Mermaid Nails

Todays nail art is actually some I am really happy with as I took a fairly long time doing them and I feel I worked hard for them! I also did BOTH hands (I usually have two different designs on my hands) which is a pretty big thing for me!

It all stems from the Sally Hansen polish, 'Making Waves' that I was gifted a few months back. Usually I am not a fan of metallic colours as I feel they can look a bit tacky sometimes, but when I tried the polish on for the first time the other day all I could think about was mermaids.

The aquatic blue shimmer it gives is actually really pretty, so I decided to do some underwater themed nails.

I did my left hand first as I am right handed, and slowly did the scales on every other finger. I then outlined in white the starfish and the shell, then outlined them in black to make them more prominent.

The shell in particular was really hard as I wanted it to be really neat.

My right hand was a whole new struggle, as using nail pens with my left hand gives me immense hand cramp after a while, so I need occasional bursts of stretching and moaning to my boyfriend.

The jellyfish was fairly simple however trying to get a perfectly round circle for the pearl was hard work! I added some white detailing to the pearl as I thought black would make it look like a cartoon bubble.

After that, I used a whitey/pink irredesant colour from H&M, over the top of the whole design, to give it another shimmery effect, which looks much better in real life I have to say!

It makes a really pretty colour on top of the blue, and adds that extra mermaid feel to it.

These here are the products I used! Hope you enjoyed

Australia Red Center Inspired Nails

Hi everyone, if you follow me on Instagram then you may have seen a picture of myself at Uluru (or Ayers Rock), as I did a long road trip to get there the other week.

The Red Centre was a beautiful place, and the colours and aboriginal influences really got my creative juices flowing for some nail art!

As I'm travelling, I do find it really hard to juggle regular blog posts, especially in the outback as there is absolutely nothing, so wifi is a laughable ask to most people. Hopefully, I can reflect my trip to you though, as well as telling you a little bit about my journey along the way.

So lets get started

Coober Pedi

So to start my journey into the centre, we started in Adelaide and drove North. It took us 4 days to get to the middle, but we stopped at a little town called Coober Pedy for 2 nights to break things up. This is honestly one of the weirdest places I have ever been in my life, but I am so glad I went just for the stories to tell people. Coober Pedy is a mining town, and what you mine at Coober Pedy, is opals.

Opals are a precious stone that vary from clear to a gorgeous blue green colour, so I chose this polish called 'waves' by Sally Hansen, to give myself a Coober 'Pedi'.

 I wish I could take credit for the pun but it was all my boyfriend, however how someone hasn't set up a business in this place called that I do not know!

(Can I also just say that never did I ever think I would post a picture of my toes on the internet but alas, here we are. Be kind, I know they are not pretty feet but can anyone honestly say they have seen pretty feet?)

In Coober Pedy I also had the amazing experience of going to a kangaroo orphanage, where I met little baby Mona who lives in a handbag!

Aboriginal Art Nails

So another really cool thing I got to do at Uluru was take a dot painting workshop, where an aboriginal artist taught us a few basic symbols for us to create some work ourselves. It was so interesting to learn the symbols, as they can mean so many different things.

Whilst at the workshop, the lady taking the class did some art as well, and in the same space of time as us, she created the most beautiful blue water hole themed picture.

Just on this bit of nail art alone, I have done a little story about my trip here.

See if you can guess what I painted about!

Uluru Ombre

Now if you are anything like me and travel crazy, then you will have seen the mystical Uluru in real life or at least in pictures. I once saw a picture of it at different stages where it looked so different in colour, I knew I had to see it myself to believe it.

Although some say it is just a rock, (which yes, yes it is), it is a really spiritual place for the indigenous people of Australia, and you are actually not allowed to take pictures in some places as a sign of respect. Another thing the indigenous people ask, is that tourists DO NOT climb the rock, as they find it disrespectful, and also quite stupid. It is dangerous and it is causing environmental damage to the waterhole and rock itself.

There is currently a petition to try and get it stopped, so if you head that way, make sure you sign it!

One thing that we and the aboriginals can agree on though, is that the rock is really beautiful.

I saw the rock in the middle of the day, sunrise and also sunset, because it truly does look a different colour all the time. Sometimes it can be a really burnt orange colour, and others, it looks a beautiful purple.

Sunrise

Sunset

My favourite time was just at sunset though, as the sun ducked behind the clouds and gave the rock a pinky red hue, so I used this as the influence for my mani.

Obviously my travels take up a lot of my time currently, but I already have a few more nail art ideas in the works so hope to do a few more posts soon! 

Thanks for reading!