*Kooky Neon Nail Wraps*

*PR Sample*

I was recently contacted by The Beauty Partnership to ask me if I would try some nail wraps. For those who regularly read my blog, you will understand that I am a massive fan of nail art!! And so I couldn't resist, especially when they told me that they were neon nail wraps, exciting!

So here are the wraps that I was sent:

They are really neon pink, cheeatah print wraps. The brightness of them doesn't seem to photograph well because in real life they look incredibly luminous, but the camera didn't quite seem able to capture that. I know, a bad workman always blames his tools!! But they did look impressive in the packet. Really gorgeous!

The only thing that disappointed me slightly was that on the application instructions it stated to 'Cleanse and dehydrate each nail plate using Kooky dehydrator' which I had not received in my pack. This would worry me that you would need to order that seperately and it is not made clear, hopefully when you purchase these from the website they will send you the dehydrator as part of the pack. I'm hoping it will not make too much of an impact on the application and durability of these nail wraps!

Other than that little blip, they were incredibly easy to apply. I used one strip to do two nails, one on the right hand and the corresponding one on the left. In this way it means that they match up better, luckily they were good sized strips. They were incredibly easy to apply smoothly to the nail, buff on to the nail and remove the excess length. I would definitely recommend these for ease of application. As you can see, they look gorgeous on the nail!

The instructions didn't advise to apply clear polish over the top so I am trying to stick to them as much as possible to really test how good they are. I find the real test with nail wraps is whether they catch and start to peel off when you shower. I washed my hair with these on this morning and there seems to be no sign whatsoever that these are beginning to come off. I leave for holiday on Thursday so I'll keep you updated on how they survived! But I have very high hopes :) But they are so comfortable to wear, you don't even notice them on. Unlike some that I tried once before that started peeling off in minutes and I was so concious of them all day - nightmare!

Now, a little bit about the brand. These wraps are from Kooky Nail Fashionistas who describe their wraps as 'micro thin, high performance vinyl film designed to cover the nail plate' and a big part of their campaign seems to be that they are heatless...I don't know a great deal about nail wraps but I have dabbled with them in the past and I have never known them to require heat for application? Maybe I am missing something, but it seems to be a big point for them. But anyway, they're described as incredibly hardwearing and from what I have experienced so far, they aren't wrong.

Their Summer 2014 collection is called the 'Neon Me' collection, and the wraps I received are from that. They have a wide range of wraps though, and in all honesty they are gorgeous. I would happily wear about 90% of them, my favourites being the 'Front Row Ticket' wraps - lush! There is such a large variety of patterns and colours and also textures (which are new to the brand) so I do believe there is something for everyone.

Each set of nail wraps is £5.00 and includes 16 different sized wraps. It concerns me that on the documentation that they sent me it says 'wrap print may differ slightly from image shown' but I am hoping this is them just covering their backs and being overly cautious... For more info or to purchase go here.

Another bit of Nail Art - Jewels!

Here is my most recent nail art design! I have to apologise for the mess on the skin around my nails but I did all the designs and then realised I had run out of nail varnish remover so I couldn't tidy them up but really wanted to do the photos before any possible chipping so I'm afraid this seemed the lesser of two evils!

To achieve this look I used the following nail varnishes - Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paint in shade Grapefruit 407 and MaxFactor Glossfinity in shade 15 Opal. The grapefruit shade is a very bright light pink and the Opal is almost a very pale gunmetal grey on the nail.

First of all (after letting a base coat dry) I applied the Opal shade over the entire nail. This is such a great nail varnish that I only required one coat, it has a really opaque finish. Once this had dried I applied the Grapefruit shade to the nail with a nail art brush to create a triangle with the nail bed and then filled in the rest of the nail with this colour. I thought this required a little something more so I applied a small gem (from a little pot of them that I bought at Superdrug) to the point of each triangle just to give it another dimension. When it was all done and dried I covered over the entire nail with a clear top coat to try and preserve it a bit longer.

I really love this look, but then again I'm pretty happy with anything nail art related and a bit different. Not bad for another attempt!

I hope you like my nail art attempts, I like to think I'm getting at least slightly better with my designs! All comments are always welcome!

Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paints are available here for £3.99
MaxFactor Glossfinity Nail Varnishes are available here for £5.99

Nail Art - Glitter Tips

I had seen a few pictures of people painting their nails with a block colour varnish and then adding an extra dimension to it by just adding a slight amount of glitter to the tips. It gives a sophisticated, understated look that I just love. I have been meaning to try this for ages on my own nails, but when I received my Color Club Nail Lacquer in shade Heirloom Pearls I knew this was the colour to try it with (I told you their would be a post on this very soon!). These are the varnishes I used:

I used a Barry M Basecoat and Topcoat in shade 54 Clear as a base coat over the entire nail. Once this dried I applied two coats of Color Club in shade Heirloom Pearls. Once this had all dried (and I think it's quite important that it is left to dry fully) I delicately painted just the tips of my nail with Barry M in shade Silver Glitter. This is a very good, glittery topcoat as the glitter is in quite small pieces and not big chunks like you can get with some glitter. Once this had also dried I then went over the whole nail with the clear topcoat again to preserve the nail varnish and make it last longer.

And here are the results!

I adore how these came out, I don't think I have ever been so happy with the outcome of my nail art attempts. I know this was a pretty simple look to go for but it is so effective and looks so pretty and summery. I think the varnishes I chose go so well together. I had even thought that these would make great bridal nails with the satin pearl varnish and silver glitter. Classy and elegant!

What do you think of my recent dabble with nail art, are you a fan of this style also? Do you have any other suggestions for nail art techniques? Let me know, all comments are always welcome!

Watefall Nail Art

I had been looking for more nail art inspiration and came across so many different designs on Nailasaurus 's blog (you really should give it a look, so many gorgeous designs with good, clear tutorials!). The one that I liked the most, and thought I stood a chance of being able to do being such a novice myself, was the Waterfall Nails design. So my boyfriend's mum kindly decided to let me practice on her hands, and I was so happy with the results (luckily I think she was too!).

And this is all I used:

So, first of all I applied the base coat and once dried, covered the whole nail in a pale pink - 19 Baby Pink from W7. Once this had dried I started creating the 'waterfall lines'. To do this I picked 4 colours and applied them from the cuticle end of the nail with a skinny, tapered brush and slowly drew the line towards the end of the nail, gently lifting the brush so that the line tapered to a point before reaching the end. I picked the colours Lilac from London Girl, Rendezvous from Seche, 319 Foil from Barry M and 66 Matte White from Barry M. Once they were all done and dried I applied a clear top coat to seal the colour and make them last longer.

The overall effect looked lovely! I will definitely be trying this look on my own nails in the near future :)