Easter Nail Art Tutorial - Cadbury's Mini Eggs!

This design was suggested to me by my best friend Sara - as soon as she said it, I knew it had to be done, if only as an expansion on the Cadbury's Chocolate Manicure! I worked tirelessly on a tutorial for it so you can all do it yourselves at home :D I know it's a bit early for Easter Manicures, but it's that time of year where Mini Eggs hit the shops an I love them! I don't know if you can get them in the US, but FIND THEM. THEY ARE LIKE EASTER-TIME CRACK.

This will also be part review for Boots 17 new nail polishes which I picked up last week. I chose 3 of them - Mellow Yellow, Glisten and Juicy. They're really fresh, bright spring/summer colours so I really couldn't resist. First up is Mellow Yellow, a gorgeous mid-tone yellow with gold micro-shimmer. It's beaaautiful.

The application of Mellow Yellow was lovely, this is two coats and there is no visible nail line (VNL). It's glossy and dries relatively quickly. From experience, 17 polishes go thick and unusable rather quickly so invest in a polish thinner like Seche Restore if you want to keep this bad boy for more than a few months.

The perfect yellow for a mini eggs packet, I hear you say? Yes, it is. Tutorial time!

1. Start with your yellow base and take a chocolate-brown polish like Barry M Mushroom. Draw large ovals in a sporadic pattern across the nail. This is the outline of the eggs!

                        
2. Take a selection of pastel coloured polishes. I chose American Apparel Office (green), Collection 2000 Candyfloss (pink), Natural Collection White and Collection 2000 Angel Wings (purple/grey). Paint over your brown ovals with the pastel shades, but leave a small brown outline.

3. Time to add some brown speckles to the eggs! Take a dotting tool (or a toothpick if you don't have one!) and take a small bead of your brown polish on the end. dab this gently onto your pastel eggs.

4. Take a purple polish or purple Nail Art Pen. This step is much easier to do when you have the control of a Nail Art Pen, but if you have a steady hand then go for it with a small brush. Write the words "Mini Eggs" in the Cadbury's font on your thumb. This is optional, you could always just draw more Mini Eggs!

5. Add a topcoat to protect your design from wear and tear and to make it super glossy. I used Seche Vite.

6. Stand back and admire your Cadbury's Mini Egg Easter Nail Art!

I added Claire's Matte Topcoat over the top to achieve that powdery look and feel that mini eggs have.

There you are! Cadbury's Mini Egg nails, perfect for Easter! If you've given up chocolate for lent then a) I don't know how you live b) You can enjoy chocolate in an alternative way!

As always, if you follow my tutorial I would love to see it so pleeease let me know!

I hope you have fabulous weekends!

I'M BACK...

...did you miss me?! I have definitely missed my little corner of the internet and I feel absolutely AWFUL that I've neglected it :( I have started a new job and I work very long, miserable hours - not a lot of free time or daylight. Enough wining, I'm so happy to be back and really sorry for being away so long! Today's Nail Art is a super-intricate freehand manicure to make up for it! Admittedly it's Christmas themed, and I've kind of missed the boat on that, but here it is anyway :D

Santa through a dawn sky on Christmas Morning!

I started with a gradient base (American Apparel African Violet with Barry M Cobalt Blue and Topshop Celestial sponged over the top) and freehanded in the reindeer with a brush and Barry M Mushroom. I then drew in Santa Claus with various Nail Art Pens and added the snow on the rooftops and sky by dotting a White Nail Art Pen. I topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite and I was so pleased with how it came out!

I know it's not Christmas anymore, but I'm finding it hard to let the festivities go haha! Let me know what you think on the comments (and also how your lives have been, I feel so out of touch!)

xxx

Movember Nails! (Part 2)

Here is the second installation to my Movember Manicure Madness - It's by no means an original idea, as similar designs have been floating around the Internet from no particular source, but I thought it was fun and definitely worth doing! I started with a base of American Apparel L'espirit, a lilac creme. I adore American Apparel polishes, they have the best formula of any polish company I've ever used, and their colours are unique and excellent quality - and this is from a fashion company. Great stuff. I added the little moustaches with a Black Nail Art Pen.

 

This is very wearable Movember Manicure, I hope you enjoyed the moustachey themed past couple of days!

Let me know what you think! xxxxxxxx 

Movember Nails! (Part One)

Who says girls can't have a little fun for Movember?! Just because we are challenged in the facial foliage department doesn't mean we can't join in and help raise awareness, while making fun of our nearest and dearests' feeble attempts to pull off  "The Magnum P.I", of course. I'm wearing moustaches on my nails, with a different 'classic' 'tache on each one. The idea behind it is that you can hold a different nail to your top lip, in a hilarious fashion, to mimic some face-fuzz of your very own, whether you're in the mood for...

1. The Cowboy (Index finger)
2. The Mario (Middle finger)
3. The Fancy French (Ring Finger)
4. The Charlie Chaplin (or The Hitler, depending on how politically sensitive we're all feeling today) (Pinky Finger)

I have freehanded the blue Male-Cancer ribbon onto my thumb with Nail Art Pens from eBay, and painted the 'taches onto a base of American Apparel Palm Springs (which is the best polish that I own to match my skintone)

and here is my ridiculous face, demonstrating the concept!

It's-a meeeeee Marioooo!

Je m'appelle Moustache.

Howdy Partner

Felt like an absolute idiot taking these photos in front of the window, but I think that's almost the whole point of Movember, doing something fun to raise awareness! I also did some other moustache-y nails this week, so I'm making this post a two-parter (you lucky things), so expect some more Movember Madness tomorrow!

I had fun doing these, and actually did an astounding amount of research into facial hair. I never thought I'd find myself googling "famous moustaches", but life is full of surprises. Just a bit of mid-week fun for everyone, let me know what you think, would you ever wear these out? It's a conversation starter at least!

Please don't forget that you have until Friday to vote for me in the GlossyBox Nail Art contest HERE on their Facebook! If you love this manicure:

 

you can click "like" and make me one happy bunny! I would really appreciate it :D

Thanks everyone!

Cath Kidston Nails

I wouldn't describe myself as a girly-girl, but I really like Cath Kidston Prints! I would never paper the walls with it, but I love it on accessories. It will always remind me of my friend Alice as well, because she is obsessed! I'm not sure how internationally well-known Cath Kidston is, but she's a pretty well established High End brand over here in the UK. A British Fashion Designer, Cath Kidston is famous for her signature, nostalgic floral patterns and home furnishings. I decided to incorporate my favourite print of hers into a manicure:

Here is the original print I based the design on, and I think it's as intricate as I can get it, seen as nails are SO SMALL.

For the accent nail I switched up the base colour from blue to Leighton Denny Babydoll - my new favourite Pink from the October Glossy Box.

I created the design by painting a base of either Bootie Babe Blue Baboo (see below) or Leighton Denny  Babydoll, and painted the large white flower shapes and polka dots with Claire's White Nail Art Pen. I then added a blob of MUA pink in the centre of each one. Now, I reckon I'm quite well known for my freehand work, and although I seem to be able to do an alright job on Dinosaurs or Super Mario (like in my previous posts), I have never been able to get the hang of drawing roses - I just have no idea why! Because of this I enlisted a bit of help with this design from Bundlemonster Image plate BM04, stamping the rose image on top of the MUA Pink circle using American Apparel Coney Island. After transferring the image to the stamp, I dipped a cotton swab in varnish remover and cleaned off the edge of the image, leaving only the heart of the rose, because I needed the design to be so small. After I had stamped all of these, I added some green foliage with a dotting tool and American Apparel Office and Barry M Spring Green. After a coat of Seche Vite, I was good to go!

I'm popping in a review here too, as I've been waiting on these polishes for AGES from brand new polish company Bootie Babe. Their polishes are packaged in novelty "booty" bottles that look like little bums! It's a bit gimicky, but it's fun and I think that is important with cosmetics! I was sent Blue Baboo and noticed that it was the perfect shade of sky blue for my Cath Kidston idea. The polish formula is O.K...it drags a bit and is a little paint-like, but definitely workable. Now, as much as the bottle makes me laugh, and I think it's a fun idea, the handle is almost impossible to use. It is absolutely tiny, and tapered so it slips out of your fingers. I gave up after a couple of nails and used a different brush to apply it. All in all, I like the idea and the novelty, but the quality of the polish and the handle design could be improved. Here is Blue Baboo on its own, as well as some shots of the bottles!

See how small the bottle handle is compared to my fingers? Very fiddly. You get just over 9ml of polish in these bottles.

A lovely shade of blue and not quite like any other shade in my arsenal. I would definitely head over to their website and check them out, there's loads of other great shades to get hold of.

I hope you like this one guys! I realise I don't post as much as I used to, but I think the posts I put up these days have much more crammed in to them, and have A LOT more time spent on them! I have some great designs coming up for you all :D

In other news, the Winner of my Glossy Box contest from 2 weeks ago was Vicky at Manicured Maniac - Congratulations to her! She has been notified and her very own Glossy Box is on it's way to her! WOOP VICKKKYY!!!

Glossy Box are also hosting a Nail Art competition, and I urge you all to get involved to win the OPI Muppets Collection! Emily's Nail Files also has a mention as a place to go for inspiration! Well, you're already here so you're one step ahead of the game! I'd love to see some of you enter, I know you're all SO creative xxxx

Happy Halloween! Spooooky Nails

...I realise Halloween was two days ago now, but I hope you all had a good time! These were my spooky, themed nails for the occasion!

For the haunted house accent nail I started with a base of American Apparel African Violet, used a sponge to dab on Barry M Cobalt Blue over 3/4 of the nail, then sponged on Topshop Celestial onto the top 1/4 to create a gradient effect to act as a 'night sky'. I then freehanded in the pale, yellow moon with Rimmel Lemon Drop with Collection 2000 Angel Wings for detail. I freehanded in the 'hill' with Claire's Jade Green and a small brush before stamping the house image from BundleMonster image plate BM224 with Konad Black Special Polish. I added Barry M Mushroom brown paths and outlined the house with Claire's Silver Nail Art Pen. I stamped the bat image from BM213 and freehanded in the little ghosts with Claire's White Nail Art Pen. I smoothed it over with Seche Vite!
For the rest of the nails I started with a base of Natural Collection White, sponged on Rimmel Lemon Drop and Collection 2000 Angel Wings, sporadically, to make them look a bit old and crusty (yuummmm). I then stamped on the spiderweb and spider images from BM13 with Konad Black Special Polish before adding a coat of Seche Vite.

There is a lot of steps involved in this Manicure, but it didnt take too long!

I hope you all had a great halloween!

Autumn Leaves

It's getting to that time of year where I can't wait to crack out last years over-sized woolly jumpers, hats and scarves (as well as buy new ones!). Despite it being unseasonally warm in the UK last week, I have to admit that this summer baby is oh-so-keen to bury herself in winter clothes, drink mulled wine and go sledging. My nails reflect my mood and eagerness for the changing leaves:

I started with a base of Nails Inc Jermyn Street, a purple toned brown, and then sponged Nails Inc Candy Orange, American Apparel Manilla (yellow) and Barry M Bright Red onto random areas of the nail, to create the autumn-coloured  mottled effect. I then added a coat of Gosh Rainbow, an iridescent flakie topcoat that adds a subtle flash of red and green, before stamping the leafy image from Bundlemonster image plate BM04 with Miss Sporty Electric Beige. This caught the light differently at different angles and looked really pretty!

What do you think? What's your favourite part of Autumn?

Not my favourite song from him, but it's pretty appropriate, and I can't stop listening to him at the moment, everything he does is stunning:

Plus...I love a good ginger.

xx

Minnie Mouse - Disney Nail Art

Hello Everyone!

Sorry for my absence, I've been on holiday in Majorca! Me and my family had a lovely time, it was great to unwind for a week and catch some sunshine, as well as stuff my face - something I am rather good at.

I popped on a new manicure as soon as I got back, and, inspired my excitement for m next holiday (a trip to Disney Land), I decided upon Minnie Mouse Nails!

I started with a base of Barry M Peach Melba (the Barry M Red polish I used really "pops" when it's applied over a light, neutral colour, it's a bit sheer and dull, otherwise), and then added two coats of Barry M Red. I used Konad White Special Polish and Image Plate M79 for the polka dots, and freehanded in some black bows using Claire's Black Nail Art Pen. For the Accent nail, I mixed American Apparel Palm Springs with a little Natural Collection White Polish and painted the whole nail. I then added the details using Claire's Nail Art Pen in Black and White. I topped it all off with Rimmel's 60 Second Topcoat!

So there we are! I'm sure I will be sporting this a lot when I'm over in America! Let me know what you think guys, I love Disney so I'm sure there'll be a lot more where this came from!

I also had some interesting blog traffic this week, and logged on to find a lot of referrals from www.bodycare.becomegorgeous.com, who have written and article on little old me, in relation to summer nail art trends. You can check it out HERE! :D
xxx