I'm Still Alive...

Sorry for the lack of posts these last few days. A mixture of busyness, illness, and lack of inspiration has meant not too many nails.
But I have a few things in the pipeline, so don't give up hope. There will be posts soon!!

- Esther :)

Pastels

I'm not feeling particularly well this evening after a very busy weekend, so decided on some simple, relaxing nails. 

The colours I used were black acrylic paint for the lines, White On White - China Glaze for the base coat, Apple Pie - Models Own, Blueberry Muffin - Models Own, Lilac Sheen - Models Own, Rose Hip - BarryM, and HK Girl Fast Drying Top Coat to give it a nice shine.

Until next time,

- Esther :)

Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh?

I was very excited to get some nail mail this morning, containing Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh? by O.P.I. It's such a beautiful nude colour, and has a great consistency. I can see it becoming a favourite very fast! This is three thin coats with no top coat. 

Until next time,

- Esther :)

Glittery Frenchy

I wanted to do something simple today, so I decided on a French manicure with a twist. I painted two coats of Rimmel's Glitter Finishing Touch Top Coat, then did the French tip with Rimmel's Nail Tip Whitener  before another coat of glitter! I love the way it turned out, it's so simple and classy :)

Until next time,

- Esther :)

Instagram Love

Yesterday I reached 101 followers on my Don't Go Breakin' My Nails Instagram page! Thank you to everyone who's followed me in the last two weeks, and I really hope it just keeps growing :)

Until next time,

- Esther :)

Gradient Fun

I was really uninspired today as to what to do on my nails. After an hour of procrastinating I decided to do a simple gradient.
Firstly I used these beautiful flower decals from www.bornprettystore.com, but then changed my mind and went for glitter.

I love this Rimmel Finishing Touch glitter polish. It's so subtle but can add so much to a mani.

California Trooper by American Apparel is one of my all time favourite polishes. Such a beautiful nude with the best consistency.

And matched with Eternal Optimist by Essie it made for a lovely nude look :)
















Until next time,

- Esther :)

Born Pretty Galaxy

This morning a mini nail haul arrived from www.bornprettystore.com . I ordered it a while ago, and as it came from the other side of the world, I'd totally forgotten about it! Very exciting! 

Included in the parcel were these beautiful galaxy nail wraps, which I just had to try immediately! They're so pretty and go on incredibly easily. I topped them off with a thin coats of HK Girl Fast Drying Top Coat to give them an extra shine!  

Until next time,

- Esther :)

Summer Colours

With such gorgeous weather recently I've really been getting into my summer colours and shades, so I thought I'd share a few of my favourites!

 Firstly, this is Beach Bag by Models Own. It's from their Polish For Tans collection and is a gorgeous neon orange/peach colour. As with most Models Own polishes I find it quite thick and hard to manage when wet, but absolutely stunning and long lasting when dry.
This is two thick coats with no top coat.

    Next up is Blue Grape by BarryM from their Gelly collection. This is such a rich, striking colour and is so easy to manage.
This is two thick coats with no top coat.

 Next is Waikiki by BarryM. I love this colour taken from their summer Matte collection. It's such an unusual shade that it really stands out. I've found this Matte collection isn't as matte as their winter ones, but they just have a small shine to make them look great in sunlight.
This is two thick coats with no top coat.

 Next is my personal favourite - Catwalk Couture by 17. This is so easy to paint on, spreads evenly,  and it dries super fast. Such a vibrant colour, too. I love it!
This is two thick coats with no top coat.

And last but not least - Fluro' Orange by Models Own. I love this bright, bright shade of orange. Unlike most neons it is just as bright without a white base coat, which I love as it saves time.
This is three medium coats with no top coat.














What are your favourite colours for summer?

Until next time,

- Esther :)

Cling Film Texture Tutorial

So, this is one of my favourite textures to use either as a background or just as a simple design. It can look really good for more formal occasions as it has texture but it's not too bold or in your face. 

For this design I used China Glaze - White On White as the base, Essie - Exotic Liras, BarryM - Blossom from their Silk collection, Rimmel - White Hot Love from the Rita Ora collection, Rimmel - Finishing Touch Glitter Top Coat, and HK Girl Fast Dry Top Coat to seal it all in.

Sorry about the bad quality photos!

 First paint your nails white as a base for the rest of the design and add a fast drying top coat to protect the base white. 

 Scrunch up a small ball of cling film or saran wrap.

Once your base coat has completely dried put a large dot of your darkest colour onto your nail.

Dab the dot with the cling film until you have a thin, textured coat covering the white.

 Add a large dot of the next colour and repeat the process of dabbing with the cling film.

 You can either leave your nails with a darker colour or put a thinner layer of white to cover the top if you'd prefer it as a more muted look, as I did here.

Clean up around your nails and finish it of with a coat of the glitter and then a top coat to seal in your design.
As I said before it's great as a base for other designs or as a mani by itself!














This is such a quick and simple design, once you've got the hang of it you can be done in ten minutes!

Until next time,

- Esther :)

Sunset And Sea

This morning i woke up with an urge to try something more arty farty than I usually do. So I came up with this. It's a sunset mani going from the start of the sun setting all the way to the full moon coming out over the sea. I used China Glaze - White On White as the base then used acrylic paints to make the sea and sun. I blended a lot of colours together to get the effect on the water and sky.

Unfortunately the photo doesn't do the colours justice, but I hope you like it :)

Until next time,

- Esther :)

Aztec Gradient Tutorial

I did this aztec style gradient mani this morning and thought I'd share how I did it :) 

For the gradient I used China Glaze - White On White, BarryM - Miami from their new summer matte collection, and BarryM - Pomegranate from their Gelly collection. 

For the aztec design I just used white acrylic paint. 

Start by painting your gradient paint onto a sponge. Some people like to use a make up sponge, but I find just a cheap kitchen sponge works just as well and saves the pennies ;) 

Dab the sponge over your nail several times until the paint is opaque. If you're using very pale colours then it may be easier to paint your nails white before you do the gradient. 

Clean up around the edges of the gradient so it looks neat. 

Then just have fun painting your design on top, and seal it in with a topcoat! With aztec designs pretty much anything goes so you can really have fun with it. 

Until next time,

- Esther :)

Sinful Pleasure

I've only recently found out about and got into Sinful Colours, and I have to say - I'm in love! 

They have such a wide range of colours and at such a great price.

I picked up this gorgeous Mint Apple a few weeks ago and I've only just got round to trying it out, but I'm obsessed. It has a slight shimmer to it that you can't really see in the photos and is such an unusual and interesting shade of green. 

Here it is by itself as three thick coats with no top coat, and with some abstract flowers painted over using acrylic paint. 

Until next time,

-Esther :)

Teal Love

So, teal has always been one of my favourite colours. Technically it's supposed to be a winter colour but I love it all year round!
I just got a new gorgeous American Apparel teal nail polish called Peacock so I wanted to compare it to all my other favourite teal polishes.

 

From left to right the polishes are; MaxFactor - Prussian Blue, Sally Hansen - Jungle Gem, American Apparel - Peacock, O.P.I - Amazon...Amazoff, 17 - Sulk. They are in that order on my nails starting from my thumb going to my pinkie. All of them are two thick coats with no top coat. 

Prussian blue is the darkest of the five and I would probably wear it more as an autumn/winter colour than a summer one. 

Jungle Gem is a very rich colour and as with all Sally Hansen polishes, is a lovely consistency and dries quickly.

Peacock is my favourite of the five. Quite a thick polish but not too thick to be gloopy or take ages to dry. I think this one is the one that could best translate from summer to winter.

Amazon...Amazoff I got a few weeks ago and I was so excited by the more greeny colour, but I was really disappointed to find it badly stained my nails and it took me weeks to get my nails back to a normal colour. I haven't had this issue with any other O.P.I. polishes and I was so sad to have that issue with this one as the colour is so gorgeous.

Sulk is a gorgeous metallic teal that I'd use more for a party or going out than as a day to day polish. But for the price of 17 polishes it's a really good consistency and lasts a decent amount of time.

So that's my teal 2 cents!

Until next time,

- Esther :)