Glitter Fade Nails

I think of my nails as a fashion accessory so one my favourite things to do is match my nail design to an outfit or piece of jewellery. I have just received some cute new earrings from Body Jewellery Shop. They have a good choice of earpiercing jewellery if you are looking for a simple design at very affordable prices. The first pair of earrings are some round glitter studs in silver, they are really sparkly so they would be nice to wear on an evening occasion. My second pair of earrings are some star studs, they are quite small and subtle so they would go with most outfits and would make a nice everyday piece of jewellery. You can visit their website here: http://www.bodyjewelleryshop.com

I painted my nails, inspired by my new earrings, with a glitter fade effect and added swarovski crystals and a star sequin. I love having sparkly nails and a glitter fade is one of my favourite nail art designs because it is quick and simple and doesn't require any tools other than a bottle of glittery nail polish. To create a glitter fade apply a base coat and then paint on your glitter polish from the tip of your nail towards your cuticle making sure there is more glitter at the tip and less near the cuticle. Go back and apply another layer of glitter polish just on the tip of the nail and dab the brush in the middle of the nail to create a graduated effect. If you want you can add some crystals and stars by applying them to the nail before the polish has dried and then finish by applying a top coat.

Polka Dots and Flowers

Today is Mothers Day here in the UK so today's polka dot and flower nail design was chosen by my mum. I painted this design on her nails and I liked the bright colours so much I decided to paint it on my own nails too. All the polishes I used for this design are from Wah Nails; the blue base polish is called An Even Bigger Splash, the pink polish for the flowers is No Nails No Life and the lilac polish also used for the flowers is called Mating Surfaces. The White polka dots and the black detailing were drawn with Wah Nails nail art pens. 

How to get this look: 

Start by applying a base coat and then two coats of a pale blue polish. 

Draw polka dots over every nail with a white nail art pen or with white polish and a dotting tool. 

Draw large flower petals with the pink polish at the corners of your nails placing them in different sizes and positions on each nail. 

Use a nail art brush to paint lilac polish inside the pink petals to create a two tone effect on your flowers. 

Use a black nail art pen to outline your flowers and draw a black jagged circle in the centre of each flower. 

Use a white nail art pen to draw some tiny white dots on the black in the centre of the flowers. 

Finish with a top coat to make your nails nice and shiny!

Orelia Jewellery

Yesterday I was looking for some nail art inspiration when a small package arrived for me, it was my two new rings from Orelia Jewellery. They are absolutely beautiful rings and I'm sure you will be seeing a lot of them in my future nail art pictures! The first ring is very thin and has an infinity symbol at the top. I love how thin the ring is because it makes the design seem delicate and elegant so you could wear it for any occasion and match it with other rings. My second ring is a triple ring with three bands all joined together so it sits neatly on the finger. The three rings are also quite thin so they look simple but stylish and are not too eccentric like a lot of triple ring sets which can be quite chunky and too 'blingy' for every day wear. The middle band of the ring has lots of tiny cubic zirconia crystals set in it which adds a bit of sparkle so it would be good to wear for a night out or special occasion as well as during the day. Both the rings are gold in colour so they look very classy and they look a lot more expensive than they really are! All of Orelia's jewellery is hypoallergenic which is great for me as I find jewellery made from cheap metal can be irritating on the skin so I will be able to comfortably wear my Orelia rings every day.

After trying on my new rings I decided to use them as the inspiration for my nail design. I love the font used for Orelia's logo and the gold colour scheme used on the packaging so I decided to paint the logo on my nails with the base colour a simple but glamorous gold glitter top coat over a nude polish. The nude base colour I used was I'm Real by Wah Nails, this is an opaque medium skin tone colour and the gold top coat I used was L'oreal Jet-Set Shine 754. I also drew the infinity symbol under the logo as inspired by my beautiful new ring. To draw the infinity symbol and the Orelia logo I used a white Wah Nails nail art pen. 

Orelia is a British brand and you can find their jewellery on sale in Topshop's flagship stores in the UK and USA. You can also shop online on their website here.

Crufts Nail Art

It's Crufts this weekend - the world's biggest dog show! I have visited the show twice in previous years and I absolutely loved it, the Birmingham NEC is full of stalls selling every dog product you could imagine which makes it the perfect day out for any dog lover. Tomorrow is the final day of Crufts when the Best In Show competition will be judged. If you're in the UK the competition will be shown on Channel 4 from 7pm tomorrow (Sunday 8th March.) Or you can watch live streaming from Crufts all day on YouTube here.

I have painted my nails with the Crufts logo on my thumb and the silhouettes of three of my favourite dog breeds: a Poodle, a Dachshund and a Scottish Terrier. And don't forget the paw print on the little finger! The base colour I used for this design is OPI Alpine Snow and I used a black Wah Nails nail art pen to draw the dogs and the paw print. The Crufts logo was drawn using a thin nail art brush with the colour You're So Outta Lime by OPI.

What I’m going to wear to Cheltenham Races Ladies Day on 11th March

Today I have been asked to take part in the #ColourMeMarch campaign so I have put together an outfit idea for Ladies Day Wednesday 11th March at Cheltenham Races. The theme of the Colour Me March campaign is colour, so for my entry I chose my brightest dress which has neon pink hearts and splashes of neon yellow in the design. I have also created some matching nail art designs because if you are going to wear a statement dress you need to have some bright standout nails to go with it!

If you want to enter the competition you just need to put together your own colourful outfit and tweet a photo using the hashtag #ColourMeMarch or you can enter online by following the link below:
http://www.thefestival15.co.uk/colourmemarch/

These are my two nail designs I have created to match the amazing pattern on my dress. I used two coats of black polish for the base colour on both designs. For the design on the left I used a pink Wah Nails nail art pen to draw tiny hearts in a polka dot pattern. For the design on the right I used a neon yellow polish and a thin brush to draw a big heart outline in the centre of the nail and then filled it in with two coats of neon yellow. To create the pink pattern I painted one coat of a Barry M pink crackle polish over the yellow heart and then waited for it to crack. As always I finished off my nails with a top coat to make the colours super shiny.

My dress below was from the Versace for H&M collection. I love the combination of neon colours and the heart pattern with black fringing on the top and bottom of the dress. It is definitely a statement dress and it grabs attention when I wear it which is why I have chosen it for my #ColourMeMarch outfit.

Fall Out Boy Nails

These are my Fall Out Boy nails inspired by some of their album covers. They are one of my favourite bands to listen to so I thought it would be fun to paint my nails with their artwork. If you are not familiar with the album covers: my thumb is based on the album From Under The Cork Tree, my index finger is Fall Out Boys logo, my middle finger is their latest album American Beauty/American Psycho, Save Rock And Roll is the name of their 2013 album and my little finger is a bear getting a piggyback as seen on the Folie A Deux album cover.

How to get this look: 

Apply a base coat and then use two coats of OPI's Alpine Snow. 

You will need to use a gold polish and a thin nail art brush to draw the detailing on the thumb. 

The details on my other nails were drawn using a black Wah Nails nail art pen. You should use the pen end to draw the logo and the text and then use the striper brush inside the bottle to draw the lines on the bottom of the flag. The easiest way to draw the flag is to paint the upper right corner of the nail fully black and then use a white nail art pen to draw the stars over the black polish. 

If you want to draw the bears start by drawing the yellow bear costume and the face in the appropriate colours and then go back and outline it in black. You can then draw the brown bear and go back and add a red mouth and white teeth over the brown and finally outline the brown bear with the black pen. 

When you apply a top coat over this design be careful not to drag the brush across the nail because the black polish will easily smudge on a bright white base polish. I find the best way to avoid smudging is to dab the top coat on by pressing the brush onto the nail lifting it off and repeat by working your way down the nail.