Nail Art Dotting Tools from Born Pretty

Hi Beautiful ladies. Sorry for the lack of blog posts in the last week, all I can say is life got in the way! I'm sure that you fellow bloggers will all know what I mean when I say this and completely get where I'm coming from. But alas its a new week and I'm back into the blogging swing of things, I hope all you beauties are doing well and looking fabulously as always!

So today I wanted to talk to you all about nail art and some tools that I have been using which have made doing pretty little designs on my nails all the more easy. These are of course dotting tools! I know that these have been around for ages, but I've only just managed to get my hands on some and all I can say is goodbye toothpicks and bobby pins and hello perfectly round circles on mu nails! 

My nail art dotting tools arrived in a pack of five which have a metal tip on either side which you can use to  the create dots, so really its like getting ten dotting tools for the price of five. The actual tool is about the size of a pen, possibly a little bit shorter and comes decorated in the most pretty purple which has a unique marble effect on the plastic. As you can see from the pictures the metal tips come in a range of different sizes, so you can create all sorts of different polka-dots, ranging from big to small and everything else in between. 

I've loved using these for nail art and they really make doing designs on your nails all that more easy. Those of you who know me or who have been following my blog for a little while, will know that I have a little obsession when it comes to nail art. Why just paint your nails one colour, when you can make them super cute and pretty with a few dots or designs on them? I was forever using household items to do my designs, which in fairness work wonders...But the dotting tools are sturdy to use and give you much more precision and give you perfect sized polka dots each time. I love how you don't have to stop at dots either, these dotting tools can be used to create lines, swirls and allow you to pop any design you wish onto your nails. 

These are a must for anyone who loves nail art as much as I do, and makes nail art for beginners easy too. I was lucky enough to have been sent these dotting tools from the Born Pretty Store which retail at $4.31 (for those of you in the UK I'm pretty sure that's around the £2.70 mark) so they are really affordable and a great investment. Born Pretty have also kindly given me a unique code which will give you 10% at the checkout, which makes these super affordable. The Born Pretty Store is a little treasure chest of goodies for any nail art lover as they have loads of nail art related things on there, so be sure to have a look beauties. 

For those wanting to get your 10% off at the Born Pretty Store, the code to use is DSL91

www.bornprettystore.com

Over the last week, every time I have gone to paint my nails, I can't resist doing some little design on them. I thought I would have ago with some more Halloween inspired nail art. I'm sure a lot of you will have seen these spooky little eyes on everyone's nails by now, but just look how cute they are!

This really was the easiest nail art design that I've ever tried, but for those of you who want to try, all you do is paint your nails in black or in a dark shade which is similar, I've used No7 in Betty Blues. Use your dotting tool and with a white polish create two little dots next to one another and repeat this all over your nails. Once the white polish has dried, just get a black and with your dotting tool again, place smaller dots within the white ones...and there you have spooky little eyes peeking out of the dark!

Now I can master perfect polka dots, I'm on the hunt for more nail art designs I can do on my nails, so if any of you have some good ideas or tutorials then please let me know! I hope you enjoyed this post and as always beauties I would love to know your thoughts.

Lots of Love

Casper the Friendly Ghost | Halloween Nail Art

Hello gorgeous girls. A few of you who follow me on Twitter and Instagram may have been noticed me sporting this super cute ghost design on my nails.  I never thought that I'd ever say a ghost was cute, but I just think that these little guys (Casper's) on my nails are adorable and perfect for the spooky month of October. They are ever so easy to do and I'm pretty sure that anyone with a nail art dotting tool, nail art pen or a Kirby grip/bobby pin can create this simple design.

Step One

Paint your nails in any colour that you want to use for the background. Black would work perfectly for this, but for this design I have used No7 Stay Perfect in Betty Blues. Betty Blues is the most gorgeous midnight blue which has a very subtle blue glitter added to it. I adore this colour and as black nails look horrible on me  Betty Blues is a great alternative. It gives the appearance of black nails and only when your nails catch the light or you look close up, you can see that the polish is actually blue.

Step Two

Once your nails are dry, you will want to pick out your very best white polish and with whatever tool you are using (I used a dotting tool) you will want to place a blob at the bottom of your nail, using a generous amount of polish. With the excess polish on your blob, you will want to use your dotting tool and draw a half moon shape down the nail, which will create the body. You may need to add a little more while polish to the tip of your tool to even the line out. You should have something that looks like a crescent with a circle at the top. Wait for these to dry.

Step Three

With your dotting tool again you will want to draw two little triangles on either side of the circle, which will create the ghost's arms. Once the white polish has dried, you will want to create the eyes and mouth of the ghost. I used the same colour as I used for the base, but you can choose any colour your prefer. With a really light hand you will want to place two small dots in the circle and a slightly bigger one in the middle, underneath the first two dots. Then you should have a little Casper ghost drawn onto your nails.

Step Four (optional)

Once your nails have fully dried, add your favourite top coat which will help to smooth out any bumps or imperfections and of course keep the chips at bay.

It really is easy as that. Hope you enjoyed this post ladies, I'm looking to work on some more Halloween inspired nail art, so if you have any ideas or tutorials of your own please let me know.

Cath Kidston On My Nails

Hi beauties. I'm pretty sure that those of you who are fans of Cath Kidston will have seen Cath Kidston inspired nail art, and seeing as I am a fan I just had to give it ago. If any of you follow Beth over at Bird Words Blog will have seen that she did a Cath Kidston design nail art post and I was so inspired at how easy she made it look that I wanted to see if I could create the look in my nails!.. Ok I basically just copied her exact design and mine are no way near as good. What can I say Beth your an inspiration! So please go check out her blog girlies, as its amazing!

http://birdle.blogspot.co.uk/

So if you might be thinking 'this design looks a bit tricky' which were my thoughts exactly. But once you break it down step by step its really quite simple and I think you could atempt this even if your a newbie at nail art! 

First of all you want to pick out your nail polishes, you will need a colour for the background, I've chosen the classic Cath Kidston blue, but a pink would look lovely with this design! A white for the clouds and dots, a pretty colour for the flowers and a green for the leaves.

Green - Barry M in Mint Green | Blue - Barry M in Blueberry Ice Cream | Pink - O.P.I in That's Berry Darling | White - Rio Profesional Nail Art Pen (Review Here) 

Start by painting your nails with your chosen base colour, I've done two coats with the Barry M in Blueberry Ice Cream

Once it has dried you want to draw little white clouds in opposite corners of your nails. I've used the Rio Profesional Nail Art pen for accuracy but you can achieve this with a normal nail polish brush or use a bobby pin opened out, draw the outline and fill it in with white polish.

When the white has dried you will want to add a little blob of colour in the middle of each cloud as this will be make up the flower. I've kept the design of my flower really simple, but if you check out Beth's Blog she has done advanced nail art flowers which are brilliant! 

Once your flowers have dried you can add another blob of green each side to create the leaves.

Then when your flowers are all dry, you will want to get your white polish and use your bobby pin or nail art pen to create little white dots that will outline around the clouds. 

Finish with a top coat to add shine and keep the chips at bay and you and your Cath Kidston nails are ready to go. 

Zebra In The Savanna | NOTD

Hi beauties. Hope you are all having a fabulous weekend! I was playing around with some nail art designs the other day and came up with this cute little zebra design that's super easy to do and I think you nail art fans will most definitely like it. 

This nail art is a zebra printed design with a little twist. I've had nothing but compliments on my nails when sporting this look and what I love about it, is that you can always spice things up by changing the colour of your polish around. 

I've always wanted to have ago at doing zebra print nails, but to be honest the thought of trying to draw strips over all 10 nails was daunting, especially when it would come to doing that pesky right hand. So I came up with the idea of alternating a different polish with the zebra print. It was much more pleasurable painting my nails, knowing that I only had to draw zebra stripes on four of my nails and I really liked the outcome. 

To achieve this look you will need to get your hands on:

1. A white nail polish

2. A colour you want to alternate the zebra stripes with. I've used Models Own in Coral Reef which is a gorgeous mix of bright orange/red. I think with this design the brighter the polish the better, but it would look cute also with some cooler colours such as blue. 

3. A black nail art pen for the zebra stripes. I've used the back pen from the Rio Professional Nail Art Kit (review here), but you can get your hands on loads of good ones these days, I know Topshop and Models Own do some good ones. If you don't have any nail art pens to hand, a good liquid liner or thin tip marker pen will also work.

To start off, you just need to paint your nails alternating the white polish and your other chosen one. I started off with using Coral Reef on my thumbs and worked my way out to the little pinkie. In the pictures I've done two coats, but do as many as you think is needed.

Once your polish has thoroughly dried, get your nail art pen and get ready to add some stripes to your nails which are painted white. When doing mine I didn't really use any sort of guidelines, I think as long as you paint a stripe that doesn't reach the other side of your nail you will be just fine. I did find this bit a bit tricky, but the important thing to remember beauties that there is no right or wrong when doing animal print, just go with the flow and see what outcome you get. 

If any of you would like a guideline to go from there are loads of zebra print images online, or you could use the one I've found. As you can see mine is nothing like a real zebra, but it doesn't matter.

Once your stripes have all dried, just seal it all with a top coat to add some shine and to keep the chips at bay and your ready to go show your stripes off to the world!

I hope you liked this zebra design lovelies. As a lot of you know I have a huge obsession with anything nail art related, so if you do decide to have a go at this or have some of your own designs I would love to see them.