Zebra print nail art

Today's manicure post comes in the form of animal print. I am not too sure where this idea came from, but I am glad it did, as I really like it.

 

 

 

It may have popped into my head subconsciously after my birthday meal with the boyfriend a couple of a weeks ago. He took me to a nice little Chinese restaurant situated on a floating boat on the river called Feng Shang Princes. The restaurant is situated within close proximity to London Zoo, where they are currently holding adult only night time access. This is basically an excuse to walk around the Zoo guzzling alcohol, and then you get to spend all your hard earned cash on animal print onesies, head bands and face paint. When leaving to go home all we could see were animals! It was like Noah's Arc had reincarnated into the London Underground whereby they loaded onto the tube (subway for my American followers) two by two. It looked like a lot of fun and very surreal!

 

 

 

For my base coat I used 'hint of mint' by Leigton Denny, which is an off white colour. I think I actually prefer it to a bright white. It makes the manicure more subtle.

 

 

 

To create the zebra stripes I used a black stripper nail art polish by Frauline.

 

 

 

Just like a zebra, where every animal has their own print, a bit like humans and our fingerprints.  I tried to emulate this on my own nails, to make each fingernail unique and not so uniform. It also helped me, as I didn't have to worry about every nail being perfect, and I could just have some fun with it.

 

 

 

To finish the manicure I used my trusted top coat by seche vite.

 

Has anyone else tried animal print?

 

What do you all think?

 

Until next time...

 

Laura-Jane

Beauty and the Beach part 2 - My entry

Today's post is an entry for a beauty competition held by Travel Supermarket consisting of three categories: hair, make-up, and nails, with the winner(s) receiving a cash prize of up to £1500. You can read more about it here. You have to be quick if you want to enter, as the competition closes tomorrow.

 

First up is the nail entry:

 

When I think of the beach, I automatically think of holidays. To me, a holiday means getting on a plane, flying somewhere exotic and being able to relax whilst sunbathing and listening to the waves crashing on the nearby shore. Besides trying to obtain that golden tan everyone lusts after, my favourite beach scene is at sunset. Not only is it romantic, which I am a sucker for, I find it very peaceful, tranquil, and something I don't see everyday living in central London. So, that is what I opted to recreate for my nail entry.

 

 

I started out by painting my nails with white acrylic paint to give myself a blank canvas. For the sunset background colours I used orange, pink, blue and purple acrylic paint and brushed on using a very watery brush to mix and blend the colours together.

 

 

 

Using 'Black Taxi' by nails inc, I created the silhouette beach once my based coat was dry. I hand painted the designs using very thin nail art brushes and toothpicks. I added touches of white polish and blue and silver glitter to add dimension to the waves.

 

 

I wanted a really shiny finish to the look, so a top coat of Seche Vite was in order.

 

 

 

I know my blog is dedicated to nail art, but I wanted to double my chances of winning a prize, so have decided to enter the hair style competition too.

 

The Hair:

 

To me, nothing says "holiday" more than beach wave curls, so I dug out my GHD straightening irons, some hairspray, and got to work. This is the outcome:

 

 

I divided my hair into several sections, starting at the bottom and working my way to the top to make it easier to work with. For each section, I applied a generous amount of hairspray along the length of the hair. I then clamped the section between the hot straightening irons at the root of the hair and slowly worked my way down to the tips, twisting and turning occasionally to create the soft curls.

 

 

 

I repeated this method to complete the remaining sections of hair. I then rearranged and styled the curls and pinned back a section using a faux flower clip; something I love to do using fresh exotic flowers on holiday.

 

 

 

To secure the look, give it another spritz of hairspray, allow to set and you are good to go.

 

 

What do you think?

Until next time...

Laura-Jane