sponged nail art

Feathers

It seems like a lot of bloggers I follow have done feathers in the last couple of weeks – it must be that we associate feathers with spring! When I thought of doing a manicure with a delicate white feather on it, it certainly didn’t feel like a wintery idea and I’m looking forward to seeing some better weather in the next few weeks.

I’d planned this one out on the way home from work, but I still wasn’t sure how I was going to do the feathers. I watched a couple of video tutorials which people had done feathers in, but most of them used striping brushes, which s a tool I don’t feel particularly confident with, so I knew if I used it, mine would end up looking messy and chunky.

In the end, I used a very fine (almost pointed) dotting tool to draw a line of white acrylic paint and then lightly spread the white paint out from the central line into fine feathery strands. I think it worked quite well and I was pleased that my feathers looked quite delicate.

The blue and purple background also worked fairly well, although looking at it now, perhaps it would have been nice to have lighter colours to make it more spring-like, and maybe even add a very fine layer of glitter over the top to make it a bit dreamier.

I was happy with this one, especially my white feathers.

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I used: Impulsive – Revlon, Do you Lilac It? – OPI, Elizabeth Street – Nails Inc, Dreamer – Revlon, Baker Street – Nails Inc, white acrylic paint.

(The material I’m clutching in the photo are fabric samples for my wedding dress – I’m gonna go for an ice blue…)

Valentine Nails with a Gradient

Valentine’s Day may have come and gone, but I’m lucky enough to be going away for a romantic Valentine’s weekend in the Andalucian countryside!

So as I wasn’t all that pleased with the first valentines day manicure that I did I thought I’d have another try at creating something pretty and girly with hearts and romance… (I’m allowed to feel all gooey and romantic at the moment – we’ve just booked our wedding date)

So here’s my valentine mani with a gradient.

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I used: The Thames – Nails Inc, Porchester Square – Nails Inc, Warwick Avenue – Nails Inc (for the gradient), Where’s my Chauffeur – Essie, Life is a Freeride – Essence, Vintage Blue – Marionnaud (for the hearts).

Day 13 Pre-Spring Challenge : Sponging

My inspiration for this came while I was watching a nature documentary about bears and there was a beautiful shot of two bears on a hill silhouetted against a purple orange sunset.

I was pretty pleased with my sponged gradient, it looked quite smooth and glittery in the sunshine today. The bear I tried to do caused me considerably more headaches… In the end I was reasonably satisfied with the bear on my ring finger but the one on my middle finger has become a random forest critter rather than a bear… By the time I’d given up on finished the bear and friend I didn’t have much patience left for doing nice trees!

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I used: Tristam – A England, Impulsive – Revlon, Sensation – Color Addict, Psychedelic Orange – Rimmel, Yellow – Sweets Sweet, black acrylic paint.