Last year I came up with a striped design with hearts on the tips of my nails. This look was perfect for pointed tips as the point fitted with the point of the heart, and they were so much more effective than I thought they would be! Here are the original ones from back in September.
I decided that as it's Valentine's Day at the weekend I would re-create the design, with different, slightly lighter colours.
I started off with a base of Banana Split by Models Own. I can't gush about the fruit pastel collection enough - the formula is so smooth and creamy and lovely, the colours are so delicate and then there's the bonus of the subtle fruit-sweetie scent once the polish is dry! Anyway - I started off with two coats of this, then topped with Insta-Dri to help speed up the drying process. Here it is on it's own because I love it and want to show it off!
Once it was fully dry I used a pink Barry M nail art pen to freehand the stripes. I'm a bit annoyed because they aren't as neat and even as I'd like, I should have used nail vinyls! Anyway, I then roughly drew on the heart shape at the end of my nails and coloured it in using Peach Melba by Models Own. I topped with Insta-Dri again (I always do this before adding anything with the nail art pens as it needs to be fully dry!!) and then went round the outline of the heart again with a white nail art pen. I did this a couple of times as the white pen doesn't show up as well as the black. I also added a little 'shine' line to each heart, which I didn't do last time but I like!
One more coat of Insta-Dri (which reminds me, I need to buy more!!) and I was done.
Hello!
I kind of just threw these nails together last night and they were a combination of ideas. I already had heart-tips in mind as I was considering doing this for my BFF Friday manicure - I went with another idea in the end, but still love how heart tips look - and I wanted to try them out on my new pointy nails - they'd make good hearts, I thought!
I picked these colours inspired by my work - our uniform shirts are a kind of pink/purple stripe pattern, and our logo is a darker pink. I work for a train company and today we lent a train to match.com as they wanted to do a big dating/promo event on board - they called it The Love Train! So because of this being in my mind, I came up with these nails!
I actually loooooooove them! I think outlining the heart made the hearts really stand out and look almost 3D. They took me a while, and I'm happy with the hearts - I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get them looking even/symmetrical and I knew I would just start again with something easier if they went wrong- luckily that didn't happen.
I started with a base of Prickly Pear (Barry M gelly) - three coats. This isn't my favourite BM gelly polish at all - there are much more gorgeous, stand-out ones (such as Greenberry!!!) ....but I end up using it in so many designs and my bottle has nearly run out! It's very versatile! Once this was fully dry, I added pink stripes with my Barry M nail-art pen. I then drew out the heart using the black nail-art pen. I filled it in with Rhosilli, from the Barry M matte collection. This is almost a perfect match for my train company's logo so I've adopted it as my 'work polish'. I started off using a small nail-art brush to fill in the hearts but then found it was easier to just use the brush out of the bottle! Once THIS was dry I outlined the hearts again in black to neaten them up. I finished with a layer of Sally Hansen insta-dri to seal everything in and add a shine.
I'd be lying if I said these didn't take me ages, but it was partly waiting for each layer to fully dry before adding the next one, and the fact I did the same design on every nail (not just accent nails!)
Here's a picture of Prickly Pear before I added anything else - I need to appreciate this colour more!
Then some more of the design (two nice ones from my camera, then the rest are ones I took at work with my shirt/the walls/my coffee - woo! Sorry about the scratch on my finger spoiling the pics, it's from a horrible thorn in my garden :-(
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 :-(
Hello!
Now I've got the hang of roses I think I'm going to use them in so many manicures - so simple to do and such a pretty result! This manicure was inspired by a range of manicures I've seen on Instagram - I loooove instagram and am constantly inspired by the really talented nail artists I follow.... I can spend hours browsing nail art designs!
So for this manicure, I started with a base of Huckleberry (pale blue) by Barry M. Once fully dry (I used Insta-Dri topcoat to speed this up!) I used the white Barry M nail art pen to freehand white stripes. My pen is running out a bit, so for my left hand I switched to a white striper polish to add the stripes. The effect was pretty much the same, except the stripes were less accurate (but more opaque!) using the striper.
Once dry (again helped with Insta-Dri - I used this so much in this mani!) I added pink blobs with Models Own Pink Veneer. Once this was dry (I'm now sounding like a broken record!) I added the darker pink details to the pink blobs (Pink nail art pen, Barry M) to turn them into roses, and little green leaves (Greenberry, Barry M) using a dotting tool. Another coat of Insta-Dri and some acetone to clean up the edges and I was done!
This seems like quite a lot of work, but it wasn't really - it was more waiting for each layer to fully dry before adding the next that was the most time consuming. This is the kind of mani that looks really rubbish right until you've added the final details and cleaned them up, so you have to really persevere right until the end. Here's a pic of these mid-mani so you can see what I mean - a bit of a state right?
And some more pics of them finished! I think like my first roses mani from a few weeks ago, these remind me a bit of a Cath Kidston print! Sorry some of these are only phone-quality, but my actual camera washed out the colours a bit so I thought you could see the detail more on the phone pics. First two are camera pics, the rest from the phone...
If you're reading this today (Mon 12th May!) and want to vote for these nails in Grazia's manicure monday competition, here's the link! Xx
Hello!
This isn't the most original manicure today, but I think it works quite well. I was inspired by some old pinstripe nails I did a while back. I've recently created a Facebook page to showcase my nails and go alongside my blog, and I enjoyed looking through my old nail art photos as I uploaded them all. I thought that this pinstripe one looked really effective, while still being quite simple and easy to create.
I already had my nails painted with Amazon Rainforest by Magic Goose (the green) and as I have a few days off I decided to liven them up a bit with some nail art. I freehanded a stripe down the middle of each nail using another rich holographic polish - Rose Bower by a-england. I then carefully outlined each stripe using my black Barry M nail art pen (which is definitely on it's way out - I need a new one!). Still not satisfied, I then added some tiny gold studs at the base of each stripe. I finished off with a topcoat of Poshe, giving a lovely shiny finish!
If you want to like my Facebook page, it's here :-D
Another manicure using the fab Barry M nail-art pens!
For this one, I started last night by painting all of my nails with Barry M's Papaya gelly. I used two coats, and then left to fully dry overnight. Then today (at work) I very slowly began to use the black and white pens to add various different patterns of lines and stripes on each nail, leaving a gap where I wanted there to be an orange stripe. I could only do this in bits whenever I had a break, so it took practically all day! I did one nail at a time then topped with Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri.
I feel like I should explain why I could do this at work today... as you might know I work at a train station, and today I was sat monitoring trains that came in and out of the station, and announcing them when needed. My eyes and voice were busy, but my hands were free to doodle - on my nails!
It was way more difficult to do my left hand, I was too shaky. I had to do my middle finger all over again, and the rest are a bit wobbly. They look alright from a distance, and I think the overall effect is pretty cool! :-D
I found that the white pen was easier to work with than the black for some reason - the black is still really good and much easier than other nail art pens, but sometimes it applied a bit weirdly, as if the surface of my nail was too slippy/oily. But this only happened with the black, never the white - maybe the consistency of the ink/paint inside is slightly different. Nothing too serious though! Maybe the gelly is just too shiny to draw on?!
Here's my right hand again, and the pic at the bottom is my wobbly left!
A few weeks ago, when I bought my pink Barry M nail-art pen, it was 3-for-2 so I picked up Blueberry (pale blue) and Prickly Pear (purple) gellys to make the most of the offer. I've practiced with my pink pen quite a lot, but I've hardly used the gellys, especially the purple. They're perfect for Spring so I thought I'd try and create something pretty!
Today I gave in and purchased the black and the white nail art pen. I'm so impressed with how they work, I couldn't resist! I wanted to use these, along with my pastel colours, to create a tribal-print mani like my amazingly talented friend Naileymabob. However once I'd done the purple and blue stripes outlined with the white pen, I decided to leave this mani well alone. A few times in the past few weeks I've gone over-the-top with detailing, and then ended up preferring my nails without all the embellishment!
I might add one tiny gem or stud at the bottom of each central stripe - but I'll do this tomorrow after I've washed my hair if I decide to do it, because washing hair always = lost studs! What do people reckon - should I bling this up a little or leave it simple?
Week 5 of our mashed-up year-long challenge was to create striped nails. And when I was given these two Essie polishes by a generous colleague earlier this week I really wanted to try them out, and thought they would look pretty together!
My plan was to kind of create a striped green-lilac-green-lilac along my fingers, three stripes to each nail, using masking tape to create the lines. Here are the two colours before I added the stripes - pretty!
I love both these colours - I actually love them better like this, I wish I hadn't added anything extra, but I was attempting to fulfill the challenge! The colours are Navigate Her (the pale green) and To Buy Or Not To Buy (the lilac). I've really struggled to capture the true colours of these in my pics - and I took loads! They are really pale, but without a flash they look even paler and washed out, and with the flash they look way brighter. I've tried to pick the best three pics to use in this post!
To create the stripes, I began by putting two little pieces of masking tape down each nail, leaving a section down the middle.I added two coats of the contrasting colour, then removed the tape. However, the lines weren't very neat, and when I removed the tape it kind of distorted the lines between the colours, and they were not as crisp as I wanted. So I decided to freehand over them to tidy them up a bit. Still not happy at all! I love these colours, but don't like what I have done with them because it's not neaaat enouuugh arghhhh.
I may try another design later this week using my striping tape, but I can't get the hang of keeping it neat when the tape is peeled off, whether I'm using masking or striping tape. I've read that it's best to do it when the polish is still wet, but this doesn't seem to go well for me either. Maybe I just need to practice!
I've also just bought some gorgeous CHEAP sparkly polishes from a discount shop in my town, which I'm dying to try out as well. Watch this space!
I've just bought some nail art tape so was eager to try it out for this challenge, to create something a bit different! I picked two of my favourite shades of red, both by 17 from Boots.
I love these polishes as they're so shiny, and smooth, and dry quickly! They also have a big fat brush which makes it easy to stay neat and apply your polish quickly.
I painted my nails with the brighter red, and left them to dry completely. I then put little strips of nail art tape across my nails, making sure it was pressed down flat. I added a coat of the darker red and left this to dry completely. I then peeled off the tape to reveal the striped design. I finished with a top coat of seche vite to seal the design.