Nearly But Not Quite #3 - Nail Art Attempts

It's been *checks notes*.... five years since the last Nearly But Not Quite post. Where the fuck does time even go. Anyway, here are some fails I've been saving in a folder from the past few years.

1 - Boo Nails

I can see why I didn't bother uploading these. Not scary, not cute, the white is patchy and it looks more like spilt milk than a Halloween look. The base was also starting peel and lift so that didn't help either.

2 - Lipgloss Nails

Remember that time when Hailey Beiber invented lip gloss and everyone went crazy making everything "glazed"? Yeah, I tried doing the 'lip gloss' nail trend without gel polish and this was the result. I genuinely have no idea how I managed to make them satin when I was trying my best to get them to be plumpy and glossy. That must be a skill.

3 - Spooky Glaze

Another look meant for Halloween (I think...the folder was called 'Spooky Glaze'). I think I was going for pearlescent slime? I have no idea at this point but it looks like bad Christmas pudding now. I do love the base colour but what was I thinking pairing it with a patchy, pearlescent white?

4 - Peach Stripes

Probably the best of the lot. I'm not mad at this look, the Essie base colour is beautiful matte and glossy. Ironically I might have achieved Lipgloss nails on the index and pinkie. I'm not sure I like the mixture of matte and gloss finishes and those white stripes are a crime. I do think my hand-painted peach is pretty cute though.

5 - Quartz Fail

I'm forever on the quest for the perfect quartz look but dear god. I'm offended just looking at this photo. I jumpscared myself when opening this folder for the first time in years. This must've been during that time I experimented with square nails....*eurgh*. That shape looks lovely on others but my nail fold is just too rounded to get away with some square, blunt ends. Also, the quartz effect looks like it was painted on by a two year old.

6 - Love Is Not In The Air

I think this would've been cute if the stamps were clear. You can tell this was done during the time I was obsessed with negative space nails. The anti-valentines plate though is still one of my favourites, it's such a shame that MoYou don't do stamping plates anymore. I hate those gel strips they do now.
 

NAIL FAILS #3 // 2Smooshed4U

My god man, June was not a good month for nail art. I see the art I want to do in my head and then what comes out on my nails just isn't it. For example, the above look was supposed to be sort of a lieve91 style look (her nail art is just #goals for me) and it just looks awful. I loved the dark green leaf nails and I painted over the other nails for this post earlier in June. I also hand painted those leaves and well I'm no van gogh. I have bought some new brushes specifically for nail art though at £7 a brush so hopefully my skills will start to improve.

This look I did trying to practice drag marble and applying custom decals. I really don't know what they do to get the lines so neat when cutting off the excess. This photo is deceiving because it looked awful irl. There were also spots where it wouldn't lie flat and on the pinkie the polish separated and urgh. 

OK, so there is nothing inherently wrong with this look but it just doesn't feel worthy of it's own post or an insta slot. I do love that A-England polish though. It's Maxim from the recent 'Return to Manderley' collection. 

And that's it for this month, there were a few others but I didn't even take photos of them. The acetone was just whipped out straight away instead. 

Valentines Schmalentines // Nail Fails #2

So there were four other designs last month that I just couldn't bring myself round to post as I wasn't proud of them in the slightest. However, it's nice to see people fail sometimes; it's a good reminder that we're only human after all and you can become skilled anything with enough time and practice. I clearly still need more time and practice lol.

So, here are the designs I didn't want to show off this past February:

Fail #1 // Wedding

So this was the design I did for the Clairestelle8 Wedding prompt and it was based off a popular pin on Pinterest. That look used rose gold and pink and to be different I used blue and gold. I don't think it's terrible. I'm surprised how neat the detail looks considering I had to *shudder* free-hand it. I'm terrible at free-hand, I'm no artist and never will be however the french tip decals I had were too strong and kept ripping up the polish. Don't buy nail tips from Avon everyone.

Fail #2 // Hearts

I literally have no idea what this is supposed to be. I was swatching a colour because there was nothing on my thumb (a sign that I was swatching) but I can't remember what it was now. Regardless, I clearly decided to stick a glitter top coat on, then add some stamps for no reason. This is just a jumble of stuff with clearly no thought put into it. I give it 2/10. Next 👏 Nails 👏. 

Fail #3 // Roses 

WHAT WAS I THINKING?? I am disgusted by this mani on so many levels I think I triggered myself. Excuse me whilst I hold an #ifndef_nails_h_ is over party. This actually started out with a black base coat and I was attempting to do a stained glass look with roses....it did not go well so I just thought "fuck it, I'll smoosh it." And smoosh it I did....this was my first attempt at smooshing, it kind of looks like sewage water in some places and nothing says romance quite like sewage water....My thumb is the part I can't get over the most; just ew to this whole thing.

Fail #4 // Roses II - The Rosening

Ok, so this actually isn't that bad. I had just received some new Born Pretty polishes and really like the coral colour. I think this would be ok without the roses but I had to incorporate roses into it in someway otherwise it wouldn't fit the prompt. I don't think this had been executed badly, nor does it look bad; it just makes no sense to me.

And that's it for this compilation. Don't worry, this won't be the last one. There are plenty more fails instore. Here's the first fail post if you'd like some more:

- Nail Fails #1