nail art: winter sparkle

Adding a lil bit o' winter sparkle to my life and yours. It's finally December so I will be giving in to the Christmas cheer I do love so much, when it's not October.

P.S. Sorry it's been a while.. I'm a very busy final year student who has taken to living in the library!!

Hope you enjoy the video below...

I love this look for two reasons - it's simple and it's sparkly.
I used:
- GOSH Matte Silver Polish
- Barry M White Polish
- Tape (from eBay any colour should do)
- Sponges from Primark
- Brushes (from eBay of course)
- Avon Quick Dry Spray (My secret to happy nail-hood)

Steps:
- Apply tape
- Apply two coats of white polish
- Sponge on your sparkle
- Allow to dry
- Remove tape
- Clean line and around nail
- Top coat and spritz!

Taping tips:
- Be careful when applying a thick layer of anything on top of tape .. make sure it dries completely before removing the tape
- Pre-cut your tape for each nail.. of course
- Clean your negative space with a thin brush dipped in polish remover
- A top coat will even out the bumps and edges, don't worry!

Gradient tips:
- I do gradient a lot but not with glitter because it's hard to clean... Use plenty of polish remover, cotton buds and brushes and keep at it!
- Any remaining glitter will come over over night/with time, don't worry about the odd speckle
- Use a make-up sponge to apply.. of course

Please please do take a quick second to check out my other videos on YouTube (click here!) and subscribe away my dears!

the nail art update: overload

Well well well.. it's been a few weeks since I wrote the weekly nail art update I enjoy doing so much. I do apologise for my recent absence but I have valid excuses. I am leaving London this weekend and so have been saying my goodbyes to my favourite parts of this lovely city and ticking things off my London Bucket List ready to leave. As well as this I have been tackling mice and partying hard - as you do.

While I have been away I have had a few different nail designs. One good, one average, one I don't like anymore! In my attempt at the July Californails Nail Art Challenge 39037th month in a row I failed and managed 2! But I guess God loves a trier right?

So given that I haven't much of a tutorial like I planned, I am going to keep this post nice and visual...

I'm a lover not a hater (well..) .. but I think I might hate this design. I thought it was super cute and simple at first but my opinion on it slowly declined. It was part of the nail art challenge and I did it whilst watching American Dad in the dark! - so good effort but I think it could have been much much better!

Going for gold is one thing intend to do in life, and I LOVE my gold nail polishes (I have a few glitter and just plain shiny like this one). This design I really like and can see myself doing again and again in variations and different colours, all I used was two sizes of a dotting tool and two shades of gold/cream polish. And tah dah! Easy peasy!

Slurple the Purple... Hehe couldn't think of anything purple related!... This is a new design for me and a good first attempt - I did rush with my top coat as it was so late and I was tired! But my advice  with doing dark colours on top of light is WAIT UNTIL ITS TOTALLY DRY. Honestly, you will regret it if you rush it and ruin your design! Generally though I enjoyed doing these nails, the inverted moon is new for me and I am getting a good feel for negative space now :)

I am dying to get thinner nail art brushes as well and have them on my wishlist for after my trip to Thailand! Where I will be backpacking for a month finding fun beauty ideas and Thai tricks to put on here in dingy internet cafes! So keep your eyes peeled for those posts in August! x

the nail art update: gel polish & birthday nail art

It has been a while hasn't it? I want to say over a week but it kills me that I have neglected my little blog! 

So here is a nail art update for you all featuring the nails I did for my 21st birthday and my new favourite ail polish find!

Red swirls with negative space

This isnt't the best picture, but to get this effect I used one of my favourite techniques. Use two polishes one a the top, one at the bottom and use a small dotting tool to swirl the colours into each other.

I did these nails for my birthday party back home which was amazing! For the first time I used a clear polish to creative a negative space in this design, and I loved it! I used GOSH Cosmetics nail polish in Lambada (a stunning harsh red)

New glittery polish!

I own a lot of glittery polishes and for my birthday my best friend got me some more! (cause she knows me so well) and so I did a lovely but simple design with the red one (evidently I love red).

I love this colour polish, it's so much fun. It went perfectly with my new Maybelline Super Stay Gel Polish in Berry Stain which brings me onto my next polishes..

Maybelline Super Stay Gel Polishes

I LOVE THESE POLISHES! I have tried a couple of random Gel polishes from other brands and liked the results, I much prefer them obviously as they last longer. But these ones are the best I have tried, the clear I can use over any design so make it stay more than two days and the Berry Stain is one of my favourite shades. It's quite dark and rich, which I love in a polish. (you can see a swatch in the image above)

I highly recommend them to people who have chipped nails quicker than they like, or those of you who get a shellac manicure as they stay just as long. I applied mine on Monday night and they were still perfect by Sunday - this never happens to me!

June Nail Art Challenge

I always take up the nail art challenges by Californails and promise myself and my followers I will do them but NEVER do. This month I am really inspired by some of the challenges and I am actually setting alarms on my phone so I don't forget to do as many as possible! I must say.. Challenge Accepted.

See you soon for my next round of summer essentials :)

the positive in seeing the negative

You, my lovely followers and friends have been missing out. Yes indeed, I speak the truth. you have been missing out on some of my nail art lately - unless you follow my instagram/twitter - as I little miss naughty nail blogger haven't been uploading all my nail art to my blog.

In this case I have decided to show you not one, but TWO lots of nail art I have done (one you have seen in technique before, but not in colour) and the other is fresh as a daisy just for you.

Firstly I wanted to show you the nail art I entered into the @glittr Instagram competition with a black and white theme... I obviously didn't win (sniffles) or you would have heard my excitement from miles away (wherever you may be). Here I showed you one of my favourite techniques in a a design I hadn't tried before and ended up LOVING so much I want to do it in different colours everyday, however I am too much of an experimenter to do that. I used my Blackout and Winter Baby Color Show polishes by Maybelline for this design and if you look at my previous post there is a quick how to that explains how EASY it is to achieve this design.

The next is a design inspired by designs by @naildecor on instagram. I love the negative space trend that has been circulating lately, it's so funky and fresh (yes I can say fresh). I have tried it a couple of times here  for Valentine's day and here for my denim inspired design. I think I am getting the hang of it and my new brushes definitley help, so if you are going to try negative space here are my tips:

1. Use brushes! - To paint and to clean up and to neaten up

2. Try cotton buds/pads to create your negative space - Using cotton buds to rub out the area you want is tricky so try wrapping a varnish remover soaked cotton pad around the end of a dotting tool/brush (or anything long and thin).

3. Experiment where possible - whether you own a nail wheel or just use one clean nail to try different designs over and over as this is the best way to get used to being patient and steady handed (this rule applies to most if not all detailed designs!)

I used a random blue polish with no label that I got on a knock off market on Brick Lane (haha!) and my Andrea Fulerton White Polish that came in a glitter kit of hers, I topped it off with my new Rimmel Matte Finish Top Coat.

Let me know what you think lovelies xx

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