Leighton Denny - The Heiress

 This is what I have on my nails at the moment. I wanted to use creme colours as I'd worn a lot of glitter recently but still wanted it to be fun. I haven't done any stripes for a while either and last time I did them my hand wasn't as steady as it is now painting nails. I picked out one of my favourite Leighton Denny colours, The Heiress which is a beautiful purply-lilac with some dusky blue in it. On the Leighton Denny website, it is described as 'a blue-belle purple' which I think is very fitting. For the stripes, I didn't have anything in mind other than using black and white so I just made it up as I went along.

The lines aren't perfect but I am pleased how it turned out and it is probably one of the best manicures I've done for myself :)

These photos are more colour accurate with some editing (purples are so hard to get colour accurate with digital photography).

 

 

 

What I used:

Leighton Denny Under Cover Base Coat

Leighton Denny The Heiress - 2 coats

Rio Nail Pens (black and white)

Seche Vite Fast Dry Topcoat.

Jennifer xx

My Christmas Manicure

I took a break from blogging for the Christmas holiday period and totally forgot that I took these pictures of this manicure until I saw them on my camera. Thought I'd show you anyway even though they're too late.

I wanted to do something really festive and decided to do each nail different because I couldn't pick one thing. I thought it was really fun and got a lot of compliments on them.

What I used:

Thumb (snowflake)-

OPI Ogre the Top Blue as the base - 2 coats

OPI Last Friday Night over the top - 1 coat

Rio nail pen in white for the detail

Index/pointer finger (candy cane stripes)

Leighton Denny Pure White as the base - 2 coats

Rio nail pen in red for the stripes

Middle finger (gold bow)

OPI Affair in Red Square as the base - 2 coats

Rio nail pen in gold for the detail

Ring finger (green glitter)

Orly Here Comes Trouble - 2 coats

Little finger

OPI Russian Navy as the base - 2 coats

Rio nail pen in gold for the detail

Jennifer x

Bonfire Night Nails

I hope everyone enjoyed Bonfire Night. I love it, it is one of my favourite times of the year. Being British, the 5th November is an important historical date for us. To celebrate, my boyfriend and I went to a firework display which we have been going to for three years running. It is in Edenbridge Town, in Kent and they put on a fantastic show. They hold a procession down the high street with bands and floats. People dress up and all of the local children who take part seem to enjoy themselves so much. After the procession everyone makes their way to a nearby playing field where the fireworks will be held. There are stalls selling burgers, hotdogs, candy floss, toffee apples and hot drinks plus a teacup ride and fairground game for the littleuns. On the other side of the field stand two huge wooden figures, one of Guy Fawkes and the other of that year's 'celebrity Guy'. This year was the turn of Manchester City player Mario Balotelli, the footballer who managed to set fire to his bathroom with a rogue firework during a party... haha! After they have set fire to each Guy, the fireworks start and they are fantastic and enormous. I love going there.

As it was a special day, I decided to do a special manicure to go with it. I wanted to paint fireworks on my nails and this is what I came up with.

I love cupcakes :D

After seeing a few cupcake manicures around the blogsphere I decided to do my own. I've had quite a few compliments already on it at work today although a lot of them think I have too much time on my hands... I think this took me around 30-40 minutes in total.



Colours used:
Nubar Yellow Primrose (cake)
Nubar Blue Hydrangea (blue cake cases)
Nubar Purple Aster (lilac cake cases)
Leighton Denny All About Me (pink cake cases)
Leighton Denny Heiress (purple case stripes)
China Glaze Snow Globe (glitter frosting)
Rio nail pens from the original set (red for cherries, blue for blue case stripes and purple-pink for pink cake stripes and over the purple stripes.)



Do you like them? I really enjoyed doing them :)

Jennifer xx

Watermelon Nails

I already had OPI Gargantuam Green Grape on my nails and wanted to jazz it up a bit. The colour reminded me of the stripes on watermelon skins so I decided that I'd do some watermelon nail art.

What I used:
Base colour: OPI Gargantuam Green Grape (light green)
OPI Come To Poppy for the watermelon flesh.
Rio Nail Art Pens for the white, darker green and black.

How I did it:
First apply base coat, I use OPI Nail Envy as a base and treatment - 2 coats, as per instructions.
Then apply two coats of Gargantuam Green Grape (or a light green).
Apply Come To Poppy in a semi circle shape, leaving a smallish gap in the green, one coat.
Let it dry and then use a green nail pen - I used the brush within - or a darker green on a detail brush to paint in the darker green stripes.
Use a white nail pen with a brush or white polish on a striper or detail brush to draw the white line between the green and pink, it will tidy up any mistakes and neaten up the edges of the pink if it isn't quite perfect.
Use a black nail pen and dot on little black dots for the seeds and before lifting the pen away, gently drag it down to create teardrop shaped seeds. You could use a toothpick or a teeny dotting tool instead with some regular black polish if you don't have a nail pen.
Let the polish dry and then apply a topcoat, I use Seche Vite. It is important to let the design dry first otherwise the topcoat will drag it.

I was really pleased how it came out and got quite a lot of compliments on them. I think Come To Poppy works well due to the iridescent in it which looks a bit like the flesh of a watermelon.

More pics!

What do you think?

Jennifer x

Cherry Blossom Nails - Take 2

Every time I look at my most viewed posts, my cherry blossom nails that I did a while ago are one of the top posts. Considering that they came out terribly, I've been wanting to redo them. I used Barry M Blue Moon as my base colour and then used my Rio Nail Art pens which I got from Amazon recently. I think they are excellent so far and I will be reviewing them fully in a few weeks once I've got to use them a few more times to try out different things.

I'm actually really pleased with how it came out, much better than my last attempt! What do you think?

- Jennifer