Paint splatter nails!

Feeling inspired by the arty digits seen by the athletes at the Olympics? Well here’s something quirky, fun yet super easy to do in under an hour!
All you need for this design is a toothpick, a piece of paper and a dotter (a pin head or ballpoint pen)!

First of all apply a base coat to your nails (of course I use Rimmel 5-in-1 nail care), then once that’s dry, apply a white or very light grey coat to your nails, make sure its opaque, apply another coat if it looks a little streaky. Then get the colours of your choice, choose your first colour then put a blob on the piece of paper, dip your dotter in the blob making sure its got a thick coating and then ‘dot’ it on to one of the corners of your nail, get the toothpick and take it to the centre of the dot on your nail and drag it outwards so it makes messy little lines. Don’t worry if you make a little mark in the centre as you can always go over it again with the dotter. Then with the remaining blob on the paper, dip the toothpick point in the blob and lightly dot around the larger streaked out dot on the nail, so it looks like a proper splatter, repeat this on the rest of the nails with the rest of the colours.. Have fun with this design! Overlay colours, mix up neons and pastels. Just have fun! Then when its all dry and dotted, just apply your top coat (mine is the Rimmel 5-in1 yet again.).
A little tip is to use one tooth pick for each colour, so 3 colours = 3 toothpicks but if you want multicolour splats then just use the same ‘pick!
I hope this was easy to follow, if you get a little stumped, there are also lots of tutorial videos on Youtube!
If you’ve tried out this design, I would love to see how you managed! Good luck 🙂

Wicked Queen Halfmoon’s

Wicked Queen Halfmoon’s

You’ve heard of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo haven’t you? Well I think I’m slowly becoming the Girl With The Halfmoon Nails! I’ve almost done 3 designs in a row that are Halfmoon based and I think it will become my trademark.
So this time around I got my inspiration from Disney’s Snow White. The Wicked Queen who compromises the innocence of the beautiful red apple that Snow White eats shortly after the spell has been cast on it. The Queen was my whole inspiration. I don’t remember what the Queen’s nails looked like in the film (they were probably red, as was the popular colour in that era), but I took my nail art to embody what I think the Queen really should have had on her talons.
So I started with my Rimmel 5in1 base & top coat, as the base. Then I applied 2 coats of Creation’s 128, which is a light pink. You may have trouble getting your hands on this product as it came from overseas, so here is the Creation Store to help you. Then I got my Ciaté Wait Until Dark for the rich metallic aubergine. To get the ‘V’ in the halfmoon, twist your finger so that the hangnail is facing you. Its much easier to work using stokes going towards your body rather than away. Then get your polish brush and wipe the excess back in to the bottle. Line up the brush, so that its on the corner at the cuticle and diagonally follows the hangnail corner, so this means if you start at the top left nail corner of the cuticle, you end up at the bottom right corner of the hangnail. Once you’ve done the ‘V’ you can know in fill the rest of the nail, put a medium coat on as you don’t really want to have to go over it again and then once its dry, you can stick a top coat on.
If you have small nails or you want to do your pinky finger, instead of using the ‘wide’ side of your brush, tilt the brush to use the ‘narrow’ side, that way you get a larger ‘V’.
This design is great for those who want to experience the popular Spike shaped nail, glamorised by celebrities, but haven’t got the opportunity because of the commitment or hazardous nature, then you can have a Spike in your nail without the sharp!
As always I would be happy to see your pictures, tweet me the result @LeilaniDiana!
Good luck 🙂

Products I used

Final result

Why nail art is so popular

Its pretty hard to not to notice the current trend at the moment, Nail Art. Its the trend that’s easy to do at home or cheap to get done at a salon.
If you’re having a nail art treatment on your natural nail then that can come in at under £10 for a full set of 10 which will last just under 14 days.
Nail art, unlike a hair cut is much cheaper and you don’t have to keep going back for expensive trims every 6 weeks. Nail Art also isn’t like clothes, you can wear your mini masterpieces all day everyday for a good 14 days if you wanted to, if you wore a new dress everyday then you would get some funny looks to say the least!
There have always been forms of Nail Art in the world and through the ages, with the Chinese a few centuries ago adorning their nails with intricate patterned extensions, now you can have your nails in a long spike fashion with tonnes of rhinestones chucked on top or a demure french manicure with flowers going down the side of the nail.
I haven’t taken a Nail Art course, for me, its just something that came naturally, I probably will take a course one day as they usually only last a few days.
Here is a Tumblr blog that showcases some of the best nail art in the world, take a look at fuckyeahnails for the designs that really make you go ‘wow’!
Don’t worry if you can’t recreate the beautiful looks to begin with, it takes time and (sometimes) patience, search YouTube for inspiration and never give up!
The best thing I can recommend is to start simple, with middle range, non-gloopy polish and always use a base coat.
Share your thoughts on nail art below! 🙂

Polka Dot Blue Halfmoon Manicure!

I got my inspiration for this design from the lovely Lovelynailsxx I wanted to try out a different sort of halfmoon and Polka Dot Halfmoon’s tutorial was right up my alley!
So I started with my must have base Rimmel 5in1 base & top coat, then I moved on to ‘Nail tip whitener’ by Natural Collection found at Boots I painted my entire nail with that using 2 coats, then when it was dry I used a proper average size natural bristle paintbrush to dip in to my Blue by Rio Nail Art, to do the halfmoons, I find that using a paintbrush for halfmoons much easier to manoeuvre opposed to the standard nail polish brushes, anyway that aside I then poured a little of the white on to a piece of paper and began with my dots (using my homemade dotting tool – a bobbypin opened up using the fat end for dots). I did a 3×3 dot design as my nails are rather short at the moment.
If you want to see my halfmoon video, which is basically how I do my ‘moons, nothing fancy, its here – Basic Halfmoon.
I really enjoyed doing this design and I will most defiantly come back to recreate this magic! Also, if you don’t want to do dots, then its fine to just leave the Blue & White halfmoons as they are, I thought that either way they looked super cute, just have fun, they’re your nails!
If you try the design out too, don’t forget to send me a photo link via Twitter or Photobucket!
Enjoy!

Newspaper nails

I got my inspiration for this design from the YouTube channel Cutepolish.
What you will need: A little jar that you can put a finger in, rubbing alcohol/surgical spirit and pre cut newspaper in a 2x2in square.
Start off by painting the nails a white or very very light grey colour. Put enough coats on so that its opaque, then when it is 100% dry (it’ll smudge if it isn’t fully dry) dip your finger in the jar with the rubbing alcohol/surgical spirit in for about 7 seconds, before you lift your finger out the jar, line up the piece of Newspaper with your other hand, take your finger out the jar then bam! Press the newspaper on the fingernail, firmly, but don’t let it slide, otherwise it will blur. Then when all 10 fingers are done, seal the nail design with a clear top coat. If you don’t, the ink will wash off. There you have it, Newspaper nails!

Here’s how the technique works:
The Rubbing alcohol/surgical spirit, softens the nail polish but doesn’t remove it like nail polish remover would.

A little tip I have for you is to get a little jar specially for your rubbing alcohol.. The best jar for this the one that face moisturisers come in, wait until you have an empty one, clean it out, then fill it up with the spirit, that way you will always have a handy jar! It never goes stale of out of date, so you can keep it for years as it sterilises itself!
Good luck and don’t forget to show me some pictures when you’ve tried it out!

Polka Dot french manicure

A twist on the traditional French tip

So I did this while ago, February to be precise! I had freshly turned 16 and I wanted something a bit different. Steering away from the regular white tip French manicure, I opted for something a little bit funky and shaken up!
I started off with my nail must have, Rimmel 5-1 base and top coat, applying my first coat of that, I then took to my Misstique (Teal) which is made by Missguided in the Nail splash range, to paint on the tip colour, I used its full brush and sweeped a backwards ‘c’ and then got a cotton stick dipped in nail varnish remover to straighten up the lines and the overspill on the side of my finger. I waited for that to dry and then took to the black Rio nail art bottle.. It has a built in thin brush, so I used the thin brush for the highlighting line just under the Teal. I then poured a bit of Black polish on some paper and dipped my DIY dotting tool (a pencil with a pin pushed in the eraser part) and created the polka dots with the pin head. When it was completely dried, I put a top coat of my Rimmel 5-in-1 on and that was it for 11 days! Because I had the black line under the Teal, it was about 2/4 of a millimetre before the hangnail, so no chipping and no real infilling to be done, fabulous!
Try it out and tell me what you think,I would love it if you switch up the colours! if you have Twitter, send me to the link of your photo reproducing the design!

Left-Right: Misstique by Missguided. Rimmel 5-in-1 base & top coat. Nail Art Black by Rio

Jubilee Memorabilia

Diamond Jubilee fever has spread throughout the country and its pretty hard not to hear ‘Diamond Jubilee’ every hour, this means free run on all sorts of commemorative memorabilia, from sick bags with our monarchs face on it to Gold plated coins with the patriots side profile stamped upon it. Some of the items are well made, others had no thought put in to them, the best of the worst memorabilia I saw last year, was to commemorate the marriage of William and Catherine, 99p shop had a whole range of cheap tat, and one of the items was a plush pillow, but the print was so bad, that the Duke and Duchess had death eyes, eyes black as pitch and for some strange reason, it looked like a bird pooped on Kate’s head.. Well it is from a shop that boasts everything is under a £1, what did you expect?
This year, for the Diamond Jubilee, I personally came across a mixed bag of items. The worst I saw were towels (the proper ones you dry yourself with) and tea cloths. Who would want to dry themselves with a towel that has her majestic face on? Or wipe their dirty hands on the Queens head tea towel? Unless you’re going to use them as a wall hanging, I think its downright disrespectful.
I think the best most affordable yet decent place to buy memorabilia was Lidl, they had some beautiful mugs, in boxed (cardboard round the sides) packaging.
Of course, upon asking an antique specialist if these somewhat novelty items – sick bags, tissues, toilet rolls etc. Would gain value as time goes on, the reply was ‘no’ but I suppose, what’s monetary value when it has sentimental meaning? Obviously anyone who is a collector of these things knows, to keep it in mint condition (still in its original box and unused) and to keep it safe from mould, damp etc.
If you would like to buy commemorative items from past Jubilees, royal weddings and other royal related things, check your charity shops! I volunteer for the British Heart Foundation and we always have Royal items coming through our doors, so keep your eyes peeled there, or failing that, visit collectors shops/websites and eBay!
Did you buy any memorabilia? What did you buy? 🙂

Eurovision round up

So for all those who missed the biggest European musical competition over the weekend, then here is a round up of all the great bits!
First up was my home, the United Kingdom, this year Engelbert Humperdinck represented us, many people thought that with us being the first act, we would be forgotten, but that’s a lie, if we had a stronger song, then it wouldn’t have mattered if we were the first, middle or last to perform. In my unbias eyes, our song was not strong enough to compete let along win.
The second act was Hungary and they were quite the vocal powerhouse, I thought they were the european version of evanescence!
The strange wails of Albania were up afterwards, and they were very strange, a good 87% of the lyrics were comprised of wailing, screaming and howling, but hats off to the singers unique hairstyle! Never the less though, they had achieved the position of being higher than the United Kingdom on the leader board (well anything is possible!), having
After my ears had stopped bleeding thanks to Albania’s kind offering, Lithuania were up next and I thought the concept was rather nifty, it was a half ballad half pop dance track, with the male vocalist being blind folded halfway through the song, the song was called ‘Love Is Blind’
The fifth act was a whiney ballad with love from Bosnia & Herzogovina, the only thing I liked about the performance was that the singer had channelled her inner Lana Del Rey, with her hair sporting a middle parting and soft waves in a honey colour.
Number 6 was the one that made my heart glow, even at the Semi-Finals, it made me smile inside, it of course was the Russian Grannies, weren’t they adorable? ‘Come on and dance’ was so catchy and it made my head bob like a nodding dog on the back of a car that was driving on very uneven cobbles!
My lucky number 7 was promptly afterwards and Iceland took that place, I’m surprised that they hadn’t received more points, the song was intense, dark, atmospheric and chilling (I also wanted to mary the male singer :$), I was backing Iceland ever since the Semi-Final, I will most certainly be acquiring that song!
The 8th performance was, Cyprus. Cyprus had a very catchy song, but the song was practically ‘how I’ve waited for this la la la la la la la la love’.
France (number 9) got full marks for the dress, because Jean Paul Gaultier himself designed the lead singer’s dress, it was beautiful.. As for the song, it was one of those dance tracks that took a while to get.
Eventually we got to the 10th act, they were Italy and she was like a continental Amy Winehouse! She had soul, style and her song sounded like Paloma Faith had given a helping hand in the writing and composition.
The eleventh act was Estonia, lackluster is too meek a word to describe that song, it was one of those ballads that made you want to walk in to a spikey door repeatedly..
Norway started the party again at number 12, it was such a fun song and the singer (born in Iran, moved to Norway) was like an Iranian/Norwegian Adam Lambert, he got the crowd going! I loved the fusion of middle eastern music meets western dance.
Azerbaijan, the hosting nation were the 13th act, another ballad that was slow going, but the lead singer was beautiful and the way they made her stand, it made her dress change colour as the strobe lights melted in to different colours.
Having to wait 13 acts, at number paisprezeci was the beautiful Romania (still being unbias), I thing the song was amazing, mandinga was what every song should be, uplifting, dancey and starting with a man moonwalking whilst playing the bagpipes, what couldn’t you love about it? I felt sorry for them though as the rule was not more than 6 people on stage despite the fact it was practically the size of the X Factor stage, unfortunately, Romania was a seven piece act, so one of the members had to stay in the green room and watch on.
Performance 15 belonged to Denmark, the singer was formally a busker and she displayed her song writing potential to the fullest with the song ‘Should’ve known better’. This is another song that I will be getting hold of and listening to time again!
Performance 16 was Greece, they had a really strong and catchy song with Aphrodisiac, they choreographed the dance music with traditional Greek dance.
Time for 17 which was Sweden and, well I got the impression she was a Bjork, crossed with Kate Bush (with great hair) but ended up sounding like an uplifting clubland track that was well deserved of a chart place.
At number 18 was Turkey, I was about to call the royalty police as the song sounded frighteningly like something I had written*, so of course I enjoyed the song!
*The songs I write are performed as humorously as that though!
Number 19 was Spain, it wasn’t my cup of tea, and the dress the lead singer wore, looked like she belonged with the presenters.
Not far from the last song and when we reached number 20 we said Hallo to the German‘s, their song was written by our very own Jamie Cullen, it was a beautiful ballad.
The 21st country was Malta, I thought they were full of energy and had great synchronisation when it came to the dance routine and the two female singers, looked like exotic versions of Tulisa Contostavlos!
22nd act was the F.Y.R (Former Yugoslavia Republic) Macedonia and she had the vocals that could have blown Cheryl Cole off the ground!
Position 23 were Ireland and they were the firework that is Jedward! It sounded a lot like Part Of Me by Katy Perry, but nevertheless, I enjoyed it! I was also pleased that before John and Edward jumped in to the fountain, they dropped their microphones on the floor!
The penultimate of the penultimate at 24 Serbia, another ballad, that was all in Serbian, wasn’t to my taste, perhaps I would have been a bit more moved by it if it was in English. If you are Serbian, please provide me with the translation of the song!
Penultimate 25 was Ukraine, they cleverly got around the 6 on a stage rule, by putting a huge screen on stage that projected a pre-recorded video of about 20 backing dancers, she sounded a cross between Anastasia and Gabrielle.
The final country to sing on the night was Moldova, unlike Romania, the whole song was in English and even though it made no sense at all ‘you’ve never to my show, how looks that trumpet’ was one of the lyrics, but if it didn’t bring a smile to your face, then start looking at cute puppies!

All in all, it was a good night and it seemed like dance music was on top, Azabaijan is probably going to have a massive boost in tourism and they deserve it, it looks like a beautiful country, they have the perfect blend of not being too western and ruining/forgetting tradition, but not being too eastern and traditionally strict. They have the perfect blend.
I was saddened to hear reports, I don’t know how true they were because I heard it through the grapevine as it were, but apparently Spain and Greece represents were told to not perform to their best ability, because the respective countries are too poor to host the grand spectacular.
All the songs are still memorable almost a week after hearing them, with the exception of our song, I forgot it by the second country..
The entertainment didn’t stop when the performance ended either, I think they had Azabaijan’s biggest talents performed on stage, however I was annoyed at the fact, when the ‘professionals’ performed they were allowed as many people as they liked on stage, despite the countries only allowing 6 people on stage.
When it came time for the video link around Europe of ‘we give x points to’ there were 2 stand out countries, one of them was Greece, the woman representing Greece, didn’t sound Greek at all and wouldn’t have been out of place if she were Adele’s speaking voice double, she couldn’t say Azabaijan, so she said ‘Good evening Azkaba, Azaza, good evening Baku!’ I have a suspicion she wanted to say Azakaban..
Then Denmark representative was a man dress up like a viking/worlock/troll.. Very amusing!
I think it was a great night, it was all about forgetting about all the European economic turmoil that’s going on right now and focusing on how many brilliant countries are out there.