Marc Jacobs Geometry

Hey everyone! I'm so pleased to show you these nails as I was looking enough to have had a chance to try out the new Marc Jacobs* nail polishes. I've never used the brand before so I was really excited to see what they were like, and I must say I am soooo impressed. I often wonder whether brands with big price tags are so expensive just because of the name of the brand, but it turns out they really do have the quality to reflect the price. I was sent two shades to try from the latest Fashion collection: Trax* (Burgundy) and Ladies Night* (Beige). Both polishes glide on to the nail so well, and they're super shiny. Call me a price tag convert! 

Barry M Rose Gold Geometric

Hey everyone! Hope you're all having a lovely weekend. I've had quite a busy weekend so far and we're off to Chester today to go the zoo and do a bit of shopping so another busy day ahead. Whilst I'm waiting for my boyfriend to be ready I thought I'd write a quick blog post as I haven't had much of a chance recently. I created these rose gold geometric nails a couple of weeks ago whilst I was playing around with the gorgeous autumn releases from Barry M. Their recent Molten Metals collection from a few months ago contained a copper shade which was close enough to rose gold that I thought that they wouldn't possibly create anything closer. Well I was wrong, their newest releases include Twinkle Twinkle*, a limited edition polish especially for Superdrug. You'll know how much I love creating nail art with rose gold if you've been followers of my blog for a while, so of course I had to do something with this. I wasn't really sure where I was heading when I started these nails, but I just went with the flow and I really liked the end result. 

Blue Celestial Geometric

Hey everyone! How has another week gone already? August is absolutely flying by. I've had a really busy week, last night I went to see Wicked which was absolutely amazing. I've never seen it before but I went with a friend who has seen it 3 times now and I can see why she keeps going back. I'm going to try my hand at some Wicked nails this weekend so we'll see how those go.

Today's nail art is a result of me experimenting with these* brushes from Winstonia. I did these nails a couple of months ago when I first received the brushes and I completely forgot I did them. I've been practicing with them since and you will have seen them in many designs, but I was happy with how straight I managed to keep my lines here. I used the smallest brush for this design, and I was really impressed with it, although it took me a while to get used to as it contains harder bristles than I'm use to.

Gelish Glitter Geometric

Hey everyone! I decided to take a few days break from blogging, after my awful weekend last week I really just wanted some down time and to spend a bit of quality time with my boyfriend. There's always something to do when you're a blogger, and it can start to weigh you down sometimes. I'd never give it up but sometimes I need to step away for a few days, even if I feel guilty about it. But now I've had a few days break I'm feeling refreshed and ready to write a new post. Tomorrow I'm off to the Scratch Star Awards where I'm nominated for Best Nail Blogger. I'm nominated against Sammy and Lucie so I stand no chance but I'm excited to see them both and other blogging friends and have a good time. 

Today's nails are created using the products of one of the sponsors of the scratch awards: Nail Harmony UK, the UK base for Gelish. Although, these aren't the nails I'm wearing to the Scratch Awards, I'll post those when I post about the event.  I've made no secret of the fact I love Gelish, and they've released so many amazing polishes recently so I've had lots of additions to my collection. The base for this nail art is one of those recent additions: Primrose and Proper*, from the Botanical Awakenings collection and it is a lovely subtle shade which works so well for this design, which was again inspired by Sophie of Nancy Loves Nails. I know it's very similar to this design I did a few weeks ago but I really wanted to retry the design with a gel white rather than a nail polish white, and I decided to add a bit of extra glitter too.  

Paint All The Nails Presents Pastel Geometric

Hey everyone! It's time for another Paint All The Nails link up, this month we decided to do 'pastel' as our theme, and then we realised that was probably a bit vague, so we went with 'pastel geometric' instead. I must admit, I'm not too happy with how I've done this prompt. I couldn't quite tear myself away from my new favourite colour, which is Gelish - Last Call* (full review soon), so I decided to just add my pastel geometric on top. But unfortunuately I don't think there's quite enough pastel for them to be considered pastel, if that's makes any sense. Emily, of Very Emily, persuaded me to post them nevertheless though, and I didn't want to back out of the challenge when I'd already created something, so here we are!  

Matte Glitter Triangles for Avon

Hey everyone! I've had such a busy week, my life normally seems to revolve around sleep and work but this week I've managed to catch up with friends and I've just been to see Spectre tonight. I enjoyed it but I must admit I think I prefer Skyfall, although it seems like I'm alone in my opinions. Today's nail design is not a Halloween design, instead I'll be posting Halloween nails for the rest of the week. Unfortunately I haven't finished editing my pictures yet so they'll have to be squeezed in somewhere else. These are just some simple triangle nails combining glitter, matte and regular nail polish to create a multilayer effect. I dont think I've ever really used all three in a design together so I was pretty happy with the outcome

Glitter Geometric Leopard Print for Divine Caroline

Hey everyone! Today I have some glitter geometric leopard print nails to show you, which I created for Divine Caroline. I know leopard print is a design that's been done a million times, but it's also simple and effective and as it's not something I usually incorporate into my designs I wanted to mix it up a little bit. You can read all about the nails here (and also see the tutorial on how to create them)

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

Alice

Mani Swap with Magnifique Nails

Hey everyone! Firstly, just as a quick explanation, I'm going to continue review week in a couple of days, I just don't have the time to edit the pictures at the moment. I'll resume it on monday probably and do a proper week from there. Anyway, today I have a mani swap with Magnifique Nails, aka my friend Ana. Me and Ana have been friends for around a year now, and we thought it was about time we did a mani swap. Unfortunately, she's made me look awful!! She's outweighed me in talent by far, and if you need proof, just look at the photos below! I'd definitely recommend checking out her blog, Facebook page, or Instagram.

I chose to do Ana's orange geometric design (see below) but I decided to use red instead. I thought it would look just as good but I kind of wish I'd stuck with orange now! And Ana chose to do my outline polka dot heart design.

Geometric Floral Nails for Divine Caroline

Hey everyone! I realised earlier that I completely forgot to post these nails on to my blog, they went live a couple of weeks ago on Divine Caroline and I meant to include them in 'tutorial tuesday' but must have forgotten. Anyway, you get to see them now, and that's what matters, right? These were inspired entirely by Moustache Manis, and you can read all about them here, and also see the step-by-step instructions on how to create them.

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

Don't forget to check out the tutorial here

Alice

A Bit Dotty

Hey everyone! I have yet another design I created for our university's nail art society today (if you don't know what I'm talking about, read this). I seem to have been stockpiling them a bit. I'm not really sure where this design went, we were doing polka dot hearts, I think, and I just kind of went off on a tangent a bit. I think they're a little bit busy, but they still look okay

Tutorial Tuesday: Pastel Geometric For Clothes Show Live

Hey everyone! You might notice that it's not actually tuesday, so I shouldn't really be calling this tutorial tuesday, but I completely forgot to post this last night and I don't want you to go without! Today's (or yesterday's) tutorial is another that I created for Clothes Show Live, which means that it's a video rather than a pictorial but hopefully you don't mind. For the design I was inspired by this cardigan from Topshop. You can see the colours I used in the video but if you're unsure just ask and I'll let you know!

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

Alice

Nails Inc. Collaboration with Teatum Jones - Swatches and Nail Art

Hey everyone! Today's post is an exciting new release from Nails Inc, who have released 3 new colours in collaboration with emerging design talent for London Fashion Week. The three colours are Sloane Street, which is the hot pink you'll see below, in collaboration with Teatum Jones. Colville Mews, which is a gorgeous nude, in collaboration with Emma Shipley. And finally Hallam Street, which is a lovely dusky purple, in collaboration with David Longshaw. These polishes will be available for 6 weeks only, or whilst stocks last, so grab them while you can! I received the amazing Sloane Street to show you all, I know you're probably all sick of plain reviews after last week's review week, so I decided to combine today's post with a bit of simple nail art just to tide you over! I'll post the full review after the jump

Nude Squares

Hey everyone! Finally I have some nail art for you, which isn't just part of a tutorial (although hopefully you actually like the tutorials so it's not an issue!). I've had a mixture of ideas going round my head for a while and with the help of a friend I finally put 2 designs together which I think work pretty well. I was inspired by a design I saw posted on Instagram ages ago with no logo and no credit (and I've just tried for 20 minutes to find on google but I can't find any sign of it, let me know if you know the original), and I decided to repeat these nails, which were originally based from this tutorial by Pack a Punch Nails. 

The base for these nails is Barry M - Lychee, and the black and white is acrylic paint, I used striping tape from here to create the squares, I used these brushes for the triangles, and I finished it off with a coat of Seche Vite.

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

Alice

Painting Other People's Nails

Hey everyone! It's almost a year since I did one of these posts and as I'm doing nails at Pastille nail bar in Leeds tomorrow (14th December) I thought it would be a good time to post all the nails I've been doing on other people. These are only over the past couple of months because I'm not very good at documenting it but hopefully you still get an idea! Don't forget you can come in tomorrow for walk-in appointments and I'll be there from 10-4 if you'd like any of my designs, or if you'd like christmas nails! I'll put the rest of the nails after the jump otherwise it'll be a bit long.

Blue Triangles

Hey everyone! Just a quick post from me tonight. I've had this design done for over 3 months now but I've just not got around to posting it, so I thought it was finally time. I unfortunately can't actually remember the lighter blue colour I used for this as it's been so long and I own so many that are so similar, but the dark blue is Layla CE33.This was all done using striping tape (I dont keep normal tape to hand most of the time) and finished off with a coat of Seche Vite.

What do you think?

Let me know in the comments!

Alice

Tutorial Tuesday: Geometric Colour

Hey everyone! I'm back for another Tutorial Tuesday, although it's now technically Wednesday in the UK as it's 1am, it's still Tuesday in many other parts of the world, so hopefully it still counts! I'm so glad you all liked last week's tutorial so much, starting this off as a weekly thing seems to have been a good idea so far! Don't forget to check out my Tutorial tab to see all of my past tutorials and keep up to date. Anyway, today's tutorial is based on this design, which seemed to be a popular choice for tutorials. I've made the triangles a bit more centralised in this design, but the principle is the same and hopefully you will be able to translate it to look more like the original if you wish!

For these nails I used 3 coats of Shimmer Polish - Karen as a base, and then 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat. Unfortunately I can't seem to find Karen in the Shimmer Polish shop, but there are plenty of other fantastic glitters for you to have a nosy at!

Now for the tutorial! (Aka the reason you're all here)

You will need:

- A glitter base colour

- A small brush

- Top coat

- A multitude of different colours, I used:

·    Barry M – Blueberry

·    Barry M – Passion Fruit

·     Barry M – Mango

·    Barry M – Key Lime

·     Barry M – Prickly Pear
·     Barry M - Peach Melba

·    NYC - Lexington Yellow 

Step 1: Paint your nails with a glitter base colour. When that is dry use a topcoat to smoothen out the surface for the next steps

Step 2: Using a thin brush (see previous picture) draw the outline of where you want your shapes to be, it’s best to do this colour by colour

Step 3: Fill in the gaps from the previous step

Step 4: Repeat the previous steps with each individual colour; be careful to leave a gap in-between each triangle so that your glitter base is still visible.

Step 5: Finish off with fast drying top coat to smoothen your design and to speed up drying time, and then you’re done!

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

Alice

Digital Dozen Does Fashion: Day 3

Hey everyone! Another quick post so I can go to sleep tonight, but today's fashion inspiration isn't THAT closely related to the nails. I was loosely inspired, but hopefully you can still see where I was coming from.  I have quite a few photos so I'll put the rest after the jump

Holographic Geometric

Hey everyone! Today's post is my first ever holographic polish, and I absolutely love it. I intended to post these a week ago for Digital Dozen Does Tape Manis, which I completely forgot about and therefore missed. But I promised the lovely ladies that I would do a post, and so I did, I just put off writing it for a week. 

The holographic polish is Layla - Red Taboo*, from the wonderful Sally Magpie's, the blue is Barry M - Blueberry and the green is Barry M - Key Lime, all topped off with a coat of Seche Vite*

Here are some pictures of Red Taboo alone:

These lightbox pictures really don't do this polish justice. It's AMAZING, and I definitely feel I've been missing out on the holo front. 

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

If you haven't already I'd love it if you could vote for me for 'best new beauty blog' in the Cosmopolitan blog awards 2013, you can do so here

Alice

*Some of the products in this post were provided to me for review but all opinions are entirely my own

Butter LONDON Marbs - Review and Nail Art

Hey everyone! Today I have a quick review of Butter LONDON 'Marbs'* from Butter LONDON's new Summer Holiday 2013 collection. It's a lovely gold with a hint of silver in it as you shall see. I couldnt resist creating a bit of nail art for you too using my new Orly Dotting Tool* and Orly Striping Brush* that I received from HQhair (a deceiving name considering they also sell nail products too). 

I originally tried to create a design with dots and triangles together on the alternative nails but it looked overcrowded so I ended up redoing it. I used the striping brush for the triangles and touched it up with the dotting tool. For the ring and pointer finger I used striping tape. The black is China Glaze - Liquid Leather 

For me the striper was too long to use as it was so I cut it down, but once I had it worked brilliantly. 

This was just one coat of Marbs* with no top coat, it's ridiculously opaque and it looks brill!

What do you think? Will you be buying Marbs? You can get it here on lookfantastic.com for £12 with free postage worldwide! You can also get the striper here and the dotting tool here on HQhair.com for £7 each, again with free shipping worldwide, and I'd definitely recommend them!

Also, my giveaway is now over so dont forget to check your emails to see if you've won!

Alice

*some of the products in this post were provided to me for review but my opinions were not influenced in any way

Green Ikat

Hey everyone,  today I have some ikat nails to show you, I wanted to use Essie- Navigate Her again so I've just done another version of this post, mainly because I really liked doing that design, I also wanted to add chains to it but it didn't work out too well, but I'm going to try again tomorrow so we'll see. I havn't got much more to say and I have an essay to write so enjoy!

I used Essie - Navigate Her, Barry M - Matt White, Models Own - Blooboo, China Glaze - Something Sweet and black acrylic paint.

I'd love to know what you think! Alice