New Nail Length & Vintage Mani

I decided to give my nails a chop this week and get them all to the same length and shape, I think it looks much better :)

I decided to give vintage “Cath Kidston” style nails a go. I wasn’t sure how I’d get on with the flowers so decided to go with stripes for the rest of my nails except my ring finger. I used Barry M 251 Blue as a base colour and then using a dotting tool and Essie Van D’Go and Models Own Vintage Pink I drew the flower and used OPI You Don’t Know Jacques for the leaves. I then did vertical white stripes on the other nails using a striping tool.

I love this look and definitely want to try again with different colour combos!

Hint of Irish

Looking back on these nails, I should have SO done these for St. Patricks day! Have to remember that for next year!

I wanted to try out of the tips on my Konad plate, so decided to go for OPI You Don’t Know Jacques with Konad White…

(Pre-clean up so excuse the mess!)

Konad Zebra Nails

I’ve been playing around with my Konad stamping set which I got a few weeks ago and wanted to share a few of the zebra designs I’ve tried.

First of all I wanted to test non Konad polishes and see how it works. A few I tried were just no-hopers but then I came across Barry M 320 Foil Gold which worked a gem. I put it over Models Own Purple Grey and think the final result was really subtle but pretty.

(Slight mess up on my middle finger!)

I also did my Mums nails using OPI Do You Think I’m Tex-y and Konad white
I really liked the pink and white contrast and definitely want to try this out on myself!

Nubar Polka Dots

I was intrigued when I came across this polish on another blog and had to give it a go! I decided to try it over a light colour for contrast so used OPI Fit For a Queensland…

Sorry the picture quality isn’t great! I found the Nubar Polka Dot polish very easy to work with, the above is with two top coats and a few extra blobs to try and get some of the bigger hex glitter to be more even!

I’d recommend this polish for a quick and quirky design – I got a lot of comments when wearing this and am looking forward to trying it over different colours. I also kind of want the white one now too!

What do you think of this polish? Any suggestions as to what it would look good over the top of?

Pink Split–OPI & Essie

I think I’ve gone from begin obsessed with drawing dots on my nails to drawing stripes across my nails! Here is yet another split mani!

I did two coats of OPI Do You Think I’m Tex-y and then used Rimmel Matte Finish Top Coat over this. I then did  a diagonal line and filled in the top part of my nail with Essie Masquerade Belle and finished off with a black line to separate the two colours. I quite liked the contrast in colours but I was disappointed with the matte top coat over this polish as I was hoping for a more dramatic effect with the matte and non matte polishes. I’ve seen some great manis using this effect though so am keen to try in with a few different colours, I think it seems to work better with darker polishes.

Strawberry nails

I stumbled across a picture of some strawberry nails last week and HAD to give them a go! There are a few different styles out there but I decided this was my favourite…

I used two coats Essie Silken Cord as a bottom coat and then drew the “leaves” on with OPI Jade is the New Black followed by white dots as “seeds”. I found the leaves quite difficult to do and had to adjust them a few times but was quite happy with the overall result!

OPI–Yucatán If U Want

I decided to try another version of the Scotch tape mani and kept it simple with one colour and a black stripe and I LOVE how it turned out. I also love this polish, its a gorgeous not-quite-red-not-quite-pink colour which applies like a dream and lasts well.

I have grown to really like doing manis with my plain nail showing underneath like this too, so have a few more ideas up my sleeve to try!

Haul

Inspired by Laura's post about Ebaying US polishes, I was suckered in and ordered some tonight. After much debating, I decided to go with…

OPI Jade is the New Black
I have lusted over this for a long, long time so am really excited to finally be adding this to my collection!






OPI Do You Think I’m Tex-y?
I don’t really own many pink polishes and I’m not really a pink person but I looked up some swatches and this looks like a really pretty colour so I’m looking forward to trying this out.





China Glaze Grape Pop
I have been on the lookout for a nice ‘proper’ purple polish for a while as I have so many variations of blue/purple, grey/purple, lilac/purple, pink/purple so now I shall finally have a real purple!




Colour Club Wish Upon A Rockstar
For now this is the closest I am going to get to OPI Rainbow Connection <3 it was a real bargain too so I’m not too worried if I don’t end up liking it!
Can’t wait for these to arrive, all together it cost just over £20 including postage, which 2 OPI polishes would have cost alone in the UK! Oh and if anyone’s wondering I got them from this eBay store.

Miss Minty

This NOTD originally was going to be something completely different, but I ran out of time (and patience) when doing it and as I was heading out I had to settle for something a little more simple! However I do plan on re-trying my original idea so will keep you posted on that.

I created this look with two coats of GOSH Miss Minty 597 and then drew some dots on with OPI Barefoot in Barcelona and another dot on top of that with Natural Collection White. Then finished off with a top coat.

Simple but still quite effective…and more fun than plain one colour nails, right?! I know…more dots! I don’t think this will last long as I’ve got plenty more things I want to try out!

I’ve been watching quite a few YouTube videos lately showing how to do marble effect nails and really want to give it a go. Have you ever tried it? Let me know if you have any tips or pics!

OPI Barefoot In Barcelona

I have been meaning to get this polish for a long time now and I finally managed to get my hands on it last week! I got it along with a few other polishes that I ordered from ASOS but this had to be the first one to go on!

As usual with OPI, this polish went on nicely with two coats and lasted a good 4-5 days before starting to chip. The colour is such a pretty warm brown colour and I have had lots of nice comments whilst wearing it too! Looking forward to doing a few comparisons with this too. I adore this polish and can see myself wearing it a lot in the future, recommend to you all

OPI My Big Break

This polish is a gorgeous purpley-pink colour with green/silver sparkles, which actually doesn’t come across very well when photographed.

As expected from OPI the formula is nice and I particularly like the brushes on OPI polishes as they seem a bit bigger than normal and this makes foreasier application! This shade took a good 3 coats to get a decent coverage and not a bad drying time. I have also included another photo that gives a better idea of the ‘sparkles’

On another note, how amazing is the new Car Key collection from Models Own?!

I can see myself ordering Grace Green, Purple Ash, Garnet and Vintage Pink in the not so distance future <3

Has anyone got their hands on any of these yet? Any favourites, recommendations?

Let me know!

Has anyone ever tried

My beloved OPI drip dry drops are beginning to run low, so I am starting the search for a replacement when they are finished. I got my current 30ml bottle as a bargain on Ebay for around £15, but can’t find anything in that price region for the 30ml bottle at the moment.

I have seen a few alternatives that I was thinking of giving a go but I was wondering if anyone had ever tried them or if they had any advice for them…

Avon Nail Experts Liquid Freeze Quick Dry Spray

£6.00 for 50ml

”Spray nails dry in a flash. A convenient, fast-drying top coat in a easy to use spray.”

No7 Quick Dry Nail Oil

£6.50 for 10ml

”No7 quick dry nail oil is the ideal accessory for any manicure fan.”

Please comment and let me know if you have used either of these and if they are worth a go!….Or if you think I should stick with my trust OPI drops!

Leopard Nails...not Cheetah!

Ok so in my last post I mentioned that I was going to give Cheetah spots a try...now obviously I meant Leopard spots and said post has now been edited! Anyway, I spent somewhere near two hours creating this look and it's been a long time since I attempted any sort of nail art so I was a bit rusty. Anyway, here's how they turned out...


I think they looked better from a distance than close up (maybe that's just me being a perfectionist and noticing every little mistake, though). This picture is of my right hand, which I did first so by the time I got to the left hand I was getting the hang of it and created better 'spots' more like the little finger nail in this pic.

If anyone is interested, this is how I created this look...

1. Applied Sally Hansen Hard as Nails as base coat
2. Applied Two coats of Sally Hansen Clearly Buff Naturel Beige (which I got as part of a french manicure set)
3. Did the Leopard spots with GOSH Gold 554
4. Went around the gold spots with a black polish I got in a set which has a long, thin nail art brush, the make is 'Special FX'
5. Applied OPI Drip Dry drops and waited...
6. Applied top coat

I got a lot of comments about them and loads of people were surprised I did them myself and thought I had been somewhere to get them done, which was flattering. I will definitely try this look again, this was a bit of an experiment so I would like to give it a go with some different polishes, maybe trying a silver one next time (Snow Leopard, anyone!)