Monthly Favourites: July

Hey everyone! Second post from me tonight, I'm trying to get all my posts scheduled and written as I'm going on holiday in 6 hours (so excited but very tired). I really can't believe how fast this month has gone! Seems only a few days ago when I was writing my monthly favourites for June, and now we're here again, with a bunch of new products that I cant wait to show you. Again, I have five products, not necessarily all nail related, and not necessarily all review samples, these are products that I genuinely have loved this month. In no particular order the products are:

1. Real Techniques Core Collection Kit

2. Models Own - Pear Drops*

3. Body Shop Fijan Water Lotus Body Lotion and Eau de Toilette*

4. Me Me Me Cosmetics Coral Blush Me and Divine Mascara*

5. Zoya - Rocha*

Awesome News! Graffiti Nails Nail Wraps Available NOW

Hey everyone! I have some super exciting news to share with you today, I've been wanting to tell you this for months and I finally can: the wraps I designed for Graffiti Nails are available to buy NOW! They are £5.99 including postage, which includes international postage! The polishes are still not available internationally as it's proving to be more tricky than we first thought, but hopefully the fact that these wraps are international will suffice for now! If you buy a polish and a wrap together, those of you in the UK, postage is the same as it would be with the nail polish: £2.95 unless you buy 3 and then it's free. We currently have 3 nail wraps for sale, these are a limited edition run so once they're gone, they're gone. If you like the look of them, don't put off buying them, because they might not be there when you come back! These are all based around my designs, so they mean a lot to me, and hopefully they're exciting for you, as readers, because you can wear my designs now.

We also have an exciting deal on at the moment that if you buy 2 or more nail wraps you get an exciting free gift. Which may or may not be (it is) a VERY limited edition nail wrap that isn't available to buy.

Tutorial Thursday: Flower Stems

Hey everyone! Today I have a brand new tutorial for you, and for once it isn't for Divine Caroline, so you can see all the steps right here. I did actually originally create this for E.L.F (eyes, lips, face), but they unfortunately didn't want to use it, and I didn't want it to go to waste. This is a really simple tutorial that you can hopefully all follow, you don't need a tonne of colours and you can always switch the colours up if you prefer as well. If you do recreate it I'd love to see on Instagram or Twitter, I'm going to start using the hashtag #lookonenailtorule (inspired by The Nailasaurus) so if you want me to see something you've done, use that!

Models Own Sweet Shop Collection 2014 - Review and Swatches

Hey everyone! Today I have two polishes from the gorgeous Models Own Sweet Shop collection* to show you: Rhubard and Custard* and Pear Drops*. I was actually sent three, the other being Liquorice Allsorts*, but I have a complete intolerance to liquorice for some reason, and the smell was just making me feel ill, so I decided to leave it. From the one nail I did manage to paint, I'd say 2 easy coats would be enough for opacity if you're okay with the smell of liquorice. 

Gradient Polka Dots

Hey everyone! The more keen eyed of you may have noticed that I just posted a design, all of ten minutes ago. But apparently I completely forgot that I already posted it, two weeks ago. I feel like such a dingbat, but I'm blaming the fact that it's hot and it's 1:30am and I really need to sleep! I didn't want to leave you without a design though, so here's a quick and simple polka dot gradient look. I created this gradient for Avon, and you can see the steps to create it on their Facebook page, but I decided to add polka dots to it just to see how it would look, and I really think it makes the design 100x better!

ghd aura™ Professional Hairdryer - Review and Nail Art

Hey everyone! Today I have something a little different for you, combining beauty and nails and mixing things up a little bit. Recently ghd got in contact with me and asked if I wanted to review their new aura™* hairdryer, and I of course said yes. Whilst my monthly favourites do include some beauty products, I am still primarily a nail blog, and I wasn't exactly sure how to combine the two. But I decided to push myself out of my nail art comfort zone and create something a little different. On my thumb and ring finger I recreated the ghd aura™* logo, on my middle finger I drew the hairdryer itself, and on my pointer and baby finger I drew the outline of luscious blow-dried hair. Colours will be after the jump, as will my full review of the hairdryer itself.

Geometric Floral Nails for Divine Caroline

Hey everyone! I realised earlier that I completely forgot to post these nails on to my blog, they went live a couple of weeks ago on Divine Caroline and I meant to include them in 'tutorial tuesday' but must have forgotten. Anyway, you get to see them now, and that's what matters, right? These were inspired entirely by Moustache Manis, and you can read all about them here, and also see the step-by-step instructions on how to create them.

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

Don't forget to check out the tutorial here

Alice

Ice Cream Nail Art for Avon + TUTORIAL

Hey everyone! Just a quick snippet post today, you can head over to the Avon Facebook page to see the steps on how to create these yourself! These are great for summer, and you can always simplify them if you're struggling with the details. Let me know how you get on by showing me your pictures on Instagram and Twitter!

Barry M Summer 2014 Limited Edition Nail Polish for Superdrug

Hey everyone. Today I have my second post of the Barry M limited edition polishes, this time it's the two polishes created for Superdrug: Seaside* and Promenade*. These two are shimmers rather than cremes like the Boots polishes and as we all know I love cremes, but I can't actually make my mind up which I love most this time around, which must mean these shimmers are awesome!

Barry M Summer 2014 Limited Edition Nail Polish for Boots

Hey everyone! Today I have a long-overdue review of the Barry M Limited Edition polishes created for Boots. I know I promised this to you last week but I just haven't had the time to edit the pictures at all. I expected that once I finished my exams I'd have this up instantly but life has just got in the way a bit recently, and I really wish it hadn't because I'd love to be able to sit down and focus on my blog for hours and hours. Tomorrow I will have my review of the Barry M Superdrug Limited Editions, and I can't wait to have both posts up and finally feel at ease that I've done them! 

The Boots limited editions contain 2 polishes, Bikini* and Carousel* I'm not sure when they are available until, but you can still buy them from the Boots website here, where they're currently buy one (£3.99) get one half price, which is definitely a deal worth following!

World Cup Final Nail Art for Barry M + Tutorial

Hey everyone! Now that the World Cup is over I have one last football design to show you, and hopefully that will be it for a very very long time! We all know I'm not a huge fan of football, and World Cup mania has only exacerbated it, BUT it has been a chance to create some nail art that I wouldn't usually do, and that's never a bad thing. Today's tutorial is another in collaboration with Barry M, and it's my last one! I'm a bit sad because I've loved showing you all the designs I created, but I'm sure there will be more in the future. These are really simple to create, so hopefully you'll all be able to have a go at doing them!

I also wanted to announce the winners of my Yoo Moo giveaway, they are: Lynsey B, Kim N, and Kerry Locke. Unfortunately I had to disqualify a number of 'winners' because they weren't in the UK and did not read the terms and conditions. However, I will be having an international giveaway very shortly, so keep an eye out for that!

Tutorial Tuesday: World Cup Brazil Nails for Barry M

Hey everyone! I feel a bit cruel posting these nails after Brazil's defeat earlier but nevertheless I didn't want them to go to waste. This is another of the tutorials I created for Barry M recently and it's easy for all to recreate at home! You can always wear them for the final to rub it in a little bit more than the host country didn't get through, but you could always just wear them for the fun of it too. I'm not a big football fan, so it doesn't matter either way to me, but I do love the timing of these nails being posted!

Tour De France Nail Art for Avon

Hey everyone! The Barry M Limited Edition polishes will be up tomorrow, but today I just wanted to share some nails linked to something very exciting happening tomorrow! Tomorrow the Tour de France is passing through my village, it's a once in a lifetime thing and I am excited, and very proud to be from Yorkshire right now, but at the same time I cant wait for the roads to reopen and for things to stop being so manic around here! Nevertheless, I created some nails to suit the event in collaboration with Avon, and I really really love how they turned out. This is one of the most complex designs I've done for a while, and it wasn't made any easier by the end falling off my brush constantly, but I powered through and I'm really proud of the end result.

Saran Wrap Outline + Tutorial for Barry M

Hey everyone! I know I said that this week would be Barry M week but once again life has got in the way! I'll be posting the posts I intended to post tomorrow and sunday, as I still need to swatch them. Instead today I'm showing you another tutorial I created for Barry M. I debated over whether or not to post this, as the response on Barry M's Facebook page was incredibly negative, but this page is a record of the designs I've created, and I personally really like the design, so here you go: saran wrap outlines!

Barry M - Summer 2014 Matte Collection Review and Swatches

Hey everyone! Today is the second instalment in my Barry M posts that I'll be doing for the rest of this week, you can see my palm tree nails from yesterday using their matte topcoat here. I absolutely love the new Summer Matte collection from Barry M, they're great for nail art and you've already seen 2 examples in my floral fox nails and my palm tree nails from yesterday. They're also really good quality and opacity. They're not as matte as their autumn collection, but I don't really mind as I'll mainly be using them for nail art, or I can put the matte topcoat over the top if I really need them to be hugely matte.

Tutorial Tuesday: Palm Trees + Barry M Matte Topcoat Review

Hey everyone! For the rest of this week I'm going to be showcasing all the new Barry M releases for summer, starting today with their gorgeous new Matte Topcoat*. As it's tutorial tuesday, I decided to bring out one of the tutorials I created for Barry M and combine it with my review. The Matte Topcoat retails at £2.99 and definitely fills a gap in the market. I recently (before this came out) went in to Boots to find a matte topcoat for a friend and I was shocked at the lack of choice for under £5, there was nothing, especially nothing of quality, so I was very excited to see this released. It's also brilliant, which helps, and for that price you really cant go wrong. There are varying degrees of matte, and this is one of the more matte topcoats out there. It's also much more matte than their recent Summer Matte Collection (review coming tomorrow, I know I promised it would be out today but I have a couple of photos still to edit). 

Nailvengers Assemble: Summer Treats, with Yoo Moo + GIVEAWAY

Hey everyone! It's Nailvengers Assemble time once again! If you don't know what I'm talking about, me, Allie from Brit Nails, Sammy from The Nailasaurus, Lucy from Lucy's Stash and Amelia from xameliax all post one themed nail design at the end of every month. I'm a bit late on my upload of these unfortunately, I didn't have time at all to post them last night. I expected that once I finished uni for summer I'd have so much time for blogging, but I've had even less time than usual due to working, moving house, seeing friends, and joining the gym. I really wish I had unlimited time because it's beginning to stress me out that things aren't getting done which I need to be done, like this post. I barely even had time to do the nails, which is why they're very simplistic. I saw Lucy's design here and decided that they'd be great, and easy, to recreate. 

A couple of weeks ago Yoo Moo got in contact with me and asked me to create some nail art for their current #GuiltFreeze competition. They've teamed up with Nails Inc. and The Nailasaurus to create a great new nail art contest. They've also brought out a brand new limited edition Nails Inc polish called 'Udderly Shocking Pink' and they'd kindly offered to give me 3 bottles to give away to my readers (enter using the Rafflecopter widget below after the jump). They are also hosting the #GuiltFreeze competition on their Instagram and Facebook until the 13th July, which you can read all about it here (you can be in with a chance of a trip to Ibiza, or winning loads of Yoo Moo/Nails Inc related prizes). 

I decided that it would be great to mix both Nailvengers and the Yoo Moo competition together, because I absolutely love Frozen Yogurt, and it's definitely the perfect 'Summer Treat'