Snowflakes

Just a quick one... need to catch up on my recent nails but here's what I've currently got on:

Blue: Leighton Denny "Inkjet"

White: Models Own/WAH nails white nail art pen

Cupcake Nails

It's my birthday on Thursday and I'm turning the big 2-3 so to celebrate I've finally decided to paint cupcakes on my nails. It's been done a million times before in a million different ways so whilst it's nothing earth shatteringly new it's incredibly cute and puts a smile on my face when I look down (although I've literally just thought of a way to make them cuter..)

Yellow: OPI "The It Colour"
Orange: Revlon "Mango Madness"
Bluey-Green: Revlon "Ocean Breeze"
Pink: Revlon "Bubblegum"
Pink Glitter: Barry M "Pink Iridescent"
Purple: Barry M Limited Edition Boots colour
White: Barry M
Red Cherry: OPI "Monsooner or Later"
Sprinkles are: Barry M (blue), OPI (yellow), Revlon (pink and purple)

The Revlons are all scented polishes (something I remember being totally into when I was 12 and reading Bliss and J-17 magazines - those were the days!) and I definitely love catching whiffs of them throughout the day!

These were actually super easy to do and I actually replicated it pretty well on my right hand as well:

Crappy Photobooth pic

To do the cupcakes I painted on rectagular blocks of colour along the edge of my nail (a bit like a giant french tip) before layering on the white polish to create a frosting effect. A blob of red for the cherry on top and some multicoloured sprinkles completes the look! And I also added glitter onto my ring finger cuppycakes as I can't resist having one different from the others.

Of course I've asked for a whole heap of nail art goodies for my upcoming birthday and am hoping someone will sneak a bottle of this into my pressies:

An incredibly suitable present for a polish fanatic like me: Deborah Lippmann's "Happy Birthday".

Royal Nails

Apparently 1 in 3 tuned in for the Royal wedding - me included! I wasn't planning on watching but the excitement around the dress, and the fact that I was up early to buy some Liberty print Nikes meant that I ended up switching the TV on.

The dress was Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen and it was gorgeous. I'm not a fan of long-sleeved wedding dresses but I just fell in love with the lace (such a sucker for lace) and the perfect train (not too long) and the edging on her veil! It was a perfect fairytale wedding dress.

After the dress had been revealed I was of course quite curious about the nails. According to the Daily Fail the nails were done by beautician Marina Scandoval who used a "custom blended a special mix including Bourjois no 28 Rose Lounge and Essie 423 Allure."

Very natural colours and I'd imagine that they're quite sheer as well. Does any have these colours and can try out the new princess look?

Floral Nails - A First Attempt

I had a go at doing floral nails earlier this week. This is definitely not the best photo in the world of them but my camera is back in London and I'm still at my parents'.


I've been meaning to try out floral nails for a while now but didn't have the right colours. When I spotted the Models Own Pro range in Boots the other day I couldn't resist picking up a couple of bottles. After umming and ahhing for about half an hour I chose Rosewood Pink (a dusty vintage sort of rose pink without being overly saccharine) and Freedom of Peach (a nudey sort of peach). I've been meaning to get some colours I could use for florals and these seemed perfect!

Originally I wanted a blue base colour but the blue I have with me didn't go with the colour of the flowers (which I practised on a notepad beforehand). To do the flowers I tried all sorts but preferred using the brush that came with the polish to "dab" on spots of colour. I think that when trying to do vintage-y Cath Kidston type floral prints it's much better to be less precise and more rough so after the first colour (Freedom of Peach), I layered on top Rosewood Pink in the same dabbing motion before switching to my trusty Barry M White. I then added some leaves using a Topshop polish, although I'm not too happy with the shade of green...

(I swear my hands are not normally this wrinkly?)

Overall I think it's quite decent for a first try but I wish I had something light and sheer with me that I could've used as a base coat. Ahh well, next time. Practise makes perfect and all that. More runway nails to come soon, I promise! I've got a good idea in my head but it'll take a couple of weeks to gather the right materials...!

Easter manicure

This totally isn't a runway look (as far as I'm aware!) but I just wanted to share with you the nails I had over Easter. I changed them last night but I haven't decided if I like my new nails or not so in the meantime here's some cute pastel bunnies...

Yellow: OPI "The It Colour"
Green: Barry M
Pink: Barry M
Blue: Topshop
Purple: Barry M Limited Edition colour for Boots
White (eyes and insides of ears): Barry M
Black (eyes): Barry M
Pink (noses): Deborah Lippmann "Pop Life"

As you can tell I like to use a lot of Barry M! I love Barry M as they're cheap (always in some sort of 2 for £5/3 for 2 type dealio) and they're quite opaque. I've gone back to my parents' for Easter and have only a small selection (read: 20) of polishes with me so I haven't listed the full names of the colours. If anyone wants them, just leave me a comment and I'll get back to you when I'm in London again.

I was going to use the WAH nails/Models Own nail art pens for the eyes and ears but I find using the actual brush that comes with the polishes much easier than the nail art brushes (sometimes too fine a line) or the fine end (always end up with polish spurting out the top!!) Speaking of Models Own, yesterday I stumbled across a Boots that has the Models Own Pro range and since Boots are doing a very yummy 3 for 2 across all make-up, I snagged a couple of bottles which I've used in my most recent nails! Photos to come on that look...