7 of 7 - Navy Animal Prints

So here is the final post of my ‘seven posts in seven days’ but I will probably be posting again tomorrow too because I’m getting into the routine of posting everyday so it’s going to be weird not posting as often!  I did these nails about 2 weeks ago for 12-year-old Jasmine to go to a birthday party.  She had a gorgeous navy blue dress to wear so we thought we’d have nails to match it! 

For these I used CND Stickey Base Coat, Models Own: Snow White, True Blue, Black Nail Pen and Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat to finish.  I love these nails but we had planned to do leopard print on her toes but after attempting that we agreed to do Zebra stripes instead because True Blue was too dark and so the leopard print didn’t show up very well and looked a bit odd!

6 of 7 - Bright Neon Leopard

If you are reading this my scheduled post worked!  I had loads of compliments about these nails because they were so bright and eye catching, but again the photos haven’t done them justice even though I tried to take photos with and without the flash as you can see:

For these I used CND Stickey Base Coat, Models Own: Sophie’s Pink, Tangerine Queen, Aciiied, Black Nail Pen and Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat.  

Tangerine Queen is an amazing colour!  It almost glows in the dark and would probably look fab under UV lights but is quite a daring shade!  As everyone knows Sophie’s Pink is my favourite shade, so enough said about that lovely colour!  I think Aciiied takes a bit of getting used to as it is quite a bizarre shade but I think it would look great with black.  

5 of 7 - Gold and Silver Leopard

These are the nails I did for my birthday to match the outfit I wore and the photos really don’t do them justice! 

I used CND Stickey Base Coat, Models Own: Gold Rush, Sterling Silver, black nail pen and Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat to finish.

I’m off to Cheltenham for the weekend today so I’m going to try and schedule a post for tomorrow in case I can’t access the internet.  Hope you all have a good weekend!

4 of 7 - Pink, Blue and White

Another short post for today sorry as I’m in a foul mood after reversing into a rock, which has scratched half of my bumper!

For these nails I used CND Stickey Basecoat, Models Own: Hot Pink, Feeling Blue, Snow White, black and white nails pens and Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat.

This design is one of my favourites and of course was inspired by WAH Nails.  I really love designs that have 2-3 colours with different patterns/designs but these designs seem to take me ages because I can never decide what to do on each nail! 

3 of 7 - Cruella de Vil-ish?!

Despite my efforts in trying to get to bed early last night that didn’t happen and I slept late for work today by waking up at 5am (stupid Blackberry alarm is too easy to turn off) but after a bit off a rush I was thankfully only a couple of minutes late!  I also had college tonight and learnt about the health and safety assignments we have to do and then practised how to prep nails for acrylics.  Can’t wait until I can do a full set of acrylics from start to finish!  Anyway, back to today’s nail design…

I did these nails for my friend Danielle because she was going to a wedding and wanted some funky nails to match her dress.  I used Models Own Red Alert, Snow White and black nail pen along with CND Stickey Base Coat and Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat.  

We were both happy with how these nails turned out but I really should have tidied up the edges before taking the photos!  I know without dalmatian spots nothing can be full on Creula de Vil, but they have that look about them don’t they? 

2 of 7 - Magaluf Nails

Just a short post tonight as I’ve got to get up at 4.15 to make sure I’m in work on time!

These are the nails I painted for my friend Billy to go to Magaluf.  For these I used CND Stickey Base Coat, Models Own: Gold Rush, Sterling Silver, black nail pen and Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat.

We were pleased with how these turned out but wish I could have done her thumbnails a bit better!  I love these Models Own shades and they are defiantly my favourite silver and gold polishes out of the ones I’ve used. Will do my next post after college tomorrow night! 

1 of 7 - Colourful Leopard

Here is the first post of my ‘Seven Posts in Seven Days’.  I did these at the end of August after seeing similar ones on the WAH Nails website and as u can see my yellow stained tips (from using Barry M Yellow) were still there but I am pleased to say that they have now pretty much gone.  I’ve also started cutting my nails short because on my nail course we were told that we need short nails so that we can practise on each other so I will be posting more designs for short nails in the future!

For these I used CND Stickey Base Coat, Models Own: Hot Pink, Fuzzy Peach, Feeling Blue, Jade Stone, Lilac Dream, Purple Passion, Blooboo, True Blue, Red Alert, Raspberry Crush and Black Nail Pen and finished with Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat. 

I was very pleased with how these nails turned out and they were quick and easy to do so I’m thinking of doing a ‘how to’ on these later on in the week.

Seven Posts in Seven Days

Hey everyone, sorry for the severe lack of blogging lately!  My laptop charger blew up while doing my previous post and so by the time I sent it back and they sent me a new 1 to my old address (because I forgot to tell them I had moved) it was October by the time it arrived.  Since then I haven’t managed to find time to do much blogging because of my new job and spending time with friends and family.  I’ve also started a part time nail course so some time next year I will be finishing that and hopefully to able to start doing nails professionally!  I’ve done a few nail designs over the last 6 weeks but haven’t taken photos of them all but today I counted that I have 7 so I’ve decided to do ‘seven posts in seven days’ starting from today so look out for the first post later on tonight! 

As every post needs a photo I thought I’d quickly show you what I got from the Models Own 50% sale, which was a bit of a nightmare but I was happy when they all finally arrived:

Pink and Purple Nails

Just a quick post for today because my laptop charger has broke again.  Here are the nails I did for a barn dance the other night:

For these I used Chanel Rose Insolent, Models Own Purple Passion, Black Nail Pen and Snow White, yellow and red nail pens from eBay and Seche Vite Dry Fast Topcoat. 

I got inspiration for these nails off the WAH Nails website.  Overall I’m pleased with these nails but don’t like the hello kitty ones.  My favourite ones are the half leopard print ones on my rings fingers and I’m thinking of doing this on each nail later on today so will hopefully post about that tomorrow!

Ibiza Party Animal

Here is the design I did my friend Danielle who is jetting of to Ibiza in a few hours!  She wanted something using Models Own Coral Reef (which she picked out of my collection within 0.2 seconds) so I thought Top Turquoise would look good with it and a classic Leopard Print. 

I used CND Stickey Basecoat, Models Own Coral Reef, Top Turquoise, black nail pen and finished with a coat of Seche Vite Dry Fast Topcoat.  As you can see I used Coral Reef as the base colour for her fingernails and Top Turquoise for her Toenails.

I hope she has a brilliant weekend and brings the weather back with her!  I’m going to a barn (marquee) dance in a field tomorrow night but after the storm we had earlier on I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that my heels will have to stay home and I’ll probably have to wear my wellies! I’m working on a nail design now to cheer me up and hopefully will be colour coordinated with what I wear tomorrow night!

Crazy Lady Bugs

Today I had a girly afternoon around my mate’s house where I did some friend’s nails.  This is the design I did for Shelly, who wanted something ‘funky like ladybirds’ so we decided to do some colourful ladybugs.  This is what they turned out like (excuse the messy edges):

For these I used CND Stickey Basecoat, Models Own: Sophie’s Pink, Jade Stone, Fuzzy Peach, Red Alert, Lemon Meringue and the black and white nail pens.  I finished these with a coat of Seche Vite Dry Fast Topcoat.  I’m pleased with how these turned out because they look funky and a bit different which suits Shelly down to a tee.  I’ll post the design I did for my other friend tomorrow because I can’t think of a title for them just yet! 

Lastly, over the last two days I've ordered some more polishes from Models Own as their massive (1 week only) 50% sale is on now.  If you didn't already know and would like a piece of the action get yourself over to their Facebook page for more info.  Will post what polishes i got when they arrive! 

What's black, white and red all over?

So I thought I’d be organised and do nails to match an outfit I’m panning on wearing out tonight so it had to be black and red.  I looked on Google images and through my blog for some inspiration and came up with this:

I used CND Stickey Base coat, Models Own: Red Alert, Scarlett Sparkle, Black Magic, Mixed Up, Snow White, the black and white nail pens and a red nail pen that I got from eBay.  As usual I finished with a coat of Seche Vite dry fast topcoat.

I am really pleased with how these turned out but because I was being indecisive they took nearly two hours!  I just hope I wear the outfit I’ve chosen and don’t change my mind at the last minute like I normally do! 

...Sweet Like Candy...

I wanted to do a nail with a cupcake on and was going to do a random mix of things but then decided to do a sweet themed design so along with some inspiration from WAH Nails I came up with this:

I used Models Own: Lilac Dream, Blooboo, Lemon meringue, Jade Stone, Pastel Pink and the black and white nail pens along with some other coloured nail pens from eBay.  I used CND Stickey base coat and then Seche Vite Dry Fast Topcoat to finish.

My favourite nails are the cupcakes and the sprinkles.  This design took me about 2 hours to do as I was talking to people on Facebook Chat but if I concentrated without interruption they probably would have taken about a hour.  Overall I am quite pleased with these nails but I think I am a bit too old for them?

Oh and my nails have nearly recovered form the Barry M yellow that I used on for Bumble Bee Nails post so now I have only got horrible stained yellow tips! Safe to say that learnt my lesson and so I am ALWAYS going to use a base coat. 

WAH Nails 'Wild Mix'

Here is a design that I did on my nails last night.  I have come to the conclusion that I spend way too long deciding what to paint my nails like and then by the time I decide what I want to do I’m too tired to actually paint my nails so I thought for this design I would copy one from the WAH Nails website.  I didn’t copy it exactly but as you can see I didn’t change much except for the thumbnails and obviously my little fingernails are nowhere near as neat as hers but I think I did pretty well.  As I have said before Hot Pink, Jade Stone and black is one of my favourite colour combinations so when I saw this design using these colours I knew it was meant to be! 

For these I used CND Stickey Base Coat, Models Own: Hot Pink, Jade Stone, Snow White along with the black and white nail pens then finished with a coat of Seche Vite Dry Fast Topcoat.  

Oh and don't forget to 'like' the Models Own Facebook page if you haven't already as they are doing a massive 50% off sale if they reach 50,000 likes by 31st August and are giving away prizes along the way!

Farewell Gifts

As you may know, on Sunday I moved back home to Wales after spending 4 years in Cheltenham.  I thought I would share with you some leaving presents I received off a regular at the pub I worked in:

I was so shocked when he handed me a House of Fraser bag FULL of nails varnishes, as I wasn’t expecting anything, let alone off him!  He had spent the day looking around the shops hand picking each colour and brand and I love every single one of them but dread to think how much he must have spent!  I also got a gorgeous bracelet, flowers and wine off my work colleagues and a massive card with lovely comments, which NEARLY made me cry like a baby!  By the end of the night I had cried twice and was so drunk at one point that I apparently was stood looking like a string puppet with my arms out in front of me?!  Thankfully I must have realised I had one too many and had a few bottles of water which did the trick as I partied on for hours after that :) 

Chanel: 489 Rose Insolent and 473 Coromandel

Rococo Nail Apparel:  2433 Baby Metal Molten Lava and 7291 O.T.T. Creme

Estee Lauder: Fuchsia Flame, Wild Blue and Sweet Pea

Clarins: Daily Energizer: cream and Wake Up Booster. Nail varnish: 03 05 and 02

From left to right: Chanel: 489 Rose Insolent and 473 Coromandel. Rococo Nail Apparel: Baby Metal Molten Lava and O.T.T. Creme.  Estee Lauder: Fuchsia Flame, Wild Blue and Sweet Pea.  Clarins: 03 05 and 02

Out of this lot of polishes I think my favourite one is Chanel 489 Rose Insolent because it’s a lovely shade of pink and I’ve already used quite a lot of it doing my mums toenails, a friend's nails and mine twice.  I also love Chanel Coromandel because it is such a rich red that only needed one thin coat to get this gorgeous colour.  Estee Lauder Fuchsia Flame is also a lovely colour that is like a pinky red colour (similar to Models Own Raspberry Crush).  Estee Lauder Wild Blue is also a great colour but doesn't look as nice on this photo.  I was a bit disappointed with Clarins 02 and 03 because they where a bit watery and it took about 5 coats to get a good coverage but the shades would be good as a french manicure base.  

***Models Own Sale***

Models Own are going to do a massive 50% off sale (when you spend £20 or more*) on their website if they reach 50,000 likes on their Facebook page before 31st August 2011.  The discount will only be available to people who have ‘liked’ the Facebook page so if you would like the discount or would simply like to help to reach 50,000 likes please like the facebook page!  I am already making a wish list but can’t wait to order them! :)

To get YOUR hands on that 50% voucher, here’s what YOU can do to help:

         If you’re not a fan already, visit the Models Own Facebook page and click the like button now!

         Send emails and texts to all your friends and family telling them about the offer and encouraging them to like us on Facebook

         Update your Facebook status telling everybody about the promotion and linking to (or tagging) the Models Own Facebook page

         Send out a tweet encouraging your followers to sign up to help YOU out every day for the entire month of August! 

         Write a post on your blog about the Models Own sale

*Terms and Conditions: The 50% discount voucher will only be made available if the Models Own Facebook page reaches 50,000 likes by August 31, 2011
Once live, the sale will last for seven days and is WHILE STOCKS LAST
The voucher entitles customers to a 50% discount off orders totalling £20 or more on the Models Own website (http://modelsownit.com) before the discount is applied
The discount voucher cannot be used to purchase gift vouchers
The discount voucher cannot be used with any other website vouchers or existing website offers
Standard delivery minimums and rates apply for all orders (where applicable P&P will be charged separately)
If we feel your order contains an unusual amount of items, we reserve the right to charge you more postage. We will contact you by email first to ensure you accept the extra charges. If not, we will promptly issue you with a refundhttp://www.modelsownit.com/

Glittery Nails

I did these nails a few weeks ago now but have been too busy with work and preparing to move to post them online…. until now!  For these I used Models Own: Peacock Green and Tickled Pink for the base coats and Emerald City and Magenta Divine on top of the base coats to create these gorgeous colours.  Of course I finished with Seche Vite Dry Fast Topcoat but I used 2 coats of it for this design because the glitter seemed to absorb the topcoat that meant it didn’t shine as much as usual. 

Plain Jane Nails

I wanted quite a plain, simple design after the holiday designs I did so I thought I’d use Models Own Nyla Nude for the base, paint some dots on using my Models Own Nail Pen and finish with a coat of Models Own 3-in-1 Base Coat, Top Coat and Gloss. 

I’m quite pleased with how these turned out and I had quite a few compliments about them.  Next time I do a design like this I’m going to paint the dots on in a consistent pattern instead of putting random dots on because I think they will look more professional. 

Zebra Stripes for Billy

Here is the last design I did while in Zante for my friend Billy:

She wanted her nails done like the zebra stripes I did in my previous post ‘Doodles’ and we decided to do her nails pink to match the pink leopard print I had done on her toenails (unfortunately I didn’t take a photo of them).   To create these I used Models Own Hot Pink and Pastel Pink along with my Black Models Own Nail Pen.  I love this design but the blurry photos really don’t do them justice!

Doodles

This design I did on my own nails while in Zante.  I didn’t know what to do on them but I fancied doodling and didn’t have a pen and paper so thought I’d use my nails and a nail pen!  So these are a little messy and by far not my favourite design but thought I’d share them anyway! 

For these I used CND Stickey Base Coat, Models Own: Pastel Pink, Jade Stone, Lemon Meringue, Feeling Blue, Fuzzy Peach and my black nail pen.  I finished with a topcoat but I still don’t know what I was called! 

A fun design for Kirsty

So here is another design I did while in Zante, this time for my friend Kirsty (AKA K-Dawg).  She only wanted ‘K Dawg’ written on her one hand so I thought id do something quite simple but girly on her other hand:

For these I used Models Own Hot Pink, Feeling Blue, my Models Own White nail pen and I can’t remember the name of the topcoat I used as I had to borrow a friend’s because mine smashed all over our floor (oops).  This design was easy and only took about 20mins but she was fidgeting and smeared two of her nails before I managed to take the photos so they look a bit messy!

Leopard Print for Shelly

 Here is the design I did on my friend Shelly’s nails while we were in Zante:

 I couldn’t get a decent photo of her nails because the lighting was so bad in our room but I found this one amongst our holiday snaps! I did the same design on my nails yesterday to show you all:

I used Models Own: Jade Stone, Sophie’s Pink, black Nail Pen and 3-in-1 Base Coat, Top Coat and Gloss.  Jade Stone and Sophie’s Pink is my new favourite colour combination because it looks so fresh and I love how the colours bounce off each other.  

Zante Nails

Sorry for the lack of blogging the last 2 weeks, I’ve been busy and then my laptop charger broke but thankfully the new one arrived today!  As you might know I went to Zante for a week last Friday.  It was definitely the best holiday I’ve ever been on and I would definitely go back.  Here’s a respectable quick snap of us before one of our messy nights out:

I’ve done a few nails designs since I last blogged so I thought I’d start with the oldest one, which is the design I did on my own nails in the hours before we went to Zante:

I used CND Stickey Base Coat for this design and it seemed to work really well as the design would have lasted the whole holiday if I hadn’t decided to do a different design on day 6.  For the base colours I used Models Own True Blue, Red Alert, Pastel Pink, Fuzzy Peach, Jade Stone, Feeling Blue, Hot Pink and Lemon Meringue and a variety of my nail pens for the details.  As usual I finished with a coat of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat.  This was a WAH Nails inspired design that I think I pulled off pretty well considering I had to rush to finish them in time.  This is my favourite design so far but it did take about 2 hours to do so I don’t think I’ll have time to do a design like this very often!  

Oh and the day I left for Zante I had a surprise package arrive which was 2 Nails Inc nail varnishes which Fabulous Magazine (inside the News of the World) is giving away when u collect 3 out of the 4 tokens each Sunday from the 19^th June.  I hope you have all managed to get at least one of the tokens so far as these colours look really nice and summery and Nails Inc nail varnishes usually cost £11 each!  The nail Varnishes can be redeemed from selected Tesco Stores from 3^rd July.