Sugar Spun Nails

I discovered this lovely creation on the web a while back but didn't get round to it until recently. I found a lovely tutorial on Nailasaurus' blog (http://www.thenailasaurus.com/2013/06/sugar-spun-nail-art-tutorial.html) which came in handy to try out this design!

I love the textured effect of these nails and have found it great fun wearing them!

 The downside though is that it took a long time to do...but I think every second was worth it.

To complete this bumpy design I used Barry M denim and La Femme Beauty Rickpink cream as base colours, I then used a top coat BEFORE the Barry M gold foil effects on top. This meant that once the gold was applied, as the Nailasaurus's tutorial suggests, I could leave it without a top coat so it was as textured as possible.

The technique used to do the sugar spun effect took some time and persistence. My technique wasn't as perfected as I wanted but I like how it ended up turning out. You can see the rounded blobs where I was trying to pull the varnish string across but accidentally touched my dotting tool to the nail, but fortunately, I did this enough times it looks like that's how it's meant to be!! This was my first time trying this technique so it goes to show you don't need to practice it lots before you can wear it out as even the mistakes look good with this effect!

There are some really cool sugar spun nails out there with combinations of colours too, I decided to stick to the one for my first go, but maybe I'll try two colours the next time I find enough time to tackle this technique again!

~ Heather

Piggys!

Hi everyone,

I recently went glamping (glam camping) on a pig farm! It was lots of fun and we spent girly time doing a few nails! Inspired by the surroundings I did some piggy nails for my friend Helen! 

The base colour is Barry M Peach Melba with rimmel 60 secs Sundowner polish for the darker pink and then my models own dotters and stripers to do the details! 

I love doing fun characters but don't get to do them much due to work so when someone allows me to do fun things with their nails, I am on it! 

- Faye

Pink Retro Flowers

Pinky Pinky Pinky...

I bought this new pink recently and put it straight to use in this retro design. It kind of reminds me of the stunning vintage flowery dresses that I have seen from Forever 21. This is bright and eye catching colour but it has a creamy and smooth finish.
In other words - I LOVE THIS COLOUR!!

I used a darker pink colour to make two curls for the petals, then I used a peach polish to dab into the middle of each flower for the bud. To finish it off, I used a green to create a swirl at either side for the leaves. 

I chose to use colours that were all non shiney and non metallic to keep the design simple and uniform. 

Hope you guys like this summery design! There will be more summery designs coming soon so keep your eyeballs peeled! 

 -Leah

Tie dye love

So I'm a little bit obsessed with tie-dye at the moment. And I just love these nails! I did them a while back but I have been a bit slacking with the post!

I started off with the light purple colour (that the lovely faye brought back from her travels in china!) as my base coat. I was fairly impressed with the quality considering it is not a make I know and I found the tiny brush it comes with very easy to use on my tiny nails!

Next I used a white from a french manicure set to do 3 stripes vertically on my nail, making each one shorter than the one before.

After that dried I used the dark purple (again from the lovely faye) to do the same thing again over the top of the white but just fractionally shorter.

I think this really easy design creates a brilliant effect and I love how it turned out!

Thank you very much to faye for the nail varnishes and the inspiration for this design!

Abbi. Xx

Banksy Nails

I was looking for inspiration on the web and came across this lovely design on Smashley Sparkles blog which I thought I'd give it a go!

 http://www.smashleysparkles.com/2013/02/the-digit-al-dozen-does-love-heartbreak_13.html

The design is a nail art version of Banksy's famous graffiti art the girl with the balloon. It was quite a fiddly design to do but surprisingly didn't take too long!

The design began with a base of Barry M white, I used Nina ultra pro red fox for the balloon and NYC black for the girl and string. The balloon was done with a dotting tool which allowed me to get a nice curve for the heart shape and the rest was completed with nail art brushes and Rimmel's Matte top coat.  It was hard to get the girl looking good, the black base was easy enough, but then deciding where the white highlights should go was hard. I'm still not sure I'm happy with how it ended up, but felt it was a good first attempt so thought I'd share the design anyway!

I really love creating designs with well known pictures or characters on them! 

Think I might try another Banksy creation on my nails in the near future (if I can find one that's not too complicated)...so watch this space!

~Heather

Summer Heat

In all this summer heat I thought I would try out my newest Poundshop purchase (TOP TIP! Sometimes Poundland have like actual good brands in them like Rimmel and Sally Hansen), my Rimmel 60 secs, Sun Downer. I wanted to do something like fire and fireworks and I have seen something like this in a blog recently but totally didn't favorite it and cant find it again? (if you know where i got it from please tell me and I will give credit where it is due!!).

To begin with it looked very messy and strange, but I think the gold sort of made it all come together and actually not look crap! I have actually included both my right and left hand in this post as they both look similarly ok!


2 coats Rimmel 60 Secs - Sun Downer (440) for the base coat.
Lots of different yellow and pink colours some of which are listed below -
Colour club - Reign in Spain (Bright Coral colour)
17 - Mellow Yellow (Yellowy gold colour)
Barry M - Peach Melba (Muted Coral)
Maybelline Colour Show - Electric Yellow
Barry M Limited Edition Gold (my fav nail polish ever)

Let me know thoughts, I'm still not sure if I love it!

Waterfall

I saw Nailsaurus' waterfall posts and tutorial and thought they were so effective that I fancied giving it a go! 

http://www.thenailasaurus.com/2013/07/waterfall-nail-art-tutorial.html 

So here is my offering...

To complete this design I used Barry M Lychee as a base then delved into my ever growing collection of colours to find about 5 different pinks and purples. The design is pretty simple to do, all you need is a tapered thin nail brush (I used one of about 1cm length) and you're off! When I was completing it, I thought my lines weren't straight enough and it was looking messy, but, I hope you agree, it turned out alright in the end!

This is a really cool effect that you can add your own touches to. It's not too clear on the picture, but I added a couple stripes of glitter on each nail too which finished it off nicely! But there are so many other possibilities and so many colour variations to try out so why not have a go!!

~Heather