Révérence de Bastion

Nails

Reindeer Nail Art Tutorial

December 18, 2013

My second festive nail of 2013! These cute little reindeer’s are pretty easy to do.

What I used:

Etos quick dry in blue and white (see here for my latest Etos Rotterdam spoils)
Kate Spade New York by Nails inc in “New York Noir” (This colour is absolutely amazing) for my black
Avon Nailwear Pro + in “Vintage Boutique”
Révérence de Bastion “No 4″
A brush and dotter tool
Obligatory Nails inc top coat

Start with your base colour (not to be confused with your base coat, which you have already applied – obviously!). I went for this beautiful blue, but you can choose whatever you like.

Using the brown, paint the top middle of each nail. Almost as if you are painting a nail on your nail.

Using your brush tool, add some ears and some antlers. This doesn’t have to be neat, if looks a little funkier and adds to the effect if it isn’t completely perfect.

Once dry, use your dotting tool to add some eyes.

Add a nose to each nail, just put a blob of black varnish where you wan’t it. I used a red for one of my nails.

Finish up by adding a black eye on top of your white with the dotter tool and once dry, add your top coat.

Have you dabbled with some festive nail arts recently? If so, we’d love to show what you’ve been up to!

Totally hellbent for character infused nails

-Pants

Nails

Nail Tutorial – 1950s style roses and polka dots

November 12, 2013

Gem and I went to our friends wedding (evidence of the hen party we survived found here) the other weekend. Both feeling somewhat under the weather, we scrubbed up relatively well.

Alas, it was a 1950s esque red and black themed wedding, so naturally I went for a red rockabilly style dress to make up for the lack of my usual red hair.

This surely called for some distinct 1950’s nail art to go with it, so I have a play after some internet scouring. It’s also worth noting that I did my nails on the Friday evening, and didn’t remove my intact nail polish until Thursday the following week! The nails inc top coat is just -that- good.

Here’s the goodies I used for this nail:

As always I applied a base coat, filed my nails and did my cuticles.

I first applied Ciaté’s “Pocket Money” (another beautiful nail of the day from this shade can be found here) You can use any neutral or “toned down” shade for this really.

On all but my feature nail (whichever you choose), I used my trusty Avon Nailwear Pro+ “Licorice” to paint the tips and allowed this to dry.

Once dry, I lined the black with Révérence de Bastion “No 4” and added some Polka Dots with my dotting tool, I have to admit, the dots weren’t as bright as I’d anticipated so next time I may try this with a white underneath.

Now for the roses, I placed a blob of No 7 “Devil’s Delight” and a blob of Avons “licorice” on my nail wheel (or anywhere you don’t mind staining with varnish)

Using my nail brush, I mixed some black and red and made multiple C’s on my nail to get the rose effect. I layered this alternating the colours and once dry I used the black to add some leaves and the Révérence de Bastion “No 4” to highlight. Add a few polka dots and leave to dry. Make sure you pee or do any other hand based tasks before starting this!