Halloween nail fame!

Hey everyone

I'm finally famous! My Halloween design is on Boots FB page - yay! Thanks Boots.

It's really great to see so many people liking the design, head over there and (shameless plug) share the post.

And if you've come over from the Boots UK page then take a look a the post below for the Halloween 'how to'... and many more designs!

Happy (spooky) painting... the nailist xxx

The graveyard shift

Well I had to do it... spooky nails for Halloween is a must. Unfortunately I'm not going to any Halloween parties this year so this is purely for my own enjoyment (and yours of course!)...

As you can see I have a creepy graveyard design which is on top of a purple grey gradient.

I started out with a base of deep purple. I used a really old bottle of a colour that I love but it's one of those cheapo brands of the market called 'La Femme Beauty' (!) and has no shade name sorry. Any deep purple will do,  just think stormy night sky - Revlon in Plum Night is a good option.

I then layered on a gradient of Mavala in shade 12 Berlin, using a cosmetic sponge. Best way I've found is you paint the polish onto the sponge and dab on the nail starting by covering as far down as you want the gradient to start. I did all 10 nails and then went back to the start to allow each layer to dry.  Then dabbed on more just starting a bit further up the nail tip so to create denser colour towards the end. Trick is to keep loading the sponge. If you allow it to dry out you just end up sponging the polish off the nail.

To finish off the gradient and to add some sparkle to the misty graveyard scene I sponged on a bit of Barry M Nail Paint in Silvery Lilac where the grey met the purple. Here's the gradient before the graveyard was added...

I then freehand drew on the graveyard using a black nail art pen and a yellow one for the moon.

For the spiderweb, use a black nail art pen and draw three diagonal lines from one corner of your nail to 3/4 of the way down. Then connect these with evenly spaced curved lines. I added a bit of silver with a nail art pen for extra pop.

Finish off with a quick dry top coat - I used Save the Nail 45 Second Top Coat... and there you have it!


Happy Halloween... the nailist xxx

Wig Wam Thank You Mam

I've gone all tribal! This is all painted free hand and is meant to be a little bit messy to add to the effect.

I started with the peach base colour - Models Own Nail Polish in Fuzzy Peach. Then some free hand random stripes of green and blue/grey. I used Bourjois 10 day Anti Chip in shade 23 and Bourjois So Laque  Ultra Shine in Bleu Asphalte. And then just start adding lines, dots and flicks with black and white nail art pens.

Finish off with a quick dry top coat after the design is fully dry to avoid colour bleeding.

Happy Painting... the nailist xxx

Crazy nail polish lady!

Yes this is what I need to be called... despite a recent collection count totaling over the 350 mark, I've been unable to resist the urge to buy more polish! And this time I've gone way over the top  - 15 new ones found their way home with me.. oops! So in order to give my purchase a purpose, more than my obvious craziness and glitter nails being on trend, I thought I'd show a sample of each one for your viewing pleasure... very rough painted, so all over the place and some of the glitters/metallics have been victim to flash glare but it gives you an idea.

Little finger - Bourjois So Laque Ultra Shine in Lime Catwalk (2 coats)
Ring finger - Barry M Nail Paint in Silvery Lilac (2 coats)
Middle finger - Miss Sporty Metallic Flip (2 coats) this actually looks the colour above from one angle then a metallic olive green from another - very cool!
Index finger - Barry M Nail Paint in Pink Sliver Glitter (2 coats)
Thumb - Barry M Nail Paint in Black Multi Glitter (1 coat!) - this looks a million times better in the flesh, the glitter is really multicoloured.

Little finger - 17 Fast Finish in Potion (2 coats)
Ring finger - Barry M Nail Paint in Silver Multi Glitter (3 coats)
Middle finger - Rimmel Precious Stones in 001 Diamond Dust (2 coats) - this looks like really uncrusted diamonds in the flesh
Index finger - 17 Fast Finish in Fury (2 coats)
Thumb - Bourjois 1 Second Texture Gel in 20 Perle Illusion (2 coat)

Little finger - Bourjois So Laque Ultra Shine in Bleu Asphalte (2 coats)
Ring finger -Revlon Nail Polish in 261 Sparkling (4 coats!)
Middle finger - Bourjois 1 Second Texture Gel in 16 Bleu Moonlight (1 coat!)
Index finger - 17 Holo Nail Polish in Silver (2 coats)
Thumb - Models Own Nail Polish in Fuzzy Peach (2 coat)

Happy Painting (and shopping!)... the nailist xxx

Unleash your inner pink... take 2!

I wasn't very happy with the last ones so here's a second attempt at a Breast Cancer Awareness Month inspired design... much better I think! What do you think?

Colours used:
Pale pink - Models Own Nail Polish in Pastel Pink
Dark pink - Bourjois 1 Second Nail Polish in Rose Cupcuke
Silver details - No7 nail art pen from a Christmas 2011 gift set

I had to use a striping brush (very thin paint brush) to create the detail in the dark pink

Happy Painting... the nailist xxx

Unleash your inner pink

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month so I'm unleashing my inner pink in support of the campaign!

I started with a one coat base colour of No7 Stay Perfect in Milan, which is gorgeous dense glitter polish... one of my favourites. Then free hand painted the baby pink, which is Models Own Nail Polish in Pastel Pink, over the full nail leaving a slightly curved peek-a-boo triangle at the base. I actually originally added a defining line of bright pink with a Models Own Nail Art Pen but it was too luminous, so I went over the top using a striping brush and Bourjois 10 Days No Chips shade 15 - which is why the lines look a bit like country lanes! Oh well.. it's for charity!

Check out Breast Cancer Care's Pink Friday's fundraising page for ideas of how you can 'Unleash your inner pink'

Happy Painting... the nailist xxx

Chocolate heaven

Well I'll be damned.. it's only the best week ever in the UK - National Chocolate Week! I don't really know what it means but I'm taking it as an excuse to eat chocolate and create chocolate inspired nail art!

This is my first attempt at the drip style nail art and there's definitely room for improvement! It's more effective if you look at it this way....

The colours don't actually look true to life - I think my flash was a bit too close! The base colour is Revlon Nail Enamel in Charming which is a very light lilac colour. And the drips look more chocolatey as the colour is a gorgeous rich brown... Essie Nail Lacquer in Lady Godiva.

I created the design by applying a base coat of the lilac which I let dry. Then on each nail painted a thick tip of the brown, added dots of brown where I wanted the drips to end and then using a thin brush stretched out the dots towards the tip to create the drip trail, adding more polish to the brush where needed.

Happy Painting... the nailist xxx

Braid it!

All of a sudden it's Sunday evening and I don't know where the weekend has gone! Well... I did spend a ridiculously large amount of time playing with my new phone.. a Samsung Galaxy SIII - it's amazing. Got it out the box at midday and before I knew it, it was dinner time! Anyway, I'll stop waffling as I, of course, still found time to do my nails and here's today's design...

It's basically made up of free hand alternating strokes of three colours. I used No7 Stay Perfect Nail Colour in Sunshine, which is the metallic. The black is Max Factor Limited Edition Nailfinity in Onyx and the bronze is an unnamed bottle from an FCUK nail gift set.

I learnt the technique on a YouTube tutorial and it definitely requires concentration to make sure you do the stripes in the right order, but worth the effort as the overall effect is fab.

Happy painting... the nailist xxx

Greyed out

I love grey polishes and W7 Nail Polish in Grey is one of my faves. So using this as a base I've played around with three Models Own nail art pens. The plan was just to have a heart on one finger but as usual I got carried away! Unfortunately, I made a rookie mistake and didn't wait long enough before applying top coat, so I've smeared one of the design .. grrrr!

Happy painting... the nailist xxx