NOTD - Lisbon Tiles

Hey there lovely readers!

One of my trips last year took me to the beautiful city of Lisbon, which was not just the most magical place but filled with the nail-spiration around every corner! Famous for its beautifully patterned tiles I knew I had to try & re-create in some shape or form on my nails. 

I was still a bit stumped with which particular pattern to go for, so when one of my (many) favourite nail artists on Instagram, Katie Masters aka @nailthoughts whipped up a Portugal tile design of her own, I fell in love with her interpretation completely so this look is utterly inspired by her!

What do you think? There is just something about a white/cream & cobalt blue combo that I just can't help loving so much! I think its because it reminds me of china teacups which use this colour combi in their intricate patterns, which I tried to replicate in my Blue Porcelain Nails a few posts back :)

As you can see I am still rocking the short nubbins haha! For my base shade I applied one coat of Sally Hansen's Shall We Dance? A lush pale milky crème.

Whilst in Alicante last month I picked up some Catrice polishes as we can't get them here, & there was no question that this baby was coming home with me! I mean LOOK AT IT! Part of their IcoNails range this is I Love Being Yours & one of those stunning holo topcoat types! I can't wait to see how this looks over black but for this mani, it transformed my plain cream base to a lovely pearl like opalescent finish! Dreamy!

Now for the arty part...grabbing my trusty nail art brush, I used my Russian Ju Bilej brush as it is super fine but SoNailicious brushes are equally as awesome & are easier to get hold of.

My blue of choice is this indie by Princess Nail Lacquer & was actually a prototype so doesn't actually have a name! It is such a stunningly vibrant cobalt blue, perfect for my Lisbon tiles. Barry M Blue Grape would be the perfect blue too! Using my brush I first outlined the edge of a few of the nails & then free-handed a design on each finger making every nail different.

Whilst not perfect, I figured I'd go for that rustic tile look anyway ya know...? *coughs* O_o But to be honest I was really happy with how these turn out & I will definitely work more on practising & improving my freehand.

To get that super glossy finish I added a nice thick topcoat, but waited a good 10 minutes before applying as there was no way I wanted to smudge this look! I hope you like these too & thank you Katie for the inspiration! Thanks as always for reading!

Lotsa love to ya!