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

China Glaze Monsters Ball Halloween 2013 Collection Swatches and Review

Hey everyone! I'm so excited for today's post, because I have the amazing China Glaze Monsters Ball collection to show you. This is my first time reviewing for China Glaze and the collection certainly doesn't disappoint. This a much more glitter-led halloween collection than I've seen China Glaze do before, but it works extremely well. And not only is it great for Halloween, but also for the rest of Autumn too! The rest of the pictures will be after the jump, as the post is probably going to be a long one

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

Cosmopolitan Blog Awards 2013

Hey everyone! I have some super exciting news for you all today. Some of you may remember that a month or so ago I was asking you all to vote for me for Best New Beauty Blog 2013 in the Cosmopolitan blog awards, and this week was the awards ceremony. I went with the intention of meeting up with some amazing bloggers (aka The Nailasaurus, xameliax, Brit Nails and Lucy's Stash) and with absolutely no expectation of coming away with a prize. So imagine my surprise when I won! I'm still not sure it's entirely sunk in but I'm absolutely honoured to have been chosen and voted for, and I have all you amazing readers to thank, so thankyou. I still cannot believe that I run a successful blog, let alone a prize-winning one, and it is purely down to you, and I really cannot thank you all enough.

I of course couldn't attend without doing my nails, and although I wanted something that I could do on both hands, I also wanted it to be something that stood out, and so I finally settled on this glitter/swirl/stud combo. The base for these nails was 2 coats of Alessandro - Midnight Black*, and 3 coats of Alessandro - Glitter Queen*. I then applied a layer of China Glaze - Fairy Dust to the black. Once that was dry I used a thin brush and white acrylic paint for the swirls, and finally I added the black studs (which I unfortunately cannot remember the origin of but they're most likely from Born Pretty Store) I've also included a few pictures of the event and whatnot after the jump!

Tutorial Tuesday: Drips

Hey everyone! Today I'm starting a new feature called 'Tutorial Tuesday,' I have a tonne of tutorials to show you but I never seem to post them. I've added a tutorial tab to the top of my blog due to Sarah's fabulous suggestion, but it made me realise that I just don't have enough tutorials. So for at least the next 10 weeks I will be doing a tutorial every tuesday for you all, I hope you like it!

Today's tutorial is for my drip nails, I did these quite a while ago and a tutorial was requested, so to whoever requested it I'm very sorry it has taken so long

You will need:

·      Barry M – Lychee (or a cream/nude polish)

·      Barry M – Blueberry ice-cream (or a blue polish)

·      Barry M – Berry Ice Cream (or a lilac polish)

·      Barry M – Dragon Fruit (or a pink polish)

·      Barry M – Black and White nail art pens

·      Small brush

·      Top Coat

Step 1: Paint your nails with a base of Barry M – Lychee

Step 2: Using a small brush paint a basic outline for your drips, this doesn’t need to be perfect

Step 3: Colour in the lines from the previous step

Step 4: Using the black Barry M nail art pen, outline the drips

Step 5: Using the white Barry M nail art pen, draw the reflections for the drips

Step 6: Finish off with a topcoat to seal in your design, a matte topcoat is great for making the drips really stand out

And that's it! What do you think? Let me know in the comments

Alice

Nicole By OPI - Selena Gomez Collection Review and Swatches

Hey everyone! Today I have a review of half the Selena Gomez NOPI collection. These have recently become available in the UK in Superdrug, so this is my first time trying any NOPI polishes and I'm definitely impressed. As you can probably tell from the title of this collection, the shades are all inspired by Selena Gomez, and as a result they're very bright and girly, but that's not a bad thing. This is definitely a collection to brighten your autumn wardrobe up. The rest of the review will be after the jump!

Romwe Superhero Leggings GIVEAWAY!

Hey everyone! Today I have a brand new giveaway for you, once again sponsored by Romwe. If you missed the annoucement of the winner of the Then and Now giveaway on twitter, the winner was Linda Hagen. Perhaps those of you who weren't lucky in that will have a better chance in this, as this time there will be 2 winners, who will each get their choice of 1 pair of superhero leggings.

All entries are within the Rafflecopter widget and all rules are noted in the 'terms and conditions' section of the widget so make sure to read them carefully. The giveaway is open internationally

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you can't wait for the giveaway to end, Romwe are currently having a sale of up to 60% of their best selling products, but it's only on for 72 hours, so be quick! You can see it here
Good luck

Alice