Aztec Blue

This design contains two of my favouroite things in nail varnish, Aztec patterns and cobalt blue! In the background is my work bag which is making me feel pretty sad after a lovely week off. Who knows what horrors I will return to tomorrow! Not quite sure how my hands came out quite so pale in this picture but I think it goes quite well with the nail varnish so never mind!

For the Aztec pattern I took inspiration from Pinterest and amended a little. I outlined the pattern in black nail art pen on a plain white base, and then filled in the spaces with black polish and a small nail art brush for a stronger colour. The blue used is Nails Inc's Baker Street which is one of my favourite nail varnishes, they have captured my favourite shade of blue well. I have almost finished my first bottle and have another lined up!

Colours used: Baker Street - Nails Inc, White - Barry M, Nail Art Pen in Black - Barry M, New York Noir - Nails Inc

Nailbox Review: August

Today I am reviewing Augusts Nailbox, which I've been very excited to get my hands on! I ordered the box as a one off to try it out, but can definitely see myself going back sooner rather than later! The box can be ordered here and there are a number of subscription options, the cheapest being £13.50 per month for a years subscription. There is the option to sign up on a month by month basis for £15 if you just want to try it out first like I did.

So unfortunately I don't have any nice artistic picture of the products neatly arranged on/in the box, as the postman left it in our glass collection box behind the bins in the rain, so after a few hours of floating the box wasn't really fit for photos! No christmas card for you Mr Postman! Still, the polish was all safe so thats all that really matters! Below is the contents of this months box, minus the picture card (it was too soggy!), the sweets did not last long!

I was really impressed with the colours in this box and their quality. Perfect colours to finish off the summer, especially for those of you who are lucky enough to be going away in September. The box also included some handy nail clippers and a yummy mini pack of love hearts. I was impressed by the quality of the brands included, and that they were all reasonably sized bottles (all 14 or 15ml).

Nails Inc's Seven Dials (yellow) is a fun sunshine yellow, but is still a nice soft colour, so not too bright or harsh for those of us with pale skin. The polish has a great consistency, and I really really like the brush. Not only is it wide for easy application, but it is a contoured shape (longer in the middle) which makes it fit the nail better.

I was super excited to receive China Glaze's Flip Flop Fantasy (neon coral) as I've been aware of it for a long time, it seems to be a blogger favourite. Definitely the perfect shade for a beach holiday. The colour goes on well and is super bright.

CND Vinylux's Wisteria Haze (purpley blue) was the dark horse of this box for me. the consistency is amazing! I used two coats for the design I'll show you below, but this is also a pretty good one coater. It's quite liquid but without pooling or feeling like it will drip of the brush, and just glides on perfectly. From my experience this is definitely one of the easiest polishes to use.

I finished of my design with CDN Vinylux's Weekly Top Coat. this dried fairly quickly but I did think it was a little runny. To get enough on your brush you have to work fairly quickly to stop it dripping. Easy to get used to though. I think it could maybe benefit from a slightly wider brush to hold more polish.

Now onto the design! I wanted to do something that would involve all three colours so went for this carnival design. not my neatest to date, I think I need some more practise with my nail art brushes, but pretty happy with is as an end of summer design :) I added OPI's Alpine Snow as a white base for the bunting nails, but for those of you who were lucky enough to receive July's Nailbox the white in there should do the trick!

Colours Used: Wisteria Haze - CND Vinylux, Alpine Snow - OPI, New York Noir - Nails Inc, Seven Dials - Nails Inc,  Flip Flop Fantasy - China Glaze, Weekly Top Coat - CND Vinylux

Nostalgic Triangles

So I suppose this is a Throwback Friday... Wanted to put this one up today as it makes me feel nostalgic. I've just got back from a holiday with my boyfriend and his family, and when I returned from this same holiday last year I tried out this nail design. Inspiration found on Pinterest. As it was a while back unfortuntaly I am not sure where from, so if anyone knows do let me know!

I really like the colour combination as it's not one that I would have thought would work. Please excuse the messy edges, this is before my blogging days and these pictures were taken towards the end of the manicure's nail life.

Colours Used: Passion Fruit - Barry M, Wardour Street - Nails Inc, Nail Art Pen in Black - Barry M

Tropical tuesday: Double pineapple!

Today I have something bright to compensate for all this rain! I'm very fond of fruit, and think that pineapples are a excellent subject for nail art as they are so interesting to look at. Therefore for this design I am practicing freehand pineapples. The fruit were painted with a small nail art brush (from ebay!). I like the look it's created, but would like to be able to achieve those beautifully neat designs I've seen on Instagram, they may or may not be stencils, but I think I will need much finer brushes and a bit more practice!

Below I've included a picture of them with my awesome pineapple t-shirt (still available from H&M), because lets face it, who needs double denim when you can have DOUBLE PINEAPPLE!!

Colours Used: Sunny Days - Rimmel, Alpine snow - OPI, Cappuccino - Barry M, Key Lime - Barry M

Pigeon Feet

This design was actually meant to be something a lot fancier, but when I started it and it turned out a bit shabbier I rather liked it so decided to keep going! The pigeon feet were done carefully with a nail art brush, and then the gold was applied somewhat less carefully around the edges. It's a good job i like the artfully messy look!

I enjoyed wearing this as i like having a bit of a pattern going on on my nails to catch my eye, and if nothing else they were good practise!

Colours used: Bramble - Butter London, Cyan Blue - Barry M, Limited Collection Polish in gold - M&S

Tropical Tuesday: Five A Day!

Fantastic Mr Fruit for you today! This one is from a couple of months back, I'd been in quite a long phase of wearing plain colours, and decided I wanted to go all out on the nail art again, glad to say I've not stopped since! The design was done freehand with a little help from a nail art pen for the seeds on the melons, kiwi's and strawberry's. It was great fun to do and I liked the kiwi's expecially as for something so simple to do it looked quite striking. Inspiration was taken from a wide variety of different fruit nails on Pinterest.

When I do this design next I think I will switch the watermelons and strawberries around as it would suit the nail sizes better. That was the orginial plan but I got carried away and started the watermelons on my ring finger without thinking!

Colours used: Passion Fruit - Barry M, Key Lime - Barry M, Coconut - Barry M, Yellow - Barry M, Cocoa - Barry M, Block Your Green - Rimmel, Nail Art Pen in Black - Barry M

Lazy Sunday: Woodland Wonders

Todays nail art picture is probably a little bit autumnal for August, but I think it works for summer or spring too! The mushrooms were done freehand with a small nail art brush and dotting tool. A nice simple one for my untrained nail brush hands! Just paint a few semi cirles onto each nails, some thick white lines for stalks, and then splodge on the white spots. Ta-da!

I went for a low key look with a neutral background colour but reckon this would also look good over a pale blue or green, or black if you're feeling dramatic!

Colours used: Basil Street - Nails Inc, No 19 - L'oreal Resist and Shine, White - Barry M