I wish this was my hand

Can I just say OH and then add MY GOD. Of all the nail art designs that WAH Nails have posted on their blog, this could well be my absolute favourite ever ever ever. MINNIE MOUSE BOWS! As soon as my nails grow a bit, I am SO trying this out. I will probably be disappointed as there's no way I've got a steady enough hand to draw bows so perfectly, but still, I have to try because this is just too cute!

Just thought I'd share this lovely snippet of conversation from last night when myself, my parents and my sister were trying to decide what film to watch (yes, that is how exciting my life is at the moment...)

Me: Is The Dark Knight scary though?

Mum: No, it's just very... dark.

[EDIT - I just re-read this and realised it's not actually very funny, I think it's one of those things where you had to be there... take my word for it though, it WAS funny!]

I hope this partially explains why I'm the way I am. Blame the parents, always blame the parents.

The fat man walks alone

Clockwise from left; me, Tash, Nikolai and Lyds

I promise this is the last time I post a photo of leopard-print nails on here, I'm sure we've all had our fill. However, I felt I had to share this because it's not only a picture of lovely, leopardy nails but also of three of my bestestest friends, or at least, their hands. When I was down in London two weeks ago, we all had a fabulous day of being girlie, watching both the Sex and the City movies and making cakes (which sadly, due to a lack of baking powder, turned out kind of horrible). I also leoparded everyone with my mad skillz - I love that we've all got different colour combinations :)

On the subject of nail art; if you really want to see something truly fabulous/creative/brilliant/wonderful, I suggest heading over to Gem Fatale's blog, where her latest Tuesday Tips post was pure genius. I've already been inspired to buy a load of (super cheap) nail accessories on eBay.

PS. If anyone can tell me which movie the title quote is from, you will win... well, you will win nothing, I have nothing to give, but you will win my respect and admiration. And surely that's the best prize of all, right?

Barry

I'm away this weekend, so posting is going to be minimal, still, I'm making a bit of effort by scheduling this and another one for tomorrow. DEDICATION, PEOPLE!

Barry M Nail Paint in Matt White, you make me feel so creative.

Other colours used - 17 Lasting Finish in Baked Cherry and Parma Violet, Barry M Nail Paint in Turquoise, Mint Green and Pink Flamingo. Black detail done with the Topshop felt tip eyeliner.

It's 2am - why am I doing this now?!

Snap-happy

Now that the sun has well and truly buggered off again, I can finally catch up on my blogging shenanigans. Like I said on Monday, I've got lots to talk about so I'm going to try to do several posts over the next few days. We'll see how it goes.

Three years ago, my parents gave me a camera for Christmas. It's not one of those fancy Nikon or Canon ones with the big zoom lens or anything like that, it's just a standard, automatic digital camera, Samsung Digimax to be exact, 7.2 mega pixels, I don't really know what that means. Anyay, my mum told me that it can actually do some cool stuff, and it does have lots of settings, but since I lost the instruction booklet and have absolutely no clue when it comes to photography, (what the hell's an ISO?) I've pretty much only ever used it to take photos of friends etc on nights out.

I decided, about a month or so ago, to mess about with the camera in my garden as the sun was shining and the flowers looked pretty, and by randomly kind of pressing buttons and fiddling with the different numbers (which still mean nothing to me) I ended up with some reasonably ok-ish photos. Like I said, I'm no photographer, I have no idea about this stuff - a photo is either interesting/pretty or it isn't, but I'm quite proud of these shots;

See, pretty right? Right?!

Only problem is, because I was just pressing stuff at random, I don't really remember what I did and any close-ups or arty shots I've attempted since then have ended up being a blurry mess.

Until today!

I've been taking photos of my nails alot recently, because I've become a bit obsessed with nail art and have been trying lots of new things, but most of the images have ended up being blurry or too flashy (notice my expert use of photography lingo) and therefore rubbish. Earlier today though, I pressed this little button with a picture of a flower on it and voila! Super-detailed close-up!

I couldn't decide what colour to wear, so I just put them all on!

(Colours used - Chanel Le Vernis in Particuliere, Barry M Nail Paint in Grey, Turquoise, Pink Flamingo and Mint Green, 17 Lasting Fix in Parma Violet and Topshop Nails in Stolen Sapphires)

I'm sure you can get even better detail with a really fancy camera, but for a three-year-old standard digicam, I'm pretty pleased with this!

The nails were inspired by Dusky Ledoux's Monet-style nails, which were in turn inspired by Gem Fatale's creations, which were inspired by the geniuses (genii?) at WAH Nails.

Basically, nail art is like, totally everywhere, yeah?

Born to be wild

Being the beauty junkie that I am, I quite often find myself watching online tutorials (hair/makeup/nails etc etc) vainly trying to recreate something that seems fairly simple, but in reality is actually very bloody difficult. For example, there are literally hundreds of 'simple smokey eye' tutorials out there, yet no matter how hard I try, no matter which products I use and how much blending I do, I end up looking less sultry, sexy chic and more prostitute panda. Maybe it's my makeup, maybe it's my eyes or maybe I'm just not made to apply makeup in a 'smokey' manner, but generally online tutorials and I just don't mix.

However, on Friday, I learned a wonderful thing. A thing so wonderful, I may put it up there with the other really important things I've learned in my life, such as the alphabet and the names of all of Santa's reindeer. On Friday, I learned how to do this!

That's MY hand! And those are MY nails! And they're leopard print!!! (Well... kind of)

[Products used - base coat - Rimmel Nail Rescue, colours - Barry M Nail Paint in Turquoise, Collection 2000 Hot Looks in Hula Hoop, detail - Collection 2000 Fast Stroke Eyeliner in Black and top coat - Rimmel Lasting Finish in Natural]

Believe me, it's incredibly easy, albeit slightly fiddly. The full tutorial is HERE on Gem Fatale's blog; (which is brilliant by the way) all you need is a couple of different colours of nail varnish, a top coat and a liquid eyeliner for the detail! Yeah! An eyeliner! GENIUS!!!

I got so leopard print happy I also did Liv's -

This is just a random photo she Tweeted - not great quality I know, but you get the idea. [Products used - same as above for base coat, top coat and eyeliner, colours - Barry M Nail Paint in Grey and 17 Fast Finish Nail Polish in Baked Cherry]

I think this is going to be the start of an obsession for decorated nails. It's such a great idea because leopard spots are completely random anyway, so they don't have to be particularly neat. Plus, you can do so many colour combinations! After sporting the blue and pink all weekend, I've just redone my nails in the more traditional leopard print colours, using Chanel Particuliere and Sleek Nailed Polish in Brownie;

Argh, I love it!

Believe me, if a buffoon like me can do it, anybody can! Let me know if you try it out or send me a picture!

Right, good. Time for Desperate Housewives...