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.
After doing my previous post on the gorgeous colour by MUA "U R FAB" and seeing Sprinkleofglitter's post about pink sparkly nail varnish for the summer I decided the create my own version of her summer designs. If you haven't seen the Louise's post you can click HERE to see her beautiful summery polishes. I took the base coat of MUA's "U R FAB" which I have done a blog post on HERE if you wish to see it, I decided to see how the polish looked as a base to some glittery top coats.
The first glittery colour I decided to use was Revlon's Facetts of Fushia which was available in the autumn/winter of 2011 and is a gorgeous and very unusual polish. It is actually I very deep purple/almost black polish with a range of purple glitter segments suspended in the polish. It is a pretty shade but due to the dark colour of the polish it hides the purple/pink underneath so I would say its not really worth using the MUA shade under this glitter polish. But it does make a pretty design if you use this colour for one nail with the rest of your nails in the MUA shade.
Another design is using the blue and silver glitter polish by NYC called "Lights, Camera, Glitter" which is a pretty polish to use over the top of another polish to jazz up the design, which can be seen on the middle finger of the photo below. Although this polish only has very small reflects of purple in the polish which is barely noticeable the finely milled silver glitter really adds something to the design. You can still currently still buy this polish in Superdrug for just under £3...bargain for this sparkle top coat.
Here are all 3 of the glitter polishes that I used over the top of my MUA "U R FAB" polish and I think all of them look amazing, and could all be worn for different events and occasions. From right to left MUA "U R FAB" base colour, MUA & Revlon Facetts of Fushia, MUA & NYC "Lights, Camera Glitter" and MUA & Models Own "Ibiza Mix"
My final glitter colour I have decided to use is Models Own Ibiza Mix which you can currently pick up from Boots, on the Boots website, or in a Models Own store or on their website for £5. I have previously done a blog post on this polish over a yellow base which you can see HERE but I thought I would try it out over this shade too. I have to say that every time I use this polish I fall a little but more in love with it! It is probably the most versatile glitter top coat I have ever used and I just love the way it looks on the nails. Since creating this design and trying it out on one nail I have painted all my nails in this combination and it is definitely my favourite out of the 3.
When I was looking around Superdrug I spotted this beauty on the MUA stand. Although I had been aware of the Love Heart Collection that MUA have brought out I hadn't seen this colour before in the shops, so whilst it was still there I had to snap it up. When I first heard the collaboration I couldn't wait to try them out as they are some of my favourite things, who doesn't love the cute messages on the sweets! I was therefore so excited to the see the label on the top of the polish was in the style of a Love Hearts message, so the packaging was an instant win.
This colour is a gorgeous cranberry/dark pinky colour, called "U R FAB", which is great if maybe you aren't such a girly candy floss pink kind of gal, like me, so this is a nice compromise between a pink and purple. It would also make a nice change from the traditional baby pinks that can be found in almost every shop anywhere in the world, and personally I don't have a polish this colour in my collection. I would be happy to pay more money to find this colour but now I don't have to!
I love MUA products but had never really tried that many of their nail polishes before this one, so I was a bit sceptical as sometimes the low cost of the products can make the quality not so good. But how wrong I was. This is such a glossy and creamy consistency that it glides onto your nails beautifully and with 2 coats is almost completely opaque.
I was also amazed at how quickly this dries, but within at least 2 mins the polish was completely dry with 2 coats on, which is not normally the case for me to get a completely opaque finish, even with a 60 seconds polish. It came as a surprise when I brushed my nail on something, and looking down fearing I had just smudged the polish I was pleasantly surprised that it was already dry! I think that this would be perfect for when your'e in a rush, or a great polish to throw in your bag for touch ups throughout the week.
MUA can be picked up in your local Superdrug store, on the Superdrug website or on the MUA website. Also at the moment Superdrug are having a 3 for 2 offer so why not collect more of the Love Hearts collection, at only £2 each you can't afford to miss this gorgeous collection and I definitely can't wait to pick some more shades up soon!
To celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee here is another nail idea that you can try out over this bank holiday weekend. I started with the same base colours as I did in the first nail design, so if you haven't seen that post yet you can look at it by clicking HERE.
After creating the base for my design using an alternating red and blue design I decided that I wanted to create a different design on the nails to the other designs where I did full block nail colours. You can use any crackle polish for this design and nearly every brand of nail varnish has their own version with a variety of colours, as well as matt and glitter ones.
I have chosen to use MUA's Nail Quake in a grey/silver colour called "Shattered Ice" which I think is a very interesting combination. I chose this silver tone to link back to the Diamond Jubilee, but you could also use a white crackle so that your nails have the red, white and blue theme of the union jack.
I applied this polish relatively thickly to create an overall silver appearance so that the blue and red only peek through the gaps in the polish, so this idea might be better for you if you wanted a more subtle nail design rather than the brighter blue and red designs that you can see HERE and HERE.
The application of the polish was very easy and creates a very unusual effect that no matter how many times you use this polish you can never not be amazed by this type of nail varnish as it magically disappears from your nails. If you haven't tried this kind of crackling polish then you can pick this MUA one up at superdrug, on the superdrug website or on the MUA website for £2.99.
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. 
