Ice Cream Nails

First time in a while I have attempted nail art, it took a lot longer then expected! Well in case you couldn't guess, the red parts are meant to be cherries, and the other parts are sprinkles. Most of the colours are China Glaze, with a couple of Barry M's chucked in for good measure. I have seen ice cream nails all over the place at the moment so thought I would catch onto the craze, they fit in quite nicely with the fact that its a lovely sunny day outside!

Some more nail art

I think everyone will get pretty sick of me experimenting soon! Anyway I am very proud of my latest creation, and here it is:
For the pink I used China Glaze Something Sweet, for the blue I used Essie Mint Candy Apple, the dark pink of the flower is China Glaze Sugar High, and the green is China Glaze Starboard.
For the white stripes and polka dots I used my Models Own nail art pen, and for the flower I used my cheap nail art brushes I got off eBay.
I think it looks very pretty and I'm impressed with myself! What do you think? Sorry for not cleaning up the cuticles!

Models Own/WAH Nail Art Pen

So I feel like I have used my Models Own/WAH nail art pens enough to give them a decent review.
They retail for £6 each and at the moment the only available colours are black and white, but Models Own intend to introduce the whole of their colour range in these pens.

They are designed to have a pen like top, and also a stripper tool when you unscrew the top. Pretty similar to most other nail art pens on the market to be honest.

I will start with the pen tip. This is my favourite part of the pen. Unlike other nail art pens you don't have to press down on the tip to get the polish out. You just squeeze the pen constantly, and when you are done you replace the pin into the head. This has its good points and its bad points, the good being that you don't have to worry about scraping your base colour off, the bad points being that you have to continually squeeze it which can be a effort, and its very easy to squeeze out too much.
So here we have a picture of the pens with the pins in:

And here is a picture of the pen tips and the pin:

So you see the tip is lovely and fine which is great for drawing fine things easily, but as you can see there is a blog of polish at the end and that is with very little pressure which shows how you can easily waste it or mess up your designs.
Putting the pin back in can also be tricky at times because the pen tip is so fine, and I can imagine this product wouldn't work second time around if you didn't replace the pin.
So next up is the striper part of the tool, which in my eyes is very disappointing. I will show you how mine arrived:

So as you can see, the white one is fine. The brush is a decent length, could be a bit thinner but still is fine for doing stripes, but then we get the black one, and oh it bent. Awesome I can totally do straight lines with a bent brush!
I would've sent it back, but the striper part wasn't what I really wanted it for and I didn't have the patience to wait. It was over Christmas I got these as well so there was a lot of snow and I didn't want the hassle of it getting lost.
I have also had a couple of friends use the striper brush and it all the hair completely fell out, so in my eyes, the striper tool needs a lot of work because at the minute it is useless.

The only other thing I can comment on is the quality of the polish. I really like Models Own nail polish, and these are no exception. The white is lovely and opaque, which you need for nail art really, but both of the polishes are nice and thick but without being drippy or runny and the drying time is decent, so the polish itself gets a thumbs up!

Despite the rubbish stripping tool, I do enjoy using the pen part, but at £6 a pop I'm not sure they are completely worth it when I managed to get a load of brushes for less then that. I guess it makes it less fiddly than brushes and with less to clean up but at least with brushes you can use whatever colours you want.
Has anyone else tried the pens? If you have did you have any issues with the stripper?

I'm going home! And NOTD

It is very early on a Saturday morning as I start work at 8am today. None of that matters though because I get to go visit my parents for 9 days!

Me and my mum will be getting our hair done and going to Covent Garden and I will get to see my old work friends on my way home after work tonight and lets not forget about all the parcels waiting for me! Hopefully a Trans Design order, some Sugarpill and some ebay purchases!

So a very excited and happy me today!

To keep this beauty related, here is a NOTD, because I am a bit too obsessed with them at the moment.

So from left to right starting with the thumb we have:
Barry M - Berry Ice Cream
Models Own - Dove Grey
China Glaze - Something Sweet
Essie - Mint Candy Apple
Models Own - Utopia
And the polka dots where done using my Models Own nail art pen. Have a great weekend!

Love/Hate Nails

So here we have my second attempt at nail art (please excuse the very messy cuticles) :

Despite how messy and wonky they are, I still love them! It's so nice to have something a little bit different at work where I am only allowed to wear black.
For the base I used Models Own Utopia, I had to do 3 coats because it went a tiny bit streaky. For the writing and the black heart I used my Models Own/Wah nail art pen and for the red heart I used my OPI Off With Her Red.
It's stupid how excited about nail art I am at the minute, I'm thinking about my valentines day manicure already!

My first attempt at nail art

So here is my first attempt at nail art. I used O.P.I's Off With Her Red for the red, and for the polka dots I used the Models Own nail art pens.

The black splodges are meant to be bows, inspired by Minnie Mouse, nice and tacky.

I also have lots of nice nail varnish all over my skin, how sexy.

Despite all the spolodgyness of this manicure, I still really like it and I'm proud of myself. Its a little different and it is a really nice talking point.

I am quite impressed with the models own nail art pens, they are a lot easier to use then a lot of other nail art type stuff I have tried.
Hopefully I will get better at this whole nail art shebang and have some better pictures to show you soon. I will also give the Models Own pens more of a whirl and hopefully have a review up soon!

But what do you think about nail art, tacky or creative?