Neon gradient + tribal nails (and an announcement!)

Happy Easter everyone! I'm going to hopefully be posting twice today because I'm going to quickly try and do a 'Then and Now' post for tonight because I didn't have time to do one last night. But I just wanted to show you these neon gradients I did, and then decided to add a tribal design to. I shall have a tutorial coming up for this soon if you're interested? These were meant to be my 'easter' nails for this year but I fancied something a little different to the usual pastel combinations.

I actually quite liked the design with just a neon gradient but as always I knew I wanted to add more to it, oops. The base for this design was MASH - White, which is meant to be for stamping but as it's so opaque it works great as a base too. The neon colours were Models Own - Toxic Apple, Orange Sorbet and Pink Sorbet, all of which as you can see are really bright and great neons, I would definitely recommend getting them if you haven't already got them. As neons tend to be quite translucent they're great for gradients. 

(The number 2 is there as it's part of the tutorial)

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

Also, today is my blogiversary! This little blog is one year old today, I had started a Tumblr 8 months previously so it's not a year since the start of my 'nail art journey' but it is via blogger! I shall be having a little giveaway soon to celebrate so stay tuned! 

Alice

EDIT: the tutorial can be found here

Over the top tribal print

Hey everyone! I've been traveling all day and I really just want to crawl into bed so this post wont be a long one I'm afraid. 

To do these nails I used these brushes from Born Pretty Store, I absolutely love this set, I'd say my favourite is definitely the smallest one. I'd definitely recommend getting them if you're just starting out with detailed nail art because they're great for variety. Don't forget to use my code KHL91 for 10% off!

These nails were definitely not planned out, I painted a base coat of Essence - I'm Bluetiful and decided to add some white acrylic paint detailing, but it looked a bit plain so I added red, yellow and blue acrylic paint, and Collection 2000 - Ninja to add some extra detail to the design. Personally, I feel like it ended up being a bit too much, but for some reason I still really like them. 

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

Alice

A bit too much neon?

Hey everyone! I'm finally back with my own nails, have you missed me? This design is very similar to this one I did previously but is a lot more neon. I received these studs from Born Pretty Store to review and this nail art pen from Models Own and knew instantly that they had to go together! 

I chose to apply the studs using dotting tools from MASH, which can be found here, by applying an extra coat of OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls and before it was dry placing the studs on. I love these studs, as you can see from the awful quality of the pictures my camera had a hard time picking up the neon on these because they're super bright, and they're also a great size. Remember you can use my code KHL91 to get 10% off these too!

Next, I used the nail art pen to draw random swirls all over the rest of my nails, I started on my thumb and as I'd never used them before it went a bit thicker, but I quickly picked up how to use them and the rest of the nails were easy to control, I definitely preferred doing this design with a pen rather than a brush due to the control, and it's really opaque (and again, super neon!)

What do you think? Let me know in the comments, and dont forget to use my code KHL91 to get 10% off your order at Born Pretty Store!

Alice

Some of the products in this post were provided for review, my opinions were not influenced in any way and are entirely my own. 

Guest Post from Katt's Claws

Hey everyone! Today I've got a guest post for you from a lovely friend of mine: Katt, from Katt Claws. As I mentioned in my last post I've got a lot of stuff going on right now, including being away on holiday, so Katt kindly offered to post for me to take a bit of weight off my back. I have another couple of posts coming up for you whilst I'm away as well, which unfortunately doesnt include a 'then and now' post but that shall resume the following week I promise! Now I hope you enjoy these lovely nails from Katt, it's a very picture heavy post so I've posted the pictures off all the inspiration after the jump!

These nails were inspired by the Kate Spade NY Spring 2013 collection, as you shall see below, and they're all lovely. Thankyou so much to Katt for bringing such brilliant nails to my blog!

New video tutorial (and an apology)

Hey everyone! I'd like to start off with an apology. As some of you may have noticed I've not posted in nearly 2 weeks, and I'm really and truly sorry about that. I never wanted it to be this long before I posted again but last week was one of the hardest weeks I've ever had and I definitely wasn't up to posting. I dont really want to go into detail but I absolutely promise it wont happen again if I can help it, and I've got some great stuff coming up for you this week which I hope you'll all stick around for :)

Some of you may have also heard that Google Reader is being canceled in July, I dont really know what this means for GFC, but just in case, I do have a bloglovin (widget at the side, because I cant seem to find the link) if you'd like to follow that as well.

Now, on to the nails! I decided to do another video tutorial, this time using a mixture of gel pens and nail polish to create a tribal design, I'm afraid it's a little bit rushed but I hope you like it anyway!

Alice

Glitter stars and Beauty Narcotix spray review

Hey everyone! Today I have a simple glitter design to show you, along with a review of a new quick dry spray. First off I'll tell you about the nails and then I'll tell you more about the spray. 

I didn't really have any inspiration for these nails, I just bought Barry M - Rose Quartz and I really want to use it, so I thought I'd test it out in two different ways, and then I had the idea to put white acrylic paint stars over the top, which I actually really like the look of. The base for this is China Glaze - Liquid Leather and Models Own - Utopia, topped off with 2 coats of Seche Vite. 

Next, I'd like to review this spray sent to me by the lovely Angela at Beauty Narcotix

As you can possibly see from the photo below, it's a very large bottle, I'd say around the size of a big hair spray bottle, and it is actually very similar to hair spray in application. To use the spray you apply it to each coat, which I thought would be a bit of a nuisance but it's quick and really helpful for slow-drying polishes in between coats (and I chose two very slow drying colours for this). 

It definitely works, but the best part for me is the smell, I wouldn't even care if it didn't work because it smells so damn good! Even my mum, renown for hating the smell of everything 'unnatural', said it smelt nice. I've used a few quick dry sprays before and they all smelt like hair spray too, but this is quite a fruity/flowery smell, it's hard to describe. 

Nevertheless, is does work, and it smells nice, so I got two bonuses in one bottle. It also leaves your nails really shiny, and if you're brave enough you could probably go without top coat.

The one negative I would say about this product is the price, at £17 a bottle it's definitely not available for repurchase on my student budget, but if you dont use much each time and so I'm sure I'm definitely going to get some use out of it, and in that sense it is indeed worth the money. You can purchase it here

What do you think? Both of the nails and of quick-dry spray as a concept? Let me know in the comments

Alice

Then and Now: Week 14

Hey everyone! Today's 'Then and Now' post is a little different, because I've been wanting to redo this design for a while, but it's actually still online, and the photography isn't too bad in it, but I never had a top coat when I did them and I had no idea about cuticle clean up so I really wanted to see how different they looked. I've not looked at the old design for a long time and in my head it was a lot more detailed than it actually is, so my newer design is actually pretty detailed because that's how I imagined it, but hopefully that's a good thing right? As always the old design will be after the jump, but if you cant wait you can see it still on my tumblr here

Guest post for The Crumpet!

Hey everyone, I've done a guest post for The Crumpet, head over there to see it, here's a sneak peak:

Hope you like them! I'm afraid there will be no Then and Now post tonight as I'm super super busy, I'm going to try my absolute best to get them done for tomorrow but if not they'll be up monday for sure!

Alice