White Dotted Tips

Finally I got round to having some spare time to do my nails last week :)  just getting round to posting them a week later !

These are similar to the dotted green tips I did ages ago but black and white! Here is how I did them:

China Glaze - White on White

China Glaze - Trousseau

Max Factor - Onyx

Topcoat

Toothpick

French manicure stickers

1. Paint your nails all over with a natural nail coloured base (except your ring finger)
2. Use the french manicure stickers as a guide to paint the white onto the tips (you might need two coats of this but make sure the stickers come off before the polish dries)
3. Paint your ring fingers white
4. Once dry use the black polish and a cocktail stick to place neat dots on the white
5. Topcoat and your done!

Hope you like these!

Julie

Nailed It Giveaway

I have been so busy with college just now hence why the lack of nails going up on my blog.  Two weeks until my exam! 

I am planning on holding a giveaway very soon!   

I managed to come across a great prize, bought by myself.  I am not holding the competition right now but when my followers reach 50!  I won't tell you what the prize is yet but it is something to do with nails!

I will tell you now that it will be a photo contest though and that you will have to be a follower of my blog :)  so get painting and following away and keep your eye out for when the competition goes up!

Julie 

PS: Just to mention the lovely makers of the frame above, visit them over at Shabby Blogs, they have such wonderful things!

Dotty!

My second post today!  Im off ill from college with a horrible fluey cold :( . So in-between doing college work I have been playing about with my nails! :) Here is a soft polkadot design!

China Glaze - White on white

George - Sherbet Fizz

George - Smarty Pants

Colour Trend - Iced Pink

Kirby Grip

1. I first painted my nails all over with china glaze white on white with 3 coats.
2. Once they were dry I dotted one colour at a time over all my nails :)
3. I sealed with a topcoat and finished with a matte coat!

Let me know what you think!

Nude Triangle Tips

Firstly I will start off with where I got the inspiration from which was Nailside :).  I saw this post on Chic Chevrons  last week.  I love all her designs and wanted to give this one a go.  I used a baby pink instead of the gold, and it didn't turn out as nicely as hers but I still really like them!

I used:

George - Basecoat

Max Factor - Onyx 

George - Sherbet Fizz

I wouldn't have used a base coat if my nails weren't so stained!  But here I used 2 coats of george base coat to even out the colour.  Next I used tape to line out a triangle shape and painted it with the black polish and left to dry.  Finally I used tape again to mark out where the pink would go and painted the pink layer also.  I finished with a topcoat :)

I hope you like these!

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

Cloudy Days

Had a lot of these recently :)  got the idea from Polish Art Addiction http://polishartaddiction.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/skies-above.html  she suggested a bird or two on an accent nail so I thought I would give it a go.  These only lasted an hour because my right hand just turned out disastrous and I can't go out with my nails looking less that perfect :P

The white polish didnt go on too well for me yesterday so the clouds ended up looking a bit bumpy! 

I used:

George - Smarty Pants

Marks and Spencer - White

Max Factor Onyx

Sparkle Tips

George - Witchcraft

George - Jackpot

George - Matt Finisher

First I painted my nails all over with the witchcraft colour.  Once that was dry I painted the tips (and one full nail) with 3 coats of the Jackpot glitter varnish and left to dry.  I finished with the Matt Finisher :)

These would be good christmas nails!

Dotted Green Tips

George - Smarty Pants

George - Base Coat

Marks and Spencer - White

Cocktail Stick

Here I painted my nails all over first with 2 coats of the base coat.  Once that was dry I put the french manicure stickers on to separate the tips off and painted them the smarty pants colour and fully painted my full coloured nail.  Once that was dry I dotted the white over the tips, and all over the full colour nail for this look.  And finally a topcoat.

My fiance took this photograph :) you can find other stuff by him here. 

I created the new title at the bottom of the picture to use on all the photographs from now on.  Let me know what you think.

This is my entry for the Born Pretty Store blog competition :)

Matte Sparkle French Manicure

George - Base Coat

George - Jackpot

George - Matte Finisher

Marks and Spencer - White Tip

French Manicure Stickers

I bought 3 new nail polishes today, again all 3 by george from asda.  All 3 only £1.75 each.  Bargain if you don't have much change to spare.  Also picked up french manicure strips while I was in also for 99p.  So much easier than fiddling about trying to cut tape into perfect curved strips!

Here I used 2 of my new polishes named Base Coat (a nice natural colour) and Jackpot (a delicate silver glitter polish).  I applied 2 coats of the Base Coat to my nails.  I used my new manicure strips to separate the tips, painted them with white polish pulled off the strips and left to dry.  I applied another coat of the Base Coat and left to dry.  Next I put on a coat of Jackpot and left to dry.  Finally I put a coat of the matt finisher on finish.  I have never tried a matt french manicure or a glittery one but I think it turned out really nice and natural especially with the matt finish.  The glitter is so subtle with the one coat, I really like it.

Has anyone else had any experience with any of the george nail polishes? Let me know what you think of them?  Let me know what you think of these nails :)

White Tipped

George - Smarty Pants

Barry M - White

George - Matt Finisher

Topcoat

Tape

Silver Tinsel

I first painted my nails all over the smarty pants colour.  When that was dry I taped of a diagonal line for the white to go.  Once the white was dry I put a topcoat on and used tinsel cut to the size of my nails to separate the two colours.  Another topcoat once it was dry and finally a matt topcoat.  

Circus Nails

George - Smarty Pants

Barry M - White

Tape

Excuse the messy bits around my nails! First I painted my nails all over with smarty pants, then once that was dry I cut out thin and thicker strips of tape and put them on the nails I wanted the designs on.  I painted white polish over that and peeled the tape off before it dried.  Circus nails!

Candy Nails

George - Sherbert Fizz

Barry M - White

George - Matt Finisher

Tape

I first painted my nails the sherbert fizz pink and waited to dry before cutting tape into small long triangles and putting them on the nails I wanted the design on.  Covered those nails with white nail varnish and peeled off the tape before it dried.  Finished with a matt topcoat.

Excuse the mess around my nails haha.

Quick Easter Nails

These were just silly cute nails I did and managed to smudge straight after this webcam picture was taken so they had to come off :( 


I mixed my purple and yellow nail varnish with white nail varnish to get the lilacy and pale yellows :)


Here is the video I got the idea from:

Gradient Ombre Pinks

Max Factor - Disco Pink

Barry M - White

Topcoat

George Manicure - Matt Finisher

Cocktail Stick

I was just playing about with this, I didn't think this would actually turn out keepable!  I only have one shade of pink so I painted my thumb the original pink.  Then on a sheet of paper I mixed the white and pink together to make a lighter shade and that went on my index finger, added more white for the third finger and so on.  After that had dried I used the cocktail stick and the white to dot lots at the top and less as I came away from the tip.  I think it looks quite like snow :) I was going for an easter look, but seeing as it is snowing outside as I type this it is quite fitting!  I sealed with a topcoat and waited a few hours to dry completely before doing any washing or physical things with my hands.  The dots took ages to dry.  Next day I put on matt finisher and there you go!

ASDA Matt Finish

I love matt finishes but I cant afford to spend £10 on a nail varnish.  In asda I noticed a matt finisher by george.  For £1.75! So I bought it and it works great! I wish I had taken a before picture to show how it works. But here it is after I applied the matt:

It applies really well and easily.  I got two other george nail polishes today so when this chips off I will post those colours!

French Manicure with Bows 2

French Manicure with Bows 2

Colour Trend - Iced Pink

Barry M - White

Black Acrylic Paint

Tape

Small Paint Brush

Cocktail Stick

Topcoat

This is the second bow french manicure I did.  I love french manicures, they just always go with anything and make nails look neat.  I used a shimmery pink and a white nail varnish to create the classic french manicure and used tape cut into a curve to keep a nice neat line. After this was dry I used black acrylic paint and a small paint brush to draw a black line between the two colours and painted a small bow like above.  I then used a cocktail stick to place a small dot in between each bow.  Then used a topcoat to seal.