Candy Coat – April Review

Nail art is somewhat of a hobby of mine, even more so recently when a friend bought me a UV gel nail lamp! With this in mind I decided to look for subscription boxes which specialised in all things nails! This search led me to find Candy Coat, who sell their colours and tools separately online as well as doing two monthly subscription boxes; 1 on normal nail varnish and another for gel nail varnish. I signed up for April’s box and have been eagerly waiting for its arrival, then it showed up in my mail box on tuesday!

Cost – £13 +£2 P&P – Pretty much standard subscription box cost, within the normal range!

What do you get? – For the gel box; 3 gel polishes, these are a surprise. A few sweets and various nail art/nail tools.

My Little Box – Summer Vibes

Time for another My Little Box review – this time the most recent one! The months box focused on ‘Summer Vibes’ something which was clear throughout all of the box, so straight onto what was inside:

This months art postcard was infact a summer checklist, most of which I’m quite happy to say I already have, so am pretty much summer ready – now just need the weather!

Along with the three usual cosmetic based products this month came with three extra products! Firstly there was a packet of iced tea mix from Kusmi Tea, this is actually a tea back which can be used to make iced tea, the full recipe is found within the My Little World magazine – and is something I’m highly looking forward to try out, being a big iced tea fan! I’ve also received Kusmi Tea products in My Little Box before and they really are very tasty!

Secondly a t-shirt/tank top branded ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Sun’ from My Little Beauty (RRP £15) was included. This looks like more of an oversized crop top, but feels lovely and soft, something I will definitely be wearing on holiday.

Thirdly there was a Swimsuit Pouch also by My Little Box (RRP £6), this does amuse me slightly as it is rather small, although will be great for carrying suncream, lip balm etc down to the beach or pool!

The three cosmetic based products were as follows:

1. Glitter Glue Deluxe, Too Faced, RRP £10 – In essence this is a eye shadow primer which is supposed to add a glittery shine to any eye shadow. Its something I haven’t tested just yet but from experience Too Faced is a great brand, and I’m sure it will do what it says on the box.
2.   Ciate Paint Pot Mini in shade ‘the gossip’, £6, – I’m not the biggest fan of Ciate, most of my nail varnish collection is made up from Barry M, this is mainly due to cost! This little nail varnish does certainly look cute and is a lovely bright summery colour It also has one of the new wider flat brushes so will be easy to apply, it is rather tiny though at only 5ml!
3. Sea Salt Spray, My Little Beauty, RRP £7 – A standard sea salt spray to give hair that natural wavy look, this one also stating that it can help protect from UV rays. One thing I do have to mention about this is how amazing it smells, very fresh and clean!

And another box done! I have had a few friends asking about My Little Box recently and I really would recommend them to anyone!

Keep your eyes open for next months box! Cx!

My Little Magic Box

This months My Little Box took on a magic theme, and with a certain app the figures on the box and post card do actually move and dance! A clever little trick! The box certainly got me more into a cosy christmasy mood too!

Contents:

Cocktail Nails

I was in town a few days ago and came across the below nail kit. Cocktail Nails – Tequila Sunrise, intrigued I decided to try it out and here are the results!

Applying the base coat:
First of all, I really dislike applying white nail varnish, I can never get it right, just always ends up streaky! This time around wasn’t much different, but I was just hoping that you wouldn’t be able to see it too much when the rest of the varnish was applied…

Top coats:
The pack comes with two top coats a soft pink and yellow. According the the pack, these to are supposed to blend together to create a natural gradient style. Its a bit of trail and error to get them to blend nicely together without getting too much or the coats drying to quickly, but for a first attempt I like the effect!

I’m after a few attempts it will get easier to judge how much of each colour to put on!

Speak soon! Cx

Nails – Loki (Marvel)

Just got a quick nail tutorial to share with a Loki theme! Going to the London Comic Con tomorrow and lets just say that these really reflect my outfit!

This style is very easy to create if you have striping tape! And can be tailored to whatever colours of your choosing!

Step One:
Pick a colour for the base, I used the gold here as this will be the colour which appears as the thin ‘V’. Paint this colour over the whole of the nail and let it fully dry!

Step Two:
Cut the striping tape into small pieces then carefully place these across the nail so they form a V, meeting in the middle of the nail about a 1/3rd up.

Step Three:
Paint in the bottom and top colour sections – just becareful not to go over the tape!!

Step Four:
Wait for the varnish to fully dry before removing the striping tape then just use a top coat over the whole nail!

Done!

Easy, simple and fairly quick!

Speak soon! Cx   

Nail Stamping – Coming soon…

For a while now I have seen loads of nail tutorials and nail art which have used nail stamping kits – and now its my turn to have a go!

I picked up a couple of nail stamping kits from PoundLand and have started testing them out, coming to the conclusion that there is definitely a technique to getting it right (or could just be the cheap kit) some nails coming out much better than others, but practice is perfect – so once I’ve got it finely tuned I’ll get a tutorial up!

So keep your eyes open! X

Nails – Polka Dots!

Nail Tutorial – Striping Tape #2

So I have gotten a little carried away with using my striping tape and have actually copied a nail tutorial from January’s My Little Box magazine – its so easy to do and really creates a great effect which looks really professional!

Step One:
Paint your nails with the colour of your choice, this will be the colours of the lines which remain at the end – for mine I chose silver – make sure it dries fully before moving onto Step Two.

Step Two:
The technique is simple, cut two strands of striping tape and stick them across each nail, they can intersect where ever you want, any angle, direction its completely up to you! You can either try to create them all the same or leave each on different!

Step Three:
Taking the next colour of your choice paint over the whole of your nail – this make take a couple of coats depending on the strength of the colour.  – For this I chose red, a my Nails Inc tate from January’s My Little Box.

Step Four:
Make sure your nails have fully dried before carefully peeling off the tape – Use a quick top coat to help protect your nails and thats it! Done! Fini!   

Speak to you soon!X

Nail Tutorial – Striping Tape

I have seen tons of online nail tutorials which use striping tape to help perfectly straight lines and designs, after reciving some in my Models Own Nail Tool Kit I was looking forward to recreating some nail designs! The one below is very similar to my halloween nail tutorial which I created by hand using a thin brush, a steady head and a lot of patience!

What I used:

• Models Own Nail Striping Tape
• Two chosen colours

Step One:
Apply a base coat to protect the nail before painting over with the chosen colour for the bottom of the design – this is best to be a colour which can be easily painted over – make sure this is fully dry before moving on to step two.

Step Two:
Two small strips of the stripping tape and carefully stick them across your nails. I started from positioning the tape in the corners of my nails at my cuticles and let them cross at the tip of my nails to create the triangular shape.

Step Three:
Using your second colour paint in either the triangle or the rest, carefully making sure you don’t cross over the lines!

Step Four:
Once the varnish has dried carefully peal off the tape and finally paint over with a clear top coat – you can also add any gems or anything you wish, I simply went for a small gem at the tip of the triangle on each nail! Finally neaten up the nails removing any excess varnish (something I hadn’t got around to doing when taking the photo below)

And thats that! Nice and simple – I have a couple of other ideas which I’m planning on trying out using the striping tape and as usual will get them up on here as soon as I can!

Speak to you soon! x

Nail Art – Fan Brush

Fan brush time! – and I have to admit this did take a little bit longer to get used to than I was expecting…trying to get the brush stroke right, the right direction and the right amount of nail varnish!

I started by trying to use the brush in stroke across my nails but couldn’t really get it right so instead brushed down my nails, which worked a lot better! Having a thicker line at the top which thins down to the bottom and each nail is slightly different too!

Actually applying the varnish to the brush is much easier than expected – simply drop your chosen colour onto a piece of paper/card then lightly dip the ends of the brush into it, after this softly slide the brush a little way along the paper (1-2cm) to take off any excess and get an even amount of varnish across the brush – then starting at the top of your nail brush down, don’t worry if you get some of the varnish on your finger, you can easily clean it off later!

and done – simple! You can even experiment around with multiple colours to get a more patterned effect!

Hope this helps anyone who’s been stuck on using fan brushes! – Speak to you soon! X