Watercolour flowers mani (GUEST POST)

Hey Everyone! 

Today I am going to be filling in for August while she concentrates on her exams, which I'm so excited about!

First just a quick bit about me and my blog. I'm fairly new to blogging as I only started in January and I mainly blog my nail designs and tutorials (although the odd beauty/make up posts make it in there now and again!). Doing my nails is just a hobby for me and something I love doing, and my blog is my own little space where I can share my designs and ideas with other people that love nails as much as me!

So today I've got a cute little design to show you all using (my favourite) Barry M polishes. 

To recreate this design you will need the following Barry M polishes:

Huckleberry (the blue used for the base colour)

Rose Hip (baby pink used for the flowers)

White, Gold and Key Lime (used for the small details on the bird)

Black, white and pink nail art pens

I've tried to create a watercolour style design for the mani, with the dark blacks and bright pink of the flowers. I wanted to do something quite challenging as well for the design so I added the tiny bird to my ring finger, as an accent.

The design is much easier to create than it looks. Just choose a nice light colour as your base colour so everything stands out. Then draw the flowers on freehand and just see how they turn out. The bird took a bit more work, and a lot of concentrating to get it looking just right, but I'm glad I put the effort in, because I love how it turned out! 

 

So I hope you like my design today, and that you all think I have been a worthy guest blogger for August!

Nicole x  

Mani Monday

Hey guys

Seems like forever since I've done a mani monday post! I've been writing up some different type of posts, trying to mix it up a bit and also I've been super busy with uni revision so any spare time I do have I tend to use to sleep.

I still have been painting my nails though because (as I've mentioned a few times), doing my nails is a way I like to chill and relax and keep just about sane in what can be an insane period.

This latest design reflects my love for stripes. This design was done without striping tape, all done free hand and I'm actually surprised at how neat it turned out, even on my right hand!!

 I used one of Barry M's Gelly Hi-shine polishes in the shade 'Guava'. Such a cool name. Makes me feel like going on a tropical holiday on a beach sipping cocktails... ( I digress)

What do you guys think?

Thanks for reading!

Superdrug haul

Hey guys!

Hope you've been having a great week. Mine hasn't been that great which resulted in a bit more shopping than I should have done...

So I thought I might as well do a haul post especially as it's been ages since I've done one.

I love Superdrug. They always have great deals on and I can get student discount which makes it very difficult to leave buying exactly what you came in for.

We've all been there. I'm only coming in to get boring stuff like cotton wool or deodorant or something but then we end up at the checkout with a handful of make up.

I must admit though, it's been a while since I've bought make up plus, I had a voucher for extra points so I actually don't feel that bad.  

First of all, I picked up a number of nail polishes. If you didn't already know, I'm a massive fan of Maybelline's color show range and now they've brought out two new limited edition ranges. I'm so bad with limited edition, because as soon as I see limited, I have to get them all. I'm even worse when it comes to nail polishes.

The ranges are 'Stripped nudes' and 'Street Artist'

Stripped nudes

Street Artist

I'm yet to own nude polishes as I've worried they'll look weird on my as I'm quite dark skinned but I thought it's about time I try it out as I have seen some great nude manicures.

The street artist range just looked amazing. I mean how can you say no to those? They cost £3.99 but they're currently on offer: buy one get one half price. That topped with student discount, I basically made an investment...

The two on the outside aren't actually limited edition, but I want to collect the range.

The street artist range nail polishes are top coats. I'm yet to try them out yet but when I do, I'll put a post up.

The next thing I picked up was an eyeshadow palette from MUA. I love MUA but for ages all they're good stuff has been out of stock so I had given up looking at stuff on their counter. Then as I was paying I spotted that all the good stuff had returned and so I picked up the Heaven and Earth palette. I currently own Undress Me Too which is an amazing palette. I had been looking for neutral eyeshadows and I had read a couple of reviews for this one and at the bargain of £4 I thought I might as well pick this one up.

The next item I picked up was one of Sleek's blush palette.

 I've heard great things about this palette for ages and I've been looking for a good blush that's well pigmented without being too harsh for ages. I haven't used it much yet as I don't wear blush everyday but when I have used it, I've loved it.

Lastly, I picked up Garnier's new micellar water.

I've heard loads about micellar water. I had wanted to get L'oreal's but the reviews I saw weren't encouraging. 

I personally like Garnier's products and the reviews I read about Garnier's were good so I was more swayed to to pick this one up. It also happened to be on offer as well.

That concludes my recent visit to Superdrug. I think I ought to stay clear of that shop for a while now...

Have any of you guys bought some great products from Superdrug or have any of you posted a haul recently? I'd love to know as I'm always looking for products to try.

Thanks for reading!!!

 

 

Mani Monday

Hey Guys

Happy manicure monday!

These are the colours I used to create this week's nails.

As you can tell, the one on the left is pretty old. The writing is rubbing off. It's from collection 2000 and the other one is from Maybelline's color show range which I did a review of once upon a time ago!

Another simple design but I think sometimes with striping tape less is more. Leaves it looking more elegant.

Unfortunately my thumbnail has broken leaving my nails a bit uneven but hopefully it'll grow back soon!

What do you guys think? Any of you obsessed with nail art like me? Leave your links below, I'd love to see them! 

Thanks for reading!

Notd

Hey guys 

I was busy on Monday so missed manicure Monday so here's my latest nail of the day featuring striping tape of course!

If I'm totally honest it's a bit of a boring design but I kinda like the simplicity and the colours.

What do you guys think?

Thanks for reading and don't forget to follow me on twitter and bloglovin!

x x

Mani Monday!

Hey guys

It's another short (and hopefully sweet) nail related post!

You may have seen my previous post on my recent Sally Hansen purchase. If not you can get find it (here).

Here's my recent nail art with the sugar coat polishes.

This look can be created using Sellotape which will produce finer edges but I couldn't be bothered with tape as it was a last minute decision to add the black effects right before bed so I used one of my nail brushes. 

What do you guys think? Any of you obsessed with nail art like I am?
Do let me know. I love to see people's designs as mine can be quite basic at times.

Thanks for reading and have a great day!
x x

November favourites

Hey guys

I can't believe its December already! Christmas time soon!!! Super excited. 

While writing this I realise I did a lot of shopping this month. I'm not quite sure why. I think it's because life got super busy for me and I used shopping to relax/procrastinate. Also, the weather became colder so I needed to adjust my wardrobe.

Favourite nail polish

I recently bought a load of Sally Hansen polishes which you can read about here.

So I think I'm going to have to say my favourite range for November is the Sally Hansen sugar coat polishes.

Favourite app

It has to be a toss up between the Move app and Zumba dance app. 

You can check out my post about them here.

Favourite item of clothing

I've been buying quite a number of shoes lately but favourite of this month has got to be these pair of black heels from ASOS. 

Image- Asos.com

I'm a massive fan of ASOS but I haven't actually ordered from them for ages as I'm trying to be better with my money habits so I end up having a lot of save for later items.

But I couldn't resist when it came to these shoes.

I've been looking for closed back heels for ages and these were on sale from £42 to £12!! How could I say no? And they have a little nude stripe making it a bit more interesting than your average black heels but still being able to go with any outfit!

Favourite book

I heart London by Lindsey Kelk.

I love this series and this is the newest book in this series. I was meant to read this book over the summer but life got in the way and resulted in me reading it this month. It's a great, funny book and you can find my review of it here.

Favourite miscellaneous item

Striping tape! If you're a regular reader you'll be aware of my obsession with nail polish and nail art. This item has helped me create great designs! It does require patience and time but it's a lot of fun and the results make it worth it and it's so cheap! You can find out more about it here.

What have been your favourites? I'd love to know. I'm always looking for new things to buy.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to follow me on twitter and bloglovin!

x x

Sally Hansen Stash

Hey guys 

I've heard a lot about Sally Hansen nail polishes but as I'm trying to save money I wasn't keen on buying them from Superdrug or Boots as it's a bit more than I wanted to spend.

So I went to eBay and found a UK seller who was selling a few Sally Hansen polishes for £2. Of course it wasn't the full range Boots and Superdrug offer but they had a few and for £2 and £2.50 so I can't really complain.

I bought 6...

Four of them are the sugar coat effect (at £2.49) which is different to any kind of nail polishes I own which is why I felt the need to buy 4...

I'm not sure if you can truly see the effect from the picture and I'm not quite sure how to describe what it looks like. It's a bit like pavement and it does look a bit sugary; hence its name.

The salon manicure polishes (at £2) aren't textured or have any special effects but they're good quality and don't require many coats. 

So far I'm impressed with these polishes. They last and haven't chipped or peeled and the bottle is a decent size so I'm happy to say it was a great purchase. To be totally honest they probably are worth the money drugstores sell them but I like to save money where I can (whilst still spending money... I have a problem I know and I'm working on it...)

Have any of you tried these polishes?

What do you think of them?

Thanks for reading and don't forget to follow me on twitter and bloglovin!

x x

My first time with striping tape

Hey guys 

It's been a while. I've been pretty busy with work and uni but I finally had some time to myself so what better to do than do my nails?!

I recently found out about striping tape after seeing a beautiful design by thenailluxxe

And so I had to go get some for myself. I bought some from eBay. I got a set of 10 for only £1.99 and surprisingly it was a UK seller so I didn't have to wait for ages!

I had been looking for something like this to produce thin fine lines but had no idea what it was called.

I decided to use a dark blue shade by Revlon and a white by Barry M.

The tape can get a bit fiddly and requires patience as you need each individual layer of nail polish to have dried properly.

But it's all worth it!

I know I'm going to have a lot of fun with this tape! 

Thanks for reading and don't forget to follow me on twitter and bloglovin!

x x

Nail therapy

I haven't been having the best couple of days so I decided to treat myself to some treats.

Superdrug is currently doing 3 for 2 on cosmetics and I'm trying to cut down on spending so I thought I'd buy some nail polishes.

If you're a regular reader of my blog you'll know I love Maybelline's color show range. (You can check out the review here) And at the moment they have a limited edition range of 'brocades' nail polishes. I got the shades 'woven skyline' and 'rosy rosettes'.

They're a kind of gilttery effect.

I haven't used them yet and to be honest I don't think I'll use them until I have an event to dress up for but as soon as I do I'll definitely review them. I just bought them because limited edition stuff always gets me and I feel I have to buy them.

I then needed to find my free nail polish. I must admit I'm finding it difficult to find in drugstores nail polish shades I don't already have. My collections is already filled with almost duplicates. 

But I found a shade in Barry M's gelly hi-shine range that I don't have.

It's shade guava and I love it

I'm currently wearing it now with Maybelline's color show black shade:

What do you guys think? Have you tried any of these products and are they working out for you?

Do least me know. And if you have any nail polish and/or nail art design recommendations please do comment below.

Thanks for reading!

Don't forget to follow me on twitter and bloglovin and if you haven't already do check out my giveaway!

x x

Christmas wishlist

Hey guys 

I can't believe its November already!!!

I really should be doing an October favourites post but to be honest I didn't buy that much that really deserves gushing about.

I'd rather do a post on what I want (need) for Christmas!

I haven't been shopping in ages so there are loads of stuff I want but I'll try and keep this list relatively short!

1. MAC lipsticks

I'm not the biggest lipstick wearer so it's difficult for me to spend lots on them

I currently own 2 MAC lipsticks. I've previously mentioned I got them at the cosmetics store so they were cheaper so it was easier for me to part with my money for them.

However there are a few shades I need. They're like the best colours ever and my makeup collection is incomplete without them

I've previously mentioned them before but I can't help it. I really want them:

- Girl about town

- Up the Amp

- Ruby Woo

2. Revlon Chalkboard Nail Art polish 

If you're a regular reader of my blog you'll know that I love my nail art. 

Revlon have brought out a new range of nail art polish in pastel colours. I love pastels and even though I still think it's weird that pastel is a trend in the cold weather I'm not complaining. Who said autumn/winter is for dull colours only

These pens look like so much fun and the designs are fun. I definitely see myself treating myself to couple very soon...I don't think I can wait till Christmas and in my opinion I think I deserve a treat or two.

3. MK 2279

 I have to leave the house with a watch. My hand feels naked without it. It's so annoying when I have to work at a hospital because I'm not allowed to wear any form of jewellery below the elbow.

Everyone goes on about Michael Kors watches. And for good reason too

Definitely a statement watch. I've been wanting to get a new watch for ages and this one from thewatchhut.co.uk would be perfect for me. It would go with anything and it's not massively in your face so can be worn pretty much everyday!

4. Google nexus 32Gb

 I have been wanting a tablet for ages! I like iPads but I'm not too keen on getting an iPad because I already have an iPhone, iPod touch and nano. I have a love-hate relationship with Apple products and so don't think I can take anymore of their products for now. Also, I've been wanting to see the fuss about android is all about and see if it is really better than iOS. Majority of the reviews I've read says the google nexus is like number one on the tablet market. It's nice and portable. I like that it's not bulky like the iPad of the Samsung tablet. Great and easy to carry around to take to lectures and the library and help entertain me...( I mean help me revise)

Thanks for reading! 

What's on your Christmas list? Any if these? Or have you already got them? Let me know!

Don't forget to follow me on twitter and bloglovin! 

x x