Half-moon manicure tutorial

This week I had to cut my nails drastically - they have been in awful condition since I went surfing on holiday and since then i've been covering up the damage with polish but they were all splitting and peeling and I couldn't hide the damage anymore so unfortunately they had to go :(

After leaving them nail polish-free for about 5 days I really couldn't stand the sight of my tiny 'naked' nails anymore aha...so i decided to paint them, and to make up for the previous plainess I wanted to make them more interesting with a half-moon (or reverse french) mani :)

Here's what I came up with: (before cleanup sorry aha)


I used:

OPI Rumple's Wiggin & Max Factor nailfinity 882 Angel Nails (metallic silver/purple colour)

How to do the half-moon manicure
1) Remove previous nail polish and apply a clear base coat

2) Once base coat is dry, apply the colour you want as the half-moon, so here I applied the metallic purple/silver colour from Max Factor. This is quite opaque so I only needed 1 coat, do more if you need to but try to use opaque colours otherwise you will end up with looads of layers of nail polish which will peel.

3) Wait about 15-20 minutes for this layer to dry completely, and then stick on nail guide stickers where you want the half-moon shape to be at the base of your nail. The sticker protects areas you want nail polish free. Here's a (pretty bad, sorry!) photo explaining what I mean:



4) Apply your main colour (here I used OPI Rumple's Wiggin which is a lilac) from the nail guide sticker upwards, and leave to dry. Once it is fully dry remove the sticker and apply a top coat to seal it :)

Tah-dah! You are done :D

I've tried doing it the other way around and putting the main colour on first, then using tips to draw on the half-moons but even with the tip guides this gets quite messy and it's difficult to get the right shape, so this technique works better!

There are soo many combos you can try out, google image 'half-moon manicure' for inspiration!

Thanks for reading!

What do you think of half-moon manis? What colour combinations do you like?
xo

Glitter tip nails :)

A couple of weeks ago I had a glitter cravingg and decided to use loose glitter on the tips of my nails.
The process was extremely messy - there was literally glitter everywhere - but the result was worth it! Plus I was helping out at Rhythms of the World music festival that weekend putting wristbands on hundreds of people, so my nails got the best exposure ever!! ;D

Here are some pics (apologies for poor application and lack of cleanup!)





A blurred pic to show the glitter colours:



To do this manicure I started by applying a few coats of the base colour, Collection 2000 Hot Looks Fast Dry in Vogue (these nail polishes are really great and affordable)

After waiting about 10-20 minutes for the polish to be completely dry I stuck nail tip guides on my nails and put a clear top coat on the tips.

I then pressed the loose glitter onto my nails using my fingers. I tried sprinkling it on but it didn't stick as well and there was too much waste. This method was also quite messy but the glitter stuck amazingly and the manicure was perfectt for a good few days before chipping or major glitter fallout.

Once the tips had dried i removed the nail guides and painted 2 layers of clear topcoat on to ensure the glitter was well stuck down and it was not gritty.

I personally love this look but its far too much hassle to do on a regular basis!! Thank god for glitter polishes, I think I may use them to recreate this look again in the future aha :)


Have you ever tried using loose glitter on your nails? If so have you found an easier mess-free method? Let me know!♥

Giving my friend a makeover!♥

This weekend me, my twin sister Hazel and Bea decided to test out our styling skills by giving our friend Fiona a makeoverr :)

Hazel did the hair and I did the makeup, and she is wearing my dress/top from Primark as a top and Hazel's skirt from TopShop, and belt from idk where and bracelets from New Look :)

Here are some (quite dodgy) before shots:




And noww for the after shots!!




Ta-da!

Fee loved her new look and I hope you guys do too :))

Hair curlers used were Nicky Clarke
Makeup used:
No7 Tinted Moisturiser
Bare Escentuals Medium Beige (my powder but i use it for everyone as it is quite sheer and just warms the face up more)
Bronzer from ELF Blush and Bronzer Compact
ELF Mineral Blush in Coral
Eyeshadows from the ELF Mini Makeup Collection (the yellow/nude colour and the chesnut brown colour)
Antique Gold Barry M Dazzle Dust
Fiona's mascara, not sure what it was exactly but it was one of those dual mascaras
Unbranded gel liner (only used the tiniest bit)

Some of the ELF product swatches are avaliable here on an earlier post I did.


Ever given your friends a makeover? How did it go? :)