Hi lovelies,

These nails are ones I did a couple of weeks ago, when I was still working out the kinks in my new photography set-up and so the photos are a little off. But, I did really like this design, so I'm still going to post it. It's also my first attempt at a negative space nail art design and I thought it was important to record that. On a side note, check out this branching out in new techniques - first my half moon mani and now negative space and half moons together!

I also couldn't decide whether I liked it better glossy or matte, so I thought I'd post both. What do you think? I think having it matte makes the lines and the overall design look crisper and neater, but there is a reason why glossy nail polish is so well-loved..

Pop Art Half Moon Nail Art

Hi everyone,

I've been on a massive matte design craze recently and this is the first of probably many matte designs that you'll see around here in the near future. I think this was my first attempt at doing a half moon mani, despite it being one of the most popular nail art designs in existence.

I think they turned out all right, although I definitely think I need to either work on my free-handed curves or invest in those little sticky hole things that most nail artists use (although using the sticky things seems far easier and less time-consuming, to be honest). I did love my choice of colours - I always think of pop art when I look at them, with the rich blue and the contrasting orange/pink.

Lightning Nail Art Tutorial

Hi lovelies,

As a sort of follow on to my Thor inspired nail art, I thought I would make another tutorial for the lightning nails I did in that design, especially since I've had such a great response to my dream-catcher tutorial.

Also, lightning nails look heaps cool and like galaxy nails, are deceptively easy. So here's my little pictorial for them, and I have to say, I think this is better than my last one. At least I managed to stay on track with this one and I didn't forget that I was meant to be taking photos once! I'm so very proud. I also got my lightbox re-set-up and got myself a good lamp and my photography is (dare I say it) looking to be on the way up!

For this tutorial, you are going to need:

Black polish (I used Black Out by Sally Hansen)

Greenish/blueish polish (I used Sweet Pea by Australis)

Fuchsia polish (I used an unnamed fuchsia by Urban Colours)

Light blue polish (I used Shade 12 by BC Company)

White polish (I used Snow Me White by Sinful Colors)

A top coat (I used Super Fast Drying Top Coat by Poshe)

Fine nail art brush

Sponge (I used a regular make-up sponge that I found in my local $2 shop)

Geometric Chevron Holo Nail Art

Hello there!

As you can probably tell by the title for this post, I don't really know how to describe these nails... But I like them anyway.

In the shade

In the shade

I basically just wanted to use MEGA by ILNP. In the shade and inside it doesn't really look like much, but when you take it outside that it really comes to life. It does sparkle a little inside, but it's very subtle and not all that noticeable. But in the sunlight in really, truly glows.

Dreamcatcher Nail Art +Tutorial!

Hi everyone!

So I have some more new nails for you today and also, a tutorial! Well, technically, it's a pictorial. I have only just got my photography sort of where I want it so I think it will still be quite a while until I start filming tutorials (if I ever go down that route). I would like to, but I don't know what sort of time I'm going to have next year because I'm starting uni and I know filming and editing take quite a bit of time...

Anyway, back to the nails. These have been sitting around in my 'To post' folder since the middle of November, and I haven't had chance to post them until now. I'm pretty excited to post this, as I feel it's my first real nail art tutorial because all the little pictures are together in one image, as opposed to these galaxy ones and this tape manicure, both of which I did all the way back in 2013.

Also, putting this pictorial together actually took less time than I expected, which makes me more likely to do more of them and also makes me feel so accomplished! :)

So I've been seeing a lot of dream catcher nail art around recently and thought that I'd also try my hand at it. Surprisingly, it was much easier than I thought they were going to be, which is always a plus in my book!

However, if you are wondering why it seems like the pictorial seems to jump a couple of steps/changes focus in steps 1, 2 and 3 it's because I kept forgetting I was meant to be taking pictures of every step.... (I think I need more practice)

Gold Glitter Gradient and Christmas Tree Nail Art

Hi lovelies,

Today I'm back to red for my Christmas nail art, as well as Christmas trees. I'm feeling a little repetitive this year...

I was pretty happy with how these turned out, although I think I need to work on my glitter gradients a bit. I used just regular craft glitter for this and I have to admit I was a little stumped on how to put it in a gradient. But after a little trial and error, I discovered the best way was just to apply the red polish as normal and when it had dried to a tacky stage, just press the glitter on with my fingers. Of course, this method did mean placement and gradient was left a lot to chance and luck!

Penguins and Snowflake Nail Art AKA Traditional Winter Nail Design

Hi lovelies,

After my last Christmas nail design, I am quite happy to be able to tell you that I like how these pictures turned out. It's actually quite frustrating to me how my photography and photo taking skills seem to be fluctuating so much recently... Never mind, that is a problem for another day. Although actually, today's nail's were also a truly frustrating and irritating endeavour and to be honest, if the photos had come out as bad as the holly ones, I wouldn't have bothered editing and posting them. I was so over them.

Although - how cute are these guys??

First of all, I thought my blue background was going to be too dark, so I did a test run with two different blues on paper first. All was good and I did one hand in that colour. Then I started on the penguins. Now, normally when I do my nails I do all of them at once, through different stages, rather than completing one whole nail before moving on to the next one. However, if I'm not sure how well my design is going to transfer from my head on to my nail, I'll do one whole nail first to seen how it goes. But I was totally confident in my ability to paint penguins.

So I did their little white bodies and then the little black insides and the white eyes and then I was like, hold on a minute. Something looks wrong. A quick google of penguins then proved that yes, I was wrong and they actually have black bodies with white insides (tummys? I dunno what to call it). So I had to redo that entire hand (which was my right hand, because I always do my right hand first and let me tell you that my left hand was not thanking me for that).

Christmas Presents Nail Art

Hi there everyone!

So, I'm a little behind schedule on my Christmas nail art designs for this year, so here's my second one. I had hoped to have many more by this time but then I made the decision to completely overhaul my blog's look and layout and name and everything in December. Nice work Dani. (I probably should have thought about how busy that decision was going to make me before I started). Oh well, live and learn.

To be honest, I'm not that enamoured with these nails. I did them late at night, when I was very sleepy and wanted to go to bed but wanted to have polish on my nails more.

Gold and Silver Leopard Print

Why hello to you all

Today's design is a simple, but lovely one (in my opinion anyway). However, I couldn't quite manage to capture it on camera very well and so unfortunately it looks a bit sub par in my photos...

Then and Now: Biology DNA Nail Art

Hello there everyone!

Today's post is going to be super photo heavy, so be prepared! :) Back in July of 2013, when I first started getting into nail art, I did a set of DNA/biology/cell inspired nails and by the time I got around to photographing them they were kind of chipped and so I never ended up posting them. But I found these pictures the other day and thought that I'd redo them to see how my skills had improved, especially since they were the first set of nails that really relied on my painting/freehand skills. I had done galaxy nails, tape mani's and gradients before, but nothing like this. I remember being so proud of them when I finished! :) But lets have a look at them, shall we?

My first attempt

To be honest, as a first attempt for something like this, they aren't too bad. They are definitely not great, but they could be a lot worse. Also, the original pictures hadn't even been edited, so all the editing I've done just now, which is why they have my current watermark on.

Okay, now you've seen the originals, lets have a look at the ones I've just done.

As you can hopefully see, I have improved quite a bit in a year and a bit. My clean up is better (although to be honest, that is something I still have to work on because I can never really be bothered doing clean-up), my lines are much crisper and I was able to get so more detail onto my thumb nail! My photography has also improved and my overall nail shape is better as well. In the before photo my index fingernail is really short and round and it took me ages to get it into a more squoval shape so that it matched the rest of my nails. 

Inspired By: Avengers Assemble - Iron Man

Hi lovelies!

So, does anyone remember that series I begun/challenge I set myself to do nail art based on all of the Avengers? If you don't, that's totally cool because my last ones were all the way back in September. But, I decided I actually needed to complete them and so here are my latest ones!

When I first did these, I was really, really, super proud of them. I thought they were a great concept, nicely designed, within my capabilities and they executed well too. However, so far, only about 3ish have guessed who these nails are based off of. In the past 3 days. I have to admit, I lost a bit of faith in my abilities because of that... Most seem to think they're based on a woman and even when I narrow it down to a character, in a movie, that I really like, they still didn't get it. Lots also thought they were Christmas themed nails.

ILNP Holographic Bird Nail Art

Hi there everyone,

Unfortunately, I don't actually have holographic birds to show you today, contrary to my post title. Instead, I have a holographic gradient of ILNP polishes with plain old black birds. I know, boring right? :)

Inside (natural light)

Inside (natural light)

Panda Nail Art

Hi lovelies,

Today's nails are old ones, but I quite like them. In my mind, they were a lot better than they eventually turned out, but most of that was not actually my fault.

My little pandas ears and eyes are a little dodgy, but the black I was using was very old and very thick and kept leaving little strings of polish and was altogether very unsatisfactory to use. Thankfully, I have long since gotten a new bottle. Also, my green background tinted my top coat and turned all lovely white pandas a bit green.....

I generally try to do my nails mid-morning so that I can use natural light to photograph them with or I do them in the evening and then wait till the next morning to photograph them. These I ended up doing mid to late afternoon, I think, and then for some reason decided to photograph them then, judging by the light quality and background (that I have cropped out). Why I did that I don't know, because it meant I ended up with only three usable photos and all of them look practically identical!

Nail Art Inspired By: Jeans

Hi lovelies,

So, I've got another Inspired By post for you today, one that I've been meaning to do for aaaaages and have been sitting around in my un-posted file for almost as long! These nails were inspired by a pair of jeans that I own and ever since I bought them I've been meaning to do a nail design based on these.

I did buy these jeans about a year ago, so it did take me a while to get round to it, but hey, I did it eventually! To be honest, mostly I was putting these off because I didn't feel my skills were up to doing it justice, but then I figured that I could do them now and then even if they were a bit crap, at least I had tried and done some practise and I could always revisit them later. :)

Pumpkin Halloween Nail Art

Hi lovelies,

So, I was meant to have two more sets of nails up in this time, but unfortunately I was a bit sick over the weekend, so no nails...

But, since these are my (probable) second last set of Halloween nails, I definitely reached the goal I set for myself of doing at least 5 sets of Halloween nails. All up, I feel it has been a much better effort than last year!

However, it would have been nice to have had a slightly better set of nails to show you as my second last set. I had hoped my Halloween nails would have gotten better over the month, but alas, no. I can't quite decide whether they are worse than my witch nails or not.

Black Cat Halloween Nail Art

Hi lovelies,

Today's nails are not quite as Halloween-y as others have been, but I feel that it's enough to warrant lumping them in with the rest of my Halloween nails. :)

I'm back to black and white again (what is with Halloween? Why is there so much black and white??). I was really happy with the way these turned out - I feel that they really show off my improved freehand skills. :) Also, a major bonus is that only one person didn't know they were cats. And that person is the same sister that thought these were Shaun the Sheep so she doesn't really count, as least in my book :)

Halloween Blood Splatter Nail Art

Hi lovelies,

So, guess what? I've got more Halloween themed nails for you today. Yay! These ones are some gruesome blood splattered ones, which I am rather proud of. I've seen a lot of this style around recently and thought I'd give it a go. To be honest, from the pictures I'd seen, I wasn't that enamoured with the concept, nor the final look, but I thought that I'd give it a go as it did fit in with my Halloween theme and it didn't look too hard nor time consuming. However, when I had finished them, I completely changed my mind - they look amazing! I couldn't stop staring at them all afternoon.

Also, I took a lot of pictures. Just to warn you. :)

Originally I had planned to put a Devil's Trap over my ring finger as a tribute to the Devil/Satan/Hell aspect of Halloween (and to slip in a reference to Supernatural..) but once I'd done all my splattering, I felt like adding any more would just over-crowd the design. So, alas, that will have to wait until another design (although I have used a Devil's Trap in an old design). Also, once I'd done all my splattering, I was both so happy with the final look and so horrified by the amount of clean up that I was going to have to do that I couldn't bear the thought of doing any more to the design.

Silhouetted Skyline Halloween Nail Art

Hi lovelies,

So, I'm not really sure what to call these. Lots of people keep thinking its a graveyard scene, but I didn't really plan it to be a graveyard and anyway, I've already got plans for graveyard nails. :) For a lack of any other description, they are just going to have to stay as 'Silhouetted Skyline' nails.

Halloween Witch Nail Art

Hi everyone,

So, I do apologise for the pretty horrific quality of these pictures. I have no idea what my camera was doing and I had to go to work pretty soon after I did these and they got pretty ruined so I didn't get chance to re-take any photos.

Under normal circumstances I wouldn't post these because the quality is just so awful, but I did challenge myself to do as many Halloween nail designs as I could and I didn't want to have to discard a decent design because of the dodgy photos. It's not just the quality either, my poses are pretty weird as well - I have no clue why!