Glitter overload

I'd heard about the glorious density of the Barry M glitters, so decided to get a lovely blue one when I bought a tonne (suppose you could call it a haul....) a week or so ago. And it did not disappoint....it was more or less opaque in just 2 coats, but added a third to make sure there was no bare spots. I was amazed at how dense it was, and completely fell in love with it. However I did take a step back and realise it wasn't going to be so fantastic when I had uni late on in the day, so decided to tone it down a tad with some matte topcoat. Still loved it nonetheless ;)

Oh, I apologise for not cleaning up properly. I was too excited XD

Autumn tree flower things...

I love a bit of Barry M. They're affordable, and come in a tonne of colours and glitters. Although their names don't tend to be properly descriptive of the colour in the bottle, they're great nonetheless. the majority of Barry M's I own have a great formula, with only one or 2 being annoyingly too sheer.

So, my friend had text me a 20% off discount code for their website and I took full advantage to say the least. Once they arrive, I wanted to do a new nail design incorporating a few of them (I got a wide range, from citrus colours, to glitters and autumn colours so I couldn't really use them all for the one design lol).

I had seen a youtube tutorial for cheery blossom trees so decided to try my hand at the same design. however I went a bit crazy on the dotting, so they weren't quite as bare and empty as cherry blossoms usully are, but it was still a nice design in the end :)

Out of rubbish comes a gem!

I remember doing my nails quite late one night and I had a 9am start the next day. It had been a rather poopy day, and already had a headache before the nail polish/acetone fumes even reached me so I wasn't in the best of moods to do my nails. But my previous nails had been chipping, and I have a habit of peeling my nail polish once it chips...it's already destroyed, so I see no harm in making it worse :p And I've gotten to the point where I cannot stand my bare nails. And they're now pretty stained ¬_¬

So looking at my stash of gems and polish I ended up doing this...flower?...ish thing. I hadn't had a previous idea of what to do, so I was basically winging this idea. And I did not like it. I liked the base colour (Collecion 2000, Parma Violets, if I believe so) Dunno, it didn't seem interesting enough...a bit plain. Maybe I've been brainwashed by my previous designs...but I wasn't in any particular mood for a plain and simple design, ironic considering my mood :P

So i was sitting pondering what design looks rather fancy yet simple, and the infamous drips came into mind, and form there came layering and matte effect! I grabbed a light and dark colour and a white and began my design, and here's what came out of it...

Once I finished I realised there wasn't an accent nail, so I grabbed a blue and silver glitter polish and attacked my ring finger. I love a bit of matte polish, and I ended up really liking these nails :)

Peacock feathers

I'd been thinking about doing real feather nails, but I hadn't got round to buying feathers at this point (a post I'll be saving for later ;) ) so I decided to do some peacock nails. It's a pretty easy look to do, and you could probably get away without having any proper nail art brushes, it's basically some stripes with some blobs of varying colours hehe.

HOLOOOOOO!

I fell sorry for Mr Fizzy Vimto nails. I watch many nail art videos and read mayn blogs, and get super excited when I saw awesome swatches...I assume he never listens....

Until my birthday came along, and I opened the wonder that was GOSH holo! :D It's sold out in the UK so I have NO diea how much he paid for it on ebay, but it was such a lovely surprise as it was the last thing I'd expected him to get me :D

If you haven't read any reviews on the GOSH holo, then it's bascially a one night polish, made for a night out to make your nails wonderous and magical, so it chips and peels really easily. Putting a top coat on dampens the holo, so that's not recommended. However, it is pretty easy to paint over any chips or peels as the new polish blends in really easily with the old polish, and it's really hard to see the join.

It's pretty hard to get a decent shot of a holo (especially with my Blackberry camera -__- ) as you need a video of it shimmering in the sun, but this photo shows the rainbow pretty well :)

I've not tried any other holos as only the more expensive brands tend to do them (and in different colours also), but a holo seems to be something to have at least one of in your collection!

Basket Weave

I'd seen basket weave nails around on tumblr and blogger so I thought I'd give it a go. The final look ended up a big wobbly cos I used a nail art pen rather than a brush, but I think it's a nice alternative to stripes :)

My nails are a taaaad too long here, look talon-ish :/

Either, or...

One thing I like about playing about with nail polish and the like, is the fact you dont have to do each nail or hand exactly the same :)

I'm not a typically girly girl, I don't like the colour pink (I only have one, maybe 2, pink nail polishes) and I tend to have guy logic on most life problems :p

But the one pink nail polish I like in my collection is Fruit Salad by Collection 2000. It's not too girly a pink, sort of on the red, salmon-ish side of the colour scale... Yes, I am a n00b at this describing lark, I'll try and get better at it :) But I quite like the formula as well, it's opaque in 2 coats at the most and it's pretty quick drying, which we all want from a nail polish don't we? 

So yes, back to the nails, I was torn between doing girly, floral nails with 3D nail decos and glitter (or as I like to describe, "girl vomit" XD ) or go gothic-ish with some black stones.

I decided to keep both colours the same to keep them more together, and I thought the black stones would be a nice contrast against the pink base. 

I wanted to do something a little different from the usual polka dots, and I thought some black rhinestones would add a nice 3D tough. Kind of studded-ish.

And here's my girl vomit hand :p You could say this was Japanese inspired as a lot of Japanese nail art tends to have 3D decos and rhinestones and glitter and...well, you get the idea. This was my first time using the floral decos, and I was worried about them popping off straight away (I use clear nail polish instead of nail glue for decos since it's easier to take off and I'm worried nail glue would damage my nails) But I found some glooped up quick drying top coat so I used that as a glue, and to dab around the base of the flowers, and they lasted a good few days with showers and uni to deal with!