Pastel Chevrons (Competition Entry)

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

I used 

Essie - Nice is Nice 

George - Smarty Pants 

China Glaze - White on White

I think they remind me of a clown outfit :) I really like them and I hope I win!

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!

Purple Tipped

Max Factor - Boji

Essie - Nice is Nice

Tape

Striping Tape

Firstly I got this idea from Pshiiit.  I have loved it for ages but never had a lilac to try it out with until now!  I bought Essie - Nice is Nice last week and I love it!  Three coats gives full coverage and it is such a lovely creamy lilac.  Here is how I did these nails:

1. First paint your nails all over with your chosen base colour.
2. Next once your base coat is dry put tape in a diagonal line so only part of the tips are showing and paint your second chosen colour.
3. Remove your tape before the polish dries.
4. Once this is dry take your striping tape and cut it to size and place over the line between the two colours.
5. Finish with a couple of top coats to keep the striping tape in place.

I found that striping tape is very difficult to stay put!  It only lasted a day, but it was neat underneath so it looked fine when it did decide to come off!  

Bow French Manicure

I did these a while ago but didn't have the best picture of them.  So here they are all pictured out :) complete with a little bambi!  I used:

China Glaze - White on White

George - Base coat

Black Acrylic Paint

Cocktail Stick

Manicure guides

Matte Topcoat

1. First I painted two coats of the base coat (because my nails are REALLY stained!)
2. Next I used the manicure guides to paint white on the tips
3. Once this was dry I did another coat of the base coat
4. Next I used the acrylic paint and cocktail stick to paint on the bows and lines :) (My tiny paintbrush got damaged so a cocktail stick is the next best thing i had!)
5. Then a clear topcoat over that
6. And finally a matte topcoat over it all (I LOVE matte french manicures!)

Julie 

Water Marble Nails

Max Factor - Intense Plum

China Glaze - White on White

Topcoat

Small Bowl

Room Temperature Water

Cocktail sticks

Cotton buds

Tape

I have wanted to do these for ages but always read stories where people failed and it didn't turn out good at all which put me off, but I had some spare time yesterday to do these! Here is how I did them:

1. Put room temperature water in the small bowl
2. Have your polish open at the ready as well as all of the things in the list above
3. Tape up the skin around your nails to avoid SO MUCH clean up after.
4. Now drop a colour of polish into the bowl and it should spread over the top of the water
5. Next drop another colour and it will do the same
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 about 3 times till you have a number of coloured rings
7. Next use your cocktail stick to swirl a pattern into the polish 
8. Now place your nail face down above the design and slowly lower your finger into the water (you can do this 2 nails at a time to save time!)
9. Leave for 3 seconds and get your cotton bud and swirl it about the water while leaving your finger(s) in the water to pick up all the excess polish!
10. And thats it! Repeat with all nails and finish with a topcoat! And clean up around your nails :P

This was so simple for me! I added a few dots around the design after.  In all it took about 20 minutes to do my whole hand :) it's not as hard as it looks at all!  I will upload a video tutorial soon when I try it out again!

Julie

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

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!

Galaxy Nails

Max Factor - Onyx

Marks and Spencer - White Tip

Barry M - Yellow

17 - Orange Soda

Missguided - Mischievous
George - Jackpot

Make up sponge

Cocktail Stick


I kept seeing these about other blogs and decided to have a go at my own.  Heres how I did it:

1. I painted my nails all over black (over a base coat!)
2. Ripped up the sponge and used the torn side to dip it into white polish and use it to sponge random lines over my nails (into the shapes in my nails above)
3. I went over some of the white with the yellow with the sponge again (not completely covering the white but most of it)
4. Next I used the orange and pinky red to sponge over small parts of the colours already (not too much, just maybe one side of it)
5. I used the white with sponge again just to blend it a bit more into the black very gently, not much at all, just enough to make it not look like as solid lines.
6. I used a cocktail stick to put random white dots all over the black.  Keeping them tiny apart from one or two big ones.
7. After this was dry I used a small glitter polish coat just to add more stars too the look
8. And finally a topcoat!

This was a very quick nail art for me compared to how long it usually takes!  The sponged areas dry almost instantly so there is no waiting around for nails to dry for so long :)

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?

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

Spring Time

Here are some spring inspired nails I did this week.  I used:

Missguided Nail Polish - missChievous

Barry M - Yellow

Marks and Spencer - White Tip

I just used a kirby grip for a dotting tool for the flowers.  I really like it :) very springy!

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