30th October, 2012
I have some nail art to show you today! Usually when I do nail art I have an idea in my mind before I start, often I’ll even sketch it out with my iPad. This nail art came about when I was trying out a different design, and since it wasn’t working, I grabbed my nail polish remover and tried something else.
I’m pretty pleased with how these turned out! Even though they look a million times better in person than they do in pictures. But that’s always how it usually goes with nail art… 
I really love the colour scheme and vintage feel of the design. I used the one stroke painting technique for the flowers. For the pinstripe nails I added a black line along 1/3 of the teal lines and silver glitter to spice it up a bit. From a small distance they look like gradients! These are the polishes I used:
- HITS – Julie
- Catrice – Jade Is Not My Name
- It’s So Easy Stripe Rite – Black
- It’s So Easy Stripe Rite – Silver Glitter
- Acrylic Paints
Hope you like it!
9th October, 2012
Today’s nail art features the sugar spun technique I saw over at my friends’ blogs Chalkboard Nails and Just Tis Ems. It’s a tricky technique but very fun to do! Emmie made a really great tutorial for it which you can see here.
My result looks very 3D which is something you either hate or love. I’m quite fond of the end result, even though I wish my lines turned out thinner. I definitely need to practice more!
I’m really in love with the colour scheme, the matte nude base with the neon lines and studs works really great I think! Finally I had the perfect manicure for which I could use my pink neon studs from Born Pretty Store. They were sitting in my Helmer drawers for weeks waiting to be used. They are a lot more neon in person, I highly recommend them, they are super awesome!
These are the products I used for my manicure:
- Catrice – Nude (from the FeMALE limited edition)
- China Glaze – Love’s A Beach
- Pink Neon Studs
Yes that’s right, no top coat! This technique looks a million times better without top coat (in my opinion) so make sure to resist the urge! Hope you like it!
4th October, 2012
Today’s nail art was inspired by the spray paint technique I saw at the blog Manicurator. She used a spray bottle to create a splatter effect. I really loved this idea so decided to give it a go!
I ended up doing it a little differently though. I used acrylic paints in my spray bottle instead of nail polish. I started by adding water in the bottle, then slowly adding a few drops of white acrylic paint until the water looked opaque enough, while still keeping the liquid consistency. My spray bottle tended to squirt once I tried using anything thicker than a liquid consistency.
The result looks very nice I think! Almost like raindrops that have dried on a window. I added a few rhinestones on an accent nail to add some elegance to the look. All rhinestones are from Born Pretty Store.
These are the products I used for this look:
I really love how this turned out even though the technique was a little on the messier side for me. I had to experiment with the acrylic paint until I reached the effect I was going for. Though it was definitely worth it in the end!
3rd September, 2012
Todays nail art was inspired by Fafinette, more specifically this piece. I hugely love Fafi‘s work, it’s cheeky, feminine and bold. I created these for Kattleya, she is holding a contest on her site so I decided to give it a shot and enter! I hugely admire Katt and love her work, please check out her website kattclaws.com!
If you are wondering why I am holding a lightbulb, this was Katt‘s brilliant idea of telling if the entrants created a new manicure specifically for the contest. I found this cute tiny lightbulb at my boyfriends house, isn’t it adorable? My favourite nail has to be the little cat, it’s just so cute! 
These are the polishes I used for this look:
- Nails Inc – Peach Sorbet
- Catrice – Havana Drum
- Catrice – Take It Mint
- Sweet Color – 005
- New Look – Reef
- It’s So Easy Stripe Rite in white
- It’s So Easy Stripe Rite in black
Please keep your fingers crossed for me!
14th June, 2012
A quick but fun nail art mani today! I am hugely in love with Ami V./El Salonsito‘s spray paint nails so I did them again. I just couldn’t resist! They are so quick and fun but really gorgeous. A really thin striper or brush is the key to these. Just blob on the colours and then add the drips!
These are the polishes I used:
- China Glaze Midnight Kiss
- Catrice Absolutely Chinchilly
- It’s So Easy Stripe Rite in Black
- Dearlee 034 Black
For the two accent nails I used 4mm gold square studs from Born Pretty Store. The black polish is also from BPS, it’s opaque in one layer and glides on like a dream. One of the best black polishes I’ve tried!
17th April, 2012
So today is my last post for Homage Month! This one is my homage to Spifster, a nail artist from Chicago. I first came across her work on Tumblr and I fell in love with her style instantly. Her work is so inspiring and original.
I ended up recreating the Safari nails she did a year ago. I loved the colour combinations she used and the feather design. I really hope I did her nails justice! This is what I used to create this look:
- NYC City Blackout
- China Glaze Sunset Sail
- China Glaze Midnight Kiss
- China Glaze Below Deck
- Catrice Blue Cara Ciao
- China Glaze Frostbite
- Dearlee 30
- It’s So Easy Stripe Rite in white
- It’s So Easy Stripe Rite in black
- Gold Glitter
- Gold Chain
Please check out Spifster if you don’t know her already. She is truly amazing and I would love to thank her for the inspiration she has given all of us and the stunning work she keeps on creating. Thank you Spifster Sutton!
8th April, 2012
My lovely friend Christina from Starlett Approved started something called Homage Month. It’s a month in which you pay tribute to your favourite nail artists, as a way of saying thank you for the inspiration, the hard work and dedication. As you might have read from the title of this post, I will be paying homage to three nail artists in total this month. First up is El Salonsito!
Ami V is the creative brain behind El Salonsito. She has developed a real signature style, her spray paint nails being one of the most popular ones. They are definitely my favourite designs of hers! I ended up doing a mix and match nail art inspired by her work. I used a similar colour palette to hers since I always love the colours she uses.
Polishes used:
- China Glaze Papaya Punch
- Catrice Absolutely Chinchilly
- China Glaze Snow
- China Glaze Midnight Kiss
- It’s So Easy Stripe Rite in Black
Hereby I’d like to hugely thank Ami V for sharing her amazing work with us, she’s been a huge inspiration and I have really fallen in love with her style. I hope you’ll check out her work if you don’t know her already and send her some love!
1st March, 2012
I didn’t have any inspiration lately so I turned to an old favourite, ikat nails! I was under time restraint and these are super quick nails so they were the perfect choice! I used a slightly different colour scheme than last time. The blue was a little lighter and I used orange instead of coral pink.
The polishes I used were: Catrice – Am I Blue Or Green and China Glaze – Papaya Punch. I also used my Models Own black and white stripers.
I’ve been really busy the past few days with painting swatchicles (nail tips on popsicle sticks), I’ll make a big post when I finish them. I honestly cannot wait to share my pictures of all my beautiful swatchicles. I also (finally!) bought a second Helmer today. I cannot wait to finally reorganize my stash!
20th January, 2012
These were inspired by Mr.Candiipants on Tumblr. She recreated the nails from NCLA that were featured in a “tutorial” on Lucky Magazine. I came across the NCLA nails on Tumblr as well but was also disappointed the so-called tutorial was nothing more than “attach these nail wraps to your nails”. Especially since the design was so beautiful and unique. Oh well, we can do better than that and paint them ourselves!
These are ikat prints, ikat is a dying/weaving technique like tie-dye and is still used in many countries and cultures.
The polishes I used were these, Dearlee 07, Catrice I Scream Peach! and Models Own Nail Art Pen in white and black. The trick with these nails is to paint in thin strokes. It’s a very fun and quick pattern since you don’t have to be perfect. And funnily enough, this is one of the few designs where if you paint your topcoat too quickly and smear the black, it will add to the effect!
21st November, 2011
Happy birthday to me! Today I turned 20! Finally!!! These are the nails I wore for my birthday. I didn’t know what to do for a looong time, I decided in the end not to go for the popular themes such as glitter or cupcakes but I went for cherry blossoms instead!
I’ve been noticing and admiring the Arizona bottles for a very long time but haven’t had the change to try them up until recently. I chose the prettiest bottle I could find with the iconic Cherry Blossoms with Green Tea and Honey flavour. Now it has to be said I am anything but a fan of Green Tea but girls was this delicious! So refreshing! Cannot wait to try it again.
Now I’ve been meaning to do cherry blossom nails in ages, I’ve tried them a few times but they never really worked for me. I just couldn’t get them right for some reason. This time however I had the Arizona bottle to inspire me. It definitely helped!
Polishes used were:
- China Glaze Re-Freshmint
- China Glaze Rich & Famous
- Models Own Mushroom
- Catrice Absolutely Chinchilly
- China Glaze Snow
The base coat I used is China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat and I am honestly very much in love with it. I can highly recommend it!!! It’s made my manicures last significantly longer! Top coat is Nail Art Sealing Top Coat by Essence.
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