Final Blue Nails for Autism ♡

Hello!

These are my final Blue Nails for Autism ♡

I decided to do an all-blue take on vintage floral nails!

I used dotting tools to create the roses and the petals.  I then used a fine, thin brush to create the stripes.

Polishes Used;

- Maybelline - Denim
- BarryM Gelly Hi-Shine - Greenberry
- Miss Sporty - Blue
- Models Own Scented - Blueberry Muffin
- INM - Out The Door Fast Drying Topcoat

I hope you all enjoyed this design!  It's been great creating blue manicures throughout the month of April.
From now on, I hope to show more variation of colours and designs on this blog ^^;

Until Next Time... ♡

Drugstore Polishes

When I got paid last week, I decided to treat myself to a few new polishes.

There are only two British Drugstore brands that I adore for polish, and those are BarryM and Models Own. The appearance and the quality of their polishes never fail me.

I bought:

• BarryM Gelly Hi-Shine - Greenberry

• BarryM Textured - Station Road

• BarryM Textured - Atlantic Road

• BarryM Colour Change - Chameleon Lilic

• Models Own Scented - Blueberry Muffin

• Models Own Scented - Grape Juice

I swatched the colours at night time (before realising that my camera had a flash ^^;;).

Check out the images below for the colours.

Random Polishes:

• BarryM Gelly Hi-Shine - Greenberry

This is a vibrant light green polish that has a high shine built in.  It reached full opacity in just one coat!  I love using BarryM's Hi-Shine range on days that I can't be bothered to sit and mess around with top coats.  As a lover of green, this polish will be overly used by me.  It quickly became one of my favourite green polishes within my collection.

• BarryM Colour Change - Chameleon Lilic

I bought this polish on a whim.  I've seen swatches of colour changing polish before and I just wanted to try one out for myself.  Honestly, I cannot understand the hype around it though.  I like the polish and the colour change, but I doubt it would be of much use to me.  I think this polish would be best used for a quick colour before running out the door on a rushed morning.

Textured Polishes:

• BarryM Textured - Atlantic Road

When I first applied this gorgeous blue polish, I thought to myself that the formula was far too thin to create a texture.  Well, wasn't I proven wrong?  I've never been so fascinated watching paint dry before!  I needed to apply three coats to reach full opacity, but I think I could have gotten away with only two.

• BarryM Textured - Station Road

This lemon yellow colour drys beautifully, and with the added texture it reminds me of lemons.  I used four coats to fully cover my nail.  

As for textured polishes, I've used OPI's Liquid Sand before, and honestly, I prefer BarryM's range of textured polishes.  Don't get me wrong, Liquid Sand is lovely, but its glitter-based and I find glitter polish extremely harsh on my nails.

Scented Polishes:

Do you know how long I've waited for scented polishes?!  When Revlon brought out their range, I could not find a single bottle of their polish anywhere!  I finally gave up the search, and whilst browsing the make-up isle in my local Boots, I came to Models Own make-up stand; And then I saw it.

SCENTED POLISHES!!!!

I wanted to buy them all!  I refrained myself and only bought two.

• Models Own Scented - Blueberry Muffin

This is an amazing powder blue colour that smells great.  The scent only lasted for a day, but the colour was enough to keep me satisfied.

• Models Own Scented - Grape Juice

This beautiful purple smells great and looks lovely on my nails!  I use to own a purple this colour from Avon, but when that dried up, I never replaced it.  This is a great addition to my collection.

On the way to the till to buy these polishes, I passed the Revlon stand, and guess what was sat there?  Bloody scented polishes.  I turned my nose up at them, and kept on walking to the checkout, with my ever faithful Models Own bottles.

Once the month of April has finished, and I've finished my last Blue Nails for Autism design, I'll definitely play about with these polishes!

Hope you enjoyed this post!  I've been trying to write this for several days now,  but I've been so busy with other stuff lately.

Until next time ... ♡

Nails Of The Day #NOTD

Over the month of April, I've been trying to keep to only blue manis for Autism Awareness Month; However, I wished to also show my support for Boston, due to the recent events there.

So this is the result of combining those two causes' colours. A simple tape mani using both blue and purple polish.

I've always been a fan of simplicity. It's always such an eloquent and tidy look, and I find that tape manis are the best way to achieve this.

Polishes used:

• OPI - Natural Nail Base Coat

• Essie - Sugar Daddy

• Models Own Scented - Grape Juice

• Models Own Scented - Blueberry Muffin

• INM - Out The Door Top Coat

Hope you enjoyed reading this entry :).
Until next time ... ♡

Hand-painted Falsies!

I've got a much better post coming tomorrow, but for now I would love to share with you all the set of false nails that my mother requested.

Like myself, my mother has psoriasis, a hereditary skin condition which is brought on by stress. Unfortunately for her, she has it bad and it's affected her nails to the point that she feels the need to hide them.

My mom loves nail art so much, but can never find false nails with the designs she wants, so from time-to-time, I paint her a few sets.

She shows me designs she likes, and I paint them for her. If it makes her happy then I'm happy to do it for her. I always love seeing her smile when they're complete.

Hope you all like my latest set for her!

Until next time ... ♡

Accessories Review [Bending the rules..]

Ok, so I know this is a nail art blog. But it's my blog, and if I want to throw some bargains up in here, I will!

After 6 years without a watch, I finally bought one! The best thing is that it was only £10!

Identity London have a range of trendy but affordable watches available in Argos, here in the UK. I selected the green watch because its such a beautiful colour, and I'm a massive fan of green, so it'll match my nails often |(￣3￣)|.

The next item I bought was a skull head bracelet from Primark for £1.50.

Coloured skull jewellery has been a major trend in other areas of the world for a few months now, but it's only recently hit the UK market.

I'm so happy with the quality of the bracelet. Usually I find it hard to buy accessories from Primark. As I'm a larger woman, not many items would fit, but this bracelet comes with an adjustable length chain, so I can make it as tight or as loose to my wrist as I want to.

The final item is a floral patterned pictorial bracelet, modelled after Catholic Saints bracelets. I picked this up in New Look as part of their 'buy one, get one free' jewellery offer. The bracelet was the free item (I bought stud earrings as well), and should have been £1.99.

I love the fact that its made of wood. It really ties in with the floral design. The beads are connected with elastic thread, so the bracelet is able to stretch to fit any sized wrist.

My only problem with this item is that with the elastic thread, there is more risk of it nipping and breaking. However, this is only a small problem, as it was cheap enough anyways.

A lot of shops in the UK have special offers on their make-up and accessories lately, so if there was ever a perfect time to buy some amazing looking accessories, or some critically acclaimed make-up product, now's your chance!

Hope you enjoyed reading this entry!

Until next time ... ♡

Blue Nails For Autism

Throughout the month of April, I have been participating in the 

'Blue Nails For Autism' tag on Instagram to show my support for all the hard work that goes into helping diagnose Autistic Spectrum Disorder, and the support that is provided once a diagnoses is made.

I have so much appreciation for the work that is done by the Health Services in my country to aid in the diagnoses and support of ASD.

Since 2008, my brother has been assessed for everything under the sun.  

Last year, the Health Services finally narrowed it down to Autism or Aspergers, both of which appear on the Autistic Spectrum.

Although the process of diagnosis has been a long and harrowing one for my brother and our family, he has been given so much aid and support.  For that, I am truly thankful. 

I love my brother very much, even though he can be hard to handle at times.  I use to get extremely frustrated with my brother because I never understood what was going on with him.

Thanks to the information and support that we as a family received, I was finally able understand that none of it is his fault.  If it wasn't for that, the gap between us would have remained wide.

He asked me a few days ago, "Aren't you fed up with painting your nails blue?  You always paint them a different colour, so why are you keeping them blue lately?"

I replied to him, "I'm painting my nails blue for you Tom.  I want the world to know how special my baby brother is, so they're blue for you."

He was extremely happy with my reasoning.

Because I have already painted 4 designs this month, I'll display them together in this post.

After today, any new nail design will be featured in their own post.

Thank you for reading this post.  If you wish to view other Blue Nails For Autism, search up the hashtag '#bluenailsforautism' on Instagram.

Until next time... ♡

A Prayer For Boston

My thoughts and prayers go out to those who are affected by the horrible events that have taken place in Boston today.
In the lowest times of my life, I find comfort in the words said in the following poem;

Footprints in the Sand

One night a man had a dream. He dreamed he was walking along the beach with The Lord.

Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.
For each scene he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand: one belonging to him, and the other to The Lord.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand.

He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints.

He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in his life.

This really bothered him and he
questioned The Lord about it:

"Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you, you'd walk with me all the way.
But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life,
there is only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why when I needed you most you would leave me?"

The Lord replied:
"My son, my precious child, I love you and I would never leave you.
During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you."

My Nail Art Adventure So Far...

Hello world! First things first, Breaking my blog's post virginity!
Welcome to the first post!
In this post, I wish to share with you all my adventure so far.

It all started in November 2011 when I stumbled across the large and talented nail art community on Instagram.
I was fascinated by all the amazing designs and I was inspired to try and recreate them.

At this stage, I owned about 12 polishes, and the variant of colours was extremely limited. Luckily, it was close to Christmas so I asked my parents to buy me a Rio nail art set.

I then started to experiment with the different techniques and designs shown in the kit. The results where shocking to say the least :').

As time went on, I added to my polish collection, bought more tools, watched tutorials and tried out different things.

Now, I'm still learning new techniques, and my art isn't perfect, but that's the beauty of it! Every time I design my nails, I'm learning a new skill, and perfecting others.

If you want to see all my nail art in the one place, check out my tag on Instagram: #fia93nails