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