Banksy Nails

I was looking for inspiration on the web and came across this lovely design on Smashley Sparkles blog which I thought I'd give it a go!

 http://www.smashleysparkles.com/2013/02/the-digit-al-dozen-does-love-heartbreak_13.html

The design is a nail art version of Banksy's famous graffiti art the girl with the balloon. It was quite a fiddly design to do but surprisingly didn't take too long!

The design began with a base of Barry M white, I used Nina ultra pro red fox for the balloon and NYC black for the girl and string. The balloon was done with a dotting tool which allowed me to get a nice curve for the heart shape and the rest was completed with nail art brushes and Rimmel's Matte top coat.  It was hard to get the girl looking good, the black base was easy enough, but then deciding where the white highlights should go was hard. I'm still not sure I'm happy with how it ended up, but felt it was a good first attempt so thought I'd share the design anyway!

I really love creating designs with well known pictures or characters on them! 

Think I might try another Banksy creation on my nails in the near future (if I can find one that's not too complicated)...so watch this space!

~Heather

Summer Heat

In all this summer heat I thought I would try out my newest Poundshop purchase (TOP TIP! Sometimes Poundland have like actual good brands in them like Rimmel and Sally Hansen), my Rimmel 60 secs, Sun Downer. I wanted to do something like fire and fireworks and I have seen something like this in a blog recently but totally didn't favorite it and cant find it again? (if you know where i got it from please tell me and I will give credit where it is due!!).

To begin with it looked very messy and strange, but I think the gold sort of made it all come together and actually not look crap! I have actually included both my right and left hand in this post as they both look similarly ok!


2 coats Rimmel 60 Secs - Sun Downer (440) for the base coat.
Lots of different yellow and pink colours some of which are listed below -
Colour club - Reign in Spain (Bright Coral colour)
17 - Mellow Yellow (Yellowy gold colour)
Barry M - Peach Melba (Muted Coral)
Maybelline Colour Show - Electric Yellow
Barry M Limited Edition Gold (my fav nail polish ever)

Let me know thoughts, I'm still not sure if I love it!

Waterfall

I saw Nailsaurus' waterfall posts and tutorial and thought they were so effective that I fancied giving it a go! 

http://www.thenailasaurus.com/2013/07/waterfall-nail-art-tutorial.html 

So here is my offering...

To complete this design I used Barry M Lychee as a base then delved into my ever growing collection of colours to find about 5 different pinks and purples. The design is pretty simple to do, all you need is a tapered thin nail brush (I used one of about 1cm length) and you're off! When I was completing it, I thought my lines weren't straight enough and it was looking messy, but, I hope you agree, it turned out alright in the end!

This is a really cool effect that you can add your own touches to. It's not too clear on the picture, but I added a couple stripes of glitter on each nail too which finished it off nicely! But there are so many other possibilities and so many colour variations to try out so why not have a go!!

~Heather

I'VE GONE DOTTY!!

DOTS DOTS AND MORE DOTS...

I love this design, but its not one for the fainthearted -

it took a lot of patience and concentration to keep every dot

the same size and equal distance apart. But I think it is

totally worth it because it looks stunning. 

I chose purple and gold because I had seen a fabulous dress

in the same colours and luurrrvved the combination! It think green and

gold would also work well together. 

I used a small dotting tool with a gold polish to create the

dots, then redotted each dot with a gold glitter to give it

an extra sparkle and shimmer. The purple I used was a Barry M

purple that had a slight shimmer in it (FACT: it was the

first nail varnish I ever bought) Both colours give a lovely

shine and make the design POP!

-- Leah

America Themed Nails!

We <3 NY!

Just in time for 4th of July!

We recently were part of a gymnastics show where our theme of the display was New York City...

 and of course we all had to do the nails to match!

(Not a great pic...but the best of us all together)

Faye's masterpiece...

A classic take on the american flag! The theme for the whole show was dancing down route 66, so I went for an american flag desgn! I did this by painting my nails with alternate red and blue (both Barry M shades, the red is the red gelly one which i LOVE) then with a striping brush, i did stripes on the red and painted on little stars on the blue, the stars arn't perfect, so don't be afraid to try doing things like that as if you get the jist of it, no one will notice if the details are a bit off! 

Leah's work of art...

For this design I combined the simple lettering of the classic 'I <3 NY' and the american flag. The letters were quite easy to do. 

I used paper to get the lettering do fine and crisp - it took a little patience to cut all the letters out, but then it was plain sailing from there. The lettering went on a dream and was easily secured with two clear top coats. After I took the pictures I applied a red glitter top coat on to the heart, which made it look so much better but I forgot to take a picture (sorry). 

The flag was a little more complicated, I used a striper with a very steady hand to accomplish the parallel lines. Another way to get the same look would be to use striping tape, but that can be just as fiddly. A small dotting tool created little dots in lieu of the stars. I decided not to do stars as the dots gave the same feel to the nails and I was doing this design the night before the first performance so I didn't have much time #cheeky

I really enjoyed this design and hope you do too. It was made even better as they matched the whole theme of the performances and all the Nailsketeers had NYC designs :)

 Abbi's spectacle...

With limited tools and time, I decided to keep my design simple yet (hopefully) effective! I used a french manicure white for the base of my fingers and 'hot looks' red for the thumb and heart shape. 


The 'I' 'N' an 'Y' were written on using an old liquid eyeliner (and I am pretty impressed with my handwriting on my right hand actually). 


The heart was the trickiest part, but I managed to do something resembling a heart by using the side of the brush and creating a thick 'V' shape. 

Overall I was fairly pleased with the results, although I did have to do some neatening up after taking these photos!  

Heather's doodle....

I wanted the iconic I <3 NY words in this design but then had a nail left over. As the skyline of NY is so well known, I thought why not have a go?

The lettering was fiddly but just took patience and a striping brush, which was also used for the skyline. And a dotting tool was used for the heart.

This was a pretty simple design to do, although quite time consuming, but I was happy with the final result!

We had a great time taking part in the show - Here is our finale! 

-Faye, Leah, Abbi & Heather