Hello there my lovelies,

Here's my first Valentine's Day look for this year. Considering I'd never a Valentine's look before (I know! Shock horror!) I thought this one came together quite well.

These nails all came about after seeing this picture on instagram and I fell in love with the pink and red leopard print. It (thankfully) gave me the inspiration I was lacking for my Valentine's Day mani.

However, I did my right hand first, as per usual, and added the pink dots, but then wasn't sure whether I liked them or not, so I left them off when I did my other hand. Even now, and I've been wearing them for close to two days, I still don't know which hand I like better. So I thought I'd post both and ask you for your opinion. What do you think? Which hand do you think is better?

Australia Day Nail Art

H lovelies,

So, it's the 26th, and that means it is Australia Day down here! It also means that I'm away for the long weekend and so if you're reading this, it also means I actually figured out how to schedule posts! So, I thought that I'd better do some appropriately patriotic nails for you (and we'll ignore the fact that I actually did these three days in advance) and instead we'll concentrate on how obnoxiously Australian these are...

Actually, in all honesty, they are not as obnoxious as I first thought they were going to be. Although, they are quite bad. I think it's all the yellow. Yellow is just not my colour, in any shape, shade or form and there is a reason why I only own one yellow nail polish out of my collection of about 120. And I only own this one because I need it for nail art.

That yellow is also much brighter in real life and the green is also more rich. It's slightly less yellow than it appears in these pictures.

Coming up with a design for Australian nails that was not only obviously Australian but also straight forward, easy and quick and did not involve the flag was a lot harder than I expected. I did the flags last year, so I wanted to do something different this time (please excuse the super horrific set of acrylics I'm sporting in that post as I'd just started my nail course and they were the second or third set I'd done). 

For these, I used,

Bright Lights by BYS (yellow)

Snow Me White by Sinful Colors (white)

Black Out by Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear (black)

Shade 17 by BC Company (green)

It was all topped off with a coat of Poshe's Super Fast Drying Top Coat.

To be honest, I don't actually celebrate Australia Day much. I normally go down to the beach with my family and have brunch, but that's the extent of my patriotism. I'm proud to be Australian, but not enough to take all the Aussie paraphernalia seriously (although I take part in some ironically, such as the nails) but I have fun anyway.

Hope all you Aussie's out there have a great day!

Beach Deck Chair Summer Nail Art

Hi everyone,

My nails today are definitely one of my favourites that I've done this year. In fact, I think they are my favourites. Which is kind of surprising considering they are a very simple design and involve a fairly pale pink, which I don't generally like very much at all. But, I do love them anyway. And something about them reminds me of summery deck chairs, hence the name. 

I have been all into the matte designs recently, especially mattifying neons and whites. I don't what it is about a matte white, but I really love it. It always looks so crisp and clean and sophisticated. I am also loving my nail shape at the moment. I've always nails that hover between squoval and oval and if you had asked me 3 months ago, I would have told you that I never would change from that shape. But.... I had been admiring the gorgeous nails of @paintedcandynails, @secretjewelgarden and @decorateddigits on instagram and decided to take the plunge and drastically alter the shape of my nails. And I love it! 

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)

My Holy Grail Nail Products

Hi everyone!

I was talking to one of my friends recently and they were asking me for advice and tips on nail care and nail art and stuff and I realised I hadn't ever put together a nail care post or written properly on my favourite products for my nails. So here's a list of my nail products that have my it to holy grail status for me, and why they have achieved this highly acclaimed status.

Lush Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter
This is a pretty legendary and well-known cuticle cream throughout the nail blogger world and it's pretty easy to see why. It's thick, nourishing and easy absorbed and moisturises better than any other I've tried. While I know many people, including all of my family, love it's sharp, lemony smell, I have to admit it took a while to grow on me. I hated it when I first bought it (I only bought it because I'd hearing non-stop about it's greatness for ages and thought I had better give it a go) but I've been using it for about a year and I do quite like the smell now. It does have a tendency to melt in the heat (so don't accidentally put it in your beach bag) and when it does melt, it acquires these grainy granules in it. Some people really dislike these, but I like them and the little bit of exfoliation they provide. Anyway, I live in Australia, so it's not like I can keep it under 30 degrees all the time!

It is a little pricey (in my cheap-sake opinion) at AUD$16.50 for a 50g pot, but it really lasts! I've been using mine daily for about a year now and it's not even half empty yet. Purchase it instore at Lush or online.

Inspired By: Avengers Assemble - Thor

Hi lovelies,

So I've been making a good head start on my New Year's resolutions and done another member of the Avengers as part of my Avengers Assemble series. Today, we have Thor, Norse God of Thunder...

While I was pretty happy with them overall, and very happy with some elements, I do think it could have been done a lot better. I was really quite proud of my lightning bolts and I reckon I've improved since I last tried them. It was just a pity that the pink bled through into the white when I applied my top coat...

Because these aren't the most straightforward 'Inspired By' nails I've done, here's a little run down on what each nail is meant to be.

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 Tree Nail Art

Hi lovelies,

So, it's December and I think it's high time that I start cracking out the Christmas nail art, don't you. Actually, to be honest, I did these in the last week of November, but that was mostly because that's when my goodies from Powder Perfect came in and I was super excited to use them.

Anyway, I kept my first Christmas design of the year pretty simple and purely by coincidence, the same theme as my first design last year - Christmas trees!

I do apologise for the slightly inconsistent lighting in these photos - I found this polish really hard to photograph and my camera was really fighting me that day...

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. 

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. :)

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.

Nail Art Inspired By: Avengers Assemble - Captain America

Hi lovelies,

So, I disappeared again.... The reason this time is even sillier than normal (and it's a little sad that I have a 'usual' reason for my occasional and completely unexplained absences but let's move on). Basically, I got stuck writing one post and so just hid from it. Which also included hiding from every other potential post I could have written in the meantime, while I struggled with this particular post.

Anyway, today I thought I'd post one of my favourite nail designs that I've done in a long time. This is my second contribution to my Avengers Assemble collection and yes, I am going to do all of them and no, I have no clue what I'm going to do for some of them (Hulk? Hawkeye?).

Luckily, the Captain was actually fairly easy to translate into nail art, thanks to the simple design of his shield and uniform and I am really proud of them.

Then and Now: Galaxy Nails

Today's nails are galaxy nails because they are beautiful! And look stunning and way harder than they actually are. And it's pretty easy to get both hands looking the same because it's just sponging bits of polish on in random places. :)

Glitter-Placement Nails - Or, I Like All The Sparkles On My Nails

Hi lovelies,

Guess what???

I tried glitter placement nails!

And they didn't suck too badly. :)

And that's a win in my book.

Pretty much, they are all the sparkly. Thankfully, I actually thought ahead before starting these and decided not to do 10 glitter placement nails first up because that was going to be a recipe for disaster! So I stuck with 3 and some little bits of glitter placement. :)

Indie Go Leopard Nails

Hi lovelies,

As I mentioned in my July Monthly Favourites, I have gotten a lot of ILNP polishes recently and I love them sooo much. I also been trying to incorperate them into my nail art as well, which is surprisingly hard! All of the ones I got are really holographic or amazing multichromes, which, while they are absolutely amazing, are really hard to incorporate into nail art without it looking silly or totally over powering the rest of the design. The fact that I've been quite sick recently hasn't actually helped much either...

But, I've finally think I'm making a breakthrough here. I'm actually really happy with this design and it's sooo nice to have some proper nail art on my nails again! (as much as I love my nail art, when I'm very sick and feeling gross it's not really on my high priority list)

Without flash

Nail Art Inspired By: Fifa World Cup

Hi everyone!

So, who’s excited for the world cup final??

Actually, if I am completely honest, I’m not that excited. I’ll watch the soccer while it’s on, but I’m not a massive fan. However, my sister and dad are quite into it and so I keep up with the scores and the goss and as a result, have been quite sucked into the world cup this time round. :)

But, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to do some appropriately themed world cup nails, could I? However, because I had done my nails only a day before, I was not taking them off, so it's a good thing my mum was happy to have some soccer themed nails. :)

I was actually really proud of them! Especially the Argentinian flag. I honestly thought that was going to be a flop, but it turned out much better than I expected. I don't actually think it's recognisable as the Argentinian flag by itself, but with the soccer balls and German flag, I'm hoping/assuming people will get the gist. :)

Pastel Glam Nails

Okay, so maybe that title sounds a little contradictory, but I honestly didn't know what else to call them! They have sparkles and jewels but also pastel colours? I think they can be called pastel glam and since it's my blog, I'm gonna call them that. :)

I was really happy with these as it actually gave me a chance to use a polish I won from Jindie Nails and that I love to bits, but find it difficult to wear. It's called Candyland and while it's super different to anything that I would normally wear, I really like it. However, it is a milky glitter and I find them very hard to use. I also have to do a lot of fishing to get a good amount of glitter out...

So, as a rather impatient person, I do not the whole process of white base + thick/multiple coats + fishing that is required to use this polish, especially when applied to all ten fingers! But then, if I don't apply it to all ten fingers, what do I match such a unique and interesting polish with?? Ergh! What a dilemma!