Christmas Day Nails!

Hey guys,

I mentioned I was under the weather last post, and I thought I would let you know that thankfully i'm feeling much much better now! :D

I decided to do a 3 colour gradient with festive colours; gold, green and red. However the green looks a little more blue in these photos, not sure why. The red and green blended together really well but the gold and green didn't really blend so much as lay over one another, it overall looked nice though :)

Just in case you were interested, this is what the gradient looked like without the glitter coat over the top, and before I cleaned it up.












Let me know what you think! :)

Messy Minions

Hey guys,

This week I felt like doing a design more cartoony and kiddish, and after looking around I stumbled upon a minion elf design - I couldn't resist. However sadly I was ill most of the week and so only actually got round to doing these last night, and even then I didn't really want to face the smell of nail polish - yes I must be very ill, can't believe I just said that - and so the nails are a little messy as I tried to get them over and done with quickly.

I suppose at least you can hopefully tell they're minions. I might just take them off tonight anyway though and hope that I feel better for something in time for Christmas.

I wish all my readers a good holiday!

Mixed Christmas Nails

Hey guys,

My nails are arguably a little more complicated than usual this week. The only downside to this is that it took much longer to do. I based them on this design I found on Tumblr, sadly I could not find the original link as the photo is not watermarked, so to whoever made this first - I love it.

However - look how pretty they are! (Even if it is bad late night photography - sorry!)

Sadly, I never seem to use my red polish, so did not realise just how bad it is. Not only had it chipped a lot off within just a day, but it also smudged into the reindeer when I tried to apply a topcoat. I don't think i'll use my red again for a while. At least not until I get a better one as this was just annoying and is the reason the photos are so terrible, by the time I actually had time to take some proper photos of them, the red had 3/4 chipped off and I didn't want to waste time painting them again just for it to happen again.

Let me know what you think!

Penguin Nails!

Hey guys,

Much like last week I have had a christmas or winter themed look on my nails this week. But this time I decided to go with a cute animal! Although the original design was super cute, I don't think mine went so well. However i'm still quite happy with it - just please try to ignore the slight smudges!

Hopefully next week I will be back on Nail Art form as this I have to admit is definitely not my best ever. Not sure what was up, I even had to redo these once which is why I just left them smudged this time.
Anyway, i'm out looking for inspiration for next weeks nails at the moment!

Christmas Sweater Nails

Hey guys,

Okay.. it may not even be quite December yet, but when I saw this design I couldn't resist trying to recreate it for myself. Incase you hadn't realised from the photo, the design is actually a stamp, a stamp which I don't have. So, the difficult bit was trying to work out how to draw this with a cocktail stick. However, despite having to redo my first nail - it went really well!

Okay.. these photos I didn't clean round my nails very well, but there's a reason I haven't posted nails since I have. I originally put gold with the red glitter, however I didn't really like the colour combination and so decided to change it. However, the only silver I have is really really old, its actually taken out of my mums stash and is so old its even made in the UK! It was a bit seperated but once I shook it around it looked fine, it also applied fine.. the polish just would not dry though! In the end I had to go to bed with still slightly not so dry nails, and when I woke up they had smudged a little bit and just looked really really messy. 

This is what it looked like with the gold. It looks alright here but in real life, the gold just looked odd.

I'm not sure why on my right hand the silver looks really gold, i'm guessing my camera flash just caught it in an odd way.
But anyway, i'm so happy with how these turned out! Considering the original I based the design on was a stamp, I think I managed to replicate it pretty well! Even if I did have to miss out the zig-zag line on my right hand due to the flower being bigger and less neat.

Do you think its too early for christmas nails or are you just too in love with this design (like me) to care?
Let me know what you think and see you next week! :)

Cath Kidston Floral Nails

Hey guys,

Something a lot more girly this week! I was going to add dots to totally follow this tutorial but sadly I ran out of time. However i'm still really proud of my little flowers and many of my friends recognized it as Cath Kidston without being prompted so as far as i'm concerned - aim achieved!

A quick summary against the bottle. Look how cute they are! I'm not sure if they would have looked too crowded with the dots anyway. 

Let me know what you think! Would it have looked better with the dots or does it look fine as it is?

Plaid Nails

Hey guys,

I tried to use my nail art brushes this week but sadly it did not go to plan at all and instead I gave up and ended up going back to cocktail sticks.

I tried to follow this tutorial and ended up with a much simpler version of it. However I think it turned out okay and you can actually tell its plaid so I achieved my aim!

Something more floral planned for next week - see you soon!

Bonfire Night Nails

Hey Guys,

So I know this post is quite late, but I did these in time for Bonfire Night celebrations. I loved all the fireworks and I thought fire would be perfect.

Sorry for such a bad photo, admittedly these could have been neater but I was actually quite happy with these. 

HALLOWEEN NAILS!

Hey guys,

Sorry i've been missing for what seems like ages! I've had far too much on, so i'm really sorry, but i'm back now and will try to keep to my usual schedule now.

But anyway, onto this weeks manicure, which had to of course be halloween themed! This is based on a design I found on YouTube which you can find here

Here it is! Rather annoyingly as you can see I managed to smudge the thumb. So annoying. However, I suppose seeing as it does have a Halloween theme i'm allowed to make it a little messy for once.

Here is both my hands, this time my left hand before I smudged it, but also before I cleaned up after myself as you can see. But I just wanted to show you that at one point it was neat.

Let me know what you think and once again sorry for being absent so long!

Tie Dye Nails

Hey Guys

Aghhhhh! Finally a design i'm actually proud of after my low. Sadly, I managed to forget to take some proper photos of it so all I have is some dodgy ones I took on my phone to show a friend before I cleaned them up. Its based on this design. But sadly my Right hand is extremely messy, but i'll show you it anyway.

Here you have the left hand (non-messy one), and then the right hand (incredibly messy one). But hey, I hope you like the neat hand anyway.

See you next week!

(P.S. I think i'm going to change my post day to either be Friday or Saturday each week rather than always on a Friday, it just makes it easier for me.)

Crackle Nails

Hey Guys,

So this week I couldn't decide what I wanted on my nails so just decided to go for something simple. When trying to pick out autumn colours I was drawn to my gold, however not wanting plain gold nails I put crackle polish on top.
This was the final look:

 Obviously I did this on both hands, and sorry its a little chipped, this was taken after I had kept this on a few days. I did take more photos, but to be honest this is nothing special so I won't make the post too long by including them.

See you next week!

The moment when you realise you painted your nails and they exactly match a top you own

Hey guys,

So, first things first, read the title. Yes, this was actually completely accidental, the design I used was actually based on this look by Nail Stories. I actually love this pink, but don't have one anywhere near as nice so that's why I decided to go for a more autumnish colour, dark green. This is the look I came up with:

 

Then, mum said to me "You have a top like that". Turns out that its like exactly the same colour as this polish, even with a bow.

I'm not sure why I look so brown in the selfie but I think its just because its late at night.
However, as you can hopefully see, the colour is exactly the same, could not believe this.

Let me know what you think anyway - see you next week!

I finally bought some nail art tools!

Hey guys,

As I mentioned in my last post, I recently bought some nail art tools, both dotting tools and brushes, this post is simply showing the tools and not anything using them.
Sorry - i've been so busy lately I literally haven't had anything on my nails, I also was doing my Silver Duke of Edinburgh Award last week which is why I didn't post - again i'm very sorry- but i'm back this week, apologies for no nail art this time!

I bought this set for £12.75 on Amazon with free delivery, it came really quick, I was definitely impressed.
All the brushes come in this easy to wrap up case which has that horrid new plastic smell, but it came with it so its much easier to keep all the brushes in one place and make sure you have them all.

This is an image showing all the brushes in the case, as you can see all of them apart from the fan brushes and dotting tool have a plastic cover to keep the bristles together and there is also a plastic fold over piece at the top. The case simply fastens with two magnetic poppers.

Another image showing just the brushes (and one item which looks like the brushes but is actually more like a dotting tool), I've taken all the plastic bits off here and folded the covering bit over underneath.

There are 15 brushes in total with 5 double sided dotting tools at the end.

An image of just the dotting tools to show you how large the dots are, they differ by quite a lot, although a few of the smaller ones seem to be exactly the same size by my eyesight so i'm not sure what to say.


Once again, sorry there are no actual nails this post, but I hope these interested you anyway!

Will Paint Nails for Food Giveaway

Hey guys,

I just thought I would share with you that Will Paint Nails for Food is currently having a giveaway of two very cute Enchanted Polishes (I love the lilac one!)

You can find her giveaway post here: http://www.willpaintnailsforfood.com/2013/09/enchanted-polish-giveaway.html

Good luck if you enter! :)

Disney Nails!

Hey Guys,

So this week it was back to school so I decided that I could do nothing better than some childish nails, and what brings me back to my childhood you ask? Disney!

I decided that due to the Disney mascot being Mickey Mouse that he would be an ideal candidate. Once again I did not come up with the design myself (I think I need to be more original soon..) but you can find a tutorial of it here.

I did actually do this on both hands again, but for some weird reason I only took a photo of one. 

One thing you may notice about this manicure is that it is quite obviously not done with a cocktail stick, do you know what this means? I have finally bought a set of dotting tools and nail art brushes! I will do a post on them probably next week but I am so excited to test them out more because I am actually in love with my little finger nail!

Let me know what you think, is this suitable for back to school or am I just being a little too childish?

Liebster Award Nominations!

Hey Guys,

So this is an extra post this week, however it will not be featuring any nails.. the reason for this you may ask? I have been nominated for an award.. twice! I had recently read a post about this award and thought it was a really cool idea, not even two days later I get two nominations on the same day.. just wow!

So first I have to say a really big thank you to I 'Art Nails and The Nail Snail (click the links to be taken to the posts).

The rules for the Liebster award are very simple:

1. You must link back to the blogger who nominated you. 
2. Answer the 11 questions given to you by the blogger who nominated you. 
3. Nominate 11 other bloggers with less than 200 followers.
4. Go to the blogs you nominated and notify them of your nomination.
5. Give your nominees 11 questions to answer

However, due to being nominated by two people, I will answer all 22 questions, but then only nominate 11 other bloggers instead of doubling that up too.

So now onto the questions.. I am going to start with I 'Art Nails:

1. If you had 3 wishes, what would they be?

  3 wishes? Wow, that's a big question to answer.. I think I would wish to find success in life, to find true love and that me and those around me are always happy. Bit soppy, but yeah, that's what I would wish for. 

2. What beauty item(s) do you carry around in your bag?

  A Lip Salve / Vaseline - i'm not really that big on make-up

3. What song would be the soundtrack to your life?

  Just one? This is another one I have to sit down and think hard about, mainly because I have certain songs that relate to very specific memories of mine, but I don't have one that particularly stands out as the soundtrack to my life. However, after much iTunes and Spotify listening, I think i'm just going to stick with "Life's a Happy Song" by the Muppets.

4. If you could be any character in any book or film, who would you be?

  Agh, another really tough question.. Probably Hermione from Harry Potter, she may go through a lot but she's clever and rates her friends above almost everything else, and at the end she has a guy and they are happy. 

5. What is your favourite perfume / fragrance?
  Well I only own one so i'm guess i'll say that even though I don't use it that much. Its Fantasy by Britney Spears.
6. What has been your biggest beauty / fashion faux pas?
  I probably make mistakes with beauty stuff all the time and just don't realise it, fashion-wise I love wearing skirts and generally don't check the weather before I go out, its a bad mix, and yet I don't learn..
7. Natural nails or Acrylic nails?
  Natural, easy to answer that one! I have no problems with fake nails and the like, but I think they should only be used at very special occasions like Weddings or the like.
8. If you could have a lifetime supply of make-up, what brand would you want it to be?
  Hmm, due to not wearing much make-up I don't really know my brands that well, however it would definitely have to be one that does good make-up as well as Nail Polish (I'm not living without this!), so i'll go with Rimmel London.
9. If you could have a date with any celebrity, who would it be?
  Far too many hot guys and not enough my age.. hmm.. I am so tempted to go with one of the One Direction guys. But no, i'll go with Jim Chapman the Youtuber, yes I know he has a fiance, but lets face it, i'm not anything special so any celebrity would not want a second date, and Jim seems like an amazing guy who would be really fun to be around and that I would love to meet. So no, not a romantic date, more like a fun day out.
10. If you could invite 5 people to a dinner party (dead or alive), who would it be?
  Damn, now I wish i'd read ahead, well if I haven't already met Jim then him, Liam Payne from 1D, Jessie J, Olly Murs and Tyler Oakley (also a youtuber).
11. Why did you start blogging?
  I thought my friends were probably a bit too bored of seeing pictures of my nails on Facebook or Twitter  but still wanted a place to keep them, therefore a blog seemed like a good idea.

And now for The Nail Snail's questions!

1. What is your favorite nail polish (sorry, I know it's a super hard question)?

  I don't have any special nail polishes only pharmacy/Drugstore ones, and due to the fact that I think I had better give my other polishes a go rather than my pinks, I will go with Barry M - Racing Green. 

2. What other hobbies do you have, besides nail polish?

  Ah.. um.. Playing Facebook games? I seem to spend all my time either doing work, sitting on Facebook or doing my nails. Sorry, i'm really not a very interesting person and am probably classed as a workaholic or something. 

3. In your opinion, what is the best mani you've ever done?

  Easy, this one, its so cute and perfect and both my hands turned out almost perfect!

4. How did you come up with your blog name?

  So, once I decided I was going to start a blog I sat down thought of a really cool name and then tried to make it, found out that the URL for that name had been taken - doh. So after trying and trying and trying, this one sprung to mind, it worked so I stuck with it. Might be a bit embarrassing if I continue this down the line and i'm not such a newbie anymore but oh well, it worked. 

5. What is your favorite flower?

  Probably a Primrose, like these

6. What is the accomplishment you're most proud of?

  Hmm.. one that i'm not willing to say because it will give away too much about me and i'm a little precautious as anyone could read my blog. 

7. Who is your favorite composer?

  Alan Menken, he has composed some amazing Disney Songs, and you've gotta love Disney right?

8. What's your favorite board game?

  Cluedo, hands down, I win every time. I prefer the original board to the new fangled thing with real people as playing pieces and a 3D looking board though, the shut doors are confusing. 

9. What sports do you like to watch/what are your favorite teams?

  I only seem to watch sports when my Brother/Dad too rather than by choice, but i'll watch the Formula 1 (Does this count as a sport), Rugby, and a bit of the X Games. I don't really have a favourite team though, sorry!

10. What would be your idea of a dream vacation?

  One with all my friends where we're all messing about and having loads of fun -  doesn't matter where it is as long as we're enjoying it as much as we can. 

11. Do you like country music? And if you do, do you agree that Blake Shelton has a bit of a monopoly over the country radio stations?

I'm assuming you're American, because over here in the UK we don't really have as much Country Music, and its nothing like the American Country Music, I also have no idea who Blake Shelton is so I cannot answer, sorry!


Now onto the even harder bit, trying to find 11 people who haven't been nominated before.. tough. (If any of you have been nominated before, I am very very sorry!)
1. Fundamentally Flawless
2. Galorious
3. Intense Polish Therapy (Only just less, but the search result in this blog show nothing for 'Liebster')
4. The Daily Nail 
5. Glamified92
6. Cotton Candy Blog
7. Angela's Nail-Time
8. Sabrina's Nail Blog
9. I ♥ Nail Candy
10. Nice Nails
11. Fingers Tip Top

Now my questions:
1. Why did you decide to have a blog to represent your designs rather than say a tumblr account or other social media?
2. What is your favourite High Street polish brand?
3. What would you say is the most essential tool (Other than Nail Varnish) for any Nail Artist?
4. What was the last polish you bought?
5. Who is your favourite musician or band?
6. Do you prefer square or round ended nails?
7. Which polish do you find yourself reaching for more than any other?
8. Who is your favourite Blogger? (Doesn't have to be a Nail Art Blog)
9. The one thing you have bought before and regret buying (Can be anything you want)
10. What is your favourite type of fruit?
11. What is your favourite nail art look that you have ever done?

And that's it, I just want to say thank you so much again to I 'Art Nails and The Nail Snail for nominating me and I can't wait to see the replies to my questions! :)

Holiday Nails

Hey guys,

So you hopefully wouldn't have realised it, but I have actually been away on holiday the last few weeks. However I scheduled a couple of blog posts so you would have something new to read about while I was away.
Before I went I did a manicure I thought perfect for my holiday, I based it on a design I found here!

This was my attempt to recreate it. I once again cannot neaten up my edges, but other than that I think I did a fairly good job. I also managed to do the design on both hands

I'm not sure why the background looks blue against my right hand, i'm just going to assume that I am not as good at taking photos with my less dominant hand.

The photos also didn't show that all the colours I used in the background actually have tiny bits of glitter in and shine when the light goes on them

Just for your amusement, here is a shot of how bad I am at doing gradients showing how much I got it all over my fingers.. Now you can see that I did actually make an attempt to clean up my fingers this time, however I just got bored when left with tiny white bits around the nail.

The colours I used in this were:

• Rimmel Cocktail colour - 140 Hawaiian Punch (Red)
• Babby Doll KDC 360 - 146 (Orange)
• Rimmel I ❤ lasting finish - 280 Sunshine (Yellow)
• Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure - 340 Black Platinum (Black)

So there you have it, let me know what you think of this manicure! 

Guest Post for Ithinity Beauty

Hey guys,

I just wanted to let you know that I wrote a guest post answering a few questions about myself for a lovely girl called Ithi while she's on holiday - let me know what you think.

Be sure to check out her own posts and manis too, they are really cute! :)

Haul!

Hey Guys,

Something a little different today.. It was my birthday recently and i've finally had the chance to go shopping. However, due to my mum not wanting me to get any more nail varnish (unfair I know), I spent the money on other things, but I thought I would share them anyway! I did end up getting a couple of polishes and nail related things anyway. You may think its a bit weird how i've mixed the expensive brands with the cheapest ones, this is simply done by whether my mum was with me at the time as if she was, I was not allowed to get the expensive brands...

So, first things first. The 'Rolls Royce of Nail Files', or in other words the small Leighton Denny Crystal Nail File. I wanted to get this for a number of reasons; I don't have very strong nails and some nail files just shred my nails, I had used up all my cheap nail files, and finally and most importantly, this comes with a 25 year guarantee for the surface of the Nail File, meaning that unless if I drop or break this, I will have a guaranteed Nail File for the next 25 years. Bargain - even if this is a little pricey for a Nail File to start with. Just incase you were wondering and can't read the picture, this is what the guarantee states:
"CRYSTAL NAIL FILE    25 year guarantee
The surface of this file will last for 25 years. Manufactured with the finest lead crystal, this file glides smoothly over the nail tip, gently filing it down and removing jagged and uneven edges without dragging. To clean your crystal nail file it should be immersed only in hot water. This will hygienically remove build up and refresh the filing surface. The surface of the nail file is hardened to provide 25 years of usage. If the quality of the surface diminishes in its efficacy, we will replace it free of charge. Please not this guarantee is invalidated if the file is damaged or abused."

 Next, the two Nail varnishes I bought. Well I say bought, but I got the Collection polish free with the bronzer pallet you will see later.
These two are:
- Collection 60 Seconds - 47 Milkshake
- Sinful Colours - Snow Me White (Used last week, but its taken me a while to take pictures of all of these)

Now, my first ever concealer and foundation. No, i'm not really young or anything but I have thankfully got quite nice skin which means I haven't really ever needed it.
However, as its my first I just decided to get the cheapest ones I could (advised by my mum to do this).
So here you have the Natural Collection Foundation in the shade 'Honey' and Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer in the shade 'Light 2'.

Now a Bronzer/Blushes Pallete which is the item I got the Nail Varnish free with.
I wanted a bronzer and was going to get the Boujois Bronzer Powder, as I have heard a lot of good things about this, but alas it is very expensive so I was not allowed to get it, so I settled for this instead.
I like the shades, I have yet to try them out yet though and i'm a little apprehensive due to the fact that there is nothing separating the colours so i'm not sure if when I start to use it if the colours will start to mix a little. However, i'm sure they will be fine, I will just have to be careful!
I believe the one I have here is '1. Way to Go' although I didn't actually find any other Shimmer Shades pallets in the Boots I was in.

Aaaand back to the expensive items again, I took a photo of both the packaging and the inside because I just think the packaging is just really really nice. In the left photo you can see the box it came in as well as the actual blush holder. On the right you can see the holder open, on the top is a massive, and very useful mirror, on the bottom is the 3 different shades. These shades are VERY pigmented, my mum saw them and immediately told me they would look too strong on me, I actually bought this specific pallete on the advice of the Youtuber 'Zoella' or Zoe Sugg. She definitely pulls this thing off and recons that it lasts a very long time due to how pigmented it is, meaning that you use hardly any and still manage to get the right colour. 

I have the Sleek Blush by 3 Lace pallete here, but again have yet to try this ou

Once again I have two images of this product, this time because I just wanted to show you what it looks like from the outside, but also that the inside has a tool for you to use. I actually got this pallete because of the advice from another Youtuber Essiebutton who said this was a good neutrals pallete for beginners, and who am I to question her!

This is the Makeup Academy Undress Me Too Eye Pallete, and like the others I have yet to try it out, but I like the look of it, not sure i'll use the black though, but we shall see!

Finally, I had to share with you my casual addiction to Polka Dots, thankfully I am a little more expressive with my nails and don't just stick to these or i'm sure we would all be bored very quickly. 

However, I do have far too many polka-dotty clothes (Believe me, you don't even want to know) and to demonstrate this further I have here my purse (Real Cath Kidston - love this so much), phone case, and a bag I also bought with my birthday money. 

As you can see, I am particularly keen on the Red/White or Red/Cream polka dot mix. However, you have to admit, it is cute.

So, that's it my friends. I probably won't share much more beauty things on this blog again, as to be honest I don't know anything about what works well and what doesn't and don't really ever buy beauty products. But I hope you forgive me for this one beauty product related post as it is a haul and I just wanted to share it. 

Pastel Houndstooth Nails

Hey guys,

So I recently found a tutorial on how to draw the houndstooth pattern and wanted to try it for myself. If you want to see the tutorial you can find it here.

This was the result! I decided to do it in a skittle colour scheme rather than sticking to 3 colours, and once again the cocktail stick was back. Although I like the pattern, I don't think I did it the neatest ever, but I still think its cute.

The colours I used for this were:
- Rimmel I ♥ lasting finish - 280 Sunshine (Yellow)
- Barry M Jelly - GNP 13 Papaya (Pink)
- Barry M - 308 Berry I/C (Purple)
- Barry M - 306 Blueberry I/C (Blue)
- Barry M - 304 Mint Green
- Sinful Colours - Snow Me White (White)

Let me know what you think of my design and whether you want to try it out yourself!

Half Leopard Nail

Hey guys,

Sorry but today is just going to be a quick post, this week I wanted to try out the other red I bought a few weeks ago, but wanted to put something simple over it.
So, I decided to try and replicate something like this. However, the red is very shiny and I do not have another colour like this so couldn't do a gradient like in my inspiration.
So this is what I came up with

If your wondering about the 'Olivia' on my thumb, no my name is not Olivia its Alice, basically it was my friends birthday this week and she dared me to do it, so I put it on for her birthday party but forgot to take a picture before I did this (doofus). So here it is, with chips because its been on a few days and everything. 

The two colours I used for this were:

- Rimmel London Cocktail Colour - 140 Hawaiian Punch

- Sally Hansen - 340 Black Platinum

Sorry for such a quick post with such a simple design this week. I have to say that the camera has not caught the colour very well, its so much nicer in real, but it really doesn't last very long and chipped really badly after only 2/3 days when my polish usually lasts the whole week.