Sunday 15 March 2015

St Patrick's Day nail art

On Tuesday it shall be St Patrick's Day. With a family name of 'Connolly' and my Mother's maiden name being 'O'Neill', there is definitely a bit of Irish blood running through my veins, so I though I'd go green and don some nail art for the patron Saint of Ireland.



The green I used for my thumb, index and middle fingers is Nail Inc's 'Bruton Mews'. Its a glorious bottle green colour, which I rather like. It gives good coverage and is opaque in just one coat, but I used two just to be on the safe side. I topped this off with a coat of Seche Vite to speed up the drying process. This green is a real Irish green and is perfect for my manicure.



What St Patrick's day isn't complete without a rainbow? I did want to recreate my rainbow manicure, however I have run out of white polish, so did it on nude nails instead. I used a coat of OPI's base coat to create a flat surface for my nail and used a dotting tool to create the dots.



I used the following polishes to create the rainbow
Red - Nails Inc 'Rosary Gardens'
Orange - Barry M 'Satsuma'
Yellow - Barry M 'lemon ice'
Green - Nails Inc ' Bruton Mews'
Blue - Nails Inc 'Belgrave Place'
Indigo - Nails Inc 'Baker Street'
Violet - Barry M 'Vivid pruple'

I topped off the rainbow as always with a coat of Seche Vite.



Every rainbow is not complete without a pop of gold. On this piece of nail art, it is in the form of my pinky finger. I used a base of Nails Inc 'Gold Foil' and to add that extra sparkle of gold I use two layers of China Glaze 'I'm not lion'. I placed dots using the same polish to bring the manicure altogether.



What do you have planned for St Patrick's Day? Will you have the luck of the Irish on your nails? If you want some other ideas, you can check out last years St Patrick's Day nail art here.

Don't forget you can join and like my Facebook page here.

Let me know what you think.

Until next time...

Laura-Jane

Sunday 1 March 2015

Chinese New Year nail art

I know I am a bit late, but Happy Chinese New Year! This year it is the year of the sheep/goat. I hope it brings all of my readers/followers a year full of love, fortune and happiness. Even though I am over a week late in posting this, I thought I would still do so, as I really like my design. I didn't opt for a sheep/goat look, but came up with this design using the colours I most associate with Chinese New Year.


I first prepped my nails with OPI's base coat, then used a Nails Inc shimmery red polish. Unfortunately I do not know the name of it, as it is a small bottle and part of a Christmas collection I got given a couple of years back. I used about three layers and topped with Seche Vite.



Using a make-up sponge and Nails Inc's 'Black Taxi' I created a gradient tip in black to each nail. Again I topped with Seche Vite and allowed to dry.



Using a dotting tool I was then able to get creative, I painted on delicate flowers and Chinese symbols using Barry M's foil effects in 'gold' and 'matte white' and Nails Inc in 'Heather grey'. I then topped it with Seche Vite and allowed to dry.



Let me know what you think in the comments box below.



Until next time...

Laura-Jane