Today is Day 12 of Makeup Savvy's Nail Challenge and todays theme is striped nails, if you don't know what I am talking about then you can see more info on, or if you want to get involved yourself you can find all the information HERE. I also did the challenge on day 6, 7, 10 and 11 so if you want to see my glitter nail post then you can HERE, if you want to see my neon nails you can HERE, if you want to see my gradient nails you can HERE and if you want to see my metallic nails you can HERE.
Okay so today's theme is stripes and I know what you are thinking when you look at the picture, I know I have used dots but I have made the pattern of stripes. I am not good at creating the conventional stripe pattern on my nails because my hand is not the steadiest and one of the important things about the stripe is that it is relatively straight, and does not end up being a shaky mess on my nail, which mine mostly is. So to avoid this problem, and to help any of you that are not the best at doing stripy nails, I have created this look which I hope you like, and now I will explain how I did it.
For the base coat of my nails I used this gorgeous colour by MUA called "U R FAB" which is from their love hearts collection. I love this product for so many reasons and I have actually done a separate review HERE so if you want to find out more about this product, pricing, where to buy etc then you can but in short: the colour is so unique, the application is amazing, the opacity is great 2 coats is plenty to create an opaque nail and the drying speed is amazing. I am a massive fan of MUA anyway as they are so affordable and when I got this I was bracing myself to not be impressed with the polish because it was so reasonable, but I have to admit if I had paid more money for this product I would not have been disappointed, so if you are near a Superdrug any time soon check out the MUA stand.
After the base coat had dried I used a white polish to create the dotted effect on my nails, the white I used was from a Primark set from a while ago but any white polish will give the same effect. A lot of you may think that this design can only be achieved if you have a nail dotter or another nail tool, which is not the case at all. I simply used a bobby pin, or a hair grip which ever one you call it, which if it has the tiny little grippy bobble on the end of the grip will do this effect, you can pick these up so cheaply from most stores so it is a cheap but very effective alternative to a nail dotter or nail tool. Just dip this bobby pin into the nail varnish and then create the design on the product. Simple. Obviously the more product on the end of the grip means the larger the dot, so you might want to vary this depending on which nail you are doing.
I then created 2 lines of these dots down the central third of my nail as the first part of my striped nail design. You could just leave the design here as I think it is a simple yet very effective design, and this was my original idea, but I decided to go one step further and add some more dots to create a more patterned nail. You can also vary the colours and designs of these dots to create millions of designs, and when you have mastered the design believe me it is so simple, yet people will always question how you have done this design.
Next I chose to use this gold colour by Nails Inc called Lanesborough Place which is a colour that I also used in my metallic nails design from yesterdays challenge. This is a gorgeous colour and also quite subtle on this design, that adds a little bit of colour but this is not too bright or overwhelming for the nail design. I then added 3 stripes of dots on both sides of the white dots and one in the central part of my nail. I think that this just made the nail slightly more busy and filled up than with just the white stripes, but you could have used more than just 2 colours for this design which might have made the striped design more obvious but I think that this is quite a subtle design.
So there you go, my not so traditional striped nail design, but I think that it is a bit more unusual than the normal striped design and definitely something to try out if you are not so steady handed or do not have time to spend hours doing extremely precise nail art.
If you have entered todays challenge feel free to leave a link to your blog in the comments section below, or feel free to email or tweet your photos to me, all information on how to contact me can be found on the right side of my blog. If you haven't entered today feel free to head on over to Makeup Savvy's page to see tomorrows category HERE and see if you are up for the challenge on Day 13.
Today is Day 11 of Makeup Savvy's Nail Challenge and todays theme is metallic nails, if you don't know what I am talking about then you can see more info on, or if you want to get involved yourself you can find all the information HERE. I also did the challenge on day 6, 7 and 10 so if you want to see my glitter nail post then you can HERE, if you want to see my neon nails you can HERE or if you want to see my gradient nails you can HERE.
So as the olympics is drawing to a close for another 4 years I have decided to base my nails on an olympic type theme as I have selected to use bronze, silver and gold colours reflecting the medals. I have had all these colours for quite a while now but haven't really found myself drawn towards wearing these colours during the summer as its the one time of year I think you can go crazy with colours and patterns, but surprisingly I found I loved this combination more than I initially thought I would, and I think this would be a perfect combination to wear if you are perhaps not such a fan of bright colours this summer.
For my thumb and little finger I used this gorgeous gold colour by Nails Inc called Lanesborough Place. Personally I prefer this kind of gold that isn't too shiny or over the top, I think that this is the perfect gold if you want to be more subtle. Another thing I like about it is that it doesn't have heaps of glitter in which a lot of gold polishes do, and although I am a fan of glitter I think sometimes with golds it can be a little too much. Also you can always add a glitter polish over the top if you want to. In terms of application this was a dream to apply, in 1 coat the polish was basically opaque and dried really quickly. This is a polish I had bought but not used a lot since I bought it, but now I have rediscovered it and will definitely be using this again in the near future, through summer and autumn.
On my index and ring fingers I have gone for this glittery bronze coloured polish by Rimmel London in the 60 Seconds Collection called Star Dust number 530. This is a gorgeous bronze colour which I tend to use more in the autumn than the summer just because it is the perfect autumnal colour, in my eyes anyway, as it is not too dark and not to bright. Going against everything I said about gold and glitter, this polish has a subtle glitter which is finely milled to just add something extra to the polish with being a glitter polish itself. I love this colour and in terms of application 2 coats gave plenty of coverage, this is definitely another polish that I have rediscovered my love for. I also think that the gold and bronze combination could also be another combination if you wanted to stay clearer of the silver tones.
On my middle finger I have used this silvery grey polish again from Nails Inc called Augustus Street. I picked this product up last year in TK Maxx in a pack of 4 for £10 which was a bargain, but after checking on the Nails Inc website they no longer stock this product so I'm not sure where you would be able to currently find this. Anyway, the product is a silver polish with finely milled dark grey glitter which I think is an unusual combination, and what makes this product so unique. But there is a definite downside to this product in my eyes. It dries completely matt which would be fine on its own if you like matt nail varnishes, but when contrasted against the other two colours this looked out of place. Due to the matt finish the product as dries a lot darker than the other two, which is something to bear in mind, so although this product is a gorgeous product the thing that puts be off is the matt finish as even with a top coat, it has a completely different finish to the rest of the nails.
Overall I think this is an nice combination especially for the olympic games, so if you are off to any parties for the closing ceremony maybe you can try out this look that is not too over the top, but is very topical for this time of the year.
If you have entered todays challenge feel free to leave a link to your blog in the comments section below, or feel free to email or tweet your photos to me, all information on how to contact me can be found on the right side of my blog. If you haven't entered today feel free to head on over to Makeup Savvy's page to see tomorrows category HERE and see if you are up for the challenge on Day 12.
Okay so today's theme is stripes and I know what you are thinking when you look at the picture, I know I have used dots but I have made the pattern of stripes. I am not good at creating the conventional stripe pattern on my nails because my hand is not the steadiest and one of the important things about the stripe is that it is relatively straight, and does not end up being a shaky mess on my nail, which mine mostly is. So to avoid this problem, and to help any of you that are not the best at doing stripy nails, I have created this look which I hope you like, and now I will explain how I did it.
For the base coat of my nails I used this gorgeous colour by MUA called "U R FAB" which is from their love hearts collection. I love this product for so many reasons and I have actually done a separate review HERE so if you want to find out more about this product, pricing, where to buy etc then you can but in short: the colour is so unique, the application is amazing, the opacity is great 2 coats is plenty to create an opaque nail and the drying speed is amazing. I am a massive fan of MUA anyway as they are so affordable and when I got this I was bracing myself to not be impressed with the polish because it was so reasonable, but I have to admit if I had paid more money for this product I would not have been disappointed, so if you are near a Superdrug any time soon check out the MUA stand.
After the base coat had dried I used a white polish to create the dotted effect on my nails, the white I used was from a Primark set from a while ago but any white polish will give the same effect. A lot of you may think that this design can only be achieved if you have a nail dotter or another nail tool, which is not the case at all. I simply used a bobby pin, or a hair grip which ever one you call it, which if it has the tiny little grippy bobble on the end of the grip will do this effect, you can pick these up so cheaply from most stores so it is a cheap but very effective alternative to a nail dotter or nail tool. Just dip this bobby pin into the nail varnish and then create the design on the product. Simple. Obviously the more product on the end of the grip means the larger the dot, so you might want to vary this depending on which nail you are doing. 
