I'm back for Easter!

 

Well, well, well. For all my loyal followers and fans (I wish), though there are not many of you (if any) I'm sure those of you that do follow and read my humble blog have been wondering where I have been after I stated a turn around so so so long ago. Blame my university, it wasn't my fault I swear! Honestly, final year has had me writing so much that at the end of the day the last thing I want to do for fun is write some more adn stare at my laptop screen! I am sorry but I am back with big news...

The past few weeks I have been starting up a beautiful friendship and collab with some lovely girls in the states at GlossyFinds.com. They have formally asked me to feature in their new vlogger team with my nail art tutorial videos!

My first went up on St Patricks Day some time ago and the next will be going up tomorrow. If you are eager enough to have clicked on a tweet or facebook post (where I lovingly beg for readers) you will be one of the lucky few that gets to see the video before GF post it tomorrow for the Easter Weekend.

This design is simple for those of you just starting up with nail art, grab your brushes and pretty pastel polishes and get painting your bunnies and Easter eggs... Here is the live YouTube link, please subscribe to my channel here as well!...

Featured in this design (no PR samples), in order of appearance: GOSH Cosmetics Special Edition Nail Lacquer in Bright Idea, Maybelline Colour Show Bleached Neon Polish in Tropink, Models Own Polish in Feeling Blue, Avon Cosmetics Opal Top Coat, Miss Sporty Lasting Colour Polish in Clear, Rimmel London Pro Matte Finish Top Coat.
Tools in order of use: Thin painting brushes #000 & #00, Smallest dotting tool (needle also works for this), Masking Fluid by Terry Harrison (all purchased via eBay)

paisley video tutorial

Paisley is the first design I did with my original Rio Nail art pens, I now use a very thin design brush and dotting tool. For this particular sweet pink design (perfect for valentines day) I used Avon Pink Creme Nail Enamel and B. Complete Red Nail Polish, I topped it off with Cheeky's Matte Polish.
Please like, love or hate my YouTube video and subscribe or unsubscribe to my channel here.
Good Luck ladies.

mo you for me

It is time after a quiet (but not actually quiet in real life) Christmas and New Year.
I hope you all had a merry one, I sure as hell did and this review is about one of thee best presents I got from Santa (slash my mum).

Before I get into the story and picture show here is a link for the YouTube video I pulled together on how to use my new gift that I'm about to tell you about. Mo You London Tutorial
Please subscribe while you are there!

For a long long time I've seen stamping plates used by great nail artists all over Instagram and I am not going to lie.. I actually always thought it was cheating. For me nail art is about being talented enough to paint those tiny enamel things on the end of your fingers, that way you can get much praise for a detailed design. Buttttt then I changed my mind.. Why did I change my mind?

I discovered Mo You London stamping plates. I saw someone do a very pretty detailed design and at first I thought it was freehand .. when I realised it was a Mo You London stamp I was kinda gutted tbh. Once I followed them the idea of stamping became a little more appealing.

So I looked around Mo You and decided my student sized pockets weren't keen on spending that much on something I wasn't sure about, I ended up on Ebay buying rubber stamps and scrapers for 99p as well as a couple of simple round stamping plates for the same cheap as chips price.

And.. It didn't work. I just couldn't do it! At first I thought it was a skill thing but then I decided it was the cheap plates and discretely and hopefully put the Mo You plates I kept admiring online on my Christmas wish list along with socks and chocolate.When I opened up the four plates my mum had looked at with me I was so happy and scared..

I really hoped I could actually do it after my mum spent the money on them!

And I could.. the first time!

As the credits of BIG rolled on the TV screen I had mastered my first design :)

Here is a little gallery of the rest of my plates:

Fashionista plate 09:

Fashionista plate 07:

Bridal plate 07:

Artist plate 09:

nail art: alternative for clean up

My Christmas list this year left my mother searching far and wide for nail art products and tools she had never heard of. One of the things I asked for with high hopes of tearing open the packaging on Christmas Day was Kiesque's Liquid Palisade. Obviously, my IG feed is filled with nail artists pro and amateur, bloggers and experimenters alike as way of inspiration and a tool of learning :) and lately I had seen over and over again the same min tutorial video for this magical product.

I have always struggled with clean up.. always removing part of the design or ending up with red smudges all over my finger. Then there is the ever enjoyable sellotape application I endure when water marbling..

Liquid Palisade is a product that eliminates a lot of these tedious tasks I have endured these past few years. And so as soon as I found the website I scribbled the name down and prayed to Santa.

A week later my mum came up to me and said.. "What is liquid palestine?.."
And after much googling and frustration, we realised, there wasn't a way I could purchase it without a hefty shipping fee for it's travel from US to UK ground. But mother was determined..

Next thing I knew I came home to this tiny pot of blue masking fluid placed next to the kettle. A few hours later mum sprang up and and remembered I didn't know it was for me... Explained how Salon Geek had explained to her that this fluid does the exact same job and it was a meer £2.. with free delivery of course.

The result of all this mahem, is this video...

 

Pop onto my YouTube channel here... Curiosity Beauty YouTube to see it full screen, like and please please subscribe!! :)

And keep even more up to date with my nails, face and cat on my Instagram & Twitter - @curiositybty

 Products: Terry Harrison Masking Fluid 30ml, B. First Base Coat, Models Own Silver Nail Glitter, Rimmel Pro Matte Finish, Avon Nail Experts Freeze Dry Spray

Colours: B. Complete Polish in Matador, Cheeky Polish in Purplexed, Barry M Nail Paint in Matt White

Tools: Two small brushes (one for fluid, one for glitter and clean up), Tweezers, Make-Up Sponge, Needle, Nail Polish Remover, Cotton Pads, Cotton Buds.

nail art: an easier way to marble

I have now (well my dad has now) invested in a tripod so I can film all my tutorials from now without the scary balance of my phone on a stack of books! SO without further a due I give to you my dry marbling tutorial!

This design is a super easy way of getting an interesting 'how did you do that?!' design. It works great as a feature nail and you can use just 2 colours or as many as you want!

I used:

• Models Own Polish in Pukka Purple
• Barry M Nail Paint in Matt White
• GOSH Cosmetics Polish in Deep Purple
• Maybelline Super Stay 7 Days Polish in Crystal Clear
• 1 small dotting tool (smallest you can find - a needle or anything sharp & pointy can work)

Tips:

• Use a fair bit of polish for your base colour
• Act fast
• EXPERIMENT with design
• I use my nail to clean up any wonky lines or leaks in the polish (this can happen when applying a big dollop at once.. use a fine brush dipped in polish remover if you aren't a fan of the nail to nail clean up I use)
• Enjoy :)

how to create a funky flower nail bed

Spring is here! It must be given all this lovely sun. I love this time of year when the sun is out and warm but it is still breezy and cool.. The time of year I don't have to wear suncream!

So in hope that this summer will last, I rejigged my previous floral design (see it here in the original post) and have done a little tutorial, a wee step by step for you to kick start your summer!

What you need:

NYC In a Minute

Nails Inc Gel Effect in Mayfair Lane

Gosh in Splish Splash and Misty Mauve

Models Own in Pukka Purple

Rio Professional Nail Pen in Bright Pink

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Top Coat

Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Base Coat

Dotting Tool

1. Apply your base coat , then on top give yourself a nice generous coat of your base colour (I used my NYC shade of blue). 

2. Use the larger end of your dotting tool to create the base of your flower (or the petals if you will) dotting in a circle and then filling the centre (you can use as many colours as you like here but make sure you have a lighter shade in them for the next step), like below:

3. Use the smaller end of your dotting tool (the smallest you can find) and put little dots on your flowers to create a more textured/3D effect in lighter shades, like below:

4. Now, again with your smallest dotting tool, ad some little green leaves. by placing your tool down as though creating a dot, but dragging to the side slightly as you pull away (don't worry about it being perfect, not all leaves are the same!), like below:

5. Apply your top coat et voila! TIP: Always use a base coat when applying nail art/design/dots of any kind as a good top coat smoothes out everything!

Hope you like and find it as easy as it is!

@pawsandclaws101 - Always Instagramming

@pawsnclaws101 - And Tweeting

xxx

giving in to the gradient

So I promised all my insta-followers I would pop up a tutorial of the latest marbling I've done.

This is probably my favourite design (however it's not in my favourite colours) and I am going to do a black/white version tonight (for a little competition) that I'll post up tomorrow for you all to see. Either way everyone that has seen them has asked 'How did you do that?' 

And when I say 'With a tool, its actually much easier than it looks' - They do not believe me! 

So a quick tutorial to show how easy it is is just want we need. I'd love to do a video but I can't video myself! - however much a tried holding the camera with my chin/propping it up on my dvds/getting my teddy to hold it - I failed everytime.

Hopefully though this step by step will still help and you can have a go yourself and instagram/tweet me the results because I would love to see if it really is as easy I think!

what you need:  

a small dotting tool/needle if you don't have tools

two shades of polish you think work perfectly together - 

I chose Cheeky's Minted and Purpl-exed shades (these are currently available on the website at £7.00 each, just click the names to get to wear you want to go)

step one

 Apply - to a primped and prepped nail with a shiny base coat - your first polish to the bottom half of the nail like below, (don't worry if it isn't neat or straight or over half way for that matter).

step two

Apply your second polish to the top of the nail - making sure as much of the nail is covered as possible, like below:

step three

Now, quickly before it dries, swirl the tool/needle through the nail polish. Working from one colour to another in circle motions creating the below:

Now if you aren't happy with your design you can always redo it, like I did...

Once happy with your design you can carry on with the rest of the nails and then give yourself a shiny or matte top coat and you can end up with something like the below:

You can use this design as a feature nail or use three colours to make things more interesting!

Have fun lovelies x

@pawsandclaws101 for instagramming

@pawsnclaws101 for tweeting

flower power

simple but no so easy.. see what you can do and instagram me the results  @pawsandclaws101

lace & frills tutorial

So.. I missed out on posting yesterday and I feel terrible! I was doing so well.. so to make up for it here is a tutorial...

Todays tutorial is my simple lace design...

This design is so easy to do.. all you need is below:

• 3 colours of nail polish (preferably one colour for the base and two shades of one colour for the detail) 
• a dotting tool/needle
• base/top coat
• a steady hand

For my 3 colours I chose GOSH polish in High school flirt, Max Factor Gloss Finity in lilac lace and B. polish in Mulberry.

Step 1: Apply generous coat of base colour. 

Step 2: Using the large dotting tool add a cloud of your second colour to the tip of the nail. 

Step 3: Using a very small dotting tool/needle dot two lines of small dots along the edge of the cloud in the third colour you have chosen. 

Step 4: Add medium dots of the base coat to the cloud at the tip of your nail to create a 'holey effect'

Step 5: Using a the small dotting too again, in the third colour, dot and drag to create teardrops at the edges of your design.

Step 6: Top coat and breathe ..

Tah dah!

Let me know if you have a go at it @pawsandclaws101
Check out my instagram for more designs and other fun bits and bobs :)

Abigail xxx

Marble Tutorial

Step by step guide to a really easy way to marble.. no water.. no mess.

What you will need:

• A small dotting tool/A needle
• Clear base and top coat
• Two colours of nail polish

1. Apply a light base coat to a clean & filed nail, then apply a generous coat of either colour of polish.

2. Quickly dip the needle/dotting tool end into the other colour of polish and dab into the centre of the nail while the first colour is still wet. Start to swirl the needle/dotting tool around making a pattern like below:

3. Complete the design by making as many swirls as you like. Then allow to dry and clean around the nail. finally apply a shiny top coat and you have your finished design.

And tah dah!

You have gorgeous nails. Good luck :)

TIP: Be as quick as possible but make sure your hand stays steady.

Check out my instagram for more designs:
http://instagram.com/abigaiilll1

Start date

This is the first ever post on my new nail blog. I have been posting my nail art on Instagram for a while now through my personal profile but would love to see if people really like the art I do. So here I go ...

This is some marble nail art I did yesterday.. I am going to post a tutorial later so you can do it yourself.