Blue 'Ikat Beach Tote' Nail Art

Hihi! This is really going to be a quick post because I'm really going to go to bed. Honest.

These nails were inspired by this beach tote bag which appeared as an a sidebar ad during a recent blog-reading spate - who'd have thought there was inspiration to be found in internet adverts?! If you have a better name for this design, let me know!

I began with a base of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure 'Thinking of Blue' (two coats), which I love. It has a slight dustiness, but also a certain richness and perhaps the littlest hint of 'blurple'. I really like the CSM brush, too (although you can get wonky ones) - flat and quite broad with a rounded tip which fits my cuticles nicely. I added the white pattern with a nail art brush and finished off with the teal detailing, using A England 'Galahad'. If you've been reading my blog from the start, you'll know I love A England and Galahad is another delight - sometimes he looks dusty and sometimes bright, but always beautiful.

It would have been nice to be able to fit a little more of the original pattern onto my nails, but I had to enlarge individual elements of it in order to give Galahad a fair showing. I am very pleased with this design, but I felt a little let down by my execution - I was just having one of those nights where nothing would behave as I wanted it to! Still, I think it looks quite lovely in person since the imperfections are less noticeable when I'm not inspecting them microscopically!

Owning the awkward thumb. 

So, what do you think? Do you dig the design? What about the bag itself? Apart from anything else, I think these colours make a really great pair - even if I need to get back to practising my freehand skills. My index finger with the little diamond is probably my favourite - how about you?

Hope you're all well - not long 'til the weekend...!

Neon Skittle Nail Art feat. Illamasqua Collide & Gamma

Remember last time I talked about how difficult Nubar Violet Sparkle was to capture on camera?  Neons are even more elusive!  I need to stop doing this to myself, haha.  Enter Illamasqua Collide (pink) & Gamma (orange).

They do look relatively glowy here but the colours aren't perfectly accurate - Collide is hotter in person and Gamma possibly looks a little softer or peachier?  I think the orange overpowers the pink a little in these pictures.  Here is a really attractive 'phone photo:

Collide looks more like this most of the time - the 'true' colours (shining throoough) are probably somewhere in the middle and probably more neon.  Also, you can see the effect on my middle finger much more clearly here.

SO.  I had originally painted my nails white with the intention of trying out the 'watercolour' technique but it wasn't exactly working for me so I've shelved that for the time being.  I didn't want the effort of painting my nails white to go to waste, though, so neon seemed like the natural choice!

Awkward thumb, hello to you!

This was more or less a 'make it up as I go along' affair.  Index to pinkie we have: neon clouds; saran wrap technique (I think I first learned this from Chelsea's tutorial but there are others out there, too); some funky lines; and a psychedelic swirly thing which makes me think of lollipops.  Some excellent naming there.  My thumb echoes my ring finger but runs horizontally rather than vertically.  I painted everything (except my middle finger) using little brushes.  The outlines are Barry M Gold Foil, which is a go-to nail art polish for me; and the studs are from this set by BornPretty, stuck on with a blob of top coat and sealed with layer of the same.

I really love this combo - it's so fun and happy!  I just wish (again) that it was easier to photograph.

What do you think?  Will you be sporting some feisty neons this summer?

Zig Zags/Floral Tribal Mish Mash

Hello!  I'm back!  We had a very busy (in a good way!) Easter weekend last weekend but I have now had a chance to paint my nails & take photos etc. soooo yay!  Nails!  

I think this looks kind of like an Easter manicure (cute colours + zig zags = Easter?) but that really wasn't my intention!  Guess I still have Easter on my subconscious brain.  I started out with base colours of China Glaze 'Re-Fresh Mint' & Color Club 'Sweet Pea'.  I hadn't really decided in advance what I would do next, but zig zags just seemed an appropriate choice!  For the other nails, I was going for a tribal-esque vibe, but with little flowers instead of dots (am I still making sense?!).

I picked out Essie 'Blanc', Barry M 'Blackberry' Gelly (the purple one) & Barry M 'Gold Foil' (which I use a LOT for nail art) and added the details with some striper brushes and my second smallest dotting tool.  It was starting to get dark when I painted these so I rushed them a little, but thankfully I don't mind the 'hand painted' look, haha.

I was pretty disappointed with these at first - I absolutely love Re-Fresh Mint & Sweet Pea together and I think I felt that the busyness of the design kind of detracted from that.  They have definitely grown on me, though.  What do you think?

Got some bonus Easter photos for you, too!

Heilan' Coo

The top photo is of some nails I did for the delightful Maddy while she and my sister, Alison, were up staying with us over Easter.  I think nail art looks super cute on wee nails.

The bottom photo is of a heilan' coo (highland cow) at Pollock Country Park because HIGHLAND COWS ARE AWESOME.  Seriously, so cute, I love them.  This one is a 'baby' - look at its little teeny tiny horns just starting to poke out!

Hope you enjoyed these little extras & that you all had as splendid an Easter as I did!  As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Illamasqua Jo'Mina Debut | Stripy Geometric Mix

Hiya!  I'd fancied picking up Illamasqua's Jo'Mina for a good while, having seen/read so many complimentary things about it on various blogs.  Finally I caved and nabbed it from eBay (for slightly cheaper than normal) last week, thanks in part to the absolutely lovely Kayla Shevonne who was kind enough to send me a bottle-shot comparison to help me decide whether I 'needed' it (haha).

I was really keen to use it but didn't have a clear idea of what I wanted to do, so in the end I just picked out a couple of colours I thought would complement it and got to painting!  Here is the result:

I'm generally a wee bit apprehensive about beginning a design without knowing what I'm going to do (it doesn't always end amicably!) but I'm pretty pleased with how these turned out.  I think the skinniest stripes, which I included on each nail, pulled the different designs together quite neatly, along with the framing.  I still find lines a bit tricky at times and I know a few of them are a bit wonky, but not too badly (I don't think?!).  I totally dig bold, geometric-esque mix & match designs, although it's not something I do often.  

Illamasqua Jo'Mina is a fantastic purple.  It's more intense (and possibly a touch pinker, I'm not sure) in person.  Here I've matched it up with Barry M Shocking Pink and 17 (by Boots) Smokey Marble.  (It's spelt 'Smokey' with an 'e' on the bottle, though I don't know why!)  I really wanted to use something other than my go-to black or gold as the offset/outline colour and I think Smokey Marble was a good choice here.  It's a bit darker than it looks in the bottle - I think I'd call it 'gunmetal' - and the shimmer is pretty subtle, but I think it makes a nice change!

For my index and pinkie fingers, I found it easiest to paint the pink and purple first, then add the darker, thinner lines at the end.  After having to redo my ring finger, I decided it was best to outline the patterns on the remaining nails, fill them in, then tidy up the lines where necessary.  I mostly used striping brushes (in a variety of lengths, so I didn't have to clean them constantly!) for this design, including my super cut-down brush for the skinny lines.

What do you think?  Are you a fan of mixing-and-matching?  Do you have a favourite finger?  (I realise that last question sounds kind of creepy.)