Lace pattern with Rimmel Salon Pro and Barry M Nail Art Pens!

Happy Tuesday!

I still haven’t gotten around to spending an afternoon doing a lot of swatches/nail arty things, so my post schedules are still a little haphazard/flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants styleee. Hopefully in the next few weeks I’ll be able to devote some quality hours to my beloved hobby (although, with two UK trips and a move coming up in the next 6/7 weeks, that's probs unlikely. Nice to have goals though, eh?).

To the nails! Today, I'm showing you some new nail swag, in the form of the new Rimmel Salon Pro polishes, and Barry M's Nail Art Pens!

This swag was a complete impulse buy last week. I was in Boots for my bi-weekly perusal, which usually consists of me staring at all the lovely polishes, and testing my purchasing will power. Said will power went completely out the window once I saw that they recently stocked Rimmel's new Salon Pro range. After staring at all the bottles for an age, I finally decided on Barmy Blue, a new, lovely royal blue colour that I assume is in the core range, and Britpop, a cool blue-green from the Kate Moss shades. 

Just as I was about to walk to the counter, I spied the Barry M stand, and my eyes landed on the new Nail Art Pens, and I nearly mowed down a couple of fellow shoppers to get my hands on them. I limited myself to the black and white ones, as I figured I’d use those more (I've since gone back and bought the pink and silver pens, and I’m currently rattling my brain, trying to think of a good idea to use them for!).

So, I couldn't wait to break these babies open, so once I got home I got to nail artin'! I couldn't decide on what ones I wanted to use first, so I just decided to incorporate them all into this mani! I used Britpop on my thumb and ring fingers, and Barmy Blue on the rest. You could get away with one coat of Britpop, it’s a great opaque creme, but I used two here just to make sure my nails were covered. Barmy Blue is a bit more sheer, but two coats was all I needed for total coverage. I plopped a coat of Seche Vite on top to quick dry the polish so I could test out the nail art pens. I decided on trying my hand at a lace design for the first time, and used the black over Britpop, and the white over Barmy Blue, as I didn't think the black would be very noticeable over that one.

I really like the Rimmel polishes, the polish goes on well and the brush is nice and wide so minimal strokes are required (same as always with these bad boys). The star of the show for this one is the Nail Art Pens for me though. I absolutely LOVE these, they are going to completely change my nail art for the better. I’m still struggling with getting to grips with using the small, thin brushes for my art, but these pens are so easy to control, and I know I’ll be using these a lot! I'm particularly looking forward to trying out circular/spiral shapes, as they are my nail art kryptonite when it comes to using brushes! I really hope Barry M decide to release these in a bunch more colours, because they really are brilliant.

I hope y'all liked these today, and apologies for the wordy post! I just felt like adding a bit of a review on these I guess, particularly since I love the pens so much :)

Thanks for reading!

Ciao for now x

Nerdy Nails Issue 7: Legend Of Zelda

It’s the weekend! Which means more Nerdy Nails! I have to say, I always look forward to the end of the week and getting stuck into my geeky nail art. It doesn’t always turn out how I imagine, but I love getting the proper art practice in, and I love figuring out the best/easiest way to draw a particular idea.

This week, I've picked one of my favourite video game franchises, Legend of Zelda! This Nintendo classic has been around donkeys years, but I only started to fall in love when The Windwaker came out on the Nintendo GameCube. A great fantasy take on the classic average boy on a quest to save the world from the bad guy, and saving the girl in the process. As always, I've listed each design and colours used to save word space.

Vintage Pattern

Howdy peeps! The start of another week! I hope everyone has some fun-filled things planned to break up the working week.

I've been a bit strapped for time lately, and for me, the easiest way to get some nail art in that isn't going to take hours is usually to go with some stamping. It's been a while since I had the stamping plates out as well, so I was looking forward to getting stuck in.

Nerdy Nails Issue 6: Avatar: The Last Airbender

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Howdy peeps! Time for another issue of Nerdy Nails! After the unexpected hiatus last week, I decided I would come back with an idea I've had and have been wanting to paint for ages. These are in tribute to one of my favourite animated shows, Avatar: The Last Airbender!

17 Rock Hard Nail Effects swatch

Hi there!
I must apologise for the quietness of the blog in the last week, I'm a bad blogger! I've had a crazy couple of weeks, with very little time to myself in the evenings, so unfortunately I didn't have time to write up posts or even properly paint my nails! Thankfully, the madness has abated now, so regular posting will resume once I've caught myself up and have time to get some serious nail art going!

Today I’m showing you some pics I took a couple of weeks ago of a textured polish from the Boots brand, 17. This is one of their rock Hard Nail Effects polishes, their version of the popular textured polishes available these days. There are 4 colours, black, grey, red and blue, and I decided to go for the blue one.

This is two coats with no topcoat. I decided to jazz my thumbs and ring fingers up a little with a snakey stamp from an Essence stamping plate and Barry M Silver Foil.