Gothic Black and Fuchsia Nail Art - WIDW

Hey y'all!

So uhm... it's been a while.  My bad.  I had a rough month, and to be honest, I'm not sure I still have the blogging spark that I used to have.  I'm hoping that some time off will ease that and help me get back in the groove, but at this point I'm not going to make any promises to you or to myself.  Mostly this month has been consumed with me practicing my acrylic sculpting, going to the BeautyUK show in Birmingham to pick up some goodies for said acrylic practice, earning my certificates for hard gels, gel polish, and a few other nail procedures, and trying to clear out some old stuff from the house to make a little money and make space.  I'm also considering going into practice as a mobile nail tech, unless I can find a suitable position in a nearby salon first, so I am seeing my available free time starting to shrivel up and frankly that's what kept me blogging for the past 2 years (having a lot of time on my hands).  In any event... I have a few posts to finish off this month and the first of those is this WIDW look with Sinful Shine's Royal Flush - a gothic black and fuchsia look with studs.

Copper Chic - WIDW

Hey y'all!

I've had very little inspo for nail art lately - mostly because I've been having some pretty bad sinus crud and that's always fun to experience, talk about, and read about, so really we're all winners here!  That said, my GP started me on a new antihistamine and a nasal steroid, so here's to hoping that my nose muscles get all ripped and hawt and appear on a nose fitness magazine cover soon... I think I lost the plot for a moment.  Ah, yes.  It's Wednesday, and that means it's time to find out What I Did (with it) - and by "it", I mean Saturday's swatch of Essie Sable Collar.  Utilizing another Essie fan favorite, my favorite new stamping plate, and a couple of studs, I created this chic copper look.

Purple and Gold Vortex Nail Art - WIDW

Hey y'all!

It's hump day again, and that of course means it's time for What I Did (with it) Wednesday!  This week I created nail art from a swatch of Octopus Party Nail Lacquer Witches Get Stitches.  I decided the plummy purple needed a bit of gold and some stamping, so I turned to my semi-recently-acquired chrome finish polishes for help to create this look.

Black and Gold Negative Space - NCC Inspired By Fashion

Hey y'all!

Well I promised you an announcement today, so here it is.  As of this month, I am now a member of the Nail Challenge Collaborative, a group a incredibly talented nail artist bloggers who do 4 monthly nail art looks based on a chosen theme.  This means that from now on, Fridays will become NCC nail art looks, except in the case of months with more than 4 Fridays which will have other things (possibly Foodie Fridays?) posted as well.  I'm incredibly honored and excited to be joining this group, and I will of course have inlinkz to all the other ladies' looks down at the bottom of any NCC post.

This month, we're tackling Fashion as our theme, so here's my first look this month which was Inspired by Fashion.

31DC-D26 - Metallic Fishtail Braid

Hey y'all!

Short post today as I'm struggling with a bad tooth that's giving off a lot of temperature sensitivity and it's got me in a bit of pain, so the dentist should be expecting me!  Today's prompt is Fishtail Braid, and I've gone metallic for a soft but chic look accented with square studs.

31DC-D13 Inspired By Pinterest

Hey y'all!

My look today is inspired by this Butter London gold french and half moon look from Fashion Week 2014.  I loved the simplicity and thought it would be an excellent palette cleanser from all the heavy nail art looks I've been doing lately. 

12DOC: Red and Green Candy Canes

Hey y'all!

We are now in the final half of the 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge, and today's prompt is Red and Green colors.  I took inspiration from the colorful Christmas candy canes (and two of Barry M's Winter Silk shades) to create this striped design.

Fall-ing for Nail Art: Elegant Gold and Purple

Hey y'all!

Happy Humpday!  Today's prompt for the Fall-ing for Nail Art challenge brings us to Fall Inspired Colors.  Now, most people tend to think of reds, oranges, yellows, and browns when it comes to fall colors, but I went a different direction to create this look.

Halloween Jumper Nail Art CYNA Classic Orange & Black

Hey y'all!

Happy Tuesday to you!  You may have picked up a few hints that I've been on vacation the past couple weeks.  Hubby and I returned from a trip back "home" to Austin on Sunday, and we're both still recovering from the trip.  On the plus side, I have a lot of new goodies to show you coming up, and I can't wait to get started playing with them!  Thankfully I've had a few really awesome ladies step forward to give me some guest posts so that I can focus on getting everything sorted while still providing you with some great nail art!  This week, though, I have a whole handful of Halloween-themed looks for you as part of the Challenge Your Nail Art group's October offering, so come back every day this week to see 4 great seasonal looks, and the linkup to all the other participating artists.  Today's prompt is Classic Orange & Black, which I used to create this fun Halloween sweater/jumper look.

60s Mod Negative Space nail art

Hey y'all!

Happy Monday everyone!  We're almost halfway through October and this is normally where I would start getting really excited about Halloween, but unfortunately I have no fabulous fun plans this year (or last year, for that matter).  The British don't celebrate All Hallows Eve the same way we do it up in the US - but it's always been my favorite holiday, so at least I can celebrate on my nails.  This week's themes for the Pick-n-Mix challenge are the 60s and matte or texture.  I worked really hard on a design that would encompass all of those themes, and came up with this kind of funky look, which I can tell you unequivocally, Mr. Faff *hated*.  I'll let you be the final judge.

Depression Awareness - #fightforlightandlive

Hey y'all!

You may have figured out by now that depression lives in my home. Without rehashing old news, I can confidently say that if anything good were to come out of the Robin Williams' tragedy, it's that it has put depression, anxiety, and mental illness as a whole on the brains and lips of people around the world. In an effort to keep that movement going, @nailsandpolkadots has organized today's hashtag of #fightforlightandlive, and nail bloggers (and hopefully nail enthusiasts) around the world are posting green manis for Depression Awareness. Of course, I felt the pull to participate.

Blue Me Over: Colour Me Crazy Challenge

*** This post contains items which were sent for review. ***

Hey y'all!

I probably went a little overboard creating today's Blue-themed mani for the Colour Me Crazy challenge, but I'm okay with that.  It's got a little bit of everything - stamping, studs, rhinestones, gradients, striping tape, glitter, and holo!

#ManiMonday - Box of Chocolates Nail Art

Hey y'all!

I want to apologize in advance for today's very picture-heavy post, but some of you may already be aware that today is officially celebrated as CHOCOLATE DAY.  Seriously.  There's a whole day for it.  Supposedly on this day in 1550, the joy that is chocolate was introduced to Europe, and civilization (and a woman's monthly cycle) has never been the same.  I'm serious.  You can look it up if you want.  I'll wait.

See?  So, in honor of this most auspicious of anniversaries, I present to you a box of chocolates for your nails:

Girlie Googly Eyes and Studly Stars from BPS

*** This post contains items which were sent for review and affiliate links. ***

Hey y'all!

Today I have a couple more goodies to show you.  These were sent to me for review by Born Pretty Store, from their new arrivals section.  Here I have some girlie googly eyes and a wheel of gold and silver star-shaped studs.  After the jump, I'll show you the nail art looks I created with them!

Foil's Gold: Black and Gold Foil Skittles - LNTC

Hey y'all!

This week the Llama Nail Techniques Challenge has prompted us to do foils.  I am aware that this caused a lot of stress amongst those of us who are completing the challenge.  Personally I wasn't worried so much about working with the foils, but more about creating a dynamic look.  I played with creating designs using my striping brush for my birthday, but when the time came to actually do my challenge look, I felt a BIT overwhelmed, cuz...

Pastel textured negative space nail art featuring Born Pretty Store studs

*** This post contains items which were sent for review and affiliate links. ***

Hey y'all!

If you read my birthday haul post, you may recall me spending a Marks&Spencer gift certificate on, what else, nail supplies! Part of that haul was a set of 4 pastel textured polishes from the M&S Limited Collection. Then, Born Pretty Store sent me some really cute colored nail art studs in spring-toned green, purple, and blue, and this nail art just sort of fell into place!

Tutorial: Duochrome pebble nail art

*** This post contains items which were sent for review and affiliate links. ***

Hey y'all!

Today I have a tutorial video for you on how to create these color-shifting nails with a colorful oval stud on the accent nail:

Easy Sponged Rainbow Nail Art - TPTC

Hey y'all!

Today's nail art is a fun way to to get really colorful without necessarily needing a lot of skill or kit.  When I realized that this month's TriPolish colors are basically the primaries, it occurred to me that I could use just three polishes to get a full rainbow spectrum on the nail, and so I present to you these super easy sponged rainbow nails.

I will take what is mine with fire and blood - LNTC-3D

Hey y'all!

If you read my post on Monday for St. Patrick's Day, you know I teased today's post.  Can I just say how excited I am that this manicure is finally seeing the light of day?  Be forewarned, it's HUGELY pic-heavy, and for good reason!

When I read through the prompts for the Llama Nails Challenge and saw 3D, I had to have a good long think about what I would do, since I've used so many 3D elements in manis past.  Then I read that season 4 of Game of Thrones is coming in April, and this look started forming in my little head.  I wanted to pay tribute to Daenerys and her beautiful babies, so I have created a dragon egg manicure for you!  As a bonus, I've put together a little pictorial for how I created this look, so be sure to read through to the end if you want to see it.

I'm not sad, I'm just Distressed - LNTC

Hey y'all!

Today's Llama Nails technique is Distressed, which is possibly one of the easiest nail art looks to pull off, since it doesn't require ANY tools and absolutely NO precision!  I did a distressed look back at Halloween for another Llama Nails challenge, so I was quite happy to have another go at this simple technique.  Chalkboard Nails has a great tutorial if you're interested in seeing a bit more description, but seriously, this is so easy it hardly requires instruction!