Nails - Dazzle Dust

Years ago, I had a thing for collecting those little Barry M Dazzle Dust pots. I accumulated quite a collection, some of which have been binned over the years, but I kept some of my favourites. Which is a good thing as they're great used on nails!

I simply painted my nails (two coats) with Boots 17 Lasting Fix in Midnight Sapphire. Whilst the polish was still wet, I used the end of a spoon to put a small amount of Dazzle Dust just under the nail and then blew upwards onto the nail. This leaves a lovely shimmery gradient effect on the nail. I then applied a good top coat to seal and cleaned up a bit around the edges using a cotton bud.

Happy Friday everyone! I am glad it's nearly the weekend, despite having had a short working week. Got a weekend of wedding dress appointments (not for me, for my bestie!) ahead of me :)

Nails - Jewel Decals

I'm in love with these jewel nail decals by Jolly Good Studio. I'm big on supporting other crafters, so when I saw these (and obviously fell in love with them) I couldn't resist.

I only used three on each hand (I want to make them last!). They are very easy to apply. Just cut out a gem, apply a little water with a paintbrush, slide the gem off the backing paper and apply to the nail. A good top coat will seal it. I applied the decals over Topshop Tidal which is such a pretty grey-blue colour. I love it.

Nails - Chain Link

I received a new nail art book for Christmas. I already own both of the WAH ones, which I absolutely love. Upon receiving this book, I did wonder if it would have the same old designs, but there are actually some I haven't tried before. And I've done a lot of nail art!

This is the first one I've tried - the chain link design. In the book it is shown being done with a gold pen, but I used my trusty barry m silver nail art pen over 17 Lasting Fix in Midnight Sapphire, which is such a pretty shade. This is such an simple design to create, and I love the fact you can customise it by doing bigger chains/different shaped links and using different colours. You could even add little gems!? What do you think?

Nails - Christmas mix 'n' match

Merry Christmas Eve! I hope you are as excited as I am :) I had to work yesterday, but now have the rest of the week off so obviously I decided to go all out with my nails last night - whilst drinking wine and watching The Holiday in celebration! Today I am going to do some baking for my mum (I've also promised I'll do her nails too!) and watch some rubbish television, before heading out for a few Christmas drinks with friends tonight.





Anyway, onto the nails. I love this GOSH nail polish in the shade 'Gold', which I used as a base colour - minus my ring finger which I coated in L.A. Colors French White. I used a white nail art pen and a red nail art pen to make little candy canes, painted a little green Christmas tree onto my ring finger (complete with baubles and a star!) and made strings of Christmas lights using my white nail art pen again and various colours. Obviously, I couldn't resist a Christmas cat on my thumbnail - these were bought last year from here :)

I hope you all have a lovely Christmas! x

Nails - Daisies

Inspired by WAH, I recreated their lovely daisy nails. These were so easy to do - I only needed a dotting tool and a nail art pen. I used Models Own Black Magic as a base and used my dotting tool to add little dots to the nail which made the daisies. I used L.A. Colors French White and Models Own Lemon Meringue for this. I also added little lines to the petals with my nail art pen. I love how cute and dainty these look, and think they'd look good in lots of different colour-ways - especially pastels!

Nails - WAH Inspired 'Earthquake'

I really love these 'Earthquake' nails. I follow wah nails on instagram, and have seen this design come up on my feed quite a few times. So I thought I'd try my hand at it! The colours I went for are Models Own Jade Stone and Sinful Colors Nail Junkie. Nail Junkie is one of my favourites;it's the perfect mermaid glitter!
I started with a coat of Jade Stone and then applied Nail Junkie to half of the nail. Then I used my black wah nail art pen to do the messy little squiggly bit (great description there) in the middle.

What do you think of this design? Are you a fan of WAH?

Nails - Tartan

I've been wanting to try out a tartan nail design ever since Autumn hit. I attempted it a few weeks ago and it went terribly wrong, however this time I decided to make it a bit less complicated! Just simple stripes. I think it's quite effective. I messed up my right hand completely, so had to start again - these nails took me a good couple of hours in the end! Not the type of nail art you should do if you're impatient with nails drying...

I used barry m Blood Orange for the base coat, and used L.A. Colors French White and Models Own Lemon Meringue and nail art pen for the stripes/black squares. What do you think?

I've got today off, as well as Monday - so a four day weekend for me, yay! I'm starting it off with some Auntie-Nephew time with Ethan this afternoon :) Happy Friday everyone!

Nails - Autumnal

Some Autumn inspired nails from last weekend. A pretty mix n' match of nail art - fallen leaves, flowers and ombré. Colours I used are Models Own Black Magic and Utopia, barry m Blood Orange, 2true in shade 8 and Nubar 2010. I also used my barry m nail art pen. I love the Nubar 2010 'fallen leaves'...the light reflecting flakes really do remind me of Autumn leaves - so pretty!

Nails - Classic Outlined

I love this simple nail art. It's so classic and 'chic' and would look great with different colour combinations. For this I used Models Own Utopia (a firm favourite of mine) and my barry m nail art pen for the outline.

I hope everyone is having a good week! I'm glad it's Wednesday - middle of the week! I am looking after my handsome four month old nephew (seriously, where has the time gone? It doesn't seem like that long ago since I posted this!) all day on Saturday and I actually can't wait!

Nails - AA Violet Panache

This is my first American Apparel nail polish. I rarely venture into the store/browse the online store as I find it so overpriced. But my friend dragged me in there whilst in Covent Garden on Saturday. I naturally found myself at the nail polishes and decided I needed this lovely, vibrant colour in my ever-growing nail polish stash!




I only needed to apply two coats, although it did take a while to dry. But the colour makes up for it! I very rarely have nails without some sort of nail art/pattern, so drew on a 'woven' design using my silver barry m nail art pen - such an easy design, found in the new WAH book! My copy arrived last week and I love it as much as the first one.

I hope everyone has had a nice bank holiday weekend. My hightlight was going to see Les Misérables on Saturday evening. AMAZING. What's been your highlight of the weekend?

Nails - Hello Harriet cat nail transfers

It's no secret that I am a total cat lady. If it's got a cat on it, I want it. If I go to my boyfriend's I go to stroke his cats first before giving Ben a kiss hello. If there's cat in the street and it runs away, Ben says it's because they're thinking 'quick, run, it's that crazy cat girl'...I'm the crazy cat lady without the cat.

So, obviously, I love all the gorgeous things Harriet makes. Her shop is full of all her amazing illustrated goodies, from notebooks to purses to phonecases. Mostly cute animal themed!



My friend bought me these kitty nail transfers for my birthday last month. They are so sweet and very easy to apply. I've used cat nail stickers before, but Harriet's apply just like those temporary tattoos - just dab with a wet cloth for 20 seconds and slide the paper away to reveal your cute kitty.



It's advised you use a light nail polish, so I went for Essie Absolutely Shore (one of my favourites, but a pain to apply I must admit)..I also used my new green models own nail art pen (also bought by my friend!) to doodle on my nails.

What do you think? Make sure you check out Harriet's website - so much love!

Nails - Watermelon

I love these fruity nails. I've wanted to do them for so long, but didn't have the right shades of green for the job. The other day I was shopping with a friend when I spied the 'Sinful Colors' collection in boots. The nail polishes are only £1.99 each so I grabbed a couple in the shades of green I needed. I think these nails are so cute - and it seemed I wasn't the only one! People on my photography course at the weekend were taking photos of them and all!

Nail polishes I used - Models Own Raspberry Crush and Utopia and Sinful Colors Exotic Green and Pistache. The watermelon seeds were drawn on using my barry m nail art pen.

What fruity nail art have you created? Link me up, would love to see it!

Nails - Ice cream!

Having arrived home from Malta to more gorgeous weather (although not quite as nice as Malta heat!) I thought I would treat my nails to something appropriate.





I used MUA Frozen Yoghurt as my base coat and started by drawing an ice cream onto my ring fingernail, complete with flake and sprinkles! I then decided to add ice cream 'drips' to all of my other nails. I used a mixture of boots 17 and Models Own, as well as my new barry m nail art pen to outline. I'm really impressed with the barry m nail art pens - I also have the silver one - they're so easy to use and don't smudge when you put a top coat over, which is quite often the case with nail art pens. I've only used them a couple of times but really happy with them so far so I'd recommend them!

Do you like this design?

Nails - Pastel Galaxy

These nails were kinda inspired by the evening sky on Monday - so pretty. I've previously done a galaxy nail art tutorial - these were done using a similar technique, only with pastel colours!




All colours used are Models Own. I used Utopia for the base coat, then sponged on Apple Pie, Peach Sherbet and Blooboo before applying a topcoat. I then applied some white stars/dots using a cocktail stick. And then to finish, another slick of topcoat.

Happy Friday everyone :)

Nails - Pretty Paisley

Models Own Peach Sherbet with a pretty paisley design created using my WAH nails art pen. I'm always a little aprehensive when trying a new design out, but this was actually surprisingly easy, and only took me about half an hour. I didn't even muck up my right hand which is usually the case as I am right-handed.




Do you like this design?

Nails - The Little Mermaid.

You're never too old for a bit of Disney. I have a few favourites, but if I had to pick my ultimate it would probably be The Little Mermaid. I wanted to BE Ariel when I was 5. Hell, nearly 23 years later, I still do.

So when I was browsing ebay for nail art supplies and came across some Disney-themed nail decals I had to get some Ariel ones. I actually got these sometime last year, and can't seem to find the seller. But there are other similar ones available.



I'm still in awe of my Jessica Hologram Chic nail polish. It's difficult to capture how pretty it is. I added some block colours and dots using Models Own Apple Pie, Blooboo and Utopia, with Ariel on my ring finger. The decals are applied by soaking in water for a few seconds, slipping the transfer off the backing and then placing on the nail. Wait for it to dry (it can take a while, but it leaves you ages to place it exactly where you want it) then apply a top coat. It's so easy. I find water decals a lot easier to apply than nail wraps.

Nails - Edgy Lace

These were actually my nails last weekend. I absolutely love this colour - Models Own Raspberry Crush...



I used my Models Own black nail art pen and a dotting tool to create the lace design on my ring finger.

So glad it's the weekend! It's been a hectic week at work, trying to get things finished in time for parent's evening next week (really don't see the point in it for 2-3 year olds!?), so I'm looking forward to relaxing for a couple of days. What's everyone up to?

Nails - Ciate Very Colourfoil Manicure

It's not often I go for 'Limited Edition' nail sets, and this is actually the first ever Ciate purchase I have made. When I saw a photo of the Very Colourfoil sets, I fell in love. I had a discount code for the website so it wasn't long before it fell into my basket!



There are three sets - Carnival Couture, Kaleidoscopic Klash and Wonderland. I went for Kaleidoscopic Klash, as the colours in this set appealed to me the most. I really like the other two sets as well, but I must try to resist. Plus, I've since found lots of pretty foils on ebay which are bound to end up in my hands at some point.

The kit contains a paint pot in 'Pepperminty', foil fix glue and metallic foil sheets in six shades. There's a few of each shade, so there's plenty to keep you going. A nail wheel was also supplied in the kit - a great bonus as I'm always after them for practising my nail art.



It's super easy to use. After painting your base coat, dot some of the foil fix where you want the foil to be. Select a foil and place it over the nail, pressing down. Remove the foil away from the nail swiftly and you're left with a splash of colour!

I decided to do a smash up of colours on all my nails. I used MUA Frozen Yoghurt as my base coat. A slick of top coat and they were done.




Have you tried any of Ciate's 'WOW' kits?

Nails - Models Own Scented

Scented nail polishes are a complete novelty; a novelty which I gave into during a visit to Boots the other week. Models Own have recently brought out a collection of 5 Fruit Pastel shades, and I bought Apple Pie and Grape Juice. I very nearly got Strawberry Tart, but swapped it for Grape Juice at the last minute as I thought it would go lovely with Apple Pie for ombré nails!



I added a leopard print design later as I love ombré with leopard spots!

I absolutely adore these colours - especially when put together like this. As for the scent, it does smell pretty nice although maybe not as strong as the handy scratch n' sniff on the bottle lid. But who goes around sniffing their nails? Exactly. That would just be weird.

Nails - Easter mix 'n' match

With Easter being only a couple of days away, Easter themed nails were an obvious choice. Last year I did Easter bunnies. I was going to do Easter chicks this year, but my chicks ended up resembling yellow splodges with eyes and not looking all that chick-like.
So I went for a bit of this and that. Mini eggs (Illamasqua Speckle), hot cross buns and a cute little bunny for luck.




I hope you all have a great long weekend. :)