Cupcake Nails

 Cupcakes, sweet cakes for all! Who doesn't love a cupcake?

 The smudgy bit near the gem is a lesson for us all: always use clear to stick on gems, don't try and match the colour.

Products used: Pale yellow - 17 (Sherbet Lemon)
                       Yellow - Barry M
                       Pale pink - Avon (Pastel Pink)
                       Pink - Barry M
                       Pale purple - Avon (Luxe Lavender)
                       Purple - Barry M (Bright Purple)
                       Pale blue - Collection 2000
                       Blue - Barry M (Cobalt Blue)
                       Pale Green - Collection 2000
                       Green - Barry M (Spring Green)
                       Brown - Me Me Me (Amethyst)
                       Black - Rio Nail Art

Island Paradise

Last year, my friend Siobhan (unexpectedgeek), who is the make up guru of our little shop, asked me to a summery design to promote bright nail vanishes. This is what I settled on.

I used a sponge to create the gradient effect, and applied a thin, cheap base coat before it set to help it all blend. It also gave me an excuse to try out the Barry M nail art pens and grab a few new colours.

I was quite impressed with the pen. It very east to use, almost like drawing with a felt tip. I did notice that I had to go over a few bits more than once to get a solid dark line. Also, do not leave off top coat! It wears off very easily if not sealed.

Products used: Pinky red - Barry M (Passion Fruit)

                       Orange - 17 (Orange Soda)

                       Yellow - Barry M (Limited Edition B)

                       Black - Barry M

St Patrick's Day Nails

It's St. Patrick's Day! Green and gold and sparkly and fun. The leprechaun is hiding, by the way, it's not that I couldn't be bothered to paint one.

 I saw an article on Beautylish about reverse painting nails in a Louboutin heel style. I liked the idea, but I changed up the colour scheme a bit.

 Yay, sparkle!

Hope you like them, and I hope everyone has a great St. Patrick's Day (to be sure)!

Products used: Green - Barry M

                       Gold - Avon (Gold Foil)

                       Red - Rio Professional Nail Art Polish

                       Yellow - Rio Professional Nail Art Polish

                       Dark Green - Rio Professional Nail Art Polish

                       Blue - Rio Professional Nail Art Polish

                       Purple - Rio Professional Nail Art Polish

                       White (under rainbow) - Barry M (Matt White)

                       Glitter - Rio Professional

                       Rhinestones - eBay

Water Marbled Nails

One of my friends suggested I try water marbling, so I did. It is my first attempt, so some are better than others, but overall I really like the effect. 

 This thumb nail is my favourite. I love how complicated it looks, but it's actually not that tricky. Just beware the amount of clean up that will be needed!

Hope you like them :)

Products used: White - Barry M (Matte White)

                       Light Purple - Avon

                       Dark Purple - Avon

                       Dark Green - Barry M

Strictly OTT Nails!

 Strictly Come Dancing is back! I absolutely love it. I've been doing latin and ballroom dancing for 3 years now so SDC is pretty much my spiritual home. I decided to do some SDC themed nails, so I went for pink and purple, which are the program colours, ridiculous amounts of glitter and a rhinestone glitterball thing.

 

 Here's a close up of the "glitterball". I added the pink rhinestones to represent the writing on the trophy. They are actually 2 tone pink, but it doesn't really show up in the picture.

I'm pretty happy with them and I'm hoping they last until Sunday so they can be my birthday nails as well. And remember, keeeeeep dancing!

Products used: Pink - Barry M

                       Purple - 2True

                       Iridescent white - Avon Nailwear Pro (Star)

                       Glitter - Barry M

                       Rhinestones - eBay

Pool Balls for Edinburgh

 I have a tradition of having relatively simple, but eye-catching nails for my annual visit to Edinburgh. Last year it was Cheshire Cats. This year I went with my mum's suggestion of pool balls. They're numerically accurate as well, my mum would settle for nothing less.

This is the left hand. I prefer the mix of colours on this hand, but I couldn't do a pool ball design without the 8 ball. There'd be chaos.

Products used: Black - Collection 2000 (Liquorice)
                       White - Barry M
                       Green - Barry M
                       Blue - Barry M
                       Purple - Barry M
                       Yellow - Barry M
                       Red - 17
                       Orange - Collection 2000 Hot Looks (Hip Hop)
                       Thin tipped black - Rio Nail Art Polish

More Christmas Nails

My other Christmas design suffered some damage while moving so I did another one. Prezzies! What's not to love? The original present design was inspired by Wah-nails.

 I put stars on the ring fingers and thumbs to add yet more sparkle.

Products used: Gold - Avon (Gold Foil)
                       Red - Rio Nail Art Polish
                       Dark Red - No.7

Autumn Nails

After I'd moved in to my new house at uni, I had a week before term started, and therefore a bunch of time to do my nails. I decided on a autumnal theme with rhinestones. Rhinestones because I can.

 It's kind of difficult to properly see the finished effect of these. There was more orange than it looks like here, but you get the jist.

Products used: Yellow - Barry M
                       Orange - Collection 2000 Hot Looks (Hip Hop)
                       Red - MAC (Rougemarie)
                       Brown - Me Me Me (Amythyst)
                       Black - Rio Nail Art Polish

Experiments with Rhinestones and the like

I found all manners of glittery things and decided to shove them on my nails. Here are a few of the results.The Orange Flower look is inspired by a design on my.coolnailsart but I can't remember who.

 Very simple blue with sparkles.

 Sorry for the bad lighting of this photo. This is my most recent nail design (I still have it). In real life, it's covered in a glittery top coat.

Products used: Orange flower: Orange - 2True (No. 15)
                                               Black - Rio Nail Art Polish
                                               Green - Rio Nail Art Polish
                                               Silver - Rio Nail Art Polish
                        Blue sparkle: Blue - Collection 2000 (Electric Punk)
                        Purple glittery: Dark purple - 2True (No. 13)
                                               Lighter purple - Rio Nail Art Polish
                                               Silver - Bichun (No. 6888)
                                               Glitter - Barry M

Poddington Peas

I did Poddington Peas nails! I'm pretty proud of these ones. As you can see, my hand is bandaged up there so I could only do the one hand. The peas are thumb: Dum-pea; and from the left: Sweet pea, Grump-pea, Zip-pea, and Black eyed pea.

I mixed the greens together to get more shades.
Products used: Blue - Barry M
                       Lightest green (Dump-pea) - Collection 2000 Hot Looks (Mint Mojo)
                       Light metallic green (Zip-pea) - Avon (Limeade)
                       Dark metallic green (Black eyed pea) - Barry M
                       Yellow (Sweet pea's hair) - Barry M
                       Light metallic brown (pastry) - 17 (Toasted Almond)
                       Pink (Sweet pea's bow) - 17 Vintage (Flare)
                       Red (pie filling & Zip-pea's hat) - 2True (No. 24)
                       Black - Rio Nail Art Polish
                       White - Rio Nail Art Polish

Comedy Festival Nails

I did my nails especially for my trip to Edinburgh in August. This is what I came up with; Cheshire Cat!

 There is the possibility that I got 2 new purple polishes and wanted to use them.

Products used: Pale yellow - 17 (Sherbet Lemon)
                       Darker yellow (eyes) - Barry M
                       Pink (ears & nose) - 17 Vintage (Flare)
                       Lightest purple - Avon (Lavender)
                       Mid purple - Collection 2000 Hot Looks (BMX Bandit)
                       Darkest purple - Barry M
                       Black - Rio Nail Art Polish
                       White - Rio Nail Art Polish

POW!

I wanted a bright and colourful design for my summer holiday (to Bristol, but a holiday's a holiday), so I did a rainbow version of Wah Nails' "Pow" design. There are also 2 fairly obscure references in there, 5 points to anyone who can guess them.

 Close up of my left hand...

 And a decidedly blurry not-really-close up of my right hand.

Products used: Yellow - Barry M
                       Orange - Collection 200 Hot Looks (Hip Hop)
                       Red - Nails Inc. (Victoria & Albert)
                       Blue - Barry M
                       Green - Barry M
                       White - Collection 2000 (French White)
                       Black - Rio Nail Art Polish

Mum's Strawberries

My Mum has never had her nails done before, so I decided to give them a makeover. I did this over the summer, so they're strawberries in honour of Wimbledon.

 And a (slightly burry) close up of a strawberry finger.

Products used: Red -Nails Inc. (Victoria & Albert)
                       Green - Rio Nail Art Polish
                       Yellow - Rio Nail Art Polish

Lucy's Manicure

My friend Lucy introduced me to Wah Nails (an incredible salon, their designs are the best) and in return I gave her a manicure with two designs inspired by the wonderful Wah. 

The first is Bumble Bees.

 And the second is Cookie Monsters, which is one of my favourite designs. Sorry about the poor lighting.

So thanks to Lucy and to Wah Nails for these.

My entries into 3TanjaJ3's Contest

A while ago now, 3TanjaJ3 held a vacation themed nail art contest on YouTube. These were my entries. Tutorials are available for each design, just search for my user name; mohnblume11 or click the links before each picture.

The first is an eiffel tower at night design. (Video)

 The second design is a palm tree silhouetted against a sunset. (Video)

 The third is ice cream. There's always room for ice cream. (Video)

 The final design is a fruit salad and it's kind of almost 3D. (Video)

So yeah, those are my vacation themed nails. Now very out of season, but there you are.