Pink and Purple Skittle

Inspired by Nail Polish Society

Base (pink) - Jacava - Raspberry Bavarois

Base (purple) - Jacava - Lavender Court

Base (black) - Sally Hansen - Blacky O

Base (gold) - Barry M - Gold Digger

Stamping Plate - UberChic 14-03

Shrimply Devine

Nails that Barbie would be proud of

Base (pink) - Sally Hansen - Shrimply Devine

Base (white) - Barry M - Cotton

Glitter Topper - Barry M - Amethyst Glitter

Purple with Glitter Accent

You can't beat a pretty base with a glitter accent.

Base - OPI - Do You Have This Color In Stockholm

Glitter Accent - Sally Hansen - Grape Shifter

Coloristiq July Manicure Box - Summer Getaway - Swatches, Review, and Nail Art Tutorial*

The lovely ladies at Coloristiq contacted me a little while back and asked if I'd like to put together a tutorial for their July Summer Getaway Manicure Box.  It took me all of a few seconds to say yes.

I got the lovely gold box through the post filled with gorgeous polishes worth almost a whopping £50 and started planning my design to fit the theme.

*Press sample - sent to me for review

Triplet Nails: Orange and White Saran Wrap Nails

Hello all,

I have a very exciting post today.  I've teamed up with Lauren from The Naily Mail and Madison from Fundamentally Flawless to do some triplet nails.  We had been discussing different techniques that we hadn't tried before and thought it would be really fun to do some triplet nails so we decided to give the saran wrap technique a go (or cling film for us UK people).

I started off with two coats of Models Own Snow White which needed to dry completely before anything else.  I left it for a couple of hours whilst I watched a film, and just to make doubly sure I finished it off with a coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri.  Next was the really fun part!  I worked nail by nail adding a thick coat of Graffiti Nails Tuscany and then before that dried I started dabbing the wet nail polish with a bunched up ball of cling film.  This gives the fabulous marbled effect.  I really like the subtle contrast having used orange and white, but I think overall for this technique to stand out more a more contrasting choice of shades may have been better.

The other girls designs are just stunning as well

Lauren has gone for a lovely purpley blue and Madison has gone for a lighter blue.  Don't these look lovely in all of the colours that we have chosen?  Such a different look with a simple change.

Be sure to check out the other girls posts by clicking on their photographs above.  We have all really enjoyed taking on the challenge, and have decided to do triplet nails every now and again, so now all we need to do is choose what to do next!  What do you think we should have a go at?  

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x

New Nail Storage and Organisation

Hello all,

I have wanted to sort my polish collection for a while now and having moved fairly recently it seemed like the perfect time to start a project like this.  I got a new storage box for some of my nail things the other week and I have started reorganising my stash.  It's nowhere near finished yet, but it feels good to have made a start at least.

I started off with just one bag for polishes but as my collection grew so did the bags and boxes!  This is what I ended up with before my new storage.

And this is just what fit in the photograph!  I had some other bits in some little drawers along with things like make-up and hair accessories.  I was in serious need of some organisation and thought you might want to see what I have done so far.

Polish Party: Inspired by Another Member - Leopard Half and Half

Hello all,

I am very excited about the theme for this month's Polish Party - Inspired by Another Member!  We vote each month and since setting up our facebook group I have suggested this theme each time for the poll and it has narrowly been out voted by something else.  This month it finally came up on top though - Yay!

The only issue left after getting it through was picking who would be my inspiration.  There are so many fabulous ladies in the group who create such amazing nail art. so it was always going to be a tough choice.  In the end I decided on a half and half leopard print from Lauren at The Naily Mail.

Here's my version...

And here's Lauren's original design...



I had a shortlist of three designs including a galaxy manicure, a fish tail/plaited design with glitter, and this one. Lauren does gorgeous half and half manicures and I think it looks really effective which is what made me really want to try it out.  I love the gold she has used here, but I have done subtle coloured or realistic animal print nails before so I wanted to go really out there with a bright bold colour (If you followed the link above you will have seen Lauren's bright pink zebra nails, which were a source of more inspiration to do the animal print in a different colour).

My Favourite Nail Products

Hello all,

A bit of a different post this week where I thought I would show you some of my favourite nail products that I use the most when I do my nails.

First things first, to take of the previous week's design or colour I use Cutex Nourishing Nail Polish Remover.

Apologies for this being a phone photograph, but I decant my remover into a bottle with a twist and pump lid so I didn't actually have a bottle any more.  This says it's for weak nails, which I don't consider myself to have, but I love the moisturising and nail whitening of this remover.  I have very flaky nails and I always find that I need added moisture and this is perfect.  I do think it does a good job of removing basic stains, although I have worn some colours recently where stains have not budged.  Having said that I don't think that's because of this remover, but just the colour of the stain.  Compared to the smell of most removers this has quite a nice smell which makes taking polish off that bit nicer.  This is £1.60 for a 100ml bottle in Boots.

Next up, it's generally time for a buff and file down or shape.  I use an Andrea Fulerton buffing block, a basic 4 sided buffing block and QVS nail files.

Morgan Taylor: J'adore My Mani

Hello all,

After doing a post last week about all the goodies that I got for Christmas I couldn't wait any longer to use one of them.

I went for Morgan Taylor J'adore My Mani and isn't it just lovely!?

My boyfriend got me this one from Sally's in London which has load of exciting nail polishes that your normally can't get in the UK.

It's such a super sparkly pink and I am glad a picked this one to use first.  It's a really bright pink and just dazzles when it catches the light.  I have used two coats here.  After the first coat the base pink that the glitter sits in was quite sheer and I wanted full coverage of glitter.  If you wanted to use it over another pink or purple polish, one coat would be lovely.  What I hadn't noticed when looking at it in the bottle was that it has tiny bits of purple glitter in it as well which really adds to the depth in the colour and the sparkle overall.

When dry it's quite grainy, but adding a top coat really smooths it out.  I always use Sally Hanssen Inst-Dri as it really does speed up the drying process and add a really hi gloss finish.  The only other thing I would say about it is that the brush is quite wide so for little finger nails it makes quite a mess and with it being a glitter this makes the clean up a bit more tricky!

Who else has tried Morgan Taylor polishes? I'd love to see what some of the other colours look like, why not leave me a link below?

Polish Party: Black and White - Mix and Match Nail Art

Hello all,

The end of the month is here again and that means it's Polish Party time!  This month's theme is Black and White.  I knew that I was going to do a mix and match design for this, but it was just a case of deciding what patterns and designs.

The black is Sally Hansen Midnight in New York, which has a really subtle shimmer, and the white is Models Own Snow White.  Here's a quick run through of what I went for when I took on the challenge this month.

• Thumb - Checker board
• Index Finger - Black with Barry M Confetti in Liquorice
• Middle Finger - Double dot dotticure
• Ring Finger - Half and half
• Little Finger - Black with a white heart

None of these were difficult designs and I love all the patterns, unfortunately this was a disaster manicure though! My top coat was far too gloopy and did not dry.  I now have bubbles all over the white and hair imprinted into the polish.  You know when you go to bed and think it was dry enough... alas no... It just didn't dry :-( Sad times!  I had a feeling it was going to happen, so luckily I took my picture straight after finishing my design.  This means that my clean up was not quite as good as I would have liked, but still means I could share my design and join in with this month's Polish Party.

Lets hope the other girls didn't have a disaster like me... Take a look at their designs below 

O.P.I Liquid Sand: Can't Let Go

Hello all,

I have a swatch this week of O.P.I Liquid Sand in 'Can't Let Go'.  I had a voucher for John Lewis for ages and found myself there at the weekend, so I decided to spend it on this gorgeous nail polish, making it only £1.50! Woo!

Anyway,  I was spoiled for choice at the O.P.I stand and did have to chuckle at the conversation between a flustered looking man and the sales woman whilst I was there -
Man - 'I have been looking for this for ages'
Sales woman - 'How can I help you'
Man - 'I've been told to get Liquid Sand in red'
Sales woman - 'Is this for someone else'
Man - 'Yes'
Sales woman - 'Well, it's just that none of the colours are called red'
Man - 'She just told me red'
Sales woman - 'This one is called Magazine Cover Mouse'
Man - 'Who names these things?? She just said red'
Sales woman - 'Did she want glitter, or just a colour'
Man - 'Red, that's all she said to me, Liquid Sand red... I'm going to call her'

I thought it was quite funny myself! Girls, if you send a boy out for polish, be warned, give more instructions that just 'red'!!

Anyway, here is Liquid Sand 'Can't Let Go'

E.L.F: Sunset Double Dot Dotticure

Hello all,

I have been pretty busy recently so there hasn't been too much time for blogging :-( Sad times.  I will have to dedicate some time to catch up properly with all my blog reading as I'm sure I'll have missed a load of great stuff.

Anyway, I have something very simple this week.  I started off with just a solid colour this week as I didn't really have time for anything else.  I chose E.L.F Sunset which is a really pretty pink.  This week however, I am painting nails at the charity fair for the students of the school that I work at, so I didn't think it would be right not to have any nail art.

Tonight I have livened up my mani with my double dots.  Just three down the middle of each nail.  I think I am all set to go for the fair tomorrow without having to start my nails all over again!  I hope that my nail painting will be popular to help the student raise money for their charities.

Purple Ombré Nail Art

Hello all,

Just a quick one for today.  I had a very busy weekend so didn't have chance to spend too much time on a design this week.  As you may have guessed from other posts I am rather keen on purple, so I decided to go with purple ombré nails.

 

 

Instead of creating ombré effect on every nail like I've tried before (you can see some here and here), I chose five different shades of purple and started with the darkest on my thumb nail and worked outwards getting lighter as I went.



 

From my thumb to my little finger I have Rimmel Black Cherries, Rimmel Trend Spotting, Rimmel Purple Pulse, Models Own Lilac Dream and Models Own Grape Juice.  As they were different brands of polish they all had slightly different finishes so I finished off with a coat of Collection 2000 (although now just called Collection - that's how old my bottle must be!) glitter top coat and a coat of Sally Hansen top coat for a super glossy finish.

 

I love how the colours all work individually and together to create the effect I was going for.  I have seen this ombré design in a few different places and it was the perfect opportunity to give it a go this week.  This ombré style is a bit of a throw back from when I was younger and I would paint my toe nails in alternating shades of the same colour!

 

In other very exciting news Look Magazine contacted me and said that they would like to feature my nails in the magazine, so I am very excited and am looking forward to the issue out in the middle of May.  I'll be going down to the shops to get a copy or two!

 

Have you had a go at anything recently that has reminded you of when you were younger?  Or have you tried something that you have seen around and thought you should have a go at, but not got round too yet?  Leave a comment and let me know x



Easter Chick Nail Art with Tutorial

Hello all,

You might have seen last week that I did the first of two Easter designs with my Strawberry Tart Bunnies.  This week I have Easter Chicks with a sparkly speckled egg effect.

 

I have used mainly Models Own nail polishes to create my design.  The base colour is Lemon Meringue and the orange for the chick's beak is Fuzzy Peach.  Both of these are from the Ice Cream Sundae collection.  For the sparkly speckled egg effect on my other nails I have used Disco Inferno from the Mirrorball Collection.

 

I have created a step by step picture guide to show you how I created this look, and hopefully it's easy for you to follow if you want to have a go yourself.

 

 



 

 Step one - After using a base coat to protect your nails, paint them with two coats of your base colour, in my case Lemon Meringue.

 

Step two - This is where you will start to create the shell for you little chick to sit in.  Using a dotting tool create a zig-zag line across your ring finger nail in white.  You do not need to wait for this to dry before moving on to step three.

 

Step three - Fill in the rest of the shell for your chick using your white polish (I have used Sally Hansen White On)

 

Step four - Add a small orange triangle above your shell and two black dots for your chick's eyes.

 

You could finish your design here if you wanted to, add more chicks on your other nails or like me, add on some glitter to the other nails.  I used Disco Inferno because of the colours in the glitter adding to the chick theme with gold, orange and green flecks.

 

I will be putting together a step by step of my Easter Bunny nails as well, so keep an eye out for that if you are interested x

Strawberry Tart Easter Bunny with Tutorial

Hi all,

I have done the first of my Easter designs this week.  Cute pink Easter bunnies!

 

 

I used Models Own Strawberry Tart from the Fruit Pastel collection to create my pink Easter bunny.  This way, not only is it cute, it also smells yummy.  The Fruit Pastel collection all have lovely smells to match their pastel colours.  I started off with a coat of Essie Nourish me and then a base coat.  The base colour for my design is Eggshell from M&S.

 

My Easter bunny was very easy to create, I simply painted a small circle on the tip of my nail and two thin lines up from the circle with rounded edges.  After this had dried I used a bright pink nail art pen from Sally Hansen to create the nose and the insides of the ears.  Then for the eyes I used a black Models Own striper, which has a very handy pen dotting feature.  I added two dots for the eyes and used the striper end to create the whiskers.  Tah dah! You have a cute pink Easter bunny who smells like strawberries.

 

You could repeat the bunny on each nail if you wanted, but I chose to do a simple dotticure.  Carrying on the theme from my bunny I used Strawberry Tart to create the largest dots, a white polish for the medium sized dots and my bright pink nail art pen for the small dots.  I added the dots randomly down one side of my nail and onto the tip.

 

 

 

I have another Easter design next week.  Perhaps you might mix and match the two x

Painted Flowers Nail Art

Hello all,

It's been pretty wintery and cold recently and I thought to cheer myself up that I would take some of my new colours that I got for Christmas for a spin and create a design inspired by spring.

 

 

 

I couldn't decide which of my pastel shades I wanted to try first, so in the end I used all three!  I painted three nails on each hand in Jade Stone and two in Fuzzy Peach.  The centres of my daisy like flowers are done using Lemon Meringue.  These three are all Models Own colours.  For the white of my flowers I used Sally Hansen White Out.

 

These are very simple flowers, more simple than they look.  After applying two coats of my base colours, which are gorgeous candy-like pastel shades, I used a small brush dipped in the white polish and just pushed the bristles away from the nail edge towards the centre of my nail.  I did this a few times to create my basic flower shape.  I didn't want a full flower of each nail as I think this could be too much.  I placed my flower a different points on each nail to mix up the design.  When my petals were dry I added a large yellow dot in the centre using a dotting tool.

 

I really like the outcome of this design and I hope you do too. Let me know if you have a go at a bright and colourful nail design to brighten your winter days.

Candy Cane Inspired Nail Art

I have been working my way through some Christmas designs and have been really pleased with the results so far!

I think this week's are my favourite that I have done though.  I was thinking of Christmas things that could inspire my nail art and I decided that candy canes would look fab.  Rather than go for red and white stripes I wanted to take a different approach.

 

 

This design was very easy to create, but very messy with watermarbling!  I painted three of my nails in Bright Red by Barry M and added my Collection 2000 sparkle top coat.  I love the top coat because the glitter is so fine but so pretty.

 

I painted my ring finger and thumb with a base of  white polish, I used Sally Hansen.  Leave this to dry and then comes the messy part.  To do water marbling you need a cup of room temperature water and your polishes.  New polishes work best.  You can use as many colours as you like, but you need to work quite quickly.  Drip your first polish on the surface of the water, I let a few drips fall to make sure I had enough.  The polish will start to spread out on the surface of the water.  Then add some drips of your other colour.  Then taking a tooth pick draw some swirls or stripes into the polish on the surface of the water.  When you are ready bend your finger placing the nail directly down onto your swirled polish, then straighten your finger straight down into the water.  You will see that there is polish still on the surface of the water.  Before removing your finger you need to get rid of the polish from the surface otherwise you will ruin your design.  Blow gently on the polish on the polish on the water, then using your tooth pick swirl it around on the surface and the polish will start to stick to the tooth pick.  Once the polish has gone from the surface of the water you can carefully remove your finger from the water.  You will have a lot of polish all around your nail and on your finger, which can look a bit scary, but all it takes is a cotton bud dipped into nail polish remover to take it off.  To help with this you can also use Vaseline around your nail and on your finger to stop the polish sticking so much.

 

Repeat those same steps for each watermarbled nail and voila - you have candy cane inspired nails!  I finished these nails off, once they were dry and cleaned up, with a coat of the sparkle top coat.  What's great about watermarbling is that no two nails look the same so you never really know what you might get.

 

I hope you like them and maybe try out watermarbling yourself.  If you get stuck there are loads of videos on YouTube that will help you out.

Christmas Plaits Nail Art

My nails have got more Christmassy this week with some festive Christmas plaits.  I first saw these plaits (or fish tail) nails a while ago now and tired them when I first saw them as the effect was something quite different from things that I had seen before.  But now getting round to Christmas designs I thought I would give them another go in festive colours.

I decided that I wanted to create the plait design on my thumb nail and ring finger,so I painted the other three fingers with silver from Models Own.  I had already picked white, red and green to be the colours for the plaited nails.  To start off the plaits I painted the nails on each hand with white and left this to dry.  Taking my next colour I then painted a diagonal stripe.  I again left this to dry.  Taking my third colour I made a diagonal stripe in the other direction.  Leaving each stripe to dry in between I then just continued down my nail alternating my three different colours until I reached the tip of my nail.

This can take a while, but I think the effect is worth it in the end.

I hope you like this festive design and maybe have a go yourself!