Brown Skittle Manicure

Good evening my lovely blog readers :)

Today I have a mani for you that did take quite a bit of time and many layers of nail varnish. It also involves my favourite nail varnish at the moment which I have mentioned many times before! That's right, folks, it's my Particuliére shade by Chanel! This baby was expensive, but so worth the money.

I do believe that a 'skittle' manicure consists of a different pattern/design on each nail (apart from nail art being spired by the sweets - Skittles... That's for another day :P) So here is my take on 'skittle' nails, the nail varnishes and the brushes which I used for this design...

 

Lefty

Righty

So parts of this mani involved 3 main brushes that I tend to use and the rest of it I used my stamps and stamping kit - especially on my right hand... Wasn't the easiest free handing it, to be honest.

 

The thin brown brush at the top was used for
thin-ish lines (Cross), the middle square brush
was used for the black glitter/gold line & the
thin white brush was used for the legendary
moustache!

 

I must say, these plates have come in pretty handy - great thing to invest in!

Here are the nail varnishes I used:

 

Left to Right:
Particuliére - Chanel, Base/Top Coat - Barry M, Black - Beauty UK,
Metallic Saturn - w7, Cosmic Black - w7

I know I actually use these colours quite a lot but they're pretty basic and make really good base coats due to their versatility! I think this mani was pretty self-explanatory (hence the lack of writing..) It wasn't really inspired by anything, just random patterns and designs I felt like clumping together :)

 

 

Give it a go and let me know what you think! x

 



Day 8 *Black & White Challenge* - Peter Pan Collar

After a while of having a 'nail block' in terms of the Black & White Challenge, I finally came up with a bit of nail art that I thought was good enough to be in here. Although it's taken a while, I have a design for day 8 of the challenge which was to be 'inspired by fashion' and a recent fashion that has caught my eye is the 'Peter Pan Collar'. I see it everywhere and I love the look it adds to an outfit! You can look smart but quirky :) I don't have many items of clothing with this kind of collar, but I know I'll be investing in some very soon!

So here is my take on the Peter Pan Collar :)

To do this design, I used half moon stickers to create the crescent shape near my cuticles.
Nail varnishes: Base/Top Coat - Barry M, Black - Beauty UK, White - Barry M
Also a thin brush for details and to neaten up the collars.

This mani was pretty parallel in terms of style with my previous 'Tuxedo' post which you can find here.

And there you have it - essentially Peter Pan nails!
Thank you for reading :) x

Day 1:White Base With Black

Day2: Black Base With White

Day3: White/Black Inspired By A Band

Day 4: Black With Glitter

Day 5: Coloured Base With Black/White

Day 6: Gradient Base With Black
Day 7: Black/White Half Moon Manicure
Day 8: Black/White Inspired By Fashion

London 2012 Olympic Nails!

Hey guys!

So recently I've done my bit to support TEAM GB in the London Olympics 2012 and did my own design on my very own nails :D

Sadly, I don't have tickets to the event, though watching it on tv is exciting as it is. I genuinely didn't think I would be anywhere near this supportive or into the Olympics, as the prolonged build up to it was getting tedious. Though I'm fully involved and I must say I have had quite a few compliments on my nail efforts towards the Olympics :P

This is the extent that I went to... My orthodontist insisted
on team GB colours (minus the white - it turns a weird
colour when you eat) except she only did it on certain
teeth due to the straightness?!

The olympic circles did get a bit messy because I did them SO many times... But I kinda just
stuck with this attempt.

For this design, lots of various nail varnishes were used:

Sunshine - Rimmel, Jungle Fever - LA COLORS

Metallic Saturn - W7, Navy - Barry M

White - Barry M, Black - Beauty UK

Heart On Fire - Rimmel, Base/Top Coat - Barry M & studs

Was really looking forward to doing another manicure with something different on each nail and LOVE studs so had to include them on the gold pinky finger for team gb :)

I used my thin brush for the details and a dotting tool to help me apply the studs as I usually do with my studded blog posts. This one did take a while to be honest, accuracy and patience was needed! Though luckily I had a day free to just sit, paint and watch the Olympiads on my telly :)

I'm pretty impressed with Team GB and their successes, at the moment they're 4th in the table of medals!

So lets all hope that Team GB get far in the London 2012 Olympics! :)

Shattered Dreams

So my 18th birthday was on July 3rd and I got some new 'full nail' stamps! Was immensely excited to use them and I finally have a chance to do a post on them now :)

They're not the originals, but they work just as well and you can get them off of Amazon in a bundle for a good price ;) Really had trouble with picking one design to do today and I can't wait to use the rest :)

Here is my final design...

Apologies for the messyness!
I actually made my very own light box with a few techniques I learnt in my
Photography AS in terms of lighting and it's made a brilliant difference to
my photos :) Also they're very easy to make! Search on google and plenty of people
have tutorials?

Stamping plate I used

LOVE the shattered effect - hence 'Shattered Dreams' ?

Thought this post was pretty self explanatory? :P

Models Own 'Indian Ocean'

Hey guys, I've realised that I have been doing a lot of swatch posts recently, but I discovered some nail varnishes that your eyes need to be exposed to! I went on a little shopping trip to Westfield Stratford recently and acquired my very first Models Own nail varnish and yes... I was very happy to now have one in my possession!! :D
I really do love this polish and have seen it being swatched on various blogs, but I thought I would post it layered with a few different colours and experiment a little. So here it is... 'Indian Ocean' by Models Own as part of the 'Beetlejuice Collection'.

As you can see on the finger next to the pinky, the nail varnish itself is pretty sheer
and so it's one of those which needs to be layered for the full effect,
though I actually didn't mind it on it's own. Didn't really need a top coat as it's smooth
enough when dry! Isn't a pain to get off either, even though it has glitter.
Nail varnish used: Black by Beauty UK, Sunshine by Rimmel, Misty Jade by
Rimmel & White by Barry M

The only negative thing when wearing 'Indian Ocean' on it's own is that because it's sheer, it shows your white nail tip and so sometimes it can make your nails look a little dirty. Though over all, I think it's a pretty good buy - you get a different effect depending on which colour you use as a base. I'm not into Pink to be honest, but I think it looks pretty good layered on top of the black - would be useful for a galaxy inspired nail design? ;) My personal favourite would probably be with the Misty Jade base. For each of these, I put one coat of the coloured base and 2 coats of 'Indian Ocean'.

You can usually find them in stores like Superdrug/Boots for £5.00 of on their website :)
http://www.modelsownit.com/

Whatever You Want To Call This Post!

I thought it was about time I blogged about an amazing night (and next day!) filled with my nearest and dearest beautiful people, music, dancing (including the macarena...), cupcakes, dresses, suits, heels and of course the inevitable ACHING FEET.

You know when men feel they have to assert their manlyness by fighting... or whatever it is they do? Well, I guess a woman is expressing her femininity by testing her endurance of how long she can keep her massive heels on during a night full of dancing :P

The incrediable night I am talking about is indeed my Year 13 Leavers Prom! I just want to begin the tale by sharing my love for all of the beautiful ladies who have kept me sane (or insane... whichever way you wanna take that?!) for the past 7 years and although we said all of this during Graduation - it really has been the best 7 years of my life! :) <3

So without further ado, I ought to show you my prom nails, of course...

Apologies for the lack of photos of my actual nails lol and the quality of them - I was overwhelmed by getting ready and the night in general.

I used: Electric Beige by Miss Sporty, Black by Beauty UK & Studs

I think the Electric Beige really complimented the colour of my dress - it was a kind of peachy lace dress:

Looks kinda pink here and I hate pink :(

Pre prom prep ;) - Nicole & I <3

It was a brilliant night followed by the next day at my friend Nicole's house with all the girls - we had a massive 'swapsies' session involving loads of unwanted clothes and jewellery. I came out of it successfully having given away stuff I didn't want to either friends or charity and received a lovely dress, cardigan, leotard  and accesories :) I seriously recommend it for groups of girlfriends as a fun day as well as a productive one! Luckily it was a sunny day and was heavily inspired by Gok Wan ;)

My friend makes amazingly yummy and
yummy looking cupcakes! For a batch &
price quote - contact me :)

I also thought I would show you what's been going on with my nails in the mean time as I've been a bit random with them when going out to BBQ's and other events (again sorry for the lack of quality photographs - it was a rush!)

I got a little experimental and decided to apply blue lace to
my nails - all you need is a base colour, top coat, lace and a pair
of scissors!

And here are my strawberry nails :) All you need are the right
colours and a dotting tool

So I've decided that I'm going to end this random post with another random little thing and leave you all with a photo of my lovely holiday to Cornwall :)