Saturday 28 March 2015

Newbie gel polish nail art

Today's post is all about my gel nails for my trip tomorrow. 
I always do gels for trips away and long weekends so that my nails are protected and there is no chipage. However, I didn't want just a plain colour because us nail addicts like to make it a little more complicated than that! 
For this mani I used; ibd - base, Indie Oasis & top coat. And the red colour was Gelish - Plum and done. 

You may already know that I love ibd's products so if you want to read my thoughts have a look at my previous blog posts about their products. 
I borrowed Gelish from a friend because I had such a bad experience with my Sensationail red and wanted a deep red for this design.
I really liked this brand - no shrinkage and had a great finish. However, because I was putting it over another colour it took quick and many applications to get good coverage. But other than that I really liked the brand! They have a great range of colours too. 

This mani was definitely a 'learn from my mistakes' kind. 
At first I was trying to create this with striping tape (as I would with normal polish). I did a whole hand of this and wasn't loving it at all, it was way too messy for my liking.
For my next hand (the one in this picture) (minus the pinkie finger) I did free hand. This worked so much better! I wish I had done this on my right hand as I'm left handed so would have been much neater! 
But now I know - and I know that free hand is so easy creating a great gel nail designs. 
I also used cuter cuticles - cutie guard to ensure any gel polish didn't cure on my cuticles. This worked so well because there is nothing worse than gel on cuticles that you can't get off! 

This mani was a great learning experience and I can't wait to try other gel nail art with other colours! 
I am off to Prague really early in the morning and won't be blogging for a few days but I will be on Instagram still so you can keep up on @nailstori. 
Thanks for reading... Have a great weekend.
xox


Wednesday 25 March 2015

Mani's for short nails - take two!

Following on from my previous post about designs for shorter nails. I got quite a good response from it so thought I would continue it. 

My all time favourite designs are the simplistic ones. I am always on Instagram for inspo, came across @aliciatnails on Instagram and fell in love with this one! I love this design on my short nails whist they are growing out. Super simple and easy to do with a small nail bed. 

For me this type of design is exactly what I like for a weekly mani because it's so quick to do on a Sunday afternoon. Plus, it goes with every outfit! 

I used; OPI start to finish, mavala - Wichita, nanacoco - love black, Seche vite top coat. I used striping tape from eBay with a small brush to create the straight lines. 

You may have noticed that I've been using OPI start to finish quite a lot. Well I love it. In my opinion it is everything a base coat should be. Dries so so quickly which is a must for me and gives a great smooth surface. Although, I haven't used this as a top coat because for me I don't think it would give enough shine. 

As for Mavala... Well their polishes are just amazing. I don't have many but the ones I do have I love. This is a super subtle light pink and I love it for a very natural colour giving just enough coverage but can still slightly see the free edge. It is also surprisingly quick drying considering the sheer coverage it gives. 

I am obsessed with the simplicity of this design. Definitely more like this to come - they are my fave!
Let me know what you think of these designs focusing on short nails? 





Sunday 22 March 2015

Black Onyx


I told you there would be more of this Essie glitter polish on the blog! 

I wanted to try out this new OPI black polish and I couldn't resist seeing what the Essie Polish looked like over top. 
All polishes used were; OPI - start to finish, OPI - Black Onyx, Essie - pinking about you, Seche vite - fast dry top coat. 

My first try of black onyx was okay... It doesn't have as good coverage as nanacoco - love black. However, after two coats it is a great black colour. It also wasn't too long lasting, a bit of chipage did happen. But this might have been because I didn't cap the ends. I couldn't be bothered for the clean up on my new shirt nails (my bad). So, I think I need to give this another go but I do like the finished colour. 

On to another new OPI... Start to finish. I have only used this as a base coat so far. However, apparently it works as base, top and strengthener! But as a base cost, it works perfectly for me. It dries super quick, in a nice thin layer and smooths out the surface. I would recommend this if you don't have a huge polish collection and want to keep it simple and quick! It would definitely save money too as a 3 in one. 

Hope you enjoyed this post. 
I'll loving black nail polish at the moment so I'm sure I'll have another up next week. 
Thanks for reading! xox 



Monday 16 March 2015

St. Paddy's day stamp

Happy Saint Patricks day everyone!
As an ex Irish dancer, I love St Paddy's day because I have good memories of doing shows and exhibitions for the occasion.

I can't be so positive about the mani I created though, it was a bit of a nail fail to be honest! The stamping wasn't supposed to be so white, believe it or not there is green stamping underneath. I thought it was going to be darker than it is...
Oh well. I'm over it because I'm just so pleased I had some stamping success! The stamping plate I used was from MoYou, Princess set 10.
I was sent a MoYou stamping set about a year ago but it didn't work at all, I spent so many hours trying to get better at stamping eventually giving up because I wasn't getting anywhere with it. Well it turns out it must have been a duff set because my new (clearance, bargain*) set works amazingly! Yay! I think I'm going to catch the stamping bug. I need new plates...

* I have never seen MoYou in Boots before, but it was in the clearance section the other day. I really couldn't resist. I asked the woman at the till how much it previously was and it was 25 reduced to 10! It included 2 stamping plates (pretty big ones too), 3 nail polishes, the stamper and scraper. I was a little skeptical buying this because of my previous experience (and being on a student budget) but I am so so glad I did otherwise I don't think I would have tried stamping any time soon! I'm very happy with it. So, UK ladies - always check the clearance!

Polishes used for this were; OPI - Start to finish, OPI - gargantuan green grape, Nina ultra pro - leaf me alone, MoYou - Knight white and Seche Vite - fast dry top coat. I also used gold leaf from hobby craft.

Overall, I'm slightly disappointed with how this turned out but I'm kind of too excited for the stamping set to care! I might also do an Irish dance inspired mani soon.

Hope everyone finds time for a drink later! 

(This post is up a little early but I have a long day of Uni tomorrow so you can enjoy it a day earlier!)
xox




Thursday 12 March 2015

Pinking about you

Today's mani was inspired by the amazingly talented @coffeeandnailpolish. (On Instagram) 
Because my nails are shorter than usual at the moment, I want to focus of designs that look best on the shorter square nail. 
And I must say I'm loving having slightly shorter nails recently - so much easier to manage!

Polishes used for this design were; OPI - Nail Envy, Orly - Dare to bare, Essie - Pinking about you and Seche Vite.

I adore every single nail polish used. This Orly nail polish is to die for - it is my favourite nude. Massive statement. It matches my skin tone perfectly, so I'm very happy with this TKMaxx find.
Sidenote: TKMaxx (UK) have lots of Orly polishes recently. It's been a struggle not buying more.

Pinking about you is becoming one of my favourite glitters. It is similar to so many amazing indie polishes out there. You'll definitely be seeing more of it on Nailstori! 
I painted and sponged the glitter - applied like a dream. In my opinion it is really hard to find a glitter polish that applies well on an ombré design. It is fast drying too, which I think it really important if you want it to set and enjoy a lasting manicure.

I'm keeping this design on for the weekend because I love it so much. My fave mani so far of 2015!
Happy (nearly) Friday everyone! As always thanks for reading.
xox




Saturday 7 March 2015

Nail art for nubs

Growing your nails out after breakages because of winter? Here is an idea for nail art you can achieve with a little nail bed.  

This is my 'cinderella' hand - odd because I'm left handed. Anyway, they kept breaking over winter and are now horrible and uneven so I wanted to try out nail art for shorter nails. 

I used; Nanacoco - Love black, Seche Vite fast try top coat and silver striping tape from ebay. 
This Nanacoco black has amazing coverage, this was only one coat of colour - perfect when using striping tape.
I didn't stick the tape down with any glue... mistake. If you want your mani to last longer than a day you'll have to glue to tape down before applying the top coat. 
Another idea is adding midi rings to jazz up the mani and create the illusion of longer fingers/nails. 
In my opinion combining these makes the nails look a little longer than they do without nail polish on. I also got a lot of compliments on this mani because of it's simplicity. 
A super chic, quick mani to spice up your weekly nails.

I'm hoping to create more short nail mani's so hopefully you enjoyed this post. Let me know if you recreate this mani and if it worked for you.
Have a good weekend, thanks for reading! 
xox




Thursday 5 March 2015

Duke Street

Today I'm blogging about a swatch from the new Nails Inc - Nail Kale collection. 
This colour is Duke Street. 
My brother and his girlfriend got this one for my birthday and he said "it's my favourite nail colour of yours because it was chosen from the heart" hahaha. If only that was a genuine statement. 
But it is a gorgeous colour all the same! 

The nail kale collection is supposedly healthy for the nails as it is packed with super foods such as kale extract (surprisingly!) It has the intention to make nails stronger and smoother nails whilst still being able to wear a great colour with 150+ to choose from. 
The formula is packed with Vitamins A, C and K boosting keratin production. 
They are pretty pricey but the finish is amazing so I can see why. So if you are trying to grow your nails and make them stronger but still love a bold nail - this will be perfect for you! It is almost like the OPI Infinite Shine Lacquer - but Nails Inc has extra health benefits! 
I've heard from many nail lovers/bloggers that they aren't too fond of the bottle as it is pretty chunky. However, I'm fully aware and am a sucker for pretty packaging! So I actually really like the bottle. It is refreshingly different from standard polish bottles. What's your opinion? Too OTT? 

 This polish is finished off with Seche Vite fast dry top coat giving it extra shine. They honestly looked like gels, I was very impressed.
I definitely recommend nail kale to anyone looking for a shiny lasting polish. 
xox



Sunday 1 March 2015

Flawless velvet

I was never actually going to post these nails but they got a crazy response on Instagram and Twitter so I thought why not.
This is Zoya - Harlow from the Matte Velvet collection. 
This is 2 coats of the polish with no top coat. The coverage of colour is great giving it the amazing finish that you can see in the picture. I don't have any polishes like it so absolutely love the finish. I've seen a few people use a top coat on this polish too which also looks great but personally I love the matte look.
It lasted really well considering I didn't use a top coat of any kind. 
I would definitely recommend this polish/collection from Zoya. I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for more of this collection. 
Zoya polishes can be purchased on their website and other good beauty retailers. I purchased mine at HB Beauty Bar which I highly recommend - especially for my fellow UK residents as we don't always get the range of polishes available across the pond!
Be sure to follow me on Instagram & Twitter to see more nail related posts (found in the sidebar) 
Hope everyone has had a great weekend. As always, thank you for reading.
xox