We got bored...

As the title suggests I got pretty bored the other day... along with my little sis. We umm'd & ahh'd over what to do, but with no car or money the options were limited. Being a complete nail art whore I just went to town on her nails! They aren't great, but I've not done many of these designs before :)

I love the little tuxedo, I think it's soo cute! :D Have you guys got any nail art ideas for me to try out? Or do you want a tutorial on how to do any of these? Just lemme know :) 

Hope you had a great weekend girlies! Jen xo

OPI Minnie Mouse mani

I wasn't going to post this mani, but then I realised that I've never shown you guys the beautiful Minnie Mouse OPIs! This look doesn't include them all, but a couple :) Here's what I used... 

L-R: OPI I'm all ears, OPI If you moust you moust, Andrea Fullerton black striper & Models Own 3-in-1. 

This mani's real easy, so for those of you who don't have the patience, or what not, for fussy nail art, give this one a try :) You don't have to worry about the neatness of painting your nails half & half, the black striper will cover up any wobbles & bumps! 

I absolutely love these 2 pink shades, they're my fave... but I swear I write that about all my OPIs :P Howeverrr, these are so pretty. If You Moust You Moust is a really girly, Barbie pink; I love wearing this on it's own. I'm All Ears is truly gorgeous in real life; it a really sheer hot pink with shimmers of pinks, reds & purples.. My boyfriend says my nails look like jelly beans when I wear I'm All Ears :) 

I love the OPI special collections. I can't wait to get my hands on the James Bond collection!! Have you guys had any of their collections? Which are your faves? 

Jen xo

NOTD | Pink candy stripe nails

It's been a little while since I've done a nail art post, so I thought it was definitely time :) 

Currently at my local Westfield shopping centre they have an amazing deal on - if you spend £70 on fashion you get a free OPI polish! I saw the posters whilst I was having a wonder around with my friend. I didn't really buy anything but he was prepping for his trip to London to see Lady Gaga & the £70 target was easily reached :) Being a guy & all that he was happy for my to take advantage of his little spree & claim the OPI polish for myself. When I went to the concierge they offered me 1 of 3 colours... a gold shade (of which I already own a similar Topshop shade), a red/orange shade (which was quite similar to my Tasmanian Devil Made Me Do It) & a lovely dusty rose colour. As you can probably guess I went for the pink shade, called Sparrow Me The Drama.

Now on to the nail art... I decided to do a candy stripe nail, as I thought my new polish would make a perfect base. Below are the products I used...

So, I used Sally Hansen's miracle nail thickener as a base coat & then 2 applications of my shiney new OPI Sparrow Me The Drama. Next I used a white nail striper & painted a line down the centre of my nail. Followed by 2 stripes on each side of the centre stripe. When the white stripes had dried I applied a generous layer of OPI's rapid dry top coat.

Voila! Simple, but oh-so cute :)

Jen xo

NOTD | Zebra print & lilac

I'm going to start by apologising to those of you who don't like feet! I, for one, am one of those people. So it even grosses me out a little that I'm posting a picture of my toes, but eh, we are all friends here! 

I always have nail polish on my toes, but I never ever give them much attention. I'm not a massive fan of feet, so mine are never on show.. explaining why they get no TLC. But today, I felt that this needs to change!

I decided to go for a zebra print on my big toes. It's quite simple to do with a nail striper & is really different to anything I've worn before. The other toe nails are a little small for nail art & I didn't really want to paint them all white or all black. So, I used my brand spanking new OPI, that I bought yesterday - Do You Lilac It? 

Do your toe nails get much lovin'? Or are mine just hard done to!

Jen xo

NOTD | Nude & half moon

Sorry I've been a little quite recently guys! I've been a bit of a busy bee... I went to London for a few days to meet some old uni mates, stayed the night in Birmingham for a friends birthday & have been working a long weekend of 4am shifts! But hopefully I'll get chance to write a little more now :) 

What's a better way to start off than with a slice of nail art! You know how I like my nail art :D

Today I'm trying out one the looks from the Wah nail art book. It's called half moon & is kind of a 60's inspired look, or so I think! 

So here is everything I used...

I started by applying the Sally Hansen miracle nail thickener... my nails have seen better days, so I'm trying to strengthen them. This also works as a base coat for your coloured polish. Then I applied 2 coats to each nail of OPIs Tickle My France-y.

It's the first time I've tried out this colour & I really like it. It's different to anything else I own... very nude! I think it would make a great base for a french manicure too :)

Now for the arty bit... Using the Sally Hansen black nail art pen (you could use a nail striper too!) I drew (or tried to!) a crescent shape coming out from my cuticle. Then I outlined just below my cuticle & coloured it all in. It's the first time I've done this so as you can see from the photos it isn't very neat. But I think this is definitely something that comes with practice. Besides, from afar you can't notice the wobbly outlines!  

I really really like this look! I think it might actually be a new favourite. It's pretty simple to do & with a little practice makes a lovely chic nail. It's also pretty versatile & could be done with so many colours.

Lemme know if you have a go & what colours you use!

I hope you've all had a great bank holiday weekend :)

Jen xox


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Dazzle nails | NOTD

Hi guys! Hope you're all well.

This post is one I wrote for another blog.. a guest post :) It's being published tomorrow over there, but I thought it's only fair to share it with you guys too! The blog I wrote it for is this lovely one.

I've never done dazzle nails before, but I thought I'd show you how I did it & we can learn together. Ahh, cheese! ;)

So, first things first... what do you need?

• A base coat - I'm using Boots essentials base coat.
• A coloured nail polish - I'm using OPI that's berry daring.
• A Barry M dazzle dust or another sort of pigment - I'm using Barry M shade 71.
• A top coat - I'm using Sally Hansen's InstaDri
• A spoon with a flat end

& here goes! Apply one coat of your base. This step is obviously optional, but doing so will prevent any staining to your nails & will provide a more even finish to your polish. Once the base coat is dry apply your polish of choice. This is where you need to be on the ball!

Now, using the flat end of the spoon pick up a little of your dazzle dust & place it just above your nail cuticle.  Whilst the polish is still wet blow the dazzle dust in the direction of the nail. I learnt from doing mine that if you blow nice & slowly you get a better effect. Otherwise, the dust just goes everywhere. You might make a little bit of a mess, but just do it outside or on a tray & all is dandy! 

Repeat the above steps on each of your nail, & you should end up with something like this... very messy, glittery fingers! 

By the time you've done all of your fingernails the coloured polish will probably be dry. So now you can apply your top coat. 

Once the top coat is bone dry you can clean up your fingers & be left with beautiful nails! I just used a face wipe for mine & it worked great. I did get my sister to help though, preventing any smudging. 

& voila, there you have it! My first impressions... I really like it! I like the subtlety of the colours. I think it gives a gradient/ombre type of effect. Next time I'll use contrasting colours & the dazzle dust will be a lot more obvious. 

If any of you guys try this out, lemme know! & lemme know what colours you think work best :) Send me a comment over at jensbrightandbeautiful.blogspot.com. 

Hope you enjoyed my post! Jen xo

Pink leopard print | NOTD

Hi lovelies :) Hope you're all well!

My love for nail polish & nail art is pretty apparent on my blog! I paint my nails like every 5 days, without fail. I just love the look of neat, pretty nails. But recently I've been attempting to expand my skills in nail art. I always see NOTD posts, but a lot of the time they don't actually tell you how they got that look. So I'm gonna try & explain how I did my leopard print nail art.

Now, this is the first time I've ever done leopard print. But hey, we all have to start somewhere!

Here are the polishes I used...

L-R = Boots essentials base coat, OPI's that's berry daring, Rimmel's nail tip whitener, Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri top coat & Sally Hansen's black nail art pen.

To begin I applied a base coat to each of my nails. This prevents any polish stains on your nails & also smooths out the nail surface, resulting in a beautifully even coat. Once  dry I applied two coats of the OPI polish.

Like I said, this was my first time at doing leopard print. So, to start I just practised on an accent nail. It worked out pretty well so then I did the rest!

So here's how I did it! You have to make sure your background polish (in my case the OPI) is bone dry. Other wise you'll end up in a big mess. So, once it had dried using the nail tip whitener I applied random spots to all of the nails, ranging in different sizes. Again, wait until these spots are dry. Then, using my nail art pen I drew half moon kinda shapes around the outside of the spots. It doesn't matter if these aren't perfect - leopards fur isn't! Then to fill in the gaps I added some random speckles. Some leopards do have black speckles between their spots, but I think I may have gone overboard. Ahh well!

& voila! You are finished :)

If I may say so my self, I think it looks alright for a first attempt! I really don't want it to chip now though haha.

Hopefully this has inspired or helped some of you guys out :)

Toodle pip,

Jen xox

NOTD | Pink & Brown dots

This is my 1st design using dots, so it looks a little messy. But ya gotta start somewhere!

So I started off with a base coat to prevent any staining to my nails. Using OPIs over the taupe & Rimmels portobella pink I applied two coats of base colour. On my left hand I did pink on most nails, with taupe on my accent nail, & vice versa for my right hand. 

My pink polish is a little old now & has started to get a little gloopy, which makes it really difficult to apply a nice coat. So I added a couple drops of nail varnish remover that contains acetone, give it a good shake & voila! It isn't as good as new, but definitely easier to apply. 

I then painted the opposite colour onto each nail, covering half of the surface. For example... I painted over half of the pink nails with taupe. For the dots I filled down the pointed end of a wooden cuticle pusher. Creating a flat circular surface. The picture is a bit blurry, but you get the jist!

I then placed the brushes of the two polishes upside down, out side of their pots. Using the filled point I picked up polish from the brush & dotted it onto my nails (again using the opposite colour to the base colour). & that is pretty much it!

To finish of I applied a top coat of Sally Hansen's instra-dri. The design isn't amazing, but I'm trying to practice different techniques, with the use of different materials. You can tell by the pictures that I'm also practising getting the quality of my right hand the same as my left! Haha.

What do you think? :) Jen xox

NOTD | Colourful tips

As you can see from the end result, I love playing about with my nails! Even if they do look a little child-like :P & with the weather as it is, I need some bright colours in my summer days!

So I began by painting a clear base coat to prevent any staining on my natural nails. I really recommend applying base coats - stained really are ugggly. I then applied two coats of Barry M's mint green to each nail. After they are bone dry I used masking tape as a stencil guide, & aligned where I wanted the coloured tips to start. I then painted the tip of each nail a different colour. The colours I used are -

• Barry M's matt white
• Rimmel's tangerine queen
• Rimmel's funtime fuschia
• Rimmel's blue eyed blue 
• Rimmel's rapid ruby

Once I'd finished painting the tips I peeled off the masking tape & applied 2 top coats to each nail of Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri. & ta-da! Done :)

Jen xox

NOTD | Pink & white stripes

I have been loving the classical French manicure lately, but felt I needed a little colour on the end of my fingers! I didn't have time to do nail art on all my nails so I opted for accent nails.

So, on all but my accent nails I applied two coats of Rimmel's funtime fuschia. Rimmel are one of my favourite nail polishes; they dry so fast & I love their wide brushes! Then on my accent nails I applied a white base coat. When the base coat was completely dry I applied thin strips of masking tape to my accent nails, & then 2 coats of funtime fuschia. When the pink was dry I slowly peeled off the masking tape, leaving visible white stripes behind. Originally I applied Lead by Topshop nails for the accent base coat, but it was quite dark & the pink polish wouldn't completely cover it. To top them all off I applied a top coat of Sally Hansen's instra-dri. 

It's such an easy look to create, & really livens a boring manicure :) 


Have you guys tried anything like this? What colour combinations do you think work best?


Jen xox

NOTD: Black & blue

This is just a quick post to show you my first attempt at this nail technique. I'm not really sure what it's called but I basically applied a base coat of one colour, placed strips of masking tape onto the nail, painted on top of the tape with a second colour & then removed the tape. I used Rimmel's black cab and blue eyed girl. I think it would look a lot nicer in girly colours but I used these two as it's my grad ball tomorrow & they are the colours I'm wearing :)

It is my first attempt so they don't look great, but practice makes perfect :) Below is a picture of the technique in more summery colours. 

Jen xox

Happy jubilee! :)

I hope you all have a lovely long weekend!

My weekend consists of celebrating my two friends joint birthday party, with the fancy dress theme 'Where's Wally', & then I'm going back to my hometown on Sunday. I'll be working at a bar Sunday evening & possible Monday evening for their jubilee parties. Followed by my Aunt's jubilee party :) In style of this I have attempted to paint Union Jack flags onto my nails :)

I'm not a pro at doing my nails but I do enjoy giving it a go!

I don't (yet!) have any nail art pens, so to do the Union Jacks I just some old make up brushes. I cleaned an old eyeliner brush and an old lip gloss brush.

Have you guys got any plans for the jubilee weekend?

Jen xox