Leopard Print

I've been extremely busy starting my job and getting into the swing of living and working in London but last night I did my first nail art in ages and I wanted to share it 

It's a very basic, subtle leopard print using some of my favourite opis and a england polish. I don't have my dotting tools with me so I did it with a hair grip.

I love how this looks- there's something so classic about a good leopard print.

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The perfect naked nails

Occasionally I need to wear very subtle nail polish (mostly for job interviews) I don't like going without because that is when my nails tend to break so I have found my perfect sheer pink colour to paint over the top. Opi Bubblebath is the 'my nails but better' shade for my skin tone (pale, very pale)

I apologise that this photo was taken on my iPhone, this is one coat of Bubblebath and a topcoat so you get a very shiny but also very natural effect. I love it and if you've ever wanted this sort of look and have my skin tone you should definitely check it out! 

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On trend 2014: White Nails with Neon Ruffian

I enjoy the palette cleanser that white nails provide but find them a little stark and boring on their own so today I'm going to show you a way to add a pop of colour using a gradient ruffian.

I wanted a neon pop to this so I used Orly Hook Up and Holla and Lilypad Lacquer In Pink We Trust with OPI My Boyfriend Scales Wall. There was no particular order to where I put the neon polishes but my nail beds are only really wide enough for two colours- if you have wider nail beds you could put all three on each nail.

I have made a photo tutorial for this look so you can recreate it at home:

1) Freehand stripes of your chosen colours vertically on your nail- it does not matter what this looks like at the tip (one coat should do) but make sure you paint the whole nail to help the white polish level later on.

2) Top coat! Make sure you topcoat to prevent streaking of the colours onto the white later!

3) Paint a stripe of white up the middle of your nail leaving a small strip of the colours exposed at the cuticle

4) Paint up the sides of the nail so that the colour is seen in a crescent moon shape at the base of your nails. It will take two coats of white to make this fully opaque- have a tiny brush on hand to use with acetone incase you make a mistake (because you have a layer of top coat over the colours you can correct small mistakes without losing the colour)

Then topcoat your final design, clean up around your cuticle to get the perfect oval shape and you're good to go.

NB this design makes your nails look shorter but your fingers look longer- if you have short nails that you dislike you have been warned! This is easier if you use a white polish with a small brush (the OPI was a little too big for my tiny nails). If you use my tutorial I would love to see it :).

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OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls

White nails are on trend for next year and one of the most popular white polishes floating around is OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls from the Spiderman collection. If you want that true white- I painted tipex on my nails look then this one will do it.

White or off-white polishes tend to be harder to apply than other colours but this one is not too bad. This is two carefully applied coats but it does not self level very well so be careful of that. I would also give it slightly longer between coats than other polishes to avoid dragging.

If you don't like this stark white but still want this sort of effect seek out a creamy off white such as Barry M Lychee and OPI My Vampire is Buff. Tomorrow I'll be showing you one way to add colour to the white nail without it over powering the white.

Oh, and Happy New Year :), may 2014 be a good one!

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Nail Lacquer UK Queen B Swatch and Review

What a long title! Today I have one of Nail Lacquer UK's polishes to show you. Last week she released a few collections all at once but the one that drew my eye was the Royals collection featuring glitter mixes with gold leaf. However, AJ only released one bottle of each and by the time I got there there was only Queen B left (please make more AJ- I will buy a bottle of all of the other 3 if you do!). Also if you haven't noticed the blog has had a Christmassy facelift :)- I love it, please let me know what you think to it by leaving me a comment.

The gold leaf in this polish is just the right size and mixes perfectly with the glitters. The glitter payoff is also excellent with this being one carefully applied coat.

I decided to pair this with OPI Houston We Have A Polish a three coater purple jelly, this is actually the only polish I own that's anything like this berry colour and I really like it. I had to include the next photo even though it is a little blurry to show you the glitter that you get off this polish- just look at the index finger, stunning!

And because I can't leave you with a blurred photo- one more :)

 I love this polish and am so glad I managed to grab a bottle, if AJ makes any more I'll fight you for them ladies ;)

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Textured Dots

Yesterday I was in London again interviewing and had a couple of hours to spare so I went and had dinner with a friend at the Southbank. We wandered through the Christmas market there and had a sneaky cup of mulled wine, it was great :). When I got home I wanted to play with finish and texture so I came up with these matte textured dotty nails:

The base here is two coats of Barry M Espresso which has a gorgeous satin finish- not quite as flat as some matte polishes I have seen. It applies quite easily you just have to be careful not to take too long putting it on a single nail as it starts to dry quickly.

I then added dots of Barry M Lady and OPI Alcatraz Rocks. Lady is a new acquisition and I really like it. I bought it to mimic the look of fresh snow and it definitely does that :). Alcatraz Rocks seems to have picked up the black base of Espresso but I quite like it- it makes this mani more monochrome.

I really like this :) I'm not sure how long it'll last because there's absolutely no top coat involved but I'm enjoying it immensely while it does. I thought I'd share my best picture from London just to finish off this post:

Have a great weekend!

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Autumn spotty nails

I really enjoyed making these nails :) my boyfriend suggested I do some nail art using autumnal colours and I decided to go a little abstract and just do dots in the colours on a nude base.

The colours used here are Barry M Lychee, OPI Every Month is Oktoberfest, OPI A Woman's Prague-ative and NYC Money Never Sleeps. I used two sizes of dotting tool- just pressing a little more lightly if I wanted a smaller dot. I started by adding the large dots to the nail then filling in the spaces around them, ensuring that none of the dots touched each other. 

Blue and Gold Skittle

This is the first skittle mani that I've done for ages! I really wanted to wear OPI Alcatraz Rocks but I have a problem with texture polishes and can only really wear them on one nail without going insane. So I put Alcatraz Rocks on my little fingers and that set my colour scheme (blue and gold) for the rest of the manicure. I used OPI Eurso Euro and NYC Full Metal Jacket for everything else, a striping tape design, tiny polka dots and a stamped nail.
I apologise for the slightly out of focus pictures- the pictures are in focus but I've had to write this post in html because blogger is being weird and it won't focus the pictures for some reason. If you hop over to my Facebook page by clicking the link in the side bar you'll be able to see the pictures in their full focussed glory :)

I love this nail art so much, I really need to take it off and do some more to get ahead for next week but I like it too much...

I made the polka dots with a brush rather than a dotting tool because it makes smaller dots than even my smallest dotting tool.

I've actually painted a set of false nails with the same design as these nails and they will be in my etsy store (Cambridge Nails) sometime next week so if you fancy having this design on your nails for a Christmas party or just every day wear please check it out. I have a few other painted nail sets available as well as my hand painted nail polish jewellery.

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The colour challenged picks my polishes

So I am jumping on the bandwagon of people who have had their significant other choose a few nail polishes for them to do some nail art with and today my lovely Stuart picked out NYC Lexington Yellow, piCture pOlish Orbit, Pocket Money Polish Yellow Submarine and OPI Taylor Blue. While I'm mentioning Taylor Blue Work, Play, Polish posted today that it's going to be sold again in November so check out the link to her blog to read about that.

I really don't use ruffian nail art enough, it's really suited to the round shape that my cuticles have. I loved the look here before I added Orbit although I do like the dark contrast on the tips.

I thought I would talk you through my thought process here: I knew that the yellow would have to go on first because it is definitely a two coater and I would struggle to get it opaque over either of the blues. I then thought it would be really cool to have a bright pop of colour be painting on the OPI as a ruffian and then putting the PMP over the top tying those colours together. I meant to use Orbit to do the ruffian on my accent nail but totally forgot so the only way I could think of to include it without throwing the whole mani off was to paint on a thin tip with it but it's quite thick and difficult to manipulate.

Not too bad really :), at one point he had both of the blues and an orange very sheer jelly polish and I was worried. I had fun doing this and it was really interesting to see what my boyfriend pulled out of my collection.

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33DC Flowers: Moyou Tulip Stamping

As soon as I saw this Moyou stamping plate image I knew what I wanted to do with it and that was to make stamper decals:

These are quite simple to make- pick up your image on your stamper as per usual and while it's on the stamper use nail polish to colour in the parts of the design you want to (here I coloured in the tulips and the grass below them)  then add a generous coat of clear nail polish to the image and wait for it to dry (I usually leave mine about 15-20 minutes) then use tweezers to peel the whole thing off the stamper, place it on your (dry!) base coloured nails, use nail scissors to cut away any excess around your nails and then put another coat of the same clear top coat over the top, wrapping the tips.

I used a few different polshes here, the background is Jessica Lime Cooler, the flowers are H&M Orange and Yellow, OPI Flashbulb Fuchsia and A England Rose Bower, and the leaves are NYC High Line Green.
I love the effect you can get with stamped decals, they can produce some exceptional nail art images. Remember to check out all the other 33 day challenge flower designs, there will be some amazing nail art!

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Up! Nail Art with Indy's Indies

A new UK indie polish maker has popped up :). Indy's Indies first collection was inspired by disney films and a couple of autumn themed polishes. The one which caught my eye was the totally unique glitter topper Balloon House, inspired by the movie Up! This is a clear based polish with small circle glitters in a variety of matte colours. Rather than just doing a swatch of the polish I decided to do some nail art representing my favourite thing about the movie (other than the touching sequence where you are introduced to Ellie) Kevin!

My index and little fingers are single coats of Balloon House so you can see what it looks like alone (with added balloon tails). For my ring finger I hand placed glitter into the bunch to get the clustered effect. I then used my nail art pen to draw on the strings and the outline of Kevin on my middle finger before filling in the colours. The bubbles were my fault because I underestimated how thick the polish was and didn't leave enough time to dry between coats.

The colours used were: Essie Rock the Boat, Barry M Black nail art pen, Indy's Indies Balloon House, OPI Tomorrow Never Dies and Hi Pumpkin, NYC Lexington Yellow, Digital Nails Convergent, Elegant Touch White.

I love how this turned out and it got a few compliments as well :). I'm excited to see what else Danielle is coming up with and I hope there are some more gems like this in her future collections.

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33DC Chevron with Emily de Molly Blueprint

Today's 33 day challenge prompt is chevron. I wanted to use this polish which arrived last Saturday to do my chevrons. The base is Emily de Molly Blueprint and I hand painted on the chevrons in OPI A Woman's Prague-Ative.

Isn't it funny how sometimes you get a polish and it sits on your desk looking at you for months before you use it and sometimes you get a polish out and have to put it straight onto your nails. It was definitely a case of the latter with this one. This is two medium thickness coats, it looked very streaky on the first coat but the second evened everything up and made it totally opaque. This polish has a navy base with mixed sizes of royal blue glitter, some small purple glitter and purple shimmer. The matte photo on the bottom left best captures the purple shimmer of the polish. I used OPI matte top coat and it looks amazing matte.

For my chevron design the base was already matte so I carefully painted on the chevrons with a small nail art brush and the OPI polish and then didn't top coat the design as I wanted to keep the contrast between the matte base and the shiny, glittery chevrons.

I love these two colours together, they look and feel really autumnal. I have a nail wheel of the colours I've chosen to make up my autumn colour palette and A Woman's Prague-Ative is one of them. My aim is then to use these colours through my designs this autumn to pull my designs together.

I loved wearing this manicure, Blueprint is an amazing polish and if you like blues and purples I would strongly suggest that you check it out. I didn't know if I'd be able to freehand chevrons but it was easier than I anticipated :).

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Dots and Stripes Tutorial

I'm not entirely certain what to call this design but I thought I'd put together a quick tutorial for it :). As I  freak out at the sound of my own voice on tape I have put together a picture series.

1) For this you need a pale pink polish (I like sheer but you choose one you like), a holographic pink polish, a medium striping brush, a small dotting tool and either a white and black Barry M nail art pen or polishes to dot with.

2) Paint on two coats of the pale pink polish

3) Use the holographic polish and the striping brush to make curves on your nails (as shown on the middle and ring fingers). Then fill the shapes in with the striping brush (as shown on the index and little fingers)

4) Add dots on the sides of the shapes using the pink polish and your dotting tool

5) Add white dots along the sides of the pink shapes

6)Add black dots to any gaps for definition.

The polishes I used are OPI Bubblebath and Emily de Molly Where Boys Fear to Tread















There you go :). If you try this design out I would love to see it!

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33DC Textured Gradient

I showed you Barry M Countess alone yesterday and for today I sponged another textured polish, OPI Alcatraz Rocks, over the tips of my nails then added studs from the Born Pretty Store which came in a wheel with a few different types of stud.

To apply the studs without changing the texture of the polish I used dotting tools to add a dot of clear polish where I wanted the stud then used the dotting tool while slightly tacky to pick up and place the studs. The studs are thin and lie close to the surface of my nails which I really like.

I've gone for some more arty shots that I normally do, I love the one below and the one above shows you just how thin these studs are.

I hope you like this :), tomorrow I'm going to be showing you a design I made with the awesome new bundle monster collection.

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33 DC Mexican Sugar Skulls

The only thing I ever really see on people's nails about Mexico are the Cinco de Mayo sugar skulls. So I used this tutorial by Pretty Squared to draw skulls onto my nails.

The polishes I used in this were Barry M Guava and Passion Fruit, Jessica Radioactive, Lilypad Lacquer In Pink we Trust, NYC Lexington Yellow, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, Orly Hottie and Holla. I used NYC Matte Me Crazy to give it a satiny matte finish. The details were all drawn on with Barry M Nail Art pen.

I've added a link to my giveaway below, enter to win a bottle of my Pocket Money Polish custom Sparks and OPI Tiffany Case. UK ONLY sorry international readers :(

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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31DC Inspired by a tutorial 33DC Tribal

To do a double challenge for this I just had to find a tribal tutorial that I liked. I found one by Simple nail art designs here .

I was doing these quite late at night so the lighting is a bit weird in these photos. I used A England Lady of the Lake, Essie The Girls are Out, Lilypad Lacquer Nature Calling and OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls for the colours and painted on the details with acrylic paint.

Tomorrow is the very last day of the 31day challenge and I will be recreating an awesome mani so come back and check it out :).

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31DC Inspired by a Film 33DC Dots

Woo double challenge! Today I am doing film for the 31 day challenge and dots for the Crumpet's Nail Tarts 33 day challenge. I decided to do a very iconic film in dots so that if I mucked it up it would still be recognisable. However, I think I did a pretty good job representing Harry Potter in dots. 

We have a Gryffindor scarf, HP himself, a snitch and a bludger and a wand casting a spell. I think my favourite is the snitch, that large dot is just perfect. 

I used quite a lot of different polishes for this manicure, but I was careful not to use too many to ensure it was a cohesive design. The base is OPI My Vampire is Buff and then the art was done using NYC High Line Green, Park Ave, Chelsea Cherry, Barry M Black, Revlon Hypnotise and Elegant Touch White.

It was fun designing a mani in which I would only use dotting tools to actually portray something. Excitingly, as this goes out I will be off being an extra in the new feature film The Theory of Everything about Stephen Hawking.

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31DC Inspired by a Colour

This is a recycling of yesterday's manicure with a different accent nail which I much prefer and think fits better with the whole mani. I have been inspired not by a colour but by the combination of blue and gold.

I used striping tape to get the chevron effect on my ring finger over a base of NYC Full Metal Jacket and Hare Polish Dauphine of Decadence. The Hare polish is gorgeous but a complete nightmare to remove, more so than other glitter polishes I use.

I love how art deco this whole mani is, check back tomorrow for my song inspired mani. 

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