Hey guys,
Yesterday I tried out doing a leopard print design. I've seen a lot of variations of leopard but I prefer ones which incorporate different, unnatural colours. I don't usually like leopard print as I find it a bit 'chavy' and I don't like its normal colour. I choose to instead use a base colour of Barry M cyan blue and create the leopard spots using Barry M greenberry.

I love this design as although the spots are a different colour the difference is subtle as they are a lighter colour than the base. To create the leopard print I just added the green dots put black brackets around them and then added little black 'c' shapes over the base colour. 

Hope you guys enjoy, please comment and follow! 

Lauren

Also sorry I forgot to clean my cuticles before taking pics lol

Hey guys,
Yesterday I used Barry M red black for the first time since I bought it. I absolutely love this colour as it is the perfect red black that I've been searching for for ages. I hadn't bothered to try this one as it looked almost chocolate brown in the bottle I had no idea I would love it so much. I added the gold this morning so as you can see there is some wear on the tips. I feel the gold really glams up this polish. I always feel guilty nowadays if I only paint my nails a base colour but this colour is amazing and for £2.99 you can't go wrong.

Red Black yesterday

Hope you guys enjoy,

Lauren

I have a feeling this one is going to stain my nails like most reds do :(

Hey guys,

Yesterday I attempted for the first time creating a stripe mani using tape. I have never done this before and so was pleased with the result until putting top coat on dragged some of the silver :( I love the colour combination and the difference between the silver foil effect and the pink varnish. Pictures first then a tutorial.

I started by painting a base colour of Barry M bright pink, I painted this the night before so that when I applied the tape the nail varnish wouldn't smudge or pull off. I then cut strips of masking tape and positioned them on  the nail creating horizontal stripes. On the ring finger I used smaller stripes of masking tape so it was slightly different than the others creating a subtle accent nail. I then applied top coat which unfortunately smudged some of the silver. 

Hope you enjoy,

Lauren :P

Hey guys,

Today I've done a very simple design based on the board game monopoly. I know there are many different monopoly variations but this is ased on the classic london one. I chose to only do the property cards as these easily fit on the nail and are very simple. Pictures first than a tutorial.

To start I painted my nails a base colour of Barry M mint green which needed two thick coats. I than painted the tips of my nails matte white and than went over this with the colour. On the thumb is mango, then blood orange, next lemon ice-cream and then spring green and indigo (all Barry M). I then used a black fine liner pen to write the name and the value of the property and to underline the colour. Add a topcoat and the design is finished. 

Hope you enjoy,

Lauren

What variations of monopoly do you own? I don't have the classic but I do have the lord of the rings edition :P

Hi guys,

Just a short post as I am so tired as I was out last night. I did these yesterday but did them just before going out and so didn't have time to post them then. I wanted to do quite a simple design as I was running late but I also didn't just want to paint my nails one colour. I realised after I did these that they match a new duvet cover I bought to bring to uni, so obvs that was the unconscious inspiration. The base colour is Guava one of the latest Barry M gellys which I'm in love with. I also have bought a proper base coat instead of just using my hard as nails Sally Hansen. I just bought the super cheap 3 in 1 Barry M base top and strengthening polish which you can't go wrong with for £2.99. To create the dots I simply stuck a dotting tool in matte white and placed three dots on each nail. So simple and quick but as I said I didn't have time for much else.

Unfortunately even though I used a fast dry top coat the thumbs smudged as I was getting dressed and I didn't realise but as I am running out of fast dry top coat it has gone really bubbly and doesn't look great. Plus I started of doing the dots fuchsia which kind of shows on the two fingers I did it on.

Not the greatest nails I've done but I still love the colour.

Hope you enjoy

Lauren 

Also I had to change the font in my watermark as my mac doesn't have that font and the free trial of photoshop ran out on my desktop. Back to good old Times Roman lol :P

Hey guys,

Sorry I haven't posted in a couple days I just really didn't want to take the monarch butterfly of my nails. Today though they finally started to chip. I've also been struggling for ideas that aren't based on insects or flowers. So I decided to try out the Caviar Manicure kit that was free with this months Marie Claire. I subscribe to this magazine and am really annoyed that as a subscriber the free gifts don't come with the magazine so I often end up buying dupes :(. However I also hate to cut up magazines if its the only one I have so often the dupes come in handy. When the Neal's yard hand cream came free with Marie Claire I ended up with a couple dupes as the stuff is worth £10 but was only £3.80 with the magazine lol. Anyway pictures than a review.

I mainly bought the magazine for the nude colour as although I like Barry M lychee as a nude colour I thought this would better suit my skin tone and I don't think I was wrong. I haven't tried any other sort of caviar products, I know MUA do a similar product but I have never really wanted to try it. I find If my nails have anything stuck on then I will end up picking them of absent-mindedly. I however do like this product as the beads are very rich metallic colours and so is a more subtle look than other colour combinations I've seen. I also prefer this look as a statement nail as I feel vajazzling all my nails is a bit overkill. This look I think is perfect for a wedding or for prom. My brothers prom is tomorrow night although I doubt he will want his nails done. 

As always I hope you enjoy.

Please comment and subscribe please.

I'm on most social networking sites and bloglovin if you don't use GFC.

Lauren :P

Hey guys,
It seems that I am slightly obsessed with flowers and butterflies at the moment. I have done two butterfly pattern nails but I wasn't really happy with either. Today's nails though I am so happy with. I also used my new mango Barry M jelly, I bought this just to collect the new colours as oranges don't usually suit my skin tone. However I started using it the other day and it is the perfect orange tone for my skin. I am so happy with it, although mango flesh is in my opinion a lot more yellow in real life than this colour. Anyway pictures than a short tutorial.

To create this nails I started with a base colour of mango as I already mentioned. I then sponged Barry M lemon ice-cream over the middle of all the nails. Next I painted the tips of my nails black and added white dots using a small dotting tool. Then with my black nail art pen I drew the butterfly wing pattern over the orange. I finished with a coat of fast dry top coat. 

Hope you enjoy,

Lauren :D

Hey guys,
Just an update on the previous post. I was really unhappy with the oranges so changed those nails. I instead painted them using the new Pink Barry M from Superdrug. I am really not impressed with these limited editions this one still wasn't opaque with four coats! Yet it is a nice colour. Only pick up this colour if it's free I definitely wouldn't buy it for £3.99. Here is the skittle I created, I thought the colours would go ok together as I wanted to try out the pink but I'm not sure. Tell me what you think.

Hope you enjoy,

Lauren

Hey Guys,
I quickly wanted to show you swatches of my new jelly with confetti effects. I showed Passion Fruit earlier this week but I also bought mango. These pictures started of as me trying to do a orange fruit design that kind of flopped and so I added both my confetti's Liquorice and bubblegum to the nails.

To do the oranges I started by smudging black onto parts of some nails using a brush. I then put the black confetti effect over that and than blobbed on the new Limited edition Superdrug green Barry M to create a leaf. Then to do a swatch for the bubblegum confetti I added one coat of that to the other nails. I know this looks a mess but I wasn't happy with the design so used it to show a swatch instead. I may also do a separate swatch but as they say 'two birds, one stone.' 

 Don't expect you to enjoy

Lauren.

Hey guys,
My last two posts have both been swatches so I wanted to show you guys the nails I did on Thursday. I had ordered Rhinestones from ebay, and they arrived the day I did these. So I was itching to use these in a design. I know I've been doing a lot of flower designs recently and only did these as a quick experiment with rhinestones. I really loved this design but whenever I put things on my nails such as the chains in a previous post I am compelled to pick them of when bored. So with me these designs don't tend to last long :P. Next pictures then a tutorial like normal.

To start with after painting a base coat, I painted a base colour of Barry M berry ice-cream. I love this colour as it is a slightly girlie r shade than I would usually wear but also has more purple tones in it. I than used a doting tool to create slightly off centre flowers on my nails. I applied top coat and while this was wet applied a aqua rhinestone to the centre of the flowers. Next I sealed them in with a couple more coats of fast dry top coat. 

Hope you enjoy :D

Lauren 

Hey guys.
Just a quick couple of posts today as I feel I've neglected my blog this week as I've been finishing up my art foundation course. I also wanted to show you guys the new a-england polishes I bought which came today. I bought two colours from the Gothic Beauties collection, Ophelia and Tess D'urbervilles. These retail at £9 from the a-england website but at the moment they only ship to the UK. I also really want Lady of Shalott and Jane Eyre from this collection. Picture then I'll do a short review. (Just to let you know I bought these with my own money I'll state if in the future I've been sent products.)

Opheila

Based on the doomed character of Shakespeare's play "Hamlet", young Ophelia who is destined to be the bride of Hamlet, the rightful king of Denmark, is sent conflicting messages by him - a man she has become besotted with. Upon her father's death, she begins to spiral down into a deep madness, finally killing herself by drowning - but not before she takes the herb "rue", a well-known symbol of regret.

I really liked this colour although I was initially disappointed by both of these colours as I expected them to look more like they do in the bottle but when applied they are a lot darker. As I got used to the colour though I grew to love it as when your nails catch the light they truly sparkle. They remind be of China Glaze smoke and ashes and has a similar finish on the nail if you don't apply top coat. 

Tess d'Urbervilles

From Thomas Hardy's title character in "Tess d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented (1891)", this is the story of a young rural woman whose life becomes torn apart by strict Victorian conventions when she becomes the focus of carnal attention by Alec d'Urberville - a man of self-imposed nobility and despicable morals. While Tess's heart is pure, her physical beauty makes her a target and thus dooms her to never finding inner peace due to the rigidly adhered-to womanly ideals she has to live up to. Imprisoned and sentenced to death for Alec's murder, she finds peace at last through death.

I don't usually buy many greens as it's usually not a colour that draws me, yet I was immediately draw to this one and I much prefer this to Ophelia. It was also a lot easier to photograph which is a plus. Both of these polishes though had a great formula and applied easily and with one coat, which I was very impresses with. These colours really do have a very Gothic feel to them. I don't think I will be wearing them often but think they would look great on a night out. 

Hope you enjoy 

Lauren 

Hey, so today I got paid and so had to go and get some new nail polish. I decided to get two jellys the new ones, mango and passion fruit. Also I got two confetti's Bubblegum and Liquorice. As I spent over six pound in superdrug on Barry M I also got both the new limited editions yet I'm not to excited about these colours and only picked them up as they were free. So far I've only swatched Liquorice onto Passion fruit and so the other's will be featured in another post. Only pictures today as no tutorial needed. :P

Passion fruit needed two coats as my nail are long but if your nails are short you may get away with one. On my thumb, middle and pinkie finger I painted two maybe three coats of the confetti and on the other two fingers I painted only one coat. I think I prefer the one coat as you can better see the amazing colour behind. At first I wasn't sure if the colour suited my skin but with the confetti on top, to break up the colour I love it. I'm not usually drawn to colours with a lot of orange in them, which is why when new collections come out I usually start by buying the blues and purples. 

Hope you enjoy, please comment and follow my blog, plus I'm now on bloglovin.

Lauren :D

Hey guys, Yesterday I attempted to do a glitter gradient as it was late and I was to tired for nail art. I really don't know if I like this as in general I'm not a massive fan of glitter in nail polish. It'd not bad for a first attempt but don't think I'll be trying this one again in a hurry.

To do this I started by painting my nails in Barry M jelly Plum, and then painted a layer of clear polish, any will do but I used Sally Hansen Hard as Nails. I then using a paint brush applied gold glitter powder to the tip of my nail and tapped the brush over the rest of my nail so little flecks of the gold were seen in the purple as well. I then applied two coats of fast dry top coat. 

Hope you enjoy

Lauren :P

Hey, this a follow up to the previous post with a simpler design to do on your right hand as it may be difficult to do the first design on both hands unless you are ambidextrous. Pictures then a how to.

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Hey, I decided to do another simple design today with one of my new jelly's. I mentioned in a previous post I had bought Blood orange and so wanted to try it out in one of my designs. This colour was a lot more red than I expected its sort of a post box red (sorry this is my only colour comparison but I understand only people from the UK would get the reference... just look it up you will see what I mean lol. ) I'm glad about this as colours with more orange tones don't really suit my skin colour. Enough rambling for today though, next the pictures then the tutorial.

First step: the branches.

 

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Hi, I haven't had time to post in a couple days or do anything special with my nails :( and am really sad how much I missed doing it. However I have a week until my foundation is done and then have the whole summer to do nails. It's weird this is the longest I've gone without posting which isn't that long seeing as I posted Monday but I've had major withdrawal lol. Sorry for rambling on I try and keep the opening to my posts as short as possible as not to bore but anyway... so today I've kept it simple as I'm so tiered and did a simple butterfly print nail. Photos first then the tutorial like always.

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Hi, today I finally found Guava (new Barry M jelly) in superdrug, but as they have a 3 for 2 on make-up I had to buy two other jelly's so also bought blueberry and dragon fruit. I'm not sure which is my favourite new jelly but it's a tie between blue grape and guava. The pictures of these colours really don't do them justice. It also only took one thick coat. Pictures first then tutorial.

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