KATE MIDDLETON INSPIRED NAILS

I love my nails being painted; I can't stand having them naked, so, the only time I'm not wearing any nail varnish is when I'm taking the old colour off, to put on the new colour. However, I do hate choosing what colour to paint them or what nail art to try, as I'm sure like us, you've all got so many that you're literally choosing from every colour possible.

While I was sitting pondering over which colour to choose, Kate and Will came on the television, showing off their new royal baby. The polka dot blue and white print of Kate's dress was so cute, especially since she had a boy, so I wanted to follow the theme and copy take inspiration with my nails. I'm definitely a fan of the whole, 'wear the gender colour of your baby', so pink for girls and blue for boys, as long as it remains classy like Kate's and not over the top. 

The blue base colour is from Nails inc. If you've read our previous posts on Nails inc polishes, you'll know that we haven't ever paid full price for any of the quite a few that we now own and instead have either bought them with a magazine or when they've been on offer. They're nice, but they're not £11 nice. This colour came with Instyle magazine and ours either never had a name or it's just come off. 

I used two of the NAIL ART pens, one bright pink for the petals and a white to do the dots. I'll forgive you if you didn't guess that the design on the ring finger is supposed to be roses! At least I tried! I used Revlon's Nude pink for the inside of the roses and also added the Barry M confetti in Marshmallow to try to add texture to the roses, however, you can't really see this in the photo. The green leaves are Models Own Green Tea. 

I loved having my nails like this as it made a change from just one plain colour and I got so many compliments! Even people that I wouldn't expect to even notice my nails were commenting on how good they looked, which was nice. 

I'd love to know what your favourite, easy nail art designs are? 

NOTD | THE BEST BARGAIN NAIL VARNISH

Hello everyone!

It's been a while since either of us have posted anything on here, as we've both been so busy with work etc. However, after painting my nails the other day, I just knew I had found something that had to be shared with you all! 

The MUA (Make Up Academy), nail varnishes must be the number 1, bargain buy that quality wise should cost so much more! We purchased quite a few of the colours when MUA had their 50% off offer as this meant that the varnishes only cost 50p!!!! Which is so insane, considering their quality. 

Since buying our nail varnishes, MUA have changed the packaging, resulting in them resembling something very, very similar to Essie's nail varnishes. However, most of the colours still seem to be the same luckily! 

The reason why I'm so impressed with MUA's nail varnishes is firstly because they're so cheap and really great quality; not just for being £1, but in general they are of a really high quality. They have a lovely consistency and therefore apply really easily. I've seen some people moan about the brush, however, I don't have a problem with it at all. It does look of lower quality than other brushes, however, I wouldn't say it affects the application at all, especially as the consistency is so smooth. 

Furthermore, the finish feels so professional; it's so smooth to touch and really shiny, even without a top coat. Finally and perhaps most importantly, the staying power is amazing! The nail varnish lasts on your nails for at least 5 days without chipping,  and maintains the colour and shine (w/o a top coat). 

The colour on my nails is 'Stormy Skies' which is  a dark grey, almost black colour and has a pretty gold shimmer to it. We both love dark colours, like black on the nails, however 'Stormy Skies' is a great alternative if you find black too harsh. I've added Barry M's (NP351)

Jewel Glitter Nail Paint – Yellow Topaz to the top of the ring finger on both hands, just because I fancied some glitter. 

There is quite a variety of colours so, I'm sure that there would be a colour or two... or as we are beauty lovers... five or so colours that would be of everyone's taste. I've used quite a few of the colours that we bought and they are all really great colours and all appear to be of equally good quality. 

I have absolutely nothing bad to say of these nail varnishes and would thoroughly recommend them to anyone; there clearly is no need to spend loads on nail varnish. 

You can purchase the nail varnishes on the MUA website or in Superdrug stores.

Have you tried any of the MUA nail varnishes? 

SUMMER DAISY NAILS

As the weather has decided to be a bit more like summer as of late, I decided that I wanted to do something with my nails to make them look all nice and summery too! While rummaging through our nail varnish collection, I found this little daisy stickers. I bought these a last year, I think, If not longer ago. There were from Claire's Accessories and cost around £3. All you do is peel them off ans stick them on, as easy as that! As you can see from the photos, some of the stickers don't lay very flat, where the nail curves, however, this doesn't seem to be too much of a problem. They may work better if you cut the daisies off indivually, instead of being lazy and just cutting bigger sections off like I did. 

I decided to use the blue nail varnishes underneath as I think the daises look good against both of the different shades. I used the Barry M Gelly High Shine nail paint in Guava, which is from the newest summer collection and as you can see is a gorgeous bright blue.  It's also super shiny and applies so well. 

 The lighter blue is by Models Own and is the shade Aqua Pro 051. We have a couple of other colours in the same pro range, which are also apparently limited edition. I wasn't at all impressed with the other shades, as the price of these nail varnishes was £8 and for that price I expected them to be better than my normal Barry M favourites, which are under half the price. I found that they chipped really easily and didn't last at all well on the nails. The Models Own Pro range polishes, do look really great at first and apply nicely, just the longevity is terrible, especially considering the price. I only bought this shade as I really liked the colour and it was on offer for £3, which I then didn't mind too much if it chipped fairly easily. 

What are your favourite summer nail art ideas?

NAILS INC. | NOTTING HILL CARNIVAL

 

We have never purchased any of the Nails Inc. nail varnishes that we own, individually. We're cheap skates and only ever get them when they come as a free gift with magazines. However, this little ray of sunshine, in other words, 'notting hill carnival' was purchased from Boots! But - there's a catch. It was only £5 and not the normal £11. This is still actually more than what we would normally spend as we usually just get the Barry M nail paints, which are either £2.99 or £3.99 for the Gelly nail paints.

 The nail varnish was in a reduced section, along with lots of other Nails Inc. varnishes and some models own varnishes. I assumed it was because it was from an older collection or something, however, it's very similar to a new varnish by Nails Inc. called 'Belsize Park,' which is the usual £11. 

 

 The colour is a gorgeous bright yellow, on the website it's described as pastel yellow, however I think it comes out a lot brighter than you would expect from a pastel polish. It is a great fun and feel good colour for summer. It had a pretty good wear quality and didn't chip too easily. It was also pretty shiny and easy to apply. I do like Nails Inc. however, I've never really noticed a huge difference in quality from any other cheaper branded varnish, to justify the price. Therefore, we still stand by our word that we would never pay full price for one of these varnishes.

 What do you think of Nails Inc varnishes?