Hi lovelies,

I'm sorry I haven't been around recently, but as I mentioned briefly in my last post, I've just started uni and these past couple of weeks have been a bit of a blur of organisation, finding my way around, buying books and getting lost on campus. Also, my workload is way more than I was expecting so I don't know how well I'm going to be able to manage uni, my job and running this blog. But never fear, there is no way I'm going to be leaving this blog. Although, I think I may have to revisit my New Years resolution about publishing at least 8 posts a month because obviously, I didn't manage that last month!

But, enough blathering on my part! On to today's nails!

I have obviously been on a massive mermaid appreciation phase lately, as both my my last mani's here have been mermaid themed ones! But what can I say? My mermaid style has exponentially increased since I dyed my hair blue and my new blue and iridescent purple lipsticks have arrived and I'm loving it all.

Although, the only problem is that while I got lots of great pictures of my gorgeous gradient base, I only got one usable picture of my finished look, which kind of sucks. But, never mind, I loved this look way too much to let that deter me from posting this design!

Teal Mermaid Nails

Hi everyone,

So, you'll be glad to know that I'm back to slightly erratic posts again after a brief stint at actual consistent posting. However, I'm quite proud that at least while things have been a little erratic, at least there have been no extended, unexplained absences.

I've just been feeling a bit stressed out and anxious recently due to the fact that I'm starting uni next week and I've been really tired all this week so all has compounded to me not really having much motivation. Although, it hasn't yet got to the the 'hiding out in my room doing nothing but reading Avengers fanfiction' stage so I'm by my standards, I'm managing all right.

Basically it was only because I really loved this design that I ever managed to photograph it and get it up.

If you're following me on instagram, you'll know I recently suffered a really bad nail break and had to chop off my baby claws, which was a sad time all around and explains the suddenly shorter and rounder nails.

As much as I loved my longer nails, I do feel (after an acceptable grieving period, of course), that it probably was time for me to have a change and cut them shorter again. They are feeling a lot healthier and I was able to cut off all the stained and peeling bits so they look super duper healthy. Yay!

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! 

New Years Nail Art + Year in Review

Hi everyone!

So it really is the last day of 2014, which is pretty cool but also pretty crazy. I know that nearly everybody says this, but honestly, if you had told me last year that I would be here right now, I, well, I probably wouldn't have laughed in your face, but I would have at least given you a nervous laugh and found some excuse to leave the conversation immediately.

I loved 2014. I really did. Some bits got a little sucky and I had a rough patch over the middle, but I still loved it. I feel I have accomplished a lot over this year, more so than usual. Mentally, I progressed from being 'in recovery' from my eating disorder to being 'in remission' - which is an amazing accomplishment and I also have come a lot more to terms with my medication and have also developed a much better self help plan for when I do start spiralling downwards (read more about that here and here). In terms of my nails, I feel I have improved quite a bit from the first nail art I did this year to these and I've been particularly proud of some of my more recent ones, like my Tony Stark/Iron Man nails. My photography is still an on going struggle, but hey, nobody's perfect...

I'm proud of how much I've been learning about coding and stuff and I'm loving being able to understand more about how my blog is set up and customise more of it. I'm also really loving my instagram and having more motivation for blogging and stuff. I got qualified as a nail tech and also as a make-up artist and I'm training for my Cert III in childcare and I adore my job in out of school hours childcare.

Anyway, so these nails I am pretty happy with. Considering I was working on a limited time frame and I was also really tired from working all day, I thought these were a pretty good compromise. The fact that I was using such an amazing multichrome as a base also helps make these look 100x better.

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. 

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)

Red and Matte Leopard Print Nail Art

Sometimes I swear my post titles are just getting longer and longer and less and less interesting...

Oh well...

Today's nail art is another one that I did ages ago and that I just discovered in my un-posted file. I guess I need to check that folder more often.

Also, in case anybody hadn't already noticed the trend, a lot of my posts this month are old designs and posts that I hadn't quite gotten around to finishing. When I got back into blogging regularly at the beginning of last month, I actually got super organised and got myself a proper schedule and went though and finished or deleted all my old half-done posts, so this month is a lot of backlog of older stuff!

Anyway, I was really happy with the way this turned out. I love that red and the overall crisp look of the design. It's such a pity that looks like these aren't wearable for more than a day or two because the rhinestones keep chipping off.

I was heavily inspired by this manicure by lemmingspolish on Instagram and while it's not completely true to the original, I'm pretty happy with it. I feel it would have been much improved had it had flatter studs, like the original, as opposed to the rhinestones that I ended up using. But oh well, I didn't have any studs like that, so I guess I'll just have to buy some. :)

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.

Bows and Flowers Nail Art

Hi everyone!

These nails, along with my Captain America ones, are probably my favourite designs I've done in the last couple of months. Halfway through the creation of these I did feel that they were going to look too much like my Cath Kidston ones, but in the end they didn't, which was nice.

The flowers were created using brushes and I followed a tutorial by @sloteazzy on instagram. You should definitely check out her account - she does heaps of tutorials that are so easy to follow and look fabulous! And, while you're at it, come and follow me (@daniwilliams__) for nails, food, selfies and other excerpts from my life.

Also, the flowers are a lot less complicated than they look. :)

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. :)

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

What I Liked About July

Hi lovelies!

So we're at the end of another month and that means it's time for another round of my Monthly Favourites! Without further ado, here they are....

Source unknown

How To Train Your Dragon 2
Okay, technically this should have gone in the June Monthly Favourites, but it didn't and anyway, a month later and I'm still raving about. Wait, I went and saw it for the second time in July, so that totally makes it count. Right? Anyway, I'm sure you're thinking, 'Dani, it really isn't that great. Like, it's pretty good, but not at the level that you like it'. (It's also very true, I legitimately know 95% of the lines from the first movie, in order. I can recite entire scenes for you and I know large parts of the soundtrack off by heart) but I also don't care. I know it's illogical and irrational for me to love these movies as much as I do, but I love them anyway. They are among my favourite movies of all time, if not my absolute favourite.

I don't know why I love them as much as I do. But when I went to watch the second movie at the cinemas, I went in with a smile on my face and I smiled the whole movie, with the exception of the times I was crying. The characters are three dimensional and interesting, the relationships are interesting, visually, it's spectacular (especially in 3D) and somehow, they make me want to be a better person. They make me want to be as brave as Hiccup, as loyal as Toothless, as sure as Astrid, as funny as Gobber, as nerdy as Fishlegs and as tough as Stoick.


Jonsi
So I swear that not all of this post is going to be related to How To Train Your Dragon, just bits of it. :) I discovered Jonsi from the HTTYD soundtrack (he sings the end credit songs in both movies) but I've rapidly fallen in love with the rest of his work as well. I find a lot of his stuff to be just beautiful, in the lyrics, instrumentation and the melodies. I love the way he uses fairly unconventional instruments in his songs, like the bowed guitar, celesta, ukulele, kalimba and the glockenspiel. It gives a real haunting, magical sense to his music and I really like it. Strangely, some of his songs remind me of Owl City, but that could just be me being weird. :) Also, this song is beautiful and the fact that it's got clips from HTTYD just makes it better!!

Extremely Lovely Blue Nails With A Bit Of Gold

Hi lovelies,

Okay, weirdly enough it's been way longer since my last post than I thought, but oh well. Surely you guys know me well enough by now to now that my posting is erratic at the best of times.

So, these nails I just adore, pretty much because I love this blue to pieces. I picked it up on a whim but love it way more than is rational or logical. Oh well...

The pictures aren't quite true to life in that the blue is a little darker than these pictures show. It's too dark for an electric blue, but too light for a royal blue. It's quite close to ultramarine blue, but a little darker. Actually, matching shades is really fun! I probably be doing this for all my polish colours for a while. :)

As you can see, my winter photography is getting a little better, but it's still not as good as I'd like it to be.... Oh well, onward and upward. I'll just have to keep practicing.

Inspired By: Avenger Assemble - Black Widow

Hi lovelies,

So, I went on a bit of a nail painting spree over the last couple of days and did my nails a lot as well as plan out many other designs. These were probably my favourite ones, mostly for the reason that I've been planning to do some Avengers themed nails for ages.

These, in case you hadn't got it from the pictures or the post title, these were inspired by the Black Widow. In hindsight I probably should've started with an easier Avenger to translate into a nail design, but oh well. Actually, I did think about that before I started, but disregarded that nugget of my own advice. Pretty much because I just really love the Black Widow and Scarlett Johansson.

Peacock Nails

Hi lovelies,

These nails are beyond doubt one of my favourites I've done this year. They didn't quite go down as well as my Rainbow Butterflies (the photos of which were not that great and I haven't actually sorted through yet, so you might see them on here and you might not), but then again, they are a little more muted than a giant rainbow gradient across my fingernails. So, lets have a look, shall we?

Please excuse the less than great pictures, I desperately need to sort out my photography set up. Before I just went outside and took pictures in the sunlight because hey, it's Australia, and it was summer. And that means sun. Plentiful supplies of sun for pretty consistent pictures. But we've had lots of rain and clouds recently and now my garden looks like this.

What a lovely shot right? Would you look at that artistic angle? Maybe I should give up photography nails and instead just take regular photos? No? Fine... But I think I have potential talent. :P

I mean, don't get me wrong - I love the rain and I am totally happy with this rainy and colder weather at the moment, but unfortunately, it also highlights how much I need to get my photography stuff set up..... So, if any body has any suggestions, please let me know in the comments! I did have a home-made light box, but me mum accidentally put her hand through the top and broke it and I never had huge success with it so I never repaired it.

A Very Purple Dotticure

Hi lovelies,

In case you hadn't already figured out by now, I really like purple. I think it's a beautiful colour, it's really versatile and it looks great on me (which would explain my large amount of large toned clothes and accessories). So, when I realised I had bought a purple polish weeks ago and had never used it, I immediately set out to rectify the situation. Lilac Pastille is a Revlon polish and when I took it out to look at it, I realised why I hadn't used it - it's soooo pale! Really, really very pastel. And very not me. And with that in mind, I have literally no clue why I bought it. But now I was determined to use it. I pretty much figured that if I banked it up with some other purple, it couldn't be too bad, right?

And so, this was born.

I actually liked it a lot more than I thought I would and the kids a work loved it. I got lots of comments on how good it looked and many questions on where I got them done. Ahhhh.... That's the best question.... I love turning around and saying that I do them myself. It makes me feel so happy and proud inside. :)