PacMan French Manicure!

After painting on black french tips, I was suddenly reminded of the classic computer game, PacMan - after wondering how to incorporate this idea into a manicure for a while, I took the plunge and turned it into a PacMan "funky french"!

I started with three coats of Miss Sporty Et Voila French Manicure Pink, and waited for it to dry completely before applying scotch tape, leaving the tips exposed. I then painted the tips with Claire's Black Polish, and removed the tape immediately to ensure that the lines were crisp. I added a blue line to the very tip using a blue Nail Art Pen from Ebay. Using a white pen, I then added small white dots, and painted the ghost shape in white. I painted over the white ghost shapes once they were dry, using a dotting tool and China Glaze Papaya Punch (Orange), Barry M Turquoise (blue), Barry M Red (red) and Models Own Pastel Pink (pink). After adding the eyes with Claire's Black and White Nail Art Pen, I added a coat of Seche Vite. Done!

I had this on for a couple of days, it was a good laugh! Basically the first "funky french" I've ever attempted, as I wasn't sure I really liked the whole 'look' of them  - but this was cool :D I did have a PacMan on the thumb, but smudged it before I could take the pictures unfortunately...what a diiiick!

Let me know what you think guys! Don't forget about my Apothica $25 Giveaway! You've still got 1 week to enter!

xxx

Scotch Tape Zebra Print Manicure

Hello everyone! I know, two posts in as many days, almost like the good old days eh?!

When I was on holiday with my family, we had a very restricted weight allowance for the flights, and so we ditched all the heavy beach gear in favour of lighter alternatives. This included picking up some cheap, light beach towels from Asda, and my, ever tasteful, father chose the most trashy-fabulous, attention grabbing, lurid print that was available - zebra print with a bright purple border. They were amazing. And chavvy. But mostly amazing. They inspired this manicure!

I started with a base of 3 coats of Natural Collections White and allowed to dry before stamping the zebra image from Konad M57 with Konad Special Polish in Black. If you're in the UK, and don't want to splash out for the Konad special Polish, I've heard that MUA Shade 2 - available for only £1 in Superdrug - is a fantastically opaque alternative, though I've yet to try it myself. I added a coat of Seche Vite to dry it all quickly, and ten minutes later added strips of scotch tape diagonally across each nail. I then painted the nail in Claire's Matte Purple (I LOVE mixing textures!) and pulled the tape away while still wet. ET VOILAAA! Trashy Towel Nails.

 

I love how the shiny and the matte finishes look together. The cameras playing tricks on your eyes, the purple is, in fact, a lot more violet and red toned in real life, my camera is in perfect, purple denial, turning it blue. The photos were also taken at dusk, so sorry they're a bit dark and blue. (gawd I need to build myself a light box!)

Let me know what you think everyone! :D

it's-a meee, Mario!

Yesterday, I asked you to share your Nail Art ideas for a Rainbow Base, and the response was incredible! You all have some fantastic imaginations, I tell you, and I struggled to pick one design - until I saw Ngelic's suggestion. Girl, you had me at "Rainbow Road". Clearly a geeky girl after my own nerdy heart, she suggested a design inspired by the "Rainbow Road" level in the MarioKart Nintendo Games.

New Years Eve, this year, was a really great one for me, a small group of close friends came over to my gaff, we played hilarious board games, set off some Sky Lanterns and played drunken MarioKart to see in 2011. Now, I love a party, but I wouldn't have had this any other way (seen as last year I had an asthma attack, and the year before that I rubbed cat on my face, drunkenly forgetting that I am horrifically allergic!) So, with my love for beating the virtual shit out of my friends, for lungs that work, and for Italian Plumbers, you won the vote, Ngelic!

I hope this is along the lines of what you had in mind :)

 Ring Finger, Middle and Thumb are the stars that give Mario invincibility - I freehanded in the star-shape with Claire's Black Nail Art Pen striper, then filled in the black, adding a coat of Technic Bonanza - a blue glitter in a black jelly base.
For the Pinky, I used thin strips of Scotch Tape to make the crazy race track pattern from the game, then painted over it in black, and then Technic Bonanza. I removed the Tape Strips before the polish was dry so the edges were neat.
I couldn't resist adding Mario to the Index Finger. I started with the peach face shade, freehanded in the moustache and hat, then outlined using Claire's Black Nail Art Pen. If you would like to know what particular shade is, just ask me in the comments - there's a lot to list here!
I topped the whole thing off with 2 coats of Seche Vite topcoat, to smooth it all out.

Ngelic, I hope you like it! Thanks for the inspiration! Ngelic has a beauty blog of her own and it's fantastic, letting us know about all the latest trends, new products and the offers going on at the moment. Get following!! :D I have added 10 entries to my Giveaway (WHICH ENDS TOMORROW) for you, as a wee prize :)

I hope you enjoyed the Royal Wedding if you managed to catch it. In my opinion, Pippa Middleton stole the show in her stunning Bridesmaid dress, the queen looked like a giant (bored) Easter Bonnet, and Prince Harry - what a loveable Twat.

Nauti-cool nails

...Yes, I'm just THAT pun-tastic. I don't know why I'm loving nautical this week, but here's another super-sailor manicure done with mostly Bloom Polishes - only managed one good picture:

Didn't come out terribly neat, I think I had a clog in my Claire's Black Nail Art Pen but I was too lazy to jog upstairs and poke a pin in it.
I didn't want a bright white, so did a base layer of Nails Inc Caramel, followed by two coats of Bloom's Nicole - looove this polish, it's a muted cream - goes on really nicely and dries shiny shiny. Good for both an opaque look or a frenchie.

 

 I then added some red stripes with a stiping brush, using Barry M Red, and added a coat of Seche Vite.

Ha horizontal stripes make you look fat. When it was completely dry, I taped off the nails diagonally, and added two coats of Bloom's The Cassette Society 1. My original plan was to stamp the anchor image from one of the Bundle Monster Image Plates, but my nails are too little at the moment and it was too large, so I resigned myself to free-handing them in using Bloom's Goldie and Barry M Mushroom.
I used Barry M mushroom and some yellow acrylic paint (which was a bit of a gloopy disaster) to make the rope, first as a stripe, then adding the detail with Claire's Black Nail Art Pen. LAVLY.

I hope you like it! Let me know what you think! Is it a look you would wear?

Also, I found an old sketch book today, and this little guy was cotching in it. I must've been fourteen when I drew this. I forgot I could draw, how weird is that?! I freakin' LOVE crayons. Like a lot. Too much.

oh heeeeeey

I can smell a frog Manicure. It smells of old leaves and awesomeness.

:D

Do Not Refreeze Guest Post

Hello Everyone! Happy Mother's Day!
Today's post is being hosted over at Leanne's wonderful blog DoNotRefreeze, where I will be doing a "lightning bolt nails" tutorial! Its was really kind of her to ask me to do it, and a great idea to get everyone involved.

Head over to HERE for these Bad-ass nails!

xxx

Tatty Devine Inspired

I was cruising through Tatty Devine's website, and their new collection inspired a manicure! Tatty Devine are a Jewellery company in London that handmake FIERCE pieces of bling that should really be considered art! Their new collection is called "Astral Haze" and is described as embodying "light, legend and luxury", drawing inspiration from the Ancient Pyramids. It's fantastically colourful and geometric, so I thought it would be fun, and translate well onto the nails :-

 

I used A TON of different polishes for this look, too many to list here, your eyes would be tired, but if you want to know what a particular shade is, just pop it in the comments and I'll reply! I used Scotch Tape and a Striping Brush/Nail Art Pen to create most of the effects seen here :).

Head to the website to see the pieces of jewellery that inspired this manicure (I can't save the pics off the website - it's all fancy and I can't work it haahah)

I've had a really positive response to the Giveaway so far, it's very exciting! Tell your mates! The feedback section is also useful and suprising, I'm loving hearing what you all have to say! Thank You!

Follow on Twitter for Blog Post Previews, ramblings and Blog News :)

Nails Good Enough To Eat - Cadbury!

Yesterday, my very good friend Chris came to visit me at University, and because neither of us have particular desire to ever act our age, we visited Cadbury's World - a Chocolate Factory down the road from where I live :D
We were honestly the only people there without a five year old to escort, but we had a pretty hilarious time anyway! Of course, I painted my nails for the occassion:-

 Chocolate Bar nails! Yay! The polishes I used are:-

• Claire's Matte Purple for the base
• Taped off a quarter of my nail, at the nail-bed, and painted using Barry M Mushroom.
• Claire's White Nail Art Pen to scribe the "Cadbury" Logo on the accent nail, as well as the "Ca" on the "wrappers" 
• Used the striping brush in Claire's Black Nail Art Pen  to create the chocolate squares.
• Went over the line in Claire's Silver Nail Art Pen to look like foil. 
• used American Apparel L'espirit to add detail to the accent nail.
• Topped off with Barry M 3-in-1 Topcoat.

Here is a close up of the Cadbury Logo on the accent nail :-

Chocolate Orange Hahaah!

Suprised I didnt nibble them off? So am I!!

I hope you all had a great weekend xxxxxxxxx

Strawberry Picnic Nails

It was another lovely, bright sunny day yesterday, making me wish I was sat on the park having a picnic - this manicure would have to do instead!

ooooh I wish they had all come out as well as the index finger! The other two strawbs are looking a bit squished and deformed....Nails are SO tiny to draw on hahaha!

With Flash - Pesky Orange is very apt for this mani!

I made little picnic rug tips by taping them off and painting them white over a base of a shimmery Claire's polish. I then stamped with Barry M turquoise and MUA shade 16 from BundleMonster BM17. I stamped the shape of the strawberry (not the leaves) with Barry M Red off BM05. I tried stamping the Lemon image but was struggling to pick up a complete image (I think it was the Miss Sporty polish) so just freehanded them in the end, using Barry M Spring Green and Miss Sporty Taxi! I outlined using Claire's Black Nail Art Pen, and topped it off with Barry M 3-in-1 Topcoat.

I got some compliments on this, it was lovely to wear on a hot summery day! I cracked out the Raybans today and it felt sooooo good!

Let me know what you think, kids!

xxx

DANGER, DANGER!

Haha! Today is a bit of an outrageous one...

I don't really know why I'm holding an orange. It looks like I'm trying to warn you of the dangers of Satsumas. I'm not. I like them.

I don't really know what gave me the idea for this one, I think I was just looking at Miss Sporty Taxi! and thought "hey, it's like a "warning sign" yellow". And so ensued the birth of the danger fingers.

This is my favie finger, the one that turned out best!

I started with 2 coats of Rimmel Tip Whitener (note: dont use this to paint your whole nails, the brush is tiny and it takes foooreeevvveeerrrrrr, pain in the arse.) followed by two coats of Miss Sporty Taxi! which is exactly that; the colour of a New York cab with a very subtle shimmer - you literally can't even see it IRL, never mind in the pictures! I then used scotch tape cut into strips and did each black side separately using Claire's Black. On the Left hand, I used a Black Striper instead, just to compare the two techniques, but it was, overall, more messy and slooow. I then added the "!" freehand, using Claire's Nail Art Pen in Black. Added a topcoat, and voilaaaaa!

After I did the first triangle side of black, I took a couple of photos (in the dim with the flash, mind) as I quite liked the effect I got - I think I'll repeat this at a later date but with some different colours: -

I hadn't done any clean up at this point...obvs!

So there's your Manicure for today! I had fun doing this one.


A quick FIFTY FIT update for you, seen as it officially started yesterday: I've been eating lean proteins and salad today, I'll have some rice with the chicken for my dinner, then I'm snacking on fruit, low fat yoghurts and olives (God, I bloody love olives). I've given up chocolate for Lent, so it won't get in the way of the challenge! Me and my housemate went to a spinning class earlier today aswell and we worked SO HARD - she was sick afterwards, poor love! I never sweat so much doing anything more than I sweat when I go to a spin class!! Good news, I also lost 4.5lbs last week on weight watchers - it was a happy weigh in day!
lots of love!
xxx

Gotta Catch 'Em All!

So today is the UK release date for the new Pokemon Black and White game...and I'm kind of a fan :P My Brother and I played as kids, and I guess I've still not grown up! I went into town and picked it up today, and it's all very exciting! Small things please small minds!! Here are my celebratory nails:-

Pokeballs on the thumbs and Pikachu on the left ring finger! :D

Squirtle on the right ring finger :D

Just a bit of fun!!
The Red Polish is Barry M (all the words have rubbed off, I don't know what shade it is!!) and the Blue, for Squirtle is Barry M Turquoise. I used Rimmel Lemon Drop for Pikachu's face, and Claire's Nail Art Pens for the details. This is my first attempt at moderately intricate freehand nail art, and you can really appreciate a steady hand!! To create the Pokeballs I painted the thumb nails white with Rimmel's Tip Whitener, then taped it off with Scotch Tape halfway down and painted them red. I filled in the detail with a black striper and white nail art pen.
I also got some new polishes today (this is getting out of hand!) and some other bits and bobs that I will show you tomorrow!
Let me know what you think of the Pokenails, the shop assistant appreciated them haha!
I hope you're all well, lovely followers. Any suggestions of what you'd like to see from me soon?
Have a Pokelicious day :P x

Scotch Tape Fail

Well, we can't all get it right all of the time! I took a deep breath and decided to share my fails as well as my triumphs. I tried my hand at a scotch tape Mani, like some of the great patchworks that I've seen over at the utterly fabulous Chloe's Nails - but it didn't quite turn out the way I'd hoped!
Firstly, it took FOREVER and I still only did one hand! I'm really impatient when it comes to my nails drying, and when you have to tape off many sections at a time and wait for them to dry, then tape them off again and... BLEUGH! I want pretty nails NOW damn it!!!
I also can't get hold of a bottle of Seche Vite, except on Ebay, so the whole look isn't smooth at all, my poor little Barry M topcoat just isn't up to the challenge. I need to save some pennies for the topcoat to beat all topcoats, its on my wishlist fo sho!
I think the idea is there, just the execution is pretty terrible haha, for this reason I can only bear to post 2 pics, this came off straight away lol:

The sun also wasn't out out today (even though I asked it REALLY nicely), so you can't even see the lovely sparkliness of the purple glitter. Boo. I also realise there's a lot going on, scotch tape, glitter, konad, patchwork etc, but I'm not really one to do things by halves!
The polishes I used aaare:

• Painted all nails with three coats of Barry M Strawberry Ice-cream
• The purpley berry sections are MUA in shade 4, I also stamped using this polish
• Purple Glitter is Claire's.
• Stamped with Konad M79

Tomorrow is another day! I'll have something fun for you :D
Let me know what you think, has anything similar ever happened to you? things not turned out quite the way you'd hoped?
Peace out, my lovely followers, stay awesome.
Emily x