When I started blogging I thought I was pretty hot stuff with a camera but in the time since, I’ve looked back at my teenage self and had a giggle at how little I really knew (I put it down to the Dunning-Kruger effect)!
I’ve learned so much over the years and every day I pick up my camera, I feel a little more confident in my abilities. There’s still so much for me to learn but I feel like I’m in a good place with my photos at the moment. I’m not a professional by any standard and I think photography is a skill that you’re never done learning. It’s an art after all, so there’s always a new way to work if you’re adventurous enough to try it.
I get a lot of questions about my camera, lighting, equipment etc. so I’ve pulled together a list of my personal photography must haves…
Just a quick post to show you my official Halloween nails for this year. It was impossible choosing just one design from the 18 halloween nail art looks I showed you last weekend so I went wild with it and picked my favourites.
These nails have held up since Wednesday night which is possibly a record for me. I had to do them a while ahead of the holiday as it’s been a busy few days and I knew I wouldn’t get a chance otherwise. My index finger is chipped very slightly on the corner but fingers crossed everything will stay put until the evening’s up!
Halloween is just around the corner and as much as I wish I could spend every hour until then painting spooky designs on to my nails, real life’s just going to poke its nose in and get right in the way! So that I can still have my fun, I’ve put down 18 of my favourite Halloween nail art designs on to a nail wheel.
All 18 designs are quite easy as long as you know your way around a nail art brush. However, some do require more patience that others (hello rhinestones!). So, what are you waiting for, pull out all of your creepiest colours and get stuck in!
I’m jumping right back in to the 31 Day Challenge where I left off and Day 21 calls for nails Inspired by a Color. The themes are very open to interpretation from today onwards so for this particular prompt, I normally try to pull inspiration from the name of a nail polish.
The one that caught me is a new collaboration shade from piCture pOlish and A Lacquered Affair (read Lauretta’s inspiration post here). The shade is called Ornate and I thought it would be a great excuse to pull out my current favourite MoYou plate from the Fashionista collection. The plate is covered in fancy baroque designs – all undoubtedly very ornate!
A-England’s latest collection is dedicated to Emily Brontë, author of the world famous novel, Wuthering Heights. I’ve never read the book but have been picking up on references to Cathy and Heathcliff since I was little thanks to the Kate Bush song of the same name. We used to watch a lot of Top of the Pops 2 in my house!
I have swatches of the whole collection today and you will have already seen some of the shades popping up in my nail art recently. Of the five polishes, we have 2 bold holos (Let Me In and Spirit of the Moors), 2 creamy holos (Cathy and Wuthering Heights) and a multi-glitter in jelly (Heathcliff). All of them apply like a dream and are such regal colours which exactly what I’ve come to expect from A-England.
A-England have kindly donated the whole collection for one lucky to reader to win. Make sure to fill out the form at the end of this post to enter!
I make no bones about the fact that Water Marbling is my nail art nemesis! Normally for the sake of the challenge, I brave it out and go at it until I get lucky and and up with something that will pass for a water marble. This year, however, luck wasn’t on my side and after more than an hour just trying to get one passable nail, I had to concede and find an alternative for the sake of my sanity.
I have so much respect for anyone that can water marble. I sometimes wonder if I’m missing a trick but I know from experience that it comes down to hard work, patience and practice to really nail a tricky technique. I’ve put in the work with other forms of nail art, but I just don’t click with water marbling.
