Rainbow Ombre Stars

Hey everyone! We're getting so close to moving house now, or at least I hope we are. It seems to have taken forever to go through, but I can't wait to be in now. I'm struggling to access my desk at the moment due to there being stuff everywhere, and I'm also struggling to find the time to do any nails, but I did manage to squeeze in this quick design using the OPI - Grease Collection*

Barry M - Halloween Gradient Graveyards

I can't wait for halloween this year, I'm really looking forward to having the house decorated for our halloween party next week, and I'm already counting down. Last year I didn't really get the chance to celebrate halloween, so I'm planning on going all out this year, and that means getting my nails ready for the occasion. Luckily, Barry M asked me to create some halloween tutorials for them, so I've got quite a few designs to show you before the big day!

First up is this gradient gravestone look. I won't pretend it's not a design that hasn't been done a million times, but I like to think there's a reason it's done so often. It's such a typical halloween look, but I love it. 

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. 

Pumpkin Spice - Meebox October Review + Nail Art

Hey everyone! Hope you're all having a good week so far, this is my first 5 day week at work in a few weeks so it's feeling like it's dragging a bit. Today I've got a review of the October Meebox* for you. This is my fourth review of the monthly subscription box, you can see all my previous reviews here. Each month comes with a new theme, and this months theme is Pumpkin Spice*, just in time for Halloween. Each months box costs £20 if you subscribe on a month to month basis, or you can subscribe for 3 months and it costs £18 a month. This might sound like a lot but you get so much value out of a box that it's well worth it. This months box includes:

- Crabtree & Evelyn - Clementine (RRP £6) 

- Lauren B - Nude 01 (RRP £11)

- Leighton Denny - Venus Desire (RRP £12)

- Bundle Monster Giant Stamper & Stamping plate (RRP £12)

With a total value of £41 you're definitely getting a lot for your money. I also like the surprise element of it, and also that there's always at least one nail art look to create out of the products you receive. And, even with an extensive collection such as mine I've only ever encountered one duplicate shade to one I own in a Meebox, which isn't too bad going. This month they were all pretty much new brands to me, except for Leighton Denny. I was also intrigued (and a little intimidated) by the giant stamper from Bundle Monster which I ended up loving once I got the hang of it. I know my stamping skills aren't the best and I don't claim for them to be, but I wanted to give the plate a try nonetheless.

Flickanail Inspired Water Flowers

Hey everyone! I hope you've all had a lovely weekend, I can't believe once again that Monday has crept upon us. Two days is never enough, but luckily next weekend is a bank holiday so we get 3 whole days, and then 2 weeks later I'm going on holiday for a week I can't wait. I've done lots of gel designs this weekend, both on myself and on other people, but the nail art I'm showing you today is purely trusty old nail polish. 

For a long time I've been in awe of a number of Japanese nail artists. My twinsie nails with Very Emily were a homage to this, as we both have great respect for Japanese nail art, but I wanted to try my hand at something further. I was inspired by this design by Flickanail, but once again my need for everything to be neat meant that the design didn't turn out as I hoped, despite my best efforts to just go with the flow. When looking at the design alone I really love it, but in comparison it looks nothing alike. I think that I didn't add enough flowers because I was wary of going overboard.

However, I'm not going to give up, there are tonnes of Japanese designs that I want to try my hand at, and I have a feeling that for a lot of them I might be better off working in gel. I'm also tempted to sign up for Neiru tutorials. Have any of you tried these? Are they worth paying for? I really want to improve my skill and learn something new too, so let me know if they are worth doing.

Winstonia Henna Plates Review

Hey everyone! I've had such a lovely weekend, it's my boyfriend's birthday today and it was really nice to give him his presents, which I've been wanting to see his reaction to for weeks. Luckily he really liked them (or so he said!). I love giving presents, I'm sure my 10 year old self would be shocked to hear me say that but as I've got older I've really started to appreciate it more. I'm especially excited when I can't measure what their reaction will be! 

Anyway, today's post is a review of the new Winstonia Henna stamping plates*. I've recently been trying my hand at stamping a bit more, so when I was offered the chance to try this new plate duo by Winstonia I jumped at the chance. There are two plates in the collection, each containing intricate henna-inspired designs. When I first saw them I thought they would be out of my skill set but the Winstonia stamper picked the designs up with ease. I created 3 looks with the stamps to showcase them, but there are so many possibilities for great designs so I'm sure you'll see them again!

Unicorn Nail Art

Hey everyone! So the whole point of creating the rainbow gradient I posted yesterday was to create unicorn nail art. I took pictures of the plain gradient because I loved how it looks, but also because there was a strong possibility that these could fail. I've never drawn a horse, unicorn or really any full form of horse-like creature before, not even on paper, so I was worried that these would turn out awfully. Whilst they're definitely not the best unicorn nails to exist, I was super proud of how these turned out and I wore them for a full week. 

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!

Gradient Barry M Stripes

Hey everyone! It's an exciting week this week for me, today was my first day at my new job, and tomorrow is my birthday! So a busy couple of days. Anyway, it's freezing cold here at the moment but I wanted to bring a bit of brightness with my nails. This was a new look for me but they didn't really turn out as I had hoped, I used blue pink yellow and green but you can only really see the blue and green.. and mainly green. But nevertheless I do still quite like them, they are matte after all.

Ice Trees for Divine Caroline

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas, it was so nice to spend some time with family and friends, and I really loved seeing how much people loved the presents they received. I loving giving gifts, and I definitely went over the top a bit, but it seemed to go down pretty well in my house which is relieving. You may have noticed some radio silence from me over Christmas, despite the fact that I actually had two Christmas designs left to post. That's because I fell asleep ridiculously early on Christmas Eve (without even taking my make up off tut tut) and Christmas itself didn't end until very late. I expect the designs will show up next year, if my style doesn't change too drastically! 

Anyway, I'm back with the glittery snow scene that I created for Divine Caroline. You can see the tutorial on how to create these yourself just here. I hope you like these as much as I do, I wore these for over a week and I was sad to take them off in the end.

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

Alice

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!

Give Me Space

Hey everyone! Today's nail art may well be one of my favourite designs I've created. Whilst they're relatively simple, I absolutely loved how they turned out, and OPI - Give Me Space* from the recent OPI Starlight collection made the perfect base for these. It's a gorgeous navy holographic and even the name alone suggests a perfect space manicure! I got the idea for these designs from this design by 'Glitter Fingersss' on Instagram. Lexa is an absolutely amazing artist and there was no way I could recreate her design with such skill, but I tried to make it my own. I was also incredibly rushed when creating these, I had around 20 minutes which just wasn't enough time so they're not as perfect as I would like. I would definitely have liked to perfect the alien a bit more. Nevertheless, for the time I created them in I'm really happy with the outcome. I've also included swatches of Give Me Space after the jump so you can see the full beauty of the polish.

Gradient All The Nails!

Hey everyone! Myself and a number of very talented bloggers are part of a small Facebook group called 'Paint All The Nails'. Each month we will be doing a themed link-up (although I may not do it every month) and this month's theme is gradients. I must admit that I just went basic with my design, it completely bypassed my to do anything extra to it, which is very unlike me! But I love a gradient on it's own anyway so why not. Also, my memory card broke and decided to delete the other half of my photos so I'm afraid I've only got one photo for you today. I've bought a new memory card now so fingers crossed it wont happen again.

I used OPI - A Great Opera-tunity* (from the Venice collection), and Barry M - Cotton for the gradient, topped off with Seche Vite

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

Alice

P.S Don't forget to check out the other lady's designs in the inlinks widget below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Mermaid Chevrons Video Tutorial for Shopcade

Hey everyone! Today I finally have a new Youtube video for you after more than a year thanks to shopping website Shopcade. They kindly sponsored these nails, if you wish to see the products provided they're all linked in the description of the video. You can also see their post on Mermaid Chevron Nails here. The full video is included at the end of this post so make sure you click after the jump!

Gradient Stripe Nail Art

Hey everyone! I've had this design sitting in my files for so long and I just haven't got around to posting it. Mainly because I'm not sure whether I like it or not. But tonight I decided to take the plunge and just post it anyway. This blog is supposed to document all the designs I do, good or bad, so it's time it saw daylight. I think the main reason I don't like it is because the gradient isn't smooth. When I created this I'd run out of triangular makeup sponges and I only had a small circular one and it just didn't work the same unfortunately. I added the stripe to draw attention away from that but I'm not sure if it did enough. I'll let you make up your mind! Let's just pretend they're meant to be striped not gradiented and it will all be fine. For these I used the Barry M - Sunset Daylight Curing collection, which you can see my review of here. I did these mid-review so you can see how long ago it was that I actually did them!

Gradient Hearts for Divine Caroline

Hey everyone! I've started my new job now and it's scary to think that I'll never get to be a lazy student again. It's also tiring sitting at a desk all day, I think it's just the heat though because it's been absolutely boiling in England for the past few days. These nails are some cute heart gradient nails that I created for Divine Caroline. I love how these look and if you want to create them yourself you can see the tutorial here.

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

Alice

Lilac Barry M Gradient

Hey everyone! It's been hectic around here for a few days. I did my last shift at my old job on Saturday and I've spent the past few days sorting out my stuff for my new job. I also spent the day at Ikea yesterday (on the hottest day of the year and my last day of freedom before starting full time work!) buying stuff so that I can live at my boyfriends without living out of a rucksack constantly. So it's been a busy few days. But today I have some nails for you that I created quite a while ago for nail art society at university, which shows how old these are considering we've not done nail art society for over 4 months and they were done well before that. These are just a simple gradient using Barry M products, they're not the best gradient I've ever done, but they're not worth hiding away forever either.

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!

Summer Blues

Hey everyone! The weather here has FINALLY been sunny and it's been so nice to be able to go out and do stuff over the past few days and not be drenched/windswept when I get back in. I've been having a few days relaxing to celebrate finishing my dissertation and it's been so nice to just not have to worry about it for the first time in months. Today's nails are some summer flower gradients I created for Divine Caroline, I also have a tutorial on their website for you to use if you want to create these yourself.

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

Alice

Avon Mineral Crush Gradient

Hey everyone! Sorry for the radio silence this week, I've been hard at work actually writing my dissertation. Yes, actual words. I've spent so long researching that it's actually kind of relieving to be writing it now, and I've already written 6000 words, which is more than half way there. I'm on track to be finished a week early, where I can hopefully finally catch up with all my blogging-related things! I'm so excited to finally be done.  Anyway, today's nails are done using the new Mineral Crush* collection from Avon, I was really impressed with these actually and the gradient was so easy to create with them. They are textured, which I'm not a huge fan of, but I just added topcoat and I think they look great now. I always love textured polishes that just look awesome with topcoat.