Estee Lauder inspiration

Oh. My. Goodness.

Weeks without posting here on my blog. Absolutely appalling.

Without further ado, I present to you...

 Some Estee Lauder inspired nail art! That's right. I've been completely and utterly neglectful and have failed to provide my lovely readers with regular updates and nail-candy.

These nails are actually modelled on a cosmetics bag that was being given away as part of a promotion in Debenhams recently.  The black is acrylic paint and the rest is all nail polish. Check out the Swarovksi Elements Crystals too *wags fingers* - does the shine hurt your eyes much? I pushed the stones into tacky polish and then dabbed around the edges with clear polish to set them. As I knew that this manicure wasn't one I was going to be wearing for too long, I didn't bother with gel top coat. As I'm doing a lot more manicure work nowadays, I tend to slather all of my manicures in a Gelish top coat.

 One more picture before I go!

Thanks for reading - have a good week.

xx

Barry M - Tropical Florals

Tonight on the blog, I have some hand painted flowers for you.

The inspiration to do this design actually came from a pair of flip-flops - one's that I am wearing right now, actually.

Please excuse the picture quality. My camera has dropped a million times and I'm actually surprised that the thing even works now! Time to upgrade methinks. Anyway, back to the nails...

 Barry M's 'Green Berry'.

 The art is a combination of Barry M's 'Pomegranite', 'Mango' (both from the Gelly Range), Milani 'Neon Pink', green from a random eBay nail striper and detailing with Nail Supreme nail art pens in neon and matte colours. Those of you who know how miserable I can be will be aware that I struggled with these pens for a while...I like them now!

Thanks all for tonight folks. If you want further info - just let me know. Maybe I might even do a tutorial...let me know what you think?

xx

Jacava swatches

Hi everyone.

Tonight I have some Jacava swatches for you.

This is 'Damson Delight' - a dark red jelly polish...to which I added a few hand painted designs.

 'Marrakesh Nights' - this is a purple with a pink and blue shimmer.

 Last, but not least - 'Passion'. 

Personally, I think Damson Delight is my favourite out of the three although the other two are beautiful colours too. The formula is smooth and does not streak when applied. Have you tried any Jacava polishes?

xx

Barry M Blue Grape Gelly

Tonight on the blog I want to show off my latest crush...

Barry M's  'Blue Grape Gelly', how I love thee. This picture doesn't even show how gorgeous it is.

I really had to take this picture under yellow light AND tweak this picture quite a bit to get the colouring right. The blue is very vibrant but is a little darker than shown here.

Honestly, you may just want to go and pic this one up yourselves - it's amazing. I love all of the gelly polishes because of the consistency, the shine and the colour variations but this one is my ultimate favourite.

Have you tried any of the gelly polishes yet? What do you think of them?

Powerpuff nails!

It's been a while since I've been on the blog, but here is a manicure that I'm pretty pleased with.

My eldest daughter likes to pick at her nails and in order to stop her from doing this, I've had to start bribing her...with nail art. During the Easter holidays, I told her that she could have any nail art of her choice, providing she didn't pick and tear at her nails. She chose this:

 The Powerpuff girls! Do you like the way she modelled the Barry M 'Blueberry'?

I'm not the best at painting faces but these came out alright. This was done with acrylic paint and a tiny brush.

Hope you like it as much as my daughter did. This lasted for just over a week!

xx

Valentine's day manicure, part 1

'Tis the night before Valentines, people!

I don't know how you feel about the day, but I'm neither here nor there. My wedding anniversary is at the beginning of March, so my husband and I always place more emphasis on that day.

I have a couple of manicures to show you, created with items from Born pretty store:

 Barry M's 'Berry Ice Cream'

 I am totally in love with these nail studs. In particular, the cut-out circles are my favourite and after searching high and low, I was stoked to see that they were available at  Born pretty store.

I used the gold coloured, cut-out circles and gold mini studs to create this manicure. I stuck them into the polish when it was tacky and the designs were created with white acrylic paint. When it came to removing the studs, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the acetone had no effect on the colour; they didn't tarnish at all. They were in such a good condition that I actually kept them to use them again!

 Here is me posing with my iphone case from a pound shop!

Use this code for a 10% discount on your order:)

Stick around because I have another Valentines manicure for you...


xx

Barry M 'Black Multi Glitter'

Hi everyone.

Today I have a polish for you that I bought before Christmas and never worn. It was the holographic particles that swung it for me.

Barry M's 'Black Multi Glitter'

This was amazing in the bottle, subtle on the nail, but so difficult to capture with the camera.

Far better in real life - really! I can't really fault any of the Barry M nail paints. They always seem to (quietly) release new polishes with such regularity.

I'm also using a different top coat at the moment. Recently I went to my local beauty supply before a shoot and I was horrified to find that there was NO SECHE VITE in the store. As the blood drained from my face, the sales assistant said, 'you can try Toma'. I was at a loose end, because all I had in my Helmer was the OPI Rapid Dry (and I don't particularly like it), so I grabbed some Toma.

I'm happy to report that this was a very welcomed alternative to Seche Vite, for me anyway. There wasn't an issue with shrinkage either!

Thanks for reading.

xx

Barry M's Burgandy Croc

  Every time I look at my picture folders, I find pictures that I haven't posted!

 Here's one I totally forgot about (after wearing it for one day). Barry M's Burgandy Croc over pink.

My thumbnail is actually an acrylic sculpt.

I know all these crackles and crocs are slightly played out now, but I do still like them. Meh, so sue me ;)

xx

My nails for London Fashion Week

During London Fashion Week recently, I was lucky enough to be able to assist David Barton in creating manicures for the Mark Fast fashion show.

After the invitation, I had a bit of a crisis - what manicure to you wear to a fashion show?? Okay, so I wasn't going to be on the runway myself (obviously) but I didn't want my nails to look bland.

Barry M's 'Cyan Blue'.

I spent so long on this manicure...only for it chip on me a few hours after I finished it! I'd used a gel nail polish underneath the normal nail lacquer and I think that this is what made the design chip so quickly.

Needless to say, I had to remove the whole thing...and ended up going with bare nails!!

I have a feeling that they would have chipped at the show anyway. I spent the whole time there putting Minx wraps or false nails and sticking them on models. My fingers actually ached afterwards. I'm still really happy that I got to experience such a fantastic show. Hopefully, they'll call me again next season.

Have a great weekend!

xx

Mint Green lace

Hi friends.   

Here's a little manicure that did recently. I'm going back to my roots with some Barry M. This is one of the very first brands that I've worn, even before starting my blog nearly two years ago.

 

Instagram picture

As pleased as I am with this manicure, I'm not so thrilled with my current nail shape. At this length, I think they'd look better squared, but my middle fingernail is just so short.

This shade is perfect for the summer...it did take a while to get to us over here in the UK and I'm dubious as to how long it will actually stay with us!

 

The lines were created with acrylic paint.  They could have been steadier, but I used the wrong brush - I should have used a long thin striping brush, but I used a short fine detailer instead.

 

Do you spy the dent on my index finger? It magically appeared in the morning!

I don't know what you'll be doing this coming week, but whatever it is, I hope it's great. By the way, if there is anything you'd like to see me do (any nail art, tutorials or topics), then please leave a comment below and if it's something I think sounds good, I may try it.

Thanks for reading.

xx

Oooh and it's not even my birthday...

Hi all.

Over the past couple of days I've been rocking these nails. I don't want to go as far as to say that they are my birthday nails (although it is likely that I'll still be wearing this design in 2 hours...which IS when it will be my birthday!)

I've trashed my nails. Royally. I had a low break on my middle finger so I mended it with acrylic, which snapped today when I slammed my car boot. I have another break on my thumb nail so I mended the side with gel. The rest of my nails are strong and long on my left hand. My right has two extensions on, but I put those on for practise. All in all, my nails are all over the place. Much like this manicure!

 The acrylic paint design was painted over sponged Barry M's 'Matte White'.

Ha, it doesn't look like this now! After three clients today I've filed one nail to a point by accident, smudged my design and got half of my hand covered in red polish. In short, it was a brilliant day :)

I'll be back at some point this week (seriously, I will) to tell you about a little giveaway I want to run. Yes, it's my birthday but I want to share it with you.

Enjoy your weekends.

xx

Hand-painted lace effect manicure.

Today I have a tutorial for you. 

I was thinking of creating a black lace manicure, but couldn't find any lace that I really liked. That's when I decided to try free handing a lace pattern onto my nails. 

 

Things you will need:
You will need a base polish. For the life of me, I have no idea what this Barry M polish is called. It's an old one and it is less than half full now. The glitter is number 70 by Catherine Arley. The acrylic paint is non-specific and I actually changed the brush for a thinner one because the lines were just too thick.

 Two coats of base colour and one coat of glitter.

 Create some waves with the black paint.

 Make diagonal lines but don't panic if your lines aren't straight. You can use the wonky lines to prove to people that yes, you did the design YOURSELF!

Add some dots for detail. I actually used a tooth pick because the dotting tools I have are far too big.

Add more detail with the paint brush and when the acrylic is dry, use a top coat.

L-R: '276' with no name and '308-Berry Ice Cream'
I told you that this bottle of polish was old. Look at the worn print - the font size has even changed on the newer bottle.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.

Have you ever worn a 'lace' manicure? What have you used to recreate the 'lace' effect? Would you like to see more of these types of designs in future?

xx

Black and White Valentine's Manicure

I've got another Valentine's manicure for you friends. I didn't use the traditional pink and red colours because I'd actually been thinking of doing an 'anti-love' valentine-icure (for no reason other than to do something different!).  I'd intended to paint on some broken hearts but then my pot of stamping plates started to call my name. I couldn't find anything to fit the theme so I just went with this:

 Barry M's 'Matte White', MUA's black polish to stamp and Venique's 'Twinkling Snow', sent to me by the very lovely RMCandlelight.

 Bundle Monster plates 02, 03 and 09 from the old edition of plates.

Right hand!

Until next post...xx