Meadham Kirchhoff SS12 inspired Valentine's nails

I loved the cute, kitschy prints and bright colours of Meadham Kirchhoff's Spring/Summer 2012 collection. You also might remember that I loved the nails, crowning them the best nails of London Fashion Week (although I have to say I was a little letdown to find out that they were wraps as I don't have the best relationship with them to be completely honest). I've long been meaning to do my own Meadham mani but never got round to it. Luckily for me, I think that Valentine's is just the perfect time to be sporting happy, smiley, frilly hearts on my nails.

The thumb and the ring finger hearts were done using different methods. I did the thumb first (since it's the largest surface area/canvas) and used Andrea Fulerton's "Gloria" nail art brush to first draw a heart shape and then do the frills around it. It took quite some times, especially those small frills (drawing anything that small that's curved is HARD) and I think I went over it just a couple of times. After doing this I figured out maybe now was the time to buy one of those Topshop nail art pens (which are actual pens and not brushes or metallically nibbed), which is what I did. My ring finger heart is the result of that. Let's have a closer look, shall we?

This is my thumb, done with a brush.

Here is my ring finger (and slightly blurred thumb). The ring was done with the Topshop nail art pen.

Although fricking hard to do, I much prefer the look of the heart created with the brush. The pen was great for my right hand (I'm right handed) as I don't think I could've coped with the stress of using a brush in my left hand to make tiny frilly hearts on my right hand. But if I was incredibly talented and ambidextrous it would be brush everytime. I'm not sure if it comes across it in the photos but the pen heart was a little fuzzy. I had to go over the lines MANY times compared to a couple times I did it with the brush - I think that contributed to said fuzziness.

So yeah, in conclusion - Topshop Nail Art Pen: great for curved lines and free-hand work but requires some going over and I hope you won't mind fuzziness. Andrea Fulerton Nail Art Brush: bloody hard work but a much better finish.

Red: Ciaté "Cocktail Dress"

White Nail Art Brush: Andrea Fulerton "Gloria"

White Nail Art Pen: Topshop

Black: WAH Nails/Models Own

Snowflakes

Just a quick one... need to catch up on my recent nails but here's what I've currently got on:

Blue: Leighton Denny "Inkjet"

White: Models Own/WAH nails white nail art pen

Getting Topshop's SS12 Hieroglyphic Nails

Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been snowed under and then now it's Fashion Week and... yeah. Anyway, here's a piece I wrote for Grazia Daily on Sophy Robson's hieroglyphic nails that she did for Topshop's Spring/Summer 2011 show. More updates soon, I promise!

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Those who know me know that I'm a fan of many things and one of those things in particular is nails. I love pretty colours, wacky designs and amazing artwork - all of which Sophy Robson does so well. I've been eagerly awaiting all of her London Fashion Week updates and yesterday's Topshop hieroglyphic nails caught my eye. The bright colours! The simple but super impressive designs! I had to have them on my nails - now!

Apologies to Toppers for not using their polishes but I didn't have any of the right colours to hand (no pun intended). Instead I used Revlon's "Gold Coin" for the gold (middle finger and thumb), OPI's "Monsooner or Later" for the red (index and pinky) and OPI's "Teal The Cows Come Home" for the blue (ring finger). I also used WAH nails/Model's Own nail art pen in black, Andrea Fulerton's Stripe and Sparkle in Kathleen (aka white) and Andrea Fulerton's Stripe and Sparkle in Gloria (blue) to do the detailing.

After painting two coats of colour I then did the designs by freehand using nail art pens to draw eyes onto my nails. Two curves, a couple of lines, a dot of blue and a dot of black somehow made a passable eye. A horizontal stripe of "Gold Coin" and two thin-ish black lines completed the index whilst a thick white line, two black vertical lines and some zigzags finished off my pinky. The triangle on the ring finger was easy enough to do freehand and I'm rather impressed with my clean lines, if I do say so myself! A good coating of Seche Vite and I'm done, I've got the Egyptian look! What do you think? On the left is a pic from Sophy Robson's Twitter and on the right is my attempts at getting Egyptian nails...

Miu Miu SS11

I don't like many fashion blogs (it's a very overcrowded place with too many people vying for attention) but I've long been a fan of Jak & Jil. I just love the interesting composition (straight up and down just doesn't do much for me these days I'm afraid) and the focus on the details. I'm all for the details.

This photo of Tamu is one of my faves. I'm just so in love with the colours of her outfit - especially those Miu Miu shoes! I've never been that much of a shoe person in all honestly but I love that bright pop of green and that black, almost lace-like detailing on the backs and toes. Here's another view of the same shoes in the nude colourway, although the detailing isn't too clear:

Not gonna lie - was totally lusting after these in the Selfridges sale

I've had that pic saved on my computer for months now and have been meaning to do nails inspired by them.. And now I finally have! Only it was really crap on all fingers apart from one so you'll just have to feast your eyes upon one finger (don't worry, it's my index finger):

What really impresses me about nail art - good nail art, I should add - is when it involves nice, clean lines. I lust after those lines! Clearly I need to practise with my pen (it's finally stopped oozing with black polish once I've removed that needle thing) to get them but I reckon this is quite a decent attempt. Once I've mastered the lines hopefully I'll be able to make patterns of the same size on each nail (!!!) and can give this look another try. At least my dotting skills seem okay!

Green: American Apparel Neon Green
Black: WAH Nails/Models Own black nail art pen

The polish arrived the other day so I was eager to try it out. It is rather bright although I wouldn't say it's as fluorescent as in the bottle. It applies quite nicely and I used three coats (as opposed to my usual magic number of two) to get even colour. I considered painting a layer of white before all the green to really make it pop but I couldn't be bothered as all my white has gone goopy (nice) but I reckon it would add some extra wow to the colour (if you're into your seriously acid greens).

Easter manicure

This totally isn't a runway look (as far as I'm aware!) but I just wanted to share with you the nails I had over Easter. I changed them last night but I haven't decided if I like my new nails or not so in the meantime here's some cute pastel bunnies...

Yellow: OPI "The It Colour"
Green: Barry M
Pink: Barry M
Blue: Topshop
Purple: Barry M Limited Edition colour for Boots
White (eyes and insides of ears): Barry M
Black (eyes): Barry M
Pink (noses): Deborah Lippmann "Pop Life"

As you can tell I like to use a lot of Barry M! I love Barry M as they're cheap (always in some sort of 2 for £5/3 for 2 type dealio) and they're quite opaque. I've gone back to my parents' for Easter and have only a small selection (read: 20) of polishes with me so I haven't listed the full names of the colours. If anyone wants them, just leave me a comment and I'll get back to you when I'm in London again.

I was going to use the WAH nails/Models Own nail art pens for the eyes and ears but I find using the actual brush that comes with the polishes much easier than the nail art brushes (sometimes too fine a line) or the fine end (always end up with polish spurting out the top!!) Speaking of Models Own, yesterday I stumbled across a Boots that has the Models Own Pro range and since Boots are doing a very yummy 3 for 2 across all make-up, I snagged a couple of bottles which I've used in my most recent nails! Photos to come on that look...

Marc by Marc Jacobs SS11 v3.0

Not totally sure how I feel about these nails. I bought a yellow nail art pen from a shop in Chinatown and it was shit. Really hard to use. This would probably look better on longer nails.

Base: Butter London "Pearly Queen"
Black bands: WAH Nails Model's Own nail art pen
Yellow triangles: shitty cheap pen from Chinatown

I'd like to say that you get what you pay for but today I discovered that the brush on my WAH Nails Model's Own white nail pen had somehow broken off whilst it's been sitting on my shelf so...