Valentine's Day Nails 2018

The last time I did Valentines day nails was in 2015 and that is just... not ok.

I haven't had much of my nail art mojo recently so I thought the time of year where we celebrate all things love I should give my little hobby a passion injection.

Once I sit down and get painting, I really enjoy it so I just need to get my juices flowing for creative ideas and remember to set the time aside to do it!

Below are four easy nail art ideas that you can try this Valentines day!

First up are these super cute, subtle heart nails.

These could be worn all year long as they are so understated but I love how simple they are.

I used a pastel pink base called Strawberry Tart, £4.99, Models Own then dotted the hearts from the  Alexa Chung Hearts Polish, £15, Boots in the base of the nail to give them a love lift.

Next are some rally lary in your face love nails.

I used a gold and pink glitter as a base which I kind of regret now as I feel a flat colour would have lifted the red better.

But oh well! These cartoon nails are super fun and bright.

Next is a neon sign effect nail design which reminds me a bit of a naughty Motel sign maybe to be used for a night of passion rather than love!

This is actually a really easy nail design to do. You just need a black base and then a white nail art striper to do the lettering. You then messily dab on a neon pink polish, I used Bubblegum, £4.99, Models Own and then go over the lettering again with the white to define it.

Finally is a Valentines glamour look which I used using the red glitter powder called 'Big Top' from my Ciate Mini Mani Month advent colour.

This deep red glitter as a tinge of pink and is super glittery and dazzling. If you love glitter, I would highly recommend getting a powder glitter as they tend to be finer and just look so much better!!

So there you have four easy nail art design to get you through this Valentines date night!

Let me know which ones are your fave!

For previous Valentines Day nail art click here

Valentine Heart Manicure

It's getting to the sexy time of year where we celebrate Valentine's day! And it wouldn't be Valentine's day if there wasn't themed nail art to go along with it!

This year I've gone for some more textured nails, as I had a few heart themed things to try. The first being the Alexa Chung Hearts polish I got in my Nails Inc kit at Christmas, and the second being the red Ciate velvet I've had for ages and been meaning to try. As you may know I also have the green velvet from the emerald collection, and have done a few furry designs with that, but the red velvet called out to be used at Valentine's season.

The red that came with the Ciate velvet was the very aptly named, 'Bodouir', and I just free handed the heart and patted on the velvet, for a fluffy heart. As for the Alexa Chung heart polish, application wasn't as easy as I'd have hoped. I wanted one quick sweep to give me flawless heart coverage, but unfortunately you have to work quite hard to get them out. I find swirling the brush around until you get a few hearts on the end, and the strategically placing them on the nail is the technique you need to adopt.

Nevertheless, it looks pretty cool and its a cute textured alternative mani from the usual hearts we see this time of year!

Love Steph x

Valentine's Day Nails

Happy Valentine's day my lovely readers! If your reading this, then I'm happy you've taken the time to come and read my blog instead of being romanced for 5 mins! I LOVE YOU. I just thought I'd quickly show you some Valentine's day nail art I came up with for my sisters and I. I should have really posted these yesterday in case any of you wanted Valentine nails but there we go!

So firstly, here are my little sisters Valentine's nails. She is only 7, so she wanted something cute and simple, so I went for Minnie mouse inspired love hearts on a red base. They are not the neatest nails ever but she has such tiny nails and she is very wiggly.

My other sister is a bit more of a tom boy and doesn't wear nail varnish much. I went for a more Gothic style of nail art for her by using a more deep red/purple. I saw this cut out effect on 'One Nail to Rule Them All' and I thought it looked so cool. I just got a cotton bud with nail varnish remover and made the heart, then outlined with a nail art pen.

Finally, my Valentine's manicure is a classic heart design. I have seen so many people wear this style on blogs and pinterest and I wanted to give it a try myself. It was surprisingly easy to get the heart shapes symetrical, and I used Barry M 'Lychee' as a base which is a really lovely nude.

I hope you all have a LOVEly Valentines. Lots of love, Steph xxx

February Glossy Box

I heard lots of people talking about 'Glossy box' so I decided to invest and applied for a monthly delivery of Glossy Boxes! If your interested in getting glossy boxes, follow this link http://www.glossybox.co.uk/referal?CI=MTEwMDU3 This is the first one I received and I was very happy! This is the Valetine's day edition, and here is how I got on.

1. Fat Cat Mascara

First impressions really do count. I really like the packaging to this Me Me Me mascara so I already decided I wanted to like this! (excuse the picture, it has been in my makeup bag which always seems to give everything a foundation-y layer)

Unfortunately I was not overwhelmed with the actual purpose of the mascara! I usually use Benefit's 'They're Real' mascara which is fantastic. I like mascaras that dry quite hard and actually feel like their doing something. The Fat Cat mascara is jet black and has a really strong colour, but I found it didn't give my eye lashes much of a curl and left them quite straight. I do really want to like this mascara so will persevere, but I will only use it in the week when I don't want such a dramatic lash.

2. Helen E Lipstick

My lipstick is a shade called 'Caribbean' and I really like it! I quite like red and pink lipsticks, so this was right up my street! This lipstick is quite moisturising and doesn't dry out your lips. It also stays quite glossy so you can rub your lips together without worrying about it coming of! The staying power isn't fantastic, about 4-5 hours, but I do like my little lipstick!

3. MicaBella Mineral Blush

I am a bit gutted about this one! When you apply for your glossy box, you put in your skin type etc, and I think I thought I was latino that day because I put my skin tone darker than I should have. Therefore this shade of 'Terra Cotta' doesn't look very nice on my skin. I really want to try mineral makeup though as it is free of parabens and nasty things that age your skin, so it is somthing I want to look into more!

4. Narciso Rodriguez Perfume

This perfume is really fresh and light. I really like the smell and would recommend it for summer, but it also has a sophisticated scent which could be worn to an interview for a crisp, clean smell. Reviewing perfume is actually a lot harder than I thought!

6. Voulez Vous Body Oil

I was unsure of what this was at first as it was in French and just said 'body oil'. After a bit of research, I realised it is actually a sex oil made by a company in Paris, and is flavoured like Margarita cocktails. I would review this one, but it's just NOT THAT TYPE OF BLOG!

Valentine nails

Here are my valentines day nails! I used the nails inc 'brompton place" pink and models own nail pens. They're simple and I think they look really cute. I got the little hearts as a gift so not sure where they are from in afraid!