Summer Stripes Nail Art

Yesterday I shared with you a swatch of Nude by Picture Polish mentioning it was the base of some nail art. Well ta da! Here are my striped nails fit for summer!

Picture Polish - Nude - Swatch

Swatches are not really my forte but I stopped and took a quick couple of pictures of Nude by Picture Polish before I did some nail art on top. Anyways might as well share the pictures, so here they are.

Mini Present Nail Art

If you're ever feeling sad, just remember the little things in life < That right there is pretty much my new life motto. However by little things I mean itty baby things, like baby giraffes and kitties and puppies and teeny tiny nail polish bottles. I have recently obtained some baby nail polishes from my Ulta3 Advent calender. In tribute to the adorableness of these bottles, I decided to do some tiny Christmas nail art in way of tiny presents.

OPI Classy Glitter Gradient

Ah! I think I've found the most perfect glitter topper ever in OPI's Gaining Mole-mentum. It's got such a pretty combination of rose gold, gold and silver shard glitters that makes it classy and yet totally edgy. I decided to do a gradient of Gaining Mole-mentum over Did you 'ear about Van Gogh, for a work appropriate glitter gradient that is also subtly festive for the current Christmas season.

Christmas Sweater Nail Art

I want an ugly Christmas jumper especially after seeing a lot of cool Christmas sweater nail art on instagram! Unfortunately Christmas in Australia is a tad too hot to be wearing jumpers so I won't have a chance to wear one this year. Anyway, here is my version of Christmas sweater nail art.

Picture Polish Shades of Pink - Stamped Nails

At heart I love all things girly although I'm not necessarily a girly girl. So I am therefore in love with this pink gradient with stamped detail.

Christmas Stamped Nails

So I managed to find a Christmas related stamping image in my collection of stamping plates. It just also happens that I had some Celestial Cosmetic stamping polishes to test. Thus today's nail art!

Bliss Kiss Nail Oil - Let's Get Naked Challenge

Recently I was lucky enough to win a prize in Simple Nail Art Tips 100k Facebook Giveaway. The prize was a starter kit of their raved about (at least by a lot of girls on instagram) Pure Nail Oil in the scent Summer. I've been wanting to try this nail oil for ages but was uncertain of whether it would work for me and therefore was reluctant to ship it in all the way from America just for it not to work. So thankfully I got this opportunity to try before I buy (and I definitely will be buying more). 

When I got the Bliss Kiss Pure Nail Oil in the mail, it suggested you start using the oil by doing an intense, three day hydration challenge, also know as the Let's Get Naked Challenge. This involves removing all nail polish and then applying small amounts of nail oil on your nails and cuticles, reapplying whenever you feel the oil has been absorbed. Well that's my description anyway, the full details are found here.

So without further ado, here are my nails (on my left hand anyway) before I started the hydration challenge.

Christmas Gradient

Nothing screams christmas like red, green and glitter. Or so I thought until asked if these were meant to be strawberries. Whatever, strawberries are cool, not Christmas cool but close enough. So say hello to my CHRISTMAS GRADIENT, potentially masquerading as casual strawberries, nails.

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas Nail Art

This time last year I was on an amazing adventure exploring the wonders of Europe (check out my friends blog for awesome pictures). I was lucky enough to spend Christmas with some of my awesome friends in Italy as part of this trip. However, unfortunately for me, fortunate for those people who don't like snow, my Christmas failed to be white. In fact the weather was surprisingly mild, barely raining for the entire time we were overseas. I mean, it was nothing compared to an Aussie sizzler Christmas, but it wasn't the quintessential  European white Christmas I was expecting. In dedication to one day hopefully getting snow on Christmas, here is my I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas nail art.

Freckles Nail Art

Not really sure what to call this nail art. It kind of reminds me of donuts but that wasn't intentional. I did these with no plan and they kind of came out pretty cool.

Nautical Chevron's

I don't think I've ever done a nautical themed nail art before. That's rather remiss of me so after receiving some cool nautical themed water decals from the born pretty store, I decided to rectify the issue.

MCA Swifts nail art in support of the sister!

We cheer, we lead, we act like we're on speed! And so on and so forth. I did these nails in support of my sister's pom team, the MCA Swifts, for a competition. They match her cheer uniform, which is green, black and white...sparkles added because everyone needs sparkles in their life.

Blue Floating Manicure (Inspired by NailScope)

The other day I saw this beautiful nail art by NailScope. She had the concept of a floating manicure, where most of the nail is bare with a pop of nail polish in random geometric patterns. Nailscope's version was classy an matte, but I decided to go for something a little different and used a blue palette.

Polish Me Silly - Guilty Pleasures - Swatch

I haven't bothered to paint my nails in a few days. Just haven't been feeling it. I still can't be bothered to do any nail art so here is a really basic swatch of Polish Me Silly - Guilty Pleasures.

Go Nuts for Donuts! Nail Art

The only type of donuts I actually like are jam donuts. However the other day I saw some epic nails with the base mattified and the top left glossy to give the donuts a glazed look. So I decided to forgo my love of jam donuts and create a crazy glazed donut pattern.

80s wallpaper dotticure

Dots. Why are dots so difficult? Why aren’t the dots the same size even though I’m using the same tool? Clearly it’s a skill I need to work on but here is my hopeless attempt at a dotticure.

Purple and Blue Leopard Print

Going through my nail art the other day, I realised I haven't done leopard print nails yet. Leopard print nails are super simple to do, so I decided to pull out some of my untried nail polishes and have a play.

Happy Halloween - My Queen of Hearts Costume!

Although Halloween is officially over, I wanted to share with you the costume I made for fun. I've been following some amazing make up artists and special effects artists on instagram and have wanted to try some special effects for a while. Halloween provided the perfect excuse (even though I don't actually celebrate it) to have a play around with some concepts. So using a few tutorials, this was my costume, The Queen of Hearts.

Skeleton Hand - Halloween Hand Art

My last lot of Halloween hand art before Halloween, which happens to be tomorrow. Of the three looks I have done so far, this is my favourite. I looked online to try to get these as accurate as possible and I think I have done fairly well. So let me show you the inner parts of me, as in the skeleton of my hand!

MckFresh Nail Attire - One Eye Open and Spellbound - Swatches

Once again, I have some more Halloween exclusive polishes to show you. Today I have two polishes from MckFresh Nail Attire's Halloweenie Trio that I have swatched for you.

The first polish is 

One Eye Open

Shades of Phoenix - Samhain - Swatch

It's almost Halloween and I haven't bothered to try any of my indie polishes made for Halloween yet! I'm going to make up for that immediately and give you a swatch of one such polish. This is Samhain by Shades of Phoenix which is one part of their Halloween duo.

Halloween water marble with added cuteness

So the other day I posted my water marble nails for Halloween. Well I couldn't leave well enough alone and added to them. I just googled cute Halloween things and this is what happened. 

Halloween water marble!

By now you'll realise that I quite like a good water marble. However you'll also realise I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to what polishes I normally use for water marbling. Well, today I decided to step out of my comfort zone and try some new polishes. It was a struggle but eventually I came up with this. 

Cartoon Zombie Nail Art

Something a little more traditional for Halloween nails instead of the whole hand look I've been doing. Zombies are kind of creepy if you look at something like I am Legend (that movie freaks me out), but turn them into cartoons and they are adorable!

Blue Sparkly Gradient

So, according to some people *cough* Naomi *cough*, I need to post something other than freaky dead ghost and zombie arms. Because I'm a good person and listen, I did these sparkly gradient nails to take a break from dead things for a while.

Hand of Death - Halloween Hand Art

Another Halloween design today. Unfortunately no tutorial for this one as my camera SUCKS!!! and also because I completely hated on this design until my brother worked some picture magic (DA WIZARD IS IN DA HOUSE) and made this dead arm art look freaking AWESOME!

Oil Spill Water Marble

Now I love a good water marble and when I got some new Bella Belle Nail couture polishes the other day, I knew I had to have a play around with them and water. The result was this awesome water marble which I'm calling oil spill water marble because it reminds me of an oil spill...Duh!

Zombie Nail Art - Part 2 - Halloween Hand Art

Yesterday I posted part 1 of my Zombie Nail Art look, now it is time for part 2. Part 2 involved using face paint, fake blood and dirt to zombify my hands. My hopes being this is a way to show you how you can easily do a zombie look for Halloween.

Zombie Nail Art - Part 1

So October means Halloween, at least if you're a country that celebrates Halloween. In Australia it means, end of semester for most Uni students and cramming for exams. Or, if you're me, it means you have nothing better to do than participate in the Halloween spirit, even though I won't get the chance to dress up and ask strangers for lollies.

Halloween brings about so many inspirations for nail art. From black cats to pumpkins, there are so many opportunities for creativity. I decided to shun those traditional versions of Halloween nails and produce some art works that will really complete your outfit for the big day. I'll be producing a series of about 5 nail arts, for a variety of, what I believe, to be common costumes. The added bonus of my coming Halloween nail art is that there will be filmed tutorials uploaded to my new Youtube channel so you can get the look yourself!!! 

Without further ado, here is part one of the first look, Zombie Nails!

Gothic Red Lace Nail Art

Finally have some new nail art to share after the finish of the 30 day challenge. Not really sure what inspired these but wanted to use a combination of red, black and silver, so this is what I've come up with... some Gothic Lace nails.

Toya-Jade - New Polish Collection - Swatches

Toya-Jade is an Australian indie polish brand who has just relaunched themselves with some new polishes. There are three new polishes released for this relaunch, which are So Pretty, Spell Bound and Pinkle. Sherilee, the face behind the brand, was also nice enough to include an extra polish in my package, which is called Tooof Fairy, which is from an older release (I believe). 

I have swatches of all the new polishes after the jump and also a swatch of Tooof Fairy for good measure!

#31DC2014 - Finished at last!

So last night post brought an end to the 31 Day Challenge. Painting your nails every day for 31 days is no mean feat, so I'm pretty proud of myself for completing it. I also think I've improved my skills quite a bit by pushing through with this challenge. I might complete a 31 day challenge again, but probably not for a while, it's quite restrictive. 

Although there are a few lots of nails that I am pretty meh about, over all I think what I painted is pretty good. After the jump you can find a collage of all the nails I completed for the #31DC2014. 

#31DC2014 - Day 31 - Honour Nails You Heart

Last prompt for the 31 day challenge. The prompt was to honour nails you love. I loved ermahgerdperlish's sheer tint marble creation so I attempted to do it myself. I feel these are a not so much honouring her creations rather than ruining them, but I'll post them anyway.

#31DC2014 - Day 30 - Inspired by a Tutorial

Day 30, inspired by a tutorial. Found these cool beach nails by jessnailed_it on instagram and she put up a tutorial for them. Very convenient for me as it meant I could copy what she did and hopefully get something that looked alright.

Shades of Phoenix - Wildfire - Swatch

Oh my god they're nails not based on a prompt. I've missed swatching and don't swatches just look totally adorable on my itty bitty baby fingers? Today's swatch is Wildfire by Shades of Phoenix.

#31DC2014 -Day 29 - Inspired by the Supernatural

Day 29 is today, and although this may be my third blog post for the day, it does mean I'm officially caught up! There are about a billion options to choose from when it comes to being inspired by the supernatural but after seeing some nails by Break Rules, Not Nails, I knew I could go not further than Zombie nails*

*Warning, this post may contain blood, blood and more blood...what can I say, I like fake blood.

#31DC2014 - Day 28 - Inspired by a Flag

So many blog posts for today (yes, two is a lot of posts). Flags was the prompt for day 28, as in yesterday. I'm an Australian Day baby, so couldn't go past Australian Flags for inspiration. So here they are.

#31DC2014 - Day 27 - Inspired by Artwork

Day 27 posted on Day 29...close enough for me. Due to the success of my last lot of intricate nails, I decided to attempt a second lot for the inspired by an artwork prompt. In my opinion, these are another success, just look a tiny bit messy because I didn't spend as much time on them.

#31DC2014 - Day 26 - Inspired by a Pattern

Ah my nails accidentally grew shorter! Or I may have had to cut them all off because I'm not so good at DIY involving sharp objects.. Anyway, I like short nails and so it's kind of whatever to me. On these new short nails I had to try to catch up on the 31 day challenge, so here is day 27 - Inspired by a Pattern.

#31DC2014 - Day 25 - Inspired by Fashion

Catching up very slowly...these are only two days late! Inspired by fashion was a hard prompt...I don't follow fashion much so much suggested two possible fashion labels for me. I settled on doing some nail art inspired by the 1960s Pucci dress shown in the picture below.

#31DC2014 - Day 24 - Inspired by a Book

I love the picture story book The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and THE BIG HUNGRY BEAR, by Don and Audrey Wood. It's been a favourite since I was little and I've read it so much I've basically got it memorised. The reason I like this book so much is because of the beautiful illustrations and the simple ,yet effective, story line. Therefore I obviously had to use this book for my day 24 prompt!

#31DC2014 - Day 23 - Inspired by a Movie

Design two for the day and almost caught up with the prompts. For yesterday the prompt was inspired by a movie. Possibly my favourite movie ever is Moulin Rouge, so obviously I did some nail art inspired by that.

#31DC2014 - Day 22 - Inspired by a Song

Last few days of the challenge and I've slacked majorly. I was meant to have posted these two days ago I believe, but I've been busy so haven't had time to paint my nails. Anyway, these are inspired by 99 luftballons by Lena. There's is a version of the song preformed with red balloons, and hence, the nails.

#31DC2014 - Day 21 - Inspired by a Colour

Inspired by a colour...it's not the easiest prompt to go off. I decided to take it literally and choose my favourite colour, painted it on my nails, then came up with a design based off what I was feeling when I looked at that colour on my nails. Not that that really makes sense, but this is what I came up with...

#31DC2014 - Day 20 - Water Marble

Day 20 called for water marbling. I actually don't mind water marbling, especially since discovering Bella Belle nail polishes which marble like a dream. I had another design in mind, but ended up with this instead.

#31DC2014 - Day 19 - Galaxy

Went out for dinner last night instead of painting my nails. Was totally worth it for the amount of food I ate! It does mean I'm running a day behind so will be doing two designs today to make up for it. Yesterday's prompt was galaxy nails, something I've never attempted before, but they turned out alright.

#31DC2014 - Day 18 - Half Moons

It's half moon nails today. It's not a very inspiring prompt but then I heard it was my little cousins 8th birthday today. Inspiration hit in way of some colourful party like bunting. I kind of like how it turned out so thanks for the inspiration Xav.

#31DC2014 - Day 17 - Glitter

It's not glitter if it's not glitter placement mosaic, rainbow gradient, glittery goodness. I'm not going to lie, I wasted so much time on these but the pay off is pretty amazing if I do say so myself :D

#31DC2014 - Day 16 - Geometric Pattern

Geometry is shapes, at least that's what I think when I here geometry. Random shapes in random sizes with random properties. Of course the definition of geometry is probably a lot more complex than that but hey; I’m a scientist, not a mathematician. Therefore, to me, geometric patterns are those comprised of random shapes. I’m going to say that because that’s what I have for you today, a skittle manicure made up of random shapes, thus a geometric pattern....here’s hoping :P