Lace Stamped Nails

Hi guys!

Wow, two blog posts in one day! I'm on a roll :)

Today's manicure is one that I've been waiting to try out for a long time - lace nails! I finally ordered myself a lace design stamping plate from BornPrettyStore.com, and couldn't wait to use it in some nail art!

For this manicure I used a new Barry M Speedy Quick-Dry polish from their summer release - 'Lap Of Honour'. I painted my thumb, index and middle finger with this then stamped over it using Color Club 'French Tip' polish. On my ring finger I added a base of OPI 'My Boyfriend Scales Walls', then stamped with Claire's 'Liquid Metal Rose Gold'. Finally, I covered my pinkie with a gorgeous glitter polish from Maybelline called 'Gilded Rose'.

I couldn't resist sticking a few gems onto the nail as a finishing touch!

This manicure is way more delicate than I would normally wear, but I got a lot of compliments on it and love the detail in the stamp. I hadn't tried out any of the Born Pretty Store stamping plates before, but I must say I am impressed with the quality. The lines are well defined and create a clear image on the stamp and on the nail. For only £2.50 you really can't complain. Free shipping too! Enter my code CESH10 for 10% off your order at BornPrettyStore.com :)

Thanks for reading!

Helen x

NEON WEEK: Strawberry and Lime!

Hi everyone!

I've got a quick post today to show you the mani I have been wearing over the last couple of days. For once I have kept it nice and simple and opted for block colours (neon, of course!), and a complimenting accent nail:

Simple pink and green :)

This colour combination is super summery and reminds me of strawberries and limes! :) 

For this I used Models Own 'Sun Hat' and China Glaze 'Grass Is Lime Greener'. The accent nail is a base of OPI 'My Boyfriend Scales Walls' and a mix of two matte glitter toppers from Claire's: 'Junk' and 'Sea Green'. 

L-R: Sea Green / Junk

Such pretty colours!

I'd love a Twister ice lolly right now!

I hope you like these summery nails :)

Thanks for reading!

Helen x

Textured Negative Space Nails

Hey guys!

Today I have a negative space manicure that I created using two polishes from the Nicole by OPI Roughles Collection. I used 'On What Grounds' (teal) and 'I'm Stucco On You' (purple). These polishes dry to a speckled, textured finish and are available in four pretty pastel shades (purple, teal, pink and yellow). I bought mine at Superdrug for £7.99 each.

Nicole By OPI - 'I'm Stucco On You' & 'On What Grounds?'

I actually added topcoat to this design which eliminated some of the texture. What I like about these polishes over other textured finishes are the tiny little specks of different colour - it adds a unique quality to the textured finish.

Negative Space

See the little specks of colour?

I'm still not sure if I like textured finishes or not. I have so many textured polishes in my collection, so something draws me to them, but I'm still figuring out how to use them successfully in nail art.

Rougles Negative Space Nails

What do you think? Yay or nay? Let me know in the comments! 

Thanks for reading!

Helen x

Pink and Blue Half Moon Mani

Hi guys!

I am seriously loving blogging at the moment, so I thought I'd share with you a quick and simple manicure that I did recently.

Half Moon Manicure

This is my second attempt at a half moon design (my first one you can see here, although be warned: this is in the early days of my nail art journey and it is absolutely pants!) 

For this one I used some nifty half moon nail vinyls from Sparkly Nails to create a clean shape. I highly recommend using stencils/vinyls for things like this as it keeps the manicure uniform across the nails, however I found that these particular vinyls left a sticky residue on my nails once I had peeled them off :( Luckily, my base coat is a white gel polish so I could easily remove the stickiness with acetone-free polish remover, although I think I would have had a problem if I had a regular polish as a base.

Half Moon Nail Vinyls -  from SparklyNails.co,uk

The colours used in this mani are from the Models Own Diamond Luxe collection; 'Asscher Blue' and 'Radiant Pink'. Models Own claim that these polishes 'contain real Diamond Dust to deliver a completely unique, multi-dimensional super-sparkly finish and some serious bling appeal'. There is a unique subtle shimmer to these shades (which you can see on the picture below), but I wouldn't say they are 'blingy'!

Asscher Blue / Radiant Pink

Blue and pink nail art always makes me smile - it's so fun, pretty and girly. For a long time my only nail art consisted of Barry M blue and pink crackle polish - ah memories!

I added the dots using Rimmel 'White Hot Love' and a dotting tool

Hope you like it, thanks for reading!

Helen x

**Review** Knitted Nail Stickers - BornPrettyStore

Hello!

Today I have another review for you from my items sent to me by Born Pretty Store. If you haven't already seen it, check out my other post here where I reviewed some gorgeous water nail decals.

Anyway, on to today's review! I chose these cute *'knit' effect nail stickers that you can purchase from this page for $1.99. Even though you only get one sheet of stickers, there are more than enough to span all ten fingers and maybe even a couple of toes, too!

Taking a closer look, you can see that the stickers have 3D patterns on them in a knitted style - very kawaii! The colours are soft and pastel, and I can imagine these looking lovely around autumn time with a chunky knit over your shoulders.

Now, although I have studied Japanese before, I am in no way proficient enough to be able to read the instructions on the packet (see below). Luckily, Born Pretty have realised this and have instructions on the product page of their site:







How to Use:
1. Clean the surface where the design is to be placed. 
2. Select a design and peel off by your nail. (Don't touch the glue) 
3. Place the design in nail/tip and rub it gently several times. 
4. Apply top coat for best result.

I began by removing all of my old polish and wiping my nails with acetone to remove any oils and fluff, I lined up each nail with a sticker that I thought would best fit. This was my first problem - they were a little too small! I don't have particularly wide fingernails, however I really struggled to find a good fit with these. 

After placing a full sticker onto my thumb, middle and pinkie finger, I decided to experiment with my index and ring fingers by cutting the long stickers into two pieces and placing them horizontally onto my nail. Although this did solve the wideness issue, it created a new problem of overlapping. This created quite an obvious divide which I have highlighted the divide in the picture to the right -->





Also, I found it incredibly difficult to make the edges look smooth and natural. Even after spending a lot of time trimming them with cuticle cutters and small scissors, I still couldn't get it to look right. However, I do believe that this is at least in part an issue with me, and not just the product!

The tips of the stickers weren't quite as difficult to trim, but they started to unfold while I was taking photos. At this point I added topcoat (and a matte topcoat to my ring finger - blue), but it didn't help much.

 I really wanted to love this item but I just couldn't get it to work for me. I got really frustrated with how imperfect they looked on my nails, although the idea behind this sort of nail sticker is very appealing. However, I think this would be perfect an older child/young teen as the application is quick and easy, and the glue on the stickers is strong enough to adhere to the nail plate but not too strong so that they can't be repositioned. I think that I would have loved these when I was younger. Plus, youngsters have smaller nails too! 

Don't forget to grab yourself a 10% discount at Born Pretty Store with my exclusive discount code CESH10.

Thanks for reading!

Helen x

*Items provided by BornPrettyStore for my impartial review

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

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