Shellac Blackpool

 

 

Shellac is my favourite beauty treatment OTM!
 

I love how super shiny it looks on my nails, how it feels so smooth, and how it lasts for two weeks!

I never keep Shellac on for longer than 4days because I get bored of the same colour on my nails.

So today I decided to do something different with my Shellac rather than having a plain colour.

To start off I applied CND Shellac base coat and cured that under my UV lamp for 2minutes. 
Secondly I applied one coat of Shellac Blackpool to the tip of my nail and using the Inhibition remover and my NSI Gel brush I created a smooth smile line, then cured it for 2minutes.

I then repeated the second step to create a dark background for my hexagonal shaped sequins.

I then dabbed some sequins  onto the black tips. If there were any sequins hanging over the black I used my gel brush to push them back into place. To finish off I applied one coat of top coat and cured for 2minutes, followed by wiping over all my nails with the inhibition remover.

And Voila! Black Sparkly French Tips!

Multi Colour

I can't believe what weather we're having at the moment, its so hot!

I don't ever want it to rain again.

 

All this bright sunshine we seem to be having at the moment makes me want colourful nails.

 

I always have this same problem every time I do my nails though...which is not being able to pick a colour I fancy that day.

But oh no not today!

 

I just picked out 5 different colours because I couldn't decide.

They are all such typical summer nail polishes as well, don't you agree?

 

These are the nail polishes I used:

Little finger - MUA - Frozen Yoghurt

Ring finger - NYC - Blue Sky

Middle finger - MUA - Bold Blue

Index finger - MUA - Lush Lilac

Thumb - Revlon Colorstay - Buttercup

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mosaic Nails

 
 
 Whilst having a look on fashionfacts Instagram one day I found this picture of leggings. They're so crazy that they inspired me to do some nail art similar to them, so I saved the picture to my phone and decided one day I would get round to creating some crazy of my own. Well my friends, that day has come! Obviously there's a lot of detail in this pattern and I'm not fantastic at free hand straight lines so I chose to use my plastic wallet method, personally I think this is the best way to get PERFECT straight lines with nail polish but if any of you guys have a different method that works for you I'd love to know. It does take some time but once you've finished you can sit back and admire your handy work. For anyone who hasn't seen me using this method here's how I made the triangles:

1. Grab any old plastic wallet you have no use for anymore.
2. Apply plenty of different colours onto the plastic wallet in vertical lines
3. Wait until dry
4. Using a pair of scissors, cut up the plastic wallet with the polish on into lots of different sized triangles

 

 

Here's a picture of how I did the plastic wallet method.

 

 

 

 

I then painted my nails white and waited until they were tacky

 

My next step was to apply all of the triangles randomly onto the tacky white polish. Most of the triangles came away from the plastic wallet easily, but some were still wet and wouldn't budge. Luckily I cut out plenty so that when the others had dried off i used them on my second hand.

 

And...Voila! The completed look!

 

Wedding Party

Wow, what a weekend!

 

I was invited to a friends wedding party and had never been to one as an adult. Its such a special occasion for everyone involved!

 

The place looked beautiful, and so did the bride.

The decorations around the room were fantastic, the chairs had baby pink ribbons on their backs, the tables had a round mirror in the centre with a large glass bowl filled with water placed in the middle. There were light pink crystals scattered inside and out of the bowl and there was also a flower and floating candles inside the glass bowls. Everything tied in together well and was obviously well thought out.

I wish I had a picture of the cake and sweet cart because the groom's father made both, such a talented man! I will try and get hold of a picture.

 

So, with me having not been to a wedding party before I wasn't quite sure on what to wear. I obviously didn't want to wear white so went for black instead. I found a chiffon dress on ASOS which has a gorgeous sweetheart neckline and a dipped hem, I paired it with some black wedges and a waist belt.

I will have to put a picture on here somewhere when I can find one - I didn't take one myself.

So anyway with the outfit found I thought what can I do with my nails.

I wanted something simple and didn't want anything too bold and what always looks nice and doesn't clash... it had to be a French manicure. But to mix it up a bit I did an ombre French Mani.

Here's a picture I took of them

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now it's time to catch up on some sleep from this busy weekend

 

Paint Splat Mani

It's time to get messy!  

Such a cool mani; I've had lots of complements and queries on how I did them.
A lot of people asked if they were minx, I was horrified! They look nothing like minx, each nail is inconsistent.

I had lots of fun doing this mani and I know its been done plenty of times before by other bloggers but I wanted to try it out myself and my god its a tricky one!

I was contemplating doing it with acrylic paints or nail polish and decided on the latter but I think my way of doing this was a little unusual from the way I've seen it being done, when I did my geometric mani I realised the tape peeled off the scotch tape, so I tried polish on a plastic wallet and it peeled straight off! so here's what you'll need & how I did it:

You will need :

• Plastic wallet/Sandwich bag
• White polish (I used Saffron London colour ..)
• Assortment of bright colours (I used O.P.I - Planks a lot(O.P.I - Do you lilac it is very similar), Jessica - Happy Together, Barry M - Cyan Blue, O.P.I - Dutch 'Ya Just Love OPI?, O.P.I - Up Front & Personal and Revlon ColourStay - Buttercup.)
• Nail polish remover/Acetone
• Small Brush to tidy up cuticles with
• Scissors
• Permanent marker
• Nail file
• A Straw (I used one off an orange carton)
• Base & Top coat

What you need to do:

1. Take your plastic bag / sandwich bag and put a finger on the bag, draw around your finger tip and drag the pen down on both sides until you go a bit past your cuticle, remove your finger and join the sides, do this with all your fingers and thumb of course, so they line up in a near enough straight line
2. Next flip over the plastic wallet and you will be able to see your doodling. Now using your white polish, cover the circles you have drawn entirely and some. you will need a little extra later on for when you peel it off the plastic (don't worry if its not entirely opaque)
3. Its time for the fun part, grab any of your chosen polishes and using the polish brush cover the end of the straw in polish and try to get about 0.5cm in the straw, you can even push the brush down the straw. Aim the straw at the white on the plastic and blow through the clean end and BAM! splatted paint look. Keep doing this until your happy with the design.
4. Wait around 10minutes for the colours to dry then apply your top coat then wait another 10-15minutes to dry
5. Test the polish and if its still wet, wait some more
6. Your next job is to cut the plastic wallet into strips. turn the wallet over and your circles will still be there, just cut in between them so you have 5/10 rectangles. (Do not cut around the circles because you might cut them to small...that would be a disaster after all that fun you just had making them)
7. After you've done this you can peel the polish off the plastic wallet, its a little frustrating but persevere as its worth it at the end
8. Next you need to polish your nails with white polish and stick your ready cut out polish to the semi-wet white on your nails so it adheres - when you apply the cut out polish to your nail try and get as close to your cuticle as you can; you can tidy up later.
9. So after you have them all applied trim the extra bits off your nail with scissors, then using a nail file straighten up your nails to remove the rest of the hanging polish.
10. Last of all is tidying up :) dip your brush in acetone/nail polish remover and tidy up any edges that are on your skin around your nails - you can apply top coat if you want put I didn't feel the need to as I'd already done it on the plastic.
11. Ta-daa! Messy Paint Splat Nails!

Here's my version of the paint splat manicure.

 

 The one other way I have seen it being done is when the paint is blown through a straw onto your nails, now I think that's much to messy and I'd rather go through all the hassle I did to have my nails like this. It is time consuming and you will need patience but at least you don't have to clean up all that polish on your hands and fingers!

Frog Water Decals

They've arrived, Yay!

 

I love these cute little frog water decals I ordered off Ebay!

They were only £1.25 and arrived in 2days...Fantastic.

Here's the link if your interested link

I've seen that water decals are the popular nail art trend at the moment, and they are so easy to apply, wow! They're super cute so I'll most definitely be ordering more.

Here's what I used and how I applied the water decals:

1. Water in a shallow bowl
2. Pack of water decals
3. Scissors
4. Polish of your choice
5. Sponge (for creating ombre effect)
6. Choice of colours (I chose Jessica - King tuts gem & Saffron London - Colour 11)
7. Cotton discs
8. Nail polish remover
9. Nail art brush (To remove polish off your skin after doing the ombre with your sponge)

For one hand:

1. Apply white polish all over nail and wait until dry
2. Soak a make-up sponge in your water bowl and squeeze until its only damp
3. Apply a line of white polish on the sponge and then blue polish directly underneath the white - overlap them slightly
4. Dab the sponge on your nail until you get your desired look and then wait until your polish is dry - if your polish isn't very thick, just wait until its dry and then apply another layer.
5. Cut around your water decals shape (just a square will do but get as close to the pattern/shape as you can)
6. Place the cut up water decals in the water and wait 30 seconds to soak
7. Pick out your water decals and the pattern should come away from the paper its placed on
8. Apply the shape/pattern where you would like it to be on your nail and apply pressure to squeeze water out from underneath
9. Using a cotton disc, dab over the top of the water decal to remove excess water
10. Tidy up any excess polish on your skin with you nail art brush and nail polish remover
11. To finish off apply top coat

 

 

 

 

Ta-da!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nude Sparkle Chevron Nails

 

Sparkles..Oooo!

When it comes to anything sparkly or glittery I'm like a moth drawn to a flame.

 

I wanted to do a chevron mani but couldn't decided how I wanted them, I've seen plenty of bright shades for the chevron pattern but not many nude, I also wanted them sparkly.

So in the end I chose O.P.I - Up Front & Personal as my base. I thought the colour is kind of like champagne so kept it on the nude colour theme and chose Orly - Prince Charming and Color Club - Nomadic in Nude.

I used striping tape to separate the chevrons and applied each colour a line at a time, it did take some time doing and I know its not perfect but I just love all the colours together. Slightly disappointing that my nude colour hasn't shown much on the picture. Ahh well I still love my mani for today!

 

 

 

 

Cookies, nomnomnom!

 

Seriously!

Has anybody tried these cookies?
They are actually the nicest cookies I have had in a long time. Don't get me wrong the standard Maryland Double Choc Chip Cookies are amazing but these are on another level, WOW!

If you haven't got round to trying these yet I 100% recommend you do - Sorry to anyone who's on a diet.

They are just like any other Maryland cookie, but with gooey melted chocolate in the middle. I demolished the whole packet in a few hours. They are just too addictive...Oh well, nothing that's healthy tastes good anyway. Sweet tooth all the way!

So anyway back to the reason I was writing this post, these cookies got me thinking about nail art..as usual.

So I thought what best to do than, the Cookie Monster! Everyone loves a bit of Sesame Street...well the ones who are old enough to remember it that is.

I know its not original and lots of people have done the cookie monster before but I genuinely loved these cookies that much that I wanted the Cookie Monster on my nails.

 

So I won't bang on about how I did them, I'll just show you the stages in some pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oops, had to slip that one in somewhere...Close up! Mm mm...

 

 

 

 

Finished close up

 

 

 

 

Haha! Crazy googly eyed Cookie Monster. Love it!

 

 

"C is for Cookie"