Zebra Funky French Nail Art

I was inspired by something I saw on another blog but can't remember where it was now but I went home and did this. It took me a little while to do it but I was quite pleased with it. I wasn't overly happy with the colours I chose, I thought it was a bit too much and ended up only wearing it for a couple of days, I think it would have been really nice with a bright and a more muted colour to go with it, say two shades of blue.

Retro Flowers Nail Art

I hadn't done any nail art in a little while so I decided to give it another go. I'd wanted to try doing flowers using a dotting tool so thought I'd do that. I got one of the new MAC Quite Cute nail polishes (Mischievous Mint - review to come) and thought it would look really good with a bright pink, quite retro and kitchy.

I used MAC Mischeivious Mint for the base colour, Model's Own Bubblegum for the flower petals and OPI Panda-Monium Pink for the flower centres. I used a couple of different sized dotting tools (mine are actually embossing tools from a paper crafting company called Papermania, I got them from a local craft store but can't remember how much they were), the larger for the petals and the smaller for the middles. I haven't actually bothered to clean them so you can tell which I used for which. Then I topped it all off with a thick coat of Seche Vite.

I am so happy with how this came out, I actally impressed myself because I thought it would look a bit crap. Even my right hand looks good and normally it looks so bad when I've done nail art. I got quite a few compliments at work and I am going to do one of my colleague's nails next week in the same design.



This is colour accurate.



Sorry about the colour in this photo, neons do strange things to cameras.
My cuticles and the skin around my fingers is gross too.



Like?

- Jennifer

Models Own Smash-up (Crackle) Polishes!

Models Own are bringing out their own range of crackle polishes called Smash-up. These are another product they have created alongside WAH Nails and will be available in 9 shades. I am pretty excited for these, some of the colours are the same sort of thing as Barry M/OPI/China Glaze but there are a few that do look unique like the yellow, orange and purple. I am especially excited for the silver as I would like to get the OPI silver shatter but this looks like a nice cheaper alternative! I think the orange and turquoise would look fantastic together over coordinating nail colours where you could have turquoise and orange shatter over the top and vice versa. I am intriged to see how opaque the yellow is going to be as yellow can sometimes be a bit sheer so would be great if it turns out to be really pigmented.

You can see more about them at http://www.modelsownit.com/ and they will be available from April from there and some shades in Boots.

What do you guys think? Any colours stand out to you?

- Jennifer

WAH Nail Pens by Models Own Review

I had wanted to get into nail art and then heard about these pens which are a collaboration with WAH Nails. They have a nib and a stiper brush and for around £6 I thought that wasn't too bad. They only come in black and white but Models Own are looking to expand to create pens for all of their colours.

When I first got these, I thought the packaging was nice and the actual pens seemed good. I really looked forward to using them. The packaging gives some ideas of designs you could do such as leopard print (pictured), camouflage, zebra, eye balls - all which are WAH Nail designs. The nib has a pin which you need to remove before using it and replace afterwards to stop the nib getting clogged. To get to the striper brush, you twist where the grip is and it unscrews.

The brush itself isn't that fine and tends to splay out or bend during use which doesn't help to get accurate lines. I think a synthetic bristle brush in an artist's rigger style would have been a much better choice as the bristles would spring back into place, keeping it's sharp shape.

To use the nib, you need to squeeze the pen. This has it's pros and cons. It is good because it means you don't need to press the nib down on the nail to activate the polish flow but the bad thing is the pen is quite hard and that makes it difficult to squeeze to get a constant line. Also it can blob polish out if you don't get the pressure exactly right. It would have been a better design to use a more flexible plastic in the squeezable area so you didn't need to excert as much pressure and making the pen easier to use especially with your non dominant hand.

These aren't the only problems with these pens. There is one thing which is a complete FAIL...

Hmmm... that's strange... I'm sure there was meant to be a brush attached to this one... oh yeah, it fell off! After doing a little design on 5 of my nails I noticed the brush wasn't working properly and on closer inspection I saw that it was shedding. I gently removed the loose hair and it seemed to work again. Soon after the same thing was happening, more and more hairs started to come away and then all of a sudden the whole damn thing came off! Useless! I haven't sent it back as I bought it from ASOS and I don't think I've got the invoice anymore and I'm not sure I can send it back to Models Own directly. Besides, I don't want a replacement. I think this product is lacking a lot, even if the brush did stay on. It is difficult to use and badly designed, the brush issue just tops it all off. I'm not the only one who has had a problem with the brush coming away, lots of people have experienced it so there is definitely a design flaw with these. If Models Own are planning to expand to their whole colour range, maybe they should consider actually fixing the problem first, possibly redesigning the whole pen to make it easier?

Whatever you do, don't waste your money on these. Go buy some nail brushes or go to a craft shop for a rigger brush or fine detail brush and that way you can use any colour you want. I am considering getting the Rio Nail Art Pens at some point, they seem to have quite good reviews so if you do want some pens, maybe check out the reviews for these instead.

- Jennifer

Spotty Purple Nails

Sorry for the lack of blogging, I have had some computer issues at home and have been away at the boyfriend's house so not really had a chance but I am back now :)

This is some nail art that I did a few weeks ago, I used Leighton Denny Rebel and the white WAH Nail Pen from Models Own (do NOT recommend - review to come). I love this LD polish, it is a gorgeous shimmery purple shade, the perfect kind of purple and what I think of when I imagine purple. Often purples are too red or too blue but this one is just right. If you are not familiar with Leighton Denny or his polishes, definately go check them out. http://www.leightondenny.com/ He has some fantastic shades, the bright pinks are lovely and make sure you check back for his Spring collection which is gorgeous (I will be reviewing some of the shades from this soon). You can also get his colours from QVC which is where I buy from as the kits are such good value.

Anyway, on to the manicure.

I really enjoyed doing this and it was so simple and effective. I recieved lots of comments when wearing this, even the ticket lady at the train station called me back so she could look at them! I do think a cream polish would look nicer as the base colour as the spots sort of ruin the shimmery effect of Rebel. Also a dotting tool would have been more accurate for the spots but I am totally blaming the shoddy nail pen.

So what do you guys think?

- Jennifer