Candy Pink and White Stripe Nail Art Design

I'm back with another nail post!

Today's is a cute and pretty nail art design!

I just want to apologise in advance for the watermarks, I know they're hideous but I've recently discovered they're necessary. I spotted one of my nail photos on google images, when I clicked it, it brought me to some random blog/website where my photo was featured in a post. There was no mention that it was not their photo or any credit given to me, they never even asked my permission to use it. It might not sound like a big deal but I worked hard on that nail design and the fact that google images leads people to that website and NOT me pisses me off. I did the work but they get the benefits. No thanks.

This design is beyond easy. I should mention I had one of the girls in work do it for me because I know I'd mess it up if I did it on myself! Mine is done with Shellac but you can use normal polish, just make sure you wait for the layers to dry before attempting the nail art.

Paint all your nails except the ring fingers pink. Paint the ring fingers white. Draw 3 horizontal lines along your ring finger in the same pink colour used on the other nails. Finally paint a little heart in green on your ring finger. Apply a top coat for longevity and shine. VOILA. Bish bash bosh you're done.

Emma x

NOTD - Pink Princess Nails

Yes these are what I call my princess nails. It was a quiet day in work so I was going to Shellac my nails, the boss' niece who works at recepetion sometimes was very kind and offered to do them for me as it takes 10 times longer to do them yourself as you have to do one hand at a time to get them perfect. She did a really good job for someone who doesn't do them often!

The light pink is Strawberry Smoothie, the bright pink is Pink Bikini, then over the top we put a pink glitter in Grapefruit Sparkle. I think they're so cute :D

Emma

NOTD - Shellac French Paint

One of the perks of working in a salon is of course the free treatments. I love painting my nails, but there's nothing I love more than having someone else do it for me. Especially when its Shellac, I have no patience for sitting around waiting for nail polish to dry. Also, I like that it doesn't chip as quickly as normal polish. I find that normal polish will chip within a few hours, whereas I get about a week out of the Shellac which is pretty amazing considering I put my nails to hard work A LOT.

The other morning I had one of the other girls in the salon do this french paint Shellac polish on my nails. I was seriously so excited all day I could not stop looking at them. I love a french paint I think its classy and just goes with everything.

Emma

Essie - Too Too Hot

Hey guys quick NOTD, I just want to quickly apologise for the lack of posts during the next week or so. I've just started at my new job so I'm trying to figure out a blogging schedule around my hours so please bear with me. So far its going great though, the owners are soooo lovely.

I looveeee this colour. Its the perfect red.

I'd planned on having an OOTD up this week as I was supposed to go shopping with one of my friends today but she ended up having to work today while I was off so we're going to go next week instead!

Emma xo

Neon Striped Nail Tutorial *GUEST POST*

Morning everyone! (or afternoon..or night depending on when you're reading this!)

So this weeks guest poster is Maria from So Marvellous. Seriously this girl is amazing at nails, I mean look at the photos below! WOULD YA LOOK AT THAT? WOULD YA JUST LOOK AT IT! (Thanks Ayydubs for getting me into saying that phrase, I think I'm driving everyone mad saying it!

Anyway, I'm just going to let Maria get straight into the post!

*********************

Hi! I’m Maria from So Marvellous (http://somarvellous.blogspot.com) and I’m very excited to do a guest post for Emma’s blog, especially since that’s my first guest post ever! Usually I post nail polish swatches or nail art on my blog, but for such an occasion I wanted to create something a bit more special, so this post combines both!

I don’t know about you, but I’m really happy that neon is again a huge trend this spring. I love neons and just can’t get enough of them! For a while I’ve wanted to do a manicure using several neon colours, though I couldn’t come up with a good idea. Then I bought this  colourful bracelet and I immediately knew what I had to do:)

How I did it:

Essie - Cute As A Button

LEFT- Without Flash RIGHT - With Flash

Cute As A Button is on the left in the above photo.

Living in a small town in Ireland it's almost impossible to get your hands on Essie nail polish. I'd considered ordering from Fragrance Direct before but to be honest, I didn't like any of the colours. I only had 1 other Essie polish that I'd gotten in a giveaway from a Canadian blogger.

So, you wouldn't believe how excited I was when I saw Sam McCauleys Chemist tweet that they were going to be stocking Essie in a selection of their branches, MY TOWN BEING ONE OF THEM!

The next day, I was in there like swimwear.

The minute I stood in front of the Essie stand it was like the skies opened, the sun shone down and angels started to sing 'AHHHHHHHH' (I may be exaggerating..)

I swatched 5 different colours on each nail. I was going to be good and just get one as at €9.99 they aren't cheap but of course my Mam the enabled was like '€9.99 that's not bad.. sure get two!'' So of course I ended up buying two!

As for the quality, as usual it was great, I find Essie polishes dry extremely fast! I think I'm going to pick up a base and top coat next as my current base coat is all gone and the Essence 'gel like' top coat takes forever to dry!

If you have any favourite colours let me know so I can swatch them the next day I'm at the stand!

NOTD: Ciate Pocket Money

Sorry for the bad photo but it was dark and I had to take the photo as I was taking the polish off afterwards for an interview. Anyway, I got this polish free in Marie Claire, I sent my mother out (I was sick) specifically to get the magazine for the polish, I never usually read Marie Claire! You could choose between this dusty pink shade called Pocket Money or a Gold shade (I can't remember the name).

I was excited to try it as I've never tried Ciate before but I've seen and heard good things.. 

I'm not sure how I feel about this shade. I'm not sure I like the colour to be honest. You need at least 3 coats for it to be opaque. I had 2 on and I could still just see the white tips of my nails through it. 

So I'm a little meeh about the shade. Maybe it will grow on me??

What do you think? Do you think its a bit ugly haha?

Kiko Nail Polish in 372

As much as I love my bright nail polishes, you can't beat a gorgeous nude pink.

Kiki Nail Polish in 372* £3.90 here

Feelin' Dotty - Red and White Nail Art

I was feeling a bit bored today so I decided to try some nail art as doing my nails always seems to relax & entertain me!

Now, It is a little messy as I literally did this in about 10 minutes and took it off afterwards but you get the idea!

I painted my nails red and white alternating between the two. The red colour is OPI Red Lights Ahead..Where? and the white is just a generic no name brand. I need to get a good white nail polish.

To do the dots, you can use a dotting tool that you can buy online or in a store but I just used a hair clip (like below). I opened out the hair clip to about a 90 degree angle and dipped one end into the polish and dotted the polish on my nails. 

Easy and cheap! I just used nail polish remover to clean off the bobby pin afterwards so I can use it again for more nail art! 

I think this would be great as a fun valentines nail look, instead of the typical hearts all over your nails.

You can also change up the colours to whatever you want. I've seen a really nice black and light pink one! 

NOTD: Nails Inc Elizabeth Street

Elizabeth Street is the polish I picked up with my Glamour Magazine. I already have enough reds/blacks and the glitter didn't really appeal to me but I didn't have a colour like Elizabeth Street. I'm so glad I picked this one because I LOVE it.

I did about 3-4 coats to get it opaque but that's just me being fussy about it being truly opaque.

This is my first Nails Inc polish but I'm definitely going to keep my eye out for more to add to my collection.

Which Nails Inc polish did you pick up in Glamour? Or if you didn't get Glamour whats your favourite Nails Inc polish?

Emma xo

NOTD: OPI Red Lights Ahead...Where??

This is my go to red colour! I love it!

NOTD - China Glaze Purr-fect Plum

Because I only have mainly bright nail polishes. I wanted a dark polish for Autumn that wasn't black. I find black to be quite harsh looking on my nails. Although the weird thing is I like it on other people.

I wanted either a burgundy or a plum colour and ended up picking up Purr-fect Plum by China Glaze.

Please excuse my horrendous application. I painted them at 10pm i.e complete rush.

I think I even have finger prints on a few nails. Ohwell, I'll be taking it off tomorrow probably and I wanted to get a NOTD post up! 

Although I was hoping for a more red toned polish I do like this, It's essentially a very dark purple. 

If you can recommend some pretty darkish polishes for autumn then please do share with me! I'd love to try a few more!

Emma xo

Barry M Croc Effect Nail Polish

I for one was obsessed with the crackle nail polish trend. I think I probably killed it with how much I wore it! 

When I saw Barry M were coming out with some new nail effects polishes I was too excited for my own good. 

The Croc Effect polishes come in two shades, a black and a reddish colour.

I love doing the leopard print designs on my nails so to be able to do a croc print using one sweep of a polish is aamaaazzinggg. If you want to see the polish in action you can search for it on google images (I didn't want to steal someone else's photos).

According to the Barry M website its as simple as:

''Apply a base colour, after a few minutes when the nail paint is still a bit tacky apply a coat of Croc Nail Effects. Watch the amazing effect appear in a few minutes. The effect takes a bit longer to appear than the crackle but it is worth it!''

So the application seems to be a little different to the Crackle polishes in that you don't wait for the base colour to dry but I guess at least it takes some time off  the application, that's always a bonus!
 These polishes retail for £3.99.

I'm definitely going to be picking up BOTH of these colours to try. I love painting my nails and trying different designs so you'll definitely be seeing a few NOTD posts featuring these polishes very soon!

Emma xo

China Glaze Nail Strenghtener & Growth Formula Review