Jamberry x One Nail To Rule Them All Video

Jamberry x One Nail To Rule Them All Video

jamberry nail wraps sponsored post 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

Flickanail Inspired Water Flowers

Flickanail Inspired Water Flowers

acetone avon Barry M Blue China Glaze deborah lippmann flickanail flowers Gradient inspired by japanese inspired Nail Art Nails OPI Roses

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

ASP Joyride

ASP Joyride

ASP Blossom Glitter Joyride Magpie Glitter Orange Soak Off Gel Soak Off Gel Polish

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

Negative Space Stamping

Negative Space Stamping

Barry M Nail Art Nails negative space OPI Orange Stamping Studs

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

Blue Celestial Geometric

Blue Celestial Geometric

Barry M Blue celestial cosmetics Geometric Holographic lines triangles winstonia

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

Twinsie Nails With Very Emily

Twinsie Nails With Very Emily

Barry M China Glaze floral flowers mani swap marimekko flowers MASH Models Own Nail Art Nails Pink Red twinsie nails 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 

Copper Triangles

Copper Triangles

Barry M molten metal Nail Art nail art pen Nails negative space rose gold Silver 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 

Barry M Lilac Roses Tutorial

Barry M Lilac Roses Tutorial

Barry M detail florals flowers lilac Nail Art Nails Pink Roses swirls Tutorial

Hey everyone! I'm so excited because today I managed to get my hands on tickets to go see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child! I was in the 'queue' for 5 hours and when I finally got to the end I panicked and ended up booking for ages away (next October) so that I could get hold of the tickets I wanted, but it will be worth the wait. I read the script in one day at the weekend and I loved it. I know there's been some negative opinion surrounding it but I really liked it. Have you read it yet? Let me know your thoughts on it! 

So today I have a tutorial of these rose nails for you. I actually created these ages and ages ago, but I completely forgot that I'd done them somehow! I loved this design when I did them and I'm glad I'm finally sharing them with you. The full tutorial will be after the jump. 

I used Barry M - Almond as the base, then I used Barry M - Cotton and a thin brush for the swirls. Then I used Barry M - Miami for the light pink and Barry M -  Passion Fruit for the darker pink/red. The green is Barry M - Cardamom with Barry M - Key Lime. Finished with a coat of Seche Vite

Step 1: paint your nails with your base colour 

Step 2: using a thin brush and white polish draw swirls interspersed with dots across half of your nail. I normally draw "S" shapes and add extra swirls to this. You could also use the Barry M - Nail Art Pen for this. 

Step 3: using a dotting tool and pink add dots spaced apart on your nails

Step 4: using the tip of your brush, draw lines across the pink in a darker shade for the rose petals 

Step 5: using a dark green polish and your brush add a line for the leaves and then add dots to the side of this for the leaf shape

Step 6: fill in the leaves with a lighter shade. Once dry, add a topcoat to seal in your design 

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

Alice 

Taking A Break

Taking A Break

Hello friends. This is just a short and sweet blog post by way of an overdue explanation. Due to many reasons, none of which i will go into detail about, i have decided to take a break from my blog, and from all official swatching/PR duties. I don't know for how long this will continue, but i do hope at the very least to start blogging again one day (not so sure about swatching & PR, i am enjoying not having the stress of that crushing me completely, because it is stressful and it is most certainly not easy).

In the meantime, i still paint my nails on the very regular for my own enjoyment (which was how this blog was born), you can follow me on Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/annabean1983 - if you would like to continue to get a daily dose of AnnaBean's Nails (and a fuck tonne of other stuff too!), and there is always my Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/Anna-Beans-Nails-145316025633555 - which is purely nailcentric (for those who don't want to see my cats/nature/wildlife photography).

Thanks for reading, and for sticking around. I'll see you again soon I hope!

Love, Anna x

P.S. Here's what's on my nails currently - Nails Inc "Eaton Terrace" :)

Dotty Flowers

Dotty Flowers

flowers gel Gel Polish Gelish Nail Art Nails Pink polka dots winstonia

Hey everyone! It's the end of the weekend again, why does it always come so quick? I've had a really lovely weekend with friends and my boyfriend but I've got absolutely zero nail stuff done. Saturday is usually my nail day but I just didn't have a chance (and sometimes it's nice to have a day for me). So today I'm showing an older post that I'd not got around to posting because I wasn't sure if I liked it or not. I was sent the Winstonia - Berry Wine Brushes* to review and I've used them in most of my designs for the past couple of months but this design was the first time I played around with them. I liked the design more in person so I've debated whether or not to post them or not, but this blog should be a diary of all my designs, good and bad, so here you go. I'll do a full review on the brushes soon, but I want to get a bit better at using them first.

The base for these nails was Gelish - Don't Pansy Around* from the Botanical Awakenings Collection. Then I used acrylic paint for the flowers with these brushes. Finished with Gelish - Top It Off

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

Paint All The Nails Presents Neon

Paint All The Nails Presents Neon

hearts Models Own Nail Art Nails negative space Neon Orange paint all the nails Pink polish for tans Purple

Hey everyone! It's nearing the end of the month again, and that means it's time for another Paint All The Nails link up, and this month the theme is 'neon'. I wasn't actually going to join in this month because I don't own many neons at all and I didn't think I could create anything worthwhile. Just as I'd given up on the idea of participating, the new Models Own - Polish For Tans* collection dropped through my letterbox. I haven't received anything from Models Own for at least a year, if not two, so it was a nice surprise and also a strange coincidence. I felt like I had to create something using them for the prompt as it felt like fate, and so here I am! I used all 5 polishes from the collection for this nail art, and I'm still wearing them now. I'm not used to wearing something so bright so they keep catching me by surprise, but I ended up really liking them. 

I used Models Own - Barrier Reef* for the base, then I used Boat Party*, Island Hop*, Surfs Up* and Beach Fire* along with a stamper to smush the colours together. Then I used acetone and a flat brush to create the negative space. Finally I finished with a coat of Seche Vite, and then a coat of Barry M - Matte Topcoat.

Also the neons were apparently too bright for my camera because the photo above looks super strange, but the one below is a bit more accurate.

The collection is available now online, and from all Models Own UK Bottleshops for £4.99 each.

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

An InLinkz Link-up

Gelish A Very Nauti-cal Girl Collection Review + Swatches

Gelish A Very Nauti-cal Girl Collection Review + Swatches

Blue gel Gel Polish Gelish nautical Pink Red Review White

Hey everyone! Happy hump day, only 2 more days until the weekend. I'm really looking forward to this weekend because I'm off to see Finding Dory, I have waited far too long for this film and I'm glad it's finally been released in the UK. I'm not sure why the gap between US and UK release dates was so huge. I also went to see the BFG last weekend (I seem to be spending a lot of time at the cinema recently!) and I would recommend it 100%, such a lovely version of a childhood classic. Now I just need them to do a new version of The Witches, the book (and the film) were always my favourite growing up and I loved to see a modern version. What's your favourite Roald Dahl book?

Anyway, today I have a review of the gorgeous Gelish - A Very Nauti-cal Girl Collection*. I was really excited when I saw sneak peaks of this collection because these kind of shades are right up my street. I've already used a couple of them for nail art, either on me or on others, and they're firm favourites in my collection. Gelish consistently impress me with their shades and colours, and I have friends coming back to me again and again to have their nails done with Gelish products. It's great to be able to use my friends as guinea pigs as I often can't wear polish for more than a few days (although my toes also get to be testers too!). There's been loads of amazing releases this year, and many more coming up, which I hope to be able to share with you too! You can see all my previous Gelish posts here.

Wish Upon A Starboard* is a lovely postbox red. I own quite a few pinks and reddish colours from Gelish but this is the first real red shade and I love it. This was 2 easy coats with one coat of Gelish -Top It Off.

Catch My Drift* is a cobalt blue that leans toward being purple/'blurple'. The camera doesn't pick it up too much but there's definitely a hint of purple in there. This was 2 easy coats shown with Top It Off.

My Yacht My Rules* is a lovely dewy off-white/very light pink shade. I'm not really sure how to describe this so I've compared it to Gelish - Arctic Freeze* (below) for comparison. This was 3 thin coats with Top It Off. I recently did a manicure for my friend using this and she loved it. 

And a macro for good measure: 

Girls Love Buoys* is a crelly fuchsia shade. I loved this so much that I ended up creating this nail art with it and wearing it for a few days. Such a great summer colour! This was 2 coats with Top It Off.

What do you think? Have you tried any of these? 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

White Poppies Inspired by @ane_li #sharingtheloveforaneli

White Poppies Inspired by @ane_li #sharingtheloveforaneli

ane li Barry M flowers inspired by loreal MASH Nail Art Nails poppies poppy White

Hey everyone! I recently heard the awful news that @ane_li passed away earlier this month. I was very shocked to hear that she is no longer with us, she was so talented and very much respected in the community. We all wanted to pay our respects to Ane Li, and a few nail artists have come together to recreate her designs today, the day of her funeral. I hope Ane Li's family take some small comfort in knowing that we all respected her very much and are sad to see her gone.

I decided to recreate her poppy nails from last November. Most of Ane Li's nails are incredibly detailed and I just didn't feel like I had the skill to do them justice, so I chose a simple but effective design. She created so many beautiful designs, and even the most simple ones are stunning.

I used Barry M - Cotton as my base, then I used Winstonia Berry Wine brushes* for the flowers and stems which were done using MASH - Black and L'Oreal - Coraltria. Finished with a coat of Seche Vite.

I hope this is a good enough tribute to Ane Li's beautiful work

Alice

Gelish Do You Harajuku ~ Featuring Dixie Plate DP 02

Gelish Do You Harajuku ~ Featuring Dixie Plate DP 02

Gel Polish Gelish Glitter Green Hello Pretty Magpie Glitter Nail Art Nails Pastel Soak Off Gel Polish Stamping

Hi NaiLovelies!

I have been chomping at the bit over the past few weeks because I was desperate to get my hands on this fabulous new stamping plate from Dixie Plates.

A total of three plates were released (DP 01, DP 02 & DP 03) by this new stamping plate company and as soon as I started seeing the manicures which were created using DP-02 I just had to have it!  

As a nail technician and lover of nail art, I instantly fell for the varied images on this plate.  There are lace, floral, geometric and so many more gorgeous images to decorate your nails.  This is the perfect type of plate to pull out when I have a client who wants stamping but doesn't have a clue what design they would like.  

A plate like this is a godsend because there are a choice of designs to suit all tastes but there aren't too many images to overwhelm the client. 

I decided to use Dixie Plate DP-02 with Do You Harajuku #swatchesondarkerskin from the Gelish Hello Pretty collection.  I have been eyeing this up in my stash for a couple of weeks now, it is a beautiful vibrant pastel green with subtle shimmer.   I couldn't wait to get it on my nails as I had been wearing my MonoCHROME manicure for the past two weeks!

Unfortunately, I struggled a bit with the formula of Do You Harajuku because it shrunk away from the tips of my nails and kept wanting to creep into my cuticle line.  I am also disappointed that after 3 coats the finish is still a little patchy for my liking, although this does not show up on camera thankfully.

Do You Harajuku - Gelish
DP-02 - Dixie Plate
Ambiance - Gelish
Jade ~Two Faced Dust - Magpie Beauty
Top It Off - Gelish
Vitagel Recovery - Gelish
White Stamping Polish - Konad


On my ring finger I applied two coats of Gelish Ambiance and then patted in a thin layer of Jade Two Faced Dust from Magpie Beauty, topcoated once and then stamped the pretty floral image over the glistening iridescent base.

The images for the Dixie Plates are a good size 1.7cm by 2.1cm.  My nails are long and wide so for me 2cm by at least 2.5cm would work better.  I had to stretch the image using my Magno Nails stamper, which worked perfectly first time and did not seem to distort the image.

I purchased the DP-02 plate from a pre-order from Nail Stamping Queen.  I paid just under £10 for the plate with around £3 shipping so the total was just under £13.

Ciao 4 Now

Multi-coloured Mermaid Scales

Multi-coloured Mermaid Scales

celestial cosmetics Glitter Holographic mermaid Nail Art Nail Vinyls Nails Pink scales she sells sea shells starfish Studs

Hey everyone! I've had the busiest week ever, I've barely even see my boyfriend because I've been getting back home late every night, so it's nice to have had more of a relaxing Friday night (watching the original Ghostbusters - which I've never actually seen!). This has meant that finally I have time to write a blogpost without falling asleep midway through!  As I mentioned in my review of June's Meebox I created some nail art with the nail vinyls included in the box. I wanted to try them out with different colours so I used a number of colours from the Celestial Cosmetics - Pun-tastic Collection*, which I'm really loving using at the moment (as you saw in my last post). I also used the She Sells Sea Shells starfish studs from the Meebox to complete the design.

I used Celestial Cosmetics - This Is Panda-monium* as my base colour, then I used Freaking Meow-t*, Toucan Play That Game*, and Don't Listen He's Lion* over the top of the nail vinyls. Finished with the starfish studs and Seche Vite

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

Alice

Celestial Cosmetics Galaxy Nail Art

Celestial Cosmetics Galaxy Nail Art

Blue celestial cosmetics galaxy galaxy nails Glitter Holographic Nail Art Nails stars

Hey everyone! Hope you've all had a lovely weekend. I had a huge spring clean of our house yesterday and it's so nice for everything to be tidy and clean. It's so strange to me (and my mum I'm sure) that I actually enjoy cleaning and keeping my house tidy, as I was always one of those teenagers with a very messy room. But I've definitely become house-proud since we got our own place.  Anyway, before I started on my cleaning I wanted to get some nail art done with the new Celestial Cosmetics Pun-tastic collection (swatches coming soon), and I figured they'd work well for galaxy nail art. I massively underestimated how stunning holographic polishes are for galaxy nails, I can't stop staring at them! They're slightly wrecked after all my cleaning, but I'm still enjoying seeing the shift in different lighting.

The picture above was taken in my light box, which dulls the colours slightly. Below is directly under a bulb, which completely brings out the colours, I love how this looks!

I used I Dont Give A Fox* for the base, then I used Kastamiro Damior* and Sesir Kipi* (from the Valyrio Collection) to add darker blue, on top of which I added Toucan Play That Game*, Irr-Elephant, and This Is Panda-monium. Finally I added stars using acrylic paint, and finished with a coat of Seche Vite.

The picture below and the first picture are both taken in daylight, I would say direct sunlight but that doesn't exist very often in England! 

What do you think? Which lighting do you prefer the best? Let me know in the comments!

Alice