Cherry Nail Art

Hi guys!

I neglected the Weekly Nail Art Challenge on Instagram towards the end of July, but I'm going to make sure I complete all of the prompts in August! I love that the prompts this month are colour combos, with the theme of summer. The weather has just started turning sour here, so I definitely need some summery nails to cheer myself up!

The first prompt this month is 'lemon and cherry', so I decided to make use of two of my untrieds (I'm slooowly making progress with getting through all of my polishes!). I used Sally Hansen 'Sweetie' and 'Cherry Drop' which are both textured polishes from the Sugar Coat collection. I bought these on a whim, and as I'm not big into textured finishes I found them a little yucky. I thought I was being clever when I added a coat of Sally Hansen InstaDry Topcoat to smooth things out a bit, but it just made them look all mushy...

The detail was added with Maybelline 'Red Record', Color Club 'French Tip' and Ciate 'Mojito'. This was my first attempt at anything fruit related, and although it's not perfect I kind of like my cartoon-y cherries :)

I picked up these polishes in Poundland for, that's right, £1! They retail at around £7 in other stores, which I find overpriced as I'm not much of a fan of these polishes. But for £1 I can't complain!

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! :)