A Very Patterned Christmas

Hey everyone! Can you believe it's Christmas Eve already? I love the build up to Christmas so much, I'll be sad when I can no longer play Christmas songs and have lovely decorations up around the house. I'll also miss Christmas nails. As I said in my last post, I've had so much inspiration this year but not enough time to do anything with it. Hopefully I can carry that inspiration to next year. 

These nails were inspired by this Christmas pattern I found on Pinterest, I loved it so much and I knew it would work well on nails. I tried it initially on false nails with a cream background, and I must admit I think I prefer that to this more blue-toned off-white but I do still like them nevertheless. 

Detailed Pink Roses

Hey everyone! Do you ever do a design and whilst you're painting it you just know you're gonna love it? That was how I felt about these nails. I pushed myself slightly out of my comfort zone painting the roses and I was so proud of how they turned out. They were inspired by these fabrics I found on Pinterest, and I decided to combine two of the designs to go hand in hand, but I kind of wish I'd just done the roses on all fingers.  I wore these for a week and I couldn't stop staring at my nails the whole time. I was especially pleased with them because I have so little time to paint my nails these days and I sometimes worry that I'm losing the skill, so it was nice to see that I haven't. It's definitely given me the bug to try out some more designs that are slightly out of my usual style once I'm back from travelling so watch this space. 

Tutorial: Summer Boho Nail Art for Barry M

Hey everyone! Today I have a step-by-step tutorial to show you. It's been such a long time since I posted one and the other day I was asked on Instagram whether I still post them and I decided it was time to start posting the tutorials I recently created for Barry M. I wasn't really sure where I was going with these I just decided to experiment and I ended up with this boho-ish design. I wasn't sure whether I liked it or not, but having not looked at it for a while I think I do!

I used the recent Speedy nail polish collection for these, plus Cotton* from the spring Gelly collection.. I never got around to posting my full review of them due to exams etc, which I still feel guilty about. But I'm doing my best to try and stay on top of reviews nowadays so I think you'll be seeing more in the future. However, these polishes really impressed me, they have a wide brush that Barry M hadn't used before spring this year and it really helps with application. They're super fast drying and there's quite a few colours across the two releases (spring, and summer) which means you've got plenty to choose from! They sell for £3.99 so if I were you I'd pop down to your local Boots/Superdrug and give them a go if you haven't already.

Mod Nail Art for Divine Caroline

Hey everyone! Sorry for the radio silence, as I mentioned last week I have exams this week so I've been busy studying and it was also my boyfriend's 21st this weekend so I've not really been on my laptop much. My first exam is tomorrow, I'm not feeling overwhelmingly confident but I've done as much work as I can do so we'll see. Today's nails didn't exactly turned out as I had planned. I was given the prompt of 'mod nails' by Divine Caroline and I did a bit of googling on mod patterns and decided to wing it based on a variety of patterns. I'm still not sure whether I like the end result or not. I did end up wearing these for a good week, but only because I didn't have time to take them off! I think they ended up looking a bit like bacon and my flatmate thought they looked like DNA strands, neither were really the effect I was going for! If you like them you can see the tutorial on how to create them here.

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

Alice

Orange Pastel Paisley with River Island

Hey everyone! Today I have something a little different to show you. I've come together with River Island to do some nails based on their new Spring/Summer pastel collections. It's been a while since I tried any paisley. I wish that I'd done the detailing in a lighter colour to keep with the pastel theme, but at the same time I like how they came out. My inspiration for these nails and information on how to create them is after the jump!

Tutorial Thursday: Gingham Studs for Divine Caroline

Hey everyone! This was supposed to go up last night but the schedule didn't work, so here you go! After I posted my gingham nails last month, I had a lot of requests for a tutorial, so I teamed up with Divine Caroline to bring you one! I knew that I really wanted to combine them with more autumnal colours. I'm really liking deep reds this year, even though they stain no end they also look great, and I love how these turned out. Adding polka dots almost like studs was more of an afterthought when I realised that I didn't really want to do all the nails with gingham, and I think it ended up working really well. If you want to see how to create these yourself click HERE to go to the Divine Caroline website.

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

Alice

Etoile Pumpkin Bunting Washbag Inspired

Hey everyone! mybag.com sent me this gorgeous Etoile washbag* which is called 'Pumpkin Bunting' on their website, and I was instantly inspired to create some nail art from it. I was going to do all orange bunting but I decided to add a couple of accent nails in lime green to make it a bit more interesting and I really like how they turned out. I feel like I maybe should have used a darker lime green so it showed up on the white a bit more, but in person they weren't as contrasty so it wasn't an issue. 

Birthday card nails

Hey everyone! Some of you may have noticed that there was no 'then and now' challenge yesterday, I really really didn't have time, I have so many exams coming up and I'm super panicking so I've been revising non-stop. It's not that I haven't been doing the work, I'm just struggling to keep up! So basically what I'm trying to say is that my nails are having to take a back seat at the moment whilst I put my focus into my work, which means no then and now nails until the 26th. I do have a couple of posts lined up, one of which is hopefully a guest post by a very lovely friend of mine, and I will try my best to do my nails away from the 'challenge', but I hope you understand if not!

Although, today is my birthday so of course I had to take a break from revision, and so it seemed like the perfect time to also do my nails.

These nails were based on a birthday card my mum gave me, there were quite a few designs on it so I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot more based around it, and I didn't want to give any spoilers which is why there aren't any pictures of it haha.

I used Essie - Blanc as a base colour, and then I used a medium length striper and China Glaze - Electric Beat, and OPI - Who the Shrek are you? to draw on egg shapes, which I then filled in again with Essie-Blanc and a tiny detail brush.

I hope that you all decide to stick around and see what's in store after my exams, because I have plenty of lovely ideas lined up, I just have to wait until I have time! 

I hope you like these nails, time to get back to packing!

Alice

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