NOTD: Models Own in Juicy Jules and Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine in Prickly Pear

It's taken me a long time to purchase any of the Gelly Hi-Shines from Barry M and I'm not really sure why... Fast forward from 3 weeks ago and I've now got a mini collection of six shades which I'll be reviewing once I've finished swatching but, spoiler alert, I really like them! Prickly Pear is a beautiful pastel lilac which is perfect for Spring. I decided to pair it with Models Own Juicy Jules just to inject a little girly glamour into the look. I've recently been on a week long varnish ban to give my nails a rest since they were beginning to get a little dry and even flaky in some places. I can report that after some intensive moisturising they're back on form and look lovely and healthy! I definitely recommend taking a week out and applying some thick moisturiser (I used The Body Shop Shea Body Butter) if your nails are looking less than perfect. It felt really weird having naked nails for so long and I feel much better now I have my colourful talons back!

I think this is a fab combo. Sadly the glitter wasn't photographing very well but I can assure you it looks lovely and catches the light beautifully with pink and green shimmers. I'm wearing two coats of Prickly Pear here and one coat of Juicy Jules. This is the first time I've tried to do something like this using a glitter polish but it was really easy and worth the little extra effort.

Have you been embracing the Spring shades lately (despite the weather not cooperating)? What do you think of my look?

Lauren

Guest Post: Albertine's Floral Nail Tutorial

During the last Sunday #bbloggers chat I talked about how I'd like the opportunity to do/host more guest posting as it's such a nice way to put yourself out there. Luckily Albertine from DippyWrites had saw what I said and dropped me an email with her fantastic tutorial idea and we arranged to swap guest posts! Albertine is a really lovely girl and a great blogger so please go and check out her blog and maybe even give her a comment or follow! Keep a look out for her super cute moodboards that always leave me feeling inspired. Over to you!

Heya everyone! As Spring is (literally!!) just around the corner, I thought I would share with 

you a nice and simple floral nail tutorial. This is something I taught myself after seeing a few 

tutorials online and it's actually a lot easier than you would think to do!

I used my nail dotting tools to do this, but I think you could just as easily do it using a toothpick.

Okay so firstly paint your nails with a nude coloured polish. I used just one coat of Essie's Topless and Barefoot. Don't worry too much about it being a little bit streaky, as the majority of it will be covered with flowers.

Then, use your nail dotting tool or toothpick and a pale yellow nail polish to create the middles of the flowers. I decided to go for 3-4 per nail so it didn't look too crowded. Again, it doesn't really matter about getting these a perfect circle shape, as long as they're not too big, they'll be fine :)

Next, take a lilac nail polish and your nail dotting tool or toothpick and gently dab nail polish around the yellow centres of half of your flowers. I used Model's Own Lilac Dream for this (which is also a pretty good dupe for Essie's Splash of Grenadine!). The key to this is to make sure you don't have too much polish on your tool/toothpick, or it could end up looking a bit too messy.

Finally take a pink nail polish and repeat step 3. I decided to use Essie's Cute as a Button for this. And there you have it! Simple floral nails for spring :) Another great thing about this floral nail art is that you can use any colour you want for the petals, next time I'm thinking of using oranges and blues to create a bit of a clash!

I hope you've enjoyed reading my guest post for Lauren, and if you have, please feel free to check out my blog: DippyWrites :)

Thank you so much Albertine! Very pretty for Spring. I'm utterly dire at nail art so I'll definitely be trying this out some time soon. I'll be posting about my Top 5 Nail Varnishes for Spring over at DippyWrites so please go and check that out too when it's up, there are some really gorgeous colours that made the cut! 

Lauren