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!

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!

Glossy Box Competition! I Need Your Help!

Hello Everyone!

I'm glad so many of you enjoyed my Star-Print Manicure from yesterday! Today's Nail Art is my entry into the Glossy Box Nail-Off - a Nail Art contest that they have launched in their facebook!

I'm not going to beg you for votes, as I truly believe that you should make your own mind up over who should win, but if you like the design and think that I deserve a shot, all you have to do is "like" my photo, located HERE! :)

I definitely would have done this design at some point anyway, I think it's really sweet. We were asked to create a design based on what we think Glossy Box is all about, and what it represents. I chose to do a mix and match manicure because, ultimately, Glossy Box is all about trying new things, and a little bit of everything - and a girl can never make up her mind! I chose the gorgeous turquoise, pink details to represent femininity and to celebrate everything fun and girly! I added the Glossy Box logo on the thumb to tie it all together - I think that was my tenth attempt at getting the logo right haha!

The Turquoise base is Nails Inc Haymarket, and the pink details are all with the Glossy Box polish Leighton Denny Babydoll - another little Glossy Box detail! I stamped the roses from BM14 with Models Own Pastel Pink, and added the leaves with a dotting tool in Barry M Spring Green and Claire's Jade Green. The base for the thumb is MUA Shade 2. The little lace design on the index finger is stamped using Konad White Special Polish, from Konad Image Plate M57. I added a coat of Seche Vite and my contest nails were ready to go!

Let me know what you think everyone! I think this is my absolute favourite mix and match manicure that I've ever done, the roses and bow came out perfectly, just how I imagined them! I was sad to take this off!

Again, I would really, really appreciate your vote in the competition, you can even vote for as many entries as you like, so I wouldn't have to be your only vote! There is some fabulous Nail Art on there, so I implore you to check it out! You can give my little, girly Manicure a "like" HERE. :)

(You may have to enable a Facebook app, but don't worry Glossy Box will never post anything onto your wall without your permission, it's simply a bit of red-tape for Facebook! :D )

Thank you so much to anyone that decides to give me a thumbs up, I really appreciate it and it just reminds me that my little blog would be nothing without all of you amazing readers who are so lovely to me every day :) (GOSH I'm gushing now haha!) But seriously, I love you all long time!

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Star Print French Manicure

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a great weekend :)

Here are the nails I was sporting at the Motel and Glossy Box Event (see last post!). It's a "Funky French" Mani, aside from the accent nail, and is inspired by the black and white star-print which is creeping into fashion lately. I started with a base of 3 coats of Miss Sporty French Pink and then taped my nails with Scotch Tape (once the were completely dry) so that just the tips were showing. I then painted over the nail with MUA Shade 2, an opaque black, and lifted the tape off while it was still wet so as to attain neat, crisp lines. Once this, too, was completely dry I re-taped the tips and stamped the Star image from BM14, horizontally across the nail, with Konad White Special Polish. I then went back with single, stamped stars to fill in any big gaps and make the print more complete. Once dry, I added a coat of Seche Vite. For the accent nail, I simply stamped the star image numerous times to create an all over nail design :)

Photography is getting really, really difficult now the days are so much shorter, it has been dark practically all the time, and sunlight is extremely rare! Forgive the darkness of my photos!

Voila! A relatively short post (I'd forgotten how quickly you can write a post when it isn't 11293943 words long!), but it's a pretty simple design that's easy to re-create at home! Even if you don't have the Bundle Monster Image Plates, you could still freehand in the white starts with a Nail Art Pen or even a toothpick :D

Let me know what you think, everyone! xxx

Nails Inc Mix and Match - Girly Turquoise Skittles

I think I must be on a turquoise kick! I won a years supply of Nails Inc polishes by entering the Tiger Mani into InStyle Magazine's Nail Art contest, and Haymarket - the polish I used today - was one of twelve that were sent as a prize! (Not quite a years supply for me, but it's still a great prize haha!)

I started with two coats of Haymarket, a muted, dusky turquoise - more blue-toned than green. You can't beat Nails Inc on quality, you get what you pay for, as these retail at £11 a pop - not something I can usually afford!

I added a different design to each nail, aside from the polka dots, which were added using Konad plate M79 with Konad White Special Polish, I used a paint brush for the details.

The pink polish on the accent nail bow, index and thumb is Collection 2000 Candy Floss, the silver is a Claire' Nail Art Pen and the white is Natural Collection from Boots.

Clearly a design for when you can't make your mind up! I quite like that it's all mixed up,it's very girly, all that's missing is hello kitty - as my mum said.

I promise I will get back to posting more regularly!

xxxx