"Florals for spring... Groundbreaking"

This mani was inspired by one of my all time favourite nail artists @Ninanailedit.

I literally love every single one of her mani creations and have to try them out myself!

For this mani I used: OPI - Natural base coat, Sinful colors - Snow me white, Nanacoco - Love black, Acrylic paints for the flowers and Seche Vite - Fast dry top coat. Also using a dotting tool and tape to create the monochrome nails. 

To create the flowers - First, I put a few acrylic paints onto a palette to mix the colours I wanted. To create the flowers I layered on 3 different colours creating circular shapes. It's very much a trial and error process when creating flowers! There are lots of good beginner video tutorials on Youtube. 

I love the flowers because light blue/turquoise are my fave colours - I'm going to try them again with different accent nails to see what I can create! 

Please excuse my poor cuticles at the moment - they've been suffering from a little neglect. 

Thanks for reading! 

xox

Royal fizz

In the UK it's safe to say as a nation we're obsessed with the Royals, and I'm definitely a fan too!

I've met Kate and baby George a few times because her family home is in my village so I love them a little more! 

Polishes used were; OPI -  Suzi shops & island hops, Sinful colors - Snow me white, Models own - pink fizz, Seche Vite - Fast dry top coat.

I wanted to do a Royal baby mani but wasn't sure how to go about it. I then saw @dahlianails mani so had to recreate! I'm not overly pleased with how my mani turned out, it's a little rushed for my liking - if I'd had time I would have done it over. The colours are a little girly for me so I didn't wear this mani for long but I definitely think it fits the theme! And I also think it's pretty cute! 

What do you think of the Royal obsession? A little too much or just a great mani opportunity!

xox 

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 

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? 

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

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

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

Pixie dust love

My mani today was inspired from a video on Instagram by @nail.art.by.sarah and I absolutely love this design.

To create this I used; OPI - nail envy, L'oreal - Raven, Zoya pixie dust - Bar, Nanacoco - love black, and Seche Vite - fast drying top coat. 

I created this using striping tape and it was surprisingly easy to do. Just got to have a small brush and patience! 

On to the new polishes... love them all! Zoya Pixie Dust is incredible. I've wanted it for so long and it did not disappoint. It is the easiest glitter polish to apply, dries so quickly as a sort of textured polish so gives such good coverage without needing to use a sponge. 

Next is the Nanacoco black nail polish, I got this just because I needed a new black and could never find a great one that didn't stain really bad but I found one (and it was super cheap). Yay.

Finally, saving the best for last... Seche Vite. I have heard nothing but good reviews about this top coat. Oh my goodness it is the best nail polish I've ever used. It lives up to its fast drying name, I mean, it is fast. This mani hadn't completely dried but I just went with it and applied a little early and it was amazing, completely set within 5 minutes. Also, the shine makes any polish look like gel. Get yourself the Seche Vite top coat - it will change your nail life. You're welcome. 

Thanks for reading xox