Tuesday 30 September 2014

Nails of the Month: September

I cannot believe it's that time of the month again for my favourites! This month has flown by!

My favourite nails on my blog this month were posted way back on the 1st September, my Kill Bill nails.

I think the simplicity of these makes them so effective, compared to some of my more detailed designs. Although, you liked the detail too! 

These Avatar nails were my most popular on Instagram:


And my Harry Potter nails were a favourite on Facebook.


Looks like everyone is loving the films this month!!
My personal favourite this month is yet another film mani. Alice in Wonderland!


These took such a long time and apart from the dodgy detail on Alice's face turned out exactly how I had planned - this doesn't happen very often! :)


What was your favourite this month?

Saturday 27 September 2014

Dragonball Nails

This week for the Llama Nails challenge the theme is Anime/Cartoon nails.
I wanted to try anime, although again it is not my sort of film. So I asked my boyfriend to name a good anime film, found out a bit about it from him and googled some images!


This is how it turned out! I actually quite like this. 

The polishes I used were Rimmel Golden Hour on my index finger, an unnamed H&M blue polish on my middle finger, Ciaté Amazing Gracie on my ring finger and Sally Hansen Sugar Coat Cherry Drop on my little finger and thumb. The rest of the details are acrylic paint.



Sunday 21 September 2014

Avatar Nail Art

Science Fiction is the prompt for this weeks Llama Nails Book/Movie Challenge.
I decided to go with Avatar:


I really love my index fingernail and kind of wish I had done the other half of her face on my middle finger, rather than the tree of souls.

I mostly used acrylic paint for this mani, because of the detail. However I used Maybelline Dark Denim as the base colour, Sinful Colors Nirvana for the tree and Revlon Aquamarine as a topcoat on my ring finger, as the white was too bright. I finished it all with a Jess Matte Topcoat.

Thursday 18 September 2014

Regal Roses

Today I have a mani I have been meaning to post for some time!
This is in fact the mani which was my most popular on Instagram last month, however I never got round to posting it on here, oops!



I used two coats of Essence Do You Speak Love? for the base colour. I then used Barry M Matte White and Ciaté Pillow Fight to paint the Roses before finishing off with the Essence Quick Dry Topcoat.


This is such an amazing topcoat. I have quite a few of the budget brand topcoats and this is by far my favourite. Doesn't smell too bad, goes on nice and smooth, dries quickly and it is super dooper shiny! 

Monday 15 September 2014

Green Gradient

Today I have a very quick post to show you this simple green gradient I painted.


The colours look much closer in the pictures than in real life, making the gradient look more subtle.


I used two Essence polishes for this, That's What I Mint! and Lets Get Lost! 
I love how well the colours go together. 

If you want to try a gradient mani yourself, I have a tutorial HERE.

Sunday 14 September 2014

Alice in Wonderland Nail Art

This week the Llama Nails Challenge prompt is Fantasy books/films.
I had lots of possibilities for this prompt and had difficulty deciding which to do, which makes a change for me!! But I decided to go with Alice in Wonderland... the older animated version.


I absolutely love my left hand! Although I defo need to work on painting faces! Paha, Alice does not look very happy!


My right hand is much simpler but I still really like it.

These nails took me over two hours to paint and used a huge number of polishes and paints! It will take too long to say which polishes were used where, but I will list the polishes below the picture.


Sally Hansen Green Tea Basecoat, Sinful Colours Savage, Barry M Silk Heather, Barry M Matte White, Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream, Jess Calypso, Sally Hansen Grape Race, Essence That's What I Mint!, Rimmel Red, Steady, Go!, MUA Frozen Yoghurt, Rimmel Purple Pulse, Rimmel Sunny Days and Essence Quick Dry Topcoat.

I am really looking forward to the next few weeks of this challenge as the prompts are much more me!


Tuesday 9 September 2014

Sunday 7 September 2014

Harry Potter Nail Art

This week the theme for the Llama Nails Movie/Book Challenge is Mystery.
Again, this was a difficult one for me to think of a film for, so I turned to IMDB's top 50 Mystery films.

Harry Potter is not a film I would consider a mystery, but at least 4 of the films were in the top 50 mystery films, so I just went with it!! My mani is based around the Deathly Hallows films.



I'm really pleased with how these turned out! Particularly the round gradient!

I started with a base of a Nude Unnamed Revlon polish, over which I sponged a circular gradient of the same nude polish and Sally Hansen Kiwi Bikini. I was trying to recreate that eerie green Voldemort glow!!
 I then used Barry M Black and a thin paintbrush to paint the symbol of the Deathly Hallows and the Dark Mark on my ring and index fingers. On my middle finger I painted Harry's lightening bolt scar using Rimmel Sunny Days and outlined in Barry M Black. I then used a Jess Matte Topcoat on all but the lightning bolt, to make it stand out.


I enjoyed using the box as a photo prop way too much with this mani!! I don't know how I never thought of it before, as I have many of the films I have based my mani's on for this challenge on DVD!



Saturday 6 September 2014

Watercolour Nails

Hello!
Today I have followed the SIMPLES tutorial to do some watercolour nails.
This is something I have wanted to try for quite a long time, but have never got round to doing!


I absolutely love how this turned out! So pretty!


I started with a basecoat of Barry M Matte White. For the watercolour I wanted to use a colour scheme, rather than a selection of contrasting colours. I chose to use Barry M Papaya, Sally Hansen Fuschia Flare and Revlon Infamous and mushed them all together using acetone!


It's so summery and pretty!
I expected the colours to be a lot lighter than they ended up, due to the acetone, but I still love it!

Friday 5 September 2014

Back to School

Here is a very quick post today to show you my Back to School nail art, as I started teaching this week.


These are my first ever negative space nails! It's not really a technique I have ever been inclined to try, but I though I'd give it a shot!

I used Essence Do You Speak Love? as the main colour, Sinful Colors Savage for the leaf and brown acrylic paint for the stalk.

Monday 1 September 2014

Crime Nails: Kill Bill

This week on the Llama Nail Challenge the prompt is Crime Movie/Book.
Again, this was a difficult one for me, but after looking through the Crime section of IMDB I knew exactly which film I wanted to do!


If you can't tell, these nails take their inspiration from Kill Bill.
I love the way the texture of the 'blood' contrasts with the smooth shininess of the black strip on my ring finger!


I used only polishes for this nail art:
Rimmel Sunny Days for the background yellow.
Rimmel Red, Steady, Go! for the blood.
The black stripe and handle of the sword are Barry M Black.
The Silver for the sword is Ciaté Fit For A Queen.

Check out the other Crime Nails done for the challenge:

Nails of the Month: August

This has been a very busy month for me, so I have not actually posted that many mani's. Although, I have quite a backlog of mani's I have painted but never posted which will be coming up in September!

My most popular post on the blog this month was my Rocky Horror nail art. Although I like this mani, as it is based on one of my favourite films, I'm not a huge fan of the actual design of the mani, it's just not my style!!


On my Facebook page it was this cute Kitsch floral design I painted on my Mum's nails. I love this design!


My most popular Instagram post is actually of a mani I haven't posted on here yet! It will be coming up probably tomorrow so I'm going to keep you waiting for pictures of that one!! Or follow me on Instagram for a sneak peek! @nailsmustbepainted

My personal favourite post this month has been my 50 First Dates nail art.


I really like how although it is a skittle mani, the nails all go together fairly well and each nail represents something different from the film.