Mani Monday : Ninja Turtles!

In case you don’t know, I have an unhealthy obsession with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It started with my brothers who loved the cartoon when they were younger, and eventually I caught up with them when the remake of the movie came out in 2014. I cried with laughter at Michelangelo (the one in the orange mask for any newbies) and he quickly became my favourite. Since then, I’ve kind of fallen in love with the turtles. If you follow my instagram, you’ll have seen that it has gone so far that I know own a pair of Michelangelo Dr Martens. From those shoes were born these nails.

They’re relatively simple, and of course you can switch out Mikey for your favourite turtle.

Here’s what I used:

So firstly, I painted my pinkies, index fingers and thumbs in the darker green nail paint (Rimmel Rita Ora). Once that I was dry I painted a matte top coat on my pinkies and index fingers, and a glossy top coat on my thumbs – I’ll explain why later on.

On my ring fingers and middle fingers I painted half the nail orange and half the nail in the lighter green (Revlon Gel ColorStay Envy). Then it was a case of copying the design of my shoes on to my nails, using various sized dotting tools and a tiny nail art brush, as you can see here:

Back to my thumb, I tried something a little new for me. I purchased some nail vinyls from ebay, and I figured the shattered glass type one could pass for a turtle shell. So the reason I painted on a glossy top coat is so that the colour underneath is protected and doesn’t peel off when you peel away the vinyl. Once I’d laid down the vinyl, I painted over with a light brown polish, peeled away the vinyl and topped it with a matte top coat once it was dry.

As I said, they’re pretty simple nails as long as you have some pretty basic freehand skills. They’re perfect for my niece’s Princesses and Superheroes birthday party at the end of this week, but I also just love them because they’re Mikey.

Who else loves Mikey? Or are you a Donatello fan? Leonardo? Raphael? Let me know in the comments!

Sparkle On! – Ellie .xx

Mani Monday : Black & Gold!

Here we are again at another Mani Monday! I have to say, this one might be my favourite so far and I have absolutely fallen in love with matte nails. This week saw me buying my first matte top coat from Barry M so I just had to try it out, so I came up with a look based on my new favourite polish: Lottie Tomlinson’s Good As Gold.

As always,  I started with a base coat. Since the spray can tends to make a tiny mess, I decided to start with that, so my ring fingers and middle fingers were given the golden treatment (if you want to find out more about the paint can you can click here). Then it was a case of painting my other fingers black. I used Barry M Black Nail Paint and I’m super surprised at how well it goes on. For a cheaper black nail paint, it only took one coat for it to be completely opaque which is something I’ve struggled to find. Well done Barry M!

On my pinky fingers, it was as simple as shoving it in some black glitter and topping it with the matte top coat. On my index fingers it was even easier. I stuck on a little gold star and topped it with the matte top coat.

For my ring fingers, I painted a black triangle at the bottom of the nails and stuck a gold heart in the centre before finishing with the matte top coat. Similarly, on my thumbs, I painted a white triangle at the bottom, but this time I stuck the heart at the tip of the triangles and finished with the matte top coat.

Finally, on my middle finger, I created a leopard print design using black and white paint and a dotting tool. First I made little splodges with the white, then around the outside in two or three places, I dotted some black in little comma shapes. Then in the gaps I put some more, smaller, black commas. To finish, I topped it with – you guessed it – the matte top coat.

Considering how simple this design was, I’m loving how it looks. It’s sleek and elegant but with a little bit of fun too.

I hope you like it, and maybe give it a go.

Sparkle On! – Ellie .xx

Mani Monday : Disney’s Tangled!

My new mani now features my favourite Disney movie : Tangled. I’m trying to practice my nail art skills so this took me a lot longer than I’d care to admit, but, I’m super happy with the result and I can even say painting with my left hand isn’t so dodgy anymore!

I kicked off with a base coat, and then on all my nails except for on my ring finger, I painted two coats of lilac polish. On my ring finger, I mixed a peach polish and a sort of light gold shimmery colour in order to get a skin tone.

On my little finger, I painted the tip green and used a dotting tool to make two bumps for the eyes at the top. Then using the same dotting tool I made eyes with white polish, and used black glitter for the pupil. With a darker green I added some nostrils and a smile and then outlined the top and there we have a little Pascal; Rapunzel’s little chameleon friend!

For Rapunzel herself on my ring finger, I used yellow polish to paint some hair around the edges of the nail. Repeating the same technique as I did on Pascal, I created eyes. Then, with a tiny nail art brush, I used pink polish to create some lips and a light brown polish to add details such as eyebrows, a nose and strands of hair.

My middle finger was pretty simple; just a pink glitter top coat! On my index finger, I first painted a shimmering pink line down the centre and then using a small dotting tool and white polish, I leaned each side with white dots to emulate a frill, almost like Rapunzel’s dress.

Finally on my thumb, I used a tiny dotting tool and white polish to make three tiny flowers and used yellow polish to make the centres. In the gaps I placed little pink flower gems that I had, drawing inspiration from the flowers the children put in Rapuzel’s hair when they braid it.

A coat of top coat, and I was done!

Though it was difficult and time consuming, I love them! I take my hat off to all nail artists who do this on the regular because that must take real time.

Here’s a list of the products I used:

I hope you like these as much as I do.

Sparkle On! – Ellie .xx

Mani Monday : Pink Diamonds and Gold

Welcome to the start of a new installment on this blog, we have Mani Monday! I love doing nail art and trying out new and quirky designs and so I’ve decided that I’m going to share each new one I do with you on a Monday (mostly because the repetition is cool, not because I do a new mani every Monday 🙊).

For the first one, I have a little something I did with my new paint can, which I’m obsessed with and you can find a full review on it here, and the nail polish I received free for becoming a NailsInc VIP.

I decided to do each finger a little bit different. After painting on my base coat, I went ahead and sprayed my ring fingers with the Good As Gold paint can just so I could get the messy bit out of the way. I then painted the rest of my fingers with NailsInc Westbourne Park Road.

On my little fingers, I painted a chevron tip in white polish and stuck a tiny pink diamond in the centre of the bottom of the nail. Using a dotting tool, I created tiny flowers on my middle finger and used the same pink diamonds as the centres. If you don’t have a dotting tool you could always make one from a hairpin or toothpick! On my index finger, I first drew a straight line (or as straight as I could make it) down the centre of the nail and then used the large dotting tool to make three dots along the line. In the centre of each of those went a pink diamond. And finally, on the thumbs, just to keep it simple, I placed a single diamond in the centre of the bottom of the nail. To finish I applied a top coat and voila!

I really love the way it came out. I think the colours look classy and I like having a different design on each nail. It keeps things interesting!

Here’s a list of the nail products I used:

Sparkle On! – Ellie .xx