33DC: The Same Pattern in Different Colours

I’d always wanted to do cupcake nails and although they’re not exactly a pattern I thought they were a good choice for a design that could be done in several different colours. It was fun and simple to do and I was pleased with the results. Perhaps I went a bit wild with the dots and should have embraced a less is more approach but never mind.
I used loads of polishes doing this, which I really enjoyed. Sometimes it’s nice to line up 15 polishes for one manicure!

I used: Don’t Pretzel My Buttons – OPI, Kalahari Kiss – China Glaze, Hook Up – Orly, Pineapple Juice – Rituals, Elizabeth Street – Nails Inc, Hottie – Orly, Pomegranate – Barry M, Violet Femme – Picture Polish, Do You Lilac It? – OPI, I Scream: Ice Cream! – Catrice, Don’t Mess with OPI – OPI, Def Defying – China Glaze, Mojito – Rituals, Matte Aqua – BYS, If I Were a Boy – Essence, Play it Blue – Catrice

33DC: Animals

I was really stuck for which animal to choose for this day of the challenge. I wanted to do something a bit different but still cute and cartoony. After browsing illustrations of all kinds of creatures I finally settled on snails. No particular reason, I just thought they’d be fun to do and not necessarily the first animal you’d think of for a nail art challenge.

So here are my snail nails:

I used: Take It Mint – Catrice, Miami pINK – Catrice, It’s Rambo No. 5 – Catrice, Mixed Rose – Rituals, Sumner Place – Nails Inc, L’Orange – Catrice, Just Gorgeous – Anny.

Better late than never…

Oh dear, it’s been a while since I posted anything on here… I went away for a couple of weeks over Christmas and New Year and didn’t have much time or much Nernst access and then just didn’t get back not the swing of blogging after coming back from my trip. Now I’m laid up in bed with a severely sprained ankle, dashing my hopes of running Barcelona Marathon this year, but giving me plenty of time to catch up with other things.

So this is a very belated post with all my festive nails that I did over the Xmas holidays.

Everyone was doing gorgeous snowflake nails over the Xmas period so I decided to jump on board and give it a try. They were inspired by various people like this great video by IndigoNova1

I was pleased with the way they turned out, although they could’ve been neater and seemed to start out well but get increasingly thick and gloopy as I went on…

I used: Matte Aqua – BYS, Hello Holo – Essence, Jacob’s Protection – Essence

These Christmas Tree nails were inspired by this design and video tutorial by IHaveACupcake, but with totally different colours and some snow just for extra Christmassyness!

I used: Jacob’s Protection – Essence, Green Glitter – Sweets Sweet, Revlon Red – Revlon, Yellow – Sweets Sweet, White – Bonbon

Next came some cute little Christmas Puddings. My first attempt was awful and I wiped them off my nails just a few hours after doing them (although the shop assistant in my local shopping centre was sweet enough to say that she loved them). Anyway – no pictures of those, but my very artistic boyfriend helped me come up with a better design and I was much happier with the results!

I used: Boot Camp – Gosh, Wanna Say Hello – Essence, White- Bonbon, Revlon Red – Revlon, Stylenomics – Essie

I wanted to do some little presents but struggled to find a tutorial or design I really loved to use as a basis. The idea of presents seemed fun but nothing really stood out as great. Then I found this video tutorial and thought I’d follow it without making any big changes as I thought it was one of the nicer present designs I’d seen. Unfortunately it just didn’t seem to look so good when I did it – not a disaster by any means – just not quite what I was hoping for.

I used: White – Bonbon, Revlon Red -Revlon, Stylenomics – Essie, Shine Vintage Gold – Rimmel

Finally my absolute favourite was these cute Xmas characters. When I saw IHaveACupcake’s super cute video I knew that the kids (and adults) I teach would go wild for them and they were going to be on my nails for the final class of the year. Even with a few little smudges and mistakes I still absolutely adore these nails!

I used: White – Bonbon, Baby Pink – Sweet Closet, Wanna Say Hello – Essence, Boot Camp – Gosh, Black – Decorative Nail, Revlon Red – Revlon, Yellow – Sweets Sweet, Psychedelic Orange – Rimmel

So… Far too late for Xmas but never mind! I’ll try to catch up with all my other photos and posts in the next few days while my ankle is recovering and I’m not going anywhere!

Cute Pandas

This was the last bit of nail art I did before I left Japan and all the packing and organising an inter-continental move took up all my free time and left me no time for nails.

My boyfriend loves pandas and when I was browsing nail art videos on YouTube and came across this one by cutexxbeauty I knew he’d appreciate it!

It was very easy to do and I loved the result. I like that the pandas are quite simple and there’s not too much detail as some of the other tutorial videos I saw for panda nail art were more complicated and some of the pandas looked a bit strange in the end and not half as cute as these ones. Sometimes simple really is best!

The kids I taught in Japan all loved this one, and I got a few shrieks of kawaii! from my female adult students too.

Although most of the time I prefer more abstract designs, cute nail art is certainly something I’ll come back to from time to time as it’s a lot of fun!