The owls are not what they seem.

 Who's excited about the return of Twin Peaks? Meeee!

I've been wanting to do some Black Lodge inspired nail art for a while, but it kept on not happening somehow. 
Then I ordered some chevron-guide stickers and.. they were way too big for what I wanted to do, so that didn't pan out.

Then I got a pair of those scissors that cut zig-zag patterns, which is how I accomplished this. The scissors kept misbehaving though, so I'm not sure if I'll see a return of the chevron on my nails again soon. 

Damn fine cup of coffee.

The base whites are Safari's 'No56' and a Hema polish, neither of which I particularly recommend. The black, Catrice's '39 Black to the Routes'. The red nail, based on the scenery of the waiting room, is actually several shades of red stripes layered over each other to get that curtainy effect, though it's not too clear in the pictures. They are YSL, 'No04', Max Factor '549 Red Passion', Rimmel '035 Wine Not' and Koh's 'Red!'.

Infrequent French.

There's a saying in fitness - that the exercise you're not doing is the one you should be doing.

I believe the sentiment of that applies to many areas - the thing you prefer not to do because you might not be good at it, is something you ought to do because it is an area in which you can improve.
And it never hurts to improve.

For me, French manicures are such a thing. I avoid them because I'm not very good at them (and they're not really my aesthetic anyway) and thus my skill in them stagnates.

Long story short, I decided to give them another go after lord knows how long to get some practice in. I used a sticker guide, Essence's '03 Cotton Candy' as a base, and Safari's 'No 56' as the tip colour.

And after all that work, they didn't survive
a single weightlifting session and thus
only lasted one day. Go figure.

Gravity Falls.

Gravity Falls is a children's cartoon on the Disney Channel, and I wanted to do some nail art of just the character Bill Cipher initially, but ended up doing most of the main cast as well. If you're unfamiliar with Gravity Falls - I described it as similar to Eerie Indiana, or a Twin Peaks for kids. A friend chose 'like Scooby Doo, or The X-Files for kids'. Sounds good, right? Right.

Bill Cipher, Mabel & Dipper Pines, Soos, Grunkle Stan.

Something I did here that I haven't really done much anymore when it comes to nail art is that most of this is actually nail polish. I tend to default to acrylic paints, because the thicker structure and rougher nail polish remover isn't very good for my brushes, which - as an artist - I use for more than just my nails.
You definitely notice a difference in outcome though, nail polish blends into each other much more subtly.
I'm pretty pleased with the results!

I used a fair amount of nail polish for this and I'll list them per character.

Bill Cipher:
H&M - Summer Sunrise, Essence - 03 My Boyfriend's Jeans, Hema - 809 (white), acrylic paint (black)

Mabel:
Essence - 01 High Waist Pink, H&M - Summer Sunrise, H&M - Pale Violet, Hema - 82, Max - Neon Orange


Dipper:
Safari - No 56, acrylic paint (light blue)

Soos:
Essence - 54 Trust in Fashion, Essence - 03 Back to Paradise

Grunkle Stan:
Rimmel - 035 Wine Not, YSL - 140 Pink Gold

Creature of Habit.

I'm a creature of habit, because I fall back easily to comfortable nail art styles and colours. It feels like a bit of a cop out when I see others do magnificently varied things.. but this works for me. I just really love me some gradients, okay?

Anyway - I got a few rolls of striping tape off eBay not too long ago and was itching to try it out. It took a little patience to position the tape exactly the way I wanted it finger after finger, but I think the result is pretty much as I envisioned it.

White is Safari's 'No 56', lighter purple is Catrice '120 Plum Play with Me', and the darker is the older Catrice by the name of 'C03 Deep Purple'.

Speckles.

I frequently complain about the white polishes I own, because quite frankly they're all terrible and I don't really have a good word to say about 'em. Miraculously, not today, friends! Not today.

There was a tourist market in the town I live, and there was a stand that had a ton of Safari polishes for a euro each. Safari is a budget brand I'd wanted to try before, but couldn't seem to find anywhere locally, and suddenly they appeared! This white is labelled 'No 56' and though not perfect, is probably the best white nail polish I've come across thus far. It has a thin brush and seems to be a bit prone to goopiness and stringiness, but I'm hesitant to thin it out since the formula is quite okay. It covered decently in two coats. I'm trying to be cautious with the positive descriptions, because though I'm pleased enough with this white, it's not some kind of holy grail.

This is more of an effect polish, and unfortunately comes without a sticker on the back so I don't know what it goes by. I can make out a barely visible stamp that looks like it says 'No 460', but it's barely legible and possibly not even the polish name, and my online search hasn't gotten me any further either.
Anywho, it takes a quick look at my blog to realise green and black are my favourite colours so I was instantly attracted by this one. It's pretty sheer and does not bring the green on its own. Since I'd already polished my nails white I didn't want to waste it and just layered it over that. I think it'll look better over a slightly darker shade of green more reminiscent of the bottle than it does in this very light state.

All in all not, bad for only €2!