Hi, I said in the last post that today I bought Barry M croc effect, but I also bought a new jelly called Blue Grape. I didn't think superdrug were selling these till the middle of next week but was so excited when I saw this colour. I also bought Blood Orange which came out a while ago although I really want to buy guava but this was not in stock. Anyway, blue grape has got to be my favourite out of today's purchases due to the boldness of its colour. I've thought for a while now that most of the jelly colours were quite muted such as prickly pear, papaya and lychee to name a few but these latest colours are really bright and highly pigmented. They also save me a lot of money on top coat :P Here's the pictures, the blue didn't photograph as well as I'd like :( next the tutorial.

I prefer my chevrons to be more like pointy half moons so to create these nails I first painted my nails with Barry M foil effects silver as I love the contrast between the jelly shine and the foil texture. When this wa dry I cut squares of masking tape and positioned these on my nail to create a triangle of covered silver. Next I painted over the nail in blue grape and when still wet removed the tape.

Hope you enjoy

Lauren 

I know Barry M released croc effects a while ago but I only bought it today! I bought the effect in burgundy as I really liked the colour and thought it would work well with my gold foil effect. After multiple attempts I managed to get one nail to look ok so I will practice using this varnish and show you some results when I get better at it. But today I will show you my failed attempts to use this product. Pictures first then I'll explain how I used them.

This was my first attempt at doing croc and as you can see the colour is great and works great with the gold as I expected but the nails look sort of tacky not croc like at all. I possible should have waited longer for the effect to work but with this I think I applied the polish to thick. What I hate about this effect is that unlike with crackle it wont work if the base polish is dry. The instructions say to apply over touch dry polish meaning that only the surface of the polish should be dry but the bottom layers should still be wet. I feel foil effects dry a lot quicker than other polishes and apply quite thinly so maybe this is my problem.

Next I tried out the effect on Watermelon (Barry M jelly) This worked on some fingers but the green is to dark for the effect to show up :(.

Next I went back to the gold foil effect as I felt maybe the effect didn't work before as in doing only the tips the colour was to thick. So for this I curved the colour down my nail and as you can see in the close up above it kind of worked on one nail.  So I will get back to you with more croc experiments at some point.

Please don't be put of this product from me as I've seen youtube videos were it does work well. I think this is just something I need to practice at and maybe apply to my whole nail before I start trying to get fancy with it.

Lauren

I've seen lots of fruit manicures around lately and so wanted to put my own spin on this. I chose to do a different fruit on every finger so that my nails were very colourful. I have a habit of only wearing black clothes so the only ever colour I'm seen in when it's cold is either on my nails or my shoes (Pink Dr Martens/ yellow converse lol.) As always pictures first then a tutorial.

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It's rainy again in London this week but the weather over the weekend was so good. I actually got a tan lol. So I planned to do nail art to go along with the sunny weather. These are super cute because of the little pink toe nail polish! Photos first then tutorial.

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Hi, today I decided to do a more 3D design by placing chains on my nails! These are a quick easy way to jazz up any look and would be great for a party. I also can't stop touching them. I decided to do them monochrome (black and white) to keep them on trend but most colours would look great and I cant wait to try this over magnetic polish. Pictures first then I've done a video tutorial for this which is on youtube, but I'll also explain what I did.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sd2yemXGAE&feature=youtu.be

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I've seen lots of designs for pandas at the moment. Mine is probably similar to many that are around but I thought this was really cute and a great quick nail art for beginners. Pictures first then the tutorial.

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Hi today I created this simple shell and seaweed design to match the pattern on the dress I was wearing. The base colour is Barry M jelly lychee and the design is created by using my Barry M nail art pen in black.

Hope you, enjoy, I only really like the pinky and the ring finger as the others were my first attempt.

Lauren

Hi, today I bought the pink Barry M nail art pen and decided to create a flamingo design. This design is really cute and I've had lots of comments from friends thinking that the design was a stencil but I assure you it's freehand just like all my designs. Pictures first than the tutorial.

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Hey, Today I created a design based on The Egyptian Eye of Horus. I have a necklace with this eye as a charm which I got in Italy (random place to get it I know.) Apart from the usual inspiration from jewellery I have always been fascinated by classical civilisations. Enough about me though, as usual pics first then the tutorial.

To create this design I started by painting a base of Barry M foil effects in gold, this only needed one coat.Next I used my Barry M nail art pen in white to draw a lemon shape on one side of all my nails. With a dotting tool I added a navy (Barry M) dot in the centre of the white.  I then used a liquid eye-liner brush to paint on the design ( if you have a striper this will work just the same I just don't have any.) I first painted an outline around the white of the eye and then added the other lines. I only did the eyebrow on the thumb but you could do it on all nails. 

Hope you enjoy

Lauren

I finally bought the two remaining Color show polka dot effects by Maybelline. As I've said I really like these effects although they are a pain to remove. I chose to create a simple monochrome design that looked great with or without the effect on the top, here are my simple half moons. Pictures first then tutorial.

To create this design I first painted my nails with Barry M matte white, which needed two coats. I then freehanded on the black leaving a white semi circle near my cuticle. I did this on my right hand (im right handed) so it should be easy enough to do this yourself but if your scared you might mess it up I suggest putting circular stickers or French tip guides (stickers) over the parts you want to keep white. I then applied Maybelline polka dots in chalk dust on top. I finished with Sally Hansen insta-dri. You could easily change the design and create black nail tips if you prefer. 

Hope you enjoy

Lauren

Hi today I've created a design based on the game tetris. As a kid I was addicted to this game and even had it not just as a computer game but as a electronic board game lol. Pictures first then the tutorial.

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Hi just a quick update from the previous polka dot effect post. I tried on my right hand to try using the effect over matte white Barry M. I think it looks great yet a little messy as I was doing it with my wrong hand. This is probably one of the few times you will get to see my right hand haha.

On some of the nails the polish is a bit thick but I love the colour of the polish, hope you do to. 

Lauren 

I've been meaning for a while to do a short post on how I make sure my nails are strong and healthy. Up until about 4 months ago I bit my nails so when I finally said to myself, you really need to stop this I didn't know how to go about it. In the past I had tried the products that you put on your nails to make them taste bad. Yet this never seems to work as either you forget to use it or the taste does not really bother you any more  I realised though that when I painted my nails, even with clear polish I was less likely to bite them as you get all these flakes of polish in your mouth which is horrible.

So I knew to stop biting my nails it would take 30 days to break the habit (Learnt this in A level psychology :D). During this time I religiously painted my nails. The second I noticed any chips I would either touch up the polish or take it of and start again. However constantly using cheap polish remover I think damaged my nails, making them really flexible and prone to splitting. So I invested in better polish remover. I use Cutex Nourishing polish remover for weak nails(£2.15 for 200ml or £1.59 for 100ml) and instantly started to notice the difference. My nails were a lot stronger and the tips whiter as this remover has vitamins and moisturisers in it along with a nail whitening formula.

I also began to use Sally Hansen Hard as nails (£3.95) as a base and top coat although it is not sold for this use only as a strengthening polish. I've now however moved on to Sally Hansen Insta-dri (£5.95)as it is an anti chip top coat and dries in 30 seconds. I'm also very into hand moisturisers. I currently alternate between Vaseline healthy hands and strong nails, and Neal's Yard Bee Lovely hand cream. Vaseline healthy hands and strong nails (£4.69 for 200ml) contains keratin to strengthen nails, it also smooths cuticles and smells great. I love all Vaseline moisturising products and use aloe fresh and essential moisture (£4.69 for 400ml) on the rest of my body, I also got my mum and lots of friends into using the hand cream. Neal's Yard Bee Lovely hand cream (£10 for 50ml direct from their website) is a lovely orange smelling cream that smells sort of like a Terry's chocolate orange.It's probably the most expensive product I use but it came free with Marie claires april edition :P.

The final product I use is Burt's Bees cuticle cream which I love due to it's strong lemon smell and the way it smooths my cuticles. Apart from products you can by for good nail care I thing a healthy diet is also important and I regularly take vitamin supplements such as evening primrose oil and iron.

Hope you enjoy
Lauren

Hi, I haven't posted in a while due to final project deadlines. Here is a quick tutorial/ product review of the new Maybelline colour show polka dots effect. I recently bought two of these although I do want to collect all of the colours as they are limited edition. There are four colours in the collection. Chalk dust has black and white dots in clear nail polish, this is similar to the new  L'Oreal Color Riche Nail Top Coat Confetti (£4.99 for 5ml) yet the Maybelline is cheaper at £2.99 for 7ml. I bought Rain Forest Canopy which is a dark bluey green colour If you apply it direct to the nail without a green/ blue base colour on the colour is very translucent so will need a lot of coats which may add too many dots and look a bit messy. I feel these look nicer if you apply a colour similar to the polka dot effect then use the effect as a top coat. I also have the speckled pink colour and there is also a darker blue called shooting stars.  Tutorial up next.

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Hi, I've been watching a lot of crime dramas recently, in particular Dexter. So I decided to do a dripping blood design. Pictures first then the how to.

To create this design I started with two coats of Barry M matte white, this colour is quite translucent so you may need a third coat yet I didn't. Next I painted on my matte top coat by rimmel as although the white is called 'matte' it really isn't. You don't have to do the matte coat but I like the contrast as it makes the red blood appear a lot wetter that if the white is shiny. To finish I blobbed on Barry M in raspberry close to my cuticle and then dragged it down my nail with a dotting tool. You could continue the design and make it into a cute cupcake design by painting the tips light brown if you're not a fan of blood. This design though would be perfect for Halloween. 

Hope you enjoy, please tell me what you think!
Lauren

Hi, I've decided to use a simple technique that is very effective, sponging. There are lots of tutorials on youtube on how to do this but I like to keep my nail designs quite simple and some of the gradients were very bright! So I chose to do the sponging as detail over matte nails to create the effect of fluffy white clouds. This would also look great in a bubblegum pink to look like candy floss. Pictures first then the how to.

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Hi, at the moment I really like the idea of appreciating the everyday things we don't pay attention to. so I've chosen to create a road and traffic light nail design. Pictures first then the how to.

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Hi, today I decided to create a ladybird design on my nails. As a kid I was obsessed with this insect and whenever I saw one I had to pick it up. Apart from the black ones which creped me out. I even dressed up as a ladybird for Halloween in a costume my grandma made me :P So I thought it was about time to put them on my nails. Pictures first then the how to.

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Hi, I just quickly added hearts to the blue stripe design from yesterday. This turned out ok on the thumb but is a bit messy on other fingers. To do this I made a heart stencil by cutting out the shape of a heart on a circular sticker I then positioned it and applied Barry M gelly pomegranate over the heart cut-out.

I like the pop of colour this adds to the design and think it might look better to have drawn cherries over the blue stripes

Hope you enjoy.
Lauren

Hi, I've got another simple design for you today. I thought as my blog is named after a form of stripe I better post a stripe'y design. Pictures first than the how to.

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Hi again just a quick post on how I do matte black nails.

To start I painted my nails in Barry M black, this needed two coats. After this was dry I painted them with Rimmel's Matte finish top coat. I bought this as it was cheap (£4.69) in comparison to some matte top coats. It does the job but does not show up well when photographs so I may have to invest in something more expensive. After this was dry I tried to do tips the way I normally would by putting circular stickers on the nail. This due to the amount of coats or because I did not let it dry enough kept smudging so I had to start over again :( I found it easier in the end due to just freehand the high shine coat(Sally Hansen insta-dri) onto the tips.

Hope you enjoyed.

Hi, these nails aren't the best but I felt I should include them so I can use the blog as a way of recording the triumphs as well as the failures. As always the picture then the how to :P

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Hi, as it is spring I felt it was time to create a design based on tree blossom as they are so pretty. There are many designs like this at the moment that are inspired by cherry blossoms, due to the current trend in fashion of oriental inspired designs.
My design is very simple and hopefully easy to recreate. As always I'll show you how it looks then tell you how I created it.

To start I painted my nails in Lychee from the Barry M gellys collection, you will probably need two coats to get the right colour. I then used my Barry M nail art pen in black and drew a variety of different lines from one side of the nail to the other to create the 'branches.' It looks better when you create a fork in the branch or 'y' shape as that is how most branches look. Next you will need a dotting tool, the ones that I use were very cheap from amazon £1.98 with postage (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Coloured-Double-Nail-Dotting-Marbleizing/dp/B00448VZQM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368454853&sr=8-1&keywords=dotting+tool) and have different size ends so are perfect for this. For the bright pink blossoms I used another gelly Barry M this time Grapefruit and dotted the colour near to the ends of the branches. To add depth to the design I then applied Barry M berry icecream in smaller dots onto the brighter pink. You can leave out the last step as with or without the design is pretty. After this I created the leaves with Barry M in mint by using the smaller dotting tool and dragging the colour to create a leaf shape. Finish with a coat of top coat when all the dots have dried.

Hope you enjoy, let me know what you think :P

Lauren

Hi, for a while now I've been meaning to try out an Aztec design on my nails. I also recently bought a pair of beautiful Aztec earrings from Newlook which are the inspiration for this design. 

To create this design I first painted my nails silver with Barry M nail foil effects, I then drew the design on using a black Barry M nail pen. This is a very easy design to recreate as it consists of solid rectangles and triangles with some finer black line.

 

These are the earrings that inspired this look the top triangle is the design seen on the pinky finger and in reverse on the pointing finger. The second triangle is the design on the ring finger the third the middle finger and the last triangle the thumb.

Hope you enjoy, let me know what you think :P

Hi again, I created this design last week as a way to jazz up French tips. For this design you will need masking tape in order to tape your nails before you start water marbling as otherwise it is very messy. You will also need a glass of plain tap water, a pin, cotton buds (q tips), circular stickers (they sell plain white stickers in Whsmith or most stationary stores that I use as guides when I do French tips) two nail varnishes and a top coat.

To start place the circular stickers on your nails leaving the tip of your nail uncovered. Next paint your tips using a white nail varnish, (I used natural collection white from boots) one coat should do apart from on your thumb which might need two coats, if you plan not to marble it like I did. You should remove the stickers while varnish is still wet but don't throw these away straight away. When the tips are dry you will need to reapply the stickers again leaving the tips visible then tape the skin around your nails with masking tape. It’s easier to do this one hand at a time as with your fingers taped its harder to drop the varnish onto the water. Now the fun part! To create the water marble I used the same white I used to do my tips and a Jessica custom nail colour ‘company vamp’ (which came free with company magazine, so I don’t know where you can buy it). Start by dropping the pink onto the water and then alternate between the two colours creating a bull’s eye effect. With a pin or toothpick create a design by merging the two colours. When you are happy start dipping your nails. Once your nails have been dipped wait ten seconds and clear away the excess polish with the cotton bud and then remove your nails. Let this dry remove the tape then apply a top coat.


Hope you enjoy and that I didn't overcomplicate this.
If I did there are great YouTube tutorials on how to do this.
Let me know what you think

Hi, this is my first post as a blogger Yay. I've been meaning to start blogging for a while. This blog is going to be a mixture of nail art and other things to do with beauty and my own fashion creations (I'm about to start a fashion degree.)

As my first post I wanted to start with an easy nail art tutorial on how to create tuxedo nails. I copied this design from cutepolishes video tutorial here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYDwteRRwNY&noredirect=1

I'll put the pictures first then tell you how I created the design.

To create the design I used Barry M matte white as a base coat. I let that dry then used Barry M nail art pen in Black. I love the new nail art pens as they are not as messy as other nail art pens or stripers can be. 

With the nail art pen I started by drawing a triangle down from the cuticle to the end of my nail and then filled this in to create the jacket. Next near the top of the nail I drew an x and then filled in the two sides to create the bow tie. I then created dots in the centre underneath the bow tie to look like buttons. As a top coat I used Sally Hanson 'Hard as nails' as I just ran out of top coat. 

I really enjoyed creating this design yet feel with just the 'jacket' part of the design completed that may also look like a great on trend (monochrome) design.

Hope you enjoy, let me know what you think  :P