H&M Serenity Now

H&M has come out with their own brand of nail polish quite a while ago and ever since I bought Serenity Now I've been using it over any other royal blue! I love the colour, the shine and the formula. It's a jelly-like polish - sheer on the first coat and fully opaque with three coats. It applies really smooth and not at all streaky. I love it.

I decided to create a Dutch style nail art using Orange, Red, White and Blue. I used three coats of Serenity Now on my index finger, ring finger and pinky. Doesn't it look so pretty!?

I applied one coat of Alpine Snow on my middle finger and marbled Alpine Snow, Red Lights Ahead... Where? and A Roll In The Hague.

I originally wanted to do a red white and blue water marble, but I couldn't get any of my blues to marble.




What do you think of the result?
xx Elaine

Floral & Polka Dot Nails - Mani Swap

I decided to do a mani-swap with my good friend @shakun_05 on Instagram. For a mani-swap I choose one of the other persons designs to recreate and they recreate one of mine. Then we put them into a collage and post them on Instagram! This is my first ever mani-swap and I loved it! It was really difficult to choose one of Shakun's designs as she is so talented, but I ended up going for a rose and polka dot design and she recreated my Cath Kidston nails!

I started off applying a base coat on my index finger, middle finger and pinky and my  DIY peel off base coat on my ring finger. Once that all dried, I applied OPI Alpine Snow on my three fingers and Butter London Scallywag on my ring finger. Scallywag is a very dense glitter and is easily opaque in 2-3 coats. It could be used as a topper, but since it's so dense I always just go all out and cover my whole nail. It's super sparkly and beautiful and works great for glitter gradients too!

I used H&M Serenity Now for the blue polka dots and the roses. It has a jelly finish so the dots aren't fully opaque. If I were to do it again I would use Barry M Damson as it's wouldn't leave the dots inside the dots (if that makes sense). I then used Alpine Snow again and a tiny brush to add some detail to the roses and Essie Navigate Her to apply the leaves.

Every since I started instagram (over a year ago!) I have always used Essie Navigate Her for flower leaves. It's the perfect green that isn't too in your face, but just adds a bit of subtle colour. It really completes the look!

I absolutely love how this turned out. And I'm also in love with how Shakun's mani turned out! It's beautiful.





What do you think of the mani's and recreations?
xx Elaine

Abstract Nail Art

I decided to set my own challenge this month: go through all my nail art screenshots on my phone and recreate them. I recreated two abstract designs by @trendypolish, I love all her designs but these two really stood out to me.

One of the things I love about @trendypolish is that she does amazing nail art but it's all very simple and easy to recreate.

This first one is a very simple abstract zigzag design. I used Alpine Snow as a white base for the two accent nails, and H&M Serenity Now for the blue. I love that polish, it's a gorgeous royal blue jelly that's opaque in 3 coats. It's also super glossy. I used my Barry M nail art pen in black to draw the zigzags. So cute!

The second design is very similar. I used Kester Black Tutti Frutti for the purple, it's an amazing formula and opaque in 2 coats. I used Alpine Snow by OPI for the white and my Barry M nail art pen for the zigzags.

I really like the nail art pen, but I'd love to have one with an even thinner tip. If I want thinner lines I usually just end up using a nail art brush, but the pen is so convenient and easy to use.

What do you think of these designs? Check out @trendypolish on Instagram for more great ideas!

xx Elaine