WAH Nails in Blue

OPI My Vampire is Buff, OPI Can't Find My Czechbook, Kester Black Blueberry Tart, China Glaze First Mate 

I loved this WAH Nails mani so much that I had to try it again in blue. I kept the design simpler on this blue mani than on my pink mani and I loved the way it turned out. Painting one row of triangles was more than enough! 

Blobbie Nails

OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, OPI Charged Up Cherry, OPI Mod-ern Girl, Kester Black Poppy, Kester Black French Lavender, Seed Lemon, China Glaze Grape Pop

This manicure is pretty much a recreation of my Inspired by a Book manicure from  months ago. Usually my nail art style is quite structured and geometric. I like lines and angles and order but occasionally it's fun to just completely wing it. Just blob the polish on, add some swirls or stripes and it'll all come together.

Day 30 - Inspired by a Tutorial

OPI My Vampire is Buff, Kester Black Poppy, Kester black Peony, Kester Black Fairy Floss, Kester Black Buttercream, OPI The "It" Colour, Essence Nude It, China Glaze Street Chic, OPI Mermaid's Tears

Oh, Mr Candiipants, you sure know how to make a fab tutorial. I was tossing up between a few tutorials for this manicure when this video tutorial popped up on my tumblr dashboard and well, that was that. 

This mani is deceptively easy and looks super impressive. Candice did it on a black background for the start of autumn in the northern hemisphere, but here in the southern hemisphere, spring had just begun, so I did it on a lighter background and stuck with pink flowers. 

Day 26 - Inspired by a Pattern

China Glaze A Grape Fit, OPI Dating A Royal, OPI My Vampire is Buff, OPI Can't Find My Czechbook, OPI What's With The Cattitude, Kester Black Poppy, Kester Black Peony, OPI Dutch Tulips, Essence Nude It China Glaze For Audrey

I have been painting up a storm over the past few days to try and get through the last days of the 31 Day Challenge. I started it on the 5th of September last year and I'm determined to finish it within a year! There may be some double posts.

Day 26 was inspired by this pattern. I love patterns. 

This one came from a design pattern book and I knew that it'd be great for nail art. It was also a great excuse to practice my freehand painting skills. 

Navy & Gold Madeline Poole Nails

Orly Glitz, OPI My Vampire is Buff, China Glaze First Mate

I've been eyeing off this Madeline Poole mani for what feels like forever. I finally got around to recreating it!

It's been so dreary in Sydney and it's been raining for what feels like forever (seriously, there was something on the news about only having had 7 hours of sunshine in the past week). There was some kind of miracle after I finished this mani and the sun was out for about 15 minutes. Just enough time to take some photos!

Pink and Navy Flowers

OPI Ate Berries In The Canaries, OPI My Vampire Is Buff, China Glaze First Mate

It's been a while since I've had any kind of freehand nail art on my fingers and I was in the mood for sitting in front of a trashy TV show and playing around with a nail art brush. This is what I ended up with at the end of it.  

And can I just say how much I love My Vampire is Buff? I've really been developing a taste for off white polishes over the past year or so. Every time I get a new one I think it's the be all and end all of off white polish then a new one comes along that seems to be even better. I think I've worked my way through a good chunk of OPI Skull & Glossbones, My Boyfriend Scales walls got quite the workout, and now I seem to be reaching for MVIB every time I sit down to paint my nails. 

Space Jam Zig Zags

Australis Space Jam, OPI DS Extravagance, OPI Ate Berries in the Canaries, OPI Simmer & Shimmer, China Glaze Rodeo Fanatic

I bought this amazing looking Australis polish a few weeks ago, and after lurking in the bottom of my handbag for ages I finally added it to the stash and gave it a test run! It's super pretty, but man it was a pain to apply. I added some thinner, which helped it out but it was still quite thick and gluggy, which made the application difficult. It works fabulously with just one coat over a dark polish. I've settled in a quite a solid chevron phase ever since the purchase of the Ikea Scissors from Heaven and couldn't resist adding some colour matching zig zag feature nails to the mani.

Goodbye Summer Stripes

OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, OPI The 'It Color', OPI Dating A Royal, OPI Mermaid's Tears, China Glaze Kinetic Candy, China Glaze Electric Beat

I was in the mood for one last summery hurrah before we settle into brisk Autumn weather, and these stripes were what I ended up with.I usually love the crisp lines you get with tape manis, but this time I painted the stripes freehand with a nail art brush. It's so much easier than waiting for a million coats of polish to dry enough to be able to put tape on!

The next day I was in the mood for something a bit more edgy, so I added some Orly Liquid Vinyl, which has become my holy grail black nail polish. This was one coat people! One! 

OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, OPI The 'It Color', OPI Dating A Royal, OPI Mermaid's Tears, China Glaze Kinetic Candy, China Glaze Electric Beat, Orly Liquid Vinyl

Freestyle Flowers

OPI Skull & Glossbones, Essie Lapis of Luxury, OPI Dating A Royal, China Glaze Peachy Keen, China Glaze Electric Beat

After my foray into floral/abstract nails the other day with my Inspired by a Book mani I thought I'd give the style another go. Usually I like my manis to be quite geometric and structured. A grid of polka dots, evenly spaced lines; that's my kind of nail art. I had such fun blobbing on random spots of polish and squiggling lines around that I just had to do it again. They don't even really look that much like flowers, but I've discovered that that is the genius of this kind of manicure. It's very forgiving. 

This mani stayed on my nails for an epic five days! That's almost unheard of for me.

       

Day 24 - Inspired by a Book

OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, OPI Don't Touch My Tutu, OPI Dutch Tulips, OPI Lincoln Park After Dark, Essie Coral Reef, China Glaze For Audrey, Seed Lemon

I'm being naughty and skipping over Day 23, which is inspired by a movie to jump right into Day 24, inspired by a book.

I've only really started caring about make up in the past two years. Before that, I just wore mascara, some tinted moisturiser and kind of hoped for the best. My housemate swears by Zoë Foster's Amazing Face and I've been reading it recently. Zoë is one hilarious lass and her make up and skincare tips are fabulous!

Amazing Face was sitting on my desk while I was painting my nails the other day and I thought the colours and patterns would be perfect for nail art! The mani ended up looking nothing like the cover but it did alert me to the fact that I need more deep reddish purple nail polish.

Spotted Fail Stripes

OPI Sparrow Me The Drama, OPI Green-wich Village, China Glaze First Mate, Orly Liquid Vinyl

Sometimes, for no apparent reason, nail art is an epic failure. This manicure was originally going to be a "spotted" mani based off Chelsea's great looking tutorial. I painted my base colours, blobbed on the extra colours on the nails I was going to add the spots to and filled my nail art cup with water to get spotting. That's when the failure began. Chelsea suggests using body spray to create the spots but I didn't have any. I figured any kind of spray should do the job but I was wrong. I tried anti-static spray, environmentally friendly shower cleaner, a water/detergent solution we use to keep the bugs off our herbs, perfume and even acetone. Basically anything in the apartment that sprayed in a mist was sprayed on the nail polish. Those little cute spots just would not appear. 

My sad best attempt.

After a lot of Liquid Vinyl ended up on the end of an orange stick I decided to save this look for another day when I've obtained some body spray and just add some black stripes to my accent nails. I'm actually quite pleased with how they turned out so I guess the fail was a good thing in the end.

Mod About Stamping

OPI Mod About You, China Glaze Concrete Catwalk, BM-201

It's been so long since I stamped anything on my nails but this chevron pattern has always been one of my favourites. 

Day 22 - Inspired by a Song / Hottest 100 Day Nails!

OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, OPI Jade Is The New Black, Essie Coral Reef, OPI Panda-monium Pink, Orly Liquid Vinyl

Happy Hottest 100 Day everyone (and Happy Australia Day too!). If you guys were around here last year, you'll know I love the Hottest 100. I thought I'd start a bit of a Australia Day tradition and have another Hottest 100 themed manicure. This year, it also coincided with my inspired by a song post of the 31 day challenge. This manicure is inspired by the amazing Aussie band Alpine and their album art, designed by Tim Royall. I used nail art tape and sponged on the colour with a makeup sponge. 

One of the songs I voted for was Gasoline which I'm hoping will place really high in the countdown. I'm also seeing Alpine next weekend at Laneway. So excited! I might have to recreate these nails for the day!

Day 21 - Inspired by a Colour

OPI A Grape Fit, China Glaze Grape Pop, OPI The Man With The Golden Gun, Essie As Gold As It Gets

I love gradients and I haven't done one in what feels like forever. I knew that I wanted my 'inspired by a colour' day of the 31 day challenge to be a single colour gradient and when I sat down to paint my nails I couldn't go past purple. I love these purples together and they both have 'grape' in their names. They're perfect for each other! 

My friend Julia gave me Essie As Gold As It Gets for my birthday earlier this week and I can't stop using it! It's so gorgeous! I also added a light coat of TMWTGG to make my mani extra golden.  

Day 20 - Water Marbled

China Glaze Kinetic Candy, Topshop AWOL, Essie Coral Reef

Guys, water marbles are hard! I usually avoid them at all costs. They're messy, only seem to work half the time and usually end up with me angrily painting my nails just one plain colour. 

But, they are day 20 of the challenge, and though I may be taking my sweet time working through the 31 day challenge, I fully intend of completing it. So... this is my water marble. The thought of doing more than four nails scared me, so I complemented them with some spots and stripes! 

Does anyone actually like doing water marbling  I love the look of it, but the effort and failure rate (well, my high failure rate) is normally enough to send me running! Does anyone have any tips?

Day 19 - Galaxies

Orly Liquid Vinyl, Ozotic 903, Ozotic 908, Ozotic 534, China Glaze Snow Globe, Milani Jewel FX Silver, Sinful Colors Queen Of Beauty

Gosh there are a lot of different polishes in this mani! I was quite excited about Galaxy day, but I think it's a mani that I'll definitely have to try again. I did like how these turned out, and they were a lot sparklier in real life, but after doing them, I think that less would've been more.

Dressed Up Stripey Nails

OPI Fly, OPI Mermaid's Tears, OPI Planks a Lot, China Glaze Electric Beat, Orly Liquid Vinyl, China Glaze Skyscraper

First off... you all must see Whitney's (Dressed Up Nails) stellar manicure which I've shamelessly ripped off here. Click on it! Be amazed! I love stripes, so when her mani popped up on my computer screen as I was having breakfast yesterday I knew I had to do one too! 

Whitney seems to be some kind of nail art robot lady because she had the patience to paint this pattern on all 10 nails. I planned to limit it to six because I had a sneaky suspicion that it would take me  longer than I expected. I'm glad I stuck to six. It took me a lot longer to do than I'm willing to admit but I think it was time well spent!

NYE 2013

China Glaze Grape Pop, Essie Silken Cord, Sally Hansen Celeb City, Sinful Colors Queen of Beauty, Orly Liquid Vinyl, Glimmer by Erica Drizzt

Happy 2013 everyone! I hope you all had a fabulous New Year's Eve. I celebrated my first NYE in Sydney with a bunch of friends in a park overlooking Sydney Harbour and the Sydney Harbour Bridge (where the greatest NYE fireworks in Australia are!). Our park had a view of the bridge to the front of us and cliffs that overlooked the ocean behind us and it was so beautiful! 

Of course I needed a glitter fest on my nails for this amazing event! I based this mani around Drizzt, which is one of my favourite glitters. I even attempted to write 2013! After a lot of touching up with black polish I was quite please with how it turned out. I have even more respect now for people who do insanely intricate nail art with little bitty brushes. I think I'll stick to my dots and stripes!

Day 17 - Glitter

China Glaze Riveting,  Glimmer by Erica Muy Caliente 

I am a huge fan of glitter. Glitter nail polish, and just glitter in general. To give you an idea of my love, I currently have a 250g tub of glitter sitting on my desk. It's just my general, everyday use glitter. 

For Glitter day I couldn't resist Muy Caliente. It's super sparkly and amazingly bright and summery! I layered it over China Glaze Riveting, which is also a sparkle fest. These were just the most epic glitter overload nails. They were awesome!

Day 16 - Tribal Print

China Glaze Riveting, Inglot 204, Topshop AWOL

I have a soft spot for these patterns. Tribal print manis were an early favourite of mine when I started to get into nail art and I haven't done one in what seems like forever! My original intention was to keep it a simple two colour pattern, but I added Inglot 204 to Riveting because I just can't help myself with that combination and it ended up being quite blingy with the flakies and the sparkle and the blue pattern on the top!