Candle Tin Design

OPI - Kiss me in my Tulips

China Glaze - White on White

Black Nail Art Pen

Blue Unknown Polish

George - Pale Pink

Tape

Dotting Tools

I have been lacking inspiration recently for nail designs but I with my birthday money and presents I managed to get my hands on some new nail polishes and tools to get back into nail art again.  I got this Pintail Candle for my Birthday from Chris because he got me it last year but it ran out and it has the most amazing smell ever :).  I also got 2 more from Chris in different smells and one from my sister as well.  So if you like candles check these ones out!

I used striping tape and regular tape to mark off the stripes and painted them in the colours to match the tin and I used my new dotting tools my sister got me for the different sized dots.  I finished with a topcoat :).

Hope you like these nails!

Golden Stripes (Competition Entry)

This is my second entry for My Awesome Beauty's Competition.  Clicking the link will take you to the competition page.

I used

OPI - Thanks A Windmillion

Primark - Gold

Max Factor - Onyx

I really like this combination.  I did a different take on the design and added stripes to one half.

Stripes

OPI - Pedal Faster Suzi

OPI - I have a Herring Problem

I used two of the polishes in the mini dutch treats here.  Using tape to seperate the colours.  Two nails were painted the pink and three were painted the grey, then the pink was painted in a diagonal line over the grey (turning it into a nice purple!) and the grey was painted over the pink.

Cute Spots

Essie - Nice is Nice

OPI - Kiss me in my Tulips

I did these by painting three nails with Kiss me in my Tulips and two with Nice is Nice and left to dry.  Then used a hair pin to dot white polish onto the lilac :)

I love these nails haha they are really quirky!

V Gap Nails

These were done using striping tape and two different nail polishes!  Not much else to say today :)

Cherry Blossom Nails

I got bored of my plain painted nails and my sister had just given me some flower nail stickers and a black nail art pen!  I am not sure where she got either of them exactly other than ebay.  

The stickers were not so good for nail art as the came off really really easily but it was fun just for the pictures! :)

What do you think of these?

OPI Thanks a Windmillion Swatch

OPI "Thanks a Windmillion"

Here is a swatch of the Holland collection called Thanks a Windmillion.  It is a gorgeous creamy dirty green colour.  I think it is VERY similar to Mermaid Tears.  Full coverage in two coats and I love the colour :)

Red lights ahead...where? Swatch

"Red lights ahead...where?"

This was the next colour of the OPI Dutch Treats mini's from the Holland Collection.  It is a bright red (with hints of orange but still quite red!).  Great coverage even after one coat and a lovely smooth formula.  I don't have a bright red in my collection and finally I do now!

This completes my OPI mini Dutch Treats swatches!  Overall I loved this little box collection.  Great to try out a selection of different colours :)

Kiss Me in my Tulips Swatch

''Kiss me in my Tulips"

This is the next OPI Dutch Treats mini's I did a swatch of.  It's called Kiss me in my Tulips and is a bright pink.  I only used one coat in the swatches above and it was pretty much opaque but two would give perfect coverage.  Very easy to apply and a nice formula.  I really love this colour, it's so girly!

What do you think of this collection?

OPI Dutch Treats Swatches

I bought the OPI Dutch Treats mini collection from the Holland Collection.  Here are the first two swatches I have reviewed. 

"Pedal Faster Suzi!" and "I Have a Herring Problem" were the colours used in this swatch!  I got impatient and didn't want to wait to do two separate swatches!  But these pictures show the true colours perfectly.  They are both gorgeous glittery polishes and both gave full coverage after three coats (Pedal Faster Suzi! was still a little sheer after three coats, I could still see the whites of my nails very slightly but I loved it).  Both very easy too apply also.

I will upload the other two colours from this mini collection soon!

Bunting Nails!

OPI - Care to Danse

Black Thread

Tape

Topcoat


I felt like being summery with bunting nails!  What do you think?  I used real thread for the string and i used this tutorial for the triangles since it would have been too fiddly painting on so many triangles!


Julie

Tipped Sparkle Red

Max Factor - Onyx

Max Factor - Deep Mauve

OPI - Pirouette my Whistle

George - Matt Finisher

I had the max factor deep mauve for a long time now and only worn it once as I am not a huge fan of full red on my nails(although this is a gorgeous red that shines purple ish in the light).  Then I got the OPI glitter polish I thought it would go great together so I put 2 coats on top of 2 coats of the red and wore it yesterday.  

I had a bit of wear on the tips but didn't fancy taking it all off so soon (trying to get glitter off with an acetone free remover is frustrating!) so I used tape to mark out V shaped tips and painted black over :).  I LOVE matt top coats on top of glitter and wanted it to look totally different from yesterday so I matted them after :) and I love them.  What do you think?

OPI - My Pointe Exactly swatch

My swatch of OPI my pointe exactly from the New York City Ballet collection.  This took 4 coats to get it to the colour above.  I really like this colour.  It is such a subtle grey colour.  It looks great when it has been matted with a topcoat (have a look at the newspaper nails to see what I mean).  It goes on really easily and looks gorgeous after a few good coats!  Another nice subtle colour from this collection.

OPI - Don't Touch my Tutu swatch

Here is my swatch from the New York City Ballet collection of Don't Touch my Tutu!  It goes on so easily.  It is a sheer nail polish.  To get it to the colour in the picture above it took  5 coats.  But it is so worth it, I am not a fan of bright white full nails but this adds such a nice subtle white colour to your nails.  My favourite colour in the New York City Ballet collection so far!

White Glitter Mani

OPI - Don't touch my tutu

OPI - Pirouette my whistle

Marks and Spencer - White

George - Matt Finisher


Here is a matte white glitter manicure.  I used 4 coats of don't touch my tutu and 1 coat of pirouette my whistle, then using manicure stickers I painted my white tips and finished with  matte topcoat.


This is my first time using this OPI glitter polish and I love it.  It is so sparkly and full of glitter!  


I hope you like this mani!  

Newspaper Nails

After painting my nails with my new OPI - my pointe exactly I realised that is is a great colour for doing newspaper nails.  I have tried these before and the writing came out smudgey or not very strong on most nails.  But these ones turned out great!  I think it must be based on the first nail polish you put down as well as how you apply the print onto your nails to get it nice and clear like this. Here is how I did it:

OPI - My Pointe Exactly 

George - Matte Finisher

Gin (60%) but any strong alcohol works

Cotton Wool

Bits of newspaper writing cut out to nail shapes

1. I first painted my nails all over with the OPI varnish.  It took 4 coats to get it to a usable colour for these.  
2. I waited till they were COMPLETELY dry (or you may have actual pieces of newspaper stuck to your nails!)
3. I dipped my finger into the gin and then dipped the newspaper cutouts into the gin while holding it with tweezers.
4. Then I carefully positioned the newspaper print side down over my nail the way I wanted it and covered it with the cotton wool and pushed down an even pressure all over my nail for about 20 seconds. 
5. I removed the cotton wool and gave the newspaper a quick last push down to make sure as much ink got off it as possible and gently peeled it off with the tweezers.
6. Any excess paper left on my nail I picked off with the tweezers gently.  But don't worry too much about little fluffys left because they are not noticeable after a topcoat.
7. Repeat these steps with all your nails and you should have these!
8. I finished with a topcoat and then a matte topcoat (because newspapers are not shiny :))

Hope this tutorial made sense and was easy to follow.  Leave a comment about how it worked for you and leave a link if you tried it out and snapped a photo :)

Julie