Tiger nails

another attempt at the gradient nail effect.

Ok, Ok, I know I've tried it a lot of times now...

I got a bit bored of just having plain gradient nails, so decided to spice it up a little with some tiger stripes.

FUN!

Grunge nails

So another nail trend I've recently discovered is "grunge nails"

I found this great blog called fuckyeahnailart

which has epic nail art pictures - go on check them out

through them I found these nails 

Ok- not a fan on the pointyness but the colours look cool

and the tutorial here

and these nails

Which are super pretty and look sort of like sunset.

with a tutorial here

So I decided to try "grunge nails" out for myself. 

My first attempt was a little off - I think I used too many colours and layers (so it went a bit lumpy and gooey)

I used:

1) Bling Bright Blue

2) Australis Blackmail

3) Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow

4) OPI A Roll in the Hague

5) Sally Hansen Fuchsia Bling Bling

6) Revlon No Shrinking Violet

after applying all six layers I dipped a paint brush in nail polish remover and swirled it around the nail.

It was much harder than the tutorial's made it sound - it took a while before I saw any new colours and I ended up with a lot of gooey nail polish piled up around the coloured spot. 

See this picture

The effect was cool - and if they had all turned out looking like this nail (most of them turned into brown gooey mess) I may have kept the polish on. 

but I decided to remove all the polish and 

Try Again

and this time - It worked!

well - it was much better than before

I used:

1) Sally Hansen Fuchsia Bling Bling

2) Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow

3) OPI A Roll in the Hague

I then found a more-bristly brush and followed the same steps.  

admittedly afterwards I did dab a tiny bit of pink back onto the nail - as I got a bit too excited with the remover and had bits of NailSkin showing.

I like the finished look

Ombré blue

So as seen before I have found Ombré nails.

This is take two

For this beautiful creation I used: 

OPI: Nail Envy weak and peeling as base coat

Bling: Bright Blue (as my base colour)

Revlon: midnight affair (as a dark in-between blue)

Australis: Blackmail (as the dark tip colour)

Revlon: colorstay topcoat

First: I painted the base coat and base colour (all of my nail bright blue)

DRY TIME! (make sure the polish is dry to touch - or it comes off on the sponge)

Then: I painted three stripes (of my blue shades) on to a sponge.

The colours overlapped slightly

Then: I "stamped" the sponge on to each finger and gave a little wiggle - to get a really smudgy look

Finally I actually took the black polish and painted the very tips of my nails so it's really dark

then: topcoated it.

just after I topcoated I bumped my nail - so I didn't have a super smooth finish! 

I was going to apply another layer of topcoat, but instead decided to apply a layer of shimmer.

This is Revlon: Colada Fizz over the top

Love these nails this time!! 

the colours are perfect.

next time I think I'll try an orange and white.

Ombré nails

I first saw Ombré Nails while cruising the Internet looking at funky nail art. 

I then came across this blog which had some explanation on how to achieve this look.

I tried following their directions (and it didn't work!)

in the end up did it like this.

First: I painted my nails with my usual OPI nail envy base coat

then painted my nails with Revlon pure pearl (my base colour)

(sorry no photo here)

Then: I found an old clear file sheet (any plasticy sheet will work)and poured a few drops of Revlon electric pink on to the plastic

I used a make-up sponge to dab the nail polish (in really light layers) onto the nail.

Then: I did about a zillion layers (they were really sheer) doing more layers as I got closer to the tip of my nail.

after this my entire finger-tips were a mess.

I just used a nail-polish remover soaked cotton bud to remove the excess polish around my nails.

The nails looked pretty average and fuzzy (from the sponge)

Finally: after a generous layer of Revlon colorstay topcoat they looked amazing!

(I used a "generous" amount so I could avoid smudging the colours too much)

This is the final result. 

I like.

I'm not entirely sure on the colour choice though - I think it'd be fun with a variety of different colours.

Also: after my improvised process I found this really useful directional:

Think I'll try this way out next time - and maybe a different sponge

Colorfully abstract

So I've been having some more fun with my nail polishes.

I decided to go for a bright and abstract manicure! 

As for the nail polish I used this time:

Left to Right

Art Deco: Black

Maybelline: Marshmallow

Art Deco: Intense Pink

Art Deco: Quirky Turquoise

Art Deco: Hi-Lite

Mrs. Nailed It

I wanted to draw your attention to a blogger I love.

Mrs. Nailed It does such fantastic different designs - and she sounds pretty obsessed with nail polish (sometimes painting her nails more than once a day!) 

totally loved this cute picture of her's (which I just had to share)

You can all go and check out her blog here

Spotty fun.

Check out my lovely nails for today.

I recently bought some new nail art polish (they have a really thin brush) from the Warehouse.

This was the easiest way to test them out...

Enjoy

Left to Right

Art Deco: Quirky Turquoise

Art Deco: Mint Green

Base Colour: Mabeline Marshmallow (Silvery - (which when I bought I thought was white,) they look really nice with silver underneath - except now I have 2 silvers haha)

Art Deco: Intense Pink

Art Deco: Baby Pink