A-England Dorian Gray
Barry M Silver Foil
MoYou Plate Back to the 80s 03
Sally Hansen Glitz Gal
KBShimmer Clearly On Top
NYC Matte Me Crazy
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A-England
In the holidays I went to see The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and it’s such a good film! Full of amazing cinematography and just a really pleasant way to waste a few hours. This nail art was inspired by the animations in the opening credits where here are ribbon-like swirls all over the place!
I mentioned in my 2013 round-up post that I wanted to focus a lot more on taking inspiration from my favourite things, just like I used to, and movies are one of those things. Now, every time I watch a movie I’m scrutinizing each shot for nail art inspiration so expect plenty more of these to come.
For this nail art, I used Barry M White as the base colour for the waves and painted on the waves using a flat brush to get the ‘flow’ right and then a liner brush to tidy up the edges.
The colours used for the blue ribbons are Barry M Guava, Barry M Dark Blue and Sally Hansen Gray by Gray
For the purple ones, I used Barry M Plum, A-England Guinevere and Glo Baby Glo Ultra Violet (from Primark circa. 2011!).
The glitter is 2 coats of an unnamed holographic polish from Claire’s over A-England Guinevere and the shell is from She Sells Seashells.
It’s all topped off with two coats of INM Out The Door.
This is almost the shot that inspired the nail art. I don’t want to give too much away, but there was a lot more animation and colour to be fascinated by in the movie – go see it!
A-England has just released their Ballerina Collection. As always the shades are inspired by, and named-for a little piece of history. This time, it’s ballet history. There are four shades in this collection, each one a soft silver holographic with a tint of colour. The shade I have here is Dancing With Nureyev which has a blue tint. I used two coats for this swatch and you’ll also notice it works for stamping, even over the very dark plum base!
My base colour is A-England Dancing With Nureyev and added the ruffian style accents with Barry M Plum.
For the accent nail, I switched up the two colours using Barry M Plum as the base with Dancing With Nureyev to stamp on a slice of the pattern from MoYou plate Suki 08.
It’s all topped with a coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top.
Here’s my second Halloween manicure of the day! I saw this look on Brit Nails last week and thought it was just perfect for the holiday. The technique for the distressed look comes from Chalkboard Nails so you can jump over there to read all about it. It was a bit trickier than it sounds – I messed up at first when I didn’t wipe the brush enough before painting on to my nail but I got the hang of it after a few tries.
I sort of wish I’d used a more icky green than this but I still like it. Mint just isn’t as menacing as slime green!
I used NYC Mint Macaroon as my base colour and created the gradient (tutorial here) using Collection 2000 Minx.
For the distressed look I used A-England Dorian Gray and followed Chalkboard Nails’ instructions on the technique.
Finally, I used two coats of Color Club Top Coat to smooth things over.
I love tribal nail art. As far as freehanded nail art goes, I personally find tribal fairly easy although I could do with expanding my repertoire a little. I always stick to zigzags and dots but there is such an abundance of tribal patterns out there that I’ve never tried! I struggled over the colour combination for a while until my eyes stumbled over W7 Mosaic and the decision was made for me. Luckily, I found a creme in my collection that matched Mosaic’s jelly base and set about doing some mixy-matchy tribal nail art. I was a bit shorter on time today so I cheated and just did two fingers.
I used W7 Mosaic for the glittery fingers. I had to use 3 coats for opacity as the base is a jelly.
The creme I found to match was A-England Galahad so after two coats of that on the remaining fingers, I freehanded on some tribal nail art using Sally Hansen Plum Luck, Barry M Gold Foil and a nail art brush.
It’s all topped off with two coats of No7 Stay Perfect Top Coat.
Day 16: Tribal Print 2012
Day 16: Tribal Print 2011
See what’s coming next in the 31 Day Challenge 2013!
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So today is the last of what you might call the ‘easy’ challenges. From here on out it’s hardcore nail art time! This is actually my 3rd gradient in the challenge to date. I’ve been pretty bad at planning, or even glancing, ahead so far! I must admit, this is my favourite of the bunch. It looks good enough to drink, like a sickly sweet cocktail. Mmmmm… cocktails!
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The lighter colour that I used for the base is A-England Princess Tears and I created the gradient with A-England Rose Bower. There’s a gradient tutorial here with detailed instructions.
I used one coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly as my top coat.
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Day 10: Gradient Nails 2012
Day 10: Gradient Nails 2011
See what’s coming next in the 31 Day Challenge 2013!
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