Nudey drips

Oh what's that? More matte nails? Of course! I couldn't resist, I'm sorry, but I did originally do these shiny (technical terms) and didn't really like how the photos came out unfortunately, so I added matte and now they look awesome-r (duh). I love these cartoon drips, I see them everywhere so unfortunately I dont know who they originated from, if you know let me know and I'll give correct credit!

For the base I used OPI - Did you 'ear about Van Gogh, and then using a dotting tool I put on Barry M -Berry and China Glaze - For Audrey, later outlined and highlighted in acrylic paint.

Do you think I should have kept them shiny or is my neverending use of matte as awesome as I see it to be (hint hint)? Alice

Then and Now: Week 3

Hey everyone! So today I have week 3 of my Then and Now 'challenge' for you. I was quite excited for this design just because it was quite cute but I was disappointed by how amazingly simple it was to do, so I've decided that from now on I'm not just going to copy the design, unless I feel it's worth it, I'm instead going to adapt it to be a bit more complex. So for instance these could have ended up with bamboo or something, when I did these I didn't really have time to do much else otherwise I would have. In a way I kind of did change them slightly, as I gave them a nose and slightly better eyes, but I'd hardly call that a complex improvement haha. More after the jump!

A bit of a jumble

Hey everyone! I will only be posting on Wednesday and Saturday until next week, and then hopefully things should become more regular again! You might also have noticed that I've changed the comments back to having a spam check, I'm sorry I've had to do that, I was getting around 8 spam comments a day and it was just getting a bit annoying, I hope you will still take the time to comment, I do love reading what you all have to say!

Now, onto the nails! I was feeling a bit uninspired, so I decided that I would just paint my nails a lovely colour (OPI - Thanks a Windmillion) and see where I went from there. Then when I had it on I thought of doing an accent glitter nail, and then the whole black and silver theme came to me and that was it, I just painted what I felt like. I used black acrylic paint and Barry M - Silver foil, alongside Barry M - Limited edition silver glitter. I particularly like the middle finger and will most likely be doing a whole hand of that, so I apologise that you'll be seeing such a similar design sooner or later. Anyway, I hope you like them!

Alice

Then and Now: Week 2

Hey everyone! Today I have the second week of my Then and Now 'challenge' to show you. I wish I had left this one out to be honest, I don't know how I managed it before because it was incredibly difficult to put green over red and make it opaque, these nails were way way too thick and if it hadn't been for Seche Vite they'd have been off in seconds. Anyway, again this was done about a year or two ago, I can't be sure of exact dates but I really liked these when I did them first time around.

The first time I used all dotting tools but this time I used brushes and dotting rools, and I wish I'd stuck to my original method because it would have probably been a lot easier.

Take a look after the jump to see the original picture and polishes used!

Green Ikat

Hey everyone,  today I have some ikat nails to show you, I wanted to use Essie- Navigate Her again so I've just done another version of this post, mainly because I really liked doing that design, I also wanted to add chains to it but it didn't work out too well, but I'm going to try again tomorrow so we'll see. I havn't got much more to say and I have an essay to write so enjoy!

I used Essie - Navigate Her, Barry M - Matt White, Models Own - Blooboo, China Glaze - Something Sweet and black acrylic paint.

I'd love to know what you think! Alice

Nude flowers/return of the matte attack

Hi girls! I wasn't actually going to post today, but then I saw this lovely post on instagram and I just had to do it. You all know my love of matte nails so of course it was instantly appealing to me, and as soon as I got back from university I sat down and started on them. They were relatively easy to complete, I've just cut one of my small brushes down even smaller, it was my first time doing it and I think it could actually do with being smaller but it will do for now, and so I wanted to use it for a bit of outlining to see how it looked.

Firstly I painted my nails nude using Nails Inc 'great pulteney street' from the colour burst set (can you tell I love that set yet? haha) and then I used a dotting tool to place random dots of Barry M - Berry, Barry M - Red, Unnamed dark purple No 7 (no label, boo!) and Models Own - Blooboo. Then I used a small brush (not the cut down one) to paint on the leaves in China Glaze - Gaga for green, and then I outlined it all in black acrylic paint and a very small brush

I've always loved the look of things outlined in black (especially when it's matte), what do you think? Let me know in the comments! 

Alice

Then And Now: Week 1

Hey everyone! Today I have the first installment of 'then and now'. I can't remember exactly when I did these nails but I'd say it was around 2 years ago, and I'm hoping my skills have improved in that time! If any of you have any old photos lying around and want to have a go at the 'challenge', please do :D

Apparently I also didn't know how to colour coordinate then either, because these flowers are crazy, but I enjoyed doing such a bright and colourful design. I find that I struggle for inspiration more than I did then, I didn't need much to give me a design and I wish I could still have that, even if the designs were a little mad! The original design was created doing a dotting tool, I only remember that because that's all I ever used then, a set of dotting tools was one of the first things I bought and I used nothing else until about 6 months ago when I decided to try using brushes in this post. As I've mentioned before, I'm still not very confident with brushes, so sometimes I will turn back to my trusty dotting tools, but not this time, I know now that it's a lot quicker to use the brush from the nail varnish to create big flowers like this, so that's what I did. I then used a dotting tool for the dots and specks within the flowers. Original picture after the jump!

Poker anyone?

Hello! So today was a bit of a spontaneous one. I've wanted to re-do a card manicure for a very long time, I did them a couple of years ago (okay maybe one) for 'charity day' at my college where we all dressed up, I was the queen of hearts and so I had cards on my nails as a result, but I never managed to get a good picture. I did get one picture, and I did originally post it on my tumblr, but I took it down after a day because it was such bad quality, and I must have deleted it from my computer too 'cause I cant find it anywhere! So count this as my first 'then and now' post, without the 'then' part. The proper post will be coming on Saturday, which will hopefully be the official day of posting 'then and now' manicures but we'll see how that pans out.

But for now, here are my card nails. I based these around poker, now I've never played a game of poker in my life but my flatmates are quite into it, and have tried to explain the rules to me, but I just can't seem to pick it up!

I used Barry M - Matt White and acrylic paint. The diamond and the heart were doing using a nail art pen which was really splodgy (not a word) and I had to tidy the sides up a bit with white acrylic paint. I decided to use it as an experiment and wont be doing so again!

Hope you like them!

Alice

Saran Wrap + One Stroke

Hey everyone! So today I have a couple of techniques bundled into one. I love 'saran wraps', even though I've only ever done one before, and I've wanted to try the 'one stroke' nail art technique that I've seen a number of bloggers use. I actually watched a number of tutorials for this and none were what I was looking for in my design so I just googled a few pictures and worked with that but I'd say the most helpful was this one.

For my saran wrap I used a base of China Glaze - Refresh Mint and then put Barry M - Cyan Blue and Berry on top. I know there's a few techniques out there for this but I just dab the wet nail varnish with a bundled up piece of cling film. I've included a picture of the saran wrap on it's own too :)

Then I used white and blue acrylic paint for the flowers, added a coat of Seche Vite and then stuck the rhinestones on with extra top coat

Also, some time this week I'm going to be starting a new 'challenge', which isn't really a challenge, just more of a project. I have 22 old images of nail art I did when I first started my blog, then got annoyed and deleted because they're such bad quality photos, so I shall be starting a 'then and now' project, to see how, not only my photography has improved, but my skills too. I shall hopefully be posting them once a week for next 22 weeks but we'll see how that goes! What do you think?

Hope you like them!
Alice

Paisley Print

Hey everyone! I'm enjoying (in my opinion) a well deserved break at the moment, so I should hopefully get a few nail designs done!

Today's post is a bit weird, in fact I'll let you see them first...

 ... it looks like I have lots of skill (kind of), but really I just did them with a gel pen, that's right: a pen! I was super bored in my lecture, and I had plain nails from my glow in the dark nails post, and of course I hate plain nails. I normally doodle tonnes on my notes, but for some reason decided it would be a good idea to draw on my nails instead. 

When I was done I took a picture and uploaded it to my Instagram (@onenailtorulethemall) and Twitter (@onenailtorule) because I was convinced they were going to smudge before I got back to my flat (this was in the morning) and before I could get a better picture, BUT THEY DIDN'T. I can't believe it, all the previous times I've done this in lessons I've wiped it off straight away, because I didn't think it lasted. There's a slight amount of tipwear but nothing major, and I even managed to top coat it! Now I have a wonderful new technique for thin and intricate designs, and I can't wait to use it in more posts! (It's not cheating is it?)

I hope you liked this post!
Let me know what you think in the comments, is it cheating?
Alice

Review: Born Pretty Store glow in the dark polish

Hi everyone! Today I have a review for you from Born Pretty Store on their glow in the dark polish number #06. I've also compared it to China Glaze's 'Ghoulish Glow', hope you like it! Each time I used 2 coats of either Ghoulish Glow or #06 and there's no top coat

So firstly we have a comparison of Ghoulish Glow and #06 in daylight. The yellow polish is #06 and the white is Ghoulish Glow. It's great that Ghoulish Glow doesn't leave a colour but it's not a big deal for #06 because it's what you expect from a glow in the dark polish. After all OPI's 'Zombody To Love' (which you can see here) is a very obvious green. More pictures after the jump!