greased lightning.

recently acquired one large tartan skirt and THE jacket.

when worn together i resemble some sort of sandy/danny hybrid, right?

i don't know what's up with my camera taking blurry pics all of a sudden...

vintage skirt+jacket//new look boots//H&M tee//primark socks

also, this is what my nails look like right now.

although, this photo is from monday night....

mostly, they've been described as 'blendy' and 'green' by people. thanks? they are pretty badass, but of course, they are starting to chip. booo.

red.

dress, nails, hair...

ebayed dress+boots//primark socks//matthew williamson scarf

hard as nails bright red+models own red red wine

see, the boots, they go with everything.

my nails have already chipped through a combo of washing up, painting and gluing, but whatever - they look really rather good; the best fade i've had so far. wondering if black will fade into clear to get that ombre thing going? something to try, certainly.

skyscrapers.

two nail posts in a row! 3 days of silence! etc

so, contrary to popular assumption, this isn't a post about heels.

though it should be, if the postman hurried himself along (it's twenty to twelve! where are you! i am expecting both pairs of THE BOOTS and a much needed ink cartridge! gosh!)

anyway.

yes.

skyscrapers.

i mentioned last post that i got a great nail art idea, and though i assume this has been done a hundred times (and probably better), i haven't seen it blogged yet. which is exciting. look see:

a tribute to NYC; a homage to NYFW? no no, a questionable few smudges on my fingernails, that is all.

models own base/topcoat//models own in the navy//17 nightshade//barry m lemon

you need to start with the navy - after the basecoat, obvs - and make sure theres very little polish on the brush so it doesn't go on too dark, else the black won't stand out against it.

it comes out a tad streaky but that adds to the sky effect, right?

i did 3 coats of black which gave it a thick and blocky texture; very building-y. and then dotted and streaked yellow (again, as little as possibile on the brush so as to avoid clumps), and neated them up with a black fineliner while still tacky - fineliner tends to not stay on polish, so really this was just pushing the yellow back into the black to neaten it. finish with too coats of topcoat to hold it and give it shine.

they look better with the camera flash than in real life (unless you get right up close) because the blue/black contrast is better, but for a first attempt from someone with no 'professional' nail art tools i'm pretty impressed with myself....

colour block.

more nails.

nothing too exciting, but colour blocked in blue...

i was, of course, going for an ombre, but i like the messy colour block and it's given me a GREAT idea for my next nail venture.

Model's Own feeling blue (2 coats) followed by a coat of in the navy with very little polish on the brush, then a coat with a normal amount on the brush. then topcoat!

some of my nails look like it's just the half moons painted with feeling blue, which is a great (and simple) idea if you have a light shade and a dark shade in the same colour (or great contrasting colours! peach and purple would be great, or lilac and purple, or grey and black, or peach and blue! or .... i could go on, yknow?)

trial and error: ombre nails.

this is where it all began (for me at least...): a picture on nice and shiny.

ombre nails! what a delight!

so many of my regular-read blogs have had a bash at this, but there's no definitive guide to the perfect fade to black.

UNTIL NOW.

lol, j/k. this is at best a rough guide; a diving board, if you will. learn from my mistakes; take it further.....etc.

you will need!:

indian ink

clear top coat

a tiny paintbrush

a flat eyeshadow brush (or paintbrush, but the eyeshadow brush tends to have softer bristles!)

-------------

indian ink is a great choice for a number of reasons: it dries quickly, it washes off your fingers (so once your top coat is dry, a quick rinse under the tap will get rid of the excess), it's cheap (my tub reliably informs me it cost 1.60), and it's the only black ink i had lying around.

i also have a green drawing ink which i might have a bash with sometime later this week...

course, all that means that it does chip easily. swings and roundabouts.

the flat eyeshadow brush is also recommended - especially if you have one which is about nail-width. easy of application, etc.

also FYI? ombre nails are messy:

my desk; after attempt no.1

...but again, it washes off easily.

trial the first

(all trials began with a basecoat of the models own base/topcoat all in one...)

trial one involved dabbing a dot of ink onto the end of each nail with the small brush, then using the flat brush to spread that dot across the nail, then waiting for that coat to dry and doing another dot, dragging it a little less far each time, and finishing with a layer of topcoat.

it probably could've done with another topcoat layer, as it swiftly started to chip. sigh.

also, i managed to wipe a big smudge in one of my little fingers.

trial the second

day two saw me begin another attempt, which involved essentially the same process, but with a layer of topcoat between each layer of ink.

i hoped it would make it more chip resistant....

it did not.

trial the third

utilising what i knew of indian ink, i thought it a stroke of genius to do this:

note toast plate (to catch drips) and coffee mug (full of coffee. and now, ink stains.).

pros? good coverage.

cons? not much of a fade; mess EVERYWHERE; took ages to dry; there is now a black streak floating around my topcoat bottle; and my thumbs wouldn't fit into the bottle.

massive. fail.

though they look kinda cool. (this is after topcoating and washing the major amounts of excess off...)

trial the fourth

the absolute last one before i get annoyed.

i did, after all, have two thumbs to paint:

and the best one yet, imo.

ignored the tiny brush entirely, and painted with the flat brush with as little ink on it as possible. slowly added layers, with plenty of time for them to dry inbetween. two coats of topcoat to finish.

i don't know if trials 3 or 4 chipped easily cos i took them off in an ink-fatigue about 20 minutes after i finished them.

if i hadn't been so annoyed at ink in general by this point, i might've repainted all my nails like this one, but instead i pulled out my Models Own Purple Grey, which is fantastic and easy and lovely.

perhaps in a couple of days i'll try method 4 for my entire hands, or the same method with the green ink. though knowing my messy nature, the green ink will stain my hands for longer than it will my nails.

saturday post.

a veritable feast of post arrived for me on saturday morning. an ink cartridge (already emptied), my free copy of Vice, and the motherload: my Model's Own purchases.

lilac; purple grey; top coat; the pastel pack (fuzzy peach, lime green and feeling blue) and a black mascara (which is great, thanks for asking)

...and then me and Ana went to Tynemouth Market. we bought a variety of things (she got some homemade jam, which I am reliably informed tasted goooood, and we both went jewellery mad. also i found some flying-based things for the sketchbook....)

epaulette; RAF badge thing; vintage ring...

and this. which you will have already seen if you follow me on twitter.

amazing ring/bracelet/thing.

i was sure i'd painted my nails lilac already by this point but evidently not; they are still buff pink.

the lilac, top/base coat and mascara are all i've tried out as of now, but the base coat performs it's function and the mascara is great (rather robust brush) and definitely a bargain at a fiver, and the lilac is probably the best nail polish for colour/coverage i've used.

thick, but not too thick; bright but not too bright. i could've gotten away with one coat, but slapped another on for luck. about half of my nails have chipped in 2 days, but then the only really noticeable one is the chunk missing from my right thumb, which is more than likely a result of having to wash up.

think i'll take this one off and see what one of the other colours are like this evening.

urban.

ana took my damn camera home in her bag (by accident) so i have to wait til tomorrow to get it back. hmph.

here are some shoddy photobooth shots instead.

shakuhachi* dress//uniqlo cardi//henry holland tights

so this dress i got in the urban outfitters sale came. it was £170 down to £80, and i was tempted. and then it went down to £40, and swiftly into my basket. i would never have bought it at full price, but there you go.

also:

...barry m nails (a closer inspection). must note, everyone bangs on about how good barry m polishes are, but this one took 3 coats to get an even, bright colour and is a bit runny, AND chipped after a couple of days. not largely impressed. but they did have lots of colours, and maybe it's the nature of the colour i chose (got a bright orange one too but haven't tried it yet)

* shakuhachi is a medium-high end label which is pretty cute - a little too cutesy in places but some nice jersey pieces.... you can see/buy pieces at urban outfitters and at asos, but my dress is sold out now.

pink et green.

I've seen a few people trying out gem fatale's leopard nails of late. as much as I lovelovelove leopard print - much more than is appropriate - leopard nails are a bit fussy for my nail tastes. that said, I thought mebs I'd try some stuff out...

so...pale pink with moss green tips.

love this colour combo quite a lot. 3 layers of the pale pink, then the green tips, then another layer of pink. the pink is really pale but 4 layers has made it really stand out.

miraculously every nail is still in tact after I took my bike wheel off, changed the inner tube, and put it back on today, too.

I was gonna do thin stripes but that would take much more patience than I could muster, so tips are about as far as I'm going. a take on the classic french manicure (...is what I would say if this were a press release)

you can see my new desk, a bit.