My Favourite Nail Care Products

Hi everyone! Recently my nails have been breaking and splitting and my hands have been so dry partly because of the cold weather and partly because at work I'm washing my hands almost 15 times a shift with medical soap and no moisturiser! So I've taken a little break from painting my nails but I wanted to share with you what I've been doing instead to get my nails fiting fit again! 

I got this cuticle oil for Christmas and have been applying it 3 times a day (ideally I would be applying it more often but I can hardly take it to school with me) and I think it's actually been helping! 

Then I use this No 7 cuticle cream which I rub into my nails and around them after the oil has soaked in a bit. It was actually pretty affordable seeing as Boots are always giving discount vouchers off No 7 all the time! 

I use Hand Food by Soap and Glory during the day because it's light and absorbs fast which is great because I hate having oilly hands when I'm trying to write at school! The scent is quite strong and lasts quite a while which I like - I'm don't really know how to explain the smell but it's quite sweet? 

At night I alternate between Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula concentrated cream and The Body Shop's Hemp Hand Protector.

The Body Shop hand cream is really moisturising and my hands feel so soft in the morning but it is very heavy and takes quite a while to absorb which is why I only use it at night. The smell isn't anything amazing just kind of planty! 

The Palmers one is a high concentrated cream so you don't need a huge amount because a little goes a long way! It also smells really good and chocolatey which is always good! It's not as heavy as The Body Shop one so if my hands are really dry I can get away with wearing it during the day and no worrying about greasy hands! 

Hope you liked this slightly different blog post! How do you keep your nails in good condition with the strains of everyday life? Thanks for reading! 

Born Pretty Store Glitter Nail Wraps

DISCLAIMER: I've been sent this product by Born Pretty Store for my honest review which is exactly what I've given you!

Hi everyone! So a few weeks back Allison from Born Pretty Store contacted me asking if I would like to review some of their products on here which was very exciting for me as I've had this blog for just over a year now and this is the first set of products that have been sent to me! I've read a couple of other reviews and have looked at the site before and what was such a pleasant surprise to me was the price - everything is so reasonably priced! From placing my order to receiving it took just under a month but their delivery times vary based on your location!

So as well as choosing 3 stamping plates (which you can read about here!) they also kindly let me choose 2 other items and this is the first one I'd like to share with you. Now I've only really used nail wraps once before and it was a bit for a disaster to be honest; they didn't fit my nails properly and I didn't put them on very well so there were creases everywhere but I thought it was time to give nail wraps another go! So I chose these Glitter Gradient Wraps which are only £1.84!!! With this design there are 13 different colours to choose from and I chose #5 which is a a warm brown shade as I thought it was something different to what I usually wear on my nails!

In the pack you get 12 wraps of varying sizes and although they probably won't be exactly the perfect size for you nails you can get pretty close and there some handy instructions on the back if you've never used wraps before. 

So you peel off the protective cover and then very carefully you can peel off each individual nail wrap and then place it onto your own. 

Once it's on it's quite hard to readjust so my advice would be to just hover it over your nail when you are trying to position it. Place it onto you nail and then smooth it down starting from the middle to ensure there are no creases. This was all a lot easier than I remember it being and I had no creases at all! All you've then got to do is cut off the excess and file it to neaten the edges. You don't have to but I put a top coat on just to make sure they stayed on.

I was so impressed with these wraps! They look so pretty and I like the gradient effect they have and I got a surprising number of people ask me how I managed to do it! They're great if nail painting isn't your strength or a major selling point for me is how quickly you can put them on and don't have to wait for them to dry! They last remarkably well without chipping too! I had them on a whole week and the only damage to them was me getting some glue on them in DT and it accidentally taking some of the wrap with it when I peeled it off!

With free shipping and them being so cheap anyway I will be ordering some other colours to try out! If you like any of the plates I chose or there's something else that takes you fancy you can use my 10% off code on your next order!

Hope you enjoyed this review - let me know what you think! Do you use nail wraps or do you prefer painting them? Thanks for reading! 

Christmas Penguin Nails

Hi everyone! Christmas is quickly approaching so I thought I'd do a quick post to show you my Christmas themed nails and how I did them!

Step 1: Paint your nails all black.

Step 2: Draw a white oval leaving some black visible either side

Step 3: Use a dotting tool to make the white of the eyes and a slightly smaller one for the blacks

Step 4: Use a dotting tool to do the orange of the penguins feet then either using a dotting tool making three small dots in a triangle to make the beak or use a brush!

Hope you liked this Christmas themed post! Let me know what Christmassy designs you've got on your nails this year and if you haven't yet maybe this will give you some inspiration!

Born Pretty Store Stamping Plate Review

DISCLAIMER: I've been sent this products by Born Pretty Store for my honest review which is exactly what I've given you!

Hi everyone! So a few weeks back Allison from Born Pretty Store contacted me asking if I would like to review some of their products on here which was very exciting for me as I've had this blog for just over a year now and this is the first set of products that have been sent to me! I've read a couple of other reviews and have looked at the site before and what was such a pleasant surprise to me was the price - everything is so reasonably priced! From placing my order to receiving it took just under a month but their delivery times vary based on your location!

So I got to choose 3 stamping plates from their collection and I picked these!

'Charming Spring Nail Art Stamp Template Image Plate BORN PRETTY 24 (#17203)'

'Starfish & Shell Theme Nail Art Stamp Template Image Plate BORN PRETTY 10 (#16857)'

'Butterfly Nail Art Stamp Template Image Plate BORN PRETTY 22 (#17267)'

So I already had the stamper and scraper (although you can just use an old credit card for the scraping) but I've never used a stamping plate before. I'm not going to lie, it took me a while to realise that you have to remove the blue seal as it's just a protective layer!!! I was wondering for a bit why on earth it wasn't working!

So first I tried out the Spring themed one which is only £1,90! This is I chose this one because I saw the owl on it which I thought look really cute as I'm 'Little Owl' at a Brownie unit so I take any opportunity to get owl themed things!

I then tried out the Starfish and Shell themed one which is £1.27! I picked this one because I really like the mehendi style waves and it will be perfect for those beach days (if the rain ever goes!) 

And saving my favourite until last - the Butterfly themed plate for an absolute steal at £0.63!!!!! I absolutely loved the detail of the butterflies and the patterned flower section is just so pretty! I cannot wait for this winter weather to go so I can start wearing bright summery colours again because this would look perfect!

I will defiantly be using these again because it so simple to do but really gives you nails an extra something! With free shipping and such adorable products I will without a doubt placing an order of my own! If you like any of the plates I chose or there's something else that takes you fancy  you can use my 10% off code on your next order!

Hope you enjoyed this review - let me know what you think! Have you used plates before? Which one is your favourite? Thanks for reading!

Halloween Nail Art

Hi everyone! So this is going to be a pretty short post but I just wanted to show you my nails for Halloween and maybe give you some inspiration! For all of it I just used a small nail brush and a medium sized nail dotter. This was the first time I've painted designs straight onto my nails so apologies for the slightly shaky quality of some of them! 

I think each nail is pretty self explanatory in the link to Halloween! My favourite is probably my index finger as it was really simple to do but looks really effective! If I did another one I'd use this idea and paint my nails a neutral colour and use a red so it looks a bit more like blood! 

Hope you enjoyed reading this and I'd love to know what spooky designs you've got on your nails this Halloween! Thanks for reading! 

World Cup Nail Art - Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire)

Hi everyone! So not too long ago I got an email from Emily over at Nailsxo asking if I wanted to join a World Cup Nail Art competition she was running. Now, I don't really know anything about football and I haven't really done much nail art before but that's never stopped me before! The idea was once you'd been allocated your country you had to create a manicure design that reflected that nation and I was given the Ivory Coast!

Again, I have to admit I knew very little about Ivory Coast so of course I used all my powers, by which I mean Google, to research the country itself as well as the culture so I wanted to share a couple of facts I found out!

Location

The official language spoken on the Ivory Coast is French.

As of 2012, the population stood at 22 million making it the 54th largest population in the world.

Average life expectancy is 57 years old. (It's 80 in the UK!)

And it has many names! 

• Conventional long form: Republic of Cote d'Ivoire
• Conventional short form: Cote d'Ivoire
• Local long form: Republique de Cote d'Ivoire
• Local short form: Cote d'Ivoire
• Formerly known as: Ivory Coast

So bearing that all in mind I set on thinking up a couple of designs that I could create and here is the finished design!

I based the design on my thumb to mimic the coat of arms coloured with the colours of the flag!

On my pinky I tried to mimic the referee kit!

And then on my remaining three nails I went with the slightly easy option of the flag but I think it looks very effective in contrast to the other nails!

So I hope you enjoyed reading this slightly different blog post and I'll keep practicing my nail art and maybe write another post when I improve because my hand wouldn't stop shaking drawing those lines! Thanks for reading!

Review of 'Revlon Nail Art Moon Candy' in 'Galactic'

Hi everyone! I got this polish as a Christmas present and have been dying to use it and show you for ages but I wanted to save it for a special occasion (it was my birthday week!). It has been around for a little while now and I haven't really seen anything that compares to it. Whilst it is basically a base colour with a top coat glitter duo, the glitter isn't like any ordinary glitter; it really makes your nails look amazing and I got loads of compliments when I wore it!

There are also 6 others in the collection in different colours all just as beautiful but I think in other countries the collection is larger as I've read reviews on colours I can't find myself in shops. In the UK you can get them from pretty much any Revlon counter in most shops and they retail for £7.99.

Due to it being quite a dark colour I used my Barry M basecoat to protect my nails.

I then applied one coat of the base colour which is a dark blue, almost black, colour. It goes on really well and even though I only applied a thin coat I still only needed one for a full coverage and it dried pretty quickly as well! I did find it a little hard to apply as the brush is attached to the other side of the duo making it a lot longer and heavier than normal nail varnishes.

I didn't have to wait long until I applied the glitter coat on top which is a turquoise base with different blue iridescent glitter flakes and it is so gorgeous! I felt it was better to dab it because otherwise the larger flakes stayed on the brush rather than transferring to the nail although it did mean in some places quite large flakes stuck up off the nail but they could quite easily be pushed down with tweezers. 

Although you don't really need a top coat as the glitter coat itself is really shiny but I found that due to the glitter flakes being different sizes my nail didn't feel very smooth so I used my Barry M top coat to fix that.

I absolutely love this nail varnish and can't wait to wear it again. I'm going over to America in the summer so I'll have to have a look at the other colours and maybe even treat myself to one! I would really recommend you give this collection a go if you haven't already and although they are £7.99 I think it's worth it! Let me know what you think and if you've tried one out! Thanks for reading!