Neutral Triangle Half Moons

Hope you guys are enjoying the summer sunshine wherever you are, Scotland's being generous and we've had more than one day of sun, must be all this global warming, right? ;) 

I was craving some nude colours and fancied using Utopia or Lychee, I also found some striping tape so I decided to do a triangle half moon jobbie. All I did was lay two pieces of tape in a cross shape on my nail and filled in one of the triangles with Lychee over the base of Utopia. IT looked a tad empty so I dotted some Lilacism within the lychee triangle. 

Swatched! L'Oreal Confetti Topcoat

I finally got my hands on the infamous L'Oreal Confetti Topcoat, a glorious glitter topcoat consisting of a clear base with large and small black and white hex glitters. 

This is kiiiind of a rip off of a much more infamous indie glitter (the name of which  escapes me!) but it's alway sold out, and I think may have been discontinued, or the maker sells them rarely due to high demand. I like that more high street brands are getting into the kinds of polishes the indie brands have been doing as it makes them more accessible to people and could make indie brands more popular.

Moving on, I've layered the topcoat over Models Own Fuzzy Peach, which I thought would be nice and summery. I love this combination, and I may get a few more bottles of the topcoat as it's such an interesting combination of glitters. It's easy to work with, the base is quite thick so the glitters spread quite easily but not so they slip about too much. Any bare patches can be patted on afterwards. 

Indecisive Multicoloured Patterns

Sup guys! Got a simple nail art post here, nothing too drastic/complicated as I'm still enjoying not studying for once and stuffs still kind of messy at home.

Anyways, I was indecisive between drips and stripey blocky things, and also what colour to do them in. The only thing I was decided on was the base colour, Barry M Gelly: Lychee, the colours are all the pens from the Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen collection. 

As you can see they're nothing too thrilling or fancy. I miss doing designs like I used to do such as the first pacman nails I did or the Pokemon ones, the more complicated wow-inducing ounces. Hopefully I'll get to do them again soon, it's a bit hard living I'm between houses as I don't get to have all my polishes in front of me :( 

Easter aztec gradient

I'm not good with naming designs... My official title for this is pastel Easter egg ombre Aztec nails which makes no sense at all when you think about it lol.

But yeah, thought I'd do something with the Easter holidays (although mines shall be filled with exam revision. Boo.) and is it just me that thinks Easter egg patterns look like really simple Aztec patterns? I think I have Aztec on the brain, I'm quite a fan of the pattern hehe.

I used the models own scented collection for my various ombres, and then the models own/wah nails nail art pen to do the little patterns. My left hand is very skew whiff bit it adds...something?...

I used Seche Vite as a topcoat which smoothed out all the bumps of the sponging and polish so lovingly I wish I had gallons of the stuff.

P.s sorry for the whacked out placement of the watermark...

Fruit Salad Nails - with Scented polish!

I finally got round to doing some fruit themed nail art after doing the models own scented polish swatches on Friday.

I didn't do anything too taxing, basically jut used various dotting tools as acrylic paints to do fruits that coordinated with the scent of the polish on that finger. Managed to do this in less than half an hour which shows that you don't need to spend many hours doing a design that looks ever so slightly swish ;)

I top coated with Seche Vite as always, so now the scent is a bit hard to detect :(

Dotty/Movember Nails With Flocking Powder

Hello lovely people, how are we enjoying the cold/wet November with exams looming ever so much closer. Yup, got my exam timetable, and even though I only have one class test, I still have a heck of work to do D: (hence why this will be a speedy post)

Moving away from such disgusting topics, I decided to jump on the flocking powder bandwagon (ebay has lots of choices!) and have a little experiment with beardy/moustachey nails since it's Movember and all :)

Kinda Dalmation-ish?

Yes, those are actual googly eyes (again, ebay for bargainous choices!). Doubt they'll last the night, but they look good/kinda odd in the photo :P

If you're up to date on the whole flocking thing then you'll know how to apply the wonderfully fuzzy stuff. If not here's a teeny lesson! If you're using it as a design, then do your design in whatever colour and dab on the appropriately coloured flocking powder with some tweezers. Press down with a phalange, then blow/brush off with a fan brush (they finally have a use!). Then you're done :) If you're using the powder as an accent nail and using it over the entire nail, then let once coat of polish dry thoroughly, apply a 2nd coat and apply powder while it's still wet, no top coat needed!

Oh, and hello to my new followers :D

Starbucks Nails!

It's that time of year again when the Starbucks red cups are out, the grass is crunchy in the morning and Primark has cosy tights out...I hate this time of year tbh. I'm just not made for cold climates, and Christmas was never a big deal to me. But I do like christmas patterned clothes and the odd christmas film :p

I've always favoured Starbucks over Costa, think they have a better variety...and I'm not 

 a huge fan of the colour red either :p

So thought I'd give Starbucks nails a go, after having a...craving?...to use Barry M's Spring Green. It's just so vibrant and bright without being too neon, and aaaaalmost the right shade for Starbucks :p

I'd like to apologise for various things. Such as the scary demonic face of the logo, the streakiness and the overall blurriness :(

None of my tools were small enough to do the face, so I resorted to a sharpie, which was also slighty clunky, but I got sick of trying to do the face so I left it. The streakiness is due to me using a new fast dry topcoat (Maybelline) and it just being overall crap - no speed drying, and lots of streaks. BOO. And the blurriness is due to me still sucking at taking photos and not using a stand.tripod type device :P

In all honesty, I have no idea what the friiiiick was going on with this hand. Being left handed, I was aiming to do something easy, but it kind of ended up being a garbled mess :p The middle finger's supposed to be the little brown slips they put round the takeaway cups and the pinky/thumb ended up being a disjointed version of the bottom of the starbucks logo :/

I much prefer my right hand as that had the better designs, so i may have to keep my left hand in hiding for the rest of the week :p

I've been pondering to do an extra theme to my blog. Being an avid fan of Boots, I'm thinking ofpost ng Boots haul posts along with my usual nail art posts. Just because I'll probably not be doing many designs on the run up to exams (ERMYGADZ EXAMS), and I do have quite a spending issue when it comes to Boots :p Anyways, I'll see how the Boots haul posts do, and see if I'll continue it on or not :) I'm not intending for this to become a beauty blog (I'd be the worst beauty blogger ever haha), but just a few comments on anything I bought, plus I usually always buy a nail polish whenever I go to Boots :p

Bloody Fingerprints

Despite not being a fan of Halloween (bunny ears and a tutu galore in glasgow these days), I'm now enthralled by the gory side of Halloween after watching Tanya Burr's and MakeupbyMel's zombie tutorials. I've decided that I'll properly get into Halloween next year (not enough money to do Halloween last minute this year) and dressup as a gory zombie, and get prosthetics like liquid latex and wax etc and scare the living daylights out of the tutt bunnies and cats next year ;)

Anyways, since my last nail design was more cutesy stuff, I decided to change to a more blood themed design (and I needed a break from yet more uni work). I figured blood spatter was a bit too Dexter-ish, so I went for fingerprints. People say I should watch Dexter since i'm into CSI so much...

After using the Models Own white as a base, I took Barry M's Black Red, dabbed a bit on my pinky finger, dabbed off excess and then dabbed onto the white base. It didn't turn out as defined/well as I'd hoped, but I still quite liked the effect it gave, if it is somewhat a design that you really need to stare at for a while to understand :p I made a bit of a boo-boo on my ring finger, so I covered it up with a blood drip...I'm not sure if this helps the design or inhibits it...I don't think inhibit is a suitable word actually...These notes are getting to me...

Halloween Nails 2012

I have to admit I'm not the most avid Halloween person. I don't like kids, so trick or treaters and a no go, and I can never be bothered trying to find a non-slutty Halloween costume :p However I do like the effort some people go to, with full on face make up, fake blood etc :)

One thing that I do get up to on Halloween is do my nails :D Granted I've only done them twice now, but I plan on making it a yearly thing :) They surprisingly didn't take too long, maybe half an hour ish, but they are kind of messy if you look closely, but I guess that adds to the effect a bit...I'm hoping? :p

Blood Drips
Frankenstein
Ghost
Web
Bloody Boo

Googly Eyes
Pumpkin
Gravestone
Slime Drips
Jack Skellington

My fave ones are the slime drips and the bloody boo, I quite like the glittery background for the drip and how I managed to make the background bloody-ish for the boo :)

I've been a bit bogged down with uni work atm, so thats why this post is a bit lack lustre, I had a rather confusing lab report to do, and now I'm behind on lecture notes :( I really wanna keep up with re-writing lecture notes, since my modules are year long ones (so I only get exams in May) and apparently you get examined on 3rd and 4th year lectures in your final year D:

Hope you gys have a safe and fun Halloween whether or not your dressed up :D

The Day I Sucked At Tribal...

Hello nail friends!

Finally have a semi complicated design to post today!I spent the weekend catching up on notes and only had a 9-10 lecture today, which meant I had time to do my nails properly :) And do the washing and tidy and cook dinner for Mr Laquerised and his flatmate (homemade burgers with wedges to be exact!)

So, after stressing about getting all that done (I got back late after surprisingly), I sat down and done a 3 colour ombre, with 3 polishes from Julie G's first collection for Jessie's Girl ( not sure hwat her 2nd collection is called!). If you're not familiar with Julie G, she's a lovely beauty youtuber who's also quite good with nail designs too, so go check her out when you have a chance :) The 3 colours I used from the collection where Girls Night Out (lovely mid toned creme blue), Fashion Friday (blue-ish toned creme mid-purple) and Cupcake Frosting (a bright creme barbie-ish pink). I used these colours, to sponge an ombre/gradient on top of a base of white. The polishes where sheer at first but 3 coatings later, and it was all good :)

I then attempted a tribal design. Which was NOT good. Despite being a fan of the aztec trend, my mind drew a complete blank on as to what to draw...hence why they're in no way good XD Plus I managed to sponge off a few patches of white (impatient Carol is impatient) so the sponging didn't get as opaque as it should've :( And then I got to my left hand...I let out a deep sigh and knew that I had to face the inevitable end of it being an utter vomit inducing mess thanks to not being ambidextrous :p

I kind of wished I just left it at the ombre, but I like the idea of having a black print over an ombre...maybe a 2nd go is needed after this :/

When Uni Gets In The Way :(

Aloha lovely people, it's been a long while :(

I've been kept busy with uni related things, so I haven't done many designs, and if I have, it's been easy peasy (i.e. pointless) designs. But I've missed writing (albeit bad) posts, so I've compiled my lame attempts in one post so as not to pain your eyes hehe.

To be truthful, my timetable is fairly empty compared to other subjects, although I'm usually always in at 9, I'm rarely in past 12, never mind till 5 (which I thought would happen like every day lol). But I usually spend the rest of my day re-writing my lecture notes and googling extra notes. And I also have to start doing research for an extended essay/mini dissertation I have to do next term. So by the time I've finished doing ntoes, it's time for dinner, and then I'm usually too tired to do anything super intensive. Feels odd being so busy :p

So, with all this time spent writing notes of some form, I've been mostly sporting plain colours, and have only really done 2 designs since my last proper design post :(

I did however, purchase some of the Barry M Gelly range, since I had some extra money in my account, and I got a 20% discount email from Barry M, so I thought why not?! :P I only purchased a few, most of which I can't remember the name of...but I purchased the orange, purple, teal and the dark blue. I've tried the purple and the dark blue, and they are pretty shiney, I didn't even bother with topcoat! So if you've a lazy kinda gal/guy (you never know! :p ), then the Gelly's can be opaque in 1 to 2 coats, and don't necessarily need top coat either, perfect :)

Anyways, one of the designs I did, was an anorexic drip design (I have a habit of making my drips rather bootilicious XD)

I used the dark blue Barry M Gelly, with the Models Own white nail art pen, which helped achieve the skinnier drips as I usually use a brush to do them. I quitw like the effect actually, should've used a pen in the first place hehe!

The next design that I'm also currently sporting is a half assed Halloween-esque design, with glow in the dark polish over Barry M Spring Green, and suing white and black polish to make random googly eyes :)

I'm not sure if this even looks remotely Halloween appropriate, but I think it's the shade of green (and the fact it's October) that makes me think of Halloween? I'm hoping I should have enough time to do some Halloween themed nails like last year, since I ditched out on the Olympics thing, but we shall see what uni has in store :P

Hopefully I'll get back to posting better designs soon, I miss doing my nails :(

Make No Bones About It!

I know I said that I was attempting a tribal design for this post, but it kind of fialed, and I couldn't be bothered starting agai, since white polish is a bitch to get streak free and opaque without having to spend the entire day doing ntohing and holding your hands out in an awkwardly camp pose :p

So I decided to use one of Collection 2000/Collection's 60 Second Hot Look polishes, they're rpetty cheap at less than £2 I'm sure, but they are teeny dinky bottles, so the size of the bottle does correlate with the price :p As mentioned before, I am lacking internet (and also acetone, hence the messy cuticles), so I'm currently in my uni library (first day back!) typing this and no in my room with access to the name of the polish...however, it is a loverly teal blue/turquoise and applies great :) The Hot Look polishes (I've not bought anything else from the Collection polish range) have nice square brushes, so you could possibly get away without cleaning up if you're careful!

Anyways, I don 't know why I decided to do a bone pattern design...think because it wa just easy and sim ple and i was tired at the time hehe. I drew the bones with the Models Own/WAH nails polish pens, which are also great to work with, especially when compared to the cheapy ebay ones I usually use :p



Pastel Flags

I'd like to think that if I ever were to be a ruler of a country, that my flag would be nice pastel colours...I don't know why, but maybe cos pastel's are not as intimidating as loud garish colours :p

To make the lines, I used the gold as the base colour, and used striping tape to make cross shapes after the polish dried. I then filled in the spaces with a mint and a peach colour, and removed the tape (when the peach and mint were still wet to avoid the polish getting "torn" when lifting the tape) which then leaves the gold as an outline for the triangles and voilà, flag/cross shaped triangle type things...as you can tell, I'm  not the most eloquent when thinking of titles for my designs hehe.

Striping tape is a good wee favourite of mine to make crisp and straight lines, however my fumbling stubby fingers don't lend well to placing them in patterns anymore intricate than crosses and straight lines :( I got a 10 pack of different colours from ebay for dirt cheap, but you can buy one roll if you don't fancy having striping tape hanging about your polish box, which is what I have atm >_< 

GOLD: Barry M - Gold Foil
PEACH: Barry M - Peach Melba
MINT: 17 - Mint Choc Chip

You guys must be sick of my constant apologies of either manky cuticles or bad photos...but I will get my camera back at some point I hope!

The 3 polishes I used were lovely and opaque in one coat, which is good for a method like this as waiting for the polish to dry can lead to it lifting along with the tape.

You can also just leave the striping tape on to make straight lines, just apply topcoat on top and specifically at either end of the tape to prevent it lifting off.

Swirly Mess

Long time no speak folks! ;)

As you may be able to tell from the more recurring posts that I am already bored of summer and seem to go back to doing my nails for something to do :p

This design is my lazy attempt at water marbling, by just  blobbing on 2 or more polish colours onto the nail and swirling them together with  dotting tool or needle. I've yet to actually give water-marbling a shot, but it seems too much hassle, like making sure the water and polishes are at the same temperature, and getting polishes of similar viscosity etc. Whereas with dry-marbling (not sure if that's the official term of my version, but let's go with it lol) is a lot easier with a LOT less mess :)

BROWN: OPI  - San-tan-tonio
BLACK: Barry M - Black

I'm currently trying out the X-large sizing option for the photo, as it lets you see more detail (I currently use large) but I don't want the photos to be IN YOUR FACE y'know? :p

I would like to apologise for the wear and tear of my cuticles and just generally the area around my skin -_- The blue polish from my precious design stained my skin as I was taking it off D:

I also have a confession to make...as you may be able to tell, I don't actually take care of my cuticles as much as I should... *DUN DUN DUNNNNNN* I just find it all a bit of a faff to take care of my cuticles...I do have Sally Hansen's Cuticle Remover, and Burts Bees Lemon Cuticle Butter, but my cuticles never seem to end up nice and lovely :( I kind of expected the Sally Hansen stuff to magically remove my cuticles rather than just soften them I guess. I have a cuticle pusher but that doesn't seem to do the trick, but then again I'm kind of scared to use those scary cuticle clippers that look like pliers. I have th8is image of me somehow pulling my nail off 0_0 However, I am getting into the habit of using The Body Shop's Almond Hand & Nail cream so hopefully that should make things a bit better!

Till next time!

Blue Triangular Type Things...

Hola peeps, the sunny climate of last week has now passed, and I am currently bundled up on the sofa contemplating putting the fire on :( And sadly enough, those 7 days were most likely the closest Scotland will get to a Summer...gutted.

The idea for this "design" came from...well...I like triangles and I've been on a blue kick...that's it really...I haven't done a geometrical pattern for a long while, (or at all, not too sure...) so thought I'd give it a jab.

Blue: Barry M - Pure Turquoise
Dark Blue: Ebay unbranded

Apologies for the minging-ness of it, I had the base colour on for a day or 2 before doing the pattern and I'd been at the beach. Also, my fast dry topcoat has gotten to the gloopy unusable stage...boo!

This really did not turn out how I'd have liked, I wanted the lines to be more crisp and the gaps between more equal, but I realised too late that using just the pen end wasn't going to bode well :/

Ah well, you win some, you lose some, will do better next time :)