God Bless America!

Super Bowl XLVIII

 

I've been practising a bit of nail art for a couple of weekends time, when we're having a SUPER BOWL PARTY! See if you can guess who I'm supporting...

Super Bowl Nails

I had so much fun doing these! I'll talk you through how I did each nail:

Patriots Nail: The base colour of this nail is Blood Orange from BarryM's Gelly Hi-Shine collection, and I used a gold metallic marker to do the New England Patriots writing. I then applied a topcoat of Sally Hansen's Double Duty, except I should have waited a bit longer as I smudged the writing a bit, but hey that's what practice wheels are for!

Patriots Logo: This one took SO long to do! I painted the base colour of Blue Grape, again from BarryM's Gelly Hi-Shine collection. I then painted the background in BarryM's White using a flat tipped brush. Once dry, I used the flat tipped brush on its side to paint the blue background of the face and red tips of his hat. I then used a dotting tool to paint the white areas on the face straight away as I find it easier to manipulate small details while the colours are still a bit tacky! I then finished it off with a tiny silver star on his hat and a topcoat of Sally Hansen.

American Football: This is so simple! I just painted a base colour of BarryM's Mushroom then added the stitching of an American football in white, with a topcoat. 

Red, White & Blue: I painted a base colour in BarryM's White then once dry and using so low tack masking tape, I cut a star burst shape which I used as a guide to paint the red burst, remembering to remove the guide while the paint was wet to avoid tearing! I then painted the blue tip freehand and added the stars with a wet dotting tool, and a topcoat once it was all dry.

Stars & Stripes Nails: The next two would go together as four striped nails and an accent nail with the stars. The striped nails began with a base colour of Blood Orange from BarryM's Gelly Hi-Shine collection. Once totally dry I added striping tape, applied a thick coat of white, peeled the tape off straight away, and finished with a glossy topcoat. The starry nail is Blue Grape from BarryM's Gelly Hi-Shine collection, with stars applied while still wet, then of course, finished with a topcoat to seal in the stars. 

All American Nail: This nail is simply a Blue Grape base colour with gems in alternating red and silver, then six stars applied with a wet dotting tool while the paint was still tacky. Finally, sealed with a topcoat of Sally Hansen's Double Duty.

I can't wait to try these nails out properly for the 2nd February!

Laura ❤

Sheep!

3 Little Sheep

 

This one requires a bit of back story. My friend works at a garden centre with a farm. They had three sheep on loan from a local farmer, and despite her best attempts to keep them the three sheep were taken back by the farmer at the weekend with their fates remaining unknown. These nails were done in appreciation of the three little sheep! 

Suzy's Three Little Sheep

I started with a base coat of Ciaté's underwear. The main colour is Espresso from BarryM's Matte collection, then for the sheep ( which are a bit 3D!) I used a combination of the rounded end of a paintbrush handle and a bit of potluck to create their messy woollen coats, using BarryM's White. Once this was dry I added the little legs using Caramel from the BarryM Matte collection. I then decided I didn't like the legs over the top of their coats so I added some more white (which may be where the 3D element started to come in!). The sheep's faces were made from one blob from the rounded end of the paintbrush and two small blobs from the metal end of a dotting tool in Espresso again. I then finished off their faces with eyes using the dotting tool. To protect it all from chipping I finished it with a glossy coat of Sally Hansen's Double Wear. Although the sheep on my friends ring finger looks a bit drunk, I'm really happy with how these came out overall!! Let's hope the real three little sheep have a happy ending!

Laura ❤

Purple Sequins

Testing out a new purchase!

 

Okay so an amazing new purchase came yesterday that I'm so excited to use!! I ordered 80 random pots of glitters and sequins from, you guessed it, Amazon! I'll post more about what I got in my selection soon but for now here's my first attempt at using sequins!

Purple Sequins

The picture doesn't quite do the sequins justice, they're so sparkly! I started with a base coat of Ciaté's underwear. The main colour I used is Prickly Pear from BarryM's Gelly Hi-Shine collection, and I used BarryM's White for the base of the accent nail. I applied two coats of each before applying the sequins one-by-one which took forever but is so worth it! I decided I needed another coat of Prickly Pear on my other nails to make the colour really pop, then once it was all dried I finished it off with my favourite Sally Hansen Double Duty as a topcoat. I'm so pleased with how this came out, I can't wait to see how long the sequins last then I can try out some of the other goodies!

Laura ❤

Tangerine Glitter

My favourite person to paint nail art for!

 

I love painting my Nana's nails. She's incredibly patient so doesn't move often. Her nails grow straight and evenly and often need minimal shaping. She also lives a relaxed lifestyle and rarely chips her polish! I paint her nails most regularly out of everyone, mainly because I feel that she's the one that most deserves a treat often!

Nana's Tangerine Nails

I applied a base coat of Ciaté's underwear, then once that was fully dry I used Ciaté's Play Date for the main colour on the accent nail. I applied Ciaté's Jingle Belle loose glitter to this nail while the paint was still wet then painted the remaining nails with Play Date. I put the glitter on the accent nail first to avoid any glitter becoming stuck to the wet paint on other nails. Once dry, I used a coat of Ciaté's Speed Coat, in which I pressed a small gold gem onto the accent nail. Once this was dry I finished it all off with a coat of Sally Hansen's Double Duty to get that gel effect shine! My Nana was very pleased with her finished manicure, and I can't wait to do a new mani for her next week!

Laura ❤

  

Bargain Haul!

I love bargain nail paint...

 

I mentioned in my last post that I'd picked up Ciaté's Mini Mani Month and Tree Trinkets half price at Selfridge's so I thought I'd better talk about what I got in these amazing sets! First up Mini Mani Month. This is designed to be an awesome nail paint advent calendar, however I picked it up in the sale after Christmas and got to open the windows all at once! 

Mini Mani Month

This set is made so amazing by the fact that it's not just nail paint, it includes nail caviars and glitters too!! 

Starting at the top is window number 24's offering! A FULL SIZE pot of Serendipity, a hot pink glitter!

1st row: Speed Coat, Underwear, Hopscotch, Ivory Queen, Sugar Plum and Encore!

2nd row: Amazing Gracie, Kiss Chase, Pillow Fight, Ferris Wheel, Boudoir and Pepperminty.

3rd row: Play Date, Members Only, Glitterball, Confetti, Locket and Fit for a Queen. 

The bottom row starts with two Christmas themed nail caviars, Christmas Tree Caviar which contains red gold and green pearls, and Frost Yourself which is navy blue and silver pearls. I'll admit I don't really like doing whole nails in caviar as it's much too messy. I much prefer to use the pearls individually. This can be time consuming but creates some amazing results which I'll post soon! The next pot is Miss Mistletoe sequins, again which I much prefer to use individually! second from last is a beautiful oyster nail paint called Snow Globe which creates a subtle frosted effect, and lastly a pot of orangey pink loose glitter called Jingle Belle, which I'll use in my next mani! 

As I mentioned, I also purchased Ciaté's Tree Trinkets, six miniature bottles contained in clear plastic baubles for hanging on the tree! I have passed the baubles on to my craft loving Mum to repurpose!

Tree Trinkets

These mini pots all contain lovely glitter nail paints which would have been perfect for the festive season, but I'm sure I'll use them before Christmas comes round again!

The colours are all Christmas themed! The red glitter is Candy Cane, the gold pot is a delicate glitter called Party Shoes, the pot in the middle is Blizzard which looks quite green in the picture but is actually a mixture of green and steely grey. The bronze glitter is All Aglow, the bottom right pot is a mixed glitter of purples, blues and silvers called Naughty or Nice? and finally the last pot is a teal glitter called Yule Rules. I can't wait to test out all these new glitter colours!

Laura ❤

Jester Nails

Sometimes natural is best...

For my next set of nails I decided I'd better give my nails a break. To be honest I do prefer my nails short as my job requires me to do a lot of typing. I think I'll reserve nail extensions for special occasions from now on! I've done a bit of new years sales shopping at Selfridge's and picked up Ciaté's Mini Mani Month and Tree Trinkets half price! I had to try out a few of these new colours so decided upon a Jester theme!

 

Jester Nails

All the paints I used were from Ciaté's Mini Mani Month! I started with a base coat of Underwear, then L to R the main colours are: Pillow Fight, Sugar Plum, Pepperminty, Kiss Chase and Ferris Wheel. I picked gems from my favourite gem wheel in the most contrasting colours to each nail that I could, then finished it of with a topping of Speed Coat! 

Laura ❤

Chevron Claws

Trying out other uses for striping tape!

 

This was something a little different for me but I'm really pleased with the result! A friend requested some nails for New Years Eve to go with her outfit. She'd seen pointed oval nails before however her natural nails weren't long enough to create the shape, so we used full well nail tips filed into this shape.

Tidge's Chevron Nails

The main colour is two coats of  BarryM's White, once this was completely dry I applied four strips of striping tape to form the chevron shape, and painted over a thick layer of Espresso from BarryM's Matte collection. When using striping tape to reveal a colour underneath a coat of paint it's SO important to remove the tape in reverse order to how you applied it, and while the top coat of paint is still WET. If you wait for it to dry, even slightly, you end up with tears and a rather uneven line! I love the velevety texture of the accent nail here, it took a long time to dry but it really was worth applying an extra thick layer of nail paint! 

Laura ❤

Gold French Tips

I've got some new striping tapes recently...

 

So my friend recently had a full set of permanent French tip acrylics applied at our local salon, but she got a bit bored with the French tips. This was a perfect chance for me to test out some of the striping tape I purchased for a bargain price! (Amazon again!)

Kelly's Gold Tips

The picture isn't brilliant as you can't really see the accent nail, but here's what I used; The main colour is Caramel from BarryM's Matte collection. I LOOVE this paint as it dries beautifully even and you often only need one coat! The tips are freehand in BarryM's Gold Glitter. I finished off the accent nail with some gold striping tape and a single red gem and put a top coat of Sally Hansen's Double Duty on the tips only - don't want to spoil that lovely matte effect!!! 

Laura ❤

Hello Kitty Nails!

Anyone who knows me knows I love Hello Kitty and nail art.

What better way to kick off this blog than by combining the two!

 

I did these Hello Kitty nails on full well nail tips. The tips I used are from Amazon (in fact most products I use are from Amazon!) and only about £4 for 500 tips in 10 sizes and there's an amazing range of colours available! Anyway I'm just waffling on so here's the nails.

Hello Kitty Nails

I didn't use a base coat for these, I can't usually be bothered to wait for a base coat to dry on fakes! The main colour is Dragon Fruit from BarryM's Gelly High Shine range. I then used white, yellow and black from a set of nail art fine-liners I purchased from Fraulein 3°8's Amazon store (I promise I'm not advertising for Amazon!!) to create Hello Kitty's face. I finished it off with the gold gems and pink bow gem, which - believe it or not - came from a nail art kit I picked up in Poundland! Top coat has always got to be Sally Hansen's Double Duty!

Laura ❤