Glitter Stars and Moons

Happy Tuesday! I fancied doing something a little different, which is how these nails came about. I also wanted to play around with the Essie Concrete Glitters collection*, so I used them as a gradient base and created this sparkly galaxy effect. 

All That Jazz - Bridal Gradient

Hey everyone! Aren't you glad it's Friday? This week has seemed go really slow as I waited and waited for the weekend because I believed I was going away. Turns out, I got the dates wrong and it's actually next weekend- doh! Annoyingly my boyfriend has already made plans for the weekend believing me to be away, so I need to find some of my own entertainment this weekend. Some of which I'm sure will involve nails! 

Today's post involves a simple, but elegant, glitter gradient. Because sometimes simple is best and also because when I received the All That Jazz - The Bridal Party Collection* I knew I had to do something fitting of the collection's title with the polishes. A glitter gradient such as this would be perfect for a wedding day. Understated yet elegant, just what you need to accompany a dress. Also what I love about glitter gradients is that anybody can do them, all you need is a make up sponge and some nail polish, and because it's glitter it doesn't need to look neat. Yet despite the simplicity, it's the kind of design that receives multiple compliments, because it always catches your eye. 

Rainbow Glitter Gradient

Hey everyone! Now that Valentine's day is out of the way I have lots of non-romance related designs to show you. I've had quite a few designs sitting edited on my laptop for a while but I just haven't found the right time to post them. I posted a sneak peak of these nails on Instagram around a month ago when I'd just created them as I loved how they looked and I'd actually painted both nails for the first time in forever, but it's taken me a while to post the full design in all it's glory. Quite a few people on Instagram requested a tutorial for these, if that's something you'd all want let me know and I'll get one sorted! Anything pastel always gets my vote, but with the addition of China Glaze - Fairy Dust everything looks amazing!

Nude Glitter Gradient for Avon

There's something so elegant about a simple glitter gradient, especially with a nude base. They require minimal effort but they always get a lot of attention. They're the perfect design if you're in a rush but still want a bit of nail art. This design for Avon was the only design I had time to create this Saturday as I was, in fact, in a rush. Whilst I love to wear complex nail designs for the week, I've quite enjoyed having a more simplistic look this week. Although, as ever, now we're towards the end of the week I can't wait to change them, but they were nice for a while!

Pink Glitter Gradient

Hey everyone! I'm still on holiday so this is another scheduled post but hopefully you're enjoying them! Today I have some nail art using Peach for the Stars from the recent Barry M Sunset Daylight Curing collection. It's been ages since I posted a glitter gradient and they're so simple to create that I thought it was about time. It's nice and summery so it fits with the fact I'm on holiday!

Happy New Years! for Divine Caroline

Hey everyone! I can't believe that tomorrow is the last day of the year, I know it's cliche but this year really has gone fast, and so so much has changed. I have a new job, a new boyfriend, a new flat, and I'm ending this year on a truly happy note, even though it's not always been an easy ride this year. I intend to celebrate in style, and what better way that a glass (or two) of champagne? So of course I couldn't resist putting them on my nails! Head over to Divine Caroline for a full tutorial on how to create these nails yourself

Don't forget to check out the steps here.

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

Alice 

4th of July Nails

Hey everyone! Many of you will know that I'm not American, so I wont be celebrating the 4th of July, and I've always felt that it would be a bit odd if I were to do 4th of July nails. However, after having seen many of my fellow British bloggers doing just that, I decided that it was time for me to jump on the bandwagon. I'm sure you're all getting sick of seeing 4th of July nails by now, but I really really wanted to use Nichole by Shimmer Polish, because I knew it would be absolutely perfect for this design.

For my thumb, middle finger and pinky finger I started with 3 thin coats of Shimmer - Nichole and then I applied one coat of Seche Vite, and then drew on the stars using the white Barry M nail art pen, finished off with another coat of Seche Vite

For the other fingers I started with a base of Barry M - White and then sponged on Shimmer Nicole, I stuck on these 3mm Stars from KKcentreHK, and topped it off with 2 coats of Seche Vite.

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

If you like the look of Shimmer - Nichole you can get it here for £6.85 

Alice

Seven Deadly Sins: Week 3 - Greed

Hey everyone! I'm a little late with this week's seven deadly sins post, I dont really have any excuse for that except that I forgot to edit the pictures last night and then it was too late, so sorry about that! This week's prompt was 'go wild and use your most expensive and precious polish'. I dont own many expensive polishes because I have a £3 maximum spend (the student life is super fun) but I did recently recieve these awesome Clinique polishes, as you saw here, which retails for £12 (I also have another few Clinique polishes to show you soon!) and last winter when I saw China Glaze 'Glistening Snow' I had to splurge a massive £6 (!!!) to buy it straight away, so I thought I'd mix the two together, along with my always-expensive top coat: Seche Vite. 

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

Alice

Glitter stars and Beauty Narcotix spray review

Hey everyone! Today I have a simple glitter design to show you, along with a review of a new quick dry spray. First off I'll tell you about the nails and then I'll tell you more about the spray. 

I didn't really have any inspiration for these nails, I just bought Barry M - Rose Quartz and I really want to use it, so I thought I'd test it out in two different ways, and then I had the idea to put white acrylic paint stars over the top, which I actually really like the look of. The base for this is China Glaze - Liquid Leather and Models Own - Utopia, topped off with 2 coats of Seche Vite. 

Next, I'd like to review this spray sent to me by the lovely Angela at Beauty Narcotix

As you can possibly see from the photo below, it's a very large bottle, I'd say around the size of a big hair spray bottle, and it is actually very similar to hair spray in application. To use the spray you apply it to each coat, which I thought would be a bit of a nuisance but it's quick and really helpful for slow-drying polishes in between coats (and I chose two very slow drying colours for this). 

It definitely works, but the best part for me is the smell, I wouldn't even care if it didn't work because it smells so damn good! Even my mum, renown for hating the smell of everything 'unnatural', said it smelt nice. I've used a few quick dry sprays before and they all smelt like hair spray too, but this is quite a fruity/flowery smell, it's hard to describe. 

Nevertheless, is does work, and it smells nice, so I got two bonuses in one bottle. It also leaves your nails really shiny, and if you're brave enough you could probably go without top coat.

The one negative I would say about this product is the price, at £17 a bottle it's definitely not available for repurchase on my student budget, but if you dont use much each time and so I'm sure I'm definitely going to get some use out of it, and in that sense it is indeed worth the money. You can purchase it here

What do you think? Both of the nails and of quick-dry spray as a concept? Let me know in the comments

Alice

A bit of a jumble

Hey everyone! I will only be posting on Wednesday and Saturday until next week, and then hopefully things should become more regular again! You might also have noticed that I've changed the comments back to having a spam check, I'm sorry I've had to do that, I was getting around 8 spam comments a day and it was just getting a bit annoying, I hope you will still take the time to comment, I do love reading what you all have to say!

Now, onto the nails! I was feeling a bit uninspired, so I decided that I would just paint my nails a lovely colour (OPI - Thanks a Windmillion) and see where I went from there. Then when I had it on I thought of doing an accent glitter nail, and then the whole black and silver theme came to me and that was it, I just painted what I felt like. I used black acrylic paint and Barry M - Silver foil, alongside Barry M - Limited edition silver glitter. I particularly like the middle finger and will most likely be doing a whole hand of that, so I apologise that you'll be seeing such a similar design sooner or later. Anyway, I hope you like them!

Alice

Glitter Gradients #2

So this is not what I intended these to look like, as I showed you in my Collection 2000 hot looks review post here 'Shimmy Shake' looks really good layered over black. So I thought that it would also be good for glitter gradients, oh how wrong I was. This must have been my 6th attempt because it was just too thick and it smudged instantly, with these I managed to get a picture before that happened but they still didnt last very long! Anyway, they still turned out okay-ish, but they just look like an other glitter gradient, rather than a super awesome layered one, hope you like them!

Alice