Blog - AbiJBailey

Strawberry Nail Art Tutorial

29/6/2014

Hello Everyone!
I have another nail art tutorial today, trying something more summery. If you've seen my Nail Instagram you'll have seen the little summery patterns I have been trying out, if not you can view it here :)
Anyway as you've seen from the title, today's tutorial is this big strawberry.

Here's what you'll need:

- Yellow nail varnish (Maybelline Colour Show in 749 Electric Yellow)
- Green nail varnish (Barry M in Spring Green)
- Red nail varnish (NYC Quick Dry Nail Polish in Madison Avenue)
- Lilac nail varnish (Miss Sporty Quick Dry Clubbing Colours in 344)
- White nail varnish (Sinful Colours in Snow Me White, BUT they are discontinuing the range :()
- Small paintbrush
- Small dotting tool

Start off with a lilac base, I chose lilac as it's a very summery colour, supposedly 'vivacious orchid' is this year's 'in' colour? and because it really contrasts with the red.
You could use what ever colour you like, pale blue also looks nice.
Using the little paintbrush and the white, map out the strawberry shape with the leaves at the top and fill it in.

Using the red, fill in the strawberry part, making the top almost heart shaped.
You could use the little paintbrush, a big dotting tool or just the brush that comes with the nail varnish to do this.

Using the green and a dotting tool or little paintbrush, fill in the leaves.

Using the yellow and the little dotting tool, add dots to look like seeds

The seeds might require two coats to make the yellow really pop.

Once everything is dry, top coat it to seal the design and help it last longer.

And you're done!

(It bothers me that you can't resize the text boxes!)

Super easy and very summery, I think this would work well as an accent nail!
I would love to see your recreations so if you give them a go, tag me in them or use the hashtag #nailartnut or #abibailey

I also have a watermelon tutorial that I'm planning on putting up in the middle of the week so look out for that!

Otherwise I shall see you next time,
thanks for reading,
Abi xxx

Easter Egg Nail Art Tutorial

4/4/2014

Hello everyone!
Today is the last day of my Colossal Easter/spring Nail Art Week! It's been fun.
Today's look is the Easter Egg design. It's very easy and totally customisable. Here it is.

You Will Need:

Lilac nail varnish (mine is Barry M, Gelly Hi-Shine 'Prickly Pear')
Blue nail varnish (Barry M 'Blueberry Icecream')
Yellow nail varnish (Maybelline Colour Show 'Electric Yellow')
Green nail varnish (mine is super old from a nail art set I got years ago)
A dotting tool (or bobby pin)
A thin paintbrush

Dip the thin paintbrush into the green and create two chevron (diagonal) lines.

Clean off the paintbrush and dip it into the yellow and create another chevron stripe.
Dip the dotting tool into the blue and create a line of dots along the green chevrons.

As usual leave lots of time for drying so that if you want to topcoat it, it won't smear.
It's nice and festive isn't it!

Well that's it for the Colossal Easter Nail Art Week, I've enjoyed it and I hope you have too.

If you try out these designs use the hashtag #easterblogweek and I'll check them out!

Maybe see you Sunday? I'm not sure yet, otherwise I'll see you when I see you.

Abi xxx

Bunny Nail Art Tutorial

3/4/2014

Hello everyone!
We're nearly at the end of my Easter/spring nail art week! Today's design is the Bunny one. He's really cute and quite easy to do. Let's get started.

You Will Need:

Pink nail varnish (mine is super old from Primark)
Silver nail varnish (Barry M Instant Nail Effects, Foil Effects 'Silver')
Black Nail Varnish (Barry M 'Black')
White nail varnish (Sinful Colours 'Snow Me White'
Green nail varnish (mine is from a nail art set I got years ago)
A thin paintbrush
A dotting tool (or bobby pin)

Starting with a green base, use a thin paintbrush dipped in white to mark out the shape of the Bunny's head and ears.

Then using a dotting tool or the brush that comes with the white, fill it in.

Now using a thin paintbrush dipped in pink, mark out the inner ears and fill them in with a dotting tool or the thin paintbrush.

Now, using a dotting tool or bobby pin dipped in pink, make a dot in the middle to create the nose.
Clean off the dotting tool, dip it into the black and create two dots either side of the nose and slightly higher for the eyes.
Using the thin paintbrush dipped in silver, create two arrow shapes (> and <) either side of the nose for the whiskers.

If you want to top coat him, give him a while to dry because black smears terribly.

There you have your little Bunny! Isn't he sweet?

Tomorrow is the last day and will be the Easter Egg design, so make sure you pop back for that!

See you then,

Abi xxx

Polka Dots Nail Art Tutorial

2/4/2014

Hello everyone!
Welcome back to day three and quite possibly the most pointless nail tutorial ever! I understand that no one needs a tutorial for this but once I had done the five designs and then the colossal nail art blog post, it was only then that I realised this isn't really a design. Anyway here it is.

You will need:

Pink nail varnish (mine is Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine 'Dragon Fruit'
White nail varnish (Sinful Colours 'Snow Me White'
A dotting tool or bobby pin

Starting with a pink base, dip the large end of the dotting tool (or bobby pin) into the white and methodically place dots around the nail.
I like to start in the middle, creating dots evenly spaced apart and then either side, also evenly spaced apart.

You could use colours that link with the other designs or use more springlike colours.

The smaller the dots, the daintier it looks, but with fun nail art designs like these Easter ones, I think larger dots work better.
But it's totally up to you!

I bet you're glad you wasted your time reading that! I promise tomorrow's will be more interesting as I will be doing the Bunny design, it should be fun!

See you then,

Abi xxx

Daisies Nail Art Tutorial

1/4/2014

Hello everyone !
Welcome back to day two of my colossal Easter/spring nail art tutorials. Today's tutorial is the Daisies design. It looks quite involved, but that's because it's got lots of layers, it's really very simple. Give it a go!

You will need:

Pink nail varnish (mine is from Primark and is very old and running out)
Light blue nail varnish (Barry M 'Blueberry Icecream')
Green nail varnish (Barry M 'Spring Green')
Light green nail varnish (mine is from a nail art set I got years ago)
White nail varnish (Sinful Colours 'Snow Me White')
A thin paintbrush
A dotting tool (or bobby pin/toothpick)

Starting with a blue base, use a thin paintbrush dipped in green to stroke blades of grass (start from the bottom of the nail)

You might need to do this a couple of times to get an opaque colour

Using the thin brush dipped in light green (mine is also shimmery) create more blades of grass, just fewer so it doesn't cover the darker green.

Now using the larger end of the dotting tool (or bobby pin), create five dots to create the daisy (you might want to place one in the middle to connect them).

Using the smaller end of the dotting tool (or bobby pin) dipped in the pink, create the centres of the daisies.

Then that's it! If you want to top coat them make sure you leave ample time for it to dry or it might smear.

Hope you like it, tomorrow's tutorial will be the pink and white dots (not very exciting I know)

See you tomorrow!

Abi xxx

Chick Nail Art Tutorial

31/3/2014

Hello everyone!
As promised here is the Chick nail art tutorial. It's simple and very cute, so give it a go!

You will need:

Orange nail varnish (mine is Barry M 'Block Orange')
Black nail varnish (Barry M 'Black')
White nail varnish (Sinful Colours 'Snow Me White' - my all time favourite white polish!)
Yellow nail varnish (Maybelline Colour Show 'Electric Yellow')
A small paintbrush
And a dotting tool (or a bobby pin/toothpick)

Using the tiny paintbrush or a tooth pick dipped in white, mark a zig zag across the bottom third of the nail and then fill in the bottom with the white.

Using the larger end of the dotting tool (or bobby pin) dip it into the black to dot two eyes then clean the dotting tool and dip in into the orange. Press down and drag slightly across to make the beak.

Leave lots of time for it to dry if you want to top coat it, otherwise it might smear.

There you have it! Told you it was easy.

Pop back tomorrow for the Daisies tutorial.

See you tomorrow,

Abi xxx

Colossal Easter Nail Art Week

30/3/2014

Hello everyone!
Happy Mothers' Day!
As usual I've been useless with regularly posting on here, and have been EVEN worse on my nailstagram (yes I actually call it that) but I'm back today! I thought as an apology for being rubbish and because I have been lacking nail art in my life recently, I thought I'd do a spring/Easter nail art week. What I mean by this is that I have five spring/Easter nail art tutorials and I am going to post one a day (starting from tomorrow). Does that sound fun? Here's the photo of the five designs...

You could wear these all together or just use one as an accent nail or you could wear one design across all of your nails, it's up to you. I know the pink and white one is a bit of a cheat but it looks dainty across all of your nails and works well with the other four designs- it adds a bit of calm to liveliness of the others.
Those are the designs, get excited, I'll be back tomorrow with the chick design!

Hope you've had lovely weekends, I'll see you tomorrow!

Abi xxx

Alexa Chung Inspired Nail Tutorial

2/2/2014

Hello everyone!
Sorry it's been two weeks since I posted, the week before last I just had nothing to tell you or show you and I wasn't at my best and last week I was ill so the last thing on my mind was my blog! But I'm back now with a little blog post showing you how I recreated Alexa Chung's daisy nails (the photo is on my Nail Instagram). So let's get started!

This is a very basic nail art so you don't need much skill or any special tools. Here I have a double ended dotting tool, one end has a large bobble while the other has a smaller bobble. If you don't have a dotting tool, a bobby pin and a tooth pick will do the same job. I have a block of paper for dripping the paint onto and the three colours which are:
- Barry M in Fuchsia
- Miss Sporty Clubbing Colours Quick Dry in 328 (It doesn't have a name which I find dissapointing)
- Sinful Colours in Snow Me White

Start by painting your nails navy. When I did these on my real hands I used a base coat which I strongly suggest you do anyway because navy is a dark colour which may stain your nails and as I do my nails all of the time, they need a little extra protection.

Next drip some white nail varnish onto a surface.

Using the large bobble of the dotting tool or bobby pin, create six dots, one in the middle and five around it.

Next drip a little pink nail varnish onto a surface.

Now using the smaller end of the dotting tool or a tooth pick, create a small dot in the middle for the centre of the daisies.

There you have it! Told you they were simple and don't they look pretty?

This is the photo on my Nail Instagram, head over there and have a look.

So that's it for this week, I'll be back next week with a beauty related post (shocker, I've actually got something planned) so look out for that! If you want to know when/whether I'm posting a blog post you could follow my twitter as I always tweet about posting a new blog post or whether I'm not feeling up to it, that way I'm not leaving you in the lurch!

Any way, speak to you soon!

Abi xxx

Christmas Nail Art

29/12/2013

Hello everyone!
Just a very quick blog post tonight because I'm still spending time with my family due to it being Christmas and the end of the year!
I hope you all had a nice Christmas and did lovely things, I certainly did.
Thought I'd show you all the Christmas nail art I have done on my nail Instagram over the past couple of weeks.

So I hope you like those designs, they're quite simple to do. The penguin and candy cane etc was what I painted on my sister's nails. She managed to keep them smudge-free for nearly two minutes, haha! These are all on my nail art Instagram @nailartnut
I hope you all have a good New Years, here's to more nail art in 2014!

Speak to you soon, Abi xxx

Glow In The Dark Nail Varnish Review

27/10/2013

Hello Blog Buddies!
How has your week been? mine's been crazy stressful but all of that is sorted now!
Anyway, as it is nearly Halloween, how about a Glow In The Dark Nail Varnish review?
Keep an eye out for the Halloween nailart designs I'll be putting on my nailstagram sometime this week!
But yes! On with the review...
First things first, they are from Topshop and as they were a birthday present, I don't know how much they were! I'd say about £6/£10

They're shaped like little pencils so if you don't like that then what is wrong with you?

This is the packaging in case anyone is looking out for them :)

This is what they look like in daylight

Even with three or four coats, the colours are very, very sheer. On my index finger and pinky I am wearing the purple, on my middle finger I am wearing the green and then on my ring finger, the orange. The orange is the most pigmented. I think next time I might paint my nails with the same colour and then paint the glow in the dark polish on top.
I was not a fan of the consistency, its very gritty and this sounds mental but, if you ever had Calpol as a child, it reminds me of the consistency of that (maybe that's what put me off?)
Also because there are so many coats, it chips quite easily and if you're naughty like me and can't leave a chip alone, it peels off in one sheet (sooo satisfying though)

Aah look at it's luminosity!

I am a BIG fan of it's glow in the dark potential, I honestly did not expect it to work at all! You have to shine a light on it for 5 seconds (I used the torch on my iPhone) and then it glows really, really well. I couldn't leave it alone! The orange worked the best but I think that's because it was the most pigmented.

So personally I would buy these again, I think they do other colours so I might have to check them out!
Let me know what you think, would you try them out?

Like I said, look out for some Halloween inspired designs on my nail art instagram (link at the top or search nailartnut)

I'll see you next week! Have a good Halloween and do something fun!

Abi xxx

Colour Block Nail Art Tutorial

8/9/2013

Hello everyone!
Welcome back to my blog! It's been a week since I started this blog so I thought now would be a good time to give it some content. How about a nail tutorial? I've never done one before because usually I just do them messily, clean them up, take a snap and whack it on instagram! so I thought it would be fun to try it out, apologies for the crappy iPhone quality photos! Let me know what you think of them :) and check out my nail instagram for more fun ideas! (link at the top)

Quite snazzy, don't you think?

These are the polishes I used, from left to right they are:

"2 in 1 Strengthener and Hardener" from Collection (used as a base coat and a top coat)
"Dragon Fruit" from the Barry M Gelly Shine collection (I'm a huge fan of Barry M!)
"Fuchsia" from Barry M
"Plum Noir" from MUA (Make Up Academy)
"Deepest Purple" from MUA

I also used this masking tape, but striping tape or scotch tape etc would be fine!

I started off by painting my nails with the stengthening basecoat and then a couple of coats of the Dragon Fruit polish
Then using the masking tape, I sectioned off a small 'block' of colour to paint over with the Fuchsia polish

Paint over the gap and then before it dries, carefully peel off the tape and you should get clean lines (unlike me because I am impatient!)

Then fill in the gap at the end of the nail with the Plum Noir (or what other colour you have chosen, personally I like the block gradient look)
If your nails are long enough for a fourth colour, use another bit of tape to block off the end and then carefully fill in the gap with the same colour

Once you pull the tape off you'll be left with the little gap, I filled this in with the Deepest Purple colour
Don't worry if they're a bit messy, you can always clean up afterwards with a cotton bud dipped in nail varnish remover
If the lines are a bit dodgy (like mine!) you can always paint over them, but it's not crucial because you'll be outlining them which will hide it anyway!

Once you've filled in all the gaps, you should have something similar...
I then used a top coat to smooth the design out a bit.

Then using this Nail Art Pen from Barry M (which I bought today and was surprised at how easy it is to use and how well it works) outline the colour blocks. Topcoat it and you're done!
Wasn't too hard was it?

Sorry that this post was a bit photo heavy but I think photo's make it easier! Hope you liked the design, be sure to check out the photo on instagram and to leave me a comment!

Talk to you next week, Abi xx

Hi Everyone!

1/9/2013

Firstly, welcome to my blog,

To put it bluntly, I've had a really crap time recently (past 3 months to be specific) but I won't bring you down with boring details about that. I thought as it is the first of September, the start of a new month and a new season (my favourite season) it would be the perfect time to bounce back and have a fresh outlook on life and hopefully a much happier next 3 months.
Right so what is this blog going to be about? well I thought I would tailor it around a nail art/ beauty/ lifestyle blog, somewhere I can share my creativity, beauty finds and just generally where I can vent!

So I think that does it for today as this is my first ever blog post

Speak soon, Abi xx