Octopus Nail Art for Divine Caroline

Hey everyone! Today I'm showing you a design I've been really excited to post ever since I did them, but I had to wait for them to go live on Divine Caroline first. It's been a while since I did any 'detailed' nail art as such, or at least did anything that wasn't a pattern/florals, or so it feels anyway. So I looked a bit further afield with these nails and came up with the idea of doing octopus nails. I must admit I winged them a little bit, but I was really happy with how these turned out and I wore them for over a week! If you want to see the tutorial on how to create these you can see it here

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

Alice

Barry M Summer 2014 Limited Edition Nail Polish for Superdrug

Hey everyone. Today I have my second post of the Barry M limited edition polishes, this time it's the two polishes created for Superdrug: Seaside* and Promenade*. These two are shimmers rather than cremes like the Boots polishes and as we all know I love cremes, but I can't actually make my mind up which I love most this time around, which must mean these shimmers are awesome!

Seaside nails

Hey everyone! Summer has finally arrived in the UK and I'm loving it! Of course I had to bring you some summer nails to match. These nails were actually another design that I thought about entering into the Beauty and the Beach competition, but decided that they weren't up to much. I know these aren't great but they're definitely something simplistic that you can wear to the beach if you're feeling a bit uninspired.

The base for these is Essence - That's What I Mint but I'm not entirely sure of the other colours because I did them over a month ago. I then used a coat of Seche Vite to finish off.

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

Alice

Rejected from the beach

Hey everyone! Today's nail design was one of my original designs for the beauty and the beach competition, but I felt that it didn't quite make the cut. Nevertheless, I wanted to share it on my blog because it's still a design that I've done and this blog is a document of my designs. I have a couple more still to show you too which should be up in the next couple of weeks.

I'm not sure of the exact colours I used, but I know that the base is OPI - Gargantuan Green Grape, probably with Barry M - Yellow sponged on top, and then Barry M - Blueberry for the sea. But I do know that the black is the black Barry M nail art pen, and the silver is Clinique - Strappy Sandals

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

Alice

Beauty and the Beach 2 Competition - My Entry

Hey everyone! So for my second post today I'm bringing you my Beauty and the Beach competition entry. I'm sure most of you know what it is but for those who don't it's a beauty competition held by Travel Supermarket for a chance to win £500 or £1500! All you have to do is upload an entry inspired by the beach, you can find the rules here, but it ends tomorrow so be quick (I am the queen of last minute!). I know this is a nails blog, but of course I'd like to be in with the chance of winning the full amount, so I hope you'll excuse pictures of my face! I'll put them after the jump and the nails before for those of you who dont.

The Nails

So for the nails, I went directly with the 'beach' theme, and painted a beach on my nails. My style is definitely more cartoon-ey so I wanted to stick with what I know best. I decided to add things you can find and do on the beach.       On my thumb I did a rock pool with a crab next to it, on my pointer finger I did flip flops, on my middle finger is the edge of a picnic rug, on my ring finger is a bucket and spade and a sandcastle with a flag, and on my baby finger is a starfish. 

To do these nails I started off with a base of Butter London - Fiver, and then I sponged on Barry M - Blueberry, but I decided it didn't look very good so I used a paintbrush to make it more of a straight line. Then, on the tips of my nails I sponged Butter London - Cuppa. Then I got a tiny piece of sponge using tweezers and sponged on the white for the foam of the waves. I then mixed Barry M - Blueberry with some white to create the 'waves' with a tiny brush, and I used the same white (MASH - White nail polish) for the clouds (which unfortunately haven't shown up too well in photos). The yellow on the rug, sun and bucket is Clinique - 70 Degrees and Sunny, the red on the rug, flag and spade is Essence - Redvolution, and the crab is redvolution mixed with a tiny tiny bit of brown, the green on the flipflops is Clinique - Hula Skirt, the orange starfish is Clinique - Juiced Up, the black detailing, such as the birds, is China Glaze - Liquid Leather, and the darker brown for the stones and sandcastle is Barry M - Mushroom, either on its own or mixed with white. I did all the details with a tiny cut down brush. (Phew that was a big paragraph)

Waves nail set

Hey everyone! Sorry for my lack of posts recently, its partly as a result of not being able to take pictures because the lighting is terrible (any tips on building a lightbox would be greatly appreciated, I dont really know what bulb to get etc) and because I have SO MUCH work, I totally underestimated how much I would have! So I'm sorry this is kind of a 'lazy' post, if I get enough work done tomorrow I should have another design up either then or Wednesday and that promised tutorial should emerge sometime next week! Now, onto the nails:
You may remember that I posted these nails during my 31 day challenge the other week. I really enjoyed doing them and liked the result and I was recently asked on my Facebook page if I would be willing to do a set of them, so I have and here you go, these are also available on my Etsy :)

Alice