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

All the glitters new years nails!!

So it's New Years! I thought I would use all the glitters and this is the result!!! Happy New Years Nailsketeers!!!! 

-Faye xo

Snowy christmas-y scene with cheeky rudolph

This is a little more of a complicated design which will take a bit more time to do, but the final product is just stunning! (a compliment I got today). But the amount of detail you include is completely up to you. 

To start I painted my nails a solid blue, I chose this blue because it looked like the sky on a winters evening. 

I then used a white shimmery striper to lay snow at the bottom of the nail. To make it look more like freshly fallen snow, I feathered the edge of the snow instead of having a harsh straight line. 

To make the trees  I used a green shimmery colour - by using a shimmery green it creates highlights and lowlights which look like individual leaves. I like detail and depth in a nail design, as you can probably tell.

Start by drawing a vertical line where you want to tree to be using a art brush and then dab the polish on starting from the bottom and working up to the top. As you get further up, make the dab smaller and smaller to create the rough triangle shape. 

To make the Rudolph, I used a medium brown and a dotting tool. I used little dabs to make the two legs first, then the body, and finally the head and ears. Having a picture of a reindeer to look at while you can do this may help get a better result. Because as much as you think you know what a reindeer looks like, when you come to painting one on your nails, you may forget the details. Its very odd, but it happened to me!

Remember to include the antlers, I used black for them so they would stand out against the blue background. And remember a red nose to make the reindeer Rudolph, I used a red glitter polish.

Next I used the largest dotting tool I had to make the moon with a white polish. 

To create the craters, I mixed white and black polish to make a light grey. I then dabbed the grey on with a little art brush. 

The final step was to make it snow!! I used my smallest dotting tool dipped in a white polish and then dotted snow flakes randomly over my nails. 

This have been the longest explanation I have ever done for the blog, but I think if you want to spend a bit more time on your nail design, it is definitely a design that anyone have a go at - even if you haven't done many detailed designs before. 

I hope you enjoy this design!

Merry Christmas!!!!

--Leah 

Christmas presents

These nails celebrate the art of wrapping presents...

 I love to have loads of matching wrapping paper, ribbons, bows and tags! I can spend hours wrapping presents to get perfect and colour coordinated gift. But every year I seem to forget that the care and time I put in to lovingly wrapping gifts, will only be sabotaged by an eager and excited recipient on Christmas morning. 

To solve my short lived art dilemma, I decided to create some present designs on my nails that may last a little longer. 

Here we go...

I used five different base colours, you can used any colour that is Christmas-y or that tickles your fancy.

To give the design a little more detail - I put dots, stripes, little curled lines (like leopard print) and glitter on the base colours. Feel free to do any design you want, you could do diagonal lines or stars for instance. Make it your own!

Then I used a gold glittery striper to make the ribbon and bows. I painted them on slightly to one corner to give enough room for the bow to 'hang'. 

I love this design and will definitely be doing it again next year too!

--Leah

Snowflakess

This incredibly christmas-y design was created by painting my nail with medium blue base coat. I then used a white striper to make snowflakes all over my nail by connecting short lines together. Using short lines will make the snowflakes a lot easier to create. I did different sizes and patterns of snowflake to give it a a realistic look. 

On some of the snowflakes, I put a silver gem in the centre to make them a little more luxurious and fancy - It is Christmas after all!!

I then put glitter on the top of the design to make it feel more like an wintery evening snow shower. But I'm not sure which design I like better  - either with or without glitter.

I would recommend using a small glitter, instead of a larger glitter, to give the effect of snow falling in the background.

This design is a simple but a strikingly classic design which will not take very long to complete but will get you plenty of compliments.

Merry Christmas to all!

--Leah