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.

Easter Nails! | NOTD

Hello Lovelies, I don't know about you, but I'm rather excited about it being Easter this weekend and to get in the mood I've come up with an Easter design on my nails. It's ever so easy and simple to do and not only would look perfect for Easter, but anytime this spring. 

To get this look all you need to do is choose two shades of nail polish that you think will look great together. I've used two Barry M Nails paints for my nails. When you've picked two gorgeous polishes, paint your nails alternating the colours. 

To achieve the dotting effect and the pretty little bow, I've used the Professional Nail Art Pens from Rio Beauty (full review here). I can not express how much these pens help to assist you on any nail art design as they literally do all the hard work for you, all you need is a steady hand! If you don't have any nail art pens, you can always use anything with a small tip such as a toothpick or kirbie grip / bobby pin. 

Randomly place dots all over your painted nails, but leave some space at the top of your ring finger, this is where the little bow will go. For the bow, I simply placed a dot in the centre and added two inward triangles on either side. When the bow has dried simply place a white dot in the middle. Once your nails have fully dried just add a top coat to add some shine and keep the chips at bay. 

I really love this design and think it's super cute. I've had a few people tell me that they look like mini Easter eggs! If you decide to give this ago please let me know as I would love see a picture of your take on the look. If your on Twitter just send me a picture on there @sunshinesprkle or showcase it on your own blog and send me a link in the comments. 

Lots of love

Rio Professional Nail Art Kit | Review

Hello Beauties! The other week I was a very lucky beauty blogger and was kind enough to be sent a Professional Nail Art Kit from Rio. As you all know I have a serious addiction to nail polish and anything that allows you to get creative with your nails. In the past I have always gave my best shot at nail art with make shift items found lying around the house and to be honest failed quite miserably. So when a lovely lady from Rio Beauty asked if I would like to try out the Nail Art kit I was super excited and thought that at last I would be able unleash my creativity and produce some fancy designs on my nails with the aid of famous nail art pen!

The nail art kit comes nicely packed in a small box (around the size of a DVD boxset). Let me tell you lovelies I was amazed at how many products were contained into this box when I unwrapped it all. The kit contains eight nail art pens which feature double ended applicators, a design chart of nail art designs for some inspiration, rhinestone gems, glitter, a step-by-step DVD, an information booklet and a brush to paint your nails with. 

The double ended applicator nail art pens in 

Black | Purple | Coral | Pink

Blue | White | Orange | Yellow

Rhinestones & Gold Glitter

DVD, Information Booklet, Nail Brush & Nail Art Designs 

As you can see there is loads in this kit which can keep you entertained for hours and all for a bargain £24.99 which you can purchase at www.riobeauty.co.uk.  Rio have four different kits which are available in their nail art collection - Original, Metallic, Neon and Pastels. Spring/Summer trends are all about the bright colours right now so I opted for the Neon Kit.

Like I said, I've never been too great when it comes to doing nail art designs on my own nails, but the Rio Kit has certainly given me some incentive to start practising more with designs. I was really pleased with how easy the pens are to use and with a steady hand you can produce detailed designs on your nails. 

Each brush has a double ended applicator which can be used for different design techniques. At the top you have a detailing pen which is makes a great dotting tool, and a the bottom you have a super fine line brush which can be used for lines, straight or wavy. 

 I was so pleased with how easy this was to use, especially the use of the detailing pen. The polish comes out slowly with a gentle squeeze of the bottle and doesn't apply clumpy. If at anytime it does become clogged though the polish drying, Rio have concealed a small pin at the bottom of each polish which can be used to un-clog the pen. The fine line brush was also easy to use, but I failed miserably when it come to painting my nails using my non writing hand. But as they say 'practice makes perfect'. 

The DVD did come handy, and I thought that adding this in was a lovely touch to the kit. It gives beginners like me a step-by-step guide on how to produce all different designs with your nail art kit, including the more intricate designs. 

Overall I'm super impressed with Professional Nail Art Kit from Rio, its great for beginners, nail art lovers and even the beauties who are a whizz at nail art already. I can't fault the brushes in any way and the actual polish that comes out is a true representation of what you see in the bottle. 

Being  a huge fan of anything animal print, especially the classic leopard print design, I really wanted to master leopard print nails. I used the black and blue nail art pens in the Rio kit and I am so thrilled with the outcome that I had to show you lovelies! 

I hope you enjoyed this review beauties, if you fancy getting this nail art kit or any other things from Rio Beauty (they have some amazing nail art foils on their site too) you can find it all here at-

www.riobeauty.co.uk

or follow them on Twitter 

@Rio_Beauty_

Take care lovelies and be sure to keep checking for new nail art designs!