by the movie Up! This is a clear based polish with small circle glitters in a variety of matte colours. Rather than just doing a swatch of the polish I decided to do some nail art representing my favourite thing about the movie (other than the touching sequence where you are introduced to Ellie) Kevin!

My index and little fingers are single coats of Balloon House so you can see what it looks like alone (with added balloon tails). For my ring finger I hand placed glitter into the bunch to get the clustered effect. I then used my nail art pen to draw on the strings and the outline of Kevin on my middle finger before filling in the colours. The bubbles were my fault because I underestimated how thick the polish was and didn't leave enough time to dry between coats.

The colours used were: Essie Rock the Boat, Barry M Black nail art pen, Indy's Indies Balloon House, OPI Tomorrow Never Dies and Hi Pumpkin, NYC Lexington Yellow, Digital Nails Convergent, Elegant Touch White.

I love how this turned out and it got a few compliments as well :). I'm excited to see what else Danielle is coming up with and I hope there are some more gems like this in her future collections.

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33DC Indian Design

I decided to go with an intricate design inspired by the sort of patterns often associated with Indian art and henna. Also today is the exciting debut of my new rounded nail shape! I broke off the corner of my middle finger doing some heavy lifting earlier this week and decided to try a new nail shape rather than losing all my length.I was really worried about it but now I really like it :).

I started this design with a base coat of Collection Scorched, then added the details with Deborah Lippmann Through the Fire, NYC Water Street Blue, Full Metal Jacket and my Barry M black nail art pen.

This design came out really well and I love the autumn feel this has with a pop of blue.

Remember to check out everyone else's Indian themed nail art and pop back tomorrow to see a new UK indie polish with some cute nail art (I'll give you a hint, it's about balloons)

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33DC Textured Gradient

I showed you Barry M Countess alone yesterday and for today I sponged another textured polish, OPI Alcatraz Rocks, over the tips of my nails then added studs from the Born Pretty Store which came in a wheel with a few different types of stud.

To apply the studs without changing the texture of the polish I used dotting tools to add a dot of clear polish where I wanted the stud then used the dotting tool while slightly tacky to pick up and place the studs. The studs are thin and lie close to the surface of my nails which I really like.

I've gone for some more arty shots that I normally do, I love the one below and the one above shows you just how thin these studs are.

I hope you like this :), tomorrow I'm going to be showing you a design I made with the awesome new bundle monster collection.

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