Superdrug Look At Me

Firstly, I'd like to apologise for the lack of posts and tweets lately because I've just been so busy!! Between going back to college, day trips and a new baby in the family, it has been absolutely non-stop, but hopefully after this weekend when I will be attending my boyfriends Dad and his wifes blessing things should go back to normal!!

Recently, I was contacted by Super Drug Look At Me as they were interested in featuring my nail art as part of their new weekly blog where they search for the weeks hottest nail art. Of course, I was thrilled and straight away knew I had to say yes! I decided that I wanted to do my own blog to coincide with their post. If you want to read the post, you can find it here. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Superdrug for letting me be involved with such an amazing opportunity!

For the post, I had to choose a few of my top picks available in Superdrug for purchase. Below are my chosen products and if you click on the name of each one, it will take you to their Superdrug page for you to purchase/view.

Barry M Nail Polish
Barry M's nail polish have a huge choice of colours at affordable prices which makes them one of my favourite nail products. The bright colours are perfect for to use a base coats for your nail art and also to use with a fine brush for the smaller details.

Bourjois So Laque Nail Polish
I love these polishes! The colours are great and I love wearing my nails with them and wear them without the nail art. Beige Glamour is my all time fave colour and I've found that they are really good, long lasting varnishes!!

Barry M Nail Art Pens
After years of struggling for hours to create designs I wonder were these were all my life! You simply draw straight onto your nail as easily as on paper. They're quick drying too! Top tips if you decide to purchase these though, make sure your base coat is completely dry before you use them and use a clear top coat or your design will fade off.

Superdrug Cuticle Sticks.
Essential tool for any nail artist for pushing cuticles, picking up tiny little rhinestones and even mixing colours when doing your Ombre/Gradient nails and you can pick a pack up from Superdrug at less than a pound. Bargain

I would also like to take this opportunity to remind you all that any tutorial requests are greatly accepted! 

TUTORIAL-Aztec Nails

Aztec nails are definitely one of the in things at the moment so here's my easy tutorial so you can do it yourself!

You will Need-

A base coat and top coat.

Any base colour of your choice. I went with Barry Ms Mushroom(310)

Barry Ms nail art pen, or any nail pen of your choice.

Step 1- Apply your base coat. This should be done before applying any nail varnish as it prevents staining of the nail and keeps them in better condition. 

Step 2- Apply your base colour.

Step 3- We now need to start to add our Aztec lines. I find it easier to begin with placing the horizontal lines first.

Step 4- Fill in your horizontal lines. Repeat this for each nail, altering the order slightly.

Step 5- Cover each nail in your clear top coat and voila! 

So there you have it! Super easy and effective Aztec nails! Have you tried these out? Would love to see your attempts! Tweet me a picture at @polishandhearts or tag me on Instagram with @polishandhearts ! 

Thanks for reading!

READERS VOTE- Cath Kidston Nails

Hey Readers! 

So its Sunday, which means its Week 1 of Readers Vote. You voted and you chose and here is the tutorial for your winner!

You Will Need-

A base and top coat. I'm using Barry M's All in one.

A white nail varnish.

A blue nail varnish.

A pink nail varnish.

A peach nail varnish.

A green nail art pen. (Or just a green nail varnish and a brush or cuticle stick.)

Barry M's white nail art pen.

A striping brush.

A slightly smaller but thicker brush. (As you can see in the picture.)

Step 1- After applying your base coat and allowed to dry, you need to apply your blue coat. One or two, depending on the quality of the nail varnish and your own preference.

Step 2- First we will do the stripes and flowers. I did these on my little finger, thumb and middle finger. Dip your striping brush into your white nail varnish and starting at the cuticle side, place the tip of the brush onto your nail and drag it up to the tip to create a line. Repeat this several times as required depending on the width of your nail.

Step 3- To create your flowers, we start by putting a few dots of peach nail varnish onto your nail. These can vary in size and number.

Step 4- Now we need to create the effect of petals and we do this by taking our other brush, dipping it into the pink and simply making marks over the peach as you think petals would look. You can see how  have done this in the pictures.

Step 5- The final step of this part of the design is to take your green nail art pen and create leaves. I did this by making small 'v' like shapes on the edge of the flowers.

Step 6- Now for the easy bit! Using your nail art pen, create a line of dots up the centre of your nail. Then using this line as your template, compete the rest of the dots. Each line of dots should be roughly in the centre of the line of dots before them so if you were to connect the dots, you would have a diamond shape. Once this is done, you can cover your nails in your top coat and voila! There you have it!

I will be carrying on with this segment, but from now on, the vote will go up on a monday and you will have until Friday to vote, then on Sunday, I will put up the tutorial!

Thanks once again for reading! Hope you enjoy this tutorial and once again, if anyone does attempt it, I'd love to see your results!

Cath Kidston. My Most Loved Nails Yet!!!

So when I get a chance, I'll post up a tutorial for these nails but for now I just had to share them! They're so pretty! I cant stop looking at them!!!!! 

Fancy Nail Art Tips & Lunch Date With My Mammy!

This November 5th will be my brothers birthday and as he didn't want a party, to celebrate him and my Dad went to Silverstone for the weekend to see the Motor GP. Both of them had an amazing time but I hate to say it I think me and Mam had an even better time!! We decided we would go out for a meal followed by cocktails. Before we ate, we popped to Superdrug to pick up some new nail varnishes as I was out of clear.

My local Superdrug had an offer on for 3 for 2 so of course I had to take the offer up! After a while of trying to pick some nice colours, in the end we went with the colours above and of course, I couldn't wait to try them out and of course, Mum was more than happy to be my model! 

After playing around for a bit, I came up with this design. It's pretty and elegant and not too OTT! I created the tip by firstly painting the nail in a coat of clear varnish and leaving to dry. (By the way, I would highly recommend Barry M's 3 in 1! I will write a review soon.) Once I had done this, I took my Barry M Nail Art Pen and drew on the flowers and then using a small brush, coloured them in with our chosen colours. Once the colours had dried, I drew over my black lines again to darken them and cover up any places where I might have gone over. Finally, I covered in a top coat. I was really chuffed with these nails and Mam was too! Very simple to do and very effective!

Ombre, Cath Kidston, and Spots.

Ok, so these nails were a tad experimental on my part, but I really, really liked how they turned out and 3 days later they still look like new which is definitely a good thing!

So for these nails, I thought that seen as I love them oh so much and they were so super easy, I'd give you all a tutorial!!!

You Will Need.

Barry Ms Peach Melba Nail Varnish (318)

Barry Ms Bright Pink Nail Varnish (279)

Any White Nail Varnish

Barry Ms White Nail Art Pen (Or as an alternative you can just use your normal white nail varnish and a dotting tool.

Green Nail Art Pen (I used one of Rio's)

A Small Brush

Clear Base Coat

Clear Top Coat

Step 1.

Apply your base coat to each nail and allow to dry.

Step 2.

First, lets start with the ring fingers. To begin with, you need to give your nail 1 or 2 coats of white nail varnish. One may be enough but it depends on the type/brand/quality of the varnish you are using.

Step 3.

Once base coat is dry, apply spots of Peach Melba onto your nail. These should vary slightly in size.

Step 4.

Once the peach spots have dried, you then need to take your Bright Pink and your brush and make marks over the peach around the edge of the spots, or in the center to create a look of petals. Repeat to each spot. Once this is done and dry apply the green as you think necessary to give your flower leaves.

Step 5.

For the rest of your nails, begin by painting them all with your Peach Melba and allow to dry.

Step 6.

Using a sponge, you now need to dip it into your Bright pink and sponge it onto your tip to create the ombre effect. 

Step 7.

Finally, using your white nail art pen or dotting tool, place dots onto your ombre nails.

Step 8.

Complete your look by covering each nail in a clear coat.

Barry M Nail Varnish Review

Now, as some of you will already know from previous posts, I have never been a fan of Barry M! Not that I ever found any problems! I just simply wouldn't use them as the price put me off and I always thought that to be so cheap they must lack in quality, but this week, when there was an offer on for money off when bought with the nail art pens used in my previous post I just had to give them a go and you know what? I was really pleased I did! 

The application of these nail varnishes is easy with the nice brush included but you do need to use a minimum of 2 coats for a bold, opaque colour! This however isn't a problem for me as I do this anyway, but a lot of people don't. The range of colours is endless and for nail artists like me, a large colour range is a must! The other thing that really impressed me about these bad boys is that they don't seem to chip very quickly! Win! All in all, starting at just £2.99 these are definitely worth the buy! The china glaze queen has officially been converted!!!!

Barry M Nail Art Pens

                   

After years of struggling with unsteady hands and thin brushes that almost never go the way you want them to go, I think I have finally found the perfect solution! Barry M Nail Art Pens! Now all though on the outside these don't look all that special, like the old saying says "don't judge a book but its cover!" These things are definitely the new essential for your nail kit!!!

                  

As you can see from the picture, these pens are just like the handwriting ones you used to have in school which makes them super easy to use, and leaving you with the ability to simply draw straight onto your nail as easily as a piece of paper! These handy little pens fill me with so much inspiration I am spoilt for choice and you too will never be short of ideas for fashionable nail art ever again!

At the retail price of just £4.99 these little beauties are definitely something worth having in your kit and I can promise you you won't regret the purchase! I would however strongly recommend that when used, you cover with a top coat as without this your design will chip and fade in a matter of hours!!!!