Product Review: Body Shop Nail Block

I brought this for £4.00 form a Body Shop party. It was one of the best things I have ever brought for my nails!

Mainly because school didn't allow nail varnish at the time. But I hated having plain nails. And this block adds a really nice healthy shine to your nails, that looks like clear nail varnish I'm not joking! It is great for things like work or school. It is also good for stimulating nail growth because you file and smooth and shine ect and it increases the blood flow to your nails. And I'm always looking to grow my nails longer!

It is not time consuming at all, I like to do it while watching the telly or on the phone or something because it is quick easy and gives great results.

I would really recommend it. I think you can even try it out in their shops!

Louisa x

Galaxy Nails!

I saw a design by one of my favorite you tubers, cutepolish. This is my take on her galaxy nail tutorial which you can watch here. She has loads of really great designs and if you are stuck for ideas go to her channel it's really good!

This is a great design because, it is easy to create and does not require any special nail art stuff.

For this design you will need, black polish, white polish, yellow polish and pink or purple polish, tweezers,(optional), cocktail stick and a make up sponge that you don't mind being ripped up!

After applying a base coat apply two layers of black polish or as many as you need to make it opaque.

Once this is COMPLETELY dry rip 3 small pieces off your make up sponge

Then put a small amount of white polish on to the ripped edge of the sponge. If you need to you can dab off 

excess paint on to a piece of scrap paper.

Then take the sponge in the tweezers or your hand if its easier and dab in a line or shape of your choice across the nail. I tend to stick to lines(ish)

Repeat this with the yellow but sticking to the middle of the 'galaxy'

Repeat with the purple but only with a minute amount of nail polish and about one dab in the center of the galaxy. The next step is to add some bigger stars. dip the end of your cocktail stick into white polish and add some dots of varying sizes in and around the galaxy to create a spacey look.

Then you might choose to coat the design in a fine glitter polish to make more stars, but mine has just run out so I haven't done that. Finish with a top coat to protect your design. You can wear this design on every finger or you can just wear it on one or two nails and have stars or glitter on the others. It's up to you! 

Enjoy wearing your galaxy nail art!

Simple Striper

One of the main 'tools' that I use is a striper. This is part of my pen kit which I will show you at some point. My pens are double ended and I will show you uses of both ends in this tutorial.

The nail art pens are by Rio: You can purchase them here or here (these are the one I own!)

These are the paints used in this tutorial: Rio art pen, BarryM in Black (47) and a super cheap drugstore top coat.

Firstly paint your nails two coats of black, or as many coats as it takes to be opaque.

Once dry, the next step is to take you striper, and drag it from the bottom of your nail to the top to create a smooth white line.

Next nail is circles. For this you could use a dotting tool. With a dotting tool take a medium ended tool and make a white spot then with a smaller ended tool, make a black dot on top of that one. Or alternatively you can do what I did which is draw it on either with the striper or the 'nib' of the pen as shown below.

Next nail requires some concentration! With the striper ( with very little polish on it!)  make a very small line upwards then back down as if making a triangle but don't join them at the bottom. Instead keep doing this until a zig zag has been created along the width of the nail. 

The ring finger is easy. Just take the tip of your striper and make 'v' shapes of any size you want pointing in any directions. This makes lots of little hearts and is really cute!

And finally, my favorite design, the noughts and crosses or tic tac toe! Firstly take your striper and draw out  the board

Then you add the crosses and noughts wherever you like. 

The design is complete! I hope you enjoyed the Simple Striper design. You don't have to stick to black and white, I just used it because it shows up well on camera. Use any colours you like!  Keep posted as I will upload more designs varying in difficulty. Seeing as this is my first tutorial, constructive criticism is welcomed! 

Hello,

Hi,

Welcome to my blog, my name is Louisa and I absolutely love nail art. I got into it about a year ago, and have been driving my mom crazy ever since, seeing as the smell of nail varnish seems to permeate the air of the house!

A lot of my friends and people I know ask me to paint their nails and of course I say yes because I love doing other peoples nails! But I can't do everyone and some people want to recreate the designs. So I have set up a blog where I will do step by step tutorials, and a few other things. I hope you enjoy it.

Louisa x