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

Sneaky eBay shopping...

I don't know about you but when you haven't got any money and you know you shouldn't spend the tiny bit you have left, all you can think about is spending it....right?

On top of that my mum knows how little money I have and is therefore watching me like a hawk!

Because of this I have resulted to scouring the internet in my free time. I managed to avoid actual shops as the temptation is far too high, but online I can browse without feeling the fabrics, smelling the lotions and potions and seeing the deals.

That is of course, excluding ebay, whose low prices and bidding excitement gets me every time.

Particularly when I find a good deal on something I want, and THEN finding an even BETTER deal!

Just cannot resist it and the shopaholic inevitably takes over.

Because I'm sure we all know that spending money online just isn't REAL money is it??

Exactly.

Anyhow, enough of my ramblings, here's my random purchases from eBay of the past few weeks.
You can probably see a bit of a theme developing, I hope you enjoy!

Before you think I;m crazy for buying feathers...I've been using them in recent nail designs and they've turned out awesome! Will be posting about them soon.

Whilst I was searching for feathers I came across the ones below and couldn't resist but snap them up for the £1.24 bargain!

Look how beautiful they are!

I was hoping these would also look amazing on my nails too but the dyes seem to react with the nail varnish and run all over the place!

So I will have to do something else with these, if anyone has any ideas??

They're too pretty to hide away.

I also bought some dotting tools in different sizes and cannot wait to use these, I have a normal size one but there are so many designs I wanted to try with smaller and larger dots I couldn't resist the set.

They were £2.59 with postage and are double ended! They're from this seller.

I've also been meaning to get my hands on some nail tape as I've seen some amazing designs with this!

I bought a pack of 12 different colours and finishes from this seller before I realised that actually it didn't include a black or white which was what I wanted most (silly me!) so I ended up buying them separately.

I bought both black and white nail tape from this seller who does a 3 for 2 deal and I also got another colour for free!

The blue glitter polish was from this seller, and the other two were from this seller 

Both were less than £2 each with postage so definitely a bargain!

Lastly I thought I'd buy some nail stickers as they're such an easy way of adding a finishing touch to an otherwise simple nail.

These were £1.49 with postage and you pay for 5 sheets.

I thought I'd increase my chances of getting better sheets by buying two but unfortunately they weren't that great and I had some duplicates which was a little pointless!

There are some nice white flowers and swirls however that will definitely come in handy.

Just the luck of the ebay draw I guess!

What do you think of eBay? Are you a victim of a sneaky purchase on there too?

I love and loathe it.

So many bargains to be had but selling things is a nightmare!

L xxx

(p.s. how ridiculous is my nail art getting?? I've gone from not trying anything to buying it all! Obsessed.)

NOTD: Gradient Toadstool

Another of Make Up Savvy's challenges!

Today's is gradient nails which I was really excited about until........I couldn't find my sponges ANYWHERE!

So I had to improvise slightly...

Instead I picked 3 colours ranging from light pink to red and layered them on my nails in 3 stripes (kind of!)

If I'd had sponges these colours would have blended together really well but unfortunately that wasn't to be.

The base colour is 17 Supreme Shine in Simply Pink, the middle colour is No7 Cheeky Chops (post here-also in the photo) and the red is Barry M (262)

Then I used my dotting tool to do the dots, which hide a multitude of sins!

I tried my best to get the nails to blend and in some they did but others didn't look so great and this is a really cute toadstool look, ha!

I overloaded the dotting tool with the white nail polish from the Barielle Bridal Collection (Enduring) and blobbed it on wherever I felt necessary

I quite liked this design, it was fun and so easy to do, though does take a little whilst waiting for all the coats and the dots to dry.

What do you think of my ideas? I'm planning on getting some more sponges today so I can attempt gradient nail art properly....any tips??

L xxx

NOTD Lilac Spotty Nails

After a quick trip to boots the other day I ended up walking out with 4 new nail varnishes. I just cant seem to resist. I also picked up Essie Grow Stronger after hearing good things about it. I will do a full review once I've tried it for a little while.

In the Summer I love pastel nail shades as well as bright colours. Today I decided on pastel nail art so I could use two of my new nail varnishes. These are the colours I used.

Avon Nailwear pro+ in Lemon Sugar currently £5

China Glaze in Secret Periwinkle 

No7 Cheeky Chops £2 when bought with a voucher

Rimmel I love lasting finish in shade Marshmallow Heaven and Pear Drop currently two for £4 in boots

I started off by painting my nails with two coats of Marshmallow Heaven. I should add I didn't like this nail varnish, it seemed streaky and not a great quality, but after two coats it looked ok and I evened out any other strokes with a third coat. It did last almost 4 days on my nails which with work is amazing so maybe I would repurchase other shades.

I couldn't really decide on what to do but wanted to use lots of colours so ended up doing lines of different polka dots. My nail dotting tool is the best thing I've bought for my nails and I use it all the time. It's great for creating loads of different designs.

This is quick easy and summery, and although the formulation of the Rimmel Nail polish at first put me off the price and the lasting power of it has me giving it another go.

Have you used and Rimmel I love lasting finish nail varnishes? Are you a pastel or brights girl?

Love M

xxx

NOTD matching my nails to my dress

I got distracted yesterday and forgot to post this. Last night I ended uo going to see spiderman. It was so good. Actually had to hold back tears at one point (I'm a crier at films) lots of cinema trips thus week as me and L are off to see magic mike. I can 't believe she'll have been in the country almost a week before I see her!

So onto to today's post. I spent last week at my parents. It was so nice to have a week to catch up with everyone as weekends I seem to spend rushing.

Whilst at home I took advantage of having time to paint my nails and did them to match my outfits for my planned nights out.

Here is the first outfit I matched my nails to. 

Dress New Look spring sale

Blazer Next Christmas Sale

Belt Primark

Sorry I'm a bad blogger and only took finished photo's. But both designs are easy to do.

Firstly I wore this red dress for a meal with the family (you may have seen it before if you read the post on L's birthday night out) I picked it up in the new look sale a while back. I love the pattern on it and decided to try and do a feature nail with the pattern. I painted two coats of Avon Nailwear Pro+ in Real Red. I was pretty impressed with the opaqueness after one coat and it dried well.My nail art skills aren't good enough to do all my nails.

Using my trusty ebay dotting tool (I need to pick up nail art brushes soon) I started to create a fan shape with scollaped edges. I simplified the design a bit. I used OPI alpine white for this (I got the best of the best mini set for Christmas). It's great for nail art as its really opaque. 

I drew to of the spikey white fan shapes on each of my ring fingers. Next I used No7 Grey skies (only £2 with a voucher) I drew little half circles as with my dotting tool I couldn't be precise enough to smaller spikes.

Lastly using OPI Lincoln After Dark I tried to paint little triangles at the bottom of the fan shape and then used the No7 grey skies to add stems.

And the final look. It's not an exact match the patter was too fiddley but I like the way it looks only being on one nail.

The other hand. 

What do you think? Do you try to match nails to your outfit?

Love M

xxx