Beauty Superstar on Cut Out + Keep : Day 1

Hi everyone ! This is a post to let you all know that I am being featured as a Beauty Superstar on Cut Out + Keep this week ! Each day for a whole week a new tutorial that I've prepared will be posted, so make sure you tune in each day to make sure you don't miss any !

Today is the first day, and the tutorial I've done for you all is my go-to design when I'm lacking inspiration or when I want something quick to do. Yep, you guessed it ! It's leopard print !

To see the full tutorial with extra details, make sure you head on over to my project on the Cut Out + Keep website, where you can even read an interview all about me !

Hope you enjoy the tutorial !

Tutorial : Rose Floral (Alphabet Nail Art Challenge)

Good evening everyone ! I'm back in Bath now and I had totally forgotten that I hadn't actually scheduled a post for today, but luckily I prepared the tutorial image the other day while I was still in Salzburg ! I start back at uni tomorrow so I don't know how often I'll be posting anymore, but I will still do my best to post whenever I can ! Obviously I won't be stopping painting my nails, but work has to come first and so I'll just have to wait and see what I'm able to fit in ! My nails need painting tomorrow in any case because I've been wearing the same design for 10 (!!!!!) days now, and my nails have grown so much it just looks weird with loads of bare nail near the cuticles !

Anyway, today I've got the final tutorial of this marathon weekend of step-by-step designs for you, and it's another one of the popular designs from the Alphabet Nail Art Challenge,  for which a lot of people asked for a tutorial ! Today's tutorial is for the "F for Floral" design, the one with the roses, it's a very abstract way of painting them, just using quite a lot of different colours to add depth to the flowers, so it's not too difficult at all ! Here's a quick photo reminder of the design :

So here's the tutorial for this design, you can use whatever colour scheme you want of course !

1. Start with your choice of base colour. I used OPI My Vampire is Buff.
2. Use a nail art brush with your darkest coloured nail polish from your colour scheme to paint on some round blobs with some frilly bits around the edges. I used OPI Dim Sum Plum.
3. Using one of the other colours from your choice of nail polishes, add some lines to the frilly blobs with a nail art brush. I used OPI Strawberry Margerita (very subtle).
4. Do the same again with another colour. I used OPI Sparrow Me the Drama.
5. And again with your lightest colour. I used OPI Steady as She Rose.
6. Using your lightest green polish of choice, paint the shape you would like your leaves to be with a nail art brush. I used OPI Don't Talk Bach to Me.
7. Leave some light green around the edges, and fill in the centre of each leaf using a slightly darker green nail polish and a nail art brush. I used OPI Jade is the New Black.
8. Do the same again using your darkest green. I used OPI Live and Let Die.
9. Put some top coat on and you're all done !

I hope that you all like this tutorial, it's pretty much all about the layering to give the depth to the design, so it doesn't really matter what colours you use, just as long as you use plenty of different shades !

Tutorial : Kitties (Alphabet Nail Art Challenge)

Hellooooo everybody ! So I should be back in the UK by now, but as I'm staying with some friends before going back to Bath tomorrow I thought it'd be best for me to schedule a post for today ! I've got another tutorial today for you all, for a design which was really popular during the Alphabet Nail Art Challenge... it's the K for Kitties design !

Here are the steps for creating this design (obviously you can do whatever colour kitty you wish !) :

1. Paint a base colour using a very light or sheer nude nail polish shade. I used two coats of Champneys Nude.
2. Paint the head with the brush from your nail polish : make a rounded motion when painting, the same as you would do near your cuticle. Don't worry if it isn't perfect, you can always do some touch-ups with a nail art brush ! I used American Apparel Hassid.
3.Using a nail art brush, paint some ears for your kitty. I think it looks nice when their ears are quite close to the edge of your nail, so really far away from eachother !
4. Use a medium size dotting tool and some white polish to paint two eyes. Again, I like placing these quite far away from eachother, so I aim to paint them roughly under each ear ! I used American Apparel T-Shirt.
5. Paint on the insides of each ear and the white part of its nose using a nail art brush and some white nail polish.
6. Using a light pink nail polish, paint a tiny nose at the top of the white part and a line coming down from it, then add a smile ! For the nose bit, I paint it in the shape of an upside-down heart ! I used OPI Sparrow Me the Drama.
7. Add a couple of whiskers on each side with some white polish using a fine nail art brush, as well as the centres of each eye using either a nail art brush or a small dotting tool.
8. Finish with some top coat and that's it !

This is a very simple design to replicate, and it's easy to find bits and pieces around the house you can use if you don't have all the tools ! A toothpick works really well for tiny dots and fine lines, bobby pins and the balls at the end of pins you use for sewing also work well for larger dots !

If you don't own any nail tools whatsoever I would truly recommend investing in a set of different sized dotting tools - I didn't have any nail brushes for ages but my dotting tools served me really well, I even used them for painting like I would have used a nail art brush ! They're not expensive but are really worth having around if you're in to painting designs on your nails !

Tutorial : Triangles (Alphabet Nail Art Challenge)

Good afternoon everyone ! I'm writing this post early today as I'll have lots of packing to do later, so seeing as we're in the hotel room now (we went into town this morning, have been inside as it's been raining a lot this afternoon) I decided that I'd be better off posting this now ! I've got tutorials for you all the way through until Sunday, so I hope you enjoy them ! The three I'll be posting over the weekend are all for designs from the Alphabet Nail Art Challenge, and today's is from the "T for Triangles" prompt ! Here's a quick reminder of the original design :

You can choose whatever colour combinations you wish, just as long as you have 4 different colours, plus a white nail polish ! So here's what you've got to do to replicate this design :

1. Start by applying your base colour. I choose to use my lightest colour for the base as it makes painting the lines on top easier. I used two coats of OPI Steady as She Rose.
2. Use a nail art brush to paint on a random thick chunky line with your first colour across your nail. It can look however you want it to ! I used OPI Dim Sum Plum.
3. Do the same again with your second colour just over your first line. There's no need to be perfect here, it's fine to change the way your lines look ! I used OPI Can't Find my Czechbook.
4. Now do it again over the second line with your third colour. Leave a gap between your first line and then paint a new line underneath that in your same third colour. I used P2 Who Cares.
5. Carry on with the same sequence of colours until you have filled your nail.
6. Using white nail polish and a nail art brush, paint on the outline of a triangle which will be your chevron. I do this by looking at my nail and just making a little dot as a marker for where I want the point to be ! I used OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.
7. Fill it in !
8. Add some top coat, and you're all done !

If you want to do your nails like the accents on my thumb and ring fingers like in the original design, start by painting your white base, then paint on the chevron using what your base colour would have been for the other nails, in my case it was OPI Steady as She Rose. Continue by using your other colours to make your lines inside the chevron with the same sequence of colours as in the normal design. Don't worry if you go over the edges, as you can always go over the sides with your white polish to make it neat again !

So as you can see this isn't really so much a triangles design as it is a stripes and chevron design, but I've named it my "triangles tutorial" as that was what the original title was ! I really hope you've enjoyed this tutorial, and stay tuned for more over the next couple of days !

Tutorial : Polka Dot Drips

Hey guys ! So today I've got a tutorial for you all (the first of plenty over the next few days) and it's for the Polka Dot Drips design I posted last week ! Here's a quick photo as a reminder, just in case you missed it !

And here's what you have to do to get this look :

1. Start with a base of your choice of white (or off-white) nail polish. I used American Apparel T-Shirt.
2. Use a dotting tool (or a bobby pin, or a pin, or a toothpick) to make a polka dot pattern in your choice of colour. I used OPI Sparrow Me the Drama.
3. Using a nail art brush, start drawing a line that swoops down towards the base of your nail. I use black acrylic paint for this, but you can use black nail polish if you prefer (I prefer the ease of application with a nail brush with acrylic rather than polish).
4. Carry on painting the line with another swoop towards the base of the nail and join to the other side of your nail.
5. Fill it in !
6. Add a couple of dashes using white nail polish to give your drips a cartoon effect. I used American Apparel T-Shirt.
7. Top coat it, and you're all done !

So that's all there is to it ! Send me photos of your designs or send me a link if you use this tutorial so I can have a look and see what you come up with ! It's a really forgiving design in that it's quite easy to just add a bit more black around the edges to even things up, and also, top coat does wonders to any design, honestly !

Tomorrow I should have some swatches for you on here, so stay tuned for that ! See you then !

piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013 !

Good evening everyone, I have something very very VERY special for you all in today's post.. my contribution to the piCture pOlish 2013 Blog Fest ! I am so honoured to have been chosen to participate this year, as I have loved reading all the different posts that everyone else who has taken part has posted over the past couple of years ! Basically, loads of different bloggers from all around the world are chosen to participate and create some nail art with different piCture pOlish shades, all posting their creations on the same day !

Our challenge for this year's blog fest was to come up with a nail art design using the three piCture pOlish shades we were sent and provide a step-by-step tutorial for said design, to be in with the chance of being one of three bloggers to be chosen through the Blog Fest Awards, to collaborate with piCture pOlish and create a custom nail polish... that's a pretty amazing prize, right ?!

So I'll start off with swatches of all three shades that I was sent, and then we'll move on to the nail art and the tutorial.. enjoy !

Above sample photos courtesy of piCture pOlish

First up is Ocean, a collaboration shade with Kelly's Kolors, inspired by, you guessed it, the ocean ! This nail varnish is really just AMAZING, possibly one of my favourite polishes ever ! It's a beautiful teal/turquoise jelly filled with loads of scattered shredded silver holographic particles with deep blue reflections. I used three coats with no top coat for this swatch, and the formula was absolutely amazing as well, no clean up required at all !

Next up is Focus, the collaboration shade with Pointless Cafe, which is inspired by the colour of wine cups, a flower that grows in southern Texas. This nail varnish is a deep reddish-purple-pink shade, very difficult to describe, with a combination of red and magenta micro flakes and a touch of purple and pink shimmer throughout, super complex ! This swatch shows two coats of Focus without top coat, I found the formula to be slightly on the thick side but it was still very workable !

And last but not least, Atomic, Samarium's Swatches collaboration shade, inspired by the eponymous element samarium which has an incredible silver-white metallic colour and reflection. This polish has a definitely white-silver colour and a not-so-noticeable champagne pink tone to it in some lights, with tiny scattered silver holographic particles and silver shimmer running through it. I used three thin coats for this swatch, although you can easily get away two coats and no top coat. The finish of this polish isn't glossy like the other two piCture pOlish shades I've swatched, and the formula on this was great !

So that's it for all the swatches... now it's time for the nail art ! It took me a while to work out what I wanted to do for my nail art design, all sorts of ideas went through my mind but I was never happy with the end result. I tried needle dragging but that ended up looking too messy, then I tried painting the Australian flag as I had all the right colours for it, but it just didn't look right and the beauty of each shade was getting lost in the design ! In the end I settled with my favourite cartoon flowers, and I'm so glad I did as I really love the design !

So what do you all think of the design ? I loved the way that the flowers pop against the silvery background in the photos, but in real life the holographic particles are so much more visible than I was able to capture in my photos and the whole design is just sparklier in general ! You just have to believe me on this one !

Now, here's the tutorial, my first ever may I add ! I hope you all like it ! Don't forget to click on the photo to make it bigger so you can read the instructions !

So that's it for my post for this piCture pOlish blog fest, I hope you've all enjoyed this rather long post, but I've had great fun getting everything together for today !

All the different blogger's Blog Fest nail art will be posted on the piCture pOlish pinterest board and is open to public voting, so don't forget to go and look (and maybe even vote for me, if you deem me worthy) !

You can find piCture pOlish and their huge range of shades, as well as Ozotic polishes at their website, and the great news is that they ship worldwide ! Happy days ! You can also find them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube, so you can keep up to date with new releases and perhaps the odd giveaway !