Matte Skittles (from the archives)

Hey guys :)

Today I have a post for you that includes some nail art I did last year but never posted anywhere. It's new for you but not new for me. 

For these mix and match nails, I decided to use a white base on all of my nails. For my thumb and little finger, I used a small detail brush to outline the shape from the cuticle and then filled the rest of the nail in with my chosen colour. I used the detail brush for both my index and ring finger and a dotting tool for my middle. I added a matte top coat to the design.

Colours used:

Barry M Nail Paint - Blueberry Ice Cream

Rimmel - White

LA Colors Art Deco striper - Blue Glitter

I'm going to try and post once a week but I'm not making any promises, being a student teacher is hard work and I don't have a lot of time to myself anymore (hence the archive post today). Thank you to everyone is still sticking by me, it is much appreciated :)

Love Emily x

Born Pretty Store Water Decal Review

Hey guys!

Who else can't believe that it's almost the end of February already?! Where did the time go! Today, I have a fairly simple mani that I did using water decals from bornprettystore.com.

I decided to get these ones (minus the ones that I used because I was a genius and used them before I took the picture). They are so cute, I want them to be real so they can be my pets and I can take them for walks and gahh...

They come with easy to follow instructions on the back. I did get a bit confused though, so just read them carefully. I would advise people to cut as close to the picture as possible as when I did mine, I left a border around the decal which meant it was hard to position when placing it on the nail.

For the nails, all I did was paint the nails in a base colour and then paint half the nail with another polish. I decided to use a textured polish to add depth and because it has opacity in one coat.

Colours used are:

Primark Beauty (no name for the colour) - its a cornflower-ish blue with a creme finish

Barry M Textured Nail Effects - Duchess

This is a sunlight shot - stunning!

And that's it from me on this fine February day. I'm off to do more university work and prep for a presentation that I have on Thursday (wish me luck!).

Love Emily x

It's Almost Valentine's Day!

Hey guys,

So, if you know me personally, you'll know I'm not one for PDA or over the top romance per se. I have a boyfriend, whom I have spent valentine's with exactly once so far, but we don't really celebrate it. This year we plan to stay in and eat chocolate in front of a film.

...But, I thought I would get in to the spirit of the month of love and do some nail art. Any excuse, right?

For these nails, I started with a pale pink base and built on top with darker pink and red colours. I used a dotting tool for the small hearts and a brush for the larger ones. I began the gradient hearts with red, then a dark pink, lighter (but still bright) pink and finally a light pastel pink.

The idea for the gradient hearts came from this video by CutePolish however, I doubt/I don't know if she was the first to come up with this. But that's where I saw it. 

Colours used are:

Sinful Colors - Easy Going

Rimmel Lasting Finish - Double Decker Red

Barry M Nail Paint - Shocking Pink

AVON - Viva Pink

Barry M Nail Paint - Strawberry Ice Cream

I hope you can look past the bad pictures, I apologise immensely. 

Love Emily x

CHRISTMAS IS HERE

Hey guys,

The Christmas season is upon us, I have purchased fairy lights and Christmas presents and my list has been sent off to Santa. It's officially time to paint my nails for the festive season.

This first mani was a quick one that I did just before a night out - the picture is taken from my phone because I didn't have time to photograph properly before it got smudged and chipped :(. The blue used in this is W7 - Blue Mirror and I love it!

The next mani that I will show is my most recent one (it's still on my nails). One of friends urged me to create Rudolph nails - so I did.

Colours used are:

Rimmel Lasting Finish - Double Decker Red

Nails Inc - Cadogan Gate

Sinful Colours - Easy Going

Barry M - Mushroom

Revlon - Hot for Chocolate

Rio Stripers - black, white and red

And that's the beginning of my Christmassy nail art. Expect quite a few more posts this month because it's one of my favourites and there are so many designs that I already have in mind. See you soon!

Love Emily x

World War II - History Nails

Hey guys,

Sorry about the lack of posts! I have just been on school placement as part of my course at university and I have had so much work to do. I haven't had the chance to sit down an write a blog post so you missed one last week - to make up for it, you will get 2 today! 

So I created these nails as I was involved with 'History Day' at my placement school. Basically, each year dresses up and does activities from a different era of time. The year I was placed in did World War II. This is my take on WW2 nails - the children were impressed!

To quickly run through them - my thumb is Churchill's famous bowler hat, index is obviously the union jack, middle is a spitfire plane, ring is an Anderson shelter and baby is a shovel and fork (I did this to signify the rationing and Dig for Victory).

I'll be back soon! Let me know what you think of these nails. I haven't listed the colours as they can be mixed and matched to polishes that you already have - also, I used around 11 different polishes :')

Love Emily x

Gold and Green Triangles

Hey guys,

Finally managing to post this!

These are some nails that I did after purchasing a new Butter London polish (my first from this brand). I was so excited to try it out. I saw this post by Lucy's Stash when I was scrolling through her blog for inspiration! 

 I started with a gold base and then just painted triangles on my thumb and ring finger until I liked the effect. I switched between 4 different shades of green. To bring the design together, I painted small triangles at the base of my remaining nails in various greens.

The colours I used are:

AVON Nailwear Pro - Golden Vision

Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paint - Greenberry

Butter London  - Slapper (such a great name)

Rimmel London Lasting Finish - Block Your Green

AVON Nailwear Pro - Sea Breeze

I hope you liked this post! Leave a comment if you did! And look out for more nail art involving this Butter London polish because I am obsessed.

Love Emily x

A Quickie...And Washing Dishes Has Ruined My Life

Look at me - blogging again! 

To those of you who read my life update, you will know that I recently moved to uni. Moving to uni of course means no dishwasher, which in turn means I have to hand wash all my dishes. Now, washing dishes is not a problem, however it is a problem when you are profound nail painter like me and you would like your design to last for more than a day. To combat this problem, I am going to purchase some washing up gloves to save my nails. In the mean time though, it means another nail design and another post.

These nails were super quick as I didn't have a lot of time and I plan on doing a more extravagant design on Friday (you'll find out why soon). I literally painted them all and then thought "I want a bit of glitter". So I reached for a glitter topper and painted it on to cover half the nail.

The colours used, as you can see, are:

Barry M Nail Paint Gelly Hi-Shine - Guava

Sinful Colors - Nail Junkie

Expect to see another post either Friday or Saturday. Until then, have fun living your life and I'll get on with making something to eat for my dinner :').

Love Emily x

Autumn Owl

Hey guys,

I did these nails because I just bought a new Essie Polish (the berry colour I'm wearing) and really wanted to use it straight away. I thought it was a really good autumn colour and so decided to do an accent nail with an owl as I haven't had chance to any 'real' nail art all summer. Plus owls are super cute and I am yet to draw one on my nails.

The colours I used from l-r:

Rio Professional Nail Art Pens - black and white

Essie - Big Spender (totally IN LOVE with this colour)

Barry M Nail Paint - Mushroom

Ciaté Paint Pot - Pocket Money

Revlon - Gold Coin

AVON Nailwear Pro - Coral Beat

And that's a shot of my left hand. See you guys soon :) 

Summer Fun

Hey guys,

So I did these nails a while back (whilst it was still warm out). They are already on my tumblr but I didn't have a blog then. I really liked the way these turned out and so I though I would document them in a more detailed way. They were inspired this cutepolish design.

The colours I used were:

Rimmel Lasting Finish - Misty Jade, Tangy Tangerine

Barry M Nail Paint - Blueberry Ice Cream, Berry Ice Cream, Strawberry Ice Cream

Rio Pro Nail Art Striper - white

Hope you liked them!

London

Hey guys,

I went to London recently. These are the nails that I did. My thumb nail was supposed to be Big Ben but I had limited resources and little time so that is what I managed to create...I'm hoping you can tell that my middle finger is the London Eye :')

Colours used are:

Barry M Nail Paint - Blueberry Ice Cream

Rimmel Lasting Colour - Double Decker Red

Sally Hansen - White On

I actually come from Manchester, England however have never had the opportunity to properly explore my capital city. So when my boyfriend and I both had a spare weekend, we thought “why not?!” and hopped on a train. I have to say it was one of the best weekends of my life. IT WAS TRULY AMAZING. This is one awesome (if I do say so myself) picture that I took.

We only went for two days and one night and in that small period of time, I managed to do so many things that I've wanted to do for a long time. We went on a tour bus ride around the whole London (a super-touristy thing to do but we were short for time and wanted to see as much as possible). We then had lunch in this really lovely restaurant called Black and Blue, just outside Waterloo Station.

We then went on a river boat tour along the Thames which was good apart from the open top, the wind spray from the river. Wind and my hair do not mix well! Then, of course, we had to go on the London Eye. Typically, after such a beautiful day, it started to rain so I couldn't get any good pictures but it was still a great thing to do. 

The next day we went to Harrods and bought loads of things we don't really need but at the time it was essential to get 5 bars of chocolate and a teddy bear. We also went to Madame Tussauds, which I have to say, may have been the highlight of my trip. IT WAS SO COOL. I took about a thousand pictures, all of them embarrassing in some way but totally worth it for the memories. 

My weekend in London ended with a tube ride to Waterloo and a train journey home. It's safe to say I would do it all again in a heartbeat. It's funny how some of the best trips of your life can be so short and in your home country. 

That's all for now. Bye!