Friday, 24 April 2015

Electric Nights


I haven't bought any new polish for aaaages but I had to cave when I saw the new Electric Nights collection by China Glaze, and seeing manicures people had created using the polishes. I'm not usually bothered about China Glaze as a brand - it seems a bit too pricey for me, and I prefer to stick to polishes that are more easily available on the highstreet for not too much money, such as Barry M and Models Own. 

However, I saw that these new China Glaze polishes were available on Nail Polish Direct for half price, and couldn't resist treating myself to some. I agonised between getting the full collection of the mini neon cremes, but to save money I settled on getting my favourite full-size creme and my favourite glitter from the collection. These were Glow With The Flow (pink!) and Point Me To The Party (multi-coloured neon glitter). 


They came this week and I was desperate to use them! I had a few ideas, but ended up going for a pink-to-white gradient with the glitter over the top. For the gradient I used Glow With The Flow, along with a paler pink (to help the gradient blend better) and a white polish, both Barry M.

These photos don't do the pink justice - my camera couldn't handle the neon! It's soooo bright in real life, and I definitely want to wear this for like the whole of summer. The glitter is fab too, really colourful and unusual - I will have to think of lots of ways to incorporate it into my nail art. 






Sunday, 19 April 2015

Chocolate

Hello!

I like to do nails to 'go with' places I'm going! Today, I went with my mum, sister and grandma to York's Chocolate Story, which is like a museum about the history of chocolate. It's in York, where I live, but we've never actually got round to going. We thought it'd be a fun day out so we went today. There was a guided tour with info about the history of chocolate-making and how it is made. There was also quite a few different opportunities to taste chocolate in different forms, watch a chocolate-making demo and to decorate our own chocolate lolly!

I had a look on Google to see what 'chocolate nails' other people had done, and found a fab design done by quite a few people that made the nails look like chocolate bars. It looked pretty simple to do, so I decided to have a go.

I started off with three coats of brown polish. I remember buying this cheap, unbranded polish because brown is useful for nail art. I'd never wear brown polish otherwise! After the brown was completely dry, I used the black and the white Barry M nail art pens to create the chocolate bar pattern, using the images I'd seen on Google as a guide. I started by using the black to draw a grid on each nail, then adding a black "L" shape into each square. I then used the white to do an upside down L! As I was doing these I didn't think they looked too good, but the overall look was quite effective. 

*eats nails*




Wednesday, 15 April 2015

Ladybirds!

Hello!

Today I've got some ladybirds to show you! I saw a similar design by @lieve91 on twitter and wanted to recreate it. I thought it'd be ideal for spring, and not too hard to do.

I started with three coats of Road Rage by Barry M. This is the mint green shade from the Speedy Quick Dry collection. I've not yet had chance to try out all the shades from this collection yet, but the ones I have tried have been great! The pastel colours are gorgeous, and apply smoothly. 

Once my base was dry, I added red dots using a dotting tool and Passion Fruit by Barry M. I left them a while so the red dots dried and wouldn't streak when I added topcoat. After the topcoat I waited a bit longer as nails need to be completely dry when using the Barry M nail art pens.

When I thought they were dry enough, I began adding heads, dots and legs to each red blob to make ladybirds. This was quite time-consuming and I had to go steadily and not rush to make sure I got all the tiny detail right. They're definitely not perfect, but as a repeated print across all my nails they look quite quirky and cute!

I started by doing my right hand (as I'm left handed and it's easier) but by the time I got to my left hand I'd got the hang of it, and despite using my non-dominant hand to add the details I actually like the finished look of my left hand better, I think it's neater! Here are both my hands anyway:



...and here's a swatch of Road Rage on its own before I added the bugs. A gorgeous mint shade!!


Friday, 10 April 2015

Mani Swap again!

Hello!

Today I've got the results of another Mani Swap to show you. This time I collaborated with Amy from Hair, Nails, Etc who creates some gorgeous nail art!

We both picked a design that the other had done, and tried to recreate it.

I picked Amy's fab camouflage design. I've wanted to try camo nails in proper camo colours for a while, but I've never got round to giving it a go as I didn't think I would get the pattern to look right. However when I saw Amy's design I thought it looked perfect, and I tried to get my blobs of colour in exactly the same place as hers! I don't think mine looks as good, but I suppose it's supposed to look random - from a distance it looks okay. 

I started with a base of Lychee by Barry M. I could tell that Amy had used Olive, which is a more greeny-tinted nude and looks better, but I don't have that one! I then used a dotting tool to add on blobs of green, brown, khaki and black, and topped with a matte topcoat as Amy had done. Here's some pics of my finished mani!

  Amy decided to recreate my Cath-Kidston-trainers-inspired cloud design. She pulled it off perfectly, as you can see in the above collage!

Nude & Neon Chevrons




My nails today are refreshing and summery! I've wanted to use nude with neon for a while and I came up with this design - and I love it! I was initially thinking of adding a leopard print design either over the neons or over the nude, but I liked the 'fresh' look of them without so left them plain.

The base is Lychee by Barry M, and the two neons are Beach Bag (orange) and Sun Hat (pink) from the Models Own Polish For Tans collection. They're stunning colours! I did the chevrons using template vinyls from She Sells Seashells.


Thursday, 9 April 2015

Pastel Dotticure

Hello!

Another design, which I think is quite cute for Easter/Spring. I must admit I didn't have much inspiration or time when I came up with these. I decided to use the Speedy Quick Dry collection that I won from Barry M as I'm loving the gorgeous pastel shades for spring. Quick-dry is great for nail art too as you don't have to wait forever before adding stuff or topcoating!

I used the pale blue for the base, and then five further shades for the dots. I painted a small blob of the colour I wanted onto a piece of scrap paper, then dipped a dotting tool in the blob and made the dots! This is much easier than trying to dip a dotting tool actually into a bottle of polish as you can more easily control how much you get. 

I finished off with a layer of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri. I like how these look quite subtle at first glance, but up close are more detailed! I definitely want to do another dotticure, but with bolder colours and I want to try a spiral pattern!

I was told at work these looked a bit like Easter Eggs, and also someone else insisted they were falsies and I couldn't have done them myself which is always a compliment, haha.


Wednesday, 8 April 2015

Easter Bunny Ears

Hello!

Realised I forgot to share my Easter nails on here - I did share on Instagram (it's so quick and easy!) but didn't have time to write a blog post as I was working all over Easter, boo! 

Before Easter, I was in a rush to do my nails, so ended up applying Jadis (the polish I designed for Freckles Polish) again. I love polishes with holo or glitter, as it means you don't have to add any nail art and your nails can still look really pretty and unusual! Lots of people liked Jadis, and I was very proud to be wearing it :-)

When it got to the Easter weekend, I didn't really have time to do a full Easter design, although I'd fancied doing eggs or chicks or something. I eventually settled on doodling this bunny-ear design using my Barry M nail art pens which didn't take long and ended up looking quite cute!! I loved them!