Black and white water-marble with some random dots!

Just what it says on the tin... or rather title in this case! A black and white water marble with some random dots, man this took a long time to do! Water-marbling is so frustrating but the outcome looks pretty cool. I decided to do a simple black and white look but felt it was missing something so grabbed my Barry M art pens and dotted on some random dots! I liked the outcome, though the black did seem just a little bit too transparent and ended up looking more grey in some patches! 

Colours used: 

Basecoat: Essie's Rock Solid basecoat

Colours: Nicole by OPI - Razzle Dazzler, China Glaze - White on White

Topcoat: Seche Vite

Barry M Nail Art Pens review!

I got the brand new Barry M Nail Art Pens in the post yesterday and had to try them out as soon as possible so I thought I'd try something a little hectic. I wanted to try all four colours out at once so just started... doodling!

The style of "pen" is different to most - the "nib" is a hard point and requires pumping up and down to get the colour flowing. It then flows perfectly onto the nail and is very accurate - I had no problems with formula at all! It seems more "runny" than normal nail polish and that's what allows it to flow so well. The colours are brilliant - three out of the four were brilliant, but the silver just seemed so pale for a real silver polish. Even with two "coats" of each stripe it was very sheer and I felt slightly disappointed. However, the other colours (pink, black and white) were fantastic - bold and easy to use!

Here is the finished look:

I really hope they bring out more colours, these are so good! I liked the outcome, but best not to mention my right hand.. Oh how I wish I was ambidextrous!

Skyline gradient nails!

This design took me a bit longer than the usual looks - you can probably see why! Complicated little design but I'm pretty chuffed with how it looks. Unfortunately the camera doesn't reflect 100% the real colour - you can barely see the purple of OPI's Vant To Bite My Neck but it's definitely there!

To start off this look I painted a basecoat of a-England's The Knight, followed by one coat of China Glaze White on White. After this, I used three of OPI's colours from the Euro Centrale collection: Vant To Bit My Neck, Can't Find My Czechbook and I Saw... U Saw... We Saw... Warsaw and sponge-gradient-ed them on. The next thing I did was get a small brush and painted on the shapes of the buildings using Rimmel's Black Out, then dotted on Barry M's Pale Yellow. The final stage before top coat was to use an amazing custom colour created by Jamie of Kawaii! She made this for me last year and it's to die for - filled with gold and silver glitter, bar glitter and stars!

To finish the look I layered on a thick slab of Seche Vite and voila! Skyline gradient nails :)

Black and white aztec nails!

Got a slightly more crazy design today - aztec nails! They turned out okay for my first try - I unfortunately have the curse of shaky hands so the lines are a bit funky in places but overall they're alright!

Colours used:

Basecoat: a-England - The Knight
Colours: China Glaze - White on White (2 coats), Rimmel - Black Out
Topcoat: Seche Vite

Nude and black triangles!

Just a quick simple design today - I purchased Essie's Matte About You yesterday and really wanted to try it out so thought up a simple pattern to use it over! The matte effect takes seconds to form and is fantastic, can't wait to use it over other looks!

The whole look turned out okay but I really need to get a new black polish - using the Rimmel black just isn't working - the quality isn't fantastic so off to buy some OPI!

Polishes used:

Basecoat: a-England - The Knight
Colours: Rimmel - black, Barry M - Lychee
Topcoat: Essie - Matte About You

 In sunlight

 Overall look

 Slight close up

With the flash - as you can see, I should've done a tip-swipe with the black polish to really set off the look!

Galaxy nails tutorial!

Today I've got a tutorial to share with you of a great nail look - galaxies! It's really easy to do, all you need is the polish and a makeup sponge of some sort! Here's how to achieve this look!

Step 1: Start off with a basecoat to protect your nails from any staining. Here I've used a-England - The Knight (as always!)

Step 2: Paint all your nails black - two coats is best. I used a normal quick drying Rimmel for this.

Step 3: using your makeup sponge, sponge on a white, pink, purple and blue in a differentiating pattern on each nail to create the "nebula".

Step 4: When you're happy with the look, apply a holographic glitter on top to create the stars - here I used a Revlon polish.

Step 5: Apply a top coat and voila! Galaxy nails!

Here are all the polishes I used:

(From l-r: a-England - The Knight, Rimmel - Black, China Glaze - White on White + IV, OPI - You're Such a Budapest + Eurso Euro, Revlon - Holo glitter, Seche Vite)

Two-tone + studs on Mum!

Here's a simple design I did on Mum today, love the fact that this looks really simple but it also pretty cool.

Colours used:

Basecoat: a-England - The Knight
Colours: China Glaze - IV and Rimmel - Black
Topcoat: Seche Vite

I got the studs used on the accent nail from eBay, you get a lot for very cheap and I love the way they look!

What do you think? :)