Friday 30 May 2014

Taylor Swift Nails! 'Speak Now'

When asking for requests on my Instagram for what to do on my nails next, one follower had the awesome idea to do nails inspired by your favourite CD cover. As soon as I read the idea I instantly thought of Taylor Swift's 'Speak Now'. Taylor is my all time favourite artist and I felt really inspired by this album art as it looks so magical, and 'enchanting'.. The vibrant purple colour and the glitter really make for a beautiful album cover. So I thought I would go ahead and try it out- Speak Now Nails. 


This was my inspiration. I am lucky enough to own a signed copy myself, which I bought from Taylor's Speak Now tour a few years ago. However when photographing the colours did not show true to life, so I thought I would grab one from the internet as well.


So here is a close up of the nails. I used a shimmery purple base by NailsInc in the colour 'marylebone lane' to start off with. I then used 2 different glitters to create a faded glitter effect, firstly Barry M's 'Diamomd Glitter' (it is genuinely spelt like that on my bottle, not sure if thats right...?) and over the top of that, I used Sinful Colours 'Queen of Beauty'. For the writing and extra glitter/star things I used some white nail paint from eBay, and a very tiny nail art brush. 


The finished product! I really love these, especially because they are inspired by my favourite artist, Taylor Swift. I actually have also done some nails inspired by 'Red' back in February for Taylor's Red tour in London, which can be seen on my instagram! Thanks for reading! xxx

Monday 26 May 2014

Sunday 25 May 2014

'Velvet' Nails

Having seen a few people try out the 'velvet' nail trend, I wanted to see what it was like. Believe it or not I actually found some pots of nail art fibres in my local Poundland; only 6 colours for £1! The set I bought came with black, red, light pink, dark pink, blue, and purple. An interesting colour selection, however for only £1 it was hardly breaking the bank to try out the trend. I chose to add some red velvet to my flower mani that I was already sporting (check my instagram to see it). To apply the fibres I painted my nails with one coat of red polish, then a layer of top coat, using tweezers to drop clumps of the fibres onto my newly painted nails. After pressing them down a little and leaving them to dry for a minute or two, I used a fan brush to sweep away the left over fibres back into the pot. Et voila! 


I would definitely recommend doing this over a tray or plate or something that will catch the excess fibres to avoid making a mess...


I actually quite like the effect it created, although it was just a bit of fun and personally not something I would wear on a daily basis! Definitely something to try if you are looking for a unique look on your nails, and easy enough for beginners. What do you think?

close up of the furry texture

Friday 16 May 2014

Flip Flop Fantasy Review

China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy: For starters, I had never tried any China Glaze nail polishes before this one. I was so interested to see what all the hype was about at it has been such a popular colour for so long. In pictures I had seen it looked like a bright coral colour, however I did not realise just how bright it would be! If you are looking for a neon orangy coral, this is the perfect shade. It is so neon and bright but so so pretty, and a fantastic colour for summer. It actually makes you look more tanned, which is always a plus (especially when you have vampire skin like me). The colour dries with a semi-matte finish with a slight gloss to it, but mostly matte. Under some lighting it actually looks fully matte, in others you can see a slight gloss.  A top coat can be added to give a gloss finish. The photo really does not do the colour justice!

China Glaze: Flip Flop Fantasy Swatch
One downside to this polish however is that when left matte it can chip quite easily. However, I did find that when I used a gloss top coat over the top it did not chip as much. I have used it in a few nail designs so far and will be sure to use it in many more, especially as summer approaches. Here are a few of my designs so far. The leopard print shows the colour much more true to life!
Taken in artificial light
Taken in natural light. A much better representation of the true neon colour!
Overall, I absolutely love this colour and it is definitely a must have for summer! Thanks for reading :)

Wednesday 7 May 2014

Daisy Nails


Hi everyone, these are my latest nails that are part of the nail art challenge I am doing on instagram. These nails were inspired by onenailtorulethemall and were for the 'floral nails' design. I really like how they turned out, and have had lots of compliments on them! Hope you like them :)
Below are the products I used to create this design: 
First I used nails inc in 'New York Noir' and painted 2 coats of black. After this has dried, I used a dotting tool from ebay which can be found in a set here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-x-Nail-Art-Dotting-Pen-Marbleizing-Tool-Set-Manicure-Painting-Kit-2-Way-UK-/161129980246?pt=Nail_Polish&hash=item2584186156 I then used white polish from NYC to create the flowers and added a yellow dot in the middle using nail art paint, also from ebay. I used some caviar nail beads from a nail wheel from Primark.

Monday 5 May 2014

Coming soon..

Hopefully I should be posting on this blog once a week as I am very busy with my studies at the moment. In the future I will be posting swatches, reviews, first impressions, nail art, step by step photos.. basically anything to do with nails. Stay tuned! 💕

Sunday 4 May 2014

New Blog!



Hi everyone! I thought that due to interest in my nail art account on Instagram @sophdoesnails, it would be a good idea to start a nail blog as it is something I have always wanted to do. I am so so grateful for everyone's support on my page so far, it is all very exciting for me as nail art has always been my favourite thing to do. Since people started to notice my nails and compliment them, I figured maybe I should start a separate Instagram account just to post nail pictures. So here I am! Please bare with me, this is all new and confusing and I still need to learn how to make my blog look pretty.. but hopefully I will get there eventually. Thank you for following, it means so much! 
Sophie :)
http://instagram.com/sophdoesnails