Halloween 2013

I may not have been out celebrating Halloween this year or dressing up, but I still painted my nails Halloween style:

Pumpkin, Mummy, Mask from the film "Scream", skeleton and bloodshot eye

Jason Myers mask, cat, Frankenstein / monster, spier and web and 'Boo'
 

I created these designs a Barbara daily white nail polish from Tesco, an old black polish from 'Collection 2000', an orange stargazer polish I bought in new look, and a green 'Collection' polish and some nail art pens.

Did anyone else do any Halloween nail art?

I'm back / nails in really bad condition :(

So, it has been a while since I posted about nail polish and nail art and this has been due to a number of reasons. Firstly, I found that my nails were in really bad condition. They were breaking really short and even when they were short they were peeling so badly they peeled back about half way up the nail. They really were in bad shape.  :(  

 

This has happened to me on previous occasions and normally to fix this I would use a nail strengthener by Avon. However on this occasion, it didn't seem to be working. On the recommendation of the lovely Claire, I decided to try Nail envy by OPI. Although I heard many a good review about this particular product, it unfortunately didn't seem to work for me. :(

 

Anyone who works in a shop, such as the Spar that I work in, will know just how quickly your hands will get dirty, and I had a habit of grabbing a baby wipe from behind the till to quickly clean my hands. A colleague of mine, Bernie, mentioned that after using the wipes for a period of time, she noticed the condition of her nails was deteriorating, similar to my own. So I have since stopped using them to clean my hands and instead, nip to the bathroom to properly clean my hands.

 

The second reason for my lack of blogging as been my shift in location of work. My employer also owns a Eurospar, also in Maghera, and previous to this, I have done the odd shift in the Eurospar. Unfortunately one of the butchers took sick and was going to be off work for a number of months. Therefore since I had some training in this area, I was drafted into the butchery in her place. Therefore, with working there 6 days a week, there was only one day of the week in which to paint my nails and combined with the state of my nails, I could probably count on one hand how many times I painted my nails over the last few months. And I think I done nail art only once.

 

The state of my nails continued to get worse to the point that if anything touched them, or I needed to open a box, it actually hurt to use my nails. So, again, on the advice of the lovely Claire, I decided to try a vitamin supplement for my nails. On a trip into Tesco, I noticed they sold a hair and nails supplement and thought I might as well try it:

 



 

Before I had even completed the month's worth of tablets, I noticed a difference in my nails. I then took advantage of an offer on Tesco vitamins - 3 for 2. So I got 3 months worth of tablets for £6.00. My nails are finally beginning to grow, I can see a difference in the strength of them, they don't break as easily, they don't peel anywhere near as much as before and they have a lovely shine again, instead of looking dull and unhealthy. My nails are nearly back to their normal condition but I can definitely say I will be continuing to take this nail supplement. The transformation in my nails is fantastic. It has taken my nails approximately 2.5 months for my nails to get back into shape, that's how bad they had gotten. I really cant recommend these supplements enough.

 

These supplements can be found in most Tesco's and can be found online Here. Tesco currently have the 3 for 2 offer back on.

 

On Monday I started a new job, which will be office based work, so hopefully my nails can continue to improve and I can start to paint my nails more often and do more nail art! :)

Macmillan Cancer Support fundraising night 'A really good night in'

My friend Jenna is hosting a 'Really good night in' tomorrow night to help raise money for the Macmillan charity. Jenna has organised different activities for the evening including a quiz and a raffle. In exchange for a donation to the Macmillan charity, Jenna's guests can have their hair done by Roseene and / or their nails done b me!

In preparation for tomorrow night i had painted a few designs onto a nail art wheel to display to Jenna's guests some of the different designs i can do: 

Is anyone else hosting a 'Really good night in' to help raise money for the Macmillan Cancer support charity?

Pink pearl nail beads and Sally Hansen nail polish

A colleague from work was going on a night out recently and asked me to do their nails. I had bought pearl nail beads before Christmas but had yet to try them out, so when Adele told me her outfit was pink and blue, i thought, what better excuse to try out some of the pearl beads!

So, for the most of Adele's nails, i used Sally Hansen's' Himalayan Blue':

On Adele's thumb nail i painted the lower diagonal half silver using Rimmel's 'Your Majesty':

The following picture is the Pearl nail bead set i purchased from Primark before Christmas:

Here's a wee close up of the beads:

And finally, the following picture shows how the nails turned out: 

Aintree Grand National and Horse nail art stickers

I have mentioned these lovely ladies in previous posts, and their amazing nail art stickers. I have previously purchased some Horse nail art stickers from their website and so, at the weekend, when i was betting on the Aintree Grand National, i decided to decorate my nail with these stickers:

One of the horses i bet on, 'Tea for three' came in third! :)

Did anyone else decorate their nails for the Grand National on Saturday?

Easter chicks and bunnies

Its Good Friday and Easter Sunday is fast approaching, so I decided to paint my nails with bunnies and chicks. I painted my nails using the Avon nailwear pro+ in Pastel Pink and then using my different nail art pens, i created some bunnies and chicks.

Has anyone else been doing Easter nail art?

St.Patrick's Day nail art

I recently purchased a St.Patrick's day themed nail art stamping plate from this seller on Ebay. It only took a few days to arrive and it was here well before the estimated delivery date. At only £4.83 (plus £1.38 delivery) it was a good wee bargain! This is a picture of the plate:

Using a Barry M's Emerald Green, number 284 and Tesco's Barbara Daly in white, i painted my nails. On the green nails i then used a white stamping polish for the designs. And on the white nail polish i used the Barry M Emerald Green for the stamping design.

This is how they turned out:

On my thumb is a leprechaun's hat and on my fingers from left to right is a pot of gold, a 4 leaf clover, a leprechaun and a horse shoe for luck.

This plate was really easy to use and the designs lifted really well from the plate. Really glad i bought it now!

Has anyone else being doing some nail art for St. Patrick's day?