Olympic Team GB Nails!

Hi guys!
So I know I've been doing a lot of blog posts on nails recently, but I will be doing some posts on different things soon. I've been trying out a couple of different products so I'll get doing a couple of reviews on them, and hopefully get them up on here soon. However, for now, this is another nail tutorial.

I know I did Union Jack nails only a little while ago for the Queen's Jubilee, but it's currently the Olympics, so I thought I'd get my GB nails out in support! The Olympics are being held in London this year, and I've really, really enjoyed watching them so far. I know there's only a couple of days left, but that's still enough time to show your final support for Team GB!

Here's a step by step guide to your Team GB nails:

1. Paint your nails blue. I chose Rimmel I <3 Lasting Finish in 198 Azure, as it's a good colour and a good quality nail polish, but any blue in your collection will do.

2. Take a thin nail brush, (I took a brush from an old nail varnish, cleaned it, then cut it down), or alternatively you could use a paintbrush, and dip it into some white nail varnish. I chose to use NYC Long Wearing Nail Enamel in 134 French White Tip. Then paint a cross onto your nails.

3. Next you need to take your brush and white nail paint again and add a diagonal cross to the cross you've already made.

4. Then, you will need to clean your brush, or take another one, and dip it into some red nail paint and paint a thinner cross on top of the first white cross. I chose to use Revlon Colorstay Longwear Nail Enamel in 120 Red Carpet but any red would do.

5. Now, to finish it off, you need to take your thin brush and red nail paint again, and add in diagonal lines onto the white. In the actual Union Jack flag the red diagonals are not joined to the red cross in the centre, so if you can keep them separate then that would be the ideal, however it doesn't really matter too much if they do join.

And there you have it - Union Jack nails, all ready to show your support for Team GB!

I hope you've enjoyed this small nail design and tutorial, and get cracking on your Team GB nails! Enjoy the rest of the Olympics, and let's hope Team GB can finish with a bang!

As always, thank you for reading, please subscribe if you like my blog, and feel free to follow me on twitter if you want, my twitter is @megankathleenm and I'll always post my new blog posts on there.

xxx

Revlon Colorstay Longwear Nail Enamel Review Part 2!

Hiya!

I know it’s been a long while – I’m sorry! My life has been pretty hectic recently, in a good way though, but it has meant I haven’t really had much time to blog unfortunately.

I have now finished my exams (thank god!), been on holiday (to Sorrento in Italy which was just AMAZING!), and started my summer work experience so I should now hopefully have a bit more time to blog… hopefully!

Anyways, here is the second part of my review of the Revlon Colorstay Longwear Nail Enamel Review, and unfortunately it’s not going to be a positive review!

As I said in part 1 I wasn’t overly impressed with how long it took to apply, especially seeing as I’m not the most patient of people, however I was very impressed with the finish. It gives a really nice clean, shiny finish; however, as I soon found out, this doesn’t last too long.

I wore this nail varnish for just over a week and took pictures every morning to see how it lasted through the duration of the week. Day 1 is just the same as the pictures from the first part because that was obviously the first day of wearing it.



Here are the rest:

Day 2

Day 2

Day 3

Day 3

Day 4

Day 4

Day 5

Day 5

Day 6

Day 6

Day 7

Day 7

Day 8

Day 8

So, as you can hopefully see from those photos, up to day 3 the polish lasted okay with only a couple of very minor chips; although seeing as it was meant to be able to last up to 11 days, chipping on the third day of wear is not good!

Then from day 4 onwards, they were just chipping and flaking everywhere constantly - it was absolutely rubbish! I was really, really disappointed, especially seeing as it meant I had to write a bad review which I really dislike doing, but you guys need to know - do not buy this nail varnish and expect it to last, because it doesn't!

By day 8 it was just chipped so badly that I couldn't stand leaving it on my nails and had to take it off because it looked a mess. Needless to say I didn't use it on my holiday and instead opted to just go with clean nails with a clear top coat (pretty boring but I preferred that to chipped nail polish).

To be honest, I am just extremely disappointed in this nail varnish from Revlon. I have tried it again since we came back, as has my mum and it just hasn't lasted so I know it wasn't just a one time thing. After hearing such good things about Revlon I was expecting a really good quality nail varnish, and although it wasn't majorly expensive, it wasn't exactly a cheap nail polish either at £7.99 for which I could have bought 2-4 other nail polishes from other brands which would probably have lasted 3 to 4 days with minor chips, which is the same as the Revlon managed.

I do love the colour of the polish and it gives the best finish of any nail polishes I have ever used, it's just a shame that it lasts for such a little length of time! Then of course there's the application of it which I just find takes way too long. I'll still probably use it, but for when I go out and so only need it to last for like one day as it is such a pretty colour with such a good finish and now that I've bought it, even though it's not lived up to expectations at all, it would be a shame to waste it.

So, in conclusion, I am not impressed I'm afraid! Love the colour, love the finish, don't like how long it takes to apply and really don't like how much it chips, especially when it's meant to last up to 11 days! Also, not too fond of the price tag, as although it's no major pull on the purse-strings, it's just not worth it.

So, after that rather negative review (sorry!), as always, thank you for reading, please subscribe if you like my blog, and I really do promise to get back on the ball and get some more posts up for you very soon!

xxx

Revlon Colorstay Longwear Nail Enamel Review Part 1!

Hi guys!

Look I'm back already! My last post reminded me just how much I love blogging so I'm determined to get a couple more done before I have to get back to exam mode :L

So the other day I was perusing the beauty aisles of Boots (as I like to do every so often to see what’s new) and noticed that Revlon now have a little section dedicated just to Revlon nail varnishes. As a nail varnish lover I naturally went over to take a closer look and as I did a lovely Revlon Lady working on the aisle came up, complemented me on my Union Jack Nails (:D), then proceeded to tell me all about Revlon's new nail varnishes, 'Revlon Colorstay Longwear Nail Enamel'.

Revlon Colorstay Longwear Nail Enamel in Red Carpet

These are a new range of nail varnishes basically designed to be like a DIY version of a Gel manicure. They are meant to "provide high impact color and gel-like shine in fashion forward range of shades and finishes" and to "provide flexible, shatterproof color with excellent color retention and gloss". Basically it's meant to be a really long lasting, good quality nail varnish. The lady in the shop told me that it can last up to 11 days, which is really good seeing as most nail varnishes only last around 3-4 days, and that the reason for this is that the formula bends with your nail unlike normal nail varnish.

Now I don't know about all that technical kind of stuff, but I'm going on holiday to Italy (which I am extremely excited about! :D) for one week in about four weeks time, and so my mum, sister and I were all planning on getting Shellac manicures before we went so that we didn't have to take nail varnish and nail varnish remover with us etc. However, for all of us to have them done would be quite expensive so I thought why not try this nail varnish out instead?

So, we picked a nice bright colour called 'Red Carpet' which actually looked more coral in the shop, but on is definitely a very vibrant red, and decided that we would try this instead seeing as it was only £7.99 which is a fraction of the cost of what 3 Shellac manicures would have cost us, and which we will get more use out of because we can use it again and again.

Obviously, we didn't want to go on holiday and find that it doesn't work, so this week I am road testing it! I applied it this morning, and so every day, I am going to take a picture of it, then after the eleven days is up, or however long it lasts for if it doesn't manage the eleven days, I will do a post with the results and all the pictures so you can see the state of it through the duration of wear.
I have to say, I wasn’t overly impressed with the application of this nail varnish. It's very thick and like most longwearing nail varnishes, takes forever and a day to dry so if you have no patience, or have a tight schedule then it's just a bit frustrating! Eventually what I ended up doing was painting the base coat (I used the Sally Hansen Base coat that I always use) and first coat last night, then finished it off with the second coat and top coat (I used Natural Collection Clear Top Coat) this morning. That made sure that it had all dried thoroughly and stopped me from getting really bored whilst I waited for it to dry!

Anyways, I'll be back with the pictures from each day and a review of its durability in approximately 11 days! I'll try and do another post between times though, I'm not sure what on yet but I'm sure I'll find something!

As always thank you so much for reading!

xxx

Right Royal Nails: Union Jack Nail Design!

Hi guys! 
 It's been a long time since I last posted - I'm sorry! But unfortunately I'm right in the middle of my GCSE exams at the moment so I've been very busy studying for those. But fortunately I now have a week off from exams so I thought I'd get cracking on a nail design for you all!
 For those of you who have miraculously missed out on the thousands of adverts for the Jubilee weekend, or for those who live in other countries and so are unaware, this weekend is the weekend of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrating 60 years on the throne. Now I have to admit, I’m not really into royalty much but this seemed like a good opportunity for a nail design so I thought why not?!
 I did think of crowns or English roses for the design but then I decided it just doesn't get much more British than the Union Jack so that's what I went for! It's a really simple, easy design to create as long as you have a steady hand (or a friend who does!), however it is far easier if you have a thin nail brush as this creates a smooth straight line far more easily.
 For the design you will need a blue nail paint (preferably a royal blue but it doesn't really matter), a white, and a red nail paint. I actually didn't have a royal blue in my vast collection so I used Collection 2000 Hot Looks in BMX Bandit instead which is a slightly paler blue, but I still think this looks just as good. I used N.Y.C Long Wearing Nail Enamel in 134 French White Tip for the white and Rimmel London 60 Seconds in 430 Coralicious (which is technically pink not red but I don't actually own a true red as I have yet to find one) with BarryM Nail Paint in 150 Red Glitter over the top to make it a bit more red and also to add a bit of sparkle, it is the diamond jubilee after all!

 Then the design is easy: First paint a coat of the blue over your entire nail and leave to dry. Then take your thin brush or cocktail stick, whatever you may be using, dip it into your white, and paint a cross on your nails then add the diagonal cross so that you end up with like a star on your nail. Remember to make these lines slightly thicker as your red has to run down the middle of it and make sure to take this right to the edges but don't worry about being too neat, sometimes a bit of scruffiness adds to the look! Leave this to dry. Next, dip your brush into your red and paint a thin line down the middle of the white lines. Leave to dry, add a top coat if necessary or a bit of sparkle if you feel like it and et voile - you have patriotic Union Jack nails!

 Of course you can put your own twist on this design, perhaps using other colours, maybe go for neons, brights or metallics. Or maybe just swap one colour, such as using silver instead of white. Maybe you could just do French tips instead of the whole nail! Whatever you choose to do, have fun with it!

 All that’s left is for me to wish you a happy Jubilee weekend - hopefully I'll be back relatively soon with another post but I'm not going to be able to promise anything unfortunately!

 Oh and as always, thank you so much for reading.

 xxx

Easter Chick Nail Tutorial!

Hi guys! Happy Easter Sunday!

First off, I am so sorry for having been gone so long! It’s been ages! However, I am back now and I have an Easter nail art to make up for it which I hope you’ll all enjoy!

So I was sat up last night at like midnight or something and felt like doing my nails, and came up with this Easter Chick design. It’s really, really simple to do so perfect if you have a spare 20 minutes and fancy taking a break from eating Easter Eggs!

To create these little Easter chicks is ridiculously simple so here are the quick steps:

1.       Paint your nails yellow. Yes, I know, yellow is not a colour you generally reach for to paint your nails but in this case, it’s the perfect colour. However, if you don’t have a yellow, you could go for a cream, a neutral or a pale pastel colour- experiment and see what you think looks good. I used Rimmel London’s I <3 lasting finish in 055 sunshine, which I’ve had for quite a while now so I don’t know if they still do it, but I’m sure there are plenty of other yellows around.

2.       Grab a cocktail stick/toothpick/nail art pen and dip it into some white nail polish. Then use the tip of the cocktail stick, or whatever it is you’ve found to use (hairgrips work quite well actually too) to dot two little white circles next to each other near the top of each nail.

3.       Then, whilst the white is drying, take your cocktail stick and dip it into some orange nail polish. Or, if you don’t have any orange nail polish, because I know it’s not that much of a common colour, you could use a red or pink instead. Then use your cocktail stick to dab a little triangle in the centre underneath the two white circles you have created. The easiest way to make a triangle is to do three dots and just sort of merge them together.

4.       Then, take your cocktail stick and some black nail polish and add little black dots onto each of the white dots, creating little eyes!

5.       Add a quick topcoat of clear nail varnish and you’re all done! Perfect Easter Chick Nails!

Then, if you wanted to get even more creative, you could add legs at the bottom of your nails for the chicks. Or, you could use this to create other animals. For instance, if you change the background colour to grey, change the nose from an orange triangle to a black circle, and add a mouth with some two white rectangles for teeth, you would have an Easter Bunny!

I hope this gives you some inspiration for your own nails - whether you choose to follow my design or get creative with your own design!

I will be back soon, but for now, have an EGGcellent Easter Sunday (I’m sorry- I had to add in an Easter pun somewhere!), make sure to eat your own weight’s worth of Easter chocolate and have fun creating your nail designs!

xxx