Rabu, 24 Agustus 2016

Jamberry x One Nail To Rule Them All Video

Hey everyone! Hope you're all having a good week so far. I've spent my evening watching Great British Bake Off. I only started watching it a couple of years ago because I couldn't understand the hype at first but I'm well and truly hooked. Who knew cake could be so dramatic?

You may remember my review of Jamberry nail wraps from the beginning of last month, where I discussed that they had asked me to work with them on a new project, but I had been very sceptical without trying the products. As I mentioned then, I was well aware of the rep surrounding Jamberry and I didn't want to get involved with something 'dodgy'. However, once I tried the wraps and spoke to some of the consultants I realised for myself that the actions of a few have tarnished the brand for many. I would never endorse a brand that I wasn't comfortable working with (you should see the amount of emails I turn down), and it was important to me that I tried the products first to know if I wanted to work together. I know that their methods of selling may not to be to everyone's taste, but the products themselves are, in my opinion, worth raving about, and I decided to go ahead with the project.

Anyway, today I can finally tell you about that project: I was filming a video with Jamberry! They wanted me to talk through the process of applying the wraps, current trends and a few other bits too. The video is after the jump but you can also see it here. It's never very fun seeing yourself on camera and I must admit it doesn't really look like me (I am the palest person in the world and video-me looks a lot more tanned), but I'm happy with how it turned out. Jamberry made me feel very welcome whilst shooting, and it was a great experience. I'd also like to give a special shout out to the cameraman Tom from Don't Shoot Yourself Media. He was the loveliest guy ever and made me feel completely at ease in something that I'd never really done and didn't feel 100% comfortable with. He didn't ask for me to mention him but I feel like I couldn't leave him out as he was so nice! And thankyou of course to Jamberry too for having me.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the video below, and please don't judge my appearance too much, I had done quite a lot of travelling to get to the shoot! 



Let me know what you think in the comments!
Alice

Minggu, 21 Agustus 2016

Flickanail Inspired Water Flowers

Hey everyone! I hope you've all had a lovely weekend, I can't believe once again that Monday has crept upon us. Two days is never enough, but luckily next weekend is a bank holiday so we get 3 whole days, and then 2 weeks later I'm going on holiday for a week I can't wait. I've done lots of gel designs this weekend, both on myself and on other people, but the nail art I'm showing you today is purely trusty old nail polish. 

For a long time I've been in awe of a number of Japanese nail artists. My twinsie nails with Very Emily were a homage to this, as we both have great respect for Japanese nail art, but I wanted to try my hand at something further. I was inspired by this design by Flickanail, but once again my need for everything to be neat meant that the design didn't turn out as I hoped, despite my best efforts to just go with the flow. When looking at the design alone I really love it, but in comparison it looks nothing alike. I think that I didn't add enough flowers because I was wary of going overboard.

However, I'm not going to give up, there are tonnes of Japanese designs that I want to try my hand at, and I have a feeling that for a lot of them I might be better off working in gel. I'm also tempted to sign up for Neiru tutorials. Have any of you tried these? Are they worth paying for? I really want to improve my skill and learn something new too, so let me know if they are worth doing.



For the nails I used a base of OPI - The I's Have It. Then I created a gradient with Barry M - Huckleberry, and Barry M - Cyan Blue on top of that. For the stalks I used Deborah Lippmann - Spring Buds, and the leaves are China Glaze - Gaga For Green. 

For the roses I used Barry M - Rose Hip and Barry M - Sprint Finish, which I did by painting Rose Hip, and then putting a tiny drop of Sprint Finish and adding acetone to make it spread, this was more successful on some nails than others but it's definitely a technique I want to try again. 

Then I used Avon - Platinum Topcoat to give it some shimmer, but that unfortunately got lost in the photos. Then I finished with Seche Vite to seal in the design. 


You can see the shimmer a bit more in the close up below, but it's definitely not as prominent as in the original design! 


What do you think? Let me know in the comments!
Alice

Jumat, 19 Agustus 2016

ASP Joyride



Hi NaiLovelies!

I am super behind on my posts at the moment but I'm back today to show you this gorgeous gel polish called Joyride from ASP.


I have had a really busy month so I'm putting it down to that, what with my gorgeous sisters wedding, starting a new job and taking care of my lovely clients nails, I haven't had time to keep on top of my posts....but I have been doing my nails regularly during this time so I have lots of manis to show you soon, whilst I get myself back up to date.




I have had Joyride in my gel polish stash for a few months and I have been looking forward to having the chance to wear this muted bright beauty on my nails.  I love this shade of orange, it is incredibly flattering and looks really nice on my skintone #swatchesondarkerskin

My swatch of Joyride shows three easy coats.




It was initially my intention to stamp this manicure but as soon as I added a coat of Magpie Glitter  Blossom, I knew that I would keep the manicure sans stamping as it looked great this way with all of my outfits.




I love how this manicure turned out and I also loved how easily ASP Joyride applied, wore and soaked off.  I also love how adding a simple layer of glitter can transform a colour and take it to the next level without compromising the beautiful colour beneath.


Ciao 4 Now

Rabu, 17 Agustus 2016

Negative Space Stamping

Hey everyone! Can you believe it's already Wednesday? I've been to the cinema tonight to see Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, which by the way is hilarious but if you don't like inappropriate films it definitely wont be for you. They really don't hold back. But if you don't mind that kind of thing then I'd definitely recommend it because me and my friend were in stitches. I love a good cheesy comedies, and I'm a huge fan of Anna Kendrick so it was great for me. 

Today's nails are some that I created ages ago and I was so proud of them when I did them but before I took pictures I ruined the thumb bail and when I tried to fix it I didn't like how it came out second time around. Nevertheless, I still wanted to post the design, which I did when I was experimenting with stamping quite a lot. I seem to go through phases of experimenting with it and then going back to freehand and I'm in a freehand stage at the moment.

I used OPI - Crawfishin For A Compliment as my base, and then I used Barry M - Cotton for the white. As it was so long ago I'm afraid I can't remember the stamp I used! Finished with a coat of Seche Vite and studs from Born Pretty Store


What do you think? Let me know in the comments!
Alice

Jumat, 12 Agustus 2016

Blue Celestial Geometric

Hey everyone! How has another week gone already? August is absolutely flying by. I've had a really busy week, last night I went to see Wicked which was absolutely amazing. I've never seen it before but I went with a friend who has seen it 3 times now and I can see why she keeps going back. I'm going to try my hand at some Wicked nails this weekend so we'll see how those go.

Today's nail art is a result of me experimenting with these* brushes from Winstonia. I did these nails a couple of months ago when I first received the brushes and I completely forgot I did them. I've been practicing with them since and you will have seen them in many designs, but I was happy with how straight I managed to keep my lines here. I used the smallest brush for this design, and I was really impressed with it, although it took me a while to get used to as it contains harder bristles than I'm use to.


My base for these nails was Celestial Cosmetics - Sesir Kipi, then I used Barry M - Cotton along with the Winstonia Striper Brush Set* finished with a coat of Seche Vite




What do you think? Let me know in the comments!
Alice

*some of the products in this post were provided to me for review, all opinions are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way

Selasa, 09 Agustus 2016

Twinsie Nails With Very Emily

Hey everyone! Today I've got a post that I've been super excited to share with you: Twinsie nails with my good friend Emily of Very Emily. Emily was one of my first blogging friends, if not the first, so it was about time we did something like this. We've been talking about doing it for a while, but as we've both had a lot on we only got around to finishing our designs last week. We decided to use marimekko flowers as inspiration for our design, specifically these nails. We found that it was really hard to coordinate on colours, as we seemed to have none of the same polishes, so we just went with what was closest to the original design. My shades are a bit lighter than Emily's but I like that it gives it an individual twist. Emily also created this gorgeous collage of our two designs together which I absolutely love. Don't you think the flowers down the side look great next to our designs? You can see Emily's design on her blog.







For my nails I used Barry M - Cotton for the white and the red is China Glaze - With Love . Then I used Models Own - Boat Party* (from the recent Polish For Tans collection) for the pink, and Barry M - Full Throttle for the orange centre. The black is MASH - black nail polish. Finished with a coat of Seche Vite.




Here's a close up of the flowers, I really liked how these came out. It's not my usual style of floral so I was afraid to get it wrong and my perfectionist side probably came out a bit too much! 




What do you think? Let me know in the comments. Don't forget to check our Emily's post here. 

Alice 

Minggu, 07 Agustus 2016

Copper Triangles

Hey everyone! Hope you've all had a lovely weekend. I was meant to have quite a busy one but I was far too ill yesterday to do anything so i just painted my nails and watched TV - a perfect day really, had it not been for me being ill! Luckily I'm feeling a bit better today and I managed to get some holiday shopping done. I found a skirt today that I think I'll be doing some nails inspired by, so keep an eye out for that! 

Today's nails are as a result of me just playing around a couple of weeks ago. I really wanted to try out Barry M - Copper Mine* from the Molten Metal Collection* as I'd seen a few people using it and it seemed like the perfect mix of copper and rose gold. And it is! I love it, but of course I couldn't just wear it plain. I decided to play around with some nail art pens that I'd not used in a while, and then I added some triangle studs from She Sells Sea Shells, which I bought absolutely ages ago but never got around to doing any designs with.



The base is Barry M - Copper Mine*, then I used the black Nails Supreme nail art pen for the big and little triangles, some of which I filled in using Barry M - Silver Lining*. Then I used acetone to take out the triangles, and I used triangle studs from She Sells Sea Shells (which unfortunately don't seem to be on the website anymore) I then filled the triangles in with black to make them stand out more. All finished with a coat of Seche Vite.


What do you think? Let me know in the comments!
Alice

*some of the products in this post were provided to me for review but all opinions are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way 
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