Criss-Cross nails

I wanted a design that was pretty but not too complicated to do and here it is!

I began with the base colours painted over the whole nail, next I used striping tape to section off the the bottom of the nail and to get the nice crisp lines using two strips for each nails. I then painted over these with Barry M frost nail varnish to create that lovely silverish/ivory colour. You need to take care when painting over the tape to not go over the tape on the side you don't want it - higher up the nail. But just doing it slowly meant it wasn't that hard!

This design would look great with different colour combinations also so have a go with the colours in your collection!

~ Heather

Nails for work!

Hi everyone, sorry it's been so long since our last post! Exams and deadlines got the better of us!

But here's a new design that's simple but effective.

I wanted to create a design for those of you without any special tools and full time jobs. So I thought something like this would go down well! Obviously there are millions of colour combinations you could create and if you wanted it to be a bit more noticeable you could do a contrasting nail with the opposite colours on your thumb and ring finger nails, but that's up to you!

I created this design with a base colour of Barry M Guava from the Gelly collection giving it the fantastic shine! There's not even a top coat on when this photo was taken! And I finished off the tips with Avon's sequinned turquoise to give the design something a bit more special with glitter! I did the tips using the brush that came in the colour and using a side to side motion on the nails, it takes a steady hand, but if you do it really slowly it doesn't always help, just a confident stroke of the brush should do fine!

So I hope this design can be worn by some of you for your jobs as you can tone up or down the colours to the level that's suitable for you! Enjoy!

~Heather

Birds soaring over a sunset scene

These nails were inspired by the migrating birds which gather in their hundreds, even thousands, before heading off from warmer climes.

Even though it's winter, there are some beautiful sunsets around. And they are made extra special when there are stunning murmurations of Starlings twisting through the air in front of them.
(Murmurations is the name of the shapes that large flocks birds make in the air - You learn something new everyday!)

This design took a few layers to get the gradient in the sunset - I used a pale yellow for the base then layered up with a bright orange, hot pink and shimmery gold. To get the gradient, I just used the brush that came with the polishes but wiped off most of the colour to be able to blend them together. To finish off the gradient, I used a pink to create a solid end on my nail - I really like the look of that!

 

With the gold, I striped it on over the top and it the glammed up the sunset.

For the birds, I used a small dotting tool with a black polish and created 'v' and 'm' shapes. I think the birds would have looked better if they were little bit smaller

To give it a beautiful shine use a top coat, I really like Barry M's clear (No surprises there!)
TOP TIP: Two thin layers of clear polish works a lot better than one thick layer. It will protect your design for a lot longer and make them shine wonderfully.

Hope you like this design (and the bird fact)!!

--Leah