Feeling geeky! Star wars Nail art! R2D2 and Stormtroopers!

Some of my favourite films have to be the original Star Wars trilogy, so I tried out these Star Wars inspired designs for my 19th birthday. On the right hand I designed stylised R2D2 and on the left simple yet effective Stormtroppers. R2D2 is rather tricky, to create him I got a simple cartoon off Google and picked elements of the little droid that I felt would best represent him. Here is a quick run through- 

Colours - 

• LA Colors White 
• LA Colors  Blue 
• LA Colors  Black 
• LA Colors Red 
• Revlon "Iced" Silver

Methods

Make sure you allow the varnish to fully dry between steps. 

Stormtroopers - 

1. Base coat - to protect your natural nails (this is particularly important if like me you paint your nails every week and don't allow them to "breath")
2. 2 coats of white varnish (LA Colors)
3. Using a detail brush dipped in black varnish (LA Colors) paint a curved line close to the nail bed from side to side
4. Underneath this line two triangles for eyes
5. Then another upside-down curved line in the middle for the mouth 
6. At the chin (tip of nail) paint a small triangle in the middle with dots either side
7. Finally add a fast drying top coat

R2D2- 

1. Clear base coat
2. 2 coats white varnish (LA Colors) 
3. Tip the first 1/4 with silver/grey (Revlon Iced Silver)
4. add details with a mixture of blue and black as per your own design or my photos (having a steady hand is best as he is rather fiddly) (I added a little red dot on the silver tip, thought it set it off well)
5. Finish with fast drying top coat

Hope you like these nails as much as I did, thanks for reading :)

Tools of the nail art trade

Nail art doesn't have to be expensive! It is very easy to make your own tools out of bits and bobs lying around the house or cheap craft supplies. Here are a couple of items I use -

Detail brushes -

• Old small make up brushes - all you need to do is take a pair of scissors and cut off the bristles leaving a very very thin brush that when dipped in varnish can be used to draw just as well as a shop bought detailer. You can also vary the length of the brush to gain more control 
• Pins - dipping long pins in the varnish and transferring the varnish to your nail by running it across lightly is a great way to get narrow stripes (esp if you are trying pinstripe patterns on your nails)
• Old nail varnish brushes -  if a varnish has run out, take the brush and cut it down just like the make up brush
• Cheap paint brushes - shops like Tiger are a great source of cheaper craft materials, paint brushes can be bought and cut down 

Dotting tools- 

• Old make up brushes - often make up brushes have a rounded end this can be used to create dots of varnish 
• Pins - the rounded end of the pin is a perfect dotting tool for more delicate work, and they can vary in size giving you a range of tools
• Pencils - I use both end of an unwanted pencil, the writing end is reasonably small, while the other end I sharpen slightly to create a larger dotting tool 
• Hair Pins 

Nail Varnish - 

• Having a large collection of nail varnish can be very expensive, I would know I have about 50 bottles. However I rarely spend a lot of money on each bottle. Luckily I live near Stratford Westfield in London where there is a great shop called Beauty Base where you can pick up bottles of LA Colors nail varnish for 99p a go! 
• I also always keep an eye on Boot's especially at the end of season when they sell off summery or winter colours very cheaply. 
• You do not even need a bottle of every colour, if I only need a small quantity of a colour then it is very easy to mix a couple of drops of other varnishes to create your desired shade. Just pick up a cheap paint palette or use an old tin, a drop of nail varnish remover will lift residue dry colour right off.  

Hope this is useful! :)

Merry Christmas! Christmas Nail Art!

Being as it is the season to be jolly and all that here are two easy Christmas nails you may like. I have done one pattern on each hand, but they can be effective as a signature nail or mixed up with other seasonal designs. On my left hand I have 5 little Christmas trees while on my right 5 Santa hats, I also have little Santa jackets on my toes.

Colours -

• Mavala "Tobago" Red 
• LA Colors White
• Revlon Clear
• LA Colors Green 
• LA Colors Gold 
• Seventeen Shimmery Gold 

Method 

Christmas Trees - 

1. Clear base coat to protect the nails. 
2. Once this has completely dried stick two strips of sellotape, or masking tape to the nail to create a triangular void in the centre from the tip, running up to the nail bed. 
3. Fill the void with a green nail varnish, I used a lovely rich, slightly sparkly green from LA Colors. 
4. Allow the green to dry fully and add the decorations 
1. Using a detail brush dipped in gold glittery varnish criss-cross it across the tree for tinsel 
2. Dotting tools in different colours will create the baubles 
3. Very fine detail brush dipped in solid gold for a star on top or if you are feeling very arty use white for a little angel. 
5. Once the details have all dried remove the tape carefully and add a top coat.

Santa Hats - 

1. Clear base coat to protect the nails. 
2. Once this has completely dried stick two strips of sellotape, or masking tape to the nail to create a triangular void in the centre from the tip, running up to the nail bed. 
3. Fill the void with a red nail varnish , I used a lovely rich, slightly sparkly red from Mavala 
4. Allow the red to dry fully and add the white fur decoration using a dotting tool dipped in white
5. Once the details have all dried remove the tape carefully and add a top coat.

Hope you enjoyed reading. Have a very Merry Christmas! :)

WAH Nails, Nail art for the Museum of London!

Obviously these aren't nails I made (I wish!). I used to be part of a panel called Junction, at the Museum of London, redesigning the old Roman gallery and designing a new gallery combining Roman Londinium and modern day London, making parallels between them. We asked a nail art company based in London to create a set of nails that combined Londinium and London and this is what they came up with. It was an amazing experience being part of this panel, I learnt so much about how museums work, hosting public events and getting people interested in a subject you are passionate about. These nails perfectly combine my love of nail art and my life long passion for history and archaeology.

I was even lucky enough to become part of the exhibition!

Do check out their website, some of their designs are amazing and you can buy some supplies and gift sets from their shop ( http://wah-nails.com/).  Thanks for reading :)

Meet Lionel Steve Jefferson 1st! Penguin Nail Art!

Meet my friend Lionel Steve Jefferson I (not completely sure where the names came from...). One of my closest friends loves penguins so I was inspired to paint him. For something so simple I think he looks very effective, and he got a lot of good responses.

Colours - 

• Barry M Black
• LA Colors White 
• Orange Varnish - or mixture of yellow and red. 

Method - 

1. Base coat (helps protect the nail)
2. Apply a coat or 2 of black varnish. Barry M is quite a thin varnish so I applied 2 coats for the best coverage.
3. Once dry I did his little tummy, using a smaller detail brush to create the white oval shape
4. Using a dotting tool I created his eyes first with white ovals and then added 2 black pupils. 
5. His beak and flippers were a little trickier for me, not because they are hard to do but I couldn't find a nice shade of orange that wasn't neon. So I improvised, mixing red and yellow to create the right shade. Its always a good idea to mix your basic colours for small details rather than buy an entire bottle. Make sure you use a surface that the varnish wont react with or damage and blend a couple of drops of each colour. If you mix a large amount of a desired colour its always a good idea to by some cheap make up brushes to apply it with. 
6. Allow the design to dry and apply a top coat to protect it. 

Hope you like my penguin as much as I did. Thanks for reading :)

Back to school Nail Art!

I wanted to try out the technique of blotting out areas of my nails to create precise shaped designs. So I thought these cute pencil nails would be a good design to try it on. It's a really handy technique using tape to create voids for patterns, just stick the tape where you don't want a certain colour, paint in the void and when you peel off the tape you should have a perfect shape. Sorry the picture quality is terrible. 

Colours - 

• Revlon clear base coat 
• LA Colors Black
• LA Colors Light Brown
• LA Colors Yellow 
• LA Colors Red 

Optional colours - 

• LA Colors Silver 
• Revlon Pink 

Method - 

1. Apply a coat of clear base coat and allow to dry fully - it is particularly important that you allow this to fully dry of when you apply the tape the polish will peel off with it. I painted the clear coat the day before so I knew it was fully set before I started the design. 
2. Apply 2 strips of tape to the nail to to create a pointed pencil shaped void in the centre of the nail. 
3. Paint a layer of light brown - wood coloured - varnish to fill in this void. Allow to dry fully. 
4. Using a small brush dipped in black varnish add the graphite tip. 
5. Paint the tip of the nail yellow and allow to dry before adding red stripes to it. 
6. Once the design has fully dried, carefully peel off the tape and you should have a perfect pencil design. 

Optional method - 

1. On every other nail paint over the base coat completely with half yellow (pencil)  and half pink (rubber). 
2. Cover the join between the two colour with a stripe of silver varnish to represent the silver rubber holder on some pencils. 
3. Then add the red stripes to the yellow section. 
4. Which ever designs you have chosen add a top coat of clear varnish to seal the design. 

The tape technique can be used to create loads of different patterns, other examples can be found later on this blog. Thank you for reading :)

Light Bulb! Despicable Me Nail Art

I LOVE DESPICABLE ME!! The minions are so cute, I just had to try them out!

Colours - 

1. Revlon Clear base coat
2. LA Colors Yellow "Shock"
3. LA Colors Blue "Static Electricity" (matched as closely to the colour of their dungarees) 
4. LA Colors Black
5. LA Colors White

Method - 

1. Start out with a base coat, really important if like me you are painting your nails very regularly as it helps to protect them otherwise they tend to become brittle and yellowy. 
2. Next a layer of yellow, I used quite a warm shade of yellow so not too radioactive bright, its LA Colors "shock"
3. Once the yellow has dried you want to paint the the first third of the nail blue for the dungarees. You can leave yellow at the sides of the tip if you want to give him arms. 
4. Again once the blue is dry you want to add the detail, which is actually really simple, using a dotting tool and a thin detailing brush. Dotting tool dipped first in black and again in white will create the glasses and the detail brush will add the frames, hair and the mouth. You can varying the number of eyes and style of hair for different minions. Different pupil positioning and expressions make each of the nails individual.
5. Seal your design once it is dry with a clear top coat, this will also cover up any mistakes or rough patches. 

Hope you found this useful. Thanks for reading. 

First time for everything! Owl Nail Art

Everyone has to start somewhere and I was inspired by one of my friends love of owls to try a simple owl on my thumb. For my first ever nail art attempt I was impressed at how it came out.

Colours - 

• Revlon clear base coat, to protect my nails
• a gorgeous blue UV varnish from Primark - this adds some fun to the design, a sedate owl in the day and a glowing one at night!
• Revlon's "copper glaze platinum" and "pure pearl" which are both glittery were used to add in his features

Method - 

1. Firstly I should ad that I don't have any proper nail art tools, as a student I really don't have the money to invest in any so I applied this design with a selection of home-made dotting tools and detail brushes. These can be very cheep to source or make and allow for more variation of size. 
2. To protect my nails I applied a base coat of clear, allow this to dry fully or the further design will not dry very fast at all!
3. Then you want to create the basic shape, using a colour of choice in this case I used the UV blue, to cover about 2/3's of the nail and with a small brush add the pointed ears. 
4. Once the base colour has dried fully add the features, with another small brush I added the copper colour in 2 semi-circles down each side for wings and a small triangle for the beak in the middle. 
5. Using a dotting tool of the end of a paintbrush or bobby pin to create the two circle for the eyes and possibly smaller circles on the body as markings. To add pupils to the eyes, dip a small dotting tool in a black or brown and add to the centre of the eye circles. 
6. To protect the design and make it last longer I would recommend a top coat, this can also help to smooth over any mistakes you happened to make. 

 Hope you like him as much as I did. Thank you for reading and feel free to comment :)