Detailed Pink Florals

When I posted my Gold Lilac Rose nails the other week, I said that I wanted to recreate them in pink, and I couldn't resist doing that straight away. I decided to play around with them a bit more and this time I did the roses using acrylic paints, as I never really use acrylic paints anymore and I thought I'd see how they looked. They were super easy to work with, but I think I got a bit carried away with the roses and I don't quite like them as much as the last ones - practice makes perfect I guess! I also added polka dots and hearts rather than gold foil this time, and I like how it brings these a fresh look... although I do miss the gold foil a bit I must admit! 

Do It With Feeling

I've recently been watching The Bold Type on Amazon Prime**, and so when the opportunity arose to work with Amazon for an Instagram post on these nails, I couldn't resist doing one of my favourite quotes from the show. 'If you can't do it with feeling, don't'. Obviously the full quote didn't fit but I love the phrase 'do it with feeling' on it's own too. 

If you've been following me for a while (and by a while I mean... more than 5 years) you might remember that I used to do some of my designs with ink pens rather than brushes or tools. Well today I'm bringing back the old school, because the quote is written with my favourite Muji pens, just like in the old days. I haven't used anything except a Muji pen to write with since I was about 14, so it makes sense that I'd use them for my nails too! 

Galentine's Manicure Day with Meebox

Hey everyone! A slightly different post than usual today. This months Meebox* is Galentine's themed, and I knew when I received it that I wanted to have a pamper day with my best friend Nat to celebrate it. So today, on Galentine's day itself, we had a nice pamper session and we did each others nails. It takes a lot for me to let someone paint my nails, I barely even let nail technicians paint my nails nevermind my friends but I let her loose on my nails and she did a surprisingly good job. 

All That Glitters - Meebox November Review + Nail Art

Hey everyone! Everything is still super busy in my life, I'm moving house next Friday and I haven't even starting packing yet because I've barely stopped! And I've stupidly agreed to host people from work tomorrow evening at my house... why did I do that?! So as I'm sure you can imagine things are a bit hectic and blogging is having to take a bit of a backseat, but today I have a treat for you with this review of the gorgeous November Meebox, this month's theme is 'All That Glitters'* so of course it's absolutely chocka block full with glitter. This month's box contains:

Little Ondine - Rumba*: £11

A England - Crown of Thistles*: £11

Floss Gloss - Dime Piece*: £7.50

MeeBox Holo paper*: £2

Naio Nails Glitter pot*: £1.10

 

So it has a total value of £32.60 but it costs just £20, you can't really go wrong with that!

I was trying to debate what I could do to use all the products in the box, in the end I realised I would have to sacrifice at least one product and that had to be Little Ondine - Rumba, but I used the rest of the products in the box to create this fun glitter heart design.

Here's a quick shot of all the gorgeous products in the box!

To get your hands on next month's 'Wizard of Oz' themed Meebox, worth a staggering £60.. for just £20, you can visit their website, but be quick, it's going to go fast!

What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

Alice

*some of the products in this post were provided to me for review but all opinions are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way

Paint All The Nails Presents Neon

Hey everyone! It's nearing the end of the month again, and that means it's time for another Paint All The Nails link up, and this month the theme is 'neon'. I wasn't actually going to join in this month because I don't own many neons at all and I didn't think I could create anything worthwhile. Just as I'd given up on the idea of participating, the new Models Own - Polish For Tans* collection dropped through my letterbox. I haven't received anything from Models Own for at least a year, if not two, so it was a nice surprise and also a strange coincidence. I felt like I had to create something using them for the prompt as it felt like fate, and so here I am! I used all 5 polishes from the collection for this nail art, and I'm still wearing them now. I'm not used to wearing something so bright so they keep catching me by surprise, but I ended up really liking them. 

Hitched - April Meebox Review + Nail Art

Hey everyone! This weekend in the UK was the May bank holiday weekend, so we've had a nice three-day weekend. It's been great to have that extra time off but I'm actually more tired than I should be as I didn't get to sleep until 3 last night. Today I've genuinely spent the whole day re-watching Sherlock and not doing much else really because I was too tired to contemplate being productive. 

Today's review is of the April Meebox*. Meebox is a monthly subscription box (you can see my previous review of February's box here) I must stop you before you roll your eyes and say 'another subscription box?' because Meebox's stand out from the crowd in my opinion and are consistently great. I've been really impressed with both boxes I've received (and other boxes I've seen across social media that I haven't received). For just £20 a month you're getting value for money, this month's box would total almost £40. 

Each month the box has a theme, and this month's theme is 'Hitched', their first bridal theme. Each month you are emailed what the theme will be on the 1st of the month, and you can choose whether or not you would like to receive the box. There's no contract, you can opt in and out whenever you want, and I think that freedom makes them quite unique. I decided to create these simple heart stamped nails with some of the products from this month's box (read on after the jump to see the products).

Striped Hearts Valentine's Day Nail Art

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I hope, whether you're in a relationship or not, you've all had a lovely day. Me and my boyfriend aren't massive on celebrating it but we got each other cards and had a takeaway together which was nice. Of course, I had to have Valentine's nails too, so I created this simplistic look for Divine Caroline using polishes from the new OPI - New Orleans collection*. If you want to learn how to create these you can check out my tutorial here. 

What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

Alice

Blue Floral Glitter Hearts Valentines Nail Art

Hey everyone! Today I have some more valentine's nail art to show you. I really like heart nail art, if you hadn't already figured that out, and I definitely don't contain creating heart designs to Valentine's day. But, it does give me an excuse to post more, and I've combined it with another favourite: florals. And another: Essie - Beyond Cozy. What could be better? If you'd like to create these yourself, or just find out more about the colours etc. I've created a tutorial over at Divine Caroline. They're actually very similar to a very old design of mine, if you want to see my awful nails from many years ago click here.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

Alice

Nail Art Threesome: Polly Polish

Hey all! I'm back with the second and final part of my "nail art threesome" with Hannah (Polly Polish) and Allie (Brit Nails). Having done Allie's design on Thursday, today I'm doing one of Hannah's designs. I think out of the three of us I probably do the most nail art so I think Allie and Hannah might have struggled more than I did to choose. I've gone with a Valentine's theme on both the designs I did because of the time of year but also because that's when Allie and Hannah seem to do most nail art! Today's design by Hannah is this cute arrow hearts design, I love the pop of the colourful heart accent nail against the nude and black and I just couldn't resist recreating it. You can see Hannah's original post here but I've also included an image for comparison after the jump.

Hannah's original nail art

I used Barry M - Winning Streak* for my base, it's one of the new shades so it's a bit lighter than what hannah used but I liked it. Then I used Barry M - Miami for the heart, and MASH - Black for the arrows. Finished off with a coat of Seche Vite and a coat of Barry M - Matte Topcoat

Make sure to check out Hannah's post of Allie's nails, and Allie's post of my nails.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

Alice

Hello! for Avon

Hey everyone! (Or hello! if I want to match the nails). Today I've got a really simple design to show you that I've always uhm'd and ah'd about posting.  I created these for Avon in November last year and despite the fact they're neat and colourful, I've never been quite sure of them. But the more I've scrolled past them the more I've realised it's time to post them. I also dont really post that many designs with text so I thought it would make a nice change. 

Gradient Hearts for Divine Caroline

Hey everyone! I've started my new job now and it's scary to think that I'll never get to be a lazy student again. It's also tiring sitting at a desk all day, I think it's just the heat though because it's been absolutely boiling in England for the past few days. These nails are some cute heart gradient nails that I created for Divine Caroline. I love how these look and if you want to create them yourself you can see the tutorial here.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

Alice

Grey Hearts

Hey everyone! This is my second attempt at writing and posting this. Yesterday I wrote it all out and then my internet went down for 45 minutes and I was too tired and angry to rewrite it once it came back on. Hopefully this time will be a bit better! I'll be sad to leave my uni flat because of my friends but I definitely will not miss the terrible wifi, it drives me mad. Today's nails are some nails I created a really long time ago, over 6 months ago in fact. I'd completely forgotten I did them and when browsing my nail art folder on my laptop I came across the photos and decided it was finally time for them to see the light of day (or night, as it's currently 1am). I've spent today doing lots of nail art and reviews so I have a lot more to show you soon than I have been doing recently.

Golden Flowers

Hey everyone! I've had a busy day of dissertation research, applying for graduate jobs and work today, so I thought I'd take a bit of time out and post, at 2am. I find that it's so hard for me to get started in writing a post, but once I'm writing it it's completely fine, procrastination at it's finest I suppose! Today's nails are ones quite similar to some you've seen before (although they are a bit different as there's less glitter involved!). That's because we recreated them at nail art society last week, and it was so fun to revisit an old design and mix it up a bit. Although I still think the old design is better! Also... are the flowers white and gold or blue and black? (Sorry I couldn't resist! I'm definitely on team white and gold though). For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, where have you been?

Gelish Cinderella Hearts

Hey everyone! I have some more belated valentine's day nail art for you today. I was in the process of swatching the Gelish Cinderella Collection* and I just couldn't resist adding some nail art using the new Barry M Quick Dry shades*. (All of which I'm hoping to have finished swatching ASAP). Then I couldn't decide on a colour for the hearts so I just went with a variety. These ended up being the nails that I was wearing on valentines day itself, and I think they're sufficiently girly enough! 

 

I Whaley Love You

Hey everyone! Sorry about the late valentines post, I decided to spend valentines day off the internet. I finally had some inspiration for some nails and I couldn't wait to do them. I got a birthday card from my friend saying 'have a whaley good time' and it gave me the idea for these valentines nails. I intended to do quite a few punny nails for valentines day this year but ended up not having time, but one design is better than none. Maybe I'll do them anyway, just not for valentines day.

Valentines Nude for Avon

Hey everyone! I hope you've all had an okay Friday 13th and nothing too drastic has happened to you, and you're all looking forward to valentines day tomorrow. I definitely am, and I can't wait to show you the designs I've created. As always I've left it until the last minute to post, so I will have two designs for you tomorrow, and one today. Today's design is just a simple heart design I created for Avon.

Cosmopolitan Blog Awards 2014 - Pictures + nails!

Hey everyone! I'm definitely a bit late with this post, as the awards happened last tuesday, I have no excuse except being too busy with uni to comprehend writing this, but now I'm trying to put off writing an essay, so what better time to do it? Thanks to all your wonderful nominations, this year I went along to the awards with Lucy and Sammy, and I had high expectations from last year, which were completely shattered! It was an amazing night, and I may have had one (or two) too many cocktails, but that only made the evening even better. It was lovely to spend time with Lucy and Sammy again too, we don't get to see each other much so when we do it's great to have a catch up! Thankyou to Cosmo as well for hosting such an amazing night, and to you all once again for making it possible for me to be there!

Tutorial Tuesday: Galaxy Hearts Nail Art for Divine Caroline

Hey everyone! I'm SO excited to show you these nails, I did them about 3 weeks ago and I've been waiting for them to go live on Divine Caroline so I could show you. I saw this design a few months ago and I just knew that I had to recreate it. I was entirely sure how to go about it and when I looked online I saw that there weren't any tutorials, so I decided to make one myself, and wing it along the way. For the full steps click HERE to go to Divine Caroline.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments! And don't forget to check out the tutorial HERE

Alice

There's only just over a week left to vote for your favourite blogs in the Cosmo Blog Awards, I'd really appreciate your votes for 'Best Established Beauty Blog' if you feel I deserve it! You can vote here, and if you don't want to vote in the other categories you can just press next.

A Bit Dotty

Hey everyone! I have yet another design I created for our university's nail art society today (if you don't know what I'm talking about, read this). I seem to have been stockpiling them a bit. I'm not really sure where this design went, we were doing polka dot hearts, I think, and I just kind of went off on a tangent a bit. I think they're a little bit busy, but they still look okay

Models Own Nail Art Tool Kit Review + Love Letters Nail Art

Hey everyone! I've been having a few days break from blogging because I feel like most of the stuff I have waiting to show you is pretty low-par, and I just haven't been able to bring myself to edit something that I'm not particularly proud of. I've created a few nail art designs recently that I'm insanely proud of, but they wont be going up for a few weeks as they're work for companies etc. so I only have a few posts I did weeks ago before my exams. Once exams are over next week I hope to create lots and lots of awesome nail art, so I'm sorry if the designs I post this week aren't 100% great, sometimes ideas dont work out as great in my head as they do on my nails.

BUT I do like these nails, I'd completely forgotten I had them hiding away in my Models Own folder as I thought I'd posted everything during review week and I stumbled across them earlier and knew I finally had something worth posting. I was sent the Models Own Nail Art Tool Kit* a few weeks ago and I've actually been using it quite a lot. I used the flat brush for clean up on all my nail art. It came through my postbox at the perfect time in fact because my old one had fallen to pieces only the day before and I was all ready to purchase a new one.

For these nails I used the Detailing Brush, the Striping Brush and the Dotting Tool, along with the Flat Brush for clean up, all of which I was really impressed with. I did cut the detailing brush down a bit, as I always tend to, but otherwise I left them as they were.