Rainbow Ripple

Hi guys! Sorry about the late post! Things have been a little hectic at the moment! This week we've decided to move away from the Olympic nail art - though we've enjoyed every minute of supporting Team GB on our nails!

Anyway, here's something lovely and colourful to spice up your nails - and uses all the colours of the rainbow (which by now you should all know I am very fond of doing!)

As you can see, very simple and easy to do! Promise!

All you need is as many colours of the rainbow as you can get your hands on, and patience!

Start at any edge of your nail with the red, painting a small semi-circle. Then work your way out with each colour following the rainbow.

What do you think? What have you guys got on your nails at the moment?

Olympics Nails #2

So I wasn't too sure how the Opening Ceremony would turn out but I thought it was FREAKIN' AMAZING!!! Good job all round! So... going from a Doubting Thomas to a Keeno Chris (OK, so I may have made this last one up) this post is dedicated to the London Opening Ceremony!!!


Dee is currently actually working at the games and for some CRAZY reason the staff aren't allowed to wear nail varnish, so I'm taking the reins at the moment! Hope you like!

Thumb: Olympic Rings

1) Paint on a white background
2) Get a blue, black, red, yellow and green nail art pen and paint on small circular rings (unfortunately mine went a bit wonky!)
3) To finish off, I added '2012' at the bottom


Index Finger: Poppy Field

1) Paint on a pale blue background for the sky
2) Using a dark green nail varnish and a sponge, apply a layer of dark green on to the top half of your nail
3) Do the same with light green
4) Using the 2 green shades, draw a few vertical lines for more prominent blades of grass
5) Paint on a few red blobs
6) Add black dots to the centre of a couple of the blobs


Middle Finger: The Olympic Torch

1) Using a gold nail varnish, paint on a tilted rectangle at the top of your nail
2) Use red, orange and yellow nail art pens to create the fire
3) Using a brown nail art pen, paint on the outline detail of the torch


Ring Finger: Mary Poppins!

1) Use a sponge to apply the twilight background with dark blue and purple
2) VERY CAREFULLY paint on a Mary Poppins silhouette! Don't forget her trademark umbrella and bag!


Pinky: Union Jack

1) Paint a white background
2) Using a red nail art pen paint on the cross 
3) Using a dark blue paint on the extra little bits
Apologies for how messy this nail is! I found my pinky just too small!

What do you think? Have you guys noticed all the Olympic-themed nail art that a lot of the female athletes are sporting? Which have been your favourite?

Olympics Nails #1

So... As everyone surely knows, this Friday is the start of the 2012 Olympics! All eyes will be turned to the United Kingdom as the hosting country, and though our opening ceremony will most likely leave the world a little underwhelmed, it's the perfect occasion for some nail art!


For this nail art design I decided to combine a little patriotism with the different Olympic events! Can you guess what event each nail represents?


Left Hand

Thumb: The Union Jack - Go Team GB!

1) Paint on a white base coat

2) Add the red cross and diagonal stripes

3) Paint in the blue triangular areas!

Fingers:

From top left to bottom right: Sailing, Cycling, Sprinting and Gymnastics!


For each event I decided to paint on stick athletes as they were nice and simple to draw on. For each nail, paint on a white base coat then once this has dried, paint on the stick athletes in black!

Right Hand

Thumb: The Olympics Logo

1) Paint on a white base coat
2) Using a nail art pen - any colour you fancy really! - paint on the 2012 logo

Fingers:

From top left to bottom right: Diving, High Jump, Volleyball and Archery!

What do you guys think? Do you have any Olympic-themed nails on at the moment?

Graduation Nails...

A few days ago both me and Hannah graduated from Nottingham Uni, an emotional and epic day for all! It has been a wonderful 3 years for both of us, and now we're officially adults in the world, thinks are getting serious! However, we refuse to neglect our duties in the nail art department and in true HanDee style, I decided to do some graduation nails to top the standard manicure...

Apologies for the bad quality of the first photo, and the chipped nail in the second! You can't win 'em all! Anyway, all I did here was to paint a base of nude nail polish, paint the tips with white, use a black nail art pen to draw and fill the hat before highlighting the edges with white, and use a white nail art pen to draw the scroll before highlighting the edges with black. You might need an extra steady hand to do this but it isn't as hard as you think and well worth the reaction! 

What do you think?

A Tessellating Design!

Hi guys! Here are some Tetris nails that I hope brighten up your Monday!

This design is really simple and doesn't take that long to do as the nail varnish dries very quickly! I decided to go with the standard Tetris colours, looked up the shapes and then went crazy with the order! Just start at the top of your nail and work towards the base slotting in the shapes as if you were playing Tetris! Make sure you paint on the individual squares of each shape so they look like real Tetris pieces. Then finish off with a cover coat of course! 

What do you think? What's everyone wearing on their nails at the moment?

Pop Art Nails...

So far on HanDee Nail Tips we've shown you some pretty intricate designs, which most people have said they would find hard to do. Today I thought I'd experiment and try something a little easier. All you have to do for these nails is:

1) Choose a base colour to paint all your nails

2) Choose another colour/two colours to paint the tips

3) Draw on white polka dots randomly, using a nail art pen

4) Draw on random patterns at the tips, using a black nail art pen

Although I didn't set out to do pop art nails, when they were done it reminded me of that kind of style, so there you have it! Some simple pop art nail art! 

Apologies for the lack of step by step pictures - next time I will definitely remember to photograph as I go. 

Do any of you have a style you want to challenge us with? We're ready to try anything! 

G-G-G-GRADUATION BALL!

So here at HanDee we have come to the end of our university experience. It's been an amazing 3 years all leading up to our Graduation Ball (and ceremony, though this is a lot less glamorous!). Though the Ball was slightly less than expected, the initial girly getting-ready session of hair, false lashes, make-up and all that jazz was loads of fun! The highlight of the whole period being the painting of the nails of course!

So here are the nails I had for the big day!

Just a simple manicure to go with a simple and (hopefully!) elegant look! All you need are white and a pink nail art pens and a clear cover coat. Paint the tip of your nail white - they'll need to be long for this to be most effective! And then paint on a star shape to the right of the top of your nail again in white. Use the white nail art pen to then paint on small dots next to the stars. Once all the white is nearly dry but a little tacky, paint on your pink detail inside the star blending with the white a little and finish off with a clear cover coat! Beautiful!

This nail art was so simple and easy to do, perfect for a classy occasion or even when you want to spice up your nails but don't want to go too over-the-top!

Hope you like!

Black Tie Nails

Now we've all seen Zooey Deschanel's amazing tuxedo nails and, well frankly, absolutely loved them! They're just so cute!

We found an amazing blogger who put a twist on it and decided it was worth a try ourselves!

Check it out here: http://lyndarthemerciless.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/manicure-monday-feeling-retro-in.html

Here's our version!

Thumb:

Fingers:

These nails are pretty easy and are so much fun - got loads of attention and compliments for them!

For the Thumb in a dinner jacket

1) Paint on your white base coat for the shirt

2) Using a black nail varnish, paint the entire nail apart from a small triangle at the base

3) Use the black again for the bow tie and buttons detail on the shirt

4) Finish off with a white nail art pen painting on the detail of the jacket collar!

For the Fingers

1) Similar to the thumb in the white base coat for the shirt

2) Using a black nail art pen, paint on the bow tie, buttons and the cumberband!

Nothing wrong with dressing your nails up every now and then, now is there!

What do you guys think? 

Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah!

So I've been wanting to do this ever since Google honoured the inventor of the zip a couple of months ago! After all, where would we be without this nifty little invention eh?!

Now this was a little tricky but achievable! Though my right hand was a lot more blobby!


Start off with a base coat colour and paint your entire nail apart from a small triangle at the base. Secondly, using a silver paint on a blob at the top of your nail as the zipper end. Then at the opposite end, paint a small triangular blob. Once these are dry, paint on the zip detail - painting small horizontal lines back to back. Again wait for this to dry! Then paint another silver blob at the top of the zip in a sort of pear-shape, leaving a small hole. Finally, use a black nail art pen for the zip detail! All done!

Hope you like it!

Jubilee Nail Art..

Hey Guys, 

Now that Hannah has finished the 31 day nail art challenge, it gives me a chance to show off some of my own designs! Apologies for the lack of my contribution, this end of term has been very busy with exams and all. Anyway, since it's the Queen's Diamond Jubilee today, I decided now would be a good time to put up my union jack nails! I tried to make them a bit more feminine since I'm not the biggest fan of the union jack design fashion-wise...

I'm thinking the Queen or Kate would definitely suit some of this Jubes nail art for the occasion! It was fairly easy to do, I just painted a base coat of Barry M in "Blueberry", then sketched the red cross over the top with a red nail art pen, and added the white dots with a white nail art pen. Though you can't really see it in the photo, I added a bit of red glitter varnish too! 

What do you think? Did you do anything special for the Jubilee? 

31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 31

IT'S FINALLY HERE! The end of the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge! It's been a long, hard road with many a discarded nail-varnish remover bottle paving the way but here's Day 31 - the repeat of your favourite design.

Now after doing this challenge I became a HUGE fan of animal print nail art, so decided to go back to Day 13. The nail art also follows the gradient design of Day 10. Now I've stressed how much colour means here at HanDee so decided to spice things up for this repeat and based the design on my funky shoes!

Here's the design I came up with! Very easy and a lot of fun to look at!

1) Choose about 7 different colours for your rainbow effect

2) Use small pieces of sponge (any will do!) and dab a layer of pink at the base of your nail

3) Repeat this with your other colours (red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple)! Making sure the previous layers are dry before doing any more!

4) Once all these are dry, paint on black zebra/tiger stripes

5) Finish off with a topcoat!

So here it is, the end of the challenge. I definitely recommend any budding nail art-ists do this as it gives you LOADS of practice at so many different designs you may not have considered doing before! It's been loads of fun!

HanDee

xx

31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 30

The penultimate day guys! Here's Day 30 - Inspired by a Tutorial


Having had some quite disturbing nail art on yesterday, I wanted something much cuter to look at so I chose to base this day's nail design on a VERY cute owl tutorial by cutepolish! 


Check it out here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD-_iMqKZ5Y

Here's what I came up with:

How cute are these?! Decided to spice things up with an owl on each nail rather than just the one like cutepolish. I'm also a big big fan of colour so went for different colours too!


Hope you guys like!

HanDee

xx

31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 29

Ok, so if the last post was long, this one is CRAZY long! So now it's Day 29 - Inspired by the Supernatural!

Now it was back to my childhood with these nails and I loved every minute down memory lane! As it's nowhere near Halloween I tried to make the nails as anti-Halloweeny as possible while sticking with the theme so here are Scooby-Doo nails!


I decided to alternate Scooby gang and villain on my nails to make it more interesting! Some of these were pretty darn tricky (so be prepared for some time-consuming work!) but on the whole I hope they came out alright! 

Left hand:

Thumb: Scooby-Doo logo

1) Paint on a pale blue background

2) Using a bright yellow, paint on an 'S' and a 'D'

3) Use a black nail art pen to do an outline!

Index Finger: Fred

1) Using a black nail art pen, draw the outline of Freddie's head - I started with an oval shape then drew the hair outline

2) So once that's done, fill in the hair with a nice pale yellow

3) If you fancy/have enough room, add some collar detail in pail blue

4) Finally add facial deets: eyes, eyebrows, nose and a mouth! Here I tried to add teeth but they didn't come out too well!

Middle Finger: The Ghost Clown

1) Start off with a white oval base for the clown's face paint - once dry, follow this with the black details: hat, triangle-shaped eyes and the outline of the mouth

2) Move on to filling in some detail now - the nose (which I forgot to do an early outline of) and mouth with a pinky colour

3) Using a bright yellow, fill in an area of the eyes making sure to leave a black outline

4) Add the bright red hair under the cap

Ring Finger: Daphne

1) Similarly to Fred, use a black nail art pen to do the facial outline - an oval shape again and then her voluminous hair! For Daphne though remember to do an outline of her signature purple headband!

2) Fill in the hair with an orange

3) Paint on the headband

4) Add facial detail - eyes (the flicks here are supposed to be eyelashes), nose, and girly lips (I tried to fill in some detail for lipstick but it sort of smudged making her seem very moody!)

Pinky: Charlie the Funland Robot

1) Add the head outline - a sort of helmet and chin strap

2) Add black filled-in circles for the eyes

3) Fill in the detail of the robot helmet thingy

4) Use a yellow pen to give the eyes that eerie glow!

Right hand:

Thumb: Scooby-Doo 

1) Again, you need a black outline for Scooby's head. Miraculously, I did this on my first try! Start with a thick-ish neck shape, add two small ears and finish with his muzzle, filling in his nose 
2) Using a brown, fill in Scooby's head!
3) Using a pink paint the inside of the ear, and using the black, add a few dots by his nose
4) Finish off with his eyes: paint on small white ovals. Once dry paint on the black pupils. Finish off with some eyebrows!


Index Finger: The Creeper

1) Paint on a pale green base for the face - but in a short of skull shape as his head isn't oval. Also add the reddy-brown hair
2) Using a black, add the outlines of the hair, and face. Add a couple of black lines for cheek detail. Also, using a pale yellow, add two small ovals for the Creeper's eyes
3) Back to black with this step: add the pupils to the eyes, the eyebrows and a small round filled-in circle for the mouth
4) Finish off with some detail for his bizarrely square shoulders in dark green!


Middle Finger: Shaggy

Only three easy steps this time!
1) Firstly paint on the outline for the head and hair (I didn't really space Shaggy out enough here so his face is a little squished and doesn't have room for his funny little goatee stubble)
2) Add a gold or dark yellow for his hair
3) Using a black add his eyes, nose, eyebrows and mouth


Ring Finger: The Ghost of Captain Cutler

1) Using a pale yellow, paint on a round head with a small bit jutting out at the top
2) Using a silver or grey paint, add the detail around the of his old school diving suit. Also, using a light blue, paint on the little window of the suit
3) Finish of with a silver or grey outline around the window, and then some seaweed hanging off his head


Pinky: Velma

Aka 'The Fly' 
1) Now this one is easily the worst with the pinky nail being too tiny to paint a proper face on! Start again with an outline in black - Velma's is pretty similar to Shaggy's
2) Fill in her dark red hair
3) Add the details of her mouth and glasses
4) As all the black details were running together I painted the glass in Velma's frames a light blue then added black pupils - making her look like a little fly

As you can see, I had a little trouble with facial detail - especially on Velma! Definitely something to work on in the future!


ONLY TWO DAYS LEFT OF THE CHALLENGE!!!

HanDee

xx