Today's Nail Art - Sticky Tape and Part Painted Nails

Today's ingredients for sticky tape and part painted nail art:

Sticky tape, Sally Hansen nail strengthener/clear base coat, BarryM nail polish, Andrea Fulerton nail art paint, Sally Hansen clear top coat

A very close friend of mine sent me some nail art photos that she stumbled across on Instagram of sticky tape and part painted nail art. I said to her that when I next painted mine, I would give it a go and then send her some pictures of the finished result.

You do need to set aside some time to do sticky tape nail art, especially if you are trying out some intricate designs. It is really important to allow each coat of nail paint to dry fully before you peel off the tape that you have used to mask sections off - otherwise you will pull/drag the wet paint off or across from the nail, which will spoil your design.

I painted a clear base coat on each nail and then proceeded to mask off triangle shapes at the base of each nail. Once done, I painted the main colour on, two coats, allowing each one to dry fully.
I used a Barry M nail paint, it's NP318 Peach Melba and I have used it a lot with some of my other nail designs that I have tried. I love this shade!

Once dry, I pulled off the tape carefully and then using the Andrea Fullerton nail striping paint on gold, I painted a 'V' over edging where the peach meets the clear base coat, giving it a neat and tidy finished look.
Once that was dry, I painted a clear top coat over the top.

For a bit of fun I didn't mask off a couple of my nails but instead painted them fully in the peach colour and then added gold stripes on top of them.

Here is the finished result!

This is the first time I've had a go of sticky tape and part painted nails and I will definitely be experimenting with this style again!

lvy <3

Magnetic Nail Paint

Going for the plunge and trying out Magnetic Nail Paint:

I must admit that I was a little bit apprehensive about magnetic polishes and just brushed them off as a fad. But I was given a Nails Inc one as a gift from a colleague at work who couldn't hold the magnet still for long enough required to draw the pattern out of the polish. I guess it was the perfect excuse to give it a try, and needless to say, I really loved it!

Unfortunately I dropped the bottle onto laminate flooring and smashed it :'(
So I needed an affordable replacement. I bought a magnetic nail paint by Barry M in shade NP345, which is £4.99 and it works just as well, the paint goes on a bit thinner than the Nails Inc versions, but really comes up a treat and I have since bought another shade which I equally adore as well.

For anyone who is new to magnetic paints or is thinking of trying them - definitely do it! You just need a steady hand!

Paint a clear base coat first. Then paint a full coat of the magnetic polish on top and allow it to dry fully.

Now for the fun part! Paint a generous second coat on top and then quickly but carefully hold the magnet close to the nail for a good 5-10 seconds (but don't let the magnet touch the wet paint) in order to draw the pattern out of the metallic polish. The little ledge above the magnet allows you to rest the cap onto your finger whilst you are holding the magnet against your nail, which is extremely handy!

Do allow the nail to dry fully before you pop a clear top coat on top.

These polishes are extremely eye catching and i'm sure you will get a lot of people asking how you did it and where you got them done!

Which Magnetic Nail Paints have you tried so far?

lvy <3

Colour Splash Graffiti Nails

If you haven't got a steady hand, why not give colour splash graffiti nails a go?

Back when I bought my first pot of crackle nail paint by Barry M, I quickly got bored of painting the crackle effect over the whole nail. Why not just use it sparingly over parts of the nail rather than all over? BTW I love the crackle effect, watching the effect come to life once you've painted it onto your nail!

One way in which you can use the crackle paint is to create interesting and colourful designs such as what I tried out here.

After prepping each nail with a clear base coat, I painted them in a gloss white colour by Barry M (two coats) and then I randomly painted on splashes of colour on top. Once the splashes of colour were dry, I proceeded to add a quick brush of the crackle paint over the colour splashed areas.

I painted on a quick clear top coat and before it dried I added some holographic glitter from the glitter shaker that comes attached to the top of Andrea Fulerton's nail striping nail paint pots for a bit of sparkle. I then added another layer of top coat to seal it all in.

Colour Splash Graffiti Nails Pics

Colour splash graffiti nails are fun to do, very eye catching and does not require a steady hand at all :)

Give it a go and do share your pics!

lvy <3

Tiger Stripes Nail Art

Bring out your feline side with Tiger Stripes Nail Art:

Hi all, I thought I would share with you my pictures from my first attempt at drawing proper tiger stripes nail art on my nails.

I have some Stripe & Sparkle nail art tools by Andrea Fulerton which I bought from Superdrug. They are £4.99 each and even though they may seem a tad pricey, they do last for a long time because the amount of product you are given is quite generous.

What I like about these bottles is that the nail brush in the pot is long and thin, which makes drawing stripes quite easy on the nail surface. The colour pigment is perfect as well, you can paint the stripe on once and it will be visible enough without you having to go over it again.

Also, on the top of each lid are glitter shaker pots - they are perfect and I use them all the time on various designs.

With striping designs you can really use your imagination and mix what ever colours that take your fancy at the time. I used a lovely Champagne shade by Models Own and then a black shade of nail art paint to create the stripes, followed as always, by a decent lick of clear top coat. To change it up a little bit, I painted a couple of nails in black by Rimmel and then used Andrea Fulerton's gold nail art striping paint to create gold tiger stripes on top.

Tiger Stripes Nail Art

Let me know what you think!

lvy <3

Nail Art with Nail Striping Tape

Dedicate some time to experiment with Nail Striping Tape:

I found some nail striping tape when I was doing some online shopping on the New Look website. I decided to randomly add it to my basket so that the total amount would enable me to qualify for the free p&p offer that they had at the time.

I'd not given nail striping tape much thought before, so I must admit that I didn't try it straight away. However, when I got a bit bored one day and had a lot of time on my hands, I decided to give it a whirl to see how I'd get on with it.

I paid £2.99 for it. I think Topshop stock this particular brand as well, but as with a lot of nail art tools, you can easily find striping tape online, you just have to search for it. Amazon and EBay are quite good for these kinds of things.

Nail Striping Tape

As you can see, each roll of tape is quite narrow, so you may find working with the tape quite a fiddly experience, but luckily I have nimble fingers so I managed to get the hang of it after a while.

All you need to do is cut the tape to size and apply it directly to your dry painted nail and trim any extra length away from the nail. It is as simple as that. Press each piece of tape down well and when you are finished, apply at least one coat of clear top coat over the top to seal it in and to add a glossy shine.

You don't need to be highly skilled to work with Nail Striping Tape, you just need to be patient and set aside plenty of time for it. You definitely don't want to be in a rush to go out when you decide to start on this kind of project!

Here are some pics from the first time I used Nail Striping Tape. The colour I used to paint my nails was a lovely deep purple navy colour from Barry M.

How did you get on with your nail striping tape and where did you buy yours from?

lvy <3

GOSH Glitter Nail Dust

The possibilities are endless with GOSH Glitter Nail Dust!

I have used just regular craft glitter before but quickly gave up with that stuff because each flake was too bulky. It didn't matter how many layers of clear top coat I applied, I just couldn't flatten out the rough edges of each flake and so each nail surface ended up being quite bumpy and rough.

GOSH Glitter Nail Dust

I stumbled across this glitter nail dust in Superdrug. It's by GOSH and is quite pricey at £3.99 for a small pot. There are several shades to choose from so you do have to stop yourself from buying them all!
I chose gold and also a pot of ruby coloured dust.

You can dip a freshly painted nail directly into the pot to create glitter tips, or even sprinkle some of the glitter dust onto a wet nail. I also like to sprinkle some dust sparingly over freshly painted nail art to add a little sparkle and life to my creations.

Below are some pics of gold glitter dust lightly sprinkled over a glossy black nail paint from Rimmel. I like to sprinkle the dust onto a layer of wet clear top coat and after that has dried I apply a second layer of clear top coat to seal it in and to add shine.

Rimmel Nail Polish in Black and Gold GOSH Glitter Nail Dust

I like this stuff because a little does go a long way. You don't have to buy fine glitter dust from this particular brand - you can buy it online, you just need to search for it and be sure that you are buying fine dust rather than the bigger glitter flakes that I find are harder to work with. Some of the online images are hard to make out!

The reason why I bought it from GOSH is because it was readily available at the time and also it was just to to try it and see if I would be able to get on with it - in the future I'll most likely buy it from somewhere else too.

Where do you buy your glitter nail dust from?

lvy <3

Newspaper Nails - How To

How to create your own Newspaper Nails:

I remember seeing newspaper nails for the first time and I instantly thought 'Wow! I want!' But like with my first encounter with the galaxy nails, I didn't attempt this style for a very long time because I thought it would be difficult and also I wasn't too sure how to do it, or if it would be worth finding the rubbing alcohol needed to do it.

So is it worth it? Yes! And all you need are the following items:

Your chosen nail paint; clear base and top coat; an article of your choice from your favourite newspaper; a small pair of scissors to cut the newspaper to size and some rubbing alcohol/surgical spirit.

I tracked down some surgical spirit at Superdrug but had to buy it online because they didn't sell it in my local store. It was only £1.35 for 200ml and luckily they were offering free p&p at that time, so I was pretty happy despite having to wait a short period of time for it to arrive before I could finally get cracking.

To create my newspaper nails I decided to get the preparation work out of the way first. On my commute to and from work there are free newspapers that I can pick up, which is great, because to make this nail art more fun I decided that I would always use cuttings from an article that is on topic and hot off the press.

Choose an article of your choice, preferably one with decent sized font where eat letter would be easily readable on your nail. Cut out 10 nail sized cuttings, for me, each one a little larger than the size of your nail.

Once you have done that, you can paint your nails. Apply base coat, then the colour of your choice and be sure to let each coat dry fully.

Now for the fun part! I opened the spirit bottle and poured the liquid into its own cap (quite handy), the amount you use should be just deep enough to fully cover each nail. To transfer the newspaper font from the cutting onto the nail, dip your painted (and fully dried) nail into the spirit for no longer than 5 seconds (you don't want your polish to melt) and then gently press a newspaper cutting onto the nail before gently peeling it off to reveal the nail art. Be careful to directly apply the cutting onto the nail without slipping or dragging it across, or you will end up smudging the print across the nail.

Repeat this process with the rest of your nails.

Allow each nail to dry for a few minutes before applying a clear top coat to add a glossy look and also to protect your hard work.

Newspaper Nails

The nail paint I used was a lilac pastel shade by Revlon and the article I used was from the paper that I had picked up on my way home from work that day - Red Bull and Felix Baumgartner's freefall jump from the edge of space! Other nail colours I have also tried this art on are a peach pastel shade and a white pastel shade by Barry M. I must say, it comes up really nice against the white! You should try it.

Let me know your thoughts on Newspaper Nails and your first time experiences with this too!

lvy <3