Mani Swap - Stripey Nails with Pink Rose Accents

Hi everyone!

It's been such a busy couple of weeks as I've started a new job and I'm finally getting my life on track again, I've not had a chance to sit down and write a proper post. But now it's the weekend I get to catch up on the fun stuff, like painting nails and writing about it! :)

Today I have a manicure that I created in a recent mani swap with Alyssa (The Girly Engineer on Instagram). It's a beautiful and delicate design, integrating chic pastel stripes with vintage style roses. Very cute! Alyssa decided to try out my sugar skull mani that I created a little while ago (blog post here), and she did an awesome job!

Mani Swap with Alyssa AKA @thegirlyengineer
My nails are on the left, Alyssa's nails are on the right

For this design I decided to use quite muted colours, as I wanted this to be as delicate as possible, I chose the gorgeous Rimmel 'Rose Libertine', (a lovely dusty pink) and Barry M 'Kiss Me Quick' for the roses, with Essie 'Mint Candy Apple' leaves. My base was Barry M 'Coconut' and Rimmel 'Breakfast In Bed'.

L-R: Rose Libertine / Kiss Me Quick / Coconut / Mint Candy Apple / Breakfast In Bed

I just want to take a moment to talk about my base colour - Barry M's amazing Coconut. This is a shade I've been wanting to get my hands on for a while. It is the perfect base for nail art as it is creamy off-white (almost nude), so it doesn't have the harsh starkness that some white polishes have. It is up there with OPI 'My Vampire Is Buff' as my favourite nude-ish base, but at only £3.99 a bottle it's an absolute steal compared to brands such as OPI! Here is a photo of Coconut on it's own:

Barry M Coconut, available in Boots and Superdrug for £3.99

The final product!

This was my first attempt at roses, so they are a bit 'blobby' and don't have the detail that I would have wanted, but I'll definitely try the technique again. Overall I'm happy with the outcome, and it was so much fun finally being able to do a mani swap, I'm hoping there'll be many more in the future!

Thanks for reading!

Helen x

Pretty In Pink

Hi guys!

I have a lovely simple manicure today using only two (yes, two!) colours and a sprinkle of gems. I recently ordered some Seche nail polish, hoping that they would live up to the reputation that Seche Vite topcoat has instilled into the brand. Although I haven't yet swatched these polishes properly, I thought that the below pink was perfect for the kind of mani I wanted to create tonight.

OPI 'My Boyfriend Scales Walls' and Seche 'Precious'

'My Boyfriend Scales Walls' by OPI is one of my favourite white polishes. It's not a true white and has an ever so slight grey undertone to it, making wearing it easy as it's not too stark. It matches beautifully with Seche 'Precious', which is a sheer pink with subtle lilac-silver shimmer. Gorgeous! Although the application isn't great (I found it quite thin in consistency) I managed to get a great colour using three coats.

Sorry for the blurry pic! Pinkie - Precious / Ring - My Boyfriend Scales Walls

The finished look

 I was super annoyed to have smudged my middle finger just before taking photos, but at three layers for coverage I didn't have time to re-do the nail!

Finally, can we all just take a moment to truly appreciate the fabulousness that is my new phonecase:

It is soooooo pretty! Video is on my Instagram page!

Sorry for such a short post today - I started a new job this week and I've not had time to blog, but that should change soon =) Hope you liked the nails!

Thanks for reading!

Helen x

Rockstud Nails! Inspired by Valentino

Hello lovely people!

When I was 14 I received a Valentino perfume for Christmas. I remember being totally won over by the packaging, lots of bright colours and a crisp-looking cubed bottle. I cannot for the life of me find an image of the particular perfume online, which is a total disappointment, but I can assure you it was gorgeous! Recently I stumbled upon Valentino's new Rockstud Collection on Instagram, and again I'm totally won over - I love the contrast of bright colours with hints of gold accent coming from the studs which adorn each item. At approximately £1500, I'm not going to be able to afford/justify buying a Valentino bag, but the design is perfect to translate onto nails!

Valentino - Rockstud Collection

As always, I flicked through my swatch book to find the most suitable colours, and ended up using: Ciate 'Mojito', Rimmel 'Raw As Night', Rimmel 'Black Cherries', Sally Hansen 'Butter-fly Stroke', Seche 'Snapdragon',  and Nails Inc. 'Kensington Park Road'.

L-R: Mojito / Raw As Night / Black Cherries / Butter-fly Stroke / Snapdragon / Kensington Park Road

I completed the whole design freehand - no striping tape, no vinyls, no template at all - which I am very proud of, particularly my index and pinkie fingers! I added studs to every nail to keep in theme (any excuse to stick things to my nails!) 

Valentino Inspired Nails

I absolutely love wearing these, they are so bright and cheerful and totally me. I want to replicate this again in a few months to see if I can improve on my 'V' shapes, but I am absolutely happy with this as a first attempt.

Here are a few more photos:

And here is a final shot of both hands. I definitely think that I am getting better using my non-dominant hand for freehand designs, and I sometimes find that my left hand is actually better than my right. Maybe it's because I'm concentrating more? 

I hope you like these as much as I do. As always I'd LOVE to hear what you think, so please feel free to comment below or leave a message on my Facebook page!

Thanks for reading!

Helen x

PS If anyone would like to buy me a Valentino bag, I will wholeheartedly accept! :)

Scaled Gradient - First Attempt

Hello my lovelies!

It's been a manic few days lately as I've been participating in a nail art challenge held on Instagram (you can check out my entries on Instagram by clicking the link at the side of this page -->) 

Blurry picture! Scaled gradient using chevron nail vinyls.

The prompt for 7th April is 'ombre/gradient', so I decided to try out a scaled gradient; something I've never attempted before. A scaled gradient is basically two gradients on the nail, one at the bottom and one further up the nail towards the tip. I used chevron nail vinyls from sparkly-nails.co.uk to create the barrier between the two gradients. Simply 
Nailogical has an amazing post here which explains everything you could possibly need to know about gradients. I cannot recommend this article enough, as a matter of fact, it was Cristine from Simply Nailogical who first came up with the scaled gradient idea (and many others!) Definitely check out her blog if you are in need  of any gradient-related nail porn!

I ensured that I picked polishes that would have enough opacity to cover the other polishes. For example, my light blue needed to be pigmented enough to cover the darker blue at the scaled part of the gradient. I went through my stash and chose Barry M 'Blue Grape', Seche 'Casually Cool', Seche 'Snapdragon' and Essie 'Flawless'.

L-R: Blue Grape / Casually Cool / Snapdragon / Flawless

Anyway, here are the nails:

Unfortunately my pinkie finger is too small and so I struggled to fit two gradients on the tiny canvas, so I decided to cover it all with glitter! My fave glitter collection is Barry M's 'Glitterati' which is an outstanding set of six polishes (go and buy them NOW!). For this I used 'VIP' to cover up my mess.

VIP from the Glitterati Collection

The final product! (Please ignore hair dangling from middle finger...)

Let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading,

Helen x

Freehand Sugar Skull

Hello my lovelies!

I'm currently taking part in a nail art challenge which is being held on Instagram by @nailzz_designzz_, and day 3 is 'freehand'. I thought that this would be a good time to whip out my trusty Idiot's Guides Nail Art book written by The Lacquerologist (which I talk about here). I LOVE the sugar skull design, and decided to recreate it for this mani. Emily has a great tutorial very similar to the one in her book on her blog, so take a look!

For this mani I used the following polishes: Nails Inc. 'Notting Hill Gate', OPI 'My Boyfriend Scales Walls', Rimmel 'Black Out', Ciate 'Big Yellow Taxi', Seventeen 'Orange Soda', and Nails Inc. 'Kensington Park Road'.

L-R: Big Yellow Taxi / Black Out / My Boyfriend Scales Walls / Kensington Park Road / Orange Soda
Front: Notting Hill Gate (pink)

And here it is:

Sugar skull accent

I'm currently still using some brushes that I bought from Amazon and Poundland for my designs, but they aren't the best quality unfortunately. I have just ordered these (recommended on various blogs) so hopefully my detail can be a bit better once they arrive!

I absolutely love how this turned out - it's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but my freehand skills are getting better all the time and I think sugar skulls are the perfect practising focus as they look even better when they aren't quite perfect! 

I'd love to hear your thoughts so please feel free to leave a comment :)

Thanks for reading!

Helen x

Stamping Over Ombré Nails - MoYou London Princess Collection

Hello lovelies!

After a busy few days of visiting family 300 miles away I am now back to the lovely city of Bristol and have been working on a pretty little ombré manicure for you all, stamped over with MoYou Princess collection plate #10. I've been wanting to do something like this for a while and my nails are now long enough for it to be worthwhile!

I wanted this to be very feminine and pretty, so I chose some cute pinks to make my ombré with - Rimmel 'Rose Libertine', Essie 'Flawless', and Rimmel 'Lose Your Lingerie'. I prepped my nails before sponging with Barry M 'Matt White' to ensure that my pinks were bright enough on the nail. 

L-R: Rose Libertine / Flawless / Lose Your Lingerie / Matt White

I think this is actually my first ombré (different tones of the same colour hue), as I usually do gradients (different colours blended together). I absolutely love how the ombré turned out, and couldn't resist snapping a few pics before I stamped all over it! 

My first attempt at ombré nails

I recently picked up my MoYou London Princess set from Boots (available to buy online here), and hadn't tried it out. I love the branding that MoYou London have - it reminds me slightly of Soap and Glory (also available from Boots)! The Princess Collection is really sweet, and includes lots of cutesy designs from hearts and flowers to raindrops and bunnies! It's adorable!

I used plate number 10 and I have circled the particular image below. I chose two designs from the plate - interlocking love hearts and butterflies, alternating on each nail. Stamping in white allowed the patterns to 'fade' into the lighter part of the ombré.

MoYou London Princess Collection

Stamped using MoYou London Princess plate #10

My cuticles are in awful shape at the moment, so I apologise for the raggedy dryness. I'm using extra amounts of my favourite cuticle rescue treatment Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter which is available from Lush here. It smells amazing and you can feel the goodness seeping into your nails and cuticles when you apply it. If you haven't tried it I highly recommend you do!

I love this mani and hope that I continue to improve my stamping so I can really start incorporating the technique into other nail designs.

Thanks for reading!

Helen x