2013: My Favourites

Happy new year everyone! So 2013 has been an amazing year for my blog, and for me. I managed to get a 2:1 in my first year of uni, whilst also running my blog full time, I know that might not seem very impressive to some of you but I'm certainly happy with it. I also won Best New Beauty Blog at the Cosmo Blog Awards in October, which I still can't really believe, thankyou all so much for voting for me and allowing that to happen. I've gained many new followers, and completed some major goals: reaching 20,000 followers on Instagram and 30,000 on Tumblr was really really amazing. I had 3 of my designs made in to nail wraps (which you can still get here) which is something I could never have dreamt of. I've also learnt a lot about blogging, business and made a tonne of new friends in the nail art world this year. Whilst 2013 was truly amazing, I'm hoping 2014 will be even better, or at least just as good! I already have some amazing projects lined up that I can't wait for you to hear about.

I've chosen a few of my favourite designs from this year, although it was really really hard to pick. But what I'm most interested in is what you want to see more of next year? Please let me know in the comments! 

Day at Pastille Nail Bar

Hey everyone! So you might remember that on Saturday 14th I went to Pastille nail bar in Leeds for the day to do nails. Unfortunately it wasn't massively busy, but I still had a brilliant time and I learnt a lot, so I just wanted to share a few pictures from the day with you. 

Hopefully I'll be going back some time in the new year and I hope to see some of you there!
Alice

Also, I'd be really grateful if you would vote for me in China Glaze's holiday competition here, thanks!

Tutorial Tuesday: Christmas Eve Reindeer

Hey everyone! It's christmas eve! (now technically christmas day) I completely forgot to post this last christmas tutorial but I really want to go to sleep and wake up to christmas so it's only going to be a short post, and I haven't numbered the steps but hopefully you can work it out! Merry christmas everyone

China Glaze Happy Holiglaze Christmas Collection 2013 Swatches and Review - Part 2

Hey everyone! Today I'm back for the second part of my China Glaze Happy Holiglaze review, if you missed the first part you can see it here. I'm sorry it's been almost a week since I posted the first part of this review, but hopefully you've been enjoying all the christmassy nail art I've been posting this week! In this part of my review I'm going to be showing you the glitters from the collection, of which there are 3 fine glitter polishes and 3 glitter toppers. As most of us associate glitter and christmas this is definitely a very christmassy collection! Full review will be after the jump

Tutorial Thursday: Candy Canes

Hey everyone! I have another christmas tutorial for you today, there's only one more left after today and then it's CHRISTMAS. I can't believe how quickly it's come around this year, I know I probably say that every year but December really has flown by. And I should definitely have got further with my essay, whoops! I really liked the idea behind this tutorial but you might notice that I made a bit of a mistake and finished the design on one finger, and my perfectionist nature really can't stand the images. Hopefully you can all still follow the tutorial without too much confusion!

Tutorial Tuesday: Christmas Lights

Hey everyone! Just a quick tutorial tuesday today for these cute christmas light nails. I'm so excited that it's nearly christmas, and I've somehow managed to actually get all the presents I need to get. None of which I had got this time last year, so it's definitely an improvement! Tutorial steps will be after the jump

Christmas Birds

Hey everyone! First of all, congratulations to the winners of my giveaway, April and Samara, thankyou all so much for entering. Anyway, I finallllly got around to doing some detailed nail art, which feels like the first time in forever, and I'm so proud of how they turned out. I decided that I didn't really want to do a typical christmas design this year so I was searching around for a pattern and I came across this.  I know the design doesn't exactly match but I just adapted it to match my style more. 

I decided to enter these in to China Glaze's Holiday nail art competition and I'd be thrilled if you would vote for me, this is my voting link if you do. Thankyou in advance! 

I started off with a base colour of OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls, and then I used white acrylic paint to paint on snowflakes, which unfortunately don't show up very much in the photos. Then I used Barry M - Mushroom for the birds, and OPI - Green-Wich Village for the leaves. The pinks are a combination of polishes mixed together and the red is Barry M - Bright Red. All topped off with a coat of Seche Vite.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments!
Also, just because I feel like I should say this at the end as well, please don't forget to vote for these nails as my entry to the China Glaze Holiday nail art competition. You can find my entry here. Thankyou :D
Alice

Painting Other People's Nails

Hey everyone! It's almost a year since I did one of these posts and as I'm doing nails at Pastille nail bar in Leeds tomorrow (14th December) I thought it would be a good time to post all the nails I've been doing on other people. These are only over the past couple of months because I'm not very good at documenting it but hopefully you still get an idea! Don't forget you can come in tomorrow for walk-in appointments and I'll be there from 10-4 if you'd like any of my designs, or if you'd like christmas nails! I'll put the rest of the nails after the jump otherwise it'll be a bit long.

Tutorial Thursday: Santa

Hey everyone! Just a quick tutorial post today for these cute Santa nails that I did for Barry M. As I mentioned on tuesday, I have too many tutorials to only post on tuesdays before Christmas so I'm going to do both tuesday and thursday tutorials until Christmas day.  I'm so tired after having been doing nails for the past 8 hours (!!!) and editing photos. It's now 2:40am and I desperately want to go to bed, I need to learn to stop leaving my posts until the last minute! Anyway, the full post will be after the jump

China Glaze Happy Holiglaze Christmas Collection 2013 Swatches and Review - Part 1

Hey everyone! Today I'm going to be showing you the gorgeous China Glaze Happy Holiglaze collection. There are 12 polishes altogether in the collection so I decided to split it in to two parts so that you don't get overloaded with pictures. The first part is the 5 foils, and I also included the one textured polish of the collection. The second part will be with all the glitters of the collection, which I'll post in the next few days, so make sure to keep an eye out. Full post will be after the jump!

Tutorial Tuesday: Christmas Trees

Hey everyone! This post has been such a nightmare to get sorted. All my applications seemed to be crashing and I couldn't get anything sorted, and I almost gave up, but I wanted to get Tutorial Tuesday up on time and luckily I have! I'm going to be posting tutorials every Tuesday and Thursday before Christmas as I have quite a few to show you. I'm excited for you to see them all, and I also love to see what you do with the tutorials. Don't forget to tag me on Instagram or Twitter, or post on my Facebook, with any designs you do so I can see! The first one for this week is this sparkly christmas tree design on a base of Barry M - Crush from the Classic Matte collection. The rest of the post will be after the jump!

Daisy Nail Art + TUTORIAL for Clothes Show Live

Hey everyone! So, as you may remember me mentioning, last week I went to London to film some tutorials for Clothes Show Live. The first tutorial is now live and I can't wait for you to see it! I've also done my own nails to accompany the tutorial. I absolutely love the simplicity of these nails, they're easy to create yet they really stand out. I definitely think this is a design to do if you're in a rush but you still want something that looks good.

For these I started off with a base of MASH - Black, then I used acrylic paint for the white flowers and dots, and then I used Butter LONDON - Jasper for the yellow centres of the flowers, all topped off with a coat of Seche Vite. 

And here's the tutorial on Clothes Show Live TV:

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

Alice

Come and have your nails done!

On Saturday 14th December I will be doing nails at Pastille in Leeds, Yorkshire, and I'd love to see some of you there! It's only a 3 minute walk from the train station and you can get christmas nails, what more could you want? Although, if you don't want christmas nails, I'll be doing other designs too, just specify which design you'd like when you call. I will be offering a simple file and polish, using Essie and OPI polishes. 

If you'd like to book an appointment then you can call 0113246070 or email info@pastille.uk.com and specify that you'd like Alice/One Nail To Rule Them All to do your nails on the 14th

I hope to see you there!

Alice

Tutorial Tuesday: Christmas Pudding

Hey everyone! Today's Tutorial Tuesday happens to be on a Wednesday, as you may notice. I was working on a super exciting project last night (which you shall see in January) and completely forgot to write the post, I'm sorry! Nevertheless, you shall still get a tutorial, and this weeks tutorial is for these Christmas puddings. Many of you requested that I start doing Christmas tutorials, and now it's finally December I don't feel like I'm betraying my scrooge-ness too much by doing so. I have quite a few Christmas tutorials for you this year, so I might start posting more than one a week, would that be okay? Anyway, the rest of the post, including the steps, will be after the jump.

QVC Spring/Summer 2014 Press Event

Hey everyone! The other day I went to London, to work on something awesome for Clothes Show Live TV, and I thought whilst I was there I may as well pop along to the QVC Spring/Summer 2014 Press Event, and I'm so glad I did. There was so many beautiful things, and I got a gorgeous hand massage from Gatineau. I also got to eat some amazing cakes, and I may have had a few sneaky Thorntons fudges. I definitely feel that it would have been worth going even if I hadn't already been in London for the day. Unfortunately I completely forgot to bring my camera, so all the photos I have are from my phone, hopefully it wont be too noticeable! 

Tutorial Tuesday: Saran Wrap Nails

Hey everyone! Super quick post, it's late and I have to be up early to go to London tomorrow. I'm off to do something exciting, which you shall see very soon. Today's tutorial isn't a very original one, in fact I think the idea originated from Nailed It, but hopefully you will appreciate it nonetheless. I have a load of christmas tutorials coming your way, but they wont start until December, I'm a strict scrooge!

Step 1: Paint your nails with a base colour, I used Barry M – Dragon Fruit

Step 2: Once your base layer is dry paint a layer of a contrasting colour over the top, (I used Barry M - Blueberry Ice-Cream) do your nails one at a time with this and the next step - and be quick

Step 3: Roll up some cling film in to a ball and dab it onto the wet blue nail varnish

Step 4: Finish off with a topcoat (I use Seche Vite) to seal in your design, and you're done!

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

Alice

P.S Have you entered my giveaway yet?

Scratch Nail Wraps GIVEAWAY!

Hey everyone! Today I have a really exciting giveaway to share with you, I'm going to be giving away all 3 of the nail wraps I designed for Scratch. There will be two prizes, one winner will receive all 3 wraps, and the runner up will be able to choose one wrap from the 3. You can enter using the Rafflecopter widget below, terms and conditions are listed at the bottom of the widget but for those of you who can't be bothered to read them, here they are:

1. The giveaway will be open for 2 weeks, any entries after that will not be counted. 
2. The giveaway is sponsored by Scratch, and will be open internationally. 
3. The prizes are non-negotiable, you will receive the three nail wraps I designed for Scratch as first prize, and the runner up prize will get a choice out of the 3. 
4. Please do not lie about your entries, I will be checking and any false entries will be disqualified. 
5. And finally, good luck! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you can't wait to see the end of the giveaway, my nail wraps are still available here.

Alice

Butter LONDON Polka Dots

Hey everyone! Today I have some very bright polka dot nails for you. I know polka dots have been done a million times, but I always like to come back to them now and again because there's something about them that just entices me. These nails were inspired entirely by these wellies* - or 'rain boots'/'galoshes' (definitely didn't google that) from Shop On My Go Go. I got mine in the post a few weeks ago and I absolutely love how warm and comfy they are. Also, now it's starting to snow (yay!) I can finally wear them without looking like a fool. As you can probably see, the nails don't exactly match the colouring of the wellies, but I wasn't at home and the only colours I had to hand were the Butter LONDON Colour Clash collection, I'm sure you don't mind too much?

The base for these nails was Butter LONDON - Cake Hole, and then I used striping tape for the accent nails, along with Butter LONDON - Cotton Buds and a dotting tool, which I also used on the alternate nails.

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

Alice

*some of the products in this post were provided to me for review but all opinions are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way. Please see my disclosure policy

Tutorial Tuesday: Bows

Hey everyone! It's 1am here in the UK, and I just got in to bed and turned out the light, only to remember that I'd completely forgotten to do a tutorial tuesday! So the light is back on and I'm going to be super quick in writing this so I can go to sleep, second time around. This week's tutorial is for these glitter bow nails, which you might remember from here. This time I used a base of the gorgeous Shimmer Polish - Kim*, which you can see swatches of below. I'm going to include the rest of the post after the jump otherwise it might be too long!

Skin Art UK Nail Art Polishes Review

Hey everyone! I know it's been a few days, and I'm really sorry about that. Essay writing is driving me insane so I decided to take a bit of a break and write a blog post finally! So today I have a review of these gorgeous Skin Art Nail Art polishes (a bit of a mouthful). Skin Art create temporary tattoos, but they also create nail tattoos and a limited selection of nail polishes. Today I'll be showing you three of the polishes, all which can be found on their website here. The full review will be after the jump!

Tutorial Tuesday: Rose Polka Dots

Hey everyone! Today I have a brand new Tutorial Tuesday for you, this time for this gorgeous rose polka dots that you might remember from here. I had originally intended to post a tutorial for these bow nails today, because I was absolutely certain that I'd posted this tutorial already. However, after discovering (and double checking) that I hadn't, I decided to push the bow nails back a week and post these instead, considering I promised you a tutorial 'soon' over 3 months ago!  I can only apologise for my idiocy.

I wont bombard you with pictures as you've already seen these before, but just as a reminder for the colours I used 2True - Sienna for the base, 2True - Taylor for the roses, MASH - White, Barry M - Key Lime, and these studs from Born Pretty Store.

Step 1: Paint your nails pink

Step 2: Using a dotting tool and white polish draw dots on alternate nails

Step 3: Using a larger dotting tool paint on darker pink spots, more loosely than the white dots

Step 4: Using a thin brush paint on the shapes of the inside of the roses. For this shade I mixed the base colour and the white together to create a more opaque light pink

Step 5: Using the same brush paint on the leaves in green. 

Step 6: Finish off with a topcoat to seal in your design, and you’re done! You can also add studs whilst the topcoat is still drying if you wish

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

Alice

2 True Nail Polish Review

(EDIT: I've no idea why this is showing up as having been posted today, even though I posted it in August, so my apologies for those of you who already read it) Hey everyone! I know I promised this post a couple of weeks ago in this post, but as I mentioned last week, things have been super hectic around here. I also, again, never got around to posting my final comparison post so that should be around in the next fews days - hopefully! I apologise for being such an awful blogger at the moment, hopefully things will return to normal soon.

So today's post is a review of the lovely 2 true polishes I used in this post, Taylor and Sienna which can be found here, the rest of the post will be after the jump

Butter LONDON Colour Clash Collection, Autumn/Winter 2013

Hey everyone! I'm so excited to show you today's post, because I have a review of the absolutely gorgeous Butter LONDON Colour Clash collection. It's been a few months since I reviewed any Butter London polishes, and I'd almost forgotten how consistently amazing they are. I must admit I'm surprised that this is an autumn/winter collection, as they're very bright and colourful, and would probably be more suited to a summer collection. Nevertheless, I must admit I'm glad for a bit of brightness in amongst all the browns of autumn. The full review will be after the jump otherwise it may end up a bit long!

Rio Original Nail Art Pens Review

Hey everyone! How are you all? I'm so excited to have a week off uni! Although, I have 2 essays to write, so maybe it's not so much a week off, but at least I get to see my family and friends for a bit. Anyway, today I have a review of the Original Rio Professional Nail Art Kit. The kit includes 8 colours: white, red, yellow, blue, black, dark green, silver and a metallic pink. It also comes with a bag of rhinestones, a pot of gold glitter, a full bodied brush, an instruction book, and a step-by-step DVD. As you can see the box is full to the brim with stuff, so you're definitely getting a lot for your money. I decided to just review the pens, but perhaps one day I'll use the rest too! I decided it would be better to review each pen separately and then I'll give my overall views at the end.

Black pen: Good consistency, opaque and comes out easily

Yellow pen: Much better consistency than I was expecting, nearly as opaque as the black and not too blobby when coming out

White pen: Opaque but a bit too free-flowing, meaning it blobs a bit. Although, this may just be my bottle, and if not, putting it in the fridge often helps

Green pen: Opaque, great consistency, easy application (as in, it doesn't come out quickly) same as the black

Pink: Much too free-flowing and as a result it was difficult to control. Also, not very opaque as it's a shimmer polish, this was probably my least favourite of the bunch

Red: Opaque, although less creme that the others, but free flowing like the white

Silver: Not as opaque as I was hoping for, free-flowing but manageable

Blue pen: Exactly the same as the green and black

The base for these nails was 2 coats of the gorgeous NYC - Raindrop (which seems to now be called Blue Sky), and Nicole by OPI - Spring Break, with a coat of Barry M - Crystal Glaze topcoat on the latter. The design is all topped off with a coat of Seche Vite

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

If you're interested in buying this set you can find it on their website here although the pink seems to have become purple. You can also find them on Facebook here 

Alice

Tutorial Tuesday: Glitter Jellyfish

Hey everyone! Today I have a brand new tutorial tuesday for you, this time for some cute little glittery jellyfish. Don't forget to check out the tutorials tab at the top of my blog to see my previous tutorials! I've wanted to do jellyfish for ages, and I was really tempted to do them with needle dragging but I was in one of those 'it will probably fail so I wont even try' moods, and I'm quite glad because I like how these turned out. Perhaps I'll try needle dragging some time in the future instead. I'm starting to run out of ideas for tutorials, what would you'd like to see on future tuesdays? I only have a couple more tutorials left to post before I need to make some new ones, so any suggestions are welcome. Just don't ask for Christmas tutorials, I'm one of those spoil sports who doesn't even like the mention of Christmas before December begins. Anyway, the rest of the post will be after the jump! I've seen a few of you saying that you prefer it that way, as you can scroll through my blog much easier

Slenderman

Happy Halloween everyone! I'm so excited to show you my final Halloween design: Slenderman nails! I know all my other designs have been quite cute this year but I wanted to try something a little different. For those of you who don't know what Slenderman is, he's the character of the game Slender, which is basically just an incredibly creepy game. I'm too much of a wuss to have played it personally, having got scared enough just watching someone else play! If you want to read more about it, the wiki page for the game is here. Hopefully though, most of you know what the game is, and therefore can understand the meaning behind each of these nails.

On my thumb I have the Slender writing (albeit a bit thicker than the actual text), on my ring and pointer finger I have the trees and moon which represent the creepy setting of the game, on my middle finger I have slenderman himself, and then on my pinky I have one of the eight pages you have to find throughout the game. 

The base for these nails was Alessandro - Midnight Black, then I sponged on No. 7 Grey Skies, the white and black is all done with acrylic paint, I then used a coat of Seche Vite before finishing with a coat of Butter London Matte Finish 

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

Alice

Then and Now: Frankenvamp + Tutorial

Hey everyone! I have the last of my 4 halloween tutorials for you today, don't forget to check out the tutorials tab at the top of my blog if you want to see the previous 3! This post is also another Then and Now post just like last week. I was so sad that I had to take these nails off for work, but at least with a blog I'm able to document my designs so I don't feel quite as bad when they have to go. Anyway, the tutorial and the 'now' nails will be after the jump!

The base for these nails was OPI - My Vampire is Buff (quite fitting), and Barry M - Key Lime, the black is acrylic paint, as is the white, and the red is Barry M - Bright Red, all topped off with a coat of Seche Vite

Tutorial Tuesday: Models Own Velvet Spiderwebs

Hey everyone! I'm sorry it's been a few days since I last posted, I've been trying to get on top of the mountain of coursework that's due in very soon, and unfortunately that means my nails have fallen by the wayside. However, I still have 3 halloween posts for you (yep, I did an extra design) and I'm so excited for you to see the one I'll be posting on halloween itself. Today's post is a tutorial for these cute(ish) spider nails, which were done on a base of Models Own Obsidian*, from the Velvet Goth collection. The tutorial and swatches of Obsidian will be after the jump

Then and Now: Pumpkins + Tutorial

Hey everyone! Today's tutorial design is pumpkins, probably the most famous halloween food there is. Although, I'm about to making a shocking confession: I have never actually eaten pumpkin, dun dun dunnnn. The smell puts me off way too much, but every autumn I hear people raving about how good pumpkin is, yet I'm still not quite tempted to try it. Nevertheless, I can enjoy it on my nails, and it's such a simple design to complete so I'm sure you can all enjoy it too! The 'then' nails and the tutorial will be after the jump

For these nails I used a base of OPI - My Vampire Is Buff, then I used Barry M - Satsuma, Barry M - Mushroom, Barry M - Key Lime, and Seche Vite topcoat 

Tutorial Tuesday: Models Own Velvet Ghosts

Hey everyone! As promised, today I have one of my 4 halloween tutorials to show you. This design was intended to be a bit different, as I originally intended to have orange ghosts and white ghosts and look a bit like this, but I unfortunately put the white ghosts too close together to be able to fit the orange in as well. However, I like the look of it nonetheless and I thought I'd create a tutorial to go alongside it. The tutorial will be after the jump otherwise the post may end up a bit too long

Witch Owls

Hey everyone! As halloween is starting to creep up on us a bit (see what I did there?) I thought it was time to start bringing the halloween nails around. I have 5 designs for you this year, 4 of which are tutorials so I'll be doing tutorial tuesday and tutorial thursday this week, hopefully you wont mind too much. So I'm starting my halloween nails off with these cute witch owls. These were meant to be a tutorial but they ended up a bit too long-winded so I thought I'd just keep them as a simple nail design. I got this idea from Little Miss Nail Polish, you can see her design here.

To do these I started with a base coat of OPI - Nail Envy*, followed by 2 coats of OPI - Purple-iscious*, then I painted a circle of Layla - Marshmallow Twinkle using a small brush. Once that was dry I used Alessandro - Midnight Black and a small nail brush to paint on the hat, hair and broom, and then I used MASH - White for the eyes, to finish the design off I used a bit more of Marshmallow Twinkle on the broom, and I topped the design off with a coat of my trusty Seche Vite.

Here's a shot of the gorgeous Purple-iscious alone, I absolutely love this colour. It's so unique and there's so much going on that is just impossible to capture on camera. It shows up a lot more on the bottle in the pictures than it does on the nails unfortunately. The duo of Purple-iscious and Nail Envy has been specially designed for QVC to celebrate their 20th Anniversary this year and I think they chose an awesome colour to celebrate with, don't you?

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

Alice

Sally Hansen/Rimmel Jelly Sandwich

Hey everyone, today's post is just a quick jelly sandwich. For those of you who don't know what a jelly sandwich is, it's typically a layer of thin, jelly-like polish, a layer of glitter, and then another layer of the jelly-like polish to create a sandwich effect. I've only ever done it once before, here, and I really liked the look, but I couldn't think of which colours to do it with again. So when these gorgeous colours from Rimmel and Sally Hansen dropped through my postbox, I knew instantly that I had to create one using them, and in fact I sat down then and there and did this manicure. It's just taken me ages to post it! I did actually post a quick picture on Instagram as soon as I'd done it, so some of you may have seen this manicure before, but hopefully that wont matter to you too much! 

To create this look I used a base layer of Sally Hansen - Shell We Dance*, with a middle layer of Rimmel - Disco Ball*, and then a finishing layer of Shell We Dance, all topped off with a coat of Seche Vite to smoothen out the design. 

I really like the look this creates, but I never seem to be able to think of colours that I could use to do it more. What do you think? Let me know in the comments

Alice

Tutorial Tuesday: Pink Tribal

Hey everyone! You may remember these nails I did as a guest post for The Nailasaurus, and today I'm going to be showing you a tutorial for them! For these nails I used a base of Models Own - Strawberry Tart and then the gradient was done using Barry M - Passionfruit, the black glitter is Nubar Black Polka Dot and the black detailing is done using a black Barry M Nail Art Pen

You will need:

Sponge

Top coat

Nail polish remover/acetone

Light pink polish

Dark pink polish

Black nail art pen/acrylic paint and brush

Black glitter topper

Step 1: Paint your nails pink

Step 2: Using a sponge create a gradient (see my previous Palm Trees tutorial) using Models Own - Strawberry Tart and Barry M - Passionfruit

Step 3: Add a topcoat to smooth out your design, I use Seche Vite

Step 4: Using a black Barry M Nail Art Pen create a tribal design. This may look complicated but you can make it up as you go along. I drew some triangles and some squares and added a few dots, it doesn’t need to be perfect and the nail art pen makes it a lot easier

Step 5: Apply a black glitter to your other fingers

Step 6: Finish off with a topcoat to seal in your design and you’re done!

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

Alice