Spray On Nail Polish??? Nails Inc The Paint Can

Before becoming a nail technician I remember the struggle of painting my nails. Polish everywhere, the shaky hand, realising I now have to paint the opposite hand, NIGHTMARE.

Fast forward a few years and technology has finally come through for us ladies in the form of Nail Inc's The Paint Can. Its nail polish, in a can. OH MY GOD WHY DID I NOT INVENT THIS MYSELF.

Lilac Sparkle Nails

                 

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

Purple Leopard Print Nail Art (Shellac)

I apologise for the lack of posts lately, I've been feeling a bit meeh and uninspired. 

I've always loved the look of leopard print nail art so one day when we weren't too busy in work I decided to give it a try on my own nails. I was actually quite proud of how well it looked!

I basically started off with a lilac shade, I used Shellac because I wanted it to last. Once all my nails were dry I just dotted on the pink with normal nail art polish, and dabbed the black around the pink using a black nail art pen. The good thing about this is it actually looks better messy. At first I did the lines quite neat and it didn't look as good so I basically just dabbed the black around it messily. My right hand looked a lot better than my left (I'm left handed) and it literally took me like 5 tries to get the left hand right haha.

Other than that, Its sooo simple to do like you honestly just have to copy from a photo. 

Emma xo

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

NOTD - Whirled Away

I've been loving Essie Cute as A Button lately, I've been wearing it non stop. As I was going out I decided to 'jazz' it up (yes I did just say jazz it up). I hadn't used China Glaze Whirled Away in a while so decided to go with that. 

I really like the combination.

What I don't like is having to remove it. Its as hard to remove as glitter polish,

The colour underneath comes off but the actual sequin pieces don't/

To remove those, I use a nail file to buff at my nail and pick them off too.

Emma xo

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?

DIY Pamper: At Home Full Manicure

You'd think as a Beauty Therapist I'd have done a post on this already but NOPE apparently not!

I LOVE doing little pamper sessions at home. 

First of all, why is it important to have regular manicure? 

Its always nice to keep your nails neat and tidy. No one likes looking at bad nails. Also, manicures can help nail polish apply and look a lot nicer on your nails, especially without all the nasty cuticle-ness (I'm pretty sure I just made up that word).

Please excuse the awful photos, I did this at night so had to resort to artificial lighting.

So lets just get straight into it. 

 1: Wipe down your nails with a cotton pad soaked in nail polish remover, this is necessary even if you don't have any polish on your nails to remove oil.

 2: Take a hand or cuticle cream and apply it to your cuticles. I like to use Soap & Glory's Hand Food.

3: Massage the hand/cuticle cream into your cuticles. This will help to soften them a little.

4: Take an orange wood stick and cover the top in cotton. Gently push back your cuticles as well as you can.

5: Take a cuticle remover (I got mine from Sallys) and place a drop of your cuticles. This stuff is very strong so be careful. It basically dries out your cuticles making them easy to remove with the knife (see below)

6. Take a cuticle knife and CAREFULLY in circular motions scrap it alone your cuticles to remove. Be extremely careful not to cut yourself. If you're paying attention and going slowly in circular motions you wont hurt yourself. AFTERWARDS, this part is important, make sure to wipe your nails/cuticle bed down with a wet cotton pad to remove the cuticle remover. If not it will continue to dry out your nail bed and skin. Only wet cotton will remove it.

7: Finally apply a nail polish of your choice. I decided to apply a nail strengthener as my nails have been peeling a lot lately. 

And that's it! So now you have no excuse to have bad nails!

If you have any questions you can leave them below or email me via the Contact tab at the top of the page.

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

Essie Chincilly

So a while back I won a box of goodies in a giveaway (you can see everything here) and one of the prizes was this polish from Essie. Now if I'm honest, this is probably not a colour I would pick out myself, so I'm glad Erica included this as I actually love it! 

Essie Nail Polish in Chinchilly*

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

THE MODELS OWN SHOP IS FREAKING AMAZING

Ok so I know this is a pretty pointless post but when I saw this I just had to share it with you all. Maybe some of you have seen it before (soz I'm a bit late on the bandwagon) but I hadn't and I AM AMAZED. THIS IS THE COOLEST THING EVER.

Its the Models Own Bottleshop at Westfield London Shopping Centre, Sheperds Bush.

Seriously this is the coolest thing I have ever seen, props to Models Own on their creativity. I've never seen anything like this before. Have you?

Have you been here? I WANNA GOOOOO :( 

emma xo

Primark (Penneys) Beauty Fashion Nails

So while in Penneys the other day with my Aunt I saw these black and pink polka dot false nails for the bargain price of €1.50. My Aunt was actually wearing these nails in the black and white version. They were so cheap that I decided to pick up 2 sets and Ill definitely be going back for more to stock up! I'd never buy a pair of €5 or more false nails because tbh Id just end up losing them on nights out etc and would only get 1 or 2 wears out of them. With these, because they're only €1.50 I don't need to worry about losing them!

Each pack comes with 24 nails and a nail glue, now I would recommend picking up a good nail glue in the pharmacy or wherever as the glue that comes with the nails isn't very good (then again what can you expect for €1.50?). I was going to a party and I didn't have time to go get another nail glue so I just used a lot of the glue that came with the nails, they lasted a few hours (tbh I wasn't really doing much) then 2 of them fell off before we left for a nightclub so I ended up pulling them all off in the car on the way!

These do look black and white in the photo but in person they are black and pink.

As the back of the nails aren't numbered, It is quite hard to sort out the nails to find matching ones for each hand so you wouldn't want to be in a rush to apply them! Other than that they're pretty decent nails for €1.50! I'm definitely going to be stocking up on a few more packs. I'm not too sure what other designs they have, these were the only ones in the Primark in Waterford the day I was there.

If you've seen any other designs let me know below! 

Also is there any other 'cheap as chips' false nails you've seen or used? 

Emma xo