Then and Now: Week 8

Hey everyone! Hope you're all well, I must say I can't wait for this period between christmas and new year to be over, it always feels so odd! 

So today's 'challenge' is just a simple floral design, I'm still feeling a bit unwell and there isn't much to say about these nails, both times I used Revlon - Mad About Mango and both times I used a dotting tool, but as you'll see they photographed completely differently! More after the jump

Trying out the pens again!

Hey everyone! Hope you all had a fantastic christmas, mine was lovely but unfortunately now I feel really ill and working with nail varnish tonight really hasn't helped! Anyway, today I decided to try out using pens for nail art again, I got a lot of questions about them last time so here is where to get them if you're interested. They're also the only pens I'll ever use for writing for some reason because I love them so much!

I thought it would be nice to do something using China Glaze 'Something Sweet' which I've wanted to use again for a while. I was going to do some more paisley print but I didn't think you guys would want to see the same design again, at least not for a while! So I decided to do some flowers, and although they looked pretty good plain I decided to add a bit of Barry M Gold Foil, and now I kind of wish I'd added white too but I still quite like them.

Hope you like them! Alice

Then and Now: Week 7

Hey everyone! I'm sorry for the delay in posting, I've had a pretty busy week because I got back from uni and I was seeing all my friends who I hadn't seen in a while, I hope you dont mind! So today I have week 7 of my then and now 'challenge' which, as promised, is christmas related. I was debating whether to include these at all because I actually did these last year but I promised last week I would, and I also think it's a good way of seeing how I've improved throughout the past 2 years, and I guess these nails are becoming a bit of a tradition as well! More after the jump.

Matte christmas nails!

Hey everyone, I had the idea originally of doing these nails with studs, and then I thought perhaps studs and gold dots, and then once I'd just done the dots I quite liked them as they were, especially as they'd somehow developed to have a tree, so I added a (wonky) star on my thumb and topped with one coat of seche vite. Then I went to photograph them and no matter what I tried they looked AWFUL, the way the light was shining made them look streaky and awful so of course I decided to whack out the matte and make photographing 1000x easier (any excuse) and I actually do really like them like this, so I hope you do too!

I used a base of Nails Inc Hampstead Heath and Barry M gold foil to create the nail art and the matte top coat was one by Rimmel which doesn't have a specific name.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

Alice

Then and Now: Week 6

So todays post I'm actually a little ashamed to show you, I was expecting so much more from these nails because I really liked the original 'then' nails, but I guess it's just a design that only really works on long nails and I feel that it's ended up looking worse than before, but I hope you read on and see nonetheless! The original picture is after the jump

Snow scene nails!

Hey everyone! I've decided it's officially time for christmas nails! We had our flat christmas meal tonight before some go home for christmas tomorrow, I'm not going until Saturday but I'm still feeling very christmassy! These nails were inspired by quite a few designs but I also wanted to use my Hexagon Glitter from Born Pretty Store and I suddenly had the idea that the perfect way to do so was by using them to make snow.

I'm pretty bummed that these photos really really dont show how glittery these nails are. The blue base is Barry M - Blue Glitter and you can barely see it, and you really cant see how wonderfully holographic the Hexagon Glitter is, so hopefully you can just guess because as much as I'm dreading the removal (I have no cotton pads or tinfoil in halls sadly) I can't stop staring at the sparkle!

I started off with a base of Barry M - Blue Glitter, and sponged Barry M - Matt White over that, then I painted on the snowflakes in acrylic paint, after which I painted on the snowy hills using the brush from the Barry M white but if I did these again I'd probably do that with a brush or dotting tool because they ended up way too thick. After that I painted on the snowmen, trees and house and outlined them and the house in black acrylic paint and sponged Barry M - Silver Glitter onto the snowy hills, followed last but not least by the Hexagon Glitter and Seche Vite top coat.

If you would like to buy the hexagon glitter (which I would recommend as it makes awesome snow) then you can get it at Born Pretty Store for $2.38 (around £1.50) with free shipping(!!!), and you can also use my code KHL91 to get 10% off!

Hope you like them! Let me know what you think in the comments!

Alice

Kalahari studs

Hey everyone! Today I have a post for you using Born Pretty Store's black rhinestones and China Glaze's Kalahari Kisses. In a way I've substituted Kalahari Kisses for a nude base but I think it works, I really like the look of these nails. I decided to create random swirls with black acrylic paint on my other fingers, and whilst I was worried it wouldn't worked I do quite like how it turned out, I hope you do too!

I really enjoyed using these rhinestones and although I normally pick them off within an hour I have managed to last with them for 3 days so far, probably due to the size but also because I'm too tired to redo my nails just yet! 

If you use my code KHL91 to buy these studs you can recieve 10% off! I would definitely recommend them as I got a bag of 10000 for around £5! 

What do you think of the nails and the studs? Let me know in the comments!

Alice

This product was sent to me for review but any opinions included are entirely my own and were not affected in any way by anyone else

Then and Now: Week 5

Hey everyone! Today's post very nearly didn't happen but I set Saturday as the date as Saturday it shall stay, even if it means coming back to uni from home to do it! This time is another summery design, just to opt out of the christmas nails (which I promise will happen soon enough), I did go through my 'archives' for the then and now challenge to find something more christmassy but I only have one design so I shall do that nearer christmas, turns out I was a sucker for bright colours 2 years ago!

I actually remember doing this design, mainly because I did the bees so thick that after 4 hours they still hadnt dried and were instead smudged all over my dressing gown (which has since pretty much just turned into a paint palette and I've got a new one for when I'm not painting my nails). So this time, I obviously didn't want to repeat that, but I knew I wouldn't because I have learnt from my mistakes (or so I hope!). Anyway, aside from having to do the acrylic paint that was coming off on my thumb there were no mishaps this time, and I am typing this with the manicure still perfectly in tact! See the original picture after the jump!

VW campervans

Hey everyone! So today I have a post for you that I've had on my 'to do' list for a while. My family used to own a vintage VW campervan in dark green, but unfortunately we had to sell it, so ever since I've been meaning to do it on my nails. Last night I painted my nails with China Glaze's 'Electric Beat' without any clue of what to put on it, and whilst browsing my list I came across' VW campervans' and my nails seemed like the perfect campervan colour! Strangely, 'thenicolesnailsyoutube' on Tumblr appears to have had the same idea, which is one of the weirdest coincidences I've ever experienced but I guess great minds think alike!

I painted Rimmel's 'Nail tip whitener' for the white, Barry M's 'Silver foil' for the silver headlights and rim, Rimmel's 'grey matter' for the windows and outlined in black acrylic paint, all was done with a small cut down paintbrush, a dotting tool, or the brush from the bottle.

Hope you like them! Alice

AQmore water-based polish nail art and review

Hello everyone! Today I have a wonderful polish review for you today sent to me by the lovely Uniqso, a water-based polish by 'AQmore', this means that rather than being solvent based it is made of 50% water, and is 3-free as a result. It is also peel-able in warm water. When I first read that I was worried about taking a bath but it appears you must peel it off yourself rather than it doing it automatically. I shall explain more about that later in the post!

More after the jump!

Then and Now: Week 4

Hey everyone! Here is week 4 of my then and now 'challenge'. You'll find this completely different to any christmas manis you're going to be seeing on the 1st of December because this is completely and utterly summery. (oops!) As I mentioned last week I've decided to add certain things to these nails because some are a bit too simple, and as you'll see with these nails I've adapted the roses. More after the jump!

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!

Pumpkins

Happy halloween everyone! I just have a quick pumpkin design today, I'm sorry that there aren't any more pictures of this, I originally intended for it to be a tutorial for a website but it didn't work out, so I only got pictures of my hand in the 'claw' I'm afraid.


I used Barry M - Block Orange and then mixed it with Barry M - Matt White for the highlights. Which I also used for the base colour. And the green is O.P.I but I left it at home so I can't tell you which, oops!

To create this design I painted my nails a solid based of white (2 coats) and then used the brush from the orange to create the pumpkin shape. Then I used a small brush for the highlights and stems (if that what they're called?!)

There's not much more to say about this because it's such a simple design but I hope you like it! I should have a great post coming up for you tomorrow hopefully though, see you then!

Alice

Striping practice

Hey everyone! So today I have an experimental kind of design for you. The wonderful Algae Veronica recently sent me some polishes (as I showed on my instagram @onenailtorulethemall) and one of them has been something I have lusted over for a very long time - Essie 'navigate her' so of course the second I got it I had to use it, but I also really wanted to practice my brush skills. Up until about 4 months ago I had never (!!!) used a brush for my nail art, every single design was done with dotting tools, so it's been difficult for me to build up the confidence to use a brush. It sounds stupid I know, but I'm always worried that it will flick out or go splodgy and ruin my design, and this sometimes does happen, so I'm often over-cautious with my designs and I dont want to be, so I know I need practice. But this time around I wanted to practice my striping skills, so here you go, everything here except the base colour was done with a medium length striper brush or a black striper.

I used Essie - Navigate Her, Art Deco Stripers in white and black and an unnamed pink from Boots, along with a medium length striper brush

Alice 

P.S sorry for the bad quality photos, the weather was awful and I was in a rush, but I shall soon have my lightbox ready to go (yay!) and pictures should be better from then on