Watermarble Nail Art - Monthly Challenge

Last month I took part in a monthly nail art challenge, not only is there a different theme every couple of days, but I'm doing bestie twin nails for every theme! The theme for the 23rd of September was Marble and I collaborated with @fun.nails.love from IG. We wanted to create a mermaid tail kind of watermarble but both use a different colour scheme. I went for pink and Galia went for purple!

I didn't create a tutorial, honestly dipping my hand in the water and all that clean up... I think it would turn into a huge mess!!

I started off with a white base - 'Ard As Nails White Van Girl.

I then applied a HUGE amount of Practical Magic by Charming Tale around my nails. It's a liquid latex and will REALLY help with clean up.

For marbling I use room temperature bottled water. This works best for me. I added drops from 'Ard As Nails Sharona (nude), Juju (barbie pink) and Gregory's Girl (berry). The polishes spread really easily on the surface of the water. The only one that didn't spread as well was Juju, but I didn't really have any issues.

To get these really thin lines I first drew the floral design. Then I dragged it back and forth. This way the colours are mixed better. I wasn't 100% happy yet so I actually dragged the polish up and down to get the lines even thinner.

I then dipped my fingers in the water (one by one!), removed the liquid latex and did a little bit of cleaning around my cuticles. I finished off with a glossy topcoat.

That's it!
xx

Fav Song Nail Art - Monthly Challenge

The theme for the 15th of September was Fav Song.

This month I'm taking part in a monthly nail art challenge. Every couple of days there is a different theme. On top of all that I am doing #bestietwinnails for every theme! For the 12th I collaborated with Gemma from @_nailgems_.

Thinking of something to do for favourite song was difficult enough, but to do something together.... no way.

So I decided to think a little (a lot) outside the box and think of children's songs... which then lead to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star... and galaxy nails.

Makes sense right?!?

I do have a tutorial of these coming up on my YouTube channel and as soon as it's ready I'll post the link here :)

I started off with a dark blue base. I used The Lacquer Lab Blue Jean Baby.

I used a liquid latex around my nails and stared sponging on random colours. I used Nail Mail's Mess Free Mani.

I wanted to have quite a bright galaxy so I used lots of brighter blues and a pink.

I started off by sponging on white, just to make the other colours pop.

Next I sponged on Barry M Guava - the polish I'm holding in the photo. This is a great bright pop of colour!

I then applied Ulta3 Fruit Tingle a bright neon pink.

This was followed by Barry M Blue Grape. This is a dark cobalt blue and I used this just to mix the other colours into the background.

At this stage, it looks pretty rubbish! But adding a glitter topper makes ALL the difference. I used Barry M Diamond Glitter and it's a stunning silver holo. This is probably my most used polish of all time.

That's it!

xx

Mermaid Nail Art Born Pretty Store Review - Monthly Challenge

Today I have another nail art design to show you from #clairestelle8sept monthly challenge!

This month I'm taking part in a nail art challenge where every couple of days there is a different theme. To make it even crazier, I decided to do bestie twin nails for every theme!

The theme for the 12th of September was Mermaid and I collaborated with Bethany from @bnailedtoperfection. We decided on doing the mermaid design on the middle and ring fingers and using shell studs on the pinky and index finger. And our general theme was blue.

I loved how both of ours turned out!

I didn't create a tutorial on these, however I have something very similar on my channel already here!

Check out all my other designs for this challenge here!

I started off by painting my outer 2 fingers black and my middle 2 fingers white.

I applied a fast drying topcoat to my middle and ring finger and waited for a good 10 min before doing anything else.

I applied some liquid latex around my nails (Charming Tale Practical Magic) and once that was dry I placed the mermaid scale stencil onto my nails.

I first sponged black polish over the stencil. The black base will really make the shimmery polishes pop.

I used a cheap Primark cosmetics sponge and applied Charming Tale The Huntsman and Frightfully Spectacular Orinoco Flow in random positions on the sponge.

I then dabbed it onto my nail, like any other gradient.

I applied 2 "coats".

When the nail polish was still wet, I gently pulled the stencil off, the liquid latex barrier will peel off at the same time.

For the studs I used this set up studs from Born Pretty Store (#20312). This comes in a case and has all sorts of different studs including stars, hearts, seashells, pointed studs, square studs and much more! Most things come in both silver and gold!

I love that it comes in a little box instead of little plastic bags. It's incredibly easy to keep organised this way!

I used the silver seashell studs. They're super cute and worked perfectly with the mermaid scale design.

I applied a dot of topcoat onto the base of my index finger and pinky. I can carefully picked up a seashell stud with a pair of tweezers and applied it onto my nail.

That's it! I really like how this design turned out! I love the subtle mixed gradient of the mermaid nails and the studs really help bring the look together.

xx Elaine

Mosaic Nail Art Tutorial - Monthly Challenge

This month I'm taking part in #clairestell8sept monthly challenge! Every couple of days there is a different theme. To make it even crazier for myself, I actually decided to do #bestietwinnails for every theme!

Check out the other posts here!

For the 9th of September the theme was mosaic and I collaborated with Shakuh_05 from Instagram.

This design is inspired by @MaryMonkett.

I have a tutorial for these on my YouTube channel!

I started off with a nude base using 'Ard As Nails Sharona.

I then used the dry brush technique and applied brush strokes of different neutral colours. I used Pretty Serious Presence (white), OPI Designer De Better (shimmer), OPI I Sâo Paulo Over There (brown), and just to blend it all together I applied 'Ard As Nails Sharona over the top.

I then applied a fast drying topcoat and waited a good 10 minutes.

I then used a geometric stencil from Nail Mail for the triangle design.

I just applied the whole stencil onto my nail and filled in the triangles that I wanted using a black nail polish - Pretty Serious Absence.

I then carefully pulled the stencil off - while the nail polish was still wet! I waited another 5-10 minutes and then applied a topcoat.

That's it!

xx

Floral Bestie Twin Nails

I decided to do Bestie Twin Nails with on of my friends on Instagram. Bestie Twin nails basically means that you and a friend decide on a design and both create it at the same time! Put it in a collage and post it on instagram.

We decided to recreate this design by @adelislebron, and it was so much more difficult that I originally thought it was going to be!

I started off painting my nails with Barry M Guava, it's one of my all time favourite Barry M's, but I don't really wear it enough. I then used Alpine Snow by OPI to paint the shapes of the flowers an used my Barry M Nail art pen to draw the outline.

I then used a whole bunch of colours to colour in the design. I finished it off by using a mattifying top coat. I'm not sure why but I preferred it matte!

xx Elaine