Wednesday 31 December 2014

My Christmas Nails



Hello Lovelies, 

Today's post is to tell you all about the polishes I used to create my 'Christmas nails' you'd think having just had a easy Christmas nails series featuring 10 nail looks here on my blog that I'd have used one of those looks and believe me I almost did but then I decided against it, I think I was all nail art'd out if that's even a saying!!

Instead I went for the look in the above photograph, a red sparkly look and I loved it, I have received so many compliments on my nails and lots of people including Cole have asked if I have gel nails, which I take as a huge compliment. I do need a manicure so please ignore my tatty cuticles in the photograph but hopefully you can see how lovely the polish is. 




To achieve the look I used ~

1. Orly bonder base coat, this is my favourite base coat and one I always recommend, it's brilliant. It is expensive but I've had mine for over 12 months and still have some left.

2. Two coats of Ciate Mistress polish, this is a beautiful red polish, this polish belongs to Cole and I have never used a Ciate polish before but I love it, it is easy to apply and drys fast in between coats. 

3. One coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust, I adore this polish, until now Orly's shine on crazy diamonds has always been my favourite glitter top coat but I think this is going to take over, I love how it is finely milled glitter but so so sparkly, unfortunately the photograph doesn't do it justice, it is soooooo sparkly! 

4. A coat of Orly Glosser top coat, this has been my holy grail top coat for years, I love it and it really does make a huge difference, it is expensive but lasts for months and months, I've had mine for almost 12 months and theres still around a third of it left and Cole and Lissy also use it. I feel it makes the difference to the longevity of a polish too. 

I painted my nails on Christmas Eve and as I write this post it's Sunday 28th December and I took the above photograph today, as you can see there are no chips, it has grown out a little at the base of my nails but I think you'll agree it still looks great. I put it down to the Orly glosser top coat, I usually get around 7 days out of a polish apart from Barry M and China Glaze which last around 3/4 days but other brands do usually last around a week without chipping which is amazing and I do think it is the Orly top coat, which I highly recommend you try. 

I hope you liked my Christmas nails, thank you also for all your support and kindness regarding my easy Christmas nail series for 2014, if you missed any of those posts you can find them by looking in the side bar to the right of my blog under 'December' there you'll find each post from December including all 10 in the easy Christmas nails series. 

How did you paint your nails for Christmas? Let me know in the comments.

Thank you for reading, much love as always, 

Zoe x

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Wednesday 24 December 2014

Easy Christmas Nails 2014 - Numbers 9 and 10 - A Festive French and Father Christmas

Hello Lovelies,

Well my easy Christmas nail series for 2014 comes to an end today with numbers 9 and 10 of the series. Number 9 is a 'festive french' look and number 10 is Father Christmas, although I stupidly didn't wait for the nail to dry fully before top coating and I smudged him :( you can still see the design though so forgive my dodgy looking Santa!

So here goes with the final looks, first of all, number 9.

A Festive French



What you'll need 

1. A pale pink polish for the base, I used Rimmel 445 Brit manicure.
2. A white polish, I use Barry M nail paint in white.
3. A red polish, I use Barry M bright red.
4. A green polish, I use Barry M spring green.
5. A silver glitter polish, I use Barry M silver glitter.
6. Dotting tools, I use ones from e-bay.
7. A base and top coat of your choice.

How to create a Festive French

1. Apply a base coat.
2. Apply 2 coats of the pale pink polish, allowing each coat to dry fully in between.
3. Apply 2 coats of white polish to the tips of the nail, allowing each coat to dry in between.
4. Using a dotting tool or cocktail stick/bobby pin and the red and green polishes, make dots in a line along the bottom of the white polish.
5. Once the red and green dots are dry, using the glitter polish and a dotting tool, place dots of glitter between the red and green polish.
6. Once the nails are fully dry apply a top coat of your choice.
7. All done!

I think this is the look I am going to go for on Christmas day, it looks lovely, I did smudge a little as you can probably see but it is a lovely look and one that will look amazing on every nail I think or you could have a french manicure and do this look on the ring finger as an accent nail too. 

Keep reading for look number 10, Father Christmas.

Father Christmas

 


What you'll need

1. A base and top coat of your choice.
2. A white nail polish, linked above.
3. A red nail polish, linked above.
4. A pale pink polish, linked above.
5. A black nail polish, I use Barry M nail paint in black, available for £2.99.
6. Dotting tools, linked above.

How to create Father Christmas Nails

1. Apply a base coat of your choice.
2. Using the pale pink colour, apply 2 coats allowing each coat to dry fully in between.
3. Using the red polish, paint the tip of the nail, use 2 coats of red allowing each to dry fully in between.
4. Using the white polish, at the base of the nail make a half moon shape to create the beard.
5. Using a dotting tool or cocktail stick/bobby pin create the moustache.
6. Using the white polish and a dotting tool create the white "fur"at the base of the hat, I use 2 coats.
7. Again using the white polish, make 2 dots for the eyes.
8. Using the black polish and a dotting tool or bobby pin/cocktail stick create the mouth and place 2 smaller dots on the white dots to finish the eyes off.
9. Using the red polish and a dotting tool, create the nose.
10. Once fully dry, apply a coat of your favourite top coat.
11. All done!

How cute is he? Mine is slightly smudged as I said because I stupidly didn't let him dry before top coating, this is my very first attempt at Father Christmas nails and I worried it wasn't good enough to show you but since this series is for beginners I thought I would. I hope you like him. 

Both looks are nice and christmassy, obviously the Father Christmas is much more festive just because of what it is but I think they both look nice and again the Father Christmas can be used as an accent nail or on every nail. 

And that's it, that's the last in this years easy Christmas nail art series, I hope you've enjoyed the looks I created for you and if you do re create any of them, I'd love to see them so if you don't mind, please send me a picture of your creations :) I love to see them. Some of my photographs have looked blurry in this series, I apologise and this isn't something that has happened before, I am going to look into it and hopefully my photos will be clear from now on, I do hope it hasn't spoiled anything in this series for you.

I've had a lot of fun doing this series and I hope you've had fun reading the posts too. 

I shall be back with another post soon but for now all that's left for me to say is, have a lovely Christmas and thank you for all your support over the last year, it means the world to me. 

Happy Christmas everyone 

Zoe x

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Tuesday 23 December 2014

Easy Christmas Nails 2014 - Numbers 7 and 8 - A Snowman and a Pudding

Hello Lovelies,

Today I have numbers 7 and 8 in my easy Christmas Nail art series for 2014.

A snowman and a pud, so as I say in my you tube video's, I'll crack on with the post :)

A Snowman


What you'll need

1. White nail polish, I used Barry M nail paint in White, available HERE for £2.99.
2. Black nail polish, again I used Barry M nail paint in Black, available HERE for £2.99.
3. Orange nail polish, I used Collection polish in Orange Zest, available HERE for £1.99.
4. A base and top coat of your choice.

How to create a snowman

1. Apply a base coat of your choice.
2. Apply 2 coats of white nail polish allowing each coat to dry in between.
3. Using the black polish and a dotting tool, create 2 dots for the eyes and around 5 or 6 for the mouth.
4. Using the orange polish and a dotting tool or cocktail stick create a small triangle shape for the nose.
5. Once the snowman is fully dry apply a coat of your favourite top coat.
6. All done! 

This is really easy to create but looks great and can be used as an accent nail or on every nail depending on what you prefer. keep reading for the next nail look :)

A Pudding

What you'll need

1. A brown nail polish, I used OPI suzi loves cowboys, available HERE for £7.95.
2. A white nail polish, I used Barry M nail paint in white, available as above. 
3. A red nail polish, I used Barry M bright red, available HERE for £2.99.
4. A green nail polish, I used Barry M spring green, available HERE for £2.99.
5. A dotting tool, I use a set from e-bay that were £1.95 inc P&P, you can find them HERE.
6. A base and top coat of your choice.

How to create A Pud 

1. Apply a coat of your favourite base coat.
2. Apply 2 coats of brown nail polish allowing each coat to dry fully in between. 
3. Using the white polish and a dotting tool or cocktail stick/bobby pin create 4 dots around a third of the way down the nail. 
4. Then using the white polish again, create the 'icing' by using the dotting tool to fill in between the dots and fill in the rest of the space where the white needs to go, you can use the brush from the polish for this also dependant on the brush thickness. 
5. Allow the white polish to dry fully.
6. Take the green polish and a dotting tool or cocktail stick and create the holly leaves.
7. Take the red polish and create 3 dots in the centre of the holly leaves.
8. Once fully dry, apply a coat of your favourite top coat. 
9. All done!

Both these looks are really easy to create, the pudding is harder than the snowman and more time consuming but looks good, I made a mistake with my berries and should have put them in the middle of the holly leaves and not on top of as the colour isn't as vibrant as I'd have liked but this was my first attempt at a Christmas pudding. 

Both looks are great for Christmas and can be used as accent nails or on every nail dependant on your preference. I hope you enjoyed both looks. 

I have looks 9 & 10 coming up tomorrow and an appearance from the man himself so keep an eye out for those. 

Thank you for reading, much love as always, 

Zoe x





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Easy Christmas Nails - Numbers 5 and 6 - Santa Hats and an Updated Sparkly French

Hello Lovelies,

Today I have 2 nail looks for you in my easy Christmas nails series, numbers 5 and 6. Number 5 is an updated look of the sparkly French manicure I showed you for look number 2.

An Updated Sparkly French - Santa Baby



What you'll need

1. A very pale pink for the base colour, I use Rimmel Brit manicure in 445, available HERE for £4.49.
2. A Red nail polish, I use Barry M nail paint, available HERE for £2.99.
3. A White nail polish, I use Barry M nail paint, available HERE for £2.99.
4. A Red glitter polish, I use Barry M glitter in ruby slippers, available HERE for £2.99.
5. A Silvery glitter polish or any glitter top coat, I use Barry M silver glitter, available HERE for £2.99.
6. Dotting tools or a cocktail stick or bobby pin (hair grip) I bought mine from e-bay for £1.95 inc P&P and they are available to buy from HERE.
7. A base and top coat of your choice. 

How to create Santa Baby nails

1. Following the instructions from Number 2 in my series which can be found HERE, create the red sparkly french manicure look, but don't use a top coat. So follow all steps apart from step 4 and 5. 
2. Once the red sparkly polish is dry, using a dotting tool or bobby pin etc, take some of the white polish and create a line of dots under the red sparkly polish.
3. Once the white polish is dry, take the silver glitter polish and a dotting tool/cocktail stick/bobby pin and create a line of the silver glitter polish under the white polish.
4. Once its all dry apply a coat of your favourite top coat.
4. All done! 

Santa Hats

What you'll need

1. A red polish, as linked above.
2. A white polish, as linked above.
3. A silver glitter polish, as linked above (optional)
4. Dotting tools, as linked above or a cocktail stick or bobby pin.
5. A base and top coat of your choice.

How to create, Santa Hats

1. Use a base coat of your choice.
2. Paint your nails with a colour of your choosing or a french manicure works well with this look.
3. Taking the red polish create a triangle shape, this is easy to do using the brush on the polish, no dotting tools required. Apply 2 coats of the red polish allowing each to dry fully in between.
4. Using the white polish and a dotting tool/bobby pin create the pom pom on top of the hat and also the white at the base of the hat, again I used 2 coats of white, allowing each coat to dry fully in between.
5. If you'd like to, apply the silver glitter over the top of the white polish, this is optional as I think it looks nice both ways, with and without the glitter, it's a personal choice. 
6. Once fully dry, apply a coat of your favourite top coat. 
7. All done! 

I hope you enjoyed both the looks today, both are really easy to create but look great and both are really festive and ideal if you want some Christmas nails but don't want Rudolph's or penguins etc. 

I will have more than 1 look per day leading up to Christmas so I can show you the looks I have created for this 2014 series, so be sure to check my blog or follow it so you don't miss out on any of the looks :)

This series seems to be very popular again as it was last year which is great, I'm really pleased you're enjoying my nail looks. If you didn't see last years Christmas nails series you can find the designs by reading THIS POST

Thank you for reading, much love as always, 

Zoe x


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Monday 22 December 2014

Easy Christmas Nails - Number 4 - Sparkly Christmas Tree


Hello Lovelies,

Today I have number 4 in my easy Christmas nails series for 2014, a sparkly Christmas tree, please forgive the photo quality, it looked fine in my editor etc but now looks slightly blurry but hopefully you can still see the image ok. 

A Sparkly Christmas Tree


What you'll need

1. Green nail polish, I used Barry M nail paint in Spring Green available for £2.99 HERE
2. White nail polish, I used Barry M nail paint in White available for £2.99 HERE
3. Glitter nail polish, I used Barry M nail paint in Diamond Glitter available for £2.99 HERE
4. Dotting tools, a cocktail stick or a bobby pin (hair grip) I use dotting tools from E-bay available HERE for £1.95 inc UK P&P.
5. A base and top coat of your choice.

How to create the sparkly Christmas tree

1. Use a base coat of your choice.
2. Apply 2 coats of the white polish allowing each coat to dry fully in between.
3. Using your dotting tool or cocktail stick or bobby pin take the green nail polish and create dots to make the tree, so place 1 dot for the top then 2, then 3 and so on until you have your tree shape.
4. Using the glitter go over the green dot at the top.
5. Dot the glitter all over the tree but quite sparingly to look like lights or baubles.
6. Once the tree and glitter are fully dry, apply a coat of a top coat of your choice.
7. All done!

This is a super easy look to do but one that looks really effective and very Christmassy, you could if you wanted to use a different background colour but I think white really makes the tree stand out. And you could add a couple of brown dots at the base of the tree for a stump if you fancy. 

I hope you enjoyed this nail look and are enjoying the series so far,  I have some more designs coming up so be sure to follow my blog so you don't miss those, you can follow my blog by bloglovin or GFC, the buttons are in the side bar to the right of my blog.

Thank you for reading, much love as always, 

Zoe x






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Sunday 21 December 2014

Easy Christmas Nails 2014 - Number Three - Meet Me Under The Stars

Hello Lovelies, 

Today I have number Three in my 'Easy Christmas Nails' series for 2014 and to be honest this is a bit of a cheat look but extremely simple ;-) 

Meet Me Under The Stars



What you'll need

1. A base and top coat of your choosing.
2. China Glaze polish in the colour Meet Me Under The Stars available for £3.99 including p&p HERE.

How to create 'Meet me under the stars'

1. Apply a base coat of your choice.
2. Apply 2 coats of the China Glaze, meet me under the stars polish.
3. Apply a top coat of your choice.
4. All done! 

I am cheating really by putting this into my easy Christmas nails series for 2014 and this post is a little tongue in cheek, but it is such a beautiful polish that I couldn't not include it. 

Meet me under the stars is part of the Christmas 2014 collection for China Glaze and I purchased my polish from Nail Polish Direct, I love this website and have been purchasing my nail polishes from them for some time now, it's free UK delivery which is fab and they are a great company. China Glaze polishes are £3.99 which is amazing as they retail at around £10-£14, they also have lots of other brands and most at discounted prices. 

I love this polish, it's a lovely black polish with silver glitter running through it, I used 2 coats of polish for the look in the photograph above. I get so many compliments on this polish and it is one of my favourites for the festive season, so easy but yet so effective. 

If you'd like to check out Nail polish direct and all their amazing discounted polishes with free p&p, you can find their website HERE

Thank you for reading, much love

Zoe x






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Saturday 20 December 2014

Easy Christmas Nail 2014 - Number Two - Sparkly French

Hello Lovelies,

Today I have number two in my Easy Christmas Nail series for 2014. Today's look is a sparkly french manicure and I have three different variations of a french manicure for you.

A Sparkly French Manicure

L-R A silver sparkly french, a red sparkly french and a black sparkly french.

What you'll need

1. A base and top coat of your choosing. I like to use the Orly Bonder base coat and Orly Glosser top coat, both available HERE.
2. A pale pink base colour, my favourite is the Rimmel Brit manicure in the colour 445 available HERE for £4.49 (currently on a 3 for 2 promotion) 
3. A Black nail polish, I used Barry M Nail Paint in Black, available for £2.99 HERE.
4. A Red nail polish, I used Barry M Nail Paint in Red, available for £2.99 HERE.
5. A White nail polish, I used Barry M Nail Paint in White, available for £2.99 HERE.
6. Glitter polishes, I used Barry M glitter in Rockstar (for black) Ruby slippers (for red) and Diamond glitter (for silver) all available for £2.99 HERE.

How to create a Sparkly French Manicure

1. Using a base coat of your choice, apply a coat of base coat and allow to dry.
2. Using the pink base colour (rimmel) apply 2-3 coats and allow to dry fully in between coats. 
3. Using the colour of your choice, either black, red or white apply to the tips of your nails.
4. Using the corresponding glitter polish, apply over the painted tips.
5. Once the nails are fully dry, apply a coat of your chosen top coat.
6. All done!

These are super easy to create but look really effective and the red and black are something different to a classic french manicure but if you do want a different take on the classic french manicure then adding the Diamond glitter gives a real Christmassy look to any french manicure. All the colours look equally as nice on the toes. And when I have worn the red or black sparkly french manicure I have always received countless compliments. 

As I always say, if you do recreate this nail look, please let me know and if possible send me a picture please, all my social media links are under the header 'where to find me' to the right of my blog with click able links in the squares. 

If you missed out on number one in this series you can find it HERE

Thank you for reading, much love as always, 

Zoe x


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Tuesday 16 December 2014

Easy Christmas Nail Art 2014 ~ Number One ~ Rudolph Nails

Hello Lovelies,

If you've been reading my blog for a while (well 12 months at least) you'll know that last Christmas I had an 'Easy Christmas Nails' series here on my blog. Recently I have been inundated with requests from my blog readers and also You Tube subscribers to do the same this year, so here goes, here's number one in my easy Christmas nails series for 2014.

Rudolph Nails



What You'll Need

1. Red Nail Polish - I used Orly Haute Red available HERE for £10.25 but you can use any Red polish.
2. Red Glitter Nail Polish - I used Barry M Ruby Slippers available HERE for £2.99.
3. Light Brown Nail Polish - I used Jessica Buck Naked available HERE for £8.25 (free UK delivery) but any light Brown is fine. 
4. Dark Brown Nail Polish - I used OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys available HERE for £7.25 (free UK delivery) but any dark Brown is fine.
5. Black Nail Polish - I used Barry M Nail Paint in Black available HERE for £2.99.
6. White Nail Polish - I used Barry M Nail Paint in White available HERE for £2.99 (free UK delivery)
7. Dotting Tools - I use dotting tools from eBay available HERE for £1.99 inc free UK delivery but you can also use a cocktail stick or bobby pin/hair grip.
8. A base and top coat of your choosing, I always use Orly Bonder base coat and Orly Glosser top coat both available from HERE

If you have them you could use a Black and a White nail art pen but they are not necessary if you don't have them.

How to create 'Rudolph' nails

1. Taking the light brown nail polish create a dome shape at the base of your nail, leaving a gap at either side so you can see the base colour. 

2. Using a dotting tool or cocktail stick or bobby pin create Rudolph's ears by placing 2 dots at either side of the dome shape you created, using the same light Brown polish.

3. Using a thin ended dotting tool or cocktail stick and the dark Brown polish, create Rudolph's antlers.

4. Using a dotting tool or cocktail stick and some White polish make 2 dots for the eyes, you can if you have one use a nail art pen for this. 

5. Once the White polish is dry, create some 'pupils' using the Black polish and a dotting tool or cocktail stick. 

6. Take the Red polish and create Rudolph's nose, you can do this free hand or use a dotting tool or cocktail stick to draw it in.

7. Once the Red polish is dry, go over the top of it with the Red glitter polish.

8. Once the nails are fully dry, apply a top coat of your choice. 

9. All done! 

This is an easy but really effective look for Christmas, you can choose to have Rudolph on all your nails or if you prefer have him as an accent nail as I have in the photograph above. I got lots of compliments on my Rudolph nails, it doesn't take too long to do but looks great. Always allow your nail art to dry fully before applying your top coat or it will smudge badly an spoil all your hard work. 

I think Rudolph looks great over Red polish but he also looks good on a french manicure or over lots of different colour polishes, it's entirely up to you. 

I hope you enjoyed number one of my easy Christmas nail series for 2014, I will be back with number two for you soon, and don't worry if nail art isn't your thing, I will have lots of variety for you, not just cute Christmas nail art. 

If you do re create this nail look please let me know and if possible please send me a photograph, all my social media links are in the squares under the 'where to find me' section at the right hand side of my blog at the top, the squares all have click able links. It's always really nice to see when you re create the looks I show you. 

Thank you for reading, much love as always,

Zoe x






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