Crazy cat lady

Today I am sharing some of my all time favourite nails! 

I would never normally have done this sort of design on my nails but I actually love it and I loved the challenge of doing them!

I don't have a rightful credit for this mani - I found it on a nail sharing Instagram but it didn't credit the owner. If you know who's design it is please let me know! 

The polishes I used for this design were; 

Essie - Fiji, W7 - 29,  Nanacoco - love black, Sinful colors - snow me white, Seche Vite - Fast dry top coat. 

I created this using a dotting tool and a tiny paint brush.

The owner of this design did a great tutorial that I found on Instagram which made this design so easy to recreate! I think my cat looks a little out of proportion but I think it's still cute! Other than that I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

I now really want to try a dog version because I'm definitely more of a dog person!

Again, it would be really appreciated if you know who created this great design so I can credit them.

Much love.

xox 

"A wonderful dream come true"

On my trip to the cinema in 'date night' the other day, I watched the Cinderella trailer for the first time! 

I came across @prestonails Cinderella mani and knew I had to recreate it! 

For this mani I used; OPI start to finish, Essie - mint candy apple, L'oreal - pop the bubbles, h&m - want a lemon, OPI - thrills in Beverly Hills, Seche Cite - fast drying top coat. 

I loved the original so much that I was always going to be a little disappointed with my version! 

Pop the bubbles is one of my favourite polishes. I forgot how good coverage it has with one coat so it completely covered the Essie coat I had used underneath which wasn't what I was initially going for but I actually like how it turned out. 

I also wanted to do more glitter in the hair but it didn't look good at all so I aborted that mission! However, I now feel like its missing something... Nail perfectionist kicking in with this mani. 

Overall, I am happy with this mani but would have loved to try it out with an indie glitter polish and to add more detail. I really want to do another Cinderella mani - maybe after I watch the film I will have some inspiration.

Thanks for reading, as always!

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 

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

Valentine Affair

Finally! My first Valentines mani of the year. 

Using; OPI - Nail Envy, Ciaté - Dangerous Affair, Essie - Quick Dry top coat and Sally Hansen - No Chip top coat. 

As I am participating in a Valentines Collaboration I decided to do the full on valentines theme. The collaboration is on Instagram with the hashtag #vdaycollab2015 - check out everyone else's designs, there are so many amazing mani's. 

I quite like these nails but think they're a bit too much for me, great for an occasion but not everyday wear. I forgot to take this mani off before going to Uni with it... Only on one hand!

Onto the polish... I actually really love this Ciaté. I'm never a huge fan of red and it wouldn't be my top choice in colour but I am really liking this shade.

You might have noticed I listed two top coats above. I used Essie quick dry for practical reasons but it looked horrible once it had dried! No shine whatsoever. I've never noticed this before but it became very clear once I used my Sally Hansen one over top giving it an amazing shine. I'm really sad about the Essie top coat because I'm a massive fan of Essie as a brand. Think I might have to try it again on a few different polish colours. 

Hopefully I'll have time to do another valentines mani this week. However, it is my birthday at the weekend so I'll be doing some nice simple birthday nails. 

I also have lots of nail goodies on the way such as; Cuter Cuticles bits, more ibd gels, Zoya polishes and a Seche Vite top coat which I have been after forever! Cannot wait to try and maybe review some of them. 

Thanks for reading this far down! Much love.

xox

Ocean Ombré

Firstly, I apologise for lack of blogging - it isn't by choice. I have Uni exams and assignments that are taking over! 

So, here is a simple blue gradient, I wanted something easy to do but really colourful.

Using: OPI - Nail envy, Essie - Mint Candy Apple, Sally Hansen - New Wave Blue, Wynie - 698 and Essie - Good To Go top coat. 

I didn't use a white base colour which I normally do for gradients not sure why I didn't here but turns out I don't need one. I sponged 2/3 times to get coverage, which lasted a good week with no chipage.

This technique is so simple and gives a great mani every time, and works with almost any colour combo - perfect for a quick mid-week mani. 

Keep updated for an exciting announcement this week! 

Much love for reading and sticking around.

xox

Frozen teal the end

Who doesn't love a bit of frozen for inspiration? I certainly do, so when I saw this on @xlaurenelliottx instagram I had to give it a go.

Using; Sinful colors - Snow me white and Teal the end, Essie - Pearlfection Essie - Good to go. So far so good with my first use of the good to go topcoat, though I'm not sure about longevity as a top coat because I never keep a mani for long enough! 

I don't think this is the best blue colour to use but believe it or not, out of my double figure blue colours I couldn't find the perfect one. 

I had to sponge each finger four times to get full coverage which created a slightly more messy result than I would have hoped for but I really think the white and blue ombré combo works and really wanted to share this design. 

Blog posts every other day this week & I have something exciting coming up early January so keep reading! 

Thanks for all the love.

xox

Have a holly jolly Christmas - it's the best time of the year

My first proper Christmas mani of the year! Inspired by @polishandbeyond on instagram. Check out her account so many lush designs!

For this I used; OPI - Natural base, Sinful colors - Snow me white, ELF - Smoking hot, Acrylic paint for the green leaves, OPI - Liquid sand and Essie - Set in stones for the accent nail. Rituals for the top coat. 

I love the simplicity of this design and the accent nail. However, the holly leaves were the hardest nail painting I've ever done! As simple as it looks - it took me longer than expected. But as always - worth while!

Definitely room for improvement in the acrylic paint area but I love using it, it's so easy to remove mistakes with water, which is always a bonus. I also need a new detail brush, let me know of any recommendations of brands. 

Many many more christmas mani's to come - it's only November!

I cannot wait to open day 1 of the ciaté mini mani month advent calendar, I'm going to try swatch every one of the polishes! 

Happy Saturday everyone.

xox

Mani swap!

I've been seeing so many other bloggers mani's that I wanted to recreate so myself and @coffeeandnailpolish decided to do a mani swap. She has so many mani's to choose from so it was really hard to decide which one to do! 

The polishes I used were; OPI - Natural Base, Essie - Mint candy apple, Sinful colors - Snow me white, Body Collection - Gold, Rituals - Top coat, Striping tape from eBay and Gold leaf from Hobby craft (amazing value you fellow UK bloggers) 

Shannon decided to recreate my feather mani which looked so amazing she did such a good job! So make sure you check out her instagram account. 

This design was a lot more time consuming that I expected - it definitely didn't take up my whole day off haha. However, it was well worth it because I obviously love wasting time when it is nail time and also because it's such a pretty design.

The gold leaf flakes were soooo cheap I got a huge box of it for £6 - it will last an absolute life time. Whereas, in Sally's it costs £5 for a tiny pot so I was very chuffed with this find. 

Anyway, the effect is the best thing I've ever seen, I am beyond in love with the it! I think I'll be using it in nearly every mani from now on! 

I loved doing the mani swap with Shannon it was so much fun and really nice seeing her recreation as well as showing her mine!

And of course, had to do her classic coffee picture (I'm a starbucks girl but there is a drive thru costa on my way to uni so it's my new regular!)

I have more mani swaps lined up to do in the coming weeks, and my first proper christmas mani coming this week - the christmas nails can never come too early!

Have a great week nail peeps!

xox

Christmas Pearlfection

Before getting onto any of this nail business I want to introduce my new blog logo - I haven't had a chance to completely redo my blog yet but how beautiful is the logo! Leilani Hayward is an illustration student and kindly created it for me. She is super talented and has a really pretty instagram: @leilaniparuzzolo so please check it out and give her a follow. I think she may be creating a blog/website soon when uni work gives her a break - so i'll be sure to let you all know what that is and you can browse for yourself. 

I'm just in looooove - can't wait to get my blog to an equal pretty! 

Nail time! 

I wanted to go a little festive but then remembered it was only mid November. Therefore, went for a sparkly cute silvery mani. 

Using; OPI - natural base, Sinful colors - Snow me white, Essie - Pealfection, Rituals - top coat and some striping tape from eBay.

Essie - Pearlfection is becoming one of my favourites it adds a glitter shine top coat and looks great on literally every colour combo - it also adds a little christmas to a plain colour so whats not to love?

I should mention that I saw this mani on instagram: @craftyfingers but the mani was created by @kristina.nails I instantly fell in love with it and recreated straight away! 

I had to include the picture with my watch getting involved because it only cost me £4 and I'm still immensely proud of this bargain haha. 

Have a festive filled week and weekend everyone.

Thanks for reading as always,

xox

Mexican Skulls

This was part of the 30 day nail art challenge; day 16 - accent nail. 

I saw this design on the talented nail tech's instagram @marikonail1214. I absolutely loved the design so gave it a go myself.

Polishes used were; Sally Hansen - White on, Essie - Pure Pearlfection, the eyes; Orly - Passionfruit, Essie - Fiji, and for the rest; Wynie - 698, L'oreal - Mystery. 

I love this mani because it is so different to anything else I would normally do and it was actually really fun do to! 

Will continue to share my favourites from the challange.

xox

Red Arrows

I have been busy doing the Nail It nail art challenge and am up to day 16 so I am still going strong hence the slightly delayed posts. But check out my instagram (@nailstori) to see all of the nails that didn't make it onto the blog. 

This was for the theme; your choice. And I decided to go simple and pretty. 

Using; L'oreal - Raven's Dreams, Essie - Fifth Avenue and LA colors. 

Raven's dream is one of the best nude's I've used, I think it is so pretty. A lot of nude's look odd on my skin tone but I really like this one. (Even though it looks a little yellow in the pictures)

At first I was going to use striping tape to help my lines but I decided to go free hand to get some practice in, and it didn't go too badly. There is definitely room for improvement but isn't there always. 

These pictures are without a top coat - because I forgot! How could i. So it actually looked super glossy and I just loved wearing it. 

I couldn't resist adding a picture of them on my trip to the spa - they looked so good with their lighting. What a sad thing to be thinking about! 

Cannot wait to share some designs I've already done. And hopefully some stamping practice with my MoYou kit finally! 

xox

The most british of brands

I have stuck out the NailIt challenge to day 7 so far and here is my take on 'pattern/fabric'. And if you hadn't recognised it is the famous burberry print. 

I didn't actually expect this to be a success, I had seen the design before and wondered what my take on it would look like. I enjoyed the challenge of freehand lines. 

The polishes used were; Essie - Millionnails, Loreal - Mystery, Loreal - Raven's dream, Model's own - French white, Essie - Fifth avenue and Kiko top coat.

I really like Loreal - Mystery, it is more of a grey than a black but with two coats it looks much darker. It is so much easier to take off than normal black colours and it hardly stains. It also has a shimmer in it that more it a lot less harsh than solid black polishes. 

I have a lot of 'what I would do different next time' thoughts on this design but I like the first attempt. 

Straight lines are so easy to mess up and some nail girls are just too amazing at it - practice make perfect I hope. 

Looking forward to seeing what the next 25 designs bring - how excitingly daunting! 

xox

Favouritism

I wasn't actually going to blog about this design, I did it for the Nail It 30 day challenge but I actually quite like it. The design was for 'fave glitter' and these two are definitely my favourites. 

Liquid sand is my absolute lover - I can't get enough of it. And this glitter has always been my favourite, so much so that it is now getting a little gloopy :(

The OPI is called Pussy Galore - OPI outdoing themselves on polish names once again - with Essie - Set in stones. 

It is a super simple and very girly design. I'm not looking forward to getting it off though. 

xox

Game on

Here we go - the beginning of the Nail It magazine 30 day nail art challenge. I have always wanted to complete a nail art challenge but just never actually DID it so, here goes. 

Day 2 was 'moons' - I went for the classic half moon nails. They are an interesting and not too challenging design using Essie - Mint Candy Apple, a glorious polish. 

I have seen lots of nail bloggers doing half moons with negative space - so obviously had to give it a go. I must say I'm not too sure on it yet. I think it takes some getting used to because it is a different look.

I added some of my Born Pretty Store gems to jazz up the design a bit more. I also think it makes the moon line softer. 

The more I look at these nails, the more I like them however, they will be off by tomorrow! 

There is a dent in my middle finger - I must have caught it with a razor. Us girls and our random problems in day to day life! 

I look forward to what tomorrows design brings. 

Happy saturday.

xxx

Massive American Haul

Some of you may know that I've been in America the past few weeks - the reason behind my lack of posting. However, I did not come home empty handed so this post will be showing off my new purchases.
I cannot believe how cheap everything is in the US, every year I go back and forget! You American blogging lot get it so cheap. 
These products are from; Victoria's Secret, Sally's, Walgreens, Target,  Tjmaxx and dollar tree. All of the polishes I got were on offer - there is no other way to buy polish in my opinion. 
I had saved a long time to get all these products and stuck to the list I made very well (surprisingly)
Leaving polishes last (from left to right) the other products I got were;
Dermalogica, Dry skin kit - absolutely amazing stuff. The only products that got rid (and kept away) my teenage spots. It is ridiculously expensive in the UK but I picked this up for around $35. 
Naked Palette 3 - been on my list for months. Only used it once but am loving the fact all the colour work together. 
Orly nails rescue - heard great things about this so couldn't resist, can't wait to see how it works. 
Orly spritz away - I needed a new polish dryer and it looked pretty good.
Orly nail lacquer thinner - I was fed up of putting polish remover in my polishes to make them thinner I wasn't sure if I was making them better or worse. So it was time for some proper thinner. 
Victoria's Secret - Passion struck, Sheer love and Amber romance. Adore these my fave is Amber Romance! 
Lastly at the front - Maybelline - colour show fashion prints, Essie - sleek stickers (love love love the print on these) and some simple dotting tools. 

Onto polishes and names! 
Sinful colours - we no longer get this in the UK we had it for a few weeks and then it vanishes. So upsetting so I got some basic colours of theirs. 
Jolly, Dream on, Teal the end, High strung and 24/7. 
Sally Hansen - Big Matte Top coat (want this for so so long!) Colour foil - Titanium flush and Leaden Lilac. I had no idea these existed until I found the clearance section in Target. They look amazing in the bottle! Xtreme wear - White on and Lacey Lilac. Finally, Lady lavender. I went a bit lilac crazy with the Sally's polishes. 
Orly - Retro red and Live wire. 
Essie - Come here - looks a beautiful deep pink. 
OPI liquid sand - Pussy Galore (what a name) and Solitaire. I am so in love with liquid sand and both at only $8 it was an absolute dream. I cannot wait to try them but want my nails to grow a little longer first.
Finally onto the massive ELF collection I acquired. So the deal was 15 polishes for $6 I just couldn't not. I have never tried ELF polishes so they could be really bad or really good. Left to right the names are; Gold star, Mango Madness, Wedding bells, Desert haze, Nude, Blush, Raspberry sorbet, Gina girl, Purple dream, Purple pleaser, Sea escape, Love me, Smoking hot and High tide. 
So, that's my BIG American haul, I am so happy with all these products and cannot wait to try them out.
Some stamping on its way in the coming weeks too.
I'm happy to be back.
Have a great relaxed Sunday nail peeps. 
xox 

Salon nubs

Today's post I did not do myself!

I am still in America so don't have my polishes with me to create a design of my own (however I do now own so much more polish, post coming up) So, here are the nails I got done at a salon. 

Following a tragic bowling session causing literally all my nails to break, I decided it was time to start fresh so I actually allowed them to file my nails right down. I forgot how easy they are to manage when short! 

Because they are so short I decided to go with a light colour, I think it looks best on nubs! 

The polishes used were; Essie - Marshmallow and OPI - Happy Anniversary. 

I couldn't get a great pictures of these but the OPI sparkle is so nice. It looks different in every light. 

I was a little annoyed that they cut my cuticles really poorly, They are now splitting and tearing but that will repair pretty quickly.

A post coming up soon about all the nail goodies I've bought. 

Thanks for sticking around even with a lack of posts.

xox

Last minute mani

 Well, I was planning on sharing some stamping I've been up to... however,  me and my mum planned a very last minute trip to Lisbon! So I've had to do a quick holiday mani, I just can't leave it a plain colour these days. 

This mani includes; Essie - Millionails, Nails inc - Optic Wave, MoYou - White, L.A colors, Sally Hansen - Top coat and striping tape.

I liked my last post design but decided to add to it and use a different blue. I really loved the Optic Wave on my toes so matched the colour with my fingers - I never have matching mani/pedi but love it for holidays. 

You can faintly see some dotting on my index and pinky finger that are very off centre! I realised way after it had dried so couldn't change it! 

I wanted to add gemstones (which I have on my toes) but I find they never stay on my nails as much as I would like, I didn't want any falling off and not be matching the whole trip. I think adding gemstones into the design would look good for any recreations. 

For coming weeks look out for more MoYou related posts. In this post I used their white nail polish. I initially got this polish for stamping but wondered what it would be like for regular painting, so gave it a go. My first MoYou polish experience was a good one! The colour is great, it isn't an off white, making it really stand out in a design like this one. The formula seems great, dries super quick which is also good when adding polish on top of it. And overall, gives a nice shiny finish before using a top coat. I cannot wait to share what I will be reviewing in the coming weeks. 

Have a sunny week and I will be posting very shortly. 

xox

Sunshine silver

First of all, sorry for my lack of posts this week, I've been working on a new exciting nail related business idea.

The products I used for this design was; OPI - Natural Base, Essie - Mint Candy Apple and LA colors. I used striping tape purchased from ebay to create to perfect line. 

I really like this design, the colours work well together and I think it is quite subtle but turns a plain mani into a little bit more of an arty one. 

As for the polishes; this Essie colours is amongst my favourites in my whole nail polish collection (a fair few) it dries really quickly with an even coat and is the perfect pastel colour for the summer months. I am also liking this LA colors silver more and more. I was unsure at first because it wasn't the most expensive polish but it works great and is pretty easy to remove - always a bonus with glitter colours. 

xox 

Quick & simple weekend mani

My slight obsession with striping tape continues (I have used it in my last 5 or so manis - which have yet to be blogged) 

I'm just loving it at the moment... And I love this design so much.

I created this using: Essie - Millionails, Crabtree & Evelyn - Peony, L'oreal - Mystery, Sally Hansen - Top coat and some striping tape from ebay.

This was so simple to do and I think the colour combo works great. It was my first time using L'oreal - Mystery and I really like it! I didn't always love the colour in the bottle because it looked a little grey but with two coats it's lush. And I love the C&E polish, it's such a fab brand, and I'm a sucker for a pale pink. 

My middle finger looks a little odd shaped, I noticed the corner had chipped off just after I'd painted so my nails will all have to be filed down asap. :( 

Not too much else to say about this one really. I hope my next post will be up soon but I have a feeling I will want to keep this mani for a little longer than usual.

Have a fab weekend nail bloggers/readers/friends 

xox