Thank You Ciate!

God bless Ciate and Marie Claire.

For with this months Issue of Marie Claire, you can get your hands on a mini Nail Art set from Ciate!

A mini bottle of polish and a mini bottle of nail caviar, to get all creative and nail-art-y with. There are 6 colour palettes to choose from and for £2.25 for the magazine it is a STEAL. I don't ordinarily buy in Marie Claire, but saw the Ciate polish and ripped that magazine so fast off of the shelf that muscles were pulled!

The 6 variations ordinarily would set you back a 60 squid. So its a super bargain! Ciate have been growing in popularity lately for their beautifully chic packaging and elegant choices in colours. Plus their nail caviar has become somewhat famous!

So why are you still reading this post? You should be out getting your hands on a Marie Claire and your mittens on that polish!

I try to keep an eye out for bargains such as these, so enjoy buying multiple copies of the same magazine! I say keep the polish for yourself and give a friend the magazine to read.

Image pulled from Google Images.

Cute and Camoflauged

I take my inspiration for nail art from a whole variety of places - one of them is fashion, and whilst surfing through google for something that would catch my eye and make a nice Nail Art design I stumbled onto this image...

Usually Im not a fan of camp as I don't think its that dynamic, but seeing it in this colour palette made me fall in love. The colours both contrast and compliment. So I decided to have a go at recreating this print but for Nails. 

To create this look I used the following colours: 

BASE COLOUR: Sinful Colours in 24/7 (Matte Finish)

CAMO SPLODGES: E.L.F in Yellow, BarryM Nail Paint in Pure Turquoise, L.A Colours Art Deco in Black. 

1. Apply the pink base colour all over the nail using two coats for a good coverage.
2. Then going from light to dark apply your splodge colours by using the brush in a  stippling motion creating camo style patterns. Continue this step with all the other colours. Making sure to leave space for the pink to still be seen.
3. Seal in with a protective top coat. 

If you re-create this look please send me a photo via my Facebook page ...

https://www.facebook.com/pages/NailsatNoon/577277732386439

Purple Passion

So purple and I have had a long standing love affair. Its so beautiful and its been my favourite colour since I can remember!

So as and ode to this love, I decided to pull out my Purple Polishes and play around.

Using a mixture of Barry M and L'Oreal shades, I layered Purples, Fushcias and Blues to create this look.

Here's how :

Simply grab the darkest shade, here I use Barry M Nail Paint in Indigo, apply two coats as your base. Wait till completely dry. For the design on the top you'll need a scrap piece of paper to hand. Grab the next lightest tone - we're working from dark to light with our colours. Take out the brush, brush off the majority of the polish onto the scrap piece of paper, and then brush what little is left onto the nail, being artistic in your placement.

Continue this process until you have used all the colours you wish, and apply a protective top coat to seal it all in.

The colours I used are:
Barry M Nail Paint in - Indigo 312, Fuchsia 302, Pure Turquoise 295, and Gelly Hi Shine in Prickly Pear 311
L'Oreal in Nouvelle / Vague 851

This design would look awesome in O.P.I's new Brazilian collection which is perfect for Summer!

Hope you have fun re-creating this look, and re-creating it in different colour schemes.

Gelly Hi-Shine - Barry M Review

So I know this collection has been out a while, and I may be behind on the review bandwagon, but they keep adding more and more colours and I just adore the formulation that I want them ALL!

If you haven't come across them before, they are a high shine / gloss polish with a lovely thick formula that allows for beautiful almost shellac style finish. You can get away with just the one coat, or apply two for even bolder brighter colour.

With a range that contains beautiful bolds and more coral and pastel shades, there is definitely something for everyone.

Shades from Left to Right:

Lychee, Papaya, Mango, Prickly Pear, Blueberry, Greenberry, Blue Grape. 

Find them on the link below, or in Superdrug Stores.

http://www.barrym.com/products/nails/effects/gelly-nail-effects.html

Drip Drip Drip Little April Showers

Ready for April yet?

 

These nails will help you. Simply grab two colours of your choosing here I used white and Mint Green and get started. 

Prep your nails by doing your cuticles and applying a protective base coat. Then grab your white polish or whatever colour you feel like using and apply two liberal coats as a base colour. 

Then simply grab the next colour of your choosing, and holding your hand nails facing up to the ceiling drip the polish on in a stylised manner and have fun creating slightly different designs on each nail. 

This design is so fun and can look so dynamic and differently using different colours. 

So have fun playing around, I particularly like using my Maybelline Colour Show polishes for this design see my Review post on them to see the colours in my collection. 

Lily Allen Nail Art

So Lilly Allen is awesome, as you should all know anyway. But particularly because of her love of Nail Art, and Lily being the babe she is, is running a competition to create a nail art design for her new album, the winner of which will get the design chosen by Lily herself and re-created for Lily by Maybelline's Nail Artist Michelle Humphrey. AND the winner will also win a hot air balloon ride - in celebration of Lily's new single 'Air Balloon'.

So I've been racking my brain trying to think of a design. So I went with the following look - Nude nails with highlights of neon pink, lilac, mint green and peacock. By using geometric shapes I am hoping to create a funky modern take of the patterns you see in the stitching of the balloons. I am really rather proud of this design. Its cool and I can see it working really well with some stiletto acrylics.

I will be doing more designs of course, as I am bound to think of more. So will keep posting Lily Nail Art posts on here showing my designs.

If you want to enter yourself. Simply create a design can be on your hand, or a drawing. Post a photo on Instagram and hashtag it - lilynailart and you'll be entered! Good luck everyone.

Polish used: 

Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine in Nude 

Stargazer - Silver

L'Oreal - Lilac and Mint

Sinful Colours - Hot Pink

No.17 - Peacock 

Kelly Brook - Nail Polish Review

So I learnt something new this week - Kelly Brook has started a makeup range for New Look, which includes my fav thing; nail polish! They are super affordable at £2.99 a bottle which is the same price bracket as the likes of Barry M and some of Rimmel's range. They have some super bold brilliant colours. I incidentally had to buy one to try them out... of course!

I chose this cherry red colour which has a subtle shimmer to it, its lovely, and I mostly bought it to try as it was on sale for £1.50! A steal if you ask me.

Not expecting a lot from till side purchases I was expecting it to be an average polish, but actually it is pretty decent. The formula is average thickness I would ballpark it similar to Barry M Nail Paint. You could get away with the one coat, but for a flawless even coverage you have to do the second coat. The brush is nice and flat similar to L'Oreal polishes so you can apply easily and tidily up to the cuticle line. The best part of this polish is that it smells every so slightly of strawberries, which blew my mind. If you sniff directly into the bottle - which I do not recommend then you can't smell it, but painting away you get a subtle whiff of strawberries. Which makes inhaling all those chemically smells that much worth it when painting your nails.

The packaging is super cute, I particularly enjoy the polka dot design on the lid, as it makes it easy to find in my bag of hundred odd polishes. Thats one thing that annoys me, most polish has a simple black or white lid, making finding the exact bottle you want near enough impossible when sifting through a bag with 100+ polishes in. Whereas you would not have that trouble with Kelly Brook's Nail Polish as she cleverly popped polka dots on there.

If you are looking for bulking out your collection with some polish of bold colours perfect for slapping on to go with outfits then this is a collection for you. The colours speak so much by themselves theres no need for the little extras of Nail Art.

Safe to say I'm impressed with Kelly, I would deffo buy more, and am looking forward to hopefully seeing the collection expand into more colours! :) So I would recommend you pop down to your local New Look and grab yourself a cheeky bottle to try. For 10ml at £2.99 or £1.50 for sale price, you can't really go wrong, and there is a large enough range of colours that you are guaranteed to find something you'll like!

Below I did a swatch of Kelly Brook Nail Polish in 'Cabernet'.

Keeping Organised.

So I may have gone overboard on the labelling, but I like to think that I am getting organised.

I already had the storage but recently bought a label machine, which I have kinda gone crazy with. But I think this looks in a way vintage-y and cool. Don't you think? 

I already had sorted some of my makeup into my Muji Acrylic containers, the top drawer being face products, the middle eye products and the bottom one lips. So it was just a case of labelling what kind of products were in each drawer to quicken the sleepily stumble around trying to find the things I need to slap some kind of look on in the mornings. 

The label maker was half price in W H Smiths at £11.99 a Dymo and the pack of re-fill ribbons at £10.99 for 3. I have already gone through one wheel - the wheel that came within the label maker as I've gone crazy labelling everything ... including the cat. But also had to throw away a few labels as I got used to getting the right kind of squeeze to produce coherent labels. 

If you would like to check out the label maker I got, you can find it here:

http://www.whsmith.co.uk/products/dymo-embossing-labelmaker-omega/product/22806925

If you would like some acrylic makeup storage like mine you can find them here: 

http://www.muji.eu/pages/online.asp?Sec=9&Sub=39

They are exactly like the ones that the Kardashians use but in smaller sets, for those of you who know the reference. They are great and come in various sizes and styles. I have a set of two with a flip lip on top and then a single drawer on the bottom which simply sit on top of each other and look as if they are a set of three. I would highly recommend them they may be a little pricey but compared to some of the storage found on eBay they are a steal. And you can mix and match the storage to find a set up that suits you. 

Flirty Fade

I love this design. Its a great pop of colour and using the same colour to fade ties in the two different base coat colours. Feel free to change out the colours in this look to suit your tastes and colour coordinating needs!

Using a teal and purple base colour apply two coats carefully. Wait to dry then choosing a colour for your fade using either a nail art pen or brush, apply from tip to middle on two fingers in a quick sweeping motion to create an uneven fade look. On the other fingers apply from cuticle to the middle of the nail in the same sweeping motion.

Wait to dry and seal with your top coat!

Enjoy playing around with this design.

Nail Polish:

BarryM Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paint - Greenberry
Barry M Nail Paint - Fuchsia
Generic Nail Art Pen - Glitter Blue.

Matte About Glitter

This is a fun look that I created to update an ageing mani that I had been wearing for a couple of days. This is a great way to brighten up a mani quickly if you don't quite have enough time, or patience to re-do a new nail look.

Simply using whatever paint you already have on your nails. Touch up any chips and apply a matte top coat to create a smooth matte surface for the glitter.

Taking your favourite glitter or simply a glitter in a colour palette that will accentuate your base colour, apply to ring finger and thumb all over. For an extra pop of fun, apply dots near your cuticles in either the same glitter or a different type as I did here, for an extra fun twist.

Nail Polish:

Barry M Nail Paint - Cappuccino
Essie - Matte About You
Maybelline Colour Show Brocades - Black

Pretty In Pink

Such a simple look, easy to do and can be applied to any colour palette.

Simply apply two coats of a pale pink to pre-shaped and base coated nails.

Then add a darker tone of pink in a triangular shape on the end of the nails for a modern take on a french mani.

The colours can be changed out for any you wish to use. Provided the base colour is paler. Or if you are feeling playful, then place the darker tone as a base and use the pale for the triangular shape.

Have fun playing around with this design.

Nail Polish:

Avon Nailware in Pink.
Barry M Nail Paint in Bright Pink.

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! 

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.

Nails for the office.

Neon pink tips and a grey base is perfect to go with your smart work clothes but add a little splash of colour and keeping on the neon trend for the spring and summer.

Nail Polish:
Rimmel London 60 seconds in Grey Matter - £2.99
BarryM Nail Paint in Bright Pink and Peach Melba -£2.99 each.

Follow me on Twitter @nailsatnoon for regular updates on nails and blog posts! :)