WAH nails' Aztec design, and a little bit of Glossy Box talk!

Goooood afternoon, today I have an Aztec/Tribal design on my nails, that was inspired (well, designed by!) WAHnails, a trendy London Nail Art Salon that is currently taking the polish world by storm. Here is my attempt at one of my favourite designs by them!

 

Polishes used:

• The base colour is American Apparel Manilla
• Blue stripe is Barry M Turquoise
• White is Claire's White Nail Art Pen
• Black is Claire's Black Nail Art Pen

I love the tribal trend, and it looks great in real life!

You may have noticed that I've added a watermark to my photos. I hate to have to do this (mainly because it's time consuming, above all else), but instances of my photos appearing without any credit is just happening too often. Don't get me wrong, I love it when people share my photos and designs, it's so nice to see, but it erks me when I stumble across a website and it has my picture on it, with no link! The idea of going through alllllll my posts, and adding the watermarks to them all, makes me feel a little queasy, so for now they will just be on the most recent ones. I've tried to place it so it's not intrusive on the photo, but so that it cannot be easily cropped out.

This is kind of a "two in one" post, as another little thing I want to share with you, is GlossyBox. This is by no means my first box, but it is my faourite so far and I think it's great. For those of you oblivious to what GlossyBox are all about, they are a company who provide you with 5 high end beauty samples for £10 a month. You always get at least one full size product, and the contents of each box are nearly always work three times the price you pay for it! You can unsubsribe at anytime, but I think it's a fun service!

There was some controversy over June's GlossyBox, as the general opinion of the samples inside was not very high. They've really stepped it up this month though, and I received 4 FULL SIZE products in my box, totalling £70.15. The box arrives beautifully packaged:

You get a little card explaining all about each product you've received, as each box is slightly different, meaning it's almost pot luck what you will get!

 My box contained:

• Weleda Pomegranate Regenerating Body Oil 100ml (as did everyone elses)
• Ciaté Nail Polish in Speed Dial - a gorgeous BRIGHT Orange!
• UltraSun facial sun lotion Spf 30
• Illamasqua pigment powder in Involve, a sparkly purple.
• LP Skin Therapy Lip Rescue Gel (I've not seen anyone in the twitterverse or blogisphere that has received this too) a plumping lip moisturiser.

The Illamasqua pigment powder

As the name of the product suggests, it is incredibly pigmented. Wish I didn't have an almost identical colour by MAC, but ho hum! I doubt I will be using this colour as a highlighter or blusher, but it's designed so that you can haha! It is worth £15.50

That bright orange Ciate paint pot in Speed Dial

 Can't wait to try this on, it's a great summery colour. It sells for £9.00

LP Skin Therapy Lip Rescue Gel

 This was the dark horse among the products, I absolutely adore it. Worth £20, it is part of the range by psychologist Linda Popadopoulos, a face I definitely recognised (from Big Brother, of all places!). This smells AMAZING, really orangey, and has that light tingly feeling when you slick it on. NICE.

Ultra Sun SPF 30 facial sun lotion

 Not an awful lot to say on this one, seen as England is utter crap and not even a little bit sunny at the moment. I will be taking it on holiday with me though, protecting your face in the sun is incredibly important, unless you want skin like a Louis Vuitton handbag. This is worth £5.70 - I worked it out from the 50ml price on the website - I used percentages and division and EVERYTHING, my maths-retarded brain had a little cry about that one.

Weleda Pomegranate Regenerating Body Oil

The Body Oil is gorgeous - it's quite viscous, meaning it is not greasy feeling, and doesn't take too long to soak in. I feel beautifully soft, and I smell like Haribo. Nom. This is also worth £20.

This box was incredible, and well worth the £10 paid. I reckon this was a bit of an "apology box" for the ill-received June box, so I hope the quality doesn't decline next month. For the record, I wasn't even disappointed last month, there were still some lovely things in there, just nowhere near as generous as July's box. Keep it up GlossyBox, I want more like this!

In other Nail Files news, you can see the Minnie Mouse manicure, with a full tutorial, on Alternative Fashion and Beauty website MookyChick! Woohoo!

Stripey Palm Trees!

I think I saw a design similar to this while browsing the world wide web, but can't remember where! (If anyone has any idea, let me know so I can give credit where it's due!) I wanted to use the palm tree image from Konad M29 again, and started with a base of coloured stripes, painted over white to make them "pop". If you want to know what any of the colours are, just ask in the comments!

I added the stripes using Claire's Black Nail Art Pen, and stamped the palm trees using Konad Black Special Polish:

Let me know what you think guys! We also have a lodger this week, he is very hairy and smelly and MENTAL. But we love him.

Jack, our temporary mutt. (Or Jacqueline, when he's naughty. Which is ALL THE TIME.)

xxxx

Scotch Tape Zebra Print Manicure

Hello everyone! I know, two posts in as many days, almost like the good old days eh?!

When I was on holiday with my family, we had a very restricted weight allowance for the flights, and so we ditched all the heavy beach gear in favour of lighter alternatives. This included picking up some cheap, light beach towels from Asda, and my, ever tasteful, father chose the most trashy-fabulous, attention grabbing, lurid print that was available - zebra print with a bright purple border. They were amazing. And chavvy. But mostly amazing. They inspired this manicure!

I started with a base of 3 coats of Natural Collections White and allowed to dry before stamping the zebra image from Konad M57 with Konad Special Polish in Black. If you're in the UK, and don't want to splash out for the Konad special Polish, I've heard that MUA Shade 2 - available for only £1 in Superdrug - is a fantastically opaque alternative, though I've yet to try it myself. I added a coat of Seche Vite to dry it all quickly, and ten minutes later added strips of scotch tape diagonally across each nail. I then painted the nail in Claire's Matte Purple (I LOVE mixing textures!) and pulled the tape away while still wet. ET VOILAAA! Trashy Towel Nails.

 

I love how the shiny and the matte finishes look together. The cameras playing tricks on your eyes, the purple is, in fact, a lot more violet and red toned in real life, my camera is in perfect, purple denial, turning it blue. The photos were also taken at dusk, so sorry they're a bit dark and blue. (gawd I need to build myself a light box!)

Let me know what you think everyone! :D

Minnie Mouse - Disney Nail Art

Hello Everyone!

Sorry for my absence, I've been on holiday in Majorca! Me and my family had a lovely time, it was great to unwind for a week and catch some sunshine, as well as stuff my face - something I am rather good at.

I popped on a new manicure as soon as I got back, and, inspired my excitement for m next holiday (a trip to Disney Land), I decided upon Minnie Mouse Nails!

I started with a base of Barry M Peach Melba (the Barry M Red polish I used really "pops" when it's applied over a light, neutral colour, it's a bit sheer and dull, otherwise), and then added two coats of Barry M Red. I used Konad White Special Polish and Image Plate M79 for the polka dots, and freehanded in some black bows using Claire's Black Nail Art Pen. For the Accent nail, I mixed American Apparel Palm Springs with a little Natural Collection White Polish and painted the whole nail. I then added the details using Claire's Nail Art Pen in Black and White. I topped it all off with Rimmel's 60 Second Topcoat!

So there we are! I'm sure I will be sporting this a lot when I'm over in America! Let me know what you think guys, I love Disney so I'm sure there'll be a lot more where this came from!

I also had some interesting blog traffic this week, and logged on to find a lot of referrals from www.bodycare.becomegorgeous.com, who have written and article on little old me, in relation to summer nail art trends. You can check it out HERE! :D
xxx