Tutorial: Gradient Nails

Whenever I wear this style of nail, I always have people saying "how do you do that?!", so I figured I would show you all! I originally saw this technique in Amarixe's video. It's actually pretty easy and can be done with 2 or more colours. I find that 2 colours works fine for me. You may want to put some tape around the edges of your nails to make clean up easier as this can get quite messy!

I start with getting all my equipment ready, you will need a triangular make-up sponge, which can be found in any drugstore, a pair of scissors and your nail polish colours. I'm using Essie - Rock the Boat and Full Steam Ahead.

Cut the sponge to a size that will fit your biggest nail.

Barry M - Matt White

Start by painting your nails white, or the lightest colour if you have more than 2 colours. (optional)

Paint stripes of the polish on to the sponge, be sure not to use too much polish or it will just pull the bottom layer up.

Line the sponge up with the side of your nail and roll across. Dab around the nail and slightly up and down to create the blended gradient. Repeat until you are happy with the opacity. It took me about 4 coats.

After clean up:

Hope you like this nail look! I'd love to see your attempts! 

What else would you like to see?

Tutorial: Hawaiian style flower

I recently purchased a Dotter Duo tool from Orly and was so excited to use it to create nail art, something I've always wanted to try. I attempted to create flowers using dots for the petals with a yellow dot in the middle, but it turned out looking like a fried egg!

So I tried to figure out a way to use this tool to create flowers (because, lets face it, who doesn't love a flower!).

Start by painting your nails any colour you want. I've chosen Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paint in Guava. This nail art works on any colour. My only advice would be; if you're using a dark base then use a lighter colour to create the flower and, similarly, if you use a light base use a dark colour to create the flower.

You then get your dotter duo (which can be found for £1 or so on eBay!) and draw 5 dots, with the larger end of the duo, close together but not too close that they run into each other.

Lastly, get the small end of the duo, and starting from the centre of one dot drag into the middle of the 5 dots. This creates a petal. Repeat this for all 5 dots and your flower should look something like this:

Additionaly, I sometimes put a tiny dot of silver polish over the centre of the flower.

You can use this flower for an accent on a nail, or cover the nail completely. 

If you don't have a dotter tool there are many household items you could use such as the head of a pin (carefully!) and a toothpick which would create the same effect!

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial. I'd love to see your attempts at this look!!

What would you like to see next?

Essie - Full Steam Ahead

Essie's Summer range was beautiful this year, and I have already reviewed one colour, Rock the Boat, which can be found here. Full Steam Ahead is a stunning lilac colour with a 'pearlescent punch'.

The colour applied smoothly for me and with two coats was completely opaque, a third coat really deepens the colour. I always start with a thin coat of colour, and then add a thicker. The brush is the perfect size for my nails and the formula, I found, was not sticky, nor runny. As with the other colour's in this range, the shimmer really brings something more to the lacquer and as its such a subtle shimmer I think it definitely makes this product stand out.

Ciate's - Sugar Plum looks quite similar to this in the bottle, however, I definitely prefer Full Steam Ahead because I find the Ciate polish requires a lot more coats (and patience!) before the colour stops looking streaky. The Ciate brush is also very thin in comparison.

I didn't want to do just a standard nail so I used Orly's dotter duo and Barry M's Matt White to create the flowers. If anyone would like a tutorial on this let me know!

(The colour definitely looks less blue in real life)

I've worn this nail look for a week now, and there's no chipping and hardly any noticeable wearing, even around and edges of my nails which I was very surprised with. In fact, they look like I have just applied the colour which I love!

I think this is such a pretty look for Summer!

Bourjois Magic Nail Polish Remover

This will be a quick post today!

I know this is not a new product, but as this blog is new I thought I should still write about it.

The magic nail polish remover claims to remove nail polish in one second per fingernail, and while it doesn't do it quite THAT quickly, it is an amazing product that each nail polish addict should own! I find taking my nail polish off to be a tedious and boring task - especially glitter polishes! With this remover, you put your finger into a sponge in the tub and wiggle it around a bit. This removes the polish a lot quicker than your ordinary bottles of nail polish remover. I'd say around 5 seconds per nail, maybe a little longer for glitter, but it definitely breaks down the glitter easier than standard removers. 

I've had two tubs of these since Christmas and they are very reasonably priced (around £6.99). This may seem a bit steep for a polish remover, but for what the product does I think it is so worth it! 

Once you try this, you will not go back!

Sally Hansen - Girl Flower!

Sally Hansen's nail products have only recently been introduced to the Boot's store near me, so I've had very little experience with anything other than the polish remover. I'd heard many a good thing about Sally Hansen's products and as I'd never tried any sort of nail polish strip before, I decided to buy a packet.

I went for the floral pattern, called Girl Flower, as all the others were a bit too OTT for me. I had no idea what to expect and would have liked to have used two strips as a way to accentuate two nails on my hand, however the strips come in two packets, with 8 in each packet, and the unused strips have to be thrown away as they are real nail polish and will dry out once the packaging is opened.

Packaging of the strips

Instructions come in the packet and, following these, application is fairly straightforward. The instructions say you can stretch each nail polish strip to fit your nail, however this can and does stretch the pattern, giving white hairlines through the design. You then have to choose which end of the nail strip would fit best on your nail and holding the strip in the middle, place on the nail and stretch to fit. I found that there were good matches for all my nails and I wasn't required to do too much stretching!

The product claims to last up to 10 days. I applied the nails on Thursday night and by Monday night I was ready to take them off due to peeling, fading and chipping, which was particularly disappointing as I don't feel I put any real stress on the product.

For the £7.99 I paid for them I was very underwhelmed considering they lasted half the time they were advertised to. I would, however, buy these for a special occasion as they do look beautiful upon application and not like they have just been stuck on.

How do you feel about nail polish strips? Ever tried them?