Party Prep!

Tis the season to be jolly, and with Christmas and New Years and all the impending parties right around the corner, now is a great time to be getting in that nail care. If you change your polish like I do frequently and for specific outfits it is important to make sure you take care of your hands and nails just as you would your health and body. So follow my quick and easy tips to healthy nails that will provide a strong base for those glitter, party fabulous nails!

1. 'In the BUFF' 

Buffing your nails keeps them smooth and shiny, it is pain free and you can pick up a buffing block from Body Care for £0.99, so you can file, smooth, buff and shine your nails. This is perfect for tired looking nails and for those who love french mani's, as buffing before you apply the french pink will help create a beautifully soft smooth look.

2.  'CUTIE-cles'

Your cuticles really shape the nail, if they are uneven or have over grown simply pop down to Superdrug and purchase 10 cuticle pushers for £0.99 jump in a lovely bubble bath, soak, relax and when your cuticles are nice and relaxed like you from the heat, simply gently push them back into a nice crescent shape. If you wish to go one step further in cuticle care, invest in some cuticle removal gel and some cuticle clippers and gently clip the excess cuticle from the nail. Clippers and Sally Hansen cuticle removal gel can both be bought in Superdrug, Boots and Body Care.

3. 'IRON't you pretty'

Having a healthy balanced diet is something we should all strive for anyway, but iron has been proved to help stimulate good hair and nail growth, so if you want some extra length make sure you have plenty of iron in your diet for strong hair and nails. Whether you find that source naturally through foods such as Salmon and red meats or through supplements, if you start now, you'll reap the benefits when it comes to that Christmas Party you've been planning.

4. 'Having the MOIST fun'

Moisturising your body and face is, I'm sure in your everyday skin care routine, but most of us forget the hard work our hands go through with daily chores. Washing up liquid can reek havoc on hands making them dry and allowing the skin to crack. Invest in a great hand cream to help your hands fend against the drying cold winds and the chores we deal with day to day, for better looking hands and nails. For one step further invest in some cuticle oil to keep nail beds soft and supple.

So enjoy this tips to healthier nails, and I hope you find it helpful!

The Ease of the Nineties.

Nineties could never be cooler than it is right now. Whip out your scrunchies and Clueless DVD for inspiration. Plaid plays a big part in this seasons looks right now, so pop along to Primark to grab up the odd plaid statement that you can easily add to your wardrobe without spending the big bucks. 

Team with another hot trend right now of big chunky necklaces, mine here is from Newlook sale for £4 and you're ready to go. If you're really feeling nineties then pop your hair in high little buns, something which the likes of Kylie Jenner has been sporting lots of lately and you're ready to go. (Lower image.)

Slap on your fav red lip and you'll be right on trend. I paired this top with my Doc.Martens look-a-likes by Primark at £15 and felt right at home as a Nineties kid. Next thing you know everyone will be walking round in shell suits! 

Baby Lips

Anyone else as excited as me that Maybelline Baby Lips are finally in stores in the UK? I have seen bloggers and youtubers alike in the U.S raving about them for ages, and finally I can sing their praises too. I am now proud owner of each variety available at my local Superdrug; available in various scents and tints, they provide a wonderful smell and gentle tint of colour as well as providing a great lip balm. With some designated purely for its lip healing and moisturising abilities the range provides something for all. My favourite is Peach Kisses, it has a light beige tint to it, so is a great light winter alternative to nude lipstick, to help protect your lips against the cold weather we've been having.

Plus the packaging is super cute and delightful! Baby lips are a steal at £2.99 and upon purchasing them, Superdrug had 'Buy one get one Half Price' on Maybelline products.

Great for a stocking filler or for your daughters highschool friends christmas presents!

Holographic Wonder

I am always amazed at the new polish you can find simply by accident. I came across holographic nail polish accidentally whilst searching for something on eBay (of course). The price and the package was too good to miss so I bought a pack of 12. I have Perfect Polish brand and they are not quite perfect but the holographic effect will blow your minds.

The consistency is a little weak and you do need to apply one thin base coat and then one or too liberal coats on top to create  the effect. I also found that it was essential that each coat were distributed evenly or else the effect was somewhat lost in the gentle uneven surface. I also found that my clear top coat somewhat dulled the shine, and a holographic print with no shine is pretty useless!

The colour range was somewhat limiting I was supposed to have a light and dark shade of each colour, blue, pink, purple, red and orange. But the differences were slim to none and could not really tell the difference.

One final tip, shake well to make sure you have perfect balance between shimmer and colour, and just have fun. These holographic nails will look great on their own or as a statement nail as part of a mix for the holidays as we now lead up to Christmas!

So search eBay if your interest has been peaked. There are plenty of reputable sellers selling holographic nail polish for decent prices. Most ship from the far east though so expect long wait from dispatch to receiving the item!

Happy shopping, Happy nails and Happy Halloween. (Belatedly)

Winter Wonderland

With Autumn nearly behind us and Halloween out the way, whispers of Christmas are echoing in the air. It saddened me that I heard my first Christmas song on the radio on the 1st of November. Bonfire night has barely had time to be planned, and already Christmas songs are playing and stores are piling in the tinsel and baubles!
Having said that, there is something lovely about snuggling up in blankets and jumpers around the fire to keep warm, the dark cold nights bringing families and friends together. Which will mean plenty of time to do your nails, and your friends nails, in the name of the holiday spirit!
In this post I will be sharing a much loved nail design of last winter, all my friends wanted me to do their nails like this and it is super easy with a steady hand!
Snowflakes can be transferred onto a range of different background and can be jazzied up with a few sprinkles and sparkles here and there. Once you have mastered drawing the snowflake you can then run with it and really become creative in how you deliver that snowflake.

Simply follow the link to my instagram account to see my monochrome snowflake nails that I did for a friend last winter!

Bronzed Winged Eye

Want something a little different this Halloween for makeup?

Try this super easy super quick bronzed eye look. Just grab a bronzed shimmery cream eyeshadow apply liberally to the eye area dragging out toward the hair line. Set with a brown shimmery eyeshadow, and contour the cheek bones well with a similar toned bronzer. Add a subtle brown lip and voila the look is complete!

This look was inspired by a Phoenix. But could be considered a masked look or just something cool to add to an outfit.

Super quick, and super easy.

Glitterati

Looking at all my glitter polishes I thought about what you could do. Diamonds came to mind so had a play with design.

Using glitter top coats, to cover colour or a polish with shimmer built in, or simply just using a glitter top coat like the Opal Top Coat from Avon as a polish.

Have fun playing with polish and colour.

Haunted Halloween

Halloween is right around the corner, and parties are being planned, outfits bough and candy stocked up. I was bored the other night and played around with basic designs that could easily be worn and re-created for Halloween.

So Happy Halloween and have fun re-creating these simple designs.

Getting the Chop for Cancer

So, this post is a little different from the norm, but there is a great reason for it I promise you!

I have been growing my hair for two years, longing for the perfect long hair you see girls sporting in all the magazines. However since my hair has been long enough to tie up all I seem to do is tie it up. Also people have told me how quickly my hair has managed to grow, taking all this into consideration I thought I would do something with all these locks of hair I dont seem to appreciate much, I am currently in the midst of trying to grow my hair as long as I possibly can by the new year, with the intent of then chopping it off in the name of Childhood Cancer, more specifically World Child Cancer. They are an organisation who provide treatment, diagnosis and support to those children with cancer in impoverished countries.

I know my blog doesn't reach many people but if whoever reads this could find two minutes of your time to donate £1 $1 anything! It would mean a lot to the charity and would help a great cause.

I am also donating the hair that gets cut off to Little Princesses Charity who turn human hair donations into wigs for Children with Cancer.

So please follow the link below and donate all that you can, and spread the word. I would greatly appreciate it thank you.

http://www.justgiving.com/Hannah-Riordan

Nail Stamps

Want the appearance of nail art, without having to have the patience and furness for it?

Try nail stamps instead! Designed to stamp a pre-cut pattern or image onto your nail quite easily without all the hassle of hand drawing everything on with nail art pens or brushes.

Purchasable from eBay you can get a starter kit with 5 image plates starting with bids of 1p!
Simply purchase some image plates and a nail stamp made from silicon or rubber, choose the image or pattern you wish to stamp, apply nail polish of your choice over the top of that image, using your applicator, lift the pattern or image off the image plate and stamp it onto your nail.

I hear that it does take a while to really get a good quality transfer. Make sure that you wipe clean excess nail polish off of your image plate, and re-use and re-use to your hearts content.

If you want to see some very good examples of nail stamp-ing, check out @nailstampfanatic on Instagram. (link below) She is really good, and creates some beautiful colour and pattern combinations using nail stamps and manipulation of nail polish like colour fades. She also divulges the details on where she gets each stamp used. So go say hello to her over on Instagram and follow her also for plenty of nail stamp and nail art ideas and inspiration!

Enjoy exploring another way to be creative!

http://instagram.com/nailstampfanatic

photo credit goes to @nailstampfanatic

Animal Print Eyes

Looking for something different for Halloween?

Try these really simple eyes.

Grab a gold shimmery eyeshadow and apply all over the lid and blending out over the brow and toward the hair line.

Then grab a liquid eye liner, or khol. And create half moon shapes.

Then place circles around to finish the Leopard print look.

Simple!

Clearing the Cobwebs

A very quick and simple makeup look for those up and coming Halloween parties!

Grab a bold red lipstick and a liquid black eyeliner.

Cover the eye lid right up to the brow in the red lipstick.

Using the liquid liner, create a spiderweb shade on the outer third of the eyelid.

Apply normal foundation add some over the top eyelashes, and a matching red lip and you're ready to go!

I used MUA Liquid Black Eyeliner 

Rimmel London red lipstick 

MAC 231 lip brush

 

Feeling Ghoulish ... Halloween makeup inspiration.

Simply using £5 worth of makeup, and makeup I already had within my stash, I created some really simple ideas to help enhance those halloween costumes I know many of you will be planning already!

Makeup used:

MUA eyeshadow palette £4 from superdrug.
MUA black liquid eyeliner £1 from superdrug.
Avon eyeshadow quad.
Red lipstick
Black Khol eyeliner.
Light foundation, or powder makeup.
Brushes to blend.

Start with a pale foundation or powder makeup to provide as a base, I used a mix of an airwhipped light foundation by Collection 2000 in biscuit mixed with Stargazer's white foundation. However anything that is paler than you will work as well, the idea is to make you look ill and pale. So anything that will achieve this is a winner.

Using a stippling brush, and my fingers, I made sure that the foundation was blended out nicely to create an even base for everything else. 

To create the lips, grab your khol black eyeliner, and line the lips just outside your natural lip line, adding definition to the corners of the mouth, fill in the lips with any red lipstick mine here is MAC Russian Red, and then using a lip brush or your fingers blend the black and red together, touching up the black eyeliner to finish to give a defined black outline.

Next grab your MUA eyeshadow palette and I also used my Avon quad. Taking the number 4 shade of my Avon eyeshadow quad on a contouring brush I applied to the hollows of my cheeks. Alternatively you could use shades 8 or 10 of the MUA palette, we're looking for a dark shimmery shade that is not black but a few tones lighter, as it'll give more shadow-like dimension. 

For an extra bit of contouring you can add definition to the chin, using the shame shade of eyeshadow. In doing this the face will look more skull like. 

Next we want to fill in our brows with shade 11 of the MUA palette, which is a slate black with a shimmer in it, mixing with it a little shade 8 just to make it less harsh. We want to define the brows and make them a statement, the heavier the brow the more menacing and ghoulish you will look. 

Following the line of the centre of the brows contour the nose with the shame shade blending out the edges as you go. 

 

Next taking the darker brown shades of your MUA palette, shade in the outer corner of your eye, blending up towards the brow, using lighter shades blend the colour towards the centre of your eye. Always blending up towards the brow. Repeat this process until you get the right amount of shading you wish to have. 

 

Next take your MUA black eyeliner and add some to your upper lash line adding a slight wing following the line of your existing eyeshadow. 

 

Next grabbing your blending brush gently apply a small amount of dark eyeshadow into your under eye area, to create shadow, and the idea you've been awake for 1000 years.  Using the same blending brush add eyeshadow in a dark shade to your temples and hairline to contour and add dimension to the look. Et voila, your ghoulish look is complete, simply style your hair as you wish and enjoy halloween!

Its Better To Mix Things Up!

Let's face it the days of uniform one shade of nails are past us, jump on the mix and match trend and go with the flow and create your own personal mix of style and colour in a collaboration that's right on trend.

I went with punchy colours and bold prints and pictures in terms of nail art. I even attempted a houndstooth and kind of failed but created a cool looking pattern in the process. See even if you don't get what you expected you can still create something cool and fun!

Polishes I used:
Barry M Nail Paint in Fuschia
Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine (Blue and Purple Shades)
Essie in Mojito Madness
Maybelline Colour Show in Electric Shock
Barry M Nail Art Pen

Flower Power

Be daring, don't be afraid once your nails have started to chip to whip out that nail art pen and have a go, if the worse comes to the worse then you have the excuse they were chipping anyways to wipe the board clean.

I often use the opportunity of 'better days' nails to try new nail art on myself, rather than whipping out a nail art wheel. This time around I tried florals, usually I use my dotting tool to draw out rose style flower patterns but this time I tried drawing more detailed florals.

Polish is Stargazer - Silver I believer number 242
and a generic black nail art pen.

Barry M Nail Paint

My Barry M Nail Paint collection is slowly growing, I have 86 bottles in total but 20 bottles of Barry M and that is my largest collection of one particular brand that I have.

The reason I love Barry M Nail Polish is mostly the price the Nail Paint starts from just £2.99 but the colours are so vibrant and there is a large range to select from even in the smaller stores that stock it. 

Their Gelly Hi-Shine formual is amazing, the sheen on your nail is great and its fab for when you're in a rush as the formula is quite thick so you can get away with one coat and still look gorgeous! 

Follow them on Facebook for regular updates on the latest products and regular chances to win items :)

Go to Barry M's Facebook page right now for a chance to win EVERY nail paint in the collection simply play their salon game for a chance to win! :)

Lush Laquer Nail Polish

I fell across this company from youtuber CupcakesandCompacts (a makeup and beauty youtube channel - she has an amazing nail polish collection, check it out!), Lush Laquer is an American based hand-made nail polish company run by Karin and Lexi a self confessed "BEST FRIEND" mother and daughter team, they created this company as a way to spend some quality time together. Karin a costume jewellery designer and Lexi a professional nail art artist collaborated to create the brand, deriving expertise from Lexi's profession.
Having only created their Etsy page just last year the duo had over 500 pending orders when I contacted them, which goes to prove their ever growing popularity. Shipping anywhere in the world Lush Laquer is available to all, however if shipping far away like me to the UK it may be worth getting a few bottles to make it worth while. Due to such high demand in orders and customs shipping times can vary but it is more than worth the wait!
Lush Laquer offers a wide range of beautiful neons, brights, pales and every colour under the sun. Their polishes are infused with flecks of other colours, almost like a speckled egg effect, speckled with flecks of colour or glitter they offer a dynamic burst of colour and shape. Very much like Illamasqua's Speckled nail polish, but Lush Laquer uses the flecks to add dimension and enhance the base colour. Lush Laquer also offer clear glitter top coats with amazing pigmented flecks of glitter. At £6.11 a bottle they come in around the same price as Revlon or high-end drugstore and highstreet polishes. However Lush Laquer offers amazing deals such as any three bottles of polish for £10.18 which for custom handmade polish is very reasonably priced.
I decided on the bottle 'Haywire' an off-white colour with pink undertone with various shaped coloured specks in neon shades of pink, green, yellow orange and blue. The formulation is a good consistency good coverage with one coat. Due to the state of my nails currently I found that a light base coat of white was needed prior to applying Lush Laquer in order to get an even spread with the glitter. But in doing that found the colour popped more and was perfectly distributed. I found that the formulation held up 'chip free' about 3-4 days that included me doing gardening work and other things that would offer plenty of opportunity to chip. So I'm sure that with a good hold top coat would last much longer.
'Haywire' is fast becoming my favourite nail polish out of my 70+ collection. The customer service given at Lush Laquer was brilliant, Karin and Lexi were extremely helpful in answering all my questions and offering continued help in any queries I may have. I received my polish approximately two weeks after purchase, but due to their high demand and the fact it was shipped all the way from the U.S found this highly acceptable.
Highly reccommend you check out the etsy page and explore their beautiful collection for a unique nail polish to add to your collection!
http://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/lushlacquer?ref=shop_sugg

Photo Credit: Crystal's Crazy Combos

Finding Nemo

Guess there was no need for the film as I found him on my nail art wheel!

Using a grey background (mine is from Rimmel London 60 second dry) I then carefully placed an orange background using Barry M Gelly Paint and then carefully added detail with white and black nail art pens!

Pastel Partaaay

So my brother's brilliant girlfriend let me play with her nails and do a variety of Pastel look nails, using various gems and nail art pieces to create the look.

Nail art wheels full of gems and little acrylic shapes such as the fruit can be purchased off of eBay from various sellers, coming from China for 99p with free P&P which is a HUGE bargain. They are fun to create party ready nails.

The nail polish used is all ELF or No.17 in various pastel shades such as Parma Violet, Sweet Kisses, Mint Choc Chip.

Nail art was created with a bit of patience, some nail glue, thin paint brushes and some embossing tools.

Hand Model : Lizzie.

Snap CRACKLE Pop!

Through a miss-read description on eBay I ordered WAH Nails special edition crackle nail polish for Models Own, in Pink!

I had thought it was just your bog standard nail polish! However this is the best crackle nail polish I have ever used, it never fails it works EVERY time perfectly. Even if you accidentally apply unevenly the product still produces great crackle effect. The great thing about it being pink, means that I can play down the effect or play it up dependant on the base colour. Here I decided to go for subtle using a light mauve shade from Barry M, and then using a corresponding match to the crackle in block on my ring finger.

Super easy to do, took about 15minutes to do, and it looks great!

Animal Print

This design is super easy to do, simply pick two tones of the same colour, one light one darker, here I chose pink tones, paint darker base and add splodges of the lighter colour, then add black detailing and for extra sparkle add some gems if you wish!

Nail Polishes:
Maybelline New York, Colour Show, in 118 Urban Coral
Barry M Nail Paint in 318 Peach Melba
Generic Black Nail Art Pen

Feeling Heroic

A little different for a catch up post, I've been neglecting my blog a little. But in honor of the hype of super hero films out at the moment, like Man of Steel I played around with some makeup to create this superhero style look.

Super easy, just using various eyeliners and eyeshadows blending them together to create a smooth airbrushed look that fades out to make it look like its infused onto my face. I often do things like this when bored or wasting time, I am the worlds best procrastinator. This is the result of today's procrastination. Hope you like it and keep checking out my blog for more updates.

Art Deco - Greats Gatsby.

Inspired by Great Gatsby and Art Deco my sister asked me to paint her nails she found a fellow blogger (breadbutterchampagne.blogspot.ca) who had done an Art Deco take on a french mani. Having found this image asked me to replicate the design.

Nail Polishes:
Revlon Gold Coin 146
Essie Muchi Muchi
Generic black nail art pen.

Smooth Sailing

I recently went on eBay to find Essie nail polish without paying £8.99 a bottle. I know that the colours that come up on eBay won't be the latest ones and I'm fine with that as you can still get your hands on beautiful shades even if they are a year or two old. I like to consider them Essie classics!
I already got my hands on Tour de Finance in T J Hughes for £1.99 and I love it, and now managed to get my hands on Smooth Sailing off of eBay for £1.59, although it is mini size it packs a lot of punch in colour!
A mauve shade with blue undertones its finished with a silver shimmer. Its formula is nice and thick without being gloopy so perfect for a quick one coat if in a rush! Im loving Smooth Sailing.

Doodles on Pink

Playing around I was trying out various ideas and doodles ontop of pink and peach toned polish. I particulalry enjoyed doing the clash of Barry M Bright Pink with Greenberry spots on top. Yet again being inspired by Wah Nails I tried a diamond design which is really cute for maybe a ring finger design.

These are all super easy to create with a dotting tool and a nail art pen.

3D Deco Pastel Nails

Following up from the previous post on pastel nails, I decided to work on that same nail art wheel and go down the 3D deco style nail. After all everyone likes a little sparkle and bling in their lives. I buy the gems, bows and pearls off of eBay. The bows and gems come in dosset boxes separated by colour which is super handy, there are plenty of options to find on eBay if you type in 3D nail accessories, you can buy all kinds sof bling to sparkle up any nail design. I did an array of design from really blingy to more subtle to suit all preferences. Whilst keeping it pastel and pretty.

Pretty Pastels

I decided since now I have nail art wheels to swatch all my pastel polish. The subtle colours are perfect if you're not feeling quite daring enough to try brights. They are perfect to add a hint of colour to your outfit or even the office as they're not too "in your face".
I love pastel colours for spring and now its nearly over I'm going to get my wears worth!

Nail Polishes from left to right:
Barry M Nail Paint 306 Peach Melba
E.L.F (eyes lips face) Polish Mint Cream
17 Lasting Fix Nail Polish Sherbert Lemon
17 Lasting Fix Nail Polish Mint Choc Chip
17 Lasting Fix Nail Polish Sweet Kisses
17 Lasting Fix Nail Polish Parma Violet
Barry M Nail Paint 308 Berry I/C

Ombre Nails

Instead of using a sponge I used a brush to create an almost flamed ombre look. It was super easy to do, paint the lighter colour as a base, apply a couple of coats let it dry completely. Then on the tips of your nails apply your darker shade then grabbing a thin brush drag the colour up toward the cutical thus creating the flame look.

Follow me on Twitter @nailsatnoon

Wah wah Wow!

Having recently discovered Wah Nails I decided to do some nail art inspired by their designs.

They are currently looking for nail art artists to work for them so might send off a CV as you never know!

Nail Polish used:
BarryM Nail Paint in: Pommegranate, Bright Pink, Peach Melba, Greenberry, Pure Turquoise.
E.L.F nail polish in Emerald Green and Yellow.

Follow me on Twitter @nailsatnoon

Going Gaga!

Inspired by Lady Gaga and Talia Castellano a.k.a on YouTube as 'taliajoy18' I went out and finally get some nail glue and experimented with 3D accessories for blinging up my nails.
I also finally managed to find a matte top coat so I can make my polish matte if I'm feeling so inclined that day. They only had the Essie version but atleast I know it's a decent quality. I got it from Boots for £8.99.

April Favourites - Nail Products

As you can tell from my posts, I have been loving Barry M Nail Paints. I've been loving how the colours reflect the season.  They are releasing new Gelly Hi-Shine colours for summer and I cannot wait to try out the colours! I particularly have been enjoying the fact that superdrug have been doing 3 for 2 on Barry M Nail Paint. So I have to admit I did splurge a little.

My favourite nail polishes this month:
Barry M - Bright Pink, Indigo, Prickly Pear, Greenberry, Pomegranate and Peach Melba.
17 - Peacock and Potion
Mabelline Colour Show - Charged and Ready
Rimmel London - Grey Matter