NOTD: Roses

I've seen many roses nail art tutorials so I thought it was about time I finally got around to trying it myself. I love being creative with my nails and love the look of rose nails but have never got around to doing them yet.

There are so many step by step tutorials online I've read lots so just did it from memory. I'm a nail biter. Last year was the first time I stopped so for nearly a year I actually had nice nails. You can see these in my posts from the start of this blog. Stress, uni and work has got me biting them again and I hate the way they look. Until I can kick the habit again I'm wearing false nails a lot.

False nails can get an expensive habit. I love acrylics but not the price and the damage they do, plus I like to do my own nail art. I get my nails from Boots. The kiss brand sell 100 nails for £6.49 (here) I can get between 5 and 10 uses out of these depending on if I file down the nails that are too big. It makes them great value. I don't like the glue in them so I get the Elegant Touch Brush on Glue £3.10 (here) This last ages. The combination of these two products means I can have nice nails reasonably cheap. The brush on glue is much easier to apply and less messy. I find it lasts about 5 days too.

For my nails for this look I painted all my nails except my ring finger in Ciate Dangerous Affair (Ciate polishes can be picked up here for £9) I found two coats gave a gorgeous pinky red shade. It's lasted well without chipping.

For my ring finger I painted them using the Ciate Cutie Pie. It's a creamy nude pink. I left this to dry well before starting the nail art. Once dry I applied 3 oblong shapes to my ring finger in Dangerous Affair. Then left those to dry.

Once they were dry I used my handing dotting tool and Ciate Cupcake queen to make the oblongs round with two lines of cupcake queen. I then applied a dot in the middle of the smaller one's and swirls to the bigger ones.

To add the leaves I used the dotting tool again, this time using Avon Midnight Green (reviewed here). I adding two leaf shapes using my dotting tool.

I left it my nails to dry then painted with a coat of my trusty Seche Vite (reviewed here) I can't be without this top coat now.

Sorry they look a bit scratched. They are four days old now!

One last thing I'm loving at the moment is this Nail file and buffer from Avon (found here for £3). It has a great cuticle trimmer on the end which makes neatening cuticles so easy. I don't like the file much but the £3 is worth it just for the cuticle trimmer in my opinion. I get much better results then any liquid cuticle remover.

Have you done rose nail art? Would love to see your colour combinations!

Love M

xxx

NOTD MUA Constellations Libra and Ciate Cupcake Queen

I was lucky enough to talk my boyfriend into getting me the Ciate Advent calender and boy was I excited for the 1st of the month to come. I love Ciate polishes. They have such cute bottles with the ribbons on. 

On the First day it was a gorgeous pink with a blue shimmer in that I couldn't wait to get on my nails. I'm really annoyed at myself as since getting acrylics on for my holiday all I've done is bite my nails. I'd stopped the habit and they were starting to look nice so in the new year I have to really work hard to stop again.

I have to say the first day left me a little disapointed as Cupcake Queen looks very very very very similar to Jelly Bean that came free in a magazine a few months ago. You can see the post on Jelly Bean here.

Here is the Jelly Bean polish from Marie Claire a few months back.

Look how long my nails are :-( well long for me. Below is the Cupcake Queen with MUA Libra Nail Constellations. L picked them up for us a while ago and I have been meaning to try them for ages. Strangley enough the night L and I started this blog I was round hers and a wheel of mixed beads I got from eBay split in my bag and I did a DIY Cavier manicure before it was even named a Cavier Manicure!!

Apologises for my unfiled false nails. I did file them before I went out. As you can see the colour is very similar. Cupcake Queen may be a fraction lighter but they both have the blue shimmer. I will probably give my mum or L one of these as if L doesn't want it my mum loves bright pinks as there isn't any point having two.

After the first day I have loved almost all the colours in my calender and it's fun opening each day and having a nail polish, I just with I hadn't bit my nails so I could play with them more.

Now onto the MUA Constellations. I'm loving these. For me it will always be a feature nail manicure and not all over. The MUA version stuck on well. I just added top coat to the tip of my nail as I've heard it's good to do this.

I really like that Libra is black beads with a few blue ones. I think this makes it easy to wear with most colours. My only problem with it is I hate the lid. I find the rubber funnel like top a pain to be honest. It's stiff to get off so the first time I flung a load of beads everywhere and when trying to get the beads back in I found it was easier to use a piece of folded paper. Maybe that's just me.

These lasted a good two days but I don't know if it helped that they were on false nails. They'd have probably lasted longer but they annoyed me and I picked them off.

I really like these nails for nights out as they are a bit special and I can't wait to try the Cavier polishes from my Calender as I've got a gorgeous colour in there.

Have you tried Constellations or Cavier? What's your thoughts?

Love M

xxx