Palm Tree Sunset Nails

Hello everyone! today I am posting about some nail art that I am actually pretty proud of. It's been a while since I've looked at some nail art I've done and thought 'that looks pretty good'. Maybe I've been going for more ambitious designs such as my Glasto tie dye nails. 

Anyway! these are actually pretty simple to do, all you need are the items below plus a white base colour and a sponge.

You will probably be surprised to hear that this is actually the first bottle of acetone I have ever bought, which is pretty shocking as a nail art lover. I think as it is very strong I've always been a little bit scared of using it as it is designed to completely remove false and gel nails, but it is fantastic to clean up around the edges of nails which is essential after any gradient manicure (If you look back at any gradient I've blogged about before my clean up is always very minimal).

The two colours I chose for my gradient were 'Strawberry' and 'Peach Melba' by Barry M. They are very thin pastel colours and actually quite difficult to gradient with. I ended up just painting the two colours on the nail and then dabbing  in between to merge them which is a bit of a cheat way to gradient, and is probably why I didn't get a perfect fade from one colour to the other. The formula of the polishes were just too thin though. Using a thicker polish is easier as the sponge picks it up better.

As my gradient wasn't as flawless as I wanted, I decided to add some silhouette palm trees to give it a sunset summer vibe. I just used the striper brush side to my Model's own nail art pen, and added some thinner swipes along the leaves to give it a more realistic plant effect. I'm not going away on holiday this year so these nails will have to be my retreat! Hope you like them!

Katy Perry Prism Nail Art

This weekend I went to go and see Katy Perry in concert at the O2. I think my blog this week is going to be a little bit Katy Perry themed as I love her to bits and had such an amazing time. Plus I have some cool bits to show you. 

To kick things off, I will show you some KP inspired nail art. Initially, I was going to do some candy inspired nails, as that 'Teenage Dream' stage is what Katy Perry is best known for, but as she has a new album, I felt I should do something a bit more updated, so I looked to her newest album for inspiration.

The album is called Prism and the art work instantly inspired me to do some kind of rainbow kind of gradient to compliment the colour scheme of the album and the more hippy theme.

This picture really helped me choose an idea, I love the really pale pastel rainbow colours, and wanted to do a kind of water colour effect.

The definition of an actual 'prism' is "a transparent optical element with flat, polished surfaces that refract light."  I added the triangle to reflect the album, and as the source of refacted light to create the spectrum of colours.

I used a white base coat to make the colours really pop. Anytime you do a gradient manicure you should paint the base white to allow the colour blend to be prominent. I then chose these 4 really light Barry M polishes as I wanted the colours to be very pale.

Once my white base was dry, I just sponged over all four colours and transferred it onto the nail. As I wanted it to be quite pale, I didn't spend to long on it. Some of the paler colours like pale pink needed to be hand painted in a bit afterwards.

And here is the finished effect. I was a bit worried the colours would be too pale, but they are actually really subtle but still quite eye grabbing. I hadn't done any clean up around the nail in these pictures so I apologies for the sloppiness. I also found this blog really helpful and a good inspiration for my manicure. I like her added triangles and geometric patterns.

http://gormaynails.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/prism.html

Stay tuned for more Katy Perry themed posts this week! And also take a look at some other Katy Perry inspired nails I did a while back.

Day 16: Gradient

Apologies again for this post being late, I did actually do these nails ready for the 16th, but this manicure was really hard to photograph so it took a bit longer than planned! These are however, my 'Gradient' prompt nails.

Once again I tried to think a little more out of the box for this one, than just the standard two tone manicure. This gradient is probably far too summery for this time of year, but we all need a bit of colour in our life sometimes! This is another manicure inspired by the Wah Girls book, but I used colours from the rainbow.

image from wellnailed.blogspot.co.uk

The colours I used are Bright Red by Barry M, Speed Dial by Ciate, Lemon from Barry M, Radioactive by Jessica, Cyan Blue and Berry, again both from Barry M.

 I put on a white colour first to make the colours really pop, especially where the two colours mix on each nail. I (again) used Barry M matte white.
To achieve this look all you need are sponges. A good top coat will seal everything in together and finish the look off perfectly. I used, you guessed it, Barry M top coat.

To make the two colours merge in a seamless gradient, I paint the two colours next to each other on a piece of foil, pick it up on a flat sponge, and dab up and down in the centre of the nail just slightly overlapping from side to side to get the gradient down the middle. It's so so easy, and is a look that is easily achieved but looks quite technical.

This is certainly a manicure I will do again, but I will probably experiment with differnt colour combinations.

Butterfly Nails

Hello there! I am back from holiday which means I am back to blogging!!

As you may know, I went up to Norfolk on a boat trip with friends. Whilst up there, I caught my first fish, saw loads of cool plants and animals, and the main insects I saw were butterflies! Norfolk is full of them! Really pretty ones as well, so my next post is inspired by the beautiful little bugs.

Peacock Butterfly

Tortoise Shell Butterfly

To create this look, you will need:

-base coat

-two contrasting colours

-foil and a make up sponge

-black and white nail art pens

-corrector pen or nail varnish remover and a cotton bud

-top coat

Firstly, paint your nails in a protective base coat, and then your first colour. Here, I used two coats of a new Ciate polish I received in a recent Glossy Box. This Orange colour is called Speed Dial. Next, on your piece of foil, stripe your two colours next to one another like so

Some people recommend using a white coat before ombre effects so the colours are stronger, but I find if you use the lighter colour on the bottom then you don't need the white as your just layering onto the colours you have already used. Take your Makeup sponge, and dab the two colours on the foil and pat onto the nail in a blending effect.

If the blending doesn't look perfect then do not worry as a topcoat will smooth it out and make the gradient less dramatic. Clean up around the edges where the paint has gone over the nail.

Now your ready to do your butterfly effect! You can try all sorts of patterns, but I just googled butterfly nails and got this simple idea. Using nail art pens, you simply do a half moon in the corner of your nail, then do long arcs coming out of it.

Next you fill in the top part of the nail black and then using a white nail art pen, do little dots of white at the tips. (I realise a visual tutorial of this would have been much easier but I painted them before I thought about it!)

And there you have it! Butterfly wing effect nails. Let me know if you like them and if you have any natured inspired manicures you would like to see.