Nail Art Style

Hey everyone! Because this week's Tutorial Tuesday was done by the lovely Amelia (see here), I decided I'd post my usual tutorial today instead! I'm so excited to show you this design, after seeing this image by Madeline Poole on Instagram I just knew I had to recreate it. The design itself is pretty simple but I think the simplicity is what makes it stand out so much. I definitely got a lot of comments on my nails whilst I was wearing these, and as they're so easy to do I think I'll be recreating them with quite a few colours! 

I didn't actually intend to do this design in pink, I had meant to do it with a nude base, but for some reason I picked up the pink and painted my nails with it without even thinking, and I didn't want to remove it after that so I just decided to go with it. I'm so glad I did because I think it works really well with the pastel colour. I guess my hand knew what I wanted more than my head! Tutorial will be after the jump.

The base for these nails is OPI - Mod About You, then I used striping tape from Born Pretty Store, MASH - White, and MASH - Black, but you can also use acrylic paint if you'd prefer! Then I finished off with a coat of Seche Vite

Step 1: Paint your nails with your chosen base colour

Step 2: Apply two strips of striping tape to the centre of your nail

Step 3: Paint in between the strips with the brush from the white polish

Step 4: Using a small brush and black nail polish or acrylic paint, paint on the black stripes leaving equal gaps for the white. You can either do this step with or without the striping tape

Step 5: Remove the striping tape. If you left the tape on when applying the black, do this very quickly or the black will be stringy and will ruin the design.

Step 6: Once your design is dry, finish off with topcoat to seal in your design.

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

Alice

Hey everyone! I'm back with another week of digital dozen posts for you. I unfortunately missed July but hopefully I'll be able to keep up with this week's post. I've just started a new job though so I might dwindle later in the week but we shall see. I apologise in advance if that does happen! 

So for the first day I'm bringing you some nails inspired by this* gorgeous La Moda satchel. I'm going to put the rest of this post after the jump because it's going to be a pretty long on.

 

Evening! This is my second post of the day... What is wrong with me?! Anyway, I was so impressed with my new Jacava nail polishes (see the review here), that I couldn't help but do some nail art. I kept my 'Mont Blanc' swatches as a base, and decided to add stripes, hearts and sparkles to create a pretty glittery manicure.

Jacava 'Mont Blanc'*

Essie 'Sweet Talker'

Jacava 'Chillax'*

Elf 'Dream Maker'

Essie 'Good To Go'

Scotch tape

Scissors

Fine nail art paint brush

Hey everyone. Apologies for being such a rubbish blogger recently - my dissertation is taking over my life! I managed to squeeze in a little bit of nail art this morning, but I'm afraid it's nothing special. I decided to do mix-and-match nails of a few different nail art techniques, and I chose black and white polish to keep it simple. All of these designs were achieved by using basic tools, so if you fancy having a go at any of them, make sure you keep reading :)

Natural Collection 'White'

W7 'Black'

Fine nail art paint brush

Striping tape

Dotting tool

Essie 'Good To Go' top coat

So on my thumb nail I created basic stripes. To do this, I applied a base of white, and once dry I added striping tape. Then I painted black over the top, and after waiting for a few seconds, I removed the tape. I used to wait agesssss for the second coat of nail polish to dry, but then I realised that this caused it to pull and rip. Similarly, not waiting long enough causes the second coat to bleed into the first. So the best thing to do is wait until the polish is tacky rather than runny, and remove the tape very carefully. Obviously practise makes perfect, and it all depends completely on the type of striping tape and nail polish that you use!

On my index finger I added black polkadots to a white base. I used one of my largest dotting tools to do this, and tried to ensure that each dot was the same size and shape. On my middle finger I created chevrons, which I also used striping tape for (but freehanded with my fine paint brush to clean up any suspicious looking areas!) On my ring finger I added a chessboard, and finally on my little finger a curved, fan pattern. (I don't know the proper term for this sort of design?)

I finished off each of my designs with a clear top coat. Essie 'Good To Go' is my current favourite because it's rapid drying, although I've found that on top of cheap polishes (Sinful Colors, W7, for example) it tends to shrink. I think I might add a mattifying coat to these too, although that's always risky because matte polish is VERY unforgiving of mistakes! What do you think? What's your favourite simple nail art technique?

Hey everyone! I'm back (finally) with a new then and now post. I know a lot of you said in the comments of my giveaway that you'd like to see a few more then and now posts so I thought I'd bring it back. Although, I wont be doing it every week like before, just when I feel like it. This week I'm redoing a stripes and roses combination that a few of you may remember as it was probably around a year ago that I did it, in fact you can actually see it on my blog here, but the difference in nail size is huge. I actually cut my nails a bit too short this time around, so the difference is even bigger than it should have been, but oh well! As always the 'then' picture will be after the jump. 

I completely forgot to add polka dots to the rose nails and I really wish I had because I think they really add to the design.

This time I started with a base of Barry M - Berry Ice Cream and used striping tape along with MASH - white, rather than freehanding the stripes like before. I got the idea to use tape here from The Nailasaurus. In fact I got the idea to recreate this design from her because I really wanted to try it out using tape. The roses are Barry M - Passion Fruit and Barry M - Bright Pink, with Barry M - Key Lime, all topped off with a coat of my favourite top coat in the world, Seche Vite. 

What do you think? Which do you prefer? Let me know in the comments! 

Alice

So I started out with my bases, applying black to my thumb nail, middle finger nail and little finger nail. On the other two I used Models Own 'Bare Beauty', which is the closest shade I have to skin tone, and is supposed to represent the hint of belly that is on show in my top!

Then I used Models Own 'Pastel Pink' for the flower petals, and then tried to blend in Barry M 'Shocking Pink' in the centre of the flower. For the leaves, I used W7 'Neon Green', which took quite a few coats to achieve a decent finish as W7 polishes are quite transparent and have a very loose consistency.

I neatened up the edges of the flowers and leaves with black polish, then topped the leaves with Missguided 'Misslead' (shimmery yellow), and while I waited for them to dry I applied striping tape to my flesh-coloured nails. I made sure to space it out so that all sections were the same size.

I painted in the black sections on the taped nails, and while they dried I outlined the floral design with a Rio nail art pen. The pen is a sort of gold-ish silver, and I think it really completes the design as well as adding a bit of shimmer! When my striped nails were dry, I removed the tape carefully. Initially my manicure had a shiny finish, but I decided to top them off with Essie 'Matte About You', as you can see in the first picture. I think the mattified effect is especially effective on the striped nails, and I think I'll definitely do a full mani of this in the future!

So here are my nails along with my outfit! As you can see, the crop top only reveals a centimetre or two of my waist, which ensures that it's comfortable to wear as well as being on-trend. I really love this manicure - I've never 'mixed and matched' before, and I think it's definitely something I'll try again! What do you think?

Hey everyone! Today I have a quick review of Butter LONDON 'Marbs'* from Butter LONDON's new Summer Holiday 2013 collection. It's a lovely gold with a hint of silver in it as you shall see. I couldnt resist creating a bit of nail art for you too using my new Orly Dotting Tool* and Orly Striping Brush* that I received from HQhair (a deceiving name considering they also sell nail products too).