Where Have You Been...? Updates & Upcoming Posts

Buenos días fellow lacquer lovers! With the exception of yesterday's jigsaw-themed tutorial, it's been a considerable while since I last posted and I thought I'd give you all a bit of an explanation before I jump back into regular posting. 

So, halfway through September I was due to move into university accommodation with three friends I made in first year. I ended up not moving in after all and spent a couple of weeks running around getting out of my contract and hunting for a car...

Two short days after picking up my new baby, second year started so I've spent the past couple of weeks settling back into uni life and re-adjusting things a little. I'm now in my third week of second year but I haven't been in at all so far this week because I've come down with some sort of virus :( 

In terms of TLO, I have plenty of designs lined up to post about and also something very exciting to share with you all in the next few weeks. I'm also planning on expanding into polish reviews and recommendations.

Hope my lovely readers have all been well, let me know if you've been up to anything exciting!

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

Try Something New Tutorial: Jigsaw

Buenos días fellow lacquer lovers! Today I'm featuring another nail design that I've seen everywhere and always wanted to attempt. As you might have already guessed given the title of this post, I'm talking about jigsaw nails...

These nails were surprisingly easy to create and super cute too. All you need to do is take four colours and divide your nail evenly into squares. Fill those squares with the colours and add dots to the edges to create the puzzle piece effect. Et voila! You look ridiculously proficient in nail art AND have really cool nails to show off. 


Here's a walkthrough of how to create jigsaw nails:
1. Get hold of a top coat, any four colours you like, a base coat and, for accuracy reasons, a striping brush or very thin nail art brush.
2. Apply your base coat to every nail and allow to dry a little.
3. Take your first colour and your chosen brush and create a square in the top left corner of your nail. It needs to stretch across to halfway across the tip of your nail and halfway down the nail. Fill this square in with the same colour. Clean your brush. (I wipe it across a remover-soaked cotton pad until it is coming up clean)
4. Take your next colour and create a square in the top right hand corner. It needs to be the same length as your first square. Again, fill in with the same colour and clean your brush.
5. Now take your third colour and continue with a square in the bottom left hand corner, making sure the polish stops in line with the middle of the nail. You could make this fully square, however I curved the bottom round to match my nail's natural curve. Fill in with the same colour and once again clean your brush.
6. Fill in the rest of the nail with your final colour and clean your brush.
7. Add another coat to any of the colours if you feel they are not opaque enough. 
8. Now you need to take it in turns with the colours to add dots to the outsides of the squares to create the jigsaw effect. If you can't figure out an order, follow my photo :-) Allow the nails to dry a little.
9. Finally, add your top coat and let the nails dry fully.

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