Imagine | John Lennon inspired nail art!

Hey everybody! Long time no see, right?
Even though this is the first design you see up on this blog since my magnetic nail art from January, this is actually the 3rd I've done since then! I don't know why I never post to my blog right away - make sure to follow me on Instagram to see everything as soon as possible. I'll try to keep up with this blog a bit better in the future, but no promises!

Anyway, here's this week's design. I started off with some basic lettering on my 4 fingers, simply spelling out "imagine" - because I love the song and John Lennon in general. Then, I decided to go for something more intricate, I actually ended up attempting to paint John Lennon's face on my thumb. Needless to say, it's not perfect. It doesn't really look like him, but oh well. I'm still happy with the result.

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Colors used:
- white, black (+mixed for the greyscale portrait)
- JESSICA - Batty (sparkly black, used in the lettering)

31DC2017 - Day 22: Inspired by a song

We write our words on paper planes and ride 'em through the hurricanes. So remember when our memories fade, our love will never age, even after our planes touch down again.

Such a pretty song! The song I chose for today's prompt is Paper Planes by Alexander Jean. I always enjoy listening to it when it comes on and I just kind of love everything about it.

I chose to write out a part of the song and dang, that was hard. The lettering is tiny on these! I also use quite sheer polishes, so I had to go over the words multiple times - which made it more difficult. On the other nails, I painted a paper plane and its sparkly trail.

If I had had more time, I would have made the whole thing glow in the dark - but I'm already ridiculously late as it is.

Colors used:
- LOOK - street (medium grey base)
- essence - let's take an elfie (shimmery sparkly white)
- Catrice - Pink Love Affair (pink with blue shimmer)
- black, white

31DC2017 - Day 15: Delicate Print

So I got some pretty exciting nail mail today - the new Bornprettystore chameleon + holo powders! I applied these to my to middle fingers (what you see in the picture was my first ever time using them) and I really like how they turned out. I took some extra pictures to try and capture the multichrome shift.

For the 'delicate' part, I went for a lace-type pattern (originally created by Chalkboard Nails) on my ring and pinky finger but I couldn't capture it to save my life. I think you can imagine what it looks like.

Materials used:
- black
- BornPretty powder
- ILNP - Abundance

Magic Bakery ✨

I'm back again! Not for good, but temporarily at least.
Today, I have another really fun design to share with you. I called this "magic bakery", because this design glows in the dark! (I need a lot more glow in the dark stuff - I'm getting bored by the same 6 colors over again)

This was inspired by another trip to my favorite vegan bakery. Today, she's hosting another baker and their theme for the day is inspired by blooming flowers, among other things. So I thought I'd do another design dedicated to her! Check out my cupcake nail art if you haven't already! (I must really have a sweet tooth this year - this is my third candy-inspired design this year!)

I started out with the gradient over a white base - I believe this amplified the glow of the finished product! Then, I freehanded all the rest on top of it. I used a glow in the dark topcoat to make the plate and coffee cup glow, as well as the vase (which was actually supposed to be a white bucket, but it doesn't really look like it).

I also incorporated some (not very) hidden words on my ring finger and pinky. You can see them quite clearly in the picture, but I simply didn't have a closer match to the green I used.

Here are all the colors I used (and there are a lot - hope I didn't miss any!):

• Serum No. 5 - Krypton-Brite (neon green, glows in the dark)
• white
• essence - grey zone (light grey)
• LOOK - street (medium grey)
• black
• Serum No. 5 - Orange You Sunny (orange, glows in the dark)
• dance legend - Termo Trio 1 (purple thermal)
• Serum No. 5 - Indi-glo (sapphire blue, glows in the dark)
• Serum No. 5 - I Gleam In Pink (neon pink, glows in the dark)
• OPI - Skull and Glossbones (off-white/bone)
• China Glaze - Kalahari Kiss (sand)
• China Glaze - Mahogany Magic (chocolate brown)
• China Glaze - Drink Up Witches (neon green)
• China Glaze - Happy Go Lucky (yellow)

Hearts Don't Break Around Here | Ed Sheeran inspired (again!)

"Daisies, daisies, perched upon your forehead..."

I'm back again with another design inspired by Divide! This time, it's based on Hearts Don't Break Around Here, which might just be my favorite song off the album (at least right now).

As soon as I heard the lyrics above, I had a pretty clear idea of a design - which luckily worked out really well! I'm so happy with these!



I used waaaay too many colors painting the girl to list them all here, let me just say that. I mixed a lot of colors to create transition shades and stuff like that. It was a lot of fun though!

The base is China Glaze - It's My Turn. Stunning!
The lettering (and part of the girl's hair) was done with Revlon - Chocolate Truffle (the Parfumerie version - so my nails smelled like chocolate in the beginning!)
Flowers done with white and China Glaze - Happy Go Lucky

31DC2016 - Day 26: Inspired by a pattern

Not necessarily inspired by a well-known pattern or anything, but based on a picture I found through a quick google search. I wanted something 80s-esque and this is what I picked.

To be quite honest, I'm not sure if I like these or not - they look a bit like a children's birthday party kind of nail art. Maybe that's just me though.

I started off with a white base, then freehanded the zig zag curves with primary colors. I didn't go over them as many times as I probably should have, which probably contributes to me finding these quite childish. Oh well.

In other news: Only 5 designs left! Wow, it seems like yesterday that I did my gradient nails for this challenge. I am really excited for the end though. I think this run of the challenge was quite exhausting for me, balancing freelance work (and a super messed up sleeping pattern) with nail art is quite the task!

Colors used:
- white
- China Glaze - Kiwi Cool-Ada (green)
- essie - forever yummy (red)
- Formula X - Dynamite (yellow)
- Manhattan - It's Complicated (blue)

31DC2016 - Day 25: Inspired by fashion

Okay, so here's the thing. I don't have a big interest in fashion at all. I don't follow things like NYFW or wear designer clothing or anything like that. Therefore, it was quite difficult for me to find something to get inspired by. I tried googling "NYFW 2016" and similar things, but it was way too overwhelming. I ended up getting inspired by an outfit worn by one of my favorite singers of all time - Kirstin Maldonado. In case you don't know her, she's the alto in the two-time Grammy winning acapella group Pentatonix (who I'm absolutely and utterly in love with).

She wore this particular outfit at the AMAs back in 2014. I just love the combination of the midi skirt with the leather top and edgy accessories.

I did some very subtle shading on my index and pinky fingers (and thumb, but you can't see that in the picure), topped off with a semi-matte top coat. I wanted it to simulate leather and I think it looks quite good!

On the other two nails, I chose to somewhat replicate the pattern on her skirt. I simplified it a bit, then sealed it in with matte topcoat. Overall, I'm really pleased with the outcome!

Colors used:
- black
- China Glaze - Concrete Catwalk (charcoal grey)
- LOOK - street (medium grey) [destashed]
- essence - grey zone (light grey)

31DC2016 - Day 23: Inspired by a movie

Boy, this was a fun one! It took ages to finish, but it was so worth it!

For today's prompt 'inspired by a movie', I chose to do a mani based on Wall-E. Truthfully, I didn't see this movie until long after it came out. But I loved it so much!

For the main design, I picked the scene where Wall-E and Eve reunite in space. It's that scene where he discovers propulsion using a fire extinguisher. So adorable! But then, on my thumb I chose to paint him entirely. I'm not sure why, but this year's run of 31DC seems to be dedicated to me painting the tiniest things ever. It was a lot of fun to do, and I am really pleased with the finished product!

I used quite a big amount of polishes for this mani, so I'm going to leave out the part where I list all of them.

31DC2016 - Day 15: Delicate

The two times I've completed this challenge before, I've always done some sort of lace for the delicate prompt. This year, I decided to change it up a bit!

And wow. I don't think it gets more delicate than this.

I started out with three thin coats of China Glaze - Frostbite. This is such a stunning blue. Can you believe I got this polish last Christmas and haven't worn it until now!?

I started freehanding the dandelion ... petals? ... fluff things? Yeah, those. I freehanded them with slightly thinned out white polish. I think they turned out great! Unfortunately, my index finger was smeared a bit. I decided to go with two simple dots on my ring and pinky finger.

Hope you like these!

31DC2016 - Day 11: Polka Dots

Did some teeny tiny dots for today. I really like how these turned out. Simple but effective.

And isn't the base just stunning? This is two coats of essie - leggy legend. I was all over this when it came out last year and I really wanted to use it again. I still love this!

31DC2016 - Day 8: Metallic

Today's nails are quite dainty and delicate, not necessarily something I'm going for a lot.
These might look like they are quite easy to do, but they were not! Getting that curve and thickness of the gold/copper to be the same on all nails was really difficult!

Colors used:
- essie - spin the bottle (nude)
- essence - do you hear the jingle bells? (gold-copper)

31DC2016 - Day 5: Blue

I love these so much.

Today's prompt was blue and since I've secretly been planning to do all of this year's design in fall colors, I knew I had to reach for some navy polish.

This design was loosely inpired by this design by Hajin Bae. I took that artwork and altered it and wow. I really am obsessed with these. The stars are unnaturally tiny and were really difficult to paint, but I think I did a decent job.

Colors used:
- MaxFactor - royal blue (navy blue)
- China Glaze - I Sea The Point (bright blue)
- essie - lapis of luxury (blue-purple)
- essence - lean on me (cream - used for the stars)
- MaxFactor - burgundy crush (burgundy)
- essence - blurry up! (white jelly - used for the "orbs")

Soft Spring Gradient

Since it's March now, I figured it was time I did some real spring manis and actually wore them outside the house. I have yet to do that with this one.

This is a very subtle gradient, I used pastel colors. Believe it or not, that middle color is actually supposed to be a pastel blue - to be honest, it just looks white in this mani.

Colors used:
essie - lilacism (lilac)
essence - winter wonderland (pastel blue)
China Glaze - Highlight Of My Summer (bright mint)

Mint-Flavored Lace

I did a spring mani the other day. To be brutally honest, I didn't even wear it for a full day.
Lucky for you though, I captured it before taking it off.

I want to apologize for the lighting in this picture, it was late at night and I therefore didn't have any daylight.

Colors used:
China Glaze - Highlight Of My Summer (bright mint)
white

Merry Christmas! - Red Santa manicure

Merry Christmas everyone! I know, it's only Christmas Eve Eve, but I won't be home until present time and I figured I'd rather put it up too early than too late.

I didn't get to do a lot of festive manis this year, mostly because uni is super duper stressful at the moment. Now that I'm on winter break, I'll hopefully get to invest more time in this blog.

If you couldn't tell, Santa is winking, he's not missing an eye or anything. It looks weird if you don't know, so I wanted to point that out.
The red polish did end up bleeding through the white, but that is my top coat's fault, since I used a different one for this mani.

Colors used:
essie - forever yummy (red)
essie - spin the bottle (nude)
OPI - Jade Is The New Black (green)
essence - winter wonderland (pastel blue)
white

Gilded Holly - Holiday nail art

Hey guys!
I know, I know; I haven't posted in ages. I've been super busy with uni, but I managed to squeeze in a little nail art time last night (at like 3am)!

Is it too early for Christmas nails? I don't know. I just thought that today would be a good day to start, because there's only a month until Christmas!
If I celebrated Thanksgiving, you probably would have seen at least one design for that, but since I don't... straight from Halloween to Christmas nails for me!

31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 26: Inspired by a pattern

So, I'm pretty sure I've officially lost my motivation for this challenge. Luckily, there's only 5 days left. I don't hate this design, but I've been feeling very uninspired for the last couple days.

Anyway, this mani is inspired by the herringbone pattern, just in case you couldn't tell. As always, I don't do well with freehanding lines, but I like to challenge myself so I've been doing it quite a lot nonetheless. There's actually a small black fiber stuck to my pinky, which you might see if you magnify the picture.

Colors used:
essie - spin the bottle (nude)
essence - wonderfuel (purple with light blue/cyan shimmer)

31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 15: Delicate Print

Alright. Delicate print. I was a little lost trying to figure out what to do here. I ended up doing lace, because I'm boring. Sorry.

Last time I did the challenge I meant to do a lace design, but it looked TERRIBLE. I'm not exaggerating, I promise. This one is so much better. It actually looks like lace. The one I did back in 2012 looked more like a mesh type pattern. And a very hideous one too.

In this mani, I combined a lace pattern with small polka dots on the rest of my nails. I really like this combo!

Colors used:
Catrice - Auber-Genious (muted dark purple)
claire's - Liquid Metal Silver (silver) [destashed]