Gradient Stripe Nail Art

Hey everyone! I've had this design sitting in my files for so long and I just haven't got around to posting it. Mainly because I'm not sure whether I like it or not. But tonight I decided to take the plunge and just post it anyway. This blog is supposed to document all the designs I do, good or bad, so it's time it saw daylight. I think the main reason I don't like it is because the gradient isn't smooth. When I created this I'd run out of triangular makeup sponges and I only had a small circular one and it just didn't work the same unfortunately. I added the stripe to draw attention away from that but I'm not sure if it did enough. I'll let you make up your mind! Let's just pretend they're meant to be striped not gradiented and it will all be fine. For these I used the Barry M - Sunset Daylight Curing collection, which you can see my review of here. I did these mid-review so you can see how long ago it was that I actually did them!

Pastel Bunting Nail Art for Divine Caroline

Hey everyone! I've had such a busy week this week. I hadn't appreciated how easy life actually was as a student in terms of having time to see my friends, it's so difficult to balance everything around work and also not be completely exhausted. I also went to the gym for the first time in a year on monday now that I'm back home and I can commit to a membership, and it absolutely killed me. I've only just started walking properly again. I'm even more unfit than I thought!  Anyway, today's nail art is some cute and simple bunting that I created for Divine Caroline. I also created a tutorial if you want to check it out here. The colours I used for these are all from Mavala and Barry M. The base is Mavala - Lavander*, then I used Barry M - Sugar Apple, Miami and Cotton, and I used Mavala - Lemon Cream* and Pistachio* for the detailing.

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

Alice

#SnogYourHeartOut

Hey everyone! About a month ago I mentioned I was down in London filming something very exciting. Well, the time has come to announce what it was all about. I was filming for Snog Frozen Yogurt's new campaign #SnogYourHeartOut which is all about living for what you love, which is why they asked me to take part, as this blog is of course all about what I love. I created a couple of nail art looks for them all based around fruit and love, which you can now see in the film below. You can also see the full film on their social media channels (as it's too big to upload here unfortunately!), it's definitely worth a look and it features one of the summer's hottest new tunes!

Check Snog out on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for the full video with lots of amazing people!

What do you think? Let me know in the comments

Alice

Tutorial: Summer Boho Nail Art for Barry M

Hey everyone! Today I have a step-by-step tutorial to show you. It's been such a long time since I posted one and the other day I was asked on Instagram whether I still post them and I decided it was time to start posting the tutorials I recently created for Barry M. I wasn't really sure where I was going with these I just decided to experiment and I ended up with this boho-ish design. I wasn't sure whether I liked it or not, but having not looked at it for a while I think I do!

I used the recent Speedy nail polish collection for these, plus Cotton* from the spring Gelly collection.. I never got around to posting my full review of them due to exams etc, which I still feel guilty about. But I'm doing my best to try and stay on top of reviews nowadays so I think you'll be seeing more in the future. However, these polishes really impressed me, they have a wide brush that Barry M hadn't used before spring this year and it really helps with application. They're super fast drying and there's quite a few colours across the two releases (spring, and summer) which means you've got plenty to choose from! They sell for £3.99 so if I were you I'd pop down to your local Boots/Superdrug and give them a go if you haven't already.

Mint Half Moons for Avon

Hey everyone! Today was my graduation day, I've had such a nice day seeing friends and family but I'm absolutely exhausted now. Those gowns are heavy! I've had my photo taken too many times to count and it will be nice to have some photographic memories of the day. My dad's a photographer so I didnt pay the (extortionate) fee to have my photo 'professionally' taken. That does mean no picture with a scroll, and I forgot to throw my hat in the air for a photo, so I guess I'm missing out on the stereotypical graduation photos but I still had a lovely time. However, I unfortunately didn't have time to do my nails, so I went with them plain, I felt like a fraud. So today's nails are some from last week that I created for Avon. I've never properly done half moons before so I gave them a go and I was pretty proud of how they turned out considering I completely freehanded them! 

Negative Space Daisy Nail Art

Hey everyone! I hope you've all had a nice weekend. I've never appreciated weekends more than I do now that I work full time and so I have to try and get as much out of them as I can. Saturday is my 'nail day' where I try and cram as many designs in to one day as possible, and then the rest of the week I live at my boyfriend's house where I have no nail polish (shock horror). This week however it's my graduation so I'll be able to hopefully paint some graduation nails on Tuesday night in time for Wednesday! Today's nails are these cute negative space daisy nails. As you all know I love negative space designs and I've done a couple of floral ones before, but I really liked the idea of doing daisies for an even more simplistic look and I love how they turned out. I wore these all of last week and I couldn't stop staring at them the whole time.

Cotton Bud Stamping

Hey everyone! I have a new type of design for you today, I'm not sure if it's been done before but if it has I haven't seen it! I wanted to try out some new Mavala polishes I got to review and my original intention was to do The Nailasaurus' 'nimbus' design. For this you need cotton buds and acetone but I didn't use a plastic palette and it just wouldn't work. I did however end up creating this design by basically just stamping with the end of the cotton bud and I really liked how it turned out! I had to use a new cotton bud end for each colour on each nail if you're wanting to try this yourself and finding they get a bit stringy, but otherwise they're super easy to do. I'll definitely be doing some more when I don't have much time or just want to do something quick. Although, I think I need a better name for it than 'cotton bud stamping', any ideas?

Tennis/Wimbledon Nail Art for Avon

Hey everyone! Did you manage to catch any of the Wimbledon finals over the weekend? I'm not really a sporty person but I always watch Wimbledon and this year I've watched it more than ever. I must admit that I didn't actually catch Djokovic's win as the game was making me stressed and when they got called off for rain I decided to leave it and just see the result after. But it was a very close call whilst I was watching it. Anyway, I've had a rubbish few days where things just went wrong or I just generally didn't feel up to much so I didn't manage to post these on time. However, I decided it was time to get off my butt and write a post, so here I am! This year I created these nails for Avon and I love the tiny tennis balls. If I'd had time I'd have done them on all the nails but I was in a rush so three fingers had to suffice.

Octopus Nail Art for Divine Caroline

Hey everyone! Today I'm showing you a design I've been really excited to post ever since I did them, but I had to wait for them to go live on Divine Caroline first. It's been a while since I did any 'detailed' nail art as such, or at least did anything that wasn't a pattern/florals, or so it feels anyway. So I looked a bit further afield with these nails and came up with the idea of doing octopus nails. I must admit I winged them a little bit, but I was really happy with how these turned out and I wore them for over a week! If you want to see the tutorial on how to create these you can see it here

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

Alice

Swirled Glitter Sandwich

Hey everyone! Today's design had no prior inspiration, it was one of those designs where I just decided to see where my brain took me. I wanted to try out some of my new OPI polishes, a lot of which are nude jellies, so I thought I would create a glitter 'sandwich' also using a new glitter polish I got from my friend Hannah, of Polly Polish. I wasn't sure whether the two would work together, and I decided to add some swirls using OPI - Alpine Snow to neutralise the design a bit. I really liked how they turned out, I hope you do too!

Matte Neon Flowers

Hey everyone! I've had a nice relaxing weekend of doing pretty much nothing. I spent saturday doing a tonne of nail art designs, it felt like so long since I just sat down and spent a day doing nails and it was great. I got quite a few designs done which I'm sure you'll see soon but for tonight I just wanted to show you one of the simpler designs I did. I got a selection of Models Own polishes to review and they've been sitting around waiting for me to do something with, and I decided that it was time to do some nail art with them. I'll probably do some more at some point as there's a great selection but this is what I came up with on a short timescale.

Gradient Hearts for Divine Caroline

Hey everyone! I've started my new job now and it's scary to think that I'll never get to be a lazy student again. It's also tiring sitting at a desk all day, I think it's just the heat though because it's been absolutely boiling in England for the past few days. These nails are some cute heart gradient nails that I created for Divine Caroline. I love how these look and if you want to create them yourself you can see the tutorial here.

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

Alice