Essie Block Colours

Hey everyone! I'm back this week with some nails that are a bit simpler than those I posted last week. I often really struggle to simplify designs, I always want to add more and more but when I'm in a rush I sometimes have to fight against myself and let the designs remain simple. I was playing around with the Essie Resort 2017 Collection*, and I thought the colours would work well in a block manicure. It's been so long since I used tape for a manicure, but I love block manis like this, I used to do loads of them 'back in the day' so it's nice to bring it back. 

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.

Tutorial Thursday: Glitter Strips for Barry M

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I did a tutorial thursday, mainly because I keep forgetting to post tutorials on thursdays (or tuesdays) because I'm terrible at remembering things! Today I have a tutorial I created for Barry M. I decided to try something a little different, and I'm not 100% sure it worked but I'll let you be the judge. Tutorial steps will be after the jump.

St Georges Day Nail Art

Hey everyone! Can you believe it? I'm posting 2 days in a row! I guess it makes up for my lack of posting last week. So today in England is St Georges Day, which for those of you who dont know is the national day for England (although unfortunately it's not a holiday so we don't get a day off!). I've teamed up with Avon again to bring you some St George's Day nails and I really like how they came out, this is the first time I've managed anything near a realistic looking rose!

To create the flags I painted 2 coats of Avon - Real Red, and once that was dry I used striping tape to mark out a cross and then I used Avon - White over the top. Then I finished off with a coat of Seche Vite to seal in the design

For the roses I used Avon - White for the base, then I used Avon - Noir Emerald for the stem of the rose, and Avon - Real Red for the flower itself, mixed with Avon - White and Avon - Black, and again topped off with a coat of Seche Vite

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

Alice

Tutorial Tuesday: Pink Geometric Leopard Print for Divine Caroline

Hey everyone! I'm back with another Tutorial Tuesday I did for Divine Caroline, which you can see here. As per usual it will only be a short post as you can find all the information you'll need on my post there. Today's tutorial is for these spring leopard print nails, I'm not a massive fan of leopard print normally but I think miniaturising it makes it look much better.

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

Don't forget to check out the steps for this design here.

Alice

Nude Squares

Hey everyone! Finally I have some nail art for you, which isn't just part of a tutorial (although hopefully you actually like the tutorials so it's not an issue!). I've had a mixture of ideas going round my head for a while and with the help of a friend I finally put 2 designs together which I think work pretty well. I was inspired by a design I saw posted on Instagram ages ago with no logo and no credit (and I've just tried for 20 minutes to find on google but I can't find any sign of it, let me know if you know the original), and I decided to repeat these nails, which were originally based from this tutorial by Pack a Punch Nails. 

The base for these nails is Barry M - Lychee, and the black and white is acrylic paint, I used striping tape from here to create the squares, I used these brushes for the triangles, and I finished it off with a coat of Seche Vite.

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

Alice

Tutorial Tuesday: Christmas Trees

Hey everyone! This post has been such a nightmare to get sorted. All my applications seemed to be crashing and I couldn't get anything sorted, and I almost gave up, but I wanted to get Tutorial Tuesday up on time and luckily I have! I'm going to be posting tutorials every Tuesday and Thursday before Christmas as I have quite a few to show you. I'm excited for you to see them all, and I also love to see what you do with the tutorials. Don't forget to tag me on Instagram or Twitter, or post on my Facebook, with any designs you do so I can see! The first one for this week is this sparkly christmas tree design on a base of Barry M - Crush from the Classic Matte collection. The rest of the post will be after the jump!

Blue Triangles

Hey everyone! Just a quick post from me tonight. I've had this design done for over 3 months now but I've just not got around to posting it, so I thought it was finally time. I unfortunately can't actually remember the lighter blue colour I used for this as it's been so long and I own so many that are so similar, but the dark blue is Layla CE33.This was all done using striping tape (I dont keep normal tape to hand most of the time) and finished off with a coat of Seche Vite.

What do you think?

Let me know in the comments!

Alice

Nail Girls Nail Art and GIVEAWAY

Hey everyone! Today I have a post using some nail polishes from 'Nail Girls', which is a fantastic brand that I hadn't previously heard of but I'm so glad they contacted me because I really truly loved these polishes. I was provided with 2 polishes to create some nail art with for their blogger of the month post. Alongside this they've also given YOU the opportunity to win 2 polishes of your choice from their website, as well as a topcoat. This is incredibly generous of them and I'm so happy they're willing to do this for you all. The giveaway and giveaway rules will be at the end of the post for those of you who don't want to see my AMAZING nail art ;)

I didn't want to distract too much from the two colours I was given, so I thought using black would be a good way of avoiding that. It's quite difficult to create anything worthwhile out of just 2 colours so black was a great addition to this design. For the squares I used this tutorial by PackaPunchPolish. 

The colours I chose were Pink No.15*, which is the most unique pink I've ever seen, but the camera really doesn't do it justice, and Blue No. 3*, probably the lightest blue in my collection and I could have easily got away with 2 coats but I chose to do 3 just in case. They're both very creamy and opaque, which is always a plus. Pink No. 15 needed 2 coats.

Now for the bit I'm sure you've all been waiting for, the GIVEAWAY!

First off, the boring part, the rules:

• You must be 18 or over or have parents permission in order to enter
• The winner will be chosen randomly using Rafflecopter, which uses random.org
• Whoever wins must respond within 48 hours of me choosing, otherwise I will pick another winner
• The closing date is the 15th August at 12am 
• This giveaway is open to the UK only due to recent regulations on shipping polish (sorry international girls, but I have something great coming up for you soon!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

For those of you who don't win, the lovely Alice from Nail Girls has given me a code for you all to use in order to get 30% off orders over £15 on their website before the 31st August, the code is ONENAIL30

Good look everyone! 

Alice

P.S if you have a minute I would appreciate it so so much if you could vote for me for 'best new beauty blog' in the Cosmopolitan Blog Awards here

*some of the products in this post were provided to me for review but my opinions are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way

Holographic Geometric

Hey everyone! Today's post is my first ever holographic polish, and I absolutely love it. I intended to post these a week ago for Digital Dozen Does Tape Manis, which I completely forgot about and therefore missed. But I promised the lovely ladies that I would do a post, and so I did, I just put off writing it for a week. 

The holographic polish is Layla - Red Taboo*, from the wonderful Sally Magpie's, the blue is Barry M - Blueberry and the green is Barry M - Key Lime, all topped off with a coat of Seche Vite*

Here are some pictures of Red Taboo alone:

These lightbox pictures really don't do this polish justice. It's AMAZING, and I definitely feel I've been missing out on the holo front. 

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

If you haven't already I'd love it if you could vote for me for 'best new beauty blog' in the Cosmopolitan blog awards 2013, you can do so here

Alice

*Some of the products in this post were provided to me for review but all opinions are entirely my own

Then and Now: Lilac Roses

Hey everyone! I'm back (finally) with a new then and now post. I know a lot of you said in the comments of my giveaway that you'd like to see a few more then and now posts so I thought I'd bring it back. Although, I wont be doing it every week like before, just when I feel like it. This week I'm redoing a stripes and roses combination that a few of you may remember as it was probably around a year ago that I did it, in fact you can actually see it on my blog here, but the difference in nail size is huge. I actually cut my nails a bit too short this time around, so the difference is even bigger than it should have been, but oh well! As always the 'then' picture will be after the jump. 

Butter LONDON Marbs - Review and Nail Art

Hey everyone! Today I have a quick review of Butter LONDON 'Marbs'* from Butter LONDON's new Summer Holiday 2013 collection. It's a lovely gold with a hint of silver in it as you shall see. I couldnt resist creating a bit of nail art for you too using my new Orly Dotting Tool* and Orly Striping Brush* that I received from HQhair (a deceiving name considering they also sell nail products too). 

I originally tried to create a design with dots and triangles together on the alternative nails but it looked overcrowded so I ended up redoing it. I used the striping brush for the triangles and touched it up with the dotting tool. For the ring and pointer finger I used striping tape. The black is China Glaze - Liquid Leather 

For me the striper was too long to use as it was so I cut it down, but once I had it worked brilliantly. 

This was just one coat of Marbs* with no top coat, it's ridiculously opaque and it looks brill!

What do you think? Will you be buying Marbs? You can get it here on lookfantastic.com for £12 with free postage worldwide! You can also get the striper here and the dotting tool here on HQhair.com for £7 each, again with free shipping worldwide, and I'd definitely recommend them!

Also, my giveaway is now over so dont forget to check your emails to see if you've won!

Alice

*some of the products in this post were provided to me for review but my opinions were not influenced in any way

Indian inspired?

Hey everyone! Today I have a design which came from nothing. My original idea for this design was to use my new striping tape* from Born Pretty Store to create a half and half design. I really like this striping tape as it's easy to use and doesn't tear like other tape I've used, you can get it here for $1.90 with free shipping, and if you use my code KHL91 you can get 10% off! I also wanted to use my Gold Nail Art Pen* from Models Own, which I knew would be great for an intricate design as it has a thin line and is opaque, so I decided to combine the two by adding a paisley design (albeit done badly) and a line design. When that was done I decided it needed a little extra so I added some white dots using acrylic paint and a small detailing brush. But looking at it now I feel it has kind of an indian feel about it, what do you think?

The base for this design was Viva La Nails, Lovely Colour in 'Tutti Frutti'*, which is a brilliantly opaque pink polish. I have a lot of pinks in my collection (waay too many) and this extra one is definitely a great addition! The other base colours were Essence 'That's What I Mint' and Essence 'L.O.L'

What do you think of this design? Let me know in the comments

Dont forget to use my code KHL91 for 10% off at Born Pretty Store

Alice

*some products in this post were sent to me for review. My views are never influenced by anything other than the truth