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"

 

 

Sigma Essential Brush Kit

So here's a bit of a long post about the make-up brushes I use everyday

First things first, I've got to say these brushes are amazing!

I know that a lot of professional make-up artists love to use M.A.C brushes but they are sooo expensive. I think that Sigma are a cheaper version of M.A.C. Just as good on quality but less in price.  

An old friend of mine from college was crazy about the M.A.C brushes and she thought they were the bees knees, I had a go with the few she owned and yes they are good but they're only brushes at the end of the day, so why feel the need to spend a bomb on them?
 

I watched a video on YouTube about the similarities between M.A.C & Sigma brushes if your interested here's the link. The video is interesting to see how similar the brushes are.

Personally I don't have cash to splash out on brushes. I'm not a professional make-up artist, I was only trained in basic/photography make-up so don't feel the need for a set of M.A.C brushes. I also felt that £85 for a set of 12 brushes isn't ridiculous and they are such good quality too.
 

This brush set that Sigma are selling is ideal for someone who needs a new full set of brushes, its got every brush you need for your daily needs, and maybe a few that aren't really needed.
 

The essential kit contains 12 brushes, some are for the eyes and a few for the face.
 

Here's what the kit includes with the names of the brush and what you would essentially use it for: 

 

 

E05 - Eye Liner: No messing. This brush is fantastic for getting the PERFECT line. I use a Rimmel Gel Liner with this brush, mainly because I find it hard to find a liquid liner bottle that the brush would fit in to, and because I adore gel liners. With the kit I received a free gift which was a small pink eyeliner brush but its no way near as good as the E05, the bristles I find aren't long enough so you don't have a smooth sweep of a line.

• E30 - Pencil: This brush is usually used to soften and smoke out any lines. I mainly use it for applying shadow under my bottom lash line. You could also use it to soften pencil lines or highlighting the inner corner or your eyes .

• E40 - Tapered Blending: So this brush gets used quite a bit by me, I've never been very good at blending eye shadow but this brush really does help. I don't usually apply colour with the brush, I just tend to use it to blend two colours together or to soften the colour on my brow bone so it doesn't look so harsh, but it can be used to apply colour and then blend with the colour you applied.

• E55 - Eye Shading: I use this to apply my second lightest colour to my eyelid up to the crease in my eye, the brush is great for compacting colour.

• E60 - Large Shader: I would use this brush to apply colour all over my eyelid right up to underneath my brow, its so quick to cover the whole area as its a large brush.

• E65 - Small Angle: Well, this brush is generally used for creating precise lines, usually across the upper and lower lash lines. I actually use it to apply shadow to my eyebrows.

• E70 - Medium Angled Shading:  I think this is probably the brush I use most on my eyes, I always use it for applying my darkest colour to the outer edge of my eyes and in the crease.

• F30 - Large Powder: Name says it all, its a powder brush and a large fluffy one at that, it got such soft bristles to it that I could just sit all day stroking my face with it, but I don't. I use it for after I've set my foundation with my loose powder and velour powder puff I brush off and excess powder. 

• F40 - Large Angled Contour: This is your contour brush - which I never do, so I use mine as a blush brush.

• F50 - Duo Fibre: WOW! this brush = super coverage foundation! I had never used one until I had this set and its fantastic, I actually didn't think it would be any good, but it most definitely is. I use mine with liquid foundation, even the smallest amount and you look flawless. unlike a sponge which absorbs the foundation, this brush buffs it onto your skin amazingly.

• F60 - Foundation: So this brush doesn't actually get used that much by me, if it does it wold be for concealing under my eyes, it's quite a small foundation brush and because of the F50 I have no need for it really but it does a good job for concealing under my eyes when I need it.

• F70 - Concealer:  Last but not least the actual concealer brush, this gets used quite often...damn you blemishes! I use it to conceal any spots I have at the time and it always gets used to conceal my broken capillaries

So there you have it, the Sigma Essential Brush Kit. If you don't want to spend stupid amounts that professional make-up artists do, but you want good quality brushes that will last you, then I recommend this set.

I bought my set from the Sigma USA website, the only problem was when it was shipped over there was a £21 customs charge which cant be claimed back. But at least I know they are genuine.

Heart & Swirls

I wanted to do a cute mani today; I fancied baby pink on my nails, that's a cute colour right?

 

So I thought what colour goes great with baby pink that stands out, and it had to be black, I think the contrast works awesomely.

 

Doodling used to be my thing during classes in school or college - im easily distracted, tut tut!

All I ever seemed to do was doodle my name with swirls and hearts, and obviously who I fancied at the time, but nothing much has changed since school except its now moved on from my notebook to my nails.

 

I cant seem to help my self, nail art is just so addictive and also a challenge at times. I like to think I have a lot of patience doing my nails but there are times when I loose my cool when I mess up a nail I've been doing and have to start over again. Its just so frustrating!

 

Anyway I'll stop rambling now and get to the good stuff; the nail art picture.

I used black glitter for my accent nail on the heart, and I know its not perfect but a few little shaky lines here and there, who's going to notice unless they look up close?

 

 

Bronze Fan Brush

Who said the fan brush is useless?

I used to think there was no real function for a fan brush but here it is doing some nail art.

I love this mani, its so simple yet so effective. The shimmer of the bronze on the nude background is gorgeous!

This mani literally took me 15minutes; if you don't count taking the pictures.

 

 

1. Apply 2 coats of Color Club - Nomadic in Nude - wait 10minutes for it to dry
2. Place a blob of O.P.I - Brisbane Bronze onto a plastic pallet
3.   Drag fan brush through, dab excess off on a clear side of the plastic pallet
4.  Stroke over one half of your nail and then the other.

As you can imagine its very tedious so I gave up that method and applied polish straight from the bottle onto my fan brush..it worked out so much quicker and easier!

 

 

So to apply the bronze over the nude apply the colour to your chosen fan brush (don't apply too much if you want it fine or you'll end up with a nail like my index finger)

You can decided on whether you would like the lines thicker or finer by how much polish you apply to your brush.

Next stroke the fan brush from one side of your nail into the middle and then quickly before the polish dries, from the opposite side and into the middle again

Repeat this over all 10 nails and Voila! Perfectly bronzed nails!

This mani reminds me of an Okapi I saw in Chester Zoo

Tie Dye Inspired Mani

 

I loved this jumper's pattern when I was scrolling through TOPSHOP's website and decided to do some nail art to match it.

 

There's a lot of tie dye clothing out there so why not have a change and have tie dye nails!

You can play about with different colours, using as many different shades as you want. I just happen to be in the mood for pink tie dye

  

What you need:

 

1. Plastic wallet/Sandwich bag
2. Saffron - Colour 11 -White (or any light pink)
3. Saffron - Colour 59 - Pink (or any white)
4. Acetone/Polish Remover
5. Scissors
6. Sally Hansen Base & Top Coat (or any base or top coat)

 

What to do :

1. Grab your plastic wallet/Sandwich bag and cut 10 pieces that will fit over your nail - leave excess plastic to hold on to (do not cut to the exact size of your nail) You may want to cut a few extra in case of mistakes
2. Apply your chosen white polish over all 10 nails - wait until dry (My saffron polish takes 10minutes until it is dry enough for me to touch)
3. Apply a few splodges of pink randomly over your nail and place a few white in-between so that the pink doesn't merge together - Do one nail at a time!
4. Quickly before the polish dries place one of your plastic pieces over your nail and roll your finger over the top from one side to the other - lightly.
5. Remove the plastic after completing step 4. If the pink has merged together apply a small blob of white polish in-between and repeat step 4. Keep doing this until you are happy with the design.
6. Repeat step 3,4&5 on the remaining 9 nails
7. Once finished apply your top coat, and Voilà you now have tie dye nails!

 

"That’s Groovy baby!"

Geometric Shapes

Well this is quite an embarrassing fact but at the age of 22 I have just re-done my maths GCSE!

Why I do these things to myself I will never know, but hopefully it will benefit me in the near future.

 

So anyway it gave me some thought to do some mathematic inspired nail art.

I've had some ideas bouncing around for a while now but I just didn't have the time to do any freehand patterns recently as I've been rushed off my feet with revision.

I thought shapes might be the most simplest to do and that anyone else who wants to have some nails like these can do so without having to be a nail art genius!

 

 

I saw a tutorial on The Beauty Department blog on nail art using scotch tape; so I used the same method they have but with a different design. Still, I love their design and recommend you check it out!

 

 
Here's what you need to do:

 

Step 1 : Coat all your nails in ColorClub – Nomadic in Nude, apply two coats if needed.

Step 2 : Wait for nails to dry (preferably for a good few hours because the next bits tricky unless you can get someone else to do it for you!)

Step 3 : Tear off a piece of Scotch tape and place it on something it will peel off - and still be sticky.

Step 4 : Polish the non-sticky side of the tape with your chosen colours - MUA - Moody Mink, Saffron London - Colour 54, Saffron London - Colour 59.

Wait for nail polish on the tape to dry - I waited approx. 10-15 minutes. 

Step 5 : Cut the tape where the polish is into different sized strips (see image)Now cut the strips into your shapes, you could do squares, triangles, rectangles and if your brave enough, circles. I chose the easy option of squares and triangles.

Step 6 : Once the shapes are cut place them randomly on your nails. (I found it easier that once I'd cut one shape, to put it straight on the nail as its not easy to pick the shape up once its stuck to something)

Step 7 : Apply top coat and wait to dry

Step 8 : Apply hand cream

Step 9 : Admire your handy work!

 The completed look (minus the top coat which I forgot to put on)
 

Good luck to anyone else who has been sitting their maths GCSE's!

 

 

“Beauty is Geometry”