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.

Valentine's Day Nails

OPI Skull & Glossbones, OPI Dutch Tulips, OPI Charged Up Cherry

Oh, Valentine's Day. What a good excuse to paint hearts on your nails. I've never done a Valentines mani before, but after seeing them all week I guess I was inspired. Whitney from Dressed Up Nails has been featuring lots of perfectly painted hearts recently. I'm definitely going to follow her advice next time and paint a small v shape and then round it out with a nail art brush. I painted these hearts by dotting two small dots next to each other then adding the pointy base of the heart with a striper. After trying it this way I think Whitney may be on to something. Hearts are way tricker that you'd think (or at least painting them this way is way tricker than you'd think)!

Glitter Mania

Sally Hansen Celeb City, OPI Sparrow Me The Drama, Born Pretty Store Glitter

So. Much. Glitter! I finally bit the bullet and ordered some loose glitter from Born Pretty Store. I blame Sammy and her fabulous "glequin" manis. I'm going to borrow Sammy's fabulous name for these things - glequins, because I'm pretty the nail polish world has embraced the word so much that it's now what they're officially known as!

If you hadn't already realised from my previous manis, I am an extreme lover of glitter. I have multiple pairs of glitter shoes (and a pair that's covered in sequins!) that I wear on a daily basis and random tubs of glitter floating around my room. It's not unusual for me to arrive to work and be told there's a piece of glitter stuck to my face. After playing around with my new glittery tubs of fun I settled on this insane glitter Barbie manicure. Hopefully my next glitter explosion will be a little more classy and subtle, if that's even possible. 

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!