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.

BFF Friday: Negative Space

Hello! Myself and Naileymabob try to do BFF Friday whenever we can but our jobs/lives often get in the way! We managed to fit one in this week though which we were both happy about as it encouraged us both to actually do some nail art!

(I've just found out that Laura can't post her blogpost yet as she's sorting out some family stuff, but if you head over to instagram she's posted her nails there for now!)

This week's theme, chosen by Laura, is Negative Space. As you all know this means leaving some of your nail 'blank' or 'polishless' while still creating a design. I've done negative space nails before here (half moons) and here (single chevron) and really liked the effect both times. I wanted to do something slightly different this time, so decided to add dotted flowers over a bare nail. I decided to do this on the middle two fingers of each hand - mainly because I've got a repair going on on a break on my index finger, so couldn't leave it polishless, so thought I'd incorporate this into the design!!

I already had these two polishes in mind for the design, before I even bought them! I knew they'd look nice together and quite autumnal. This is Mustard and Chilli from the new autumn/tribal range of gelly polish by Barry M.

I also used my prize from a recent competition ran by Orly on Instagram. The winners all received a bottle of Orly BB Creme which is a new product designed to be like a BB Cream but for your nails! The website has this to say:
"ORLY BB Crème is ORLY’s biggest innovation since the Original French Manicure itself. It’s everything you need for beautiful natural nails in a bottle. It whitens, it brightens, it smoothes and it protects – giving your nails an instant make over and a healthy glow. Containing UV filters, it also helps prevent discolouration of the nail too. Instantly transform your nails in just two coats. Wear alone – no other polish needed." 
...So basically, this isn't a nail treatment as I first thought, but a polish designed to keep nails looking natural but improve the colour/texture and general appearance of the nail. I was a bit skeptical at first - why not just use a clear or sheer peachy shade to get this effect? But actually, after using this, I think it's rather good! It does everything it says and makes my natural nails appear so healthy - whilst still looking natural. 
I reckon this would be great for someone who has their nails bare a lot (for work or whatever reason) but wants to keep them looking nice. Not so great for someone like me who always wears polish, but now I have something to use if ever I need to have naked nails. 

So anyway - after that digression - I used this as a base for the negative space nails, which made my nails appear really healthy and clean, and hid any staining from excessive polish use. 

I added the flowers randomly using my Models Own dotting tool, and then created a gradient with both colours on all my other fingers. I really love the look of this manicure - I wish I could have done the flowers on all my nails! They look really 70s!

To tone these down for work, I sadly removed the gradient nails and just painted these with the Orly BB polish. I love how it makes my nails look! Although I don't know if I'm keen on having designs on just two nails and the rest plain - people at work thought I'd forgotten to do the rest of them, and also I kept catching sight of the dark red and thinking I had blood under my nails!! 

Dotted Flowers

Hello!

Another new manicure today. I wanted to create some nail art, but I can't have them too crazy for work as I've mentioned loads of times! I decided a possible way round this would be to use really pale pastels - from a distance you can hardly tell there's a design at all (which made these SO hard to photograph!!)

I started with a base of Huckleberry (Barry M) and then used my Models Own dotting tool to create the flowers, one layer at a time, using Rosehip (Barry M), Sugar Apple (Barry M) and Miss Sunshine (Accessorize). I am still totally in love with the pastel Gellys that Barry M do, and I just wish they did a pastel yellow - they don't currently which means I always use this Accessorize pastel yellow, which is running out :-(

I finished off with white dots using Barry M's white nail art pen, and a topcoat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri!

As I said, these were so hard to photograph! Half the pictures I took completely washed out the design and you couldn't see it at all, the other half the design looked okay but my fingers looked all red/orange/gross! I've had to include the latter pics so apologies for how my fingers look....

Stripes, Spots and Roses

Hello!

My manicure today was inspired by a bag I saw someone carrying at work. I have no idea where it was from and didn't get a pic or anything, but I do remember thinking it was a design I'd like to try on my nails. It was blue and white, one side spotty and one side stripey, with flowers down the middle separating the two prints. 

At first I was going to do each nail with half-and-half spots and stripes, with roses down the middle, but I thought this might be too time-consuming, and end up looking too busy. Instead I decided to do the main design on my middle finger as an accent nail, and do the nails either side it as spots and stripes. 

I used:
Sinful Colors - Snow me White (for the base)
Color Club - blue ...doesn't have a name on it (for the dots and stripes)
Barry M -  Grapefruit (for the roses)
Barry M - white and pink nail art pen (for the detail on the roses)

For the stripes, I used nail vinyls from She Sells Seashells - I used these ones that are just straight strips - so much easier than trying to cut pieces of tape to the same thickness! I applied them over the white base, painted blue over the top then removed the strips with tweezers. 

For the spots, I used a dotting tool that I won via Naileymabob from Models Own. I find when using a dotting tool it's easier to blob a small amount of polish onto some scrap paper and then dip the dotting tool in this rather than in the bottle - it's easier to see what you're doing and to control how much polish you pick up. I've never really done a successful dotting tool mani before but I like how these spotty nails turned out and I definitely want to try more colour combos.

For the roses I blobbed on random dots down the centre of my middle nail, using the brush from the bottle of Barry M's Grapefruit. Once dry I added detail with the nail art pens, then topcoated all my nails with a fast dry topcoat!

Here's some pics of them in the sun! ....apologies for my tiny baby nail on my little finger :-(

Week 9 - Delicate Print

 
For week 9 of our challenge, I had to create delicate print nails. I wasn't looking forward to this challenge! I've seen loads of fab delicate print nails around the nail-art-blog world, but most have either been done using stamping, or done with a lot of artistic skill - both of these things I do not have! I can't draw on paper, so I really can't on my nails!

I finally decided that I'd make some small dotted flowers on my nails using a dotting tool. "delicate print" to me suggests pale colours, so I selected Sally Hansen's Dorien Grey (loooove) as the base colour, and my favourite unbranded pale pink and 17s white, which is called mini skirt for the flowers. However I was really unhappy with the result! The flowers looked mushed together and uneven, owing to not being able to get an even amount of polish on each dot, and uneven spacing between the dots. ARGH! Anyway, here is a photo of my attempt, with some random dotting on my thumb...

I decided that I quite liked the dotting I had done on my thumb, so took off the horrible blotchy flowers and just dotted. They're still not evenly spaced and evenly sized, which is REALLY annoying to me! Here is another picture of the finished product, and also of Dorien Grey on it's own because it's beautiful!

 

Got some ideas of other things I want to try this week, including something with my crackle topcoat and something with my new Nails Inc Feathers set that my boyfriend got me :-D Hopefully I will create something I actually like soon!

Week 3 - Polka Dot Nails

Yay - finally time for week 3 of the HTV nail art challenge, polka dot. I've been looking forward to actually doing some challenge nails, but I didn't really have a set idea for this week. Until today I was just going to do pink with white spots, until I saw similar to this design I've done when I was googling. Thought it looked fab so thought I would try it! 

 

I'm semi-pleased with the result. I love the effect, but there are some imperfections that are going to annoy me, like the diagonal lines not being straight and the fact that the topcoat slightly smudged some of the dots. I'm pleased that the dots look reasonably even as this is what I thought I would have the most problem with!

Here's a step-by-step photo guide to how I did this. Masking tape to create the divide, and a dotting tool for the spots! (Oh - and the black nail art pen also has a brush, so I used this as it's the only black I have!)