Birthday Nails!

Hello everyone! Today, the 24th of July is my 22nd birthday! So of course, I did my nails to match. I didn't do anything over the top, just something simple to signify that it's my birthday today, so this will just be a quick post.

I had no idea what I was going to do, I did want to water marble but for some reason it just wasn't happening, so I did some quick sponging instead using two Essie polishes: Butler Please and Peach Daiquiri, and an Ulta3 polish called Palette Play. I then used a white polish to write the numbers and also topped the other nails with Stop The Press by Ulta3. This was my first time using it and it was everything I hoped it would be, I'm in love with this black and white glitter!

So here are my birthday nails!

It's a simple mani that I'm very happy with and so far I'm having a lovely and relaxed day!

Thanks for reading!

Dark Sponging Design

Hello everybody! Please ignore the fact that I haven't been posting for about two weeks. I was sick and working and I just had no energy to sit down and do my nails properly. But today I have a dark sponged type of design that's sort of a gradient, but not in the traditional way.

With this design, I painted the three colours on the square base of a triangle sponge and then dabbed it onto my nail, rotating the sponge with each new nail so that the colours were in different spots each time. I really like how it turned out! It was opaque in two coats which was nice and it was a very quick mani to do, so if you're short on time but want something fun, try this out.

I started with a white base like normal, so that the colours popped (even though they're dark). I did one coat of dabbing on each nail before doing a second coat to make sure they were dry and that the sponge didn't stick to them too much, which didn't turn out so well for the middle finger as it's a bit bumpy. I then top coated the design which left it very glossy, as you can tell from the ridiculous amount of shine/reflection on the nails. 

The colours I used were:
Devil's Advocate - Essie (darkest colour)
Teal - Savvy
Hot Spring - Ulta3

Once again, I had the worst time photographing and editing these but I think I've worked out my problem and because of that, I've ordered a proper light box through ebay, and I'm considering buying a simple digital camera instead of using what I think is an SLR camera, so hopefully things improve soon!

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Criss Cross Gradients

I'm back! I did this mani yesterday but it didn't photograph well, so I waited till today to take better pictures of it. I think this looks like a cute summer design, it's very bright!

I used striping tape for this, which took me forever to do so I don't think I'll be rushing to recreate this again, but it might be nice as an accent nail, I wouldn't mind doing that. I started with a base of My Boyfriend Scales Walls - O.P.I (three coats), then I waited a while for it to dry so the tape didn't pull it up. I used six bits of tape for each nail and then I painted Frangipani - Ulta3, Orange Fizz - Savvy by DB, and Daiquiri - Savvy by DB onto the bottom of a triangle make up sponge and then dabbed it all over my nail, blending it as I went. I did two coats on the gradient to get it mostly opaque. I did a simple gradient on my accent nail using the same method, just without the tape.

I love these nails so much and I'm pretty disappointed that I'll have to take them off before I go to work but I have been trying to think of work appropriate nails, so maybe that will be a post during the week.

I still haven't figured out how often I'll be posting but I think I'm still aiming for at least two posts between Thursday and Monday, so we'll see.

Sponged Mani

Today I have a very simple mani that's incredibly easy to do and a lot of fun to wear because it looks different on every nail and can be achieved with any colour combination.

To achieve this look, I firstly painted my nails white and then, using a make up sponge (the flat base of a triangle shaped one), I painted the nail polish in three sections, as you can see on the thumb nail. I then dabbed the colours onto my nails, making sure to dab all over the nail, blending the colours and getting the sides of the each nail as well. The white base helps the colours stick out more (it's much brighter and opaque in person, I haven't yet mastered the art of editing).