Floral Nail Art

It is officially Spring, however I have woken up to a panoramic view from my apartment of Central London that has had quite the dusting of snow. I have however attempted another Springtime nail art design, in the hope that the more I do, the more chance there is of waking up to sunshine and warmth. I know its unrealistic, but a girl can't help but try!

I gained inspiration from a dressing gown I own, which I am actually wrapped up in now as I write this blog post. It was bought for me as a present by the boyfriend before we moved in together last year. I have to say it is the best dressing gown in the world; long, fluffy, cosy and even has a hood, which is perfect for cold cosy nights in watching a movie on the couch. The colours are vibrant and bright, and you can't help but feel in a happy mood when wearing it, especially in the winter as I tend to wear quite dark colours, so it makes a change for me to wear such bold ones.

The said dressing gown:

I obviously didn't copy the design of the bathrobe exactly, but I created my own adaptation using the colours and floral print for inspiration. I have been wearing them for a few days now, and I have had quite a few compliments; I even got the seal of approval from the boyfriend.

Nail polishes used:

Base colour: fuchsia pink by Nails Supreme

Petal colour: light pink by Nails Supreme

Centre of flower colour: 'Poppies in the snow' by Revlon UK

Leaf colour: Green by Nails Supreme

Top coat: top coat by MUA.

To create the flowers I used a large dotting tool. I used the same size tool to create the middle of the flower and the petals. I used approx. five petals per flower. I then used a smaller dotting tool to create a little flick of green for the leaves, which I think finishes off the design perfectly. It adds another colour and therefore another dimension to the design. Don't forget to add a top coat to make your manicure last and also give it that extra bit of shine.

 

 

 

This is a really easy design to do, yet it's bright and stands out and will get everyone noticing your nails.

Let me know what you think?

Are you going to give it a try?

Until next time...

Laura-Jane

St Patrick's Day Nail Art

Tomorrow marks the day of all things green, little leprechauns, and tacky shamrock laden memorabilia. Yes, it's St Patrick's Day, the patron Saint of Ireland. A day which is notorious for Paddies across the globe to break Lent and allow themselves a little tipple of the black stuff - Guinness. I'm joining in by marking the day with my special St Patrick's Day nail art. A white wine spritzer is more my poison of choice.

My nail polish collection doesn't consist of many green polishes. I am not an avid fan of the colour, and just tend to use them for minimal detail for leaves in some flower designs. I did however buy into the hype of mint green nails a few seasons ago and made a purchase at the Revlon counter called 'Minted', which is a very Tiffany & Co-esque in colour, which I actually don't mind. I used this said polish for my base coat.

I tipped the nails with MUA's 'All Nude' polish, which is an off white colour, just so the green wasn't too overbearing. I allowed this to dry completely before beginning to start my shamrock detail.

To create the shamrocks, I used a large dotting tool to create the main body of the detail, placing three large dots together in a triangular shape; I then used a smaller dotting tool to flick the green out to create the stem.

 

To finish off the manicure, I separated the green and white main colours with a silver glittery stripe to add a touch of sparkle and to complete the look I had in mind. For this I used a silver nail art paint by a company called 'Kiss' which I bought from Superdrug. I really recommend their nail art paints, as they come with a very thin application brush, which makes nail art a doddle. I would have liked to have used a gold glitter to resemble the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, but a gold glitter is absent from my collection :(.

Allow all to dry and apply a top coat. I used MUA's top coat, as that's all I have at the moment; I am still waiting to purchase the fast drying top coat from Seche Vite. I am not overly impressed with this top coat, so wouldn't really recommend, but for £1 it does the job. I have to say I have used better top coats by OPI and Nails Inc, which are more expensive, obviously. I guess like the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.

Are you doing anything special for St Patrick's Day?

To those who are celebrating (I'm sure my family on the west coast of Ireland in County Mayo shall be) and those who will be plastic paddy's for the day, I hope you have a great day and have a pint of Guinness for me.

Until next time...

Laura-Jane

Ladybug Nail art

Like most Londoner's, I was fooled last week into thinking Spring was here. How wrong was I? This week has seen the coldest March for 27 years with flurries of snow to top off the icy wind (I work outside, so I really am not liking this change in climate. For me it has been a VERY loooooooong Winter.) I'm an optimistic type of girl, and I am sure that Spring really is just around the corner, so decided to create a Springtime piece of nail art to share with you all. Other than flowers, butterflies, and the sun, which to me resembles Spring, another creature which I find synonymous to this time of year are ladybugs.

 

 

This is a very time consuming manicure (at least 1.5 hours) using a numerous amount of polishes and tools and it is definitely not for the faint hearted. There is also a lot of drying time involved, hence the lengthy time frame. It took me three attempts at this manicure to get it right. I managed to smudge it the first time using the top coat, where all the colours ran into each other - very disheartening. I ended up with dents and a squashed design on some of my nails as I decided to cook dinner too soon after painting my nails on the second - which caused my heart to sink even further. On the third attempt, I learnt that patience really is a virtue and literally did not move for hours afterwards - success, yay!

Nail polishes used:

 

 

Base colour – ‘London’ by Nails Inc.

Base Colour for ring finger and ladybug bodies – ‘Cherries in the snow’ by Revlon.

Black dots and heads of ladybugs – ‘Black Taxi’ by Nail Inc.

The eyes – ‘Pearl White’ by MUA.

Top Coat – ‘Top Coat' by MUA.

 

I first painted all nails with my base coats, including the two accent nails and waited for them to become touch dry before I moved onto painting the ladybugs. To create the ladybugs I used three different size dotting tools; a large one for the body, a medium sized one for the head and a small one to create the spots and eyes. You can pick up dotting tools at a reasonable price from eBay and Amazon; they always seem to be in stock. I'm not too sure where my ones are from, as I got them as a little stocking filler gift from Santa. I like to have the ladybugs facing all different directions, to me it makes them appear they are scattering all over the place. You can have them in a more uniformed fashion if you prefer. Wait for all to dry completely before applying your top coat. You could probably speed up the process by applying a fast drying top coat such as Seche Vite, which I am yet to purchase and try out. However I have heard lots of very good things about it, and is currently on my wish list and top priority when I next go on a nail shopping haul.

 

 

I used the ring finger for the accent nail, creating a large ladybug. I didn’t want the manicure to be too overbearing, so opted for an accent nail and to have small lady bugs on the remaining nails, which are the ones I actually prefer. I think they look cute.

So there you have it, ladybug nails in time for Spring, whenever it decides to come…

 

 

What do you think?

 

Until next time…

 

Laura-Jane x