Snowy christmas-y scene with cheeky rudolph

This is a little more of a complicated design which will take a bit more time to do, but the final product is just stunning! (a compliment I got today). But the amount of detail you include is completely up to you. 

To start I painted my nails a solid blue, I chose this blue because it looked like the sky on a winters evening. 

I then used a white shimmery striper to lay snow at the bottom of the nail. To make it look more like freshly fallen snow, I feathered the edge of the snow instead of having a harsh straight line. 

To make the trees  I used a green shimmery colour - by using a shimmery green it creates highlights and lowlights which look like individual leaves. I like detail and depth in a nail design, as you can probably tell.

Start by drawing a vertical line where you want to tree to be using a art brush and then dab the polish on starting from the bottom and working up to the top. As you get further up, make the dab smaller and smaller to create the rough triangle shape. 

To make the Rudolph, I used a medium brown and a dotting tool. I used little dabs to make the two legs first, then the body, and finally the head and ears. Having a picture of a reindeer to look at while you can do this may help get a better result. Because as much as you think you know what a reindeer looks like, when you come to painting one on your nails, you may forget the details. Its very odd, but it happened to me!

Remember to include the antlers, I used black for them so they would stand out against the blue background. And remember a red nose to make the reindeer Rudolph, I used a red glitter polish.

Next I used the largest dotting tool I had to make the moon with a white polish. 

To create the craters, I mixed white and black polish to make a light grey. I then dabbed the grey on with a little art brush. 

The final step was to make it snow!! I used my smallest dotting tool dipped in a white polish and then dotted snow flakes randomly over my nails. 

This have been the longest explanation I have ever done for the blog, but I think if you want to spend a bit more time on your nail design, it is definitely a design that anyone have a go at - even if you haven't done many detailed designs before. 

I hope you enjoy this design!

Merry Christmas!!!!

--Leah 

Christmas presents

These nails celebrate the art of wrapping presents...

 I love to have loads of matching wrapping paper, ribbons, bows and tags! I can spend hours wrapping presents to get perfect and colour coordinated gift. But every year I seem to forget that the care and time I put in to lovingly wrapping gifts, will only be sabotaged by an eager and excited recipient on Christmas morning. 

To solve my short lived art dilemma, I decided to create some present designs on my nails that may last a little longer. 

Here we go...

I used five different base colours, you can used any colour that is Christmas-y or that tickles your fancy.

To give the design a little more detail - I put dots, stripes, little curled lines (like leopard print) and glitter on the base colours. Feel free to do any design you want, you could do diagonal lines or stars for instance. Make it your own!

Then I used a gold glittery striper to make the ribbon and bows. I painted them on slightly to one corner to give enough room for the bow to 'hang'. 

I love this design and will definitely be doing it again next year too!

--Leah

Snowflakess

This incredibly christmas-y design was created by painting my nail with medium blue base coat. I then used a white striper to make snowflakes all over my nail by connecting short lines together. Using short lines will make the snowflakes a lot easier to create. I did different sizes and patterns of snowflake to give it a a realistic look. 

On some of the snowflakes, I put a silver gem in the centre to make them a little more luxurious and fancy - It is Christmas after all!!

I then put glitter on the top of the design to make it feel more like an wintery evening snow shower. But I'm not sure which design I like better  - either with or without glitter.

I would recommend using a small glitter, instead of a larger glitter, to give the effect of snow falling in the background.

This design is a simple but a strikingly classic design which will not take very long to complete but will get you plenty of compliments.

Merry Christmas to all!

--Leah

Reindeer nails!

So this was one of last years designs for me, but we didn't have the blog then so I thought I loved it so much I'd share it now :)

These gorgeous little reindeer were done on a white background with Barry M Mushroom colour applied with dotting tools, the noses, antlers and eyes were all done with dotting tools too! I remember enjoying this design a lot, and getting lots of compliments on it, it looks very effective and quite complicated to do, but it's actually quite simple, it's pretty simple shapes throughout that dotting tools can easily create. This design was finished with a gloss top coat, but a think a matte would look great creating a more cartoon feel to the design!

I'd highly recommend doing the white 'shine' dot on the noses too as it really just adds that bit more glam! And don't forget to hunt out you red for Rudolph in the middle!

Have a go at your nails for this festive season!

~Heather

Tis the Season!

First Christmas nails of the season! I'm sure there will be many to follow in the next few weeks so keep your eyes peeled!

The base colour was a lovely navy colour which I recieved in my Birchbox (my monthly beauty box - click the link for more info!)

The silver is my trusty Barry M silver foil. I created the dotty snowy effect with a dotting tool (very cheap on eBay).

I finished the whole thing off with a speedy top coat from Sally Hansen!

Hope you like, post us back with #Nailsketeers

- Faye

Geek alert! #dayofthedoctor

So for those of you who know... it is a very special day today! #dayofthedoctor! These aren't the neatest nails ever. But as I am a massive doctor who geek I just had to do these and I wanted to share them with you all.

The base colour is rimmel pro in 313 cocktail passion which I love using because of the shape of the brush and how quickly it drys.

To do the doctor who shapes I used my dotting tools and rimmel pro 431 stormy skies. Then the gold detailing with collection hot looks shimmy shake and a dotting tool once the shape was dry.

I added a bit of blue to the tardis shape on my middle finger and decided to go for purple detailing so it stood out. Then I outlined it with my barry m nail art pen to define the shape.

I'm sure I will do some more doctor who nails at some point and hopefully they will be neater and more planned out. If you have any ideas for other simple shapes I could do then let me know!!

Lots of geek love,
Abbi. Xx

Hunger Games Nails

The Hunger Games number 2 film is coming out and I am SOOOO excited! I absolutely LOVED the first film and will be going to see this one ASAP! I am SO excited that I just HAD to do some nails in tribute (eh, Tribute, eh!) to the woman herself, the Girl on Fire. 

Once again - gone for the accent nails, one of the mockingjay, above (Quite a difficult one to do on such a small canvas) and then of the flames below. 

Obviously topped it all off with a matte top coat - our fav Essie - Matte About You, and we are done!

Materials for the Mockingjay - Barry M limited edition gold from a few years ago, and then a few pound shop glitters for the fire nail!

Any other huge Hunger Games Fans out there?

For this movie they are releasing a Capitol Makeup Range which will include nail varnish and nail decals - SO excited!!!!

Here is the Trailer for your viewing enjoyment! And if you haven't watched (or read) the first one - DO IT NOW!!!!

- Faye.