NOTD: Christmas Nails!

I've been really struggling with getting into the Christmas spirit recently and I have tried everything on the list, my Christmas shopping is done and wrapped, the tree is up and I've been forcing myself to listen to the Christmas songs that are playing constantly at work but I am just not feeling it! 

In an attempt to get some Christmas cheer I busted out my nail polishes and got to work on this Christmas print. Admittedly it's not my best work as I haven't used my nail art pens in forever so my hand was a little shakey, and it looks terrible because my nails are in horrendous condition, but doing this definitely got me in the mood for Christmas! 

Unfortunately though due to the amount of hard work I've been doing at H&M recently this design lasted a grand total of a day before going all chipped and horrible, but I definitely will be redoing this again soon and making the most of the festive season on my nails! 

Have you created any Christmas inspired nail art? Let me know! X 

NOTD: Pacman!

Hi guys! Before I start with today's NOTD I'd like to apologise for being absent for the past few days, as some of you may be aware I've just been placed on the contraceptive patch and it's not giving me a good time of it at the moment! I'll spare you all the gory details but I've been in a lot of pain adjusting to the changes! Anyways enough girl talk and on to this slightly different NOTD... 

Pacman nails! I'm a big fan of statement nails, and these are definitely eye catching! I originally 'created' this design whilst at University last year. As you may know I had a dreadful year at uni, and I hated living on campus and at times I felt very isolated and alone, and one night the internet in the entire university stopped working, which, as silly as it sounds, devastated me! Having no means of accessing Facebook or Twitter was a nightmare so I got out my nail polishes and set to work entertaining myself! I remember first seeing a design similar to this online but sadly I cannot remember where so I cannot link you to it :(! Heres how I created the look:

To create the design I used my OPI Natural Base Coat and Top Coat, Collection 2000 in Blue Hawaii, a H&M polish in Summer Sunrise and a Natural Collection Black Liquid Eyeliner - this is just because I don't own a nail art pen, and eyeliner and a topcoat work just as well!

I began by drawing a cresent moon shape on my thumb nail in the yellow polish. As you can see it's not too neat but it doesn't have to be at this stage, the black outline neatens everything up later on. 

I then used two diagonal lines to create the shape of Pacman. Again it looks quite messy but it's not important at this stage. As you can see from the above picture the polish is quite uneven, so I added another coat of the entire shape once it was dry. 

On my other fingers I painted over the whites of my nails with the blue polish. I used the Collection Blue Hawaii as it is a really vibrant blue which is quite traditional to the Pacman games. At this point you could probably attempt to draw Pacman Ghosts, cherries or the little Pacman dots on these nails but I personally didn't want to overload it!

Once everything is dry you can move on to outlining the shape of your Pacman with your nail art pen (or eyeliner if you're as frugal as me!) This gives a chance to hide any 'wobbly' bits and neaten the whole thing up. Next you add a dot in the upper section of Pacman's face to create his eye.

I again outlined the blue on my other nails, to accentuate the blue and make it 'pop' more.

And here's the finished result! I chose to leave my nails unpainted underneath the design, but alternatively you could have painted a black base coat to make it look more like the Pacman game, and make it look more retro, but personally I chose to keep it a bit more natural!

Hope you enjoyed this mini tutorial! I have few more 'different' NOTD planned! What do you think of the design? Is it something you'd wear? X 

Nails Inc Edinburgh Gate Swatches

Edinburgh Gate by Nails Inc is a glitter polish, with tones of red, blue, silver, gold and green. Since I rather stupidly removed my false nails by myself (broken nails and chipped tooth, booo :(! ) my nails are currently in an appalling condition and I wanted something sparkly and fun to mask how dreadful they look. 

I purchased Edinburgh Gate as part of a Nails Inc gift set, as mentioned in this post. I'm not sure that it is available to buy individually but I believe it is part of the 'All That Glitters' set* if anyone is it! I was pleasantly surprised by how this polish is applied, two coats provides a satisfactory coverage but I applied three to even it out and give it a little bit more ooomph!

One Coat

Two Coats

Three Coats 

I did find this formula quite sticky and difficult to apply. The polish is clear and I can only describe it as 'gloopy' and it took quite a while to dry fully, and the glitter did get a bit everywhere but overall I really like the look of this polish. It's very eye catching and really makes a statement. The above pictures show quite a silver shine to the glitter but I failed to capture the multi coloured hues in my pictures, so it looks different every time I catch a glimpse of it. 

Here is a close up of the polish and here you can see better the different colours of the glitters. I think this looks quite Christmasy so I think I might save this polish for winter, but I love the sparkle it brings to my nails. Overall I think this isn't a really wearable polish the glitter does come away from the polish somewhat, leaving me with everything I touch turning glittery. I think I would keep this a special Christmas polish, and perhaps use it as accent shade instead of using it on every nail, as it does look a little over the top, but the magpie in me loves the sparkle!  

*After doing a little research I can't find this polish available anywhere, so the best bet would be to pop into your local TK Maxx and see if you can pick it up like I did. This polish was part of a set for £14.99 

NOTD: Mermaid Nails

Since friday's little shopping splurge I've been spoilt for choice on what to wear on my nails. Anyone who knows me well knows that I usually change my nail polish on a daily basis, and sometimes even more than that (naughty I know!) but since painting my nails like this on friday night I've kept this all weekend! 

For this manicure I used Nails Inc Montpelier Square (the metallic silver) with an accent nail using Fitzroy Square (glittery teal blue) I fell in love with Fitzroy Square the second I opened it but I felt it was quite 'in your face' for everyday wear, so toned it down with the Montpelier Square. I love the way that the silver compliments the glitter of the blue and the metallic finish is a great pairing with a 3D Glitter polish. The only fault I have with this combination is due to the nature of the 3D Glitter Special Effects Fitzroy Square is quite a rough polish, despite using two thick coats of top coat, which I know is going to be a nightmare to remove! 

This is the fourth day of wear and it's still perfectly in place which I what I would have opened from a high end brand such as Nails Inc. From the above picture you may notice a small imperfection on my pinky nail, this is excess glitter from my Princess Nails which is really stubborn and just would not come off! Despite that the Montpelier Square covered it really well, and it is only noticeable when looking at it close up. 

Both of these Nails Inc polishes were purchased as part two different gift sets. Unfortunately I couldn't find the name of the gifts set on the packaging and they are not on the Nails Inc website,  and as they were from TK Maxx I'm guessing they're a bit old! But after having a search around, Fitzroy Square is available for £11 from debenhams and Montpelier Square is available for £11 from Nails Inc, which is currently part of their 3 for 2 pick & mix offer! 

NOTD: Princess Nails

With the weather being so dull and with lack of a better word, depressing, today I felt I needed something a bit special to have on my nails today. Last weekend I purchased  a Barry M Nail Paint in Pink Iridescent and have been desperate to put it to the test. In the bottle it has gorgeous glitter particles in shades of pink, blue, silver and I can't help but 'ooooh' and 'ahhh' over how pretty it looks.

I layed Pink Iridescent over Leighton Denny's 'Babydoll' to create a flash of gorgeous 'princess-y' goodness and since applying this I can't help but smile whenever I look down at my nails, despite it looking gorgeous teamed with a pale pink nail polish I think this shade would be wearable with a whole range of colours, and I'm looking forward to teaming it with OPI Fly in order to create a Nicki Minaj-esque look.

(L-R) OPI Natural Nail Base Coat, Leighton Denny 'Babydoll', Barry M Pink Iridescent, OPI Top Coat

To create this look I used one layer of each of the above polishes, I only ever use OPI base and top coats as I feel they give my nails a gorgeous finish and complete any look. 

Have you tried Barry M Pink Iridescent? If so what did you think of it? And what are you currently wearing on your nails? X