Doc Martens Nail Art!

-Pic Heavy Post-

Hello lovelies!
Today I have a confession: I have another love outside of nail polish/nail art and that's my Doc Martens. I've got 5 pairs (at the moment) and keep adding more every year. My mum always rolls her eyes whenever I get a new pair and says "You can only wear one at a time!" so I thought I'd try and prove her wrong with some nail art. I had a quick search and couldn't find any previous examples out there so I came up with this design all by myself! I've been waiting to do it for months and months, because I needed the perfect blue and finally I have it (thankyou Barry M!).

Firstly, let me introduce you to my lovelies:

 I got the bright green ones in 2007 and have basically been obsessed with them ever since! I really love wearing them with miniskirts and opaque tights-it's sort of become my signature look really and it always makes me feel amazing.

Anyway, on to the mani! I wanted to recreate the colours of my Docs as closely as I could so I used many many polishes! Red-Revlon-Fire, Teal-Sally Hansen-Fairy Teal, Blue-Barry M-Blue Grape, Patterned White-Barry M-Matt White, sponged with Topshop-Cloud and  Rimmel-Tangy Tangerine and for the bright green Barry M 2013 Superdrug Limited Edition (such a catchy title)-Neon Green. I used two coats of them all, and put two coats of Matt White underneath the neon green too. For the iconic brown soles I used OPI-Suzi Loves Cowboys (over some curved French tip  guide stickers) and for the instantly recognisable orange stitching I used a Stargazer polish-number 103 (UV-glow Orange). The black lacing details were done with the black Barry M nail art pen. Phew! I also used my H&M Matte top coat on my index/ring fingers to simulate the leather effect, as opposed to the patent shiny shiny ones. I'm not sure how well you can tell in these pics though! (I have to admit I had a lot of fun taking them!)

What do you reckon? Are they too cool for school or what? I could do a tutorial for these if people wanted, although I reckon they're pretty easy to figure out! If you do your own version, let me know =)

They make me super happy! =D

~Nail Art Novice~

In a total piece of blogging serendipity, I didn't even realise that one of the nail art groups I'm part of has the theme of 'Shoes' for this week! So here's some more footwear inspired manis:

Geometric Greens

I wanted to match my nails to a top I'm going to wear out tomorrow, which is black and white with green square patterns on it, so I decided to do a tape chequered flag manicure-my first ever as it happens.
I started with a white base (over my normal base coat), using Colour Me polish in Colour Me White. I never seem to have much luck with white polishes, they all seem  to be too runny or too gloopy or take forever to dry.
This one I seemed to be a little better than previous ones I've had, but still took a lot of coats to reach opacity.

Three coats and if you look at my ring finger it's still a bit streaky. 

However it did dry very quickly and went on fairly easily so definitely wasn't all bad. I think I might just have to suck it up and splurge on an OPI white next time I need one though.
Next layer (following 2 coats of Seche Vite and a good hour's wait), was green squares. I didn't take any photos of the process as it was a little fiddly with tape on all my nails but this was basically how I did it. The green I chose was a Stargazer polish but I've no idea what the name is as I've had it for years since my slightly gothy days. It's a slightly shimmery green which perfectly matches the green in my shirt.

This was the result, not perfect but not bad for a first attempt on my tiny nails!

I did um and ahh for ages about leaving them like this but decided I wanted a black line on them in the end, if nothing else to cover up unsightly edges where the tape lifted slightly, so this was the final result:

Obviously I need a bit more practice with the L.A. Colors thin line striper as some of my lines are a little too thick and a bit uneven but I'm overall happy with the results, particularly on my left thumb, which is pretty much perfect (although the photography isn't):

 Although it's been somewhat of a laborious process, I really like the end results and think I'll do this again when I've got the time to spare.

~Nail Art Novice~