Nail It...by Ciara

Saturday, 24 December 2016

Santa Clause

Happy Christmas Eve!! I decided to do these Santa Clause nails to celebrate the big man himself coming tomorrow!

Step 1
Start off with a base coat

Step 2
Paint your ring finger with one coat of a sheer pink/nude

Step 3
Starting from your cuticle, paint 1/4 of your nail with red for his hat

Step 4
Use a big white dotter to create a row of dots for the wool under his hat

Step 5
Use a small white dotting tool to create his sideburns

Step 6
Using the big white dotting tool again, create his beard

Step 7
Using a toothpick or a tiny dotter, create two black dots for his eyes

Step 8
Use a tiny dotting tool dipped into pink to create a small dot for his nose

Step 9
Paint the rest of your nails red

Seal in with a topcoat and voila! You have a cute little Santa on your nails.
I hope you all enjoy tomorrow and have a lovely, festive day!
Happy Christmas

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Friday, 23 December 2016

Christmas Party Nails

SOSU She Means Business, SOSU Heavens Stairway, SOSU Unicorn Dust

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Monday, 19 December 2016

Winter Wonderland

IT'S 6 DAYS TO CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

I will hopefully be uploading one or two more Christmas themed designs over the next week, but for now, here is my Winter Wonderland themed nails! x

Step 1
Start off with a base coat to protect your nails

Step 2
Paint all your nails a deep blue, maybe even add a bit of blue glitter polish on top!

Step 3
Paint the tip of your ring finger nail white

Step 4
Using a dotter, create three round dots on top of each other, getting smaller as you go up, for the snowman's body. Repeat for the second snowman

Step 5
Dip a toothpick into black, and paint three small dots up the middle of the snowman. Also use the toothpick to create the two eyes

Step 6
Dip a toothpick into orange and create a tiny side-wards triangle shape for the carrot nose

Step 7
Use a small dotting tool to create snow falling around the snowmen

Step 8
Seal in your design with a topcoat

I hope you liked this design, and hopefully I will be back posting one or two more Christmas designs!

nails

Saturday, 26 November 2016

Get the Look: Lily Allen

Lily Allen is the queen of nail art. I was scrolling through images of her different nail art looks, and came across this gorgeous geometric design, and just had to recreate it. I think these colours are fab together, and it is such a quick and easy design to recreate!

Step 1

Start off with a base coat

Step 2

Paint all your nails pastel pink

Step 3

Using a chocolate brown striper, paint a thin nail vertically up the centre of your nails

Step 4

Use the striper again to create an upside down V shape, starting from one quarter of the way up your nail coming down to your cuticle

Step 5

On your baby finger, use a toothpick to fill in the V shape with the chocolate brown

Step 6

Use a toothpick to fill in the right hand section of the nail with gold

Step 7

Repeat this process, alternating the colours on each nail

Step 8

Seal in your design with a top coat once it is fully dry

And it's as simple as that! I hope you like it and maybe even try it out for yourself.

Thanks for reading x

nails

Sunday, 13 November 2016

SOSU Heavens Stairway, SOSU Unicorn Dust

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Monday, 7 November 2016

SoSueMe Workshop - Cork

Yesterday my mom and I went to the SoSueMe Style Secrets Workshop in the Clarion Hotel, Cork. The tickets were €75, but we said we would bite the bullet and go as the both of us love Sue, her blog and products, and I have to say, it was worth every penny!

We arrived at the Clarion at 10am for registration, and on entry were given a huge goodie bag full of gorgeous products which I will go through later on. The room was set up kind of like a wedding, with the round tables and white table cloths, and chairs with white linen chair covers. There was fab music playing and plenty of merchandise for sale such as Sue's nail polishes, lashes, contour kit and vanity cases, and I just couldn't say no to buying the black and rose gold vanity case...I am in LOVE with it!!!!!

I decided to do a quick talk through of the day as I enjoyed it so much and would highly recommend anyone to go in future. The workshop began at 11am, introduced by Sue's dad (they're trying to prepare him for the wedding speech haha!)

There was so much involved in the workshop, from Suzanne herself telling us all about her past careers, how she became involved in blogging and some blogging and social media tips. There were also makeup tutorials by makeup artists Sinead Murphy and Fiona McNamara, and skincare advice from Corinna Tolan of Monica Tolan Skincare and Beauty Specialists. I really found the blogging talk helpful, as I really lost motivation to upload blog posts and I just wasn't making time for it, but Suzanne has really inspired me to keep going.

Sue herself did a demo of her contour palette on her sister Katie, which was so handy as we got to see how to get the best effect using her palette. Later on in the day, there were plenty of style tips and advice on wardrobe essentials, along with a live fashion show with outfits from the highstreet. It's fair to say I came out with a list the length of my arm of different clothes that I want...including leather pants which I never thought I would wear, but I seriously fell in love with them.

The goodie bags were just to die for, so luxurious! I have attached pictures below of everything we received. Along with the goodie bags, everyone also got a VitHit and a bag of 'propercorn' popcorn. We also got a pot of Maria Lucia Bakes Granola.

Overall, the day was amazing and both myself and my mom thoroughly enjoyed every moment. Both Suzanne and her family were so lovely and down to earth and I would definitely recommend anyone to go to her workshops in the future, I know I will be going again.

Festival Tattoo Nails

Hi everyone! I love metallic temporary tattoos, especially for summertime. They add so much to your look, so I decided to try them out on my nails, and I absolutely love the finished look! They are extremely easy to achieve and perfect for festivals. I hope you like this look and try it out for yourself!

Step 1
Start off with a base coat to protect your natural nails

Step 2
Paint your nails two coats of white nail varnish and leave to completely dry for at least 10-15minutes

Step 3
Choose white tattoos you would like to use and cut them out carefully with a scissors

Step 4
Peel off the clear plastic layer covering the tattoo. Place the tattoo face down onto your nail. Press a wet cotton pad over the back of the tattoo for a few seconds until the design has transferred onto your nail.

Step 5
Once the tattoo has dried, seal it in with a top coat

There you go, it's as simple as that!! I hope you liked this and maybe even decide to give it a go!

nails

Sunday, 31 July 2016

Nail Varnish of the Month: SOSU- Ibiza Rocks

SOSU by Suzanne Jackson- Ibiza Rocks

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Sunday, 24 July 2016

REVIEW - Shellac

Every year for my summer holidays, I get Shellac done. I have gotten it done a few times now so I decided to share my thoughts on it.

So what is Shellac? Shellac is a special type of polish that lasts for two weeks, and sometimes longer, without chipping, and has a gorgeous shiny finish. It is done with a UV lamp, similar to gel polish, and there are a huge variety of colours to choose from.

I absolutely love Shellac, because you don't have to worry about any chips occurring on your nails. I also love it because there is absolutely no drying time after you get your manicure!

However it is important that a good, qualified manicurist does your shellac, because otherwise your shellac could possible start to peel off. Also, I wouldn't recommend getting Shellac done too often as it can weaken and damage the nail bed.

I get my Shellac done in a salon in Cork called Fifth Avenue Nails, and below are pictures of Shellac that I have gotten done in the past. Overall I really like Shellac and find it perfect for when you're going on holiday.

Last years Shellac in the shade 'gotcha'

This year's shade- Cake Pop

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Sunday, 17 July 2016

Nautical Nails

Hi everyone! Today I wanted to share these simple nautical nails with you that I did recently. They are so quick and simple to recreate, so I will tell you step by step how to create the look!

Step 1

Start off with a base coat

Step 2

Paint your ring finger two coats of white and leave to completely dry

Step 3

Once you are sure that the white is fully dry, place 4-6 pieces of striping tape horizontally across your nail

Step 4

Paint your ring finger navy, then peel off the tape while the navy is still wet

Step 5

Paint your middle finger sparkly gold

Step 6

Paint your remaining nails red

step 7

Seal in your design with a top coat

And there you have it! It's as easy as that! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and will hopefully try it out for yourself

nails

Sunday, 10 July 2016

My Essie Collection 2016

I have over 20 Essie colours, making it one of my largest nail varnish collections. I even had more than this before making this post because I threw out a few recently as they were starting to get a bit old and gloopy. My collection may seem very large to some people, or very small to others, but I've been asked by a few people recently about my nail varnish collection, so I have decided to start this series of my collections of different brands.

For this series, I will give a brief overview of my opinion on each brand, rather than going into detail on each colour, because the post would be waaaay too long and boring!

In my opinion, Essie is one of the best drugstore brands out there. It is very affordable at €9.99, and the quality is amazing. They are very pigmented and the consistency is great. They have a huge range of colours so there is something to suit everyone's taste! Below are swatches of my collection, just a few of the colours from the whole Essie collection.

1. Saltwater Happy