40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Earth Tones

Hi all!

This week we have the last prompt for this nail art challenge, it's been a year since it started already! There's a new challenge in the works, so keep posted for that one! We're ending with Earth Tones and my personal pattern is water colour... I've tried that technique with polish which never turned out as imagined so this time I used acrylic paints. I've never used them for my nails ever, so this was a first.

Polishes (and paints):

• Polish My Life - Vail
• Amsterdam Acrylic paint - 409 Burnt Umber
• Amsterdam Acrylic paint - 411 Burnt Sienna
• Amsterdam Acrylic paint - 227 Yellow Ochre
• Lucky 13 Lacquer - Elemental Ward

Base: 2 coats of Vail. One layer of Elemental Ward before I started playing with the paints. I diluted the paints with water and blobbed them on, using the brush to remove any excess. More Elemental Ward to seal it all in.

After a very warm beginning of September, it ended more like autumn, so wearing these all week was very fitting. Perhaps I'll even play with acrylic paints more often...

Love, Brethil

More earth toned nails down here.

Nicole Diary water decals - 3 different looks

*press sample*

Hi all!

A while ago I received five different water decal designs by Nicole Diary. I've shown you two already (here). I decided to just make one huge post with the other three designs because writing one post is less time consuming than three. Also, don't mind the different nail lengths and shapes... the first mani was done well over a month ago *winks*.

Polishes:

• Lucky 13 Lacquer - Dark Matter
• Lucky 13 Lacquer - Elemental Ward
• Nicole Diary - 33

Base: 1 thick coat of Dark Matter. I figured I'd show you how opaque these decals are. Unfortunately the image and white backing did not align perfectly. But you wouldn't see this if you put these emoticons on top of a white base. Sealed it all in with Elemental Ward.

Polishes:

• KIKO - Sugar Mat - 643 Spring Green
• Lucky 13 Lacquer - Elemental Ward
• Nicole Diary - 02

Base: a white polish underneath the water decals, not that this is necessary. On my accent nail two coats of Spring Green and two coats of Elemental Ward.

Just look at that detail!

Polishes:

• Maybelline - Bleached Neons - 241 Sun Flare
• Barry M - Gelly - GNP13 Papaya
• Lucky 13 Lacquer - Elemental Ward
• Nicole Diary - 05

Base: Gradient nails have one coat of Sun Flare and then a sponged on gradient of Sun Flare and Papaya. Decal nails have white polish underneath. Everything is sealed in with Elemental Ward.

Again, so much detail in these decals, I love this whimsical pattern.

Overall, I love water decals. I really like the Nicole Diary ones because they fit larger nails and because there are so many lovely designs. I absolutely recommend these!

Nicole Diary sells more than water decals, they have stamping plates and other nail art items as well. You can find Nicole Diary on Amazon and Aliexpress (Free shipping as far as I can tell as well):

Amazon Store: Link
Aliexpress Store: Link

You can use also the code Br2016 with your order and you'll get a gift worth $2-$5 for free with your order.

You can follow them on Instagram as well @nicolediary2016.

Have you tried any of their nail art products yet?

Love, Brethil

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Autumn

Hi all!

This week's prompt is Autumn, which is fitting. Although I must say the weather has been more like summer for the past weeks and today was another lovely sunny day. But some trees are already shedding their leaves, so I thought autumn leaves was fitting for today's mani. Glitter leaves because they sparkle.

Polishes:

• W7 - 54 Roast Chestnut
• Catrice - 06 Bronze Upon A Time
• Glitter Lambs - Pumpkin Spice
• Lucky 13 Lacquer - Elemental Ward

Base: 2 coats of Roast Chestnut, one of my favourite browns. Then 1 coat of Elemental Ward and some drying time before I added Whats Up Nails nail vinyls. I then sponged on a glitter gradient with the bronze and orange glitter toppers. Sealed it in with 2 more coats of Elemental Ward to get it smooth.

Sparkling leaves make me smile.

Those nail vinyls are lovely, these glitter leaves don't do them justice really. But I do like the effect of the glitter.

Love, Brethil

More autumn inspired nails down here!

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Red, Yellow & Green

Hi all!

Double prompt week! The colours everyone has to use are red, yellow and green. My personal pattern prompt is water marbling or spotting. Not techniques that I'm good at really. But I managed...

Polishes:

• Essence - 33 wild white ways
• Kaleidoscope - Aquarelle Tints - 03
• Kaleidoscope - Aquarelle Tints - 04
• Kaleidoscope - Aquarelle Tints - 08
• China Glaze - 551 Fairy Dust
• Lucky 13 Lacquer - Elemental Ward

Base: 2 coats of Wild white ways. I then attempted a watermarble. Luckily enough these polishes do spread nicely and a bulls eye was formed. Making patterns is a whole other matter. I also bumped two nails, so I had to do some correcting. To hide some of those flaws I added Fairy Dust and ended with Elemental Ward as my top coat.

Thumb nail is just... ugh. Managed to get two huge bubbles....

Anyways, I tried, it doesn't look as bad as previous attempts.

Love, Brethil

More red, yellow and green nails down here!

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Books & NCC presents: Harvest

Hi all!

Today I'm combining two challenges. 40GNAI is about books this week and with the NCC ladies we'll be doing Harvest inspired mani's during September. So when you combine this you get a book with Harvest in the title... to be precise this book. That cover just needed to be turned into a mani.

Polishes:

• Polish My Life - Tahoe
• Barry M - Gelly - GNP28 Coconut
• Catrice - 48 Emerald Bay
• Essence - 166 mister rusty
• Lucky 13 Lacquer - Elemental Ward

Base: 2 coats of Tahoe. With a nail art brush I first added the tree branches and then the leaves. I added the fruit with a dotting tool. Top coat to seal it all in.

Mister rusty is such a gorgeous polish...

I'm actually wearing this mani for the 4th day today, it's holding up great.

Love, Brethil

So this week 2 galleries of mani's below! First up 40GNAI - Books.

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Peach or Lemon

Hi all!

Another double prompt week. Colourwise we are going with Lemon or Peach, which I had to combine with Tribal. I have just the perfect stamping plate for this, so stamping it is this week.

Polishes:

• Polish My Life - Stripped
• Kaleidoscope - Aquarelle tints - 04
• Kaleidoscope - Aquarelle tints - 05
• Essence - Nail art stampy polish - black
• Lucky 13 Lacquer - Elemental Ward

I also used Hēhē stamping plate 083.

Base: 2 coats of Stripped. I added messy stripes with the aquarelle tints to represent lemon and peach. Then I stamped on top of this with the black stamping polish. Obviously not that straight *winks*. Sealed it all in with Elemental Ward.

To me it's still summer, the weather has been lovely this week. Also, what do you think of my new nailshape? I had some corners break off, so I turned them into a version of coffin/ballerina nails.

Crave more fruit? Check out the other mani's!