Caviar Bead Mani

Hey Again!

For this post I want to write about the Caviar Bead Mani trend.

I ordered my beads from eBay and they arrived pretty fast - I was extremely happy about this as I couldn't wait to try it out. I've seen so many brilliant nail art designs with the caviar beads  and I couldn't wait to try it for myself, however it was easier said than done!

I also wanted to try out my new Bourjois Matte Top Coat nail polish, this was a lot more expensive than I would usually pay for nail polish, but it looked like one of the best ones in the shop so I bought it.

I have also seen a lot of brilliant nail art designs with a matte top coat applied so I couldn't wait to use both the caviar beads and the matte top coat together.

When going through all of my nail polishes (this took a while!) I decided that black would be the best for the design I wanted to create. I'm not going to lie to everyone, I thought that the caviar beads would be easy to create and simple, but for me at least this was not the case! I painted all my nails black with one coat and then painted them again with a second coat but not my ring fingers (on both hands), as I knew the beads would need to stick to the nail polish. I then set up my area by putting getting a piece of paper on to my desk and placing a fold all the way down the middle of the paper (this is so that the excess beads are caught and are easy to put back into the pot! - this is VERY NECESSARY!)

I found getting the beads out of the pot in the first instance a struggle, as they love to roll and fall everywhere apart from on my nail! After finally getting the beads to cover my nail, I thought it would make sense to cover them with a layer of clear nail polish just to make the beads stay on my nails for a bit longer - BIG MISTAKE! I went to show my housemate what I had done and as I was showing her, the beads and the polish started going a muddy brown colour, I could describe the colour with a not so polite word beginning with 'S' however I think you all understand what I mean!

I actually couldn't believe it! I was gutted! So I immediately took the beads off with nail polish remover and thought up a 'better' technique - nail glue! This again I found out a few days later was a massive mistake! DO NOT DO THIS! It took me about 30 - 45 minutes to file the beads off! I was not impressed at all!

If I'm honest, I have not tried to use the caviar beads again, but when I do, I am certainly going to make sure that I do not a) put a clear top coat over them and b) not try and stick them using nail glue!!!

However as negative as this post is, and how annoying it was to get the beads off after a few days, I actually liked the end result:

As you can see the matte top coat gives a brilliant affect especially on top of black - if you don't have a matte top coat BUY ONE! You will not regret it!

Let me know how your caviar bead experiences went and if anyone has any tips please also let me know!

Thanks for reading :)

XOXOXOXO

Newspaper Mani - The First Try

Hi All!

This post is all about my first attempt of trying the newspaper mani trend. When I first saw pictures of this trend floating around on Twitter/ Facebook and Instagram, I thought "I have to try this". No one could be judge for thinking, "how on earth do people do this?" or "they must have used nail wraps!" Well, I was as just as surprised as most people when I watched a few YouTube videos on how to do them.

My first thought while watching the first video was, "What a waste of Vodka!!!" Then I stumbled across other videos that just used water to help create the effect, but when it came down to deciding which method looked the least complicated and looked like it gave the best result, I came to the decision that vodka now has another benefit.

The method itself is so simple, its unbelievable  proven furthermore when I showed my housemates and uploaded a picture onto Facebook and everyone's reaction was "WOW!! How did you do those???!!!" It left me feeling quite smug about my nails, and I've never had such a massive reaction to any other version of nail art before.

So for anyone reading this who hasn't tried the newspaper mani you really MUST!!!

1) paint your nails the colour you want, preferably do 2 coats to help prevent chipping and I also suggest that you use a pale colour or even white otherwise the newspaper print will struggle to show up on your nails.

2) make sure your nails are completely. No one wants the newspaper pieces sticking to the polish and ruining the whole look.

3) cut up 10 pieces of a newspaper, making sure there is enough text to cover your nails, I personally cut/rip about a 1 inch square per nail.

4) pour a small amount of vodka into a glass, no more than a centimeter high, otherwise it's just a waste of good vodka.

5) dip the newspaper piece into the vodka and wipe of any access vodka against the glass.

6) place the newspaper piece onto your nail and press down quite firmly over the whole nail, I useually spend about 20 seconds doing this. This ensures that the ink comes completely off the paper.

7) gently peel of the newspaper piece and voila!!!

If my steps have confused you a bit, there are plenty of videos on YouTube to watch which may help. Most nail art designs may take a while to perfect, but with the newspaper mani you get perfect results from your first go, so it's a must try method.

This is a picture of my first ever attempt, I didn't use a white polish as you can see but I think the results look great on top of these two colours!

I hope you enjoy creating your newspaper mani and trying out with a variety of colours!

GOOD LUCK!

XOXOXO

Why do my nails always break??!!!

Hey,

Hopefully you liked my last post and are therefore coming back for more :-)

Today I had originally planned to start writing about all the different nail art trends that I am loving, however I want to try and find out if any of you guys have this problem: WEAK NAILS!!!!

I hate it! No matter how much I look after them with cuticle cream, nail hardener and filing and buffering them into nice shapes, one after normally a day will catch on something and rip/ break off. It's so annoying!

So then I start the awful process of having to cut my nails down so they are all equal - in my opinion there's nothing worse than unequal nail lengths - painted or not. I don't know about you, but I am heartbroken every time you have to cut and file each nail down just because of one.

I know short nails can look good, and a lot of the time mine are pretty short as they don't seem to like growing very long so it is generally even worse for me if they have gotten to a nice length and it happens.

So then the process of wearing fake nails begins, not acrylics, just the ones you can buy in a shop with glue. I know deep down this process is not good for my nails, especially when you have weak nails, but it's a thing I can't seem to stop. I can foresee anyone commenting on this post saying, "stop wearing fake nails" but sometimes I don't think that that person understands my problem. It's the same as walking into McDonalds and not ordering a Big Mac - V.HARD!!!!

But as even while I am writing this post, I am anxious that my one of nails will just catch and break off for some unknown reason, for the next week (or more realistically 3 days) I am not putting on fake nails or even nail polish - just cuticle cream and the nail hardener, hoping that they will eventually grow out. The only lucky thing I have about my nails is that they do actually grow at quite a fast rate, but sometimes this is just not fast enough :(

If any of you lovely readers have any tips for me to make my nails get stronger quickly please comment and let me know and then I'll let you know if it worked for me :)

Thanks for reading my massive rant, but sometimes you just have to let it out to like minded people :) <3 <3 <3

XOXOXOXOX

The First Post - Nail Love!

Well, Hello!

This will hopefully be the first of many posts written by myself to come. I've read blogs for a few years now and I was told by a friend that I should start one. My first question was, "What should I write about??" The answer was also immediately yelled at me from inside my head - "NAILS!"

When I was younger, my mum wanted my sister and I to stay young for as long as possible and we never had our nails painted, wore make-up and clothes, well lets just say, I highly doubt that they would EVER come back into fashion. Unfortunately, my mum died when I was young, but as I got older I found that I loved nail polishes, make-up and fashion! I think my mum could foresee how much money I was most likely to spend over the years and probably tried to 'nip it in the bud' before my love for these things even grew!

I have loved nail polish from the first time I painted my nails pink, and with the recent trend of nail art growing at a phenomenal speed over the past few years, so has my love, I would now even go as far as saying it is an obsession or even an addiction! The past 5 months have proved it! When out shopping, all I have to do is just enter a beauty shop and all of the little bottles of polish shout at me, "Buy me! Buy me!" Going through all of the colours and brands is always exciting, all just to discover that one new colour. Then after discovering about 10 new shades and glitter combinations comes the heartbreaking decision of which ones not to buy (I unfortunately, am not a millionaire).

This obsession/ addiction has even lead to my housemates joking that if my degree does not work out in future years, then I HAVE to set up my own beauty salon! (This is something that I am now genuinely considering).  

To me, painting my nails in even the most simplest of colours makes me happy, sometimes a few coats of red or black polish can be as lovely as creating an elaborate design.

I hope you like my first post and over the next few days I will start to cover a range of different topics, from brands, colours, newspaper manis, ombre manis, caviar manis and velvet manis!

XOXOXO