Throwback Thursday - Neon Stripes

Hey everyone! It's almost the end of the week, just one more final hurdle and we'll have reached the weekend. I've got lots of birthdays this weekend (sister, mum and grandma), and it's fathers day too, so not only am I busy, I'm also poor! It'll be nice to have a meal with the family though, and eat cake. Diets have to go out of the window when there are so many birthdays to celebrate. Anyway, it's been a while since I did a Throwback Thursday post, despite the fact I've actually had these images for well over 2 months. Thursdays just seem to pass me by, and suddenly it's Friday and I have missed the day to post once again, but this week I finally remembered! 

This was the original post for these nails, which I did for the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge back in 2012. They ended up being quite popular, which I wasn't expecting, and a few years later I recreated them in pink here. But I wanted to go back to my original design and give it a new lease of life. The first time around I remember waiting hours and hours for tape to dry and getting frustrated at how messy it was. This time around Seche Vite was my friend, and so was liquid palisade, which made it a lot easier and a lot quicker to do.

Then and Now: Flowers and Beads

Hey everyone. It's been a very long time since I did a 'then and now' type post, I actually did these nails and another design I'll show you next week just after christmas, but I wanted to post them on a Thursday as a kind of #ThrowbackThursday type post, but I kept realising on Fridays that I hadn't posted them. Turns out Thursdays kind of pass me by. So upon realising today was Thursday, I made sure I sat down and wrote this so that another Thursday doesn't come and go. My friend Very Emily has also recently been doing Throwback Thursday posts and I've absolutely loved seeing hers, so I hope you like mine too.

Today's 'Then and Now' post is based off these nails I did around 3 and a half years ago, which many people said at the time were Marc Jacobs-esque. These were actually really popular when I first posted them, so it will be interesting to see if there's a similar reception for these. It's also really interesting to see how my photography has changed, although admittedly the original nails were from when I started to get a hang of where I wanted my blog to go. So you can see 'my' pose starting to develop, and my nails are relatively short compared to some of my really early posts. I've also included a picture after the jump for those too lazy to click the link

I kind of prefer the original nails, weirdly enough, because I think I went a bit OTT with the studs on my latest version, but my photo quality is definitely an improvement, and my skin care is much better too. I found that despite having hundreds of blue polishes, I apparently don't possess a proper navy, so I had to use a very gloopy bottle of a W7 navy. Although this just gives me an excuse to buy more polish! 

Then and Now: Scrabble Love Nails

Hey everyone! Today's post is another then and now post, but it's a little different. You may remember that a couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I was the featured artist for Scratch nail wraps this September, and one of the designs they chose to make in to wraps was my scrabble love nails, which for a very long time were my most popular nails ever. I therefore decided it would be quite cool to do a then and now post with the wraps, so it's not really a matter of skill comparison, just photography, but hopefully you still like it! As always the old design will be after the jump

Essie - Then and Now: Review, Nail Art +GIVEAWAY

Hey everyone! Today I have an exciting new colour by Essie to show you called 'Then and Now'*. I hope I didn't confuse you too much with the title, I know some of you were probably expecting one of my comparison posts between my old work and new work,  but alas, today is just some new work, which hopefully you shall enjoy just as much! Essie have teamed up with Then and Now to create this gorgeous grey/brown shade. You can buy it here on their website but I will also be giving away a bottle to one lucky reader, you can enter using the Rafflecopter widget below.

For these nails I started off with 2 extremely easy coats of Essie - Then and Now* and I used Nicole by OPI - Spring Break* and Nicole by OPI - Selena* for the roses, along with Rimmel - Misty Jade* for the leaves, all topped off with a coat of Seche Vite.

Giveaway image

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The rules of the giveaway are under the 'Terms and Conditions' part of the widget, please make sure to read all the rules before entering but for those who are reading for those all important words, it is open internationally.

What do you think? Do you like the colour/nail art? 

Let me know in the comments!

Alice

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

Then and Now: Cath Kidston + Tutorial

Hey everyone! It's been a while since my last Then and Now post so I thought it was about time to bring it back. I have done a tutorial for these nails as well which I'll post as a quick tutorial rather than a detailed one because I'm pretty tired. Today's post, as the title suggests, is a recreation of my Cath Kidston nails. You can see my original post, from just over a year ago here. As always, the 'then' will be after the jump, and this time the tutorial will be too!

Then and Now: Lilac Roses

Hey everyone! I'm back (finally) with a new then and now post. I know a lot of you said in the comments of my giveaway that you'd like to see a few more then and now posts so I thought I'd bring it back. Although, I wont be doing it every week like before, just when I feel like it. This week I'm redoing a stripes and roses combination that a few of you may remember as it was probably around a year ago that I did it, in fact you can actually see it on my blog here, but the difference in nail size is huge. I actually cut my nails a bit too short this time around, so the difference is even bigger than it should have been, but oh well! As always the 'then' picture will be after the jump. 

Then and Now: Week 16

Hey everyone! Recently there's been a new 'tag' on instagram called 'themanithatstarteditall' and I was 'tagged' to do it. So I decided to incorporate it into this week's Then and Now post. So today's design were the first nails I ever took a picture of, and I remember that I was super proud of them. I have created a tutorial for this design so please let me know if you want to see it! As always, the 'Then' post will be after the jump! 

Then and Now: Week 15

Hey everyone! It's been a while since my last 'Then and Now' post. I think until the end of may (when my exams finish) I probably wont be doing it every week, but I shall try my best! This week's post I wasn't actually going to do, because I really hated the original nails and I remember taking them off after about 10 minutes, but I decided it would be a good test of how far my skills have come if I could make the same design look good, and I think it worked because I really like how they came out, I think they ended up looking a lot like buttons actually. As always the 'then' post will be after the jump 

Then and Now: Week 14

Hey everyone! Today's 'Then and Now' post is a little different, because I've been wanting to redo this design for a while, but it's actually still online, and the photography isn't too bad in it, but I never had a top coat when I did them and I had no idea about cuticle clean up so I really wanted to see how different they looked. I've not looked at the old design for a long time and in my head it was a lot more detailed than it actually is, so my newer design is actually pretty detailed because that's how I imagined it, but hopefully that's a good thing right? As always the old design will be after the jump, but if you cant wait you can see it still on my tumblr here

Then and Now: Week 13

Hi everyone! Firstly I just want to start with an apology, firstly for not posting for a few days and secondly for not posting these yesterday like usual. Everything has been a bit hectic for the past few days and I've had bare nails for ages, so I hope you'll forgive me! I try to post as much as possible but sometimes it's difficult to balance everything. 

So back on to today's post, due to my lack of time at the moment I chose a really simple design from my 'archives' to redo: Yin Yang nails! So it's probably one of the least original designs you'll see the whole time in this series from me, but it's the best I could do in an hour. There's not really much explaining to be done so as usual the 'then' post will be after the jump with colours used :)

Then and Now: Week 12

Hey everyone, today's then and now post is a little different from previous posts as I actually have two examples of what these looked like 'then'. There's probably a years difference between all the posts so you can see how much I've improved each time (I also apparently was incapable of keeping my nails a similar length previously). As usual, the 'then' posts will be after the jump

Then and Now: Week 11

Hey everyone! Another 'Then and Now' post today. I dont know what I'm going to do when I run out of old designs because reading through the comments of the giveaway you all seem to love these posts, I was thinking about perhaps going through some old designs that I have on my Tumblr which I'm not really happy with or the photographing isn't great, is that something you would be interested in? I still have about 10 or 11 posts left before we get to that but I thought I'd ask you all.

Today's post makes a nice change from all the valentines posts I've been spamming you with (and there are a few more to come yet) as it's just dots. I quite like this idea and I've been meaning to redo it for a while, even before I started the Then and Now posts because as you'll see from the 'then' picture I didn't even manage to keep the whole hand complete. As always the 'then' post will be after the jump.

Then and Now: Week 10

They're back! The then and now posts have returned! Have you missed them? I know from reading the giveaway comments that a few of you have. These nails were done about 2 weeks ago, maybe even longer, but the past couple of saturdays I've just been too busy to post them, but they should return to being weekly now. This is a design that I remember doing, and remember removing straight away to try another design (which I'm sure will make an appearance at some point), something I'd never done before and something I never did again until I starting painting more regularly (aka now) because I didn't much like 'wasting' nail varnish. As you'll see, the design was also pretty rubbish so it was no big loss to the world that they didn't last very long!

I'm sure many of you will know that this design isn't original, but as with all of these posts, I can't remember where I got the original inspiration from, so for now I cannot give credit, but if you know who originally created these then please let me know. The original picture is after the jump!

Then and Now: Week 9

Hey everyone, today I have week 9 of my 'then and now' challenge. When I first set out to do this 'challenge' I randomly numbered the 22 posts I have so that I could do them in that order, but once I got to week 5 and didn't really like the design I started mixing things up a bit, so today's choice was because I felt I'd used too many reds and blues lately: bees! More after the jump

Then and Now: Week 8

Hey everyone! Hope you're all well, I must say I can't wait for this period between christmas and new year to be over, it always feels so odd! 

So today's 'challenge' is just a simple floral design, I'm still feeling a bit unwell and there isn't much to say about these nails, both times I used Revlon - Mad About Mango and both times I used a dotting tool, but as you'll see they photographed completely differently! More after the jump

Then and Now: Week 7

Hey everyone! I'm sorry for the delay in posting, I've had a pretty busy week because I got back from uni and I was seeing all my friends who I hadn't seen in a while, I hope you dont mind! So today I have week 7 of my then and now 'challenge' which, as promised, is christmas related. I was debating whether to include these at all because I actually did these last year but I promised last week I would, and I also think it's a good way of seeing how I've improved throughout the past 2 years, and I guess these nails are becoming a bit of a tradition as well! More after the jump.

Then and Now: Week 6

So todays post I'm actually a little ashamed to show you, I was expecting so much more from these nails because I really liked the original 'then' nails, but I guess it's just a design that only really works on long nails and I feel that it's ended up looking worse than before, but I hope you read on and see nonetheless! The original picture is after the jump

Then and Now: Week 5

Hey everyone! Today's post very nearly didn't happen but I set Saturday as the date as Saturday it shall stay, even if it means coming back to uni from home to do it! This time is another summery design, just to opt out of the christmas nails (which I promise will happen soon enough), I did go through my 'archives' for the then and now challenge to find something more christmassy but I only have one design so I shall do that nearer christmas, turns out I was a sucker for bright colours 2 years ago!

I actually remember doing this design, mainly because I did the bees so thick that after 4 hours they still hadnt dried and were instead smudged all over my dressing gown (which has since pretty much just turned into a paint palette and I've got a new one for when I'm not painting my nails). So this time, I obviously didn't want to repeat that, but I knew I wouldn't because I have learnt from my mistakes (or so I hope!). Anyway, aside from having to do the acrylic paint that was coming off on my thumb there were no mishaps this time, and I am typing this with the manicure still perfectly in tact! See the original picture after the jump!

Then and Now: Week 4

Hey everyone! Here is week 4 of my then and now 'challenge'. You'll find this completely different to any christmas manis you're going to be seeing on the 1st of December because this is completely and utterly summery. (oops!) As I mentioned last week I've decided to add certain things to these nails because some are a bit too simple, and as you'll see with these nails I've adapted the roses. More after the jump!

Then and Now: Week 3

Hey everyone! So today I have week 3 of my Then and Now 'challenge' for you. I was quite excited for this design just because it was quite cute but I was disappointed by how amazingly simple it was to do, so I've decided that from now on I'm not just going to copy the design, unless I feel it's worth it, I'm instead going to adapt it to be a bit more complex. So for instance these could have ended up with bamboo or something, when I did these I didn't really have time to do much else otherwise I would have. In a way I kind of did change them slightly, as I gave them a nose and slightly better eyes, but I'd hardly call that a complex improvement haha. More after the jump!