Blue OPI Roses

Happy Tuesday all, only two days in and I already feel like this week is dragginnng. I've booked to go away for a few days next week and see my sister and I'm counting down the days. 

Today I've got another design for you using the OPI - Nutcracker collection*. There are so may possible colour combinations with this collection, but I absolutely love all OPI green's (or at least all the ones I own anyway) and I find they're perfect for leaves, so I knew I had to do a floral design with the collection.

Burgundy Polka Flowers

I had the busiest weekend decorating half the house in readiness for new carpets today, and I'm so excited that they're finally in. That's it, I'm finally an adult because I'm excited about carpets, what have I become?

Today's nails are just a quick design using Barry M's Autumn 2018 Gelly Hi Shine collection, super simple but I love how they turned out. 

Navy Florals

Hey everyone! Don't you just love the fact that there are two bank holidays in May? It goes so quick! I'm really excited for the end of the month, because not only is it pay day (always the best day) I'm also going to Spain! Time to get some proper sun. In honour of my holiday, I've got some very non-summery nails. Although I suppose they do have flowers on them... that's summery right? 

Big Brush Flowers

 Can you tell I didn't know what to title this post? At least it's catchy...ish! As is a common theme with my blog, I did these a while ago but hadn't got around to editing the pictures. These were inspired by @nailsbyharlig on Instagram. I really loved her easy-to-follow tutorial and couldn't resist creating some of my own!

Peach Daisies

Where has the sun gone?! It's back to being all rainy and miserable. I'm flying to Berlin tomorrow and the weather isn't looking much better there either! Anyway, enough weather chat, these nails are enough to brighten things up after all. I did these as a quick mani when I was struggling for ideas, and I wasn't 100% because they make me think of fried eggs a bit, but I like them enough to not hide them away in my deleted folder forever so I'll let you decide: eggs or flowers?

Negative Space Floral Studs

Do you ever just see a design on Instagram/Pinterest (or wherever) and instantly know that you have to recreate it? Because that's what happened to me with these nails. I saw these nails by Mikutsutaya and instantly fell in love. Mine are nowhere near as elegant as hers, but I still love how they turned out.

Detailed Pink Florals

When I posted my Gold Lilac Rose nails the other week, I said that I wanted to recreate them in pink, and I couldn't resist doing that straight away. I decided to play around with them a bit more and this time I did the roses using acrylic paints, as I never really use acrylic paints anymore and I thought I'd see how they looked. They were super easy to work with, but I think I got a bit carried away with the roses and I don't quite like them as much as the last ones - practice makes perfect I guess! I also added polka dots and hearts rather than gold foil this time, and I like how it brings these a fresh look... although I do miss the gold foil a bit I must admit! 

Gold Lilac Roses

Happy Sunday everyone! Although there's only an hour of Sunday left. I've had a busy but chilled weekend, and I managed to find time to do a few nail designs today. One of them was this floral design inspired by Follow That Way.  I wasn't sure whether I'd ever be able to recreate one of her amazing florals, the detail she puts into them is astonishing, but I decided to give it a go, and I'm really really happy with how these came out. 

One thing I couldn't decide on was my accent nails, I originally did them with some of the nail negative space and with gold foil down the side but I wasn't 100% on them and the pictures didn't come out very well, so I did these, and then I did gold glitter accents. Of the three, these came out best in photos and I think the fact that they're quite muted means that the flowers stand out a bit more. 

Lilac Negative Space Flowers

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I last posted as I've been away to Ibiza (post coming soon with my holiday nails) and we've also been evicted from our house out of the blue for no reason! Having to move house for the third time in 2 years definitely wasn't in my plans, especially when we haven't been given a reason why. It's been very stressful, so as you can imagine it's been hard to find the motivation to post. However, we're feeling hopeful that we might have something sorted, although I don't want to jinx it, so I thought it was time for a post. 

Today's nails are using the OPI Fiji Collection* again, this is definitely my favourite OPI collection in a long while, I just can't get enough of it. There's such a great range of colours and so many options for nail art. If you missed my last look you can see it here. I couldn't resist creating some more florals with the collection, although these are slightly simpler than the last! 

A Winning Combination

Hey everyone! Happy Monday. It's taking me forever to write this post tonight because I'm catching up on Doctor Who, so forgive me if there are any random words in here that are definitely because I'm distracted! I've been loving playing around with the OPI Fiji Collection* recently, I think it's my favourite OPI collection for a long time, there are so many potentials for designs because there are so many great colours. I've done a couple of designs with them already, but this one is by far my favourite. I feel like grey and yellow is always a winning combination, it's the theme of my living room, and I'd have it as the theme of my entire house if my boyfriend would allow it. But for now I'll just have to settle for grey sofas and yellow cushions ... and grey and yellow nails of course!

Crazy Flowers

Sometimes a design looks much better in practice than it does in reality, and this is definitely one of those designs. I was inspired by this design I found on Pinterest but I tried to make it my own and just ended up with a design I wasn't really that pleased with. I decided to post them anyway because they're not the worst nails I've ever done, even if they're not the best either. I think if they were more cohesive they would work a lot better, I should have probably just stuck with the original design, but you live and learn I suppose! 

I used Bourjois - Bleu Mysterieux, and Barry M - Cotton as the base colours, then I used Sally Hansen - Redgy*, Sally Hansen - Pink Cadillacquer*, Orly - Light As A Feather*, and Deborah Lippmann - Walking on Sunshine for the flowers. The studs are from Born Pretty Store. Finished with a coat of Seche Vite. 

What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

Alice

Vintage Orly Flowers

Hey everyone! Hope your Monday wasn't too bad, I've actually managed to be productive and relatively healthy today so it feels like a winner of a day (and there's only 20 minutes of it left UK time). I finally got around to doing some designs on Saturday and it was so nice to sit down and have the time to do a design I like once again. I decided to search for some inspiration on Pinterest and when I came across this design by La Paillette Frondeuse I knew instantly that I had to recreate it. I'm so pleased with how these turned out, I took them off pretty much instantly afterwards to do some other designs and I've been regretting it ever since. But as it's the first day of spring (even if the weather doesn't match) it seemed fitting to post some spring nails today.

Pink Frosted Daisies

Hey everyone! I know it's not quite spring yet but the mornings and evenings are getting brighter and that's enough of an excuse for me to whack out some spring flower nails. Who am I kidding? I don't need an excuse for spring nails, floral designs are my absolute favourite. I was trying out the new Barry M - Frosted Cupcakes Collection* and Strawberries and Cream* seemed perfect for adding some daisies, and I loved the end result. 

Tiny Essie Flowers

Hey everyone! Hope you've all had a good week. I'm definitely in "thank god it's Friday mode", not because it's been a bad week but because I'm really looking forward to this weekend. I know I've been a bit quiet on the blogging front again but life is so busy (in a good way) at the moment that I barely have time to open my laptop let alone write a blogpost! I did have time to paint a few designs however to try and catch up so here's one of them, these cute little flowers using the new Essie Gel Couture Ballet Nudes collection. I was inspired by these nails I saw on Pinterest and I knew I wanted to put my own spin on them ever so slightly. I love how these turned out, I hope you do too! 

Autumnal Flowers

Hey everyone! I've had such a busy January, I haven't had an evening to myself all month, yet somehow it seems to be dragging by. Why is it that it always feels like the longest month? Even though it's my birthday month and I've been having a really great time I still can't wait for the month to end... mainly because pay day can't come quick enough!  Anyway, I finally had time to sit down and paint my nails and it felt great to get the brushes out again. It feels like a long time since I've painted anything. I was digging around for some inspiration and I found an old design by The Illustrated Nail and I knew I had to do some nails inspired by it. These aren't a direct copy, the original was a lot more detailed and I only looked at the original before doing the design not during so I didn't realise that they were so dissimilar until after. 

Morgan Taylor Floral Crowns

Hey everyone! I did hope my last post would motivate me to start posting regularly again, but unfortunately since my last post things got a lot worse in my personal life and I had to take some time for myself. I'm still not sure I'm ready to come back completely, I really hate not posting and I miss posting multiple times a week but for the moment I need to concentrate on making myself a bit happier again. I'll try and get back to posting regularly in the next couple of weeks because I'm really excited to start doing Christmas nails and I hope I can find the motivation.

I wanted to get something out there though, I've had a few posts sat in my drafts but I've had writers block when it comes to actually typing them out. These nails were inspired by the wonderful lbebeauty on Instagram. She always does such gorgeous designs with Gelish, and when I was sent the Sweetheart Squadron collection by Morgan Taylor, which is a dupe of the Gelish - Sweetheart Squadron collection, I knew I had to recreate one of her designs.

Pink Glitter Roses

Hey everyone! Happy Monday. I'm starting the countdown again for trip away this weekend, which, as I mentioned in my last post, I spent last week counting down for as I thought it was last weekend... oops! At least I know it's definitely this weekend now. Anyway, on to the nails. I find that despite the fact that I have hundreds and hundreds of nail varnishes, I tend to only use the same colours or ones that I have to review, and as a result so many of my polishes don't get used and get forgotten about. It helps now that I have changed from a Helmer to Alex drawers from IKEA, because the drawers are much easier to use and don't feel like they are about to collapse as soon as you open them. Now I don't just keep a collection of polishes on my desk, and I try to use different colours in my drawers now and again, even though my priorities are products I have to review. Recently I saw on Pinterest that an old Barry M review of mine was quite popular, which included the shade Princess, and I remembered that I owned such a gorgeous shade, and I've been wanting to use it ever since. Then I stumbled upon this design on Pinterest and I knew it would be the perfect design to use the polish in. Unfortunately it's no longer available to buy, you could probably find it on eBay but for some reason they chose to stop making it, even though it's stunning! 

Sharpie Watercolour Flowers

Hey everyone! I want to apologise for not being the best blogger at the moment, I have a lot of products building up and I'm definitely feeling the pressure but life has to come first. I've needed to prioritise my life off the internet for the past few weeks, and I still need to, but my blog has always been my escape and I want it to remain that way, so here I am escaping for a little while. I've been finding it hard to find the time to do my nails, let alone blog about them, but I managed to spend the entirety of Saturday doing nails and it feels nice to be able to have some new content to show you. 

Today's nails are kind of a fail, but as I've said before I want to document all my designs, fails or not. I've never tried watercolour nails before, mainly because I didn't think I had the necessary products (what is 'rubbing alcohol' when it's at home?). But then my lovely friend Very Emily informed me that all I need are some Sharpies and some nail cleanser, and I decided to buy a nice huge pack of Sharpies to give it a go (I'll always be a stationary hoarder at heart, so any excuse really). These were so simple to create, I was kind of just playing around and they turned into a design. It was so satisfying to see them turn into little bubbles rather than blobs of colour. And I really loved the design ... until my topcoat smeared it everywhere. I don't know if it's because I used a gel topcoat, or if I should have used nail polish for the centre of the flowers rather than black sharpie? If you've done watercolour nails before let me know where I went wrong. 

Detailed Gelish Florals

Hey everyone! I'm still in denial that my holiday has come to an end and that it's officially Autumn, as much as I love cozy jumpers, and having an excuse to have the heating on (I'm always cold) I really wish we'd had more of a summer in the UK. But, my holiday isn't quite over until I've shown you my holiday nails, plus my 'nails on tour', so for today's post and tomorrow's post my holiday can live on. 

Whenever I go on holiday I use it as an excuse to wear gels. Because I have to (and like to) change my nails so often, whenever I review gels I usually do so with a peel off basecoat so that I can swatch a few at once without the lengthy removal process. So it's always nice to be able to wear a design for a bit longer, without the risk of them chipping or peeling after a few days. I spent ages choosing a design to do because I wanted them to be a design that I'd want to wear for a while but also look good in my 'nails on tour' pictures. In the end I settled on this design I found on Pinterest. I didn't stick with the colour scheme or the design 100% because I wanted to make it my own but I really loved how it turned out, and I still have them on my nails now, 2 weeks later (although I'm hating how much they have grown out I just haven't had time to take them off). 

Nails on Holiday: Majorca

Hey everyone! As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I have another nails on holiday post for you all today. For those of you who haven't seen my previous posts on this and don't know what I'm talking about, I basically take pictures of my nails in front of things on holiday, you can see all my previous nails on holiday posts here. I really love doing these as they are great for me to look back on as a kind of holiday diary, but they are also great as a way for you all to nosy into my holiday! I do sometimes get funny looks when I'm taking these pictures but it's worth it for the post at the end. If you want to know more about my nails see here for my post yesterday. This is quite a lengthy post so I won't blame you if you don't read it all, but for the nosy readers out there hopefully you'll enjoy it!

This year me and my boyfriend decided to go to Majorca. We decided quite late on that we were going to go on holiday because we thought originally that we couldn't\shouldn't afford it because we've just moved into our first house. However we decided to go anyway because we were both craving for some time away and we spent ages poring over holidays before we finally settled on a hotel in C'an Picafort, Majorca for September. By the 9th we were excited and prepared to fly that weekend, when we received a call that our hotel had overbooked and we would not longer be able to stay there (it turns out that all that time poring over hotels was pretty fruitless). However, they had decided to upgrade us to a hotel in Alcudia instead. We were upgraded from a 4* to a 5*, so we were pretty excited as 5* hotels are very much out of our budget. 

We weren't told much about our room or what to expect from the hotel so we went with pretty average expectations. However, when we arrived we were completely blown away. We were staying in the Viva Zafiro Alcudia and it was absolutely gorgeous. The hotel has recently been revamped so everything is bright, clean and sleek. It was 1am by the time we got to the hotel so we were both pretty tired, but we decided to just have a peek on our balcony to see the view. When we got out onto the balcony I was confused to see some steps leading up toward the roof so I decided to explore, only to find that we had our own rooftop balcony with a jacuzzi! I'm sure for some of you my excitement over that seems silly but I was so happy and to be honest we barely moved from our rooftop sunbeds the whole holiday. We went down to the beach a couple of times and lay by the main pool once or twice but we mainly stayed up there and chilled out which was amazing. This does mean that there isn't a great variety in pictures I'm afraid but hopefully you still enjoy reading. Unfortunately the hotel is a (thousand pounds) out of our price range so we probably won't be able to stay there again as much as we would like to, but if you have the money I would 100% recommend it!