Help! I stained my nails blue!

So last night I posted my bright blue stained nails! I was devastated and ready to file my nails right off! So many of you replied to my post with ideas of how to fix them, well, I think I tried every single one and here's my results.

First I tried whitening tooth paste, 3 different kinds! I scrubbed and scrubbed and nothing happened, not one bit of colour was lifted, I was just left with minty hands.

Then I tried cuticle remover. First I put it on my nails and scrubbed with a tooth brush, then I popped some more on and wrapped my nails in foil as if I was removing gel polish. This technique was a huge fail too, no colour budged.

By this point I'm starting to face reality that I'm going to have permanent blue nails!

The third technique I used is lemon and bicarbonate. I made a paste with lemon juice and bicarbonate of soda, scrubbed it into my nails and then wrapped them with lemon soaked cotton pads in foil. I kept this on for 20 minutes and then scrubbed my nails with a toothbrush after. The colour did fade slightly and I feel like if I redid this over a few days it would get rid of it eventually but I'm really impatient and I really wanted to get it off!

Finally, I gave in, I grabbed my nail file and gently buffed the surface as if I was going to apply acrylic extensions or gel polish. At last! I could see pink again! It didn't take any effort at all the buff it off, I wish I'd just gone ahead and done it in the first place! I've now covered my nails in my fave clear polish and slapped on a tonne of cuticle oil!

Thank you again to anyone who responded last night! Unfortunately hardly anything worked for me but it might work for you!

Disney: Up! Nails

So it's one week until we're off to Florida! Here's another Disney mani for you. I love the film UP! It's such a lovely story. That's the film that has been the inspiration for this mani.

Up Nails

For this mani I used:

• small nail art brushes
• dotting tools
• blue, white and black nail polish
• a make up sponge
• a selection of bright polishes for the balloons

I started by painting all of my nails white so that I had a solid base for my gradient. To do a gradient with nail polish it's easiest to use a make up sponge. To make it look like it's really high in the sky I wanted the tip of my nails to be white and the part near the cuticles to be blue. To do this, I painted a stripe of blue polish and a stripe of white polish onto a make up sponge.

I then dabbed the sponge onto my nail a few times until I got a colour I was happy with.

Using my brightly coloured polishes and my dotting tool I placed random dots on all my nails except my ring finger.

For my ring finger nail. I starting by dotting random balloons in a triangle shape, with the widest part of the triangle starting at the cuticle end of my nail and the point being about a third of the way down my nail.

For the house, I used black polish. I started by painting a black rectangle, I then added the roof.

I then painted a few thin black lines from the roof of the house up to the balloons to make it look like the strings.

There we have it, my Up mani. I'm so excited for Florida now!

The polishes I used in this mani were:

• Miss Sporty - Blue
• Miss Sporty - Black
• Boots Seventeen Colour Carnival - White
• Boots Seventeen Colour Carnival - Light Blue
• Kiko - Green
• Barry M - Shocking Pink
• Barry M - Passion Fruit
• Make Up Time - Bright Yellow

Rachel x

Spider-Man Nails

My boyfriend doesn't understand my nail art haha, I'm not sure many guys understand why we girls love nail polish! I created these Spider-Man nails to show him how awesome nail polish can be!

Spider-Man Nails

For this mani I used:

• red, blue, black and white nail polish
• small nail art brushes

I couldn't get the Spider-Man mask to fit on one nail so I decided to spread it across to 2 nails.
Start by painting your thumb, middle finger and ring finger nails with the red polish and your other 2 nails with the blue.

For spideys mask, start with the eyes. To do this, use the black polish and paint a pointed oval about half way down your 2 red nails.

Then you need to create the web look. Using the black polish again paint thin curved lines across your nails. They all need to start between spideys eyes and spread out across to each side of the nails. Try to match up the lines on each nail.

Next paint a few curved lines between each of the lines you've already created to get more of a web look.

Then when all the black details have dried you need to add the white to his eyes. To do this use your white polish to paint over the black ovals. Don't completely cover the all of the black, leave an outline.

Now for the spider on the thumb nails. Using the black polish again, paint a thick line with a pointed end towards the tip of your nail.

For the legs, paint 8 little lines coming out of the body, then from the end of each line paint another longer line towards the edges of your nail.

There you have it. Spider-Man nails! I added webs to the blue nails too but with the blue polish being quite dark the webs don't stand out that well.

 The polishes I used in this mani were:

• Nails Inc. - Luminous Red
• Models Own Artstix - Betty Blue
• Boots Natural Collection - Nail Tip Whitener
• Miss Sporty - Black

I hope you enjoy trying out this mani. My boyfriend was quite impressed with these nails, he still can't see why I need to keep buying more polish though.

Rachel x

Rainbow and Cloud Nails

I bought a blue Miss Sporty polish the other day that made me think of blue skies and made me want to create a mani which included clouds and blue skies. So here is my rainbow mani with blue skies.

Rainbow Nails

For this mani you will need:

• blue nail polish
• white nail polish
• selection of coloured polishes
• dotting tool
• small nail art brush

Start by painting your nails with the blue polish. I left the ring finger for the rainbow.

I got a little too into this mani and forgot to take photos for the next few steps.
Next paint your designated rainbow nail with white polish.
I started my rainbow with the middle colour so it would be easier to work out how thick each line needed to be.

Keep adding more colours to your rainbow nail, if you want a neater edge to each colour use nail art tape as a guide but as a mentioned before, I got a little too into this mani and didn't have time to find my tape so I painted each colour freehand.

For the clouds on the blue nails you'll need your white polish and a dotting tool. Using your dotting tool place a white dot on your nail.

To turn the dots into clouds, add smaller dots to the side of the first dots. Make some clouds with 2 dots and some with 3 so it doesn't look too uniformed.

There we have it! Rainbow and sky nails! There's no rainbows without rain and there's no rain without clouds.

I love the sky nails, I think they look great, it's a really nice blue!

The polishes I used in this mani are:

• Red - Barry M - Passion Fruit
• Orange - Boots 17 Lasting Fix - Tropical Island
• Yellow - Boots 17 Fast Finish - Go Go
• Green - Barry M - Neon Green
• Blue - Boots Colour Carnival by Seventeen - Light Blue
• Indigo - Models Own Artstix - Betty Blue
• Violet - Sinful Colours - Let's Talk
• Blue sky - Miss Sporty Clubbing Colours
• Clouds - Boots Natural Collection - Nail Tip Whitener

Rachel x

Disney: Winnie the Pooh Nails

At work the other day I was showing my manager some of my manis and she was like "it would be great if you did a Pooh mani" Luckily I know she loves Winnie the Pooh or this mani could have turned out completely different!

Winnie the Pooh Nails

 For this mani you will need:

• yellow polish
• red polish
• black polish
• nail art brushes 

 Start by painting all your nails yellow, or if you prefer, some yellow, some red, as long as the finger you're going to paint Pooh on is yellow, it doesn't matter what colour the rest are. As you can see, I started with all yellow and changed my mind later on.

Now to draw Pooh, it took 3 coats of yellow to get the colour I wanted so I had to wait quite a while for my nails to dry.
Start with the eyes and the nose. Paint two little black dots, about half way down your nail for the eyes. Just below them, place a bigger black dot for his nose.

Next I painted on the eyebrows. To do this, paint 2 curved lines about half way between the eyes and your cuticles.

He's really starting to take shape now! Next is the mouth. Paint a curved black line just below the nose with each end of the line in line with the eyes. Then at either end of the mouth, add a little curve.

As you can see, my black polish got a little over excited so I had to thin the line with some more yellow polish.
Paint a "V" shape on the tip of your nail with the red polish, this is Poohs' shirt. Then outline it with your black polish.

There you have it! Winnie the Pooh on your nail! I thought there was a little too much yellow going on on my nails so I painted two of them with the red polish.

I'm really happy with how this mani turned out! It went a lot better than I expect!

The polishes I used in this mani were:

• Boots Fast Finish - Go Go
• Barry M Gelly - Passion Fruit
• W7 - Matte Black

Have fun trying out this mani!

Rachel x

Chrome Love

I wanted to use my new chrome polishes in a mani and since Valentines day is coming up and I love these polishes what better way to use them?

Chrome Love

For this mani you will need:

• white polish
• 3 shades of pink/purple polishes
• dotting tool

Start by painting all your nails white.

Then with your first pink/purple polish start dotting your nails, do this one colour at a time to build up the dots. Start with bigger dots at the tip and smaller dots towards your cuticles.

Keep adding more dots in the different shades and sizes until you're happy.

On my ring finger, I first painted a pink heart outline. I then randomly filled this in with different coloured dots.

And there we have it, a quick and simple valentines mani using my fave polishes.

I love the shine the Models Own chromes give off!

The polishes I used in this mani were:

• Boots Natural Collection - Nail Tip Whitener
• Models Own - Chrome Cerise
• Models Own - Chrome Rose
• Models Own - Chrome Mauve

Much love!

Rachel x

Disney: Minnie Mouse Nails

3 weeks from today I'll be in Florida!!! I'm so excited, I really can't wait. Today I've created a Disney themed mani using Minnie Mouse as my inspiration.

Minnie Mouse Nails

For this mani you will need:

• red, white black and pink polish
• a dotting tool
• a small nail art brush

Start by painting all of your nails with your red polish. Use two coats so that it's a bright and solid base.

Now, use your dotting tool and your white polish to put dots on 4 of your nails. Don't put any on your ring finger, this is going to be saved for our little Minnie mouse. Try to space your dots out evenly to replicate the Minnie mouse look.

It's time to create our little friend now, to do this you will need your small nail art brush and your black, white and pink polishes. Start by drawing a black circle on your ring finger nail with two either side for ears.






















The next part is really fiddly so if you don't think you'll be able to do it without messing it up then just leave the ring finger as Mickey Mouse! If you're feeling brave it's time to paint on the bow. Get your pink polish and start with a little dot between the ears, then on either side of the dot paint a triangle to create the bow. When the pink has dried, paint tiny white dots onto it.

The last step is to paint round the edges of the pink with the black. This will make the pink stand out on the red and will neaten the edges of the bow.

There you have it, Minnie Mouse nails. I'm really happy with how this turned out, especially the little bow on Minnie's head. It is really fiddly but the results are worth it. Now get me on that plane to Florida!!! 3 weeks to go!

The polishes I used in this mani were:

• Nails Inc. - Luminous Red
• Boots Natural Collection - Nail Tip Whitener
• W7 - Matte Black
• Max Factor Glossfinity - Marshmallow

Have fun with this mani!

Rachel x