CND Shellac Nail Art - Cath Kidston Blue

One of my most liked and commented manicures came earlier this year with some Cath Kidston inspired nail art from the very talented missgoob on instagram (@missgoob).

If you are a regular reader I'm sure you would have seen the post, but if not then check it out here. My friend Kate loved it so much that she wanted the same design but in a pale blue, and what better blue to do the job than Azure Wish from the new Sweetdreams collection.

Everything was used in pretty much the same way as the last post with just the base colour change.
white - Cream Puff
blue - Azure Wish
pink (on rose detail) - Rosebud
pale pink (on rose detail) - mixture of Rosebud and Cream Puff
green (rose leaves) - mixture of Pretty Poison and Hotski to Tchotchke

(For more info on how to do this design yourself and the original design from missgoob please read the original post)

Which do you prefer? The pink or the blue?

Disclaimer - All products used for this manicure were bought myself, for more info about myself and CND Shellac please check out my disclaimer page here. Once you Shellac you never go back!

CND Shellac Nail Art - Cath Kidston Cuteness

Hello and happy Sunday people! The weather has been so un-Spring like that I thought it about time I got round to some very Spring suitable nails to cheer us up. The kind hand model for the occasion is (obviously) Stacey and after the popularity of her black bow French manicure on my instagram (@brushupmakeup), she decided to beat her record with these babies.

The design came from missgoob on instagram (@missgoob) - a very talented nail artist and cupcake extraordinaire! The original design that inspired me was this one (link):

missgoob used OPI Mermaid Tears for this design
(photo courtesy of @missgoob on instagram)

Stacey loved the Cath Kidston style of this but of course, CND Shellac is limited in it's greens, so we went pink instead and changed up which design went on which fingers.

The colours we used were all CND Shellac:
white - Cream Puff
pink - Rosebud
pale pink (on rose detail) - mixture of Rosebud and Cream Puff
green (rose leaves) - mixture of Pretty Poison and Hotski to Tchotchke

The floral design consisted of two coats of Cream Puff for an opaque white base (curing after each), then rough 'blobs' of Rosebud for the roses which I added pale pink detail to before curing, then the green leaves came last and were cured before topcoat.

The polka dots were done over two coats of Rosebud (curing after each) and made from a dotting tool and Cream Puff, cured, and finished off with topcoat.

The middle finger was simply two coats of Rosebud (curing after each) and two placed diamantés - one 1.5mm round and one 2mm square (from Viva la Nails) turned on its side - before adding topcoat.

And there you have it, nails Cath Kidston would be proud of and last an amazing two weeks :)

Disclaimer - All products used for this manicure were bought myself, for more info about myself and CND Shellac please check out my disclaimer page here. I might not be a professional, but I sure love me some Shellac nail art :)

CND Shellac Nail Art - Negligee with Silver Glitter Tips

Well hello, I am back in the blogosphere, after what seems like an age! I didn't quite anticipate how wrapped up in school I'd get these last two months and woah what a half term it's been. I am very pleased to welcome the half term break next week and have so much to show you guys in terms of nail art and general all round shellac-loveliness :)

Where to begin?! Well for starters, this is a little mani I did on myself back in August but never got round to posting. Introducing CND Shellac in Negligee with some accent nail stickers from Viva la Nails (product code WS02 can be purchased here):

I love this natural clear pink which just makes you nails look quite healthy. It has a slight blue hue to it in comparison to Beau which is a little more pink-y.

After a week or so, me and my heavy handed-ness meant that a little peeling and lifting was evident at the tips, so to hold it out a bit longer I added some silver glitter:

To make the silver glitter mix I used Gosh Nail Glitter in Silver with CND Shellac Mother of Pearl to make a glitter paste, then I used a kolinsky nail art brush to apply it to the tips. I coated the tips twice to get a lovely solid silver glitter effect and then topped it off with top coat.

A glam alternative to the classic boring French manicure don't you think?

Disclaimer - this post is not sponsored by www.vivalanails.co.uk but the nail art products in this review were given to me, by them, free for my consideration. My reviews are 100% honest, as always and I welcome any more freebies to decorate my nails with...if you're offering??!

CND Shellac Nail Art - French, French & more French!

CND Shellac French Manicure with NSM17 holographic nail sticker from Viva la Nails

CND Shellac French Manicure with WS02 white rhinestone sticker from Viva la Nails

CND Shellac French Manicure with diamanté accent nails

 
A few more CND Shellac French Manicure for you lovely people today!

It seems that all my friends are booked up with weddings/hen parties/holidays etc. so I have been asked for the classic french manicure far more than ever - in fact, I got it down to 45minutes with one friend - ah, so proud of myself!

Anyway, thought I'd show you a few quick pictures of some of the finished looks. At the top is Rachel, she loves a good old french manicure and she was the first to try it out with the Viva la Nails white rhinestone stickers here so naturally this time she wanted something similar but instead opted for the holographic stickers. Natalie is in the second two pictures, she liked Rachel's first french manicure so went for the same floral stickers with the little centre rhinestone. And in the final three pictures, let me introduce you to my sister-in-law Kayleigh, who went completely bling fantastic with a mock 'Swarovski' manicure. I just used rhinestones from eBay (I think they're 1.5mm but can't say for sure) and stuck them to the top coat before I cured.

I love this classic look and the stickers/diamantés add just a hint of something different. I especially like the floral sticker with the rhinestone built in as it is less raised on the nail bed and blends in better.

In all of the above I used one coat of CND Shellac Beau for the base colour and added one coat of CND Shellac Cream Puff for the tip. Then added the following nail art accordingly:

Viva la Nails White Rhinestone Stickers WS02 are £1.95 get them here
Viva la Nails Holographic (metallic) Nail Stickers NSM17 are £1.95 get them here
There are loads of diamantés on eBay but the ones I got were like these about 99p for 200.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer - this post is not sponsored by www.vivalanails.co.uk but the nail art products in this review were given to me, by them, free for my consideration. My reviews are 100% honest, as always and I welcome any more freebies to decorate my nails with...if you're offering??!

Viva La Nails Nail Art - Stickers

Following my last post on the Viva La Nails Water Decals (or nail tattoos to you and I) I thought I'd show you some other manicures I've done but this time with their stickers. As I mentioned in my last post I received some samples from a company called Viva La Nails around a month or so ago and decided to try them out - if you also have a blog/website/you tube channel dedicated to nails then check out this free sample pack that they offer for review, worth £12 (£2.95 P&P charge does apply though):

Viva La Nails sample pack - get yours here

Rhinestone Stickers WS02

Heart Stickers (no longer available)

CND Shellac Hot Pop Pink with Heart Stickers

CND Shellac Beau and Cream Puff with Flower stickers WS02

In the sample pack I received three sets of nail stickers and three sets of Water Decals (see previous post here). Having already tried the tattoos out on myself, I had a couple of friends who wanted to try the stickers. So let me introduce you to Stacey and Rachel....


Stacey (I'm convinced) is actually addicted to Shellac manicures! Ever since I did her first one a few months back, she's been regularly asking for more, so of course I obliged with the cute heart stickers that paired perfectly with my new Shellac shade Hot Pop Pink. To apply, I did the full Shellac manicure as always, but just after curing the second coat of colour, I put on the stickers and some extra diamantés, and then applied the top coat. These look gorgeous on, but the stickers started to lift as the top coat were curing, so didn't leave a smooth finish and I had to apply two coats to try and stop the stickers from catching and lifting more. It hasn't put me off trying more stickers though - what I think I will do next time is use a little nail glue to make sure they are well and truly stuck flat. 


Secondly, Rachel wanted to treat herself to a second Shellac mani after she loved her first one so much. So for her Birthday treat she went for something a little more classic and opted for my new Shellac shades of Beau and Cream Puff as a french manicure and then added a little diamanté sticker to each ring finger. I applied these in the same way as Stacey's and actually had no trouble with them lifting this time. The WS02 stickers are perfect for adding a little elegance, especially to a french manicure, and as Rachel said herself, it would make a perfect bridal manicure.


If you want to get yourself some nail stickers then check out all of the designs at Viva La Nails and take advantage of their 20% off Easter Sale!

To get 20% off ALL nail products at Viva La Nails use the coupon code EASTER20
at the checkout but hurry as this promotion is only valid until midnight on Monday 9th April!

Disclaimer - this post is sponsored by www.vivalanails.co.uk and the products in this review were given to me free for my consideration. My reviews are 100% honest and I assure you that I really do love these quirky nail art designs. I, of course, welcome any more freebies to decorate my nails with... Failing that I hope to be purchasing some myself in the future :)

Viva La Nails Nail Art - Water Decals

Wow! I have a serious backlog of nail posts to do! So I guess I better get started before I run out of Easter holidays to do them in...

First up, I wanted to show you some recent manicures of mine, courtesy of a company called Viva La Nails. I received some samples from them around a month or so ago and decided to try them out - if you also have a blog/website/you tube channel dedicated to nails then check out this free sample pack that they offer for review, worth £12 (£2.95 P&P charge does apply though):

Viva La Nails sample pack - get yours here

Viva La Nails Water Decals COL03 and COL17

CND Shellac Beau and Water Decals COL03

CND Shellac Cream Puff and Water Decals COL17

In the sample pack I received three sets of nail stickers (look out for a post on them soon) and three sets of Water Decals - or as I prefer to call them, nail tattoos! I decided to try out two of the water decals, over a simple Shellac manicure to see how they fared and I was extremely pleased with the result.

The above two pictures show both of the designs (which I sported whilst my nails were going through a particularly short period). The first was the daisy like pattern over Shellac Beau and the following week I tried the second, the purple pansy pattern over Shellac Cream Puff.

The tattoos themselves were really easy to apply - much like the temporary tattoos you wore as a kid! I found the following steps the easiest way to apply them:

1) Cut out the individual design for each nail keeping the plastic sheet over each as you do so (bear in mind that as you look at the pack of patterns that is how they will look on the nails - not reversed or anything)
2) Turn over each design (so the plastic sheet is now underneath) and wet the back with a piece of damp cotton wool
3) Apply a little pressure then slide the wet backing paper off the design - the pattern should now be on the plastic sheet
4) Take the plastic sheet and hover over the nail you wish to place the design on, when you are happy press down on the nail and then carefully peel back the plastic sheet
5) Gently press down over the design with a fingertip to ensure it is all stuck flat
6) Seal your design with topcoat and Voila!

These lasted really well, didn't come off (until I took off my Shellac) or fade or chip and I am already eyeing up buying me some more - I really like BW05 and COL25.

If you want to get yourself some nail tattoos then check out all of the designs at Viva La Nails and take advantage of their 20% off Easter Sale!

To get 20% off ALL nail products at Viva La Nails use the coupon code EASTER20 at the checkout but hurry as this promotion is only valid until midnight on Monday 9th April!

Disclaimer - this post is sponsored by www.vivalanails.co.uk and the products in this review were given to me free for my consideration. My reviews are 100% honest and I assure you that I really do love these quirky nail art designs. I, of course, welcome any more freebies to decorate my nails with... Failing that I hope to be purchasing some myself in the future :)