Nail Art: I Been Drankin' Watermelon

With summer kind of being in Scotland, fruit patterns are all over the place - nails, fashion, homeware. Watermelon and pineapples are my personal favourites, and I currently have a watermelon clutch from new look (which a friend very nicely got me as part of a graduation present!) and a pineapple backpack from topshop. 

I was going to do watermelon nails a few weeks ago bit of course my nails broke and I had to but them down to nubs again :(

Nail Polishes used:

Barry M Gelly: Greenberry

Models Own Hypergel: Coral Glaze

Models Own nail art pens: black and white

Nail Art: Pastel Marble Swirl

Marble swirls are another kind of nail art you can do that looks harder than it actually is (and also a lot less messy than water marble). 

All you need to do is blob on your polish and swirl the polishes together (still wet) with a cocktail stick or bobby pin or a dotting tool. Some nails can turn out not as great as other nails (a couple of mines had some bare patches I didn't notice till later) but I think it's nice that not all nails are the same or uniform within themselves!

Polishes used:

Models Own Hypergel: Purple Gleam

Models Own Scented: Peach Melba 

Nail Art: Matching Pastel Aztec

It's graduation season and with that comes fancy dresses! My boyfriend's graduation is before mines and I've decided to wear a pale grey shift dress with a pastel aztec pattern from missguided. I don't often wear such bright colours but thought I'd make the effort for summer. 

I attempted to do matching nails, by picking out specific parts of the pattern. However they didn't come out as neat or as dainty as I'd hoped. But they could be worse haha! 

Colours used:

Models Own Hypergel: Cornflower Gleam

Models Own Scented: Banana Split

Barry M Gelly: Greenberry, Dragon fruit, Papaya 

Revlon: Hazy 

Nail Art: Drybrushed Ombre

Dry brushing is usually a painting technique where you have very little paint on the brush and your paint strokes become very streaky and light. 

I imagined a Drybrushed ombre would look quite cool so I have it a go and this is how it ended up: 

I quite liked how it ended up, I bit different from the standard sponged ombré. How I did this was wipe of the polish brush as much as I could and start doing light streaks from the tip of the nail towards the base, layering more towards the bottoms. Even though I wiped as much as I could off the brush, there was still too much polish to give the Drybrushed look so starting at the tip was a good way to build up the densest part of the ombre whilst also drying off the brush.  

Polishes used:

Models Own Hypergel: White Light

Barry M Gelly: Prickly Pear 

Nail Art: Messy Stripes

Having been out of the nail art game for quite a while, I thought I'd test what skills I have left (if any) and try some vertical stripes. 

Vertical stripes are easier than they look since a striper brush does a lot of the work, but there's still some patience and good polish placement skills needed. 

I think my nails ended up a bit meh, with clashing colours and some in inventive stripe placement but I was a bit stuck for ideas and wasn't sure what else I could do :p

The colours I used were:

Models Own Hypergel: White Light (white)

Models Own Hypergel: Cornflower Gleam (blue)

Barry M Gelly: Dragon Fruit (pink)

Barry M Gelly: Guava (turquoise) 

Barry M Gelly: Prickly Pear (lilac)

Barry M Gelly: Key Lime (green)

Nail Art: Hime Gyaru

Hime Gyaru nails are a trend in japan which consists of lots of 3D nail beads, pearls, bows, cartoon characters etc. I personally only do Gyaru nails with flat back pearls and ball bearings as anything more would just be a hassle to my daily life haha!

Gyaru nails always look more effort than they actually entail, it really does consist of splodging on clear topcoat and then whatever 3D nail bit you have and is a really easy way to impress everyone. 

I used a base of Models Own Hypergel: Lilac Sheen and Barry M Gelly: Dragon Fruit and a good layer of Seche Vite on top to secure everything 

Benefit They're Real Push Up Liner: Drugstore Dupe

There's a lot of hype in the blog/YouTube world for the new Benefit eyeliner, basically a gel eyeliner stored in a wind up pen with an angled nib to make the chore of cat flicking a lot easier for you. However long before the Benefit product was talked about I randomly came across the Maybelline Lasting Drama Black Shock Gel Liner which looks exactly the same as the benefit one and seems to apply the same too but with a cheaper price tag.

I'll admit that I'm an eyeliner n00b and I rarely actually used it beforehand, only rarely for nights out. Eyeliners always smudged and faded on me but the Maybelline one lasts a long time and also needs a bit of a heavy hand to remove. If you want to try the Benefit hype without the price tag the try the Maybelline version! Click here to purchase from ASOS!