31 Day Challenge - The Home Stretch!

Hi guys!

Here is my round-up of the final part of the 31 Day Challenge. I had such a good time doing this challenge, and now I'm worried that I won't be able to create any new designs without some sort of prompt haha!

Day 21- Inspired By A Colour - Seventeen 'Smoke Signal'

Day 22 - Inspired By A Song - Chance The Rapper 'Sunday Candy'

Day 23 - Inspired By A Movie - Big Hero 6

Day 24 - Inspired By A Book - PS I Love You

Day 25 - Inspired By Fashion - Vivienne Westwood

Day 27 - Inspired By A Pattern - Houndstooth

Day 28 - Inspired By Artwork - Mondrian

Day 29 - Inspired By A Flag - Pride Flag

Day 30 - Inspired By The Supernatural - Fairies

Day 31 - Honour Nails You <3 - @simplynailogical and @spejldame

Green Leaves Nail Art

Hey!

Today's nails are inspired by nature. And sparkly charms!

I've been dying to use this adorable leaf charm for a while, so when I saw a manicure by @charsnails on Instagram using it, I just had to paint my nails! 

I started with a base of Nails Inc. 'Marylebone Road' on all fingers except my ring finger, which I painted using Barry M 'Cardamom' (as a background for my charm). I then used the saran-wrap technique to blend 'Cardamom', 'Marylebone Road', and Make Up Gallery 'Spearmint' on the nail. The final step was to create a leaf pattern using acrylic paint, stick on my charm and top with Poshe Topcoat. Et voila!

These turned out much better than I imagined they would, and I really love the effect of the leaves. As a result of this mani, I now have loads of ideas for nature-themed nails that I can't wait to try out!

Thanks for reading!

Helen x

Cute Checkered Floral Mani

Hi everyone!

Today I have a checkered design with floral accents to show you. I have been wanting to do something like this for a while, and the finished look reminds me of curtains or towels that you might have in your kitchen! Very summery and cute!

For this manicure I started with a base of Barry M 'Coconut' which is the most perfect milky off-white colour <3. Once dry, I placed striping tape in a checkered pattern on my nails and topped with Barry M 'Sky Blue' on my thumb, index and pinkie fingers, then Collection 'Peach Blossom' on my middle and ring fingers. For the floral design, I blended 'Sky Blue' and 'Damson' (by Barry M) on the nail, and finished with Ciate 'Mojito' for the leaves.

I'm pretty pleased with how these came out and want to try a similar design with more of a yellow theme as I have a very particular set of kitchen curtains in mind which this doesn't quite capture!

Hope you like them :)

Thanks for reading!

Helen

ILNP - Electric Carnival **Swatch**

Hi!

I am not going to say anything about this polish, I'll just let the pictures do the talking. This is 'Electric Carnival' multichrome flakie by ILNP <3:

Isn't it just beautiful?

Helen x

Travel In Colour Gradient Nails

Hi everyone!

This post was meant to have some nail art in it, but I liked the base to the art so much that I have dedicated a whole post to it! Let's take a look:

I used three colours to create a mix of gradients: OPI 'Ski Teal We Drop', Barry M 'Sugarplum' and Maybelline 'Grey Beats'. I added one coat of China Glaze 'Travel In Color' to each nail and topped with Ciate Speed Pro Topcoat.

'Ski Teal We Drop' by OPI is, as the name suggest, a dark teal colour, however this was hidden by the glitter topper goodness of China Glaze. The topper made the colours below it shift to beautiful purples, pinks, golds, blues and greens - so pretty! The photo below kind of demonstrates this over the teal and grey polish gradient.

I actually added some nail art to this after taking these pics, but I'm unsure as to whether I will post them as they were a bit rubbish. This is definitely a set of nails that look best left simple!

Thanks for reading!

Helen x

Chameleon Thermal Gel Polish

Hi everyone!

Last week whilst I was away visiting family I tested out one of my newer purchases - a thermal gel polish from a brand called Aimeili. I know that the quality of gel polishes can be awful if you don't buy the right ones, but I find a price tag of £15+ a little too expensive for most regular gel shades. So I turned to Amazon for inspiration, and along came this polish for £4.49 and free delivery! I chose the shade named 'Hot Pink to Glitter White' which is product number TC04, however there are loads to choose from and I'll definitely be ordering more.

I applied this gel alongside Red Carpet 'Structure' basecoat, Red Carpet 'Brilliance' topcoat and Le Mini Macaron LED lamp. I have read conflicting reviews about mixing brands of gel polishes, but so far I have had no issue with this combination. This is by far the best gel manicure I have had in terms of durability and staying power! 

This gel is a gorgeous creamy-translucent white when it is warm, turning into a deep hot pink when cold. As my nails are at quite a long length at the moment, I found that I had a cute French manicure type effect going on most of the time. On shorter nails I imagine this wouldn't be quite so obvious, and the 'resting' colour would be more in line with the picture below.The white shade is not opaque (even with three layers), however it is still beautiful!

I am incredibly pleased with my purchase here and can't wait to try out more. I wore this manicure for one whole week (which is unheard of for me!) and I had absolutely no issues with chipping, dulling or general wear-and-tear. All of these photos were taken just before I removed the polish, so you can see just how great this one lasted.

What do you guys think? Have you tried out any of Aimeli's polishes before? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading!

Helen x

Claire's Liquid Metal - Rose Gold **Swatch**

Hi guys!

I've had a busy week of visiting family and celebrating my boyfriend's birthday, so I've not had time to post any new nail art. However today I have a swatch of Claire's 'Rose Gold' from their Liquid Metal range, I love the look of chrome polishes but often find the application quite streaky so it puts me off wearing them. Claire's have done a pretty good job with their Liquid Metal products, and I found the application is similar to that of Model's Own 'Chrome' collection.

As you can see this is a lovely dusty-pink rose gold. The colour was incredibly difficult to capture on camera, but I got it as close as possible to real life! This is why my skin tone looks a little 'off' in these photos, so please excuse that!

On my ring finger I am wearing two coats of Maybelline 'Knitted Gold' which is a gorgeous rose-gold glitter and compliments this chrome polish perfectly!

Claire's currently have their Liquid Metal polishes (and others) on sale for only £2 - what a bargain! I picked up this one plus a gorgeous teal chrome that I can't wait to swatch. I have also tried using this polish to stamp with and it works well (see my lace stamped nails for pics).

Overall these polishes are fantastic value at £2 a pop, and I have no complaints. Although the application is somewhat difficult and a little streaky, this is an issue with most chrome polishes that I have tried so I expected it. I'm wearing two coats without topcoat on the pics above - I think an addition of topcoat would smooth out the imperfections and make it almost perfect!

Helen x

Classic Monochrome Nails

Hi!

Every now and then I get a hankering for a classic monochrome mani, so that is what I'm wearing on my nails today!

For this design I used Rimmel 'White Hot Love', Rimmel 'Black Out' and Binky London 'Gold Rush'. I stamped my design using my brand new super duper Fab UR Nails Fun17 plate, which I am in LOVE with! This design is so pretty and I just love that plate in general! <3

Hope you like it :)

Thanks for reading!

Helen x

Pink and Grey Saran Wrap Nails

Hi!

I have been playing around with one of my favourite nail art techniques today - dry marbling/saran wrap nails. The smoky marbled effect is so beautiful and is incredibly easy to do. The basic idea is to blob a few colours on your nails and then press a plastic food bag or cling film into the colours to blend them together. Magic!

For this manicure I used Rimmel 'Punk Rock' (grey) from their Salon Pro collection. I love the polishes in the Salon Pro range and they apply like a dream. I don't own enough of them in my opinion, although my boyfriend will most likely disagree! The pink is Maybelline 'Pink Punk', and the glitter is Maybelline 'Silver Touch'. I am also really impressed with these two polishes, especially Silver Touch. Finally, I used Sinful Colors 'Mauve' as a base for, and within, the saran wrap nails to lighten the manicure up a bit.

Maybelline 'Silver Touch' - I love the larger silver hexes in this polish!

I like that the glitter is slightly purple/lavender leaning as I think it brings the whole design together nicely :)

Thanks for reading!

Helen x