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

I Love You Beary Much

Hey everyone! When I did my valentines 'I Whaley Love You' pun nails I said that I was annoyed that I hadn't had the time to create more punny nails. I had a few comments saying that I should just do them throughout the year anyway, so that's what I've decided to do. I love a good pun and cute puns are even better. Today's pun is 'I love you beary much'. I wasn't really sure where I was going with these, I just added things to them until I liked them, such as the hearts, and I actually really liked how they turned out. I used Barry M - Fondant* as the base as I was reviewing it and decided that it would look good with nail art (full review coming in the next week), and I think it works really well. I also actually did this on both nails which is a total rarity for me, but I unfortunately didn't take any pictures so you'll just have to take my word for it. I ended up wearing these for well over a week without any chips, but I got a bit bored of looking at them in the end!

Gelish Cinderella Hearts

Hey everyone! I have some more belated valentine's day nail art for you today. I was in the process of swatching the Gelish Cinderella Collection* and I just couldn't resist adding some nail art using the new Barry M Quick Dry shades*. (All of which I'm hoping to have finished swatching ASAP). Then I couldn't decide on a colour for the hearts so I just went with a variety. These ended up being the nails that I was wearing on valentines day itself, and I think they're sufficiently girly enough! 

 

I Whaley Love You

Hey everyone! Sorry about the late valentines post, I decided to spend valentines day off the internet. I finally had some inspiration for some nails and I couldn't wait to do them. I got a birthday card from my friend saying 'have a whaley good time' and it gave me the idea for these valentines nails. I intended to do quite a few punny nails for valentines day this year but ended up not having time, but one design is better than none. Maybe I'll do them anyway, just not for valentines day.

Valentines Nude for Avon

Hey everyone! I hope you've all had an okay Friday 13th and nothing too drastic has happened to you, and you're all looking forward to valentines day tomorrow. I definitely am, and I can't wait to show you the designs I've created. As always I've left it until the last minute to post, so I will have two designs for you tomorrow, and one today. Today's design is just a simple heart design I created for Avon.

Tutorial Tuesday: Galaxy Hearts Nail Art for Divine Caroline

Hey everyone! I'm SO excited to show you these nails, I did them about 3 weeks ago and I've been waiting for them to go live on Divine Caroline so I could show you. I saw this design a few months ago and I just knew that I had to recreate it. I was entirely sure how to go about it and when I looked online I saw that there weren't any tutorials, so I decided to make one myself, and wing it along the way. For the full steps click HERE to go to Divine Caroline.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments! And don't forget to check out the tutorial HERE

Alice

There's only just over a week left to vote for your favourite blogs in the Cosmo Blog Awards, I'd really appreciate your votes for 'Best Established Beauty Blog' if you feel I deserve it! You can vote here, and if you don't want to vote in the other categories you can just press next.

Models Own Nail Art Tool Kit Review + Love Letters Nail Art

Hey everyone! I've been having a few days break from blogging because I feel like most of the stuff I have waiting to show you is pretty low-par, and I just haven't been able to bring myself to edit something that I'm not particularly proud of. I've created a few nail art designs recently that I'm insanely proud of, but they wont be going up for a few weeks as they're work for companies etc. so I only have a few posts I did weeks ago before my exams. Once exams are over next week I hope to create lots and lots of awesome nail art, so I'm sorry if the designs I post this week aren't 100% great, sometimes ideas dont work out as great in my head as they do on my nails.

BUT I do like these nails, I'd completely forgotten I had them hiding away in my Models Own folder as I thought I'd posted everything during review week and I stumbled across them earlier and knew I finally had something worth posting. I was sent the Models Own Nail Art Tool Kit* a few weeks ago and I've actually been using it quite a lot. I used the flat brush for clean up on all my nail art. It came through my postbox at the perfect time in fact because my old one had fallen to pieces only the day before and I was all ready to purchase a new one.

For these nails I used the Detailing Brush, the Striping Brush and the Dotting Tool, along with the Flat Brush for clean up, all of which I was really impressed with. I did cut the detailing brush down a bit, as I always tend to, but otherwise I left them as they were.

Tutorial Tuesday: Romance Isn't Dead for Divine Caroline

Hey everyone! Today's tutorial tuesday is going to be a little different. From now on, the steps for every other tutorial tuesday will be available to view on Divine Caroline, but I will only be posting the finished design look on here. The first tutorial I've done for DC is this cute heart design, which you can find on DC here. I knew I wanted to do some form of pattern within hearts, and I originally thought I'd do a tutorial for this design I did a while ago but once I started I realised I wanted to go for something a bit more cutesy. 

Don't forget to go check out the steps for this design HERE

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

Alice

Guest post for xameliax

Hey everyone! Second post today, do you feel special? You should! I'm afraid I'm just linking you to another post again because I've done a guest post for the lovely xameliax, so if you want to read more about these nails you can do so here

Hope you like them!

Alice

Valentines Day Tutorial

Hey everyone, happy Valentines day! You might remember this post from a few weeks ago when I said I had a tutorial coming soon for it... well it's now ready. I've done this tutorial for Nail It! magazine so you can view it here 

I also did an interview for them which you can see here (and finally see my face!)

Hope you like it

Alice

Heart shaped studs review

Hey everyone! I totally forgot to post last night, I spent most of my night doing nails, not just my own, and didn't have the energy to post when I finally remembered at 1am. So here I am today, which means you'll probably get 3 posts in a row this week. (Surely that's a bonus?)

So today's post is a review of some awesome 6mm heart shaped studs that I recieved from KKcentreHK. I decided to create a valentines design with them (duh) but I probably should have chosen a different colour for the flowers because they're not very clear as you can see! 

I actually really liked these studs, they're not very practical as they dont lay completely flat, but for the many of you who wear bows and studs and whatever else on your nails I really dont think that will be in an issue. I'd love it if they were miniscule but even at the size they are I cant wait to use them again. 

They come in a small packet with around 40-50 studs inside. But that's actually a lot considering that you can easily reuse these multiple times. The base for these nails was OPI - Gargantuan Green Grape, and I used OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls for the 'white' and Essie - Beyond Cozy for the glitter.

I know a lot of you come here for nail inspiration, so for those of you who anxiously waiting the arrival of your 6mm heart studs that you just realised you wanted, here is an alternative design for valentines day:

The studs sell here for $5, which I think is actually really good value for money. especially when you can use my code 'ONTRTA' to get 10% off!

What do you think? Will you be buying these studs? And which manicure do you prefer? Let me know in the comments!

Alice

Tomorrow is also the last day to enter my GIVEAWAY so dont forget!

This product was sent to me for review but any opinions included are entirely my own and were not affected in any way by anyone else

More valentines and a new technique!

Hey everyone! So yesterday you got 2 posts in one day, dont expect that very often because it probably wont happen again haha. Anyway, today's post is yet more valentines day related nails, please tell me when it gets too much because I absolutely love doing hearts and I have a couple more designs planned yet! I also wanted to test out a new technique that I'd heard about, using my new bottle from Born Pretty Store. 

I know many of you like to use empty used bottles for this technique, but I've always struggled to completely empty them, and for those of you who are out there, and incapable like me, but really want to use the PVA glue technique, this is for you. The bottle is pretty similar to a seche vite bottle, with a slightly longer lid. The brush isn't too wide and all round it's quite easy to use. You all know how much I hate glitter just because of the removal, but now I can't get enough of it, seriously GIVE ME ALL THE GLITTER. On that note if anybody wants to buy me a new bottle of Essie - Beyond Cozy I wont say no ;)

So I filled the bottle with PVA, and then applied it to my nails just like normal polish. My lovely friend Emily advised me to wait 20 minutes, or at least until it was completely clear and dry to touch, so I did. And then I removed it tonight, it was SO easy, I will be using this every time without a doubt. I'm afraid the removal picture is awful quality because my camera is dead and I need to buy some more batteries so my phone shall have to suffice. 

Before I show you the removed nails though it's probably best that I actually explain the nails! I used my set of Essie minis from the Winter 2012 collection which includes leading lady, snap happy and beyond cozy, all of which are beautiful, and I also added Barry M - Bright Pink. The base is of course leading lady. I used a small detailing brush for the hearts. These pictures truly don't capture the beauty of leading lady, it's so so beautiful. 

As you can see they all removed perfectly and there was absolutely no damage to my nails after at all. If you put PVA on your skin and peel it off (which by the way, is AWESOME, and your childhood probably included doing it at some point) it doesnt damage the skin, and it doesn't damage your nails either. I would 100% recommend this technique, and for those of you who are incapable of cleaning bottles just like me then you can get an empty bottle here at Born Pretty Store, and if you use my code KHL91 then you can get 10% off!

What do you think? Both of the nails and of the technique? Let me know in the comments, I love reading what you have to say.

Alice

And dont forget to enter my giveaway! If you win you could buy this bottle ;) 

This product was sent to me for review but any opinions included are entirely my own and were not affected in any way by anyone else

Valentines has come early!

Hey everyone, I had my first exam today and I'm feeling relieved that it's over, but I have 2 more to go so we'll see if the optimism continues! Today's post is only going to contain one picture as it's actually from an upcoming tutorial that you'll see around valentines day, but I wanted to use it as a post this week so you weren't left with nothing! I'm not going to give much away now because you'll see soon, but I hope you like them! 

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

Alice

My first guest post!

Hey everyone, just a quick post to say that I did a guest post for basecoat-topcoat on tumblr, so click here to be taken to that post to see what products I used! Hope you like them, Alice

Scrabble love nail set

So a while ago on tumblr I posted these nails and they became my most popular post ever. I don't really know why because I almost didn't even upload them because the background to the picture annoyed me. Anyway, I decided to redeem that picture by doing them in the form of a new set that's now available on my Etsy.

Alice

Back to normality!

So now the challenge is over we can return to normality, although having written all these posts in advance for my 2 week holiday I wouldn't exact call it normal. I'm not one of those bloggers who has a large selection of things still to post, I do my nails and I post them, simple. So it's been pretty stressful to try and get some extra posts sorted for whilst I'm away, but I hope you'll enjoy them.

Today's post came to me accidentally, I was just messing around and this is what I came up with. I actually really like it though I think it would have been even better outlined in black, maybe I'll try it again when I get back from my holiday. 

I used Barry M - Blueberry and Matt White + acrylic paints, using a dotting tool for the hearts and a small thin paintbrush for the details. Hope you like them!

Alice