DIY Abstract Flower Nail

We're coming to the end of summer so I thought I'd do one last summery nail tutorial before autumn arrives. This is surprisingly easy and looks really effective. You can substitute the colours for any others that you have but I really like the gold as the background as I think it adds a bit of glamour to the nail. 

You will need...

* Base coat and top coat

* A gold colour for the base (I used one from Primark that came in a Caviar nail kit)

* A selection of 3 colours for the flower (I used Beauty UK in Lilac Girl, No 7 Stay Perfect in Fox Glove and Natural Collection in Antique Coral)

* Any green colour for the stalk (I used MUA in Shade 5)

* Dotting tools (I have these ones and they are really great!) You could also use a cocktail stick

1. Apply your base coat and then two coats of your gold colour to create the background.

2. Take a largish dotting tool and dip it in the first colour. Then paint on a semi circle that looks something like this. The shapes should look a little like paisleys.

3. Using the same tool dip it in your second colour and paint a dot in the middle of the paisley shape.

4. Using a slightly smaller tool, paint a dot of your third colour in the centre of the other two colours. If you do this before the other colours have dried completely (so they are still a little tacky) the dot creates a small indent as well which creates a nice effect.

5. Take a medium sized tool and dip it in the green. Then sweep the colour round the flower and away to create the leaf/stalk shape.

6. Leave to dry completely before adding your top coat.

DIY Bow Nails

Bows are everywhere at the moment. Jewellery, clothes and hair accessories are covered in them so I thought I would try and design a manicure featuring them as well. This design is a little fiddly, but totally worth it.

You will need...

* Base coat

* Pale pink nail colour (I used this Nails Inc one)

* Darker pink/mauve colour (I used this No 7 one in Highland Mist)  

* Top coat (I used my No 7 Gel-Look one)

* Nail dotting tools or a cocktail stick

1. To start, apply your base coat and then two coats of the pale pink colour. Wait for it to dry completely.

2. Drawing the bows is a little fiddly and time consuming. It was difficult to take photos in focus whilst I was doing this on the nail, so I've replicated the strokes I did on a piece of paper for you to see...

With your dotting tool or cocktail stick, start by putting a dot in the centre. Then draw two triangles on either side of the dot to create the bow shape. Finally, after this has dried completely. Go back in with the pale pink colour and paint on the dot again. This just gives the bow a little more definition.

On my thumb, I then added two strokes below the bow to create the ribbon effect.

(Sorry for the quality of the pictures. I think I need a better camera!)

If you wanted to add little sparkle to this design you could always put a rhinestone in the middle of the bow instead of going back in with the pale pink colour...

Enjoy! :)

xoxo

Basic Ombre Nails

I know that there are hundreds of blogs posts about how to do ombre nails, but I'd never tried them before and so I thought I would add my take on the trend. Personally I love the look of ombre anything at the moment and the colours that I've chosen for this look are so summery and aquatic. But I'm excited at the prospect of using this technique with christmassy reds and golds in the winter. Here's my easy guide to ombre nails...

You will need:

* Base coat and top coat
* 2 coloured nail varnishes (I used this one and this one)
* Small sponge
* Plastic surface (I used old magazine packaging but you could use anything)
* Cotton buds and nail polish remover
* Cocktail stick (or anything else small and pointy!)






1. Clean your nails and apply your base coat. Follow this by one thin coat of one of your colours. I used the lilac because I though the turquoise would go better over the top.

2. Prepare your ombre - put two blobs of your coloured nail varnishes side by side on the plastic. Then take your cocktail stick and blend the colours together in the middle. Take your sponge and press the end into the nail varnish so that there is a thickish layer

3. Then simply press this onto your nail. Don't worry it will be messy and go over the edge as you can see.

4. To clean up the edges take the cotton bud and soak it in your nail varnish remover and simply wipe around the edges of your nail to clean up the excess varnish.

5. Apply a top coat and voila...beautiful ombre nails are all yours!

They look a little grainy from up close but from a distance (which to be honest is how most people are going to see then) they look great!

Enjoy!

xoxo

Baroque Nails (and new No.7 range)

Although I do say so myself, I LOVE these nails! Once I've got a colour on my nails, I often add some glitter to the thumb nail on one hand and the ring finger on the other, just to keep it modern and a little glitzy, but after I saw how nicely these two polishes went together, I had to do it on all my nails. There is something about dull muted tone of the grey that makes the gold less 'in your face' and more sophisticated. But also the glitter is still very much there to made this manicure a little special.

I used a coat of base coat, followed by two coats of Revlon Colourstay in 300 Bare Bones, and then a coat of my trusty cheap W7 gold glitter.

As a slight side note this this blog, I have also just discovered a new top coat from No. 7 called Gel-Look Shine. It's part of a new gel range they've just brought out, which are supposed to 'help prevent chipping and improve ease of application to help achieve a streak free finish', and also smooth and plump the nail. I've only used it once so far, but I have to say I'm impressed. It has left an extremely smooth finish and they haven't chipped yet! And the whole range is just £6.50 which I think it actually pretty decent if all the polishes are of the same quality. I may have to make another trip to the No. 7 counter in the near future...!

Let me know what you think of the manicure and also the new No. 7 range.

xoxo

DIY Glitter Striped Make-Brush/Pencil Pot

Anyone who knows me will know that I am bit of a sucker for anything glittery. I'm not sure how this happened, or why...I used to consider glitter a little kitsch and childish, but in recent years I have come to fully embrace sparkles, and am always looking for ways to incorporate glitter into my life! So when I decided I needed a new make-up brush holder, I immediately tried to think of ways to include a little sparkle. This brush pot is super easy to make and could be used to hold brushes or pens and pencils...or anything else!

As you can see the holder I chose had a cute butterfly handle. I got this particular one from a shop called TIGER (side note: TIGER is by far my favourite shop at the moment. Imagine a cross between the market place in Ikea and an arts and crafts store. I literally want everything they stock! Unfortunately, there are only a few dotted around the UK at the moment, but hopefully they will open a few more stores soon!) Anyway, the point is you can choose any plain white pot, mug or cup you want!

Here's how I did it...

What you need:
*Plain white holder
*Glitter paint (I got mine here)
*PVA glue (Also from The Works)    

*Paint brush
*Masking tap

1. The first thing you need to do is decide how big you want your stripes to be. I choose to have mine all fairly equal but you can experiment with different designs. I also think this would be really nice in a chevron pattern...

2. Stick your masking tape round the holder in the areas that you don't want the glitter to be. You are now ready to start painting!

3. Grab a brush and start slapping the glitter on. If you can't find glittery paint, you could always just mix some glitter into some of the glue and make your own. I found that I needed about 4 or 5 coats of paint before the glitter was of the intensity I wanted. Again, you can choose how glittery you want your stripes to be. I also painted the front of the butterfly of my holder in glitter.

4. When the glitter paint is completely dry (I left mine over night) CAREFULLY peel off the masking tape. If you do this too quickly you risk having some of the paint come off with the tape...I learnt this the hard way ;)

5. Finally, give your holder a couple of coats of PVA glue to set the glitter paint and voila!

I haven't tried washing my cup yet, but I don't think it will stand up too well to vigorous washing so perhaps just wipe the insides when you really have to. Now I've realised how cheap and easy this was to do nothing is safe from my glitter obsession. Stay tuned for more glitterized creations soon...:)

xoxo

Coral and Gold Nails

I was given a load of nail art equipement for Christmas and have been experimenting with it ever since. It has taken a while to get used to using some of the bits and pieces, and its safe to say I've had a few mishaps! But I came up with a coral and gold design the other day which I thought worked quite well so I'm sharing it with you...

I think the colours work great for summer, but also have a bit of an autumn/halloween vibe, making this design quite versatile. 

I'll put detailed instructions below with a list of everything I used and where to get them from. The trickiest bit was putting on the chevron stripes...I tried a few different techniques and found that it was easiest with a pair of tweezers, but you can experiment a little to find the easiest way for you.

What I used...

* Base coat/Top coat

* Coral nail polish (I used Boots Natural Collection Antique Coral, but you could use any)

* Gold and green caviar nail beads (I actually used a set I got from Primark, but these are all the rage at the moment so you can get them from most places)

* Gold nail tape (If you search for nail tape on Amazon, there are load of different options like these... )

* Gold nail jewel (Again, there are load of nail jewel sets. This is the one that I have.)

1. I always start with a base coat and then two coats of my colour, however with this manicure, you need to choose the nail that you want to do the caviar on, and only do one coat until you are ready with the caviar polish. I learnt how to do the caviar manicure properly from this video, which can explain it much better than me!

2. Once you've got a base of colour, you can get on with the fun bit! The jewel nail is the easiest to do. Paint on your top coat, and then quickly pick up the jewel with a pair of tweezers and put it in place before the top coat dries. 

3. The nail tape it a little harder to use. As I said above, you may need to experiment a little to find the way best for you. For the striped nail, I found that placing the end of the tape at one side of my nail, and then sticking it all the way to the other side and cutting it after it was stuck down worked best.

(sorry for the blurry pic!)

4. The last and hardest thing to do was the chevrons. For this, I cut tiny strips of the nail tape, and lined them all up ready to be stuck on. I then carefully picked them up with tweezers and placed them in zig zag lines. Be patient with this...it does take and while and can be a little infuriating, but the results are so worth it!! :) 

5. Finish with a coat of top coat on your non-caviar nails and voila! 

Enjoy! :)

xoxo

Headband DIY

For my first post I thought I'd start off with something really simple. I saw this on Pinterest a few days ago:

I've been wanting some narrower headbands because I have a small head and my other ones look silly on me! I have LOADS of scrap bits of fabric from stuff I've made so whilst watching Doctor Who I made this:

It was really quick and easy. I just cut 3 strips of fabric out of my scraps about 50cm long (I used pinking shears to make sure they didn't fray). I then tied one end onto the hair band, plaited the strips (do this carefully if you are using strips of fabric to make sure that they sit nicely). When it was long enough to go round my head, I tied the other end to the headband and trimmed the ends. 

I  might make some more in different colours. You could make them out of any bits of fabric, ribbon, cord etc. you have lying around. The one I made has quite a rough look to it because of using the pinking shears to cut the fabric, if you wanted it to look more polished it would probably be better to use cord or ribbon or maybe to twist your strips of fabric before you plait them.