Hey There, Sailor!

Hiii everyone!

I have a quick nautical design to show you today! From the vaults, as my nails are still restoring from weeks of maltreatment due to the exams. (you see, exams are good for nothing lol)

Shimmer Polish - Tracy

*Disclaimer: this item was provided for review. All opinions are my own and are not influenced by anyone or anything.

It's Shimmer time again!!

When my first batch of Shimmer Polishes were all swatched and reviewed, (you can click here for a recap) I was very lucky to receive some more! I'll be showing you these glitter bombs in the coming months, and I'm starting with Tracy!

Born Pretty Store Review - Black Nail Art Pen

*Disclaimer: this item was received for review. All opinions stated are my own and are not influenced by anyone or anything.

Hi everyone!

For my first post of 2015 I have a Born Pretty Store review for you all.

I got a black nail art pen to review - now, what did I think of it? ;)

Let's go Monochrome!

Hi everyone!

Today's design is inspired by the gorgeous monochrome nails Galorious did a few months ago - you can find them here. I loved the design on her pointer finger and pinky so much that I decided to recreate it :)

I also did a monochrome design with black and white, and added some gold studs like Galorious did.

The colours I used are:
Alpine Snow - OPI
Tweedy - Sally Hansen (Fuzzy Coat)
Black on Black - Sinful Colors

I actually made two versions of this design: one with Sally Hansen's Fuzzy Coat, and another one with just black nails. I'm still not sure which version works best - maybe the version with the plain black nails is a bit too harsh in contrast with the white? But on the other hand, maybe the Fuzzy Coat distracts from the nice simplicity of the design?

Which version do you prefer? I really adore these, I love the simplicity and class of these nails :)

Then a formal announcement to finish this blogpost: in the coming weeks, I will have to concentrate on school a lot. I have a lot of papers due and an exam I have to prepare for, so I will probably blog a little bit less or still blog but with simpler designs or swatches :) Just wanted to let you know! But after that, I have a really really cool review for you about which I'm suuuper excited! So stay tuned ;)

Thanks for reading!

Monochrome Geometric with a Splash of Purple

Hi everyone!

Today I have a this geometric design for you, along with a little secret about me!

I'm going to start by telling you my secret: I love socks. Yes, socks. Socks are amazing. But not just any socks - I love socks with weird or eye-catching patterns, with funny animals of fruit on them. I own a lot of socks, all of which are wonderful and a bit weird - I have socks with owls, with hedgehogs, with pugs listening to a walkman, and so on.

Hehe, okay, I'm not sure if loving weird socks is a bit crazy or if there are a lot of people that like funny socks - do you like them?

Now, why did I tell you that, you might think. And maybe you might have guessed it already: today's design was inspired by my new socks! I bought a bunch of socks a few days ago and one of them has this lovely geometric pattern on it - it's absolutely gorgeous!

Fun fun! When I saw it, I not only definitely wanted to buy these socks, but I also immediately knew I wanted to make this design into nail art.

The colours I used here are: 

Black on Black - Sinful Colors

Alpine Snow - OPI

Ate Berries in the Canaries - OPI

At first I thought to do the geometric pattern on all of my nails, but I quickly decided that sometimes, less is more! Plus less work, haha.

I started out by painting my pointer finger and little finger with three coats of Alpine Snow.

I also painted on two coats of Ate Berries in the Canaries on the rest of my nails. When that had dried, I painted two coats of Alpine Snow on my middle finger, but not starting at my cuticles of course, because I wanted to leave a spot of purple visible.

Then I added some triangle studs to my pointer and ring finger and voila!

I then started to do the geometric pattern: now I haven't copied the pattern exactly the way it is - on the socks, the black lines and triangles sort of meet, but I kept it a bit simpler. I just painted on the triangles, added some "teeth" to some of them, and coloured the other ones in with black.

The geometric design isn't as neat as I wanted it to be - I mean, some of the lines aren't very straight and the triangles aren't all the same size - but for my first attempt at this design, I'm very satisfied!

Plus I got compliments about these nails in real life - I mean, like someone from my class noticed my nails. I always think it's so fun when people in real life notice my nails - it's only normal that everyone here notices them because I put up extra large pictures of them on my blog :D And although in real life I'm often positioning my hands a certain way so people can see my nails (do you guys do that too?) it's always lovely when people notice them :)

And to finish, I have some more lovely pictures for you:

Are you a fan of funky socks? And do you like this design? I'm very proud of myself for keeping it so simple - sometimes I overdo a design and it becomes a bit too much, but this time I really kept it clean!

Thanks for reading! :)

Classic Leopard Print With a Twist

Hello all you fierce tigers! Or leopards, to be more in theme with today's post!

If you've followed me for a while on here, then you know I'm a sucker for leopard print. Funnily enough, I actually don't own any clothes with leopard print on them - maybe I'm overcompensating for that on my nails haha.

Today's design is the classic leopard print, but with a twist to it!

The colours I used for this design are:
Goldbusters - Catrice
Black on Black - Sinful Colors
Chocolate Chips - Only You
African Queen - Only You

I started out by painting my nails gold with Goldbusters (awesome name by the way - I always love it when a polish has a name that refers to popular culture). This golden polish is a bit more yellow than the previous one I had (Goldfinger by Catrice) and I like my old one better - I'm just not a big fan of yellow. But gold is gold I presume, so on with the design!

I then created the brown leopard spots by mixing my two brown polishes together (because the one is too light for the spots and the other one's colour is too dark) and using a dotting tool to make the uneven spots. Then I did the outline with black polish and a small brush.

I felt something was missing in this design (I think it felt a bit off because my gold polish was more yellow than the previous one and it just looked different to me) so I made black strokes.

Awkward thumb shot to show off that poor forgotten finger as well for once

I used some striping tape to get clean lines, and did an accent on my ring finger. I  first placed the studs on my nails (but without sticking it on) so I could place my striping tape just next to it, in order to get the right width of the black strokes. Does that explanation make sense? It's hard to explain it properly in English, but I hope it's clear.

I took the studs off again to paint the black strokes, took the striping tape off, and then I put the golden studs on again and sealed them in with a royal amount of top coat.

Now to be honest, I'm not 100% pleased with this design. I'm not sure why though. Maybe it's the yellow golden polish, or maybe the black strokes with studs don't really work here. I did get some compliments about my nails today, so other people seem to like it a lot, and it really did grow on my during the day. Maybe I'm just being too critical of myself :)

What do you think of this design? Raauwtch or aauwtch? (haha see that I made a leopard pun thing - I'm so funny)

Thanks for reading!