52 Week Pick n Mix: Geometric

& Blue, Green, Yellow (or in my case yellowy-gold, close enough). I wasn't sure what geometric nail art entailed and I possibly got it wrong, but aside from the massive dents I didn't mind this one too much. 

One day I will paint my nails and not ruin them. One day. Colours here are a George gold that I can't spot the name of, Barry M Emerald Green and Barry M Malibu. Black lines are the black Barry M nail art pen.

An InLinkz Link-up

52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge: Purple Hearts

I need to do more fun nail stuff so, after the lovely Katie over at Katie's Lost and Found (fyi you should totally go check out her awesome nail art) suggested it to me, I've started dipping into Crumpet's 52 Week Pick n Mix Nail Art Challenge, which can be found on the Crumpet's Nail Tarts group. I can't promise I'll do all the weeks, mostly because I'm totally lazy and also because I might not have the stuff. Though the idea is there are two prompts and you can either do one of them, or both of them (either combined or as two separate manis if you have the time). It makes more sense if you read the doc on the group.

This week (9th Feb) the challenge was purple and/or hearts. I can do purple and I can do hearts so I combined the two :). It's not the greatest or the neatest manicure I've ever done, but a step up from the just one or two colours I've been doing recently. Besides, it's getting back into it that counts for me right now.

Anyway, onto the pictures. They're not great, and I'd managed to snag my nails with no time to repaint, but you'll get the jist.

Polishes used: Barry M Plum as a base, with Barry M Silvery Lilac over the thumb and pinkie. Ring finger has a coat of Barry M Caspian, the hearts are George Molten Metals in Pirate and Barry M Silvery Lilac (though you can't see those much). Black outlines were done with the Barry M Nail Art Pen.

My collection is indeed 90% Barry M, what gives it away? haha. Anyway, I hope you liked.

An InLinkz Link-up

Easter Inspired Nail Art Ideas

No GOT polish this week, I don't own a coral nail polish, however I do still have a nail art post for you this week. Easter is coming up fast so I thought I'd share some Easter inspired nail art. Plus it gave me a chance to use my nail wheels for the first time ever. I've never actually done nail art on anything which isn't my own nails before, but these are genius. I got them on eBay and it allows me to test out all kinds of things without needing to kill my fingers with constant polish removal.

1. A little chick hatching out of his egg. For this I put down a base coat of Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream then drew a pointy egg shape using Barry M Silks in Pearl and a small nail art brush. I don't own a yellow polish so for the chick I used a yellow nail art pen from eBay (part of an eBay set I got for my birthday a few years ago) to draw a semi-circular yellow ball coming from the egg. I then drew in the eyes and beak with Barry M Black Nail Art Pen and Barry M Gelly in Satsuma.

2 and 3. Pastel gradients using Barry M Mint Ice Cream and Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream for 2, and Barry M Dragonfruit and Barry M Berry Ice Cream for 3. These are super simple to do, just paint down a base layer of your first colour, then using a makeup sponge dab the second colour onto the botton half. 

4. Painted Easter Egg. For this I painted the nails with a base layer of Barry M Gelly in Dragonfruit, then added a stripe of Barry M Mint Ice Cream, followed by a stripe of Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream at the bottom. The dots are Barry M Spring Green, the dark blue stripes are Barry M Navy and the white is Barry M Pearl.

5. Easter bunny! Or a bunny at least. For this I pained down a base coat of Barry M Pearl to give a nice white base, then painted the rabbit shape using Barry M Grey and a nail brush (I would have preferred a paler grey for this, but I don't own one). I then added touches of Barry M Dragonfruit for the nose and insides of the ears, and used Barry M Nail Art Pen in Black for the eyes.

6. Carrot (for the bunny of course), this is a base of Barry M Pearl on which I drew the carrot in Barry M Satsuma with Barry M Spring Green for the greenery. Then a touch of grey for the lines, all with a small nail art brush.

So there you go, Easter Nails! I promise I'm not sponsored by Barry M, I just really love their polishes and own quite a few of them (you may have guessed!)

GOT Polish: Pastel

And in the category of late and slightly imperfect posts we have, my GOT polish challenge for this week. Pastels! So not all of the polishes I used are over a year old, but darnit this gradient looked better in person and it was pretty. Apologies I didn't manage to get any good pictures after I touched it up, even with better daylight during the week the light isn't great at 8pm.

Anyhow onto the pictures:

Barry M Mint Ice Cream, Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream, Barry M Gelly Dragonfruit, Barry M Berry Ice Cream, Barry M Silver Multi Glitter, Barry M Boots Ltd Ed Glitter

Barry M Gelly Greenberry, Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream, Barry M Gelly Dragonfruit, Barry M Gelly Prickly Pear, Barry M Silver Multi Glitter, Barry M Boots Ltd Ed Glitter

And then I tried to add an easter egg pattern...

An InLinkz Link-up

GOT Polish: Peach (& Ruffles)

aka two manicures that really didn't turn out as I hoped (and that I managed to dent while I slept, because boo lack of time and life!)

Used: Barry M Peach Melba as a base with Nicole by OPI Kendall on the Katwalk on the ring finger. Terrible gradient work with Barry M Mediterranean (less than a year old, but so pretty!) and stripes of Barry M Purple Rain Crackle on index and middle.

Used: Rimmel Gold Save The Queen as a base. Rimmel Silver, Ciate Jelly Bean and Barry M Denim for the ruffles and spiral stamping which is from Bundle Monster BM 426.

St Patrick's Day Eyes and Nails

A little late I know, for some reason I thought St Patrick's Day was Friday... don't ask!  Anyway, here is a fun eye and nail look for the day, maybe worth saving for next year?

Used: Shiro Rupee and Innocent + Twisted No Fairytale over the lid. Shiro Hero of Ages on the outer corner and Victorian Disco Wazoo as glitter. The clovers were drawn using Geek Chic Eldritch mixed with ELF Lock and Seal, the gold is Victorian Disco Helga and I used Victorian Disco Sandy Claws as liner. My eyebrows were filled with Shiro Last Homely House (current fun go-to).

Used: Barry M Spring Green and Emerald Green on thumb, index and pinkie, Barry M Greenberry on middle, Rimmel Gold Save The Queen on index. Glitter gradient is Collection Hot Looks gold, clover was drawn with Barry M Watermelon and the rainbow was eBay nail art pens

GOT Polish: Purple

Purple! My favourite colour and the one with the greatest number of golden oldies, though I did cheat a little using a new colour for the base. The manicure is inspired by the famous waterfall manicures as created (as far as I know) by The Nailasaurus.

Used: Barry M Pearl Silk and Barry M Silvery Lilac for base nails. For the waterfall I used Layla Cloudy Violet, Barry M Berry Ice Cream, Sally Hansen Purple Potion, Rimmel Black Cherry and Silver. The stamping is from a Born Pretty Store plate QA8 and Rimmel Black Cherry.

GOT Polish: Skittles

and my truly hopeless first attempt at stamping. I think I need a bigger stamper and to try smaller designs rather than whole nail ones. My nails seem to be longer than the images, well the ones on this plate from Born Pretty Store.

Polishes used: Barry M Mushroom and Nails Inc Basil Street for the base, Rimmel Your Majesty, Barry M Magnetic Blue and Collection 2000 Hot Looks All That Jazz for the stamping. 

Kind of mangled them sleeping but I've been so behind on time lately that I'm afraid I haven't been able to redo them into something better. I really need to improve my planning! And really figure out how to use Windows 8.1, opening things in GIMP seems much harder.

EDAW 2014 Nails

No GOT Polish this week, because of EDAW and also because I don't own a single old or untried orange polish! I totally forgot that the colour was purple until half way through and had no time to re-paint. To be fair, pink and blue are Beat's colours and I did manage the purple ribbon!

Used: Ciate Jelly Bean for the pink, Layla Ocean Rush for the blue, Barry M Lady as the white (swatches to come eventually!) and Barry M Berry Ice Cream and Sally Hansen Purple Potion for the purple ribbon.

GOT Polish: Chevrons [and Nails Inc Old Park Lane swatch!]

Another polish that could have been better but fell casualty to time. I really liked the idea for the middle finger but it just didn't work out for me. C'est la vie, hopefully you guys can see where the ideas were.

Used: Nails Inc Old Park Lane for a base, George Twister on top.

Since Old Park Lane is such a beautiful colour, here are some bonus swatches:

I do love a good metallic and this is a stunner.

Mystery Spot Nails & Bonus Butterflies

Nerdyness alert! These nails are inspired by the Supernatural episode Mystery Spot, and while they didn't come out quite as awesome as I hoped they're still pretty cool and were great fun to do.

Used; Rimmel Gold Save The Queen, Barry M Spring Green & Barry M Espresso

Not sure if I blogged these nails before, but this was my first attempt at butterfly wings

Used: George Pirate, Models Own Purple Blue, Rimmel Black Cherry, No 7 Twinkle Glitter and eBay nail art pens and studs.

GOT Polish: Valentines

Bit late and not the greatest, but I didn't want to miss this week! Done last night after getting home [UK Storm mean it took 3.5hrs for a 30min journey, hope everyone else was safe!], all freehand.

Used: Barry M Peach Melba, Ciate pink [free with a mag ages ago], Nails Inc Victoria [a very old glamour freebie] and George White

An InLinkz Link-up

GOT Polish: Green

This didn't work out how I wanted, but I didn't want to miss another week.

Polishes used: Barry M Mint Ice Cream [pinky & thumb and for the jellyfish], Barry M Emerald Green [ring and second], Collection 2000 Hot Looks Shameless [middle]. And some old temporary tattoos in the place of water decals.

GOT Polish: Blue

THE RULES

* the polish you use should be at least one year old
* if you haven't been a polishaholic that long, you can use the oldest polishes you have
* the polish should be previously used, but if you're stuck, you could free a yearling from Mount Untried (seriously, some of mine are reaching puberty out there)
* you can use more than 1 polish as long as it fits the theme and the rules

So I am totally late on this, but I need more nailspiration and to use some older polishes so this is perfect [I can just about handle one a week].

 

I was semi inspired by this gorgeous mermaid nail look from Manicurity but I'm way less patient as far as the dotting goes xD. The polishes I used were Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream as the base, with dots in Rimmel Silver, Barry M Navy and Barry M Mint Ice Cream [guess my favourite nail brand!]. All of which I've owned well over a year. The glitter is Nicole by OPI Kendall on the Katwalk, which I think I've had over a year. It was a secret santa gift.

 I actually really liked this look. What do you think?

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art: Leopard Print, Stripes and Geometric

Just a couple of nail looks I remembered to photograph this week. Must remember to take more photos of nails [and do more pretty nail art!]

Geometric patterns with a stud and leopard accent nail. Used Barry M Copper, Collection Gothic Glam polish in Dramatic and Collection Hot Looks polish in All That Jazz with a cheap black Nail Art pen. The leopard print base colour was Rimmel Space Dust Aurora with Collection Dramatic for the spots and again the black nail art pen.

This look was inspired by a combination of The Nailsaurus' Center Stripe manicure and Brit Nails' Leopard Underneath manicure. Base colour was Barry M Blueberry, with Models Own Aqua Violet and Barry M Silver Multi Glitter gradient over it. Leopard print was done with George Pirate and nail art pen. The black around the stripes is Barry M Matte in Espresso [swatches coming soon!].

So what do you think? Would you guys like more nail posts when I get time? I know I'm not much of an artist but I do enjoy nail time.

Patchwork Nails

Simple patchwork nails for me this week. I really like this design of nail art, it's easy to do and looks nice [in my opinion].

I used Barry M Gelly paints in Watermelon and Plum as base coats, then added squares/lines of Barry M Silvery Lilac and Collection 2000 Hot Looks Shimmy Shake. The black lines were done with a cheap eBay nail art pen. Simple and quick.