Buenos días fellow lacquer lovers! So, you know when you paint your nails an obscure colour then find you're bored of them... what do you do? Well, if you're me you create some random design then try to figure out if it fits into any category. Today's design is neon tribal and came about during my peak-of-summer neon phase...
You will need the following basic colours:
- Neon yellow
- Patent/plain black
You will need the following colours for the vertical stripes:
- Neon orange
- Neon green
- Neon pink
- Neon blue
- Neon purple
Despite the autumn creeping in I don't think neons are ready to get packed away for the colder months just yet and I think this could be brilliant paired with a simple, black outfit and neon accessories.
If you have any questions, you can leave me a comment below or tweet me @rachelizabethxo. I would LOVE to hear from you and find out your thoughts!
Happy painting!
Rachel xo
Buenos días fellow lacquer lovers! Oh, I do love a good floral nail! I imagine you may have already noticed quite how much I love a floral nail given that another post this week was themed entirely on the floral side of things, but I really do think it's such a versatile and easy way of doing nail art. I also love a good mix and match nail design and if I can combine the two I feel like my fingers look pretty damn good.
I'm not going to post details on how to achieve these nails because I mixed the vibrant green myself and I'm fairly certain I mixed the green of the leaves myself too because I've never found suitable enough colours. Suffice to say though, I really loved this manicure and I totally fell in love with the mint nail with blue and white flowers in the second photo, so much so that I added it to my nail wheels.
If you have any questions, you can leave me a comment below or tweet me @rachelizabethxo. I would LOVE to hear from you and find out your thoughts!
Happy painting!
Rachel xo
Buenos días fellow lacquer lovers! So it's been a couple of days since my last post, but I've been so busy petsitting for my cousins that I just haven't had time to sit down and write. Last week I had two of my college friends Sophie and Billie over for the afternoon and we watched Michael McIntyre, ate junk food and gossiped while I did their nails. Today, I'm sharing the manicure Sophie chose...
Sophie chose ten different designs so each nail was unique. For her first hand, she picked polka dots, Hogwarts uniform, the Eiffel tower, a shark and blood spatters with crime scene tape over the top.
For the second hand, we did piano keys, a Horcrux symbol, the words 'je ne sais pas', HP glasses and scar and a galaxy nail.
Now I'm looking back over the photos, I think the manicure I did for Sophie reminds me why I love nail art so much - it's such a good expression of personality and most of the designs I did for Sophie are symbolic of things she loves and that everyone associates with her (HP mad and a complete Francophile).
If you have any questions, you can leave me a comment below or tweet me @rachelizabethxo. I would LOVE to hear from you and find out your thoughts!
Happy painting!
Rachel xo
Buenos días fellow lacquer lovers! Oh, how I love a good minty polish! Unfortunately for me, as I've previously alluded to, I get very bored of plain colours on my nails and always feel the need to jazz them up in some way. One of the quickest ways of doing this is to create a gingham-style print over the top et voila - brand new nails.
You will need the following basic colours:
- Patent/plain mint green
- Patent/plain white
This design is perfect for spring (way to go Rachel - it's almost autumn here in the UK!) but I'm not one to restrict myself to seasonal colours and is so easy to create that it seems almost criminal to lock it away until the new year has arrived and the leaves begin to grow back.
If you have any questions, you can leave me a comment below or tweet me @rachelizabethxo. I would LOVE to hear from you and find out your thoughts!
Happy painting!
Rachel xo
Buenos días fellow lacquer lovers! I went through a real phase not long ago of constantly having floral nails. I'm not so much a fan of pink or purple florals though, so I'm always looking for different ways of creating cute, girly, floral designs but without using colours I don't particularly suit.
You will need the following basic colours:
- Patent/plain black
- Patent/plain white
- Patent/plain pastel blue
If you want to add the leaves, you will also need:
- Patent/plain mid green
I love the contrast of vibrant pastel blue on pure black in this design and for those who love to be girly but with a bit of an edge, this design would probably be right up your street.
If you have any questions, you can leave me a comment below or tweet me @rachelizabethxo. I would LOVE to hear from you and find out your thoughts!
Happy painting!
Rachel xo
Buenos días fellow lacquer lovers! There's something about a good, chunky glitter over patent black that has always excited me. I think it's perfect for a party, and with freshers week at universities up and down the UK coming up very soon I thought now was a great opportunity to share a simple to create yet gorgeous to look at manicure.
You will need the following colour for the base:
- Patent/plain black
To create the glitter, there are a couple of methods you can use:
- Sprinkling multicoloured glitter on wet nails by hand
- Using a glitter topcoat (mine is an American Apparel one)
Decent glitter topcoats can be a little expensive but in my opinion worth it. If you don't have the money to spend on something like the polish I used, you can purchase all types of glitter from Ebay for much cheaper prices.
If you have any questions, you can leave me a comment below or tweet me @rachelizabethxo. I would LOVE to hear from you and find out your thoughts!
Happy painting!
Rachel xo
Buenos días fellow lacquer lovers! Leopard print suddenly exploded a couple of years ago and can now be found everywhere from clothes to shoes to even your nails. I never caught onto the trend because brown on brown just doesn't appeal to me, but my nail-lover cousin Amy and I were discussing the idea of pastel leopard print and it totally inspired me to try it out.
You can use any colours you like for the spots, but to recreate my design you will need the following base colour:
- Patent/plain white
If you're following my design, you will need the following colours for the spots:
- Patent/plain pastel blue
- Patent/plain pastel yellow
- Patent/plain pastel green
- Patent/plain pastel orange
- Patent/plain coral
- Patent/plain pastel purple
To go around the spots, this is the product you'll need:
- Barry M Nail Art Pen in black. Alternatives could be a normal black polish used with a dotting tool, black acrylic paint or another nail art pen (Rio isn't recommended for black though, it tends to smudge when applying a top coat no matter how long you leave it to try - be careful if you use this!)
Much like The Floral Patriot that I posted the other day, leopard print is a sure fire way to get your nails noticed amongst your friends and create a bit of nail envy! And receive a few compliments too of course.
If you have any questions, you can leave me a comment below or tweet me @rachelizabethxo. I would LOVE to hear from you and find out your thoughts!
Happy painting!
Rachel xo
Buenos días fellow lacquer lovers! When I'm in a nail rut and can't decide what I want to do, I often find myself reaching for one of the simplest yet classiest designs: polka dots. I get bored of plain colours on my nails within hours so when I want to try out a new polish, more often than not I add some dots and find that I love them.
This manicure is super, super easy and perfect for beginners. The staple colour you will need is:
- Navy or dark blue. Polka dots look great over patent polishes AND over shimmery ones, so why not go wild and add some shimmers?
You will also need the following colour to add the polka dots:
- Patent/plain white
[Note: I used the Barry M nail art pen in white, but a normal white polish with a dotting tool will work just as well!]
Super chic but with a funky edge! This can obviously be recreated time and time again with whichever colours take your fancy and is a perfect nail art fix for the junkie who needs something pretty on their nails but has very little time.
If you have any questions, you can leave me a comment below or tweet me @rachelizabethxo. I would LOVE to hear from you and find out your thoughts!
Happy painting!
Rachel xo
Buenos días fellow lacquer lovers! Now, is it just me or is there something strangely appealing about the colour combo of white, blue and red? Being British, the combo evokes a sense of patriotism and I'm sure it does in those of you all over the world with these colours as those in your flag too. Today's nails are simple, floral, patriotic and oh-so-pretty.
For this manicure, the staple colours you will need are:
- Patent/plain white
- Patent/plain light blue
- Patent/plain red
You will also need the following colours to add certain accents, such as the centre of the flower and leaf detailing:
- Patent/plain dark brown (black will suffice if you really can't find a dark enough brown, or of course you can experiment and choose any colour you like!)
- Patent/plain mid to dark green
Finally, you will need the following tool(s) to create the right shapes:
- Dotting tool (a cocktail stick/toothpick will suffice if you're new to nail art)
- Striping brush (for the leaf detailing, again, a cocktail stick/toothpick will suffice but it can be quite tricky to get the leaves accurate)
Et voila! Floral nails are always a massive hit amongst my friends and you'll be sure to receive a compliment or too when you wear these.
If you have any questions, you can leave me a comment below or tweet me @rachelizabethxo. I would LOVE to hear from you and find out your thoughts!
Happy painting!
Rachel xo
Buenos días fellow lacquer lovers! The air is getting colder and the dark is setting in quicker and that can only mean one thing for those of us still in education: it's almost back to school time. Inspired by various designs spotted on Instagram, my Back to School manicure embraces the cute and quirky while still capturing the school theme.
For this manicure, the staple colours you will need are:
- Patent/plain white
- Patent/plain black
- Patent/plain bright yellow
You will also need the following colours to add certain accents, such as the apple detail or the detailing on the A+ nail:
- Patent/plain red
- Patent/plain mid to light blue or turquoise
[Note: I used Barry M nail art pens in black and white for all of the black and white detailing. Other nail art pens should be fine, as should black and white acrylic paints]
To make the apple more realistic, the following colours are recommended:
- Patent/plain mid to dark brown
- Patent/plain mid green
And there you have it! A cute and quirky back to school manicure to make the dreaded first day of term that little bit more bearable.
If you have any questions, you can leave me a comment below or tweet me @rachelizabethxo. I would LOVE to hear from you and find out your thoughts!
Happy painting!
Rachel xo
P.S. Did you know that you can follow my blog with Bloglovin? You can! And it would make me smile like a Cheshire cat if you did ;-)
