Kirby!

I just finished watching a Let's Play of Kirby's Epic Yarn (by my favorite let's player, Chuggaaconroy), and I just had to do Kirby nails.

I made Kirby, and the writing, using the plastic bag method. To make him, I started with a pink circle, and added his little arms. I added shading with the same color, just a bit darker, and then even darker feet. I made hit face, outlining the eyes and mouth with a grey. I thought that black would be too overpowering, but I'm not sure I was right. Then I outlined the whole thing in black. 
For the background, I was going to have stars, but I changed my mind and made a rainbow. On my thumb I made a big yellow star, and outlined it like a rainbow. For my ring finger I just made rainbow stripes. 
On the rest of my nails I added a nude pink base, put on a shimmery pink polish, and made a white french. I made rainbows on the french, and outlined it with a dark grey. Ta-da!
On these pictures I'm wearing a matte top coat, because my Seche Vite has started to act up when I apply it over acrylic paint. It lifts off the acrylic paint, which isn't good since I'm wearing it over my tips. The matte top coat doesn't lift.
Tialiq

Blue Christmas!

I don't very much like wearing red, and this Christmas I decided to wear a dark blue dress for Christmas Eve, so I made a blue nail design to go with it! 

I started, as you can see on the bottom picture, with a beautiful blue gradient. Excuse the messy cuticles! 
Then I added light blue and silver glitter over the whole nail, concentrating at the cuticle. I also added a very tiny bit of silver crackle polish to make it shine more. Then I added a lot of rhinestones over half my nail, and finished with a little star jewelry on my pinky. On the second picture you can see the hole in my nail.
Piercing your nails is absolutely not dangerous. I do it right after my nail bath, when my nails are soft. I use a thin needle to pierce it, first from the underside and then I go through it again from the top. If the hole needs to be bigger to get the jewelry through, I user a bigger needle to go through it again. 
If you do this when your nails are dry, they can crack. If you make the hole too close to the edge, it's more likely to break when you pierce it. When you cut your nails after having a pierced nail, you should cut away the hole, but you can have a pierced nail without using it. Just apply nail polish over it and it won't show! 
I love wearing nail jewelry, I need to buy more!
Tialiq

Playboy!

Yes, I made Playboy nails. I made these using the plastic bag method. 

I made both hands different. My right hand had a black bunny, and the text "Playmate" on the thumb. My left hand had a purple bunny and "Playboy" on the thumb, with pink glitter over it.
I started with a white and added a pearly glitter over it. I put on my decals, and on the rest of my nails I made simple black and pink glitter stripes, with purple rhinestones in the middle. I also added stripes on the ring finger, around the bunny, but I hadn't done that yet when I photographed my right hand. 
Tialiq

Blue Winter!

I just love blue, as you might have noticed, and I made these sparkly, adorable winter nails! 

First I applied a nude pink polich over my whole nail. Then I started the design by making a blue french, starting about halfway up on my nail, and going down to the corner of my tip. I added small, blue dots along the edge. I added a little bit of light blue glotter over all of it. Then I outlined the dots, and made a net over the whole blue area. I also made white dots along the rounded edges, to make a lace, and dots going up the nail. I should've skipped those last dots though.
I added a bit of silver glitter over the white areas, and then finished with rhinestones and blue, starshaped glitter.
Loved wearing these!
Tialiq

FMA: BH - Barry the Chopper!

Ooooooh dear. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. I'm absolutely in love with it! While I was watching it, inspiration struck me, and I created this design!

I really tried to get a sharp picture...

In the beginning of the anime (can't find the exact episode), they meet a little character called Barry the Chopper, who's had his soul attached to an armor just like Al. The difference being that Barry was convicted to death, but instead of getting hung, he was used in human experiments. When Barry tells this story, this picture is shown: 

I started with a red polish. Then I took a darker red, it was like a red burgundy, and it's very thin. I created a line along the cuticle with a toothpick, to make sure I got full color there. Then I sponged over that to made it gradiate into the other red. After it was dry, I went over it again, this time moving into the nail to create the gradient. While it was wet I applied a little bit of deep red glitter, which really gives depth to the colors. Then I top coated, to smooth out the surface.
I painted a very tiny french, way out on my nail, in black. From it I made little crosses. As you might see from the picture, Barry was convicted for murdering 23 victims, so I made sure to paint 23 crosses on each hand! Barry himself got the ring finger all for himself, and on the other nails I added little birds.

I'm absolutely in love with this. I dislike wearing red, but for this design it's worth it! 
Tialiq

Fish Scales!

Continuing my obsession with blue! I got an idea of sponging on a french, and letting it reach the cuticle on one side. It all escalated from there...

I started by sponging on a bit of white, to mark out my french, and to make the color pop a bit more. Then I added a tiny bit of blue on the edge of my sponge, and went around the edge to gradiate it. Then I took my polish brush and applied it over the tip of my nail, and again with the edge of the sponge I touched up the line where the layers overlapped, this time removing polish with the sponge and gradiating the layers together. 

Now it was time for glitter! I applied my fantastic blue glitter, that shimmers rainbow, and then I applied many large, green hexagons. They shimmer green/blue/purple. I applied a top coat, and then made a messy outline of the gradient, and added little C shapes to add more of a scale pattern. I also added tiny little white dots to represent air bubbles! 

These were so shimmery! I ended up disliking the shape of the french though, it's a bit too thick in my opinion. 

Tialiq

Cute Argyle!

So I hadn't given argyle a shot yet, even though I've been wanting to do it for ages. Now was the time!

I started with a light, mint blue. Then I added white hearts, which on its own is an adorable design! 

In retrospect I should've gone through the effort of making these light blue, but oh well. 

To make the argyle pattern, many videos on youtube suggest making an X with a striper and filling two halves in. That doesn't give sharp points, though, and the color you fill in with kind of takes over in my opinion. So I made an X with a clear polish, and then filled it in. I used a nice chocolate brown for this, since light blue and brown is such a cute combo!

I mixed a golden glitter with a bronze glitter, and applied it over the brown polish while it was still wet, just to give a bit of dimension and sparkle. 

I finished off with my white striper, to complete the argyle pattern! 

Tialiq

Blue Sailor!

Blue is one of my favorite colors, so I was really excited when I found this perfect blue shade!

I ended up making a white V, with black lines. I added a beautiful blue glitter, that himmers in rainbow colors, and a little black rhinestone. It kind of looks like a cute sailor- or schoolgirl costume! Absolutely love this blue, definitely going to use it again!

Tialiq

Gold and Green Filigree!

I really like filigrees, and I wanted to make something really subtle that looked more complex the closer you got. So I made these!

I started with a golden polish, and before it dried I added some extra golden glitter as well. Then I mixed the perfect green, using different green shades, mustard yellow, white and orange. 
To make the pattern I started at a random spot on my nail, and just drew out from that point. On my thumb its at the cuticle, on my ring finger its in the middle of the nail. 
It did take a while, but it was worth it! It ended up very subtle, and my nails looked like a light, shimmery emerald green color from afar. 
Tialiq

Update Post!

So lately I haven't made very geeky designs. Therefore I'm not giving them their own posts! Wall of nail-nerdiness approaching.

First up is a green water marble! I added blue glitter polish as my accent color, and I thought it looked pretty fail at the time, but now I kind of like them. They are very messy, but unique!

Second is my Halloween design! I had many ideas, but it came down to the fact that I don't like wearing orange, so I went with spiderwebs over a green. I faded in a bit of yellowy lime green, and some green glitter, to make it look extra slimey. I painted the web with my stripers, first silver glitter and then black. It needed a bit of color so I added a spider with a red rhinestone on its back.
I also used my microbeads for the first time! I put them in as trapped flies. I didn't really like the beads though. They got stuck in hair and fabrics, and they fell off easily. Mine also turned opaque when I top coated, so I'm not sure if it's the beads or Seche Vite. I'll definitely use them again though!

This one was created as I went along. I saw my purple and blue metallic polishes standing next to eachother, and I could just see the beautiful gradient they'd make. So I started off with the gradient, and then I added a viny sort of pattern on my ring finger and thumb. On the rest of my fingers I made little teardrops at the cuticle, and put rhinestones in them. I also put them in the teardrop shape of the pattern. Then I added glitter, hexagons and using my silver striper, and it ended up reminding me of the Night Elves in World of Warcraft. So I guess these are kind of nerdy, but since that wasn't the plan I'll let it slide. I definitely want to do another design for World of Warcraft though!

And my last design is a really simple V French. I painted all my nails, except my ring finger, white. Then I took two small pieces of tape and put it on the white nails to make a V at the tip of my nail. I took a sponge and made a black gradient coming from the edges. I quickly applied a glitter polish and took the tape off. 
For my ring finger I painted the nail with my silver glitter striper, it's very thick. Then I applied two coats of the same glitter polish as on the other nails, and waited for it to dry. Then I took a square piece of tape and put it over the nail, to make a big V. Then I sponged down over the tip, and remove the tape. I applied rhinestones on all my nails, and top coated.
As you can see this is a very big rhinestone, and all of the bottom surface isn't touching my nails. Therefore I apply top coat only on the sides of the rhinestone first, to glue it in from below. Then, when it's dry, I apply top coat over the rest of my nail. Doing this, my rhinestones never fall off!

That's the end of my huge update!
Tialiq

Soul Eater! Medusa!

Awwww yeah. I've decided to re-watch Soul Eater, just in time for Halloween! Hoping to get some inspiration.
This time, one of the few times, I've copied a nail art. Usually I add my own twist, or just get inspired by a design, but this time I full on copied... An anime character.

Creating Medusas nails was very easy. I just applied a dark grey polish (I'm pretty sure she wears a super dark grey, bordering on black, but I didn't have that so I settled for this dark grey. It has a bit of shimmer though which I dislike.) and added some yellow arrows with acrylic paint. First I did it with white acrylic, then with brown. I thought it was too dark and went over them again with this more yellowy-beige color that I mixed with a burnt sienna, a sand color, some green and a lot of white. 

Looking at the picture I realize how bad I am at making arrows... Practice makes perfect!

Also, I'm considering making them matte, as Medusas nails don't shine at all.. I'll see how I feel about it later. 

Here's printed screens from the anime!

The second I saw that Medusa was wearing nail art I decided to re-create it. I was too lazy to go back to find where I initially noticed the design, so I print-screened her hands and feet while she fought Stein.

Ahh, isn't it fun that I'm finally doing something slightly geeky! I've missed it!
Tialiq

Purple Leopard with Glitter!

Another purple design, another leopard print. 

I don't get it, I don't really like leopard prints. They're just so easy to do, it's not an ugly print, looks good in all colors... I'm assuming it's mostly the quick and easy part that makes me paint them.

Any way, this time I decided to do two things I've never done. 1: Paint one nail fully in glitter polish. 2: Have one nail completely stick out, but at the same time go with the rest of the nails. 

Of course I chose purple for my glitter. I mixed 6 glitters (light pink, dark pink, light blue, dark blue, purple, silver) with clear polish and painted 3 thick layers. Then I painted a white french on the rest of my nails and added a thin, light pink polish over the whole nail. Then I went over my french again to get it nice and white, and made some light purple dabs above it with acrylic paint. When I was done I added more purple in it and made a line over the edge of the french.
I took a little bit of purple and black and mixed it with loads of water to make the paint nice and thin. In my opinion, the thinner the paint the less you have to do. The brush and paint moves for you. You also get nice shifts in the paint, because it's so thin the water pools up and those areas become darker when it dries. 
So anyway, I painted the leopard print with the dark, watery purple. To finish it off I added another glitter mix to the thin lines above the french (purple, dark pink and dark blue glitter) and a tiny, purple rhinestone. 
Simple, but cute!
Tialiq

Purple One-Stroke!

I was out in our back garden, and I saw these beautiful purple flowers. The idea hit me, and I knew in my heart that it was time. So I made my first proper one-stroke design, in my favorite color!
I started with a white base. My white Essie polish keeps bubbling, I'm going to test if it's because of the base coat. I knew I wanted glitter on this design anyway, and I've already mentioned that that's the perfect way to cover up bubbles. 
Again, I mixed some golden glitter into a clear polish (it can't be fast drying, it will dry up before you've painted two nails) and used just a tiny bit of glitter so it wouldn't cover too much. Then I made the one-stroke.
The most difficult thing to master, in my opinion, is how to apply the paint on the brush. If it's too little, the stroke will be streaky. If it's too much, it'll mess up and not apply in a nice gradient. For this design, I also dipped 3/4 in the light purple, and 1/4 in the dark. That was quite hard to achieve every time. 
The other things you need to learn about one-stroke is; you have to move your hand in a fluid motion. If you stop in the middle, it has to be re-done from the start. You also need to learn how to angle the brush to get the different colors where you want them, but when you've learned the movement it's actually quite easy. 
After the flowers, I took the light purple and made little swirls and stuff. I thought they were too light though, and filled them in even thinner with the darker purple. I also added dark dots in the center of the flower, and light dots between the swirls. You can't really see those. 
For a final touch I added bigger, golden hexagons glitters in the flowers, and a dark purple rhinestone. 

You'll have to excuse my messy fingers, I'd only cleaned up around the cuticles.

I usually don't want to wear floral patterns, but I absolutely adore these nails. They're so elegant. I definitely want to try to make more one-stroke designs. It's so much fun!

Tialiq

P.S

Yes, I know it hasn't been very nerdy lately, I haven't seen any animes without blood recently, and I have quite a few blood-splatter designs. But they'll come back!

Retro Lilac!

Remember how I said my favorite color is purple? And them how I bought this amazing lilac polish by Essie? Yeah there's gonna be a lot of lilac. 
I started with my lilac polish, applied two coats. Then I made a black french with watery black acrylic paint, and then I filled it in with polish. Why? The paint does 70% of the work when it's that thin, it follows the nail very nicely. My black polish is very thin and needs at least two coats, but with acrylic under it you just need one. I really love having a black french!
Then.. The polish bubbled. I got so frustrated, I waited longer than usual and it hasn't bubbled before. But that mage me a reason to apply glitter. The best way to cover up bubbles is glitter. I hope you can't see it too well, but on my thumb and index finger there is way too much glitter. That's because I tried to apply it using a brush that isn't a fan brush (I still don't have one!), and it was just too much. Then I put some clear polish on my palette and put a little bit of glitter in that, and suddenly it was perfect. That was the whole reason I bought that cheap, clear polish too!
Then I started applying dots. The paint was a bit too watery, so the dots aren't as perfect as I want them, but you can't see that unless you're really close so I let it be. I started with big black dots, and then went over to my smaller dotting tool and made white dots, in the black dots and some over the black french. If I had the space I went in again with a black dot inside them. If a dot got a lot sloppier than acceptable, I put in a silver 2mm rhinestone. And I ended up with this retro design that I actually quite like. 

Initially I was going to make this design matte, but since it bubbled I didn't want to. Applying a matte top coat over bubbles makes the bubbles a lot more obvious. But I'm also out of Seche Vite, so I used my cheap not-really-a-top-coat to top coat and even hours after I'd applied it, the rhinestones moved around and smudged the design. You get so spoiled after using Seche, since it's rock solid within minutes. 

I also painted my mums nails! She wanted something pink to match her outfit for the weekend, so I used quite a strong pink (for her) and then painted a light pink filigree on her ring fingers and thumbs. She wanted it on all her nails but man.. They're so demanding to paint. Really makes your hands shake after a while, and you can't afford that with those thin lines. 

The lines were perfect before top coating, but they got a bit smudged by the polish which is a shame. They're really thin lines though so it's understandable. She also couldn't sit still long enough for the top coat to dry, so that might've contributed. But she's happy nontheless and therefore so am I. 
Tialiq

Murdering Mermaid!

Yes. 
At first I was going to do a Pocahontas-design, but I never felt inspired enough to actually paint it, so I wore my nails bronze for quite a while. I think I've said this before, but I don't really like wearing too warm colors like brown/bronze, red or orange. I had to do something about it, so I sat down with a lot of glitter and just played. 
First I applied a brown/bronze glitter haphazardly over the nail. Then I took two bigger hexagon glitters, one white that reflexes pink, and one yellow that reflexes green, and applied both in splotches. I tried not to have them overlap but it was quite difficult. That's the mermaid part.
Then I wanted shading on the sides, so I thinned black acrylic paint until it was basically black water, and applied it to the sides of my nail, and over the cuticle. Then I dabbed it with my finger to fade it in. It ended up seeping over the middle too, and when I tried to wipe it off it stuck on the glitters (even though I had applied a top coat to smooth it out), so everything got a lot darker. I applied more black on the sides, and then it just looked so menacing that I had to apply blood. 
I mixed a crimson red with some black acrylic paint, and randomly applied it around my nail. Then I added my trusted blood polish over it to make it pop. I went over everything again with the watery black, and boom. Murdering Mermaid. 

It looked so awesome before the cleanup! I didn't take a picture after cleaning up, but it definitely did not look this cool at all. I actually didn't even like it after cleaning up, so I ended up removing it pretty fast  Oh well! Can't win them all! 
Tialiq

Aztec!

My friend came over with bare nails, and I finally got to paint an Aztec design. I've been wanting to do it, but I haven't really felt like wearing it myself, so this was the perfect opportunity. 

I did horizontal patterns on all the nails, except the ring fingers. I also got to try out my new purple acrylic paint, finally. It wasn't really opaque so I'll probably have to mix in some white next time. 
I also got to practice making straight lines, and I think I did quite well! It was lots of fun.
Tialiq

Lilacs!

Now I'm gonna post two designs, and they're both purple! One is on my nails, and one on my mum. 
My design was a purple water marble. 
I did a double dip, the first one using very thin, light purples, one lilac and one a bit more pink. I created 3-4 large circles and just made a random pattern, not messing with it too much. Just as an interesting base, really. Then I took the lilac again, a brown and a clear polish. This time I made more circles and messed with it a lot to create thin stripes in my pattern. I finished by adding a pink rhinestone, to make it a bit more clear that it's actually purple, not pink. 

I really like it! It looks a bit like either ice cream or some really cool stone. You can also see that I dip all my nails at once, as the pattern moves over my nails. I really like that for this design. 

My mum got something a bit more simple, the same lilac paint and then a simple dot-pattern that I saw Robin Moses do in a video I've now lost.. But she's amazing!

My mum can't sit still for very long and made a dent in the polish before I got to take a picture, but it doesn't really show that much. 
This lilac is my new favorite polish. It's by Essie and it applies so smooth and well, it's the perfect shade of lilac. I really like Essie overall, the brush, the formula, the application.. It's a dream to paint with. 
Tialiq

Green and Gradient!

So I bought this new, amazing green polish that I wanted to play with. I also had an idea about making a gradient using tape to block areas.. So these ideas mashed together and created this:

I wanted some kind of contrast, so I added a yellow and red gradient on the ring finger, since it's autumn and all. It also goes well with green. This gradient was a bit trickier because the red paint is acrylic, and the yellow is polish, and you have to remove the tape while the polish is still wet and it didn't blend well with the acrylic and.. Yeah. But I made it work. 
I also applied the golden glitter I used in my previous design on one side to make it a bit more interesting. Also, I love it. 
Tialiq

Mermaid!

Ahh, again I wanted something simple, but beautiful. I was looking at my glitters for inspiration, and found this gorgeous blue/green glitter that I wanted to use. I took out my turquoise polish that I hold very dear, and when I'd applied it I ended up not using the dark turquoise glitter. Funny how inspiration works! 
Instead I used a golden acrylic paint to make a gradient down my nail, and then I applied a thin layer of my newly bought golden glitter polish, with both big and small glitters. Then I wanted scales, because this was when I realized that this reminded me of The Little Mermaid. But I couldn't be bothered to paint them myself, I didn't have the time, so I took my thin fishnet and cut out two pieces for my ring fingers. Then I applied another coat of the glitter polish, and the big glitters stuck in the net and it looks absolutely amazing. I was definitely pleasantly surprised!

Here's a picture when it'd just been completed, and then one in daylight. 

The gradient could've been better but I was a bit impatient. Aren't they just adorable though! 
Tialiq

Lucky Star!

Yes! I've finally created Lucky Star nails. The best, pointless anime of all time. I love it! 
  

As you can see, I've broken a nail on my right hand. That's why I cut my nails so short. They're still not the same size but I can't stand having shorter nails than this. I wanted to show the right hand though, because I honestly think this design looked better on a shorter nail. I have very short, round fingernails, which makes great faces. On my other nails I couldn't draw the hair all the way up on the nail, which looks a bit weird. At the same time I wanted the whole nail to be skin colored, to keep it minimalistic. Oh well. It's not a big part of polish near the cuticle, I'll probably dim the quite sharp line with a bit of polish remover. 
Bai-nee!
Tialiq

No Water Marble!

Yes! Robin Moses does this all the time (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytj89v_du1k) and since I didn't have a lot of time to spend on my nails this time, I decided to give it a go! 
I used similar colors, which doesn't really show the pattern, but since it was my first time I think that was probably a good thing... 

I regret adding the glitter, it doesn't really show on this picture but it just looked like grey dust on my nails most of the time. I just want the sparkle!

Tialiq

Pink(?) Roses!

I really wanted to paint my nails green, but I didn't know what pattern to put over it. Then it hit me; pink roses!
The only problem was.. Well, I mixed a red and white acrylic paint, and it painted pink, it dried pink, but when I top coated with Seche Vite it turned orange! The mint green being a cold color, and the now orange roses being warm, it just clashed awfully. Here's a picture anyway, with my thumb and index finger top coated.

Oh well, you can't succeed every time!
Tialiq

Denim!

Ahh I was so sad when my Zelda nails started chipping, but I guess I had it coming. Bowling I tell ya, it ruins your nails. 
I also decided to cut my nails, partially because I broke a nail and had to cut it really short, and also because since I've started school again I'll be doing more stuff and risk my nails. Breaking them just upsets me so having them a bit too short for my liking is the better choice. 
I wanted a simple design this time, but still awesome. I cut off a pocket off my jeans and it was just laying there on my desk in front of me, so, why not? 

I started by painting my nails a very deep navy blue. Then I took my white striper and took as much paint off as I could, and then I striped my nails. Then I took a lighter blue and sponged over it to get the stripes in different shades. I went over it again with a navy blue to get the deep color back, and then I added studs and rhinestone, and a matte top coat. 
I really love them, because at first glance they look simple, but then you look closer and see the texture. You could add stitches and pockets and so on, but I like it this way. Also, again, I wanted something simple. 
Tialiq


EDIT
Since all denim looks different, I wanted to post a picture of the one that inspired me! This is my test-nail, and my inspiration! The colors are different, but I wanted a more pure blue on my nails, it looks better to me. 

Zelda! Again!

So I haven't done nerdy nails for a while. Except those Hellsing ones.. And when I saw the cut scene after completing the Temple of Time in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, I just got so inspired that I had to paint. 
I started by panting my ring finger and thumb white, and sponged a white french on the rest of my nails, letting it go up on the nail slightly. Then I sponged on a light grey for dimension, in the middle on my white nails and on the tip of my french. I also sponged on golden acrylic paint on my ring finger and thumb. 
For my french nails, I wanted to do the diamond shapes that Ghirahim produces, both when you fight him and when he "cages" Link. I mixed in a little gold in my black paint to make it shimmer. 
I wanted to do two patterns, the Zelda logo and the eye on Impas clothes. I did make triangles instead of 5 drops, because I thought it went better with the triforce. Since the logo is big and the eye is slim, and my thumb is big and my ring finger is slim, that's why I placed them where they are. I would've wanted the logo on my ring finger, but had to accept that doing it this way would make it look better. And.. It looks amazing.

I liked my other Zelda nails, but I love these. My hands were so shaky after painting these that I could barely top coat! 
But it was worth it.
Tialiq

Purple with Leopard!

Sometimes I just can't name my designs at all! 

Okay so this is a long story. However, I'll put it a bit further down. First, the design! 

I painted my nails with my favorite color, a nice pastel purple. Then I didn't really know what to do, until I saw this neon orange polish just standing around on my desk. 
I used a pumpkin orange acrylic paint as my base, and made little stripes, almost like flames. Then I went over it again with the neon polish, and finally with a shimmery, thin orange polish with golden reflexes. It looked cool just like that, but I wanted to paint more! And what color compliments both purple and orange? Gold! 
Again, I started with acrylic paint and made a dark yellow using orange, so it wouldn't turn mustard yellow. I randomly dotted in misshaped dots with my brush, and then went over it again with golden acrylic paint. To make the leopard print happen I mixed in black with my golden paint, to make a shimmery, not as heavy black. And voilá! 

Top picture is taken under a bright light, and is how it looks in sunlight. Here you can see the golden reflexes in the orange. But below.. That's taken in daylight, it was cloudy, and the neon really pops! Camera doesn't pick it up too well, but trust me, these shine!

Now for the story. 

At first I was doing to do a marble design. That water design I made keeps coming back in my head and I just wanted to do it again. This time though, I wanted to marble lava. 

It started off great. I painted my nails yellow and marbled the first layer with a thin, light yellow and orange. Next dip was red and grey, and then I did a last dip as well to get it a bit darker. It looked pretty cool! 

But I wanted to add more. Just wearing a marble felt too simple. So I thinned golden acrylic paint until it was basically just water with golden shimmer, and added it on top. Then I tried adding golden glitter on my thumb, and that's when it started to look horrible. 

I added rhinestones and then realized how awful it looked. So I figured I could add flowers to make it better. Using crimson and gold, I made flowers on all my nails and added rhinestones in the middle. This is what it looked like:

Since I'd been working on my nails for quite a while I got frustrated and removed it all in anger. I put on purple polish because it's my favorite color, to cheer myself up a bit, and then I waited for an idea to hit me. Luckily, my orange polishes were still out and gave me the idea that I'm now wearing! 

Eventually, things always work themselves out!
Tialiq

Hellsing!

I've recently re-watched the fantastic anime Hellsing, and it gave me million of ideas. So I had to paint as many as possible. 

For those that don't know, Hellsing is a dark, bloody vampire series. The main character is a vampire, and he works for an organization called Hellsing that takes care of other vampires causing trouble. Basically. 

So, vampire theme! Since I think splashing blood is so much fun, I got really excited. Going to go through this properly, final pic is at the bottom of the post! 

I started by planning out what motives I wanted, I have a paper full of drawings, but I chose the ones that went best together. Then I chose my background colors. I wanted to have red in every design, but I didn't want any nail to have red polish, so most of them turned out grey. 

I mixed the blue myself, using the pale grey, a thin mint blue and a drop of navy blue. The white nail has a coat of a thin skin colored polish, but it doesn't show well. It's also on the grey pinky, you can see that it's a bit lighter than on the index finger. The ring finger has one coat of a silver polish. 

Here I've added another coat of skin colored polish on my middle finger, you can kind of see it now. In real life it's perfect! I also added a glittery silver polish on the silver nail.
My first design was on the thumb, the blue background being their blue uniforms, and the emblem (or whatever it's called) that's on their uniforms. I started by making a black, even cross almost in the center of the nail, a bit closer to the tip, so I could fit the upper part. Filled it in, waited for it to dry, and filled it in again with white, leaving a black line on the sides and for the top part. Then I added the black squares you can see  in the picture. 

I filled in the white squares with red, and the top part in yellow. I also wrote "HELLSING" in black over the yellow area, you can see that later. 

On the skin colored nail I put a vampire bite. This is super easy to do, you sponge on a circle of red polish for the bit area, add a dark red, almost burgundy circle in the middle, and then draw in some blood sippering from it. I made almost brown circles, did the dripping blood in a shade more red, and then added my beloved blood polish (that I'm holding) to give it a bit more pop. 

On my index finger I wanted a cross. There is a cross in the intro of the anime, picture below, and that's the one I wanted. I started by just making a black cross, as you can see. 

My ring finger got my best idea, the bird design. I made a lot of black V's, few on the sides and more in the middle. On the second picture below you can see how they've made a black space in the middle of the nail. 

And the finished nails!

Starting with my index finger; I filled in the cross with white, and then added thin, black stripes. Since I wanted red on all my nails, I painted blood pouring down on the cross, and dripping from the edges. 
Ring finger; In the black area made by the birds, I added white mixed with a tiny bit of black to make a really light grey, and made almost shapes. These are eyes. I put in black circles and then dotted on red to make the eyes look really evil and yummy. 
Pinky finger; On my pinky I wanted something simple and bloody, so I re-did the blood design I once did (but that one had lace). I started off the same as last time, I made a dark red by mixing crimson red and a light brown, and watered it down until it was very, very thin. Then I loaded my brush heavily and tapped it to make the paint splatter over my nail. I added more brown into the paint and went over it again to make shades. Then I took my bloody polish and dotted it in with my brush on the big drops to give it dimension.

I absolutely love this design. I usually fail horribly when added different motives, especially with different background, but these are kept together perfectly by the red additions in each design. 

What I thought of while making these as well, was the you can have each of these designs on its own! The emblem can go on the ring finger, and then you can have the rest of the nails black or blue. The cross, again on the ring finger, would look great if the other nails were just grey (or maybe silver or red, and then have that color behind the cross as well). The bite can be put on your ring finger, and then you can make the rest of the nails skin colored and just add blood dripping from the cuticle.
The birds and eyes would look awesome on the ring finger, with the rest of the nails in black. I don't think having this design on all your nails would look good. As for the splattered blood, I've done that before, and it looks great! 

So this is my tribute to a great anime, I loved making these and I'm loving wearing them. Hope you love them too!

Tialiq