Nail Art: Ombre Stripes

Long time no see! Again! :p

Today I tried something pretty complicated for me since I haven't done any nail art that's needed so much work...and even then, I still made some mistakes :p

I've been liking Ombres these days, so I did a blue and purple ombre using models own Hypergel polishes and a slight layer of gold glitter polish from the ciate Christmas advent calander. I then laid some striping tape in diagonals and then quickly put on some Barry m black polish. 

I liked using the black as it quietens down the brightness of the ombre but still has an element of interest to it. 

Nail Art: Half Moon Monochrome Polka Dot

Hello! After a few weeks of wearing bright summery colours, I felt like some monochrome nails for a change. Polka dots are always easy to do but I also felt like having some half moons to. 

However, I'm never good at free handing half moons (they always end up squint haha) and I thought some 3D nail gems (is that what they're called?...) would do a good job covering up some wonky moons whilst also being part of the design. 

It's not often I do two accent nails, as I usually do one accent nail, all the same or all different. 2 accent nails allow you to have some freedom in your nail art without having the pressure of having to come up with 5 (or 10) different designs, so I might do this style again :)

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!

Remember me?

Hola!

It's been a long time since I last posted, I know.

 I was really busy with uni, and I didn't have much time to do nail art anymore, and I guess I started seeing blogging as a bit of a "chore" and found it easier to post plain nails on instagram rather than write a whole blogpost. I dunno, I'm not really sure why I stopped blogging in all honesty.

But now that I'm FINALLY finished university for good (not got my results yet though haha...dear God...), I hopefully have more time to start up my nail art again, and possibly start up my nail shop too. Now that there's other social networks than facebook to promo on (by that I just mean instagram), it seems like it might be easier than previously to have an Etsy. I'll admit that very few people in my "real" life know about my blog and my shop, thanks to an unsupportive friend that basically made me embarrassed to have a blog let alone an Etsy...But hopefully I'll now be able to put more time and effort into something I enjoy doing, and hopefully you guys will enjoy it too.

I'll still carry on doing the odd high street haul, although they'll never be as good as the likes of people on youtube haha..

Hopefully talk sooner than later!

Ciao!

Nail Art: Frosty Snowmen

Another quick post today! (Joys of final year and dissertations...) 

Decided to (mildly) join in with th festive spirit and do some Christmassy nails. Snowmen are super simple to do and can look cute too! I added a coat of glitter over the white but under the facial detail to attempt to make it look like snow but you can't see too well in the photo! 

Nail Art: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Quickie posts tidy as uni work is building up and I have my dissertation presentation soon. Yikes!

I decided to simplify what could've been a difficult nail art attempt by just concentrating on the eye bandana things the guys wear, i wasn't too sure if people would guess what it was so attempted the logo too, especially since splinter seemed a bit too hard to do lol. 

Base was Barry m spring green

Swatched! Models Own: BlooBloo

This is kind of a sucky swatch as I've layered a Barry m confetti topcoat over it but I hope you can get the gist of BlooBloo. It's a lovely pastel colour that could almost pass as a winter pastel

Swatched! Models Own: In The Navy

I suck at this blogging stuff sometimes. My excuse this time is that fourth year is entailing a bit more effort than I'd hoped :p

Anyways today I have models own, in the navy. 

It's a super dark navy, almost black and you can't really tell it's navy till you look closer. However I like it as an alternative to black as sometimes it can look too harsh. 

Nail Art: Halloween Blood Drip & Pumpkins

This is so late I don't even know if it's worth posting. But I was looking through my blog posts and only notice today that this didn't publish properly when I posted it in the lead up to Halloween -_-

The colourings totally off in both of the photos (was a late night nail art session and I also only have Instagram versions of the photos left on my phone) but I used Barry m Gelly keylime green an maybelline extreme blackcurrant to do some blood drip nails and models own/hed kandi for the pumpkins

Nail Art: Glitter Ombre

Nail Art: Galaxy

Galaxy nail art is a sure fire way to get people to look at your nails and stare in wonderment at your "skills" when really you're doing a lot of careful splodging lol

I can't remember what colours I used, but all you need is a black, dark blue, purple, pink, yellow, white and a glitter. 

Nail Art: Dandelions

Dandelion nail art are something I've been meaning to do for a while, it's just one of those ones I've forgotten to do! It's so simple and easy to do, and super pretty too :) 

Seche Vite For Cheap!

Seche Vite, for less than £6? Oh Heeeeey ;) [CLICK HERE]

Seche Vite does live up to it's high regard, it dries your nails to touch dry super fast, and it gives a shine like no other. However, £10 is a bit steep, no matter how good it is, so I miraculously found some on amazon for nearly half price! :)

Boots Haul #8

About time for another haul eh? ;) 

Summer was pretty warm, and going on holiday to France and Bruges didn't feel any less warm, so I needed to step up my deodorant choice. I've hear Mitchum was a pretty good deodorant, so I picked up a scented and an unscented version. I liked they had a choice of unscented as sometimes I don't like the smell of my deodorant interfering with the smell of my body spray. I usually use a spray deodorant but after noticing how the Dove sprays kind of layer up and crumble when sprayed, I decided to go for a stick deodorant. These works pretty well, and manage to keep my sweaty pits under control (gross haha)

I usually use the Bourjois healthy mix foundation but I decided to try true match as Suzi from stylesuzi on youth e raved about it an since we have similar skin types and skin tones, I decided to have the foundation and power a shot since loreal was on buy one get one half price. I have to say, this is a really good foundation! It comes out quite liquidy and thin but it's really pigmented considering the texture, and gives medium to full coverage. Along with the powder, it sets to a non cakes finish, that's lasts a long time and even managed to stay out after a sweaty food shopping trip (I live o. A slight hill) 

I love lip balms. I love pink grapefruit. When I stumbled upon the Burts need pink grapefruit lip balm, I had to have it. It has a lovely scent, same as the body shop pink grapefruit scent, and is really moisturising and lasts a fair amount of time on the lips. 

Another brand, another lip colour crayon tiny gloss balm stain release. But I can't help myself when it comes to lip products and it was but one get one half price on Rimmel. I picked up a raspberry shade and a beigey neutral shade. I've only tried the neutral shade so far and it's a pike any other standard balm stain in all honesty but the beigey shade was one I hadn't seen before. 

Ain't no haul without nail polishes ;) 

If you haven't heard or seen by now, Vaseline have released new spray on moisturisers. This is handy when you're in a rush and need a quick moisture boost. It dries fairly quickly so means no standing about wafting your extremities ;) 

I've been Getting into masks recently to help my skin out a bit so I picked up the quick fixes facials mega moisture gel mask and the super facialist tea flower clay mask. The quick fixes mask works okay, there's no huge difference in my skin after use but I bought this more for when it gets a lot colder in winter. It has an odd scent that i cant quite put my finger on, but its not too offensive. The super facialist works a lot better, it's also a hydrating mask as well as a deep cleaning mask. It helps to soothe my cystic acne as well. The scent is very obvious an can put some people off but I don't mind it too much bits kind of like herbs mixed with Kenzo Flower perfume. 

I've been trying to take better care of my skin lately, so I decided to partake in double cleansing, and bought the superficiality vitamin c deep cleansing oil and the super facialist tea flower cleansing wash. The cleansing oil comes in much nicer packaging but it doesn't come with a pump so I purchased a pump bottle from eBay. Both help to remove my make up well, and the cleansing wash helps to soothe my acne. The Vit c oil smells like citrus and you can sometimes smell it off your face after washing. The cleansing wash smells of Kenzo Flower perfume, which is a perfume I once got for my birthday an really like. 

Having dark hair, it's hard for me to use dry shampoo as it leave a grey, dusty powder all over my hair. So when a sales girl came up to me in Boots talking about the new tresemme translucent finish dry shampoo so I had to grab it. It is indeed transparent, however doesn't give much volume but for soak up the oil well