Autumn Colour-foil

Hi everyone,

Since starting my blog a couple of months ago, I have met so many lovely bloggers on twitter and since getting to know these lovely ladies we decided to set up a group called 'Polish Party'.

Every month we are setting a themed nail design and this month we decided to go for an autumn theme, and the last week of every month will be when we will all post these designs. So far the other girls have gone for super cute animal inspired patterns, and gorgeous leaf designs (you can check out all their blog's from the links at the end of the post!) but sticking to my love of all things vintage and glittery i've decided to go for a foil bejewelled design using autumnal colours...

So for this design you will need a few different things;

- Your base colour - I used one of my favourite new nail varnishes that i've bought recently which is Models Own 'Absinthe' from their gorgeous new Velvet Goth range which you can buy here.

- Nail art foil - I picked this Ciate kit up from asos in the sale for a bargain £8 and in the kit you get a full sized nail varnish, 12 sheets of foil which will last for ages (i only used a tiny square from 3 individual sheets for this design), foil adhesive, and you also get a nail wheel!

- Selection of embellishments; I get all my studs and jewels from ebay as they are so cheap! I used a mix of pearl studs and green, gold & silver jewels for this design.

I wanted to include a swatch of 'Absinthe' on its own just to show off how amazing this colour is!

If you haven't already tried out the Velvet Goth collection from Models Own where have you been hiding!? Its a gorgeous sparkly and super pigmented set of colours which include a black, green, red, blue and purple and each colour gives a unique 2D matte yet sparkly finish! I only used 1 coat of Absinthe in the picture above so you can see how intensely pigmented they are!

Okay, back to the tutorial!

.. Once you've painted your base colour, grab your foil and I used the glue which came in the Ciate kit but i reckon this would work with a little bit of ordinary nail glue as well.

To get the foil affect, dab a bit of glue onto the nail only where you want the first foil colour.. wait for the glue to go a little bit tacky, place the foil shiny side up and press down firmly. Then in a swift movement peel off the foil and your left with a gorgeous effect on the nail!

If you want you can just use one colour foil, but if like me you prefer a more vintage/baroque effect then you can layer up a mix of colours like i have, which looks so nice on top of a deep rich base colour!

Finally, I added a mix of some pearls and different coloured jewels to compliment the foil. This is an optional step and I debated for a while whether to add any jewels because it looked so pretty still without but I decided to go all out and scatter a few on each nail...

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, don't forget to check out the other amazing designs from the rest of the girls in Polish Party below!

Sophie x

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Bird print tutorial

 Hi everyone!

Today i've got a super easy nail art design for you all that only takes 2 quick steps...

All you need for this pattern is your chosen base colour - i've gone for 'Cream Soda' from Ciate which is a gorgeous pale grey with blue undertones - and some bird shaped nail stickers. I'm using the stickers out of a little kit from Bourjois I picked up a while ago. I think it was a free gift when you spent so much on their products, but you can easily get your hands on some stickers from places like ebay or amazon..

So firstly paint your base colour....

Then once your nails are 90% dry (you'll want them a tiny bit tacky still so that you can press the sticker gently into the polish to make sure none of the edges stick up) place a sticker on each nail.. I found it easiest to use a pair of tweezers to pick up each sticker and gently position and press into the polish..

And it's that easy!

All you have to do then is seal with a top coat and your done! This literally took me about 15 minutes, its so simple and is a lot easier than trying to paint the birds on free hand!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, 

Sophie x

NYFW Half Moon

Hi everyone! 

Over the last week I have been hooked on looking at all the coverage from New York Fashion Week, and all the collections - especially Elie Saab's A/W Haute Couture collection - are so stunning! 

But one thing that has really caught my eye is actually the simplicity of the nail art... most designers from Alexander Wang to DVF all opted for simple, classic and chic nails mainly using nudes, white, and sometimes a hint of gold or grey. Seeing all the fabulous pictures has rekindled my love for nude nails as i've been stuck over summer in going for a more floral design so this is something really understated and plain for me....

.. but surprisingly I love it - it's such a simple design but looks really effective!

The 'Half Moon' has been a popular trend amongst nail junkies over the last couple of months and it is such an easy look to achieve! (which is why I haven't done a step by step picture tutorial!)

Heres how I achieved the look;

1) Paint your base colour.. I chose my favourite nude which is Barry M 'Lychee' from their hi-shine gelly range. This is such a gorgeous colour and only took 1 coat for full opacity!

2) Then using a white nail art pen - I chose my trustee Models Own one but any will work -  draw a line along the cuticle at the base of the nail, and then draw your outline of a semi circle (it's up to you how big you want the semi circle shape.. I normally go for about 1/4 the way up the nail) and then simply just fill in the shape with the white paint..

.. and thats it!!

So quick to do but I think it's a nice modern twist on the classic french manicure, and pays perfect homage to NYFW in just two simple steps! ..

This would also look great with a gold glitter as your half moon, and even black against the nude!

I hope you all enjoy this tutorial!

Sophie x

Daisy Mania

Hi everyone,

This week i've decided to do one of my all time favourite nail art designs! This is such an easy pattern to do and requires minimal effort...

All you need for this pattern is a base colour and a white, yellow and black nail art pen. I used my trusted Models Own pens and I cannot rave about these nail art pens enough!! They are by far the best ones on the market today, and they seem to last forever!  

If you haven't got these colours in a pen, you can use a dotting tool to dip into those three colours.. 

(Oh before I forget, please excuse the state of my yellow nail art pen! my mischevious - and far too cute - little dog managed to get his paws on it and decided to chew the lid.. luckily I found him with it before he covered himself in yellow nail varnish.. disaster averted!)

This design works with so many different colours as your base, but I chose a gorgeous green which is 'Mojito' by Essie (made even better by nabbing it for a bargain £1.99 on fragrance direct - check out their website here if you haven't already!) 

I have so much love for Essie polishes, they have a really wide, 'fanned' brush and in just one stroke you've practically coated the entire nail - its make them so quick to work with! 

So once you've painted your base colour, grab your yellow nail art pen and do random dots on each nail.. you can adjust this design to suit you by painting as many or as little daisies as you want! 

Next, using your white nail art pen, paint dots around each yellow centre.. i tend to find 5 or 6 white dots maximum looks best..

At this stage you can leave the pattern like that as it looks so cute by just using the white and yellow

or......

... using your black pen, add a little black fleck to each white petal.

I like to add this little bit extra detail to the flowers and i just find it works really well and looks that tiny bit more impressive.. but depending on how much time you have or how simple you want the pattern, this step is optional! 

Once you're nails are completely dry - be sure to leave extra time if you add the black to avoid the dreaded colour "bleed" - add a layer of your favourite top coat and you're done!

This is such a quick and simple design and can be easily be transitioned through to A/W by using rich dark colours like burgundy and even black as your base colour! 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! 

Sophie x

(p.s. be sure to leave any comments below, and tweet/instagram me a picture - link to profiles on side bar - with pictures of your nails if you decided to try it out for yourself!)