Summer Sunset Nails

Summer sunset and flowers

Base (orange) - Rimmel - Oragasm

Base (yellow) - Barry M - Yellow

Stamping Plate - UberChic Plate 3-03

Grey with Silver Stamping

When a combo just goes right

Base - Barry M - Grey

Stamping - MoYou - Silver Dust

Stamping Plate - UberChic 14-02

Summer Flowers

Isn't it just so lovely when the sun shines?

Base (orange) - Rimmel - Oragasm

Base (white) - Barry M - Cotton

Glitter Topper - Collection - Sparkle Top Coat

Dots - Barry M - Yellow 134

Short and Simple

July has been very busy so far, and it's not slowing down yet.  I found out at work that I had to move offices so I didn't want to spend too much time doing anything fancy with my nails in case they got chipped.  I also thought it would be best to file them down a bit, to avoid breaks.

I really liked the pink ombré that I did a few weeks back, so thought I'd go for the same style again but with purples.

I used the following colours, from thumb to little finger, Models Own Pitch Purple, W7 Liberty, Models Own Pear Purple, Revlon Colorstay Winning Streak, and Essie Full Steam Ahead.

Whilst I was doing my nails my mum was visiting.  She asked me to file her nails down and sort out where she had some splits and damage.  I filed them quite short so they all matched.  She then painted them with Morgan Taylor Sugar Fix so that they were still protected by some polish to avoid breaks, but so that the colour wasn't too dark.  For a bit of fun I added a pretty flower with gems from the Born Pretty Store as an accent nail.

Only a short little post this week, but I thought you might be interested to see mine and my mum's short and simple nails.  What do you do if your nails need a bit of TLC or protection?

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x

Dotty Flower Nail Art

I have been lacking inspiration for nail art recently so I thought what better way to get some ideas than by browsing through my Pinterest boards to be inspired.  I fancied using blue as my main colour so at least I had a starting point.

I came across this lovely design by @naildecor (on Instagram) which I had pinned quite some time ago, but thought it was perfect.  I didn't copy it like for like, but really love the combination of blue, white and silver.  

I started with Essie Bikini So Teeny on my thumb, index finger, and thumb.  Its quite a thin formula, so I used three coats to get full opacity.  For the white base I used Models Own Snow White and then used a medium dotting tool to create my flowers and dots.  I started with the silver centres for the flowers so I could position them where I wanted, then I went in with the blue for the petals.  I added in random silver dots with OPI Turn On The Haute Light once the flowers were finished to fill in the spaces.  I was really pleased with these, and I got lots of lovely compliments.

Hopefully this will get me back into the swing of things with some better nail art soon.  Have you tried any new techniques recently that you'd recommend trying out?

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x

Neon Flower Nails

We have been treated to some beautiful summery weather recently in London so I thought I would match my nails to the bright weather.  I skipped right over the pastels for this one and looked at the brighter polishes in my collection.

In the end I opted for Let's Get Lost from Essence as my base.  You could almost get away with one coat of this polish as it's really pigmented, but I always tend to prefer two coats anyway.  I really like the brushes in these bottles because they are flat with rounded tip, so you get a really good coverage in just a few strokes, but I find I have to be careful not to flood polish at the sides of my nails.

To add the extra bright factor to my design I used neon studs from the Born Pretty Store as petals for flowers.  I added a small dot of yellow polish as a guide for the centre of the flower and then painted a thick coat of top coat over the whole nail.  Whilst it was still wet I carefully pushed the studs onto my nail, sticking them in the wet top coat.  To pick up the studs, I used an orange stick with a small bit of blu-tack on the end shaped into a point.  Once I had finished the placement, some of the studs covered up the yellow for the centre of the flower, but nothing another dot of yellow polish in the centre wouldn't fix.  I couldn't decide if I wanted to add a flower to all of my nails, so I worked from the outside in, and when I had finished the pink flower I really liked the accent feature I had created and thought that any more might spoil the look.  What do you think?

One thing to note is that the ends of these studs do lift away from the nail slightly, as they are flat, and nails are curved.  I added a thick layer of glossy top coat over my finished flowers to seal them in place and prolong the life of my flowers.

If you'd like to get these studs, or anything else from the Born Pretty Store you can get 10% off using code HFG10.  You can see how I used the square ones from this wheel at Christmas here.  I particularly like this shape combination because there are so many different ways you could use them.

Thanks for stopping by
Aimee x

Elegant French Manicure with Born Pretty Store Water Decal Review*

Evenings are finally staying a bit brighter, and there are daffodils and crocuses coming out, this can only mean one thing... spring is upon us.  Since the beginning of the year I have mainly stuck with darker colours so I thought it was about time to do a lighter manicure.

I was trying out some different Essie nude shades at the weekend and thought that these colours lent themselves to showing off these pretty Black Flower Water Decals from Born Pretty Store.

*Press sample - Sent to me for review

Blue Stamped Flower Nail Art

This week it took me a while to choose what to do on my nails so I had a bit of a rummage around in my stash for an untried polish.  I had a clear up and organise a while back I haven't got that many untried, but I found Pop Fiction from Miss Sporty and thought it was quite fitting with the cold wintry weather that we have at the moment.

Pop Fiction is such a pretty colour, but it was rather tricky to apply. The first coat was quite streaky, and I don't know about you, but I always find a bit disappointing when that happens; It was fine after a second coat though.  The other problem I found was the size of the brush.  It's really wide and when painting it covered almost all of my nail in one stroke, but it wasn't quite wide enough, leaving little gaps down the sides.  I had to be very careful not to get polish all over my fingers.

I then used Models Own Inky blue and my MoYou Pro Plate 09 to stamp on a pretty flower design, but there wasn't as much of a contrast between the two blues as I had hoped.  To fix it, I stamped again with the same design, but turning it the other way around, with Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream. I really like the effect that it has given because you can see all the different blues in the gaps of the pattern and it almost looks like a paisley pattern.

So my nails ended up being a happy accident, but things don't always work out that well.  Do you have any tricks that you do if your nails don't quite go to plan?

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x 

Remembrance Day Poppy Nail Art

Hello all,

This year, as you know, marks the centenary of the First World War, so it seemed only right that I should show my support for the armed forces by having poppies on my nails.

At the weekend I got three of the new Models Own HyperGel colours and I couldn't wait to try one of them out.  I chose to use Ebony Green along with Red Lustre, one of the original HyperGel colours, and Snow White, to create my Remembrance Day nails.

I started off with a base of the green on just my middle nails, the red on my index finger and little finger, and white on my thumb and ring finger.  All nails have two coats and a top coat.  Once this had all dried a used a thin striper brush to create the poppy stalks on my white base.  I dropped some polish onto a scrap of paper, and so that I didn't overload the brush with polish I pulled it gently across the polish picking up a small amount of colour at a time.  I then carefully dragged the brush down my nail, from cuticle to tip to create the stalks.  I added a few thicker lines, and used a dotting tool to create buds.  I then used my dotting tool again to create tiny red flowers amongst the stalks.

I wanted to create the look of poppies in a field, rather than the traditional poppy you might buy and pin to your coat.  Overall I am not sure how I feel about the finished look.  It's not quite how I imagined it when I was planning, but I don't think it's because of the poppies, I think it might be because the colours look very Christmassy.  What do you think?

Thanks for stopping by
Aimée x

Barry M: Indigo with Flowers

Hi all,

I hope you all had a good Halloween and enjoyed some spooky nail art.  With the festivities over it was nice to do something different this week.

I paired Barry M Indigo with Lady from the Royal Textured Glitter collection.  I stamped these pretty flowers over the glitter using Pro Plate 09 from MoYou London.

I'm really looking forward to wearing some darker colours now that it's starting to get colder and the nights are drawing in.  What are your favourite colours to wear in the winter months?

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x

Pretty In Pink Nail Art

Hi all,

Even though I love Autumn, I'm not quite ready to give up summery colours on my nails.  Having said that I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do on my nails this week, so when in doubt it's a visit Pinterest to look at all the pretty nails I have pinned there for inspiration.  Scanning through I decided to go for a version of this design, but in pink.

I started with three coats of Ice Cream Sundae on my thumb, index and little fingers and two coats of Pink Flamingo on my middle and ring fingers.  Both colours are from Barry M.  For the glitter gradient on my middle finger I used Princess from the Royal Glitter collection, also from Barry M.  It just compliments the two pinks perfectly.  I then used my MoYou Pro Plate 09 to stamp on my thumb nail and ring finger.  I stamped in the opposite colour to the base and I think it worked out really well.  Overall I am really please with how these nails turned out and I think they are simple but effective.

Thanks for stopping by
Aimée x

Graffiti Nails: Jet, Tuscany, and Pistachio with flower nail art

Hi all,

I've got a really quick post today, but I wanted to share a cute manicure that I did for a party over the weekend.  A while ago I got these three colours from Graffiti Nails, and have used Pistachio and Tuscany already and they have both been gorgeous on.  I thought it was about time that I used Jet as well.

Jet is such a stunning black, it goes on beautifully and in one coat.  I am so impressed because every other black I've tried has been streaky on the first coat.  I still can't quite believe that's all I needed.

After a coat of Jet I added on these simple daisy style flowers.  I added a dot of Tuscany on each nail and then some petals in Pistachio around each dot.  Sometimes something simple is all you need and I love how these colours all work together so nicely.

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x

MoYou Nails Stamping Plates Review*

Hello all,

I have recently had quite a few goes at stamping and have found it really fun so I was pleased to be asked to review MoYou Nails stamping plates.  I chose plates numbers 102 and 220, and pink polish to review.

*Press sample - sent to me for review

I was sent a catalogue of all the latest products, a bottle of special polish in pink, the two plates, and a stamper and scraper, which is obviously very handy.  Both plates have floral designs, 102 have small single designs and 220 has larger designs meant to cover the whole nail.

It's quite tricky to get a picture of the plates, but this one I uploaded to Instagram shows them quite well.  On first impressions the plates seem rather thin and therefore not very sturdy when picking up the images.  I think they could do with a thicker backing.  The stamper and scraper are pretty standard in comparison to others that I have come across.  I had trouble with another stamper before which was very shiny on the surface so I had to buff it before it would pick up an image.  This one wasn't shiny, so I thought that it would be better however I still had to buff it quite a lot before I was able to use it properly.  

To get going with the manicure I started off with a coat of pink polish on all my nails apart from my ring finger.  For this one I chose to use Essence in It's Raining Men.  I wanted a darker colour to test how the stamping polish would work over a darker colour.  I then stamped with the opposite colour to the base.

I found that the polish dried really quickly and it needed two coats to get full opacity.  Whilst the speed of drying time was good for stamping on to, it wasn't brilliant when trying to stamp with it.  You have to work pretty quickly when stamping anyway, but with a quick drying polish it did make it more difficult.  As you can see I have stamped a selection of different designs from the plate which are very pretty.  On my ring finger I stamped a full nail design with the pink polish.  It worked quite well, but doesn't show up as much as I would have liked.  I think in that respect it's a little disappointing for a stamping polish.

Overall these are not my favourite plates, but there is a nice selection of different designs.  Do you have any tips for stamping to get the best out of them?

Thanks for stopping by

Aimée x

MoYou Stamping with Pro 09 Plate

Hello all,

A while ago now I ordered four stamping plates from MoYou as I kept seeing lovely designs that other people had done using them, so I thought I would give them a go.  I went for the Kitty 07, The Pro 09, Tourist 02, and Scholar 05, along with the pink stamper and scraper set.  It's just the perfect colour for me!

I was really excited to try these and had my first design all planned with my Tourist plate.  I got all my polishes ready, tissue to wipe the scraper and clean the plate in between, and anything else I might have needed, but could I get it to stamp?

Polish Party: Spring - Pastel Flowers

Hello all,

It's Polish Party time again! Yay! This month we have voted for spring as our theme.  This is a really great theme and I think there will be lots of different designs as there's so much that you can do for spring.

I decided to go with pastel flowers.

If you read my blog regularly you will know know that this March I am doing a Barry M month, using lots of the colours that I haven't had chance to use yet.

I started with a base of Blueberry Ice Cream on my thumb, index and ring finger.  Then on my middle finger and little finger I used a base of Strawberry Ice Cream.  I did two coats of my base colours and waited for the to dry.  To create the pink flowers I used a dotting tool dipped into Pink Flamingo.  I dotted the polish on my nail and then dragged the polish inwards and repeated this five times to create the full flowers.  To add more interest I added in some flowers at the edges of some nails.  I did the same for the blue flowers using Blueberry Ice Cream.

At this stage the flowers looked more like starfish, particularly the pink ones, so to finish them off I used my Barry M nail art pen in white.  I added a dot in the middle of each flower and white details on the petals.  For the final touch I added in tiny white dots over my background colours.

I'm so excited to see what the other girls do for their spring designs.  Don't forget to visit their blogs as well to see all their designs by clicking the links below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Models Own: HyperGel Review* - Vintage Roses

Hello all,

I was very excited to get three Models Own HyperGels in the post to try out.  I was even more excited that the three that I got were my favourites of the 10 colours available! I got Cerise Shine, Blue Glint and Red Lustre.  My original plan was to swatch them all, but I was having nail art withdrawals so decided for something in between.

* Press sample - sent to me for review

The HyperGel polish is amazing! Normally I use at least two coats of polish, but I have only used one here.  The coverage is so even and opaque you just don't need anything more.  And look how gorgeously shiny it is.  I was very pleased with the drying time, I was expecting it to take quite a while as it's gel effect, but it was dry surprisingly quickly ready for my nail art.

As you can see I have used Cerise Shine on three fingers and Blue Glint as a background for my accent nails on my finger finger and thumb.  Simply using the normal polish brush I dabbed on three Cerise Shine splodges and waited for those to dry.  To add petals to my roses I used Red Lustre for shade (you can just about see it in the picture).  I also needed a highlight so I chose to use Strawberry Tart from the Fruit Pastels collection.  To create the petals I used a really small nail art brush and painted on two 'c' shapes in slightly different sizes and ant different angles.  I started off with the shade and then went in again in the same way with the highlight.  Then to finish my roses off all they needed were some little leaves.  I used Apple Tart, again from the Fruit Pastel collection.  So not only do my nails shine like I have had gels, but they smell yummy too!

I am really pleased with this design.  I think it's simple enough that you can still see the beauty of the HyperGel polishes but it's also really pretty and girly.

I am loving seeing what everyone has bought in the Models Own sale recently over on Twitter! Glad to see I am not the only polish addict around - leave me your links so I can see what you got!

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.

Remembrance Day Nail Art

To remember all those who fought for us I decided to do Remembrance Day nails.

This was a very simple design, but I think it looks great and is a lovely way to show support.

I painted my thumb and ring finger with a pearly white then the rest of my nails with red.  Then using a glittery red polish I created a poppy on my thumb and ring finger.  I did these by taking my dotting tool and adding four small dots close together and then pulling the polish into the centre to meet in the middle.  To finish off the poppy all you have to do is add a little black dot in the centre and a little green leaf.

To finish off the whole design I added a diagonal stripe of glittery red polish to all my red nails.

I used Barry M and E.L.F nail polishes for this design.



 

 

Why not show your support and try out this design?

Mini Flowers and Dots Nail Art

The nail art that I did this week was not what I had planned.  I had a bit of a disaster trying dry marbled butterflies (I think a bit of practise on some falsies is needed!).

Instead I did a different design to tide me over before trying the butterflies again.

 

The flowers are very easy to create using a dotting tool. Dip the dotting tool into your chosen polish and add five dots in a circle.  Then drag the dots into the centre to meet each other.  You now have the basic pattern of the flower.  I created two flowers on my ring finger and then added pink glittery dots in the middle of each flower and some extra dots around the flowers.  On all the other nails I simply added a few dots along the line of my French manicure.