Little Rainbow Robot - Freehand Nail Art

Allo polish Pals!

How are ya all doing? I hope your week has been going wonderfully, was it a productive one for you? I've been at work for a couple days this week and I am back in today. Making customers smile and smell fantastic! And seeing my dear friends who I adore there.

I had this thought recently..I've had a feeling that's been lingering. Happiness. Like real, solid contentment. I've felt so great lately, not that I hadn't been feeling OK but I feel like everything has fallen into place a little more. I love my work, my family are amazing. It just feels like there's so much to be happy about right now. Its a complete contrast to how I felt this time last year. Do you ever feel like that?

Today's nail art is one I really enjoyed painting because..colours! All the colours! 

Lady Venezia: #084 Swatch & Review

Allo polish Pals!

How are you all doing today? Did you have a fantastic Christmas? I'd love to hear about what you got up to! We had family over, a lovely turkey dinner and in the evening we played a really fun game that involved miming, drawing and describing. It was pretty hilarious. Now its much more mellow here though as people are going back to work until New Years.

I thought today we'd have another chilled post, I am going to show you a stunning red that has already featured in some of my nail art before, this is LadyVenezia's #84.

Colour ~ This polish is a very strong and striking classic post-box red, It is very vibrant and has a wonderfully glossy shine even before applying a top coat.

Application ~ I wore three coats of this polish as it was slightly on the transparent side, that said I didn't have any trouble with application and the coats dry at a very impressive rate. I also experienced no issues with bubbling or streaking.

Texture ~ I would say this polish acts almost like a jelly which dries to a stunning vibrant and glossy finish.

Would I recommend this to a friend? YES.★★★★★/5

I'm not typically a red polish kind of girl but I really do love this one. There's something really satisfying about how shiny and glossy it looks on my nails, even though its a plain colour I find myself checking out my nails quite often when I wear this one – It also gets its fair share of compliments!

What do you guys think of this bright red nail polish? Do you like to wear red polishes?

Thank you for stopping by, don't forget to let me know what you think in the comments! Have yourself a lovely day, I'll catch you again on Thursday for a yearly round up! :)

Love

Ithi

International Food Collaboration - Freehand German Pretzel's!

Allo polish Pals!

How are you all doing today? I hope you are having an awesome start to your week :)

I'm doing pretty good, in fact I have actually just booked my tickets home! I'll be flying home on the 25^th of November and will get to spend some much needed time with my family as I wont be there for Christmas this year. I'm really excited to see everyone again but again it will be hard going without Mr Bravo.

Today I have some...unusual nails to show you. I was recently invited to take part in a international food collaboration, thanks, Dani! There were so many talented and skilled artists who took part in this collaboration. Once all the participants were selected we were each given a country at random and I drew Germany!

I just want to say.. I know there are so many amazing and wonderful dishes of Germany so I apologise for picking Pretzel's and not more of a main dish. At the time I was kind of lacking my painting mojo and battling with my lighting situation - which is still on going!

For this manicure I began with my usual Mezmris Nail Lacquer base coat (It's diminishing fast, argh!) and once dry applied three coats of Lady Venezia's #084 – A beautiful glossy and classy tomato shade. I then applied a thin coat of my Pro-FX top coat. I created my ring finger by blending acrylic paints together with my cruddy old bamboo brush and then proceeded to paint my Preztel's with my finer detailing brushes. I finished it al off by sealing it all in with another coat of Pro-FX.

I did try this manicure with a matte version too but I wasn't really feeling it, which do you prefer?

I'm not entirely happy with this manicure at all, it could have been so much better but I tried. Sometimes ya just get those painting slumps, this one was just badly timed. The collaboration picture will be up later on Instagram if you are interested in seeing what creations everyone else made!

What do you think of my Pretzel nail art? Have you done nails inspired by a country before?

Thank you for visiting, I'll be back again on Thursday for some more naily fun! Have a beautiful day.

Love

Ithi

Lady Venezia: 018 Swatch & Review ★★★★★/5

Allo polish Pals!

Happy Tuesday to you all! How are you doing? I've got a lovely cup of steaming lemon green tea, I'm bright eyed and bushy tailed, today I'm going to be productive but that will start after my morning walk. Nothing like starting the day with a clear and focused mind! My days always go better after a brisk walk or exercise.

I also just wanted to tell you that I am going to be working on a water colour tutorial video  - I had a few people ask me how I achieve that look from my previous manicure (Hi Joyce, if you're seeing this! Also my friends on Facebook!) I feel quite confident I can explain it in a way that makes sense. I may not be for a few more posts but its on my agenda! (I've got so much catching up to do!)

I've got a lovely Italian blue for you today, I have to stop myself from using this like..all the time. This little beauty was a gift from my Mother (Or 'Skeebab' as I call her) who found it in Greece. She knows I love my blues and she was absolutely spot on with this little gem!

This is Lady Venezia's #018. I've loved it so much already the bottle label is fading!

Freehand Luna Wolf Pup With DIY Dry Marble Decals

Allo polish Pals!

How are you doing? Are you looking forward to the weekend? Gosh don't these weeks go fast? That's one thing I miss, really. When you don't work sometimes the week and weekend all just seem the same, I miss getting excited for the weekend, haha.

Today I have a manicure that was actually started over three times. I am still not happy with the finished result as I didn't slope the wolf's back enough...so it looks like he just has a really thin neck.

Mr Bravo tells me it looks more like a pup.

For the background I created some DIY dry marble decals using Kiko's 'Colbalt Bue', Barry M's 'Blackberry' and 'VIP' glitter and 'Supersonic' and TipTop Polishes 'Jazzberry'. I let the decals dry over night and applied them on top of my base coat the next day. I cleaned up any excess with my remover brush and Essence nail polish remover. I then took my acrylics and freehanded the wolfy.

Despite not being happy with the final wolf... I do like the background paired with the silver and stars.. Mystical looking! I think I should have 'sloped' off his back a little more, I wanted it to look like he is sitting but I think instead he just looks like he has a really long neck!

What do you think of this manicure? Do you often feel like starting a nail design over?

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

Love

Ithi

Ithi In Space! DIY Dry Marble Decals & Freehand Nail Art!

Allo polish Pals!

How are you all doing today? Do you have any exciting plans this weekend?

Today I have a manicure to share with you that probably isn't the greatest but it was a lengthy process to get to its completed state! I have a before and after, then I'll explain what I did!

          *How do I manage to cleanup all the decals but leave traces of the freehanding paint?! Duhhhh

So I began this manicure by applying some regular top coat to an old piece laminate flooring. Its my poor man's 'Uber Mat' but you know what, stuff peels off so it'll do! I then began layering a mixture of Barry M's 'VIP', Fogan's glitter I forgot.., Lady Venezia Don't remember the name also.. (When I am sick I get stupid-brain) Color Club's 'Eternal Beauty' and TipTop Polishes 'Jazz Berry'. Next I took a tooth pick and began swirling the polishes around in no real order what so ever – skills, bahaha. I left all of this in a safe place to dry over night.

The next day I painted my nails with just my base coat of OPI's 'Nail Envy' and carefully began to unpeel the decals. I trimmed them down to fit my nail length and rubbed them gently onto the nail. I used nail polish remover and a fine square brush to gently remove any excess from around my nails and cuticles.

I then added some freehand planets, stars and a little Ithi floating around in space (she looks nothing like me) I'm quite blah about the freehand stuff but I love the concept. I'll be doing more decals like this in the future, they look so interesting!

What do you think about this manicure? Do you like to mix up technique together?

Have a gorgeous day,

Love

Ithi

Freehand Stud And Lines Pattern

Allo polish Pals!

I hope you are doing good today? This manicure was actually made before I went to England so probably like 5/6 weeks old and before the new camera!

Today I have a manicure for you which came from nowhere! I hadn't intended to paint when this was created. I thought, ah... I'll just chill out this evening, watch some shows. Grab and early night. But I figured I could also just have a little experiment with colours on a piece of paper. Well, It didn't end there and then I randomly created this. Suuuurprise!

For this manicure I began with two coats of Barry M's 'White' and created a gradient using Lady Venezia's 'PURPLE', One's '#31' and Dorothy L's '#312'. I applied my Catrice 'Gel Effect' top coat on top and added a few random studs. Next I took my 'white' acrylic and started to 'cube' my studs and extend them into random lines! I finished off by adding another layer of top coat and finished with my Barry M 'Matte Top Coat'.

Its just liiiiines! But I think it is quite eye catching, don't you? Someone said to me that they think it looks a little like an Aztec design, what do you think?

Do you like the way that the studs look when mattified? Do you like to wear matte nail art?

Have a lovely day!

Love

Ithi

Lady Venezia: #41 Swatch & Review ★★★★/5

Allo polish Pals!

How are you doing today? I like days like today! I did a whoooole bunch of housework yesterday so today I can dedicate time to a good proper sit down with some freehand nail art - I wonder what it will be?! Today I have a polish to show you which is from a brand that was entirely new to me – This little beauty came back with my parents when they had their holiday in Greece but it is actually an Italian brand. This is #41 (that's about all the information I can find on this polish) from Lady Venezia.

Colour ~ This polish is a beautiful medium mossy green with a strong silver shimmer through out.

Application ~ I had absolutely no problems with application, I found that I needed at least three coats to get full opacity but its pretty fast drying so it wasn't a problem at all. I didn't encounter any streaking or bubbling issues which was great.

Texture ~ This polish is certainly on the thinner side, its not too watery to be a problem but it does allow for a good build up to get the colour as strong as you'd like it.

Recommend it to a friend? Oh yes! I think the mossy colour with the silver shimmer is quite unique, I know that before this polish came along I didn't have anything of that nature!

★★★★★/5 Five stars?! I think she deserves it, actually. Lets say because of the fast dry time, unique shimmer and colour pairing and the finish I think that it is actually quite a sweet polish. Greens are not my most favorite colour for nails but I feel like this one has something a little special to it.

What do you think of this shimmer polish? Do you own any mossy greens?

Have a wonderful weekend, see you on Monday!

Love

Ithi

Ithi's First Blobbicure!

Allo polish Pals!

Is everything going well with you? A lot of you said you were feeling slow and tired with Autumn too, just under the weather. Are you starting to feel more alive? I'm changing a whole bunch of things starting Monday - I think this is also now week 8 of not smoking! Its great.. I'm proud.. but I've always been fiery and well..x that by a million :')

Oh yes, too much rambling on as usual, opps! Today I have my first ever blobbicure to share with you! I created this at the beginning of September, before our trip to England. So I've had this around too long...

For this manicure I began with a single coat of Barry M's 'Coconut'. On applying my second layer and while still wet, I quickly added a few dots of Italian polish Lady Venezia in #018 and Jacava's 'Chillax' in the center of my first blobs. I picked up the 'candy coloured' studs myself a while ago from The Born Pretty Store, can you ever have enough studs?

I think its ok-ish? I did try some needle dragging before creating this and that really was not a huge success! Oh well, I'll try again another day.

Have you created a blobbicure before? What do you think of this colour combination?

Have a fabulous weekend, on Monday I am bring something super cute (I hope) and freehand!

Love

Ithi

The Sleepy Forest - Freehand Nail Art

Allo polish Pals,

How are you doing today? I have one last autumnal manicure to share with you. I hadn't actually planned to do two leafy autumn manicures but then I saw this picture and I just wanted to try and create it on my nails so badly! So I did! Well, I tried at least! I find Pinterest such a great place to look for inspiration.

For this manicure I began with three coats of Lady Venezia's #41. I added Catrice's fast drying gel effect top coat and began painting with my acrylic paint and bamboo brush. This manicure took quite a long time but I really loved painting it. I've had quite a few nail disasters lately but I felt like I did alright here.

What do you think about this leafy manicure? Do you prefer the glossy or matte version?

Have a beautiful day,

Love

Ithi