IthinityBeauty.com Nail Art Blog: Nail Art

Freehand Star Constellations Nail Art

Allo polish Pals!

How are you all doing today? I hope you've had a wonderful and relaxing weekend – or even a long weekend if you are in the UK. I've been working quite a lot this past week (looking forward to a day off tomorrow!) which has been really nice. I have to say I am so happy with the girls I work with, they really are such a lovely bunch. I enjoy my job but when everyone in your work place is so kind and wonderful it makes a job even better, I think!

On Saturday I managed to raise over £40 for breast cancer in the space of an hour and a half to two hours which isn't bad when your standing by the store entrance. Some people do look like you've just asked them for rabies so I was pleased with the result and wish I could have done it for longer.

Today's nail art was a little trial and error, you know how I love painting skies, be it daytime or night time but I wanted to try something a little different with my background. I think it turned out pretty interesting!

3D & Freehand Sushi Nails

Allo polish Pals!

How are you all doing today? I hope you've been having a great week so far. I'm looking forward to this weekend as I worked last Saturday and bank holiday Monday meaning I missed out on all the delicious sun we were having – of course its just my luck that the weather seems to have changed.

All that said I've been having fun at work, I've had so many lovely customers and experiences.

I've been rather excited to show you today's nail art, I've been itching to post it sooner! Sushi is one of my all time favourite foods but its not so easy to get good sushi where I live...still, I found another way to enjoy it!

Freehand Art Inspired Nails - Painting Of A Painting

Allo polish Pals!

How are you all doing today? I hope you've had an epic week - tell me did anything interesting happen to you? OH the stories I could tell from this week.. lets not go there right now though!

We had a few new fragrances come into work so I've been testing everything, getting to know the notes in each perfume and doing my homework so I can advise customers as best as possible.

Today's nail art was inspired by the concept of art within art. For that I painted what can be used to make art and also a miniature painting in a frame. Good job I've got a steady hand as painting within the space of the picture was pretty small and fiddly!

You'll notice I am using a black background for these pictures, this nail art was done towards the start of the year but I kept postponing it :)

Freehand Pumpkin Weenie Halloween Nail Art

Allo polish Pals!

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

As you guys know I've been away for this past weekend and it was awesome, although I'm still not back yet so I'll give you more details and possibly pictures in my next post. (sound good?)

For today though I am rolling out the first of my Halloween nail art designs. I've three to show you in total but I'm saving the best until last! This ones pretty simple but I wanted to create something cute. Here's my Pumpkin Weenie!

Nail Dried Flower Decoration & Silver Nail Dust Nail Glitter Powder - BeautyBigBang Review

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

Allo polish Pals!

Goooood morning to you all! Or afternoon.. or evening, depending on where you are and when you are reading this. I hope you had a fantastic weekend? I had a fairly quiet one again but we did go out for dinner on Saturday evening. It was ok - but when you are eating the parts of steak you can eat and complimenting the salad leaves above everything else that's kinda saying something!

Today I have a double whammy, two product reviews in one post. These items came from BeautyBigBang.com and they are 'Nail Dried Flower Decoration' and 'Silver Nail Dust Nail Glitter Powder' - item no. . I decided to pair these with something a little more subtle..

Freehand Floating Feather In The Night's Sky

Allo polish Pals!

How are you all doing today?

I hope your week is going well? Things are just plodding along here, all in a positive way of course! All my polishes are organised and in their new home. I'm still debating between two ways of showing you all, a short video? Or maybe I'll just go live on Instagram, hang out for a bit (I'd be so nervous) answer any questions and just see what happens... I'll let you know here what I decide before I do it in case you would like to join in.

Today's nail art is one of those 'eh.. meh' designs, you guys are always kinder about them then I am so I continue to show them! I just wish I hadn't done the feather as a weird point, I forgot about the top part being separate.. opps.

I began with my usual base of OPI's Nail Envy and once dry applied two thin coats of Barry M's 'Blackberry'. I added a thin coat of my Pro-FX top coat to create a nice layer to paint on top of and moved in with my scruffy (no other name for this monstrosity) brush and metallic acrylics, dotting and layering colours on top of each other to create my sky. I used my fave WhatsUpNails brush for the feather and detailing. Finally I sealed it all in with two more thin coats of Pro-FX top coat and added Barry M's matte top coat which suited it perfectly.

This is what I describe as pleasant nail art.. its not 'bad' per say but its not exactly very exciting either! Ah well!

What do you think of this night time nail art? Have you ever had a feather of some kind on your nails?

Have a wonderful day my friends, thank you for visiting. I'll be back on Saturday for a slightly different type of post.

Love,

Ithi

Freehand Unicorns & Holo Glitter Nail Art

Allo polish Pals!

How are you all doing today? I hope you had a wonderful weekend – did you do anything fun?

I've got my storage! And I love it! But I'm not showing you just yet :) What I'd thought I'd do is actually make a video showing you how I am storing everything - even nail art bits. Good idea? Let me know!

This week I'll start organising my documents. I wont really be looking for work until September (I'm miracle Auntie Ithi who can help over the summer holidays) but I can get everything organised and get my CV written. Can I not just go work for Barry M or something? Ideal role? – polish namer! Polish over-see-er? If only!

Today's nail art is one I am not really too happy with. I ended up doing it twice, both entirely different and both left me a little displeased but I've learnt to let you guys be the judge – your a lovely bunch. If your a Tiny Canvas member I'm sure you'll be seeing a whole kingdom of unicorns currently!

The reject.

Why didn't I like these? I just feel like the magic is missing.. even with the holo glitter which I struggled and failed to capture well just didn't give it that special touch.. Hrm.

I'll tell you more about the second (the one I'm focusing on) I decided to do two unicorns together would be a fairly nice sight. I'd like to imagine they are grooming and giving each other little kisses :3 The holo glitter is from the Born Pretty Store and I applied it by dabbing it on top of my wet top coat, probably wasn't the best way.

Which design do you like best? Have you ever had unicorn nail are before ? - feel free to link it!

Thank you for stopping by! I hope you liked today's post. I'll catch you again on Wednesday for some more nail art.

Love,
Ithi

Freehand Evil Siren Mermaid Nail Art

Allo polish Pals!

How are you all doing today, has anything exciting happened during the start of your week?

Rolling with the constant chances I got my hair all cut off yesterday! FINALLY. Freedom! I really like what my hair dresser did with it too. The pile of hair on the floor was unreal. If you wanna see some before and after pictures you'll find them at the bottom of the post. I feel like I'm getting myself back!

There are so many beautiful, delicate and well executed mermaid manicures floating around at the moment – its even the current theme over on Tiny Canvas... I guess I had to go and ruin it because I didn't feel like painting something nicey-nice..

This bieesh will sink your ship and drink your tears... We'll remember this as the day Ariel couldn't come out to play.

Haha. I.. er.. Welcome to the dark part of my brain! I don't like her as much as the last mermaid I did but I guess she's got some attitude, right?

I started this manicure by applying my Nail Envy base coat from OPI. Once dry I added two coats of China Glaze's 'White On White' (new favourite white!) I used my metallic acrylic paints to sort of dab on various colours for my moody sky and created the rest with my fave 'WhatsUpNails' brush.

I kinda like how this came out. I am going to hedge a bet that this will flop on IG, Land of the beautiful mermaid nails. Seriously though, there are some really beautiful designs out there!

Its fun to try different things, don't you think?

Here's my hair adventure. My hair is naturally VERY thick, wavy, curly.. I had wanted it short for a long time but felt restricted.. Now since I'm making so many changes, BAM!

You have permission to laugh your heads off at the before, brushed hair picture!

What do you think of my angelic looking mermaid? Do you ever do the opposite of what you'd think is expected?

Thank you for stopping by, my beautiful's! Have a wonderful day, I'll catch you again on Saturday!

Love,

Ithi

Professional Naill Art Pen/Dotting Tool - BeautyBigBang Review

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

Allo polish Pals!

How are you all doing today? I hope your week is going well so far?

Its been a scorcher here, it is hawt, hawt, hawt!

Today I have something a little different to show you, this little beauty comes from BeautyBigBang.com (use the coupon code: PUTE10 at the checkout to get 10% off all orders) and it is a 'professional nail art pen/dotting tool'. I have only heard about legendary nail art pens before so I jumped at the chance to try this product!

Click 'Read More' - there's a very short video!

Freehand Mermaid Nail Art With Fish Scale Hexagon Sequins - BeautyBigBang Review

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

Allo polish Pals!

How are you all doing today? I hope you have had a great weekend and are ready to start a fresh new week! I really like Mondays, I like the prospect of starting a week over and having an even better one than the previous one! Its a good time to reaccess all the things you maybe couldn't but wanted to do the week before.

Here's a little thingy that happened yesterday morning.. It was fairly early so there was no one around while I was walking Luna pup and there was a man walking behind us. As I turned the corner I heard 'Hello!' - I turned, obviously a little confused and the man started talking. I explained I needed the English, I didn't know some of what he was saying. He said “Are you a sports figure?”

Me:...Pardon?..er..wha?.. “Oh, because of your muscular calves”... Me: “Oh.. er.. uhm.. thanks.”

I scuttled home so fast, ran upstairs and told my boyfriend and obsessed in the mirror that I must have enormous disproportioned legs. Apparently this is like an old fashioned compliment. My thoughts? A bit weird :( Your thoughts?

But nails now!! Today I have a new product to share with from BeautyBigBang.com – I feel in love with these when I saw them in their store, they are '3 Box Set Fish ScaleNail Sequins Mermaid Hexagon Glitter Manicure Nail Art Decorations' in J2107-GN (green).

Of course when they arrived I'd completely forgotten they came in a set of three so I was really confused for a minute, haha!

Freehand Little Red Riding Hood Nail Art

Allo polish Pals!
I hope you are all doing super, super, super! Are ya?

I'm back in Holland! I had a great time at home although I did find out I am pre-diabetic which was..well. Quite a shock, however on the plus side finding out this now is a good thing as I can totally make changes to reverse this.

I'm actually really happy with the nail art I am going to share with you today. I had had this idea in my mind for a couple of years but I kept putting it off as I didn't think I do my idea justice.. well. It was time to come back to it and give it a fair go!

I wanted to create a very dark looking version of the Little Red Riding Hood; I don't think she has any idea he's slinking along behind her, do you?

I used OPI's Nail Envy for my base coat and applied two smooth coats of Barry M's 'White' nail polish for my painting canvas. I added a thin coat of my Pro-FX top coat as a nice anchor for my acrylic to stick to.

For this manicure I played heavily with black and white acrylic paint, doing my best to mix all the shades of grey in between to create strong contrasts. Of course I needed a few flecks of red here and there.

I don't think my wolf looks particularly scary but he is pretty big, I think i'd have a fright if I turned around and saw him following me. He's pretty fluffy though so I'd probably try and hug him!

Have you done any fairytale nail art? Would you be scared of this wolf?

Have a beautiful day, my friends. Thank you so much for taking time to come visit me and my nails! I'll catch you again onWednesday :)

Love

Ithi

My Year In Nail Art - Round Up Post!

Allo polish Pals,

How are you all doing today? I hope you are all doing well.

Are you still having some quiet time at home or have you had to go back to work? - At least it wont be long until everyone gets a nice New Years break.

Speaking of New Years, I have some nail art coming up for New Years Eve but I thought today as an almost end of year post I would do like a general round up of how I've enjoyed blogging this year.

I feel like this year has been the best year yet, I feel like I've got things grounded, I don't get in too much of a flap trying to keep ahead of my blog posts which is a great feeling compared to some of the previous years. I've also learned a lot in this past year. I've tried new things, loose glitter has become a firm favourite when I combine it with my freehand.

So this is a lot of talking, isn't it? I've decided to show one manicure from each month of the year. I had a couple of months I found it really hard to decide which manicure was best, lets take a look under the jump!

5 Piece Fantasy Crystal Ball Nail Art Jewelry - Born Pretty Store Review

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

Allo polish Pals!

How are you all doing today? I hope you all had a great weekend, tell me one of your weekend highlights! Mine was on Saturday when I went out on the bicycle, I found an entirely new place called Wolvendijk - I had a lovely ride along the channel mouth seeing all sorts of nature and wildlife, sail boats and beautiful scenery. I looked it up later online and realized I must have cycled about 5 miles!

Today I have some very interesting Fantasy Crystal Ball Nail Jewelry from The Born Pretty Store to share with you.

These super cute crystal ball like studs come in a set of five, which I feel is plenty personally as I couldn't imagine wanting one on every finger! They come in varying colours including clear, yellow. Purple, pink and blue which is which I'm showing you here. They are approximately 4-4.5mm in size so perhaps better saved for very special occasions. The actual process of applying these is made easy as they are flat backed meaning that it is easy to get them to stick to the nail without rolling off all over the place. One thing I really like about these is how they look like they have glitter running through them. They make me think of fantasy and fairy tales – Cinderella for some reason.

Even though I was excited to try these I hadn't actually planned on how I would be wearing them. In the end I decided to pair them with some standard crescent studs so I could turn them into a fancy 3D flower! They are paired with Essie's 'Nice Is Nice' and Barry M's 'Silver foiled with an alternating Chevron pattern from FabUrNails stamping plates.

What do you think of these crystal balls - how would you wear them?
Have yourselves a beautiful day, don't forget to join in my giveaway if you haven't yet!

Love
Ithi

IthinityBeauty's INTERNATIONAL Nail Art GIVEAWAY!

Allo polish Pals!

I hope you are all doing great today? Do you have any nice plans for this weekend?

I promised you guys a giveaway and that's exactly what we shall do! I wish I could do giveaway's more frequently but I'm really not in the financial situation to be able to... I just want to let you all know how much I appreciate all the support you guys give me with my nail art. While nail art is a passion and hobby for me it has led me to meet some really fantastic ladies both in the blogisphere and around the web.

I started my blog to give myself more purpose in my life, maybe that sounds kind of sad..but at the time of this blog's birth there wasn't much going on for me. I was in a relatively low place and lacked absolutely any confidence. While I am still not a terribly confident person I've seen myself grow and change so much since the start of IthinityBeauty. I've been through a lot, I've met new wonderful people, said goodbye to those who brought negativity and pain and said goodbye to those I never wanted to. While I always enjoyed nail art I discovered and found my love for freehand nail art, I feel like I've found my voice in real life and also that I have improved with what I do, be it how I paint or how I chose to organize my posting - how I organize my time generally (I used to get in such a stressed state trying to find things to post) I also feel like I've known some of you since the very beginning too.. ;') Thank you for continuing to join me on my nail art journey..

Now onto the prizes! Don't forget this is open internationally, but you have to enter to be in with a chance to win!

Professional Kiko brush set in metal travel case – contains four brushes.
1 nail wheel with 3D colourful diamonds for nail art.
1 pack of 9 stencil stickers for nail art designs.
1 pack of metal-look sticker decals.
1 pack holographic line/pattern nail art stickers.
1 sheet colourful rainbow feather water decals.
1 Large (flower themed) Born Pretty Store stamping plate.BP-L024.
1 Large (optical illusions) Born Pretty Store stamping plate. BP-L027
1 Jelly/marshmallow stamper and scraper set.
1 Starry Night Sky/Moon/Galaxy Pendant necklace
1 Bag of golden seashell studs,
1 Nail art wheel with mixed colours, stars and square shapes.
1 Small round (Radiating Patterns) Born Pretty Stamping Plate. BP11.
1 Starry Sky Gel Ink Pen (for planning your next nail designs!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You can also enter by finding me on Instagram @ithinitybeauty - Repost my giveaway including the hashtag #ithigiveaway and follow

Please be sure to read the terms and conditions included on the Rafflecoptor and of course don't forget to enter! Closing date is AUGUST ^27th – Winner will be announced shortly after AND contacted by email. If winner fails to reply after 72 hrs a new winner will be selected at random.

Goodluck everyone! Have a great weekend, I'll be back on Monday for some nail art fun!

Love

Ithi

Countryside Twin Nails With @TheHumbleBear

Allo polish Pals!

How are you all doing today? I hope you are having a great Friday – are you excited for the weekend? I don't have a lot planned, I'll be going to Mr Bravo's 'Nephews first birthday party today. He's such a little cutie! I can barely take my eyes off him whenever I see him – he seems to quite like me too!

I recently had a DM through Instagram from the lovely Beverly (FB fan page: Here) who's IG account is @thehumblebear. She asked me if I would be interested in a collaboration and I jumped at the chance! I really really wanted to collab with her because I love her account and all of her designs. It also turns out that she is in the nail art facebook group I am in, Tiny Canvas (heaven, love this group) so not only have I got to collab with someone talented and fabulous, I've made a friend too!

The inspiration for our nail art came from a picture Beverly sent me. I was blown away, I love the countryside and any type of scenery art...however when it came to painting it I struggled big time because the picture is longer/taller than it is wider, so while there was a lot to paint up and down the nails it left me with a naked pinky. It was really hard to plan out but it was also a lot of fun.

For my manicure I began with my usual base coat of OPI's 'Nail Envy' and once dry applied two coats of NYC's 'Williamsburg Vintage' and created the rest with my acrylic paints and crappy bamboo brush (no idea how this is still going on) and Edinburgh Realism brush. I am not super happy with my outcome, I feel like it could have been more realistic and I wish I had put the fields in properly. I also did a terrible job with the clean up..sorry.

Williamsburg Vintage'

Beverley's amazing version. I love how on point her colours and design is.


My version... which happens to look nothing like the original, baha.'

It was a really fun manicure to try and do, it involved a lot of thinking. I really love the outcome of Beverley's manicure and I have enjoyed meeting and getting to know her. Perhaps we can collab again in the future!

If you are not already following the wonderful @thehumblebear go do so! What do you think of our manicures?
Have a beautiful day, I'll catch you on Sunday!
Love
Ithi

Make Any Polish Holo Holographic Starry/Glitter Foils - Born Pretty Store Review

Allo polish Pals!

How are you doing today? I hope you are having a great week so far? I'm going to be really honest here and say that half of the polishes I see online go on my wish list. If I could afford to I would so easily splurge on holographic polishes from so many companies. You can't imagine how long it is and how many brands are on that list, that's why I never made an actual list... it would unravel like a wizards scroll.

Now the most obvious solution would be to go buy myself a lovely little holo topper but I can't even stretch to that... so when I saw this foil I completely fell in love because its giving me exactly what I want for a fraction of the cost. Of course its not the same, wont last or wear the same as polish and well...its just not a ILNP/Cupcake/Starrily (You get the idea) but it still looks beautiful and satisfies my holo-needs for a while! This is Holographic Starry/Glitter Foils in 132 from The Born Pretty Store.

I'd just like to put it out there that I'm really not a pro at photographing holographic polishes, or holographic... anything. I took these photo's using the flash. I hope that the pictures still look ok.

Video Tutorial: Water Colour Nail Art

Allo polish Pals!

How are you doing today? I hope you all had a lovely weekend, do you feel refreshed and recuperated? Today's post is in a slightly different format to usual, you might have seen this already but I wanted to post it here too. I made a tutorial! My first ever 'real' video tutorial, actually. I don't think those short clips showing how shiny something looks on my nail counts as a nail art video.

I had a few requests for a tutorial on how I do my water colour nail art so I did it! My way of filming isn't the best but I hope the video is clear and descriptive enough for it to make sense. Of course if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask me.

One lesson to learn: Stop doing things almost off of the screen, baha!

I really love using this technique, it was only this weekend I did a manicure using it again. I know there may be similar videos online but I hope maybe it gives another angle or explains something different in the way of doing it. Its what I do..and I like how it works for me! Thats why I always say what will work for one person may not work for another.

Its all trial and error but if you love nail art, that just means more time doing what you love and enjoy!

If anyone creates a manicure after being inspired by my video (I know its not the only one of its kind but it is my version, hehe) I'd love to see your results!

I hope you enjoyed, I'll be doing another tutorial again soon!

Have a lovely day,

Love

Ithi

Sketch Flower/Plant Nail Art Water Decals - Born Pretty Store Review

*This post contains items that were given for reviewing purposes however I will still provide my full and honest experience.

Allo polish Pals!

How are you all doing, I'm wishing you a wonderful Wednesday! Has anything interesting happened in your week so far?

I feel great! Good things are finally happening..The internet is fixed! Yesterday was a great day, my domain is finally done. Sorted. Fixed entirely! There should be no more issues! I have all the prizes from a nail art contest I won recently, I am *most* excited about trying my new brushes, so much so that I've been decorating my brush holder (how sad) I'm just feeling more positive. There are more things but I'm talking too much. Its just nice to say things are... good after a slump, Ya know? :)

Today I have a set of really beautiful water decals to share with you.

I realized while applying these how long it has been since I did decals. I had those floral ones which felt like forever ago.. I kinda missed the application process of applying decals!

This beautiful set come from The Born Pretty Store, These are 'Sketch Flower/Plant Nail Art Water Decals' in 'DLS 344'