Hearts on fire & product review

Good morning nail art fans!

Today, I have stepped away from festiveness all together. I saw a version of these on Pinterest a couple of weeks ago and fell in love.

I also have a little bit of a review for you today which is a product I am so excited about.

We'll start with the nails...



 

 Right, so I started with a base coat (if you don't know which one it is, read a previous post) and used Barry M - Raspberry which is a lovely deep blood red on all but my ring finger which is O.P.I - Samoan Sand.

 

For the heart, I tried something i've never done before (duh duh duuuuh) I used a blob of polish and a toothpick to draw the heart on a plastic wallet and waited for it to completely dry (roughly 20 mins). Once it had dried, I carefully lifted it with a stanley blade so as not to damage it, and used tweezers to place it onto my accent nail. I am soooooo pleased with how this method turned out, it looks kind of 3D in real life and the lines are sooo crisp. I can see myself using this technique again.

 

 

 

 On my pointer finger, I used an un-named, and completely random red glitter polish, over the top of the red.

 

I love red polish but I wish it wasn't such a pain to get off your cuticles. Overall, I'm really pleased with this mani, I hope you like it too.

 

Now for a quick review...

 

 

Ok, so I got this for chritmas in a goody bag from my sister. Must admit, I was a little dubious but seriously.....OMG I love it!

 

It definately takes longer than a second but it took my argyle nails off with ease (about 15 seconds) and no cotton wool or spillage in sight.  Basically it's a big sponge with a hole in it, and you stick your finger in it and wiggle it around a bit and it comes out clean! Amazing. It's also scented with red fruit and vanilla which is nice and amazingly it's acetone free!!??

 

It's a bit pricier than your average polish remover (£4.99 in Boots) but I actually think it's worth it.

 

So that's all from me for today, see you next time

 

Over and out

Rach x





Argyle Nails

Well today was my first day back at work after Christmas. Boooo! But hey ho, I made it through the day in one piece. My lovely boyfriend is a bit poorly so I decided tonight was mani night.

So this is my take on a design that I've been seeing a lot of lately. I've tried it before and wasn't too sure about it. I guess I felt like it looked a bit jestery (that a word?) This time, I'm still not 100% happy with it, but I much prefer it to last time.

Here goes...

 

 

As with all my manis, I started with a base coat. The Grey is two coats of O.P.I - Skull & Glossbones which I am in love with. Then I drew an X shape on each nail and filled it in with Rimmel London - Man Overboard. Once that had dried, I used white acrylic paint to do the dotted lines to complete the design.

 



 

I was about to get my Seche Vite off the shelf when I spotted something I haven't used for a long time.... matte top coat! I'm always a little worried using matte top coat because I find it tends to smudge polish for some reason. You can see this a little on my pointer in the above picture. It seems to have dragged the darker grey a bit :(

 

But anyway, for the most part, they escaped unscathed.

I'd love to hear your thought on this design, or any suggestions for manis I can try in the future. It's my 25th birthday on 5th January so I need inspiration for birthday nails! Please leave any comments in the space below :)

Over and out
Rach x

Better late than never!

Well I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas day yesterday and is feeling festively plump like me!

I know I said I wanted to post these before Christmas but I finished them about 5 minutes before I had to leave the house to go to a party so I had to wait until today.

Here goes with the pic....

 

 

Omg, my cuticles are vile! ewwww (I promise these will improve)

 

So, I started with a base of 17 - Nail Xtras Strengthening base coat as always and did 2 coats of Barry M - Matt White. Once dry, I used acrylic paint to paint little tacky Christmas jumper designs on all but my ring finger. The Green looks really bluey in these pics but I can assure you it's a lovely emeraldy colour.

 

Most of the design was done with a tiny brush with the exeption of the dots which I used various dotting tools for.

 

 

Hmmm, can you tell I attemped to disguise my nasty-ass cuticles in this pic?

On my ring finger I used 3 coats of Barry M - Gold Glitter to add a bit of festive sparkle.

I topped it all off, as always, with a good splodge of Seche Vite
 

I think my next mani will be a more generic one as I can't think of any more Christmas ones and technically it's no longer Christmas
 

Anyway, I hope you like them, please leave any comments in the space below
 

Over and out

Rach x

Christmas Nails Part 2

So, I'm now well and truly into the Christmas mindset. I've done all my shopping, just have a few bits left to wrap and i'm done! It looks like this year we'll be having not a white christmas, but a wet one (lovely) and as I type I can hear the wind howling and rain hitting the windows outside.

Which puts me in the mood for one thing and one thing only..... a new mani of course.

Here goes....

Wow, I've just realised how awful my cuticles look! The weather is playing havoc with my hands this year.

So it's a base coat of 17 Nail Xtras Strengthening Base Coat and two coats of Rimmel London Double Decker Red. Once all that had dried I started on the white detailing. I used white acrlic paint and my teeny tiny brush for everything except my pointer and pinkie which I did with various sized dotting tools.

I topped it all off with a nice blob of Seche Vite. Et voila...

 

Overall, I'm really please with my work, especially the snowflakes, I love how they turned out. Only problem with red is that it's a cow to tidy up your cuticles, all the acetone in the world wont shift it so remember your base!!

 

I'm planning one more mani before christmas if time allows so keep your eyes peeled for the last installment of festive nails

 

Let me know what you think in the comments below.

 

Over and out

Rach x



It's Christmas!

So, today I finally allowed myself to be sucked into doing Christmas nails.

I've been keeping my eyes peeled for inspiration, and saw a variation of these months ago on Pinterest. Since theres only 9 days to go until the big day and I'm sure gift wrapping / work / alcohol are going to keep me busy, I thought i'd better get on and do them! So here goes...

 

 

 

Colour choice casused major headache! Couldn't decide on a base so went for Rimmel London Sweet as Sugar cos it's a lovely icy blue shade. I mixed the brown for the head and beige for the antlers using acrylic paint then got to work.

 

 

I started by drawing a crescent half way up on each nail to fill brown for the head and then did antlers on each one with a cut down paint brush. For the eyes I used white acrylic paint and my biggest dotting tool, then went in again with the black dots with a smaller one.

 

 

 

 

 

I really want to try and get a 3D effect with the noses so once i'd done the eyes, I coated with Seche Vite. My Seche Vite has started to get a bit gloopy and I've noticed a bit of shrinkage so if anyone has any tips please let me know in the comments below (Thanks!) When that had dried I used Rimmel London Double Decker Red and a large dotting tool to create the shiny noses. They took a good 10 minutes to be dry enough for another coat of Seche Shrink because I did them quite thick to get the roundedness (that a word?)

 

 

Oh, and I had a small accident with my right pinkie :(

 

Lmao, he looks like Sloth from the Goonies! Hey you guyyys!

 

 

Anyway, hope you like them! Please leave any comments in the box, i'd love to get better at this so any feedback would be much appreciated

 

Over and out

Rach x



 



Lacy Nails

So, better late than never, here is my first nail post!

I started out with no idea what these were going to be and went from there and i'm really pleased with the results!

I started out with a base coat (17 Nail Xtras strengthening base coat) and applied 2 coats of Rimmel London Grey Matter. Really tricky as it was nearly empty so it was one of those where it goes all gloopy and sticky (blurgh!) but after about 20 minutes (yawn) I had my canvas all set.

 

 

So I started with my thumb nail and went in with 4 rows of frills but it took ages and while it looks ok on my thumb I thought it might be a bit too crowded on the rest.

 

I used white acrylic paint and a cut down paint brush for the frills. I picked up a set of 12 colours (like a kids art set) from W H Smith for about £3.49 and they are absolutely perfect!

 

I started at the base of the nail with a half moon and did little loops attached, then went in with a second row, etc etc.

 

 

 

Crap picture sorry!

So on the rest of my nails I just did 3 rows which I think works well

 

Once the paint was dry (about 15 seconds) I topped it all off with a nice big dollop on Seche Vite!

Done!

 

 

So theres my first nail post, how exciting! Please let me know if there are any nails you want to see or want me to try, and feel free to critique me on this post so I know how I can improve

 

Over and out

Rach x





And so it begins.....

Soooooo, this is my new blog! Exciting times indeed!

I hope you'll bear with me while I try and find my way around and hopefully find my posts interesting and readable. I've become a huge fan of Nail Art over the past few months and have found myself being swallowed into a world of polish induced poverty! I can honestly say it's worth it though, I find it theraputic. (People cant seem to understand this, as some of my nails take a loooooooooong time) I don't know, I guess I just have patience with these things!

Born and bred in the UK, it's been difficult getting my hands on some of the things most nail artists take for granted, but as and when I find them I'll be sure to let all of you British nail artists where I found them.

Anyway, I can see myself going off on a tangent here so I'll leave it at this and get on with my first post.... (dot dot dot)