Freehand 3D Gel Cookie Nail Art

Allo polish Pals!

I hope you all had an awesome weekend? Did you get up to anything fun?

Today's nail art comes with a little secret. While I've been working out hard and keeping up with all the healthy lifestyle changes I made recently.. sometimes while I am painting and working on blog post creations I take a little pause for coffee and biscuit time.

Its the perfect break when I am working on a really intricate and lengthy design. You gotta enjoy some things, right?

So today I have for you some 3D cookies on an equally dotty base! Funnily enough Maryland Cookie's started following me recently over on Twitter. I wonder if they'll approve of this nail art!

Pink & Blue Dotty Nails & Oversized Bows

Allo polish Pals!

How are you all doing today? I hope you had an awesome weekend?

I attempted to film a nail art video yesterday and I'm still feeling the hand cramp. I am just not good at trying to paint with my hand in unusual positions although the way I do paint is probably not how everyone else does it. I think managed to get some shots in focus though so fingers crossed I'll be able to post those soon. It's all practice, I guess! I've a new tripod on the way!

I also finally decided to stop bugging myself and buy a damn desk lamp. It's getting darker earlier and earlier here in England, on a gloomy day its becoming harder to paint. Night time painting isn't even an option. So now I can actually paint whenever I want! - what an exciting life I lead, haha.

Today's nail art is actually a couple days out since I had to rearrange my blog posts but on the 15^th September it was 'International Dot Day'. Yeah, really, its a thang. I love finding out about all these wacky and unique days.

Anyway, I figured dots are something most people can do on their nails so I decided to incorporate it in to the Tiny Canvas weekly challenge for this month (I've been taking care of the theme for a couple months, its fun!) I love to join in with the members and do a design for each theme too so here is my dotty manicure. Somehow I feel like this looks rather sophisticated for someone like myself. Like... I'm used to colourful children-book nails.. It feels weird seeing such a uniform design on my nails!

UR Sugar Color Coat Soak Off UV & LED Nail Polish Review

*Press Sample - This post contains an item(s) that was provided for reviewing purposes however I will as always give my full, honest and completely unbiased opinion.

Allo polish Pals!  
I hope ya all do'odlin' well my Sweetpeas! Is this week going your way?

Yesterday I had a blood test – the first since the doctor said I am pre-diabetic..But I wont get the results until next Tuesday. It's going to be a mission to not worry about it until then but I know any worrying wont change the results. I just have to keep positive in knowing I've made so many lifestyle changes. I've also been looking into how to start my career in the nail industry. although I feel like everything I research contradicts..I'm so lost over it but I wont give up.

 

Today I have a review for you from URSugar, a store which I have no previous experience with. I decided to try another of those gel posts since I really enjoyed the last one, and am still pretty new to applying them. I thought this would be a great product to review and see if it lived up to the previous one I had tried. This is 'UR Sugar Color Coat UV & Gel Polish in#D012'.

Cake Puff Water Decals - Born Pretty Store. PT .2

Allo polish Pals!

How are you all doing today? I hope you've been having a great weekend?

Its been odd here, very upside down and all over the place. Its been hard to paint and when I have I have not been amused with my results.

Hopefully this week coming I will be able to focus a little easier and I can enjoy painting at my new desk/painting corner.. Which I said I would show you so I will at the end of the post!

Today I am showing you a manicure which is actually part of a two piece water decal set from the Born Pretty Store. These are 'Cake Puff Water Decals'. I wont review it as such since I already reviewed the other half of the sheet but I thought I'd show you the design in use. To see the previous review I did just click here. 

Oh.. and this is with my longer nails! I like where I am at now, I'm staying at the length I am since the goldfish bowl nails!

Freehand Pond Manicure And Evil Eye

Allo polish Pals!

How are we doing today? I hope you had a wonderful weekend, did you do anything nice?
 I always love to hear what you are going to be getting up to! I was far more busy last week than I normally am and I loved it!

I feel like this nail art is aptly timed, in the nail community I spend a lot of time in there have been quite a few nail breaks going on, some serious n. I feel like we should take the evil eye talisman to ward off all the evil going on that is causing all these nails to break!

Not really.. I've always liked the symbol after seeing it in Greece on my vacation breaks. Of course it is spreads through many cultures and countries besides Greece and the meaning can differ slightly but mostly it is used to see off bad intentions, jealousy, evil.. basically. It protects its wearer from any such curse or negativity. I also could be slightly wrong.
If it means something different in your culture I would love to know!

I had wanted to do a pond manicure for agggges. I've only ever done one before, using the same polish as I am using right now but it just works so well for it!

I began with my OPI Nail Envy base coat and one dry I added some dots using Barry M's 'White' and a medium sized dotting tool. I then applied a thin coat of Dorothy L's #93 (Dat Orange, yo.) and allowed that to dry. I then took the dotting tool again and created more dots, I allowed drying time and repeated another coat of the orange polish. I repeated this around 4-5 times. I then created my freehand parts with acrylic paint and added some final white dots on the top layer of the design. I finished by applying my Pro-FX top coat and added a few blue studs.

What do you think of this combination? Have you ever worn an Evil Eye?

Have a wonderful weekend, I'll catch you on Wednesday!

Love

Ithi

Pink, Orange And Teal Waves - Acrylic Gradient

Allo polish Pals!

Welcome to the weekend, my friends!

Do you have any nice plans for this weekend?  I'm looking forward to a really intense workout;
Last week I did great pushing myself and getting back into it - yesterday I didn't get to workout and I really felt like I had missed something. I like the energized feeling!

Today I have one of my weird looking acrylic-gradients (I can't think what else I'd call them) and quite an unusual colour combination once again, although I actually rather like these colours together. It grew on me! Personally it makes me think of deep sea... corals, mermaids...Opps, I'm day dreaming again.

For this manicure I began with my all time beloved OPI's 'Nail envy' (because my nails never thank me more than when they are being cared for with this top coat) I then applied two coats of piCture pOlish's 'Marine'. The rest was really just created with acrylic paints, I should film more things instead of being able to hardly tell you anything! BUT HOW?! I move my fingie's SO much!

My dear friend Andreea said these colours reminded her of Aladdin, does this remind you of anything?

How do you feel about this colour combination? Do you like my acrylic-gradient manicures?

Have a lovely Monday, lets catch up again on Wednesday? :)

Love

Ithi

Shamrock Happy St. Patrick's Day Nail Art - Freehand

Allo polish Pals!

How are you doing today? Happy St. Patrick's day to you all! Will any of you be celebrating today? I personally wont be; I wish I had Irish friends who I could join in with! Either way I love learning about holidays and how people wish to spend them! Of course there will be the abundance of green, rainbowy shamrock filled nail art and manicures all across the blogisphere and the internet, I couldn't help but join in!

Did you know... Apparently St. Patrick is not actually Irish, he was Welsh!

A quick google search also taught me that...

Every year the Irish leader hands a crystal bowl filled with shamrock to the US President. They are originally grown in Kerry and is immediately destroyed by the Secret Service after the exchange.... What the?!! Well, I certainly didn't know that..Did you?!...Is that even true?!

For this manicure I began with two coats of Barry M's 'Cardamon' for a clean base and followed through with two coats of Picture Polishes 'Phshiiit'. I then took my acrylics and began to paint a rainbow with a very fine striping brush. I added a few shamrocks on my nails and outlined them with black (why can't I just leave things alone?!) I finished off with a few gold dots and my Pro-FX top coat.

It didn't come out entirely as I had hoped but it was still fun to do!

Are you rocking any St.Patrick's inspired nails? Will you be doing anything fun to celebrate?

Have a wonderful day!

Love

Ithi

Freehand Vintage Christmas Reindeer

Allo polish Pals,

How are you today? Are you excited for Christmas?! I can't believe how fast this year has gone!

Strangely my blog schedule falls on Christmas day so there will be a post from me! But I will be offline enjoying my family time. Of course I doubt many of you will see it on the day – I hope you will all be enjoying family time and having too much fun!  

That is my favorite thing about Christmas, having everyone I love all together - Of course that's not quite so easy when two families are in different countries. I'm glad to be back in England with my family but I really love Mr Bravos family, my adoptive Dutch family.

While I was looking for Christmas ideas for nail art I fell in love with these super cute vintage styled reindeer, In many pictures they have bows or bells around their necks... Don't they look cute?

For this manicure I began with my usual base coat of OPI's 'Nail Envy' and once dry added two good coats of Barry M's 'White' for a solid base. Here I get to say that really annoying line again, “Then I created everything else with my acrylic paint and trusty brush” - Hopefully next year I can show you more of how I actually create things. I added some holly and attempted some rather scruffy looking writing (I must work on this..) I finished off by sealing it all in with two coats of Catrice's gel effect top coat.

What do you think of my vintage reindeer? Do you have any family traditions or plans for the big day?

Have a fabulous day!

Love

Ithi

Freehand Gingerbread Men and Polka Dot Nails

Allo polish Pals!

How are you doing today? Do you have any fancy weekend plans?

Today I have a manicure that I never ever want to see again. I did this manicure 4 times over. Every time it just wasn't right, it is so far from the original idea behind it but I am glad to say I like this version enough to post. If you are really curious you can see version 1 and version 2. Pretty ugleh. I don't even know where version 3 went...Ha...ha... Being this stringent with just about everything gets really tiring sometimes.

For this manicure I began with three very thin coats of Catrice's 'The Bride Takes It All' and once dry I added some polka dots using Barry M's 'Gold Foil' and then added my Catrice 'Gel Effect' top coat which dries super fast and smoothly. Once all this was dry I began to paint my gingerbread men with acrylic paint and my favorite brushes. I finished off with my Barry M 'Matte' top coat.

I don't even know what happened to the third version, Haha! I guess it was thrown to the photo abyss, the black hole were all the rejects go..

Its a little scruffy but as I said... I'm so glad to put this manicure behind me. I know that seems stupid since it looks so simple!

Have you had foodie nails before, what food was it? What do you think of my gingerbread men?

Have a lovely day!

Love

Ithi

Abstract Glittery Freehand Cat Nail Art

Allo polish Pals!
We made it! It's Friday! How about a virtual high five?! *palm to palm smack*

Today I have three little abstract kitties to show you! This nail art was inspired by a beautiful Pin I found on Pinterest which you can see here. I loved this picture and knew I wanted to recreate it. Sadly I was too scared about having enough room on my nails to have their tails at the bottom so I had to curl them around!

Up, down, all around. Who cares as long as there are tails, right? :)

As usual I began by applying my favorite base coat, OPI's 'Nail Envy' and once dry I painted on two coats of Barry M's 'White'. I then moved onto one coat of OPI's 'Make Light Of The Situation' which is a beautiful mixed size holographic glitter topper (Not that my camera would ever let you believe that!) I then created everything else using my black and white acrylic paint and two trusty all time  favorite brushes. I finished by adding some beautiful pearly tear drop studs which can be found at the *here* at the Born Pretty Store and that I previously reviewed here.

What do you think of my arty doodle cats? Do you like creating abstract nail art?

Have a beautiful day, I'll see you on Sunday!

Love

Ithi

Black And White With Striking Dots

Allo polish Pals!

How are you today? Got anything exciting to tell me? Go on, be as random as you like :D

Today I have a manicure which was created before I went to England in September... Its a bit messy, my black acrylic paint was near its death (Thankfully a new one has managed to find its way to me)

I have a confession, actually... I don't remember the coloured polishes I used for this manicure. Argh,
so unlike me not to write everything I used down but eh... Too bad!I certainly don't remember them all after this long!

This manicure began as two coats of Barry M's 'White' which I then added black acrylic on top of in various ways. I then used a dotting tool to create larger and smaller dots with white acrylic paint. (I've come to hate dotting with polish, I hate it when it gets stringy and ruins things) I then used various bright polishes and a dotting tool to fill in a few of the dots.

Its not as neat as I would have liked but I have to admit that in person it was quite striking, I did like how eye catching it was!

What do you think of my slightly different dotticure? Do you like making dotty nail art? 

Have a great day!

Love

Ithi

Woolen Sweater Style Sweet-Heart pattern Water Decals - Born Pretty Store Review

*This post contains an item(s) that was provided for reviewing purposes but as always will contain my full and honest opinion.

Allo polish Pals!

I hope you are all having a great start to your week? I love the mornings here in England as my five year old niece comes for breakfast before my mum takes her to school which is nice. Nearly every day I am left with a toy or something to babysit with very very strict instructions - for example, I had to look after a balloon while she was at school, it is only allowed to eat oranges and sausages, needs naps, play time and stories. I make sure I tell her everything I did when she gets home to see if I meet her approval!

Today I have some water decals to share with you, these came from the Born Pretty Store and are 'WoolenSweater Style Sweet-Heart pattern' decals – how cute!

Get 10% OFF your orders at the Born Pretty Store by using the coupon code: DRX31 at the checkout.

Must stop cutting decals up before I photograph them..

I opted to try these cute water decals in QJ-298 which is a pretty blue, light blue and white colour scheme. This pattern is made up of half hearts that go in a perfectly straight neat line. It really does make me think of cosy winter knits, are you feelin' it? They also come in a greyscale and pink theme. I wanted to try and do something a little different with these decals instead of wearing them entirely on all my nails so I opted for a sort of... cut and mixed design. Despite my poor choice in manicure style
I really like these decals!

I actually think this would have been super cute with a french manicure style with some dashes along the white to look like a sewing pattern. I wish I thought of that at the time!

For this manicure I began with Barry M's 'Coconut' (I know, I know, there's more than coconut in the world!) I then applied my decals to my index, ring finger and pinkie by covering the entire nail. For my thumb and middle finger I used cut of sections (much harder to place, ha!) and added a few white dots along the edges.

What do you think of these cosy sweater type decals? Have you ever done sections of decals like this?

Have a great day!

Love

Ithi

NYC: Nolita's Lolita Swatch & Review ★★★★5

Allo polish Pals!

I hope you are having a great day so far? Today I'm leaving again for England, thankfully this time its back to normal and I'll have Mr Bravo with me. The only down side is travelling with flu - awesome. I'm really looking forward to seeing my family for three weeks, this will be a happier trip than the last one. I've got a lot of important dates coming up but I will still be around the blogisphere. 

Today I have a polish to show you which is one Mr Bravo randomly returned home with one afternoon. He surprised me with four new polishes but he seemed very impressed by this one so I'll review it first :) This is 'Nolita's Lolita' from the 'Fancy Dotty' range.

Colour ~ 'Nolita's Lolita' is a beautiful pale blue with black specks of...glitter. Can you call it glitter if its not..glittery? Anyway, I am wearing three coats here which has a really nice effect of the black specks layering and adding a look of depth to the polish.

Application ~ Application was quite good however the coats where a little slow to dry. If you rush your coats it will get globby along the tips, creating a mess. Look at my middle finger, it can also look quite chunky if your not careful with your coats. Besides that I had no trouble with streaking or bubbles.

Texture ~ I would describe it as a medium to thick texture with of course the added gritty feeling of the speckles. Easily smooth with a good top coat.

Recommend it to a friend? Not sure... Depends how much this friend likes unique polishes such as this.

★★★★5 While I do really love this polish I do think it is quite a gimmicky type of polish – by that I just mean..well, how often will I find myself using it? How many nail art designs will call for a base like this? That's something I'm still working out but I do love how it looks on my nails and I do like the finished results.

What's your opinion on dotty glitter polishes? Do you own any polishes like this?

Have a wonderful day!

Love

Ithi

Pretty In Pinky Polka Dots

Allo polish Pals!

How are you doing today? I hope you are having a great weekend? Tell me something random about it! I can tell you that compared to the list of things I wanted to achieve.. I practically got nothing done! But I'm ok with it, I didn't have a freak out about my lack of productivity. I'll make it up today with lots of housework and a swatch-a-thon. Or a freehand design. Who knows! Yesterday they were painting the whole downstairs so I was pretty much confined to the bedroom on the third floor, the perfect painting opportunity! But I just didn't have it in me.

Here's something positive that happened to me last week: I got back into working out and I didn't die  (I took a break when my eye was very bad as it affected me alot and the whole England thang)- Yeah, I can do this!

Today I have a really simple and girly manicure to share with you.

For this manicure I began with three coats of Catrice's 'Love Affair in Bel Air' and created a gradient by sponging on Barry M's 'White'. Next I created my bows with acrylic paint and added polka dots to all the nails with my dotting tool. Finally I added some gleequins...glequins? And a stud to my other nails. See, really simple nail art!

What do you think of my girly nails? Do you prefer 3D bows to stick on such as studs or stickers, or hand drawn bows?

Enjoy your Sunday!

Love

Ithi

Pink & Purple Waves With Sweet Little Daisy Studs – Born Pretty Store Review

Allo polish Pals!

How are you doing today? I hope you will have a fantastic weekend! I'll be off to Brabant, a province in Holland. Mr Bravo's niece has been staying here for six weeks and now its time to take her home and also to celebrate her 8th birthday with all the family, are you doing anything nice?

Today I have some really cute little studs to show you from The Born Pretty Store. This is an unofficial review as I picked these up around a month ago, I just thought they looked so pretty! These are 'Sweet Little DaisyStuds'. I decided to pair these with another style I did recently, that odd looking acrylic gradient wave, I quite enjoy painting these even if they do take me just about forever to complete!

Don't forget you can get 10% off your Born Pretty Store order when you use the code 'DRX31'

These cute little resin studs come in two colours, black with a gold center and white with a gold center. They come in a little baggy containing three studs – it may not seem like a lot but they are totally reusable and when I think about it, two was enough for one manicure for me. I don't think I'd wanted them on every nail! They are approximately 5mm in size and fit quite happily onto the nail bed. I really like them and may even consider picking up the white version!

For this manicure I began with two coats of Rimmel's 'Let's Get Nude'. Next I blocked out my coloured area with white acrylic paint and smoothed it out with my Catrice top coat. I then used Oumaxi pink and purple paints to attempt a colour blend. I then added some small white dots and applied my flower studs using a dot of top coat.

What do you think of these sweet little studs? Do you like the mix of black and white with bright colours?

Have a great weekend!

Love

Ithi

Pink And Orange Waves

Allo polish Pals!

How are you doing today? Today I have a manicure to share with you that, initially I hated but after. I even noticed something that looks like a mistake on my ring finger, but it wasn't on my nails! But it appeared in every picture I took?! I've never had that before! Guess there's always new things to discover when your a blogger. Excuse the stubbyness of these nails!

*Thank you to everyone for your supportive messages. I am so grateful to you all, you really don't know how much so. I got to pay my respects and I now feel a lot calmer in myself. I am so glad I could make it back in time.

Mr Bravo said these nails remind him of Poké balls... Does it make you think of Pokemon? I think he's just being a nuttybutter.

For this manicure I began with two coats of Barry M's 'White', that was in fact the only polish I used for this manicure! I then attempted to blend some orange and pink acrylic paint together. I then created a black outline, added some dots and these really cute studs I picked up from The Born Pretty Store. I think the outcome of the coloured part looks kind of like a painting, don't you?

What do you think of this manicure? Does it remind you of Pokemon?!

Have a beautiful day!

Love

Ithi

Simple Black & Nude With White Freehand Flowers

Allo polish Pals!

How are you today? I hope you are having a great day so far – tell me a random fact about your day? Things are still very up and down here but I got a good start to the day by going out walking. Sometimes fresh air and exercise really help to clear the mind, don't you think? I'm still wondering how I will ever make a manicure that lives up to the Pegasus nail's since it was  my favorite manicure I've done.

I have a more subdued manicure today, something subtle but still quite striking, I think. Sometimes I feel like more simple art after doing really big pieces of nail art :)

Only one polish was used for this manicure which is Catrice's 'Honey Blossom' from the Kaviar Gauche collection. The rest was freehand with black and white acrylic paint. I finished by added a few little dots and some pretty studs. I had these studs lying around but I know The Born Pretty Store has some very similar ones on their website.

It's pretty simple but a little more elegant and wearable than my more...'out there' designs.

What do you think of this simple manicure? Do you like pairing black and whites with nude bases?

Have a beautiful day!

Love

Ithi