Candy Nails - Good Enough to Eat!

I have recently been helping a friend with a Design Project, where she was a creating a point of sale display for Topshop's Pastel Polishes - the theme was "sweeties" and I was enlisted to help with the nail art designs! One of the sets that I painted used real hundreds and thousands that were glued to the nail, just like you would with Nail Art Beads.

I started by painting each nail a different pastel shade, then adding a thin layer of nail glue to one corner of the  nail. I then licked my index finger on the opposite hand, dipped it in hundreds and thousands, then dabbed them lightly onto the wet nail glue:

I know I don't usually do Nail Art on falsies (you can see they don't fit well at ALL haha) but this project called for it! I actually find it easier to paint nails if they're attached to my fingers...who knew?! Would you ever put edible decorations on your nails for everyday wear?


Don't forget you can still vote for me in the Bundle Monster Facebook Competition! Click HERE to vote for this design! It only takes one click! :)

Leave me comments, I love to read them!

Boots 17 Juicy - Fruity Nail Art!

I have another of the Boots 17 spring polishes to show you today! It is a bright, lime green with micro-shimmer. I was tempted to do some floral nail art, but thought I would honour the name of the polish and do something Juicy!

This is 3 coats of Boots 17 Juicy - it goes on a bit sheer but the colour builds nicely and the shimmer looks lush, I don't usually like shimmer! I added some apples using Barry M red, Barry M Mushroom and Barry M Spring Green

You can click to enlarge the photos and see the shimmer!

I used a dotting tool to create the details and Claire's White Nail Art Pen to add the shine! I topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite.

What are you tinking to the 17 Spring Collection so far? Is this BRIGHT green something you would wear? Let me know what you think in the comments!

Don't forget you can follow me on twitter for instant updates on blog post and my silly, old life.

Pin this post to your pinterest board!! :D

Easter Nail Art Tutorial - Cadbury's Mini Eggs!

This design was suggested to me by my best friend Sara - as soon as she said it, I knew it had to be done, if only as an expansion on the Cadbury's Chocolate Manicure! I worked tirelessly on a tutorial for it so you can all do it yourselves at home :D I know it's a bit early for Easter Manicures, but it's that time of year where Mini Eggs hit the shops an I love them! I don't know if you can get them in the US, but FIND THEM. THEY ARE LIKE EASTER-TIME CRACK.

This will also be part review for Boots 17 new nail polishes which I picked up last week. I chose 3 of them - Mellow Yellow, Glisten and Juicy. They're really fresh, bright spring/summer colours so I really couldn't resist. First up is Mellow Yellow, a gorgeous mid-tone yellow with gold micro-shimmer. It's beaaautiful.

The application of Mellow Yellow was lovely, this is two coats and there is no visible nail line (VNL). It's glossy and dries relatively quickly. From experience, 17 polishes go thick and unusable rather quickly so invest in a polish thinner like Seche Restore if you want to keep this bad boy for more than a few months.

The perfect yellow for a mini eggs packet, I hear you say? Yes, it is. Tutorial time!

1. Start with your yellow base and take a chocolate-brown polish like Barry M Mushroom. Draw large ovals in a sporadic pattern across the nail. This is the outline of the eggs!

                        
2. Take a selection of pastel coloured polishes. I chose American Apparel Office (green), Collection 2000 Candyfloss (pink), Natural Collection White and Collection 2000 Angel Wings (purple/grey). Paint over your brown ovals with the pastel shades, but leave a small brown outline.

3. Time to add some brown speckles to the eggs! Take a dotting tool (or a toothpick if you don't have one!) and take a small bead of your brown polish on the end. dab this gently onto your pastel eggs.

4. Take a purple polish or purple Nail Art Pen. This step is much easier to do when you have the control of a Nail Art Pen, but if you have a steady hand then go for it with a small brush. Write the words "Mini Eggs" in the Cadbury's font on your thumb. This is optional, you could always just draw more Mini Eggs!

5. Add a topcoat to protect your design from wear and tear and to make it super glossy. I used Seche Vite.

6. Stand back and admire your Cadbury's Mini Egg Easter Nail Art!

I added Claire's Matte Topcoat over the top to achieve that powdery look and feel that mini eggs have.

There you are! Cadbury's Mini Egg nails, perfect for Easter! If you've given up chocolate for lent then a) I don't know how you live b) You can enjoy chocolate in an alternative way!

As always, if you follow my tutorial I would love to see it so pleeease let me know!

I hope you have fabulous weekends!

Motel Rocks Feather Print - Nail Art Tutorial

It's that time of the week where I show you a manicure tutorial inspired by a Motel Rocks print! As you may know, I am the resident Nail Artist at Motel Rocks Blog and will be creating nail art tutorial for all of you lovely people based on their stunning prints! Their clothes are amaaaaaze, what's more is they've opened a US online shop and store in LA! International Hotness!

This tutorial is for Motel's Feather Print, which looks so chic on the nail! It's also really easy to do at home with only a few simple tools - if you have a go I'd love to see it! Tweet at me y'all! Or spread the love on Pinterest!

remember you can click to enlarge! :D

Click HERE for the full tutorial for these feathery nails! Thanks to Motel Rocks for hosting the tutorial!

Let me know what you think on the comments!

Hyacinth and Black Striped Nails for Motel Rocks!

Some exciting news is that I have recently accepted the position of resident Nail Art Blogger (along with Leanne at Do Not Refreeze!) for Motel Rocks Clothing! Every now and again I will be creating Nail Art tutorials for manicures that are inspired by their prints and clothing ranges (WHICH ARE TO DIE FOR). Their clothes don't follow the trends - they set them. The prints they create become iconic and there is literally something for everyone in their ranges (can you tell that I am a bit in love with Motel Rocks?)

This is great news as it means even more tutorials for you guys! You also get 15% off clothing at Motel Rocks with my discount code TOPBLOG15 (see the banner --->)

The first tutorial is one I have been meaning to do for a while - how to get perfect stripey nails that look professional and neat! For more on how to achieve this manicure at home, click the link below :) It's easy and uses only tools that you have around the house!

Click here to see the full tutorial on Motel Rocks!

You can read a post I did previously on a Motel Rocks and Glossy Box event HERE :D

Have a great weekend, everyone xxx

Valentine's Day Nail Art!

Eeeeeevening!

This is a kind of improvised manicure - I wanted to do a "love letter" style design, with a cream and pink heart background and newspaper print over the top. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the STUUUPOIIDIDIDD newspaper to transfer with vodka, so I've ordered some surgical spirit to try instead! I was very frustrated. Bundlemonster to the rescue, I decided to use plate BM09 and stamp the "love" image repeatedly, so it looks almost like a love letter (or weird love graffiti).

I started out with a base of 3 coats of Bloom Nicole and then stamped the swirly heart image from Bundle Monster BM02 using Konad Special White Polish mixed with bright pink. I then used Rimmel Urban Princess to stamp three little love-hearts from BM03 in the gaps.

After a coat of Seche Vite, I used Konad Black Special Polish to stamp the Love image from BM09 repeatedly over the whole nail. This was tricky to get straight! The beauty of adding a coat of topcoat before stamping, is that if you make a mistake you can take it off with nail varnish remover without destroying your previous stamping.

Don't forget you can click to enlarge!! A little bit different from my Anti-Valentines Day manicure...but I can get into the spirit of things!

I hope everyone had a lovely V-Day, single or not! Let me know what you think on the comments :D

xxx

Anti-Valentines Day Nails with Nails Inc!

Now, I'm not a bitter old hag but mushy just aint my style. I'm also going to be single this year and so wanted to do a manicure for the singletons that wasn't covered in hearts and bows and glitter and feeeeelings.

I started out with a base of Nails Inc Tate, which came free with a British Magazine (I forget which - Glamour?!) and is a gorgeous shade of deep red. For the accent nail the base is Colour Club white with a Tate heart - I drew this using a dotting tool. The rest of the details were added with Claire's Black Nail Art Pen:

I would also like to add that I am not a narcissist, I just thought it was funny hahah.

Whatever you're doing on V-Day, I hope you have fun! I will be watching Bridget Jones, painting my nails and enjoying the freedom to belch whenever I like. I'm allergic to roses anyway.



xxx

Zooey Deschanel's Golden Globe Tuxedo Nails - A Tutorial.

The world has gone Zooey mad since her new (amazing) show, New Girl, hit the screen. I just love her. She is just bloody brilliant. Lesbian crushes aside, I wanted to do a tutorial for the Nail Art she sported at this year's Golden Globes - I love that now Nail Art has gone mainstream we see it a lot more on celebs! Zooey wore little,  black and white Tuxedos on her digits, which are incredibly easy to do and perfect for short nails. Since mine are being stubborn at the moment and refusing to grow, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to do a Zooey Deschanel Nail Art Tutorial.

Start out with a white base and use a striping brush of Nail Art Pen to paint a thin, black line along the nail tip:-

Next, we need to draw the little, tuxedo bow-ties. The easiest way to do this is to draw 3 small dots across the top of the nail, to create the basic shape of your bow tie, then join them together:-

After you have drawn the little bows, it's time to draw the tuxedo buttons. These are just 3 small dots in a vertical line from the bow-tie to the tip. Make sure you have a good sized bead of polish on the end of your Nail Art Pen, dotting tool or tooth pick then lightly dab it onto the nail:-

Add a topcoat and Voila! Your very own Tuxedo nails, perfect for any occasion, even red carpet, Hollywood dos apparently!

Let me know what you think! I would love to see a picture if you follow the tutorial - it really is very simple and the look you can create is so much fun! I will leave you with a picture of Zooey Deschanel to drool over. If you don't like her, then good luck in life without a soul.

Hello Kitty Nail Art!

I have done Hello Kitty Nails once before, but that was just as I was starting out. Seen as I don't get to use the Hello Kitty stamp from the Born Pretty.com (great Nail Art Supplies) promotion very often, I thought I'd dig it out and do an EVEN BETTER MANICURE. Haha. I painted the nails with Natural Collection White and stamped the Hello Kitty image using Konad Black Special Polish. I filled in the bows and noses with pink and yellow and added a coat of Seche Vite. For the accent nail I drew Hello Kitty's face using various Nail Art Pens.

Sorry the photos are a little blurry and dark, I had to take them in my shower because I was out of day light! Sounds odd, but it's the brightest light in the house, and still doesn't do the job!

They came out really cute and are a fun way to wear white nails - which I rarely do! Let me know what you think!

Born Pretty Store also give away 10 of these Hello Kitty Image Plates COMPLETELY FREE, everyday. All you have to do is add it to your cart, and enter the code BP299 at the checkout. To be taken there, you can click on the banner in my side-bar! ----------->

xxx

Winter Wonderland Nail Art!

I suppose I should've waited for it to snow before posting this manicure (the synchronicity would be satisfying!), but I still feel bad for leaving you all alone for a month so I'm cracking out all my best stuff.

Now, I really like the design of this manicure, but it was executed badly - this, I fully admit, is my own fault. I acquired the base colour (Barry M Aqua Blue) from The Clothes Show Live, and I didn't realise it was so sheer before I began applying it. Had I known, I would've used a pastel blue base because it took about 6 coats to achieve opacity. Too many! This, paired with the 4 coats of Claire's Holographic Silver Glitter Topcoat that I added to the tips, created that horrible "too many coats of polish" look. It's kind of bubbly and icky and raised off the nail - not a fan! As if it wasn't bad enough, my Seche Vite has gone thick, and caused shrinkage, exposing the very tip of my natural nail. Here are the photos anyway, just try and ignore the poor execution and focus on the pretty glitter and snowflakes! Eeee!

cuticles are GRIM, sorry sorry sorry!

How I created the glittery snowflake tips:

Once my Barry M Aqua Blue base was dry, I added a thin layer of Claire's Holographic Silver Glitter Topcoat, starting about halfway down the nail. On the second coat of glitter, I started my brush strokes slightly close to the nail tip, and repeated for another two coats to create the glitter gradient effect. Once dry I stamped the Snowflake image from Bundle Monster Image Plate BM14 at different places on each nail tip using Konad Special Polish in White. With Claire's White Nail Art Pen, I filled in some of the gaps with dots, to make tiny snowdrops. I topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite, to make it super smooth.

Thanks everyone! Let me know what you think on the comments, I'd love to see it if any of you give it a go! I kept this on for a few days, I really liked it, especially when it caught the light!


xxx

I'M BACK...

...did you miss me?! I have definitely missed my little corner of the internet and I feel absolutely AWFUL that I've neglected it :( I have started a new job and I work very long, miserable hours - not a lot of free time or daylight. Enough wining, I'm so happy to be back and really sorry for being away so long! Today's Nail Art is a super-intricate freehand manicure to make up for it! Admittedly it's Christmas themed, and I've kind of missed the boat on that, but here it is anyway :D

Santa through a dawn sky on Christmas Morning!

I started with a gradient base (American Apparel African Violet with Barry M Cobalt Blue and Topshop Celestial sponged over the top) and freehanded in the reindeer with a brush and Barry M Mushroom. I then drew in Santa Claus with various Nail Art Pens and added the snow on the rooftops and sky by dotting a White Nail Art Pen. I topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite and I was so pleased with how it came out!

I know it's not Christmas anymore, but I'm finding it hard to let the festivities go haha! Let me know what you think on the comments (and also how your lives have been, I feel so out of touch!)

xxx