Lightning Nails

The last few days in England have been very stormy indeed. It has been the hot topic of the moment as we are not used to these kind of climatic dramas. Storms are the only weather that will make you switch off everything your doing, lay down, and stare absent mindedly out of the window anticipating a rumble of thunder or a flash of lightning... at least I do anyway.

I was babysitting on Friday night so had a lot of extra time to enjoy the storm, and managed to get a few snaps of the lightning. This one is my favourite that I got, I am no photographer but I was pretty impressed with this one!

This reminded me that I have been meaning to do some lightning nails for a while now. I have a list on my phone of nails I want to do, for when I get a sudden inspiration or reminder when I'm out and about. Lightning has certainly been on the list for a while, and this gave me the occasion to do it.

For this nail art, I used Barry M 'Indigo' as my base colour. The first coat was really watery but the second coat gave the perfect deep blue night sky I wanted. I then sponged on the purple colour, -creatively named 'Bright Purple'- into forks of where I wanted the lightning to go. I then sponged white at the cuticle to create the source of lightning, and then used the nip to create the jagged blots of lightning down the nail.

From far away I think these nails look better, when up close they potentially look like nail art gone wrong! I think the thinner the lines, the more effective the look will be. Let me know what you think!

Frozen Nails

Hello there again! Today I am posting to tell you I will be taking a break from blogging for a week as I am off on a skiing holiday today! I am posting this from the airport in France of my phone so apologies if the post looks weird. I am very excited!! I have not just posted to tell you this, I have (of course) done some snow flake fingertips for you to feast your eyes on. I feel very much like Elsa from the animated film 'Frozen' with these nails, so as you can imagine I will be singing 'Let It Go' whilst throwing snow in the air with my snowflake nails at any given oppertunity!

I started to add some glitter on this hand but felt it covered up the design to much so let them be free!

I will be back on the blog as soon as I return. Until then, enjoy this fantastic song, if you haven't seen 'Frozen' already then this is the song that has taken iTunes by storm! See you soon 

Xxx

'Let It Go' from 'Frozen'

Day 11: Pastel Blue

I am only a day late with this post so I'm getting back into the swing of things! This prompt for the nail art challenge was pastel blue. I used my Mac nail varnish which is called 'Hyperion' and is actually a cream! I think it has a very light blue colour though.

I did not use ANY water for this 'marbel effect' manicure. I have tried using the water technique and it is one that needs to be practiced a lot. I saw this technique, again, in my Wah Nails book. First, I used a coat of Barry M 'Matte White'. When this was dry, I then blobbed big dollops of the blue and white, and merged them together using a cocktail stick. Its quite thick and tacky so needs to be left for a while to dry, but can then be finished of with a top coat. The finished effect looks exactly the same, but is easier, less time consuming, and not as messy.

I love the effect of this manicure and will be experimenting with other colour combinations in the future. I think this blue/grey effect looks like smoke and I love it!

Minion Nails

I'm sure a majority of you have seen the film 'Despicable Me' and if you haven't, then I'm sure you will know what minions are, from advertisements on buses and on TV. I absolutely love the film and think it is great for all ages and a really cute story! My friend recently saw the film and caught the bug, and asked if I could do the endearing little creatures on her nails. This is the first time I'd done nail art on someone that wasn't a family member so I was a little nervous. She was happy with the outcome though and so was I, so here they are!

You can see the dungaree detailing better on this picture

Chanel Coloured Mascara

Excuse these new random posts I'm doing showing off the latest ad campaigns in the makeup world. These adverts are really quite inviting and I'm using my blog as a kind of pin board, to show you what I am interested in, and my kind of inspirations that I want to try out. The latest one I have found myself staring at, is the new Chanel advert, picturing their new coloured mascaras. Coloured mascara is by no means modern or the latest thing, but I really love how the eye shadows mirror the mascara, creating a really cool summery look. Similarly to the Mac campaign, matching nail colour to eye makeup, is a big thumbs up for from me!

*pictures courtesy of google

Colour Change Nail Varnish

I have recently started to see a new trend coming out in the nail world, which is colour change polish. I have been researching them for a while, and found that they are really only established in America at the moment. The main companies that do it in the US are 'Ruby Wing' and 'In the Mood'. I managed to find a few sites over here where I could buy some. I have bought a few colours and I was very skeptical that they would actually work. They most CERTAINLY did not dissapoint!

This nail polish is 'Ylin Mood change' varnish, which I got from www.bornprettystore.com for $7.84 which is  about £5.17.

The colour at room temperature is purple

but in hot water, it goes blue

To see it in action, please see the video below.

The cool thing about this polish (pardon the pun), is that you can get really wacky effects in and out of water. Ok, it does not last but it is something you can do to show your friends!

Some of you may be asking "but why?" and my answer is, I don't really know why. My only solution for such a amazing but pointless polish, is to take it on holiday with you. You could co-ordinate your polish with your swimwear so it matches when your in the water, and when your out. Sad? Yes. But are you all going to do it? Probably.

The only downside to this polish, is that without a top coat it cracks, so make sure you put an extra protective layer of top coat on these to make them last! I have got a couple more colours to show you from other brands but I was just way too excited about this I had to get it up online!