Double Dutch

Hello again DarlingHearts.

Today we have some more ombré, but with a twist!

I was inspired to do these by a graphic design @mpnails posted on Instagram (note: don't open the link if feet creep you out..), and just had to work it out.

To achieve this look, I did the background gradient first, and once that was completely dry with the aid of a top coat, I taped off the triangles, and did that gradient.

Love the way these look, and how completely vibrant they are! I chose contrasting colours to really add an element of oomph.

What I used:

Revlon 'Rock' and 'Siren'

Essence 'A Lovely Secret' and 'Raspberry Swirl'

Thanks for stopping by!

xNai

Not the Sistine Chapel

Hello darling hearts.

Firstly, apologies for the single picture posts! Like I said, crappy photography leads to pics I do not need the world seeing! :/

Anyway, here we have some stained glass effect nails. I love the eye-watering brightness of these, and Danya's students absolutely loved them as well.

The tricky thing with these was making sure we didn't repeat patterns - you'll notice that each nail has a different colour placement. No colour is repeated in the same block.

Silly me didn't plan that out first, and thought logic would prevail. Then halfway through, we freaked, thinking I had messed up! Never fear, we clearly worked it out...eventually.

When I posted these on my Instagram (I'm @nadeekay, if you're wondering), one girl mentioned that they look a little Britto-esque, and after doing a quick google search, I had to agree. Though not quite full Britto, they have a whiff of the Britts about them..

What I used:

Revlon 'Cherries in the Snow', 'Siren'

OPI 'A Grape Fit'

Rimmel 'Sky High'

Sally Hansen 'Mellow Yellow'

No name black striper I bought off eBay.

Stick around for a tute for this design.

Thanks for stopping by,
xNai

Like a bat out of hell

Hello lovelies!

Sadly today is the last day of the This is Halloween Challenge! Sad face.

But that also means a recreation mani, and boy do I have a recreation for you!

After looking through a lot of the manis that were done, I noticed a theme for a few of them: Spooky silhouettes in front of a moon.

This one by @paperkraftnpolish on Instagram was the main inspiration for my recreation mani. I think she did such a spectacular job.

My inspiration mani

Here is my recreation of her beautiful bats design.

Bats Silhouette

I decided for these to mattify the blue gradient before putting on the black detailing, which meant that I couldn't top coat to protect the design, but hey, these are the things we do for nail art..:)

Bats Silhouette

Bats Silhouette

What I used:

ulta3 'midnight fever', 'blue heaven', 'blue bird' and 'lily white'

essence 'black is back' and 'walk on air'

Hope you liked these as much as I enjoyed doing them!

As always, thanks for stopping by!
xNai

                                                            

here are the other challengers, add your link if you're joining in!

1. Nailified	2. Nail Gun XS	3. Purr-fect Sunset - Plisherrific	4. Completely Batty - Plisherrific
5. A Polished Prance	6. Lissa's Polish Addiction	7. Nail-to-Nail Interpretations	8. Nai's Nails
9. play polish :)	10. osiris and loki paint their nails	11. Baroque fool	12. Polish Rainbow
13. Lacquer Dreams	14. Lacquer Or Leave Her!	15. More Nail Polish	16. Glitter Me This
17. Shatter me Claire	18. Nikki NeverWithoutPolish	19. Pink and Polished Nails	20. Carrie
21. a girl and her chicken named betty	22. Tes Did It Nails	23. Hand-y Feats and Other Treats	24. Adorablypathetic
25. Never Mind Suzi	26. Follow the Yellow Polish Road	27. Not Too Polished	28. The Polished Mommy
29. Amoki's Corner	30. Pretty Purple Polish

(Cannot add links: Registration/trial expired)

The best wiz and witchard o' their age!

Hello there lovelies!

So, as I have previously mentioned, I'm just a little bit of a PotterHead...Just a touch of the mania..:)

So for today's nails, as it is the 26th of October, and the day for witches in the This Is Halloween Challenge, I decided to recreate one of my very favourite Potter manis: The Final Battle.

The Final Battle

These nails depict the last and intense battle between Voldemort (that's right, I'm a badass. Fear of the name only increases fear of the thing itself...) and Harry. It's a movie reference rather than a book reference, because I don't believe this is what JK would have been picturing, and nor is it what I picture...ANYWAY.

I first saw these nails on @trincess on Instagram, and instantly fell in love with them. OMFG, they're glorious!

Granted mine aren't quite as insanely cool, but I think I did a decent job considering I'm not actually an artist...:)

On the thumb I did the Deathly Hallows:

Deathly Hallows

And on the other hand, I did the house colours and stylised crest again. This is the first halloween mani I've done for both hands, and how could I not? It's Harry!

House Colours and Crest

What I used (prepare for a long list...):

For the Final Battle:

essence 'black is back', 'LIME UP!', 'fateful desire', and 'fame fatal'.

ulta3 'frog prince', 'banana split', 'lemon', and 'mango mayhem'.

For the Deathly Hallows and Right Hand:

essence 'black is back', 'fame fatal'

ulta3 'banana split'

Revlon 'Metallic', 'Emerald', 'Royal'.

Chi Chi 'Glamourama', and 'Bronze Ambition'

Anywho, I hope you enjoy these as much as I genuinely did making them!
As always, thanks for stopping by!
xNai

                                           

Here are the other challengers, add your link if you are joining in!

1. Ehmkay Nails	2. Not Too Polished	3. Nai's Nails	4. Polish Rainbow
5. Baroque fool	6. A Polished Prance	7. Froggy Ferny Cabbage - Plisherrific	8. Marie's mani madhouse
9. Nail-to-Nail Interpretations	10. Lacquer Dreams	11. PRIS Nails	12. osiris and loki paint their nails
13. Lacquer Or Leave Her!	14. Lacquer Or Leave Her! V2.0	15. Jaztee	16. More Nail Polish
17. Lissa's Polish Addiction	18. Never Mind Suzi	19. Pink and Polished Nails	20. Glitter Me This
21. play polish :)	22. Nikki NeverWithoutPolish	23. Tes Did It Nails	24. Manicura de fantasía
25. Overpolished	26. a girl and her chicken named betty	27. Adorablypathetic	28. LacquerNinja Halloween Witches
29. Life, Times and Lacquers of Lilmoon	30. Follow the Yellow Polish Road	31. Nailified Witches	32. Amoki's Corner
33. The Girlie Tomboy	34. Kelly's Kolors!	35. Miss Holly Berries	36. Pretty Purple Polish - Witches
37. Nail Gun XS	38. MauiMami	39. Phoenix Nails	40. Hand-y Feats and Other Treats
41. Panda loves polish	42. NonLacquerDaisical	43. Carrie

(Cannot add links: Registration/trial expired)

Braaaiiins...

Hello lovelies!

So today we have one of the This is Halloween Challenge manis that I'm rather proud of - zombies!

Today's mani was inspired by an artist I've been following on Instagram for a while now. Her handle there is @spooksieboo - go check her out.
She has an Etsy shop I believe, where you can go and order paintings of you and your loved ones zombified! I'll link it once I've found it, as right now the link isn't on her profile.
Edit: This is the link to her easy shop where you can purchase prints of some of her more popular designs, and sometimes even order customs pics...CLICK ME!

Anywho, on with the show!

I've always loved the eyes on her paintings, so I decided to replicate those here, with the trademark green of slowly decaying zombie skin, and of course some barely healing gashes, poorly stitched up.
And of course, a matte finish on these, because I felt it just more fitting.

What I used:

Essie 'Navigate Her' and 'Mojito Madness'

Essence 'Black is Back' and 'Fateful Desire'

Ulta3 'Lily White'

Rimmel 'Matte Finish'

What do you think? Did I do the challenge, and Spooksieboo's paintings justice?

As always, thanks for stopping by!
xNai

                                               

Here are the other challengers, add your link if you are joining in!

1. RantingBlogger	2. Nai's Nails - Zombies	3. Walking Dead - Plisherrific	4. A Polished Prance
5. Lissa's Polish Addiction	6. Zombie nails by Marie's mani madhouse	7. Nail-to-Nail Interpretations	8. Nail Gun XS
9. LacquerDreams	10. The Silverinator	11. osiris and loki paint their nails	12. Lacquer Or Leave Her!
13. Lacquer Or Leave Her! V2.0	14. Never Mind Suzi	15. More Nail Polish	16. Polish Rainbow - Zombies
17. Glitter Me This	18. Shatter me Claire	19. Pretty Purple Polish - Zombies	20. Pink and Polished Nails
21. Baroque fool	22. Overpolished	23. Delainie	24. Dema Pixie
25. Ehmkay Nails	26. Manicura de fantasía	27. a girl and her chicken named betty	28. Nikki NeverWithoutPolish
29. Follow the Yellow Polish Road	30. Amoki's Corner	31. melmyissta	32. Tes Did It Nails
33. Not Too Polished	34. Kelly's Kolors! - Zombies!	35. Juliana at Nail Polish Addiction	36. Nailified: Zombies
37. play polish :)	38. Miss Holly Berries	39. PRIS Nails	40. The Polished Mommy
41. Life, Times and Lacquers of Lilmoon	42. NonLacquerDaisical	43. LacquerNinja Halloween Zombies	44. Hand-y Feats and Other Treats
45. Zombie Nails - Jibber Jabber	46. Polish & Pandas	47. Jas's Blingtastic Nails	48. Lovin Nailz
49. MauiMami	50. Phoenix Nails	51. Fe's Nails

(Cannot add links: Registration/trial expired)

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick

Today is October 12, and you know what that means!

Jack O'Lanterns!

For these nails I decided to keep it super simple, and just create the basic ideas of jack O'lanterns. (should all those be capitalised? hmm..)

You can see the detailing in the actual pumpkin background better in this pic and the next one - I used two different shades of orange (essence 'Wake Up!' and Ulta3 'Mango Mayhem') to create the shading, and then just a black (essence 'Black is Back) with a teeny tiny paintbrush, and LOTS of patience for the faces.

I wanted to give you a range of faces, so we have two nice/benign, and two seriously evil looking' mofos.

Hope you've enjoyed these, and don't forget to check out some of the other incredible entries!
If you're on instagram, check out the #thisishalloweenchallenge tag - I and a number of others have been uploading there as well, and there are some seriously incredible entries; @strawbrie never fails to impress.

Thanks for dropping by
xNai

                                          

Here are the other challengers, add your link if you are joining in!

1.	Nail Gun XS - Jack-O-Lanterns	22.	Kelly's Kolors! - Ghosts	43.	Follow the Yellow Polish Road	64.	Delainie
2.	Nail Gun XS - Ghosts	23.	Juliana at Nail Polish Addiction	44.	NonLacquerDaisical	65.	Delainie
3.	A Polished Prance	24.	Polish Rainbow - Ghosts	45.	Lacquer Dreams - Ghosts!	66.	Polish Rainbow - Jack-O-Lanterns
4.	osiris and loki paint their nails	25.	Michelle at Ehmkay Nails	46.	Melmyissta- ghosts	67.	Never Mind Suzi - Jack-o-lantern
5.	Plisherrific	26.	Pink and Polished Nails	47.	The Girlie Tomboy	68.	play polish :)
6.	Nai's Nails - Ghosts	27.	LacquerNinja Halloween Ghosts!	48.	Tes Did It Nails	69.	Ehmkay Nails: Jack O Lanterns!
7.	Jaztee - Ghosts	28.	Amoki's Corner	49.	Just Another Polish Addiction	70.	a girl and her chicken named betty
8.	Ghost nails - Jibber Jabber	29.	The Life, Times and Lacquers of Lilmoon	50.	datyorkLOVES	71.	LacquerNinja Halloween Jack'o'Lanterns!
9.	Ghosts set1- mani madhouse	30.	Nikki NeverWithoutPolish	51.	Jack O Lanterns - Jibber Jabber	72.	Overpolished - Jack O'Lanterns
10.	Nail-to-Nail-Interpretations	31.	a girl and her chicken named betty	52.	It's Just a Hobby! - Jack O'Lanterns	73.	Amoki's Corner
11.	The Silverinator	32.	Glitter Me This	53.	Shatter me Claire	74.	Juliana at Nail Polish Addiction
12.	Hand-y Feats and Other Treats	33.	Sophie	54.	melmyissta- Jack-o-lanterns	75.	Nail-to-Nail Interpretations
13.	Patricia. Manicura de Fantasía	34.	Baroque fool	55.	Lissa's Polish Addiction - Jack o Lanterns	76.	Nikki NeverWithoutPolish
14.	Lacquer Or Leave Her!	35.	Sonoma Nail Art	56.	PRIS Nails	77.	LTandL of Lilmoon - Jack-O-Lanterns
15.	More Nail Polish - Ghosts	36.	Nailified	57.	Pretty Purple Polish - Jack-O-Lanterns	78.	Just Another Polish Addiction
16.	Never Mind Suzi - Ghosts	37.	Dema Pixie	58.	More Nail Polish - Jack-o-lanterns	79.	Nailified Jack-o-lanterns
17.	Pretty Purple Polish - Ghosts	38.	Not Too Polished	59.	Lacquer Or Leave Her!	80.	The Daily Lacquerista
18.	Jas's Blingtastic Nails	39.	Tales from the Makeup Bag - Ghosts	60.	Hand-y Feats and Other Treats	81.	A Polished Prance
19.	Carrie	40.	It's Just a Hobby - Ghosts	61.	Baroque fool - jack o lanterns	82.	Jas's Blingtastic Nails
20.	Overpolished - Ghosts	41.	PRIS Nails	62.	Pink and polished nails jack-o-lanterns	83.	Miss Holly Berries
21.	RantingBlogger	42.	Within-My-Eyes- Ghosts	63.	Carrie- Sassy Nails

(Cannot add links: Registration/trial expired)

Another little hole in my heart

Hello lovelies!

Today we have a mani that had been bouncing around in my head for a while, and then I found the reason to do it - an Instagram comp!

Cut-out Hearts

I tried to do this a couple of ways, the first being placing a heart shaped sticker on my nails, but I couldn't quite work out the logistics of it, so I did it the old-fashioned way - just painted the shape!

Cut-out hearts with stupid hashtag

Please ignore the stupid hashtag on my hand, this was just one of the better pics - I have sine gotten better at pics, I swear! :)
The competition revolved around glitter placement (hence the hashtag), and I just knew that these would be gorgeous with a glitter border to really finish them off.

What I used:

Revlon 'cotton candy'

OPI 'a grape fit'

Nicole by OPI 'Make u smile'

Cotton candy is a beautiful sheer nude with gold and pink shimmer throughout, so I knew it would be perfect as a base for the cut-out portion. A complete pain to apply - streaky, and not very self-levelling, but worth it for the effect, I reckon. Also, scented! Woo!

I have  tute for these nails coming up as well, so if you'd like to see how I did these, stick around!

Thanks for stopping by,

xNai

It's not always black and white

Hello ladies (and possibly gents...)!

Today I have a classic black and white mani for you.

There was a competition on ig for a black and white mani a while back, so I decided to do as many variations on the theme as possible, and here's what I came up with!

If you'd like a tutorial for any of the following, let me know, and I'd be glad to oblige. I've already created 2 for the index and thumb of the left hand.

Left Hand

Left Thumb

Right Hand

Right Thumb

If you want, there's a couple bonus pics after the jump - defs my faves of these pics...:)